1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 1052 Chapter 1052 Role Playing
From the moment the sailboat left Dinghai Port, everyone on board bid farewell to their identity as Haihan nationality.Each of them will be transformed into a temporary Daming identity for the next period of time until the end of this operation.Gong Shiqi and Gao Qiaonan were given a 20-day deadline for their actions. During this time, they had to complete a series of steps in Hangzhou, including lurking, investigation, planning, implementing operations, and evacuating.Although the time seems to be sufficient, considering that the targets of this operation are all court officials, and if one of them has an accident, it will definitely cause a chain reaction, which may cause the local government to use all its power to hunt them down. And the difficulty is not small.

After the four ships of the joint action team sailed out of Dinghai Port, they quickly distanced themselves.These four ships are equipped with different action teams, and the places where they land in Hangzhou will also be different, and they will enter Hangzhou City through different routes.After arriving in the city, they will gradually reorganize through the agreed contact means, so as to avoid revealing their whereabouts at the beginning of their arrival in Hangzhou and attracting the attention of interested people.

Gao Qiaonan was sitting in the cabin, holding a stack of documents in his hand, all of which were information about Hangzhou City, including a map of Hangzhou Prefecture.Although he has read it several times before, the voyage to Hangzhou is about [-] nautical miles, so he will read it again if he has nothing to do on the way.Prior to this, studying the history and geography of a certain place like this was often a way for Gao Qiaonan, as the commander, to understand the target area before Haihan sent troops to attack the place.But this time the situation is quite special. Haihan will not have any plans to attack Hangzhou in the foreseeable period of time, and the purpose of thoroughly understanding these materials is only to better play the current new identity.

After Qin unified the six kingdoms, Hangzhou established a county government called Qiantang. In "Historical Records: The Chronicle of Qin Shihuang", there is also a record of Qin Shihuang's tour here.The name Qiantang has been preserved through the Han Dynasty, the Three Kingdoms, the Jin Dynasty, and the Northern and Southern Dynasties. Until the ninth year of the Sui Dynasty, the Qiantang County established by the previous dynasty was abolished and renamed Hangzhou, and Qiantang, Yuhang, Fuyang, Yanguan, Yuqian and Wukang six counties.The Jiangnan Canal opened to navigation in the sixth year of Daye, from Zhenjiang to Hangzhou via Suzhou and Jiaxing, and Hangzhou became the starting point of the Jiangnan Canal, which promoted the rapid development of local economy and culture.

In the Tang Dynasty, the jurisdiction of Hangzhou changed several times, and the place name "Qiantang" was changed to "Qiantang" to avoid the taboo of the country name. The state government was expanded to eight counties, and it gradually became the goods distribution center in this area.By the Kaiyuan period, the official population of Hangzhou was nearly 60, and it was listed as one of the three ancient trading ports along with Yangzhou and Guangzhou.In the second year of Changqing, the poet Bai Juyi was appointed governor of Hangzhou. During his tenure, he dredged the West Lake on a large scale, built embankments and gates, and built water conservancy projects, which made the West Lake famous all over the world.

During the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, Hangzhou became the capital of the Wuyue Kingdom.King Qian Liu of Wu and Yue built a palace in Fenghuang Mountain, Hangzhou as the state government, and built the "Luo City" with a circumference of [-] miles on the periphery as the defense line of the capital.

During the Northern Song Dynasty, the area under the jurisdiction of Hangzhou increased to nine counties, becoming the most populous prefecture and county in the south of the Yangtze River, and also one of the four major commercial ports in the country.In the fourth year of Yuanyou's reign, Su Dongpo became the magistrate of Hangzhou, organized the dredging of the West Lake again, and used the excavated lake mud to build the Su Causeway across the north and south of the West Lake.

In the Southern Song Dynasty, Hangzhou also ushered in its heyday. Three years after Jianyan, it was promoted to Lin'an Prefecture, and ten years later it was designated as the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty.As a result, the city walls of Hangzhou underwent large-scale expansion. By the time of Xianchun, the population of Hangzhou had increased to more than 120 million.

In the Yuan Dynasty, the government was changed into a road, but Hangzhou still became the regional economic and cultural center as the provincial capital of Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces.In the Ming Dynasty, the road was changed to a mansion. At present, the three major power agencies of Zhejiang Chengxuan, the Minister of Political Envoy, the Division of Procuratorate, and the Division of Commanding and Envoy, are all located in Hangzhou Mansion. The three joint action teams Among the targets, there were two people from the two important yamen, namely, the Division of the Procuratorate and the Commander of the Commanding Division.

