Three days later, Fang Wen and Fang Ermei appeared in Baizhang City. As soon as the mule cart they were riding arrived at the pass, several people came up to them and asked them to follow. When Fang Wen saw that the visitor was not good, he shouted loudly all the way, while Fang Ermei also acted like a fool on the ground. Those people held them up without any courtesy, blocked their mouths, and took them to the city. Seeing that the Pili soldiers guarding the pass ignored their calls for help, Fang Wenqing knew something was wrong and knew that these people must have a big background.
Those who took away Fang Wen and Fang Ermei were members of the Pili Army's counterintelligence company. They took the two men to a small courtyard in the city and put them in two rooms for interrogation. It's just that these two people were extremely tough-talking, either asking questions or talking about him, especially Fang Ermei who simply pretended to be crazy and acted stupidly. This made the interrogating counterintelligence company soldiers extremely angry. They simply sentenced Fang Wen directly, but Fang Wen remained silent. Fang Ermei heard Fang Wen's howling like a pig, and her face turned pale with fright, but she kept speaking hard. She claimed that she was a girl from a good family and that she would report to the official if she suffered such an unreasonable disaster, and even wanted to complain to Ouyang Xuan.
Seeing how stubborn these two people were, the interrogators became more and more angry and increased the intensity of Fang Wen's torture. They also sent several sturdy village women to strip Fang Ermei naked. The reason why Fang Wen and Fang Ermei were confident and refused to confess was because they hid the grenade parts in their waist, abdomen and chest, thinking that they would not be discovered. Faced with the parts such as mercury fulminate, gunpowder, and turtle-shaped iron shells that were found, the two men naturally could not deny it. "If I had known this, why did I do it in the first place?" At this time, Fang Wen was already covered in bruises and had suffered a lot of torture in vain.
In fact, the counterintelligence company noticed them. Although no one can starve to death under the rule of the Perak Army, food is still extremely precious, and moonshine is not allowed. The Ministry of Industry does have a distillery, but it is used to refine alcohol for wound disinfection and will not be sold at all. Fang Wen and his wife's restaurant not only sells meat every now and then, but also sells wine privately. Although meat is precious, it is not a rare thing, but getting wine requires some skills. The Dayi government office initially thought the wine came from a winery, but upon investigation it was discovered that it actually came from Mingshan County, and they quietly notified the counter-espionage team.
During further investigation, the counterintelligence team discovered that the two men claimed to be from Meizhou, but no one among the Meizhou refugees who came with them knew them. The counter-espionage company followed the clues about the wine and went to Mingshan for an undercover investigation. They discovered that Fang Wen originally worked in Cao Zhizhou's yamen, and that the two were actually husband and wife, but they pretended to be brothers and sisters, which was really unusual. Wu Daya's failure to return home at night was also learned by the counter-espionage company. After comprehensive analysis of the situation, it was concluded that there must be something fishy between these two people. The management of the Pili Army Arsenal is extremely strict, and no one is allowed to go out without asking for leave. Wu Daya's absence at night had long alerted the arsenal security department, but the counter-espionage company had to take a long-term approach to catch big fish, so no measures were taken against Wu Daya.
The two Fang brothers and sister suddenly left without saying goodbye, which made Wu Daya panic. The arsenal often conducts confidentiality education and warning education, and he knows what it means to secretly steal grenade parts. He originally planned to enjoy Fang Ermei's body once more, then assemble the parts into a grenade and take it back to the arsenal. Among the storytellers in the teahouse, Ouyang Xuan is a man of great wisdom. When faced with the enemy's plans, he often uses his tactics to trick the enemy into spinning around, which makes Wu Daya admire him very much. He had long seen through Fang Wen and Fang Ermei's beauty trap, but he was really greedy for Fang Ermei's body, so he wanted to follow Ouyang Xuan's example of eating the bait and spitting out the hook, and then pull the trick. He was sure that the Fang brothers and sisters did not know how to assemble grenades, and after he installed them, he would use explosives as an excuse not to give them to them. Unexpectedly, the Fang brothers and sisters did not follow common sense and simply took the spare parts and ran away.
