Munitions Empire-Chapter 950 - 873 interrogation

Chapter 950: 873 interrogation Chapter 950: 873 interrogation “Have you brought the people back?” Having removed his gloves, he tossed them onto the table beside him and glanced at the man sitting there, sipping tea, as the Great Tang intelligence officer from the southern part of the Empire asked with concern.

The lighting here was not very bright; the walls were built from large stones, and where torches once were, lighting fixtures had now been installed.

When it was still part of Chu Country, this place was a dungeon for prisoners, those who ended up here had offended the powerful and were out of luck.

After the Great Tang Empire took over, they renovated the place: all the prison doors were replaced with steel ones, and some of the rooms were even soundproofed.

The military officer drinking tea nodded his head to indicate the other should sit down and have a cup: “They’ve all been brought back, we took the overland route, by train, very safe. The helicopter unit pulled out directly without delay.”

He went through all the points of interest in one breath, allowing the other to close his mouth and enjoy the tea. Despite being in a dungeon, one had to admit, the taste of the tea was quite exceptional.

Chu Country was mountainous, naturally producing tea leaves, and it had to be said that Chu tea was much better in quality than the locally produced tea in the Great Tang Empire, which is why it was so popular with tea lovers in Great Tang.

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With the advantage of proximity, the area that was once part of northern Chu Country, now belonged to the southern border of the Great Tang Empire and, naturally, it could obtain a large amount of cheap, fine imported tea from Chu Country.

“The tea is indeed excellent,” the intelligence officer remarked, setting down his tea cup, unable to help praising it aloud.

“Take some with you when you leave,” the military officer who’d been interrogating prisoners all night offered generously.

The intelligence officer, without being pretentious, nodded and continued to inquire: “How did it go? After all this fuss, did you get a clear confession?”

There was a hint of exhaustion in the man’s voice: “We interrogated through the night, only one ringleader knew quite a bit, the rest were brainless fools, just following a fantasy.”

Jokingly, ever since their Imperial Security Bureau had started up from the Silver Fox Tavern, there hadn’t been an answer they couldn’t extract—with the many tactics learned from His Majesty over the years, how could they fail to deal with a few petty thieves?

He hadn’t even needed to resort to the “Manchu Qing’s ten most ruthless tortures,” the “Military Police’s little book of interrogation,” or “Yang Yongxin’s lightning fast quintuple lashings.” Basically, the other party had recollected his life’s details, leaving nothing unconfessed.

“Any results?” the intelligence officer pressed on.

“We’ve identified their contact, an old noble of Chu Country. He had already fled by the time we got there, but we still found some clues,” the man replied directly: “Chu Country has issued a warrant for him, but as you know the state of things there, it’s not likely they’ll catch him.”

When he spoke, the man clearly held Chu Country’s governance and intelligence agencies in disdain, not believing they were capable of accomplishing something of substance.

Frankly, just as the Great Tang Empire’s intelligence agencies penetrated other nations, Chu Country was practically like a sieve.

If there was intelligence suggesting that a foreign agency had stolen a Butcher Fighter Jet from Chu Country’s military, he wouldn’t be the least bit surprised.

To expect that bunch of Chu sluggards, who were merely coasting along, to catch a fugitive was simply impossible: at most, they would make a show of effort, then go back to reading newspapers in their offices.

After expressing scorn for his counterparts, the man continued: “He burned some things, but most of the materials are still intact, and Chu Country has been cooperative. The approximately four million Gold Coins that the noble had stashed away have been intercepted.”

As it turns out, Chu Country’s intelligence wasn’t as terrible as he thought, or perhaps the Gold Card team they found to develop contacts everywhere wasn’t that formidable after all, meeting their match with Chu’s intelligence personnel.

In any case, after all the trouble, with the assistance of Great Tang Group personnel, Chu successfully tracked down a lot of the escaped noble’s assets.

Hearing the amount, the intelligence officer was somewhat shocked: “Four million? That’s quite a lot.”

Even though they had weathered many storms and seen figures of millions and tens of millions of gold coins on Great Tang Group’s accounts, this did not mean that the entire world was experiencing such alarming inflation.

