Spy Wars: Red Shopkeeper

Chapter 235 Crux
So far, the Wang Jingwei faction has only managed to reach a high-level government meeting and resolution that it will not accept the Japanese advisory system, but all other departments will have to accept Japanese advisors in their work.

Minister Zhou frowned and sighed, “The Japanese military has always been assertive. I had only heard about it before, but after meeting them this time, I found that they are even more ruthless than I imagined. As for the advisory system, you know, they don’t give any room for maneuver at all. They say it must be implemented.”

The decision made by the Supreme Council was not accepted by the advisors because we refused to budge, and the cabinet needed us, so they stepped in and made this concession.

It's so hard to get anything done.

Is this difficult? This is greed. If he had really returned the next day, Gu Yansheng felt it wouldn't have come to this. In the end, his willingness to stay gave the Japanese the impression that it was acceptable, so the Japanese naturally acted forcefully.

As for the cabinet's assistance, it's simply a matter of one playing the bad cop and the other the good cop.

That was a really bad discussion!
Gu Yansheng paused for a moment, then suddenly thought of something and turned to ask, "Were you discussing things in the house arranged by the Japanese?"

Minister Zhou, who was leaning back in his chair, suddenly sat up straight, feeling goosebumps all over his body. He turned to look at Gu Yansheng and said in a deep voice, "You mean eavesdropping?"

Seeing his expression, Gu Yansheng knew that these people hadn't been paying attention to eavesdropping again. He had reminded them last time, but they really didn't learn their lesson.

He nodded, needing no further explanation.

Minister Zhou slapped his thigh in frustration. He was extremely frustrated. When the Japanese launched the surprise attack, a group of people hadn't mentioned that the driver was sent by the Japanese. But once they got back to the house, all their emotions erupted, and they said everything they should and shouldn't have said.

If the Japanese had been eavesdropping that day, then everything would have been exposed.

Are there no eavesdropping? Definitely!

No wonder. No wonder the military has been unwilling to budge.

So that's where the problem lies!
I regret it. I should have found an excuse to bring Gu Yansheng along. I've suffered a great loss.

"Damn it, these little devils." Minister Zhou couldn't help but curse.

However, he quickly cheered up, after all, the agreement hadn't been signed yet.

Although the Japanese knew their trump card, times have changed, and many things are not immutable until the signing of a contract.

"Yansheng, that's a good reminder. But don't tell anyone about this. Just pretend you don't know anything."

"Well, I will."

Minister Zhou considered his negotiation strategy for the next step and casually asked, "How's Shanghai these days? Have any people come?"

"Then I will give you a report."

Gu Yansheng recounted recent events. He wasn't familiar with the person who came; he only knew his name and his former position in Chongqing. He simply gave a brief overview and made a brief report.

The matter of the intelligence headquarters and the concession should be mentioned.

And most importantly, there was the complaint filed by Liang Hongzhi of the Nanjing Reformed Government, who was dissatisfied with Mr. Wang.

In the past, if the Secret Service headquarters had violated the concessions and even killed British police officers, Minister Zhou would have intervened and severely punished Ding Mocun. This would have completely damaged the Wang Jingwei government and foreign relations.

But now, Minister Zhou is not interested in this matter. If the Japanese want to manipulate things, then let them bear the infamy themselves. Anyway, the new government has not yet been established, and the Special Agent Headquarters is not a government department in the true sense.

"The propaganda in the concession will be canceled soon. Go and warn Ding Mocun not to let Mr. Wang get involved in his murder."

You can still talk to the concession authorities and discuss propaganda, but you must make it clear to them that the Special Agent Headquarters is under Japanese control and has nothing to do with us. They can promote for us if they want, and we never force them to if they don't want to, understand?

Gu Yansheng hummed in agreement, "Understood, I will also inform Fu Xiao'an."

"Well, besides what he said, did Liang Hongzhi say anything else about this?" Minister Zhou was more concerned about this.

Gu Yansheng brought newspapers and showed them to him directly. "I've brought all the opinions I could find in the market. In addition, I've asked Ding Mocun's people in Nanjing to gather more information, but there's no feedback yet. We're really not familiar with Nanjing."

However, I remembered something: the establishment of Huaxing Bank was handled by the director of the Industry and Commerce Bureau of the Nanjing Reformed Government, something Liang Hongzhi couldn't possibly be unaware of.

Therefore, I now suspect that the Huaxing Bank's promotion of the renamed military notes was something Liang Hongzhi did to show off in front of the Japanese.

