1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 1979
Zhang Qianzhi, who was in Danzhou, didn't know how important the musket found in Yangyue Village was to the investigation of a series of strange situations that had recently occurred in various places.He could vaguely guess that the bullets that had been sent back to Sanya for inspection had led to some new clues at the headquarters, but he still put Xue Zheng and the others as the breakthrough point of the case investigation.

As the investigation continued, in addition to realizing that this group had received special training and possessed certain anti-reconnaissance and anti-interrogation capabilities, Zhang Qianzhi also gradually confirmed some other situations.For example, this group of people is very likely to belong to different forces, and they are not prepared for this attack mission, and there are many signs of hasty action and so on.But the interrogation of this group of people did not go smoothly. Even though Zhang Qianzhi tried his best, it was still difficult to get real and effective information from Xue Zheng and others.

After spending half a day in the interrogation room, Zhang Qianzhi finally ran out of patience. He decided to end the interrogation work in Danzhou as soon as possible and escort the captured prisoners back to Sanya.Zhang Qianzhi knew that his ability was limited, and he couldn't get any more information from these people, but he basically ruled out the possibility of another attack on the son of North Korea in the near future, so that the relevant arrests can come to an end .

Before leaving Danzhou, Zhang Qianzhi paid a special visit to the son of the Joseon Dynasty, Li Mo, and explained to him that he had other work tasks and was about to return to Sanya, so he could not accompany him to complete the rest of the trip.Li Lu felt a little regretful about this. He didn't know Zhang Qianzhi's real position very well. He just regarded him as a Haihan official who was about his age and could get along with him. However, after leaving Changhua, Master Zhang He was busy with other things and didn't go to Annan with him. Li Luo also probably thought that he would not accompany him anymore.

However, Li Luo knew that he would return to Sanya after completing this trip, so he took the initiative to make an appointment with Zhang Qianzhi. After a while, the North Korean embassy would come forward and invite the accompanying Haihan officials to gather together as a Thanks for taking care of him along the way, Zhang Qianzhi must also show his face to attend.

And this was not the only invitation Zhang Qianzhi received before leaving Danzhou. When he bid farewell to Gai Liangcai, Tian Zheng, Hong Jingwen and others, these people also offered similar invitations.Of course, these people all know his real identity, and ordinary people are rarely willing to take the initiative to deal with people in the yamen of the Ministry of Security. Contacts are unexpected gains that I never thought of before departure.

The last person Zhang Qianzhi visited before leaving Danzhou was Zhang Xin. Zhang Qianzhi's plan was important to capture Xue Zheng and his gang in Danzhou this time, but what was more important was Zhang Xin's support and trust in him. , mobilized almost the entire resources of Danzhou to cooperate with his plan, otherwise it would be impossible to wipe out all the gangsters lurking in the dark so cleanly.Out of Zhang Xin's respect and gratitude, he must meet Zhang Xin before leaving Danzhou.

Zhang Xin was not surprised by his arrival. He served hot tea and snacks, casually asked a few questions about the progress of the investigation, and then took the initiative to mention Zhang Qianzhi's next itinerary: "You are going to escort the prisoner back to Sanya, and call the civilian ship? So convenient, I have ordered someone to prepare a fast boat for you, and you can set off tomorrow."

Zhang Qianzhi was flattered, and quickly got up to thank Zhang Xin.Although there are also sea-going ships under the name of the Ministry of Security, the number is very small, and almost all of them are concentrated in Sanya, and there are none in Danzhou.Zhang Qianzhi originally planned to ask Wang Baisuo to rent a civilian ship, or temporarily recruit a troop carrier from the navy stationed in Danzhou, but Zhang Xin had already arranged all these things quietly.

Zhang Xin went on to say: "The son of Joseon will probably go to Haikou in the future, and then he will return to Sanya to enroll. If possible, you can also get in touch with him more in the future. Victory Fort attaches great importance to this person, so keep it up." The personal relationship will also benefit you later in your work.”

Zhang Xin's remarks were consistent with He Xi's earlier views, and Zhang Qianzhi quickly responded.He roughly knew that Victory Fort intended to support the heir to the Korean throne, and Zhang Xinyuan also noticed this momentum in Danzhou, purely because of his vision and sense of smell.As for taking the initiative to mention Zhang Qianzhi, this is entirely out of personal friendship, and not just anyone can be treated like this.

