Chapter 1005
: An Unexpected Twist in the Deadline
Zhang Anping appeared at the scene of the assassination with a gloomy expression—just nineteen minutes had passed since the assassination occurred.
He reenacted the assassination case over and over again. On the third reenactment, Chief Yang finally arrived with the police station's professionals. Seeing Zhang Anping personally investigating the case, Chief Yang stepped forward trembling, only to be intercepted by members of the special operations team.
This made him even more nervous—the dignified colonel of the Special Higher Police had died on the streets of Beiping, and he, as the police chief, was probably in for a rough time.
Director Yang was in a panic for a short while when another person in a panic appeared.
Director Zhang of the Beiping Party Headquarters of the Party Communications Bureau.
Then came Director Yan from the Second Bureau, followed by Commander Zhang of the Military Police Regiment, Director Qiao of the Bureau of Investigation and Statistics, and finally all the heads of various intelligence agencies arrived, standing together outside the cordon, trembling with fear.
Zhao Li's death was like the simultaneous arrival of both the "little boy" and the "fat man," directly igniting the entire Beiping intelligence system.
The intelligence agencies are always the most well-informed. When the damned Party Intelligence Bureau disregarded military ethics and used agents detained by the Special Higher Police to seduce friendly forces, they were the first to discover this shameless act.
In retaliation, they also followed the example of the Party's communications bureau and started to stab their own allies in the back—if we're going to get dirty, we'll all get dirty together!
They were all waiting for the storm to come—but since everyone was so rotten, Zhang Anping couldn't possibly clean up "us" all of us, could he?
But what did they get after all that waiting?
Zhao Li was killed in the street in this city where hundreds of thousands of soldiers were stationed!
Hey!
Who in their right mind would do something like this?
If everyone gets dirty, Zhang Anping will at most give each person a fifty-fifty slap, but killing Zhao Li changes the nature of the situation!
Upon hearing the news of Zhao Li's death, the first reaction of the heads of various intelligence agencies was to pack their bags and flee.
Zhang Anping was extremely protective of his own, a fact known to everyone in the intelligence agencies.
Although Zhao Li was not Zhang Anping's man, he was acting as Zhang Anping's scapegoat.
As a result, the knife broke...
Given Zhang Anping's personality, how could he possibly give up so easily?
Even if they have a clear conscience, with so many dirty deeds exposed under Zhang Anping's strict investigation, would Zhang Anping let them off in his rage?
But, running away...
If you run away now, wouldn't that be tantamount to admitting that you did it?
We can't even run!
They could only arrive at the crime scene one by one with immense anxiety, praying that Zhang Anping wouldn't use his rage against them...
As time passed, the heads of these intelligence agencies grew increasingly uneasy as they watched Zhang Anping continue his investigation at the crime scene. They knew Zhang Anping would take it seriously, but they never expected him to take it this seriously!
For Zhang Anping, given his status, to condescend to conduct an on-site investigation—how much raging fury must he be hiding!
These leaders began to scrutinize each other's allies with the eyes of a knife-wielder:
Did you do it? You're asking for trouble, so don't drag me down with you!
You're feeling guilty! You did it! Your Party's Central Bureau is nothing but a fly-attracting dung, a dung-stirring stick, a dung-filled "commander"!
Are you from the Second Garrison Command, feeling resentful about being stripped of your power and deliberately causing trouble? You've succeeded—this time, let's all die together!
The mentality of suspecting one's neighbor of stealing an axe is vividly portrayed.
They all thought it was done by friendly forces—none of them are good people!
Just as the group was exchanging murderous glances, Zheng Yi, with a frosty expression, arrived:
"Follow me, everyone!"
These four short words give the impression that someone has gritted their teeth at least forty times.
Inside the tavern, Zhang Anping sat calmly with a wine bowl in front of him. It was an ordinary bowl found in taverns, and there was still quite a bit of wine inside, but Zhang Anping had no desire to drink it. He just kept looking at the bowl.
