Chapter 1156 Lurker (First update, please subscribe)

London is always shrouded in thick fog in winter. The fog in London is not just fog, but also coal smoke from heating. There is always a pungent smell in the air.

On the snow on the roadside, you can clearly see the smoke and dust falling from the fog, which falls on the snow and dyes the snow black. Although there is less horse manure on the dirty road surface because cars are gradually replacing horse carriages, the road is still dirty.

This is the London that people are familiar with.

At 5 o'clock in the evening, the fog that had just dissipated in the afternoon rose again. Fog and haze mixed in the air, but this did not hinder people's travel. After all, the capital world does not support idle people.

Although it was not yet time to get off work, James Bond had already left the office. Unlike ordinary people who were busy making a living, as a senior civil servant in the Prime Minister's Office Downing Street, he certainly did not need to work fourteen or fifteen hours a day like ordinary people.

After leaving Downing Street, James Bond, wearing a top hat, walked at the leisurely pace of a London gentleman, like all other gentlemen. Occasionally, when he met a lady, he would take off his hat to greet her. Then he walked to the nearby public tram stop. At this time, a public tram coming from a distance appeared on the street.

Public trams - this is another gift from the Ming Empire to the world.

Generators, electric lights, electric motors and trams, inventions from the Ming Empire, brought the world into the electric age. While electric lights increased working hours in British factories to more than 14 hours, public trams facilitated people's travel, saving workers' travel time and allowing them to have more time for... work.

After getting on the tram as usual, James looked towards the back of the car. There were not many passengers in the car. A girl in a red plaid coat was sitting in the corner with her head down. After buying a ticket from the conductor, James slowly walked towards the girl. When he came to her side, James smiled very gentlemanly and said:

"Excuse me, miss, can I sit next to you?"

Man!

No matter what time, men are the same, beauty can always attract her attention.

Seeing the man sitting next to the girl, the conductor couldn’t help but wonder: What will this man gain?

The time now seems just right, it's time to go for dinner, maybe something will happen between them.

The tram was dinging and dinging. James withdrew his gaze from the window, looked at the newspaper in the girl's hand and said in a low voice:

"Today, there seems to be no news worth watching."

The girl looked at him with her blue eyes and ignored his advances.

What a boring evening!

James added,

"But the reading salon at Henry's Bookstore is worth a visit. What do you think?"

The girl replied a little shyly:

"Are you going there too?"

“Yes, I like that book very much…”

James chatted with his daughter about literature in a graceful manner. Everything happened naturally. Soon, when the tram arrived at the bookstore, they got off the tram together. When the conductor watched them leave, he said with some jealousy:

"Another pure girl was deceived by a man's sweet words..."

In fact, James chatted up the girl just to find an excuse to come to the bookstore.

Almost an hour later, a letter was mixed in with the letters that were about to be sent out from the bookstore and was taken away by the postman. When James saw the postman taking the letter, a gleam flashed in his eyes.

…

The identities of the Imperial Investigation Department's foreign intelligence personnel are different. In addition to those who hold diplomatic passports and use the identity of diplomats as a cover, there is also a group of people who hold ordinary passports and use the identity of business personnel or international students as a cover. Of course, the most mysterious are the infiltrators, that is, the "submarines."

"Submarines" lurk in other countries for a long time, and their communication with their superiors is often through direct means such as letters. This kind of isolated communication can protect each other's safety to the greatest extent.

Xiang Feng, who runs a grocery store in London's Chinatown, is a businessman on the surface, but in fact he is the contact person of the "Submarine".

What is his job as an intelligence agent?

In fact, there is no difference between him and an ordinary businessman. The only difference is that he reads a lot of newspapers every day.

Newspapers have always been the most important channel for gathering intelligence. As early as the Crimean War, the British media reported the war in detail. In order to attract readers, newspapers sent war correspondents to the battlefield. The British "Times" gave readers a detailed introduction to the composition, command structure, combat effectiveness of the British army, that is, the British combat order and even military operations.

So much so that Russian officials could learn all kinds of intelligence about the British army directly from newspapers. The Russian Tsar even claimed that he no longer needed spies because he only needed to read The Times, which was no joke. The British press at this time had no sense of confidentiality at all, even the official ones. Take the design of warships, for example. In order to win support from the outside world, designers would publish design information in newspapers to explain the superiority of their designs. Even the newly developed 4.2-inch rapid-fire guns would be advertised in newspapers to show how superior their performance was.

Sense of confidentiality...almost zero.

Of course, this also facilitated the empire's intelligence gathering. As usual, after reading newspapers in the store all day, Xiang Feng handed the store over to the clerk at around five o'clock in the afternoon and rode his bicycle home as usual. When he returned to the apartment, he deliberately looked at the mailbox, and at the same time quietly opened another message on the side, which was the mailbox of "Henrys Trading Company".

This is a shell company opened by the Investigation Department twenty years ago. The company is located on the third floor of the apartment. In the past twenty years, it has declared taxes normally and operated normally. As long as there is a need, this shell company can be revived at any time.

And what is Xiang Feng’s mission?

It means taking out the received letters and sending them to the embassy. As overseas Chinese, it is normal for them to communicate with the embassy.

"A letter from Ferris Company!"

Seeing the signature on the envelope, Xiang Feng raised his brows slightly. He immediately left the apartment and rode his bike back to Chinatown. A few minutes later, the letter and some groceries were delivered to the embassy.

Everything was the same as usual, calm and without attracting any attention. Only a few hours later, a telegram was sent from the embassy...

(End of this chapter)