"You hit too hard!" He Siming clutched his right rib, frowning as he endured the pain.
Ning Zhiheng looked at He Siming speechlessly. This guy was complaining that he had hit too hard. We're enemies now!
Ning Zhiheng took two steps back and looked at He Siming, saying, "You seem to have never had any combat training. You don't react at all when it comes to fighting. I've arrested so many Japanese spies, and none of them are like you. Are Japanese spies really this bad these days?"
He Siming replied helplessly, "What kind of Japanese agent am I? I was only forcibly recruited into the Special Higher Police not long ago."
After he finished speaking, he told Ning Zhiheng about his situation in detail without Ning Zhiheng asking any questions.
After listening to He Siming's account, Ning Zhiheng recalled the scene when he first met He Siming, and the situation he described did indeed match up. On the eve of the outbreak of war, He Siming was in the Japanese-occupied area of Shanghai. He himself had received advance warning from Uehara Junpei, which allowed him to escape. However, He Siming was unlikely to escape this calamity.
Ning Zhiheng asked again, "I'll assume you're right for now. So, your teacher, Akita Akio, is the captain of your investigation team, and he's the one who introduced you to the Special Higher Police?"
He Siming nodded and said truthfully, "Yes, at that time, the Japanese Special Higher Police urgently needed a group of people who were proficient in Chinese, and the teacher thought of me. I couldn't refuse. Besides, if I didn't join, I might have died on the battlefield. The teacher was helping me!"
His tone showed great respect for his teacher, Akio Akita, indicating that the two had a good teacher-student relationship.
Ning Zhiheng smiled slightly, but a hint of ruthlessness flashed in his eyes. As long as He Siming dared to work wholeheartedly for the Japanese, he would never let him go.
"How many people are in your Tanikawa Battalion, and who is your leader?"
"There were about 160 people, led by Colonel Kazuma Tanikawa."
"Where are they hiding now?" Ning Zhiheng asked the most important question, which was what he desperately wanted to know.
But He Siming shrugged and said, "I really don't know!"
However, seeing Ning Zhiheng's face immediately turn cold, he waved his hands repeatedly and continued, "Our scouts are hiding in Guanyang Town. Because there are too many operatives, we dare not settle them in the towns and villages. If they gather together, they will be easily noticed. So we have gone into remote villages or the countryside to hide. I really don't know their exact locations."
But my teacher definitely knows, and the intelligence agent Iwai nosuke probably knows too. I'm just coasting along and have never inquired. You saw it yourself just now; I come out to find a place to hide, and I go back as soon as it gets dark. They're used to it anyway.”
"Just coasting along?" Ning Zhiheng said indifferently, "If you're unwilling to serve them, you can simply go to the Chinese garrison and expose them. There's no need for this aggrieved look!"
He Siming's eyes widened, and after a long while, he said helplessly, "If I report them, what will happen to me? What will happen to my parents and relatives in Taiwan?"
Ning Zhiheng smiled coldly. He was too lazy to argue with He Siming. Besides, He Siming was right. For the safety of his family, he did have a reason not to report the Japanese and could only drift through life.
But Ning Zhiheng couldn't care less about that; he had no time to share other people's worries. He continued, "Do you know how many plainclothes teams the Japanese had infiltrated in Pudong? Where were they located?"
He Siming knew that Ning Zhiheng was getting impatient, so he quickly told him everything he knew: "There are four teams in total. They each have their own area of operation. The Guchuan Brigade is the command center, mainly in the Yangjing District, where they conduct reconnaissance of the garrison command and artillery positions. The Kobayashi Detachment operates near the Chinese army's supply lines and is responsible for attacking transport convoys."
The Okada detachment was operating in the Wusongkou area, and the Noguchi detachment was in the Takahashi area, but I really don't know their exact locations.
Ning Zhiheng believed this, since He Siming, as an ordinary investigator, couldn't possibly know the exact locations of the other teams.
The Kobayashi squad he mentioned appears to be the same plainclothes squad that I wiped out. This means there are no more plainclothes squads operating on the supply line to the rear base, and the safety of my transported supplies can be guaranteed. But is what He Siming said true? I need to confirm that later. I still can't let my guard down.
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