Chapter 29 "Fake Trend"

  November 3, 1973, in the morning, outside the Taipei National Commercial Building, people were densely packed and voices were loud. Inside was a layer of security personnel from the mall, while outside was a layer of emotionally agitated crowds, with people shouting: "Compensate us! Compensate us! What kind of things are you selling?" "Yes, yes, hurry up and compensate us!"

  "What kind of thing is this for sale? This is going to kill people!"

  Listening to the noise outside, Manager Guo of the mall was anxious and sweating profusely. He asked his staff, "Has the police phone call gone through? How long will it take for them to arrive?"

  "The staff replied: 'It's almost here, boss, let's hold on for a while, the police will be here soon.'"

  The manager looked out at the constantly surging crowd with a worried expression and said: "I hope so" Why did this happen?

  This thing should be said from a few days ago. The day before yesterday, an ordinary citizen in Taipei bought a bucket of counterfeit edible oil at the National Mall, and then many citizens also bought a lot of inferior goods at different malls. Gradually, this wave of counterfeit and shoddy goods became more and more intense, and later more people were affected by buying fake products.

  Under the instigation of some people with ulterior motives, many people targeted the shopping mall, and an emergency situation arose at the national shopping mall. Before long, the police arrived, and Manager Guo, seeing the police coming over, plucked up his courage to step out of the mall's main gate, facing a sea of dark faces. To say he wasn't afraid would be self-deception, but with the police protecting him, Manager Guo summoned some more courage and said: "Ladies and gentlemen, please quiet down for a moment, listen to what I have to say. Regarding the inconvenience this shopping mall has brought to everyone this time, we apologize, please rest assured that any losses incurred will be compensated by our store."

  The people around heard Mr. Guo's words, hesitated for a moment, and took the opportunity to bring out the prepared items in the mall to distribute to everyone. This move immediately eased the tense atmosphere on the scene, and later when a large amount of compensation was distributed to everyone, the emotions of the surrounding crowd quickly stabilized, and some people with ulterior motives temporarily retreated.

  Manager Guo let out a sigh of relief as the matter was resolved, but soon became puzzled about how these inferior products had entered his mall. In fact, it wasn't just Taipei National Mall that had experienced the siege by the crowd, large businesses in Taichung, Hsinchu, and Keelung were also surrounded by massive crowds, and these situations were quickly reported to the Executive Yuan.

  Director Chiang Chin-kung hastily convened a government meeting, which was attended by Minister of Health and Welfare Chang Chih-kang, Minister of the Interior Lin Hsin-yi, Minister of Justice Wang Jen-feng, and Lin Feng, who participated in his capacity as head of the intelligence agency.

  Lin Feng first introduced the process of this collective incident to everyone. Chiang Ching-kuo listened to Lin Feng's report and indignantly said: "In recent years, we have put our main efforts into economic construction, and other aspects have inevitably been neglected. Now that such a serious thing has happened, our government departments must seriously deal with these law-breaking factories and businessmen. If our government departments are involved, they will be doubly punished to give the people a satisfactory answer."

  Chiang Ching-kuo is relatively more close to the people, especially in recent years Taiwan's political and economic situation has gradually become regularized, the government's prestige is slowly being established, he absolutely does not allow any incidents that would damage the government's image to happen.

  However, sometimes what you worry about happens. At this time, a sudden knock on the door interrupted several people in the conference room. The staff opened the door and Chiang Ching-kuo's secretary rushed in to say: "Director, a large-scale conflict has broken out in Hsinchu City, with many unidentified individuals storming the police station gate, resulting in 26 injuries among the crowd. The situation is extremely critical, and all personnel at the police station are trapped inside and cannot come out. They have requested support from the headquarters." Chiang Ching-kuo's face changed upon hearing this, while Lin Feng narrowed his eyes slightly, flashing a cold light. Seeing Lin Feng nod, Chiang Ching-kuo immediately gave orders to lead the staff to Hsinchu City, where the incident occurred.

  Hsinchu City is a provincial city located in the northwest of Taiwan Province, the seventh largest city in Taiwan Province, and the living place of the indigenous people of Hsinchu Plateau - the Tao people. It is the administrative center and the central city of the living circle, and it is one of the earliest developed cities in northern Taiwan.

  After the 1970s, as an important science and technology industrial park in Taiwan, it has developed rapidly in recent years. Especially with the National Tsing Hua University located in Hsinchu providing a steady stream of technological talent for local development, many projects collaborated by Lin Feng and National Tsing Hua University are located in Hsinchu, most notably the Semiconductor Center, which will make this place Taiwan's "Silicon Valley" in the future.

  Hsinchu is not far from Taipei, and soon Chiang Ching-kuo's party arrived at the location of Hsinchu City Hall. Mayor Lin Shu-hua and most staff were already at the scene on East Gate Street, while only a few people remained at City Hall. Chiang Ching-kuo took one look and said: "Let's go to the scene." Then everyone drove to East Gate Street, and as they went further, there were more and more people.