Zheng Yi led the heads of various intelligence agencies to stand opposite Zhang Anping. These leaders, who usually wouldn't dare to look at anyone more than once, were as docile as quails.
But Zhang Anping remained silent, as if the leaders of these intelligence agencies did not exist—until a man appeared, escorted by special operations team members.
This man was a lieutenant colonel in the Special Higher Police, but at this moment, his face was deathly pale and his whole body was trembling.
Zhang Anping then shifted his gaze to the lieutenant colonel and asked slowly and deliberately:
"The last person Team Leader Zhao saw before he left was you—do you know why he left the Special Higher Police?"
The voice was very soft, even somewhat gentle.
"I, I, I..." The military police lieutenant colonel stammered, unsure of how to express himself.
Seeing this, Zhang Anping spoke in a gentler voice:
"After the assassination, he deliberately opened the car door and took Team Leader Zhao's briefcase—what could a team leader like him have in his briefcase that could lead to his death?"
Upon hearing this, the military police lieutenant colonel suddenly shouted, "It's a confession!"
"What statement?"
The military police lieutenant colonel dared not speak, but only glanced fearfully at the group of secret service leaders beside him. The rank of lieutenant colonel looked quite imposing, but any one of these quail-like "poor wretches" could crush him with the flick of a finger!
Zhang Anping then said softly:
"My name is Zhang Anping—you might be more familiar with another name, Zhang Shih-hao!"
"Zhao Li works for me."
"Now that he's dead—if you also die because of working for me, I will never again get involved in this line of work."
"Is this guarantee enough?"
Is it enough?
That's enough! That's enough!
The lieutenant colonel clenched his fist, seizing this opportunity to soar into the sky:
"Commander Zhang, I believe in you!"
"The confessions that Team Leader Zhao brought were given to him by me—they were confessions from those arrested spies and agents who were trying to atone for their crimes. There were nine of them in total, involving all the intelligence agencies in Beiping!"
These quail-shaped secret service leaders all had one feeling right now:
numb!
My entire body, inside and out, was numb!
"interesting……"
Zhang Anping chuckled: "For the next few days, you'll stay at the Yandu Hotel—you've seen those testimonies, so you should be able to retell the gist of it!"
The lieutenant colonel quickly replied, "Yes! I can give you a rough summary!"
"Having a general idea is... enough!"
"Some things, once said... can never be taken back!"
"Zheng Yi, arrange for him to go to the Yandu Hotel. Transfer a team from the Special Operations Unit there for his close protection."
Zheng Yi stepped forward, gesturing for the other party to follow him. Only then did Zhang Anping turn his gaze to the group of quails before him, whom the others considered living devils:
"A very professional assassination technique—the bullet was even poisoned, it was a poison from the Secret Service."
"The five assassins wore gloves the entire time and left no fingerprints."
"The rickshaw... was robbed on the spot, and the driver was knocked unconscious and hidden."
He recounted the case slowly, his voice devoid of anger, as calm as a machine repeating itself:
“Unfamiliar faces have been found in various places around the crime scene – five people have been identified so far. At the tavern, there is a new customer who ordered this drink.”
Zhang Anping slowly pushed the wine bowl to the table closest to the group:
"But it's filled with water—the tavern owner said they cater to regular customers and wouldn't sell inferior goods or water."
In other words, these unfamiliar faces, including the drinkers who ordered the wine but secretly replaced it with water, are actually another group of killers!
This small detail reveals the assassin's professionalism.
The assassination involved two groups of people: one group carried out the operation directly, while the other group remained in the shadows to clean up the mess or deal with any unexpected situations.
Professional assassination, a professional cleanup team, plus the Secret Service's unique poisons...
All the clues point to one target:
Secret Service!
