Sagawa Taro let out a long sigh, tapped his fingers on the table, and said with deep emotion, "I never imagined that the opponent we lost so many elite agents and spent so much effort to find was hiding right under our noses. Isn't that incredibly dramatic, Imai-kun!"
“That’s true,” Yuji Imai nodded. He was also quite surprised when he first heard the news. “According to Cui Guangqi’s confession, Ning Zhiheng had already infiltrated Shanghai before the war. His subordinates were all intelligence agents transferred from Nanjing. Just as we guessed, Ning Zhiheng was an extremely difficult character. His intelligence station never contacted the intelligence station led by Zheng Hongbo. Even an agent of Cui Guangqi’s rank had never seen him. This shows how cunning and cautious he was.”
Sagawa Taro stood up and paced back and forth in the office before saying, "Ning Zhiheng has been out of our sight for so long, and now he's right here among us. This time, we must capture him no matter what. I need to get the real reason for the failure of the Nanjing intelligence front from him!"
For a long time, this has been a worry for Taro Sagawa. He still cannot be sure whether there is a high-ranking Chinese spy within his Special Higher Police, which makes him hesitant to do anything and dare not trust anyone easily.
Yuji Imai nodded repeatedly. He had always been deeply troubled by this. He had single-handedly created and overseen Japan's intelligence forces in Nanjing, only to have his years of hard work destroyed by the enemy in less than a year. This was the greatest humiliation of his intelligence career and something he had always regretted. Now that he had the opportunity to find the real answer, he naturally had to do his best.
Yuji Imai continued, "Cui Guangqi also revealed that Ning Zhiheng's special agents were hiding in the French Concession. This was because a major incident had occurred in the French Concession not long ago: three intelligence officers, including Masaki Hasegawa from the military's intelligence department, were assassinated in the street. Shortly after, Lu Tianqiao, the head of the Green Gang, and Fu Yaozu, a cotton merchant, were also killed on the same day. Lu Tianqiao, in particular, and his thirty bodyguards were killed in the street. Cui Guangqi went to observe the scene and judged that the operation involved at least seventy people, who were well-equipped and well-trained. They killed their targets in a short time. This was a sensational event!"
"Did Ning Zhiheng do this?"
"Yes, this is no secret in the French Concession. It is said that Lu Tianqiao and Fu Yaozu have already defected to us and are working for us. Then Ning Zhiheng took action against them."
Sagawa Taro frowned and said, "I have heard about Lu Tianqiao and Fu Yaozu's matter. It should be a plan of the military intelligence department, but I don't know the specific details. I didn't expect it to be ruined by Ning Zhiheng in the end."
After saying that, he couldn't help but laugh: "We've always been at odds with the military intelligence department. Uemura Takashi is a narrow-minded man who has always harbored resentment towards us. This time, Ning Zhiheng has taken care of him for us. It's time for them to suffer a bit!"
Yuji Imai was well aware of the long-standing discord between the two departments, so he changed the subject and asked, "Section Chief, what should we do next? Most of these captured personnel have already surrendered, and I estimate that the rest won't be able to hold out for much longer. How should we arrange for so many personnel?"
Taro Sagawa smiled and said, "I had already made arrangements for this. We had discussed it before. Compared to the entire Shanghai and even the Central China region, our Special Higher Police are really short-handed. China is too big and has too many people. It is difficult for us to control it with our own strength alone."
Using Chinese against Chinese has always been an important tactic of ours, so we must develop Chinese people who are inclined to serve us. These Chinese agents are excellent personnel; their abilities far exceed those of ordinary people. If they are truly willing to serve us, they will be of great help and will greatly strengthen our forces.
I've always wanted to create a department composed of Chinese people who are inclined towards us, to use their strength to work for us. I initially intended for Yu Lilai to head this department, but unfortunately, he was quickly eliminated by Chinese agents. Now I want to revisit this idea, using these people as the backbone, supplemented with some other personnel, to get this done.
“But among them there will be Yu Li and Cui Guangqi, as well as figures like Qi Jingwu. The Chinese are not as weak as we imagine, and we must be on guard!” Imai Yuji said again.
Qi Jingwu was interrogated and surrendered by him personally. It turned out that the surrender was fake and he almost killed Yu Li when Yu Li was not paying attention, which indirectly caused Yu Li's death. Even now, Yuji Imai still has a lot of doubts about these surrendered Chinese!
Sagawa Taro, however, didn't take it to heart. He waved his hand, showing a broad perspective and thinking more deeply. He said, "We can't throw the baby out with the bathwater. Besides, we won't let them get involved in intelligence work. We'll just use them for maintaining order and conducting investigations. This will free up our manpower. We have more important work to do!"
"Understood. Section Chief, your vision is far beyond our reach!" Yuji Imai nodded in agreement.
"Put them under separate management and observe them for a period of time before I begin to handle this matter!" Taro Sagawa instructed.
"Hey! There's one more thing!" Yuji Imai said.
"What is it?"
"In this operation to capture Chinese agents, there was one of our pawns."
"Our chess pieces?"
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