Yang Fangyun worked overnight in the office, got up at dawn, stretched his waist, yawned, and went to shave his face. Before the face was finished, an officer walked in.

Chinese intelligence agents are constantly operating in areas of influence under Japanese control, and similarly, Japanese intelligence agents are also frequently operating in China.

Counter-espionage has also become an extremely important task.

And one of the people in charge of this work is Yang Fangyun.

"Your telegram." The officer said straight to the point.

Yang Fangyun brought the telegram to the windowsill, and with the help of the faint morning light, it could be seen from the password signature that it was sent from Japan by one of Yang Fangyun's most hard-working, loyal and reliable spy personnel.

The telegram said: "In order to carry out a special mission, the Japanese side will arrive in Fujian at 21:30 in three days with four carefully selected and specially trained spies, and will land at the marked location. ”

Yang Fangyun glanced at the officer and smiled rarely: "Let's start!" ”

Yang Fangyun opened the map of Fujian. It seems that the landing site was carefully chosen: an isolated recess on the beach is so tightly blocked by the high peaks behind that it will not notice any curious person. This is the ideal hiding place for the landers, but if they send people to ambush them at the bottom of the mountain, this recess can also become a trap for their capture. The map indicates that this site is crescent-shaped, far from any village, facing the sea, with only one road leading to the land.

"That's the case," Yang Fangyun muttered, "This plan is not complicated, but anything that is easy in the dark will be difficult. Looking at the map, the beach is funnel-shaped, and Chang Bingxuan of the Fujian side was notified to send two people to ambush on the mouth of the funnel, which is here. This trail, the only exit from the beach, is a must for the four spies. ”

"Yes. I will inform the Fujian side immediately."

Fujian.

Chang Bingxuan put down the telegram in his hand: "The telegram from Director Yang in person, prepare for action immediately!" ”

"How many people are needed?" His subordinate asked.

"Twelve. They all wear casual clothes so as not to attract attention. ”

"Weapons?"

"Of course. But you are not allowed to shoot without my orders. Make it clear, you have to catch it alive. ”

"Yes, understood."

"Everyone brought a flashlight and agreed on the signal before departure. Still have questions? ”

"Nope."

"Well, midnight into position. Inform everyone to leave at 7 o'clock so that we have plenty of time to arrive calmly. ”

When Yang Fangyun walked in the predetermined direction, the sky gradually darkened. In light control. The faint light of the car's indicator lights gives the impression that you are walking in a fantasy world. There is no moonlight, and the captor is like an ant in an inkwell.

Chang Bingxuan smoked one cigarette after another. I already have a premonition that Chang Bingxuan, a person who is extremely addicted to smoking, will be tortured. In order not to expose yourself to the fire, you may have to stop smoking for six hours straight. Chang Bingxuan really wanted to store more nicotine in his blood, and in the dark, he couldn't help but laugh dumbly at his ridiculous thoughts.

Chang Bingxuan looked at his watch from time to time, and it was very smooth, at this rate. It is completely effortless to reach the position.

Looking at the vast night, a strange idea came to me.

Chang Bingxuan had in mind the map and the outlines of the coast of fifty miles on each side. The land and sea lines converge in an isolated funnel-shaped area. In Chang Bingxuan's imagination, the two lines on both sides of the ridge are no longer funnel-shaped, but an open iron mouth, and as soon as he enters the position, the iron mouth immediately closes. There is no escape

At midnight, the captors came to the foot of the hill behind the recess. Chang Bingxuan quickly walked up to the twelve soldiers and the captain in charge of specific commands, and only their silhouettes could be seen in the darkness. They laid an ambush at the foot of the mountain, and always commanded them: ...,

"You are not allowed to speak; No smoking; Unless it's for self-defense. No shooting. The prescribed signal is to flash the flashlight three times to your nearest companion once you spot the Spy! ”

Everything was clearly explained, there were no other problems, and the captors began to open their nets. It was silent, save for the occasional dull sound of a soldier stumbling on something.

Chang Bingxuan and the captain watched the soldiers disappear into the darkness one by one, sealing the funnel neck. After the sound of feet stomping on the damp sand, the soldiers took their positions, and no more movement was heard.

Quiescence. Except for the monotonous whispers of the sea crashing against the sand, and the peculiar sound of the waves rising and retreating, there was a deathly silence.

From the beginning of the world to the present. The sea rises and falls in a constant and monotonous manner. That night, time seemed to freeze. Every minute is slow, endless.

Chang Bingxuan felt as if a whole night had passed, but the church in the distant village only heard a little bell: It's just one o'clock!

Chang Bingxuan cocked the collar of his coat, dug his hands deep into his pockets, and tightened his arms to ward off the damp cold wind from the beach. Can't smoke, my heart is particularly uncomfortable, Chang Bingxuan can't help touching the cigarette box, the unbearable smoking addiction makes Chang Bingxuan's heart moved.

But no! The light of a match, the burning cigarette butt can be seen from a long distance. Especially now, Chang Bingxuan guessed that those pairs of keen eyes were searching the beach in the dark.

