Chapter 1977
Although Haihan has made great efforts to control the export of weapons over the years, it is impossible to completely prevent these weapons sold overseas from being lost to places where they should not appear. The Executive Committee knows this, Haihan Ordnance Industry knows it, and the military also knows it. However, after all, the advantages of the arms sales trade outweigh the disadvantages. When it is time to sell weapons, we must continue to sell them.
However, as long as they do not flow into the hands of hostile forces in large quantities, the sporadic loss of weapons will generally not cause any serious problems. For example, the Qing army must have some Haihan-style weapons obtained through various channels, but they have no relevant weapons. No matter the materials, processing techniques or special ammunition used, it is difficult to reach the level of Haihan original products. Even if you want to imitate, you can only imitate the appearance. Therefore, these lost weapons can basically only be used as research samples or collections, and it is unlikely that they will be mass-produced and installed in the army.
If the weapons used by the armed men who attacked the salt transport team in Ningbo were rifles made by Haihan, then only a small number of muskets would be enough to defeat the escorts in the salt transport team. But can the Jianghuai salt merchants who caused trouble get a batch of Haihan rifles and train a group of personnel who are skilled in using these guns? Qian Tiandun felt that this should still be a bit difficult. After all, Shi Diwen had been in Zhejiang for so many years and he was not doing anything for a living, so he would not let people make such a big noise under his nose.
The question is, if there were armed battles over the salt industry in the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions, and the muskets used did not come from the Ming Dynasty or Haihan, where would their origin be?
Qian Tiandun couldn't help but think of the telegram just sent from Jinzhou, Liaodong. The local area also discovered that the enemy's formation was suspected of being equipped with some new type of muskets with relatively strong lethality. However, the two places were two thousand miles apart, so he didn't immediately connect the two things together. He just thought it was a coincidence.
Qian Tiandun asked carefully about the details of the attacks that had occurred, and wanted to know the specific circumstances of the confrontation between the attackers and the team escorting Ningbo salt, but Liu Jianyuan and others did not know much about this. Most of the information they know comes from information that has changed hands several times, and some really key information should still be blocked from the outside world, and only a few senior personnel will have it.
However, Qian Tiandun is not in a hurry about this. This kind of matter will be followed up by the local security department and the military intelligence bureau. If there is further information and the information on weapons is verified, the military will definitely respond accordingly. notification.
Liu Jianyuan and others who took the initiative to mention this matter only regarded it as a topic to share with Qian Tiandun, and did not dwell on what was wrong with it. The guests of honor had a great conversation at this banquet. Before Liu Jianyuan and others left, they said that when the land enclosure construction started here, they would also like to invite Qian Tiandun and Wang Tom to attend the ribbon-cutting ceremony.
Qian Tiandun knew that this group of businessmen wanted to drag him to the platform so that the local officials in North Korea would be wary. Of course, this kind of activity was definitely not in vain. These businessmen were all from Zhejiang, and they naturally knew the rules of doing things. As long as they If Qian Tiandun and other high-ranking officials are willing to show favor, a generous thank you gift will definitely be prepared for them.
Qian Tiandun responded calmly: "It's hard to say how long General Wang and I will be stationed here. Let's put it aside for a while and see when the time comes."
When Liu Jianyuan heard this, he realized that the other party did not reject him immediately, so there was still room for maneuver. Of course, he would not ask Qian Tiandun to express his position immediately, and quickly said that he would try to set a time as early as possible so that the generals could properly arrange their itineraries.
After the businessmen of the Ming Dynasty burned incense at the Datong River base, they had to go to Pyongyang City to visit local officials. However, with General Haihan here to endorse them, many things will be changed in the subsequent negotiations. With greater confidence, they also have more capital to bargain with North Korean officials. Although a lot of money has been spent here, in the long run, establishing a good relationship with the Haihan garrison is definitely a direction worth investing in.
At this time in Sanya, more and more unusual news has been gathered here recently, gradually attracting the attention of the Military Intelligence Bureau.
