Chapter 1007
Zhang Anping Wants to Take the Postgraduate Entrance Exam
Zhang Anping, who had taken a special train from Tanggu back to Beiping, went straight to his office building, the Yandu Hotel, as soon as he arrived.
Inside the Yandu Hotel, a group of leaders from the Beiping secret service had been waiting for five or six hours. Perhaps because they hadn't slept the night before, they were all yawning incessantly. If someone were to barge in, they would think they had stumbled into an opium den.
At that moment, the conference room door was kicked open, and Zhang Anping, his face frosty, walked into the conference room—without any loud announcement, he was simply forced open and appeared.
The temperature in the entire conference room seemed to drop ten degrees at that moment.
The group of secret service leaders, who had been yawning, couldn't help but shiver as they stood up.
A strange emotion suddenly arose at that moment.
They knew the reason they were waiting here was to give Zhang Anping an explanation:
Five days have passed, and we've found out who's behind this—now you can't exactly punish us, can you?
But for some reason, when Zhang Anping barged into the conference room and stormed in with an icy expression, they instinctively realized:
This trouble seems to have escalated!
After Zhang Anping walked to his seat and sat down, he did not, as was customary, scan everyone and gesture for them to sit down. Instead, he coldly spoke:
"You're being given one last chance—who is it?!"
Who is it?
What do you mean?
The group of secret service leaders looked at each other, not understanding for a moment why Zhang Anping was behaving this way.
Could it be... that they're trying to use this as an excuse to make trouble?
So they chose the "wisest" course of action, bowing their heads silently and without a word.
The attitude is clear: Go ahead and lash out, I'm just an ostrich!
Zhang An waited calmly, and as time passed, three minutes later, he angrily stood up:
"A disgrace to the Party and the nation!"
"Since that's the case, then don't blame me for being ruthless—Zheng Yi!"
"To!"
"Keep an eye on them!" Zhang Anping's murderous gaze finally swept across the faces of each of the secret service leaders, and then he said slowly and coldly:
"Anyone who wants to leave..."
"Kill without mercy!"
Zheng Yi responded loudly, "Yes!"
Her eyes were also filled with frost, as if she was disappointed to the leaders of these secret agents to the point of despair, and that despair gave rise to a strong murderous intent.
wrong!
The secret service leaders finally realized that Zhang Anping's angry departure didn't seem to be an excuse to cause trouble.
Taking advantage of the situation, one should usually reveal their true intentions at this point, but what about Zhang Anping?
He actually left?!
Why did he leave?!
So what exactly is he going to do?
Like everyone else, Director Yan's face was filled with deep doubt and unease, but his confusion was even greater than theirs.
Previously, he felt that the organization's plan this time was very clever, especially the assassination of Zhao Li in a way unique to the Bureau of Investigation and Statistics—this plan was enough to deepen the suspicion between the intelligence agencies in Beiping and make Zhang Shihao, the big spy, ruthlessly destroy the intelligence system.
Therefore, after obtaining Sister Qian's approval, he finally created an atmosphere of shifting the blame to the Beiping Party Headquarters through a strategy of alliances.
In his view, the Beiping Party Headquarters, unable to defend itself, would definitely be dealt with severely by Zhang Anping. After the Beiping Party Headquarters suffered a silent loss, he could secretly hand over the evidence of the alliance to the Beiping Party Headquarters. If the resentful Beiping Party Headquarters obtained this evidence, it would definitely launch a desperate counterattack.
At that point, it will truly be a dog-eat-dog situation, with everyone getting their hands dirty.
However, the organization only agreed to Lian Heng's suggestion to shift the blame to the Beiping Party Headquarters—it was thought that the organization had a brilliant plan, but what happened next?
They were handing out flyers!
This is just like trying to hide something obvious!
The situation, which could have allowed intelligence agencies to fight each other to the death, was so easily ruined.
This is puzzling enough in itself.
But Zhang Anping's reaction now puzzled him even more—logically speaking, Zhang Anping should have stopped at this point, since the underground party members had already "confessed".
But the result?
Zhang Anping not only did not stop, but became extremely angry!
