Chapter 1052 Chapter 1052 Role Playing
From the moment the sailboat left Dinghai Port, everyone on board temporarily said goodbye to their Haihan nationality. Each of them will be transformed into a temporary Ming identity for a period of time until the end of this operation. Gong Shiqi and Gao Qiaonan were given a twenty-day action period, during which they had to complete a series of links including lurking, investigation, plan formulation, implementation of operations, and evacuation in Hangzhou. Although time seems to be sufficient, considering that the targets of this operation are all court officials, and if something happens to one of them, it will definitely cause a chain reaction, which may cause the local government to use the power of the government to hunt them down. The risks that will be faced And the difficulty is really not small.
After the four ships of the joint action team sailed out of Dinghai Port, they quickly distanced themselves. These four ships each carry different action teams. The places where they land in Hangzhou will also be different, and they will enter Hangzhou city from different routes. After arriving in the city, they will gradually reorganize through the agreed communication methods to avoid exposing their whereabouts and attracting the attention of interested parties when they first arrive in Hangzhou.
Gao Qiaonan was sitting in the cabin, holding a stack of information in his hand, all about Hangzhou City, including a map of Hangzhou Prefecture. Although he had read it several times before, the voyage to Hangzhou was about a hundred nautical miles, so he would read it again and review it if he had nothing to do on the way. Before this, studying the history and geography of a certain place like this was often a way for Takahashi Minami, as the commander, to understand the target area before Haihan sent troops to attack the place. But this time the situation is quite special. Haihan will not have any plans to attack Hangzhou in the foreseeable period of time. The purpose of thoroughly understanding this information is just to better play his new identity.
After the Qin Dynasty unified the six kingdoms, Hangzhou established a county seat and was called Qiantang. There is also a record of Qin Shihuang's tour here in "Historical Records: The Chronicles of Qin Shihuang". The name Qiantang remained throughout the Han, Three Kingdoms, Jin, and Northern and Southern Dynasties. It was not until the ninth year of the founding of the Sui Dynasty that the Qiantang County established by the previous dynasty was abolished and renamed Hangzhou. It also governed Qiantang, Yuhang, Fuyang, Yanguan, Yuqian and Wukang counties. In the sixth year of Daye, the Jiangnan Canal was opened to navigation, from Zhenjiang to Hangzhou via Suzhou and Jiaxing. Hangzhou became the starting point of the Jiangnan Canal, promoting the rapid development of local economy and culture.
In the Tang Dynasty, the jurisdiction of Hangzhou changed several times. In order to avoid the taboo of national title, the place name "Qiantang" was also changed to "Qiantang". The state administration was expanded to eight counties, and it gradually became the goods distribution center in this area. By the Kaiyuan period, the official population of Hangzhou was nearly 600,000, and it was listed as one of the three major trading ports in ancient times along with Yangzhou and Guangzhou. In the second year of Changqing, the poet Bai Juyi was appointed as the governor of Hangzhou. During his tenure, he dredged the West Lake on a large scale, built embankments and gates, and built water conservancy projects, making the West Lake famous all over the world.
During the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, Hangzhou became the capital of Wuyue Kingdom. Qian Liu, King of Wuyue, built a city and palace on Fenghuang Mountain in Hangzhou as the national seat, and built "Luo City" with a circumference of seventy miles on the periphery as the defense line of the capital.
During the Northern Song Dynasty, the area under Hangzhou's jurisdiction increased to nine counties, making it the most populous state and county in the south of the Yangtze River and one of the four major commercial ports in the country. In the fourth year of Yuanyou, Su Dongpo became the magistrate of Hangzhou, organized dredging of the West Lake again, and used the excavated lake mud to build the Su Embankment across the north and south of the West Lake.
In the Southern Song Dynasty, Hangzhou also ushered in its heyday. It was promoted to Lin'an Prefecture in the third year of Jianyan, and was designated as the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty ten years later. As a result, Hangzhou's city walls underwent large-scale expansion. By the Xianchun period, Hangzhou's population had increased to more than 1.2 million.
In the Yuan Dynasty, the prefecture was converted into a road, but Hangzhou still became the regional economic and cultural center as the capital of Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces. In the Ming Dynasty, it was renamed as a government. At present, the three major power agencies of Zhejiang, namely the Provincial Envoys' Department, the Punishment and Prosecution Envoys' Department, and the Capital Command and Envoys' Department, are all located in Hangzhou Prefecture. The three members of the joint action team this time Among the targets, there were two people from two important yamen, namely, the Prosecution and Prosecution Department and the Du Commandery Department.
