1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 1977
Although Haihan has made great efforts in controlling the export of weapons over the years, it is impossible to completely prevent these weapons sold overseas from being lost to places where they should not appear.The Executive Committee is aware of this point, Haihan Ordnance Industry is aware of it, and the military is also aware of it, but after all, the advantages of the arms sales trade outweigh the disadvantages, and when it is time to sell weapons, we must continue to sell them.

However, as long as large quantities do not flow into the hands of hostile forces, the sporadic loss of weapons will generally not cause any serious problems, just like the Qing army must have some Haihan-style weapons obtained through various channels, but they have no relevant information. No matter the material, processing technology or the special ammunition used, it is difficult to achieve the level of Haihan's original products. Even if you want to imitate, you can only imitate the appearance.Therefore, these lost weapons can basically only be used as research samples or collectibles, and it is unlikely that they will be mass-produced and deployed in the army.

If the weapons used by the armed men who attacked the Ningbo salt transport team were rifles made by Haihan, then indeed only a few muskets were needed to deal with the escorts in the salt transport team.But can the Jianghuai salt merchants who made troubles get a batch of Haihan rifles and train a group of people who are proficient in using these guns?Qian Tiandun felt that this should be somewhat difficult. After all, Shi Diwen had not lived in Zhejiang for so many years, so it would not be possible for people to make such a big noise under their noses.

So here comes the question, if the muskets used in these armed battles around the salt industry in the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions did not come from Daming or Haihan, where would they come from?

Qian Tiandun couldn't help thinking of the telegram just sent from Jinzhou, Liaodong. The local area also found that the enemy's formation was suspected to be equipped with some kind of new musket with relatively strong lethality.However, the distance between these two places was two thousand miles, and he didn't immediately connect the two events together, he just thought it should be a coincidence.

Qian Tiandun carefully asked about the details of these attacks, and wanted to know the specific circumstances of the fight between the attackers and the team escorting Ningbo salt, but Liu Jianyuan and others didn't know much about it.Most of the news they know comes from the news that they don't know how many times they have changed hands, but the real key information should still be blocked from the outside world, and only a few high-level personnel will grasp it.

However, Qian Tiandun is not in a hurry about this. This kind of matter will naturally be followed up by the Ministry of Security and the Military Intelligence Bureau stationed in the local area. If there is further news and the news about weapons is verified, there will definitely be corresponding ones in the military. notification.

And Liu Jianyuan and others who took the initiative to mention this matter only regarded it as a conversation piece that could be shared with Qian Tiandun, and did not think about what was wrong with it.The guest of honor of this banquet had a very happy chat. Before leaving, Liu Jianyuan and others said that when they started working on the enclosure here, they would like to invite Qian Tiandun and Wang Tom to attend the ribbon-cutting ceremony.

Qian Tiandun knew that these businessmen wanted to pull him to the platform so that the local North Korean government would be afraid. Of course, this kind of activity was definitely not for nothing. If Qian Tiandun and other senior officials are willing to show their face, they will definitely prepare a generous gift for them.

Qian Tiandun replied indifferently: "It's hard to say how long General Wang and I will be stationed here. Let's put this aside for now and see when the time comes."

When Liu Jianyuan heard it, the other party didn't immediately reject him, so there was still room for manipulation.Of course, he would not ask Qian Tiandun to express his position immediately, and quickly stated that he would try to set a time as early as possible, so that the generals can properly arrange the itinerary.

The merchants of the Ming Dynasty finished burning incense at the Taedong River Base, and then went to Pyongyang City to visit local officials. However, with the endorsement by General Haihan here, many things will be more important in the subsequent negotiations. With more confidence, they also have more capital to bargain with North Korean officials.Although a lot of incense money was spent here, in the long run, building a good relationship with the Haihan Garrison is definitely a direction worth investing in.

At this time in Sanya, more and more unusual news has been gathered here recently, which has gradually attracted the attention of the Military Intelligence Bureau.

