1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 570 The Ins and Outs
The Liaoyuan operation began in the summer of 1630. After two or three months of initial harassment, the pirate army landed and attacked the Qiongbei area in October, and then blocked the shipping between Qiongzhou Island and the mainland.From then on, Li Qingyang's contact with the Jinyiwei organization in the mainland was cut off.Afterwards, the Haihan Militia "recovered" the Qiongbei area and took over the control of shipping, but the ban on shipping continued for a long time. It was not until the end of the year that the shipping between Qiongzhou Island and the mainland was gradually opened. Ships from the mainland calling at the port of Qiongzhou Island still need to undergo strict inspections to prevent spies from entering the island.

Of course, the scale of this interrogation is in the hands of Hai Han. For example, the information channel for Li Qingyang to submit reports to the Nanzhen Fusi, the Ministry of Security reopened it at the end of the year to ensure that Li Qingyang passed some processed information to Nanjing. Go——The content is basically how the situation of the pirate army attacking Qiong is critical, and how Haihan prepared bravely to repel the invading pirates and so on.Since all the Ming government agencies in Qiongbei have been controlled by Haihan, Li Qingyang's source of information has almost become the only official channel for Daming to obtain information about the changes in the situation on Qiongzhou Island.

However, it took a long time for the news to pass from Sanya to Nanjing. It was not until nearly two months later, that is, in late January 1631, when Li Qingyang was about to submit a report to Nanjing again. The courier from Sanya received feedback from the Nanjing Zhenfu Division about the Qiongbei Rebellion last year.

Different from the focus of the Guangdong government, Jinyiwei Nanjing Town Fusi is not very concerned about how much Qiongzhou has suffered in this war, and what kind of help from the imperial court is needed for post-war reconstruction. This is a secret order issued to Li Qingyang There was only one thing in the book, and he was ordered to try to contact or find Zhao Ye, the deputy Qianhu of the Nanjing Town Fusi who went to Qiongzhou on a secret business trip last September, and had no news at this time.

Li Qingyang was shocked, and he didn't try to hide the news. He had to submit every written instruction sent by Nanjing to the Ministry of Security for archiving.He immediately told Lin Nan the news, and then Lin Nan took him to meet Hao Wanqing immediately to explain the situation.

The Jinyiwei organization on Qiongzhou Island has always been under the jurisdiction of Guangzhou, and the reason why the Nanjing Zhenfu Division sent Li Qingyang to lurk south the year before last was because it believed that there were big loopholes in the work of subordinate organizations including Guangzhou Jinyiwei. The supervision of the Han people is not strict enough.However, rumors of this arrangement leaked out very early on. Li Qingyang was targeted by the Haihan Security Department as soon as he arrived in Guangzhou. Tool of.

The existence of Li Qingyang did bring a period of security to Hai Han's intelligence work. As expected by the Ministry of Security, Li Qingyang's regular reports could indeed paralyze Daming's intelligence agencies to a certain extent.But at the same time, everyone knows that this security period is also limited in time. As Haihan continues to grow, and his influence in the southeast region is increasing day by day, sooner or later the intelligence agencies of the Ming Dynasty will face up to the existence of Haihan, and may even make some hostile actions. move.

When Li Qingyang left Nanjing, what he learned was that Nanjing Town Fusi did not intend to devote too much energy to Qiongzhou Island, and he had no other arrangements other than the group of people he brought.Of course, the person who made this plan probably didn't expect that Li Qingyang was the only one left in Sanya after a short period of time, and eventually betrayed the court.

However, last year, Nanjing Zhenfu Division sent another higher-ranking official to Qiongzhou Island secretly. Li Qingyang didn't know about this until this time, and he hadn't even heard of it before.

There are two possibilities for this situation: the first is that the colleague who came to Qiongzhou Island failed to get in touch with him before the start of the Liaoyuan operation for some reason. If this is the case, it must be the other party's negligence The second possibility is more serious, that is, when the Nanjing Zhenfu Division dispatched this official, it did not arrange for him to contact Li Qingyang who was lurking in Sanya.In other words, Nanjing's trust in Li Qingyang had already declined, so another route was arranged for other people to enter Qiongzhou Island.

