Chapter 620: Emergency Contact

"Seeking person: Wu Lao Er, third uncle from mother's side has come to visit, come quickly to Xinyi Hotel outside the North Station, third uncle is waiting for you."

*Fen Bao* is a local Shanghai newspaper, and it uses the Shanghai dialect. Workers on the secret front often use such local tabloids as a means of contact. There is no other reason; it is mainly because they are cheap, and no one would ever think of using *Shen Bao* to look for someone.

And using newspapers to pass messages does not necessarily mean looking for someone. One can also write articles, tell stories, or even agree on a specific headline in a certain news section of a certain edition, or even use different punctuation marks at the end of a sentence. The key lies in the "agreement"—this is human ingenuity.

Wang Yan wore a dark cyan long gown, yet he wore Western-style trousers, and his shoes were genuine leather, handmade British brogues; his hairstyle was a dashing slicked-back look. On his wrist, he wore a precious Swiss watch, while on his thumb was a full-green jade archer's ring inscribed by the Qianlong Emperor—a proper blend of East and West.

He sat with his legs crossed in his usual breakfast shop, eating his breakfast as extravagantly as ever. Among a stack of various newspapers, this message appeared before his eyes just like that, catching him off guard.

His gaze did not linger for even a second before he put down this local tabloid and turned to look at other newspapers.

At this time, another week had passed since moving into the Wang Tianyue Gongguan. The joint operation between the Loyal and Righteous National Salvation Army and the Red Party guerrillas still showed no signs of movement. He had no serious business to attend to; the Japanese had reduced the import and export tariffs, allowing his business with the French to return to its previous rhythm. Coupled with the Japanese compensation, which allowed them to sell popular pharmaceuticals, they remained in a state of being filled to the brim with profit.

In fact, during this period, as long as one had the ability to transport goods from overseas, whether it was large-scale dumping or hoarding for speculation, one could make money regardless of how it was sold; the only difference was how much. Many compradors today were engaged in the work of hoarding for speculation, frantically squeezing the wealth of the people in the Nationalist-controlled areas and the Soviet areas. Those who were filled to the brim with profit were the upper echelons of the Nationalist Party, those compradors, and the foreigners.

By comparison, Wang Yan was truly conscientious. He withstood the Frenchmen's intense greed; although the goods were still at a high price, he did not raise them too harshly. This indirectly led to many compradors in the Shanghai Bund having complaints about him, because Wang Yan's actions amounted to price suppression, causing them to earn much less.

But unfortunately, they did not have the guts to cause trouble for Wang Yan, because they would really lose their lives. Now, the big boss of the Green Gang who had defected to the Japanese, Zhang Xiaolin, who controlled every industry in the Shanghai Bund with tens of thousands of brothers under him, did not dare to pressure Wang Yan too much. Who did they think they were?

This is also why it is said that that damned old thing Lin Hongyuan betrayed Wang Yan, because if he hadn't brought the Japanese to Wang Yan, the Japanese would never have been able to see Wang Yan's face or speak to him. It wasn't that the Japanese hadn't visited Wang Yan before, but without exception, they were all given the cold shoulder; even if they sat across from Wang Yan, they had no room to speak. It was Lin Hongyuan who used his status as Wang Yan's elder and Wang Yan's reputation for loyalty in the Shanghai Bund to force him to agree. In such a situation, if Lin Hongyuan didn't die, who would?

Furthermore, the work of transporting supplies to the Soviet areas was also being done continuously, with large amounts of grain, cotton cloth, steel, medicine, and so on flowing into the Soviet areas. The Japanese turned a blind eye to these things; after all, at the root of it, doing business in China today, no matter who you do it with, there are only two final buyers: either the Nationalist Party or the Red Party. Compared to many national capitalists and red capitalists who played small tricks secretly, Wang Yan's open and aboveboard behavior was actually better.

And on the other hand, their Japanese goods were also among those being dumped. It was no different from a hundred years later; in fact, the voices shouting to boycott Japanese goods at this time were even louder, fiercer, and more intense. At this time, the money used to buy Japanese goods would truly become the guns and artillery that killed the soldiers fighting bravely on the front lines.

But in reality, whether it was the Nationalist-controlled areas or the Soviet areas, there were Japanese goods, and they were selling quite well. The only difference was that there were more in the Nationalist-controlled areas and very few in the Soviet areas. There was no other reason; it was just that the Nationalist-controlled areas had more territory and were wealthier, while the Soviet areas were all poor places.

