1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 881 Zhoushan Merchants Association ([-])
The person in charge of interrogating Wu Huanzhi was Gong Shiqi, a confidant who was specially transferred from Guangzhou by Minister of Security He Xi.After Haihan occupied Zhoushan, the intelligence collection and internal security matters, as well as the formulation and implementation of some public security measures, were temporarily under the sole responsibility of Gong Shiqi.If nothing else, Gong Shiqi will continue to be in charge of the intelligence and security work in this area after the local operation is on track.

Gong Shiqi was transferred to Guangzhou to work with He Xi from the very beginning of the establishment of the Guangzhou Office. Previously, he was responsible for field missions, mainly carrying out secret operations such as intelligence gathering, surveillance, tracking, kidnapping, and assassination. quite a lot of experience.He Xi originally intended to find an opportunity to give him greater authority, but it was the first time in his career to take charge of intelligence and security affairs in a region.Moreover, this Zhoushan area had always been a paradise for sea adventurers in the past, and the security situation was also very complicated. This position was a great challenge for Gong Shiqi.

From a security point of view, Gong Shiqi did not agree to hastily hold a business promotion conference before fully occupying Zhoushan Island, because the influx of a large number of outsiders would double the pressure on local security work.Although Gong Shiqi is also convinced that there is no armed force in Zhoushan that can confront the Haihan Militia Army head-on, if there are hostile elements who deliberately make trouble among those participating in the Merchants Fair, they will make trouble during the Merchants Fair, and even resort to arson Assassination of important figures, organization of armed rebellion, and other actions, it will be difficult for the Ministry of Security to achieve effective monitoring and management of the occupied areas.

But hold a business promotion meeting in Zhoushan area as soon as possible to attract businessmen from Jiangsu and Zhejiang to join the Haihan trade system. This decision was made by the executive committee, and the people below can only unconditionally implement it instead of questioning it. Even if Gong Shiqi knows that this is a big pit, Only to bite the bullet.

The Haihan Security Department has not even established a primary intelligence network in the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions. The so-called intelligence collection basically relies on the leading party to provide information, and the effect that this mode of operation can achieve is naturally very limited.Gong Shiqi could only rely on the deployment of the military for the monitoring of the wharf, meeting place, and eating and living places with the largest flow of people during the Merchants Fair, and only imposed temporary regulations that must be notified to the security department in several emergencies.

This passive monitoring method made Gong Shiqi really feel at ease, so he simply set up his headquarters in the port area of ​​Dinghai Bay, Zhoushan, the gateway of the Merchants Association.At least in this way, close-range monitoring can be achieved, and in case of any situation, they can respond in the shortest time, and what happened later fully proved that this measure Gong Shiqi took was still useful.

Speaking of which, it is necessary to mention the security measures of the Merchants Fair. The military has deployed a large number of militia soldiers in the places with the largest flow of people, and at the same time, it has also imposed classified restrictions on the scope of activities of the people who landed on the island.Except for the merchants and entourage who came to participate in the investment promotion meeting, a large number of sailors and crew members were restricted from activities in the port area and were not allowed to enter the venue area.For this reason, a separation line consisting of bamboo fences, wooden fences, barbed wire and buildings is specially set up in the port area. People are on duty to patrol day and night, and notices are posted in the port area to warn sailors not to easily try to cross the separation line. Go offline to avoid being treated like a gangster.

Although the island has imposed strict restrictions on the supply of alcohol, this is not a problem for sailors who travel on the sea all year round, because each sea ship will more or less store some alcohol, and the resulting The consequence was that the day before the Merchants Conference was held, there were five or six drunken sailors fighting in Dinghai Port.Fortunately, the militia soldiers on duty quickly quelled these small-scale emergencies, and the follow-up investigation by the security department did not find any hidden dangers. After all, the people involved in the fight were all unarmed, and the injured guys were all Not too serious skin trauma.

And Gong Shiqi was not only responsible for the security of the port area. A large number of pirate prisoners captured before were still being identified and interrogated. There were too many information materials that he needed to sort out and report to the Sanya headquarters.As for such trivial matters as sailors fighting, he didn't have much energy to ask them one by one.

