After Zuo Zhong assigned the task to Gu Qi, he returned to the room and told several professors not to disclose today's events to the outside world. If anyone inquired deliberately, they must inform the Secret Service of the other party's name.
Professor Qian and others happily agreed. No one understands better than scientists what it means to leave professional matters to professionals. If you take the lead in this kind of thing, it will cost your life.
Seeing that the other party was not a stubborn nerd, Zuo Zhong breathed a long sigh of relief. He smiled and left a field phone number for Professor Qian and others, telling them that they could contact him at any time if they needed help.
This is a kind of reward. Without the professional knowledge of the other party, it would be difficult to narrow the scope of the photo shooting to three provinces. The Secret Service must be grateful.
You cannot be like Xu Enzeng, who uses people to move forward and does not use people to move backward. If you do that, you will have more and more enemies and fewer and fewer friends, and at the same time, the road will become narrower and narrower.
But how to thank is a question. Giving money or souvenirs is obviously not appropriate. People who can become professors in this era probably have no shortage of money at home, otherwise they may not even be able to pay the tuition.
Instead of asking for trouble with Adu's things, it is better to trade with favors. If you encounter such a situation in the future, it is better to ask for help. Intelligence work is not only about killing, but also about human connections.
The professors were very satisfied with this return. Nowadays, the national situation is in turmoil, and various doctrines and ideas have sprung up like mushrooms after a rain. The underground party, in particular, has a great influence among students.
I heard that the Changcheng Party Headquarters would implement "supervision" on major middle schools to severely punish students who sympathized with and spread dissident remarks. As teachers and principals, they were very worried about this.
Now that he has the favor of the Secret Service, Deputy Director Zuo doesn't seem to be a difficult person to talk to, and those targeted students may be able to escape.
So for a while, the guests and the host had a good time, and the two sides chatted for a long time. Zuo Chong personally sent several professors to the boat, watched each other slowly go away, turned around and took the car back to the command post of the industrial zone.
As soon as he got off the car and before he could enter the house, Song Minghao, who got the news, ran over and reported the latest search situation.
"Deputy Director, Youguang led people to check it out. No new findings were found in the encirclement. I'm afraid the rest of the photo has been destroyed by the fire."
Zuo Dian nodded: "Well, let's lift the blockade. There are many residents working in arsenals nearby, and military production cannot be delayed.
Don't forget that our mission is to coordinate military operations on the front line. If the war fails, the military chiefs will complain to the commission. "
"yes."
Song Minghao understood the trick. In terms of shirk responsibility, if the generals of the Guo Army were ranked second, then no one would dare to be ranked first. The Secret Service must not take this blame.
The two of them walked into the house while talking. Zuo Zhong waved his hand and dismissed the old man. He found a chair and sat down, closed his eyes, and started snoring in the blink of an eye.
In the past two days, there have been searches and fights with the losers at the special agent headquarters. He has not slept for more than a day, and now he will finally have a chance to sleep.
After an unknown amount of time, Zuo Zhong drowsily heard someone calling out to the deputy director in a low voice. His eyes suddenly opened and he saw Gu Qi, who also had a tired face.
"Report to the deputy director, I have brought back everything you asked for. I see that you don't look too good. Do you want to rest for a while?" Gu Qi looked worried.
"No need, bring them all in." Zuo Zhong stood up and rubbed his face vigorously, trying to wake himself up quickly, and gave the order.
After hearing this, Gu Qi stopped persuading, walked to the door, opened the door and waved, and a group of spies immediately walked in with a lot of license plates.
Under his command, the little agents spread colorful license plates of various styles on the ground, filling a room full of them.
In fact, Gu Qi was a little confused. What did the deputy director mean when he asked him to take out the license plates of Guangdong, Guangxi and Min that contained the character "6" that were retained by the department.
In 1901, the 27th year of the reign of Emperor Guangxu of the previous dynasty, automobiles were introduced to China from the Shanghai Concession. The next year, the Ministry of Industry and Commerce Bureau of the Public Concession held a meeting and approved the first special temporary license.
Wait until after the year of 1911
, the previous dynasty perished, and each place had its own car license plate, but the purpose was not for management, but to make money.
For example, for a 4-seater car, the annual vehicle and vessel tax (auto tax) in the 19th year of the Republic of China was 60 yuan. If it was used for operation, it would directly double to 120 yuan.
By the 21st year of the Republic of China, the prices had risen to 80 yuan and 160 yuan respectively. In the Republic of China, taxes were collected by each country. If there are vehicles that need to be used across regions.
For example, if a car from Hangzhou wants to drive in Shanghai, it must pay two taxes. The government has clear regulations on this:
"Any commercial vehicle that travels within the territory of this county or city and travels to other counties or cities for a long period of time should submit the original license to the construction bureau of each county through which it passes, pay half of the county donation, and receive a long-term donation license. Commercial long-distance vehicles should also The franchise donation is 10% of the operating income.”
The license plate of this kind of car that can travel in different places consists of the words "home place abbreviation + remote place abbreviation + crossing". Compared with ordinary license plates, it is longer and makes it easier for inspectors to inspect on the road.
