Chapter 2014
As the end of the year approaches, the intelligence agencies in Sanya are becoming increasingly busy. Under the supervision of the Executive Committee, the Ministry of Security and the Military Intelligence Bureau have recently stepped up investigations into gun cases that have occurred in various places, trying to find out the hidden connections between these incidents. After investing a lot of resources, the intelligence agency has also received investigation reports from various places at home and abroad, and the conclusions seem to be exactly what the Executive Committee was worried about before.
In several gun cases that occurred in Hainan, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Liaodong, muskets and ammunition manufactured in Spain were found. In Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Liaodong, it was even discovered that Spanish people were suspected of helping local armed forces conduct military training.
From these evidences, we can roughly infer a situation that must attract Haihan's attention, that is, Spain did not stop its efforts after losing Manila this year. It is still secretly continuing to operate certain methods to blackmail Haihan, and its coverage is so wide that it has Far beyond the past few years, this is a new situation that Heihan has never had before.
How the Spaniards went to these places and successfully established a cooperative relationship with local forces is a question that puzzles the Haihan intelligence department.
Since Haihan seized the two ports of Tamsui and Jilong in the northern part of Taiwan Island from the Spanish colonists in early 1633, the relationship between the two parties has been completely broken. From that time, Haihan began to control the island of Taiwan. Surrounding waters are monitored to prevent Spanish ships from entering the waters north of Taiwan Island. As Haihan gradually expanded in the eastern and northern coastal areas of the Ming Dynasty, its control over the sea lanes and major trading ports in the area became increasingly tight. It might not be difficult for Spanish ships to slip in once or twice, but it would take several years without being caught. It is unlikely that Haihan would break his tracks.
Therefore, in the final report compiled from the Ministry of Security and the Military Intelligence Bureau to the Executive Committee, the views on this issue are relatively consistent, that is, they believe that the Spanish's method of activity is not simply to send a fleet to sneak into the incident area, but also to Other intermediary powers intervened, providing the Spaniards with certain special channels for activity.
It is actually not too difficult to solve this mystery. After all, many relevant personnel have been captured in Danzhou on Hainan Island and Yangzhou in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. The Executive Committee is still very optimistic about finding out the truth. As long as you pry open the mouths of these people, you will definitely be able to obtain some key information.
The first person to open a breakthrough was not the Hainan Island side who first captured relevant personnel, but the special operations team who captured a bunch of injured people in Yangzhou. On the day they returned to Zhoushan Island, they successfully obtained important information from the prisoners.
After Gong Shiqi and Ji Yuanqing returned to Zhoushan, they only received short-term treatment and then devoted themselves to the interrogation work again. It’s not that they don’t want to rest for a while, but the situation really waits for no one. These injured people who can survive to Zhoushan Island may not be able to recover from their injuries and let them slowly interrogate them. If they are delayed for another day or two, these prisoners will I probably won't be able to speak.
But what is more regrettable is that neither of the two commanders of the Yangzhou Salt Merchant Musketeers were caught alive. The information these minions had must be relatively limited. It is estimated that they had no chance to access some important information. However, there is some basic information that can be verified from their confessions.
The first is the establishment time of this musketeer team. These people began to be selected one after another in March this year, and then secretly gathered for training in a place called Huaisi Town near Yangzhou City. The identity of the Spanish commander was relatively clearly identified in the confessions of many prisoners.
According to their confessions, the Spanish officer known as "Mr. Ricardo" appeared in Yangzhou in mid-April this year and was responsible for training them. In the subsequent operations, including the last battle, this Spanish officer was the one directing the operations on the front line.
They were not told the real reason when they first gathered. They thought they were serving a militia organized by Lu Kangtai. It was not until Spanish officers arrived who issued muskets to them that they gradually realized that their mission was not It is as simple as guarding a warehouse or a salt ship. Instead, it exists as a secret armed force dedicated to performing special tasks that are not convenient for the public to see - such as dealing with competitors in the region.
