Chapter 1330 The dispute over authority
After He Xi finished sorting out the prisoner's confessions, he looked out the window and it was already getting dark. He stretched out and said hello, and soon someone brought hot face wash and breakfast. One of the greatest benefits of being a high-ranking official is that someone is responsible for taking care of these details of life. It is not an exaggeration to say that you have clothes to wear, food to eat, and mouth to open. Of course, these services are also to ensure that they can focus on their work and not be distracted by the details of life.
Breakfast is whole wheat bread and milk. This meal seems simple, but in the local area, it is basically only available to the rich and powerful. There are only a hundred cows raised in Sanya, and all the fresh milk they produce is supplied to travelers and their families. Occasionally, the excess is made into milk powder, cheese, milk flakes and other dairy products for storage, which are not available on the market. of scarce goods.
The source of flour mainly relies on imports from Daming. Although the Ministry of Agriculture has organized trial planting of some wheat on Hainan Island in recent years, the harvest is not ideal due to Hainan's geographical and climatic conditions. Civil strife continued in the northern Central Plains of the Ming Dynasty. Wheat production was declining year by year, and the amount of flour that could be exported to the south was also decreasing year by year. Therefore, for Haihan, flour, a commodity with limited supply, is still extremely scarce in the market. It is not much cheaper than meat, and only those who travel through time can enjoy pasta at any time.
After He Xi returned to Sanya in the past two years, he mainly took charge of work in the government agency. He no longer had to run around all day, so his life was relatively healthy. Last year he married a Ming Dynasty woman, who came from a scholarly family and had a clean family background. At the beginning of the year, she gave birth to a son for him, and now he is a serious man with a family. After the living environment changes, people's minds will indeed change for the better. In the past few years, He Xi felt that it was more comfortable to be independent outside, but now she also feels that it is more convenient to live in Sanya, and this is the political center of Haihan State. , which will also be more beneficial to your future career development.
Due to his special position, He Xi is unlikely to squeeze into the executive committee to sit on the few seats that require long-term exposure to the public. Therefore, his choice is to keep the intelligence system in his own hands as much as possible and become a An indispensable and important part of the Haihan regime. Now Hao Wanqing is in charge of northern affairs, while he is in charge of southern affairs in Sanya. The international situation in the South China Sea is far more complicated than that in the north, and it is also a promising battlefield for the intelligence front. What He Xi has to do is to build a large intelligence network in recent years, covering all the major countries in the South China Sea region, so as to provide security guarantee for Haihan.
If the Ministry of Security's plan is to gain the support of the Executive Committee, it will naturally have to show some achievements. This sneak attack on the Spanish provided timely warning, allowing the military to deploy defenses in advance and ambush the enemy. It can be said to be a major victory on the intelligence front. Although it is the result of cooperation between the military and the Ministry of Security, in detail, the Ministry of Security played a major role in it, and more than half of the credit must go to the Ministry of Security. He Xi had already drafted a request for credit document overnight, and was going to ask the Executive Committee for credit and reward for his subordinates who secretly collected information in Manila and sent it out in a timely manner.
Of course, what He Xi wants is not just a commendation order for his subordinates, but to go one step further and obtain the full support of the Executive Committee for the work of the Security Department, especially in terms of authority, budget, establishment, etc. He Xi hopes to have Larger operating space.
"A commendation order is allowed, but I think other conditions need to be discussed."
In a later meeting, Gu Kai clearly opposed He Xi's opinions. He is not in favor of further expanding the power of the Ministry of Security, because such privileges are likely to harm the interests of the public. You must know that the Ministry of Security is not only an external intelligence agency, it is also responsible for the task of monitoring public sentiment internally and collecting various information about itself. This means that the work and life of the general public may also be included in the surveillance of the Ministry of Security - especially after it has more sufficient manpower and budget and greater authority.
In Gu Kai's view, the authority of the secret service must be strictly controlled, especially to protect the rights and interests of the traveling public. Opening up this gap will have a negative impact on the stability of Haihan officialdom, and may even become a political tool at a certain point in time. By the time everyone is in danger, it will be too late to correct this mistake.
