Chapter 1650 The Treasure of the Church
In Ran Tianlu's view, what Father Blanco said was quite credible. After all, the Spanish senior officials in the city would come to the church to confess, and would more or less leak some military information and true thoughts to the priest. The fighting situation of the Manila garrison has become increasingly tense in recent days, and refugees from the south continue to flee into and outside the city. These conditions will definitely increase the psychological pressure on local civil and military officials.
But compared to outside the city, of course, it is safer inside the city, which is protected by city walls and artillery. Although it will soon become the target of attack by the navy and Han army, most people in the city will still take chances. , hoping that city defense methods can stop the invaders here.
Father Blanco was obviously not too optimistic that the local defenders could repel the Haihan Army's next offensive. In order to prevent these precious religious artifacts and documents from being destroyed by the war, he came up with such a solution that surprised Ran Tianlu. plan.
Ran Tianlu couldn't help but said: "Father, why don't you leave the city early to avoid this war. Your status is special, and I believe the Haihan people will not make things difficult for you."
Father Blanco shook his head and responded: "I can't leave here. The army has to protect this city, and I have to protect my faith. The believers in the city need me, especially when we encounter a disaster, I must Let them know that the Lord is always protecting us.”
Although the camps of both sides were hostile, Father Blanco's calmness and firmness in faith in the face of the war still moved Ran Tianlu greatly. After all, not everyone can stay calm when war comes, let alone give up their own personal safety to help others. At least it would be difficult for Ran Tianlu to convince himself to do something like this.
"If there is a chance, report the situation to your superiors and try to save your life after the city is destroyed." Ran Tianlu said secretly in his heart. It was rare to find such a Spaniard who could make him look at him differently, and he didn't want to see him lose his life in the war.
Ran Tianlu and Father Blanc agreed on the handover in the evening, then said goodbye and left the city to return to the store. He asked his subordinates to free up two warehouses to store items that would be shipped from the church later. Chaosheng Store occupies a large area, with more than thirty rooms in the warehouse alone, so freeing up some space is not a problem.
After nightfall, Ran Tianlu went to the city gate to wait. Not long after, three carriages drove out of the city, and in the first car sat Father Blanco wearing a black cloak. Ran Tianlu noticed that the guards of this convoy were not church clergy, but Spanish soldiers with live ammunition. It seemed that the priest also used his connections to buy insurance and specifically asked the Spanish soldiers guarding the city to help the church escort these items.
However, Ran Tianlu was not too surprised by this. After all, Father Blanco also said that the items to be transported out of the city this time included church property, which must be valuable. In order to prevent the refugees from causing trouble inside and outside the city, it was natural for the army to It is most reassuring to be responsible for escorting. As for these things after entering the Chaosheng Commercial Store, Ran Tianlu was not too worried about safety issues. The commercial store itself was equipped with more than 20 armed security guards belonging to the "Golden Shield Escort". These people were all trained professionals. Not only is he very skilled, he can also use Haihan's special pistol when necessary, which is enough to control the situation.
Of course, the identities of these people are also registered as Ming people. To the outside world, these people are just ordinary housekeepers and nursing homes. Only Ran Tianlu knows their true identities.
When the convoy was approaching the store, Ran Tianlu had already ordered someone to open the door of the store in advance so that the carriages could drive directly into the courtyard so as not to attract attention on the street outside.
After the car stopped, Ran Tianlu planned to order someone to unload the goods, but the priest rejected his arrangement and instead asked the accompanying Spaniards to complete the laborious work.
"These are important items of the church and cannot be easily touched by pagans." The priest explained.
This explanation makes sense. Ran Tianlu has been in the Spanish church in the city for so long, and of course he knows that there are all kinds of weird rules in the church. Although priests often use slogans such as "God loves the world and saves all living beings," Western colonists have no mercy when dealing with pagans. There is only one believer here in Chaosheng Merchant Inn, Ran Tianlu, so it is reasonable for the priest not to trust other people.