The Department of Prosecution and Prosecution is in charge of criminal matters and litigation, and also exercises supervisory power over local officials. The official in charge is the Provincial Envoy, who is also the highest official of a province. The Capital Command and Envoy Department is a local military command organ, subordinate to the Central Military Governor's Office of the Fifth Army, and is responsible for the command and coordination of local garrison troops. These two yamen and the Administrative Envoys Department are collectively known as the "Three Divisions". They are not subordinate to each other and are only responsible to the central government. However, when there are major military and political matters in the local area, the three departments will usually consult together to find a solution to the problem.
Within Zhejiang, these three yamen are the symbols of the highest local authority. The serious nature of the assassination operation against the officials serving in these yamen is self-evident. If not handled carefully, it is likely to As for getting himself burned, the failure of the action or the second, causing the Ming government's hostility towards Haihan would be really troublesome. Therefore, before the operation begins, Takahashi Minami is also trying his best to make up for his shortcomings and reduce the possibility of errors during the operation.
There are ten gates in Hangzhou City, namely Qingbo Gate, Yongjin Gate, Qiantang Gate, Houchao Gate, Genshan Gate, Qingchun Gate, Qingtai Gate, Fengshan Gate, Wulin Gate and Yongchang Gate. Among them, Fengshan Gate is the south gate of Hangzhou City and is named after its proximity to Fenghuang Mountain. Fengshan Gate is divided into two gates: water and land. The Water Gate, which was built in 1359, connects the two water veins of the Jiangnan Canal and the Qiantang River. It can be regarded as one of the chokepoints for water transportation in Hangzhou.
The Southern Song Dynasty built an imperial city on Fenghuang Mountain. Fengshan Gate was at the southern end of the Royal Street, where the official offices of three provinces and six ministries were located. The Wansongling area outside the city gate is where Hangzhou people go for outings. Although most of the relics of the previous dynasty are gone, the area near Fengshan Gate is still very prosperous. There are many docks on the bank of Qiantang River in the south, where a large number of merchant ships and civilian ships from surrounding states gather. There is an endless flow of people and goods entering and exiting Hangzhou through here every day.
Not far from the bank of the Qiantang River is a spontaneously formed town. Many merchants who travel to Hangzhou by water all year round will choose to settle here. Businessmen with larger businesses will buy land here. Build houses and set up business warehouses to save the storage and accommodation costs of bulk goods during the transshipment and sale period. In your spare time, you can rent out houses and warehouses and act as a trade intermediary, which can provide you with some income. In addition, this type of shop will also, depending on the market conditions, eat some of the goods sold by passing merchants nearby and earn the price difference by reselling them.
Chengfengxing is such a business store. The three-in courtyard can be used for both stacking goods and housing. There is also a stable outside the back door that can accommodate a dozen draft horses. It is said that this place was built during the Wanli period, and the owners have changed several times over the years, but the store has been reluctantly continuing to operate. It is said that the current owner is a maritime merchant from Ningbo Prefecture, but he has never shown his face here. Currently, a shopkeeper named Wan and four or five assistants maintain the operation here.
Compared with ordinary inns, Chengfengxing can provide richer services in the field of trade, which is far more convenient for businessmen than staying in inns. However, among the more than 20 business inns on the river bank outside Fengshan Gate, Chengfengxing's business scale and hardware facilities are only at a medium level, and the location is not particularly good. Generally, repeat customers come here to book rooms, and the business is not bad. It’s considered stable, with room opening rates of at least 50% to 70% on a daily basis. However, all the guests who came to Chengfengxing to inquire about reservations this day were disappointed, because the place was actually full for the first time in a long time. Of course, it may be a little inaccurate to say that it is fully booked. In fact, Chengfengxing has been booked by someone else and there is no way to accept other guests.
Wan Fa explained the reason to another visiting merchant with a low eyebrow, and asked the waiter to take him to another nearby store with a similar price. Then he asked the other waiters to close the door and put up a fully booked sign, so that no one would come to ask questions all the time. Inquire. Wanfa checked the cleanliness of each room, and then went to the kitchen to look at the fresh vegetables, fruits, chicken, duck, and fish purchased today. Still feeling uneasy, he asked the cook to boil another pot of water and put all the kitchen utensils and tableware in it again. Clean it thoroughly and don't leave any stains or oil stains - the guests Cheng Fengxing will receive this time are his immediate bosses, so there must be no low-level oversights.
