End of December 1939.

A month ago, in order to resist the increasing number of resistance troops, the Japanese North China Front carried out a sweep of the CCP's Jinchaji anti-Japanese base area, and as a result, Abe Norihide, known as a "famous general", was killed by the CCP troops. Although this was not comparable to the losses in many major wars, it still made the Japanese army extremely humiliated.

In addition, the New Fourth Army, which retreated northward, also regained a firm foothold in the Dabie Mountains and opened up the Dabie Mountain anti-Japanese base area. Tens of thousands of elites radiated to the three provinces of Anhui, Hubei, and Henan, and to a great extent affected the war situation in the Yangtze River and Huai River valleys.

It was in this situation that Zhou Fohai, the new mayor of Shanghai in Wang's puppet government, stepped into his jurisdiction.

He is already the fifth mayor of Shanghai since Wang Jingwei established the puppet Nationalist Government in Nanjing. Speaking of which, although the mayor of Shanghai has a very high status in Wang Jingwei's government, it is really not an auspicious position. The first mayor, Fu Xiao'an, was hacked to death by his own cook; The second mayor resigned because of frequent assassinations; The third mayor, Chen Gongbo, temporarily took over this position during his trip from Hong Kong to Nanjing. Soon after, he went to Nanjing to serve as president of the Legislative Yuan, member of the Standing Committee of the Military Commission, director of the Political Training Department, and chairman of the Qingxiang Committee. After that, it will be difficult to choose the mayor of Shanghai. It was not easy to find a fourth-term Yin Rugeng, who had caused a lot of turmoil in the Beiping area, but also because of the frequent assassinations in Shanghai, he had been hiding in Nanjing City and did not dare to go to work...... After the worst, he was withdrawn by Wang Jingwei. Now, although more than a month has passed, few people in the "Nanjing Nationalist Government" are still willing to come to Shanghai, and in desperation, Wang Jingwei has no choice but to put the heavy responsibility on his close confidant Zhou Fohai.

Zhou Fohai was also unwilling. He didn't care about the position of mayor of Shanghai, although it was really important. But for him, it is dispensable. Because, after Wang Jingwei rebelled and came to Nanjing to organize the puppet national government, his position was already extraordinary. In this government, he won the important posts of puppet finance minister, puppet vice chairman of the puppet Military Commission, and secretary general of the puppet Central Political Commissar; not long ago, he successively served as vice president of the puppet Executive Yuan, puppet president of the Central Reserve Bank, puppet minister of police, vice chairman of the puppet Qingxiang Committee, and chairman of the puppet Material Control and Examination Committee. It can be said that he has mastered the diplomatic, financial, financial, military, material and spy powers of the Wang puppet regime, and in addition to this, he also directly controls a well-equipped and well-trained puppet tax police regiment.

He was the third person in Wang's puppet government. And although his status is only below Wang Jingwei and Chen Gongbo. However, when Wang Jingwei's puppet central government was established, the traitorous and important members of the various courts, ministries, and associations in the puppet government were all nominated by him, and the puppet government was actually concocted by him. He was very proud of this, and once said in his diary: "The national government is still the capital." The blue sky and the white sun are full of red flags fluttering on the side of Stone City, which is completely initiated by one more person. In the future, the movement will also be centered on Yu. He even said, "There is a period in life." It's not in vain! ”

Therefore, Shanghai is not Shanghai, and he is really reluctant to take over. Although for some reason the Chongqing side has stopped the almost frenzied assassination activities in Shanghai, he knows that this time is only three months. After holding it for three months, if the other party does it again. It's going to be pretty crazy for sure. Maybe there will be a lot of big trouble. At this time, taking over as mayor of Shanghai is by no means a wise choice.

But just like Wang Jingwei said to him in private, "Who will go if you don't go?" Who can go? "That means obviously, you are in charge of the agents of the Nanjing government. Even No. 76 is under your direct jurisdiction, and Ding Mo Village and Li Shiqun are also your subordinates...... Now that Shanghai has barely calmed down for a while, you don't rush to stabilize the situation, others will gossip.

In other words, Zhou Fohai had no choice.

……

"It's a headache."

