1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 1988
After reading the case file prepared by Wan Fa, Gong Shiqi was keenly aware of the omissions in it, so he asked Wan Fa about it while eating: "I read the file just now, why is there no Jin Yiwei in it?" The news? It’s impossible for Jin Yiwei not to know about such a big matter, right?”

As the official secret service intelligence agency of the Ming Dynasty, Jin Yiwei has its branches in almost every state capital. If it is completely unaware that the civil armed organization is equipped with weapons that are far more powerful than the regular army, it must be regarded as a great dereliction of duty.Gong Shiqi thought that it was impossible for Jin Yiwei to make such a low-level mistake. Even if he hadn't noticed it before, after many shootings, he should have launched an investigation into it.And what he was interested in was Jin Yiwei's attitude towards the gun case, which had an extremely important reference significance for Hai Han's next strategy to deal with this matter.

As for this information, there was no clear record in the dossier, so he asked Wan Fa face to face.Gong Shiqi believed that this was not Wanfa's negligence, and there must be some reasons he didn't know.

Wanfa put down the chopsticks in his hand, and replied with a serious face: "This is also the strange situation at the moment. According to the information we have, the Jinyiwei Yamen in the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions have kept silent about the several gun cases that occurred. There is no intention to pursue it."

Gong Shiqi was taken aback for a moment, then sneered and said, "It seems that the opponent's energy is not small, and Jin Yiwei is collectively pretending to be deaf and dumb!"

Wan Fa sighed: "Although there is no real evidence, I also think so. It is estimated that it will cost a lot to make the Jinyiwei Yamen ignore this."

Both of them have the experience of dealing with Jin Yiwei, and they are quite familiar with the style of this yamen.Jin Yiwei has great power, but because of this, many people in this yamen will use their power to seek benefits.If the instigator behind the shooting was really the Jianghuai salt merchant, then for Jin Yiwei, this would be a first-class job.

As for whether Jin Yiwei made a condescending price, or the messenger behind the scenes offered to offer the hush money, the Ministry of Security has not been able to collect specific information, but this does not prevent Gong Shiqi from making inferences about Jin Yiwei's silent reaction.To be honest, if Jin Yiwei didn't take advantage of this opportunity to make money, he would not believe it.

"However, by not speaking out, it does not mean that Jin Yiwei is ignorant of these situations." Gong Shiqi changed the topic: "They chose to remain silent, maybe they have taken advantage of some people, or they may feel that the situation is Everything is under control, and there is no need to rush to make a move at this time."

Wan Fa replied: "If Jinyiwei doesn't send out manpower to investigate, then the information he has is probably not as good as ours. I also tried to get in touch with two Jinyiwei from Ningbo Mansion before, and I feel that they are also aware of the attack on the salt merchants." Wushui, if it’s not acting for me, then there is something wrong with Jin Yiwei’s internal communication.”

What Wanfa said is also true. In terms of the scale of the intelligence network, the Haihan Security Department is naturally not comparable to the Daming Jinyiwei, but it also has some special advantages in some areas.For example, in an area like Ningbo Mansion that has been infiltrated by Haihan, and with the solid backing of the Zhoushan Island garrison nearby, the local Jinyiwei can only keep a low profile, even though Ningbo Mansion is still their home field. He also didn't dare to hold his own in front of Hai Han's colleagues.

Gong Shiqidao: "Jin Yiwei's attitude is not clear, so we have to be more careful when we act. After all, we have a relationship with us before, and maybe we will make trouble at a critical moment. We must guard against it."

The "Liang Zi" that Gong Shiqi mentioned naturally refers to the killing of Liao Xun and others in the city of Jinyiwei three years ago.Although that case turned into a suspenseless case in the end, and Jin Yiwei has not been informed of the truth so far, the other party can basically confirm that the "disappearance" of Liao Xun and others was actually done by Hai Han, and this account is of course recorded. On Haihan's head.If at any time Jin Yiwei had the opportunity to retaliate against Hai Han, then the other party probably would not show mercy.

