In the famous restaurant Sihai Juli in Nanjing, a two-wheeled carriage without any signs quietly drove into the manor, and when the carriage was stable, a young man dressed in a waiter's costume greeted him at the door.

"Welcome, officer!" The young waiter said respectfully to the middle-aged man who had just gotten out of the carriage.

The middle-aged man got out of the carriage, just looked around the environment of the manor, and then nodded slightly: "Go to Xiaodong Pavilion." ”

Immediately, the young waiter led the middle-aged man into the manor.

Along the way, I saw that this manor was somewhat similar to the manor where ordinary wealthy families lived, but it was different everywhere, the number of waiters and maids in this manor was a bit large, and other people could be seen coming and going from time to time.

All this shows that this manor is not the residence of a wealthy family, but a place of business similar to that of a restaurant.

And owning such a large manor in the expensive inner city of Nanjing, and starting a restaurant business, all this means that the owner of this manor is not simple.

In fact, it is true that the owner of this manor is a nobleman who is high up in the eyes of ordinary people: Baron Li Xubing.

Li Xubing, is one of the many Yuyao senior military and political dignitaries in the empire, is the earliest student of the camp school, participated in the 1854 attack on Shanghai and many other battles, in the early days of the empire, when Lin Zhe carried out a large-scale knighthood, he was the director of the Department of Transportation of the Ministry of Military Affairs, the rank of major general, was awarded the title of baron.

However, in the following years, Lin Zhe began to vigorously support those officers and generals who were born in military academies, and retired those who were old-fashioned and could not keep up with the pace of the times.

In 1865, he was transferred to Shanxi Province as garrison commander. In the military system of the empire, except for a few special provinces, such as Xindong Province, Xinjiang Province, Wutai Province, Kokand Province, and Heilongjiang Province, the garrison commanders of other provinces were basically idle positions, which were generally used for the promotion of young officers to gilded or to arrange for the promotion of hopeless generals.

Li Xubing's Shanxi Provincial Garrison Commander. There is a great difference between the former has nothing to do all year round, at most it is just to suppress the local security to maintain law and order, and the second is to do some military-civilian liaison and military propaganda affairs, and basically has no real power.

The latter is different, the latter is responsible for the command of the Russian army in New Eastern Province, Alaska and other places, and is the forward defense line of the empire in the Far East.

After three years of idleness in Shanxi Province. He was promoted to lieutenant general in 1868, but this promotion was typical of consolation, because three months after his promotion to lieutenant general, he was transferred to the reserve, thus ending his career as a military soldier for more than ten years.

After retiring, he opened this Sihaiju in Nanjing, which was just to make friends at first, but later it became more and more famous. It has gradually become one of the top restaurants in Nanjing, and it is full of powerful and wealthy businessmen. And Li Xubing relied on such a manor, and he also made a lot of money, and was able to maintain the dignity of the baron and the luxurious life of the family.

The Sihaiju covers a large area, and the middle-aged man in a suit followed the messenger for a long time, and only after going around did he arrive at a small secluded courtyard.

When he entered the courtyard, he saw that there were already several people in the courtyard. Although some of those people wore Chinese clothes, some wore suits, and some wore long robes, most of them were middle-aged men in their forties and fifties.

And these people don't need to look closely, they just exude a kind of aura of superiority!

"Director Li. You're here, brothers, but they've been waiting for you for half an hour! A man with a shiny head inside saw someone coming, and immediately stood up, although the tone of his voice was a little bold, but his expression exuded a kind of respect.

I saw that the visitor nodded slightly: "I took a little more detour when I came here!" ”

Although Director Li didn't say it explicitly, the few people present were secretly shocked in their hearts, and the inch-headed man who spoke in front of him said: "Director Li has worked hard, you are in an important position, and it is reasonable for the palace to take care of you!" ”

Although it was only in private, these people still had some scruples when they spoke.

These people all knew why Director Li took a detour, and they also knew what the inch-headed man meant by taking care of him from the palace.

They are talking about the Imperial Intelligence Service.

Many people know that all high-ranking military and political dignitaries must be surrounded by those spies of the palace intelligence department, although everyone has not said this kind of thing, the palace intelligence department will not take the initiative to mention it, and those ministers will not admit it if they take the initiative to identify it, but everyone knows that there will be agents of the palace intelligence department around them more or less.

As for the person next to him who is an agent of the palace intelligence department, this kind of thing is not easy to guess, and even if some ministers guess that someone next to them is an agent, they will never say it or do anything to drive people away.

Because this shows that you are tired?

This drives away one agent, and then two or more agents will appear next to him

Director Li obviously guessed that someone next to him was an agent of the palace intelligence department, so he took a detour or used other tactics, so he got rid of the person and came alone.

After Director Li entered the Xiaodong Pavilion, the people inside took the initiative to stand up, which is enough to prove that the identity of Director Li is not simple.

And when they were talking behind closed doors, in a room next to the Xiaodong Pavilion, the young waiter who had just ushered Director Li in wrote in a small notebook with a pen: "On September 18 of the 15th year, Li Pingtong had a secret meeting in the Xiaodong Pavilion of Sihaiju, and the participants were Zhao Lixiang, Sun Beilu ......."

At this time, Li Pingtong and the others, who were talking, obviously did not know, they thought that they had gotten rid of the agents of the palace intelligence department, but it was difficult to say in the local provinces below, because the number of agents of the palace intelligence department in those places was limited, but in Nanjing, this is the base camp of the palace intelligence department's activities.

The report was quickly sent to the head of the Imperial Intelligence Division, the Chief of the Fifth Section of the Imperial Intelligence Division.

This Fifth Section is the body that is mainly responsible for extensive surveillance of Nanking and its neighboring areas.

The Imperial Intelligence Division is organized in a different way from ordinary administrative agencies, and consists of 13 departments, the core of which is the 1st to 6th Divisions, the first section is responsible for the monitoring of military generals and intelligence gathering tasks, the second section is responsible for monitoring and intelligence gathering tasks for senior cabinet officials, the third section is responsible for monitoring and intelligence gathering of royal employees, nobles, and clans, the fourth section is responsible for intelligence collection in other provinces, and the fifth section is responsible for intelligence collection in Kyoto and neighboring places.

As for the sixth department, it is a field department, which is full of skilled agents, mainly responsible for assassination, armed attacks and other tasks, and is also the main force of the intelligence department when it performs tasks, and most of the agents of the palace intelligence department known to outsiders are these people.

The seventh to thirteenth departments are all internal departments, mainly responsible for some logistics or internal management affairs.

The fifth section is mainly responsible for the intelligence of the mobile phone division and the neighboring areas, and there is no specific object of surveillance, and their agents are often arranged in public places or some administrative agencies, such as those officials like to go to the four seas, which is the key care location of the fifth section.

Outsiders don't know that in this small restaurant, the Fifth Section has arranged at least ten agents, and all of them are secret agents who have been lurking for many years.

Those officials all know that they have agents from the palace intelligence department around them, but few will know that some of the high-end places they usually go to, especially restaurants, teahouses, green houses and other places, have agents from the intelligence department.

The section chief of the fifth section looked at the briefing reported by the Sihaiju site, and when he saw the names of Li Pingtong and several other people, the intuition of the spy agent told him that there must be some ulterior secret here, and the matter was not small.

Why? Because Li Pingtong is not an ordinary person.

This name is not to mention those people in the officialdom, even the ordinary people who live in Beijing all the year round know who this person is, he is the director of the palace secretariat. (To be continued.) )