1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 609 Influence of the Assassination Case
Although Shibazhi has people, people, boats and boats, it can be regarded as the most powerful maritime force along the coast of Fujian, but at the same time their shortcomings are also very obvious, that is, the population base is too poor to support them for a long time. fight.The combined population of Shibazhi’s ruled areas in Penghu and Taiwan Island is less than [-], and the amount of war supplies they can provide is limited. It is not a big problem to engage in sea robbery in peacetime, but to maintain a long-term and comprehensive war, The opponent is the most powerful empire in the Far East in this era, and behind it is the Haihan people who have surpassed this era to provide arms support. The results that can be achieved are self-evident.

In the previous few years of fighting, Shibazhi had lost a considerable part of the elite manpower and a lot of wealth.And this part of the loss can hardly be made up by their looting and smuggling, and many leaders in the camp already have objections to the hopeless war, and they are unwilling to continue to spend money and people to spend with the Ming army.

Just at this time, the Dutch jumped out to be a peacemaker, willing to pave the way for Shibazhi, provide a channel for communication and act as a middleman for the peace talks between the two parties.After weighing the pros and cons, Zheng Zhilong went downhill, and sent his aide Zheng Xinzhi secretly to Zhangzhou to hold peace talks with the Fujian government on behalf of Shibazhi.

At this stage, due to different reasons, the two sides both had the willingness to cease fighting. After the initial communication, they hit it off and temporarily stopped hostilities in the waters near the two states of Zhangzhou and Quanzhou.However, this kind of truce is only a short-term behavior with a limited scope. The two sides must negotiate on the specific truce conditions, but this link is not going smoothly.

As expected by the Haihan mission, Shibazhi's bottom line is to at least obtain a stable trade window in Fujian, but this is a condition that Xu Xinsu, a businessman, cannot accept.Xu Xinsu is well aware of the benefits of monopolizing Fujian Maritime Trade, and can foresee the changes in the situation after Shibazhi is involved in this industry, so naturally he will not accept such a request.As for Xu Xinsu's proposal to withdraw from Penghu, Shibazhi's precondition that all Shibazhi's armed personnel must unconditionally accept the Ming army's incorporation was also unacceptable, so the two sides remained at a stalemate until the news of the Haihan Mission came out, and the situation changed It started to change.

It is not a secret that Xu Xinsu spends a lot of money every year to buy Haihan weapons, and continuously sends personnel to Sanya to receive military training, opening the Fujian market to Haihan businessmen.Zheng Zhilong is well aware of Haihan's influence on Fujian and his attitude towards Shibazhi, and Haihan sent a mission to visit Fujian at this juncture of the peace talks between the two parties. Obviously, it is not just a coincide.

Zheng Xinzhi, the envoy of Shibazhi, sent a letter back as soon as he got the news, seeking Zheng Zhilong's opinion, and suggested sending a fleet to intercept and kill the Haihan mission on the way.However, the feasibility of this plan was too low, so it was directly rejected-Xu Xinsu had already dispatched several ships to the south, preparing to meet the Haihan Mission on the way, and the two sides were in a truce, if Xu Xinsu's ship had an accident in the nearby waters , then there is no need to continue the truce negotiations.

The speeches made by Ning Qi and others at the reception banquet on the night when the Haihan Mission arrived in Zhongzuo City had already reached Zheng Xinzhi's ears the next day.The Haihan people have made their attitude clear about the main battle, and Zheng Xinzhi believes that Xu Xinsu will probably listen to the Haihan people's opinions in the end. After all, it is quite unwise to offend the big backer for the sake of Shibazhi.But in this way, Shibazhi's willingness to negotiate a peace will be completely defeated, and if the fight continues, Shibazhi will probably fall apart because of the excessive loss of war.

To achieve a truce, it is necessary to prevent Haihan from interfering in the negotiations. This is Zheng Xinzhi's final conclusion.There are only two ways to achieve this goal. One is that Shibazhi directly contact Haihan to reach a certain degree of understanding and let Haihan withdraw from this situation. However, this possibility is very slim. He made peace with Haihan through various channels, but Haihan's attitude has always been very clear. He only recognizes Xu Xinsu in Fujian. Shibazhi wants peace. Zheng Zhilong must surrender himself to the Fujian government—this is obviously impossible. things that can be done.

