Chapter 1716 Training Period
According to Cheng Dapeng's instructions, Qin Huacheng claimed that he used to live in Manila. Later, because of the approaching war, his family moved out of Manila and fled. After many twists and turns, he arrived at Star Island and was recruited by Cheng Dapeng to come to Batavia. . The shopkeeper of Mihang was not a member of the Security Department, so he did not have too much doubt about Qin Huacheng's identity as a "student". He focused more on training rather than gossiping about Qin Huacheng's family background.
Of course, if Qin Huacheng is willing to take the initiative to talk about these things, he would also like to know whether there are other objective factors in the selection of this young man by the big shopkeeper Cheng Dapeng - such as Qin Huacheng's prominent family background or unique trading resources. , can help Cheng Dapeng’s business.
Of course, Qin Huacheng did not have the background and abilities that the shopkeeper of Mihang thought. He was sent by Cheng Dapeng to intern at Mihang. The purpose was not really to let him learn how to do the grain business, but to understand how the grain trade operates. What levels of information can this industry have access to, and how can it affect the development of a region through food supply? If he simply talks about these theories, what Qin Huacheng can learn must be very limited, but it is different when he comes into contact with practice. What he can learn from Mihang's daily operations may be more than he imagined.
However, when Qin Huacheng was assigned to Mihang, what he learned was only the elementary courses in the training process for intelligence personnel. However, the training conditions Cheng Dapeng could provide were relatively limited, and he was not that good at teaching theoretical things, so To train novices in Batavia, he could only use the industries and institutions under his name as the main training venue. As for how many skills students can learn from it, it largely depends on their talent.
Of course, Cheng Dapeng did not expect to be able to train all the candidates he was looking for into espionage experts by himself. These people had different talents, and not everyone might be suitable for this job. Even if Cheng Dapeng himself is an experienced veteran, his training methods may not be effective for some students who are not smart enough.
In fact, in Cheng Dapeng's opinion, Qin Huacheng's qualifications are only on the passing line at most, which is far from the standard of excellence. However, this person has some hard conditions that indeed meet the reconnaissance direction planned by Cheng Dapeng, such as his Proficient in spoken Spanish and understanding of all aspects of the Spanish people. There may be a lot of such people in Manila, but they are definitely a scarce resource in Batavia. The other people selected with him all had obvious shortcomings in some aspects, either their Spanish was not pure enough, they did not have much experience working with Spanish people, or they lacked acumen in gathering intelligence. sense of smell.
Some of these deficiencies can be slowly improved through training, while others are difficult to change. Qin Huacheng chose the taller one among the dwarfs, and he was already considered to be the one with the best overall conditions among the recalled people. Cheng Dapeng also hoped that this Han Chinese who was born in the Spanish colonies could grow up quickly after being trained, otherwise his intelligence and reconnaissance plan for Spain would not be launched at all.
The grain trade under Cheng Dapeng's name was one of his main industries in Batavia. During the war in Batavia, Dacheng Rice Company, which had only one shop, provided the most basic food security for the Dutch. Now Dacheng Rice Not only is the rice bank the largest in Batavia's experience, it also has more than 4,000 acres of nearby grain crops, allowing it to produce and sell its own food locally to a certain extent.
Not only did the Dutch have no doubts about Cheng Dapeng's behavior of organizing farming, but they also gave him the green light, allowing Cheng Dapeng to obtain large tracts of cultivated land at extremely low land prices. Of course, this preferential treatment is not unconditional. The grain produced on these lands must be given priority to the East India Company for purchase at the same price as official grain reserves to stabilize the local grain market.
This seems to have reduced the freedom of grain trade controlled by Cheng Dapeng, but it has confirmed his status as an officially designated grain merchant. If he could influence the local private grain market before, now he can directly influence the official grain market. Grain price controls have had an impact. From Haihan's point of view, the profit lost due to official preferential purchasing rights can be exchanged for such influence, which is worth a thousand dollars.