This was truly a very sad thing, but one had to use them; one truly didn't have one's own, and even if one did, it had no competitiveness...

Chief Wang was greedy for money and lustful; he made a lot of money during the day, and he didn't delay playing with women at night. Besides maintaining a deep and friendly relationship with Wang Wang Manchun, he still went to the major dance halls in the Shanghai Bund to have fun with the dance hostesses who wanted to get into his bed. Of course, it wasn't just those dance hostesses; there were also some wealthy widows, as well as other wealthy young ladies who knew how to play.

Originally, when traditional ethics were flourishing, it didn't stop men and women from messing around. Now, under the impact of Western trends of thought, the fragmented Shanghai Bund was naturally even more chaotic. This is the human nature of men and women seeking novelty; it is not something that rules can forcibly control.

Wang Wang Manchun had been "slept into submission," and since she already had a mission, she didn't need Wang Yan to contact her. Every one, two, or three days, they would always have deep exchanges. In their words, there was no lack of guidance to probe for information, and Wang Yan would also say a few things casually, whether they were true or false, but there was never anything critical. In fact, he really didn't know any critical intelligence; he really didn't probe for those things; they were all bits and pieces heard during casual chats.

Wang Wang Manchun didn't care much either; Nantian Yoko had said that even if there was no intelligence, maintaining an intimate relationship and striving to win him over was very necessary. She was operating on the principle of grabbing a handful of grass while enjoying the ultimate heart-piercing pleasure. If there was some, that was good; if there wasn't, it didn't matter.

Although Wang Yan was flipping through the newspaper while eating, it was clear that his mind was not here at all.

His brain was running at high speed, recalling the bits and pieces that had happened recently, trying to find some useful information from the clues, thinking about why, after such a long time, the Shanghai underground party organization had adopted an emergency contact method to actively seek him out.

But he really hadn't thought about what kind of changes or losses the Shanghai underground party had encountered recently. Because of the silence, although there were actions, the overall activity of the various intelligence lines was not as good as before. Less action meant fewer mistakes, so in the past half month, the Special Higher Police Division had not made any substantial progress. Although they had caught some people, they were not key personnel, and they were all stronger than Xia Changguo, stubbornly persisting through torture until the organization discovered the need to retreat and transfer, successfully causing the intelligence line to be cut off in the Special Higher Police Division's underground interrogation room.

The Military Statistics Bureau's Shanghai intelligence station had also been relatively peaceful recently. Apart from the daily sanctioning of a few running dogs and traitors, there was no news of the Special Higher Police Division catching any key figures. Besides, the Military Statistics Bureau didn't have any relationship with the Red Party; even if the entire Shanghai station was wiped out, the Red Party would just mourn and sigh at the difficulty of operating behind enemy lines and absorb the experience and lessons. It was even less likely that they would contact him urgently because of the Military Statistics Bureau's affairs.

After thinking about it, he couldn't think of any major event that required emergency contact, so he stopped wasting effort thinking about it, waiting only for a detailed discussion in the evening to know.

Although Qi Si was a half-grown boy with a big appetite, his eating manners were not elegant at all, and he had long since wolfed down his food. He held a cigarette in his mouth across from him, picking up the newspapers Wang Yan had read to flip through. He didn't look at anything else, only at those gossip news and some novel stories and the like. He didn't care much about other national affairs.

Wang Yan finished his meal, wiped his mouth with a napkin, smoked another after-meal cigarette leisurely, drank some tea, and picked up the newspaper he hadn't read yet: "Finished eating, let's go."

Qi Si said "aye," straightened his small suit, and buttoned up the currently fashionable small nylon cap. This was bought for him by Wang Yan. From the wealthy young masters in the Shanghai Bund down to the little street urchins, everyone liked this kind of hat, and he was no exception. His big brother was generous, buying seven different styles in one go, letting him change one every day.

He trotted ahead to open the rear car door, and only after Wang Yan got into the car did he run to the driver's seat to get in. In fact, in the proper car-boarding process, he would have had to check the car chassis for bombs beforehand, but because they had just been sitting by the window, he had been keeping an eye on the car the whole time and hadn't seen any suspicious people lingering for long.

It must be said that Wang Yan was quite safe now, trusted by the French, maintaining an ambiguous relationship with the Japanese, and keeping a good relationship with the Military Statistics Bureau's Shanghai intelligence station. Although his identity as a Red Party member was unknown to others, he had never offended the Red Party and was simultaneously doing business openly and aboveboard with both parties. Apart from the cowardly compradors in the Shanghai Bund who had some business disputes, he had friends everywhere. Generally, no one had a reason to kill him; it was just caution for the sake of safety.