The reason why these messages are unusual is that they all have a common feature, which is that they involve weapons. Regarding the armed conflict caused by Ningbo Haiyan, in fact, a telegram had been sent back through the Zhoushan authorities before, detailing some of the information that the Military Intelligence Bureau had learned through the parties involved. The Zhoushan garrison has actually obtained the projectiles fired by this rifle through some channels, and confirmed that it is not the ammunition of the Haihan standard weapon.
The incident in Zhejiang is still under investigation, and Liaodong also sent back news saying that a standard musket was suspected to have appeared in the Qing army's formation, and its performance and source were not yet clear. The Jinzhou side has already made contact with the troops stationed in North Korea, and will next dispatch the Marine Corps to conduct reconnaissance operations in the Linhai area north of the Jinzhou Isthmus to see if the status of these muskets can be confirmed.
In both places, standard muskets not made by Haihan have recently been discovered. Whether it is the salt merchants in Jianghuai or the Qing army in the Northeast, the Haihan military does not believe that they have the ability to manufacture standard weapons of a certain level on their own. , the source is likely to be external. The bullet samples found in Zhejiang have been sent back to Sanya, and the bullet samples found in Liaodong have also set off southward by sea. However, the journey is too long and it will take some time before they can be sent to Sanya.
If that were the case, it might not be enough to draw the Military Intelligence Bureau's high attention, but a major event has also occurred on Hainan Island recently, namely the case of an attack by an unknown organization against the crown prince of Joseon. Although this case was taken over by the Ministry of Security, the Military Intelligence Bureau also intervened in the follow-up investigation in order to assist the Ministry of Security. During the investigation, the Military Intelligence Bureau discovered that this case seemed to have some strange connection with gun cases that occurred overseas.
Judging from the statement, the case that occurred on Hainan Island did not contain military rifles, and it seemed to have nothing to do with what happened thousands of miles away. But it has to be said that the Ministry of Security did a very meticulous job in cleaning up the case in Danzhou, and took back almost all the evidence that could be found outside Yangyue Village, where the crime occurred.
It was just that there was too much time left for Xue Zheng and his group that night, so they were able to calmly dispose of their weapons. Although it can be expected that they buried the weapons somewhere, this group of people obviously did their job very meticulously. The investigators did not find any obvious traces of digging and burial in the forest, and it was difficult to organize manpower to bury the weapons in time. After digging through them all, we actually couldn't find the short musket that Xue Zheng carried.
But one of the bodies pulled from the pond by investigators died of a gunshot wound, and a musket ball was found in the body without much effort. The projectile that hit his heart from the back not only caused fatal injuries, but also became an important evidence in the subsequent investigation.
After the projectile was sent back to Sanya as evidence, it was quickly handed over from the Ministry of Security to the Military Intelligence Bureau, which is more professional in weapons identification, and then brought from the Military Intelligence Bureau to Tiandu Industrial Zone, where it was experimented by Haihan Ordnance Industry The technicians in the room conducted a preliminary sampling analysis of the composition of the projectile and quickly ruled out the possibility that it belonged to the Haihan Army ammunition.
The sampling report records the projectile's weight, diameter and, most importantly, its composition. Although the projectile has been severely deformed after entering the human body, it is not difficult to restore it because its original shape is spherical. Then the Military Intelligence Bureau suddenly discovered that the composition of this projectile was almost exactly the same as the analysis results of the bullet samples sent back from Zhejiang. Common musket projectiles are generally made of lead-based metal. However, the smelting technology at this time is still difficult to highly purify a specific metal, and the lead used to make projectiles is generally not available because it is cheap and easy to process. There will be people who specifically process its components, which will inevitably be mixed with other metal components.
The manufacturers and users of weapons will definitely not care about such details, but for Haihan, it is one of the few investigation methods that can use its own technical advantages. Although this was a routine move, and no one really pinned their hopes on solving the case, they didn't expect that after all this trouble, they would actually discover something fishy.
A group of gangsters who tried to assassinate the crown prince of Joseon in Danzhou used projectiles with the same composition as the projectiles used by the attackers in a battle with the Zhejiang Salt Industry thousands of miles away. These two seemingly unrelated things happened because of this. The little projectiles are connected together.
