1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 1952
As a yamen with great operational authority, the Ministry of Security only accepts direct jurisdiction and orders from the Executive Committee, and the scope of affairs under its jurisdiction is wide, including public security, intelligence, internal security, etc., within its jurisdiction, so It is a very special existence among Haihan's official institutions.On the one hand, it is administratively independent from other government agencies; on the other hand, it can request the cooperation of other government agencies when performing certain special tasks, and even mobilize the armed forces of the military and police departments.

Of course, if you look at it from another angle, this is also the consequence of the serious shortage of staff in the Security Department.Although the Ministry of Security also has its own field operation team, if it is an operation that requires large-scale surveillance or investigation, the manpower is far from enough.For example, in Changhua earlier, although Zhang Qianzhi was in charge of the investigation work, since the branch of the Ministry of Security in Changhua only had seven or eight people, it was impossible to carry out the investigation work requested by Zhang Qianzhi, so the police and the police had to be called. garrison.It seems that the manpower has been supplemented, but the coordination of operations and external secrecy are difficult to achieve.

The current situation in Danzhou is similar to this. Although the staffing of the security department in Danzhou is several times larger than that in Changhua, and there is also a dedicated field team, compared to the current city size of Danzhou, if you want to It is still very difficult to complete the investigation of the urban area alone.And once the power of the military and police departments is mobilized and the composition of personnel involved in the operation becomes complicated, it will be difficult to completely avoid the occurrence of information leakage.

Xue Zheng, who had just found a place to live in Danzhou City, soon received the news sent by Mr. Huo.The garrison and police in Danzhou have been looking for a group of people from Changhua recently. Judging from the news Mr. Huo has received, he believes that the official target should be Xue Zheng and his group, so he told Xue Zheng not to gather people to travel in the near future. , so as not to attract unnecessary attention.

The person who sent the letter also specifically stated that because this news had nothing to do with the agreement reached earlier, Mr. Huo would not charge Xue Zheng additionally for this, which also made Xue Zheng a little dumbfounded.It seems that Mr. Huo is indeed a businessman, and he has to figure everything out.

After sending the messenger away, Xue Zheng sat down to reflect on the matter again, and he had some new ideas.Mr. Huo's local news channels are undoubtedly countless times stronger than his, and even the officials are able to inform him in time about the Changhua incident. The transaction with Mr. Huo has added a bit of confidence.

However, this news also shows that Haihan officials have indeed become vigilant about what happened in Changhua, and even judged that they may go to Danzhou to continue to try to launch an attack in the next step. This is a signal that must be taken seriously, because this It means that when the son of Joseon appears in Danzhou, the security measures may be tighter than when he was in Changhua, and there may not be a suitable opportunity to make a move at that time.

Of course, before that, Xue Zheng first had to ensure that his group would not expose their tracks in Danzhou.The news came from Mr. Huo that Xue Zheng judged that the Haihan officials still took Danzhou Port as a key investigation area, which made him feel lucky that he made the right decision at the time and did not let the ship sail directly into Danzhou Port. It took time to go around in a big circle and enter Danzhou by land, avoiding interrogation and at the same time changing identities on the way.If they had gone straight to Danzhou Port at that time, even if they hadn't been caught on the spot, the lucky boat they were on before would have exposed their whereabouts very likely.

But now Xue Zheng doesn't have to worry about the Haihan people being able to trace his whereabouts from the clue of Fuchuan. The boat has already left Hainan Island after letting them go, and it probably won't come back in the short term.Even if Xue Zheng and others wanted to evacuate Hainan Island in the future, they had to find another way, and it was impossible to expect that boat to come back to pick them up.

But Xue Zheng didn't dare to expect the Haihan people to stop investigating. Since the other party has already noticed that the incident in the Changhua Industrial Zone was not accidental, and launched a follow-up investigation, it is very likely that they will continue to deploy control in Danzhou. Ensure that there will be no problems with the follow-up itinerary of the son of Joseon.Fortunately, the new identity used as a cover will not attract attention. As long as the time spent in public is reduced, the risk of exposure can be effectively reduced.

