1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 575 Li Jin's Attitude
The data provided by the Ministry of Commerce was sent back to the command center of the Ministry of Security in Danzhou City in the shortest possible time, which made the anxious naturalized cadres breathe a sigh of relief.The situation discovered by the front-line spies, combined with the recent pig iron sales data in Danzhou provided by the Ministry of Commerce, and their previous inferences are all matched, which shows that the direction of the reconnaissance so far is very correct.

Although these reactionaries have tried to avoid Haihan's detection and transport the purchased pig iron to the blacksmith shop in the countryside to quietly build weapons, their anti-reconnaissance capabilities are not that high. In the face of investigation methods, suspicious behavior was soon exposed.

Once one of the sources preparing to supply weapons to the reactionaries has been found, the subsequent investigation by the Ministry of Security will be easier.Staring at the blacksmith's shop and the army commander of the avant-garde army, one can quickly find out who is involved with them in the nearby area.

Another seven days later, the surveillance targets of the Ministry of Security have expanded from the first two or three places to many towns and villages in Danzhou and nearby towns and villages, and the list of people involved in the case has also increased to more than [-] people.

At this stage, the security department's manpower in Danzhou has once again become stretched, and in order to avoid scaring away the big fish that have not yet emerged, the security department can't immediately arrest these people, but can only control the monitoring Scope, to issue early warnings to other states and counties where reactionaries may be hiding.

Zhang Qianzhi's lurking in the Zhongming Academy has also achieved certain results. He has identified a few Confucian scholars who will participate in the assassination with him and be responsible for setting fire to disrupt order.

"As we expected, the Danzhou Chamber of Commerce has contracted the Nanhai Restaurant in the city as the venue for Director Zhang's birthday." Wang Baisuo entered the house in a hurry, and turned to Lin who was studying the map of Danzhou. Nan and Li Qingyang said: "This restaurant is the place we visited a few days ago."

In order to prevent leakage of information, the Ministry of Security did not make official arrangements for the venue of Zhang Xinshou's birthday in advance, but let the Danzhou Chamber of Commerce choose by itself.However, there are not many high-end restaurants in Danzhou City, and the range of choices is actually limited. The Ministry of Security scoured all these candidate locations early in order to formulate an action plan in advance.And the Nanhai restaurant that the Danzhou Chamber of Commerce finally determined happened to be the place the three of them had just visited five days ago, and the impression was quite deep.

"Who owns this restaurant?" Lin Nanyan asked concisely.

Wang Baisuo understood the point immediately, and immediately responded: "The owner of this restaurant is a native of Danzhou, surnamed Yu, but he has never done anything against me, Haihan. As far as I know, this person has the same relationship with Danzhou There is no direct relationship with the people from the government. Director Zhang often goes to this restaurant to eat, and the people from the chamber of commerce must have considered Director Zhang's preferences."

"On the day of birthday, all the waiters and counter kitchens in the restaurant will be replaced by our people. You find a way to get the boss to cooperate with our arrangement." Lin Nan immediately made the arrangement, and after thinking about it, he added: "Qing Yang , You ask someone to check if there are any new employees in this restaurant in the past three months, and in the next few days, whether anyone came to the door to find a job. If so, you know what to do. "

Lin Nan will not ask Dadi to think that the opponent's assassination plan is just to arrange some assassins with sharp blades to carry out face-to-face assassination at close range. If the opponent is smart enough, then send someone to sneak into the restaurant and directly put poison in the food and drink to kill the head of Haihan , that can also achieve the same effect, and it is easier to get out afterward.Therefore, the staff of the restaurant is definitely one of the loopholes that must be guarded against. Of course, the safest way is to replace all the people inside and outside the restaurant with their own people.

Wang Baisuo pointed to the map and said, "The houses and streets near the Nanhai Restaurant also need to be controlled as soon as possible. Later, I will ask people to find a few nearby residents who are willing to naturalize, and let them vacate the house for a few days."

"Be careful not to expose your identity!" Lin Nan reminded: "If these people find something is wrong and retreat, then our big game will be in vain."

With Haihan's current control in Danzhou, it is not difficult to requisition private houses around the Nanhai Restaurant and set up a secret cordon. The main thing is to try to avoid making too much noise and revealing the intention of the layout.

