Zhang Yan led his subordinates to leave Beiping City on the morning of the 28th day of the 11th lunar calendar of the seventh year of Xiande, and at the end of the afternoon of the same day, Liang Ziyue, the director of the Internal Affairs Department of the Intelligence Department of the crossing team, walked into the Beiping Military Festival Mansion with a stack of thick interrogation records.

In just half a month, the Internal Affairs Department of the Ministry of Intelligence discovered and arrested five groups and 32 spies (20 were captured alive and 12 were killed) from the "Feiyantang," a secret spy organization under Zhang Yongde, a heavy minister of the Later Zhou Dynasty. Although since Xiande put the "Feiyantang" Youzhou branch in one pot in the fifth year, the other party has also sent people north to the Beiping Army many times to try to resume espionage activities here and establish a stronghold. But usually there are three or five people, small groups of people who are doing tentative activities, and there has never been a situation of dozens of people coming at once.

Therefore, after listening to Liang Ziyue's general introduction of the situation, Wang Kunjun asked with some disbelief: "Are you sure that these spies are all from Zhang Yongde's 'Feiyan Hall'?" Is it possible that spies from other secret organizations are pretending to be 'Feiyantang' to protect their masterminds? ”

Liang Ziyue shook his head when he heard this, and said with great certainty: "This point is completely certain. After these secret spies were caught, they were all held and interrogated separately, and it was impossible for them to confess to each other. Just in case, my brother also personally interrogated all the captured spies, and recorded the situation of five of them who should be the leaders of the other party's various spy squads, and showed them to the senior leaders of the former 'Feiyan Tang' Youzhou Branch who were serving sentences in the hard labor camp, so that they could tell if there were any accomplices they knew. As a result, they actually recognized three members of the 'Feiyan Hall' who were about the same level as themselves. Therefore, the brothers believe that the confessions of these newly arrested secret agents are true. ”

"The confession said that the 'Feiyan Hall's infiltration of the Beiping Army was personally commanded by Zhang Yan, one of their hall masters, and she personally led the team north to carry it out. Is this news reliable? If it is reliable, then has this Zhang Yan's whereabouts already been mastered by the Intelligence Department? Xu Shaoan asked while looking at the copy of the transcript in his hand.

Liang Ziyue saw the question and hurriedly replied: "The news that the head hall advocated that Yan personally presided over and commanded the operation of the 'Feiyan Hall' is still reliable. This can not only be confirmed by the confessions of the captured spies, but also the news from the 'Hidden Garden' also reveals similar information. ”

"Now that we have received such important news from the prisoner's confession and the 'Hidden Garden', Weishenme still let that Zhang Yan slip through the net, and he has not reported it until now?" Xu Shaoan asked with some dissatisfaction. "You must know that now Chai Rong is seriously ill, and the undercurrent of the Later Zhou Dynasty is turbulent. Our team had already developed a plan for dealing with it at the expanded meeting at the end of last month, and your Intelligence Department was tasked with doing everything possible to get all the useful information about potential adversaries. Now the opponent's secret spies are heading north on a large scale, and they are personally commanded by their leaders, but your internal affairs department is so aware of it, until the opponent's men and horses have already swarmed in, and even entered Liangxiang City, you have discovered the abnormality, began to arrest the suspect, and finally let the opponent's supreme leader escape. The fact that the Department of Internal Affairs did this was really disappointing to my brother. ”

When Liang Ziyue heard this, he couldn't help but feel ashamed, and quickly stood up and replied sincerely: "Brother Starling taught me a lesson. I cannot escape the blame for the development of this matter to the present situation, and my brother is willing to accept any punishment from the Committee. ”

Although he was also dissatisfied with the performance of Liang Ziyue and the Department of Internal Affairs in this matter, while dissatisfied, Wang Kunjun did not believe that Liang Ziyue, who has always been rigorous and meticulous, would really make such a big omission in such an important job, and there may be other reasons. Therefore, while waving his hand to stop Xu Shaoan, who was still going to reprimand Liang Ziyue, he asked Liang Ziyue seriously: "When did the Internal Affairs Department of the Ministry of Intelligence first discover the first clues of these secret spies from the 'Feiyan Hall'?" ”…,

Liang Ziyue thought for a moment when he heard this, and replied: "Brother received the news from the Zhuozhou branch of the 'Dark Feather' on the thirteenth day of the eleventh month of the lunar calendar, and only learned for the first time that a caravan from Kaifeng was staying in Zhuozhou. ”

"So how did the Home Affairs Department respond to this news?" Wang Kunjun then asked.

"After receiving the report, the brother immediately ordered the branches of 'Dark Yu' in Zhuozhou, Yizhou, Gu'an, Liangxiang, Yuhe, Beiping, Luxian and other places, asking them to pay attention to all the caravans from Kaifeng City in the near future, closely monitor the suspicious people among them, and report any situation to the main hall in time." Liang Ziyue replied.