Why is this happening?
It seems the organization's arrangement has a deeper meaning... but what exactly is that meaning?
Director Yan glanced around discreetly, confirming that the other intelligence chiefs, like himself, still looked completely bewildered.
can't read!
I really don't understand!
……
In present-day Beiping, far too many people want to ambush Zhang Anping.
Local officials, central army generals, Sui army generals, local tyrants, and wealthy merchants all wanted to entice Zhang Anping—they were willing to offer beautiful women and wealth, but they only had one request:
Please, have mercy and just ignore us!
Without this enormous wealth, they would truly be living a life worse than death!
Zhang Anping, who took a special train back from Tanggu, "disappeared" after a brief stop at the Yandu Hotel.
The "disappearance" was obviously a lie, because the secret agents in Beiping were all in action. As long as you went out on the street, you could run into several secret agents just by walking a couple of blocks.
But it's true that they couldn't find Zhang Anping—Zhang Anping seemed to have vanished into the city of Beiping as if he had disappeared into thin air.
……
A group of Central Army soldiers arrived and gathered again:
"What is this guy trying to do?"
"Is he deliberately avoiding us?"
"It's definitely because he doesn't want to reconcile with us!"
A high-ranking officer in the Central Military Commission revealed a murderous glint in his eyes: "That Zhang fellow is trying to rip out our lifeline!"
Unfortunately, no one echoed his sentiments. Although it is said that whoever has the most soldiers is king, Zhang Anping was no ordinary man. Moreover, his opponents had the Pacification Corps under their command and the absolute trust of the Chief of Staff behind them.
Solving the problem by force will have endless consequences—even becoming a wealthy man will be impossible then.
At this moment, someone hesitated before speaking:
"The situation is a bit strange—the head of the intelligence agency in Beiping is now being held in the Yandu Hotel, but the intelligence agents in Beiping are not only not in disarray, but have actually been mobilized. This is... somewhat outrageous."
They were commanders, and they understood one principle well:
An army without a leader is just a disorganized mess.
The various intelligence agencies in Beiping were like armies—now that the leaders of these armies had been detained, the intelligence agencies were not in chaos; on the contrary, they were all mobilized. This was somewhat absurd.
"There's nothing incomprehensible about it—when the Military Intelligence Bureau was reorganized, many agents were laid off. Now, the backbone of the Kuomintang's intelligence system, apart from the Party's Intelligence Bureau, is more or less connected with the former Military Intelligence Bureau."
Although the Party's intelligence bureau did not incorporate agents from the Military Intelligence Bureau, it had previously exchanged cadres with the Bureau of Investigation and Statistics several times, so it still had a few agents who came from the Military Intelligence Bureau.
With the cooperation of these people, commanding the intelligence agencies in Beiping would be no problem for him.
While these words were an explanation of the previous issues, they also served as a warning to some people—Zhang Anping is no ordinary spy, and you'd better not try to take any shortcuts for a few dirty bucks.
This is someone you can't just move with your words!
"Are we just going to let him hide like this? If he continues to hide, it won't be good for us!"
"Go ahead and search! Beiping is such a small place, with hundreds of thousands of troops stationed there. How long can he hide?"
Some generals were still indignant, but seeing that no one had made a decisive move after everyone gathered together, they dared not take the huge risk of going to extremes.
Ultimately, while being broke is worse than death, death is still more terrifying than being broke.
The generals of the Central Army "compromised" and chose to continue searching for Zhang Anping, but the generals of the Sui Army were not happy about it.
Are you trying to avoid us?
Are you kidding me?
You freaking don't know who the King of North China is, do you?!
After a brief meeting, a group of generals decided to seek justice from Fu Huabei.
Ultimately, Fu Huabei was the real King of North China, a warlord who could withstand several troop deployments by the Nanjing Nationalist Government. Since Zhang Anping was avoiding him, they might as well ask Fu Huabei to step forward.
We didn't dare to directly "take" the money from Tanggu Port, but as soon as Fu Huabei stepped in, we didn't even need to inform Zhang Anping; he solved the problem at its root!