At the end of February, the surveillance targets of the Ministry of Security began to enter Danzhou city in batches.Most of these people have already been identified, and most of them are members of the former Daming Guard Army and local regiments.It's just that when they disguised themselves into various identities and entered the city, they probably didn't expect that they had already fallen under the strict surveillance of the Haihan people.

Both Yan Mingjun and Li Jin received an invitation letter from the Danzhou Chamber of Commerce on the last day of February, asking them to attend the birthday of Zhang Xin, director of the Danzhou Management Committee, at Nanhai Restaurant in the city five days later.

Yan Mingjun had already met Huang Zixing long before this, and he actually knew what would happen on this birthday.But out of confidentiality considerations, he did not inform Li Jin before that.It was not until after receiving the official invitation letter that Yan Mingjun invited Li Jin over and told him the truth.

Li Jin was also shocked after hearing this: "Brother Yan said that a group of scholars in Danzhou are going to assassinate Haihan people? Are these nerds stupid in reading? With their little ability, they still want to kill Haihan people. Is it possible?" The Haihan stretched their necks and waited for them to cut with knives?"

Yan Mingjun shook his head and said: "Just now I said that the literati were only one of the initiators. If it was really presided over by a group of literati, how can I rest assured? According to what he said, in fact, there are also Jinyiwei generals from Nanjing who are in charge of this operation. As long as they can succeed, you and I will immediately take over the local military administration and regain the land of Danzhou for the imperial court."

Li Jin didn't show much joy because of this, but continued to ask: "Brother Yan, do you know how many troops these people who are preparing to make trouble have? How do you plan to defend Danzhou and prevent the Haihan people from retaliation later? "

"This..." Yan Mingjun also muttered. Regarding the details of the assassination plan, all he knew was what Huang Zixing said. The local officials immediately stepped in to take over the local government affairs, allowing Danzhou to return to the rule of the Ming Dynasty.As for the details of the group responsible for the attack, and how to defend Danzhou after winning, Yan Mingjun did not delve into it.Of course, even if he took the initiative to ask, Huang Zixing might not tell him all these arrangements with confidence.

Li Jin continued: "Brother Yan, have you thought about whether you and I will be implicated if the incident fails? With the degree of control of the Haihan people on Qiongzhou Island today, if they want you and me to disappear completely, I'm afraid it will be too late. There is nothing to be afraid of."

"Brother Li, I haven't seen you for a few days, why did you become timid?" Yan Mingjun replied with some dissatisfaction.

In Yan Mingjun’s impression, Li Jin was a straight-tempered guy who fought with others when he first arrived in Danzhou, and he had no less resentment towards Haihan than himself. If he wanted to make an enemy of Haihan, Yan Mingjun believed that Li Jin would be very angry Happy to stand up and lead the charge.But listening to his remarks today, it seems that he is not too optimistic about the assassination.

Li Jin shook his head and did not respond to his question, but asked: "Brother Yan must have gained an understanding of the local people's conditions after coming to Danzhou. Dare to ask, Brother Yan thinks that the current situation in Danzhou is better than that of you and me who worked earlier. How about Luoding Prefecture?"

Although Yan Mingjun didn't understand what he meant, he still responded honestly: "Danzhou has prosperous culture and education, prosperous commerce and trade, and stable people. In terms of livability, it is better than Luodingzhou."

"The Haihan militia can be seen everywhere inside and outside the city. Brother Yan should have seen it too. How is it better than my Ming army?" Li Jin continued to ask.

Lord Yan Ming replied: "The ships are strong, the guns are powerful, and the military discipline is strict. In terms of strength, it should be higher than the troops stationed on Qiongzhou Island."

Li Jin added: "In my opinion, not only the Qiongzhou Island garrison, but even the entire Guangdong and Guangxi, it is difficult to pull out a team that can be compared with the Haihan Militia."

It is indeed difficult to refute Li Jin's point of view, because since a few years ago, the Haihan militia has been clearing away those hard nuts for the Ming government and military.From bandits to tycoons, the banditry that Da Ming couldn't eliminate was finally solved by the Haihan militia.Judging from the record alone, the armed strength of the two sides is far from the same level.