Within the entire intelligence system, only the Bureau of Investigation and Statistics (BIS) is professional in assassination, a fact that cannot be denied—Zhang Anping's account reveals that the assassination operation was entirely in the BIS's vein.
A professional flavor.
After understanding the subtext of Zhang Anping's words, everyone immediately turned from quails into ostriches, wishing they could bury their heads in the ground.
why?
Because... the current Beiping Station is no longer in use!
The top brass of the Beiping station had already been captured. Many of the middle-level officers were under the supervision of the Special Higher Police, and even those who were still outside were now doing "hard work" for their respective units. Even a fool would know that the Beiping station of the Bureau of Investigation and Statistics was not capable of planning and carrying out assassinations.
But ironically, this was done by the Bureau of Investigation and Statistics—countless pieces of evidence point to the Bureau of Investigation and Statistics as the culprit.
So, why?
There is only one explanation:
They came for Zhang Anping!
Why don't they bury their heads in the ground now, or are they going to raise them up and wait for Zhang Anping to chop them off with a knife?
Zhang Anping stood up, without any storm brewing or anger, and simply said:
"I want to see the head of the real culprit in five days."
Zheng Yi, who had retreated to the side with the lieutenant colonel, glanced at Zhang Anping very subtly—reason told her:
100%!
There is a 100% chance that this was Zhang Anping's scheme—Zhao Li was secretly chosen by Zhang Anping from the very beginning, and the previous pressure was all to make Zhao Li rush to see him in order to protect himself after the "conflict" broke out.
There was no threat within the five-day timeframe.
It wasn't said what would happen in five days, but the fact that the military police lieutenant colonel was taken away and placed under protection speaks volumes!
Watching Zhang Anping leave, who showed no sign of anger, the group of secret agents finally managed to catch their breath—and upon closer inspection, they belatedly realized that they were completely soaked!
Director Yan was in the same situation, even though he immediately realized that it was the work of his comrade after the news of Zhao Li's assassination came.
But when faced with Zhang Anping, who was brimming with rage yet holding it back, he was still drenched in cold sweat!
Now that Zhang Anping is gone, he has finally "come back to life"—just now, he dared not think or ponder in his true identity, and could only face Zhang Anping directly as a senior officer of the Second Bureau.
Only now does he dare to "activate" his true identity.
[Brilliant! Comrade Chongwen's move was truly brilliant! First, he used the Party's intelligence bureau as a pawn, forcing all the intelligence agencies to tear each other apart. Finally, with a stroke of genius, he assassinated Zhao Li, putting Zhang Anping in a state of extreme rage. With such a series of maneuvers, the entire intelligence agency in Beiping can only now, without a doubt, scrutinize their "friendly forces" with suspicion.]
Dogs fighting is inevitable, and the only possibility!
[They won't find anything in five days! That will inevitably ignite Zhang Anping's pent-up anger—and then the Beiping intelligence agency will likely be unable to recover for some time!]
Director Yan was deeply moved. As an underground party member, he had never cared about his life or death since he chose this belief. Logically speaking, he would not be afraid of any enemy. How could someone who does not care about his own life or death be afraid of the enemy?
But Zhang Anping is different.
He wasn't afraid that Zhang Anping would harm him, but he was afraid that Zhang Anping would use his hands to arrest one by one the comrades who were fighting for their ideals and were about to see the sunrise. He was afraid that the situation for which countless comrades were working hard would collapse with a gentle push from Zhang Anping.
Victory will surely belong to us—but what if we suffer hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands more casualties because of this one person?
But now?
When Sister Qian's plan was revealed to him, he realized that the so-called famous Zhang Shihou was, in the end, just like those stubborn enemies, not invincible!
Forcibly suppressing his surging and agitated emotions, Director Yan glared fiercely at these despised secret service leaders:
"Once I find the mastermind behind this..."
"He must learn what regret is!"