The clock struck two o'clock slowly, and the bell gradually disappeared into the night sky. Then, three points. Half an hour later, I looked at the luminous watch again: it was just half past three. Chang Bingxuan brought the watch to his ear again, it was clearly dripping and walking, the watch did not stop, and he was too anxious.

It was almost four o'clock, Chang Bingxuan turned to the captain and muttered, "I really want to see the flashlight flash right away"

Before he finished speaking, he saw the flashlight flash once, twice, three times. Another flashlight flashed, and the third one lit up again. In the short flashlight, Yang Fangyun saw a strange figure, and then a second and third figure. Suddenly, the sound of fighting was clearly heard, and the bright light of the flashlight formed an encirclement. The sound of shouts, fights, and footsteps rang out. As soon as Chang Bingxuan and the captain ran to the center of the melee, the crowd calmed down.

Twelve victorious soldiers held the captives dejected and silent. Yang Fangyun thought to himself: "This is too easy! ”

One count: one, two, three. Easy is indeed easy, but a fourth spy is missing.

Yang Fangyun was convinced that the four spies mentioned in the telegram were accurate. When a spy takes the risk of sending an extremely important telegram to another country, he has absolute certainty about the message. Since the telegram says "four", it must be four.

But now, after a surprise victory, it is more difficult to catch the fourth, especially in the middle of nowhere. I had to wait until dawn to find it. Perhaps he crouched somewhere between the mountains and the sea, and only by chance luck could he discover his hiding place. Yang Fangyun's actions were swift and neat, but if one of them was let go, all efforts would be in vain.

Being able to escape from his captor's snare suggests that he is a shrewd and dangerous spy who can cause immeasurable damage and even frustrate his captor's plans to stop the enemy from attacking. There is only one thing in favor of the captor:

He didn't go far. Maybe it's right on the beach, because the only way out has been blocked.

Chang Bingxuan walked up to the captain and said, "Okay." He only had one chance to escape. We'll wait here until dawn and we'll be able to catch him. Take advantage of this time to take a look at the few you caught! ”

The captives were neatly dressed and completely Chinese. Each person carried some change, but not a small amount, and each person carried a small but powerful transmitter. …,

Chang Bingxuan ordered the three of them to distance themselves. Then the interrogation began. Like most of the captives, they were defeated in one fell swoop, though fierce in battle, because they knew that resistance would be of no avail. They all reluctantly, but quite in detail, answered all the questions raised by Chang Bingxuan.

Before he could call the third person, he took the initiative to say to Chang Bingxuan in Chinese: "Can you please talk to me?" ”

Chang Bingxuan was taken aback. Then he shone a flashlight on his face. He stood up straight, motionless, only blinking lightly when the flashlight shone on him.

"Absolutely!" Chang Bingxuan replied.

"I'm my own." As soon as the captive opened his mouth, Chang Bingxuan was taken aback.

But Chang Bingxuan quickly calmed down: "You said that you are from Yang Fangyun's side, very good." How many of you landed tonight? ”

"Four."

"Are you sure it's four?"

"Yes. I'm absolutely sure. There are four in total. ”

Sure enough, it was four, and the telegram was accurate. But where is the remaining one? Maybe he'll come out at dawn.

Although he was basically sure that the spy who took the initiative to confess was his own person, Chang Bingxuan still took care of him.

What the specific identity is, it is not something you can manage.

At five o'clock, six o'clock, time slowly creeped around: the night seemed to have no end.

Finally, a faint light appeared on the horizon, slowly stretching towards the calm sea. Soon. The boulders and figures on the beach were already faintly recognizable, a quarter of an hour later. It's bright enough to start searching.

The captors marched in a line from one end of the beach to the other, in the light of the morning. Little by little, search beaches, caves, potholes, and thorny bushes.

Chang Bingxuan called the soldiers back. The original formation was already somewhat disorganized, but still vigilantly watching the beach.

Chang Bingxuan was annoyed, clenched his fists, and glanced at the soldiers. It was already bright enough to recognize people. Chang Bingxuan saw the end of the row from the head of the row, and then saw the head of the row from the end of the row. Suddenly, the problem was solved, and Yang Fangyun couldn't help but laugh out loud.

"What a cunning fellow!" Chang Bingxuan said with a smile.

The captain looked at Yang Fangyun in surprise: "What's wrong?" ”

"What a cunning fellow!" Chang Bingxuan raised his voice and repeated: "You, soldiers, stand still!" ”

Everyone stood up, Chang Bingxuan turned to the captain and said, "Please come over, I will introduce you to my friend." ”

Chang Bingxuan and the captain walked towards the soldiers, stopping in front of everyone to take a closer look. Eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, ten

Chang Bingxuan stopped and put his hand on the shoulder of the last person: "Hello, Mr. Spy." ”

He was the thirteenth man.

It was already clear that he had taken advantage of the chaos in the darkness of the time to intervene among the captor's soldiers. If the captor stops searching, he stays behind, waits for the car to leave, and then ducks down in a place to hide.

If it weren't for the fact that the number of soldiers was exactly twelve, if it weren't for the superstition that Chang Bingxuan remembered the ominous number "thirteen", Chang Bingxuan would not have approached the team in the dark to silently count the number of people.

A person's life is actually hanging on such a slender line!