Although Batavia is a colony under the control of the Dutch, a considerable part of its grain market is controlled by Haihan's intelligence agency. This has to be said to be a very strange situation. Cheng Dapeng worked hard locally for several years to achieve such results, and the interest disputes with the East India Company were even more complicated. He hoped that after arranging Qin Huacheng at Mihang, he could through daily business contacts, Understand the interest relationship between Dacheng Rice Company and the East India Company as soon as possible, and learn to use this relationship to collect political and economic intelligence information on the other party.
"The price, quantity, time, etc. of the grain purchased by the East India Company from the Rice Bank can be used to infer its policy policies and official economic trends. Moreover, these are first-hand data and are very reliable. It takes time and effort to It is very cost-effective to collect this kind of information. The specific inference method will be taught to you later, and what you have to do now is to remember what important data of value and learn to record these data periodically.”
Cheng Dapeng was very clear about the goals that Qin Huacheng wanted to achieve during the training period at Mihang. However, Cheng Dapeng didn't know exactly how far Qin Huacheng could achieve it. He could only take it one step at a time.
On the third day of Qin Huacheng's internship at Dacheng Rice Bank, he happened to meet the WFP, a subsidiary of the East India Company, who came to Dacheng Rice Bank to pre-order rice produced this summer. The visitor was a Dutch official, but he was very polite in front of the shopkeeper of Mihang and showed no signs of being arrogant. This surprised Qin Huacheng next to him. You must know that in Manila, Spanish and Han people are completely two classes. It is impossible for Spanish officials to maintain such a humble attitude in front of Chinese businessmen.
As if he had guessed what Qin Huacheng was thinking, during the break in the conversation, the shopkeeper explained to him why the visiting Spanish officials showed such a condescending attitude.
"If the Dutch don't come forward to purchase the grain produced this summer, we will definitely raise the price when it is put into the market. By then, the price of grain in Batavia will rise. Even if they want to buy us before other buyers as agreed. We still have the autonomy to decide whether to sell the grain and how much to sell it. If the officials who come to contact us have a bad attitude, then I will directly refuse to sell it, and they will eventually have to spend more money to buy summer grain. ”
The shopkeeper's words basically explained the reason for the attitude of the Dutch. Simply put, Haihan's grain business had reached the point where the shop was bullying customers. Even Batavia officials who took the initiative to purchase grain had to be there. He remained humble in front of the shop owner of Dacheng Rice Shop.
Qin Huacheng really wanted to ask the Dutch how they would feel if they knew that all the food they purchased came from the Haihan people. And he had to admit that the economic penetration used by Haihan was very effective. Even if the Dutch realized that this was Haihan's method, it was not something they could do in a short time to get rid of this indirect control. Just the rice and other food crops produced in these thousands of acres of fields are enough to cause violent fluctuations in local food prices, not to mention that Haihan will also allocate food from Annan, Champa and other countries to ensure that the rice is sold in Pakistan. Absolute control among Davia's grain merchants. Therefore, during the meeting with the official representing the East India Company, the shopkeeper of Mihang basically took the initiative throughout the entire process. Although the acquisition application submitted by the Dutch officials was accepted, the manager of Mihang refused to give up on the price and must comply with the standards ordered by Cheng Dapeng in advance.
The talks between the two parties continued until dinner time. The shopkeeper of Mihang deliberately refused to stay with the guests, so the Dutch official had to take the initiative to leave. However, both parties understand that the most important issues have actually been negotiated, and the remaining details such as price and delivery method are just formal arguments. After several years of cooperation, the back-and-forth competition over these details has become a symbol of both parties striving for the initiative. The shopkeeper of Mihang and the Dutch official who handled the matter had to make a confrontational gesture to prove their dedication in handling the matter.
The real person in charge, Cheng Dapeng and the senior officials of the East India Company, also knew this very well and would not be opposed to it. After negotiating the grain purchase transaction every year, Cheng Dapeng would have dinner with senior officials of the East India Company to celebrate the successful completion of the cooperation between the two parties - and by the way, he would give the other party a rebate from the grain purchase, and he would be the beneficiary of the increase in grain prices. , but Dacheng Mihang is not alone, "win-win" is everyone's goal.