……
Zheng Yi seemed to have forgotten her previous "confrontation" with Zhang Anping and continued to play the role of her secretary—but when faced with what was happening in the Beiping secret service system at this time, she couldn't help but look at it from the perspective of the underground party.
The intelligence system in Beiping is in complete chaos!
This was something Zheng Yi was certain of after Zhao Li was assassinated—and the facts were just as she had predicted. Faced with Zhang Anping's five-day deadline, the heads of various intelligence agencies were frantically searching for the real culprit. Every day, there were reports of agents from various intelligence agencies going missing, as well as reports of intelligence agencies raiding mysterious strongholds and rescuing their own agents who had been secretly captured.
The chaos is beyond description!
As the five-day deadline approached, the various intelligence agencies went into overdrive, with the "secret arrests" of friendly agents escalating into shootings—at least 11 professional agents died in the firefight between the evening of the fourth day and the morning of the fifth day alone. The word "at least" is used because more than twenty people died in the shootings that night, but the remaining bodies remained unclaimed, and no one claimed responsibility—yet it was clear to everyone that these unclaimed bodies were also the most elite agents of their respective agencies!
Logically speaking, with Zhang Anping in charge of Beiping, it would have been highly unlikely that such an out-of-control situation would have occurred.
But it just so happened!
There is only one reason:
Zhang Anping has temporarily left Beiping!
Yes, at this critical juncture, he left Beiping and headed to Tanggu Port.
His purpose was to prepare for the aid to Xu.
At the previous military meeting of the General Headquarters for the Suppression of Enemy Suspects, the aid to Xuzhou was just one step away from being completed, but because Zhang Anping made a statement about "strategic deception," Fu Huabei used this as a pretext to directly halt the aid to Xuzhou.
However, the battle between Xuzhou and Bengbu was already extremely fierce. Huang Yi Corps was trapped in Nianzhuangwei, and the tone of the telegrams requesting help became more and more humble. At this time, the Nationalist government once again ordered the North China Suppression Headquarters to send reinforcements to Xuzhou.
Seeing the situation, Fu Huabei planned to let Zhang Anping continue to take the blame and bring up the theory of strategic deception again at the military affairs conference.
But having learned his lesson, this time Zhang Anping went straight for the kill:
According to reliable intelligence, the Communist army in Northeast China is currently resting and will not be able to enter the pass within three months—there is no strategic deception involved!
Now Fu Huabei had no reason to delay, so he could only continue organizing sea transport according to his previous decision.
Zhang Anping volunteered to go to Tanggu to prepare for the shipping.
Originally, the plan was to send the reinforcements to Xuzhou directly to Lianyungang and then support Xuzhou via the railway. However, Lianyungang was liberated by our army during this period, so the North China Suppression Headquarters had to change its route and, after careful consideration, chose to land in Shanghai.
In other words, the advance troops would first be transported by sea from Tanggu to Shanghai, then transferred to inland waterway vessels to travel along the Yangtze River to Pukou, and finally travel the last 300 kilometers by a combination of rail and land routes—a journey that would take at least six days—before reaching Xuzhou.
However, this was a last resort. The fall of Lianyungang meant that the relief efforts for Xuzhou could not be completed quickly. If they chose to land in Qingdao or Yantai and send reinforcements along the railway, firstly, there would be a severe shortage of transport capacity, and secondly, the guerrillas would sabotage the railway along the way. On paper, it might take a day to travel, but in practice, it would definitely take half a month to reach Xuzhou.
Therefore, the established waterway became the only option—although it might take about seven or eight days for this support force to arrive completely.
Zhang Anping volunteered because he could contact the Shanghai Security Station to cooperate with the work, and he could also be stationed at Tanggu Port to help speed up the transshipment process.
Of course, this also carries the implication of redeeming oneself through meritorious service.
Huh?
To atone for one's sins with meritorious deeds?
In short, it was precisely because Zhang Anping was not in Beiping at the crucial moment that the intelligence agencies in Beiping were thrown into chaos.