But without the help of the warehouse workers, the unloading speed of these three trucks of goods into the warehouse was very slow. Ran Tianlu noticed that the boxes lifted from the car were extremely heavy and required the strength of four men to lift them from the car. They had to use the small trolley provided by the store to transport them smoothly. It took nearly two hours to transport more than thirty boxes of goods into the warehouse prepared by Ran Tianlu in advance, and then affixed seals with Father Blanco's personal seal one by one.
After counting the boxes in the warehouse, Father Blanc dismissed the crowd and said to Ran Tianlu: "Ran, after the war is over, if the Haihan people are defeated, the property stored here can be left for you. Box, as your reward. Of course, if we fail, no more nonsense.”
Ran Tianlu said: "We agreed that we would do things for the church, so how can we collect compensation? I don't think it's necessary."
Father Blanco said: "If you work for the church, the church will not treat you badly. But you have to remember not to open these boxes in advance before the war situation is decided, so as not to cause trouble."
After Father Blanco and his party left, Ran Tianlu went back to the warehouse where these boxes were stored and looked at them again and again. Although Father Blanco told him not to open the boxes in advance, Ran Tianlu had his own way. He asked someone to push a scale over and carried a few boxes to weigh them. Sure enough, these boxes were extremely heavy. Father Blanco spent a lot of time and effort transporting these boxes out of the city. There was no way they were filled with bricks and stones, so there seemed to be only one possibility left. "So is the Manila Church so rich?" Ran Tianlu squatted beside the box, scratching his head and thinking. This box is probably filled with valuables such as gold bricks and silver coins, so it has such weight, and its value is worthy of Father Blanco's personal trip out of the city.
But in this case, if these more than thirty boxes are all gold and silver, the total value would be a quite astonishing amount. Father Blanco boldly transported these things outside the city and handed them to Ran Tianlu. His courage was quite impressive. Ran Tianlu thought to himself, is he really sure that my place is the safest place? You said you gave me a box as a reward, so you're not afraid that if I get greedy, I'll just swallow this batch of goods?
But Ran Tianlu thought about it and realized that Father Blanco's actions were not unfounded. Even if he knew what was in the box at this time, based on normal conditions, he would not be able to transport it to other places. After all, the outer area is controlled by the Haihan Army. Transporting so many valuable things out is tantamount to throwing yourself into a trap.
Of course, this is because Father Blanco does not know the true identity of Ran Tianlu and thinks that his relationship with Haihan is limited to normal trade. Father Blanco believed that the Haihan Army would not embarrass its trading partners who were merchants, and would most likely not thoroughly inspect the goods stored in Chaosheng Merchant Warehouse, which was why they carried out such a bold operation. There is another factor that cannot be ignored, which is of course Ran Tianlu's disguise as a Christian. If not for this, he would not be able to gain this level of recognition from Father Blanco.
Do you need to report this to your superiors? Ran Tianlu had no hesitation about this. The army would soon arrive at the city. The military would definitely come to him then, and Chaosheng Commercial Warehouse would most likely be directly requisitioned as a military warehouse. The most important thing is that the city is almost inevitable, and it is unlikely that these goods will return to the hands of the church. Ran Tianlu has no guts to embezzle these goods - God knows if there are other people in this Chaosheng Merchant Warehouse who are similar to him. dual identity.
Ran Tianlu is from the Security Department, but this does not mean that the Security Department is the only agency where Haihan places intelligence personnel here. The Military Intelligence Division under the Ministry of National Defense is also a very powerful intelligence agency, but its focus is different from that of the Ministry of Security. Naturally, the main focus of the Military Intelligence Office is military intelligence, and the intelligence collected by the Ministry of Security from other countries is not limited to the military field. Political, economic, cultural, and other aspects are also the targets of the Ministry of Security's intelligence work.