The Procuratorate Division is in charge of criminal names and lawsuits, and also exercises supervisory power over local officials. The official in charge is the Procuratorate, who is also the highest official of the province.The Commander and Envoy of the Capital is the local military command organ, which is subordinate to the Central Commander's Office of the Five Armies and is responsible for the command and coordination of the garrison of the local guards.These two yamen and Chengxuanzhengshisi, who are in charge of administration, are collectively called the "Three Divisions". They do not belong to each other and are only responsible to the central government.However, when there are major military and political issues in the local area, the three divisions will generally discuss together to find a solution to the problem.

Within the scope of Zhejiang, these three yamen are the symbols of the highest local authority. The nature of the assassination of officials serving in these yamen is self-evident. It is really troublesome to arouse the hostility of the Ming government towards Hai Han.Therefore, before the operation started, Takahashi Minami was also trying his best to make up for his shortcomings and reduce the possibility of mistakes in the operation.

There are ten city gates in Hangzhou City, namely Qingbo Gate, Yongjin Gate, Qiantang Gate, Houchao Gate, Genshan Gate, Qingchun Gate, Qingtai Gate, Fengshan Gate, Wulin Gate and Yongchang Gate.Among them, Fengshan Gate is the south gate of Hangzhou City, named for its proximity to Phoenix Mountain.Fengshan Gate is divided into water and land gates. The water gate, which was built in 1359, connects the two water veins of the Jiangnan Canal and the Qiantang River. It can be regarded as one of the throats of Hangzhou's water transportation.

The Southern Song Dynasty once built the imperial city in Fenghuangshan, and Fengshanmen is the southern end of Yujie, where the official offices of the three provinces and six ministries are located.The first generation of Wansongling outside the city gate is a place for Hangzhou people to go outing.Although most of the relics of the previous dynasty are gone, the area around Fengshan Gate is still very prosperous. There are a lot of wharves on the bank of the Qiantang River in the south, where a large number of merchant ships and civilian ships from surrounding states gather.There is an endless stream of people and goods entering and leaving Hangzhou through here every day.

Not far from the banks of the Qiantang River is a spontaneously formed town. Many merchants who travel to and from Hangzhou City by water all the year round will choose to settle here. Businessmen with bigger businesses will buy land here. Build houses and set up commercial warehouses to save storage and personnel accommodation costs during the transshipment and sale of bulk goods, rent out houses and warehouses in spare time, and act as a trade intermediary, which is more or less an income.In addition, this kind of shop will also take some goods sold by past merchants nearby, depending on the market situation, and earn the difference by reselling them.

Chengfenghang is such a commercial storehouse. The yard with three entrances can not only store goods but also accommodate people, and there is a stable outside the back door that can accommodate a dozen pack horses.It is said that this place was built in the Wanli period, and the owner has changed several times over the years, but the store has been reluctantly continuing to operate.It is said that the current owner is a maritime merchant from Ningbo Prefecture, but he has never shown his face here. Currently, a shopkeeper surnamed Wan leads four or five assistants to maintain the business here.

Compared with ordinary inns, Chengfenghang can provide more abundant services in the field of trade, which is far more convenient for businessmen than staying in inns.However, among the more than 20 commercial warehouses on the river bank outside Fengshan Gate, Chengfeng's business scale and hardware facilities are only at a medium level, and the location is not particularly good. Usually, repeat customers come here to book rooms, and the business is not bad. Stable, at least [-]% to [-]% of the daily room opening rate.

However, all the guests who came to Chengfenghang to inquire about reservations were disappointed, because the place was full for the first time in a long time.Of course, it may not be accurate to say that the hotel is fully booked. In fact, Chengfeng Hotel has been booked and there is no way to accept other guests.

Wan Fa lowered his eyebrows and explained the reason to another businessman who came to the door, and asked the staff to take him to another store with a similar price nearby, and then asked the other staff to close the door and put up a full sign, so as not to keep people coming to ask inquire.Wanfa checked the cleanliness of each room, and then went to the kitchen to look at the fresh fruits and vegetables, chicken, duck and fish purchased today. He still felt uneasy, so he asked the cook to boil another pot of water, and put all the kitchen utensils and tableware again. Clean it well without leaving any stains or oil stains—the guest that Cheng Fengxing will receive this time is Wanfa's immediate boss, and there must be no low-level omissions.

