met free Chapter 62 A Web of Hidden Clues
Chapter 62 A Web of Hidden Clues
Zhao Lie led six team members, three of whom were newcomers. The three had just changed into rough cloth short jackets for porters, their faces smeared with dust, and mingled with the crowd at the dock.
"Brother Zhao, the cargo ship flying the Rising Sun Flag on the east side has just docked, and more than twenty Japanese guards have disembarked, all carrying rifles," Lin Xiaoman reported in a low voice, squatting next to a pile of sacks.
Zhao Lie nodded and walked towards the warehouse's accounting office.
The accountant was one of their own. When the two men came in, he calmly handed them a worn-out account book.
Zhao Lie flipped through the account book. "The boss asked, 'Should we put the new goods into storage?'"
"Let it air out first, it's too damp." The accountant replied cryptically, meaning that the Japanese guards were on high alert and it was not advisable to approach for the time being.
No sooner had he finished speaking than two Japanese soldiers kicked the door open and barked in, shouting in broken Chinese, "What are you doing? Show me your identification!"
Fang Xiao reacted quickly, immediately handing over the fake accounting documents she had prepared in advance, and said with a smile, "Sir, we are in charge of the accounts, we will check the goods right away."
Zhao Lie lowered his head, his fingers waving wildly, as if he were quite frightened.
The Japanese soldiers flipped through the receipts, sized up the two men for a while, and seeing that they were dressed in tattered clothes and looked terrified, they left cursing.
"That was close." After the Japanese soldiers left, Fang Xiao wiped the sweat from his forehead.
Zhao Lie said in a deep voice, "They are checking each house. Notify Xiaoman and Awu to change their location for surveillance, use coded messages, and don't show yourselves."
Meanwhile, Su Ling's team had already positioned themselves near the tailor shop's hidden radio station.
The tailor shop owner was an elderly man with white hair, slowly pedaling the sewing machine.
Shen Yanqing was adjusting the equipment, with three newcomers around him: Song Jia, who was good at decoding; Li Mo, who specialized in frequency hopping tracking; and Chen Yue, who was responsible for recording and summarizing.
"Sister Su, we've found the frequency of the Japanese Shanghai Expeditionary Army, but the signal is very weak, as if it's been jammed." Li Mo frowned, his fingers rapidly turning on the knob.
He wears enhanced headphones that help him better detect faint radio waves.
Su Ling leaned closer: "Kobayashi Kaoru's telecommunications class is best at frequency hopping jamming. Have the new recruits take turns watching over it, half an hour each, and make sure they don't miss any keywords."
On their table lay the codebooks of various Japanese departments, which Yan Shuo had secretly photographed and copied. This was the basis for Yan Shuo's Red Bean Squad to be included in the strategic squad.
Su Ling initially thought of sending these codebooks to the headquarters in Shancheng, but Yan Shuo retorted that the Japanese army changed their codebooks every half month or a month, and she didn't know how she could send them over. Su Ling blushed.
Yes, it's thousands of miles from Chongqing to Shanghai. By the time the codebook arrives, it'll probably be too late, and it might even alert Japanese spies. Anyway, our team has its own code, so we can just send a coded message directly to headquarters. It'll just be a bit more work for our own people.
It's important to know that the Red Bean Squad's telegrams were personally translated by Tang Zong, and the codebook was locked directly in Dai Li's office safe. Anyone who could translate and intercept the Red Bean Squad's telegrams would have to break the code.
Unfortunately, Yan Shuo, from a century later, was far more cunning than them. He changed the code every two weeks, and each time he sent a different person to headquarters to personally deliver the codebook draft. Then he would agree on the new code structure with headquarters. Who the hell could decipher that? It was even more secret than the Japanese army's.
You should know that various countries have piled up several large repositories of old ciphers that have been used. Each cipher has a different compilation method, and they are abandoned after less than half a month of use. Then they are left in the repository for you to crack.
For example, the US embassy and consulates in Shanghai have a warehouse filled with several boxes of abandoned codebooks. It's only been a few years, but if war breaks out, who knows how many times they'll have to change them. It's probably possible to change them every three days or once a week. They have machines similar to Engel's machine, where changing a few steps of the pin codes creates a new codebook. Try to crack it.
How can a human possibly outperform a machine?
Song Jia took over Li Mo's position, listened to the radio waves, and slid her pencil rapidly.
Suddenly, she stopped, her expression changing slightly: "Sister Su, we intercepted the sentence 'Imai... has arrived at... the hotel,' and then the signal dropped."
"Keep watching! We must find out the hotel's name!" Su Ling said gravely.
Just then, the sound of leather shoes tapping on the ground came from outside the shop, getting closer and closer.
Shen Yanqing immediately turned off the radio, while the old man picked up a half-finished cheongsam and said loudly, "Young lady, the buttons on this cheongsam need to be remade; they're too loose."
Su Ling and the others immediately cooperated by arranging the fabrics, pretending to be customers selecting clothes.
The two men who arrived were plainclothes officers who claimed to be from the 76th Division and wanted to inspect the tailor shop.
The old man calmly handed over his documents, smiling as he said, "Sir, my little shop only does needlework; there's nothing suspicious about it."
The plainclothes officers searched the area but found nothing unusual. They questioned the officers a few more times before leaving.
After they had gone far away, Li Mo turned the radio back on.
Gu Xiang's squad was stationed in the coffee shop opposite the Naval Intelligence Department.
After Gu Xiang sat down, his gaze fell through the glass window onto the entrance of the Naval Intelligence Department.
Among the new recruits he brought was a girl named Zhou Ting, who was skilled at seduction and intelligence gathering. At this moment, she was dressed as a fashionable female student, holding a cup of coffee, and loitering near the newsstand in front of the intelligence department.
"Brother Gu, two officers have come out. Judging from their shoulder insignia, they are a lieutenant colonel and a major."
While no one was paying attention to her, Zhou Ting, carrying a miniature walkie-talkie, whispered her report while smoothing her hair.
Even if a telecommunications detection vehicle could detect the signal from this revolutionary equipment, it would only be a current current of one or two seconds, as their channels were incompatible with those of walkie-talkies.
Furthermore, Yan Shuo even specified the range of the walkie-talkie to be within 500 meters. If he still gets caught under those conditions, then Yan Shuo is simply unlucky.
You can see the police car with your eyes at a distance of 500 meters. How stupid would you be to still get caught?
Gu Xiang overheard a fragment of the conversation: "...Add another squad to Lord Imai's security..."
Seeing the two Japanese officers suddenly walking towards the coffee shop, Zhou Ting pretended to twist her ankle, grabbed a nearby telephone pole for support, and looked at one of the officers with a pitiful expression: "Sir, could you help me?"
The major leaned closer with a lecherous grin. Zhou Ting thanked him while casually asking, "Sir, do you work here? There seem to be a lot of soldiers around. Is something wrong?" The major was about to speak when the lieutenant colonel interrupted him sharply and pulled him away quickly.
Zhou Ting secretly regretted it, but dared not ask any further questions. She slowly walked to the street corner and disappeared into the crowd.
When Huang Mo contacted the informant of the Mei Agency, they met at the alley entrance and encountered a patrol team from the Mei Agency.
The informant immediately pushed Huang Mo forward, saying, "Young man, why are you barging in like this? Get out of the way!"
Huang Mo understood immediately, pretended to be angry and walked away, but came back after circling around and picked up a crumpled piece of paper.
The note read: "Imai Tsubasa has arrived in Shanghai and is staying at the Huizhong Hotel on Jing'an Temple Road tonight. The Mei Agency has sent ten guards to protect him."