According to Jin Yiwei's original establishment, the highest positions on Qiongzhou Island are just a hundred households like Li Qingyang's. The Nanjing Town Fusi arranged for Li Qingyang to come over to facilitate him to act alone on Qiongzhou Island without being subject to the local authority. Jinyiwei organization.And this time, a deputy Qianhu from the fifth rank was specially sent here, which shows that he attaches great importance to the intelligence work of Qiongzhou Island.

Of course, there is no more definite news as to whether the purpose of this Deputy Qianhu named Zhao Ye coming to Qiongzhou Island is to deal with Hai Han, or if there are other cases to be investigated.As for the mission given to Li Qingyang by the Nanjing Town Fusi, it was only to find Zhao Ye's whereabouts and report back. There was no further arrangement to cooperate with his work after finding out.

To investigate this matter, we must first go back to the two raids on Qiongbei's officialdom by the pirate army and the Haihan militia during Operation Liaoyuan.In addition to ordinary government agencies, Jinyiwei and Dongchang, as the most important security and intelligence agencies in Ming Dynasty, were also the two key cleaning targets in this operation.Except for a very few people who had chosen to secretly surrender to Haihan before this, the Ming intelligence agencies in Qiongbei can be said to have been uprooted. The detectives were not spared.

Even the Jinyiwei Yamen in Qiongzhou Fucheng was not spared. After the Haihan militia entered Fucheng, the military quickly surrounded the Jinyiwei Yamen in the city with the identification of a captured pirate leader, and arrested him in the name of colluding with pirates. The person in charge of the local Jinyiwei.The Jinyiwei side also refused to catch them without a fight. In the process, the military used force, killing and wounding many Jinyiwei personnel who were stubbornly resisting.After cleaning the battlefield, it was found that the main leaders of Jinyiwei had all died in this conflict.After checking the list of personnel, the troops performing the task brought the matter to an end.

According to the military's verification, they have completely followed the list of personnel provided by the Ministry of Security to arrest the main tasks of the Daming intelligence agency in the Qiongbei area. , have been cleaned up.And the Ministry of Security took this notice and handed over to the executive committee.After that, both the Executive Committee and the Ministry of Security have temporarily relaxed their vigilance against the intelligence agencies of Ming Dynasty, because no matter how capable they are, it is impossible to rebuild the grassroots in a short period of time when Haihan strictly controls Qiongzhou Shipping Organized.

After the Liaoyuan operation ended, the Haihan military checked everyone, including the dead, according to the list they had, to ensure that no one in Jinyiwei and Dongchang escaped the net. People not on this list lurk on the island.

And this time, among the alternate officials sent by the Guangdong government to Qiongzhou Island to fill vacancies, there were no officials from Jinyiwei and Dongchang.According to the information provided by Liu Qian to Haihan, the candidates for the alternate officials of the two yamen will not be confirmed until the end of February and the beginning of March at the earliest.Even if someone came at that time, they would probably be in the same situation as Yan Mingjun and Li Jin, and they could only come to the post alone. After all, even if it is a privileged yamen, the funds and staffing are limited.Therefore, before Li Qingyang received this secret letter, the entire security department had temporarily put down its attention on Daming's intelligence agency.

After Hao Wanqing received the news, he did not dare to be negligent, and immediately notified the executive committee, and Tao Donglai quickly gave instructions on this: at any cost, regardless of life or death, catch the fish that slipped through the net as soon as possible.

The Ministry of Security also immediately held a response meeting. Hao Wanqing thought that this matter could be big or small. If there is evidence to prove that this person has died in the previous war, or can be arrested in the near future, then he should turn over the matter. Can't afford any big waves.But if this person is still lurking somewhere in Qiongbei and secretly reorganizes the troops, then it is unknown when, where and how this time bomb will explode.

A message from the Ministry of Security was sent to the militia headquarters in Qiongbei, and the militia took another five days to re-check the list of arrests at that time, and it was confirmed that such a person was not included in the list of dead and arrested. A prominent official.But those who died in the war at that time were not limited to those in the Jinyiwei Yamen. If it is necessary to check the identities of all the dead, it is basically impossible-there are many Anonymous people who were buried in the ground for several months after the war. How else can I check my identity?