"When did the Department of Internal Affairs receive the news from the 'Hidden Garden' Intelligence Center of the Department of Foreign Affairs that the 'Feiyan Hall' General Hall advocated that Yan had personally led his men north to the Beiping Army?" Wang Kunjun continued to ask.

Liang Ziyue didn't answer immediately when he heard this, but paused slightly, considered the wording, and then replied: "Fifth brother, the news sent by the Foreign Affairs Department that the 'Feiyan Hall' sent people north to Beiping City with the intention of rebuilding its branch was transmitted to the Department of Internal Affairs on the 15th day of the 11th month of the lunar calendar. However, due to the fact that the status of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the 'Feiyan Hall' is not very high, some information can only be understood in general terms, and it is not possible to grasp the very detailed jihua. Therefore, in this information of the 'Hidden Garden', it was only confirmed that the 'Feiyan Hall' would send heavyweights to lead the team to the north this time, and it was not confirmed that Zhang Yan himself went out in person. The fact that the Department of Internal Affairs really confirmed that Zhang Yan was the planner, commander, and presiding officer of the 'Feiyan Tang's northward operation's northward operation was the result of squeezing it out of the prisoners' mouths little by little as the interrogation deepened step by step in the later stage. ”

"When did the Department of Internal Affairs arrest the first batch of 'Feiyantang' spies?" Wang Kunjun asked again.

"The first arrest was on the 16th day of the 11th month of the lunar calendar." Liang Ziyue replied, "The detectives of the Operations Department carried out the operation on the official road twenty miles south of Liangxiang City, and at that time they captured one of the leaders of the other party and five of his entourage. Except for one who was killed on the spot for his stubborn resistance, the other five, including the leader, were captured alive. ”

"Since the sixteenth day of the eleventh month of the lunar calendar, several other parties have been captured, and later several teams of people have been captured. So why didn't it take until today to find out that the person in charge of the other party's northward mission was Zhang Yan, one of the masters of the 'Feiyan Hall', so that the other party had time and opportunity to escape our investigation and become a fish that slipped through the net. You must know that catching one Zhang Yan is far more effective than catching a hundred 'Feiyan Tang' secret spies. Wang Kunjun pointed out the most wrong point in the internal affairs department of the Ministry of Intelligence in dealing with the northward operation of "Feiyantang".

For it took nearly half a month to figure out the scale of the other party's operation and the leaders, Liang Ziyue himself was also very annoyed and blamed himself. He lowered his head when he heard this, and replied with a guilty face: "This matter is all to blame on my brother's negligence." Since there were spies from the three passes of 'Feiyantang' or the branches of Ding, Zhen and other places entering the territory of our Beiping Army from time to time, so after catching the first batch of 'Feiyantang' spies this time, I didn't care too much. It's just that, as before, after a brief interrogation, these 'Feiyantang' spies were scattered and directly imprisoned in different hard labor camps to do hard labor. It wasn't until later, in just ten days, that the Department of Internal Affairs arrested four batches of 'Feiyantang' spies according to the reports of the 'Dark Feather' branch in Sanguan, Zhuozhou, Liangxiang and other places, and the brother felt that something was wrong. After the fifth batch of 'Feiyantang' spies were captured in Liangxiang's 'Tianfulou' two days ago, he hurriedly transferred the first four batches of captured spies back from the various hard labor camps, personally interrogated them, and finally obtained a more detailed information about the 'Feiyantang''s northward operation'. ”…,

"I see." After listening to Liang Ziyue's speech, Wang Kunjun nodded. After that, he fell into deep thought, apparently after understanding the ins and outs of the whole matter, he confirmed that Liang Ziyue and the Internal Affairs Department of the Ministry of Intelligence had indeed made omissions and deficiencies in handling the relevant issues, and began to think about how to punish Liang Ziyue and the Internal Affairs Department.

Seeing that his fifth brother's face gradually became serious, and it seemed that he had the intention of dealing with Liang Ziyue and the Department of Internal Affairs strictly and severely for this matter, Zhang Weixin hurriedly came out to play a round and said to Wang Kunjun and Xu Shaoan in a consultative tone: "Although this time because of the negligence of the Department of Internal Affairs, we missed a good opportunity to arrest the head hall of the 'Feiyan Hall', it can be regarded as a success. However, in less than half a month, the division has investigated, arrested, or killed five batches of more than 30 secret spies of the 'Feiyantang', but it has also made a certain contribution. In my opinion, the merits and demerits of the two are offset by the merits and demerits, so the committee does not need to punish the Secretary of the Interior and the old twenty-eight in any way, right? ”

