Outside the Huijiang Hotel, a large crowd of citizens still gathered to watch the spectacle. Police officers carried the bodies out of the hotel one by one and threw them onto a truck nearby.
It was only then that the citizens realized that a shooting had occurred inside the restaurant where the explosion had taken place. However, as the bodies were carried out one by one, the crowd gradually became agitated, with exclamations, astonishments, and discussions filling the air. In the end, because there were too many bodies, another truck had to be brought in to transport all the bodies away.
The news that Luo Zidong and his group of more than forty people had been killed at the Huijiang Grand Hotel quickly spread to all levels and circles of the French Concession.
Among the onlookers, two young men in suits remained silent. They quietly observed the police officers cleaning up the mess and listened carefully to the discussions around them. After a long while, they exchanged a glance, quietly withdrew from the crowd, and walked together across two blocks into an apartment building.
The two men were Lu Jian, the head of the intelligence department, and Yang Wenbo, the action team leader, who had previously infiltrated the Shanghai International Settlement. They had been hiding in the French Concession and working hard to prepare for the reconstruction of the Shanghai International Settlement. However, they encountered this assassination attempt while on their way out on business today.
As soon as they entered, they hurriedly reported to Station Chief Chen Hongchi. After listening to their account, Chen Hongchi's eyes widened, and it took him a long time to say, "It is said that Shanghai is a place where great events converge, and it truly lives up to its name. We have only been in Shanghai for a few days, but the events that have happened one after another have broadened our horizons. The great turmoil in downtown Shanghai and the huge explosion in the French Concession make our petty actions in Beiping seem insignificant in comparison."
These were all Chen Hongchi's sincere words. He was ordered to reorganize the Shanghai station and was originally full of ambition, thinking that he would make great strides and create a new situation. However, he now realized that the struggle between the enemy and our side in Shanghai was so cruel and fierce, which was completely different from their work behind enemy lines in Beiping.
Chen Hongchi continued, "A few days ago, the news of Luo Zidong's defection to the enemy spread like wildfire. I even sent a telegram to headquarters to inquire about the details. Headquarters confirmed that it was true and told me to find an opportunity to eliminate him. However, before my personnel were even in place, someone took action. Do you think it might have been the intelligence department that made the move?"
Intelligence Chief Lu Jian nodded and said, "Who else could it be but them? I was wondering a few days ago how such a secretive piece of news about Luo Zidong's defection got out. Now it seems that they were the ones who did it. They are clearly trying to kill people to establish their authority."
These people are truly domineering! They've turned Shanghai upside down, and now they've extended their reach into the foreign concessions. They're going all out, wiping out over forty gunmen and bodyguards in the blink of an eye. This is a huge undertaking!
Yang Wenbo nodded with lingering fear and said, "In Beiping, killing a traitorous chamber of commerce president was already considered a major operation. I spent nearly half a month preparing and only managed to kill two people. But here in Shanghai, the operation is so large. Are all the intelligence departments this capable? What are we supposed to do in the future?"
Chen Hongchi scratched his head and said with a wry smile, "I was hoping to make some great achievements, but with the intelligence department being so fierce, aren't we just playing along and being used as foils for others?"
Everyone felt the same way. They exchanged glances and realized that if they didn't achieve something in their future actions, they would really be unable to hold their heads high. The Shanghai Intelligence Section was putting too much pressure on them!
"Alright, let's not talk about this anymore. There's no use thinking about it now. Without the right personnel, we're just a lone commander and can't do anything!"
Seeing that everyone was a bit down, Chen Hongchi waved his hand and changed the subject, saying, "Old Lu, how's it going? Are they willing to lend us some money? We desperately need funds right now; we can't do anything without money!"
The reconstruction of Shanghai Station was fraught with difficulties, the most significant being the lack of funds. The Military Intelligence Bureau headquarters allocated funds to them through the Central Bank stationed in Shanghai, but this was far from sufficient. Chen Hongchi then raised funds from Beiping Station and brought them to Shanghai.
However, these two small sums of money are all in fiat currency. In Shanghai, the market value of fiat currency has plummeted. To put it bluntly, this money has already lost a lot of value halfway through its journey.
Chen Hongchi urgently wanted to exchange these legal tender into US dollars and British pounds, but major banks in Shanghai refused to exchange them for individuals. So Chen Hongchi tried to exchange them for US dollars through the four major state-owned banks. However, the four major state-owned banks were using their meager foreign exchange reserves to balance the exchange rate and maintain the remaining commercial credit and value of the legal tender, so they were unwilling to exchange them. Even the Military Intelligence Bureau headquarters was unable to interfere with the Ministry of Finance's decision.
So Chen Hongchi had no choice but to have Lu Jian negotiate multiple times, and today was the day for them to continue running around doing these things.
Lu Jian shook his head and smiled bitterly, "It's impossible to borrow money now, but after much persuasion, a director of the Fourth Branch finally agreed to exchange some of it for us."
Chen Hongchi was overjoyed upon hearing this and nodded, saying, "This is good news. Keep the exchanged funds as reserves, and spend the rest of the legal tender as soon as possible to get the framework up and running. Headquarters called and our personnel will be entering Shanghai in a few days, so we need to hurry up with our work."
Upon hearing this, Lu Jian also spoke up, "Great! With the manpower, we can get started. However, station chief, our intelligence work is lagging behind. When will the intelligence network that headquarters promised to set up for us arrive?"
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