In a place like Chaosheng Commercial Store, Haihan has invested a lot of money and resources. Dozens of people work and live here. If such a large institution is only used to support and protect Ran Tianlu, One person, then he himself doesn’t quite believe in such an arrangement. Therefore, he has always assumed that there are other Haihan intelligence personnel in the business warehouse, and it is very likely that there is more than one person - I heard that the Military Intelligence Office always operates in groups of two or three people. Depending on the purpose of the operation, there may even be more people. configuration.
The Spaniards secretly transported a batch of goods at night, but they couldn't hide it from their own eyes. In fact, Ran Tianlu had no intention of embezzlement at all. Although money is tempting, life and your future future are undoubtedly more important.
"Carry all the boxes back to the warehouse and put them away. The doors and windows of the two warehouses are all sealed and no one is allowed to approach." After Ran Tianlu figured out the stakes, he decisively issued the order. He can control himself, but he can't guarantee that everyone in this store can control their desires, so before the Haihan Army arrives here, he must ensure that there are no problems with these things. Ran Tianlu had a hunch that if the follow-up was handled properly, this might be another great achievement for him.
While Ran Tianlu was dealing with a mysterious cargo sent by a Spanish priest in the name of the church, the Haihan military's interrogation of prisoners at the Port of Cavite had also come to an end.
A total of thirty-four officers of all levels in the Manila fleet have been captured since Juan, and the information obtained through interrogation is basically consistent. Spain has no other established maritime armed forces in the local area, and the defensive measures of the defenders are also unknown. Only the fortifications of Manila on land remained. As for the strength of the garrison, it was basically consistent with the intelligence collected before the war. Inside the city were mainly Spanish armed personnel, while outside the city were mainly local armed forces that had surrendered to Spain.
At this time, the total strength of the defenders no longer had much advantage. Haihan mobilized more than 4,000 combat personnel for this expedition, about three-quarters of which were army personnel. In terms of the combat effectiveness of the Spanish defenders, Facing this expeditionary force composed of elite units of the Haihan Army, I am afraid it will be difficult to have a chance to make a comeback.
The interrogation of Juan is the top priority of all interrogation work, but it is indeed very difficult to persuade a general of his level to give up his inherent position. Even though Ximang tried his best to coerce and induce him, he still could not convince him to accept the conditions offered by the Haihan people.
But in fact, most of the military information that Haihan wants to know has been collected through other channels. The reason why he wants to capture Juan is that he still hopes to use his identity to persuade the defenders of Manila to surrender. May avoid using war to solve the final problem. But this idea finally hit a wall with Juan. The stubborn Spaniards were unwilling to betray their country and beliefs, and they did not believe that the alliance formed by Haihan and Portugal could keep its promise and let the Spaniards who were willing to surrender leave Manila.
"Well, we have already tried to solve the Manila problem in a peaceful way. Since it doesn't work, let's prepare for war." Yan Chujie finally had no choice but to choose Juan, and could only choose the original plan to go to war with the city of Manila.
As for Juan and his hundreds of men, they will have to be detained at the Port of Cavite for a while until Haihan frees up enough shipping capacity after the war before they can be transported away from here. Of course, these Spaniards will not all be assigned to perform hard labor in the same place. Haihan’s iron mines in Hainan Island, coal mines in Black Tu Port, tin mines in Bangka Belitung Island, gold mines in Jinguashi, Taipei, and even distant places The copper mines in Fushan County, Dengzhou, Shandong, and the state-owned plantations scattered throughout the Haihan territory may become their final destinations. Except for a few who were very cooperative during the interrogation stage, most of them will spend the rest of their lives in hard labor.
However, for Juan and other officers, they still have a chance to escape. Before attacking Manila, Haihan will provide the defender with a list of captured persons. If the Manila authorities in the city are willing to pay ransom in exchange for their If they are free, then Haihan will let them go. Of course, the military's plan is also very clear. These people are all marines. When they return to the city, they can at most be used as ordinary infantry. Anyway, after the city is broken, they can be captured again, and they can still find ways to do so. Then ask the Spaniards for a ransom payment.
On January 20, the main force of Haihan Army completed its assembly in Pasay Town and began to advance towards Manila City in the north.
(End of chapter)