Chapter 45: Fate

"Oil.

It gushes out of the ground through a fountain that spews seventy feet into the air. Thick, black S-, wet, odorous, sulfur-containing oil. Seven people were sprinkled by it. Their hair, clothes, and eyes are covered with thick oil. The oil, which had been hiding from them for so long, was spewing out dense streams through the dust. It filled the small pit where the two goats had died, poisoned by deadly natural gas coming out of the oil well.

The drillers danced like madmen in the inky black fountains. They poured this magical substance on each other. They roll in it. They caught it with both hands and sprinkled it into the sky......"

The Times, August 21, 1907, "British Oil Company Discovers Oil in Bos"

"Perhaps, they keep claiming that the British Oil Company was built on the basis of the British power in Bos, so that there is today's British Oil Company, Danshi They should not forget that the British Oil Company was invested and built by our Queen, and the British Oil Company is one of the royal assets of China, although this company and its exploitation privileges in Bos belong to the SI people, please note that it is about to be renamed "China Bo Oil Company", Danshi China is a modern national state, and the state will be responsible to every citizen, whether it be a nobleman or a commoner, they are entitled to the protection of the state, and it is the duty and duty of the state, so it will not be difficult to break the stubborn dreams of Britain if Britain tries to deal with the British oil company in any abnormal, non-commercial way, and our great admiral will lead our mighty fleet in the Indian Ocean......

"China Times" May 15, the third year of the empire, "Black Gold: Sino-British Contradictions"

The General Staff of the Chinese Imperial Armed Liliang is the highest command body of the Chinese armed Liliang, and this organization is different from the Army Staff or the Navy Staff or the Air Force Staff, which is the comprehensive command organization of the Chinese Armed Liliang, and according to the common understanding, it can be regarded as the base camp that countries will only set up in wartime.

To a certain extent, the Supreme Staff also reflects China's extremely alternative military S-color, this country is always preparing for war, of course, this is only to a certain extent, this General Staff most of the time, only a group of staff officers, only in times of war, will the army chief of staff, directly serve as the chief of the general staff, the three services of the staff will gather here to work.

However, the "General Staff Intelligence Bureau" under the General Staff of the armed Liliang is a permanent organization, and there are too many intelligence agencies in China's political setup, in addition to the Imperial Bureau of Investigation and the Imperial Intelligence Bureau, there are also the Intelligence Department of the Foreign Ministry, the Intelligence Department of the Trade Commission, etc., and the Intelligence Bureau of the General Staff is also one of these many intelligence agencies.

Most of the time, the Intelligence Bureau of the General Staff is engaged in intelligence analysis work, but they will also send a large number of agents to collect military intelligence, but unlike the Service Intelligence Bureau, which focuses on large countries, the General Staff Intelligence Bureau is more inclined to "fill in the gaps", that is, to send agents to "secondary areas" that are ignored by the Service Intelligence Bureau.

As a lieutenant officer in the Intelligence Bureau of the General Staff, Sang Pingzhi had always aspired to be on assignment, and as early as in college, he set his goal in life - to become a good spy, and in high school he read several books about Eastern and Western spy stories. He knew how dangerous it was for spies to do their work, and he knew that they would end up dying either a heroic or tragic death. But for the sake of the motherland, they know that there are tigers in the mountains, and they prefer to go to the tiger mountains, and they think that this is the life ambition of a man.

Therefore, for Sang Pingji, he xiwang will one day be able to become the protagonist of a spy novel, which is exactly why he joined the Intelligence Bureau of the General Staff after graduation, and in his opinion, as a soldier, he should dedicate everything to the motherland in order to fulfill his duty as a soldier.

"Pack up and get ready to go"

When Sang Pingzhi received a year of training in the Intelligence Bureau of the General Staff, when he accepted the mission, the commander's words were very simple, but only eight characters, and there were no other words.

Two months later, Mr. Sang received a passport and visa for business travel issued by the Japanese government, the most common method used by Chinese intelligence agencies, often using Japanese passports rather than Chinese passports, in order to avoid tensions between China and other countries due to espionage. …,

At the same time, he also received several other passports, such as those issued by the Straits Settlements, the Dutch East India, French Central and South China, and even the Russian Empire, which of course were issued in response to unexpected needs. His real identity is that of a Japanese businessman.

Subsequently, as a Japanese businessman, Sang Pingzhi first went to the China Mail Shipping Company to book a first-class ticket, and then began to organize the packing he carried with him. In order to be cautious, everything that is carried out of the country is made new, and not a single old thing can be carried. The reason is that the suit and shirt he used to wear were embellished with his name on them, lest he be discovered by the local laundry office and lose his identity.

Even so, not only small bags and large suitcases were carefully written with the initials of pseudonyms, but even the clothes were specially sent to the laundry room for several rinses after the initials were written.

