Chapter 1970
This arrest operation, led by the Ministry of Security and planned and directed by Zhang Qianzhi, can be said to be a complete victory. Xue Zheng and his gang were wiped out at the cost of zero casualties, and they also captured the leader, including Xue Zheng. Seven survivors, as well as Huo Fei and other persons involved, foiled their plan to launch an attack on North Korean dignitaries in Danzhou.
As far as this result is concerned, the various agencies involved in the arrest operation and the local units and individuals that provided full cooperation during this period will definitely receive awards from the executive committee and local government afterwards, and there will also be some case investigators Because of his outstanding performance during this period, he was given the opportunity to be promoted. However, it is still a little early to talk about dividing the cake. After all, the nature of this case is quite special. At least, we have to wait until the procedures are completed and the case is officially closed before we can claim credit and reward from the higher authorities.
But judging from the current situation, this time may not come soon. The confessions obtained by the Ministry of Security from the suspects were very confusing, and there was too much information that needed to be compared and verified. But judging from the items seized, this is by no means an act of revenge caused by the "private grudges" claimed by Xue Zheng and others. The weapons carried by Xue Zheng and his group are all kinds of and are not standard weapons, but most of them are made with sophisticated craftsmanship and have obvious signs of use. At first glance, they are personal weapons that have been carried around for a long time. These custom-made weapons are not something that ordinary people can play with, and it is obviously not a reasonable explanation for them to be self-defense weapons from grain merchants.
The confessions given by this group of people after their arrest were almost identical. They had obviously received special training beforehand, and this kind of special training was generally only available to professionals engaged in intelligence work. In addition, behaviors such as planning attacks, disguising identities, hiding whereabouts, etc. all indicate that the identities of these people are not consistent with the grain merchants they claim to be.
But there were also some amateur operations that puzzled Zhang Qianzhi. For example, they clearly had certain professional skills, but why they took actions full of loopholes in Changhua and Danzhou, and even acted in a hurry to get information. Being fooled around by middlemen like Huo Fei. If they were a professional intelligence or special operations team, there would have been a more comprehensive plan of action rather than a series of ad hoc decisions that looked completely unthought-through.
Zhang Qianzhi really didn't understand why such a situation occurred. He also couldn't imagine that such an attack that would affect the international situation was a spur-of-the-moment decision made by some people. If they had a choice, Xue Zheng and others would probably Nor would they be willing to perform tasks in such a hasty manner. After all, the direct consequence of lack of preparation is to bear huge risks.
Zhang Qianzhi made two judgments based on the known situation. First, this group of people should be desperadoes with skills and practical experience, including the four people who finally came out to surrender, although they did not have any sharp weapons. , and Xue Zheng also used this as a reason to claim that he was a grain merchant, and the deceased armed men were his bodyguards. But Zhang Qianzhi believed that they must have managed to dispose of the weapons during the period before surrender, such as throwing them into a pond or digging a hole and burying them. Not finding their sidearms did not whitewash them - not to mention that Zhang Qianzhi still had them in his hands. With Huo Fei as a powerful witness, they can prove that their intentions are evil.
Secondly, Zhang Qianzhi believed that these people were just the executors of the goal of attacking the crown prince of Joseon, and there must be other instigators behind them. The Ministry of Security did not find any documents, letters or other items with written information from Xue Zheng and his group, not even the bearer check from Haihan Bank that Xue Zheng had used to pay intelligence fees. No, it was most likely that they were all dealt with before surrendering. Zhang Qianzhi believed that the other party had only one reason for doing this, which was to try their best to conceal the source of their funds.
There is also a way to trace the origin of these bearer fixed-amount checks issued by Haihan Bank. Although the checks are not bearer, the number on each check is unique. At least you can find out where the check was issued. The fixed-amount checks used by Xue Zheng were all in thousand-yuan denominations and the paper was brand new. It seems that they had not changed hands too much after they were issued. Zhang Qianzhi had already ordered people to send the evidence to the headquarters of Haihan Bank in Sanya to ask the bank to cooperate with the investigation. The circulation trend of this check.