The reason why these news are unusual is that they all have one thing in common, which is that they involve weapons.Regarding the armed conflict triggered by Ningbo Haiyan, in fact, the Zhoushan authorities had sent a telegram before that, detailing some information learned by the Military Intelligence Bureau through the parties involved.The Zhoushan garrison has actually obtained the projectiles fired by this rifle through some channels, and confirmed that this is not the ammunition of the Haihan standard weapon.

The incident in Zhejiang is still in the investigation stage, and Liaodong also sent back news, saying that standard muskets appeared in the Qing army's formation, and their performance and source are still unclear.The Jinzhou side has already contacted the troops stationed in North Korea. Next, the Marine Corps will be dispatched to the coastal area north of the Jinzhou Isthmus to perform reconnaissance operations to see if they can confirm the situation of these muskets.

In these two places, standard muskets that were not made by Haihan were recently discovered. Whether it is the salt merchants in Jianghuai or the Qing army in the Northeast, the Haihan military does not believe that they have the ability to manufacture standard weapons of a certain level. , the source of which is likely to be external.The bullet samples found in Zhejiang have already been sent back to Sanya, and the bullet samples found in Liaodong have also traveled south by sea, but the journey is so long that it will take some time to reach Sanya.

If only this is the case, it may not be enough to attract the attention of the Military Intelligence Bureau, but a major event has also occurred on Hainan Island recently, that is, the case of an attack by an unknown organization against the son of North Korea.Although this case was assigned by the Ministry of Security, the Military Intelligence Bureau also intervened in the follow-up investigation to assist the Ministry of Security.During the investigation, the Military Intelligence Bureau unexpectedly discovered that this case seemed to have some strange connection with the gun cases that occurred overseas.

Judging from the evidence, the case that occurred on Hainan Island did not include military rifles, and it seems that it has nothing to do with what happened thousands of miles away.But I have to say that the Ministry of Security did a very meticulous job in cleaning up Danzhou, taking back almost all the evidence that could be found outside Yangyue Village where the crime happened.

It's just that too much time was left for Xue Zheng and his group that night, so they were able to deal with their weapons calmly.Although it is conceivable that they buried the weapons somewhere, this group of people obviously did it very meticulously. The investigators did not find any obvious traces of burial in the forest, and it was difficult to organize manpower to clear the forest in time. They dug all over again, so they couldn't actually find the short gun that Xue Zheng was carrying.

But one body that investigators pulled up from the pond had died from a gunshot wound and found a musket pellet in its body with little difficulty.The bullet that shot into his heart from the back not only caused a fatal injury, but also became an important evidence for the follow-up investigation.

After the projectile was sent back to Sanya as evidence, it was quickly handed over from the Ministry of Security to the Military Intelligence Bureau, which is more professional in weapon forensics, and then brought from the Military Intelligence Bureau to Tiandu Industrial Zone. In the room, the technicians made a preliminary sampling analysis of the composition of the projectile, and quickly ruled out the possibility that it belonged to the ammunition of the Haihan Army.

The sampling report records the weight, diameter, and most importantly, the composition of the projectile.Although the projectile has been severely deformed after entering the human body, because its original shape is spherical, it is not difficult to restore it.Then the Military Intelligence Bureau suddenly discovered that the composition of this projectile was almost exactly the same as the analysis results of the bullet samples sent back from Zhejiang.

Common musket bullets are generally made of lead-based metals, but the smelting technology at this time is still difficult to highly purify a specific metal, and the lead used to make bullets is cheap and easy to process, generally not Someone will specially process its composition, which will inevitably be mixed with other metal components.

Manufacturers and users of weapons will certainly not care about such details, but for Haihan, it is one of the few investigative methods that can use its own technological advantages.Although this is also a routine action, no one really pins their hope of solving the case on it, but I didn't expect that after all this trouble, I really discovered the tricks in it.

A group of gangsters who tried to assassinate the son of the Joseon Dynasty in Danzhou used the same bullets as the bullets used by the attackers in the salt industry battle in Zhejiang thousands of miles away. Two seemingly unrelated things, because of this Tiny projectiles linked together.

