1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 1987
At the same time that the marines were hiding in the mountains and forests to monitor the Qing army camp, an inconspicuous sailboat sailed into Dinghai Port, Zhoushan, Zhejiang.Near the end of the year, many merchants came here to purchase or sell the last batch of goods for this year. At least hundreds of such small and medium-sized sailboats entered and left Zhoushan Port every day, and naturally no one would notice their existence.

However, when the ship quietly sailed into the special dock for official ships, it inevitably attracted the attention of neighboring ships.This dedicated pier occupies a large area, and there are six trestles for docking ships alone, but only government ships are allowed to enter and dock here, and more than half of the places are vacant on weekdays.Zhoushan’s official ships are all expedition-grade civilian versions. The huge hull and unique mast sail shape are quite conspicuous. The red and blue Haihan flag will be hung on the mast. This ship sails into the special wharf The ship is obviously not included in this list.

Some ships who came to Zhoushan Port for the first time entered here by mistake because they were not familiar with the environment and did not notice the vertical notice board on the special wharf. They would soon be driven away by the officials on the wharf.But the sailing boat was not treated like this and entered the berth smoothly.Several horse-drawn carriages quickly came to the pier, picked up all the people who got off the boat, and made the sailors and crew members on the nearby pier who were about to watch the excitement shouted and looked away.

In fact, this is not because the eyesight of the crowd is not enough, but that the people on this boat did not intend to make a high-profile trip. It is just that ordinary civilian ships need to be boarded and inspected by the staff after they dock at the Dinghai Port Wharf. Most of the time, this process is quite time-consuming, and after disembarking, it takes a long time to hire a car and horse to go to the destination.The people on board wanted to save these troubles, so they chose to enter the official dedicated pier and directly call the official carriage to the destination.

These carriages appeared later in a compound at the foot of Xiaozhu Mountain, and a black-clothed man got out of the leading carriage. He was a strong man with sharp eyes. He was the security department who had just arrived in Zhoushan from Shandong. Senior official Gong Shishi.

"Brother Gong, long time no see, your style is even better than before! It's been a tiring journey, please talk in the room." Waiting here to greet Gong Shiqi was Wan Fa, the person in charge of the local branch of the Security Department.He and Gong Shiqi were old acquaintances. They had cooperated hand in hand when the beheading operation was carried out in Hangzhou in 1634.But after that, they went south one by one and went north one by one, and the two never met again after that. Wan Fa was also quite emotional when they reunited with their old friends on Zhoushan Island today.

"Congratulations, brother Wan, for your promotion!" Gong Shiqi was still straightforward, and he congratulated Wan first.

In fact, after the actions in Hangzhou that year, Wanfa's promotion was basically a certainty, but the real position of real power was to be sent back to Zhejiang in the near future to take charge of the command of the Ministry of Security in Jiangsu and Zhejiang.There are only about ten people in the Ministry of Security who are in charge of such a position in the overseas ruled area. It is no exaggeration to say that Wan Fa is now one of the high-level figures in the Haihan Security Department.

After the ceremony between the two, Wan Fa led Gong Shiqi into the house, and Wan Fa's subordinates were responsible for arranging rest for Gong Shiqi's entourage first.This time Gong Shiqi went south because he was dispatched by the headquarters and had an urgent mission. Both of them knew this well, so they didn't waste time on red tape, and they seized the time to start discussing the real business.

Regarding what happened in the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions, Gong Shiqi had a general understanding of what happened when he received the dispatch telegram, but he didn't know the details, and Wan Fa still needed to explain it to him.

"The situation is serious and time is running out."

After sitting down, Wan Fa first defined the current situation with two opening sentences.When reporting the situation to Sanya before, Wanfa did not expect that this matter would attract the attention of the Executive Committee, and he asked the Zhoushan authorities to organize the two major intelligence agencies, the Military Intelligence Bureau and the Ministry of Security, to find out the shooting related to the salt industry as soon as possible. The history of the people and firearms involved in the incident.For this reason, the higher-ups even specially transferred Gong Shiqi back from Shandong to be responsible for the next field mission.