Judging from the photo fragments found by Wu Jingzhong, the Buick car should have an ordinary license plate and can only be driven in one place. This indicates that the place where the photo was taken and where the license plate belongs are likely to be the same place.
In other words, there is a high probability that the spy leader or someone related to him conducted intelligence reconnaissance in a city in Guangdong, Guangxi, and Min provinces and took this photo that was almost burned.
As long as the specific city is determined, the owner of the car is found, and then the back investigation is carried out, the traces of the Japanese spy can be found through this clue.
The problem is that now the license plate has been burned until only the character "6" is left. The original style and background cannot be clearly seen, and the place of ownership cannot be determined.
There are dozens of cities in Guangdong, Guangxi, and Min provinces, large and small, and we don’t know when they will be investigated one by one. This is half the result with half the effort, which is not like the style of a deputy director.
Gu Qi hesitated for a moment, but still expressed the questions in his heart. They were old partners who had worked together for many years, and he knew that the deputy director would not mind.
"Well, you are right."
Zuo Zhong was not angry after hearing this. Instead, he asked a question: "Lao Gu, look at it, what's the difference between the license plate in the photo and these license plates?"
the difference?
Gu Qi turned to look at the ground and immediately understood. Although the license plate image in the photo was incomplete, it could be seen that it was rectangular.
The license plates on the ground have different shapes, some are square and some are triangular. Through this, you can filter out some of them.
Seeing that he understood, Zuo Chong pointed to the ground and said lightly: "There is another difference. Some cities here use handwritten license plates, but the ones in the photo are machine printed."
This is not surprising. The economic situation in each place is different, and the number of car ownership is also different. There are naturally differences in the investment in license plate production.
After speaking, he circled around the license plate twice, squatting down from time to time to pick up a piece and inspect it carefully, and finally gave the little agent two orders.
"Take away all non-rectangular license plates."
"Take away all handwritten license plates."
Following Zuo Zhong's words, the number of license plates on the ground quickly decreased, leaving only thirty or forty pairs. However, the workload to find the target was still staggering.
Leaving aside other things, there are still more than ten places that need to be investigated in Guangdong Province alone. In addition, merchants have gathered there since ancient times, and there are countless people with rich private wealth.
Most of these people made their fortunes by doing business with Westerners and highly admired Western emerging technologies. Apart from Shanghai, this was the area with the largest number of cars in the Republic of China.
It would take at least three to six months to check all Buick cars in these dozen places. This is an ideal situation with sufficient manpower, otherwise it will take much longer.
"Take away all the license plates in Guangxi Province." At this time, Zuo Zhong said another screening criterion.
Gu Qi thought about it and quickly understood the reason. Compared with Min Province, which is adjacent to Xiaoliuqiu, and Guangdong Province, a coastal province, Gui Province, as an inland province, obviously has a much lower strategic position.
If the Japanese want to completely annex the Republic of China, the first step is to completely seal off the coast of the Republic of China and cut off external assistance. From this point of view, the Japanese spies in Guangdong and Fujian
The possibility of activity is greater.
At the same time, the Yue Kingdom bordering Gui Province is a French colony. Before the Republic of China is digested, the Japanese will not overly stimulate the European powers, so Gui Province can be temporarily excluded.
There were only more than twenty license plates at this time. Gu Qi pricked up his ears, wanting to hear how the deputy director would narrow down the scope of the investigation.
"Take away all the license plates with connected strokes in the six characters." Zuo Zhong spoke again.
Gucci was startled, and quickly came to the photo fragment. After careful observation, he suddenly discovered that the word "6" on it was not completely connected to the subject at the end, but a small opening appeared.
He looked annoyed and flattered skillfully: "We didn't find such an obvious clue before. Deputy Director, you are really sharp-eyed. You are ashamed of your humble position."
"Okay, okay, you can save this for when you are rewarded for your meritorious service. Let's get down to business now."
Zuo Zhong was amused by his blunt flattery, then stared at the three sets of license plates on the ground and slowly stopped smiling, and asked the little agent: "Where does the license plate belong?"
The little agent turned over the license plate and raised his head to report that the three license plates belonged to Chaozhou and Yangzhou in Guangdong Province, and Zhangzhou in Min Province.
Zuo Zhong frowned. None of these three places were small cities. There were a lot of cars. If you wanted to quickly open a breakthrough, you had to walk on two legs.
He thought for a few minutes and assigned two tasks to Gu Qi: "Lao Gu, inform Guangdong and Min provinces to immediately launch a secret search in Chaozhou, Yangzhou, and Zhangzhou to look for Buick cars with license plates containing six characters.
You remind them to focus on checking the vehicles of high-ranking party and military officials and report them immediately if found, and not to act rashly. Anyone who seeks credit and alerts Japanese spies will be prosecuted under military law.
In addition, Wu Chunyang, Wu Jingzhong, and Shen Dongxin were told that after investigating photographic equipment stores, photo studios, and newspapers, they would conduct a second comparison of the suspects. There was only one condition for the comparison.
Once it is found that someone has been to the three places in Chaozhou, or has been in contact with people who have been to the three places in Chaozhou, all-round surveillance will be carried out immediately. I want to know the target's every move, so go quickly. "
