Cicada Moving

Chapter 858 New arrival

 Beiping, Xizhimen.

This gate is one of the nine city gates in the inner city. It has been an important gateway in Gyeonggi Province since the Yuan Dynasty. It was also the gate through which waterwheels carrying water from Yuquan Mountain to the palace in the Ming and Qing dynasties must pass. Therefore, it is known as the "Water Gate".

After the Japanese occupied Beiping, they set up checkpoints here to inspect pedestrians and vehicles entering and leaving the city. Those caught with questionable identities were sent directly to the gendarmerie headquarters at Beiping University.

On this day, a long-distance bus from Ji Province stopped outside the city gate. At the request of the driver, dozens of passengers got off the bus and lined up one by one. They took out their "Good Citizen Certificates" and handed them to the Japanese.

One of the young men wearing a coarse cotton-padded jacket and a dog-skin hat, carrying a baggage, was in the middle. When it was his turn, he handed over his documents with both hands and bowed to the Japanese soldier holding a rifle.

Contrary to what most people think, the first people to use good citizen certificates on a large scale were not the Japanese, but the Fruit Party who "suppressed bandits" in the southwest in the past few years.

 The certificates are mostly made of fabric and contain information such as name, age, place of origin, address, etc. Ordinary people need to find a sponsor or a local gentry as a guarantor before they can go to the issuing authority to apply.

Nowadays, this tool of restraining the people has been further developed by the Japanese. The system is stricter than that of the Kuomintang, and the content of the Good Citizen Certificate is becoming more and more detailed.

Applicants need to first go through household registration screening by the gendarmerie and the security chief, and investigate the name, age, work unit, occupation, original address, reasons for moving in or out, friendship relationships, living conditions, etc. of the certificate holder.

 If there are discrepancies in the file information, false declarations, intentional or unintentional omissions and concealments, or concealment of changes in family members and employees, the Japanese Military Police will be the focus of investigation.

On top of this, there are also the so-called special investigation objects, which are mainly targeted at those people who are suspected of resisting Japan. Once they enter these two lists, there is often only one outcome, and that is to choose between a prison cell or an execution ground.

After completing these procedures, photos and fingerprints must be taken. The Japanese stipulate that except those under 12 years old who do not need to affix photos, even disabled people must affix photos on their IDs as long as they are able to move. Even blind people must affix photos on their IDs.

Moreover, this kind of photos need to be taken at a photo studio designated by the fake city government. During the photoshoot, the fake security chief must check the household registration book and check the appearance to prevent someone from pretending to be someone else.

Needless to say about fingerprints, the ID will even indicate the facial features of the holder, such as round face, long face, square face, triangular face, as well as physical features, such as moles, spots, strabismus, flat nose, etc. Six fingers and so on.

Under such a strict household registration policy, it is difficult to move forward without a good citizen certificate, and many intelligence personnel of the Guo Party and the underground party have suffered from this.

Besides, the Japanese soldier took the young man's ID and looked at it carefully, looked him up and down, and asked a few simple questions in not fluent Chinese.

 For example, what are you doing in Beiping and where are you staying? These questions are easy to verify and cannot be falsified. The Japanese can verify them with just a few phone calls.

“Anqiu City was hit by a disaster and our family has no food to eat. We want to come to Beiping City to find a job.”

After hearing this, the young man replied timidly. He kept tugging on the baggage on his shoulders as he spoke, looking very nervous, like a poor country boy returning to the city for the first time.

The Japanese soldiers did not see anything suspicious about this person. The Certificate of Good Citizen was genuine and there were no signs of modification or smearing. The seals of the Anqiu Gendarmerie and the Police Station were also fine.

 Observing his forehead and tiger's mouth, no traces of wearing a military cap or shooting for a long time were found. He looked like an ordinary Chinese citizen.

Then he waved to the distance, and another Japanese soldier came over with a ferocious wolf dog. He circled the young man several times and sniffed for a long time before finally letting him go.

The Japanese moved very quickly. It didn’t take long for all the passengers to pass the inspection. The long-distance bus continued to drive into the city. The young man from Anqiu looked up at the city gate.

On the gate tower, several Japanese soldiers with half-undressed uniforms were standing on the battlement, leaning on their guns, grinning thick lips and showing uneven teeth, looking down and laughing wildly.

When the young man saw this, he was so frightened that he quickly retracted his head and lowered his head deeply. This made the Japanese on the city gate even more proud, and their wild laughter was extremely harsh.

After successfully passing the city gate, the bus drove along Xizhimen Street for a while, and finally stopped at the entrance of Qianzhang Park. This is the tourist distribution center in Beiping North City, and the security is very chaotic.

Before the car was stable, a group of laborers and rickshaw pullers surrounded us, shouting to go to a certain place, but there were very few people who responded.

There is an old saying in Beiping that the east is rich and the west is noble, the south is humble and the north is poor. This refers to the attributes of the main population in the southeast and northwest of Beiping.

 In the past, all those doing business in Beiping were willing to go to Dongcheng, so there were many rich people. In Xicheng, there were many houses of former nobles, including several royal palaces, so there was wealth in the East and wealth in the West.

