1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 1970
This time, the arrest operation led by the Ministry of Security, planned and directed by Zhang Qianzhi, can be said to be a complete victory. Xue Zheng and his gang were wiped out at the cost of zero casualties among their own personnel, and the leader Xue Zheng was also captured. The seven survivors, as well as Huo Fei and other people involved in the case, thwarted their plan to launch an attack on North Korean VIPs in Danzhou.

As far as this result is concerned, the various agencies involved in the arrest operation and the local units and individuals who provided full cooperation during this period will definitely receive awards from the Executive Committee and the local government afterwards, and there will also be some investigators Because of his outstanding performance during this period, he has the opportunity to be promoted.However, it is still a little early to talk about dividing the cake. After all, the nature of this case is quite special. At least we have to wait until the procedure is completed and the case is officially closed before we can report to the higher authorities for rewards.

But judging from the current situation, this time may not come soon.The statement obtained by the Ministry of Security from the suspect is very confusing, and there is too much information that needs to be compared and verified.But judging from the seized items, this is by no means like a revenge action caused by the "personal grievances" claimed by Xue Zheng and others.The weapons carried by Xue Zheng and his gang are various and not standard weapons, but most of them are manufactured with excellent craftsmanship and have obvious traces of use. At first glance, they look like personal weapons that have been carried around for a long time.And these custom-made weapons are not something that ordinary people can play with. Obviously, the self-defense weapons of grain merchants cannot be used as a reasonable explanation.

The confessions made by this group of people after their arrest were almost the same, and they had obviously received special training beforehand, and this special training is generally only available to professionals engaged in intelligence work.In addition, acts such as planning attacks, disguising identities, hiding whereabouts, etc., all show that the identities of these people do not match the grain merchants they claim.

However, there are also some amateur operations that puzzle Zhang Qianzhi. For example, why they have taken actions full of loopholes in both Changhua and Danzhou when they obviously have certain professional skills, and they even go so far as to get information because they are eager to get information. Being tricked by a middleman like Huo Fei.If they are a professional intelligence or special operations team, there should be a more complete and well-thought-out plan of action, rather than a series of seemingly completely unthought-out ad hoc decisions.

Zhang Qianzhi really didn't understand why such a situation occurred, and he couldn't imagine that this kind of attack that would affect the international situation turned out to be a temporary decision by some people. If there was a choice, Xue Zheng and others probably Nor would they be happy to execute tasks in such a hasty manner. After all, the direct consequence of lack of preparation is to take huge risks.

Zhang Qianzhi made two judgments based on the known situation. First, this group of people should be all kung fu and desperadoes with certain practical experience, including the four people who came out to surrender in the end. , and Xue Zheng also used this as an excuse to claim that he was a grain merchant, and those dead with weapons were his bodyguards.But Zhang Qianzhi thought that they must have managed to dispose of their weapons during the period before surrender, such as throwing them into a pond or digging a hole to bury them. They did not find that their sidearms could not wash them away—not to mention that Zhang Qianzhi still had them in his hands. With Huo Fei as a strong witness, it can prove that their intentions are wrong.

Second, Zhang Qianzhi believes that this group of people is only the executors of the goal of attacking the son of Joseon, and there must be another instigator behind it.The Ministry of Security did not find any documents, letters, or other items with written information from Xue Zheng and his group, not even the bearer check from Haihan Bank that Xue Zheng used to pay the intelligence fee. No, it is very likely that this was all dealt with before surrendering.Zhang Qianzhi believes that the other party has only one reason for doing so, which is to try their best to cover up their source of funds.

There is also a way to trace the origin of these bearer fixed checks issued by Haihan Bank. Although the checks are not signed, the number on each check is unique. At least you can find out where the check was issued from.The fixed-amount checks that Xue Zheng used before are all in denominations of [-] yuan, and the paper is brand new. Presumably, they have not changed hands too much after they were issued. Zhang Qianzhi has already ordered people to send the evidence to the Sanya Haihan Bank headquarters for the bank to cooperate with the investigation. The flow of this check.

