Soon after the refreshments were served, the brigade commander, Major General, put on a relatively serious expression and asked about the details of the firefight in the shantytown north of the square in front of the station.

Before coming to see Akira Hagiwara, Masao Kojima had already deduced a part of the situation based on the on-site investigation. In his view, the initial gunfire in the shantytown should have little to do with anti-Japanese activities, for two reasons.

First, the three male corpses found in the shantytown were all from China after preliminary investigation, and none of them were members of pro-Japanese associations such as the Preservation Association in Wencheng.

Second, the gunshot wounds and knife wounds of the three male corpses were not caused by the actions of the imperial officers and soldiers or members of the plainclothes squad and the detective team. The captain of a plainclothes detachment under Kojima once judged that a pocket of silver dollars was seized at the scene, and that it might be a robbery between the Chinese people.

At this moment, after Kojima gave the above answer to Major General Hagiwara, he further analyzed that in view of the Shina suspect with Mauser* captured at the scene, the characteristics of military personnel are obvious; This, combined with the fact that a small patrol of one of the separate infantry brigades guarding the railway station had engaged in an exchange of fire with unknown persons in the shantytown, could be relied upon to determine the nature of the latter's anti-Japanese elements.

"So, General, my analysis is that the anti-Japanese organization active in the underground of Wencheng is plotting against each other in that shantytown tonight, but for some reason there is infighting, and its organization is killing each other; When the plainclothes team of the secret service and the Imperial Army patrol arrived at the news, the anti-Japanese elements exchanged fire with me in order to get out. The search for the shantytown is still ongoing, but no other clues have been found. Kojima sipped the hot tea and talked eloquently.

"Your analysis seems plausible—the chief of staff of the riverside reported to me immediately after the incident, and he also said that the military and political positions around the train station had not been disturbed;" Hagiwara Akira picked up a piece of fluffy pastry, put it to his mouth but didn't eat it, but continued: "So is it really these anti-Japanese people who have infighting because of money? You said that there were 100 silver dollars in your pocket, which is not a small fortune, and it seems that these hateful anti-Japanese organizations have abundant funds for their activities! Could it be the Blue Coat Society? They have Chiang Kai-shek's Military Commission behind them, and there is no shortage of funds. ”

"Please rest assured, the living mouth we caught is basically lifeless at the Koga Clinic; As long as he doesn't die, whether he is in the Blue Coat Society or not, I have a way to get him to confess. ”

"Then we have to do a good job of vigilance, the Koga clinic is opened by our countrymen? Is it really reliable? ”

The head of the secret service immediately swore that he had placed six members of the plainclothes team in the clinic and divided them into two groups to wait day and night; At the same time, personnel from the Kawasaki Squadron of the Divisional Cavalry Wing, which was on patrol duty nearby, were mobilized to assist in strengthening the security around the clinic. As for Koga Koichi, the chief doctor of the clinic, he is a doctor from Nagoya, the empire, who is loyal to the emperor and has a good relationship with the Bunjo military, and is trustworthy.

While listening, the brigade commander and Major General, who had eaten a few bites of the cake, nodded frequently, not knowing whether to approve of the careful deployment of the commander of the island organ or to be satisfied with the taste of the cake in his hand.

But then, his words suddenly changed: "The attack near the Songjiagou secret camp, and the incident of the loss of the captured Shina woman by the Pingjing Advance Team, are there any future troubles at present?" Can you guarantee that these two accidents did not threaten the secrecy of the Wind Project? ”

The question apparently embarrassed Masao Kojima again, and he could only flicker, saying that at least for now, there were no signs of it. However, the head of the secret service did not dare to say everything, in case these two accidents really led to the leakage of the "Wind Plan" in the future, and he would be forced to bear the main responsibility.

Of course, the commander of the Japanese brigade also had a thorough guess about Kojima Masao's subtle psychology, so he stopped asking questions -- fortunately, the army secret services in Peiping and Tianjin had already officially agreed that they would send a small group of experienced helpers to Wencheng in the near future, and that would certainly increase the efficiency of the operations and handling of cases by the head of the Kojima department.

The second intelligence group of the Shanxi Station of the Military Command spent an extremely torturous sleepless night in the No. 1 courtyard of Yangliu Lane in the north of Wencheng City.

If there is a suitable transfer location, Li Yan, an agent of the military command, will definitely not risk choosing to continue to stay in this mansion - Peng Sanxi, a soldier of the 391st Regiment Special Service Company who has the inside story of this house, has already been confirmed to have been undoubtedly captured by the Japanese puppet agents, and in this case, for security reasons, the second intelligence group must transfer all people and property overnight.

The main reason why Lieutenant Li was so hesitant and indecisive to stay at the "death ground" was because he put the bet on Peng Sanxi's unyielding face. In addition, it must be admitted that the No. 2 Intelligence Group did not have a second safe and suitable foothold in Wencheng City, and in the middle of the night, it was carrying military radios, weapons, goods, and other materials on the streets, and the danger was equally great.

Of course, this bet is on the life and death of the entire second intelligence group, if the Japanese puppet spies pry open Peng Sanxi's mouth, then the round-up of No. 1 Courtyard of Yangliu Lane will be sudden and rapid, and the probability of success in nesting in the house and then trying to break through is almost zero.

This is probably the most mixed sunrise Li Yan has ever seen. In the words of a storyteller, it is: a night without words.