As for the poor in the south and the poor in the north, the beggars who come to Beiping to beg for food, the Liba who do manual labor, and even the disaster victims from other places all gather in the alleys in the north to make a living.

As for Nanjing, it is an industry problem. Artists such as storytellers, singers, vaudeville artists, etc. are almost all active in the Tianqiao and Hufang Bridge areas outside the Qianmen of Nancheng.

It is conceivable that a few of these passengers living in Beicheng were willing to spend money to take the bus or have their luggage carried. They ignored the shouts of soliciting passengers and flexibly squeezed out of the crowd and slipped into the alley. Only the young man stood there helplessly, but looking at the tattered cloth shoes under his feet and the old clothes on his body, the coachman and laborers decisively turned around and left.

At first glance, the other person looks like a poor man. It is better to waste time on this kind of person than to try your luck elsewhere. The park that was originally bustling with people soon became empty at the entrance.

The young man scratched his head when he saw this, and started walking around Beicheng with his baggage on his back. He walked into every shop and asked if they needed a helper, but the answers he received were all no.

Not to mention that it is difficult to do business in the chaos of war. The shop does not need to recruit people. Even if it recruits people, they are willing to recruit people who know the basics. Recruiting a foreigner can easily cause trouble.

　　After searching for a long time and finding nothing, the young man squatted on the side of the road, took out a cold steamed bun from his bag and took a big bite, which almost broke his front teeth.

In the disdainful eyes of passers-by, he spat, stuffed the steamed bun into his collar, held it with his body temperature for a while, and finally ate it, his throat felt as if it had been sliced ​​by a razor blade.

With the last bit of crumbs thrown into his mouth, the young man looked around, got up and blended into the crowd to the sedan alley not far away, and knocked on the door of one of the houses.

 “唔唔唔…”

Before the knock on the door ended, a woman opened the courtyard door from the inside. She glanced at the other person without saying anything, turned around and made way for her, and the young man walked in, and the door was gently closed.

After entering the courtyard, the two of them came to the main room one after another. Zuo Zhong, who had arrived in Beiping a few days in advance, was sitting cross-legged on the kang and reading a book. When he saw the visitor, he immediately smiled and put the book aside and asked softly.

 “Chunyang, was the journey going smoothly?”

“Reporting to the Deputy Director, everything went well, except that I was interrogated once by the Japanese at the gate of the city. Just in case, I specially created some activity tracks to make sure no one was following me before I came to contact you.”

The rustic young man was naturally Wu Chunyang. As he answered, he observed the house in front of him. Compared with the previous safe houses, this place was a bit too simple.

 The low roof, dim light, mottled walls, and old furniture all showed that this room was old and why the deputy director wanted to live in such a place.

This mission is to explore the movements of the Japanese North China Front Army and provide intelligence to the Fruit Army in Xucheng. To complete this mission, they must penetrate into the high-level Japanese military.

 A person living in a slum is not qualified to go to those high-end places. It can be explained if he goes once or twice occasionally. If he goes there too often, even a fool will know the problem.

Zuo Zhong noticed his behavior and patted the edge of the bed with a smile: "Sit down, are you a little strange why I want to live here? Then let me ask you, from Changcheng to Beiping, you walked in the enemy-occupied area One lap, what do you think?”

Wu Chunyang was stunned for a moment, and said truthfully: "The rich are still feasting and feasting, and the life of the common people is harder, but the city's security is more orderly and strict than during the state management period.

In just a few months, they registered the entire population. This mobilization ability is truly frightening. If this continues, work behind enemy lines will become increasingly difficult. "

 Speaking of this, he seemed to understand why the deputy director wanted to live here. When performing tasks in Beiping, a place where spies are everywhere, the first thing he had to do was to perfectly integrate into the city.

There is nothing more suitable for lurking than Beicheng, where the source of the residents is complicated and people from all walks of life are everywhere. However, this will inevitably affect the mission. After all, the circle of contact of the people at the bottom is limited.

Without waiting for Wu Chunyang to speak, Zuo Zhong continued what he just said: "I only picked you and He Yijun when I came to Beiping this time. I didn't choose Gui Youguang, who is better at action. Do you know why?

  In the past, when we carried out similar tasks, we either opened a breakthrough from the enemy's high-level, used wine, sex, and wealth to bribe and instigate key personnel to rebel, or we used force to seize them.

However, the Japanese intelligence agency is not a bunch of **** at the secret service headquarters. It will definitely protect the intelligence before the war begins. If we still use the same old methods, it will be easy to hit the muzzle of the gun.

I want to try to see if I can use a different method to get the information I want at the minimum cost, preferably without the Japanese knowing about it. You understand now.

The reason why I live here is also the need of this plan. Okay, Chunyang, take the time to rest. Go out with me to work early tomorrow morning, and say that you are my distant cousin. "

 “Yes, cousin.”

Wu Chunyang replied seriously after hearing this, secretly guessing what kind of job it was that could obtain such high-level intelligence as military (separation) deployment. Could it be that he was a servant of the headquarters?

 (End of this chapter)