1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 1956
Several years after Danzhou was included under the rule of Haihan, it was adjusted from the original temporary administrative region to a "city". The corresponding government offices and institutions have also undergone certain changes compared to the Ming Dynasty, and the staffing is even smaller than before. Larger, and the division of functions is more detailed.And because there are many merchants, sailors and literati from Ming Dynasty, Annan and other countries here, there is also a foreign affairs management office for foreigners.

However, this department does not have much real power. Its main function is to register various relevant materials. For example, foreign students studying in various academies, foreign businessmen who have opened local businesses, and other foreigners who have lived in Danzhou for a long time will all be here. There is an archive.However, when there are officially organized foreign affairs activities, this department will also temporarily act as the executor of foreign affairs reception tasks.But most of the time, this is just the Qingshui yamen, where paperwork is the mainstay, and most of the time it is in a state of neglect in front of the door.

However, in the past two days, this former Qingshui yamen has suddenly become lively, and it has suddenly become a fragrant steamed bun in the local social circle. Come to visit.And these enthusiastic visitors all have a common purpose, which is to inquire about the news about the son of the Joseon Dynasty who is about to visit Danzhou.

Among them, there are also some impatient people who openly offered a price to these officials of the Foreign Affairs Management Office, hoping that they can provide the itinerary information of the North Koreans.And the related prices are also rising all the way. From the initial one hundred or two hundred, some people have paid out to four digits soon, and they are still showing an upward trend.Everyone hopes to buy the information at an attractive price, and then quickly resell it to the gold master who pays a large price for the information on the black market.But they probably didn't expect that some people in the foreign affairs management office actually had a hidden identity as an agent of the Ministry of Security.

"This method has worked." After receiving the report from his subordinates, Wang Baisuo immediately informed Zhang Qianzhi of the situation.

"Okay! Then we can start the next step!" Zhang Qianzhi was also very excited when he heard the news. Time was running out, and the two days Zhang Xin had left for him had actually come, but the opponent had not yet appeared.Fortunately, because of the bad weather at Heitu Port, the ship was temporarily unable to go out to sea, and there was an extra day or two of buffer time, otherwise he would have to be forced to stop the operation now.

The plan prepared by Zhang Qianzhi and Wang Baisuo is divided into two parts. The first step is to release news on the local black market through some special channels, and buy the itinerary for the son of North Korea to visit Danzhou at a high price.The purpose of this step is to create a sense of urgency for opponents who may be lurking in the local area. If they have not realized the need to collect relevant intelligence, then the release of this news will probably attract them to pay attention to this area.

The content of the second step is to echo the situation created in the first step, to create a seemingly reliable source of information, and then release information about the itinerary of the son of North Korea, and then offer a price higher than the current market price. For the price, drive away those who want to fish in troubled waters first, and those who are willing to pay high prices for information at this time must be people with evil intentions.

Of course, even if the opponent is really lurking in Danzhou at this time, this plan is not 100% effective, and there are too many uncontrollable variables in it.For example, the other party may not follow the routine of buying and selling information, or they want to buy information but do not have enough funds to operate it, or the other party has other information channels and disdains to buy information through the black market.There may be many other situations like this. Zhang Qianzhi's most optimistic estimate is that there is only a [-]% to [-]% hope that the snake will be led out of the hole.

But this probability is enough for the Ministry of Security, and it is worth their manpower and material resources to arrange such a seemingly complicated operation.Judging from the feedback received so far, at least the first step of action has achieved relatively satisfactory results. Almost the entire Danzhou black market has been leveraged, and many people who are not engaged in intelligence brokers at all also want to target this Come and try your luck at a high price.If someone is secretly paying attention to the news about the son of Joseon, it is hard not to be affected by the current limelight.

For those uncontrollable situations, the Ministry of Security will also try to eliminate their interference as much as possible, reducing the possibility of opponents adopting other intelligence collection methods under the current situation.In other words, it is necessary to turn the channel under the control of the Ministry of Security into the only theoretical source of intelligence, leaving as little room for the opponent as possible to operate.