Only the 23 yuan that Xue Zheng paid Huo Fei earlier was more than enough to collect the grain produced in the entire Sandu Town, but where did these idle "grain merchants" use the large sum of money to buy information? Understanding this problem may be able to find out the instigator behind it.However, the check has to be sent to Sanya, and it will take about two days to reach a conclusion after conducting an investigation there.

Zhang Qianzhi did not pin all his hopes of investigation on the bank. Although Xue Zheng and others were playing tricks and refused to cooperate honestly, the Ministry of Security was not an ordinary organization, and the resources they could mobilize were far beyond what the other party could imagine.Even if they don't cooperate, the security department still has a way to get them to the bottom slowly, but it may take a long time.

"From now on, conduct uninterrupted cross-examinations on them. Since they like to play tricks, let's teach them a lesson."

Now that everyone who should be arrested has been brought to justice, Zhang Qianzhi is not as eager as he was a few days ago. He knows that if he blindly uses torture to extract confessions, it may be effective for ordinary people, but it may not be so effective for these desperadoes who have received intelligence training. , As long as they give some misleading information, it is enough to cause very serious consequences, and it may even cause war between countries.Therefore, Zhang Qianzhi is still relatively cautious about how to pry these people's mouths open, and is more inclined to use scientific interrogation methods to defeat their psychological defenses.

In addition to directly interrogating the parties involved, the Ministry of Security has also begun to actively identify gang members including the deceased, recording their physical characteristics, approximate age, accent, etc., and inferring their hometown and permanent residence through various details. .

Although this group of people claimed to be Ming people, at least four or five of them, including the deceased, had slight differences in appearance from those of Ming Han people.According to Wu Zuo's judgment, two or three of the dead must have come from the South China Sea region, and they were thinner than the Han people, and some of their belongings included small objects from South China Sea countries.

However, Fuguang people accounted for more than half of the captured people, which can be easily judged from their accents, and Xue Zheng was one of them.In addition, according to the accent, the remaining few people should be from the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions, and one big man even has a northern accent.

Judging from this information, the composition of this team of only a dozen people is quite complex, and they may come from a vast area from the South China Sea to the north of Daming.In the various cases cracked by the Ministry of Security in the past, such a situation rarely occurred, especially in the case of gang crimes. The people involved are often from the same family or region and have a relatively close relationship with each other.

This is another unreasonable situation. Zhang Qianzhi believes that this may also be one of the reasons why Xue Zheng and his gang made many low-level mistakes during the operation. After all, such a complicated personnel composition will definitely have some communication problems.But he could never have imagined that Xue Zheng's group did not come from the same faction, but a team formed by several forces with their own members.

The task received temporarily, the lineup formed temporarily, and the action plan planned temporarily, if this can defeat Haihan's security measures and complete the task smoothly, then it is really against the sky.Rao Zhang Qianzhi had a rich imagination, and he really didn't expect that his opponent, who seemed professional, was actually a mess.He wholeheartedly wanted to find out which camp his opponent belonged to, but he didn't realize that this team didn't belong to any camp, but a small coalition.

Fortunately, the strength of this armed team is limited after all, coupled with Haihan's strong security measures, they still failed to meet their target Li Wei face to face.

Li Lu didn't know that he had made most of Danzhou nervous for several days before his arrival. He just felt that this place was called the Haihan Cultural Center in a well-deserved name. Even this reception banquet was different from the places he had visited before. Filled with a strong cultural atmosphere.

The luncheon Zhang Xin prepared for Li Wei's arrival was originally held at the mayor's mansion, but because a fake reception banquet had already been held at the mayor's mansion in the previous operation to lure the enemy, Zhang Xin made today's reception banquet It was changed to Danzhou Federation of Literary and Art Circles.

