The next afternoon, the French Concession Board of Directors, conference room.

Almost all the bigwigs of the French Concession authorities are here, they are Deputy General Director Doudal, Directors Dière, Ecalder, Jurdan, Mattu, Camorra, Patilre, etc., as well as the Office of the Office of the Public Board of Directors to supervise La Ferrier, the Chief Inspector of the Police Department Mailan, and the Assistant Chief Inspector Lapier.

Accompanied by the secretary, Madieh, the general director, walked into the conference room, sat down on the main seat, and nodded to the directors and others present to say hello.

Madière looked at Governor Raferier and asked, "Have you all arrived?" ”

La Ferrier got up and said, "Yes, Lord Director, the meeting can start at any time!" ”

"Good!" Madière looked at the bigwigs on the left and right and said: "I think you all know the explosion and fire that occurred at the Sixteen Lipu Wharf late last night, but the specific situation is not clear, how did this case start?" Whether it was intentional by man, or unintentionally caused by man, or caused by accidents, we don't know, so now I will ask Chief Inspector Mailan of the Police Department to tell me about the case! ”

When everyone heard this, some people looked at Mailan, and some people took out cigars and lit them and smoked them.

"Okay, Mr. Dong!" Mai Lan agreed, took a document from the hand of Assistant Chief Inspector Lapier, opened it and got up and said: "Lord General Director, Lord Deputy Chief Director, Mr. Directors, the cause of the case, after the investigation last night and this morning, we have come to the conclusion that this is a case deliberately caused by man!" ”

The directors immediately discussed, and some directors even scolded directly, after all, these directors who were doing it were also victims, and their goods were basically hoarded at the 16 mile shop wharf. Now that the wharf has burned down, they are also gone, not to mention, as well as the losses of foreign banks in various countries and the losses of Chinese businessmen, who will fill this huge hole? Of course, they can't fill this hole out of their own pockets. If the culprit is not caught, someone will definitely be the scapegoat.

"Gentlemen, gentlemen! Please be quiet and let Chief Merlan explain the specific facts of the case to you, I am sure that the gentleman will also want to know! Supervisor Raferier reminded softly that he was the supervisor of the Office of the Supervisor of the Board of Directors. He has been the superintendent for four consecutive years, and he is generally responsible for the convening of the board of directors and the presiding over of meetings, and his duties and powers are similar to those of the general office of the Ministry of Industry and Bureau of the Public Concession.

In terms of status, the status of any director here is higher than that of the superintendent Laferier, after all, the superintendent's office is a department under the board of directors. However, the superintendent Raferier is the official in charge of the specific administrative affairs of the public board, equivalent to the executive president, and is a close associate of the French consul general in Shanghai, Rabertier, and has been in this position longer than these directors, because the election of the board of directors of the public board of directors is also the same as the election of the board of directors of the Ministry of Industry of the Public Concession, which is once a year, but it is carried out under the auspices of the French consul general in Shanghai, and some directors can only serve one term before stepping down. Some may also work for several sessions. The crowd fell silent after hearing what La Ferrier said.

Mai Lan continued: "In the early hours of this morning, the firefighters extinguished the fire, and the Criminal Department of our patrol room immediately investigated the scene and collected evidence. After collecting some of the evidence left by the criminal at the scene and the corpses left at the scene, our patrol room sent a forensic doctor to conduct a forensic identification of the corpses at the scene, and found that most of the guards at the pier were burned to death, and five people were stabbed to death with sharp weapons. The highest position is a detective, and there are twelve detectives. The thirteen were shot dead, and we found nothing but the remains at the scene. A number of bullet casings were also found, and the identification revealed that except for the bullet casings we patrolled, the others were bullet casings from Mauser's military pistol, and they were shot from the muzzles of two guns. Based on the evidence found and the results of the autopsy, we can conclude that the perpetrator infiltrated the dock, charged all the guards in the dock without firing a single shot, killed five with sharp weapons in the process, and the other guards were all captured, and the forensic doctor did not find any residue of anesthetic in the corpse during the autopsy, which ruled out the conclusion that the perpetrator used the means to control the guards. What kind of person has such a great ability to control all the guards without firing a single shot? Our patrol room concluded that there was not just one criminal, but a gang, and that every member of the gang had been highly trained, and that there was a very good gunman, and he killed thirteen patrolmen by himself, and it was obvious that these thirteen patrolmen had come here by accident, and discovered the situation in the docks, and then there was a shootout, and to our regret, all of their thirteen patrolmen with guns were killed by one person. There is another question, the most important question, that most criminals have a motive for committing a crime, and a case without a motive is not a crime, but the behavior of a madman, so what is the motive of these criminals? We checked the warehousing of all the goods hoarded on the docks, and found that there was no other cargo other than the arms in the arsenal that was worthy of this case for this gang! Since they came for the arms, how many arms did they steal? I'm sorry, we can't find out now, because the arsenal was blown to the ground, and it is impossible to count how much arms are missing, and the above is the situation in this case! ”

After listening to McLan's briefing, Madiere, the general director, looked at the directors and asked, "Do you have anything to say gentlemen?" ”

Director Ma Tu immediately said: "I don't care what other people think, my requirements are, first, I must do my best to solve the case; Second, recover losses! ”

After these two were proposed, the other directors did not speak, they knew that it was not too difficult to meet the first requirement, but the second requirement was a bit difficult, after all, the entire dock was burned to the ground, how to chase the loss? Even if the criminal is caught, the criminal is afraid that he will not have so much money to lose!

