1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 1073
In the process of expanding outward from Hainan Island, the Haihan military has accumulated a wealth of combat and response experience in the field of dealing with pirates. This road has been pushed from the South China Sea to Zhejiang, and it is at least two to eliminate large and small pirate forces. digits, so it is not particularly nervous about the Japanese pirates who are hundreds of nautical miles away.What's more, Zhoushan Island has built solid coastal fortifications, and with the cooperation of surface armed ships, the defense capability should be sufficient to resist the mob's armed Japanese pirates.

Especially for generals like Shi Diwen who need to stay in Zhoushan, in fact, they may wish that Japanese pirates who do not know how to die will come here to seek death, so that they can force another wave of military exploits in the East China Sea where the situation has calmed down.

Having said that, these Japanese spies were too impatient. If they hadn't happened to provoke Sun Zhen and Wang Jinmin, two violent men, it would have been difficult for the security department to monitor undercover agents like them lurking in Dinghai Port as merchants. pile.After all, the number of people entering and leaving Dinghai Port every day is increasing day by day, and it is difficult for the security department to supervise the floating personnel on individuals. However, this kind of important information obtained by mistake can only be obtained by accident. It is due to Haihan's strong luck in the rising period.

However, the Haihan army is about to go north, and Zhoushan Island can't spare any troops to go to the Wudao Islands to conquer Japanese pirates, but this account must be written down first, and it will be calculated slowly when it is free in the future.

On July [-], a lucky boat sailed into the waters of Zhoushan Island from the direction of Ningbo Prefecture, but just after passing Jintang Island and before reaching Yangluo Mountain at the southwest end of Zhoushan Island, it was stopped by armed sailboats patrolling the sea.

A middle-aged man with a white face and short beard came out of the cabin and looked at the sailboat with the Haihan flag in front of him in puzzlement.This is not the first time he has come to Zhoushan Island under the rule of Haihan to do business, and he has never encountered a situation where he was stopped by an armed sailboat before.

"what happened?"

"Master He, the villain doesn't know either!" The boss of the ship was equally confused about the situation in front of him. Although the Haihan people checked the foreign ships and personnel closely, it was basically after they entered the port and docked. There is no practice of intercepting ships at sea like this.

After the two ships approached, someone on the Haihan Armed Ship yelled with a tin horn to tell the lucky ship to change its course, not to enter the port from the southwest channel of Zhoushan Island, but to bypass Panzhi Island and pass between Panzhi Island and Dongjie Island. The channel between them enters Dinghai Port.

The Dinghai Port built by Haihan on the south bank of Zhoushan Road is divided into east and west parts, the east side is for civilian use, and the west side is a military port.In the past, ships coming from the direction of Ningbo Prefecture entered the port through the southwest channel, passing through the military port dock before entering the civilian dock, but now they are required to bypass Panzhi Island and then enter the port, which is equivalent to going around the military port from the south. .In this way, the voyage from the southwestern waters of Zhoushan to the port will be increased by about half, and it will probably take an extra half an hour at sea.

"Do as they say, and adjust the direction quickly!" The man surnamed He waved his hand, signaling the boss of the boat to do so.Although he didn't know what the purpose of the Haihan people's move was, it was not the time to worry about these things. He came to Zhoushan this time, and he had other more important things to do.

So the ship gave up its original direction, turned southeast around Panzhi Island, and then went north into Dinghai Port.After docking, people from the Port Authority boarded the ship for registration and verification. After the people on board reported their identities and intentions, soon a covered carriage came to the port to pick up the guests on board.More than ten minutes later, Qian Tiandun personally received the guest from Ningbo Mansion.

"Mr. He, long time no see. How is Mr. Qu?"

"Thanks to General Qian, everything is good, everything is good!" This man surnamed He is He Xiao, an aide of Qu Yutong, the prefect of Ningbo. In the past year, he was dealing with Qian Tiandun on behalf of the Ningbo government. The various deals secretly concluded by the Ningbo government were almost all on the condition that he negotiated with Qian Tiandun and others.

"When I came here by boat just now, I was asked to go around Panzhi Island to enter the port. I don't know why there is such an arrangement?" This question has been in He Xiao's mind for a long time, and he took the initiative to ask it after seeing Qian Tiandun.

