Zhao Jingdong returned to Katsuei Tanaka's office and said, "According to General Ono's arrangement, I should go around the various checkpoints. Have you read the report they handed in? Is there anything you would like to explain? ”

Katsuei Tanaka looked up and said with a smile: "Yes, you are in charge of the other checkpoints, only the checkpoint located at the southwest entrance of the British Consulate does not bother Captain Zhao." ”

Zhao Jingdong was stunned for a moment, and then smiled: "Tanaka-kun, what do you mean by this?" ”

"I'm afraid you'll be embarrassed, you have a close personal relationship with Liu Zezhi, what did you find, is it impartial law enforcement? Or is it a dilemma? ”

Zhao Jingdong was embarrassed and forced a smile: "So you know everything?" Liu Zezhi...... This man is still trustworthy, I think he went there maybe on a mission, right? ”

"On a mission? On whose orders? General Ono was in charge of the aftermath after the abolition of the concession, and the office was too busy to borrow, so he could only borrow people from No. 76, just like Captain Zhao. As far as I know: General Ono has no intention of handing over command, does No. 76 have the right to hide from the general and do his own thing? ”

Captain Zhao had to laugh and say: "Tanaka-kun is serious, what is going on, I don't know, what is it, what to do, you are in charge." ”

"Patrol as usual, I'll go over and take a look at the checkpoint next to the British Consulate." Katsuei Tanaka did not suspect that Liu Zezhi had anything to do with the military commanders. It's not because Liu Zezhi interrogated him and wanted to take revenge. He still has to deal with Li Shiqun: as Li Shiqun's confidential secretary, his whereabouts are secretive, what are he doing near the British Consulate without telling everyone? What kind of medicine is sold in Li Shiqun's gourd? Can you just grab Li Shiqun's handle?

At eleven o'clock at noon, Liu Zezhi took Zhang Shengyu to the listening station on the British Consulate that Ni Xin set up three days ago, and Xiao He, an agent of the Intelligence Department, was startled: "Yo, Secretary Liu, I almost didn't recognize it." ”

"Director Ni asked me to do something for him, it's still early, come and see everyone, by the way, see if you have any valuable clues, you are busy with yours."

Xiao He brought a cup of hot tea: "You drink tea, freshly brewed, Shanghai is particularly cold this year." ”

Liu Zezhi nodded and thanked: "Thank you, you don't have a stove here...... Hey, who do you see that person is? It seems to be Tanaka-kun. ”

Xiao He replied: "It's really him, what is Tanaka-kun doing here?" Isn't this the responsibility of Director Ni? ”

Liu Ze made a straight face and said, "Is this what you should ask?" It's not like you've been doing this for a day or two, and there's no rules! ”

Xiao He smiled and said, "That's what you said." ”

Liu Zezhi put on headphones, listened for a while and said: "Lao Zhang, you used to be engaged in telecommunications, check the monitoring equipment here, I'll go out to have a look, and I'll be back in a while." ”

Half an hour later, Liu Zezhi returned to the listening station, put on headphones again, and began to monitor. An hour later, a middle-aged man in a brown trench coat with a collar that was vertical and half of his face was obscured, striking brown-red hair, and a pair of brown sunglasses wore from the British consulate. With a briefcase in his arm, he walked hurriedly.

Liu Zezhiqi said: "The British are the most talkative, let alone a diplomat, why doesn't this person even wear a hat?" Say he's not afraid of the cold, and he has a vertical collar, there is no wind at all on this day, it is cloudy, and there is no sunshine, what are you doing with a pair of sunglasses? Lao Zhang, take two people and follow him! ”

Zhang Shengyu took the order to take people there, Xiao He took out a few enlarged photos and said: "The person who passed by just now is not among the targets we want to arrest, is he wearing makeup?" ”

Liu Zezhi replied: "Is it possible, absconding in disguise?" So this man is a big man, looking at his height and size, these characteristics that cannot be changed, very similar to Consul Edwards, the color of his hair has changed, but don't let him run. ”

Xiao He comforted: "Secretary Liu, don't worry, from four o'clock in the morning today, no one will have a special pass, and the checkpoint will definitely not let them go, let alone foreigners who are under key surveillance." ”

"That's good." Liu Zezhi smiled self-deprecatingly and sighed: "I've had bad luck lately, don't catch up with me when I happen to be here, I'm going to run away." ”

Liu Zezhi flipped through the monitoring records, and half an hour later, Zhang Shengyu rushed back and reported: "Secretary Liu, fortunately, you saw the flaw, who do you guess that person is?" ”

"Is it really Edwards, the British consul in Shanghai?"

Zhang Shengyu replied excitedly: "It's him!" He was seized at the checkpoint, and the strange thing is that he actually had a special pass jointly issued by General Ono's Special Economic Work Office and the City Police Department at one o'clock this morning! ”

Liu Zezhi pretended to be taken aback and asked, "Really?" This is strange, where did he get the special pass? Spurious? It's not right, forgery requires a template, I haven't seen what the pass looks like, even if there are equipment and talents for forging documents in the consulate, where did the British get the template? ”

Xiao He and the others looked at each other, and they couldn't understand the joints. Liu Zezhi pretended to groan, and after a while, he ordered: "Send the people and the seized documents to General Ono and hand them over to Tanaka-kun...... He shouldn't be there, so leave it to Captain Zhao, who was transferred to help. Also, Lao Zhang, you call and ask Director Ni if he has time, and ask him to come over. ”

At one o'clock in the afternoon, Ni Xin and Pingchuan Xinye hurried over and reproached: "Secretary Liu, although it is possible to announce the abolition of the concession at any time, declare war with Britain and the United States, and arrest British and American government officials in Shanghai, but in the end they have not received an order. Can't wait patiently? Prefer to grow branches. ”

Zhang Shengyu was taken aback: he was the master of arresting Edwards, and he did not get Liu Zezhi's permission in advance.

