great-warnovel Chapter 235 Smuggling Under the Negotiation Table
Chapter 235 Smuggling Under the Negotiation Table
Nationwide?
Chen Zijun gave a cold laugh.
"You're pointing a gun at me while calling me 'brother,' and you expect me to talk about peace? There's no such thing as a free lunch!"
Hans listened with amusement.
"Young Marshal, I'm growing to like the way you Chinese people talk more and more. When you're in the right, it's like settling accounts. And when you're about to strike, it's like settling accounts too."
Chen Zijun waved his hand.
"Wrong. Settling scores later is the cruelest knife."
Just then, footsteps outside suddenly quickened, and a coastal defense observer rushed in, his forehead covered in sweat.
"Young Marshal, the Iwami has moved forward another 150 yards! Both light cruisers are simultaneously side-swinging!"
Shen Li immediately looked up.
Chen Zijun didn't even blink.
"Did they cross the line?"
"not yet."
"Then let's do it the same way."
"Report coordinates, speed, and gun positions. Just like last time, add the following: Our coastal defense forces continue to exercise restraint and have no plans to proactively escalate the conflict."
The observer was taken aback.
"Add this sentence?"
Chen Zijun smiled.
"Of course I'll add it."
"Their fleet has been working so hard to stand there as our poster."
"We need to provide an explanation."
The people in the room burst out laughing.
Laughs aside.
But everyone knows that.
Once this sentence is sent out, Terauchi Shinichi's face will probably darken even further.
Southeast Military and Political Reception Office, Shanghai.
Zhou Qiheng finally received a formal reply.
He read very slowly, and the more he read, the more somber his expression became. When he came to the sentence, "If Guangdong, Jiangxi, Hunan and other places can open up to the Chen family's trade, military supplies and transportation lines in one go, the five southeastern provinces can naturally be handled according to the same principle," his fingers tightened.
Across from him, Hu Qiankuan refilled the tea.
"Mr. Zhou, the Young Marshal has spoken. We in the Southeast will certainly not oppose the Northern Expedition. This is the last wish of the late Premier Sun Yat-sen, and the unification of the country is also the wish of our Young Marshal Chen."
"But the Southeast is not unclaimed territory after all. Our young marshal also has to answer to the people under his rule! Don't you agree, Mr. Zhou?"
Zhou Qiheng put down the telegram and spoke after a long while.
"Marshal Chen went into too much detail. With national affairs at hand, such petty calculations are bound to discourage comrades."
There was a soft sound at the door, and Mo Lanzhi entered. This time, she didn't bring her pocket, only a piece of paper.
"Mr. Zhou, the Young Marshal is being meticulous not because he's stingy, but because there are truly things to defend in the Southeast. If a bridge breaks, we're the ones who have to repair it. If a granary is empty, we're the ones who have to fill it. If the coordinates of the artillery positions are leaked, we'll be the ones who die."
Zhou Qiheng looked at her, his eyes somewhat somber.
"Advisor Mo, you've taken a far too simplistic view of human nature."
Mo Lanzhi smiled gently.
"Mr. Zhou, you and I both know best that a person's heart is not dirty."
She placed the paper on the table.
"Director Su just delivered this. That gentleman in the gray coat among your entourage sent another message out tonight."
"The code is not long."
"Railways, warehouses, debt, Haikou..."
The moment those four words were uttered, the reception area fell silent.
The man in the gray coat behind Zhou Qiheng swallowed hard, and beads of sweat appeared on his forehead.
Zhou Qiheng suddenly turned to look at him. "What does this mean?"
The man's lips were pale. "I...I don't know..."
Su Guiying walked in from outside at this moment.
She was dressed in a neat short outfit, and her eyes were as cold as knives.
"have no idea?"
"Then I'll speak for you."
"The railway is for the Southeast Military Train Dispatch."
"Cang refers to the grain storage nodes along the route."
"The debt is a special account for coastal defense government bonds."
Haikou is the gateway to both military and commercial ports along the Fujian coast.