Although it has been quiet for more than a month, how good are the people on the beach? will not gamble with their own lives. Therefore, even if Zhou Fohai, the top power figure under the Wang family, arrived in Shanghai, there were still few welcomers. Fujita Jin and the others reluctantly put together a rather lively welcome ceremony, and after chatting with Zhou Fohai for a few words, they dispersed under the pretext that they were busy. The hurried posture made Zhou Fohai feel that these guys were "running away"!

"Sir, do you want to meet that person?" As the leader of No. 76 directly under Zhou Fohai, Ding Mocun did not embarrass his immediate boss too much, and he stayed until the very end.

"Shiqun is gone?" Zhou Fohai was resting on the sofa in the study, but when he heard this, he slowly sat up again.

"He's not healed yet, and I've asked him to go back to rest." Ding Mocun replied softly.

"Hmph." Zhou Fohai shook his head, "He must have thought that you were going to beat his little report in front of me, right?" ”

"I didn't say anything, I just didn't look good when I left. But...... I don't think he cares much. Ding Mocun said with a smile.

"Of course he doesn't care." Zhou Fohai sneered, "He often sends people to Nanjing for activities recently, and he still wants to be the chairman of Jiangsu Province!" ”

"Chairman of Jiangsu Province?" Ding Mocun was stunned, he didn't know about it. This shows that Li Shiqun attaches great importance to this matter, or rather...... Sure? Otherwise, why would you be so secretive, afraid of being known by others?

"You don't have to worry about him." Zhou Fohai naturally also saw Ding Mocun's performance, and immediately said: "I have already told Mr. Wang, in a few months, I will let you promote you to be the Minister of Welfare, and if you have the opportunity, maybe you can also get a Minister of Transportation." ”

"Minister of Transportation?" Ding Mocun was stunned again, and then he was overjoyed: "Thank you, Mr. for cultivating." ”

"Don't thank me, you should thank Mr. Wang. And you deserve it, too. Zhou Fohai waved his hand and sighed again: "The 'Chongqing puppet government' carried out assassination and terror in Shanghai, and its behavior was outrageous and made the hearts of the people in Shanghai float. Although Mr. Wang has been reprimanding you a lot recently, he still knows your suffering. I told you before I came that this place, if there was no Ding Mo Village for you, I am afraid I don't know what the chaos of Lu Dao would be. ”

"Thank you, Mr. Wang, for your compliment. In fact, Li Shiqun also has a lot of credit. Ding Mocun said with a happy face.

"It's a credit, but he's shameful enough." Zhou Fohai snorted coldly, "I was assassinated twice in succession, and I almost lost my life both times...... I don't know what to do. I thought that No. 76 was so incompetent that he couldn't even protect his own leader. ”

Actually, he also has difficulties...... The people in the military command have no fixed place, and even the radio station does not seem to move, and their actions are even more like imagination, and there is no trajectory to speak of. And the most important thing is that they don't seem to have any contacts at all......" Ding Mocun smiled wryly, as if he wanted to say a thing or two for his partner.

"Without a liaison officer, how do you know who to assassinate? Where can I learn about the activities of the assassin target? Zhou Fohai didn't believe in these at all, "I know that you are afraid that this matter will involve you." You can rest assured. Although you are also responsible, Mr. Wang knows that you are only an assistant at No. 76, and Li Shiqun is the most important person......"

"Yes." Ding Mo Village stopped talking. Zhou Fohai said what he thought. But what he just said was not a lie. He was truly amazed by the modalities of those killers. It is unthinkable that they have not been able to find the contact information of the other party until now. You must know that after the other party assassinated several important people one after another. The whole of Shanghai moved, and even the Japanese garrison in Shanghai marched into the city...... Such a large-scale search. Don't say a few people. Even a swarm of flies don't want to escape easily. But the suspects have arrested a lot, and none of the real ones have been caught. Until now, they don't know how the other party communicated with each other and carried out the assassination. And it is precisely this unknown that makes them afraid of that group of killers...... It was as if the earthlings were afraid of aliens years later.

"What about that person?"

"Comforting" the village of Dingmo. Zhou Fohai remembered the matter again.

