sjar Chapter 1118 The Gods Took Away
Chapter 1118 The Gods Took Away
Li Shaoyi had considered establishing an overseas presence before, but due to the severe war in China and his focus on dealing with the Japanese, the matter was put on hold.
Now that I have some free time, I need to hurry up and make plans. I still have so many brothers working for me. If we make a mistake in the future, going overseas is a good option, and at least the brothers can still live a decent life.
Pujiang Special Service Agency
We've been investigating for almost a week now, going through almost everything that should and shouldn't have been investigated, but the final result is still unsatisfactory.
So much cargo just vanished in full view of everyone. The public announcement of a bombing was purely a cover-up to avoid panic. If they had announced that the goods had disappeared suddenly, as if taken by ghosts or spirits, it would likely have caused unnecessary trouble within the dispatched troops.
Even now, many people are still talking about this. They all say that the Japanese shouldn't have invaded here, and that they were warned by the gods.
Otherwise, where did those things go? It's definitely not something one or two people could have taken away. It must have been the gods who took our things away to warn us to leave this place.
If they remain stubbornly ignorant, even more people will likely die in the future.
The Japanese garrison command responded to this claim by vehemently criticizing it and arresting those who spread such rumors.
We finally won this battle and were able to enter China's largest city, and you people are still spreading such rumors. Aren't you trying to drive us into a corner? After all this effort, what will the world think of us if we abandon this city? What will we do about the domestic fiscal deficit? Don't we need to address that?
"Commander, it's not that I'm shirking responsibility, but the situation on the ground is simply unsolvable. I've already brought in a group of top-notch agents from all over the country, as well as elite police officers from across the nation. They've all achieved great things in their respective fields, but so far, none of them have been able to..."
Colonel Jiu Baoyang, head of the Pujiang Special Service Agency, bowed as he spoke, noting that this was the second time the commander had come to see him.
You should know that although this place seems very powerful to outsiders, it is not highly regarded by many departments of the garrison command. It is only used to arrest some rebels. Compared with the actual combat troops, it is far inferior.
“You’re one of my men. I made you the head of the intelligence agency after I became the commander-in-chief. That’s because I trust you. In my more than twenty years in the military, you’ve helped me solve countless problems. But now you need to understand that if this matter isn’t resolved, not only will I lose your protection, but I’ll also suffer because of you. So for the next week, even if you don’t eat or sleep, you must investigate this matter thoroughly and give me a result, and give the Empire an explanation.”
During this period, General Matsui's hair has almost all fallen out. Originally, it was just a matter of his hair turning white, but now we hear that the legal tender in the port has been depleted, which means that our war gains have been reduced by more than half.
In this situation, besides focusing on the war at the front, they also had to figure out how to explain this to their home country. Now, other voices are emerging from within the country, claiming that the East China Expeditionary Army itself was behind this, embezzling all the money.
It's quite normal for some domestic politicians to have such thoughts, given the numerous instances of embezzlement within the Japanese army. With so much money tied up here, it would be truly strange if they didn't have any ideas.
At first, Commander Matsui also had this idea, and even thought that his officers were too bold.
However, he didn't take the matter seriously. He believed that the matter would be investigated soon, and he would only need to pay a portion of the money, while he could keep a share of the rest.
It now seems that's not the case at all. My subordinates have already investigated thoroughly, and no one has a direct connection to this matter. Besides, we weren't the only ones guarding the place where the money was stored. Marines and people from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs were all there watching over it. How could our people take that money?
In his subsequent report, Commander Matsui had already informed the domestic authorities. There were over a thousand people guarding the coins, belonging to three different departments, and none of them had jurisdiction over the others. When the coins went missing, personnel from all three departments were on duty nearby. Therefore, blaming the army for this was simply unacceptable.
Because of this, each department recalled its original personnel who had been guarding the money. These individuals swore they were 100% certain that it couldn't have been their own people who embezzled the funds. If only one or two people said this, they might have been bribed. But it's impossible to bribe thousands of people; the workload would be enormous, and there's no guarantee these people wouldn't lie later.
Faced with a huge sum of money, the Japanese could not completely trust their own people, so after arresting several of their officers, they even subjected them to severe torture, which was their so-called internal investigation.
The final result was that two of the five captured officers died, and the remaining three could no longer continue on the battlefield. These men did not reveal anything about hoarding money, which means that under these circumstances, their silence was considered truthful.
The East China Expeditionary Army knew about this, but the Japanese General Staff was unaware, so they received one or two phone calls every day urging them to expedite the matter. General Matsui, unable to bear it any longer, went to the Pujiang Special Service Agency for two consecutive days to await news.
Colonel Yang, the bartender, was also eager to investigate the matter immediately. However, as he said, the elites he had brought in from various places were no ordinary people. After surveying the scene, they all concluded that it was impossible for this to be done by human effort, and there was no large-scale transport fleet in the vicinity that day.