Qian Tiandun said: "The local garrison is conducting drills in the port area in recent days. In order to avoid unnecessary accidents, they ordered the temporary blockade of the west channel. It will return to normal at the end of the month."

He Xiao looked doubtful and said, "Drill? Could it be that your army has any action plans in the near future?"

Qian Tiandun waved his hand and said, "Don't worry, Mr. He, we have no enemies in the Zhejiang waters that need to be dealt with by military means, and we will not invade the land of Ningbo Prefecture. It's just a daily exercise."

He Xiao thought to himself that this Zhoushan Island is also under the jurisdiction of Ningbo Prefecture, if it is occupied by you Haihan people, why don't you mention this?Of course, he did not dare to say this in front of Qian Tiandun. He has come to Zhoushan so many times, and he knows that the Haihan people are not incapable of doing things now, but they value doing business to make money rather than enclosing land by force. It's just important.Moreover, the Haihan people have never been very interested in the mainland. In the south, they are also based on occupying islands. As long as they don't take the initiative to provoke them, the possibility of the coastal mainland being attacked is indeed very small.However, He Xiao certainly could not have imagined that Haihan's chosen destination for the next step would no longer be an island like Zhoushan and Penghu.

And Haihan blocked the waterway outside the military port, of course, not because of any real daily drills, but because the troops stationed in Zhejiang have recently begun to gather at Zhoushan Port, especially the warships stationed on other islands in the Zhoushan Islands. Back to Dinghai Port.If the Ningbo government knew the size of the fleet assembled here, even a fool would probably not believe Qian Tiandun's words.In order to avoid unnecessary troubles, the military ordered the blockade of the military port area during the period before the fleet's departure, and all civilian ships entering and leaving Dinghai Port will detour through Panzhi Island, so as to prevent outsiders from seeing the situation of the military port terminal.However, this matter was not the main purpose of He Xiao's coming to Zhoushan. He had more important matters to consult with Qian Tiandun.

"General Qian, there has been a big incident in the Hangzhou government recently, what rumors are there in Zhoushan?" He Xiao asked cautiously.

Qian Tiandun said: "We are a poor and remote island, and the news is slow to spread. Mr. He might as well just say, what happened?"

He Xiao couldn't hold back Qian Tiandun's attitude, but he still said according to the speech he had prepared before: "A few days ago, a strange incident happened in Hangzhou City. A hundred adults from Jinyiwei disappeared together with his subordinates and family members. A total of more than [-] people. At the same time, an adult from the Procuratorate and the Commander of the Capital also disappeared for no reason. Hangzhou City has been closed for many days, and it has been interrogated for a long time. The people were mobilized to search carefully, but there was no trace of these people. General Qian, do you think this is strange?"

He Xiao paid attention to Qian Tiandun's expression while talking, but to his slight disappointment, the other party's expression did not change significantly.Qian Tiandun said lightly: "It sounds strange... But what does it have to do with us? Mr. He, you don't suspect that we are responsible for the disappearance of these adults, right?"

He Xiao hurriedly said: "General Qian, don't misunderstand me. I don't intend to do so. It's just that these adults seemed to have shown hostility to you before they disappeared. After this happened, there will inevitably be some rumors. Contact your side on this matter."

Qian Tiandun's expression darkened and he said, "Rumors? So the Zhejiang government intends to rely on rumors to place charges on our Haihan Kingdom? This is very convenient! I just don't know when the government will come to the island to arrest people? "

Seeing that Qian Tiandun's face was unhappy, He Xiao quickly explained: "I don't doubt you, but this kind of rumor needs to be clarified, otherwise it will be harmful to your reputation."

Qian Tiandun sneered and said, "I think this is what Mr. Qu meant, so how does he want us to clarify?"

He Xiaodao: "It's actually simple. As far as I know, the Hangzhou government is only suspecting that you are involved in this case, but in fact there is no evidence. You only need to send a mission to the Hangzhou government to investigate and deal with it." The adults in this case explain this matter, and the suspicion should be cleared."

"Then if we don't do it, will we be considered a guilty conscience?" Qian Tiandun shook his head and said, "I don't think doing so will have any effect. The adults in the Hangzhou government should have found us guilty first. Is that why you made such a decision?"

