Chapter 1684 A strange combination of circumstances
But Qiu Yuan probably didn't expect that the Spaniards' needs were more than just survival, food and housing. After meeting this most basic need for survival, little Francis asked the guard, hoping to get in touch with his family and at least let him assure them that they were safe.
The family that little Francis is talking about is of course not his father who is still under house arrest with him, but his wife Ding Ping'er and his father-in-law's family. Since his arrest, he has not received any news about his family. Of course, he has always been thinking about the situation at home, but his wife's family are all Han people, so they will not be persecuted by the Haihan government.
However, little Francis was not willing to believe his father's speculation that his father-in-law's family must be trying to cut ties with them. He believed that his wife's family would not be so ruthless and would still try to rescue his father and son, but he probably couldn't. Just open up Haihan's joints. Of course, he still vaguely thought in his heart that people have the instinct to seek advantages and avoid disadvantages. If the Ding family does not want to be dragged down by their father and son, then deliberately keeping a distance or even drawing a clear line is actually understandable behavior.
But the guard did not dare to agree to little Francis' request. Although Qiu Yuan had asked him to try his best to meet the father and son's requests, he never said he would allow the father and son to contact the outside world. If any sensitive information is leaked, who can bear the responsibility? The guards could only record little Francis's request first, and then submit it when they reported back on their work. The interim management committee would give instructions before putting it into practice.
This is the standard procedure for dealing with prisoners of war, and there is nothing wrong with what the guards did. It’s just that in this way, the episode with the intrigues between the Ding family and the Qin family will be missed. Otherwise, if Ding Feng gets in touch with the Ding family as requested by little Francis, Ding Feng will Probably they were not so eager to find out the information and hurriedly broke off the relationship with Francis and his son.
It is difficult to define the choices of the old man of the Ding family and the second son of the Qin family in terms of right or wrong. They just stood in their own positions and made the choice that was most beneficial to them - at least in their own eyes. Ding Feng wanted to clear up the relationship as soon as possible to prevent the Ding family from being implicated by the Spaniards, while Qin Huacheng wanted to seize the Ding family's handle and extort money from them. The two parties could reach a cooperation agreement only because of their own interests. .
The target of their cooperation, little Francis, was completely ignorant of this. For him, since his father had reached an agreement with the Haihan people, he should be released soon, and he could be a local official in the next two or three years. Even if he is just a puppet acting for the Haihan people, he can at least maintain a stable life for this period of time. After the term is over, even if you don't return to China, it shouldn't be too difficult to find another place to stay in the Far East.
As for the feelings of the Ding family, little Francis was unable to completely change his mentality for a while and think too much about them. After all, not long ago, the Ding family was just a relative dependent on his own family. Since the marriage of the two families, only the Ding family has come to ask for help. Little Francis basically does not need to consider the Ding family's ideas. Because of this, after the accident, he still insisted that the Ding family would try to rescue his father and son. Subconsciously, he still regarded himself as the Ding family's backer, without realizing that he might have become a burden to the Ding family.
From this point of view, little Francis's wealth and knowledge are not a little bit worse than his father's, but Francis has no intention of criticizing his son's thoughts. After all, people always need a little hope to survive in desperate situations. Since his son feels that the outside world Someone will rescue him, so let him think so, which is just a thought.
The people who are plotting against little Francis outside are not necessarily trying to save him. For example, Qin Huacheng, the second eldest son of the Qin family, is still thinking about how to find out the exact location where little Francis is being held and how to get close to him. , exchange information with them, or simply silence them.
At first, Qin Huacheng really thought about defrauding the Ding family of the money spent on establishing relationships and then quitting it quickly, but he soon found that he had thought of things a bit too simply, and the Ding family had no intention of delivering it all at once. Instead of giving him a huge sum of money, we should use the results of his actions as a reference to distribute the money to him in installments. In this way, Qin Huacheng would not be able to earn the money while lying down as he imagined. But he didn't want the meat in the bowl to fly away again, so he took the initiative to collect information, hoping to get more dry goods that the Ding family would willingly pay for.