After eating, Gong Shiqi quickly returned to the study and continued to study the case files provided by Wanfa.

Up to now, there have been a total of seven attacks on the salt transport teams, all of which were of course outside Ningbo Prefecture, and four of the attacks involved the use of muskets as weapons by the other party.Casualties and injuries in the salt transport team and the loss of all the escorted goods also occurred in these four incidents. In the other three attacks, the escort personnel successfully repelled the attackers without much loss.

From a chronological point of view, the few attacks that were repulsed came first, and the few attacks that used muskets followed. Obviously, there was a tendency to use secret weapons because of unfavorable early actions.However, there is still no clear evidence to prove that the seven attacks were all carried out by the same group, but both the Ministry of Security and the Military Intelligence Bureau believe that these attacks are not independent incidents, but have unified planning and deployment.

Gong Shiqi read the dossier in one breath, then got up to look at a five-foot-square map hanging on the wall, depicting the general situation of the coastal areas of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and these incidents were marked with conspicuous red marks The location of the shooting.

These cases have one obvious thing in common, that is, they are all located in the area north of Hangzhou Bay.Except for one attack that took place in the territory of Huzhou Prefecture, the other attacks all took place in the territory of Jiangsu.But what is very subtle is that Huai'an Mansion and Yangzhou Mansion, the base camps of the salt merchants, did not even have a single attack. In Gong Shiqi's view, this seems to be an attempt to cover up.

"Want to play tricks?" Gong Shiqi looked at the map and muttered to himself.

After a while, his eyes suddenly lit up: "Who are you playing with?"

Haihan can choose to be neutral and not directly participate in the conflict of interests between Jiangsu and Zhejiang salt merchants, but if there are clearly factors that will make Haihan afraid in the course of the struggle, then he will no longer remain on the sidelines.And if these big Ming salt merchants think that they can do whatever they want with a batch of muskets, then Gong Shiqi thinks it is necessary to teach them how to behave. can solve the problem.

Of course, this was based on the premise that the salt merchants' private armed forces and combat effectiveness were limited, otherwise Gong Shiqi was too big.Judging from the information described in the dossier, the assailant was equipped with about ten to thirty firearms at the same time. The reason for the large discrepancy in the number is mainly due to the inconsistency in the confessions of the parties.This is also a reasonable thing. After all, it is impossible for everyone to remain calm enough to pay attention to the enemy's weapon equipment when encountering an attack. He had chosen to run away with his head in his arms, and he didn't dare to look up to see how many troops the enemy had.Therefore, there is no consensus on how many musketeers there are in this private armed force.

However, Gong Shiqi's view on this tends to be optimistic. He believes that the scale of private armed forces of salt merchants must not be too large. After all, such things cannot be completely hidden from the eyes and ears of the local government. It's because the situation is controllable. If these salt merchants make the situation too big, Jinyiwei and the guards in the state capitals will no longer be blind all the time.

Another point is that the training and combat level of these musketeers will be limited by their environment.The Haihan Army has officers with rich combat experience to train recruits, and there are large and small combat opportunities to polish them, but the military training that these civilian armed forces can receive is definitely not comparable to that of the regular army. There are only tasks like attacking the salt transport team. Gong Shiqi thinks that the musketeers trained in this way can reach the level of the Haihan militia at best.

Of course, he did not forget the main goal of his trip, which was to find out the source of these muskets.Gong Shiqi's plan was actually very simple and rough. First find out the whereabouts of these musketeers, and then try to get them together with the guns. When the witnesses and evidences are complete, things will be much easier.It doesn't matter if the musketeers don't know where their weapons come from, as long as they know who their boss is. If the musketeers can't answer the questions, their boss will definitely be able to answer them.

So for Gong Shiqi, as long as the first step can be successfully completed, the follow-up investigation will be a matter of course.But everything is difficult at the beginning. If you want to grasp these key information, it is probably not enough to rely on Zhoushan Island to find a way. After all, you have to go out first.

