Early the next morning.
Zuo Zhong walked out of the hotel slowly, stood in front of the door and looked around, then crossed the road and walked leisurely in one direction.
It was already November 1939. In the subtropical port city, the temperature remained at around 20 degrees Celsius and the climate was still pleasant.
Walking on the bustling streets and listening to the dialects from all over the Republic of China, he seemed to have returned to Jinling or Shanghai before the war.
While admiring the various sights of the port city, Zuo Zhong used various small means to observe behind him and around him, and slowly approached the dead mailbox for communicating with Dong Qiang.
Dead mailbox.
As the name suggests, it refers to an unmanned handover point in intelligence activities. It is mainly used for the transmission of information between intelligence personnel and informants, and can also be used to receive funds and equipment supplies.
It can also be used as a place to obtain instructions and a hiding place when encountering unexpected problems. For example, it can be agreed that if something goes wrong, the address of the safe house will be placed in a dead mailbox.
This kind of dead mailbox can only be used once. After it is set up, it will enter a silent state. Once it is enabled, it will be completely disabled.
In addition, agents will deliberately set up some fake dead mailboxes during intelligence activities to confuse the enemy or serve as an early warning.
This can not only achieve rapid transmission of intelligence, but also avoid being caught in meetings. The current handover method is naturally very popular with intelligence agencies in various countries.
Military command is no exception. This can minimize risks and human resources, and is especially suitable for intelligence personnel who are in a long-term latent state.
As an independent mole, Dongqiang has no direct contact with Gangcheng Station. His daily activities are all completed through mailboxes. There is only one affiliated traffic officer responsible for sending and receiving information.
After Zuo Zhong arrived in Hong Kong, he immediately activated a backup dead mailbox to meet the need for communication with Dong Qiang during his stay in Hong Kong.
Although this area is not under the control of the Japanese, the British political department is not a vegetarian, and the risk of direct communication on the phone is very high.
On the way to the dead mailbox, he secretly conducted anti-tracking operations and made sure there were no stalkers around, and then walked towards the Star Ferry Pier in Central.
This pier undertakes cross-sea ferry services from Hong Kong Island to the Kowloon Peninsula, and a large number of passengers travel between the two places every day.
I bought a ticket at the pier, Zuo Chong got on the boat and found a seat at random to sit down. He glanced at the passengers in the cabin and then turned to look at the calm sea.
Generally speaking, dead mailboxes can be divided into three types: fixed, movable, and portable.
Stationary is the most commonly used type and is often located in a specific location.
For example, a real mailbox, a rental house or a public phone booth, a toilet water tank in a hotel, a small tree hole under a big tree in the park, behind a tombstone in a suburban cemetery, in the gap behind the mirror in a public toilet, under a seat in a public place , trash cans that won’t be taken away by janitors within a few hours, etc.
It's just that this kind of dead mailbox has a certain risk of exposure, and the risk does not come from people. The ubiquitous animals can bring unexpected troubles to intelligence personnel.
There is a true story from later generations:
The Fourth Bureau of the Red Russian General Staff, the GRU, set up a dead mailbox in a tree hole in a park in downtown Washington for intelligence transmission.
Every day during the lunch break, a spy lurking in a palace in the United States would put a bag containing confidential documents into a tree hole.
After he leaves, the Red Russian agent will take the documents, secretly photograph and copy them in a nearby car, and then return the documents to the tree hole, where the spy just now will retrieve the documents.
This secretive intelligence transmission activity has continued for many years, and the US counterintelligence agencies have never discovered it, and the mole's status has become higher and higher.
Once, when the Red Russian agent was about to get the documents, he suddenly found a piece of white paper falling in the air. He picked it up and saw that it had the mark "Top Secret" written on it.
The agent looked up and saw dozens of pieces of paper flying above his head. It turned out that the squirrels in the park who were preparing to spend the winter lived in the tree hole with the "dead mailbox". The top-secret information prevented them from making nests, so the squirrels put the documents Tear it to pieces...
The Red Russian agent was frightened and hurried to pick up the document fragments. Tragically, an American police officer ran over upon seeing this. The Red Russian agent probably wanted to die at that time and was too frightened to move.
Then, a dramatic scene occurred. Instead of arresting anyone, the policeman bent down to help the Red Russian agent pick up documents.
——The other party regarded the Red Russian agent as a staff member of a certain palace, who came here to pat her down.
There are many mountains and forests near the port city, and there are also various small animals in the city, so this type of dead mailbox is not suitable for Zuo Chong and Dong Qiang.
As for the portable dead mailbox.
It uses items and containers that can be carried around and easily discarded as carriers to transmit information, such as empty cans, empty wine bottles, empty cigarette boxes or paper boxes, or even a special stone.
Intelligence officers usually leave them in places where they can be seen by ordinary people but will not arouse any interest, such as on the side of the road or on the grass.
It's just that this is not suitable for the extremely densely populated port city. If Dongqiang throws something on the ground, it will be taken away by scavenging refugees in less than half a minute.
Therefore, there is no best way, only the most appropriate way. Intelligence joints must be adapted to local conditions and cannot be copied mechanically.
The movable dead mailbox refers to placing information in the corner of a certain seat on a specific bus, ship, plane, train or subway.
This is the dead mailbox used by Zuo Zhong and Dong Qiang to communicate. The Star Ferry has the largest flow of people, so it is relatively safe whether it is placing or recovering intelligence.
