Agent: Intercepting Yu Manli at the start!

Zhou Xiao lowered his voice slightly: "The Lin family is a very famous silk merchant in Hangzhou. Yiyi's parents fought with Zhang Wanlin over a piece of the Nanyang Silk Road, and as a result, their entire family was slaughtered. Only she was left, gritting her teeth and breaking into Shanghai, wanting to send that man to hell with her own hands."

"Several assassination attempts were thwarted halfway through. Last time, she almost met her end at the Shiliupu Wharf, but I stopped her."

Li Xiaonan was silent for a few seconds, then softly hummed in agreement.

"So what's your purpose in bringing her to meet me?"

Zhou Xiao's lips curled into a smile: "Let's plant a seed first. When the two of you stand side by side in the future, there will only be more, not less."

She nodded: "I understand."

He added, "After Aoki Takeshige's death, the Special Higher Police were thrown into disarray, the Special Operations Headquarters was busy seizing power, the 76th Division was fighting amongst themselves, and everyone at the Shang Mansion was on edge—now is the golden window to pull out the nails and trim the claws."

"The underground party has never focused on assassinations, but right now, eliminating traitors is the sharpest knife."

"I plan to personally wrap this 'welcome gift' and hand it to the new section chief's desk."

Li Xiaonan's eyes lit up, and he instantly understood: as soon as that person sat down, the blood on the streets of Shanghai was still hot and the guns were still cold—it was not only to disrupt his plans, but also to scare the traitors.

The timing was perfect, at a critical juncture when the various intelligence agencies were operating independently and people were filled with anxiety.

After dropping off Li Xiaonan, Zhou Xiao turned the car around and sped back to the Zhou Mansion.

Zhou Enlai's Residence.

The bedroom lights cast a dim, yellowish glow.

A Soviet-made radio lay quietly on the corner of the table, its hands silently sliding toward 9:55. Zhou Xiao sat upright, his gaze sweeping over the clock, waiting for the Special Operations Headquarters' listening section to hand over the guards—the moment when the entire intelligence chain was at its most vulnerable.

10 o'clock sharp.

The monitoring department changed shifts.

With a flick of his finger, he gently pushed the knob, and the telegraph machine hummed and vibrated slightly.

drip-drip-drip-

The key fob rises and falls like a heartbeat, and secret messages pour out like raindrops.

His fingers moved steadily and rhythmically, ensuring that every signal reached the ears of the Mingtai Action Team with precision.

Seeing a gap in his vision, he switched frequencies again and typed out another string of code in a short and clear voice: "Sixth Brother, spring is in full bloom in Shanghai. I look forward to your arrival soon."

Because of the urgency, Zhou Xiao couldn't wait for his sixth brother to call back. He decisively cut off the power to the radio, pulled out the antenna, wrapped the entire set of equipment in an oilcloth bag, and stuffed it into a hidden compartment in the corner of the wall.

After doing all this, he quickly disassembled and hid the radio parts, his movements clean and efficient, leaving no trace.

……

Bright Photo Studio.

Guo Qiyun had just received a coded telegram from Zhou Xiao, his fingertips still hovering over the edge of the decoding paper: "By order of the King of the Underworld, immediately purge the traitors—regardless of identity or rank, all those who collude with the enemy, betray the country, or are henchmen or spies of the Japanese puppet regime, shall be killed without exception."

Mingtai stared at the telegram, his eyes lighting up: "As expected of Hades! The Special Higher Police Chief just died suddenly, and he immediately stirred up a storm of bloodshed, both shocking the traitors and causing trouble for the newly appointed chief—this move was ruthless and precise."

Yu Manli rolled her eyes and slammed her teacup on the table: "Mingtai, you seem to know exactly what the Underworld King is after, but how come you can't guess where he'll make his next move?"

Mingtai shrugged and smiled, "If I could really understand his thoughts, I would be sitting in that chair long ago."