After a few seconds, Director Patilley spoke: "Mr. Matu has made two requests, which I agree, and one more request, that after the criminals are caught, they must be punished with the most cruel punishment!" ”

"Are there any other gentlemen who would like to make a request?"

No one spoke.

Seeing that the others did not speak, the chief director Madière said: "Okay, let's talk about Mr. Matu's first request first, to solve the case as much as possible." I also agree with this request, we must catch the criminals in the shortest possible time and give an explanation to the taxpayers, to the customers who have suffered losses in this case, and to the citizens to give an explanation! Do you all agree? Raise your hand if you agree! ”

The eight directors of the board of directors, including Madie, raised their hands, and Madière saw this and said, "All agreed, then this article is clear." We made a decision last night, we must solve the case within a week, Chief Inspector McLan, do you have anything to say? ”

Mai Lan stood up stubbornly and said, "Lord Dong, I ask for a forbearance to solve the case, the time for a week is too tight. I need half a month! In addition, I need funds, we don't have the slightest clue about the criminal, so I need 50,000 taels as a reward to collect clues from the public about the criminal, otherwise I can't solve the case, of course you can ask for another master."

Madié looked at the other directors. The directors thought for a while and nodded, signaling that they could give a grace date, the money could be given, and the case would be solved first, if the case could not be solved, then the people sitting here probably would not have the face to continue to sit here.

"Okay, I'll call the Finance Office and give you fifty thousand taels. If the case is solved within half a month, and the case cannot be solved, then Mr. Mylan asks you to report your resignation to me in fifteen days! ”

"Yes! Adult"

Madière added: "Then come to the second request of Monsieur Matu. Recover your losses! I don't know if Mr. Matu took into account the actual situation when he made this request, now the docks have been burned to the ground, there is nothing, maybe those criminals have stolen some weapons, but who knows how many? After the criminal is caught, who can guarantee that the criminal will be able to pay compensation? ”

The other directors nodded as they listened. expressed agreement with the statement of the general director.

This is Ma Tu again: "I didn't ask the criminal to compensate for the loss, and no criminal can compensate so much money!" ”

Chief Dong Madière frowned and said, "Then what do you mean??????? ”

"I think there's always a way to fill this hole!"

Director Camorra frowned, "Mr. Matu." This hole is not a small hole, do you want the public board of directors to take the money out to fill this hole? I'm afraid that I won't be able to come up with so much money financially at once. Besides, if the taxpayer knows about it at this time, do you know what the consequences will be? ”

Ma Tu smoked a cigar and said with a smile: "Since the Finance Department can't take it out, then the Public Board of Directors can raise the tax rate, the wool is out of the sheep, do we have to bear this loss?" We're unlucky enough, I don't have the money to pay off the people in the oceans! ”

The other directors looked at each other after listening to Ma Tu's words, no one thought that Ma Tu would say such a solution, they didn't think about it, they knew that the level of the tax rate directly affected the development of the economy, if the tax rate was rashly raised, the merchants could not afford it, and ran to the public concession one after another. Isn't the French Concession about to become economically depressed? Besides, if the tax rate is raised, won't the business of these directors be taxed in the same way as other merchants? Isn't this digging a hole for yourself?

How do you know that Madière frowned and said: "It is not impossible to raise the tax rate slightly, but how much should this increase be set so that it will not greatly affect the market and the economy?" ”

Then the directors expressed their opinions, and after some discussion, a tax rate that was acceptable to everyone was determined, and the matter was settled, anyway, they didn't lose money.

The case of the wharf being bombed and burned to the ground shook the whole of Shanghai that morning, and the news was carried on the front page of the morning newspaper of major newspapers, saying that the loss was more than 6 million taels.

In the afternoon, the major newspapers published a notice from the spokesman of the legal arrest room on the case, saying that the case was man-made, someone had stolen a large number of weapons and ammunition, and blew up the arms warehouse, because the explosion caused a fire, the wharf was all burned, and the patrol room also issued a huge reward of 50,000 taels to collect clues related to the case, and anyone who knew the clues related to the case could report to the patrol room. Who has such a great ability to do such a big case? (To be continued) R466