However, after Zuo Zhong checked the surrounding situation, he found that there were two passengers on the ship who were a bit suspicious. The other passengers were either resting with their eyes closed or admiring the scenery, but these two people's attention was focused on other people.
Dongqiang has a problem?
No, if the other party has a problem, then they are not two people.
Scanning the two suspicious people looking around, Zuo Zhong walked out of the cabin to the stern of the ship, took out a cigarette, lit it and took two puffs.
Halfway through smoking the cigarette, he saw that the ship was about to arrive at the Tsim Sha Tsui pier. He placed the cigarette butt halfway on a pile of canvas and walked back to the cabin as if nothing had happened.
After a while, the cigarette butt slowly burned to the end. The high temperature ignited the engine oil on the canvas, and an inconspicuous green smoke slowly rose.
"No, it's a fire! (It's not good, it's on fire)"
Someone suddenly shouted in Cantonese, and the passengers in the cabin stood up one after another. When they saw the fire at the stern of the ship, they panicked and ran towards the bow of the ship desperately.
Facing the influx of passengers, the two suspicious persons were quickly squeezed out by the chaotic crowd and lost their field of view.
Zuo Zhong was mixed in among them. When he passed by the wooden box with the lifebuoy hanging on it, his right hand quickly touched the bottom of the wooden box and then mixed in with the passengers.
At this time, the passenger ship docked, and several Chinese staff carried water hoses to pour water on the flames. The panicked passengers dispersed in a hurry.
Zuo Chong walked behind a fat passenger, dodging left and right, and successfully left the Tsim Sha Tsui Pier, easily getting rid of the two suspicious persons.
Two hours later.
In the Western District of Hong Kong Island, in a photo studio opened by an American, Zuo Zhong spent a lot of money to rent a darkroom and slowly walked out of the store door.
There was no other way. It was inconvenient not to do anything on his own territory. Only foreigners had access to microfilm printing equipment, so he could only take one risk.
But one good thing about Americans is that as long as they have enough money, they are willing to provide all legal or illegal services. Just two words - dedication.
After wandering around the alley near the photo studio for a few times, Zuo Chong returned to the hotel, walked into the room, turned on the lamp, took out a magnifying glass and looked at a stack of photos.
The first thing you see is a schedule.
No matter the cruise name, departure place, or estimated arrival time, they are all the same as the schedule provided by Chao Hou, without any missing or errors.
Zuo Zhong nodded slightly upon seeing this, which meant that Chao Hou and Dong Qiang were reliable for the time being and had not betrayed the military commander or the government. The following actions could be used with confidence.
Next, a piece of paper with text appeared in the photo. The content on it made Zuo Zhong stunned and stared at the line of words.
"Inspector of the Shanghai Public Settlement, Kuang Fuan, came to Hong Kong to look for his relatives. He passed by the Sheung Wan Pier. His identity and motives were suspicious, and someone else was following him, Equator."
Kuang Fuan also came to Hong Kong City?
Zuo Zhong felt familiar with this person when they first met. It wasn't until he cooperated with the underground party to rescue the martyr's orphan "Xiaobao" from Shanghai that he discovered something.
That day in the reeds, he and Gui Youguang eliminated the traitors who came to hunt them down. "Xiaobao"'s father suddenly appeared and said thank you.
If he heard and read correctly, Kuang Fuan's voice and body shape were surprisingly similar to that of the captain of the red team.
This is interesting. The inspector in the concession may be an operative of the underground party. The British were mistaken this time.
In addition, he had received a secret message from Old K on the "Yankee". In that message, the other party expressed the hope that "Qiu Chan" could provide intelligence on the military commander's activities in the port city.
Once the two are combined, the possibility that Kuang Fuan is an underground party increases sharply.
It seems that the underground party also got information about Yan Baichuan's peace talks with the Japanese. For this purpose, they sent the most elite captain of the Red Team and even activated the "Qiu Chan".
If the situation was not serious, the other party would never use these two "ace cards".
It is understandable that Northwest and Yan are neighbors. Once the Japanese collude with the Jin army, Northwest will bear the brunt.
After rubbing the photo for a while, Zuo Zhong destroyed it as usual. He sat there and thought for a moment before getting up and going to the next door to call Lai Gui Youguang to give him a warning.
"When there is light, we will leave the hotel separately and go to the Sheung Wan Pier. We will conduct reconnaissance, familiarize ourselves with the surrounding terrain, and formulate a tracking plan.
Please note that there is a gap between the capabilities of the Gangcheng station members and the brothers at the headquarters. You should prepare more contingency plans. "
"clear."
Gui Youguang nodded. He was an expert in action. He didn't ask any unnecessary questions and immediately turned around to prepare.
Watching the bald man walk away, Zuo Zhong changed his clothes and walked out of the hotel towards the Sheung Wan Pier again, buying some camouflage supplies at the shops along the way.
When he reappeared, he had put on a rendanhu, put on glasses, dressed as a Japanese and came to the ticket office of the pier, and the language he used was changed to English with a Japanese flavor.
After learning that there were no free seats on the recent cruise to Tokyo, Zuo Zhong left the ticket office and walked into a theater to find a place to sit down and silently beat the rhythm of the Cantonese opera on the stage.
After a long time, he took out a few bills and put them on the table and went into the alley. He turned left and right and walked to a remote place. He suddenly stopped and asked behind him in a hoarse voice.
"Friend, you have been following me for so long, why don't you come out and meet me?"
(End of chapter)
