Chapter 987: AF Lacks Fresh Water

"Take it—they should have gotten it. Otherwise, they should have caught Zhang Xiaoming and asked him, instead of killing him directly."

Liu Jinghui used simple reasoning to solve a complex problem first.

Qi Changye couldn't help but nod: "Makes sense. If they really couldn't find it, at the very least, they should have lit a fire and burned that room."

At this moment, Qi Changye felt the benefits of the Reasoning King. It is so difficult to use evidence to falsify this kind of cold case from 20 years ago, but an effective reasoning directly solved this problem.

There was no pride on Liu Jinghui's face. This kind of reasoning was too easy for him. After saying a few more words about the case, Liu Jinghui had a slightly more solemn expression and said: "The key question now is, have you broken this intelligence network, and have you had any relevant discoveries?"

Qi Changye hesitated for a moment and said: "I actually sent someone to check, but there is no discovery yet. By reason... well, it should not have been broken. Otherwise, involving the Zhang family and the Jianmen Academy case, there would always be some feedback."

"In other words, this espionage network is still operating?"

"That... that's not necessarily true." Qi Changye paused and added: "We don't have to think of this kind of espionage network as too mysterious. There are too few espionage networks that have been running for 20 years without being discovered. Of course, what we hear about are all those that have been discovered. But under normal circumstances, if an espionage team can survive for 20 years, it is highly likely because it is in a latent period and has not yet been activated."

"Do you mean that Zhang Xiaoming discovered an espionage team in a latent period?"

"The possibility of this is actually very low. Since it is in a latent period... however, who knows? Maybe there is some coincidence." Qi Changye spread his hands: "Isn't it said now that reality is more outrageous than novels? Espionage is even more so, because there are many big shots who have been caught because of bad luck."

Qi Changye usually doesn't talk so much, but today he had to provide information. Qi Changye stopped for a while and then opened his mouth again: "There is also another possibility. What Zhang Xiaoming discovered might be an espionage network that is operating, or has just begun to lie dormant. The intelligence officer of the other party discovered it, and while dealing with the problem, transferred the espionage team from the activated state back to the latent state, or re-dormant, or simply withdrew."

"If it was withdrawn, wouldn't this case just break here?" Huang Qiangmin couldn't help but say.

Qi Changye said helplessly: "There are indeed many headless cases. But thinking from a good place, general espionage networks are mainly composed of personnel defected locally, so the situation of withdrawal is still rare. Re-dormant situations are more common."

"It's been 20 years, still not withdrawing?"

"Can only say it's possible. But there is no need. Defected personnel staying locally are valuable assets. If they are withdrawn, they can only be raised, becoming negative assets."

"Like this..." Liu Jinghui pondered.

Qi Changye continued: "General espionage networks, only in very high-level situations, will have one or two intelligence officers of their own side. More often than not, there is not even one. These intelligence officers are also mostly doing liaison work, and if they are not careful, they will have diplomatic status... This case, so far, has not seen the possibility of high-value intelligence."

Sending intelligence officers of one's own side to perform latent tasks in a foreign country is a very high-level espionage network, just like the police sending undercover agents into criminal organizations. Such huge risks must have corresponding benefits, and ordinary criminal organizations, can they be worth the risk of a police officer? And police undercover, can they obtain greater benefits?

Similarly, sending out intelligence officers carefully trained by one's own side, will they necessarily harvest more intelligence? Further, if this intelligence officer is caught, will the intelligence leaked be more than what is obtained?

Therefore, even the espionage networks Qi Changye has come into contact with are mostly composed of members who have defected locally.

"In that case, we have to re-sort out the work Zhang Xiaoming did before he died. I remember someone seems to have done work in this area." Liu Jinghui said and picked up the phone, asking someone to find the information.

Before long, Wang Chuanxing came in with things.

The previous task force had long determined Zhang Xiaoming's trajectory three days before his death based on the testimonies and statements of all parties, as well as visits to the surroundings.

Looking at the dense time in the notebook, it can be said that this set of trajectory maps is very solid.

It's just useless.

Criminal investigation is like this; if you can't solve the case, everything is in vain.

The bitterness of criminal investigation and the sweetness of the organ are one-to-one corresponding.

Jiang Yuan took the trajectory map and flipped through it slowly.

Liu Jinghui and Qi Changye were still discussing the case and kept moving physical evidence over.