The morning of the first day of the China Merchants Association was still calm, and nothing happened until noon.The staff of the Ministry of Commerce who came from the venue asked the port staff to carry out an inventory and valuation of the goods on a certain cargo ship, because the cargo mainly used the cargo on the ship as a mortgage to replace the commodity franchise.So the port staff went to the ship to find the owner of the cargo to handle related matters, but after the person boarded the ship, there was no news, as if nothing had happened.The staff waiting for the news here were impatient, and happened to meet an old acquaintance of an officer leading a patrol at the port, so they asked him to help to rush over there.

So the officer led a team of soldiers over there, and when he arrived at the pier and was still 30 meters away, he saw the people on the boat shoot towards him with bows and arrows.Fortunately, all the elite soldiers of the Special War Battalion were on duty in the port area. Although it was an emergency, they did not lose their positions because of this, and immediately launched a counterattack with muskets.

With the sound of gunfire, there was a sudden chaos on the pier.Then some people on the other ships took out weapons and started fighting with the Haihan troops on the pier. This was obviously not an individual incident, but a premeditated armed sneak attack.However, the military has already made plans for various situations that may arise during the Merchants Fair, and even has corresponding preparations for large-scale anti-landing operations, so two companies of infantry rushed to the dock to fight.

The shooting from the rifles quickly suppressed the sporadic firepower on the ship. Immediately after receiving the alarm, several warships also rushed to the periphery of the dock and blocked the departure channel. If the people on board try to cut the cables and escape, then wait for them It will be relentless shelling.As Haihan's soldiers advanced step by step, desperate gangsters jumped from the boat into the sea to escape, but the coastline of the port area blocked by Haihan was several miles long, and it was not easy to escape from this area through the water.

It is a very unscientific thing for stragglers who use primitive weapons and lack unified command to confront the well-trained and advanced professional army head-on, and the result of failure is doomed to be irreversible.The people in the special warfare battalion did not spend too much effort to quell the riot, and even the merchants who participated in the investment promotion meeting one mile away were not aware of the situation in the port area at all.

The soldiers found the body of the port staff on the ship where the incident occurred, apparently after being on board the ship suffered a murderous hand.In addition, there were seven or eight dead bodies and a dozen wounded people on board, as well as dozens of weapons such as knives and bows.

To the horror of the security personnel who came later, two nearly brand-new Haihan-style rifles were also found on board.Although it was only an arquebus for export in the early years, the effective range of this gun is still up to [-] meters. Just imagine if the assassin has been lurking on the ship, waiting for the important person from Haihan's side to appear at the pier. No hit, this responsibility is enough for the security department to drink a pot.

So while escorting the captured gangsters back for interrogation, the Haihan military immediately blocked the port, prohibited all ships from entering and leaving the port, and began a comprehensive search of foreign ships docked by the sea.After such a big incident happened, the ship bosses in the port area did not dare to say no to this kind of search, otherwise they would be taken away by Haihan as an accomplice of the bandits.

The first thing Gong Shiqi did when he arrived at the scene was to ask where the owner and cargo owner of the ship was.The answer from the military is that the owner of the ship jumped into the sea and fled. The search is still underway, and the owner of the cargo seems to be competing for the franchise on the island.The Ministry of Security quickly found the staff of the Ministry of Commerce who was still in a sluggish state on the pier and asked him where the owner of the cargo was.So he took a team of soldiers and went straight to the eating place to find Wu Huanzhi who didn't know why.After a short questioning by the captives here, some people confessed that they belonged to the Zhoushan Ship Gang.

Wu Huanzhi had no idea that such a big commotion had occurred at the port in the short time since he came out of the formalities. After Gong Shiqi asked a few words, he could basically judge that this guy was also the target of being deceived.The boats that caused trouble at the port this time were almost all in a similar situation, but the other boats were only mixed with sporadic bandits, and the boat hired by Wu Huanzhi was all sailors and crew members from Zhoushan except for him and his entourage. People from the boat gang.

There was a high possibility that Wu Huanzhi was innocent, but just to be on the safe side, Gong Shiqi could not let him go at this juncture, so he was told immediately that he needed to stay here to cooperate with the investigation.

Although Wu Huanzhi tried his best to keep calm, he was still a little flustered when he heard that he was going to be detained, so he quickly argued: "This military lord, I really have nothing to do with the Zhoushan Ship Gang, and I don't mean any disrespect to Haihan. It's useless to buckle down here!"