  Many people were holding stones and other objects, their emotions running high. Chiang Ching-kuo looked out the window at the chaotic crowd and couldn't help but furrow his brow, worried. He turned to look at Lin Feng, who was still unusually calm, and asked in surprise: "Ah Feng, why are you so calm? Don't you worry at all?"

  Lin Feng gave him a reassuring look and said: "Director Jiang, don't worry about this. The reason for this incident is that some lawless businessmen have put fake and inferior products on the market for various purposes, causing harm to the masses. Some of the victims were taken advantage of by people with ulterior motives and some beneficiaries, factories, and businesses fanned the flames, and some government officials who accepted bribes added fuel to the fire, making the incident more severe. But isn't this an opportunity? We should take this chance to thoroughly rectify the light industry products. These are products closely related to residents' lives, and we can't be careless about them. At the same time, we should also use this opportunity to expose the true faces of some people." After listening to Lin Feng's words, Chiang Ching-kuo knew that he had already made careful arrangements and didn't say anything else.

  The front of the Dongda Street Police Station was bustling with people, and among the crowd were scattered various troublemakers who were responsible for stirring up emotions. Lin Feng couldn't help but feel a sense of awe at this scene, as the Taiwanese agents trained by the CIA had clearly become more skilled at manipulating the crowd's power after their training. Lin Feng ordered his hidden special agents to quietly move closer to the crowd, focusing on those troublemakers who had already exposed themselves, and preparing to strike a fatal blow with their small but deadly weapons at any moment.

  At this time, the police officers summoned from all over the country had taken their positions and were waiting for the final order to start arresting people. Chiang Ching-kuo finally managed to meet up with the mayor and his entourage who were trapped in the crowd after overcoming numerous difficulties. Although Chiang was the Premier, Lin Shu-hua was still the person in charge of Hsinchu City at that time, so he was the one giving orders on site.

  Lin Shu-hua first nodded to Chiang Ching-kuo, picked up the loudspeaker and said to the crowd: "Everyone calm down." Most people heard this and temporarily calmed down to listen to what the mayor had to say. A small number of people tried to create chaos, but just as they were about to act, they found themselves being controlled by unidentified individuals. These people quickly understood and became obedient. The crowd soon quieted down without any noise.

  "I am here representing the municipal government to make three commitments to everyone: First, all citizens who suffered losses in this reoccurrence will receive compensation from the government; Second, the government will seriously investigate and deal with any businesses or factories that broke the law, regardless of who is involved, and will not tolerate any wrongdoing, including government officials; Third, ordinary people who were deceived will be exempt from punishment, and those who were lightly injured will receive free medical treatment from the government. Now please everyone go home quietly and wait for the results of the government's handling. If in three days the municipal government still cannot give you a satisfactory answer, then you can come to the Administrative Yuan to tell us."

  The crowd heard the mayor's words and immediately began to discuss, some agreeing to wait and see, while others disagreed and advocated for continuing to make trouble. Just as everyone was hesitating, a shoe suddenly flew out from among the crowd and hit Lin Shuhua, followed by a loud shout: "Don't believe in officials, they only protect each other, how can they understand us ordinary people?"

  It has to be said that people sometimes have a blind following nature, and the situation that had just been brought under control suddenly lost control. The crowd outside became even more irrational due to the provocation of malicious people. Lin Feng made a decisive decision and ordered action. With the help of special agents, the police quickly controlled the situation and arrested 32 lawbreakers. The remaining crowds were released on the spot.

  In the following days, Taiwan was in a state of martial law, and it has been several years since the term "martial law" was last used in Taiwanese public opinion. However, due to the recent events that took place in Hsinchu City, the impact has spread across the island, with dozens of collective incidents occurring in different regions, particularly with students from various universities participating, among whom the most active were professors and students from National Taiwan University's Law Department. Moreover, they gradually shifted their criticism from illegal merchants to the government, making public speeches about "democracy" and calling for the lifting of party bans and press censorship, including people like Li Deng-hui, Chen Shui-bian, Su Tseng-chang, and Hsieh Chang-ting.

  Lin Feng laughed when he received the news: "Li Deng, you turtle grandson finally can't bear it and want to take the initiative to jump out. Good, good! Order them to closely monitor those few people and report to me at any time. Li Deng, don't let me down!"

  It can be said that as a Chinese, it is difficult to have any good feelings towards Li Deng*, he is a Japanese from inside out, his inner self yearns to be a Japanese, he doesn't even consider himself a Chinese. This time Lin Feng plans to take advantage of this storm to eliminate the few elites of the M* Party once and for all, it's likely that in the future there won't be any chance for the M* Party to rise again.