Chapter 117: The List Equals the Plan

"Sir!"

When Li Wensheng returned, Sister Fang was in the first-floor lobby, polishing the cabinets.

"Sister Fang, you should get some rest early. There's no need to polish the furniture every single day," Li Wensheng said as he headed toward the second floor.

"Understood," Sister Fang replied, continuing her work.

Back in his room, Li Wensheng pulled a brazier from under the bed and began burning a stack of documents he had retrieved from his system storage.

There were quite a few documents in the safe at Eiichi Iwai's office, but after reviewing them all over the past few days, Li Wensheng found only three worth selling. The rest were plans for co-opting various Kuomintang officers—some had already succeeded, while others were still in progress. If he sold these to the Military Statistics Bureau, they would launch investigations. Once confirmed, officers already turned by the Japanese would certainly be executed. Those still being courted would either be dismissed, imprisoned, or transferred if they had connections. But what then? A new batch of officers would simply be sent in and co-opted all the same.

While the ranks of the Kuomintang military were not without brave anti-Japanese heroes, they were mostly filled with cowardly bureaucrats. Selling this intelligence to the Military Statistics Bureau risked exposing himself; too many people in the Shanghai station knew him—they would recognize his voice and build instantly. He had no intention of doing such a thing only to have the same cycle repeat while he remained in danger.

After burning the documents, Li Wensheng went to the bathroom. He wiped his body with a damp towel, carefully avoiding his wounds, and then sat on the edge of the bed to examine the list of traitors. It wasn't just a list of traitors, strictly speaking, as it included two foreigners. Nor was it merely a list—it was an operational plan. The sheer scope of the scheme outlined in these papers had shocked him when he first read it. Eiichi Iwai would never compile a list of collaborators without a reason; he had devised a complex plan that required these specific individuals to act in concert. Even after having read it once, Li Wensheng couldn't help but marvel.

"Eiichi Iwai is certainly ambitious!"

The plan Iwai had concocted was aimed at the twenty million taels of silver held in the Shanghai branch of the Four United Banks. The Four United Banks—comprising the Central, Bank of China, Communications, and Farmers banks—controlled the issuance of legal tender, foreign exchange, and government bonds. Shanghai was not only the intelligence capital of the Far East but also the financial heart of China, boasting a stock exchange for over a decade. Due to its unique financial status, the banks hadn't fully withdrawn before the Japanese occupation; they had merely evacuated most of their staff and downgraded from headquarters to branches.

At the onset of the war, realizing they couldn't hold the city, the banks began withdrawing reserves from surrounding areas. However, the volume was too great, and twenty million taels of silver had to remain in the bank vaults in Shanghai.

Iwai’s plan required six people: Kage Hynes, the Chief Inspector of the French Concession Police; Scott Malone, the Chief Inspector of the International Settlement Police; the renowned writer Chen Wennan; Feng Jingyun, a socialite and dancer at the Ciel Ballroom in the French Concession; Liu Liping, a "Tong-generation" leader of the Green Gang with hundreds of followers; and Wang Qingming, the director of the Four United Banks' Shanghai branch.

Because the headquarters of these four banks were originally based in Shanghai, the vaults were heavily fortified. This security wasn't just about guards; it was about the vaults themselves. The vault doors, imported from Britain, had no keys or codes that could be bypassed—not even with explosives. Located a hundred meters underground, they were impossible to breach from the surrounding earth. The only way in was through the doors, which required specific keys and passwords held by Wen Xiang, the manager of the Four United Banks' Shanghai branch.

To make matters more complicated, each of the four banks still maintained its own small vault. They only opened the main vaults when the small ones ran out of foreign currency or became overfilled. Since the banks had reopened after the Battle of Shanghai, they had been operating entirely on the funds in the small vaults. No one knew which of the four bank vaults contained the twenty million taels of silver except for Wen Xiang.

Iwai’s plan was to have Liu Liping place a large number of rats near the Central and Bank of China branches in the French Concession, and the Communications and Farmers banks in the International Settlement. He would then scatter several corpses, made to look like they had died of the plague, near these locations. Once news of the outbreak spread, Hynes and Malone would demand plague disinfection from the Municipal Council. Given the historical trauma of the "Black Death" in Europe, the Western authorities would certainly comply.

When the disinfecting teams arrived, Malone and Hynes would lead them personally. Even if Wen Xiang refused, he would be forced to open the vaults under their heavy pressure. Once opened, they could discover which vault held the silver.

Wen Xiang, though in his fifties, was still active; he frequented the Ciel Ballroom and was intimately involved with Feng Jingyun. He often spent entire nights at hotels with her. He also fancied himself a man of letters and was close to Chen Wennan, who loved to drink.

Once the location was identified, Feng Jingyun would steal the four keys Wen Xiang carried, take impressions of them, and give them to Liu Liping. Liu would have duplicates made, which Malone and Hynes would use to identify which key belonged to which bank. With the keys identified, Chen Wennan would get Wen Xiang drunk to extract the passwords. If that failed, Iwai had a backup: Liu Liping would kidnap Wen Xiang and administer truth serum.

If the password was obtained, Wang Qingming would create an opportunity to duplicate the key for the specific bank vault and give it to Liu Liping, who would then move the silver under cover of night. If they had to use the truth serum, Wang Qingming would announce that Wen Xiang was critically ill, forge a written order in his name authorizing the opening of the vaults, and mobilize the entire Iwai Mansion staff to pose as officials near the banks. Once the doors were opened, Liu Liping’s men and the Iwai Mansion operatives would storm the vaults and seize the silver. With the cooperation of Malone and Hynes, they would move through the city unimpeded.