Gong Shiqi replied coldly: "There may still be their accomplices on the island. I can let you go. If the news is leaked and the fish that slipped through the net escape, can you bear the responsibility? You are here honestly." Wait until the investigation of the case is clear and your innocence is proven, we will naturally let you go."

Wu Huanzhi said anxiously: "Then I spent several thousand taels of silver to get the franchise, so what?"

Gong Shiqi said: "Don't worry, doing business with us will not make you suffer. As long as you are innocent and the previous agreement is still valid, we will give you appropriate compensation. What you should do now is to cooperate with us. Wait here for news, the sooner we find out the truth, the sooner you can be free."

Wu Huanzhi had no choice but to admit that he was unlucky.The current situation is no longer affected by his status as a businessman, and this Zhoushan Island is not a place under the direct jurisdiction of Ming Dynasty, and it is the Haihan people who are now occupying this place who are in charge.This group of people is extremely shrewd, and they are not the ones who can be fooled by saying a few nice words or pocketing some money.Wu Huanzhi not only secretly regretted why he didn't ask Zhou Hai, the boss of the boat, when he rented the boat, maybe he would have a chance to see through the other party and avoid the troubles he would encounter when he came to Zhoushan.

Gong Shiqi had no time to care about Wu Huanzhi's feelings. If he found out that what Wu Huanzhi said was deceitful was actually a secret collusion with the Zhoushan Ship Gang, then Wu Huanzhi would never have the chance to leave here safely.But judging from what we know so far, there is a high possibility that Wu Huanzhi is an innocent person who was implicated.

With the progress of the interrogation, the general process of the whole incident has been presented to Gong Shiqi.This group of gangsters who lurk on the island with the opportunity of the China Merchants Association is indeed a member of the Zhoushan Ship Gang, and is personally commanded by the leader Wang Jialin.These people had been broken into pieces a few days before the event, lurking as sailors and crew members on several ships preparing to come to Zhoushan Island to participate in the Merchants Fair, intending to look for opportunities to make trouble on the island.

However, this group obviously did not expect Haihan to block the entire port area, limiting the scope of activities of outsiders.Most of the ships that dock at this port are foreign ships. The Haihan warships are all parked near Panzhi Island and Dongyu Island outside the harbor. Even if they can burn all the ships here, they will not hurt Haihan. Han's fur.

In desperation, these people can only temporarily lurk in the port and wait for the opportunity.At noon, when the port staff was about to board the ship to check the cargo, it happened that the bandit leader Wang Jialin called people on board to distribute weapons and discuss the next move.The gangsters dared not refuse to let him board the ship, which would easily attract the attention of the soldiers of Shanghai Han on the dock, so they let him board the ship and then took him into the cabin to kill him.Later, when the patrol team was going to find the staff member, the people on board thought that their identities had been exposed and attracted the encirclement and suppression of the Haihan army, so they temporarily launched an attempt to resist, but this futile action instead attracted more opponents .

In less than ten minutes of fighting time, Haihan's side only paid the price of one serious injury and five minor injuries, and defeated the dying struggle of the Zhoushan Ship Gang.After the war, a total of 23 bandits were killed on the spot and 11 were captured. According to the statistics of the bandits' confessions, there are still seven people at large, including the bandit leader Wang Jialin.

Knowing that the bandit leader is still on the island, Gong Shiqi personally led the team to the pier again to preside over the search and arrest work, and at the same time reported the news to the headquarters and asked for reinforcements.After Qian Tiandun got the news, he also attached great importance to it, and sent Gao Qiaonan to bring the elite soldiers of the reconnaissance platoon to the dock to support Gong Shiqi.At the same time, Shi Diwen also returned to the flagship Enterprise and ordered all naval personnel to cancel their vacation and return to their posts to prepare for war.The reconnaissance ship left the port immediately, and searched the sea with a radius of five nautical miles, in case the opponent had any backup left.

However, the venue of the China Merchants Association was still a lively scene. The merchants who had no idea what had happened at the port were still immersed in the exciting game of vying for the franchise.For them, there is nothing more important now than to get the opportunity to make a fortune in the next two years.

(End of this chapter)