I have to say that Qin Huacheng was very lucky. After he invited friends from all over the world for several days, someone finally revealed to him a seemingly unrelated piece of news, but it was quite interesting if he thought about it carefully.
The man who gave Qin Huacheng news was named Jin Bo. He was Qin Huacheng's friend since childhood. Although he had a Han name, he was actually half of the native people from Luzon Island. However, Jin Bo grew up in a Chinese circle, so he was very proficient in Chinese and Chinese characters. Except for his darker skin color, he looked just like ordinary Han people.
Similar to Qin Huacheng's situation, Jin Bo was one of the locals who took advantage of the situation after the war and was recruited by the military into the logistics department as a scribe who counted spoils of war and registered prisoners of war. If nothing else happens, he will soon be able to obtain Haihan military citizenship as a civilian soldier. Not only will he be able to get land in the plains north of Manila Bay, but it is said that he can also apply for Haihan citizenship earlier than ordinary people. For Jin Bo, who was born as a commoner, this is undoubtedly an opportunity to leap over the dragon's gate.
A few days ago, Jin Bo came into contact with a piece of news in his work. It happened that Qin Huacheng had been desperately inquiring about things related to Spanish prisoners of war for the past two days. He thought that this matter was related to it, and it might be possible to help Qin Huacheng, so he was drunk with wine. At that time, he informed Qin Huacheng of the news.
"You said that the Haihan people want to set up a yamen and let Spaniards serve as officials? Interesting!" Qin Huacheng did not understand what Jin Bo said at first, but simply thought it sounded incredible. The Haihan people finally managed to drive away the original ruler here through war, but why did they invite the Spaniards back to serve as officials? Could it be that there was no one available in Haihan?
Jin Bo saw that he did not understand what he said, shook his head and explained: "You don't understand, this yamen is not ordinary, it is specially used to manage the local Spaniards."
"Use barbarians to control barbarians?" Qin Huacheng raised his brows, seeming to understand the special meaning: "This is looking for a puppet... Then the officials appointed by the Haihan People's Association may not be ordinary civilians, right?"
This time Jin Bo nodded and said: "Yes. The news I heard is that Spanish officials who are familiar with local people's conditions and have a certain reputation among the people should be selected from prisoners of war to serve. You are not inquiring about Spanish prisoner-of-war officers. Well, maybe someone from among the officers will be chosen to take the blame.”
For safety reasons, Qin Huacheng did not specifically mention the names of Francis and his son to others, so even Jin Bo thought he was just inquiring about relevant information, but did not expect that there was actually a specific target person. But Qin Huacheng himself had an open mind. If there really was this yamen that Jin Bo mentioned, Francis would probably be the most popular candidate. But if it was such a coincidence that the Haihan people chose Francis to be the leader of this puppet government, then it would be a bit tricky for him to take over this job.
Qin Huacheng knew very well that the Ding family did not spend money to find out information to rescue Francis and his son. If there was a chance to take action, they might be ruthless and pay for the murder to completely separate the relationship. But if Francis and his son, instead of being severely sentenced by Haihan, were able to survive from desperate situations and get a chance to make a comeback, then the Ding family's trick of jumping up and down would seem redundant and embarrassing. Of course, if the Ding family is informed of Francis' return in advance, they will definitely be grateful afterwards. However, it is currently only a theoretical possibility for Haihan to pardon Francis and grant him an official position. Jin Bo didn't have more accurate information here, and Qin Huacheng didn't dare to go to the Ding family to ask for credit and reward with this piece of gossipy information.
"Why is it so difficult to do something?" Qin Huacheng returned home with some resentment. But when he saw his brother Qin Huaming, he suddenly felt that maybe he had overlooked this important source of information.