Wanfa chose to collect information through the intelligence network and investigation of contacts, while Gong Shiqifu decided to take action as soon as he arrived in Zhoushan. This can be said to be two completely different ways of thinking, and it is also related to their respective work styles.Wanfa puts more emphasis on strategy, planning, intelligence collection and sorting, while Gong Shiqi leads the team to perform various field missions all year round, so his methods of solving problems are more direct and often more effective.

But this is not to say that one is better than the other, and the few files Wanfa collected and compiled here also provided an important reference for Gong Shiqi's decision-making.Although Gong Shiqi's method is direct and effective, at the same time, the risks he needs to bear will also increase exponentially. It can be said that the two people's choices have their own advantages and disadvantages.

When Gong Shiqi went south this time, he also brought a group of competent people, even the weapons and equipment were shipped over, but if he wanted to take more radical measures, the manpower he brought alone should not be enough. It needs the cooperation of Zhoushan.Moreover, according to the system of the Ministry of Security, Gong Shiqi had to accept the jurisdiction and command of the local chief during the operation, so his action plan had to be reported to Shi Diwen first, and could only be implemented after obtaining permission.But Shi Diwen was not on the island at this time, so he had to wait patiently.

When Gong Shiqi arrived at Zhoushan Island, Shi Diwen was discussing with Qu Yutong and other local officials in Ningbo city how to deal with the current troubles.Of course, those who are qualified to participate in this negotiation are basically stakeholders of the Ningbo Salt Industry, and the recent attacks have more or less affected their immediate interests. attitude, they also pay special attention.

In fact, Shi Diwen had already met with Qu Yutong and a few senior officials before this, and explained Haihan's attitude to them, hoping to make a decision after the situation became clearer.However, not everyone could hold their breath like Shi Diwen. Many officials would visit the magistrate's yamen almost every two or three days, hoping that Qu Yutong could come forward and persuade the Haihan people to intervene.Qu Yutong himself was also a little uneasy, so he invited Shi Diwen to Ningbo City, and asked him to personally answer these officials' questions.

More than [-]% of Haihan's trade in Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions is realized through the Ningbo government, and the local officials involved in the salt industry are basically close to Haihan. Apart from the salt industry, in daily life The fields of trade, immigration, finance, etc. are also of great value to Haihan, so Shi Diwen has to pay attention to the attitude of these people, and must personally go to Ningbo Mansion to appease people's hearts.

"Everyone, the matter is not as serious as you think. We have also used our strength to investigate the identities of these musketeers and where the weapons they used came from. But the investigation will take a certain amount of time, and considering With the current diplomatic relations between the two countries, we cannot adopt radical military means to solve the problem for the time being, so I hope everyone can be more patient and give us a little more time to find a way to properly handle the current situation..."

It took a lot of time for Shi Diwen to persuade these officials whose interests had been damaged to be patient. He said a lot of truth, but what he wanted to see was the result.As for the many issues that Haihan needs to consider in the process, these officials may not really care.

To put it bluntly, Shi Diwen drank several large cups of tea, and finally convinced these officials that Haihan would try his best to resolve the matter before the end of the year.But before that, some adjustments must be made to the sales direction of the salt produced by the two salt factories in Xiangshan and Shipu, and the sale to the Jianghuai area in the north must be suspended to avoid continued conflicts of interest with local salt merchants.

This is somewhat disappointing to the officials. At the beginning, the north was the main sales direction. It was a plan to crush the Jianghuai salt merchants in the shortest possible time. As long as it can seize the salt market in the Jianghuai area, The next step is to control the local salt production, and then the business will grow bigger and bigger, allowing Ningbo salt merchants to gradually replace the old salt merchants.

Of course, the wish is very beautiful, but the reality is not so easy to achieve. The Jianghuai salt merchants who are so rich are willing to hand over their industries to others, even if your Ningbo salt merchants are backed by the government-there are not many behind them. What about the big men who can speak in the court?

(End of this chapter)