Chapter 1956
Several years after Danzhou was placed under the rule of Haihan, it was adjusted from the original temporary administrative area to a "city". The corresponding various government offices and official institutions also changed to a certain extent during the Ming Dynasty, and the staffing was larger than before. Large, the functional division of labor is also more detailed. And because there are many merchants, sailors and literati from the Ming Dynasty, Annan and other countries here, there is also a foreign affairs management office dedicated to managing foreigners.
However, this department does not have much real power. Its main function is to register various relevant information. For example, foreign students studying in various academies, foreign businessmen who have opened local commercial institutions, and other foreign personnel who have lived in Danzhou for a long time will all be here. There is an archive of information. However, when there are officially organized foreign affairs activities, this department will also temporarily act as the executor of foreign affairs reception tasks. But most of the time, this is just a Qingshui Yamen that mainly does paperwork. Most of the time, it is deserted in front of the door and there are only a few cars and horses.
However, in the past two days, this former Qingshui Yamen has suddenly become lively and has suddenly become a hot spot in the local social circle. All officials working in this organization have received invitations to banquets from all aspects, as well as a large number of uninvited guests. Come and visit us. These enthusiastic visitors all have a common purpose, which is to inquire about the crown prince of Joseon who is about to visit Danzhou.
Among them, there are also some impatient people who openly offered prices to the officials of the Foreign Affairs Office, hoping that they could provide information about the North Koreans' itinerary. The related prices have also been rising all the way. From the initial one hundred or two hundred, some people soon sold four figures, and they are still showing an upward trend. Everyone hopes to buy the information at an attractive price and then quickly sell it to investors who pay big prices for the information on the black market. However, they probably didn't expect that some people in the Foreign Affairs Management Office actually had a hidden identity as an agent from the Ministry of Security.
"This method worked." After Wang Baisuo received the report from his subordinates, he immediately informed Zhang Qianzhi of the situation.
"Okay! Then we can start the next step!" Zhang Qianzhi was quite excited when he heard the news. Time was running out at the moment. The two days Zhang Xin left for him were actually up, but his opponent had not yet appeared. Fortunately, due to bad weather, the ship at Black Earth Port could not go out to sea for the time being, so he had an extra day or two to get out of the buffer, otherwise he would have been forced to terminate the operation now.
The plan prepared by Zhang Qianzhi and Wang Baisuo is divided into two parts. The first step is to release news on the local black market through certain special channels and purchase the itinerary of the Joseon Crown Prince's visit to Danzhou at a high price. The purpose of this step is to create a sense of urgency among opponents who may be lurking locally. If they have not yet realized the need to collect relevant intelligence, then releasing this news will probably attract them to pay attention to this area.
The content of the second step is to echo the situation created in the first step, create a news source that looks very reliable, and then release information about the itinerary of the Joseon Crown Prince, and then offer a price higher than the current market price. The selling price first drives away those who want to fish in troubled waters, and those who are still willing to pay high prices to buy information at this time must be people with evil intentions.
Of course, even if the opponent is really lurking in Danzhou at this time, this plan will not be 100% effective. There are too many uncontrollable variables. For example, the other party may not be willing to accept this trick of buying and selling information, or they may want to buy information but do not have enough funds to carry out the operation, or the other party may have other information channels and disdain to purchase information through the black market. There may be many more situations like this. Zhang Qianzhi's most optimistic estimate is that there is only a 30% to 40% chance of being able to lure the snake out of its hole.
But this probability is enough for the Ministry of Security, and it is worth investing manpower and material resources to arrange such a seemingly complicated operation. Judging from the feedback received so far, at least the first step of action has achieved relatively ideal results. Almost the entire Danzhou black market has been leveraged, and many people who are not engaged in the intelligence broker industry also want to take advantage of this. Come and try your luck at a high price. If someone is secretly paying attention to the news about the Crown Prince of Joseon, it will be difficult not to be affected by the current limelight.
For those uncontrollable situations, the Ministry of Security will also try to eliminate interference as much as possible and reduce the possibility of opponents using other intelligence collection methods in the current situation. In other words, it is necessary to turn the channels under the control of the Ministry of Security into the theoretical only source of intelligence, leaving as little room for adversaries to operate as possible.
