Not long after, he heard some noise outside and stepped out. He saw Ono Matsunaga and Abe Rikuzan coming out of their room. The two were dressed in ordinary casual clothes and were not tall, so they were inconspicuous.
He Siming quickly greeted him, "Ono-kun, did you sleep well last night?"
Ono Matsunaga quickly smiled when he saw He Siming. He had noticed something unusual from Imai Yuji's attitude towards this liaison officer Takeshita yesterday. This liaison officer's background was definitely not as simple as he had thought. He also changed his cold attitude from yesterday and replied with a smile, "Takeshita-kun, thank you for your concern. We rested very well."
He Siming still had a big smile on his face, not caring at all about what happened yesterday. He said enthusiastically, "Ono-kun, is this your first time in Nanjing? This is the most famous ancient capital in China. Today, my friends and I have made an appointment to visit various places in Nanjing. Why don't we go and take a look together?"
Ono Matsunaga was taken aback. Seeing He Siming's enthusiasm, he reluctantly declined, saying, "I'm sorry, Takeshita-kun, Colonel Imai has assigned us a mission. I'm so sorry!"
He Siming looked regretful, spread his hands, and said, "Alright, I'll stay in Nanjing for a few more days anyway, there will be other opportunities later."
Ono Matsunaga and Abe Rikuzan readily agreed, and the three of them walked and talked as they went outside.
As soon as the three figures stepped out of the hotel, several pairs of eyes swept over them, and a voice whispered in the shadows: "That's them! The two men in the white suits are the targets!"
At this time, Wen Hao had already driven to the Futian Hotel and was waiting outside the gate. When he saw He Siming come out, he quickly came up to greet him. They had arranged to visit Fujiwara Tomohito's residence together today.
When Ono and Matsunaga saw someone coming to pick up He Siming, they waved and parted ways. They didn't notice that several figures were following them from a distance.
Ono and Matsunaga first went to the Special Higher Police, and then Imai Yuji assigned them a team. The group went to the United News Agency, split up, and began to track and monitor their target, Takasugi Hitoshi.
At Ning Zhiheng's residence, Wen Hao and He Siming paid a visit. Wen Hao had carefully prepared several antique treasures, which naturally pleased Ning Zhiheng greatly. He praised Wen Hao highly, and He Siming also spoke well of him. The three of them had a pleasant conversation, and in the end, Ning Zhiheng nodded and agreed to his request to secure him a ministerial title in the Nanjing government. This made Wen Hao extremely happy, and he repeatedly expressed his loyalty, vowing to be Mr. Fujiwara's henchman and follow his lead without question!
The next morning, Yi Dong'an reported to Ning Zhiheng on the intelligence team's tracking situation from the previous day.
"Kang Xuezhi personally led a team to follow Ono Matsunaga and his men. Yesterday morning and noon, they lingered near the United News Agency. They even rented a house near the agency's gate and set up a surveillance point. Around 2 p.m., they followed a car that came out of the United News Agency. They followed it all the way to Shimonoseki Ward until the vehicle entered the Japanese military camp. Ono and his men waited outside."
Around five o'clock, the car left the military camp and arrived at a restaurant in the east of the city. A middle-aged man got out of the car, and the car drove away. Ono Matsunaga ignored the car and continued to follow the middle-aged man, who was probably the target they were looking for.
The middle-aged man seemed to have arranged to have dinner with someone at a restaurant. Our people didn't dare get too close, so we didn't see who he was having dinner with, but we noted down the room number. Later, around 8 PM, the middle-aged man left the restaurant, hailed a rickshaw, and returned to No. 53 Taiping Street in the city center. This was an independent apartment building, and most of the residents in the area were Japanese expatriates. The intelligence team spent the whole night learning that the person living in this apartment was named Takasugi Hitoshi, the chief reporter of the United Daily News. The people who had dinner with him at the restaurant the previous night were a man and a woman, both around 30 years old. Because of a shortage of manpower at the time, Kang Xuezhi didn't arrange for them to be followed, so their specific identities still need further investigation.
"Takasugi Hitoshi?"
Ning Zhiheng had some doubts. According to the information provided by He Siming, Ono and Matsunaga came to Nanjing from China specifically to arrest communist elements. Logically speaking, their target should have been identified long ago, but they did not arrest him immediately. It seems that they were not very sure about the identity of their target.
Of course, there is another possibility: they want to find the Nanjing underground party members who are in contact with Takasugi Jinki through him. They are planning to play the long game and catch big fish!
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