The shopkeeper of Mihang mentioned the inside story of these transactions in a very subtle way. After hearing this, Qin Huacheng couldn't help but sigh that Cheng Dapeng's business methods were flexible. With such operation, it is no wonder that Dacheng Mihang can be in the Batavia grain market. Calling for the wind and rain.
However, Qin Huacheng still has a problem that he can't understand: "Since the rice bank sells the grain to the Dutch at market prices, and then gives them part of the money as a kickback, wouldn't it mean that a large amount of profit is missing? It's hard to predict the future. You may still lose money, right? The boss is a shrewd man, why do you have to do this business that makes little money?”
The shopkeeper of Mihang snorted and said: "This is because you are short-sighted. You have even given this grain to my family to manage, which shows how much the Dutch trust the shopkeeper. It is true that you can't make much money selling grain to the Dutch, but by relying on Through the relationship maintained through the grain trade, the money can also be earned from other places.”
In addition to grain trade, Cheng Dapeng's business is involved in almost every aspect of Batavia. He even has a construction team under his name to undertake local infrastructure projects. The most recent project under construction is the artillery in the east of Batavia. Camp. God knows how Cheng Dapeng obtained this kind of project. In short, after this project was completed, the artillery information about the East India Company was smoothly updated again.
As shopkeeper Mi Xing said, it is not difficult for Cheng Dapeng to earn huge profits from other fields as long as he has official trust. Nowadays, the influence of the "Dacheng" brand in Batavia is as great as that of the Dutch.
If Cheng Dapeng is measured by the standards of a businessman, then he can undoubtedly be classified as a "successful person". Looking at it in another capacity, he also has a lot of achievements, and even the executive committee has praised him. However, Cheng Dapeng himself is still not satisfied with the status quo. He still hopes to have as much influence on the intelligence front as he does in the shopping mall. The specific manifestation of achieving this goal is to personally establish a network in the South China Sea starting from Sumatra in the east. A huge intelligence network stretching as far west as the Banda Sea.
In order to establish such a large intelligence network, in addition to funding issues, there is also the issue of people. How many intelligence personnel are needed to operate such a large area effectively? Three hundred or five hundred. Even Cheng Dapeng himself doesn't have an exact number in his mind, but he currently only has a few dozen people under his direct command, so The coverage area is only the area centered on Java Island, which is still far from the target.
Cheng Dapeng was also quite anxious about this, so he took advantage of the opportunity and went to Xingdao himself to recruit the manpower he needed. Qin Huacheng was the direct beneficiary of Cheng Dapeng's selfishness, and he suddenly transformed from a criminal to a trainee of Haihan's privileged agency. Although the internal status of specially recruited personnel like Qin Huacheng is far inferior to that of regular employees such as Gen Hongmiaozheng, if he can really play his due role in Cheng Dapeng's plan, then Cheng Dapeng will definitely not hesitate to reward him. Formal preparation.
One night after a week of internship at Mihang, Cheng Dapeng suddenly asked Qin Huacheng to be taken to a manor outside the city. Here he met several other people who came from Xingdao with him, but one of them was missing. .
"I think you must be curious about why you were suddenly called here." Cheng Dapeng said while looking around at everyone's faces: "You may have noticed that there is one person missing. It is because of his matter that I called you here today."< br>
After Cheng Dapeng finished speaking, he clapped his hands, and someone opened the curtain in the middle of the room. It turned out that there was another room behind the curtain, and the person he had not seen before was in it, tied to an erected wooden frame. , with numbness in his mouth, a look of horror on his face.
"I sent him to a pawn shop as an intern. In just seven days, he had already embezzled more than 40 silver coins and three pawned items. It seemed like a dog couldn't change his mind... So I decided Give him up and punish him so that he will never reach out for something that doesn’t belong to him again!”
Cheng Dapeng snapped his fingers and ordered: "Cut off both of his hands!"
(End of chapter)