Cicada Moving

Chapter 842: Turning the Clouds (5)

After Zuo Zhong assigned Gu Qi the task, he returned to the room and told several professors not to disclose today's events to the outside world. If anyone asked deliberately, they must inform the Secret Service of the other person's name.

Professor Qian and others readily agreed. No one understands better than scientists what it means to leave professional matters to professionals. If you take the lead in this kind of thing, it will cost your life.

Seeing that the other party was not a stubborn nerd, Zuo Zhong breathed a long sigh of relief. He smiled and left a field phone number for Professor Qian and others, telling them that they could contact him at any time if they needed help.

This is a kind of reward. Mainly without the professional knowledge of the other party, it would be difficult to narrow down the photo shooting location to three provinces. The Secret Service must be grateful.

 You cannot be like Xu Enzeng, who uses people to move forward and does not use people to move backward. If you do that, you will have more and more enemies, fewer and fewer friends, and at the same time, the road will become narrower and narrower.

 But how to express gratitude is a question. Giving money or souvenirs is obviously not appropriate. People who can become professors in this era are probably not short of money at home, otherwise they may not even be able to pay tuition.

Instead of asking for trouble with Adu's things, it is better to trade with favors. If you encounter such a situation in the future, you can ask for help. Intelligence work is not only about killing and killing, but also about the worldly connections.

 The professors are very satisfied with this return. Nowadays, the national situation is in turmoil, and various doctrines and ideas have sprung up like mushrooms after a rain. Especially the underground party has a great influence among students.

I heard that the Party Headquarters in Changcheng will implement "supervision" on major middle schools to severely punish students who sympathize with and spread dissident remarks. As teachers and principals, they are very worried about this.

Now with the favor of the Secret Service, Deputy Director Zuo does not seem to be a difficult person to talk to, and those targeted students may be able to escape.

Then the guests and hosts enjoyed themselves for a while, and the two sides chatted for a long time. Zuo Chong personally sent several professors onto the boat, watched each other slowly go away, turned around and took the car back to the command post of the industrial zone.

He had just gotten out of the car and before he could enter the house, Song Minghao, who got the news, ran over and reported the latest search situation.

"Deputy Director, You Guang led people to check it out. There are no new discoveries in the encirclement. I am afraid that the remaining parts of the photo have been destroyed by the fire."

Left Point nodded: "Well, let's lift the blockade. There are many residents nearby working in arsenals, and military production cannot be delayed.

Don't forget that our task is to coordinate military operations on the front line. If the war fails, the military chiefs will complain to the committee. "

"yes."

Song Minghao understood the trick. In terms of shirk responsibility, if the generals of the Guo army were ranked second, no one would dare to be ranked first. The Secret Service must not take this blame.

The two came into the house while talking. Zuo Zhong waved his hand and dismissed the old man. He found a chair and sat down, closed his eyes, and started snoring in the blink of an eye.

 He has not slept for more than a day, and he will finally have a chance to get some sleep.

I don’t know how much time passed, but Zuo Zhong heard someone calling out to the deputy director in a daze. His eyes suddenly opened and he saw Gu Qi, who also had a tired face.

“Reporting to the deputy director, I have brought back everything you asked for. I see that you don’t look too good. Do you want to rest for a while?” Gu Qi looked worried.

“No need, bring them all in.” Zuo Zhong stood up and rubbed his face vigorously, trying to wake himself up quickly, and gave the order.

Hearing this, Gu Qi stopped persuading him and walked to the door, opened it and waved. A group of spies immediately walked in with a lot of license plates.

Under his command, the little agents spread colorful license plates of various styles on the ground, filling a room full of them.

 In fact, Gu Qi was a little confused. What did the deputy director mean when he asked him to take out the license plates of Guangdong, Guangxi, and Min that contained the character "6" that were retained by the department.

 In 1901, the 27th year of the reign of Emperor Guangxu of the previous dynasty, cars were introduced to China from the Shanghai Concession. In the second year, the Ministry of Industry and Commerce Bureau of the Public Concession held a meeting and approved the first special temporary license.

After the year of 1911, when the previous dynasty fell, each place had its own car license plate, but the purpose was not for management, but to make money.

For example, for a 4-seater car, the annual vehicle and ship tax (auto tax) in the 19th year of the Republic of China was 60 yuan. If it is used for operation, it will directly double to 120 yuan.

By the 21st year of the Republic of China, the prices had risen to 80 yuan and 160 yuan respectively. In the Republic of China, taxes were collected by each country. If there are vehicles that need to be used across regions.

For example, if a car from Hangzhou wants to drive in Shanghai, it will have to pay two taxes. The government has clear regulations on this:

"Any commercial vehicle that drives within the territory of this county or city and travels to other counties or cities for a long period of time should submit the original license to the construction bureau of each county through which it passes, pay half of the county donation, and receive a long-term donation license. Commercial long-distance buses should also The franchise donation is 10% of the operating income.”

The license plate of this kind of car that can travel in different places is composed of the words "home place abbreviation + remote place abbreviation + crossing". It is longer than ordinary license plates, making it easier for inspectors to inspect on the road.

Judging from the photo fragments found by Wu Jingzhong, the Buick car should have an ordinary license plate and can only be driven in one place, which indicates that the place where the photo was taken and where the license plate belongs are likely to be the same place.