When he went to the head of the Third Department of the Intelligence Bureau to take his leave, he gave Sang Pingzhi twenty fifty-one pieces of new pounds sterling as a temporary cost of his activities, and told him that this was money that could only be used after he arrived in Kuwait, and that in China, foreign exchange was regulated because it was necessary to concentrate it on the purchase of machinery, and that a thousand pounds was a huge sum for anyone.

In this way, a Japanese businessman "Shoichi Murauchi" was born, and then the person "Sang Heiji" disappeared from Nanjing.

"Vostok" cruise ship is a 15,000-ton luxury cruise ship built by the Ma'anshan shipyard in the fifth year of the empire, unlike Britain and Germany competing to build luxury cruise ships in the Atlantic, in the past few years, China has built 100,000 tons of quasi-luxury cruise ships, compared with luxury cruise ships in Europe and the United States, Chinese cruise ships are more practical X-NG, in fact, these cruise ships are often built for overseas immigration.

For China, which has a population of 500 million and an average cultivated land area of less than four acres, the development of overseas immigration is the only choice and the inevitable choice.

At this time, the "Oriental" cruise ship had docked at the Whampoa Wharf. As soon as Sen Tengqing completed the boarding procedures in advance, he entered the "Xinhai Hotel" and waited for the time for the boat to leave at two o'clock, so as to appreciate the customs of the motherland again at this last moment. A few hours later, Mori Teng Keiichi took a taxi to the pier, of course, no one came to see him off, but he did not feel lonely. As soon as he stepped onto the deck, a nameless courage arose from the soles of his feet, and he said to himself in his mind on the side of the gunwale.

"Okay, look at me Mori Teng Keiichi, I must do a good job, and I will never disgrace the Royal Guards and Navy soldiers"

It goes without saying that if it fails, the port will never be seen again. But, isn't that exactly what I vow? ……

Although the destination of the Vostok is German Central Africa, although German Central Africa is not a Chinese colony, Danshi benefits from the immigration treaty signed between China and Germany, so there are still many Chinese immigrants to German Central Africa every year, and for this reason, there are many children running on the deck, teenagers and children shouting for the first time on the ship, and on the docks, thousands of people who see off their loved ones wave towards the cruise ship.

Listening to the cheers of the children, suddenly, an unprecedented sense of mission surged in the depths of Mori Teng's heart, yes, it was a sense of mission, wasn't he going abroad for them? As soldiers, isn't the sacrifice and dedication of soldiers for the happy life of citizens?

In the midst of his thoughts, the whistle sounded to announce the departure of the ship. The huge hull of the "Vostok" quietly sailed away from the Whampoa wharf. One by one, the ribbons were broken, and the sound of chou sobbing could be heard everywhere on the deck. Looking at the people on the pier, they are all waving their hands and handkerchiefs vigorously.

Just as Sen Tengqing was holding the railing of the ship's side with one or two hands, looking intently at the prosperity of the Oriental Paris, which may not be seen again for several years or even longer, he suddenly heard someone shouting behind him.

"Mr. Senten"

At this time, he was feeling a little sad about leaving his motherland, but he was suddenly shocked by this shout. Who will know him? And know that his name is Senteng?

He jerked his head back.

"I'm sorry, you're Mr. Senten."

It turned out that the waiter came over respectfully and respectfully. …,

"I've made you Yijing tea"

"Well, thanks"

When thanking him, like any Japanese person, he bowed lightly.

"Also, I changed your room again. Please."

Then Senten followed him down to the cabin, and only then did he let out a long breath. Yes, he Yijing is "Sen Teng", no one will call him "Li E" anymore, in the eyes of many people, he is East Asian, but Japanese. He was born in the form of another person - didn't he just throw the photo of "her" that he had been carrying with him and was reluctant to throw away?

How ridiculous it was for her and herself to be caught by the god of fate N-ng This morning, in his final farewell, he had gone to her school, and watched her from afar, and when she came out of school, he couldn't help but be stunned for a moment, as if his breathing had stopped. Before he could think about it, she left school with her classmates.

Knowing that he might be destined to lose her in this life, he had to close his eyes and pray for her happiness......

Led by the waiter, he was brought into the room of the highest superlative. This may be one of the members of the General Staff who specially called to take care of him in order to "give him a good trip", and he had to accept this kind of "hospitality" silently, but in his heart it was not a taste, and he always felt as if he was sending him to death.

Whatever

Turning to another common saying, "Agents must not indulge in money and NVS." "As a special foreign station, if you can't keep this precept, you will fail, and there are too many precedents in this regard. Money and beauty NV, this M-human thing, is difficult to get rid of, didn't I just remember her and lost my mind? Be self-vigilant, self-vigilant...... Kazuki lay on his back on the chu-ng, and his whole body fell into deep thought.

After nightfall, the ship probably entered the open ocean, rocking horizontally very much.