After Wanfa checked the preparations, he went back to his room, took out a small wooden box that was three inches long and one inch wide from the hidden compartment under the bed, opened it gently, and inside was a strip-shaped box wrapped in silk and satin. Small Things.Wan Fa put it on the table, and slowly opened it. It turned out to be a waist card made of ivory, with only a word "An" in official script engraved on the front, but when it was turned over, a string of strange symbols that were not Chinese characters were engraved on the back.Those who have dealt with Hai Han may recognize that this is a special character used by Hai Han for counting.

This ivory belt is Wanfa's identity symbol, and the content engraved on it is his number in the establishment of dispatched agents of the Ministry of Security.In fact, when he meets with his peers, he always confirms his identity through secret codes, and he does not need to show this waist card. Its role is more to allow an agent like him lurking in the Ming Dynasty to maintain a sense of identity with his own identity. Due to long-term lurking in Ming Dynasty, his identity was disturbed.The ivory used in this carving is from Annan and other places, and is made by the best craftsmen in Haihan. It is also quite valuable, and it also wants the wearer to feel that he is valued.

Wanfa was born in Jinhua Mansion, which is adjacent to Hangzhou. He was sentenced to exile in Yazhou for committing a wounding case in his early years. He was recruited by Haihan Security Department while serving his sentence in Yacheng. He has worked for Haihan for several years so far. up.He was sent to Zhejiang last year, and under the pseudonym Wanfa, he took over the shop outside Fengshan Gate in Hangzhou City.Before that, the owner of Chengfenghang was said to be a businessman from the Xu Xinsu family in Fujian. Otherwise, the Haihan Security Department would have to spend a lot of trouble if they wanted to secure such a venue here quietly.

Wanfa's task here is to collect all kinds of information about Hangzhou City, ranging from city defense deployment to market rumors. In short, it collects as much as it receives, and sends it back to Zhoushan regularly by sea ship for summary.Wanfa knew that this kind of intelligence collection method of starvation and desperation was a forced arrangement. The Ministry of Security deployed too few special agents in Hangzhou, so they could only collect them wholeheartedly. For the time being, they did not have enough ability to do targeted work. .

Although he didn't know exactly how many colleagues there were inside and outside Hangzhou, the number was obviously very limited, because he was the only one in the store he was in charge of, who belonged to the Ministry of Security, and the others were all local employees. I don't know the inside story of this store.If the security department has enough manpower, at least he has to be assigned a deputy or partner.

Four days ago, when Wanfa went to the wharf to exchange information with people from Zhoushan, he was notified that Director Gong Shiqi, the director of the Ministry of Security in the Zhejiang area, was about to come to Hangzhou to handle official business in person. reception work, and must fully cooperate with the action.This news made Wan Fa, who had been like a salted fish all year long, suddenly excited. If he caught it and performed well in front of his immediate boss, he might be transferred from this boring position as soon as possible, or he might receive some important jobs. Task.

Although he didn't know the purpose of Gong Shiqi's visit to Hangzhou, Wan Fa dedicatedly dug up the records he had made this year, recalled bit by bit all the information he had collected, and screened out some of the information he had collected. valued information.Because he knew very well that Gong Shiqi's identity would not come to Hangzhou to inspect the work, there must be some people or things here that attracted him, so he made this trip on purpose.Wan Fa also knew that Gong Shiqi was an agent from the field service team, and was good at commanding and executing tasks such as kidnapping and assassination. Thinking in this direction, it was actually not difficult to guess Gong Shiqi's intentions.

Although Wanfa is only a small storekeeper who manages a store by the Qiantang River, his special status allows him to maintain extremely high political sensitivity. He has always been involved in Hangzhou's political affairs, especially the local government's attitude towards Haihan. It is also very clear that the anti-Haihan voices in Zhejiang official circles are almost concentrated in Hangzhou. This time Gong Shiqi came to Hangzhou in person, and I am afraid that it is also related to this situation.

"Could it be that you want to fight Hangzhou?" Wan Fa rubbed the waist card in his hand while pondering his boss's intentions.However, he immediately denied his guess. Even if Haihan wanted to attack the mainland, he would definitely attack Ningbo Mansion, which is the closest to Zhoushan. How could he skip Ningbo and the Shaoxing Mansion in the middle and attack two hundred miles away? Hangzhou outside?Even if Haihan's navy is invincible, it is unlikely to make such a combat plan that goes against common sense.

So he immediately thought of another possibility, that is, Gong Shiqi would go to Hangzhou to personally preside over the command operation, and deal with some Ming figures who stood against Hai Han.The more Wan Shan thought about it, the more he felt that this possibility was extremely high, and immediately began to wonder who was so unlucky that Gong Shiqi would be listed as a target.

(End of this chapter)