According to the requirements of the Ministry of Security, even the Foreign Affairs Management Office, which was responsible for receiving foreign dignitaries in the past, also did not receive any accurate information. All parties spent a lot of effort, and only learned that the visit of the Crown Prince of Joseon to Danzhou was still in the plan, and no specific itinerary had been made yet.
The key to this matter is that the Foreign Affairs Management Office is only responsible for reception work. As for arranging the itinerary, it is not their job. Instead, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs takes the lead in coordinating with the transportation, civil affairs, security and other departments. For outsiders who want to know about the itinerary of the Joseon Crown Prince, please contact us. The Foreign Affairs Management Office is right, but the relevant itinerary has not been sent to the Foreign Affairs Management Office at all, so naturally there is no specific information available here.
Above the Foreign Affairs Management Office is the mayor who directly serves Zhang Xin. This is the true top of Danzhou's officialdom, and most people cannot reach this far. But if the news comes from here, its credibility to the outside world is very high.
Mr. Huo is also one of the vast majority of people. He does have some connections in the local government, but the one who can really contribute to this matter is a deputy director of the Foreign Affairs Management Office. This is why he I have full confidence in the information Xue Zheng purchased previously. He had already thought about it, and the source who would give him 10,000 yuan after the matter was completed was not treating the other party badly.
But as the news of the purchase spread on the black market, the price of the information also rose. In order to ensure that his source would not betray him, Mr. Huo had no choice but to follow the rhythm and increase the price, promising his price to the deputy director who had been silent. It will definitely be higher than the price currently reported outside - he is really worried that the man who only recognizes money but not people will not be able to resist the temptation of the black market price and directly sell the information to others.
But in the end, the man who had already received a deposit of 5,000 gave Mr. Huo a more realistic answer: "A few days ago, we were indeed notified that the Prince of Korea would come to Danzhou to visit Danzhou for a few days, but I don't know if it was because someone For hyping this matter outside, the mayor's office may be worried about safety issues. As of today, they have not given out the itinerary, nor announced when the Joseon Crown Prince will arrive. If you want to blame it, blame the people who made random bids for the purchase. ! ”
Mr. Huo not only wanted to blame, he had torn the heart of this meddlesome person with his hands. If someone hadn't done this extraneous business, then maybe he would have obtained the information from the deputy director at this time and resold it to increase the price. He sold it to Xue Zheng and put all the money in his pocket. However, now because someone is secretly raising prices outside, the entire Danzhou black market has been stirred up by this incident, and the officialdom seems to have been affected by this, and the itinerary of the Joseon Crown Prince has been kept confidential. This makes the matter originally thought to be a certainty. Mr. Huo was quite unwilling.
Of course, if he has the ability to build connections with the mayor's office, he still has a great chance to get this valuable information before everyone else. However, Mr. Huo weighed his financial background and found that the possibility of accomplishing this was extremely slim.
Mr. Huo's family had some assets in Danzhou in the early years. However, when Haihan entered Qiongbei, his family belonged to a faction that was unwilling to cooperate with Haihan. They were on the wrong side again when it came to the Danzhou assassination in 1631. After joining the team, his home was confiscated and his property was confiscated, and he was expelled from Hainan Island. Mr. Huo changed his name and finally managed to stay in Danzhou. However, due to family reasons, he was no longer able to do formal business, let alone apply for the imperial examination of Haihan Kingdom, so he could only do business in Danzhou. Some gray area transactions.
Fortunately, he has a good mind, and he has experienced the decline of his family, so he doesn't have too many scruples in doing things. In the past few years, he has managed to create a good situation in Danzhou and also managed some official connections. In the Danzhou brokerage business circle, the name "Mr. Huo" gradually became popular. However, he knew that his identity was sensitive, so he lived in seclusion all year round and almost never appeared in public to avoid causing unnecessary disaster. But this sense of mystery actually makes customers recognize him more. For example, when Xue Zheng came to his door, he felt that Mr. Huo was quite cautious, so he dared to cooperate with him with confidence.