The investigators did not dare to neglect this situation at all and reported it to Yan Chujie as soon as possible. After Yan Chujie confirmed the investigation results to Bai Kesi, he thought that this matter still required coordination among various departments, so he made another call to He Xi from the Security Department and asked him to come to Fort Victory for a three-way meeting.
He Xi knew the ins and outs of the Danzhou case, but the Security Department was not responsible for following up on the Zhejiang case, so he had to listen to Yan Chujie introduce the situation.
"Is there any coincidence in the composition analysis of this projectile? How high is the probability?" He Xi must first be sure that this is not a misjudgment based on a high-probability event, but a small-probability event with an extremely low chance of coincidence. .
Bai Kesi responded: "Let me make an analogy. This probability is like we randomly selected a platoon of soldiers from Danzhou, and then randomly selected a platoon from Zhoushan, and then we found the arrangement of the surnames of the soldiers in the two places and the distribution of each surname. The number of people is exactly the same.”
Yan Chujie added: "If this happened in reality, then I would definitely think that Shi Diwen was joking with me!"
He Xi touched her double chin and said: "It sounds like the probability is very small... Let's talk about the conclusion. I think you should already have a clear opinion on this."
Bai Kesi hesitated before saying: "If the matter is true, it is very likely that the projectiles found in Zhejiang and the projectiles found in Danzhou were made in the same place."
He Xi spread his hands and said, "That's it?"
"Isn't this enough?" Yan Chujie responded: "At least this is information that the Ministry of Security has not uncovered in previous investigations. I think you should be able to dig out more things from this."
He Xi said: "Currently, I have no other evidence that can link the events in the two places together. As you just said, the Zhoushan authorities believe that it is the traditional salt merchants in the Jianghuai area who are behind the fight in the salt industry. If it is certain If we want to force contact, I can only say that the group of people arrested in Danzhou have very abundant funds for their operations, and the financial backers behind them may be groups with relatively strong economic power such as salt merchants.”
Seeing that the two of them were listening attentively, He Xi continued: "Even if your judgment is correct, it just means that the weapons used in these two places may come from the same source, but that's it. We still don't know. Where did these weapons come from? You may be hoping that these people arrested by the Ministry of Security in Danzhou will give you useful information, but I'm afraid you will be disappointed, because these people have received special anti-reconnaissance training. The credibility of the information is limited, and they may not know where they bought the weapons they used.”
Yan Chujie frowned and said, "How could this happen? Don't you have many good torturers under you? Give it a good trial. If that doesn't work, I can also send some people to Danzhou to assist, or simply get them back first. ”
He Xi said: "This is not a question of who is going to interrogate. The person behind the scenes should have made a plan for the failure of the operation and did not leave us many clues for tracing. But since your Military Intelligence Bureau has discovered If there are new clues, then Danzhou may need to re-examine the whereabouts of the evidence. I will send a message to Danzhou later and ask Zhang Qianzhi to dig three feet into the scene to dig out the weapons used by those people! ”
If the muskets used by Xue Zheng and his group could be found, it might be of greater help in investigating the identity of their makers. Zhejiang is temporarily unable to seize the attacker's weapons, so whether Danzhou can find the weapons used by the attackers may be the easiest clue to obtain in the near future. What the Ministry of Security can currently do is probably only to this extent.
Yan Chujie was silent for a while, and then added: "Liaodong Jinzhou sent a telegram back. The Qing army seems to have some new type of muskets, and it has caused damage to our army. I always feel that these things cannot be such a coincidence. They all appeared together during this period. However, it will take some time for the evidence from Jinzhou to be returned, and then it will be confirmed whether what I am worried about is true."
"If the weapons of the Qing army discovered in Jinzhou were also produced in the same place, then this matter would be very lively." He Xi immediately realized the horror of it very keenly: "With the ability to control Hainan Island, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Liaodong, There are not many forces that can export weapons and equipment to three places at the same time.”
(End of chapter)