Chapter 3: Growing Wings (1)

With the start of the construction of the "Xianglong Fort", the military department no longer has any worries about the expansion of the "Flying Dragon Army" and continues to implement it step by step according to the original Jihua. The departments in the team related to the expansion of the army naturally focus all their energy on serving the expansion of the army, and the work of departments such as the Ministry of Commerce and Trade, which is not very directly related to the expansion of the army, still maintains the original trajectory.

However, the work of the Ministry of Commerce and Trade, which had been running on its own track, had to change after the fifteenth day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar of the seventh year. Because the day after August 15, on the 16th day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar, "Qingyuan" received a telegram from "Yanyuan" in Youzhou. In the telegram, Fan Wucheng, the head of the Ministry of Commerce and Trade and the head of the team's catering and entertainment industry, reported to the committee that Liu Yunyan, the deputy head of the Youzhou branch of "Feiyan Tang", who had been working with the team before, has now been promoted to the head of the branch, and intends to increase cooperation with the team, hoping that the team can send someone to Youzhou for negotiations.

Although Liu Yunyan did not reveal the true details of herself and the "Feiyan Hall" behind her to the traversing people, through the cooperation and contact in the past two years, the traversing team still heard some information through various channels, knowing that the "Feiyan Tang" is a secret organization from the Later Zhou Dynasty, and the controller behind it has a deep background and a great shili in the Later Zhou court. And the purpose of his coming to Youzhou is to spy on all kinds of intelligence, supplemented by contacting the local Shili in Youzhou. Therefore, in the process of working with them, the crossing team adopts a cautious and vigilant attitude - both to maintain the necessary contact with the other party and to get the benefits they need from the cooperation between the two parties. and keep a certain distance from the other party to avoid implicating himself when the other party is concerned by the Liao government. Therefore, the Committee naturally paid sufficient attention to such a telegram.

Because the telegram sent by Fan Wucheng was relatively simple, it only relayed Liu Yunyan's request to the committee, and did not elaborate on the specific plan proposed by the other party to increase the cooperation between the two sides, nor did it explain the relevant process of Liu Yunyan's promotion to the head of the Youzhou branch hall this time, and the whereabouts of the previous waste hall advocate energy. Therefore, after receiving the telegram, on the one hand, the committee replied to Fan Wucheng to personally come to "Qingyuan" to report the situation of the matter to the committee in detail, and on the other hand, it immediately sent Liang Ziyue and Zheng Zhiwei, two directors of the intelligence department ("Dark Feather"), to Youzhou to investigate the matter through "Dark Feather's" local spies and secret piles, so that when the team agreed to negotiate with Liu Yunyan, they could grasp as much information as possible about the other party, so as to take the initiative in the negotiation.

As the committee's instructions were issued, Fan Wucheng, Liang Ziyue, and Zheng Zhiwei immediately took action. The difference is that Fan Wucheng rushed from Youzhou City to Liangxiang City, while Liang and Zheng rushed from Liangxiang City to Youzhou City. However, although the two sides were moving in the same direction at the same time, there would definitely be a time to meet during the period, but because everyone was in a carriage, neither of them noticed when and where the two sides metβ€”even if the place and time of the meeting between the two sides could be roughly deduced from the distance, Liang Ziyue and Zheng Zhiwei, who had a secret mission, would not take the initiative to greet Fan Wucheng, and Fan Wucheng, who did not know that Liang and Zheng had already gone to Youzhou City, was even less likely to wait to meet them halfway.

On the afternoon of the seventeenth day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar, Fan Wucheng, Liang and Zheng arrived at their destination almost at the same time, and when Fan Wucheng walked into the door of the small conference room of "Qingyuan", Liang and Zheng also stepped into a very high-level contact point in Youzhou City of the "Dark Feather" Youzhou Branch. In addition to the hall master of the Youzhou branch and a few backbones under him, the other spies affiliated with the Youzhou branch, including the supervision agents sent by the Internal Affairs Section to the branch, are not known to the "Dark Feather" branches (intelligence stations) in various places are all subordinate to the Foreign Affairs Section of the Ministry of Intelligence, but there will be agents from the Internal Affairs Section stationed in the station, responsible for reviewing and monitoring the internal personnel.