But in this case, there will inevitably be a paradox. The purpose of Xue Zheng and others coming to Danzhou is to get familiar with the local environment, and then choose an opportunity to ambush the target. But if you don’t go out often, how familiar are you? environment.There are thousands of houses inside and outside Danzhou City, and the roads extend in all directions. There are academies and markets covering a large area everywhere. If you don’t get familiar with the environment first, you will inevitably fall into the embarrassment of Changhua when you start. situation.

And when we were in Changhua, we could be sure that the son of Joseon would visit the industrial zone, but it was difficult to guess the itinerary of the target in Danzhou. The main industries in the area were academies, large and small, but there were a large number of such educational institutions. The layout is scattered, it is not so easy for Xue Zheng to bet.

Although he had already reached a deal with Mr. Huo, the local snake, and spent money to buy the itinerary of the son of Joseon from there, Xue Zheng didn't dare to bet all on this side, and he still had to try to make his own judgment.The measures he can take at the moment are to collect local information, especially the cultural education that exists as a characteristic industry in Danzhou. Presumably, if the son of Joseon came to Danzhou for inspection, he should go to one of the top local academies.

However, Xue Zheng soon discovered that the competition among local cultural and educational institutions was very fierce. As an outsider, it might be difficult to distinguish which academy is the real No. [-] in Danzhou in a short period of time.

A few subordinates pretending to be traveling scholars were sent out by Xue Zheng to learn about the situation of the local academies. When they came back, everyone received a lot of promotional materials from various academies. Xue Zheng read it patiently, and was a little at a loss at the moment .

These academies are all boasting that there are no heaven and earth. This one boasts that it has strong teachers. How many teachers have received advanced training in Sanya, and the number of students enrolled every year is the first.The school said that the college has the most financial resources in Danzhou. Not only is the tuition fee extremely low, but you can also apply for scholarships and earn money to support yourself while studying.The other company blatantly advertises that they have a strong background and an official background. After completing their studies, they can be recommended by the academy to take part in the yamen recruitment examination. There is a great chance of getting a golden job in the future.In short, every academy has its own bragging gimmicks. Just looking at the admissions promotional materials, it is impossible to tell the true strength of each academy.

However, Xue Zheng and the others did not come to Danzhou to study. If they wanted to conduct field trips one by one to fully understand the situation of these academies, it would probably take another ten days and a half a month, and they obviously did not have such ample resources. Take time to slowly investigate the local cultural and educational industry.

"There will always be a few very famous academies, right?" Xue Zheng also felt a headache about this. He originally thought that he would get an answer after a little inquiring about this kind of matter, but he didn't expect this to be the case.He was not from a scholarly family, so he didn't know how to judge the true strength of an academy. At present, he could only start from the simplest point of view, and whoever was famous would be included in the investigation first.

Unexpectedly, this kind of judgment is still not necessarily accurate. The subordinate who went to inquire about the news told him that he did not listen to the one-sided words of these people in charge of recruiting students. Later, he asked a few people who looked like literati at random, but there was no unified opinion. Opinion.To put it simply, many academies in Danzhou have their own fields of specialization. If you come here to study in different directions, you may think that the top academies belong to different places.

"Aren't they all places where you learn to write stereotyped essays? How big a difference can there be!" Xue Zheng suddenly felt a little headache. He wanted to enter Danzhou pretending to be a literati earlier, but fortunately he didn't try this way, otherwise it might take a long time. It will be exposed in front of outsiders.

One of his subordinates responded: "Boss, it's not that simple. The range of courses taught by the Danzhou Academy is very complicated, and Haihan's imperial examination places more emphasis on practical ability, and does not test writing stereotyped essays. Relevant courses are at most literary research, official document writing, etc., but if you want a good way out, it is said that optics is not enough, you have to learn astronomy and geography, such as smelting, navigation, arithmetic, civil engineering, agriculture, etc. You have to learn one or two skills."

Another person also presented a promotional material and said: "Boss, look at this Jonesy College, there are more than [-] majors listed on it, and there are countless courses. I listened to the other party's lectures there. After almost half an hour, I only heard him finish talking about four or five majors."