According to the requirements of the Ministry of Security, even the Foreign Affairs Management Office, which was responsible for the reception of foreign VIPs in the past, also did not receive any accurate information.The forces of all parties have spent a lot of effort, and only know that the visit of the son of the Joseon Dynasty to Danzhou is still in the plan, and no specific itinerary has been worked out yet.

The key to this matter is that the Foreign Affairs Management Office is only responsible for the reception work. As for the arrangement of the itinerary, it is not their job, but the Ministry of Foreign Affairs takes the lead in coordinating with the transportation, civil affairs, security and other departments. The foreign affairs management office is right, but the relevant itinerary has not been sent to the foreign affairs management office at all. Naturally, there is no specific news here.

As for the foreign affairs management office, it is run by the mayor who directly works for Zhang Xin. This is the real top of the officialdom in Danzhou, and most people can't stretch their hands so far.But if the news comes from here, then the external credibility is very high.

Mr. Huo is also one of the vast majority of people. He does have some contacts in the local government, but the one who can really contribute to this matter is a deputy director of the Foreign Affairs Management Office, which is why he He has full confidence in the information that Xue Zheng previously purchased.He had thought about it a long time ago, and after the matter was completed, he would distribute [-] to his source, which would be regarded as not treating the other party badly.

However, as the news of the purchase spread on the black market, the price of information also increased. In order to ensure that his sources would not betray him, Mr. Huo had no choice but to increase the price accordingly, and promised his quotation to the deputy director who had never said anything. It will definitely be higher than the current rumored price - he is really worried that the man who only recognizes money but not people will not be able to resist the temptation of the black market price and directly sell the information to others.

But in the end, the man who had already received a deposit of [-] gave Mr. Huo a more solid answer: "A few days ago, it was indeed notified that the son of the Joseon Dynasty would come to Danzhou for a few days, but I don't know if it was because someone The mayor's office may be worried about safety issues for hyping up this matter outside. Until today, they haven't given the itinerary, nor announced when the son of North Korea will arrive. If you want to blame it, blame the person who bid for the news outside. !"

Mr. Huo didn't just want to blame, he tore the heart of this good person, if someone hadn't made such an extravagant trick, then maybe he had already obtained the information from the deputy director at this time, and changed hands to increase the price It was sold to Xue Zheng, and all the money went into his pocket.

However, now that someone is secretly raising the price outside, the entire Danzhou black market has been brought into rhythm by this incident, and the official seems to have been affected by this, and the itinerary of the North Korean prince has been kept secret, which made the original thought that the matter was sure. Mr. Huo was quite unwilling.

Of course, if he has the ability to build up the relationship with the mayor, he still has a great chance to get this valuable information before everyone else.But Mr. Huo weighed his own wealth and background, and the possibility of being able to do this is very slim.

Mr. Huo’s family had some assets in Danzhou in the early years, but because when Haihan entered Qiongbei, his family belonged to the faction that refused to cooperate with Haihan, and they were wrong again in the Danzhou assassination case in 1631. Later, his home was confiscated and his property was confiscated, so he was expelled from Hainan Island.This Mr. Huo changed his name and surname, managed to stay in Danzhou with great difficulty, but because of family reasons, he was no longer able to do business on the surface, let alone apply for the imperial examination of Haihan Kingdom, so he could only do it in Danzhou gray area transactions.

Fortunately, he has a good mind, and he has experienced the decline of his family, so he doesn't have too many scruples in doing things. Over the past few years, he has managed a good situation in Danzhou, and he has also managed some contacts in the officialdom.In the circle of brokers in Danzhou, the name "Mr. Huo" is also slowly rising.However, he knows that his identity is sensitive, and he has lived in seclusion all year round, and almost never shows up in public, so as not to attract unwarranted disasters.But this sense of mystery actually made clients agree with him more. For example, Xue Zheng, who came to him, felt that Mr. Huo was quite cautious, so he dared to work with him with confidence.