Since it was a "freedom to eliminate traitors," it was nothing more than a familiar task for the Mingtai Action Team.

The entrance to the Shanghai Grand Theatre.

Li Tian, ​​the fake police chief, always loved to join in the fun—he would reserve a front-row seat whenever a famous actor took the stage.

This man was originally the regimental commander of a regiment in the Central Army. When Shanghai fell, he defected to the Japanese invaders and rose through the ranks to become the puppet police chief in charge of the city's security. He personally selected names of those arrested for resisting Japanese aggression; he often oversaw interrogations and torture; he personally broke many tough nuts.

After the show ended tonight, he strolled towards the Chunhua Brothel with a few henchmen, humming a little tune: "I heard a new Yangzhou girl has arrived, with delicate skin and a beautiful voice..."

As the crowd dispersed, amidst the commotion and jostling, a porter in a gray cloth jacket suddenly bumped into his lower back—the force wasn't great, but the accuracy was startling.

Li Tian felt a chill in his lower back. When he reached out and touched it, his hand was covered in a sticky, warm substance. Looking down, he saw a thin-bladed dagger embedded in his hilt, the tip almost touching his spine.

This stab was swift, accurate, and deadly, targeting a vital point, leaving him no time to even catch his breath.

At the same moment, Zhou Xiao gave an order, and dozens of strongholds in Shanghai were activated simultaneously—the Kuomintang's military intelligence, the underground Communist Party, and the Green Gang's peripheral forces quietly joined forces, and an invisible giant net covered all traitors, puppet officials, Japanese agents, and high-ranking lackeys who were affiliated with the Japanese invaders.

For them, this wasn't a purge, it was a death sentence.

Once the nightmare begins, death will no longer knock on the door.

Under Hirata's rule, the captain of the third squad of the Japanese military police routinely roamed the streets, oppressing the people as if they were ants, and forcibly abducting women as if they were weeds.

That night, he wandered around Avenue Joffre with two drunken henchmen, kicking over baskets from roadside vendors with his leather boots, causing passersby to scatter and fall silent.

The military police were supposed to enforce military discipline, but Hideki Tojo's statement that "local security is the responsibility of the military police" effectively turned this force into a gang in uniform. They didn't investigate violations of discipline, but rather "suspicious individuals"; they disregarded the law and only obeyed their superiors' orders. A military police squad leader in his jurisdiction carried more weight than the puppet mayor.

When ordinary people saw them, they would either go around them or lower their heads and shrink back, as if avoiding a plague god.

Suddenly, a girl in a blue cotton dress stood at the entrance of the alley ahead. Her profile was slender, and her features were distinct in the moonlight.

The effects of the alcohol instantly sobered me up a bit.

"Yosh! A pretty girl! A really pretty girl!" The three men's Adam's apples bobbed, their steps faltered, and they rushed over.

The girl smiled slightly, and her right hand slid out of her sleeve to reveal a Mauser pistol.

boom! boom! boom!

Three sharp cracks pierced the night, ending three lives.

Yu Manli holstered her gun, turned around, and spat on the ground: "A toad dares to covet a swan?" Before she finished speaking, her figure had already disappeared into the depths of the alley, leaving only a few sycamore leaves swirling in the night wind.

Yang Guangming, Director of the Secretariat of Shanghai Municipality.

His name sounds respectable, but he's a filthy person—a thug who got this lucrative position by betraying his comrades, currying favor with the powerful, and leveraging his wife's family's influence.

He has no real skills, but he has an endless supply of bad deeds: he is the most frequent in raiding homes and the most ruthless in informing. He can even take a neighbor's child's cursing of "little Japanese" as an "anti-Japanese suspect" and report it.

At that moment, he slipped into a secluded house on New Street—his mistress's hideout.

"Little Minmin, I'm here!" He kicked open the half-closed wooden door, a smug grin spreading across his face. "We're not going home today, let's have some fun!"

The room was pitch black, but he didn't care. He groped around and muttered, "Where's the light? Why isn't it on?"