The cultural and educational industry in Danzhou has already been completely different from that of the Ming Dynasty ten years ago. It no longer takes a subset of classics and history and related Confucian works as the main content of teaching and learning, and the teaching direction is not the imperial examination of the Ming Dynasty.According to the needs of its own development, Haihan vigorously advocates vocational education in the field of culture and education, and makes non-governmental educational institutions focus on training industrial workers as the main development direction.

This kind of transformation has given birth to a large number of vocational education institutions such as Jonesy Academy in Danzhou, but outsiders often don't know much about this new format.Before Xue Zheng only knew that Danzhou was famous for its prosperous culture and education industry, but he never expected that the way of this prosperity was very different from his own cognition.They are not even sure at the moment, what kind of academy is the best educational institution in the area.

It seems that relying on fame to judge the strength of the academies is no good. Given the way these academies recruit students, Xue Zheng really wants to give them a list of "Danzhou's most bragging academies".

So maybe the scale of running a school can be a more reliable reference standard?But Xue Zheng was hit again by his subordinate's answer.

Among the various majors offered by local academies, those with low entry requirements and low tuition fees are naturally the easiest to recruit. Students only need to pass a short-term training before they can be recommended for employment. Finished in [-] days, and then arranged to go to sea ships as a trainee helmsman or pilot.However, the rapid development of Haihan's navigation industry makes this kind of skilled sailors with a certain theoretical knowledge foundation in short supply, so most of the academies with navigation majors have a large number of students.

As for those academies that offer advanced majors, because they have certain requirements for the basic and personal conditions of the students, the number of students will be relatively small, but the employment situation after they complete their studies is much better.For example, majors related to finance and trade, the whereabouts of students after graduation are often state-owned commercial institutions under the Ministry of Commerce, Haihan Bank, foreign affairs offices and other institutions.Even if you can't get into these yamen, there are still a lot of vacancies in privately run businesses.However, to enroll in these majors, students often have to have a certain professional foundation, and the training period is long and the tuition fees are high, so it is often difficult for ordinary people to have sufficient conditions.

Although the number of students in this kind of academies is small, the quality is outstanding, and the finished products trained often have one foot into the elite class of society.In terms of the scale of running a school, this kind of academies may not even rank in the top ten in the local area, but its real strength is hard to ignore.

Xue Zheng was dizzy when he heard it, and it was even more difficult to make a decision at the moment. The reality was far more complicated than he had imagined beforehand. He seemed to understand a little bit why Mr. Huo quoted such a high price for his selling information.It would take a lot of trouble for him to determine an academy that the son of the Joseon Dynasty must go to.

After investigating and reporting again, Xue Zheng could only give such an order.He must have clearer information before he can make a judgment, but the dazzling pile of academy promotional materials in front of him can only serve to interfere and mislead.Xue Zheng decided to try to check the local chronicles, or try to visit the local government office in charge of the cultural and educational industry to see if he can find some useful information in another way.

Zhang Qianzhi never expected that his opponent would fall into a predicament of indecision because of too many academies in Danzhou. After he and Wang Baisuo confirmed the policy, he went to ask the local administrator Zhang Xin for instructions and reported to him. own plan.

In the Danzhou assassination case that year, Zhang Qianzhi made great contributions, and Zhang Xin admired his performance very much. In addition, the two had the same surname, so he always regarded Zhang Qianzhi as his nephew.This time Zhang Qianzhi went to Danzhou to handle the case again. Zhang Xin also greeted the various departments early on and tried his best to cooperate with Zhang Qianzhi.But even so, after Zhang Xin heard about Zhang Qianzhi's plan, he didn't dare to express his support immediately.

"That is to say, we don't know whether our opponent is in Danzhou at all, but we still have to stage a big show. The purpose is to lure snakes out of the hole and let these people expose themselves. Is my understanding correct?" Zhang Xin confirmed to Zhang Qianzhi after listening Is my interpretation of this plan accurate?

Zhang Qianzhi bowed and replied: "The humble job's plan is exactly like this. If they can be lured to show up and take action, then the hidden dangers can be eliminated before the Koreans arrive in Danzhou."

(End of this chapter)