Spy Wars: Red Shopkeeper

Chapter 274 Intrusion
The next morning, Secretary Ma Shiqi came to pick up Gu Yansheng for work.

The scenery along Yihe Road is quite nice, the overall environment is very beautiful, and the various villas each have their own unique charm.

Now, whether it's Ma Shiqi's house, Minister Zhou's house, or Gu Yansheng's house, they are all in this area, not far apart, making communication very convenient.

"Minister, the office has been cleaned up and all the furniture has been replaced with brand new ones. The things that Wen Zongyao used before have either been put into the warehouse or he took them with him."

"it is good."

Having been in Nanjing for so many days, apart from having to make two appearances at the Ministry to let people know that a change of government was imminent and to introduce the new minister, Gu Yansheng rarely went to the Ministry of Justice and Administration.

Before today, Wen Zongyao, the president of the Judicial Commission, was the Minister of Justice. Even if he went to someone else's office, there would be nowhere for him to sit.

Today, things are truly different. Wen Zongyao has started working at the Judicial Yuan, and his position as minister is now legitimate.

"Nothing went wrong, right?"

“Wen Zongyao didn’t come yesterday. I discussed it with his secretary, and we had his things delivered to the Judicial Yuan by car. We handled them carefully, and there were no problems.”

"Well, right now, everyone in the Ministry of Justice and Administration is Wen Zongyao's man, and also Liang Hongzhi's base. Based on the agreement reached at the Qingdao meeting, everyone is still getting along well, putting on an image of working together to build a peaceful country."

However, the Wang faction was bound to seize power, and Liang Hongzhi was unwilling to relinquish it, leading to various internal power struggles, which were bound to happen in secret.

Our Ministry of Justice and Administration has Wen Zongyao, the only president besides Liang Hongzhi himself. We need to keep a close eye on him to prevent him from setting traps for us.

Gu Yansheng still needed to give the necessary instructions.

He was determined to take down the Ministry of Justice and Administration. This was his personal desire, a way for the Wang Jingwei faction to avenge Liang Hongzhi's attempt to assassinate Wang Jingwei, and a way for the new power to settle scores with the old.

Gu Yansheng is now in a precarious position and has no choice but to do this. The newly formed Ministry of Justice and Administration is aimed at various localities, which also aligns with Minister Zhou's desire to control Jiangsu, Anhui, and even North China.

But if they take action, Liang Hongzhi's men won't sit idly by; conflict is inevitable.

"I'll keep a close eye on it."

After speaking, Ma Shiqi took out a document bag from his briefcase and handed it over, saying, "This is the information I had my people investigate."

Ma Shiqi had made some preparations, sending his men over earlier, which would come in handy now.

Gu Yansheng took it and looked at it while he spoke.

"The Permanent Vice Minister, Hu Rengtai, is from Jiangsu. In his early years, he was a student sent to Japan on a government scholarship by Nanyang Public School. After graduation, he served as the Consul in Nagasaki, Japan, so he has a Japanese background."

Based on this, it can be inferred that he must have known a few people in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the military. However, it has been quite a while since he worked in Japan, and it is hard to say whether these Japanese people are still in office. Even if they are, they probably only had a casual relationship.

He served in Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist government, in the Ministry of Communications, and even earlier in the Beiyang government.

Overall, he was an old-fashioned figure, and quite old. It's likely that the Japanese and Liang Hongzhi valued his connections when they recruited him.

There are two sons and one daughter in the family.

"The other one is the Deputy Minister of State, Xue Dianzeng, who is also from Jiangsu. He graduated from St. John's University and studied law in the United States. He used to be the presiding judge of the Suzhou Court of the Chiang Kai-shek government, so he should be very familiar with the practice."

My family owns businesses in Suzhou, and they're quite large.

One went to Japan and the other to the United States. Some of the students who studied abroad thought about changing their lives, while others became traitors.

While listening to the introductions in the car, Gu Yansheng flipped through the resumes of the two men.

His main generals are these two vice ministers, whose actual titles are political vice minister and permanent vice minister.

According to the division of labor, the executive deputy minister is mainly responsible for internal departmental affairs, focusing on daily administration and departmental work, which is what Hu Rengtai does.

Theoretically, the Deputy Minister of State is a close confidant of the Minister, responsible for explaining policies to the public and holding meetings with various departments.

Such a large government inevitably holds various meetings. The Deputy Minister is essentially a substitute for the Minister. For meetings that the Minister doesn't have time to attend and that are of high level, it is more appropriate for the Deputy Minister to attend. This is Xue Dianzeng's job.

Two deputy ministers, one for external affairs and one for internal affairs.