The other way to stop Haihan is more risky. Zheng Xinzhi believes that if something happens to the Haihan mission in Zhangzhou, it will probably affect the cooperative relationship between Haihan and Xu Xinsu. We can use all kinds of public opinion to spread some unfavorable news to Xu Xinsu. It may be difficult for Haihan people who are thousands of miles away to tell the truth. At that time, they will definitely have doubts about Xu Xinsu, and they may directly terminate the military aid to Fujian. .

It didn't take Zheng Xinzhi too much effort to find out the identity of the head of the Haihan Mission, and prepared a group of people in Zhangzhou City, all of whom were dead men supported by Zheng Zhilong for many years, intending to find an opportunity to assassinate the Haihan envoy Ning Qi and others.However, since the itinerary of Ning Qi and the others did not have a definite arrangement, Zheng Xinzhi had no way to make advance preparations for the assassination, and could only use surveillance to understand the target's movements and look for opportunities to strike.

At that time, Ning Qi went down to the teahouse under the leadership of Wang Lin. Zheng Xinzhi, who was monitoring from the outside, thought this was an excellent opportunity.So they sent three people pretending to be tea customers to go in to ambush, and arranged more than ten people at the entrance of the teahouse.The dozen or so people outside were actually just a cover used by Zheng Xinzhi to attract the attention of the guards, and the three assassins who entered the teahouse disguised as guests were the main force of the assassination.

The skills of these three people are considered to be excellent among the Eighteen Zhi, and they have all practiced the unique skill of throwing knives. The accuracy within three feet is quite good, and it is not an exaggeration to call them a hundred shots and a hundred hits.Moreover, they are all determined to die, and if they cannot escape after the assassination, they will kill themselves, so as not to implicate their masters.

Although Zheng Xinzhi also noticed that there were several personal guards with different clothes beside Ning Qi, he had full confidence in his own people and believed that they could completely deal with the other party's guards in a short time.But what he didn't expect was that although these assassins were very skilled, they couldn't use them at all in front of the melee weapons that surpassed the times.If they knew the melee firearms equipped by the Haihan guards in advance, they might be able to make some targeted preparations, but unfortunately they would never have such an opportunity again.

After throwing three throwing knives hastily, the assassins were knocked down by the pistol bullets of Haihan's guards, and they didn't even get a chance to fight in close quarters.And none of the three flying knives hit the real target by accident, but Wang Lin, a humanoid sandbag, unintentionally blocked Ning Qi's knife.

Of course, Zheng Xinzhi, who directed the assassination operation from the outside, did not wait for the result to come out before withdrawing. In fact, he immediately evacuated the scene after issuing the order to do it.He did this not entirely because he was afraid of death, no matter what the result of the assassination was, he had to leave this place temporarily, firstly, to inform Zheng Zhilong of the situation in Zhangzhou City, and secondly, to take necessary actions as soon as possible after getting the result response.

As for his retreat route and hiding place, he did not inform the gang of dead soldiers. Therefore, although the interrogation method provided by Morgan worked, there was still no way to immediately know the whereabouts of the chief messenger Zheng Xinzhi.

"If he evacuated quickly enough, he might have left Zhangzhou City after he made the move." Morgan sighed regretfully after learning the result of the interrogation.

The time between when the assassins attacked outside the teahouse and when Yang Lu received the news and ordered the city gates to be closed was actually not long, but the place where the accident happened is only one mile away from the nearest city gate. If Zheng Xinzhi chooses If we follow this retreat route, there is indeed enough time to leave Zhangzhou City safely before the city gate is closed.

"No matter what, the people under the old man will continue to investigate, and try their best to bring the people involved in the case to justice, and give justice to everyone in Haihan!" Xu Xinsu, who was cleared of the suspicion, was greatly relieved, but he did not forget to express his solidarity. The attitude of the investigation to the end-whether or not the real culprit can be caught is the second, but the attitude must be clear.Attitude is above all else. This is an important truth that Xu Xinsu has learned since dealing with Haihan for several years. Haihan people value this even more than money interests at certain times.

Ning Qi did not forget to escalate the severity of the matter at any time: "This behavior of Shibazhi is not only a threat to me personally, but more importantly, it destroys the friendly relationship between us! Although their assassination is It was carried out against me, but in fact both of us are victims. In the future, Mr. Xu should stop talking about peace with these gangsters who smeared honey face to face and stabbed ruthlessly with knives behind their backs. Only by completely destroying them can we get real peace!"