As a result, a group of Sui Army generals appeared at the North China Suppression Headquarters.
But then an unexpected thing happened—it disappeared!
That's right, Fu Huabei chose not to see her!
Inside the office, Fu Huabei was staring blankly at a set of data.
This data has a name:
Tanggu valuation after deducting financial indicators. The data above is:
42 taels of gold, equivalent to US$1470 million;
180 million taels of silver, 460 million silver dollars, all converted to 26 taels of gold, or 910 million US dollars;
Jewelry, jade, diamonds, etc., are worth approximately 12 taels of gold, or 420 million US dollars.
Antiques, calligraphy and paintings, cultural relics, rare books, and former imperial collections, valued at 8 taels of gold, or approximately US$280 million (seriously underestimated).
Ultimately, this amounted to approximately 88 taels of gold, or about 3100 million US dollars.
$3100 million – Fu Huabei has seen countless figures larger than that.
For example, the annual funding for a large army of hundreds of thousands in North China would be double this figure.
If the total value of the weapons and equipment of the entire North China army were to be estimated, this number would be ten times higher.
The problem is that he doesn't have that much wealth on hand right now!
The problem is that he was planning to retreat westward—once the Northeast Field Army entered the pass, he intended to retreat westward!
The allure of this money to him is self-evident—Suiyuan and Chahar are impoverished, and it's difficult to support tens of thousands of troops. But with this money, his 200,000 elite troops could retreat to Suiyuan and hold out for at least two more years!
Two years is capital, it's confidence!
After a long while, Fu Huabei slowly put down the data and then asked his secretary:
Where is he now?
"He disappeared—he stayed at the Yandu Hotel for a while and then disappeared. We can't contact him, but all the secret agents in Beiping are mobilized and are investigating something."
What are you investigating?
Fu Huabei frowned. What kind of trouble was he causing?
Having accomplished something so significant, how could he simply "disappear"?
"What were the other people's reactions?"
The secretary replied:
"The Central Army held two meetings in half a day. We're like ants on a hot plate here too. The local areas are also in chaos. We've already turned away more than a dozen groups of people who wanted to see you."
Fu Huabei pondered for a moment and then gave instructions: "Tell Chen to send a division to garrison Tanggu—as long as he doesn't intend to send the money away, there's no need to worry about it."
"By the way, could you convey my stance?"
I can't be bothered with such sordid matters!
The secretary respectfully agreed, and after he left, Fu Huabei couldn't help but look at the paper on the table again.
Though the paper is thin, the contents it records weigh more than a thousand pounds!
After a long while, he sighed softly:
"No wonder he always calls him 'little guy'..."
"He was a soldier who was extremely loyal to his country. What a pity, what a pity..."
……
When Li Yunlong attacked Ping'an County, the entire northwestern Shanxi was thrown into chaos.
Now, Zhang Anping has inspected several ships, and the entire city of Beiping is in complete chaos.
The only difference is that after Li Yunlong finished attacking Ping'an County, he said confidently: "They raided my regimental headquarters, so I dug up their roots" (fictional version).
Zhang Anping, however, paid no attention to the turmoil he had stirred up; instead, he was investigating the "case."
After settling into the Yandu Hotel, Zheng Yi stayed by Zhang Anping's side, organizing intelligence reports for him.
As more and more intelligence and confessions came in, Zheng Yi became completely numb.
What's in these intelligence reports and confessions?
In the early hours of the morning, the underground party distributed leaflets—the investigation department, the inspection team, the second bureau, the party headquarters, the garrison department, and all sorts of messy intelligence agencies not only witnessed it, but also gave it the green light.
That's not all; some spies even kindly helped the underground party distribute leaflets!
It's not that they're communists; they just received orders—orders from their superiors!
At the same time, some other extremely shocking information was also collected:
All intelligence agencies, including the Beiping Party Headquarters, were actually working together to shift the blame onto the Beiping Party Headquarters, trying to portray them as the real culprit in Zhao Li's assassination—yes, that includes the Beiping Party Headquarters itself.
The overwhelming amount of information left Zheng Yi completely numb.