Next are the heads of regular departments such as the Civil Affairs Department, the Criminal Affairs Department, and the General Affairs Department.

None of them are one of our own.

Logically speaking, a position like the Deputy Minister of State should be filled by one's own people. Otherwise, when attending various meetings and conveying various opinions, one will inevitably have their own ulterior motives and be prone to deceiving superiors and subordinates. But there is no other way now. Gu Yansheng has no one to use. This is just a mess.

The situation still looks quite serious.

But it’s actually okay.

We drove to the Ministry of Justice building.

"minister."

After getting off the bus and walking, I saw people standing and bowing to greet me all the way, showing a cautious and respectful attitude.

Gu Yansheng nodded slightly from time to time, which was very pleasant.

Upon arriving at the office door, Liu Xiaolou stood up and bowed to greet him, "Good morning, Minister."

Upon opening the door, Gu Yansheng raised an eyebrow. What he saw was similar to the furnishings of his Shanghai office, and he couldn't help but laugh, "You've brought Shanghai here."

Liu Xiaolou explained, "I was worried you might not be used to it, so I discussed it with Secretary Ma and we decided to arrange the furniture according to the Shanghai layout. The furniture was also ordered in the exact same style as in Shanghai. Please try it out, and if you're not satisfied with anything, I'll change it immediately."

"No need, it's fine as it is." Gu Yansheng didn't need many things; as long as it was clean and met his daily needs, that was enough. He picked up the coffee that had been brewed on the table and took a sip. "Do you have any plans for this morning?"

Liu Xiaolou immediately said, "This morning was the department's routine meeting. Since it was your first time officially presiding over it, all department heads were notified to attend. They should all be in the meeting room by now."

"Alright, let's have a meeting then." Gu Yansheng had to deal with them now, and strode away.

“Minister, there’s something else.” Liu Xiaolou quickly followed up and whispered, “Someone came to the secretariat this morning to start work. They had a letter of introduction from Dean Chen. The head of the secretariat told me to ask you how this position should be arranged.”

"Dean Chen? Chen Gongbo?" Gu Yansheng paused, somewhat surprised.

Liu Xiaolou nodded.

"Heh." Gu Yansheng scoffed. They had only just opened for business, and Chen Gongbo was already trying to get his hands on their business.

Logically speaking, the Legislative Yuan does have ties with the Ministry of Justice, since they are both law-oriented, so it wouldn't be a problem to place someone there. Gu Yansheng thought about it and decided there was no need to be stingy about it. It was just a position, and there were already so many outsiders, so one more wouldn't make a difference.

Does he have any demands of his own?

Liu Xiaolou shook his head, "There's no clear statement yet. The wording is that a secretary could also do it, but the secretariat is mainly responsible for high-level affairs of the Ministry of Justice. Once you join the secretariat, you'll definitely have access to the ministry's major matters."

Liu Xiaolou left it at that; once the secretary knew, Chen Gongbo also knew.

"What is your name?"

"Li Shiyu".

"Has the file arrived?"

"coming."

"Let me see it." "Yes."

Gu Yansheng wasn't in a hurry to start the meeting. He was mainly curious because he didn't seem to have heard of this person from Chongqing before. The fact that Li Shiyu was sent out by Chen Gongbo as a spy meant that Chen Gongbo trusted him to some extent.

Where did they come from?
Liu Xiaolou quickly brought the documents.

Gu Yansheng opened the file folder and took out the file.

Li Shiyu joined the Fourth Division of the Northeast Army's Xi'an Suppression Headquarters in 1934 and became a prosecutor at the Tianjin Higher Court in 1937. Last year, he came here to attend the Sixth National Congress of the Communist Party of China and was elected as a legislator.

No wonder, it turns out he's a self-taught individual.

Gu Yansheng pondered for a moment. Li Shiyu, who was able to be chosen by Chen Gongbo to become a legislator despite being a latecomer to the profession, must be quite capable.

Needless to say, he's definitely a master at interpersonal relationships.

Ding-ling-ling. Ding-ling-ling.

The office phone rang.

"Hey."

“The sound of inkstone, I am Chen Gongbo.”

"Dean Chen, haha, speaking of you, my subordinate told me that you recommended someone, something like Li Yu."

"Yes, that's what I called about. I wanted to recommend this person to you. When I was chatting with Mr. Wang, we talked about the Ministry of Justice and Administration. Liang Hongzhi has been deeply involved in Nanjing for so long. You've just taken office and have a lot of things to do. Mr. Wang is worried that Liang Hongzhi's people might try to trip you up, so he told me to be careful."

