অধ্যায় ১০৩: নির্যাতনের মাধ্যমে স্বীকারোক্তি আদায়

"qingyun, you came, sit down quickly."

Seeing xu qingyun enter, xu zhanjie was very happy and pulled him to sit on the comfortable and spacious sofa nearby.

The conditions in the section chief's office were much better than xu qingyun's.

It was similar to the comparison between the office of the station chief surnamed wu and the office of the deputy station chief surnamed yu in a hit drama of later generations.

"teacher, i have already understood the general situation of the case, and now i have a few new findings to report to you."

xu qingyun recounted everything about surveying the scene, discovering the footprints under the bed and the marks on the cabinet, as well as discovering that gong zhaolin had lied.

"gong zhaolin has a big problem?"

xu zhanjie was stunned. he had thought that xu qingyun would need time to familiarize himself with the case, but he didn't expect that in just half a day, xu qingyun would have found out so much, even finding a suspicious person.

"yes, but there are still doubts about him. should the next step be to continue the investigation, or..."

"no need to investigate, interrogate him directly."

before xu qingyun could finish speaking, xu zhanjie stood up. he had ordered gong zhaolin to be detained before he went to tianjin.

at that time, hou yishan had pleaded for gong zhaolin, saying that he had been deceived by lu dawang and had accidentally spoken about the case.

xu zhanjie had detained him as a punishment. they were an intelligence section, and the confidentiality regulations were the strictest. regardless of the reason, if someone said something they shouldn't have, they had to be punished.

what's more, gong zhaolin had caused such a great loss.

however, xu zhanjie inwardly agreed with hou yishan's statement that gong zhaolin had been deceived. he had intended to lock him up for a period of time and then exile him to a remote small station to be dealt with as an example to warn others to pay attention to confidentiality in the future.

at this time in the military intelligence agency, intelligence work was very different from the period of the military statistics bureau.

they mostly followed the book, learning from the operations of intelligence departments in germany or other countries. they had the necessary things, but they had the form without the substance, and it could even be said that there was a lot of chaos internally.

for example, this kind of leakage had also occurred in the tianjin station.

let alone them, even during the period of the comprehensive war of resistance, the military statistics bureau had made many low-level mistakes and suffered many losses.

"yes, teacher."

xu qingyun nodded in agreement. his purpose in coming to report also included this, but he was interrupted by xu zhanjie before he could finish.

interrogate him first to see what gong zhaolin has to say. with so many doubts, it would be easier to investigate after clarifying them.

the interrogation section received the order to bring in gong zhaolin and prepare to use torture.

torture and questioning are two different concepts. receiving a call from xu zhanjie personally, the interrogation section understood that gong zhaolin was in big trouble.

in the cell, gong zhaolin was taken out. he didn't even know what was going on before he was hung up in the interrogation room.

seeing xu qingyun and the section chief come in together, he was even more astonished.

"section chief, team leader xu, what are you doing?"

gong zhaolin's voice trembled. this was out of fear. the posture before him was clearly going to involve torture, and he was very clear about the horror of these torture tools.

"gong zhaolin, confess honestly, how did you kill lu dawang?"

xu zhanjie asked first. gong zhaolin was startled and hurriedly shook his head: "section chief, i didn't kill lu dawang, it really wasn't me."

"you know our interrogation process. what, now that it's come to this, you're still harboring a fluke?"

xu zhanjie shouted. gong zhaolin was anxious and shouted: "section chief, it wasn't me, it really wasn't me, i'm being wronged."

"shut up." xu zhanjie slammed the table, and gong zhaolin immediately closed his mouth.

"if it wasn't you, why did you go to his room?"

xu zhanjie asked angrily. gong zhaolin was stubborn and remained tight-lipped.

gong zhaolin was stunned again. he had entered lu dawang's room, but he hadn't told anyone. how did the section chief know?

"use torture."

xu zhanjie lost patience, and the person next to him immediately pulled a whip out of a water bucket.

"section chief, i'll talk."

gong zhaolin shouted. his body trembled slightly, his lips were dry, and his eyes were bloodshot. just as he opened his mouth, tears fell.

"lu dawang invited me to drink before and once asked me about the mission situation. i told him, and after the operation failed, i felt something was a little wrong."

"later, the captain asked us, and i told him. afterwards, i went to ask lu dawang and found out he had concealed this matter, so i was very afraid."

gong zhaolin said slowly. xu qingyun suddenly asked: "did you invite him, or did he invite you?"

"it was really him who invited me, but he didn't bring money, so i paid the bill in the end."

gong zhaolin replied. he was now cursing lu dawang's ancestors for eighteen generations in his heart and regretted going to that meal.

why did he have to have such a loose mouth? the result was that he spent money and still ended up in trouble.

lu dawang had promised to pay him back when he got his salary, but unfortunately, he was dead, and this money was doomed to never be recovered.

