On the tenth day of the first lunar month, that is, February 20, 1937, the investigation into the shooting of Section Chief Xu and Station Master Shi reached a deadlock.
All the surveillance targets showed no movement, which once made Luo Qiwei wonder if there was something wrong with the direction of his investigation.
At this moment, the second group that went to investigate the villages near Liuzhuang came back. Following the instructions of the group leader Qian Ziming, they searched within a radius of 20 kilometers near Liuzhuang.
By the way, they eliminated a small group of bandits entrenched nearby and brought back a piece of shocking news.
There was nothing unusual about the villages close to Liuzhuang, but after a distance of ten kilometers, people began to disappear in those villages.
There were strong men, women, old people and children. Some of these people disappeared when they went to work in the fields, and some were at home. Early the next morning, the whole family disappeared.
Looking at Tian Jingbing, a member of the team who came to report, Luo Qiwei asked: "These people are missing, haven't they been reported?"
"Some people reported the case to the police station in the town, and the police also went to investigate, but there was no news."
Luo Qiwei tapped his fingers on the table and asked after a while: "Have you done any statistics? How many people are missing?"
"We did some calculations, and we can count about forty or fifty people."
"Forty or fifty people?" Luo Qiwei stood up from his seat immediately, stared at Tian Jingbing and asked: "Then are there any clues about the whereabouts of these people?"
Seeing the look in the section chief's eyes, even though it was winter and it was still snowing outside, Tian Jingbing couldn't help but sweat broke out on his forehead.
He said with some anxiety: "No, these people disappeared completely, leaving no clues."
After letting him leave, Luo Qiwei sat alone behind his desk and suddenly saw the intelligence reported by Wu Long from the group two days ago.
In that pit, nearly a hundred corpses were probably cleared out, but because they were all burned by the fire, no other clues were found.
Wait, the police department is better at finding missing persons than they are.
As soon as he thought of it, Luo Qiwei made a phone call to Xiong Cheng and briefly explained the situation he had found on the phone.
Xiong Cheng said that he would be given half a day to compile the information on the entire Peiping police system and meet at Dongxing Building at three o'clock in the afternoon.
After hanging up the phone, Luo Qiwei looked at the time. It was still more than five hours before four o'clock in the afternoon.
When he changed his clothes and was about to go out, Gu Qiaofeng suddenly came over and said: "Section Chief, we just monitored a mysterious code. When the investigators were about to follow it, the other party suddenly disappeared without a trace."
"Can you roughly tell which area it is?"
"It should be in the south of the city, but the specific location cannot be traced because the time is too short."
"Well, from now on, you will lead a few people to the secret stronghold in the south of the city. Once you track this mysterious code, take action immediately."
"yes."
Gu Qiaofeng saluted, and before leaving, handed Luo Qiwei a top-secret message.
After she left, Luo Qiwei returned to the office and translated the telegram. He broke into a cold sweat when he saw what Director Dai had ordered in the telegram.
He hurriedly put away the message, walked out of the investigation department, hailed a rickshaw nearby, and headed for Cinder Alley.
After arriving at the location and waiting for the coachman to leave, he entered the Yi Family Teahouse.
At this time, the teahouse was bustling with people, with mixed voices, including those playing cards, bragging, and telling jokes.
Luo Qiwei glanced at these people, walked to the counter, looked at the busy shopkeeper and said: "February Maojian, give me a pot."
"Sir, there is no Maojian. There is only a big bowl of tea here."
"But I only like to drink Maojian."
"Then I'll take you in and ask if you have any?"
After saying that, he turned around and walked towards the back room, and Luo Qiwei followed him in.
After walking two steps, the shopkeeper stopped, looked at Luo Qiwei and said, "Section Chief, that old man is indeed Japanese, his name is Tanaka Keiichi."
"My people personally saw him leading the Japanese army to burn those corpses that day."
"Where did you see these Japanese troops going?"
"My people tried to follow them, but they were thrown away, but it is certain that these people were heading to the nearby Kwantung Army camp."
"By the way, I saw a person wearing the uniform of your investigation department next to Keiichi Tanaka. He seemed to be Keiichi Tanaka's assistant."
Luo Qiwei nodded and said: "Okay, I understand. From now on, your people will secretly keep an eye on Xu Fuze."
The shopkeeper frowned and said, "He is the deputy director of Beiping Station. If he is discovered, my head will not be saved."
Seeing the look of the shopkeeper, Luo Qiwei immediately said: "This is Director Dai's order. See for yourself."
With that said, he showed the translated message to the shopkeeper for a look.
The shopkeeper nodded and said: "Since it is the director's order, we will carry it out."
With that, he sent Luo Qiwei out and said, "Sir, I told you we don't have Maojian here."
"Such a big teahouse, there's nothing like it." After saying that, he left angrily...
This teahouse was a secret contact point given to Luo Qiwei by Director Dai before leaving, and asked him to activate this contact point after arriving in Peiping.
This is a sleeper team, with a total of ten people. If two big bosses from the Peking City Intelligence Department were not assassinated together this time, Director Dai would not have allowed him to activate this team.
When they went to Liuzhuang that day, Luo Qiwei asked their people to follow him secretly, and finally found out that the old man who provided the information turned out to be Japanese.
Moreover, Japanese soldiers were able to infiltrate those places. It looked like the situation was really serious.
Moreover, Luo Qiwei didn't quite understand the surveillance of Deputy Station Director Xu this time, but Director Dai gave strict orders in the secret message, so he had no choice but to carry out the order.
And it can only be carried out by this latent group...
I looked at the time and saw that it was only about an hour before I met Xiong Cheng.
Luo Qiwei was walking on the street, looking around. At this time, the city of Beiping was still full of ancient charm, which was completely different from the high-rise buildings in later generations.
It is said that Peiping has a hutong culture. Along the way, Luo Qiwei saw a lot of large and small hutongs.
As we walked, we came to Dongxing Building, which we had agreed with Xiong Cheng. This is a very large restaurant and one of the famous eight buildings in Peiping.
After looking at the time, there were still ten minutes left, so it was already three o'clock. When Luo Qiwei was about to go in, the sound of a parking car sounded behind him.
Looking back, I saw Xiong Cheng parked the car on the side of the road and got out of the car.
Seeing Luo Qiwei, Xiong Cheng was also a little surprised, but he quickly came to his senses and the two entered Dongxing Building chatting and laughing.
The decoration inside made Luo Qiwei's eyes light up. Seeing that they had come in, the waiter hurriedly came up to greet them: "Master Xiong is here, and the private room has been reserved for you."
Under the guidance of the waiter, the two went to the box on the third floor...