Wan Fa, who had worked with Gong Shiqi in the Ministry of Security, knew very well of Gong Shiqi's status in the Ministry of Security. This person who worked with the big boss He Xi in the early years was only released to work three years ago.But this does not mean that Gong Shiqi has fallen out of favor in front of He Xi, on the contrary, this is just a manifestation of the big boss's intention to train him.The beheading operation in Hangzhou was carried out jointly by the military and the Ministry of Security. The military took Gao Qiaonan as the leader, while the Ministry of Security was directed by Gong Shiqi. This shows He Xi's trust in him. .

In the past two years, Gong Shiqi seems to have been quiet in Shandong, without any outstanding achievements, but Wan Fa heard that Gong Shiqi was in charge of building an intelligence network in the northern inland area of ​​Ming Dynasty.This is a huge project, and it will definitely not be achieved overnight, but as long as Gong Shiqi can make a good start, he will definitely be the one who will be rewarded for his merits in the future.

Gong Shiqi's work at hand was so urgent, and the higher-ups still ordered him to be transferred to Zhoushan, which showed how much the higher-ups attached importance to the Jiangsu and Zhejiang gun cases.Wanfa realized this, so he naturally put up all his energy, and couldn't let Gong Shiqi underestimate him.

Next, Wanfa told Gong Shiqi all the relevant information he had so far.And there are some confidential details in it, so this conversation was only between the two of them, and no subordinates of the two participated in the observation.

"According to the information we have so far, Jianghuai salt merchants are undoubtedly the most suspected. Before the Korean War was over, we received news that salt merchants in Jianghuai area organized militias in the name of salt protection. But there was no update at that time. The exact news did not attract enough attention. Moreover, the agents in the Xiangshan and Shipu saltworks in Ningbo Prefecture were almost all official figures. We did not expect that anyone would dare to attack them. "

The Haihan Security Department and the Military Intelligence Bureau are not yamen who only eat dry food. Regarding the attitude of Jianghuai salt merchants towards Haihan salt produced in Ningbo, these two yamen have always been paying attention to it, and they have long anticipated Jianghuai salt. In order to protect its own interests, businessmen may adopt certain countermeasures, but they did not expect to be able to toss so hard.

Standard muskets of unknown origin are far more important to Haihan than the confrontational attitude of Jianghuai salt merchants. Even though the number of guns that have appeared in several gun cases so far does not seem to be too many, the Ministry of Security and military intelligence The bureau did not dare to be careless at all. On the one hand, it collected the warheads and sent them back to Sanya for inspection. On the other hand, it also consciously strengthened the monitoring of the movements of Jianghuai salt merchants.

Of course, the biggest reaction to this is not the Zhoushan authorities, but the Ningbo salt merchants who suffered a lot in the gun case. To be precise, they are the real bosses behind these new salt merchants, the civil and military officials of Ningbo Prefecture. .

When the two saltworks in Shipu and Xiangshan were under construction, some local officials secretly cooperated with Haihan, taking shares or obtaining distribution rights.In the early days, it was dominated by the head of the Guards Army, and later some civil officials also boldly joined in. Up to now, more than [-] civil and military officials from the prefect Qu Yutong have been involved. It can be said that Ningbo Prefecture The relevant stakeholders in the officialdom have already occupied the majority.

On the one hand, these officials want to profit from the sale, and on the other hand, they have to hide their identities and cannot participate in the operation in person. Therefore, a group of new-faced salt merchants appeared in Ningbo Prefecture to participate in the operation activities on their behalf.The sea salt produced in Ningbo was transported to other state capitals for sale, and it was also operated by these puppet merchants.

Since these salts have already obtained legal production licenses in Ningbo Prefecture, they are sold as official salts, so the convoys and fleets that transport salt are also traveling openly.But it is precisely because of this that the itinerary of the salt transport team is easily grasped by the outside world, and there are many opportunities for those who want to attack it.

In the several attacks that happened not long ago, more than a dozen people were killed or injured by various salt transport teams. In addition, the escorted salt was also set on fire.According to the person who brought the message back, the assailants warned them that they would continue to carry out operations against the salt transport team from Ningbo. If they did not want to cause another accident, they would not be allowed to transport salt out of Ningbo for sale.

This is undoubtedly a heavy blow to the behind-the-scenes bosses who hope to make a fortune from the salt business, but due to their status, they cannot directly investigate the matter. If they send their troops to pretend to be civilians to serve as escorts, the cost It's really too high, they don't have enough rich family background to slowly grind down with Jianghuai salt merchants.

