diskusbooks Chapter 1154 Strict Control
Chapter 1154 Strict Control
Hankou Provisional Military and Political Department Building
"You, Li Shaoyi, you've come here to arrest people. Do you think everyone here is just some random nobody? They're all graduates of the Central Military Academy, and they've all been working here for two or three years. Do you think just anyone can get into the Ministry of Military Affairs? Our people have vetted them..."
Early in the morning, Li Shaoyi and his men had already begun arresting people here. Currently, the two individuals are under detention. Upon hearing of this, Minister He got out of his car and went directly to the conference room on the first floor of Li Shaoyi's office building without even returning to his own.
According to the operational guidelines issued by the Ministry of Military Affairs, the Special Affairs Committee led by Li Shaoyi could investigate anyone in any department in Hankou, but only with evidence. Without evidence, they absolutely could not act recklessly. After all, this was the wartime capital, and if Li Shaoyi were to conduct investigations everywhere, it might disrupt morale.
However, given the current situation in Hankou, if a ruthless crackdown on Japanese spies isn't carried out, they might do even more outrageous things. The common people and military leaders alike hope that Li Shaoyi will strike decisively.
"Please don't rush to scold me, sir. I did exactly what you outlined. You said that evidence is necessary before arresting people. As you said, these two are indeed senior staff officers from the Ministry of Military Affairs, one of whom is even the deputy head of the Operations Section 1. But I did find evidence about them. If your eyesight is good, can you see what this evidence proves?"
Li Shaoyi waited for Minister He to finish speaking, then had Wang Manyu place the documents on the table. Minister He, a seasoned veteran, was naturally able to discern some clues from them. In the testimonies of other Japanese spies, there were repeated mentions of informants within the Ministry of Military Affairs; although their identities weren't confirmed, they were certainly among them.
Li Shaoyi believed in capturing the leader first, so this morning he disguised himself as a guard from the Ministry of Military Affairs and stood at the gate for nearly half an hour before finally finding the traitors within the ministry. They've now begun searching their homes and offices. Although no direct evidence has been found, these actions suggest that something is definitely wrong within the Ministry of Military Affairs.
Sure enough, while Li Shaoyi was chatting with Minister He, his men had already found dozens of gold bars in the home of one of the staff officers. This guy had come from a poor family and couldn't possibly have that many valuable items. Moreover, they found a radio station used for communication with the Japanese in one of the concubine's houses.
"Take him to your place and subject him to severe torture."
Minister He was also somewhat embarrassed. He had just been speaking up for these two people, only to be proven wrong. Earlier, someone had told him that the Ministry of Military Affairs was heavily infiltrated, and he had thought the Ministry of Military Affairs was an impenetrable wall, since nothing like this had ever happened before. Now, Li Shaoyi had directly exposed this.
The news spread like wildfire throughout Hankou. The newly established Special Affairs Committee was completely different from previous intelligence agencies. In less than 24 hours, it had already identified six spies across various government departments, all of them in core units.
If we don't find these people, who knows what they might do when the Japanese army approaches Hankou. By then, forget about fighting; the Japanese might already know all our movements before any of our units even make a move.
Even without Minister He's instructions, Li Shaoyi would treat these people well upon his return. At that moment, Li Shaoyi had another matter to attend to. After having Wang Manyu leave some documents, the others left the meeting room.
"Let me explain, this isn't about forming factions. In order to better find the Japanese spies in Hankou, I need a large action team under my command. Otherwise, relying solely on the Military Intelligence Bureau and the Party Affairs Investigation Section might lead to leaks. Yesterday, when we were arresting Japanese spies, someone from the Party Affairs Investigation Section tipped them off. So I need your approval to form an action team of about 1000 to 1200 people."
When Li Shaoyi first received the title of Deputy Director of the Special Committee, Li Sibei told him that this could be used to expand their armed forces. "You can't just give officers without soldiers," she said. "If you do that, wouldn't you be a commander without troops? Then you'd have to rely on the military police for everything, and can those people be treated the same as our own?"
These past few days, Li Shaoyi has been using the guard company of the artillery regiment, but they are combat troops, and compared to a real action battalion, they are still somewhat inferior. It's only because they encountered someone like Li Shaoyi that they were able to catch the spy; if it were another officer, it would probably just be a bluff at best.
When Minister He heard that Li Shaoyi wanted to expand the army, his mind was immediately filled with warnings from above. But then again, Li Shaoyi is now the deputy director of the Special Affairs Committee, and since taking office, he hasn't had a moment's rest, making great contributions to us.
Take these two traitors in the Ministry of Military Affairs today, for example. If they aren't found, all the secrets of the Ministry of Military Affairs are meaningless. No wonder the Japanese were able to know so much about them before. If these two are still around in the future, the mistakes they've made will be enormous.
"You can form an action brigade of 1000 men. But you must strictly control the size of the force; 1000 men are enough for the entire Hankou area. If that's not enough, you can mobilize other military police; I can grant you that authority."
Minister He thought for a moment and said that the situation was urgent and Li Shaoyi had to be kept busy, otherwise these spies alone would probably throw Hankou into chaos.
"Please rest assured, give me a week, and I guarantee I can transform the entire Hankou. I dare not say I can arrest all the Japanese spies and traitors, but I can at least guarantee more than 80%."
Li Shaoyi said with great confidence, which made Minister He look at Li Shaoyi's eyes with some surprise. Was this as rumored? This guy had a keen eye and could immediately identify Japanese spies and traitors. Otherwise, how could his efficiency be so high?
Of course, Li Shaoyi didn't have time to be a guinea pig explaining these things to Minister He. The Japanese spies outside were probably already preparing to move; we needed to act quickly…