Just when the Ministry of Security lost its clues and was a little lost in its direction, the navy sent a piece of good news.When they were patrolling the Qiongzhou Strait, they intercepted a merchant ship departing from Haikou Port. When it was routinely stopped and ready to board the ship, some people jumped into the sea and fled.

The navy didn't have the energy to try to catch them alive. The sailors standing on the side of the ship shot down with a volley of guns, and the jumper quickly surfaced with his back full of bullet holes.After salvaging the corpse on board, the sailors quickly took out the badge of Jin Yiwei from the waist of the corpse.

The shipowner, who was sweating profusely with fright, could only keep saying that he didn't know the real identity of this person. He just charged him 50 taels of silver, hid him in the cargo hold plywood at the bottom of the ship in advance, and sent him to smuggle him to Leizhou Peninsula for landing.The ship owner claimed that he was only doing it for money, but the military didn't care whether his confession was true or not, and directly detained him and the ship.

This matter was soon reported to Wang Tom. Wang Tom also knew that Qiongbei's Jin Yiwei had been wiped out long ago. Theoretically, there should be no fish that slipped through the net, but since this incident happened, it is no longer a military family. As soon as the incident happened, a fast boat was sent to escort everyone on board the boat, as well as the body of Jin Yiwei and his belongings to Sanya.In order not to delay the time, as soon as the ship set off here, the military conveniently notified the base camp by telegram.

However, judging from the waist badge found on the corpse, this corpse should not be the Deputy Qianhu Lord that the Ministry of Security is looking for, but it is very likely to be his entourage.The other good news is that a secret letter wrapped in a tarpaulin was found on the body. Due to the use of many professional incisions, the military personnel could not understand the contents of the letter, so they sent it along with the ship. Sanya, interpreted by Li Qingyang.

With this letter, the context of the whole matter became much clearer.The Deputy Qianhu of the Jinyi Guard named Zhao Ye had already led a few of his men to leave Fucheng for Danzhou before the start of the Liaoyuan operation, but their luck was extremely bad. In Chengmai County, they encountered a pirate army attacking the city. Several of his subordinates died in the chaos of the war. Zhao Ye escaped from Chengmai County with only one of his subordinates. Since then, he has been lurking in the wild, and he has never dared to go to the big city because of the unknown situation of the battle.

After the Haihan militia recovered Qiongbei, Zhao Ye spent a long time to determine the situation in Qiongbei. It was not until the end of last year, when Li Qingyang delivered a report on the situation of the Qiongbei Rebellion to Nanjing, that Zhao Ye returned to Dan I found a foothold near the state—of course, Zhao Ye is not a fool, and he didn't mention it in the secret letter.

After Zhao Ye settled down, he was ready to reconnect with the mainland.Of course, he also heard about the "tragic experience" of the local Jinyiwei through some channels. If he doesn't want to repeat the same mistakes, then first of all, he should not try to reveal his identity to the Haihan people who took over the local area.So while lurking in the local area to observe the situation, he wrote a secret report and handed it over to his only subordinate, who then went to Haikou Port, the only port in Qiongbei that can navigate to the mainland, looking for an opportunity to smuggle back to the mainland.

The other contents in the secret report are basically unfavorable to Haihan, and are completely opposite to the report that Li Qingyang submitted to the Nanjing Town Fusi.If this kind of thing is passed back to Nanjing, even if it doesn't take any obvious action immediately, it will definitely affect the importance Jin Yiwei attaches to Hai Han.

Fortunately, the militia navy inadvertently intercepted the ship carried by this Jin Yiwei at sea, and he thought that his whereabouts had been betrayed by the crew, so he would be intercepted by the warship of the Haihan people. Instead, he died in vain.

And this letter was sent to Sanya, and after Li Qingyang interpreted the content, the direction of investigation became clear.If there were no new changes, the Deputy Qianhu of Jinyiwei should still be lurking near Danzhou, and the rest is how to get him out of the local area.

The Ministry of Security immediately made an emergency deployment, giving Li Qingyang the first chance to perform foreign affairs.Of course, due to various considerations, he did not go to Danzhou alone.In addition to a team of fighters dedicated to special missions, there is also Lin Nan, the boss, leading the team.

(End of this chapter)