"You're not just borrowing a route with the representative! You're just casually measuring a door frame for someone! I just wonder if your intelligence will end up on the desks of the Japanese military first!"
The man in the gray coat's legs went weak, and he almost slid off the chair.
Zhou Qiheng's face finally darkened.
He could tell that tonight's negotiations were no longer something he could salvage with mere words. The other side wasn't guessing; they were presenting evidence, inch by inch, plastering it on his face.
Su Guiying stared at the man in the gray coat, her voice low. "Mr. Zhou, you brought this person here. Are you going to give us an explanation now, or wait until we take him away and then we can question him for you?"
Zhou Qiheng's hand slowly clenched.
He knew in his heart that if he didn't back down properly, the entire Southern delegation would lose face tonight.
Can I not return it?
That would be even uglier!
Fuzhou, the night is getting deeper.
Su Guiying's secret telegram finally reached Chen Zijun's desk.
Shen Li finished reading the last sentence and looked up at him.
"Young Marshal, your hand is out."
Chen Zijun took the telegram, glanced at it, and then smiled.
His laughter was cold.
"Sure enough, someone in the procession reached out to help. Chang Guangtou's tactics are nothing new! Always so petty, it's like a gang fight. Looks like he didn't learn anything good from those gangs back in Shanghai!"
"Putting the greater good first, while secretly investigating the underlying issues. Talking about the Northern Expedition while secretly gathering intelligence."
Shen Li said in a low voice, "Should we deduct it now?"
Chen Zijun folded the telegram and placed it next to the latest coordinates of the Shijian.
What's at sea are cannon muzzles.
On land, it's the black hand.
Today we finally have everything we need.
He looked up at the nautical chart, his voice gradually lowering.
"No rush..."
"This is nothing!"
In Shanghai, outside the City God Temple, at a teahouse, it was still dark.
The back window of the teahouse was already ajar, and the wind slipped in through the crack, causing the tabletop curtains to tremble slightly.
Su Guiying sat in the innermost room on the second floor, a covered bowl of tea beside her, untouched. Three people stood in front of her.
A waiter, a rickshaw puller, and a newspaper clerk in a short jacket—all three of them had their heads down.
The room was very quiet, except for the occasional calls from the street vendor selling steamed buns downstairs.
Su Guiying looked up. "Let's start from the beginning."
The waiter spoke first.
"At three-quarters past 9 PM last night, the man surnamed Lu left the delegation's residence. He didn't go through the main gate, but through the narrow path next to the storage room in the backyard. After coming out, he stopped at the intersection for a while, as if waiting for someone. Then he hailed a rickshaw and went to the back gate of the old silver shop in the International Settlement."
The rickshaw driver immediately took over.
"I pulled him. The man didn't say much the whole way, but his eyes kept glancing back, as if he was afraid someone was following him. When we got to the back door of the old silver shop, he didn't go in, but just stood at the alley entrance for three minutes. Then a thin man wearing a top hat came, holding a newspaper in his hand, his heels worn a little uneven, like someone who was always on the go."
Su Guiying tapped her fingertip lightly on the table.
"Foreigners?"
"No. Our accent isn't from the concession area. It sounds more like the accent from the area east of Jiangxi."
The newspaper clerk whispered, "Chief, I recognize that skinny guy. He used to hang around the entrance of the *Minsheng Daily* a few times. He's not a reporter, but an old courier who used the newspaper's credentials to run errands. Back in the day, they often bought pages and stuffed news into newspapers in Shanghai, and they loved using guys like him. He looks like a writer, but he's actually more active with his legs than his pen."
Upon hearing this, Su Guiying's lips finally twitched slightly.
"it is good."
"The tea housekeepers will keep an eye on the delegation's accommodations."
"The coachman is keeping an eye on the alley where the old silver shop is located."
"The newspaper should investigate whose ID this skinny guy recently borrowed."
"Don't startle him."
"I'd like to see just how many cheat sheets these people are hiding in their sleeves while they spout off about the righteous cause of the Northern Expedition..."