But if Mr. Huo wants to continue to improve his strength, he must get in touch with higher-level figures, and this is an insurmountable bottleneck for him.For example, the mayor's office in charge of various key affairs in Danzhou, the officials working in it are all Zhang Xin's confidantes, and they will all have bright career prospects in the future. It is absolutely impossible for a black market businessman like him to bought.

The current situation is that the mayor's office is responsible for formulating and arranging the itinerary of the son of the DPRK in Danzhou, and the foreign affairs management office will be responsible for supervising the implementation of related tasks after receiving the itinerary from the mayor's office, such as arranging accommodation, transportation, food, etc. Wait.The North Korean prince's itinerary, which was not cared about by many people, has now become a black market hotspot. I don't know how many people are staring at the foreign affairs management office. The information sold on the market, and because there are more than one source of information, the price will collapse all the way at that time.At that time, Xue Zheng will pay another [-] yuan for his information, or buy it directly from the market for less money, then it is hard to say.

With everyone staring at the Foreign Affairs Management Office, Mr. Huo can't even guarantee that he is the first person to get the itinerary from the outside world. After all, the deputy director is definitely not the only one who likes money. Anyone who comes into contact with the itinerary for the first time may take it out for an income.

The more Mr. Huo thought about it, the more he felt that the duck in his mouth was about to fly away. He even had other thoughts at this moment. Should he think about making a fool of Xue Zheng and his gang, or try to sell them altogether? , Maybe I can get a government amnesty order for myself, so I don't have to live in the dark anymore.

But he immediately gave up this idea, not because he wanted to pay attention to the morals of the world, but because he felt that he was used to this way of life, used to hiding in the dark and doing business that the government did not allow. In a normal environment, he would feel uncomfortable instead.

As for the way of cheating and eating gangsters, Mr. Huo is a little bit tempted. It is obvious that Xue Zheng and his gang of outsiders are very rich, and they spare no expense to achieve their goals. If they can eat this group of people quietly, the money they can swallow will definitely be It's not just the [-] Haihan coins that Xue Zheng promised.

But Mr. Huo is also a little worried that his strength is not enough to swallow this hedgehog. After all, the other party is a ruthless person who is planning for the son of the Joseon Dynasty, and he sent someone to investigate the place where Xue Zheng and others stayed. The other party has more than ten people. People, although on the surface they are grain merchants, but after careful observation, it is not difficult to find that this group of people should all be capable Lianjiazi.

Although Mr. Huo is a local snake, in fact his business is mainly to sell various information and act as a middleman. Except for a few personal bodyguards, most of his people are actually running errands for him in various places in Danzhou to collect information. It's not a murderer who kills and robs.If he wants to securely eat Xue Zheng and his group, he has to find other underground forces to borrow talents. At that time, not only will he have to share an extra share of money, but he will also have to try to keep everyone involved in the operation secret. Another trouble.If you are unfortunate enough to fold a few people in, the trouble will be even greater.

"That's all! Let's spare their lives first, and we'll see later!" Mr. Huo thought for a long time, but still felt that this way of handling it was not safe enough, and finally decided not to rush to make a decision.If the transaction cannot be done later, then consider using unconventional methods to solve it.

In the final analysis, he still has a glimmer of hope for the current situation, thinking that he can still look forward to whether there will be a turning point.Although he doesn't know where this turning point comes from, years of experience have made him feel that the current market conditions are unreasonable, and there are too many traces of human manipulation, but he doesn't know how to crack them, nor has the ability to do so. Find out who's behind it.However, his intuition believes that this situation should change soon, because the price of relevant information is changing almost every hour, and this situation cannot continue forever.

Only half a day after talking with the deputy official of the Foreign Affairs Management Office, the change that Mr. Huo expected appeared, but it was not immediately clear whether this change was good or bad for him.

(End of this chapter)