1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 3156
Regarding the moving of the capital to Hangzhou, although the executive committee has not announced the official plan and arrangement, in fact the matter is already a certainty.A lot of preparatory work, especially a large number of infrastructure projects related to the relocation of the capital around Hangzhou, has already been implemented.

Most of the old wharf roads and other infrastructure in the east and south of Hangzhou will be repaired and expanded during this period to meet the local transportation needs that will surely increase significantly in the future.

Even the various city gates entering and exiting Hangzhou City have to undergo drastic reconstruction, and the original roads entering and leaving the city will be widened to prevent these city gates from becoming traffic bottlenecks.

As for the north-south and east-west central axis arterial roads passing through the city, about [-]% of the road surface hardening construction has been completed.Although there will be some congestion on the road during the construction period, after the completion of the project, the traffic conditions in the city will be greatly improved.

Looking at the busy construction scene along the way, Gong Shiqi couldn't help thinking, if Haihan hadn't taken over the city, perhaps a hundred years later, this place wouldn't have changed so much.

After Hangzhou is designated as the capital city, it should soon catch up with Sanya's urban construction level. Commuter trains and steam boats crossing the river will probably appear here in a few years.

Gong Shiqi turned his eyes back from the car window, looked at Qu Shengfeng and said, "Before the Hangzhou newspaper reported the case where no one was arrested, please tell me more about it."

Qu Shengfeng quickly responded, the case was reported to the headquarters of the Ministry of Security in Sanya through him, and he knew the details relatively well.

A businessman surnamed Zhu who came from other places contacted the officers of the Hangzhou garrison through abnormal means, and after the officers who realized something was wrong reported the matter, the Ministry of Security intervened in the investigation.Although the businessman surnamed Zhu was not caught, several secret letters with suspicious contents were found from his residence—that is, the letters Gong Shiqi saw when he went to see He Xi earlier.

After the content of the letter has been declassified, it shows that someone intends to carry out an assassination operation during the executive committee's inspection of Hangzhou.But the follow-up investigation was not smooth. Although the Ministry of Security used various methods and even invited the Military Intelligence Bureau to participate in the investigation, it still failed to find out the true identity and whereabouts of the suspect.

During Gong Shiqi's stay in Zhoushan, he had communicated with Ji Yuanqing from the Military Intelligence Bureau, but the other party seemed to have no more information than him, so he hurried to Hangzhou to try to personally investigate the clues left behind in the case.

Qu Shengfeng's account of the case contained some more details than what Gong Shiqi had learned before.

For example, the place where the businessman surnamed Zhu got in touch with the military officer who reported the incident was an underground casino in Hangzhou City.The businessman surnamed Zhu contacted officials before the exposure, and this officer was not the only one, but the locations were all in that casino.

"The method he uses is actually very simple. He just waits for an opportunity in the casino to strike up a conversation with these officials who go to gamble. Seeing how much you lose, he will even offer to lend you money. As long as you have an IOU, it is equivalent to We got the handle of the party involved!"

Gong Shiqi interjected when he heard this, "The officials here in Hangzhou are very courageous. They dare to enter and leave the casino openly, and even borrow money from strangers with IOUs."

Qu Shengfeng smiled wryly and said: "The Donghai Region has taken over the territory of Ming Dynasty in Jiangsu and Zhejiang too quickly, and we don't have that many manpower to take over the governance of these areas, so many officials who originally belonged to Ming Dynasty have also temporarily retained their original positions. Guarantee the normal operation of the government office."

"The quality of these officials who have changed their courts is uneven, and this situation will inevitably occur. After the incident, all the relevant personnel involved have been suspended for investigation. Instead, I took this opportunity to rectify the officialdom."

Gong Shiqi said: "The casino should have been investigated, right? What is the conclusion of the investigation?"

Qu Shengfeng nodded and said: "Of course I have checked, that underground casino has been around for some time, and there are several bosses in the backstage. In the past, the Zhejiang Metropolitan Division commanded Tong Zhi, and the chief envoy's counselor was the deputy of the Procuratorate. Envoy, the general judge of the Hangzhou government."

"These people have great influence in the local area, and the casino involves too many interests in all aspects, so it can still be retained after my country takes over the Hangzhou government. The management committee has always turned a blind eye and closed its eyes, not caring about it It’s a gray area. But after this accident, the management committee closed down the casino for safety reasons.”

"But according to the results of our investigation, there is no evidence of collusion with the businessman surnamed Zhu. It is very likely that the man just used the special environment of the casino to implement his plan."

Gong Shiqi said: "Good guy, the three divisions and one government are all in place. The background of this casino is really strong, so it's no wonder they dare to let officials in to gamble!"

Gong Shiqi noticed that Qu Shengfeng's statement was that no evidence had been found for the time being, which could be understood as not ruling out the possibility that the casino colluded with the businessman surnamed Zhu.

But this casino has such a deep background, and it has had an inseparable relationship with Daming's officialdom from the day it opened. Now, it may not be easy to thoroughly investigate whether it still has connections with Daming and whether it is involved in the assassination plan. thing.

But there happened to be a yamen that was in charge of this kind of affairs, and that was the special liaison office that Gong Shiqi was going to visit.

The responsibility of this organization is to coordinate the affairs between Haihan and Daming, including handling various transnational disputes and cases.Gong Shiqi believed that there might be some clues related to this case, especially the information that the Ministry of Security could not grasp.

The special liaison office in Xingxian Square in the west of the city is very different from when it was settled a year ago.

The dilapidated facade at that time has been repaired now.A large open space was specially set up outside the gate, and a special parking lot for carriages and horses was set up to facilitate the people from all walks of life who came here to do business.

The yamen, which used to be sparsely populated, is now full of people. If visitors do not have an appointment, they may not be able to be interviewed on the same day.In the compound where only a few people worked here last year, there are now dozens of employees.

Gong Shiqi and Qu Shengfeng had special identities, so they didn't need to make an appointment in advance. After handing over name cards to the porter and expressing their intention to come, the reception staff let them into the reception room in the courtyard and asked them to sit down for a while.

Not long after, a young official came, bowed his hands and greeted the two of them, "I'm here, Zhu Zian, please wait for a long time."

Gong Shiqi responded with a little surprise: "Master Li isn't here?"

Zhu Zi'an said: "Master Li is going to work in Lin'an County today, and he probably won't be back until evening. This is Lord Li's deputy. If you two have anything to do, you can tell me the same."

Gong Shiqi immediately remembered the identity of the young official in front of him. Last year, this person passed the imperial examination and became an official in Hangzhou, which had a great influence.After all, Zhu Zian was the first case of such a rare event that the children of the Ming royal family went to Haihan to be an official.

(End of this chapter)