Qin Huaming's current position is an officer under the Immigration Department of the Ministry of Civil Affairs of Haihan. Although it is only a temporary establishment, he is not a small player in Manila at this time. At present, almost all the information registration of Manila residents is handled by him. It can be said to be a very important task that affects whether most people can successfully naturalize in the future. However, at this time, ordinary people have not yet realized how much nationality affects their future lives, so very few people come to Qin Huaming to burn incense. Even his brother Qin Huacheng did not realize how much power he held before this.
"Brother, I have something to ask you." Qin Huacheng took the initiative to find Qin Huaming, called him out of the room, and then asked him if he knew that Haihan had recently established a puppet government specifically to manage Hispanic people.
"How did you know this news?" Qin Huaming was a little stunned when he heard the question, but his rhetorical question undoubtedly confirmed Qin Huacheng's answer to this question.
"There is no airtight wall in the world." Qin Hua said with great pride that the news was indeed true, "How can such a thing be hidden from a well-informed person like me?"
Qin Huaming said disapprovingly: "It's useless if you know. It's impossible for you to be transferred to that yamen as an errand. Just be your security police! Although this new yamen is also under the Ministry of Civil Affairs, it is not the same group as ours." ”
Qin Huacheng said: "Brother, I have misunderstood. I don't want to work in that yamen, but I want to find out who will be selected to be in charge of this yamen?"
Qin Huaming shook his head and said: "Your eldest brother, I am just a small officer. This is a secret that only senior officials of the Interim Management Committee can master. There is no definite information about the candidate."
Qin Huacheng still asked unwillingly: "Then what is the name of this yamen and when will it be made public? There should be some clues, right?"
Qin Huaming did not doubt that he was there, so he told him frankly: "The name of this yamen is quite long. It is called the 'Manila Area Hispanic Affairs Bureau', and the superiors call it the 'Western Bureau'. As for when it will be announced, I guess it will have to wait for the owner. After the official is selected.”
"Western Management Bureau?" Qin Huacheng repeated the somewhat awkward yamen name softly, and continued to ask: "Does this yamen have real power?"
"The real power...should be there, right?" Qin Huaming was not very sure about this, and his tone was a bit hesitant: "Hispanic people must have a government agency to manage them, and this organization is probably established for this purpose. However, if a Spanish official is appointed as the director, he will probably be used as a puppet to avoid too much resistance from the Hispanic people. "
After listening to this explanation, Qin Huacheng finally had a preliminary understanding of the structure and functions of this yamen. Haihan needs to establish a civil affairs agency specifically to manage the Hispanic people, and then in order to reassure the Hispanic people, he will appoint a Spanish official as the head of this agency, and this lucky person is likely to be from a prisoner of war. A senior Spanish official. Even if it is just a puppet position, for the prisoners of war, its significance is no less than rebirth.
But as for who the Haihan people will choose to sit in this seat, it seems that there will be no definite news before the official announcement, which makes Qin Huacheng quite frustrated. Without this crucial information, he could not determine what to do next. Whether Francis made a comeback would require two completely opposite attitudes for the Ding family. If he messed up this matter, the Ding family would not be able to survive. If he takes corrective measures in time, the Ding family will probably put the blame on him in the end.
Although Qin Huacheng believes in his status and does not need to fear the power of the Ding family, he does not want to offend this local snake. After all, the Ding family is one of the top wealthy Han business families in the local area. The current low profile is only due to the situation. If he really wants to take action, Qin Huacheng cannot do it. Withstand it. Qin Huacheng suddenly felt that the money he got from the Ding family was a bit hot, and he secretly regretted that he shouldn't have been too meddlesome and talked too much. Now that he was involved in it, even if he wanted to turn down this job, I'm afraid the Ding family wouldn't. I agreed easily.
For the current plan, Qin Huacheng can only take one step at a time. If the establishment of the Western Management Bureau by the Haihan people can be announced in the near future, it will be easy to handle. He can still claim that he was too short for time and did not get detailed information. shirk. But if it drags on for ten days and a half, the Ding family will definitely urge me to get the news to report, so they don't dare to talk randomly, otherwise once the Western Management Bureau announces the candidate for the chief officer, the boast will be blown out It will be exposed immediately.
(End of chapter)