Chapter Thirteen: The Arrest

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By 1908, the Nanjing–Shanghai Railway had already been completed and opened to traffic.

Unaware that the intelligence had been compromised, the Japanese infiltration team would most likely have taken the train into Nanjing.

But Song Yingge had still underestimated the Japanese agents’ caution.

He had stationed his men at Xiaguan Railway Station for three days, subjecting every passenger arriving from Shanghai to a thorough inspection, yet they failed to catch even a glimpse of the Japanese spies.

It was therefore almost certain that the Japanese infiltration team had entered Nanjing by some other means.

Finding an infiltration team in a city of nearly a million people was extraordinarily difficult. Without further leads, calling it a search for a needle in a haystack would hardly be an exaggeration.

At a time like this, there was no choice but to use the simplest method.

The Japanese agents had only just entered Nanjing. They could only choose a hotel as a temporary refuge.

Although they belonged to the same team, they certainly would not act together. Moving as a group would make them too conspicuous and invite suspicion.

So Song Yingge’s objective was clear.

He would look for single men from out of town who had checked into hotels within the past two days.

In this era, Standard Mandarin did not yet exist. Whether someone was from elsewhere could be heard the moment he opened his mouth.

Song Yingge led the members of the intelligence unit in another three-day investigation. They found several suspects, but each was eventually proven not to be a Japanese agent.

Song Yingge was not discouraged. No one could expect to catch a spy at the first attempt.

The fact that the Japanese agents had not stayed in hotels meant that someone in the city must have received them and arranged lodgings in advance.

Nor would there be many such safe houses—two at most. Any more would increase the risk of losing control over the situation.

After some time had passed, the Japanese agents would disperse and establish themselves separately, severing all direct contact with one another.

If matters reached that stage, arresting them would become far more difficult.

They had to uncover the agents before they could disappear into the city.

For that, the few men in the Fourth Intelligence Group were clearly insufficient.

They would have to call in reinforcements.

And those reinforcements were none other than Nanjing’s police.

The current chief of the Capital Police Headquarters, Chen Zhuo, was also one of their people in the Special Services Bureau.

As a result, the bureau could summon the police whenever it pleased and dismiss them just as casually.

At that time, Nanjing had eight police stations and sixty-four branch substations. Beneath the substations were local precincts and police administrative zones.

The city’s police force numbered more than six thousand.

For a search operation, sheer manpower made all the difference.

Song Yingge reported the situation to Wei Si, who negotiated with the police department.

The police quickly agreed to assist with the investigation.

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Song Yingge instructed the local precincts to investigate every neighborhood under their jurisdiction, looking for households that had recently received visitors from out of town, as well as long-vacant residences that had suddenly acquired occupants. Anything suspicious was to be reported immediately.

The results came in the following day.

There were more than a thousand households matching one of those two conditions.

They obviously could not investigate all of them; there was not enough time.

So Song Yingge introduced two additional criteria.

First, the residents could not be locals from Nanjing.

Second, the private residence had to have been vacant for at least six months.

After applying those conditions, only a little over three hundred households remained.

Song Yingge divided his eight men into four teams, each accompanied by patrol officers from the local precincts to conduct door-to-door checks. He formed a team of one and handled an area himself.

Each team was responsible for a little over sixty households, which meant they could finish the search in two days.

No suspicious individuals were found on the first day.

The next day, while investigating near Jade Belt Bridge, Song Yingge noticed that the patrolman guiding him, Zhang Ke, seemed hesitant to speak.

He said, “If there’s something to say, say it. Do I look that frightening?”

“Sir, there’s one household I didn’t report, but now that I think about it, the situation does seem rather strange,” Zhang Ke stammered.

“What was strange about it? Tell me.”

“That household has only one man living there. His name is Zhou Shun, and he works at a newspaper office.

“A few days ago, his wife came to stay with him. I saw her once, and she was very beautiful, so she left a strong impression on me.

“But when I went to his home the night before last to conduct an inspection, I was told that his wife had already returned to the countryside.

“Yet yesterday, I saw his wife again at the Datong Hotel.

“Wouldn’t you say that was strange?”

“What if she was having an affair?” Song Yingge teased.

Zhang Ke thought about it seriously. “That really is possible. The man isn’t exactly handsome.”

“How long has the man been living there?” Song Yingge asked.

“More than two months. He’s usually quite amiable. I’ve never seen him quarrel with anyone.”

“Take me to his home.”

Zhou Shun’s residence was not far away. They crossed Jade Belt Bridge and soon arrived at the house. He lived in a rented room shared with others; the kitchen and bathroom were communal, which suited his income level.

The door was locked. Zhou Shun had most likely gone to work.

Zhang Ke went to fetch a spare key from the landlord. Just as he was about to open the door, Song Yingge stopped him.

Song Yingge reached out and plucked a single strand of hair from the doorframe.

Such an old trick. Even my grandmother knows it, he thought.

At this point, it was essentially certain that Zhou Shun was an infiltrator.

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The only question was which side he belonged to.

Song Yingge told Zhang Ke to remain outside the door and entered the room alone to search it.

That way, if Zhou Shun turned out to be one of their own, there would still be room to maneuver.

The room was spotlessly clean. After searching it from top to bottom, Song Yingge found nothing that could prove its occupant’s identity.

Then he suddenly remembered the bottle of Fen liquor he had seen in the storage cabinet. He opened the cabinet and took it out.

Song Yingge smelled it first. There was no pungent odor, so it should not have been poisoned.

He dipped a finger into it and put it in his mouth.

He immediately sensed that something was wrong.

This was not Fen liquor. It was Japanese sake.

In ancient times, there had been the fable of covering one’s ears while stealing a bell. In modern times, there was sake hidden in a Fen liquor bottle.

“I’ve got you.”

There was no time to lose. Song Yingge immediately telephoned the Operations Section and ordered Zhang Ke to lead a team to the Datong Hotel and arrest Zhou Shun’s wife.

Song Yingge took another group of men and headed straight for the newspaper office where Zhou Shun worked.

Once there, Song Yingge located Zhou Shun based on Zhang Ke’s description.

He walked directly over and knocked the unsuspecting Zhou Shun unconscious with a single punch.

Then, under the astonished and uncertain gazes of everyone in the office, he hauled Zhou Shun outside.

The arrest was carried out with such simple, unadorned efficiency.

By the time Song Yingge returned to Caodu Lane, the Operations Section had also brought Zhou Shun’s wife back.

If they could obtain a confession before the other members of the infiltration team realized what had happened, they could capture the entire group in one sweep.

The key to everything lay with Zhou Shun.

He had been undercover in Nanjing for at least two months.

He was certainly the man who had received the infiltration team afterward.

As long as they pried open his mouth, everything else would fall into place.

In the interrogation room, Song Yingge idly read the newspaper.

As was customary, Zhou Shun was first given the Caodu Lane special.

Iron-whip stir-fried chilies, iron-plate barbecue, and bamboo-skewer grilled meat.

Most ordinary people could not endure more than the iron-plate barbecue.

Zhou Shun had made it all the way to the bamboo-skewer grilled meat and still had not confessed. Clearly, he was a tough one.

And Song Yingge enjoyed nothing more than cracking a hard nut.

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