……
The fifth day, the last day of Zhang Anping's deadline.
Director Zhang of the Beiping branch of the Party Communications Bureau, who hadn't slept all night, stared blankly at the "battle report" in his hand with bloodshot eyes.
Something's not right!
In just one night, 13 secret agents were killed at the Beiping Party Headquarters.
The one who did this dirty work must be an ally, but... this dirty work is so dirty it's unbelievable, so dirty that Director Zhang instinctively felt something was wrong.
The Kuomintang had many intelligence agencies, but no matter what, the Bureau of Investigation and Statistics, the Party's Information Bureau, and the Second Bureau were the real intelligence agencies; the others were just inferior ones.
At the beginning of the War of Resistance against Japan, the Central Bureau of Investigation and Statistics (CBIS), which had not yet been renamed, suffered from the fact that its spies were not completely concealed. Therefore, the current Party Information Bureau (BIS) is similar to the Bureau of Investigation and Statistics (BIS) in that a large number of its spies do not have identification or credentials.
They hid it very well!
Hidden so deep, yet 13 people died in one night—is this some kind of ghost story?
Upon further investigation, the Party's intelligence bureau secretly shot two friendly agents last night—what? Only two?
Director Zhang's pupils suddenly contracted.
They've joined forces!
Those bastards have teamed up to try and shift the blame to the Beiping Party Headquarters!
Upon realizing this possibility, Director Zhang felt as if he had been struck by lightning.
Although the crackdown on secret arrests in the past few days was started by his party branch, the shooting had nothing to do with him. He was implicated and had to secretly shoot some bastards from friendly forces. How come those bastards suddenly joined forces to try to pin the blame on the party branch in Beiping?
"You want me dead?!"
"You...you wish!"
Director Zhang's eyes turned even redder; did he want to hand my head over to Zhang Anping?
You're dreaming!
He clenched his fists, ready to fight to the death—at worst, I'll make a big scene and get to the top, then let's see if you can still pin the blame on me!
After taking a deep breath, Director Zhang picked up the phone with a ferocious expression. Just as he was about to dial, a trusted aide burst in, holding a piece of paper that looked like a leaflet, his face full of excitement.
"Chief! We've found him! The real culprit has been found!"
Director Zhang glared at his subordinates with murderous eyes—Are you excited that you've found the "real culprit"?
idiot!
Next, we will definitely follow the clues and find that the real culprit is the Party's intelligence bureau!
Director Zhang's murderous gaze stunned his subordinates, and countless thoughts raced through their minds:
The director is unhappy... The director is very angry...
Director... could it be...?
Seeing his subordinate standing there like a block of wood, Director Zhang was nearly driven mad with anger: "Useless trash! Give it to me!"
He snatched the paper and quickly scanned it.
Hey, it really is a leaflet, and it's even a leaflet from the underground Communist Party!
Upon reading the content again, Director Zhang's already wide-eyed eyes widened even more!
The leaflet was filled with incriminating information about the Second Division of the North China Suppression Headquarters.
What about collusion with traitors and remnants, smuggling arms, reselling military rations, collusion between power and criminal elements...
Director Zhang was dumbfounded. Weren't they going to team up and pin the blame on me?
How... how did the underground party suddenly emerge?
Based on the content above, doesn't that mean that it was the underground party that attacked Zhao Li?
"That was close!"
The bloodshot in Director Zhang's eyes faded, and after wiping the sweat from his forehead, he suddenly burst into laughter:
"Haha, you bunch of scoundrels, you never thought the underground party would save Zhang's life at such a crucial moment!"
His subordinates, however, had become like quails:
Oh no, I've heard some really shocking dirt on you, I'm doomed...
……
Director Zhang's guess was correct; the intelligence agencies had indeed joined forces to pin the blame on the Beiping Party Headquarters.
But at the crucial moment, the underground party members stepped forward.