In fact, relying on his intuition for danger, he could sense if a deadly bomb had been planted on the car. This was something he had practiced over hundreds of years of martial arts, and even more so, something he had added points to with his spirit—a mysterious, divine, and clear feeling. It could be understood as a sixth sense that had been strengthened countless times, was very sensitive, and was triggered passively. If one were to speak in terms of religious cultivation, then he had cultivated a supernatural power.

Qi Si started the car but didn't drive away immediately. He looked in the rearview mirror at a group of little beggars running to the shop entrance to wait. Not long after, various packed breakfasts were brought out by the shopkeeper and handed to them, and then the group of little beggars hopped and skipped away in the warm sun of the spring morning, disappearing from sight.

No one dared to delay Chief Wang's kindness. After every extravagant meal, apart from a small portion taken away by the waiter, the rest was all handed over to the little beggars. And this group of little beggars had always been the group that Qi Si used to lead.

Wang Yan said with a smile: "What's wrong, feeling uncomfortable in your heart?"

"A little, they are too young, their thoughts are too simple. Now, apart from those few older ones who understand things, the rest of the younger ones are all cursing me for not being a good person, forgetting them once I had a future. Those few older ones, I see they have that thought too, but they are just trying their best to pretend so I don't see it. They are all little ungrateful wretches; they don't know my hidden bitterness..."

"Go to the police station!"

In this era, many people were born at the wrong time and were unable to control their own fate. The little schemes of a group of begging children were clearly not worth paying attention to.

Wang Yan routinely learned about the situation at the police station and held a meeting with the three captains under him to build rapport. Of course, it was mainly Fang Yuantu and Zhang Xian; he was slowly studying these two. The main thing was that he hadn't determined yet who exactly was the Japanese person.

Before Chen Jiangliu stepped down, he had asked once more. He was very sure that when Chen Jiangliu asked the several people about their attitude toward the Japanese, it was just a spur-of-the-moment thing. Afterward, he didn't call Lin Hongyuan to tip him off, let alone tell the Japanese directly what everyone's attitude was. So the problem must lie with Fang Yuantu and Zhang Xian, who were both captains at the time.

He wanted to separate this person out and then slowly play him to death, purifying his team of subordinates and, by the way, seizing the power of the two teams. As for the remaining one, it wouldn't matter much.

After holding a small meeting for his subordinates, Wang Yan went to the warehouse to understand the business operations and met with several cooperating merchants, and the day passed just like that. In the evening, he received a call from Wang Wang Manchun. This woman said she was having her period and that they would meet again after this period passed.

After another extravagant dinner, facing Qi Si's cheeky inquiry about where to spend the night, Wang Yan replied with "cultivating one's character," and Qi Si drove home in disappointment.

Ever since he had his first taste of meat, when he went out to play with Wang Yan, he could get permission to play for a night at least once a week. Having tasted the marrow, young people just didn't know how to exercise restraint; he was thinking about it and just wanted to enjoy the gentle comfort of a knowing older sister.

In the evening, when everyone had fallen asleep and there was no movement in the Wang Tianyue Gongguan, Wang Yan, who had long since washed up and gone to bed for a healthy sleep, quietly got up, found a set of clothes, changed into them, and tidied up. Wang Yan quietly climbed down from the third-floor window, using the cover of trees and pavilions to avoid the gatekeeper on night duty. He trotted to gain momentum, climbed the three-meter-high wall with both hands, and then relied on his powerful arm strength to support himself on the wall facing the barbed wire, in an ugly posture, without leaving any footprints on the wall.

He didn't linger on the wall for long, leaping directly with force, jumping over the barbed wire, controlling his body with excellent balance, and jumping down lightly from the three-meter-high wall, not even making much sound.

He hugged the darkness along the wall, sneaking all the way to Jing'an Temple Road in the International Settlement, entering an apartment on the top floor. He changed into clothes of a popular consumption level, rather than high-end custom-made ones, and then quickly applied makeup in front of the mirror, changing his facial features. He put on a pair of gold-rimmed glasses and took out a top hat, putting it on his disheveled hair, using the shadow of the hat brim to cover his face. After all this was done, he took out a cheap broken watch from his space, calibrated the time against the grandfather clock in the room, put it on his wrist, and left the apartment decisively.