However, as soon as they had achieved some success in training, the low-priced refined salt from Ningbo replaced the Anhui salt merchants and became the target of their first attack. And the next few actions did indeed eliminate their opponents cleanly, giving them the illusion of being invincible until they hit the iron plate of the special operations team. As for the method and price at which Lu Kangtai obtained these muskets, no one knows about these minions.
"The Spaniards had to cross the ocean to get to Yangzhou, and they took great risks for this. The purpose was actually to help the Yangzhou salt merchants build a musketry team to deal with their competitors. This definitely doesn't make sense." Shi Di After reading the report submitted by Ji Yuanqing, Wen Zai disagreed with this statement: "They are not warm-hearted good people. They must have a bigger conspiracy to make such a big noise!"
"Also, previous intelligence stated that there were North Koreans in this musketeer team. Why was this part not seen in the interrogation report?" Shi Diwen asked Ji Yuanqing.
Ji Yuanqing explained: "According to the prisoners' confessions, there were indeed two unidentified Koreans in this musketeer team, but they escaped by chance this time, so we currently have no more information to confirm their identities and The reason for joining the Musketeers. In addition, regarding the real purpose of the Spaniards, I thought it should be to open up a special channel in the Ming Dynasty to allow salt merchants to invest in the formation of an armed force that would take orders from Spain so that under certain circumstances. play a role.”
The possibility that Ji Yuanqing mentioned was also the conclusion he reached after discussing with Gong Qiqi. If there is not a big enough profit prospect, the Spaniards do not need to take great risks to do such a thing under Haihan's nose. . If the Spaniards wanted to become a transnational arms dealer out of economic interests, there would be no need to risk their lives as commanders and charge into battle after providing basic military training to Yangzhou salt merchants.
Judging from the situations that occurred in several places from south to north during this period, the Spanish were obviously not only satisfied with providing weapons and equipment to many parties, but also intended to intervene in the affairs of the region. At that time, Haihan supported Li Jifeng to become the number one merchant in Guangdong, and used his reputation to establish the armed organization Golden Shield, which indirectly affected and controlled the business environment in the Pearl River Basin. Now the Spaniards support local salt merchants in Yangzhou to establish private armies. There seems to be similar results.
Of course, the implementation of the Spanish's small move in Yangzhou was not so smooth, because the conflict of interests among the salt merchants caused their methods to be exposed to Haihan's vision early, and then they quickly attracted Haihan's attack. Since the armed organizations of the local salt merchants were far from forming real combat effectiveness, Zhoushan Island just sent an action team to destroy this cooperation project that had been in operation for more than half a year. Neither Ji Yuanqing nor Gong Shiqi believed that the local salt merchants' armed forces could develop to a large scale. On the one hand, it was impossible for the government to sit back and watch civilian armed forces of this nature grow too large. On the other hand, the Spaniards did not necessarily have the corresponding production of weapons and equipment. capabilities to meet development needs. After all, in addition to Yangzhou, it is said that the musketeers appearing in the Qing army formation in the east direction of Liaodong are also related to the Spanish, and the demand for weapons there will obviously be several orders of magnitude greater than that in Yangzhou, and they will directly confront the Haihan people, regardless of Whether considering economic interests or political considerations, the Spaniards will definitely give priority to their big patrons in the north.
After sorting out and summarizing the conclusions of the interrogation, Shi Diwen sent the investigation progress back to Sanya Victory Fort via the radio, and also asked for credit for the team that carried out the mission. The casualties in this operation in Yangzhou were actually relatively heavy. They have rarely appeared in the overseas operations of the intelligence agencies in recent years. However, because of the special significance of this operation, the Ministry of Security and the Military Intelligence Bureau were not sure about the final result. There is not much objection. It is believed that Gong Qiqi and Ji Yuanqing have done the best within their capabilities. The casualties were unavoidable under the circumstances at the time and can only be made up for in the form of awards and pensions afterwards.
