Hearing Ning Zhiheng's question, Old Hu coughed lightly and couldn't help but smile bitterly, "Captain, I understand what you mean. You want to find these Japanese plainclothes officers among the migrant population, but the Huangpu River area is the most densely populated area in Pudong. Especially after the war started, countless people fled from Shanghai to the countryside, and most of them are concentrated here. Now, every house is crowded with refugees from Shanghai. Even we locals have a hard time figuring out how many there are. I estimate there are tens of thousands of refugees alone, not counting those who have settled in small villages. The household registration system here has never been managed, it's a mess! Finding these people is easier said than done!"

Ning Zhiheng felt a headache coming on when he heard Lao Hu’s words. He hadn’t expected the population composition of Pudong to be so chaotic. It was really difficult to find those Japanese plainclothes officers in this densely populated town.

In particular, the Japanese plainclothes police are not stupid. If they want to hide among them, they will not stay in one place. The best way is to break up into several small groups and blend into the civilian population. How can they investigate so many foreigners?

This isn't Nanjing, which has a complete and strict population registration system. Even so, managing the migrant population in Nanjing has always been difficult. It really seems like a tough problem.

However, Ning Zhiheng was not discouraged at all. This difficulty was nothing to him. His thoughts were racing, and he kept thinking.

After a long pause, he spoke again, analyzing, "Let's leave those villages aside for now. After all, they're far from our garrison and there are many of them. We don't have the capacity to investigate them."

However, these nearby towns are close to the garrison, so if the Japanese wanted to conduct reconnaissance, they would probably hide in this area.

Furthermore, although there were many refugees, since they were fleeing, they must have brought their families with them. Among them, there must have been men and women, or old and young. However, the Japanese plainclothes police were composed entirely of young and middle-aged men. Such people would definitely leave some traces.

"Old Hu, think about it. In these nearby towns and villages, are there any groups or communities consisting almost entirely of young and middle-aged adults, ranging from about twenty to thirty, or thirty to fifty people? Such groups might be the targets we're looking for!"

Ning Zhiheng's analysis immediately made Lao Hu realize something. He slapped his thigh and said, "You're so clever, Captain! There really is a way to do this. Let me think about it!"

At this point, he rested his chin on his hand, lowered his head, and carefully considered, trying to find someone in his memory who met the conditions proposed by Ning Zhiheng. After a long while, he finally answered, "Captain, as you said, there are quite a few such people. The most common ones are students or workers who come to the front lines specifically to offer their condolences and support."

Ning Zhiheng quickly pressed for more information, and Lao Hu explained the situation to him in detail. It turned out that in the early stages of the war, under the vigorous propaganda and call of the government, the anti-Japanese sentiment of the people across the country was high. People across the country raised funds, and many citizens took out all their savings. The money and materials raised were brought to the front line by their respective organized comfort and support groups.

These groups not only came to the front lines to deliver money and supplies, but also carried out propaganda in Shanghai, making a huge contribution to the war effort. In Shanghai alone, there were at least two hundred such support groups. Because of the long journey, most of them were composed of enthusiastic young adults and students. There were also many such groups in the Pudong battlefield. They often carried out anti-Japanese propaganda, raised funds and materials, and purchased food and medicine to support the soldiers on the front lines. These people were very popular with the people.

Ning Zhiheng asked, "If what you're saying is true, then it's actually quite possible. Do you know how many people usually belong to such patriotic groups?"

"There's no fixed number. It can be dozens or as few as a dozen. Most of them are in the townships, and some will be resettled in the villages, but they are generally young and strong men," Old Hu replied earnestly.

Ning Zhiheng nodded. According to Lao Hu's description of the current situation, there was a high possibility that some members of the plainclothes team were hiding among these anti-Japanese patriotic groups. This was one direction for investigation. Since he had no other clues at the moment, he would start from this direction.

As for how to conduct reconnaissance? Old Hu's Green Gang disciples could be used, but those Japanese agents would definitely be very vigilant, and it would be bad if they were alerted.

How could he gather information in the most natural way without arousing the other side's suspicion? Ning Zhiheng's gaze couldn't help but drift to the student soldiers who were busily loading and unloading supplies not far away.

These student soldiers who have just joined the special operations team are all passionate young students from various places. They have only been out of school for a short time, and many of them still have a childish look. You can tell at a glance that they are students.

Such a natural performance would leave no trace for anyone, making it easy to search various towns and villages and potentially uncover the plainclothes team members.

As for Sun Jiacheng and his men, their military bearing was too strong, and they were likely to alert the plainclothes agents during reconnaissance. They could only wait for Ning Zhiheng's orders to act at any time.

The more he thought about it, the more sense it made. He immediately ordered all the student soldiers to assemble. Afterward, Ning Zhiheng personally selected more than twenty student soldiers who looked clever and eloquent, and had them all change into student uniforms. They looked completely flawless.

Ning Zhiheng called them aside and personally assigned them tasks.

"Our special operations team's primary task at present is to eliminate the Japanese plainclothes agents lurking behind our lines, but they are hiding among the civilians, making it very difficult for us to find them."

We suspect they might be hiding within patriotic groups. Your task is to disguise yourselves as patriotic students who failed to enlist in the army, working in pairs, and going to various towns and even rural areas every day to find patriotic support groups. Try to contact them, observe them, and even join them. Try to gather as much information as possible, such as the group's origins and composition, pay attention to their accents, and the time they arrived in Pudong, etc. Then compile all this information for me. We will use your intelligence to determine our targets. Understand?

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