In order to practice Arabic conversation, Senten often goes to the deck below, where there are many children and teenagers, sitting on the cable sunbathing, some looking out to sea, some reading books. After a night of sailing, after dawn, I looked at the surroundings of the steamer, the sea l-ng was surging, the water and the sky were s-, no matter which direction I looked at, it was like a horizontal line. Perhaps because of the sense of emptiness caused by the sea, people quickly warmed up.

Danshi For Senteng, he prefers to talk to businessmen who have returned to Iraq and other places, because he can practice Arabic with them, most of them are Jews, to some extent, China does not like Jews, in the eyes of the outside world, this is not unrelated to His Majesty's early business experience, but as an agent, Senteng knows that the most fundamental reason is that Jews have no homeland, for Jews, they only have money in their eyes, even if they have lived in a country for hundreds of years, Jews who do not have a homeland will not have any sense of belonging to that country, and it is precisely because of this that after the establishment of the empire, like any European country, Jews were excluded, and a large number of wealthy Jewish businessmen were severely fined by the IRS for tax evasion, and Jewish billionaires such as Hartung and Sassoon were also fined more than 100 million yuan or even hundreds of millions of yuan.

But even so, every year Jews still come to China to do business in China, and most of them are Middle Eastern Jews, and the Middle East is the region he is going to.

"Haha, Senteng, zhende is very jealous of you"

A Jew who spoke to him looked at Senten and said.

"How so?"

"After the European War, you Japanese may have been defeated back then, but now you are following Chinese, Chinese merchants are there, you follow there, people who don't know, will only treat you as Chinese, you are the same as Chinese, Chinese merchants bring goods to various places, and you Japanese are retailers, now Chinese merchants can't do without you at all, but one day, you can leave Chinese......"

When praising the Japanese there for this Jew, Senteng secretly became vigilant, he never realized that China's commercial trade would become dependent on the Japanese, and the retail industry was not what the Chinese were good at. He remembered that when he was in the military academy, there were some overseas Chinese students from Nanyang, and their families often used to do retail

At this time, Sen Teng remembered why the ministry would give him a Japanese passport, and now there are thousands of Japanese retailers in the Middle East selling Chinese and Japanese-made goods everywhere, on the other hand, Chinese merchants, but there are only more than 100 people, what does this mean, it means that the Japanese small businessman Yijing has established a retail network in the Middle East. …,

"Actually, you don't realize your potential at all,......"

The Jew, who was in his fifties, then said with some sighs.

"You don't understand, how big liliang you have, if one day, you refuse to sell Chinese goods, then ......"

Finally, he pointed to the coastline of the continent that he could not see.

"The country's stocks will fall immediately"

Despite the surprise in his heart, Danshi Sen Teng didn't say anything, he just looked at the sea quietly, these are not what he needs to care about, at least not what he needs to care about now, for him, the most important thing is to complete the task, complete the task that the general staff officer Jiāo is waiting for him, and that's it.

In the next voyage, the passengers on the "Oriental" cruise ship, like Wu Yue in the same boat, each with their own thoughts, each with their own destiny, let the ship go straight to the south, almost everyone is full of longing for the unknown future.

On the 2nd day of the seventh month of the 10th year of the empire, the "Vostok" quietly approached the dock of the port of Aden, which is located on the boundary between the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. This was the last port of call for the Vostok after sailing to German Central Africa, which was a British colony, but not many passengers disembarked here.

After disembarking with his suitcase, Senten looked at this strange Arab city, full of bustling Arabs in Arab robes and Arab teenagers walking back and forth in the crowd to sell, all of which brought life to the dock in the early morning, and he knew that this would be his first stop in Arabia, and before he disembarked, on the deck, he saw the person who picked him up, next to a dilapidated Pegasus car stood an Oriental man holding a sign in his hand, as if no one else could see it, held high above his head.

"Hello, you're from the village club, right? I'm Senteng. ”

The village club is a Japanese trading company that he wants to enter, and he wants to carry out activities at the destination under the name of the village company.

"Welcome, welcome for a hard journey"

"Thank you for your care"

After a brief greeting, Sen Teng was still worried about whether his demeanor would be seen as a soldier, but in the end, he found that no one seemed to notice him here.

I got into the car sent by the consulate. Along the way, Senteng only felt that this Arab city was full of freshness. Everywhere there are Tuhuang S-, Tuhuang S- houses, Tuhuang S- mosques, white S- Allah robes everywhere, m-NG faces everywhere in robed NV people, this port city is completely different from the city he was in.

"Sen Tengjun, it's very fresh, just adapt to it, we came here just to make money"

The clerk who was driving the car blinked his eyes as he spoke, and then he suddenly whispered with a smile and a joking mouth:

"How about it, are you interested, find an Arab NV here?"

"I ...... I'm also going to Baghdad province."