The investigators did not dare to neglect this situation at all, and immediately reported it to Yan Chujie.After Yan Chujie confirmed the investigation results with Bai Kesi, he thought that this matter still needs the cooperation of various departments, so he called He Xi from the Security Department and asked him to come to Victory Fort to hold a three-party meeting.

He Xi knew the ins and outs of the Danzhou case very well, but the security department was not in charge of following up the Zhejiang case, so he had to listen to Yan Chujie's introduction.

"Is there any coincidence in the analysis of the composition of this projectile? How likely is it?" He Xi must first be sure that this is not a misjudgment based on a high-probability event, but a small-probability event with a very low chance of coincidence .

Bai Kesi replied: "Let me make an analogy. The probability is like we randomly selected a platoon of soldiers from Danzhou, and then randomly selected a platoon from Zhoushan. The numbers are all the same."

Yan Chujie added: "If this kind of thing happened in reality, then I would definitely feel that Shi Diwen was joking with me!"

He Xi rubbed her double chin and said, "It sounds like the probability is very small... Let's talk about the conclusion. I think you should have a clear opinion on this."

Beks hesitated for a moment before saying: "If it is true, it is very likely that the projectile found in Zhejiang and the projectile found in Danzhou were manufactured in the same place."

He Xi spread her hands and said, "That's it?"

"Isn't that enough?" Yan Chujie responded, "At least this is information that the Ministry of Security's previous investigations did not find out. I think you should be able to dig out more things from this."

He Xi said: "At present, I really don't have any other evidence to connect the events in the two places. As you said just now, the Zhoushan authorities believe that the traditional salt merchants in the Jianghuai area are behind the instigation of the salt industry battle. If you want to force contact, then I can only say that the group of people arrested in Danzhou has a lot of funds for their operations, and the financial backers behind them may be groups with relatively strong economic strength such as salt merchants."

Seeing that the two listened seriously, He Xi continued: "Even if your judgment is correct, it just means that the weapons used in the two places may come from the same source, but that's all, we still don't know Where did these weapons come from? You may be hoping that the people arrested by the Ministry of Security in Danzhou can give useful information, but I am afraid you will be disappointed, because these people have received special anti-reconnaissance training, and the information given The credibility of the information is limited. And they may not know where they bought the weapons they used."

Yan Chujie frowned and said: "Why is this happening? Don't you have many good torturers under your command? Have a good trial. If it doesn't work, I can also send some people to Danzhou to help, or simply get them back first. "

He Xidao: "It's not a question of who will judge. The person who planned behind the scenes should have made a plan for the failure of the operation, and didn't leave us with too many clues for investigation. But since your Military Intelligence Bureau has discovered With new clues, Danzhou may need to re-investigate the whereabouts of the evidence. I will send a telegram to Danzhou later, asking Zhang Qianzhi to dig the scene three feet, and definitely dig out the weapons used by those people! "

If the musket used by Xue Zheng and his gang can be found, it may provide greater help in investigating the identity of its maker.Zhejiang has not been able to seize the weapons used by the attackers for the time being, so whether Danzhou can find the weapons used by the attackers may be the easiest clue to obtain in the near future.And what the Ministry of Security can do so far is probably only to this extent.

Yan Chujie was silent for a while, and added: "Jinzhou, Liaodong sent back a telegram, and the Qing army seems to have some kind of new type of musket, and it caused damage to our army. I always feel that these things can't be so coincidental. All of them appeared during this period of time. However, it will take some time for the evidence from Jinzhou to be sent back, and then I will be able to confirm whether what I am worried about is true."

"If the weapons of the Qing army found in Jinzhou are also produced in the same place, then this matter will be very lively." He Xi immediately sensed the horror of it very keenly: "Having the ability to produce weapons in Hainan Island, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Liaodong There are not many forces that can export weapons and equipment to this level at the same time."

(End of this chapter)