"just now when i asked you, why did you say he paid?"

xu qingyun asked again. gong zhaolin finally told the truth. if he continued to conceal this matter, the whip would immediately come down.

"i didn't dare to say that i invited him, afraid that you would suspect me."

gong zhaolin said in a low voice. lu dawang was a major suspect. if he said he invited lu dawang to dinner, he was afraid that even if he jumped into the yellow river, he wouldn't be able to wash himself clean.

at that time, it was very likely that they would use him as a scapegoat, so he had lied just now.

"what did you go to his room to do?"

xu qingyun stared at him closely. gong zhaolin dared not conceal anything anymore: "i sensed that something was wrong with him and was afraid of being implicated, so i wanted to go to his room to check and see if i could find some evidence to make a merit. i hadn't been there long when he returned to the dormitory. in a rush, i hid under the bed."

"i saw him go to move the cabinet, so i tried hard to shrink inside to avoid him seeing me. later, i don't know what he took from behind the cabinet and left directly."

what he said matched up. judging from the marks under the bed and the footprints on the wall, he had indeed curled up his body at that time.

"what did he take?"

"i don't know. i only dared to come out after he left. i was afraid he would come back, so i didn't dare to search and went back. as a result, his death was announced the next day, and then i was locked in here."

lu dawang was found to be suspicious, but he died before he could be monitored or investigated, so there would definitely be no monitoring of gong zhaolin.

whether it was as he said, xu qingyun had to verify through investigation to confirm.

however, one thing was certain: there had indeed been something hidden behind the cabinet before.

"are you sure the one who came back was lu dawang?"

xu qingyun continued to ask. gong zhaolin nodded: "sure, i recognize his shoes and trousers. i could see his legs when i was under the bed."

"why didn't you take the initiative to confess these things?"

xu zhanjie asked suddenly. he would not easily believe gong zhaolin's words; now he was listening to how gong zhaolin would quibble.

"section chief, i was really afraid. if i said it out and you didn't believe me, treating me as a traitor, wouldn't i die very unjustly?"

gong zhaolin was still crying, with mucus and tears.

he regretted it very much now. if he had said it earlier, although there was a possibility of being wronged, it would still be better than now.

a fluke mentality harmed him. he didn't know how the section chief and team leader xu found out about these things, but only saying it when asked, the situation was clearly even more disadvantageous to him.

"use torture." xu zhanjie suddenly shouted.

gong zhaolin looked up abruptly. he had already confessed, and the section chief was still going to torture him?

how could he know that because of his concealment, xu zhanjie now had no trust in his words. just now, in xu zhanjie's subconscious, he had determined that he was quibbling.

he couldn't escape this suffering at all.

gong zhaolin was beaten until he howled, constantly begging for mercy. xu zhanjie could be a section chief because his heart was as hard as iron; he wouldn't stop until the truth was asked.

"section chief xu, he fainted."

not long after, gong zhaolin couldn't hold on and fainted.

"pour water to wake him up, continue."

xu zhanjie said coldly. the interrogation personnel forcibly woke gong zhaolin up and changed methods to continue the torture.

"don't prick anymore, i'll talk."

during the finger-pricking stage, gong zhaolin finally couldn't hold on and began to confess.

he said he was turned by the japanese and asked lu dawang to spy for intelligence.

when he said that it was he who took the initiative to invite lu dawang to dinner, xu qingyun's eyebrows jumped slightly.

according to the restaurant owner's situation, gong zhaolin's previous confession could match up. it was indeed lu dawang who invited him, but he didn't bring money.

now that he suddenly changed his statement, it was inconsistent with the previous investigation.

xu zhanjie didn't think about that much. seeing gong zhaolin confess, he immediately asked: "how did you kill lu dawang, and who is your contact?"

"i poisoned him."

gong zhaolin said weakly. poisoning was correct, but when asked what food he used to poison him, he said it was steamed buns.

when asked about his contact, he didn't know where the contact was, only the code name, and the description of the contact's appearance was very generic.

when the autopsy results came out, gong zhaolin had already been locked in the cell, and he didn't know what exactly lu dawang had eaten.

"teacher, wait."

before gong zhaolin could finish his confession, xu qingyun suddenly shouted. xu zhanjie immediately looked at him.

"teacher, come out for a moment."

xu qingyun brought xu zhanjie out of the interrogation room and stated his suspicions.

"he's still lying?" xu zhanjie widened his eyes.

"teacher, i don't think so. it's possible it's a confession forced by torture."

the torture was too painful, and some people couldn't hold on. in order to temporarily avoid physical pain, they would say whatever they were told to say.

if it was really a confession forced by torture, things were more troublesome.

it was possible that his previous confession was the truth, and he was not a traitor.