The cover identity of this secret contact point is an inn, so the entry of Liang Ziyue, Zheng Zhiwei and his party will not arouse anyone's suspicion. When the guy at the inn saw a guest coming to the door, he immediately greeted him with a smile, and earnestly asked Liang Ziyue and the others if they were eating or staying in the hotel. Liang Ziyue didn't answer him immediately, but raised his eyes and glanced at the inn lobby, and when he saw a short and fat middle-aged man behind the counter who was holding a tenant registration book and watching as an innkeeper, he turned his head and exchanged glances with Zheng Zhiwei next to him, and after getting the other party's affirmative signal, he said to the guy: "We want to stay in the hotel." ”,

After hearing this, the man's attitude became more attentive, and he hurriedly led Liang Ziyue and the others to the direction of the counter, asking them to register first.

The guy beckoned Liang Ziyue and the others to come to the counter, and the fat shopkeeper who was still there looking down at the tenant registration book had already raised his head, revealing the usual kind and smiling face of businessmen, politely registering for Liang Ziyue and others, and very naturally responded to Liang Ziyue's secret contact gestures within the "dark feather".

Although this shopkeeper behaved very naturally on the surface, without any unusual expression, he was already shocked in his heart - as the innkeeper and the person in charge of the important contact point of "Dark Feather", Qiu Yiqiu's shopkeeper would carefully and unobtrusively observe any guest who entered the inn. As soon as Liang Ziyue and the others entered the door of the inn, he had already glanced at them inadvertently by others. This glance surprised him, as he found that two of the guests who had come in were acquaintances he knew. Not only did he know him, but he was also his immediate boss, the person in charge of both the internal and external aspects of "Dark Feather", and he had to come to his inn at the same time, what a big thing had happened. Therefore, while registering for Liang Ziyue and others, this shopkeeper Qiu was wondering what was going on in his heart.

The registration process was very fast, and after the shopkeeper Qiu wrote down the names of Liang Ziyue and the others on the registration book, which were pseudonyms, of course, he ordered the men to send the group to the guest room. And after explaining a few words to the second shopkeeper next to him, he also left the counter and went to the back room.

After Liang Ziyue and the others entered the guest room, they had just put away the luggage they were carrying when there was a knock on the door. An agent walked over and opened the door, and saw the innkeeper standing outside with a large copper basin full of water in his hand, saying that he had brought washing water to everyone.

Seeing this scene, the spy who opened the door subconsciously looked back at Liang Ziyue, wanting to see if his boss was willing to let this attentive shopkeeper into the room - this agent was just an ordinary agent of the Internal Affairs Division, so naturally it was impossible for him to know Qiu Yi, a senior agent under the Foreign Affairs Division, and it was inevitable to ask his boss for advice.

Liang Ziyue didn't speak to the inquiring gaze of his spies, but just nodded slightly. When the spy saw that his boss had agreed to let him in, he opened the door and made way for the innkeeper.

Seeing this, the innkeeper hurriedly entered the room with a copper basin, put the copper plate on the basin stand in the house, and under the suspicious gaze of the spy who opened the door for him, he turned around and closed the door, and then came to Liang Ziyue and Zheng Zhiwei, knelt down in his clothes, and said respectfully: "Qiu Yi, the director of the 'Yongan Inn' under the jurisdiction of the 'Dark Feather' Youzhou Branch, has seen Zheng Ye and the twenty-eighth master. ”

This Qiu Yiqiu's shopkeeper's move was unexpected for some people in the room, but in the eyes of Zheng Zhiwei and Liang Ziyue, it was expected, so although he did it very suddenly, Zheng and Liang did not have any surprised expressions. Since the two of them didn't react, the others wouldn't show it even if they were a little surprised.