On the contrary, among other financial conglomerates and powers besides the Great Tang Group, several hundreds to millions of gold coins were already considered a large sum.

In fact, in many large transactions, one hundred thousand gold coins were still enough to be described as a huge amount of money, and many companies, enterprises, and even individuals would find it challenging to get their hands on a thousand gold coins.

Now that they had traced four million gold coins, it was definitely not a trivial amount—whatever the other party was planning, the loss was definitely significant.

The man responsible for the interrogation nodded and added, “We left two million for Chu Country… You should have seen those guys; they were nearly crying with joy when they saw the money. They truly didn’t expect us to be so meticulous in our work.”

The intelligence officer laughed, “Being meticulous is good; next time they’ll be even more cooperative.”

This time, the special forces of the Tang Empire had caused quite a commotion in their operation in Chu Country. There were helicopter flights and shootings in the streets, and Chu Country had to do a significant amount of cleanup.

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If they only caused trouble for the other party without giving them any benefits, such cooperation would definitely not last. They had to occasionally show some sincerity to keep the other side willing to continue the partnership.

“There won’t even be a next time; I heard that the accountants who assisted in the recovery of embezzled funds promised us, as soon as they returned, that if they encountered similar cases, they would notify us immediately,” the man responsible for the interrogation laughed heartily.

“Come on, take me to see. I don’t believe a Chu Country nobleman can be worth four million. If he can’t explain himself, this matter can’t be overlooked,” the intelligence officer stood up and said.

The interrogating man also stood up and led the intelligence officer to a metal door, where the guard helped to open it, revealing inside a half-dead man hanging from a wooden rack.

“I’ve told you everything! I’ve told you all I know! Please… don’t, don’t…” Seeing the man who had interrogated him returning, the man hanging from the wooden rack cried out, struggling with all his might as he did so.

Pleased with this reaction, the intelligence officer stepped in front of the severely wounded man and slightly lifted his head to look into the man’s eyes, “Do you know where Earl Zeng Jian’s funds came from? Tell us all you know, and spare yourself the pain.”

“I don’t know… I really don’t know…” The man winced in pain, shaking his head, then as if remembering something, he instinctively looked to the side, “No! Please! Don’t!”

The officer in charge of the interrogation had already taken down a whip from the wall and was loosening up his muscles, “Let me help refresh your memory. Relax! Don’t be tense!”

He walked up to the man hanging, while the intelligence officer had already stepped aside. What followed was a brutal and bloody scene.

With each crack of the whip striking flesh, the man hanging from the wooden rack let out screams like those of a pig being slaughtered.

“Ah! Ah!” The intelligence officer listened to the other man’s tormented howls, boredly waiting for a result. It was possible the man really didn’t know anything, or he might reveal what he knew.

As for the idea that the man knew something but wouldn’t disclose it, the intelligence officer thought it was unlikely: a brief cooperation couldn’t establish sufficient loyalty, and those who lacked conviction wouldn’t endure for long.

Sure enough, as the man in charge of the interrogation went to get a red-hot branding iron, the hanging man finally succumbed, “I remember now! I remember now! He mentioned ‘Southeast Clothing’! He brought up a company called ‘Southeast Clothing’ during a casual conversation with me! Stop hitting, please stop!”

“That’s equivalent to saying nothing… We have 200 to 300 companies called Southeast Clothing in the territories of Great Tang and Chu Country. If we were to check them one by one, the people involved would be long gone,” the interrogating man said with dissatisfaction.

“Not necessarily,” the intelligence officer seemed to have an idea, “We can start from the financial transactions. Money laundering? Not so easy!”

They had been constantly tracking such unidentified funds recently, and with the name of the company, Southeast Clothing, they could easily narrow down their targets.

“There’s no time to lose; let’s request another field operation…” He turned and walked briskly towards the exit, “I’ll take the tea next time I come; the task at hand is urgent.”

The man responsible for the interrogation placed the branding iron back in the furnace and returned, kicking the hanging man, “Scum! You always talk straight when the branding iron comes out! Tell me, are you not despicable?”