I explained that the Legislative and Judicial branches are separate bodies, so I couldn't offer much help. Besides, I don't know anything about the Ministry of Justice's affairs, so I have no idea where to start, right?
However, I remembered Li Shiyu. He's capable, experienced, and has worked in the court system. His expertise aligns with yours, and since you're short-staffed right now, having him temporarily as an assistant would be helpful. So, I arranged for him to come and assist you.

"I see, that's great, I'm short-handed right now." Gu Yansheng smiled happily, "Thank you for your help, Dean Chen."

"Why are we talking about this among our own people?" Chen Gongbo said in a very casual tone. "Just use it as you see fit. If you think it's good, keep it. If you don't, return it to me."

"Dean Chen, the people you recommend are definitely capable. I will make the best use of their talents."

"Okay, then I won't bother you anymore. I guess you'll be in meetings all day?"

"Ha ha ha ha."

After chatting for a few minutes and hanging up the phone, Gu Yansheng's smile faded slightly.

After thinking for a moment, he looked at Liu Xiaolou and asked, "Which department's head is vacant?"

Liu Xiaolou thought for a moment and shook his head. "There are no vacancies for department heads right now, and very few vacancies for deputies. Would you consider a deputy position?"

Gu Yansheng smiled, took a sip of coffee, put down the cup, and got up to leave. "Dean Chen made the call personally. Li Shiyu is a legislator and a deputy. You really don't respect Dean Chen at all."

Moreover, Chen Gongbo spoke using Mr. Wang's identity, which was disrespectful and unreasonable.

Liu Xiaolou pouted sullenly and followed behind, "What level do we need?"

"At least a section chief with real power, or even a director-general."

"This position is hard to come by."

Liu Xiaolou has now assessed the situation within the ministry; all these positions are currently held by the former minister.

Are they going to fire someone right away?
"Go to the meeting first."

In the conference room, everyone had been waiting for a long time.

On the first day of the new minister's arrival, they had to give him the respect he deserved, so that Gu Yansheng couldn't find any fault with him or lash out.

However, the gentleman's agreement has now been clearly stated.

"No matter what Gu Yansheng says, do what's easy to do, and don't do what's difficult or impossible. Do you understand?"

The person who said this was Hu Rengtai, the permanent vice minister, who was the most senior among them.

"Minister Hu, don't worry. He's only been working for a few years. What does he know about government?"

"A young man with no experience is unreliable. Once he's here, we'll find plenty of ways to teach him a lesson."

"If you ask me, the Wang faction is too much of a nepotist, appointing such a young man as a minister. He's barely experienced anything. Mr. Hu, you should be the minister. What does he know?"
.
"Keep your voices down, people are coming soon."

"Ahem." The scout at the door immediately made a sound.

The door opened a moment later.

When Gu Yansheng arrived at the large conference room, he glanced around and saw that it was already full, and the people who were chatting instantly fell silent.

"Minister!" they all stood up and said in unison.

"Sorry to keep you waiting."

Gu Yansheng walked to the main seat with a smile, looking at each person one by one. Their expressions were either calm or smiling, and they all seemed very peaceful.

Nice atmosphere.

Gu Yansheng said warmly, "Sit down and talk. The new government has been established. Are you happy? Yes!"
This is a brand new beginning, but everything is difficult at the beginning.

The country is currently in the midst of war, and our generation's goal is to achieve reunification and declare to the world, in a completely new light, China's rise in East Asia.

For both China and the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, a sound judicial system is the key to maintaining national prosperity and long-term stability.

And we are the builders and protectors of the system.

Therefore, my responsibilities are heavy and the road ahead is long.

Our first task is to unify the national judicial system.

Businesses should operate in accordance with the law, citizens should abide by the law and regulations, residents should live and work in peace and contentment, and everyone should act under a single law, with clear laws and regulations and everything based on the law.

Director Liao of the Legal Affairs Department.

"Yes, sir." Director Liao raised his hand.

Gu Yansheng nodded slightly. "The next task for the Department of Legal Affairs is to liaise with the Legislative Yuan and the Judicial Yuan to carefully review and discuss the existing legal provisions. If there are any provisions that are outdated or need to be replaced, we will work on producing a complete version as soon as possible and implementing it in all regions. Is that alright?"

"No problem, I'll get on it immediately." Director Liao nodded readily.

Gu Yansheng nodded, "That's good. I need to see a unified version within a month, and I need all regions to implement the new laws within two months."

"A month?" Director Liao's eyes widened. "Minister, this... this... a month is probably not enough time. The time is too tight. Just reading the legal provisions alone would probably take a month, let alone discussing them. There's definitely not enough time."

"I'm not making excuses, it's really too late. The legal provisions are such a thick book; you can ask them if you don't believe me, it's definitely too late."

(End of this chapter)