Chapter 489: A new rival is coming

Zhou Huimin is a young female journalist.

She works for the Tianjinwei newspaper Ta Kung Pao. She is responsible for daily reporting.

As she is new to the newspaper, she has few opportunities to go out and interview. There is no photographer to follow her either.

Her only weapon for news reporting is her pen.

And an old notebook.

She heard that something big was happening in Zhuyuan, so she came, confused.

The other reporters had already hurried off to the theatre. Even the editor-in-chief had gone. Everyone had gone.

Zhuyuan, it seems, was the theatre of Wang Zhulin.

Who was Wang Zhulin? He was a big businessman. He was a philanthropist. Well, that was the information she had. That was what everyone had told her.

The news reports all say the same thing: Mr Wang Zhulin has done charity work here and there, and helped the victims of disasters in this and that place.

Only a very few people hesitate when they mention Wang Zhulin.

'Are you...'

'Hello. My name is Zhou Huimin, I'm a reporter for Ta Kung Pao.'

'This is for you.'

Someone hands Zhou Huimin a small box.

It's a simple little box, like something for jewellery.

'For me?' Zhou Huimin is a little puzzled.

What is it?

She subconsciously wants to open it.

However, she is stopped by an old reporter next to her.

The old reporter uses his eyes to indicate to her not to open the box. Let's go inside first and talk about it.

Zhou Huimin understands and takes the box through.

'You can open it now,' says the old reporter, looking around.

He takes out his own box. He opens it.

Inside is a red paper package.

He opens the red paper package. Inside are ten silver dollars.

The old reporter lifted the banknote up with satisfaction and slipped it into his pocket. Then he put the box away.

Zhou Huimin opened it in the same way. Inside were also ten banknotes.

'Banknotes?'

'Ten?'

Zhou Huimin was very surprised.

She had never expected that the box would actually contain real banknotes.

She had been a journalist for a very short time and did not know the unspoken rules very well.

She had thought it was just an ordinary interview. She had not expected to be given ten banknotes just after meeting. This was a very generous gift.

Her monthly salary was only three taels of silver. This was equivalent to three months of her salary.

However, she felt that something was wrong.

'Wait!'

'Senior, can you tell me what's going on?'

She hurriedly asked the senior reporter.

The senior reporter looked around. There was no one else.

So he whispered, 'For now, just use your ears, not your mouth...'

'What do you mean?' Zhou Huimin was puzzled.

'Just record whatever the host says. Report whatever the host wants us to report.'

'Then...'

Zhou Huimin vaguely understood.

But she felt a little strange. It seemed to be saying that something big had happened in Zhuyuan.

So what exactly had happened in Zhuyuan?

'Follow me!'

'Thank you!'

The old reporter led Zhou Huimin into a spacious house.

He didn't know whose house it was. It had been temporarily requisitioned by the secret police. Anyway, its owner was temporarily away. The house was empty.

The house was full of reporters. Reporters from many newspapers had all come.

They had all left their nests. There were as many as twenty of them. They were all gathered together.

'Everyone, everyone!'

Someone stepped forward to greet all the reporters.

Zhou Huimin looked around and saw that there were more than 300 people. More people were still arriving.

She did some quick calculations. A reporter was worth 10 silver dollars. More than 300 reporters meant more than 3,000 silver dollars! That was a lot of money. She wondered who was behind this. The person behind this must be very rich.

'Everyone, let me give you a brief introduction to the situation. Zhuyuan has been attacked by unidentified bandits. The people inside are either dead or injured. Only Wang Zhulin himself managed to escape.'

'My name is Luo Yiming. I'm with the Secret Service of the Fuxing Society. We happened to be passing by. So we blocked the bandits inside the bamboo garden. But the bandits are very powerful. We couldn't resist. So we asked the garrison for help.'

'There are some rumours going around that the bandits inside are Japanese posing as bandits. We haven't confirmed these claims yet. I hope everyone will not spread rumours, or believe them. Everything is subject to the official announcement.'

'If, and I say if, it turns out that the bandits inside are really connected to the Japanese, we will also bring it to the attention of the relevant authorities. Please believe that we are confident and capable of handling this crisis.'

Luo Yiming spoke with confidence.

He was best at this kind of thing. That was why Zhang Yong had asked him to deal with it.

'Snap!'

'Snap!'

People kept taking photos.

They were using relatively old cameras.

'Click!'

'Click!'

Only a very few reporters had brand new cameras.

Most of them didn't even have the oldest cameras. They could only rely on their pens to take notes.

For example, Zhou Huimin.

She quickly jotted down Luo Yiming's words.

Afterwards, she felt as if something was wrong. But she didn't know what.

Did Luo Yiming seem to be implying that the Japanese were bandits?

But it didn't seem like it...

So what was going on?

At this time, someone came over and handed out press releases.

They had all been printed long ago. They were all in the same format. They all had the same content.

'Everyone, please pay attention!'

'Everyone, please pay attention!'

Luo Yiming called out in a commanding voice.

Everyone quickly fell silent for the sake of the ten silver dollars.

'This is the official announcement.'

'All the relevant details are already on the announcement.'

'However, everyone should not just send out the announcement as it is. You should put your own spin on it. Give it a bit of a polish.'

'Our requirements are that it be straightforward, colloquial and easy to understand. We want all the people of Tianjin to know the content of the notice. Therefore, we have bought all the newspapers for the next three days. All the newspapers will be distributed free of charge to the whole community!'

Luo Yiming announced loudly.

All the reporters looked at each other thoughtfully.