After dawn, the male lieutenant of the military commander sent another soldier of the special service company to hurry to the back alley of the city hall street, which was diagonally opposite the Japanese army's Wencheng secret service and the so-called Shina detective team. Passing by in front of its gates, you may be able to observe some clues - since the opponent did not come to the door, the only way to find out is to take the initiative to find out what is going on.

However, it was still a futile operation. Located in the backyard of the city hall building, the iron gate of the courtyard is closed, and there are Japanese soldiers standing guard at the door as usual, and the small red building in the courtyard is extremely quiet and silent in the morning breeze. As for the headquarters of the Shina Detective Team, which is dozens of meters away, through the iron fence facing the street, its courtyard and the six bungalows lined up can be seen at a glance; But perhaps because it was still early, there was no one standing guard at the gate of the detective team, and there were few people walking around the courtyard.

What kind of fame? Li Yan, who received the return, was still bottomless. He would rather believe that it was Peng Sanxi, a soldier of the secret service company, than betray his compatriots; If this is not the case, then the Japanese puppet spies are too calm!

insisted on staying up until ten o'clock in the morning, Li Yan went out and asked for a rickshaw, and personally swept through the back alley of the city hall, and it was indeed a peaceful scene. It seems that, at least for now, there is not much danger in the No. 1 courtyard of Yangliu Lane.

He was temporarily unharmed, and the military commander agent who returned to his lair thought of Cheng Ruixiang's shopkeeper Xiao who came out of the mouth of the dying strong man in the shantytown - it was necessary to go there to see, if that Xiao shopkeeper was really an anti-Japanese element, maybe Cheng Ruixiang Silk Village had been wiped out at this moment.

This time, Li Yan took the squad leader Shen of the spy company, and the two stepped into Dongguan Street from the north of the city, looking at the newly opened store from a distance across the street where there was already a flow of people.

Cheng Ruixiang, who has a black lacquer plaque on the door, is obviously not unusual at this moment. The door was open, and although there were no customers coming or going, it was no sign of trouble.

"Could it be that the secret agents have exhausted their nests, deliberately making illusions to confuse outsiders, waiting for more colleagues to be caught?" Li Yan, who had received short-term vocational training in the military command, immediately thought of this.

"Lieutenant Li, you are staring here, I will pretend to be a guest buying cloth, and go into the store to have a look. If you find something wrong, you should quickly withdraw first. Squad Leader Shen spoke decisively. Until this moment, he still deeply blamed himself for failing to rescue his comrades at night, so he always had a posture of being out of the way.

The military commander agent felt that there was no other choice, so he nodded in agreement, and watched the other party cross the street and disappear into the door of Cheng Ruixiang's silk village.

To Li Yan's surprise, when squad leader Shen walked out of the store a few minutes later, his expression was quite strange, neither nervous nor relaxed. When approaching Li Yan, squad leader Shen did not speak, but lost a look of moving forward, and walked straight in the direction he came.

The military commander agent who understood it pretended to be casual and leaned under a tree for a while, before slowly raising his legs and following Squad Leader Shen from a distance.

In the end, the two met again in an alley on the side of Dongguan Street, and the spy even Shen squad leader came with a sentence: That shopkeeper Xiao is a member of the Eighth Route Army!

Li Yan was stunned for a moment and asked the other party what he said. Squad leader Shen immediately lowered his voice with excitement and quickly spoke.

It turned out that on the night of the last joint night attack on Tongpu Road by the 391st Regiment of the Central Army and the Xu Brigade Detachment of the Eighth Route Army, there was an exchange of fire in the area in front of the railway station in Wencheng City: Zhao Mutou, the commander of the special service company, and the soldier Xiao Zhong were exposed and chased and killed by the Japanese puppet army. At that time, squad leader Shen and Peng Sanxi rushed from the shantytown near the square in front of the station to support their company commander and participated in the battle side by side.

"I remember very clearly that the person led by the plainclothes spies of the Eighth Route Army claimed to be surnamed Xiao, and our company commander chatted with him a few times - I didn't expect that the shopkeeper Xiao Er I saw in the silk village just now was the same person!"

"Surely you read that right? In this way, the man who was shot by the man you and Sanxi met last night said that Cheng Ruixiangxiao's shopkeeper was an anti-Japanese element, and what he said was true? ”

Li Yan asked, and his mind began to fly at the same time - although he was not at the scene of the firefight, he heard Zhao Mutou talk in detail afterwards, and both Mu Tou and the female major of the military commander analyzed that this group of plainclothes spies of the Eighth Route Army had temporarily infiltrated Wencheng, but they did not expect that the other party would be like the second intelligence group of the Shanxi Station of the military command, and gave birth to roots in Wencheng City under the pretense of opening a silk village.

"I'm going to meet this shopkeeper Xiao for a while, maybe I can hand over an ally here." Li Yan was a little excited.

But the spy even Shen squad leader immediately objected: "No, I suspect that Shopkeeper Xiao and his Cheng Ruixiang shop have leaked the news, otherwise, how could the guy who fell in the shantytown last night be so sure that Shopkeeper Xiao is an anti-Japanese element?" Now that he already knows, can you guarantee that no one of the Japanese puppet spies knows? Lieutenant Lee, you must not take any chances! ”

The military commander agent pondered for a moment, and then carefully inquired about the scene that squad leader Shen had just witnessed in Cheng Ruixiang's shop—that shopkeeper Xiao was still serving customers in the store, indicating that he was at least in a safe situation for now.

"I have to go in and take a look, you take care of it on the side of the road opposite Cheng Ruixiang, if something happens to me, our brothers will fight with the dog!"