Liu Zezhi did not shirk his responsibility, and replied: "Director Ni, you don't know, Edwards suddenly absconded, and the people below had no choice but to arrest him." Hirakawa-kun, why are you here too? Hearing Liu Zezhi say this, Zhang Shengyu's hanging heart relaxed.

Hirakawa Shinno replied: "Director Ni reported the situation here to Director Li, Director Li was worried that if the Japanese Empire would not declare war with Britain and the United States soon, we arrested British diplomats, causing trouble, and ordered me to come over and have a look, but it really didn't work, so I apologized to Edwards as Director Li's secretary and delayed until the official declaration of war." ”

Ni Xin seemed to have disbelief and said, "Run? He wanted to run, but did he run? We re-set up posts, an unarmed diplomat, where to run? ”

"Lao Zhang didn't sue you? Edwards actually had a special pass in his hand that was only distributed at one o'clock in the morning this morning. This is also the ability of his subordinates, otherwise, hmph, Edwards would have been gone for a long time! ”

Zhang Shengyu interjected: "Because I was worried about the phone leak, I didn't report it to Director Ni. ”

Ni Xin was stunned for a moment and asked, "Pass?" Where is Edwards now? ”

Liu Zezhi replied: "I have already sent someone to escort him to General Ono and hand him over to Captain Zhao." ”

"Give it to Zhao Jingdong? Isn't that right? Why don't you just give it to Tanaka-kun? ”

Liu Zezhi smiled: "I don't understand this, right?" The relationship between the two sides is delicate, Captain Zhao is Tanaka-kun's assistant, and it is Tanaka-kun who is in charge. But you don't know: Tanaka-kun is not in the Special Economic Work Office, and I just met him here. ”

Ni Xin was even more strange: "When did it happen?" What is he doing here? ”

"You don't understand, Tanaka-kun didn't come here to look for us, he appeared near the British Consulate, and we don't know what he was doing here. It's just after eleven o'clock. ”

Ni Xin pondered for a moment and said, "What's going on?" Hirakawa-kun, I'll leave it to you here, and Secretary Liu and I will go to General Ono's. ”

The two came to Ono Heiichiro's office, and as soon as Zhao Jingdong finished reporting the situation, Ono Heiichiro asked, "You guys came just in time, where did the special pass in Edwards' hand come from?" ”

Ni Xin replied: "It's also strange that the subordinates don't have this kind of special pass No. 76 in their hands. ”

Zhao Jingdong interjected: "Yes, I was ordered by the general to distribute it only to diplomats and important figures of neutral countries and allies of the Japanese Empire, so as not to affect these people in the subsequent large-scale search for European and American personnel in Shanghai. General, do you see if you can interrogate Edwards? ”

"It's not proper, I haven't received an order to officially sever diplomatic relations with Britain and the United States and declare war, so let's detain them first."

The secretary came in and reported, "General, Captain Tanaka is back. ”

"Let him come to me."

Tanaka Katsuei walked into the office, saw Liu Zezhi, was slightly taken aback, and asked, "Secretary Liu?" Why are you here? ”

Liu Zezhi replied: "I also just arrived, and Director Ni asked me to report to the general on the process of arresting Edwards. ”

Tanaka Katsueiki said, "Edwards? That Edwards? British Consul in Shanghai? You captured him? ”

"Could it be that Edwards? It wasn't me who ordered the arrest, Edwards absconded in makeup, and I and Director Ni's subordinates saw the flaw, followed him to the checkpoint, and found that he was the key surveillance target Edwards, and he also had a special pass that had just been distributed, so the people at the checkpoint set up by Asano-kun arrested Edwards. Generals, subordinates and others are ignorant of the overall situation and mishandled, please punish the general. ”

Heiichiro Ono waved his hand and said, "It happened suddenly, so it's not wrong to deal with it like this." ”

"Thank you, General, for your leniency."

Katsuei Tanaka asked, "Secretary Liu, can you ask why you went to the British Consulate in disguise?" And they used fake documents. ”

Liu Zezhi was taken aback and replied, "How did Tanaka-kun know my whereabouts?" No. 76 did not have many people who understood English, so Director Ni asked me to go to the listening station to help take a look, and by the way, to observe if there was anything unusual near the British Consulate. I've been to the British consulate a few times, and I'm afraid of being recognized. The checkpoint was set up by Asano-kun, and there are many people who know me, and no matter how disguised I am, I can't hide it from them. Using other identity documents is a habit for me when I carry out secret missions, and many people in number 76 have this habit. ”

Katsuei Tanaka wanted to ask again, but Heiichiro Ono waved his hand to stop him and asked, "Tanaka-kun, why did you go to the British Consulate too?" ”

Tanaka Katsuei replied: "I heard Captain Zhao say that Liu Zezhi went to the British Consulate in disguise and used fake documents. ”

Zhao Jingdong was surprised, looked up at Tanaka Katsuei, and then lowered his head, as if thinking.

Of course, this qiē couldn't escape Ono Heiichiro's eyes, and he asked, "Captain Zhao, do you have something to say?" Liu Zezhi went to the British Consulate, did you sue SùTanaka-kun? ”

"Don't dare to deceive the general, there is no such thing."

This book was first published in Reading Books