"Mr. Ning is very right. Anyone who mentions peace talks in front of the old man will be regarded as Shibazhi's accomplices!" He was so passive, Xu Xinsu wished he could get rid of him as soon as possible.

Two days later, Xu Xinsu conducted a public trial in Zhangzhou City in accordance with the wishes of the Haihan Mission. After the trial, he was taken directly to Caishikou for execution, beheaded, and hung at the gate of the city for half a month. .On the one-third-acre land in Zhangzhou, Xu Xinsu can basically do what he says, and there is no such thing as waiting to be executed after the death sentence. What he wants is a deterrent effect.

And the public handling this time means a complete break between the Fujian government and Shibazhi. The previous situation of turning a blind eye and shutting one's eyes, fighting on the surface and still having economic exchanges in private, will probably not be the case in the future. It will continue to appear in the coastal areas of Fujian.On the day the interrogation results came out, Xu Xinsu issued several orders to arrest those who worked for Shibazhi in Zhangzhou, Quanzhou, Fuzhou and other places.

Of course, such an arrest operation would cause a lot of trouble, but for Xu Xinsu, he no longer has too many scruples.Ning Qi has already expressed his opinion to him, as long as he stands on Haihan's side, no matter how the situation in Fujian develops in the future, Haihan can keep Xu's family rich and safe—at worst, if he can't get along with him and resign as the general soldier of Fujian, Haihan's side will immediately It can be operated by the Xu family in a port city under construction overseas.

There is nothing to be picky about this kind of support. With this back road, Xu Xinsu's thinking is much simpler.As for the distribution of Haihan's interests in Fujian after the elimination of Shibazhi, Ning Qi has already expressed his attitude on behalf of the Haihan Executive Committee. As long as each port has free trade rights, he will not take the initiative to station troops in Fujian - of course in the near future The militia troops that will be stationed in Fujian are not within the category of "active".Now that the Haihan people are willing to support themselves with such great strength and determination, some of Xu Xinsu's original worries are completely gone.

After the assassination case was dealt with, the content of the talks between the two sides shifted from military cooperation to the field of business and trade.The two parties agreed to inject no less than 15 taels of silver into the jointly operated "Min Hai Xing" in the next three years, which will be used to build large commercial ships, open up new routes in the Far East, and build special wharves and supplies in various places along the southeast coast. point.

After expanding the scale of operation, "Min Hai Xing" will not only provide transportation services for the increasing maritime trade between the two places, but also undertake the transportation task of large-scale transportation of immigrants from Fujian to Hainan Island.Although the local immigrant population in Fujian will be relatively limited, Xu Xinsu will try to organize immigrants from Zhejiang, Jiangxi and other places bordering Fujian.The immigration policy Haihan gave to Fujian is very flexible. These immigrants can either settle with Haihan in cash on a per capita basis, or they can be counted as Xu Xinsu's investment shares in the areas under Haihan's rule to obtain long-term income.Although the price is not much different from that in the early years when private human traffickers organized piglets to go to Nanyang, Xu Xinsu obviously prefers the political effect of this cooperation.

Moreover, in recent years, there has been chaos in the north and food shortages, and a considerable number of refugees have fled to the south where the situation is relatively stable. It is not too difficult to recruit refugees at a low cost.There may be natural geographical obstacles for the Haihan people in the remote Hainan Island, but it is much easier for Fujian.

Of course, all these cooperations have a premise that must be achieved first, and that is the safety of the sea lanes.To achieve this, solving Shibazhi has become an imperative move.Earlier, Fujian officials wanted to stop the war because the cost of fighting had exceeded the expected benefits that could be obtained, but now the expected benefits promised by Haihan are much higher than before, and fighting Shibazhi has become a profitable business again. things.The benefits that Fujian can get from it will increase, and it will even greatly exceed the income from trading with the red-haired people. It is needless to say which side Fujian officials such as Xu Xinsu prefer.

After living in Zhangzhou City for nearly ten days, Xu Xinsu finally went out of the city with the Haihan Mission and returned to Zhongzuo Institute, preparing to participate in the next joint military exercise.

(End of this chapter)