Chapter 84: Request For Assistance
Secretary Pan looked at the thick stack of letters sent from various labor organizations in front of him, rubbed his brow, and said: “Put them here, I’ll handle them right away.”
Shanghai Labor Union, full name Shanghai Workers’ Joint General Council, abbreviated as General Union or Labor Union.
This is an organization specifically for uniting workers to seek interests for the country.
It has existed for a long time, and the most famous figure is Comrade Wang Shouhua, who was killed by Boss Du after the April 12 counter-revolutionary action in the 16th year of the Republic and buried at Fenglin Bridge.
Boss Du was therefore awarded the position of Major General Advisor by the Blue Army government.
Later, Boss Du fled far away to Hong Kong Island, died in a foreign land, and never dared to return until his death, all because of this matter, fearing settlement of accounts after the autumn harvest.
After finishing the manuscript in hand, Secretary Pan set it aside and began to open the letters nearby.
Just as he opened the first one, Secretary Pan’s gaze swept over it and suddenly discovered that among this stack of letters, there was a strange letter mixed in.
This letter looked no different from the others on the outside, except that a strange symbol appeared in the lower left corner of the envelope.
This symbol might appear to others as ink accidentally dripped and then rubbed onto clothes,
But in Secretary Pan’s eyes, it was completely different.
This symbol was the code used by the Jiangsu and Zhejiang Regions Guerrilla Team liaison to transmit urgent intelligence.
Secretary Pan was in charge of the Shanghai Intelligence Network, and the Red Faction had clear instructions internally that lateral contact was not allowed unless absolutely necessary.
In other words, according to normal process, the Jiangsu and Zhejiang Regions Guerrilla Team was to contact the courier of the Shanghai intelligence organization and hand over the intelligence to the courier.
Then the courier would hand it over to Secretary Pan’s intelligence liaison officer, after which the intelligence officer could deliver the intelligence to Secretary Pan.
This way, there were many more processes, but it was also sufficiently safe.
But now, the other side had directly used the emergency contact code to send the letter straight to the Labor Union. Secretary Pan’s expression slightly chilled; something unexpected had happened, and the problem was very serious.
Without caring about anything else, Secretary Pan immediately opened that letter.
The content inside was similar to requests from other workers’ organizations, but if linked through a special cipher book.
Then another message would appear.
“6:30 PM, meet at Autumn Leaf Park on Wutong Road, extremely urgent.”
Twilight was closing in, streetlights had just turned on, the light dim and soft yellow.
In one corner of Autumn Leaf Park, there was an unassuming octagonal pavilion, next to several old camphor trees with dense branches and leaves, and a murmuring rockery fish pond.
The air carried a faint scent of grass and moist soil, with distant blurred city background noise and occasional insect chirps.
By the pavilion, a middle-aged man dressed in ordinary gray worker’s clothes and dark trousers sat with his legs crossed, holding a rolled-up current newspaper in his hand.
His gaze seemed to be quietly reading the newspaper, but in reality, the corner of his eye sharply scanned the surrounding environment.
Especially several crowded spots with people; in this era, there wasn’t much entertainment, and the biggest pastime for neighbors after work was bringing children to play in the park.
Children ran chattering along the park lawns and green paths, while adults would set up a chess game somewhere to play against old opponents.
Although their chess skills weren’t necessarily high, it was still a form of pastime.
The middle-aged man’s gaze shifted, his presence restrained, as if deliberately not exposing himself to others’ eyes.
Twilight deepened, the middle-aged man checked the time; there were still four minutes until 6:30.
Click-clack-click, the sound of high heels rang out.
A tall, slender woman appeared in his line of sight.
The woman was about thirty-something, her attire fashionable, wearing an elegant beige qipao, a light blue silk scarf around her neck, and carrying a paper bag printed with the name of a nearby famous pastry shop.
The woman clearly also saw the middle-aged man by the pavilion, but she didn’t approach immediately; instead, she walked toward the fish pond in front of the pavilion, seemingly attracted by the brocade carp inside, and stopped to watch.
Immediately after, the woman opened the bag, her right hand casually patted the railing by the fish pond, then took out the bread inside, tore off a piece, and threw it into the fish pond.
The middle-aged man’s mind stirred slightly; this was the other side conveying the code, indicating the situation was safe, no one tailing.
Seeing this, the middle-aged man folded the newspaper, then casually waved the newspaper in his hand, as if driving away mosquitoes in the twilight.
The woman understood upon seeing it and walked over.
The middle-aged man also stood up and walked toward her; as their figures crossed, the bag in the woman’s hand was already in the middle-aged man’s hand.
The two tacitly didn’t glance at each other again and went off in opposite directions.
The middle-aged man hurried along carrying the bag with the newspaper inside, confirming the distance between them was far enough before finding a well-lit corner.
He opened the bag; inside was a piece of bread with a corner torn off. The middle-aged man broke open the bread, revealing a note inside.
It was densely written with some words. After reading it, the middle-aged man decisively stuffed the note into his mouth, then chewed a few bites of the bread, swallowing it along with the note.
Night, Labor Union west wing room.
After the January 28 air raid incident, the Labor Union east wing room had been bombed by the Japanese, leaving only ruins.
The Shanghai Labor Union was a purely public welfare organization, not as wealthy as imagined, so everyone had to squeeze into the west wing room to work together.
“Thud thud thud.” Footsteps sounded, Secretary Pan looked up and saw a middle-aged man in worker’s clothes on top and dark trousers on bottom striding in quickly.
“Old Zhong, you’ve come.”
“Secretary Pan,” Zhong Yuan sat opposite Secretary Pan and said: “I’ve already met with the other side.”
Secretary Pan said gravely: “What matter required an urgent meeting?”
Zhong Yuan said slowly: “In the recent action, the New Army side was encircled and suppressed by the Japanese devils, and some comrades were injured.”
“Troops are short on medicine. Secretary Xiang sent a special commissioner to Nanjing to buy medicine; she carried three large yellow croakers, six small yellow croakers, and some legal tender.”
“But the special commissioner didn’t get off in Nanjing and came straight to Shanghai.”
Secretary Pan hesitated: “Going the long way around, could her whereabouts have been exposed?”
Zhong Yuan said: “Hard to say now; the comrade who was supposed to connect with her has sacrificed.”
“Even stranger, after getting off the train, her first priority was to contact the Shanghai side’s organization, but now, the Jiangsu and Zhejiang Regions Guerrilla Team’s liaison hasn’t received her contact signal.”
“We can’t confirm if her whereabouts leaked and she was captured, nor if she fled with the funds.”
“In short, this living person got off the train and just vanished.”
“Headquarters has two points now: first, confirm if the special commissioner is safe and if there’s any issue with her personally.”
“Second, hopes the Shanghai side can quickly fundraise a batch of medicine; if the special commissioner’s identity is confirmed fine, have her take the medicine and hurry back to the base area.”
Secretary Pan’s expression tightened: “How can Secretary Xiang suspect his own comrade without any evidence?”