Of course, there is still a big difference between the rumors and the actual feelings. Before Li Jin came to Qiongzhou Island, he also had many doubts about some rumors that the Haihan militia was going to be blown into the sky, but he came all the way from Guangzhou to Qiongzhou. After seeing the amazing strength displayed by the Haihan militia, Li Jin's doubts have been dispelled a lot.Although the first few days after arriving in Danzhou were not so pleasant, he also got a lot of opportunities to have close contact with the Haihan militia, and he felt more deeply about its strength.

Yan Mingjun said: "Brother Li, you are building up the ambitions of others and destroying your own prestige! Although the Haihan militia is stronger than the Ming army, they are not orthodox here..."

"Brother Yan, there is something wrong with you scholars, that is, you like to talk nonsense about orthodoxy!" Li Jin shook his head and interrupted Yan Mingjun: "If orthodoxy is useful, the imperial court can win the war in the north and the Central Plains." Is it so difficult? You still need the three armies to work hard, so why don’t you simply call out these two words and ask the enemy to surrender?”

In the past two years, the Ming Dynasty has faced more and more intensive wars. In addition to the wild boar skins that have been knocked off every year in the north, since the first year of Chongzhen, there have been bandits in the Central Plains.Because of the famine and lack of food, and the lack of relief from the imperial court, Wang Jiayin organized the victims to rise up in Fugu, Shaanxi, and the responders flocked to him. Leaders such as Gao Yingxiang, Zhang Xianzhong, and Li Zicheng all served under his command. Ningxia and Gansu provinces have tens of thousands of armed forces.

Although the place where the accident happened is still far away from Guangdong in the south, the indirect impact has begun to appear. In addition to the gradual reduction in the supply of various products from the Central Plains on the market, the imperial court has collected wages from the south in the past two years. The intensity is also increasing.The reason is also very simple. If the salaries of those provinces cannot be collected, and the imperial court wants to increase troops to fight wars, the money must be apportioned to other provinces that have not had any accidents.

As a soldier, Li Jin is naturally much more concerned about these wars than Yan Mingjun. When he heard Yan Mingjun speak out about orthodoxy, he became a little anxious-civilian officials always think that upholding righteousness can win the battlefield, but they don't know To fight a war requires people to work hard and spend money continuously.Having said that, the war is really so easy to solve. When there was a bandit riot in Qiongzhou Island last year, why did the Guangdong government pretend to be dead and let the Haihan people come forward to clean up the mess.

Yan Mingjun didn't expect Li Jin to refute himself in such a way, and he was stunned for a moment, not knowing how to answer.

Li Jin went on to say: "These days, I go out of the city every day to watch the drills of the Haihan militia, and I know a little bit about their tactics. To be honest, if I am asked to lead troops to fight against them now, I really don't have the confidence gone."

Yan Mingjun said: "Brother Li, did you take money from the Haihan people again, so you speak for them?"

Li Jin shook his head and said: "Brother Yan, I have already figured it out. The Haihan people took the initiative to send money, not because they were afraid of us, but because they didn't want to cause trouble. For them, giving us this little money is far more important than pulling the army out to fight. The money spent is much less. But instead of being afraid of war, these people are preparing for war all the time! If we keep silent, they will not take the initiative to tear themselves apart with Daming. Look at Danzhou, at least now Acknowledge the existence of the Ming government. If the Haihan people were really killed in Danzhou, do you think they will let it go? If the Haihan people want to go to war with Ming Dynasty, do you think the Guangdong army can stop them? Even if they can, how long will they be able to stop? ? Will the imperial court want to see a new battlefield open up on the side of Guangdong and Guangxi?"

What Li Jin said made Yan Mingjun speechless for a while. It would be wrong not to resist Haihan's encroachment. One of their original intentions for coming to Danzhou was to regain control of this place for Daming and the imperial court.However, with Li Jin's current attitude, he believed that drastic actions should not be taken, leading to a war with Haihan, and the consequences would probably exceed Daming's loss of Qiongzhou Island.

Yan Mingjun didn't want to admit the existence of this possibility, after all, it would be an extremely embarrassing thing for Daming.But judging from what Li Jin said, the revenge that would be brought about by angering the Haihan people may indeed lead to more serious consequences-this is not a responsibility that he or Li Jin can afford.

Yan Mingjun hesitated for a moment before saying: "But if the Haihan people are allowed to act recklessly, this land of Qiongzhou Island will be annexed by them sooner or later. When the time comes, the imperial court will blame us, and it will be your responsibility as well!"

(End of this chapter)