The 230,000 yuan that Xue Zheng paid to Huo Fei alone was enough to collect the grain produced in the entire Sandu Town. Where did this group of "grain merchants" who were not doing their business get the large sums of money to purchase information? , if you understand this problem, you may be able to find out the instigator behind it. However, the check needs to be sent to Sanya. After investigation there, it is concluded that it will take about two days no matter how fast it is.
Zhang Qianzhi did not place all his hopes for the investigation in the direction of the bank. Although Xue Zheng and others were playing tricks and refusing to cooperate honestly, the Security Department was not an ordinary organization, and the resources that could be mobilized were far beyond what the other party could imagine. Even if they don't cooperate, the Ministry of Security still has ways to slowly bring them down, but it may take a longer time.
"From now on, they will be subject to continuous cross-examination. Since they like to play tricks, let's teach them a lesson."
Now that the people who should be arrested have been brought to justice, Zhang Qianzhi is not as anxious as he was a few days ago. He knows that if he blindly uses torture to extract confessions, it may be effective for ordinary people, but it may not be so effective for these desperadoes who have received intelligence training. , as long as they give some misleading information, it is enough to cause very serious consequences, and may even cause a war between countries. Therefore, Zhang Qianzhi is currently more cautious about how to pry open the mouths of these people, preferring to use scientific interrogation methods to break down their psychological defenses.
In addition to directly interrogating the parties, the Ministry of Security also began to actively identify the gang members, including the deceased, recording their physical characteristics, approximate age, accent, etc., and infer their hometown and permanent residence through various details. .
Although this group of people claimed to be Ming people, at least four or five people, including several of the deceased, had subtle differences in appearance from Ming Han people. According to Zuo Zuo's judgment, two or three of the deceased must have come from the South China Sea area. They were smaller and smaller than the Han people. There were also some small items produced in the South China Sea countries among their belongings.
Most of the captured personnel were from Fuguang, which can be easily judged from their accents. Xue Zheng was one of them. In addition, based on their accents, the remaining few people should be from Jiangsu and Zhejiang areas, and one big man even has a northern accent.
Judging from this information, the composition of this team of only more than ten people is quite complex, and they may come from a wide area from the South China Sea to the north of the Ming Dynasty. Among the various cases cracked by the Ministry of Security in the past, situations like this have rarely occurred, especially cases involving gangs. The persons involved are often from the same family or region and have a relatively close relationship with each other.
This is another unreasonable situation. Zhang Qianzhi believes that this may be one of the reasons why Xue Zheng and his gang made many low-level mistakes during the operation. After all, with such a complex personnel composition, there will definitely be some communication problems. But he could not have imagined that Xue Zheng and his group were not from the same camp, but a temporary team made up of several forces using their own talents. A temporary task was received, a temporary lineup was formed, and a temporary plan of action was planned. It would be really unbelievable to be able to defeat Haihan's security measures and successfully complete the task. Although Zhang Qianzhi has a rich imagination, he did not expect that his opponent looked professional, but in fact he was still a mess. He wanted to find out which camp his opponent belonged to, but he didn't know that this team did not belong to any one camp, but a small coalition.
Fortunately, the strength of this armed team was limited after all, and Haihan's security measures were effective, so they still failed to meet their target Li Shu.
Li Ming didn't know that most of Danzhou had been nervous for several days before his arrival. He just felt that the name of this place as the Haihan Cultural Center was indeed well-deserved. Even this Jiefeng Banquet was different from the places he had visited before. It is permeated with a strong cultural atmosphere.
The luncheon that Zhang Xin prepared for Li Bo's arrival was originally held at the mayor's residence. However, because a fake reception banquet had been held at the mayor's residence during the previous operation to lure the enemy, Zhang Xin arranged today's reception banquet. The event was held at the Danzhou Federation of Literary and Art Circles.
The seat of the Danzhou Federation of Literary and Art Circles is actually the former Zhizhou official office, because Yan Mingjun, the Zhizhou governor during the Ming Dynasty, was demoted to Haihan in 1631. He held a false position in Danzhou over the years, assisting Zhang Xin in managing the local cultural industry, and Zhang Xin also borrowed flowers to offer to Buddha, so he left this official office to Yan Mingjun to live and use in the name of the office of the Federation of Literary and Art Circles.