Many experienced veteran reporters seemed to have caught a whiff of something. They became a little excited.

This was a battle!

This was to be announced to the whole world!

What was the point of spending so much money? Surely it wasn't just a newspaper.

There was something big going on.

There must be a deep and far-reaching plan behind it all.

A storm was brewing in Tianjin.

In fact, Zhang Yong, sitting in the corner of the second floor, felt that the heat was still not quite enough.

The transmission of information in this era was really too slow.

It was all paper media. It required writing, finalising, setting the layout, printing, selling...

It's very time-consuming.

Even if you work overtime right now, the news won't be published until tomorrow morning at the earliest.

So slow...

So very slow...

If only it were the online media of the future...

Now the whole world knows.

There's nothing he can do...

The limitations of the times. He can only accept it.

There are many things he can't do.

It's like knowing that the hostages are on the MV Oceanic, but not being able to rescue them immediately. Because there's no helicopter.

If there were a helicopter and a motorboat, it would have been done long ago.

Of course, missile speedboats are best.

If he were given a dozen missile destroyers, he would dare to sweep across the Pacific.

Unfortunately, there were none...

So, he could only return to Zhuyuan. He waited silently.

In the meantime, he directed Catherine to do something. He asked her to send relevant news to the British newspapers The Mirror and The Times.

At that time, these were two newspapers with very great influence. They specialised in reporting current world affairs.

Catherine said that she could do it. But it would cost a lot of money.

It would cost several hundred pounds to send the press release by long-distance telegraph. One pound per word.

Then another hundred pounds would have to be paid for the front page. Two major newspapers, that's two hundred pounds. Not a penny less. That was the rule.

'Done!'

Zhang Yong readily agreed.

He felt good about the expected earnings in the next few days.

If this was handled properly, the money he could get from the Japanese would definitely be more than a few hundred pounds.

You can't catch a wolf without giving up your children. Let's do it. High investment, high return.

'Ring ring ring...'

'Ring ring ring...'

Suddenly the phone rang.

Yang Zhi answered the phone. Then he said to Zhang Yong, 'Captain, your phone.'

'Okay!' Zhang Yong casually took the receiver.

Who was the first caller?

He was curious.

It turned out to be the voice of Takeo Kishida, 'Zhang Yong, what are you up to again?'

'The Qinglong Society and the people from Chibirov are all inside the bamboo garden. Do you know?' Zhang Yong also did not mince his words. He told the other party the truth directly, "Has anyone told you?'

'The Qinglong Society?" Kishida Takeo was obviously a little surprised. "Why are they here?'

'It seems that you don't know a lot of the news," Zhang Yong said, 'Yu Zhongchun's son was kidnapped. You wouldn't know about that, would you?'

'Did the Qinglong Society do it too?'

'Yes.'

'Then I know now.'

'Does anyone else know?'

'Shigeki Shigekawa definitely doesn't know. I'm not sure if Tomohiko Wachi knows.'

'You guys have some complicated internal dynamics.'

'You knew about this a long time ago,'

said Takeo Kishida, exasperated. He didn't hide his emotions.

Right now, he had been somewhat marginalized. After all, he had not achieved much in Shanghai, and had instead been a bit of a mess.

The Japanese invaders judge heroes by their success or failure. If you do well, you can progress. If you don't do well, you'll be sidelined.

Shigehide Shigekawa has suffered consecutive setbacks recently and has also been sidelined.

Only Tomohiko Wachi has not suffered much. Or rather, he has not yet been held accountable.

Now that the higher-ups have let the Green Dragon Society go, it is clear that they don't trust these people very much.

How the higher-ups were going about it, Takeo Kishida had no idea. But he did know one thing: Zhang Yong's opponents were now even more senior. They were no longer just a few old guys. In that case, he would just sit back and watch the crab as it rampages.

'Apart from Kuroshima Ryuzo, has any other important figure recently arrived in Tianjin?'

'Isozaki Rensuke has arrived.'

'Really?'

'He's going to Peking to discuss peace in North China with Song Zheyuan.'

'What else?'

'I heard that Sakaguchi Seishiro might also be coming.'

'Isn't he the deputy chief of staff of the Kwantung Army? What's a high-ranking official like him doing in Tianjin?'

'He's not coming to Tianjin. He's going to Peking.'

'Oh. Peking...'

Zhang Yong chatted with his counterpart in a perfunctory manner.

Takeo Kishida didn't feel like he was in danger of divulging any secrets. After all, these things weren't exactly secrets.

Many people in Beiping knew that Rensuke Isogai was coming.

Many people there also knew that Seishiro Sakagaki was coming.

There was no need to hide anything.

It was the specific time, route and location that needed to be kept secret. But Takeo Kishida didn't know anything about that. There was no way he could divulge any secrets.

Soon, Zhang Yong hung up the phone.

It seems that these old rivals have been sidelined by the Japanese invaders.

New rivals are coming.

It could be Rensuke Isogai. It could be Seishiro Sakagaki. It could be Hideki Tojo.

Rensuke Isogai, Kenji Toihara, and Seishiro Sakagaki. These three guys are all very famous China experts. They are also very good at espionage work. Kenji Toihara in particular has almost become a byword for the Japanese invaders' secret service agencies.

Beiping is really lively.

All of them were big shots.

It was all a big scene.

Behind the tension and the tension, what kind of swordplay was going on?

Every moment must have been thrilling!

Unfortunately, he hasn't yet had the chance to take the big stage.

He'd better continue practising in Tianjin!

The stage is set. Let the show begin.

One act after another, slowly and surely!