"do you have a way to verify it?" xu zhanjie asked proactively.

"i'll try."

xu qingyun did not refuse. whether it was a confession forced by torture, it could be tested. if he was performing, the result would naturally be different.

however, if it was really a performance, it could only be said that his acting skills were too good, and being able to withstand these painful tortures made him another hetian.

unless he was japanese, there was no possibility of a traitor doing this.

"good, you interrogate him."

returning to the interrogation room, xu qingyun asked someone to call a doctor to treat his wounds.

the one who came was doctor li. seeing gong zhaolin full of wounds, he was secretly shocked in his heart. learning that it was the result of the interrogation by xu zhanjie and xu qingyun, he couldn't help but sigh secretly. he didn't expect that this seemingly young and immature man would be so ruthless.

he was not in tianjin. if he had seen the tragic situation of those japanese spies in tianjin, he would probably think more.

in tianjin, the half-hour package had long been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and even the station chief followed suit.

"gong zhaolin, where are you from?"

"reporting to team leader xu, i am from anqing, hui province."

gong zhaolin replied weakly. the medicine applied to his body made him feel a little better, but the intense pain was still eroding his body at every moment.

"anqing is a good place. where is your hometown, and where did you attend elementary school?"

xu qingyun continued to ask. xu zhanjie didn't understand the significance of asking these things, but he didn't interrupt from the side.

after asking for twenty minutes, xu qingyun suddenly changed the question: "what kind of clothes did you say your contact liked to wear just now?"

gong zhaolin was stunned for a moment. seeing xu qingyun staring straight at him, he said in a panic: "black, no, blue long gown."

what he said just now was indeed a blue long gown, but at this moment he spoke wrong first.

"what was the third piece of intelligence you provided to him?"

just now gong zhaolin confessed that the intelligence was leaked by him and he had provided intelligence five times. xu qingyun didn't ask about others and asked directly about the third time.

"let me think, it seems to be the intelligence of the training class."

he said it wrong again. he had indeed confessed to the training class intelligence, but the confession just now was the second time he provided it.

xu zhanjie was holding the confession written just now. hearing his answer, he immediately understood that gong zhaolin's answer was problematic. what he said now was different from just now; he didn't remember his own confession from just now.

the reason could be guessed. he had no choice just now and made it up randomly. after saying it, the impression was not deep, so he would make mistakes when asked again.

"what time did you enter lu dawang's room?"

xu qingyun sighed slightly and asked again. gong zhaolin quickly said a time, which was exactly the same as before.

"what color pants and shoes was lu dawang wearing at that time?"

gong zhaolin's answer was quick, matching the previous confession.

xu qingyun then asked ten questions in a row, with half being the confession before torture and half being the confession after torture.

xu zhanjie looked at the confession, his expression slightly dull.

out of ten questions, all the ones before torture were correct, but three of the ones after torture were wrong.

three out of five were wrong, a 60% error rate.

one was even a completely new statement.

"qingyun, let's go out."

xu zhanjie understood the problem. xu qingyun's guess just now was correct; gong zhaolin couldn't withstand the torture and confessed under duress.

"teacher, what he said before might be true. he was purely afraid, had a fluke mentality, wanted to investigate and make a merit to atone for his crimes, so he didn't take the initiative to confess."

after coming out, xu qingyun said first. there were many doubts about gong zhaolin. if everything he said at the beginning was the truth, these doubts could be resolved.

it was his later confession that was full of loopholes.

"you are right, i was a little anxious."

xu zhanjie sighed. he was annoyed because he felt deceived and no longer believed any of gong zhaolin's words.

fortunately, with xu qingyun there, he corrected him in time.

if they had investigated according to what gong zhaolin confessed, not only would it be a waste of effort, but it might also allow the real traitor to get away.

"teacher, the interrogation is not wrong. at least it can clarify the real situation. i suggest locking him up first. i will continue to investigate based on his confession. if everything is performed by him, then i will make him suffer the most painful torture."

nothing is absolute. before finding out the truth, xu qingyun would not subjectively conclude that gong zhaolin had no problem.

"good, how are you going to investigate next?" xu zhanjie nodded.

"fang laibao went to the post office and will probably be back in a while. yan ming went to lu dawang's hometown and will also be back tomorrow. after he returns, i will let him go to anqing to investigate gong zhaolin's situation, whether it is the same as what he confessed, and whether there is a possibility of being impersonated by the japanese."

xu qingyun said slowly, and xu zhanjie's eyes lit up.

he had long known that his student considered problems comprehensively, but he didn't expect him to think of so much this time, even thinking of impersonation in advance.

"okay, let's investigate like that."

xu zhanjie nodded in agreement. he didn't ask about investigating the case; xu qingyun did better than him. at this moment, he was even more convinced that asking for xu qingyun was the most correct decision.