Click—he pressed the switch.

The lights came on, but they didn't illuminate the delicate little lover.

Only one dark figure sat in the rattan chair, steadily holding a twenty-shot gun in his hand.

"You...who are you?" Yang Guangming's face turned deathly pale, and his hand instinctively reached for his briefcase—inside which was hidden his pistol.

But bullets are faster than thoughts.

boom!

The gunshot rang out, and he fell backward, blood gushing from his forehead, splattering onto the tips of his shiny leather shoes.

The man stood up, his shadow swept across the wall, and he disappeared in the blink of an eye.

Over the next two days, the Military Intelligence Bureau and the underground Communist Party joined forces, no longer targeting only high-ranking officials and dignitaries. Anyone who had the blood of their compatriots on their hands or trampled on the backbone of the nation, regardless of their status as henchmen, civilian officials, or brokers and compradors hiding behind the scenes, was on the kill list.

The entire city of Shanghai seemed shrouded in a layer of leaden-gray fog. Those once arrogant traitors now walk the streets, afraid even their shadows will be trampled.

This sharp, chilling atmosphere instantly swept through all the Japanese and puppet regime's intelligence agencies, including the Special Operations Headquarters, No. 76, and the Special Higher Police. The pressure was immense, and everyone felt insecure.

In the conference room at the intelligence headquarters, the air was so still you could hear your own heartbeat.

Their faces were taut and pale, their brows furrowed with fear and rage.

"They're outrageously arrogant! Absolutely lawless!" Feng Manna slammed her hand on the edge of the table, making a teacup jump. "Those Kuomintang agents are shooting in the street and killing in close combat. In just two days, more than twenty of our brothers, whose names we know, have fallen in the shadows!"

"Director Zhou, if we don't act soon, the Special Operations Headquarters will truly lose face!"

In this crackdown on traitors, both the intelligence and operations departments of the Special Operations Headquarters were attacked—once the list falls into the enemy's sights, there is no way to survive.

Whoever gets targeted is essentially given a death sentence.

This swift and decisive crackdown, launched jointly by the Military Intelligence Bureau and the underground Communist Party, saw traitors fall and Japanese spies beheaded, eliminating more than twenty staunch traitors and Japanese agents. The sheer scale of the operation sent chills down the spines of all those working for the puppet regime in Shanghai: they were always accompanied by seven or eight bodyguards, even needing protection to use the restroom; those contemplating defection had to carefully consider their own safety; and the lower-ranking officers dared not go home, spending their days huddled in their offices eating cold bread, fearing that opening the door would result in a thud.

Scared!

I'm truly terrified!

Right now, the streets and alleys of Shanghai are filled with bloodshed during the day and the smell of gunfire at night, as chaotic as a pot of boiling water.

But for ordinary people and patriotic youths, this was like rain after a long drought—the news spread quietly through the streets and alleys, and teahouses and taverns cheered in hushed tones.

Such a grand and heroic act of eliminating traitors shocked the court and the public, drawing nationwide attention.

Zhou Xiao sat in the main seat, his face as dark as ink: "Section Chief Aoki has just died in battle, and the Special Higher Police are leaderless. These anti-Japanese patriots have already caught wind of this."

"Manna is right—if we keep hiding and do nothing, outsiders will only think that the Special Operations Headquarters is a mere decoration! Who knows, one day we might be the ones lying in a pool of blood!"

Lan Yanzhi sat quietly with her eyes lowered, while Chen Shen's fingertips tapped silently on the table.

Today, Zhou Xiao is the sole ruler of the Special Operations Headquarters.

Although Chen Shen held the title of Director of the Action Department, he was only acting; in terms of prestige and popular support, he was far inferior to Zhou Xiao.

He had long since mastered Sixth Brother's skill of winning people's hearts, and everyone, from top to bottom, followed his lead.

Chen Shen looked up at Zhou Xiao: "Director Zhou, how do you plan to break this deadlock?"