1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 3838

The speed of the steamship going down the river was much faster than that on the way there. Just one day later, the steamship had arrived at the Nanjing section of the river and docked at Yanziji Wharf again.

Qin Jian was also there at this time, and this time he came to the military dock that he rarely set foot on, and finally saw the true appearance of the ship up close.

The reason he received such treatment was that Shi Chengwu suddenly came to inspect Yanziji Wharf early this morning and specifically requested that Qin Jian, the wharf's supervising official, be present, which is why he was able to accompany him throughout the process.

Shi Chengwu was very satisfied with the intelligence on Ming Dynasty shipping and trade that Qin Jian had previously gathered, so he specially asked Qin Jian to accompany him and praised him in person. This made Qin Jian feel flattered and even more aware of the importance of this task. At the same time, he was secretly glad that he had been attentive enough and had provided feedback to his superior in a very short time.

Before the steamship even docked, Qin Jian immediately recognized it as the same ship he had seen a few days earlier. At that time, the ship hadn't loaded or unloaded any cargo; it had simply replenished its coal and fresh water supply before departing for upstream.

When Shi Chengwu saw the steamship, his excitement was palpable. Qin Jian then realized that today's inspection was just a pretext; their real purpose was to target this ship. This meant that the place this ship had previously visited was probably not the Qinhuai River docks upstream.

It's just unknown whether there's some important person or something extraordinary on board that would make Shi Chengwu personally come to the dock to greet them.

After the ship docked, an officer quickly disembarked and presented Shi Chengwu with a letter, which confirmed Qin Jian's guess.

Standing behind Shi Chengwu, Qin Jian could vaguely see the words "To Lord Yue Shizong" written on the envelope.

Qin Jian had heard of Yue Shizong before, but he didn't quite understand why this letter, which was written to Yue Shizong in Hangzhou, had been handed to Shi Chengwu.
While he was pondering this, Shi Chengwu had already impatiently opened the letter and begun reading its contents.

This letter was naturally a reply from Lu Congshan, the prefect of Jiujiang, to Yue Shizong. The reason Shi Chengwu intercepted the letter halfway was not because he was worried that the two were up to something in the letter, but mainly because he wanted to save time.

Shi Chengwu believed that the letter would have been sent from Nanjing to Hangzhou, and after Yue Shizong wrote a reply, it would have been sent out from Hangzhou. The round trip would have wasted several days on the road.

If this correspondence continued for several rounds, the time spent on the road to deliver the letters would be considerable. His goal was to knock on the door of Jiujiang Prefecture in the shortest possible time, and he could not tolerate using such an inefficient method of information transmission for a long time.

Therefore, he planned to use Haihan's unique technology to shorten the time spent sending messages.

He received Jiujiang's reply in Nanjing and then telegraphed the contents of the letter directly back to Hangzhou. After Yue Shizong in Hangzhou wrote the next letter, he also telegraphed it to Nanjing, and then sent it from Nanjing to Jiujiang.

Therefore, after Yue Shizong sent his first letter, Shi Chengwu had some of Yue Shizong's manuscripts sent from Hangzhou and found a skilled handwriting imitator in the area. This way, subsequent letters could be written by Yue Shizong in Hangzhou and copied in Nanjing.

Shi Chengwu had initially planned to replace the previous method with the new one from the very first letter, thus avoiding the issue of handwriting similarity. However, he later considered that the two had been classmates at the Hanlin Academy, and Lu Congshan might recognize Yue Shizong's handwriting. To be on the safe side, he decided to first go through the entire process of receiving and delivering the letter once before using this time-saving method. As for whether Lu Congshan would suspect the next reply was too quick, Shi Chengwu had already made arrangements. He would instruct Yue Shizong in Hangzhou to mention in the next letter that he was currently on official business in Nanjing, after which an opportunity to meet with Lu Congshan could be found.

Although the process was somewhat cumbersome, for Shi Chengwu it was merely issuing an order. As long as the desired effect could be achieved, these extra steps were not a problem at all.

Qin Jian was completely unaware of what was going on. He watched as several more boxes of goods were unloaded from the ship, and he was very familiar with the seals from Lufaxing on the boxes.

More than half of the goods shipped from Jiujiang, Jiangxi to Yanziji Wharf each month were transported by this Lufaxing Company. Among the Jiangxi merchants he had previously entertained was the second manager of Lufaxing Company.

At the time, the second manager confidently stated that as long as the Yanziji Wharf could ensure that ships from Lufax could dock smoothly, then all goods entering and leaving Jiangxi would remain unimpeded.

Thinking about this, Qin Jian seemed to have guessed a bit about where the letters and goods came from.

At this moment, Shi Chengwu had finished reading the letter and turned to him, instructing, "Qin Jian, meet with the people from Lufaxing separately to maintain good relations. Your proposal for tiered management of Ming Dynasty ship merchants is quite interesting. Take some time to organize and refine it, and submit a written plan."

Qin Jian readily agreed. The plan he had proposed when he hosted the Ming Dynasty ship merchants was entirely fabricated by him, but he never expected that Shi Chengwu would become interested in it after hearing about it.

Of course, Qin Jian also understood that although his superior was interested in this matter, it did not necessarily mean that he would implement it according to his own ideas. The submitted plan was mostly just a reference. Whether this matter could be done in the end, and to what extent, was still up to the superior to decide.

As for the manager of the publishing house, it was a simple matter for Qin Jian. He only needed to send someone to deliver a message, and the second manager would surely come running.

In order to find the right target in Jiangxi's officialdom, Shi Chengwu used resources that far exceeded the authority of his current position.

Whether it was the intelligence department's plan to capture Yue Shizong or the establishment of a dedicated mail transmission channel between Jiujiang and Hangzhou, it was all achieved through Shi Diwen's involvement and even personal supervision, demonstrating that he spared no expense in paving the way for his career.

Of course, if Shi Chengwu still fails to succeed despite having so much help, then Shi Diwen might have to reconsider whether his son is suited for this line of work.

However, after investing a lot of resources, the effect of the "Great Strength Bricks Flying" strategy was obvious. Shi Chengwu had established a channel for dialogue with the Jiujiang government through Yue Shizong. Next, he could try to offer some conditions to win them over.

Meanwhile, Yue Shizong, who was in Hangzhou, received a telegram from Qu Shengfeng. Upon seeing that it was a reply from Lu Congshan in Jiujiang, he finally understood Hai Han's intentions. However, he now had no choice but to obediently cooperate with Hai Han and continue writing to Lu Congshan, urging him to serve Hai Han as soon as possible.