"Is there a result?"

Yu Xingfeng, the chief inspector of Daxing Station, and He Yongguang, the head of the Daxing Beicheng Intelligence Department, walked into the room with tired faces, and the night of intense interrogation and torture made their eyes red, and there was also a strong smell of blood on their bodies. Wang Bingsen, the new chief of the polling office, who was sitting behind the bookcase, put down the file in his hand, raised his head to look at the two of them, and asked in a flat tone.

"It's all explained." Yu Xingfeng nodded and said, "That fire was made by Jews who came from the Arab region last year. They wanted to buy the riverside neighborhood in Wangjiang Lane and prepare to establish a so-called Jewish community. However, the local residents offered too high a price, and they did not want to spend so much money. Therefore, I set a fire and planned to buy it all at a low price afterwards. ”

"It's not bad, in less than two days, this case has been investigated clearly. …… Oh, this shows that if our polling office is serious about doing things, it can still be of great use. Wang Bingsen said playfully.

When Yu Xingfeng and He Yongguang heard this, they couldn't help but look at each other, not knowing whether the new chief was praising them or mocking them, they both stood aside and didn't dare to say more.

"What are you going to do next?" Wang Bingsen asked.

"I have ordered the brothers of the Operations Division to work with the Beicheng Police Department to arrest all the people who have been sealed and controlled by the Jewish merchant houses and community residents, and prepare to continue to dig into the corresponding people involved." Yu Xingfeng immediately reported: "In addition, the criminal confessed that Sassoon, a wealthy Jewish businessman, was the mastermind of this major case, and he had taken a train to the north to build a business two days ago. We believe that the thief probably noticed that the matter was revealed and fled in a hurry. Therefore, the lowly official has also ordered people to go to the telegraph office and send a notice to several polling stations in the north to assist in the investigation, and it is imperative that the thief be arrested and brought to justice. ”

Wang Bingsen listened, noncommittal, leaned back slightly, leaned back on the back of the chair, and turned his head to look at the map of Hanzhou hanging on the side of the wall.

Yu Xingfeng and He Yongguang also followed his gaze, their eyes aimed at the map, and their hearts were worried.

"It's been two days, if people want to run, will this be already in Jianye." Wang Bingsen sighed, "If there is no delay, maybe they have already boarded a merchant ship heading overseas." ”

“…… He immediately telegraphed to the navy, requesting them to send fast cruisers to pursue and intercept them. In addition, they were asked to send high-speed liaison ships to inform Xuanhua (present-day Timor Island), Quang Ninh, Temasek, and even the coastal ports of Ceylon and India to intercept and inspect them, and make sure that they were captured. Yu Xingfeng immediately understood and quickly gave a response.

"Go ahead and do it." Wang Bingsen ordered: "Remind you, if this matter is messed up, Your Majesty will blame it, and none of us will be able to get rid of it." ”

"Humble duty understands." Yu Xingfeng said in a deep voice: "Later, I personally led people to Jianye and vowed to arrest the thief back to Daxing. ”

This former lord of the emperor's chamberlain is not a good stubble. A few days ago, as soon as he took office as the head of the Public Opinion Investigation Department, more than 30 officials and subordinates of the Chang'an headquarters were immediately dismissed, and more than 10 of them were sent to the Supervision Yuan on charges of corruption and dereliction of duty.

After taking care of the affairs of the headquarters, Wang Bingsen and several officials of the Operations Department immediately rushed to Daxing, and ordered all the spies at Daxing Station to go all out to investigate the Wangjiang Lane fire tragedy, and only gave them three days.

Although the management of the polling office has been lax in recent years, and some oolong incidents have been repeatedly made, the "technical work" in hand is still there. All resources were immediately mobilized, and while sending technicians to explore the fire scene, open the coffin for autopsy, and visit and inventory the residents of the entire Mingli Street area, including Wangjiang Lane, in order to find clues about the fire.

In just one day, an important piece of information was obtained from nearly 1,000 households. A group of Jewish businessmen who had only arrived in Daxing from the Arab region last year wanted to buy the old riverside houses in Wangjiang Lane to build a huge synagogue, but were blocked by the high price offered by local residents.