The reason why Zhang Weixin said good things for Liang Ziyue, hoping that Wang and Xu, especially Wang Kunjun, would be able to deal with Liang Ziyue and the Department of Internal Affairs lightly, firstly, because Liang Ziyue could truthfully report the relevant situation this time, not covering up, not whitewashing, and not quibbling, and very sincerely expressed his willingness to accept punishment and dare to take responsibility. Second, because the Department of Internal Affairs has a heavy responsibility, and this is a special period with very high requirements for counter-espionage and intelligence work, the excessive punishment of Liang Ziyue and the Department of Internal Affairs will inevitably affect counter-espionage work. The third is because the mistake of the Internal Affairs Department was an unintentional mistake, and neither Leung Ziyue himself nor other members of the Internal Affairs Department wanted to see this happen. Fourth, Liang Ziyue also has Zhang Xiaofei, the director of the entire intelligence department, if he is really punished for this matter, I am afraid that Zhang Xiaofei will also be implicated and criticized. In that case, it may also affect Wang Kunjun's prestige and image in the team, which Zhang Weixin does not want to see anyway.

Therefore, Zhang Weixin, who usually stands on the same "front" as Wang Kunjun, also went against the norm this time, pleading for Liang Ziyue and the Internal Affairs Department of the Ministry of Intelligence before Wang Kunjun spoke.

For the suggestions of old classmates, old friends, iron buddies, and the most powerful assistant, Wang Kunjun thought for a long time, and finally nodded lightly, then turned his head to look at Xu Shao'an, and asked the other party's opinion with his eyes.

Although the final handling method still needs to seek the opinion of the eldest brother Li Junwu, considering that the eldest brother has always been strict with the brothers who are at the top and the older brothers, but he is very lenient with the brothers who are at the bottom and the youngest, the possibility of asking him to agree to severely punish Liang Ziyue is basically zero. Even if he raised a different opinion, it was a one-to-three result, not to mention that Xu Shaoan did not think that now was the right time to punish Liang Ziyue and the Department of Internal Affairs.

So in the face of Wang Kunjun's inquiring eyes, Xu Shaoan did not hesitate at all, and hurriedly said: "Brother, I think what Brother Qi said is reasonable. As the saying goes, 'if a person is not a sage, who can do nothing'. Although Lao Twenty-Eight made some mistakes in this matter, it seems that it does not affect the overall situation now. Moreover, although the 'Feiyan Hall' was captured and killed by us this time, more than 30 people were lost at once. But no one dared to guarantee that Zhang Yan would flee back to Kaifeng in panic like a fish that slipped through the net and a lost dog. After all, it is a big deal for Zhang Yongde to investigate the situation of our Beiping army, and he will never give up on them because he has lost a few manpower, and he will send the secret spy north again to Jihua. It is likely to make a comeback and stretch out his stinky hand to our Beiping Army again. If Lao 28 and the Department of Internal Affairs were punished at this time, it would inevitably affect their counter-espionage work, but instead gave Zhang Yongde and Zhang Yan a chance. Therefore, brother, I agree with Brother Qi's statement that it is most appropriate not to reward or punish Lao Twenty-eight and the Department of Internal Affairs of the Ministry of Intelligence this time. ”…,

Seeing that Zhang Weixin and Xu Shaoan both advocated not punishing him, Wang Kunjun did not hesitate any longer, turned his head and said to Liang Ziyue in a deep voice: "The fact that the committee did not deal with you and the Internal Affairs Department of the Ministry of Intelligence does not mean that you were not negligent in this operation to block the northward movement of the 'Feiyan Tang', but that you have done something and made meritorious contributions in intercepting the 'Feiyan Tang' secret spies, and you will be punished." I hope that you and your men can use this incident as a lesson to ensure that similar mistakes do not occur in the future. ”

"The lesson of the fifth brother is that the brother must take this as a warning and will never make the same mistake again in the future." When Liang Ziyue heard this, he immediately expressed his sincere attitude.

Wang Kunjun nodded when he heard this, and continued: "In addition, as your starling brother just said. This trip to the north is of great significance to the 'Feiyan Hall', and it is inevitable that even if Zhang Yan loses a large number of manpower, he may not give up the mission and return south. It's likely that she's hiding somewhere unnoticed, waiting for an opportunity to move again. Therefore, the Department of Internal Affairs of the Ministry of Intelligence must not relax its vigilance just because it has captured 20 or 30 people from the other side, thinking that the other side will not dare to make trouble within the Beiping Army. Until Zhang Yan is caught or there is definite information that Zhang Yongde has given up on going north to Jihua, you must always be on the highest alert, and must provide reliable intelligence and security for the smooth implementation of the 'Jianye No. 1 operation'. ”

"Fifth brother rest assured, before the brother came to report to the elder brothers, he had already ordered 'Dark Feather' to enter a state of first-level alert from now on, on the one hand, to search for Zhang Yan who may still be stranded in the jurisdiction of the Beiping Army, and on the other hand, to closely monitor all outsiders, so that they do not have any chance to spy and infiltrate our Beiping Army."