In other words, there is a high probability that the spy leader or someone related to him conducted intelligence reconnaissance in a city in the three provinces of Guangdong, Guangxi, and Min, and took this photo that was almost burned.

 As long as the specific city is determined, the owner of the car is found, and then back-checked, the traces of the spy can be found through this clue.

 The problem is that now the license plate has been burned until only the character "6" is left. The original style and background cannot be clearly seen, and the place of ownership cannot be determined. There are dozens of cities in the three provinces of Guangdong, Guangxi and Min. It is not known when the investigation will be completed one by one. It is half the result with half the effort, which is not like the style of a deputy director.

 Gu Qi hesitated for a moment, but still expressed the doubts in his mind. They were old partners who had worked together for many years, and he knew that the deputy director would not mind.

 “Well, you are right.”

Zuo Zhong was not angry after hearing this. Instead, he asked a question: "Lao Gu, look at it, what's the difference between the license plate in the photo and these license plates?"

the difference?

Gucci turned to look at the ground and immediately understood that although the license plate image in the photo was incomplete, it could be seen that it was rectangular.

The license plates on the ground have different shapes, some are square and some are triangular. Through this, you can filter out some of them.

Seeing that he understood, Zuo Chong pointed to the ground and said lightly: "There is another difference. Some cities here use handwritten license plates, but the ones in the photo are machine printed."

This is not surprising. The economic situation of each place is different, and the number of car ownership is also different. There are naturally differences in the investment in license plate production.

 After speaking, he circled around the license plate twice, squatting down from time to time to pick up a piece and inspect it carefully, and finally issued two orders to the little agent.

 “Take away all non-rectangular license plates.”

 “Take away all handwritten license plates.”

Following Zuo Zhong’s words, the number of license plates on the ground quickly decreased, leaving only thirty or forty pairs. However, the workload to find the target was still staggering.

Leaving aside other things, there are more than ten places in Guangdong Province alone that need to be investigated. In addition, merchants have gathered there since ancient times, and there are countless people with rich private households.

 Most of these people made their fortunes by doing business with Westerners and highly admired Western emerging technologies. Apart from Shanghai, they were the areas with the largest number of cars in the Republic of China.

  It will take at least three to six months to check all Buick cars in these dozen places. This is an ideal situation with sufficient manpower, otherwise it will take much longer.

 “Take away all the license plates in Guangxi Province.” At this time, Zuo Zhong said another screening criterion.

Gu Qi thought for a while and quickly understood the reason. Compared with Min Province, which is adjacent to Xiaoliuqiu, and Guangdong Province, a coastal province, Gui Province, as an inland province, has a much lower strategic position.

The Japanese want to completely annex the Republic of China, and the first step is to completely block off the coast of the Republic of China and cut off external assistance. From this point of view, the possibility of Japanese spies operating in Guangdong and Min is greater.

At the same time, the Yue Kingdom bordering Gui Province is a French colony. Before the Republic of China is digested, the Japanese will not overly stimulate the European powers, so Gui Province can be temporarily excluded.

There were only about twenty license plates at this time. Gu Qi pricked up his ears, wanting to hear how the deputy director would narrow down the scope of the investigation.

“Take away all the license plates with connected strokes in the six characters.” Zuo Zhong spoke again.

Gucci was startled, and quickly came to the photo fragment. After careful observation, he suddenly discovered that the character "6" on it was not completely connected to the subject at the end, but a small opening appeared.

He looked annoyed and flattered skillfully: "We didn't find such an obvious clue before. Deputy Director, you are really sharp-eyed and you are ashamed of your humble position."

"Okay, okay, you can save this for when you have made meritorious service and received an award. Let's get down to business now."

 Zuo Zhong was amused by his blunt flattery, then stared at the three sets of license plates on the ground and slowly stopped smiling, and asked the little agent: "Where does the license plate belong?"

The little agent turned over the license plate and raised his head to report that the three license plates belonged to Chaozhou and Yangzhou in Guangdong Province, and Zhangzhou in Min Province.

Zuo Zhong frowned. These three places are not small cities. There are a lot of cars. If you want to quickly open a breakthrough, you have to walk on two legs.

 He ​​thought for a few minutes and assigned two tasks to Gu Qi: "Lao Gu, inform the provinces of Guangdong and Fujian to immediately launch a secret search in Chaozhou, Yangzhou, and Zhangzhou to look for Buicks with license plates containing the character "6".

He reminded them to focus on checking the party headquarters and the vehicles of senior military officials. If they find any, they should report it immediately and they must not act rashly. Anyone who claims credit and alerts Japanese spies will be punished by military law.

 In addition, tell Wu Chunyang, Wu Jingzhong and Shen Dongxin that after investigating the photographic equipment store, photo studio and newspaper office and getting the results, a second comparison of the suspect will be carried out. There is only one condition for the comparison.

Once it is found that someone has been to the three places in Chaozhou, or has been in contact with people who have been to the three places in Chaozhou, all-round surveillance will be carried out immediately. I want to know the target's every move, so go quickly. "

① Gui Province has had exports to the sea in history, but in modern times it has been a standard inland province, and it was not until later that it became a coastal province.

 (End of this chapter)