Zhang Xiaolin

This matter did not blow up too badly. The French Concession's Municipal Council brought in the senior British and American officials from the International Settlement's Ministry of Works, and together with senior officials from the Japanese Consulate, they held negotiations that very afternoon.

This was, of course, a wise choice. The Japanese had frighteningly ambitious designs. These were not Chinese people they had won over in the past, but Japanese masquerading as Chinese, with some of them having risen as high as chief inspector. Such a situation could not possibly exist only in the French Concession. The systems on both sides were more or less the same, except the French Concession's Municipal Council was more centralized and far stronger than the International Settlement's Ministry of Works. The International Settlement likewise had a large number of Chinese detectives maintaining their rule for them.

Considering the situation in the French Concession and Yoshimura Kenji's testimony, there was no need to think twice—the International Settlement certainly had the same problem. Between the Japanese agents lying in wait, the Chinese who had been bought off, and all sorts of foreign senior officials, they had basically infiltrated every level from top to bottom.

So the French had no burden in revealing this ugly business to them. Everyone was in the same boat, so nobody could laugh at anyone else. Besides, they had several concessions in China. Was this sort of thing found only in Shanghai? Only in China? There were such vast colonial territories in Southeast Asia, inhabited by Asians—could there possibly have been no Japanese infiltration there? Of course not. That was why the French brought in Britain and America. The three sides joined forces to put greater pressure on Japan and fight for greater benefits.

The Japanese truly felt enormous pressure. This was