The location of the Danzhou Federation of Literary and Art Circles is actually the former Zhizhou government office, because Yan Mingjun, the Zhizhou governor during the Ming Dynasty, demoted Haihan in 1631. He took up a vacant post in Danzhou these years to assist Zhang Xin in managing the local cultural industry. Xin also borrowed flowers to present Buddha, so he left this official office to Yan Mingjun to live and use in the name of the office of the Federation of Literary and Art Circles.

In fact, this Federation of Literary and Art Circles does not usually have many official affairs that need to be handled by Yan Mingjun. The main task is to organize local literati and celebrities from time to time to publicize the new policy of the country to them, and encourage them to use the methods they are good at to create more positive praises for the country. literary works.If you do well, you will not only have the opportunity to get published, but you will also be appreciated by the government, and you will enter an official career.

Although most of the literati are self-proclaimed noble, very few of them can resist the temptation to write books and enter official careers. Although the institution under the jurisdiction of Yan Mingjun is not an official establishment in the true sense, it has indeed been wooed and recommended by the government over the years. A lot of talent.As for Yan Mingjun's contribution, Zhang Xin also saw it, so he was allowed to sit firmly in this position and manage the affairs of Danzhou's cultural circle on his behalf.

Yan Mingjun was once a local official appointed by the Ming Dynasty. Although he has no real official position now, he can be regarded as a famous person in the local cultural circle.It is also a great honor for Yan Mingjun that Zhang Xin put the reception banquet held for the son of Joseon here.Therefore, Yan Mingjun specially summoned a group of well-known people from the local cultural circle to accompany the banquet today, so as to fully reflect the "cultural atmosphere" Zhang Xin requested.

Since Li Lu went abroad, he has also been to many places under the rule of Haihan, but most of the guests at the banquet are local officials, celebrities and gentry, and there are very few scenes like today where people from cultural circles are the mainstay.The topics everyone talked about were mainly literary content such as poetry, calligraphy and painting, which reminded Li Wei of two Tang poems he had read before: There are great Confucian scholars in talking and laughing, and there are no white people in communication.

Although Li Min considers himself a senior lover of Chinese language and culture, and can even be classified as an expert in North Korea, when he really sat down with the masters of these cultural circles to discuss the scriptures, he clearly felt that Insufficient knowledge of oneself.However, these accompanying guests are not literati who only know how to read books. They are also quite knowledgeable and interesting on this occasion. He was a little embarrassed.

However, being able to have this kind of atmosphere for discussing literary topics made Li Lu very happy.During these visits in the past, he once doubted whether the status of scholars in Haihan State was as high as the officials boasted. After all, most of the officials who accompanied him in the daily itinerary were technical officials, and few people would talk to him about literature. aspects of the topic.When he arrived in Danzhou, Li Lu finally felt that this station had a long-lost cultural atmosphere, instead of the industry that the officials he had contacted before talked about.

Although Li Luo also admitted that Haihan's industry did have productivity that was difficult to match in North Korea, he still had some more traditional ideas in his heart, or that he had been influenced by the Central Plains Dynasty all the time, and believed that the revitalization of the country through culture and education was a more The orthodox road to a strong country, relying on industry, commerce, and agriculture to revitalize the country seems not to be very consistent with the Confucian theories learned in the past.

This is also one of the reasons why he is particularly interested in Danzhou. The cultural circle and cultural and educational industry in Haihan, what kind of appearance, probably can find the answer in Danzhou.He really wanted to see what achievements the Haihan people, who can do all kinds of things very well, have achieved in this field.

"The prince knows so much about Han culture and Confucian classics, so he must stay in Danzhou for a few more days and communicate with local celebrities." Yan Mingjun, as the host, saw that Li Wei seemed to be quite interested in topics in this field , and began to arrange activities for him very enthusiastically: "There are hundreds of local poetry clubs, academies, studios, and printing workshops, and there are many places worth visiting. If the prince can stay more In time, I wish to accompany you all the way, and introduce these places to your son."

Li Lu felt his heart itch secretly when he heard that, he was indeed very interested in visiting these places, at least for him, it was much better than going to those smelting workshops that were so hot that people fainted, or the mines that were disgraced after entering.

(End of this chapter)