In fact, the Federation of Literary and Art Circles does not usually have many official affairs that require Yan Mingjun to handle. The main task is to organize local celebrities from time to time to promote the country's new policies to them, and encourage them to use the methods they are good at to create more positive praise for the country. literary calligraphy and painting works. If you do well, you will not only have the opportunity to be published, but also more likely to be appreciated by the government, and thus enter an official career.
Although most literati claim to be noble, few can resist the temptation to write books and enter official careers. Although the organization under the jurisdiction of Yan Mingjun is not truly an official establishment, it has indeed won over and recommended to the government in recent years. Got a lot of talents. Zhang Xin also saw Yan Mingjun's contribution, so he allowed him to sit firmly in this position and manage the affairs of Danzhou's cultural circles on his behalf.
Yan Mingjun was once a local official appointed by the Ming Dynasty. Although he does not have a real official position now, he can be regarded as a famous figure in the local cultural circle. Zhang Xin put the reception banquet held for the crown prince of Joseon here, which was also an honor for Yan Mingjun. Therefore, Yan Mingjun specially summoned a number of celebrities from the local cultural circle to accompany today's banquet to fully reflect the "cultural atmosphere" required by Zhang Xin.
Li Bo has also visited many places under the rule of Haihan since he went abroad, but most of the guests at the banquet were local officials, celebrities and gentry. It was rare that today's scenes were dominated by people from the cultural circles. The topics everyone talked about were mainly literary content such as poetry, calligraphy and painting, which reminded Li Bo of two lines from Tang poetry he had read before: There are scholars who talk and laugh, but there are no white people who come and go.
Although Li Bo considered himself to be a senior enthusiast of Chinese language and culture, and could even be classified as an expert in North Korea, when he actually sat down with masters from these cultural circles to talk about scriptures, he clearly felt that To the extent that one's own knowledge is insufficient. However, these guests are not just literati who only study. They are also quite informed and knowledgeable on such occasions. Li Bo casually says one or two allusions or famous sayings that he knows, and everyone will rush to praise him for his broad knowledge, which is quite surprising. He was quite embarrassed.
However, being able to have this kind of atmosphere to discuss literary topics still makes Li Bo quite happy. During these past visits, he once doubted whether the status of scholars in Haihan Kingdom was as high as the official boasted. After all, most of the people he accompanied during his daily trips were technical officials, and few people would talk to him about literature. aspects of the topic. After arriving in Danzhou, Li Shu finally felt that this station had a long-lost cultural atmosphere, instead of the industry that the officials he had previously contacted talked about.
Although Li Bo also admitted that Haihan's industry did have productivity that was difficult to match in North Korea, he still had some more traditional ideas in his heart, or that he had been influenced by the Central Plains Dynasty and believed that rejuvenating the country through culture and education was a more The orthodox path to a strong country, which relies on industry, commerce, and agriculture to revitalize the country, seems not to be very consistent with the Confucian theory learned in the past.
This is one of the reasons why he is particularly interested in Danzhou. What exactly Haihan's cultural circle and cultural and educational industry look like can probably be found in Danzhou. He wanted to see what achievements the Haihan people, who could do all kinds of things very well, had achieved in this field.
"The prince knows so much about Chinese culture and Confucian classics, so he must stay in Danzhou for a few days and communicate with local celebrities." As the master, Yan Mingjun saw that Li Ming seemed to be quite interested in topics in this field. , and began to arrange activities for him very enthusiastically: "There are hundreds of local poetry societies, academies, painting studios, and printing shops, large and small, and many of them are places worth visiting. If the prince can stay longer, In the future, I would like to accompany you throughout the journey and introduce these places to the prince.”
Li Pu's heart felt secretly itchy after hearing this. He was indeed very interested in visiting these places. For him, it was at least much better than going to those smelting workshops that were so hot that people fainted or the mines that turned into disgrace after entering.
(End of chapter)