But if Mr. Huo wants to continue to improve his strength, he must get in touch with higher-level figures, and this is an insurmountable bottleneck for him. For example, in the Mayor's Office, which is in charge of various key affairs in Danzhou, the officials working in it are all Zhang Xin's close confidants. They will all have a bright future in their official career in the future. It is absolutely impossible for them to be manipulated by black marketeers like him. bought.
The current situation is that the Mayor's Office is responsible for formulating and arranging the itinerary of the Joseon Crown Prince in Danzhou, and the Foreign Affairs Management Office, after receiving the itinerary conveyed by the Mayor's Office, will be responsible for supervising the implementation of related tasks, such as arranging accommodation, transportation, meals, etc. wait. The itinerary of the Prince of Joseon, which originally not many people cared about, has now become a hot spot on the black market. I don’t know how many people are watching the Foreign Affairs Management Office overtly or covertly. Once the itinerary is obtained here, I am afraid that it will soon be available through various channels. The information is sold to the market, and because the information comes from more than one source, the price will collapse all the way. It's hard to say whether Xue Zheng will pay another 70,000 yuan to buy his information, or spend less money to buy it directly from the market.
With everyone staring at the Foreign Affairs Management Office, Mr. Huo could not even guarantee that he would be the first person to get the itinerary from the outside world. After all, the deputy director was definitely not the only one who liked money. Everyone in the Foreign Affairs Management Office could Anyone who comes into contact with the itinerary for the first time may take it out in exchange for an income.
The more Mr. Huo thought about it, the more he felt that the duck in his mouth was about to fly. He even had other thoughts at this moment. Should he consider taking advantage of Xue Zheng and his gang, or simply try to sell them out? , maybe he can get a pardon from the government for himself, so that he no longer has to live in the dark.
But he immediately gave up such an idea. It was not that he wanted to pay attention to the morality of the world, but that he felt that he was already used to this kind of lifestyle, used to hiding in the dark and doing some business that was not allowed by the government. If he really returned to In a normal environment, he would feel uncomfortable.
As for the way of eating black people, Mr. Huo is a little tempted. It is obvious that outsiders like Xue Zheng are very rich and will not hesitate to achieve their goals. If they can quietly eat these people, they will definitely swallow the money. It’s not just the 100,000 Haihan coins that Xue Zheng promised.
But Mr. Huo was also a little worried that he was not strong enough to swallow this hedgehog. After all, the other party was a ruthless person who was plotting against the crown prince of Joseon. Moreover, he sent people to investigate the place where Xue Zheng and others stayed. There were more than a dozen of them. Although on the surface they are grain merchants, upon closer inspection it is not difficult to find that these people should all be capable practitioners.
Although Mr. Huo is a local snake, his business is actually based on selling various information and acting as a middleman. Except for a few personal bodyguards, most of his people actually run errands for him throughout Danzhou to collect information. He is not a murderer who commits murder and sells goods. If he wants to securely take over Xue Zheng and his gang, he will have to find other underground forces to borrow talents. Not only will he have to get more money, but he will also have to find a way to keep everyone involved in the operation secret. Another trouble. If a few more people on my side are unfortunate enough to get in, the trouble will be even greater.
"That's it! Let's spare their lives for now, and we'll see what happens later!" Mr. Huo thought for a long time, but still felt that this handling method was not safe enough, and finally decided not to make a decision in a hurry. If this transaction really cannot be done later, consider using unconventional ways to solve it.
In the final analysis, he still has a glimmer of hope for the current situation and thinks that he can still look forward to whether there will be a turn for the better. Although he didn't know where this opportunity came from, his many years of experience allowed him to feel that the current market conditions were unreasonable and there were too many traces of human manipulation. But he didn't know how to crack it, and he didn't have the ability to do it. Find out who's behind it. However, his intuition is that this situation should change soon, because the price of relevant information changes almost every hour, and this situation cannot continue forever.
Only half a day after talking to the deputy official of the Foreign Affairs Office, the change that Mr. Huo was looking forward to appeared. However, whether this change was good or bad for him was not immediately clear.
(End of chapter)