Flyers are flying everywhere!
Countless leaflets were scattered across Beiping and Tianjin, and the contents of these leaflets were shockingly revealing all sorts of dirty secrets about the Beiping intelligence agencies.
From the time the Japanese took over Beijing and Tianjin until now, all the dirt on the intelligence agencies in Beiping has appeared on leaflets one after another—there was too much content to fit on one leaflet, so it had to be divided into six parts and twelve sheets. Some enthusiasts even compiled a whole set of these leaflets...
The underground party's leaflets were distributed uniformly starting around 4:00 AM. At that time, various intelligence agencies were already operating rapidly. They noticed the underground party's activities and initially intended to stop them, but the heads of the various intelligence agencies changed their minds:
If these leaflets aren't distributed, how can we prove that the mastermind is the underground Communist Party?
Although I'm mentioned in the exposé, I'm only one-sixth of the total. What's the panic?
Let him expose it!
Everyone has a scandal, but that doesn't mean nobody has one!
Furthermore, if I were to stop them, wouldn't that prove I have a guilty conscience?
It was precisely because of these considerations that the various intelligence agencies collectively ignored the underground party's distribution of leaflets, and some even secretly encouraged it.
It was precisely because of their encouragement that flyers were flying everywhere.
As a result, the people of the Beijing-Tianjin area woke up to a sudden realization of the corruption of the Nationalist government through leaflets that were flying everywhere.
This time, a large number of KMT soldiers also learned through word of mouth just how corrupt the so-called party-state really was.
The most intuitive example:
During the eight-year War of Resistance against Japan, the Chinese people and the Japanese forged a blood feud that even a fat man and a little boy could not erase. As a result, after the victory of the War of Resistance, the intelligence agencies secretly cooperated with the Japanese intelligence agencies.
Secret service agencies and bureaucrats actually colluded with traitors, whitewashing a large number of traitors and allowing these traitors to continue to ride on the people and bleed them dry as masters.
You all shout that you want to suppress the Communists, but you all end up selling weapons, equipment, and military supplies to the underground party?
So, all this fighting and brawling, we soldiers were just idiots from beginning to end?
……
Tanggu Port.
Zhang Anping also didn't sleep all night.
However, he didn't sleep all night because of the angry raid—two days earlier, he had been contacting Shanghai to prepare inland waterway vessels while simultaneously recruiting ships in Tanggu to prepare for maritime aid to Xuzhou.
Today, just as the 50,000-strong army was about to board the ships, it was discovered that many of the civilian ships that had been requisitioned were actually loaded with valuables.
They're all hard currencies like gold and silver!
Enraged, Zhang Anping immediately ordered the Pacification Corps to seize the ships.
Just as he arrived at the scene to conduct the search and seizure, Zheng Yi rushed over with a stack of leaflets:
"District Chief, it's the underground Communist Party! The one who killed Team Leader Zhao was the underground Communist Party—look at these leaflets!"
Zhang Anping was taken aback at first, then took the flyer with an even darker expression and quickly scanned it.
But his movements became increasingly stiff, and in the end, he flipped through the flyers at an absurdly slow pace.
"Bastard!"
Suddenly, Zhang Anping roared in fury, slamming the leaflet in his hand to the ground. His angry shouts echoed from his mouth:
"What a brilliant tactic of using someone else to do the dirty work!"
"What a clever trick to muddy the waters!"
"But...where do you place the Party and the nation?"
"Do you have even the slightest bit of dignity for the Party and the State?"
"He deserves to die!"
Zheng Yi, who was standing to the side, was stunned. Why was the district commander reacting like this?
That shouldn't be happening!
The "you" he referred to were clearly the heads of the Beiping intelligence agency!
Why did he react this way?
After a long while, a look of realization flashed across his eyes.
She... completely understood this whole game!
Her gaze towards Zhang Anping was filled with an almost irrepressible...admiration. (End of Chapter)