"Right down there, pretending to be my bodyguard." Ding Mocun replied in a low voice.

"Call him in. I'm going to see what he has to say. Zhou Fohai's face was gloomy.

"Wait a minute, I'll call him."

"Hmm!"

……

Ding Mocun hurriedly went downstairs, and Zhou Fohai picked up the newspaper on the side boredly. And quickly. He was caught up in one of the reports...... This report is about the incident of "Director Qin's intimidation of Tufeiyuan" that caused a stir some time ago. Speaking of this, Zhou Fohai actually felt quite aggrieved for Tu Feiyuan. Isn't it just a three-month exchange for a Zhang Boju? A bargain, Japan and their Nanjing government can be regarded as taking advantage of it, but as soon as it is publicized by Chongqing, ordinary people regard the famous Tufeiyuan as a soil mouse, thinking that they can be bullied twice casually. There are even folk rumors that this "Director Qin" is just the deputy of the military commander Dai Li...... Because Qin Wei is not as famous as Dai Li. And a deputy can scare Kenji Dohihara, how powerful is the military commander? Of course, some newspapers did not forget to attack them for the Nanjing government and the Japanese who were in cahoots, speculating that Zhang Boju's kidnapping was a scandalous drama directed and acted by them.

In this regard, both Tu Feiyuan and the headquarters of the Chinese Dispatch Army only denounced it as "nonsense" and said nothing else.

And the newspapers have been making a fuss like this for more than half a month, which has also made things more and more mysterious. However, Qin Wei's true identity was revealed to those reporters...... Co-authored this is actually Dai Li's top boss. As a result, everyone became more and more interested. From Qin Wei's engagement in Chinese pinyin, to his almost death when he was caught by the Japanese, to Chairman Jiang's efforts to rescue him, to his conflict with Kong Xiangxi, and so on! Qin Wei's reputation is also getting bigger and bigger, and people finally discovered that there is another great high-ranking official in the original national government, and this person has risen so fast that he can be called a legend in officialdom.

This kind of person always attracts people's curiosity.

As a result, Qin Wei became a "frequent visitor" of various newspapers, and was taken out for examination from time to time.

Zhou Fohai has also seen a lot of such reports. Of course, he knew more about Qin Wei than these newspapers...... It's just that this time the report has obviously changed its flavor. is no longer the previous blind support for Qin Wei, but has turned to praise Chiang Kai-shek. According to the report, Qin Wei was originally an unknown person, neither a Huangpu student nor a native of Zhejiang, and he was just a scholar before he became a scholar, but Chairman Jiang was about to rescue him after he was caught by the Japanese. As a result, Qin Wei entered the office immediately after this incident, and then jumped up quickly. Obviously, Qin Wei's rise must have a lot of merit, otherwise it would not be possible to scare the famous Tu Feiyuan with just one letter...... It can be seen from this that Chairman Chiang's accurate vision is rare in ancient times. Let's think about Chairman Jiang's students, like Song Xilian, Du Yuming, Zhang Lingfu, Hu Lian, and Wang Yaowu...... Which one is not a famous general who has made the Japanese bitter and famous on the battlefield? Therefore, the really powerful one is Chairman Chiang, and under the leadership of Chairman Chiang, the recovery of China is just around the corner.

"Shameless."

Zhou Fohai is extremely tired. This newspaper is obviously looking for Lao Jiang...... If the bald man was really so bad, why was he beaten to Chongqing? But he can't deny that this report is very demagogic. In particular, the generals mentioned have all achieved considerable results on the battlefield. This gives many people a preconceived feeling: as long as they are Lao Jiang's students, they will definitely be able to fight. But as long as you think about it carefully, you will find the problem, there are so many students of Lao Jiang, why are there only so many who can win the battle?

"Sir, the people are coming."

Ding Mocun pushed the door and walked in, followed by a guy dressed as a bodyguard with a beard.

"What's your name? What identity? Zhou Fohai put down the newspaper, stared at the man, and asked.

"Xu Yuanju, the special commissioner of the military command, is also the commander of the 'Shenlong Squad'!"

"......" (To be continued......)