Upon hearing his subordinate's report, Li Zhiqun's heart sank completely. The other side's personnel who were carrying out the demolition had already withdrawn; otherwise, they wouldn't have clashed with the guards at the street corner.
However, Li Zhiqun would not give up so easily. He was experienced and had the ability to adapt to this situation.
"I want to personally investigate every person who has been detained on the street."
"Yes!" Wu Shicai answered loudly.
At Li Zhiqun's command, all the pedestrians who had been surrounded on the street were forcibly moved to one side of the street, where Li Zhiqun personally questioned and verified them.
These pedestrians took out their good citizen certificates, and several of them were Japanese expatriates who also had to show their expatriate certificates. A clerk made special records of their information.
Li Zhiqun was still somewhat unwilling to give up, hoping to find a clue among these people.
Li Zhiqun watched as pedestrians walked past him, and seeing that their identification documents were all in order, he began to ask them questions carefully. Anyone he thought had a problem was detained for further investigation.
At this moment, a young man in a business suit stepped out from the crowd and quickly approached Li Zhiqun. The young man looked slightly impatient, took out his identification, and said, "Director Li, although there is a reason for this, it is inappropriate for you to detain citizens so arbitrarily. I have other matters to attend to and need to leave immediately."
Li Zhiqun was taken aback upon hearing this. The young man clearly recognized him. He took the ID and looked at it, then quickly said, "So it's Mr. Matsudaira. I'm so sorry to have offended you!"
The document showed that the young man was Matsudaira Hidemi, a translator at the Japanese Consulate in Shanghai. Only then did he vaguely remember seeing this young translator when he was on duty at the consulate.
"Matsudaira-kun, since it happened so suddenly, and you've seen what happened, I was just doing my job and it was just routine. I'll only ask you a few questions, and you can leave right away. You don't mind, do you?"
For some reason, Li Zhiqun was quite interested in this consulate translator and subconsciously wanted to continue investigating, perhaps hoping to gain some insights.
However, Matsudaira Hidemi raised an eyebrow and said coldly, "I'm sorry, Director Li, I have no interest in your questions and have no intention of answering them. If you insist on asking, you must obtain the consulate's permission."
Although the Special Operations Department is an intelligence agency with certain powers, and is backed by the Tsuchihara Agency, a high-level Japanese authority, it can investigate ordinary Japanese civilians. However, it does not have the authority to investigate personnel in important Japanese departments.
Matsudaira Hidemi was a member of the Japanese Consulate in Shanghai. If the Special Operations Department wanted to conduct an in-depth investigation, it could only report to the Tsuchihara Agency and hand it over to the Japanese intelligence agency for handling.
Hearing that Matsudaira Hidemi refused to answer the question, Li Zhiqun was even more unwilling. He stepped forward, chuckled, and said, "Matsudaira-kun, you must know that our Special Operations Department is an intelligence department under the Tsuchihara Agency. If you insist on not answering the question, I can only report to the Tsuchihara Agency. Then you will still have to be questioned. You should know that the people in the Tsuchihara Agency are not as easy to talk to as I am."
Li Zhiqun's words contained a hidden threat. He had a premonition that this Matsudaira Hidemi must have some secret he wanted to know. There must be some inexplicable reason why he was here today, otherwise he would not have so firmly rejected his questions.
It's important to understand that if Matsudaira Hideshige lies in answering questions without prior planning, it will be difficult to escape Li Zhiqun's investigation. Once Li Zhiqun finds a loophole and pursues the matter further, the outcome will be unpredictable.
To Li Zhiqun's disappointment, Matsudaira Hidemi showed no fear whatsoever. With a hint of disdain on his lips, he calmly pulled another ID from his pocket and handed it to Li Zhiqun.
Li Zhiqun took it with some surprise, opened it and was secretly astonished to find that it was a staff member's ID card for the Iwai Mansion, with Matsudaira Hidemi's name clearly written on it and a photo attached.
Li Zhiqun couldn't help but feel disappointed. He never expected that Matsudaira Hidemi was actually an intelligence agent for the Iwai Mansion.
The Iwai Residence is currently an important intelligence agency of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs stationed in China. This department is mainly responsible for collecting and analyzing intelligence on the Chinese government in order to enable the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to make correct decisions on its policy of aggression against China and to provide reference opinions.
Japanese people like to name their organizations or institutions after the surname of the person in charge, such as Fujiwara-kaisha (Fujiwara Company) and Tsuchihara-kangi (Tsuchihara Organization).
Because this intelligence department was headed by Takei Iwai, the Japanese Consul General in Shanghai, it was known as the Iwai Mansion.
The Iwai Mansion is backed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which is also one of the higher-level intelligence agencies, not much lower in rank than the Tsuchihara Agency.
Given the structure of Japanese intelligence agencies, there is little cooperation between intelligence departments. They generally operate independently, with overlapping functions and frequent infighting and mutual obstruction.
Therefore, Tsuchihara Keiji always wanted to bring Fujiwara Tomohito into his intelligence agency, establish the Fujiwara Agency, and use the Fujiwara family's banner to unify various intelligence departments. Unfortunately, Ning Zhiheng simply didn't fall for it.
If Keiji Tsuchihara had actually accomplished this task and established a unified intelligence system, it would have been a huge disaster for the war effort against China.
Therefore, although the Tsuchihara Agency was the highest-ranking agency, it did not have the authority to investigate the intelligence personnel of the Iwai Mansion, let alone the Special Agent Department under the Tsuchihara Agency, which had no authority to investigate Matsudaira Hidemi.
Matsudaira Hidemi looked at Li Zhiqun with amusement and said in a calm tone, "Director Li, may I leave now?"
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