In addition, in the days leading up to the fire, several people with razed faces were seen frequently wandering around Wangjiang Lane.

As long as you have a little brain, you will involuntarily link these two clues, and then you can piece together the cause of this fire.

Set fire to the old residential area of Wangjiang Lane, and then buy it at a low price to occupy this good area.

Subsequently, the investigators of the polling office at the exploration site also gave the reason for the fire, which was indeed arson!

Although there is no real evidence that the fire was caused by the new Jews, the investigators of the polling office ignored this and directly identified the local residents and arrested several Jews who had been surveying the terrain a few days earlier. Then, after a night of torture, the men were finally silenced.

Just when the spies at the Daxing Station of the Public Opinion Investigation Office were busy with the arrest and imprisonment of all the Jews in the Jewish community, and when Yu Xingfeng, the chief inspector of the Daxing Station, personally led more than a dozen capable personnel to rush to Jianye by train, the spies of the Military Police Intelligence Department stationed in the Daxing Substation also began to be busy, preparing to compete with the Public Opinion Investigation Office for this credit.

However, unlike the Public Opinion Poll Office, which pursued the Northern Construction Institute, the Gendarmerie Intelligence Department went in the opposite direction and headed south by train.

"Sir, if those Yi people don't run to the south, then won't we just chase after them in vain?" Captain Zuo Tingtai, head of the Operations Department of the Daxing Station of the Military Police Intelligence Department, had a worried look on his face.

"Do you think that those Yi people will definitely flee from Hanzhou from the north if they claim to be rushing to Jianye before leaving Daxing?" Gong Qibin, deputy head of the Daxing sub-station of the Military Police Intelligence Department in Daxing and captain (major) of Xuanjie, glanced at the three subordinates sitting opposite, with a hesitant look on his face, shook his head and said: You must know that from Jianye Port to sea, you have to pass through Xuanhua, Kaihua, Guangning, the Strait of Malacca, as well as Ceylon and India, even if you go to Persia and Arabia, they are all within the control of our Qi forces. Unless they are lucky, they may be able to make it back to Baghdad. Otherwise, if you are not careful, you will be intercepted by our navy's patrol warships, or when you stop at a certain port, you will be captured by the local garrison who has been trusted. ”

"But, sir, this sea is vast, and there are so many ships sailing on the sea, even if we cast a net and even control all the ports and supply points along the way, there is no guarantee that we will be able to capture them."

"Even if he could escape back to Baghdad, he thought everything would be fine? Hmph, with the relationship between our Qi State and the Ottomans, it is not a piece of paper that can make the Ottoman governor in Baghdad tie up this thief and take the initiative to hand it over to us. ”

"What do you mean, sir, that Sassoon is afraid that he will not flee back to Baghdad?"

"In the entire Indian Ocean region, our Qi country wants to catch a thief who plots to kill a close relative of the royal family, just ask, which country and force dares to take him in and hide it?"

"So, this guy is going to Europe!" Zuo Tingtai's eyes lit up, "If this is the case, he will inevitably take the train all the way to the southwest, and then take an ocean-going merchant ship to the sea, pass through Qianzhou (now South Africa), cross the Cape of Good Hope, and flee directly to Europe." ”

"That's right!" Gong Qibin nodded and said, "However, this guy ran away two days earlier than us, and there is no telegraph line connecting Daxing to the southwest region, so he can't notify his colleagues there in advance to intercept it." Now, we only hope that this thief will be delayed a little bit due to various unexpected circumstances, so that we can have a chance to catch up with him. ”

——

August 5, Guizhou City, Queensland Province (now Perth, Australia).

"Damn the people of the Qi Kingdom!"

Glancing back at the bank sign again, Victor Sassoon cursed viciously with hatred, and hurried into a rented carriage with his entourage.