Zhang Qianzhi had nothing to repay for such care, so he could only secretly write down this favor first, and then try to do something for Zhang Xin when he returns to Sanya next time.

Early the next morning, Zhang Qianzhi and Wang Baisuo personally led the team to escort Xue Zheng and his gang to Baimajing Wharf in Danzhou Bay, where the fast boat that Zhang Xin had prepared for him in advance stopped.After escorting all the prisoners onto the boat, Zhang Qianzhi bid farewell to Wang Baisuo, telling him not to relax just because the investigation work was over, and to pay more attention to Li Min's security work.

The ship arranged by Zhang Xin was indeed extremely fast, and Zhang Qianzhi was also eager to return home. He did not stop at the shore during the itinerary and arrived at Shengli Port the next morning.The Ministry of Security, which had received the telegram notification in advance, had already arranged several carriages to wait on the pier, and immediately picked up all the prisoners who had been escorted back.

Zhang Qianzhi returned to the small gray building of the security department, first went to He Xi's place to communicate and report on the investigation.In fact, his main task for this trip was to accompany Li Wei to complete the tour, but because of the attack in the middle, his task was also adjusted to detection and investigation.After capturing Xue Zheng and his gang, considering the need to find out the truth of the matter as soon as possible, after asking He Xi for instructions, he terminated the original accompanying security mission and escorted these prisoners back to Sanya to complete the follow-up interrogation work.

"The reason why I asked you to come back first is because I think it is necessary to let you know what happened recently..."

He Xi carefully inspected the pistol brought back from Danzhou with a magnifying glass, and said to Zhang Qianzhi standing in front of him: "We will soon know whether the bullets you sent back came from this gun or not. .”

At this time, someone was already using the bullet-making pliers found to make lead bullets, and the answer would be known later by comparing it with the bullets sent back by Zhang Qianzhi earlier.Zhang Qianzhi reckoned that the gangsters should have had more projectiles, but they should have thrown the projectiles into the pond when they were disposing of the weapons. It was not so easy to find those small things from the mud, so they had to rediscover them at the moment. Make bullets to test their speculation.

However, He Xi immediately added: "Actually, with this gun, it doesn't matter whether the bullets can be aligned or not. When the knowledgeable bigwigs in the Executive Committee see this gun, they will definitely be happy for you." Excited about it.”

Zhang Qianzhi didn't quite understand what He Xi meant, but he didn't rush to ask questions, and waited quietly for He Xi to explain the situation.

It was not long before the report of the comparison of the bullets was sent, and the gun was in perfect agreement with the fatal pellet sent back earlier.While no confession has been received from the suspect, it has been established that someone used the gun to shoot and kill an accomplice during the infighting that occurred the night of the arrest.

"The projectile you sent back earlier was brought to Tiandu Industrial Zone at the first time. Several experts from Haihan Ordnance Industry conducted a detailed inspection on it and confirmed its composition." He Xi took Picking up the projectile, he said: "Before that, a batch of projectile samples were sent back from Zhejiang, and the composition ratio was exactly the same as this projectile. Do you think it was a coincidence? But no weapons were found there, so I haven't found it for the time being." There is no way to confirm its source, and now it is only confirmed that this is not a military standard weapon produced by our country or Ming Dynasty."

Zhang Qianzhi immediately understood why Sanya was in such a hurry to find a weapon that matched the projectile, because this not only involved the group captured in Danzhou, but it was more likely to involve another incident in Zhejiang.Although He Xi hasn't explained what the case in Zhejiang is, but thinking about it, it should not be a trivial matter to send the projectile back to Sanya for inspection.

"Is the matter in Zhejiang related to the North Koreans?" Zhang Qianzhi asked tentatively.His first reaction was the connection between the events in these two places, and there may be other factors besides weapons.

But He Xi shook his head and said, "From what we know so far, what happened in Zhejiang has nothing to do with the North Koreans."