But it's impossible to swallow your anger after suffering a loss. It's not convenient for them to come forward. Isn't there still Haihan people on Zhoushan Island?These local officials approached Shi Diwen one after another, asking Haihan to take countermeasures as soon as possible to change this passive situation.Of course, they didn't intend to sit back and watch the tigers fight. As long as Haihan was willing to come forward to solve the trouble, they could also contribute money and efforts.

The main reason why these local officials pin their hopes on Haihan is that Haihan has demonstrated the level of force in the coastal areas of Zhejiang over the years, making them feel that as long as the Haihan people are willing to use force, they can quickly solve the problem .After all, just half a year ago, the Haihan Army held a large-scale military exercise in Hangzhou Bay to show off its muscles, which made the Ningbo officials who had been there to observe it generally have a kind of blind trust in Haihan's power.

In the end, even Qu Yutong came forward in person, hoping that Shi Diwen could use the Zhoushan garrison to resolve the matter, but Shi Diwen did not agree to the other party's request.

Haihan and Daming have formally established diplomatic relations. No matter what the name is, if they openly use force against targets in Daming, it will be tantamount to an invasion.Although the local government may be unable to resist Haihan's military means, such an incident will not only damage the normalizing diplomatic relations between the two countries, but will also affect Haihan's international reputation.After all, there are a large number of businessmen from various countries who come to Zhoushan Island for trade. If the Zhoushan garrison is dispatched, it will be difficult to hide from the public's attention.

In addition, at this time, the Military Intelligence Bureau and the Ministry of Security have noticed the tricky aspects of the gun case and are trying to investigate it. Naturally, they cannot send troops in large numbers at this time, otherwise the clues may be interrupted.

Shi Diwen could only comfort the local officials, expressing that they need to exercise restraint and assist Haihan in collecting more relevant information, so that Haihan can have a clearer judgment on the current situation before considering what to do. means to solve the problem.

Of course, considering that the influence of these officials is mostly limited to Ningbo, Shi Diwen did not have too much expectation of the assistance they can provide, and the final work is estimated to be completed by his own strength.The Ministry of Security transferred Gong Shiqi back from Shandong, which was actually the same plan. After all, Gong Shiqi has rich experience in commanding special operations. When necessary, he can lead a team into the Jianghuai area and carry out fixed-point elimination of certain key targets without going to war. mobilize troops.

After Gong Shiqi heard Wanfa's introduction, he was not very interested in the reaction of local officials, but the details of several shooting cases made him interested in studying.Wan Fadang ordered someone to fetch the case file and handed it to Gong Shiqi for review.

Most of these dossiers come from the statements of the parties concerned about the incident. Although they have a certain subjective color, they can basically restore the general situation at the time of the incident.There is also a small part of the relevant information collected by the Ministry of Security on Jianghuai salt merchants in the early stage, as well as some shared information notified by the Military Intelligence Bureau.

"It's getting late, why don't you continue to study the case after eating?" Seeing that it was time for dinner, Wan Fa asked Gong Shiqi for his opinion.Although there was no need to specially arrange a grand reception banquet, given Gong Shiqi's rank here, the dinner that should be entertained would certainly not be ambiguous.

But Gong Shiqi didn't really care much about these eating and drinking matters. Hearing this, he just hummed and continued to stare at the file in front of him. Brother let the kitchen cook a bowl of noodles, and I'll eat it in a few strokes without delaying business."

Wan Fa didn't know whether to laugh or cry: "Brother Gong, there's no rush to handle the case at this moment, otherwise Master Shi will know that you came from a long way and you will be treated like this, and you will have to call me to teach you a lesson. Or I'll let the kitchen prepare a few casually." A side dish, and it won't take too long to eat a meal."

"Okay, let's do what Brother Wan wants." Gong Shiqi didn't raise his head this time, apparently because he didn't want to spend too much time on this kind of thing.

Although Wan Fa said it politely, there was still a large table full of chicken, duck and fish when the meal was served later.Seeing this, Gong Shiqi didn't refuse any more, An Anxin sat down to eat, and even took the initiative to drink two glasses with Wan Fa.However, the topics discussed during the meeting were still mainly the recent gun cases.

(End of this chapter)