After going downstairs, he unceremoniously "borrowed" a bicycle and then pedaled back to the French Concession, driving on Fuxu Road. He parked the bicycle in a corner, observed that there was no one around, walked in the alley behind, and arrived at the back door of Fuxing Pawnshop.

*Dong-dong-dong-dong-dong-dong*, he knocked on the tightly closed wooden door with two short, two long, two short knocks. The difference was that this time, he didn't leave.

Not long after, following a burst of footsteps, the tightly closed gate opened. Wang Yan flashed in quickly and followed Lu Boda silently into the study, which was lit by only a single desk lamp.

"Comrade Pei Min, it's been two years; we finally meet today." Lu Boda stretched out both hands, shaking Wang Yan's warm, large hands, which could even be called delicate but gave people a sense of strength.

"Comrade Jingzhe, hello." Wang Yan responded, turning his head to look at Liu Qiulan, who was following closely behind with tea, and greeted: "Hello, sister-in-law."

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Liu Qiulan nodded repeatedly: "You guys talk, I'll go keep watch."

Seeing Liu Qiulan leave, Lu Boda reached out and invited: "Come, Comrade Pei Min, sit down and talk."

Wang Yan nodded and sat on the sofa chair behind the desk lamp, pressing down the brim of his hat again. From entering the door until now, neither Lu Boda nor Liu Qiulan had seen Wang Yan's face clearly.

Lu Boda understood even more that not seeing the face clearly was a protection for both sides. He pushed the tea forward, cleared his throat, and said: "Knowing that it might be inconvenient for you, I'll make a long story short. It's like this, Comrade Pei Min, we received news that the Special Higher Police Division is going to collectively execute a group of anti-Japanese elements. Among them is a comrade of our Party who was originally responsible for confidential work in the JS Provincial Committee. His name is Feng Zhaochun. Unfortunately, he was secretly captured by the Japanese last year and later secretly transferred to the Shanghai Consulate, where he was secretly interrogated by the Shanghai Special Higher Police Division. Comrade Feng Zhaochun has a backbone of steel; he was steadfast and unyielding, swearing not to surrender even in death. He endured all kinds of torture, and in the end, the Japanese invaders had no choice but to put him on this collective execution list.

Such a tested communist fighter, we cannot just watch him be executed in vain. Therefore, after research, the organization decided to implement a rescue plan, and the Central Committee and the JS Provincial Committee also sent instructions to try our best to rescue him. In addition, I also contacted Comrade Enlai, requesting that you participate in this operation to bolster our comrades and increase the success rate of the rescue. The reply received was to let you decide independently according to the situation. On this point, you can go back and verify it yourself. Comrade Pei Min, what is your opinion?"

Lu Boda was also a veteran; the Shanghai underground party organization was the Shanghai Municipal Committee, which could basically be referenced to the status of Shanghai later. As the First Secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Committee, Lu Boda's rank was there.

Wang Yan lowered his voice and changed his vocal line: "Can it be completely confirmed that Comrade Feng has not defected?"

"Yes, there are also our comrades inside the enemy's special agents. The news he risked his life to pass out can be completely trusted."

"What time is the collective execution? Where are the people being held now? What is the defensive force? Where will they be sent to be executed? And what is the defensive force?"

"Next Wednesday at noon, there are still five days left. Now the people are being held in the Special Higher Police Division's prison in Hongkou, where there has always been a squadron of nearly two hundred people guarding it; it cannot be stormed. The people will be sent to the shooting range in Hujiazhai. There are twenty-three people on this execution list, including Nationalist Party members, our people, and patriotic elements, escorted by three detachments of military police.

This stretch of road in the middle is the best time for us to act. Whether successful or failed, we can retreat calmly. And this rescue operation is based on the premise of ensuring the rescue of Comrade Feng Zhaochun, to save as many people as possible. Among these people, not only Comrade Feng Zhaochun, but the others are also good men with iron bones. In addition, when we act, there will be Mobile Corps Commander comrades supporting us, so there is no need to worry about firepower. The guerrillas operating in the Jiangsu-Zhejiang-Shanghai area are probably the best-equipped and most combat-effective troops in our Party's armed forces."

After Lu Boda finished speaking, he didn't hear a response, but he wasn't in a hurry. He silently lit a cigarette, looking at Comrade Pei Min, who represented mystery and strength, behind the dim light, whose face could not be seen clearly.

"Acting during the day, my identity makes it impossible for me to participate in the action. And..." After pondering for a moment, Wang Yan said slowly: "I suspect this is a trap set by the Japanese special agents to lure us into acting..." ===== CHAPTER 621 =====