After Qiu Yi finished reporting to his home, Zheng Zhiwei didn't let him get up immediately, but asked: "Since Shopkeeper Qiu knows Brother X and Liang, he must have taken our class at the "Jingyuan" side, right?" ”

Qiu Yi hurriedly replied: "Back to Zheng Ye's words, his subordinates are from Class B of the first phase of the 'Dark Feather Business Training Class', and they have listened to the courses taught by Zheng Ye and the Twenty-eighth Master when they were trained, so they know the two masters. ”

"So, Shopkeeper Qiu is still a disciple," Liang Ziyue asked with a smile.

"Yes," Shopkeeper Qiu replied more and more respectfully, "It is a blessing for his subordinates to be able to become the personal disciple of the two masters. ”

The so-called "personal disciple" is a conventional name within "Dark Feather", and the source of this statement is the "Dark Feather Business Training Class" mentioned by Qiu Yi.

Since the establishment of "Dark Feather" at the beginning of the sixth year of the calendar, Liang Ziyue and Zheng Zhiwei began to conduct business training for the recruited agents, and gave them the name of "Dark Feather Business Training Class". The training course lasts for three months and is divided into three classes: A, B and C. Among them, the number of people in Class A is the smallest, generally no more than ten people, and those who can enter are the most qualified agents in the current period, and after completing the training and after a period of professional training, they usually become the hall master and deputy hall master of a state or county branch, that is, the station chief and deputy station director of an intelligence station. ,

The number of people in Class B is in the middle, generally 30 people, and the selected agents are all agents who have certain specialties or professional knowledge in a certain aspect, and after completing the training and after a period of professional training, they will generally become the person in charge of a certain aspect of the business of the intelligence station, or the person in charge of a certain contact point, and so on. For example, this shopkeeper Qiu is good at management, knows the inn industry very well, and has a certain talent as a spy, so he became a student of Class B and was sent to be in charge of this contact point with the inn as a cover.

Class C has the largest number of people, generally more than 100 people, and the current detectives will be arranged to study in Class C except for those who enter Class A and Class B. After completing the training, these people are usually only used as ordinary spies, doing some work to find out information and assist the work of the leaders at all levels.

Since the teachers who could teach the course at the beginning of the "Dark Feather Business Training Class" were basically zero, the first four phases were taught by Zheng Zhiwei and Liang Ziyue in person in a large compound built next to the "Jingyuan", until seven years after entering the Ying Li, the old detectives who had been doing business for a year, performed well, had a certain cultural foundation, and had enough eloquence began to teach according to the textbooks written by Zheng and Liang - of course, Zheng and Liang would also go to classes several times from time to time. However, the object of its class is mainly Class A, and sometimes it will take into account Class B, and Class C is not considered at all. Therefore, within the "Dark Feather", the agents who were taught by Zheng and Liang in the first four phases are usually called the personal disciples of the two main hall masters, and the agents in the later periods are called the second generation disciples.

This Qiu Yi said that he was born in Class B of the first phase of the "Dark Feather Business Training Class", and he was naturally the so-called personal disciples of Zheng and Liang, so Liang Ziyue would have such a question. However, it was precisely those few questions just now that made Zheng and Liang feel a little closer to this Qiu Yi. After all, he was a student who taught him personally, and this teacher-student friendship is still quite weighty.

Therefore, after knowing Qiu Yi's background, Zheng Zhiwei signaled the other party to stop kneeling and just get up and speak. Qiu Yi hurriedly thanked him when he heard this, and then he supported his fat body, stood up from the ground with some difficulty, and stood in front of Liang and Zheng with his hands down, waiting for their orders.

After the previous exchange similar to greetings, Zheng Zhiwei turned the topic to the purpose of coming to Youzhou this time, and he said to Qiu Yi: "Master and Brother Liang came this time because there is an important matter to order the Youzhou branch to do, just because your side is the contact point with the highest secret level in Youzhou City, so the master and others chose the place to be summoned here." You go and send a message to the main and deputy hall masters of the Youzhou branch and a few principals, so that they can come here to see the master immediately. ”

"Yes, my subordinates will go and pass the word." Qiu Yi replied respectfully, but his face no longer had the flattering smile he had when he first entered the door, and he had obviously taken Zheng Zhiwei's words as a formal order. After speaking, Qiu Yi saluted Zheng and Liang again, and then exited the room to pass the word.

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