Fu Yaozu was a very powerful businessman in Shanghai. He controlled the cotton trade in the city and, through years of hard work, had expanded into various industries. He had vast assets, deep roots, and extensive connections in Shanghai's business community, making him a very influential figure.
Therefore, the Japanese carefully selected Fu Yaozu. In fact, during this period, due to the Japanese's strength, they forcibly occupied the northern part of the International Settlement, forcing Britain and the United States to back down. In the end, Britain and the United States had no choice but to accept their bad luck.
Thus, another rumor began to circulate in the concessions: that the Japanese would soon forcibly occupy all the foreign concessions, take over the entire city of Shanghai, and swallow the huge prize of the International Settlement and the French Concession.
This could very well be a rumor spread by the Japanese themselves, deliberately.
Indeed, this was the case. Three years later, the Japanese openly broke the treaty and forcibly occupied all the concession areas in Shanghai, forcing the British, American, French and other powers to withdraw from Shanghai. From this point of view, it is not entirely a rumor.
Therefore, many people in the International Settlement and the French Concession, especially Chinese merchants, were very afraid that after the Japanese occupied the concessions, they would ruthlessly plunder the businesses they had built up over the years.
Fu Yaozu was one of them. When the Japanese came to him, he was not only willing to guarantee that his business would not be swallowed up by the Japanese, but also to provide huge sums of money to support him in integrating the Chamber of Commerce, and promised to make him the president of the Shanghai Chamber of Commerce, and especially the vice mayor of Shanghai.
These conditions immediately appealed to Fu Yaozu. After careful consideration, he finally decided to side with the Japanese and act as their front man, collecting various supplies needed for their invasion of China in Shanghai.
To avoid suspicion, the Japanese and Fu Yaozu's contact was extremely secretive, and the location of each contact was different. This time, they chose the largest restaurant in the vicinity, Qingdong Restaurant.
Furthermore, the Qingdong Restaurant has a dedicated Japanese restaurant to attract Japanese diners. Fu Yaozu specially invited a Japanese representative to eat Japanese food, which is why they came to the Qingdong Restaurant.
This is the third time the Japanese have contacted Fu Yaozu. All the conditions have been agreed upon, and Fu Yaozu will soon take action to acquire the company.
However, they never expected that Qingdong Grand Restaurant was actually owned by the Shanghai intelligence station. Every luxurious private room was equipped with sophisticated eavesdropping devices, and their conversation was leaked. Furthermore, their conversation was even followed to their home by intelligence agents.
Ning Zhiheng then asked, "Where is the recording?"
Huo Yueze was taken aback, then quickly replied, "It's still in the listening device. Do you need me to get it?"
Ning Zhiheng stood up and said, "No need. Let's go to Qingdong Restaurant. I want to listen to the recording myself!"
"Yes!" Huo Yueze nodded in agreement.
The two went out together, and the car soon arrived at the back door of Qingdong Restaurant. Huo Yueze led Ning Zhiheng into the restaurant and into an inconspicuous room.
When the special agents on duty at the door saw that it was the station chief himself, they quickly stood at attention. Ning Zhiheng gave a slight nod and then pushed open the door and went inside.
The space inside was quite large, with two listening devices side by side, and a person listening was wearing headphones.
Upon seeing someone enter, he looked up and realized it was Ning Zhiheng and Huo Yueze, so he quickly stood up at attention.
"Is there anything unusual?" Ning Zhiheng asked in a deep voice, his hands behind his back.
"Reporting to the station chief, no anomalies have been detected so far!" the monitoring personnel quickly replied.
Monitoring is a long and tedious job. Not every diner is worth monitoring. Every day, the monitoring personnel are exposed to a large amount of information, and they can only select those that they deem valuable to record. After all, recording materials were very expensive at that time and could not be easily damaged.
“There are two shifts here every day, taking turns on duty until the restaurant closes. They record and transcribe the conversation that night and report it to me, but it’s usually not very valuable. This time, however, it’s the most valuable intelligence we’ve ever gathered!” Huo Yueze explained from the side.
Ning Zhiheng nodded and said, "Just this one piece of information makes all the hard work over such a long time worthwhile. As the saying goes, 'the great waves sift the sand,' and intelligence work requires patience."
"Yes, the stationmaster is absolutely right!" Huo Yueze immediately nodded in agreement.
Ning Zhiheng placed the recording in front of the monitoring personnel and ordered, "Find this recording; I want to listen to it!"
"Yes!" The monitoring personnel quickly adjusted the recording equipment, turned the recording disc to the corresponding position, and pressed the play button. The voices of two men talking came from it.
Ning Zhiheng sat quietly to the side and listened. The content was no different from the recording, except that one of the middle-aged men spoke Chinese very awkwardly, while the other man's voice should be that of Fu Yaozu.
Ning Zhiheng frowned and said, "Those who do this kind of persuasion and subversion work should be personnel from the intelligence department. There are many people in the Special Higher Police who are fluent in Chinese. It's not like they can't even send out a high-level spy who is fluent in Chinese. I guess they are people sent by the Japanese military."
At this point, he turned and asked, "Can the other man be identified as Fu Yaozu himself?"
Huo Yueze nodded, handed over a photo of Fu Yaozu, and said with certainty, "I managed to get this photo today, and it has been verified with our staff. It is indeed Fu Yaozu!"
Ning Zhiheng examined the photo in his hand. The man was handsome, gentle, and had the demeanor of a Confucian businessman. But who would have thought that he was the first to defect to the enemy and become a traitor?
"Stationmaster, what should we do?" Huo Yueze said in a low voice.
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