"Let me correct your statement. The existence of the Ministry of Security itself is a political tool, and the reason why this tool was created is to serve the purpose of stabilizing the rule of the Executive Committee. The requirements I am raising now have nothing to do with the security There is no conflict with the purpose of the existence of the ministry, and it is in the interests of the executive committee. Minister Gu, don’t object just for the sake of objecting!” He Xi refuted Gu Kai’s comments without being humble or overbearing.
Gu Kai shook his head and said: "Investigating the whole world, who should supervise the actions of the Ministry of Security? When the power is out of control, won't this become an organization like the Dongchang Jinyiwei?"
"Dongchang and Jinyiwei serve the emperor. We don't have an emperor here, only the executive committee!" He Xi seized on the loophole in Gu Kai's words and fought back.
Gu Kai knew he had made a mistake and coughed dryly: "I was just making an analogy...if power loses effective supervision, it can easily go astray! The function of the Security Department is to provide security internally and collect intelligence externally. This is already very difficult. It is reasonable and there should not be any other unnecessary functions.”
"It is precisely because there are still many loopholes in the existing security system that I will propose an improvement plan here." He Xi still refused to give in: "Minister Gu, please think about it, if we don't even have the schedule of senior officials, Clearly, how can we provide perfect security? Of course, if you must regard this as personal surveillance, then I have nothing to say, but I hope you can put forward other constructive opinions before objecting. At least come up with a feasible alternative.”
He Xi took advantage of Gu Kai's shortcomings. Although the other party was proficient in law and good at debating, he lacked practical experience in security matters and it was impossible to come up with any alternatives. Moreover, the existing security work for time-travelers is jointly handled by the Ministry of Security and the military. If Gu Kai continues to object to this matter, he will offend more than just the Ministry of Security.
Of course, Gu Kai's mind was not slow either. He immediately noticed the trap that He Xi had laid for himself in his words. He immediately shook his head and said, "Minister He, don't fish in troubled waters. What I object to is not the efforts of the Ministry of Security and the military to travel through time." Instead of providing security services, the Ministry of Security expands its scope of authority without supervision! Everyone, do you want your life and work conditions to be monitored in real time by the secret service? If this monitoring is in the name of security, you will? Can you accept it with peace of mind? ”
When Gu Kai saw that He Xi was trying to drag the military into trouble, he simply opened his mouth and dragged everyone else in. He believed that he raised these opinions out of public interest, and presumably other members of the executive committee would have similar opinions to his own. The personal safety of time-travelers has always been a top priority in security work. It can be said that the performance of relevant departments in the past year has been quite good. At least there has been no major safety incident such as a time-traveler being assassinated somewhere. However, precisely because they are time travelers who have gained hundreds of years of experience, they value personal privacy much more than people of this era. Since they are privileged, of course they do not want to be subjected to some unexplained things. monitoring. Therefore, there are indeed not a few people who agree with Gu Kai's opinion.
The two sides were at loggerheads, and in the end it was Tao Dong who had to make the final decision. However, Tao Donglai's own attitude has always been towards the military, and He Xi was the position that he arranged for him. If he were to be a judge, he would be suspected of being crooked.
As expected, Tao Donglai exposed his position as soon as he opened his mouth: "Security work must be carried out. The personal safety of members of the time travel group can be said to be the foundation of our country. Every time traveler is important to our collective and our country." , are important assets that cannot be exchanged for gold and silver. Protecting our companions is protecting the country we have worked so hard to build. It is precisely because of our increasingly improved security measures that we, including everyone here, can do so. Therefore, I believe that security must be maintained at a certain level, and it is reasonable to adjust the authority of relevant departments in a timely manner according to the situation.”
Gu Kai coughed in dissatisfaction and said: "The problem now is supervision. The Ministry of Safety supervises us. Who will supervise the Department of Safety?"
