Surrounded by his men, Ding Mo hurriedly arrived at Zhou Fushan's residence. Zhou Fushan was startled by Li Zhiqun's imposing presence.
Leading Ding Mo into the study, Zhou Fushan quickly asked, "What happened? You rushed over so late, and you didn't explain things clearly on the phone. Did you get into another argument with Li Zhiqun?"
Ding Mo's face fell. He stamped his foot and said in a mournful voice, "Minister, Li Zhiqun has gone too far! He even killed Deng Zhengming!"
"What?" Zhou Fushan's eyelids twitched, quite surprised. He knew Deng Zhengming well; he was the head of Juchuan Academy and Ding Mo's most trusted confidant.
"How dare Li Zhiqun do such a thing? What exactly happened?"
So Ding Mo gave Zhou Fushan a detailed report on everything that had happened that day, and finally said, "Li Zhiqun is still trying to use the same old tricks to push the blame onto the Chongqing elements. I just had a serious falling out with him at the Special Agent Headquarters. Minister, you advised me to let things go before about Zhang Mingshi, so I had no choice but to endure it. But Deng Zhengming has been murdered, and I really can't take it anymore. You have to say something!"
Zhou Fushan was also extremely annoyed upon hearing this. Li Zhiqun was not originally one of their people; he was forced into the system by the Japanese. After joining them, he was difficult to control and only recognized the leadership of the Japanese. Even Zhou Fushan, a member of the Special Committee, could not command him. He had always been regarded as an outcast and an outsider by the officialdom of the puppet government.
Ding Mo, on the other hand, had a previous relationship with the Kuomintang and was eager to join them, which is why he gained the approval of Zhou Fushan and other officials.
Between these two individuals, the puppet government, from top to bottom, believed that Ding Mo should be in charge of the No. 76 Special Agent Headquarters, so that this powerful special agent force could be truly brought under their control, which would be in the best interests of the puppet government.
Therefore, Zhou Fushan had always adopted a supportive and co-opting attitude towards Ding Mo, while gradually suppressing and ostracizing Li Zhiqun, attempting to squeeze Li Zhiqun out of the Special Agent Headquarters. However, before he could even take action, Li Zhiqun turned on him and directly resorted to naked force, threatening to kill Ding Mo to force him to leave, which was completely unexpected by everyone.
After Zhang Mingshi's death, Zhou Fushan had finally managed to appease Ding Mo, but before he could come up with a solution, Li Zhiqun struck again, killing Ding Mo's top confidant, Deng Zhengming. This left Zhou Fushan completely bewildered.
His mind was in turmoil. He paced back and forth in the room several times, but couldn't come up with any good solutions. The puppet government was only able to operate and maintain itself with the support of the Japanese. Its funding depended entirely on Japanese allocations. Although it had a few thousand scattered soldiers, they were still under Japanese control. It could be said that the puppet government's administrative capacity was extremely weak.
For Li Zhiqun, all he received was a promised official position and some money. Once Li Zhiqun was willing to give up all of that, Zhou Fushan really had no confidence in suppressing him.
"Minister, please say something!"
Seeing that Zhou Fushan hadn't said anything, Ding Mo, who was standing to the side, urged him anxiously.
At this point, Zhou Fushan stopped, rubbed his forehead, and said with difficulty, "It seems that Li Zhiqun will not give up until he achieves his goal this time. But as far as we are concerned, we really don't have any good way to deal with him. Even if I go to question him, without solid evidence, he can just push the blame onto the Chongqing agents and get away with it. I can't do anything about it."
All I could do was restrict his access to funds, but now the Japanese are giving him a lot of support. He's in Shanghai, extorting money from businessmen, running casinos and opium dens, and he's quite adept at plundering. He's not short of money.
Unless the matter escalates to Mr. Wang's level, but Mr. Wang is currently in North China, discussing important matters of the peace movement with the provisional government, and will not be able to return for some time.
Finally, the only option is to get the Japanese to restrain him. But the Japanese originally supported him; it was Tsuchihara Keiji who promised to hand over this intelligence force to us. However, after Kagesa Hiroki took over, he went back on his word, which is why we have this awkward situation of serving two masters. They'd love to get rid of him and firmly control the intelligence headquarters. Going to them would only be humiliating. So, what should I do now?
Zhou Fushan's words left Ding Mo utterly disappointed. The puppet government was flawed from the start, lacking any real foundation, and was merely an empty shell. It had no power to restrain Li Zhiqun whatsoever. He had turned to the wrong temple.
“But Minister, nothing can be accomplished without rules. Li Zhiqun’s insubordination and disregard for the rules will make it even more difficult to control him if I also leave the Special Agent Headquarters.”
Zhou Fushan sighed deeply, as this was exactly what he was worried about. He waved his hand and said, "I still stand by what I said: let's be patient with him for now. Once Mr. Wang returns to Shanghai, we'll file a complaint against him and have Mr. Wang speak with the Japanese to restrain Li Zhiqun. We don't have any influence with the Japanese at all; they won't listen to us!"
"Still tolerating it?"
Ding Mo jumped up suddenly, and said emotionally, "Deng Zhengming is my brother. If I don't say a word when he dies, who will follow me in the future? If Li Zhiqun dares to kill Deng Zhengming today, he will dare to attack me tomorrow. I can't just sit here and wait to die, can I?"
Zhou Fushan was also somewhat helpless. He spread his hands and said with a wry smile, "Do we really have to take action? You only have Juchuan Academy, but Li Zhiqun has five action teams in Shanghai alone. His strength is several times that of you. If we go all out, you will definitely suffer losses. Take my advice: a wise man doesn't fight a losing battle. When Mr. Wang comes back, I will have my own way of dealing with him."
Li Zhiqun was furious, but he knew very well that Zhou Fushan was telling the truth. He couldn't win against Li Zhiqun. After careful consideration, he decided that he could only swallow his anger and wait for another opportunity to take revenge.
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