Later, Mr. Wang negotiated with Takeo Imai and suppressed the Huaxing Bank matter again. Therefore, Liang Hongzhi was very dissatisfied. Taking advantage of the time when we were about to hold the Sixth National Congress, he made outrageous remarks in the newspapers, wanting to retaliate against Mr. Wang's reputation.
He is currently the chairman of the Nanjing Reformed Government, and in effect, the entire Central China region is under his jurisdiction; he holds a considerable position. If the government were to merge with Mr. Wang, he would lose his position, and given his past experience in that role, I doubt Mr. Wang would give him a more important role; he must be quite nervous.”

Minister Zhou pondered for a moment and said, "The merger is an inevitable trend that he cannot stop. However, the Japanese want us to merge Central China and North China. These two unstable factors do need to be dealt with."

But there's no rush.

If the Japanese were still offering the original terms, we would have gone through the trouble of merging, but now that the Japanese are making so many demands, it's not worth the effort for us to put in so much work.

Do you know why the Japanese wanted us to step in and merge Central and North China?

Gu Yansheng: "The new government is unified, which makes management easier."

Minister Zhou chuckled. "You're right, but that's not all. On this point alone, let me ask you, could the Japanese simply order the dissolution of the reformed governments in Central and North China?"

“Yes, that’s possible. After martial law is lifted, having Mr. Wang rebuild it would be much easier than a merger.” Gu Yansheng nodded, giving his boss a chance to shine. “Then why didn’t the Japanese do that? And I remember it was written into the agreement?”

Minister Zhou raised an eyebrow and smiled, "That's right. Even in the agreement, the Japanese knew that dissolving the government was easy, and the only reason they didn't do it themselves was because of conflicting interests."

The Provisional Government of North China was under the command of the Japanese army in North China; the Nanjing Reformed Government was under the command of the Central China Expeditionary Army; and Manchuria was even more so, under the command of the Kwantung Army.

The Japanese military was also riddled with factions.

The cabinet and the General Headquarters wanted a unified government to emerge in the Japanese-occupied areas, but the military didn't want to fight the upper echelons of the Japanese army in Central and Northern China, so they wanted to use us to eliminate these two provisional regimes.

The purpose is to consolidate interests and bring all profits to the central command.

Gu Yansheng suddenly realized, "So that's the intention behind it? Minister, you're very insightful. I really didn't expect this to involve factional infighting within the Japanese army."

Minister Zhou looked at Gu Yansheng's expression and smiled with satisfaction. "I can say that behind every clause in these specially written agreements is a series of internal power struggles within the Japanese army itself."

Originally, it wouldn't have been a bad idea for us to be thugs and be used to take down two governments.

But now it seems that if they want to use us as puppets, then we don't need to be so enthusiastic, right?
A puppet, isn't it just that it moves when you click on it, and doesn't move at all if you don't click on it? Haha.

"Yes." Gu Yansheng nodded and chuckled. "Let the Japanese handle it themselves."

"Have you bought a house in Nanjing yet?" Minister Zhou asked.

"It's all bought." It's just a matter of transferring ownership. The house that Gu Yansheng and Li Shiqun were jointly buying was just a matter of transferring ownership from one hand to the other. How could it not be bought properly?

“I had someone buy a few houses on Yihe Road. You can have your sister-in-law pick one out later.”

Minister Zhou smiled and said, "I used to have a house on Yihe Road. I just don't know if anyone still lives there. If possible, I would like to buy the old house back, but it doesn't matter for now. Since you have a house, come with me to the house in a couple of days."

Some preparation is still necessary.

Liang Hongzhi was able to become chairman based on two things: his connections with the Central China Expeditionary Army Headquarters and the pacification army under his general, Ren Yuandao.

Let the Japanese military handle the matter of the Expeditionary Army Headquarters itself.

We can go to Nanjing, take away the pacification army from him, and leave him all alone.

"You prepare one million, and we'll give it to Ren Yuandao."

We drove to the Cathay Hotel for dinner.

Originally, this banquet was supposed to be a chance for Wang Jingwei to put on a brave face, pretend to be very happy, and tell his men who were staying in Shanghai about the smooth progress of the negotiations with Japan.

To calm people down and boost morale, we must swallow our sorrows alone.

Who knew that after Gu Yansheng and Minister Zhou arrived, Minister Zhou whispered a few words of Gu Yansheng's statement to Wang Ni.

Wang Ni's eyes lit up, and he was genuinely happy, even drinking a couple more glasses of wine.

(End of this chapter)