"Mr. Sassoon......" Redona Bevan asked in a low voice, "do we need to wait here for two days?" ”

"We've been here for more than a day and can't stay any longer." Victor Sassoon shook his head and looked gloomily at the street scene outside the window, "We don't know if those people will chase after them from behind." No, we cannot put our lives at risk in this uncertain danger. We still have to find a way to leave Hanzhou as soon as possible. ”

"However, the paper money we have on hand will not be able to exchange enough gold and silver coins in a short period of time!" Redona Bewen said with a bitter face: "If we go to Europe with a large handful of Qi banknotes, there may be no country that will recognize this currency. In this way, we are equivalent to carrying a pile of waste paper! ”

Yes, Sassoon and his party had a very embarrassing problem. That is, when they first arrived in Hanzhou, in accordance with the currency management laws of the Qi State, they had already exchanged the various gold and silver coins they had in their hands into the only legal transaction currency, the gold yuan coupon.

Originally, they thought that they would settle in the Qi country for a long time and start to make large-scale investments, so it was not much of a problem for them to have a large amount of paper money equivalent to the price of gold in their hands. In terms of purchasing power, they even have more monetary wealth than they did in Baghdad. Because Qi is the world's largest industrial producer today, the basic price index of all kinds of manufactured goods and daily consumer goods can be much lower than that of other countries and regions. The only element that is more expensive may be labor.

When Sassoon came to Hanzhou, he brought with him more than 300,000 yuan in gold and silver currency, and in the following year or so, he spent more than 200,000 yuan on buying land and houses, investing in the establishment of banks, leasing buildings, and offering money and property to some powerful people of the Qi state, with less than 80,000 yuan left, which was used as reserve funds.

As a result, because of an "accidental" fire, they had to flee Daxing in a panic, and they only carried less than 10,000 yuan in gold yuan coupons.

Annoyingly, when I wanted to exchange the corresponding gold and silver currency at the bank, I was told that I needed to make an appointment in advance and could only exchange it two days later.

This made Sassoon shocked and angry, didn't you Qi people claim that the currency is freely convertible without any restrictions?

Didn't you say that every bank is obliged to exchange the full amount of gold and silver currency for customers who hold gold yuan certificates?

However, the service staff of those banks very politely told him that, according to the uniform regulations of the Central Bank of the Reich, all large amounts of money in excess of 1,000 yuan were subject to an appointment, and that the daily limit was only 2,000 yuan, with no exception.

That's right, there are no obstacles to any currency exchange in our country, but we must always give us a little time to allocate the corresponding gold and silver currency!

Faced with this situation, Sassoon felt both helpless and full of endless anxiety.

In a country like Qi where even grassroots towns and villages are tightly controlled, there is no way for these outsiders who have committed crimes to hide. The delay is too long, and when Daxing sends the documents that want them, then the temporary residence certificate in his hand may become a valid proof that the military and police have arrested them.

But if you can't exchange enough gold and silver, even if you can escape to Europe, empty-handed, how can you survive and make a comeback?

"Mr. Sassoon......" Redona Bevan said again.

"Do you have any good ideas?"

"Mr. Sassoon, we may try to find those underground forces to exchange the paper money in our hands." Redona Bevan whispered, "However, we may lose a lot because of this. Of course, there are certain risks associated with this behavior. ”

Sassoon was silent when he heard this.

Of course, he knew that there would definitely be a certain risk in looking for underground forces to exchange the banknotes in their hands. Those outsiders who have no background may be pitted by those dark forces who do not pay attention to faith and righteousness. Of course, there is another possibility, that is, those dark forces will more or less collude with the military and police of Qi State, and will inform them of his exchange of large sums of gold and silver, which will then attract suspicious eyes.

"I have an idea." Victor Sassoon muttered for a long time, then whispered, "We may be able to try our luck at the docks." In addition to looking for a merchant ship to Europe, we can also contact foreign merchants who are ready to purchase and trade in the city, and exchange our banknotes with them at a certain discount for the corresponding gold and silver currency. I think that as long as you are a businessman, you will definitely want to take advantage of this. …… What do you think? ”

"That's a very good idea!" Jarvis Sassoon nodded and said, "If we're lucky enough, we might be able to convert all the banknotes in our hands into gold and silver today." …… Then let's head to the docks now. ”

Victor Sassoon finally had a smile on his face.

Jehovah willing, I hope that we will all leave this wicked and tyrannical Han continent in peace!

Just when the carriage in which Sassoon and his party were riding suddenly changed direction and headed straight for the dock. A carriage that followed behind also changed its course, following their direction and quietly following away.

(End of chapter)