"Has the newspaper been found?" Jiang Yuan finished reading Zhang Xiaoming's trajectory, and still had no insights. The method was still to require more information.

Qi Changye stopped the conversation with Liu Jinghui, drank some water, and said: "They are flipping through records in several newspaper offices. Now the main thing is to confirm the names of the people who placed the advertisements. Back then, when placing advertisements, there was no real-name system. You could place it by taking money, and there was no ID card or anything. I don't know how many names the suspect used."

"Even if it's not the specified time, it should be in the specified edition of the specified newspaper, and placed with a conspicuous sign, to serve as a code," Jiang Yuan reminded casually.

"Jiang Yuan is an insider." Qi Changye sat up, looked at Jiang Yuan, and smiled again: "We are also checking like this. Now we have found two newspapers, but we haven't checked them all. Another thing is that they are also translating, but because the codebook is incomplete, the content translated is not comprehensive."

"Send the ones found first. I can help take a look." Jiang Yuan used his common explanation: "Since doing the case of that cryptographer last time, I have also been reading some things about cryptography."

Qi Changye looked at Jiang Yuan suspiciously, which was not surprising: "You learned cryptography?"

"The level is okay."

"Well... okay, can I have someone send the pictures?" Qi Changye thought to himself, no matter how high your cryptography level is, can it be higher than the level of the cryptographers in my department? However, this case clearly wasn't a case that could be solved purely by code. Qi Changye wouldn't hide the evidence.

A while later, Qi Changye took a three-proof notebook, displayed the pictures inside to Jiang Yuan, and said: "What we have found now is that the newspapers the suspect often places advertisements in are two, "China TV News" and "Democracy and Legal System", middle-seam advertisements, within 30 words, time is uncertain. The names of the people who placed the advertisements are all the three surnames of "Liu, Guan, and Zhang"."

"Three Kingdoms, huh." Jiang Yuan said while looking at the middle-seam advertisements scanned in the three-proof notebook.

I saw the middle-seam advertisement on the first page: Now there are two bulls, three years old, cyan, bright fur, healthy body, need to sell due to production changes, those interested please call BP number: 126***

Jiang Yuan pointed to this BP number and asked Qi Changye: "Is this BP number fake?"

"It should be fake. The numbers in each advertisement are also different, and I haven't had time to check carefully." Qi Changye hadn't taken over for long either.

Jiang Yuan nodded and continued to flip through the advertisements one by one, occasionally taking notes.

Qi Changye waited for a while, his attention gradually shifted, and he continued to discuss with Liu Jinghui.

Soon, phone calls from all parties started to come in, and Qi Changye became even busier, having to open a separate office and start working on-site.

This job was clearly not easy. Soon, Qi Changye started to be overwhelmed, and the sound of calling people started to get louder and louder.

Jiang Yuan and Liu Jinghui were discussing in low voices, and the sound started to get smaller and smaller.

Finally, when Qi Changye's voice started to soar, Jiang Yuan waved his hand and called him over.

"I have some discoveries here." Jiang Yuan said.

"From where? Code?" Qi Changye felt even more surprised. He didn't see Jiang Yuan go out, and the only new evidence was the codebook.

"Yes." Jiang Yuan answered very refreshingly.

Qi Changye said incomprehensibly: "You translated the code? The codebook we confiscated is only part of it."

He didn't disbelieve, just felt it was unreasonable. An incomplete codebook is naturally difficult to translate the code completely, and if Jiang Yuan could handle these things, wouldn't his own experts have produced results earlier?

Jiang Yuan didn't need to explain so much, just waved his hand and said: "The suspect excerpted the code here, which is correct, but what we should consider is why he excerpted the code."

"Why?"

Jiang Yuan unfolded his notebook and said: "I think it's because the suspect couldn't remember so many codes. Li Dianzhong had a low level of education and probably had no interest in remembering codes, so he excerpted some codes. From the excerpted codes, it can be seen that he excerpted mostly some uncommon words and sentences, as well as some substitutes for numbers and letters. It is very likely for the convenience of inquiry."

Jiang Yuan said here and emphasized: "In other words, some codes that Li Dianzhong was already familiar with, he didn't excerpt them instead. In this regard, I sorted it out and found that there are some high-frequency words, which can be reasonably guessed."

"Midway?" Qi Changye quickly remembered this famous code story in World War II.

"That's right." Jiang Yuan drew a line in front of him: "Three represents the mimeograph factory." ===== CHAPTER 988 =====