"Look, it's the Spaniards again!" Bai Kesi walked into the conference room with the telegram he had just received and said to everyone who was already seated: "The results of the interrogation in Zhejiang have come out. It is indeed the Spaniards who caused trouble and sent people to Yangzhou. Salt merchants provided weapons, equipment and related military training. Several previous attacks have been confirmed to be carried out by Yangzhou salt merchants.”
"The Spaniards have been very restless in recent months!" Tao Donglai sighed: "They have made disturbances in several places one after another. Could it be that they still want to counterattack northward?"
"Isn't that a little difficult? Our troops stationed in Manila are not rookies. If the Spaniards want to play the trick of attacking from the east and attacking in the west, and sneaking into Chencang secretly, they will hit an iron plate." Yan Chujie expressed objections to Tao Donglai's idea. I don't think the Spaniards can use these tricks to divert Haihan's troops from the South China Sea, and then take advantage of the opportunity to counterattack Manila.
Moreover, although the current situation in Liaodong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang has successfully attracted the attention of the Executive Committee, this small battle is far from enough to drive Haihan to carry out large-scale cross-regional mobilization of overseas troops. The garrison in Zhoushan is enough to intimidate the coastal areas of Jiangsu and Zhejiang and protect Haihan's local interests. However, even if the war in Liaodong becomes tense, the garrison in Shandong and North Korea can be mobilized to go north for reinforcements. It is not possible to use the garrison in the South China Sea.
In fact, although the military successively transferred several elite troops back to the north after the war in Manila, the troops currently stationed in Manila are still the front-line combat troops of the Haihan Army. The military has actually been cautious about the possibility of a Spanish counterattack, and has specially retained a basically fully-equipped fleet in Manila to ensure its advantage in maritime battles.
Tao Donglai thought it made sense when he heard it, nodded and said: "Lao Yan, what do you think the real purpose of the Spaniards is to carry out these actions?"
Yan Chujie said: "The real purpose should be to try to contain our actions in the north. At present, the partners the Spaniards seek to cooperate with basically have direct or indirect conflicts of interest with our country. They provide these forces with weapons and Military training will eventually affect us. However, with the Spaniards' ability, even if they try their best, I think they will only cause some minor troubles that are not painful and will not change the international situation in Northeast Asia. ”
"Don't underestimate them." Ning Qi interjected from the side: "The people who cooperate with them may be far more than those we have found so far, otherwise there is no way to explain how they entered these areas to carry out activities."
"You're right." Tao Donglai nodded and acknowledged Ning Qi's view: "As for how the Spaniards got in touch with these local forces, we still haven't got a reasonable answer. Lao He, where are you? Is there any new progress? ”
He Xi, who had been listening quietly, saw that Tao Donglai finally called his name, so he responded: "Several people we captured in Danzhou have spoken one after another, but the circumstances they confessed are somewhat special, unlike Ning. The issue mentioned by the minister just now is also related to a certain extent, but until it is confirmed, I have not planned to write it into a formal report to avoid being swayed by wrong information.”
"Tell me first, what did they confess?" Ning Qi asked curiously.
He Xi glanced at Tao Donglai and saw that the other party nodded slightly, then continued: "According to the criminal Xue Zheng and others, they are serving some maritime merchants in the south of the Ming Dynasty. All the equipment, funds, and transportation are , and even their false identities were all provided by these employers, and their role was actually bounty killers. As for why they came to Hainan Island to assassinate the Joseon Crown Prince, they didn't know the reason, they were just following orders. ”
"Then they must have also recruited the identities of these employers? What does this have to do with the Spaniards?" Bai Kesi asked.
He Xi was silent for a moment before explaining: "But we have never heard of any of the names they gave. They probably used false identities. As for the relationship with the Spaniards... there are several people in their team. It’s from Luzon, and it’s said that the employer behind it is Spanish.”
"This means that the Spaniards not only provided weapons, but also directly participated in the assassination of the Joseon Crown Prince?" Tao Donglai frowned: "What is their purpose of assassinating the Joseon Crown Prince?"
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(End of chapter)