After Wu Daya thought about it, he reported the situation to the arsenal management department. Although this means that he will have to work hard in a dark and cold mine for the rest of his life, it is still better than losing his head, and it is better than running away. It's good to be alive in these troubled times, and at least you can have enough to eat as a miner. In fact, before Wu Daya surrendered, the counter-espionage company had already learned about Fang Wen's escape. During this period, Wu Daya frequently went out and stayed out at night, which made the counter-espionage company feel that the time was ripe to close the network. They also sent people to monitor near the restaurant, so they naturally knew the whereabouts of these two people.
Fang Ermei was a female and her walking speed was too slow, so Fang Wen hired a mule cart to go to Baizhang City. This is not a means of transportation that ordinary people can take, and it also proves from the side that the two of them are by no means ordinary people. However, the counter-espionage company did not take action on the road. Instead, they waited until the mule cart arrived in front of Baizhang Pass before arresting the two men. The purpose was to tell their masters through the spies hidden in various forces in the city: You are the shady people in the Perak Army. We all know very well.
The forces from all sides sent not only spies, but also killers and saboteurs to the areas under the jurisdiction of the Perak Army. The Pili Army executed all those they caught, and those who committed the most heinous crimes would have their heads hung in public. The Pili Army still differs in how they handle espionage from all parties. Once a Mongolian spy is caught, there is no doubt that there is only one end, and that is to be executed. Spies from other forces are dealt with according to their degree of harm. The lighter ones are sentenced to hard labor with varying periods of imprisonment, and the more severe ones are also executed. Fang Wen and Fang Ermei were both sentenced to twenty years of hard labor. Fang Wen went to mining, and Fang Ermei went to the sulfuric acid plant. In fact, even if they brought the grenade parts back, Yazhou would not be able to manufacture them. The core technology of this grenade is the detonation method. The friction between copper wire and glass generates static electricity to detonate mercury fulminate, which then detonates the gunpowder. Understanding this technology requires systematic knowledge, and manufacturing it requires a systematic industrial foundation. Unless a large number of technical personnel from various industries under the Pili Army defected, it would be impossible to manufacture new weapons installed by the Pili Army. Even if they could be imitated, the effect would be unsatisfactory.
The Perak Army also sent hundreds of spies to various parties. These spies pretended to be businessmen, refugees, monks and even joined the new auxiliary army, with different tasks. Some are spying on economic, commercial and technical intelligence, some are looking for mineral resources such as copper and fire salt which are urgently needed by the Perak Army, and even more are spying on political and military intelligence. These spies belong to three departments of the Perak Army. The caravan spies focus on collecting business intelligence and mineral resource information, the staff spies focus on political, economic and technical intelligence, and Dong Hu's Internal Guard Brigade focuses on military reconnaissance. It is also responsible for sabotage activities such as assassinations and arson.
The reason why Ouyang Xuan wants to separate the intelligence system is that he is worried that the high concentration of intelligence in one department will lead to a monopoly. After all, intelligence means information superiority. Although the various departments of the Pili Army do not have bureaucratic habits now, it cannot be ruled out that the yamen style and power will become alienated in the future, and there may even be situations where the power is too large and difficult to control. On the other hand, it is also because spies’ thinking will be solidified to different degrees due to different occupations, and their sensitivity to various aspects of information will also be different. For example, small-scale abnormal military mobilization will hardly arouse the alert of caravan intelligence personnel, while scouts may not be aware of mineral resource information. Not long ago, when the Mongolian army was ambushed at Widow's Cliff in Maozhou, the Pili officers and soldiers, including Huang Dagen, were not alert to the formation of the barrier lake. However, Yu Zhu, who had assisted Li Shuang in managing government affairs, realized that the breach of the embankment would affect the area under the jurisdiction of the Pili Army. have a significant impact on production.