He Xiao did not deny Qian Tiandun's understanding, and continued: "Hangzhou Mansion doesn't know about Hai Han's situation, so misunderstandings are inevitable, but Mr. Qu believes that Hai Han is innocent, so he let me take this trip to resolve the situation. misunderstood."

When the Zhoushan side first planned the operation, it aimed at exterminating the target person. Qian Tiandun and others also made the worst plan, which was to turn against the Zhejiang government after the incident was revealed, which might lead to a regional scale riot. armed conflict.But even if they paid a certain price, they agreed that these anti-Haihan representatives in Zhejiang official circles must be eliminated in order to ensure that Haihan would not have any worries after going north.For this reason, even if it is a small-scale war with the Zhejiang government, it is worthwhile.

Of course, such an extreme situation did not happen later. Gong Shiqi and others waited for Liao Xun, who had thrown himself into the net by accident, in Hangzhou, and then used Liao Xun as a pawn to successfully trap the other two targets.And the special operations team trained by Liao Xun and others painstakingly, was taken over after arriving at Dinghai Port.Haihan did not reveal his identity and whereabouts during the whole operation, and he handled the incident relatively cleanly. He burned the crime scene of Chengfengxing to clean, and even found a substitute for Wanfa's body.Even if someone tried to link Cheng Fengxing and Hai Han, they couldn't find any real evidence.

Because of this, Qian Tiandun was able to respond so calmly when facing He Xiao who came to his door, because he knew very well that the Ming government could not have any conclusive evidence to prove that the missing official had a direct relationship with Hai Han .Even if Haihan is the main object of suspicion, but there is no evidence, it can only stay at the level of suspicion.It is impossible to deploy a large number of troops to fight against such an unfriendly opponent as Hai Han just because of doubts.

As for organizing a mission to go to Hangzhou to prove his innocence, Qian Tiandun would never do such a stupid thing, even if He Xiao said it would be useless here.Hangzhou probably issued an official document asking Ningbo to participate in the investigation of the case, and listed Haihan as a key suspect, but Qu Yutong, the prefect of Ningbo, obviously did not want to offend Haihan, so he sent He Xiao to Zhoushan Island to try to persuade Haihan Han resolved the misunderstanding in a reasonable way.Of course, from another perspective, Qu Yutong's arrangement is no different from warning Haihan, indicating that the Zhejiang government has already doubted Haihan's role in this matter to some extent.

But now Haihan is doing mental calculations without intention, and has spent several days after the action to clean up all the clues that may be exposed. No matter how suspicious Hangzhou is, it will be difficult to transform into actual actions in the end. Zhoushan poses a real threat.

Qian Tiandun said: "This kind of misunderstanding is one-sided. To resolve it, it is up to the government to reach a correct conclusion after its own investigation. Please tell Mr. He to Mr. Qu. We can't help you with this matter, but if there is any relevant If there is any news, we will definitely inform Mr. Qu."

Seeing that the other party pushed the matter away with a few words, He Xiao wanted to continue to question, but was afraid that he would offend Qian Tiandun and affect the current cooperation between the two parties.Nowadays, at least one or two sailboats full of Haihan goods dock at Ningbo Zhenhai Port every day, and import them to Daming territory through here, and then resell them to various places in Zhejiang by many regional distributors. The profits during this period are really not small.During the Merchants Fair last year, the Ningbo business group that won the exclusive right to sell Haihan products included the shares of Qu Yutong, the prefect. As a staff member, He Xiao is also very clear about this point.

Qian Tiandun changed the subject and said: "Master Qu is concerned about this matter, we can understand, but this matter will neither affect the peace of Ningbo Mansion, nor will it have any negative impact on Master Qu's official position and income. I My personal suggestion, Mr. Qu replied to Hangzhou as soon as possible, saying that it has been found out that it has nothing to do with Haihan. I think this is the safest way to deal with both Mr. Qu and us.”

Qian Tiandun is very clear that Qu Yutong is not in the same heart with the Hangzhou government because of the entanglement of interests, and may even be on the Haihan side. Bring him a lot of money.From this point of view, Qu Yutong, as a vested interest, does not even want to see the conflict between the two sides break out even more than Haihan.

(End of this chapter)