All this information seems to confirm one thing:
The assassin who killed Zhao Li was not a member of the underground Communist Party;
The underground party members were used as pawns and "inexplicably" obtained Zhao Li's confession—because of some procurement information and students' confessions, it was determined that the underground party had urgently and on a large scale printed leaflets only three days prior.
If Zhao Li was assassinated by the underground Communist Party, the printing of leaflets would definitely have been done two days in advance.
But Zheng Yi knew the truth better than anyone else!
Looking at all the intelligence she has now, there is no trace of Zhang Anping at all. On the contrary, it all confirms Zhang Anping's grief-stricken roar at Tanggu Port this morning!
After reviewing the events in her mind, she came to the following conclusion:
Zhang Anping simply gave it a timely, gentle push, and then, the avalanche began!
However, the direction and scale of the avalanche followed Zhang Anping's script exactly.
This is truly terrifying!
This inevitably brings to mind the city-wide search for Zhang Anping—presumably, in the eyes of the district commander, the city-wide search for him was truly insignificant.
Using the methods of the district commander, he seized...
Zheng Yi suddenly paused, stopped what he was doing, and gave Zhang Anping a very subtle look:
Could it be that District Chief was secretly organizing the transport of such a huge fortune by these gluttons through the southward evacuation fleet?
Seemingly noticing Zheng Yi's gaze, Zhang Anping approached Zheng Yi with a cold expression:
"How's the intelligence gathering going?"
"It will be finished soon."
Zhang Anping countered, "Is the information sufficient?"
That's enough!
Is that enough?
A fleeting, cold smile appeared on Zhang Anping's lips, and then he said:
"Have someone take all the intelligence with them. We're going to the Yandu Hotel!"
Zheng Yi didn't believe that Zhang Anping couldn't even control his own expression, so this cold smile that was only shown to him was clearly a response to his earlier gaze.
He's admitting it!
Zheng Yi felt a warm feeling in her heart.
So she answered loudly:
"Yes!"
……
Yandu Hotel.
As Zhang Anping got out of the car, countless eyes suddenly lit up in the darkening night, like a pack of wolves.
coming! he came!
And so, countless messages were sent out simultaneously, and countless waiting dignitaries, upon receiving them, shouted without hesitation at the continuously moving car:
"Get ready to go to Yandu Hotel!"
But Zhang Anping seemed unaware of the turmoil his appearance would cause. At this moment, he was like a block of ice that had never melted for a thousand years, slowly walking into the Yandu Hotel.
Their steps were slow and extremely heavy.
The guards at the gate couldn't help but shudder after Zhang Anping passed by.
They seemed to see a scene of blood flowing like a river.
They dared not move their heads, but their peripheral vision followed Zhang Anping's footsteps, filled with anticipation for what was to come.
Step by step.
Like a snow-capped mountain about to collapse, or a mudslide about to overturn and sweep everything away, Zhang Anping finally reached the door of the conference room.
There was still no report, but the moment the conference room door opened, the heavy smell of smoke inside was overwhelmed by an inexplicable aura, and it all "collapsed".
The conference room fell into a deathly silence. The secret service leaders who had been laughing and cursing just moments before all fell silent, looking as if they were trembling with fear.
"I gave you a chance."
This time, Zhang Anping did not sit down, but stood and scanned all the secret service leaders.
"But you all think I wouldn't dare to kill someone, right?"
He reached out but didn't say anything, while Zheng Yi handed a stack of papers to Zhang Anping.
"Is this what the Party-state's intelligence agencies do?"
Snapped!
A stack of papers was slammed onto the conference table, followed by a roar:
"I can't believe it! The Party-state's spies not only ignored the Communists handing out leaflets, but actually kindly helped them distribute them!"
This is an eye-opener! The Kuomintang's intelligence agencies were secretly giving away printed materials to the underground Communist Party at low prices or even for free!
Outrageous! The Party-state's intelligence agencies are openly framing each other!
This is mind-blowing! Has the Party-state's intelligence agency been absorbed into the Communist Party?
When?! (End of Chapter)