"Minister Gu, do you want to set up an independent department specifically responsible for supervising the security measures of the Ministry of Security?" He Xi asked suddenly and abruptly.
When Gu Kai heard this, he responded without hesitation: "Establish an independent department? After counting all the major departments in Haihan, is there anyone more suitable for this job than our Ministry of Justice?"
Although Gu Kai's words are a bit arrogant, it makes sense if you look closely. Except for the two main subjects, the military and the Ministry of Security, it seems that other departments are not suitable to intervene in this matter. The Ministry of Justice has no taboos in doing things, and it is indeed more suitable to play the role of a regulator.
However, how could He Xi want her department to be overpowered by Gu Kai? She immediately rejected Gu Kai's solution on the grounds that there was no precedent for this matter. The two people had their own opinions, and they had their own supporters behind them. The participants debated these two opinions for a long time, but still did not come up with a solution that both sides could agree with.
In the end, Tao Donglai could only announce that he would shelve the issue for the time being and let the military and the Ministry of Security make an on-site report on the results of the battle with the Spanish fleet. Even Gu Kai shut up now. This victory over the Spanish fleet was of great significance. He also wanted to know Haihan's actual gains in this battle and subsequent intelligence analysis. Although he has many criticisms about the reform measures of the Ministry of Security proposed by He Xi just now, he will not blindly resist the existence of the Ministry of Security. After all, this department is indeed very important for maintaining Haihan's rule, and Gu Kai will not deny its positive effects. role.
After nearly a day of summary statistics, the military's current results are very impressive. The number of Spanish sailing ships damaged, sunk, and captured has set a record for Haihan's foreign wars in recent years. Although Haihan's performance seemed to be more powerful when he attacked Shibazhi and Zhoushan Islands, the strength level of those opponents was indeed not the same as that of the Spanish fleet. It would be too unscientific to just compare numbers. Being able to achieve such a record in the battle against the Spanish fleet, even the Dutch, who are also maritime powers, dare not say that they can achieve the same level.
After screening, screening and separate interrogations of prisoners of war, the Ministry of Security concluded that the war was a decision made by the Manila authorities on their own initiative, rather than a formal declaration of war by the Kingdom of Spain on Haihan. The fleet that happened to be escorting bulk cargo from the Americas to Manila probably gave the local chief executive the illusion that he could give it a try. Without detailed reconnaissance and a complete combat plan in advance, he hastily organized an armed attack. The raid on Sanya.
If the Spaniards' opponent is another country, even if such a surprise attack is exposed a few days in advance, the opponent may not have time to deploy troops and organize effective defense measures. In the end, it is likely that the powerful Spanish fleet will be forcibly eaten. But this time, the opponent they chose was such a tough opponent as Haihan. Not only could he not be able to chew it, but his teeth were broken.
Both the American Fleet and the Manila Fleet that participated in this operation suffered heavy losses, and a large number of combatants were captured. However, the captured trophies were not of much value to Haihan. The several captured ships had suffered relatively serious damage. It was not cost-effective to repair them and keep them for his own use. The weapons on these ships are far inferior to those produced by Haihan's own, and they seem to have no other use other than to recycle them. After peeling away these two large items, there will be nothing valuable left. In short, the value of the loot is definitely not worth the military expenditure of this Haihan naval battle.
Of course, with the large number of prisoners of war captured after this battle, Haihan should be able to blackmail the Manila authorities. For this, Schneider has drafted a preliminary compensation plan and is preparing to send people to Manila as soon as possible. Claims for war reparations from the Spanish. If this matter can be solved, then it should not be a big problem to start getting the military spending back.
However, after suffering such a big loss, the other party may not be willing to spend a huge sum of money to redeem the prisoners of war. Once the negotiations cannot be reached, most of these prisoners of war will have to spend the rest of their lives in hard labor camps. But this result is not ideal for Haihan, so in addition to asking for war compensation, Yan Chujie also mentioned using war to promote peace, and must be prepared to continue the war and force the Spanish to initiate peace.
(End of chapter)