He Xi then briefly explained the conflict of interest in Zhejiang caused by the sea salt produced in Ningbo Prefecture, and the subsequent attacks on salt caravans.After hearing this, Zhang Qianzhi understood that what attracted Sanya's attention was not the conflict between the old and new salt merchants, but the weapons and equipment used by one of the parties in the conflict were beyond Haihan's control.The real point of investigation is not who attacked the salt caravan in Ningbo, but who provided so many muskets of unknown origin to Jianghuai salt merchants.

However, there was a private fight between local salt merchants in Zhejiang, and an attack on the son of North Korea by an unknown organization on Hainan Island. The two incidents did not seem to have any necessary connection—if it hadn’t happened to be found in the bullet inspection link, Probably no one would associate these two irrelevant things together.

"What do you think?" He Xi also wanted to hear her lover's opinion.In many cases, Zhang Qianzhi's ideas may not be so comprehensive, but he will also provide some ideas with more reference value.

Zhang Qianzhi thought for a while before answering: "I believe that there may be two possibilities. One is that the capture of these people in Danzhou is related to the Jianghuai salt merchants, and it may even be driven by them. However, there is still no evidence to support this speculation. .Another possibility is that the same customer supplied the weapons and ammunition to both places, so they used exactly the same bullets."

He Xi nodded and said, "People in the executive committee who know the news probably hold this view, and more people tend to the latter possibility."

Zhang Qianzhi saw that his idea was approved, and continued: "But training a group of musketeers who can act together is not a one-time achievement. For example, among the gangsters captured in Danzhou, it is likely that only one can use People with muskets, so they also found this musket in their equipment, and the others are all ordinary weapons. The time when Zhejiang got the weapons must be much earlier than that of Hainan Island, at least a few months ago training."

He Xidao: "If we count from the start of production in Ningbo's salt field, it will be more than half a year from now, and it is estimated that the real impact on the business of Jianghuai salt merchants will be less than half a year. After three months of training, you will be able to form an effective fighting force, which is in line with your speculation."

Zhang Qianzhi said: "But there is still one thing that I don't understand. If the attack on the son of North Korea can attack our country's diplomacy and make North Korea lose its trust in our country, then the salt merchants' struggle in Zhejiang will have a very limited impact on our country. Will it? Those who will provide weapons to the salt merchants have no intention of targeting our country."

He Xi said: "Before I saw the gun you brought back, I actually had similar thoughts. Could it be that transnational arms dealers appeared, selling weapons to various camps indiscriminately, just to make money and not to compete with our country? Right. But now I don’t think so, the events in these two places should not be just a coincidence, and there will probably be a third or fourth place where similar situations will occur.”

Zhang Qianzhi said: "Is there anything to say about this gun?"

He Xi pointed to the decorative pattern on the handle of the gun and said, "Although I'm not a weapon expert, I can still recognize that this is a musket from a western country. We can invite experts to identify the decorative pattern on it later."

The appearance of this kind of handgun is not completely unfamiliar to He Xi. He has seen similar weapons a few years ago-Thomas, the Portuguese ambassador to Sanya, often wears a gun around his waist. Take a flintlock pistol somewhat similar in shape to this one.However, his sidearm is actually just an accessory, it doesn't usually load ammunition, and the workmanship is much more gorgeous than this gun. Every time He Xi can see the flashing on the handle of the gun from a long distance Reflective gemstone.

Will the Portuguese sell weapons to Ming?The answer is of course yes. Long before the Haihan people came to this time and space, the Portuguese were already selling weapons to the Ming government and helping them train musketeers and artillery.The number of muskets and artillery that flowed into Daming through the Portuguese was actually quite a lot. Even the Han army banner of the Qing army was equipped with Portuguese-made guns that were brought from Dengzhou City to Liaodong by the rebels during the Denglai Rebellion.

But that was a long time ago. The Portuguese chose to stand with Haihan a long time ago, and they have been buying weapons from Haihan almost every year, some of which are used to arm themselves, and the other are sold far away. The Middle East, and even transported thousands of miles back to Europe, where fierce battles are raging, and sold at high prices to all parties involved in the war.As for Daming, Portugal has basically given up the arms trade in this region because it has to compete directly with Haihan.

(End of this chapter)