After Wanfa checked these preparations, he returned to his room, took out a small wooden box about three inches long and one inch wide from the secret compartment under the bed, and opened it gently. Inside was a strip wrapped in silk. Small things. Wan Fa placed it on the table and slowly opened it. It turned out to be an ivory waistband. On the front, there was only the word "安" in official script engraved. When he turned it over, there was a series of strange symbols that were not Chinese characters engraved on the back. Those who have dealt with Haihan may recognize that this is a special character used by Haihan for counting.
This ivory waistband is Wanfa's status symbol, and the content engraved on it is his numerical number in the establishment of the Ministry of Security's dispatched agents. In fact, when he communicates with his colleagues, he confirms his identity through secret codes. There is no need to show this waist card. Its function is more to allow agents like him who are lurking in Ming society to maintain a sense of identity. His identity was confused due to his long-term lurking in the Ming Dynasty. The ivory used for this carving comes from Annan and other places, and is made by the best craftsmen in Haihan. Its value is also quite high, and it is also intended to make the wearer feel that he or she is valued.
Wanfa was born in Jinhua Prefecture, which is adjacent to Hangzhou. In his early years, he was sentenced to exile in Yazhou for committing an injury case. While serving his sentence in Yacheng, he was recruited by the Haihan Security Department. He has been working for Haihan for several years. . He was sent to Zhejiang last year, and under the pseudonym Wanfa, he took over this business store outside Fengshan Gate of Hangzhou City. Before that, the owner of Chengfengxing was said to be a businessman from Xu Xinsu, a group of people from Fujian. Otherwise, the Haihan Security Department might have had to go through a lot of trouble if they wanted to quietly acquire such a place here.
Wanfa's mission here is to collect all kinds of intelligence about Hangzhou City, ranging from city defense deployment to small market rumors. In short, he collects as much information as he can and sends it back to Zhoushan by sea ship regularly for summary. The reason for this ruthless intelligence collection method was that Wanfa knew that this was a last resort. The Ministry of Security had too few agents deployed in Hangzhou, so he could only collect information in a hurry. He did not have enough ability to do targeted work for the time being. .
Although he didn't know exactly how many colleagues there were inside and outside Hangzhou, it was obvious that this number was very limited, because in the business store he was responsible for running, he was the only one who was affiliated with the security department, and the others were all locally hired guys. I don’t know the inside story of this store. If the security department has enough manpower, it must at least give him a deputy or partner.
Four days ago, when Wanfa went to the dock to hand over intelligence to people from Zhoushan, he was notified that Director Gong Shiqi, the director of the Security Department in Zhejiang, was about to come to Hangzhou to handle official business. Chengfeng Bank, where Wanfa worked, would be responsible for the preliminary work. reception work, and must fully cooperate with the action. This news made Wanfa, who had been like a salted fish all year, suddenly excited. If he could perform well in front of his immediate boss, he might be transferred from this boring position as soon as possible, or receive some important jobs. Task.
Although he didn't know the purpose of Gong Qiqi's visit to Hangzhou, Wan Fa still diligently dug out the records he had made over the past year, recalled the various information he had collected bit by bit, and filtered out some of his own information. Recognize valuable information. Because he knew very well that Gong Shiqi's status would not come to Hangzhou to inspect the work. There must be some people or things here that attracted him, so he went all the way. Wanfa also knew that Gong Qi Qi was a former agent from the field team and was good at commanding and executing tasks such as kidnapping and assassination. When he thought about it in this direction, it was not difficult to guess Gong Qi Qi's purpose.
Although Wanfa is just a small shopkeeper running a business store by the Qiantang River, his special status has always maintained a high level of political sensitivity. He has always been deeply involved in political affairs in Hangzhou, especially the local government's attitude towards Haihan. has paid more attention to it, and it is also clear that the current anti-Haihan voices in Zhejiang official circles are almost concentrated in Hangzhou. This time Gong Shiqi came to Hangzhou in person, I am afraid it is also related to this situation.
"Are we going to attack Hangzhou?" Wan Fa rubbed the badge in his hand while pondering his boss's intentions. However, he immediately denied his speculation. Even if Haihan wanted to attack the mainland, he would definitely attack Ningbo, which is closest to Zhoushan. How could he skip Ningbo and Shaoxing, which is separated by two hundred miles, and attack two hundred miles away? Outside of Hangzhou? Even if Haihan Navy is invincible, it is unlikely to make such a counter-intuitive combat plan.
So he immediately thought of another possibility, that is, Gong Shiqi would go to Hangzhou to personally take charge of the command operation and deal with some Ming figures who stood opposite Haihan. The more Wan Shan thought about it, the more likely he felt that this was possible, and he immediately began to wonder who was so unlucky to be targeted by Gong Shiqi.
(End of chapter)