Chapter 2018
Although the Ministry of Security and the Military Intelligence Bureau are both intelligence agencies, there are still obvious differences in their organizational attributes. The Ministry of Security is a special department directly managed by the Executive Committee. The scope of intelligence it is responsible for covers almost all aspects of domestic and international affairs, and the objects of investigation are also unknown. Not included.
The Military Intelligence Bureau is an intelligence agency under the Ministry of National Defense. Its main function is to collect military intelligence from other countries. Its capabilities in the military field are more specialized than that of the Ministry of Security.
Because the functions of these two departments overlap to a certain extent, they are in a competitive relationship most of the time. Even in aspects such as recruiting new people, the two departments will secretly compete.
As for the training content for new employees, both departments have their own areas of expertise, so generally speaking they will not be disclosed to the other party.
However, Manila is an exception, because the heads of the two departments have a close personal relationship. It is not an exaggeration to say that they are life and death friends, and they do not take the competitive relationship between departments too seriously. Even when it comes to recruiting and training new people, they don't keep much confidentiality about it.
Now they have temporarily taken on such a difficult task, requiring them to dispatch intelligence personnel to Cebu as soon as possible. The two departments could not select a few suitable candidates. In order to save time and resources, the short training before departure was only Merger can be carried out.
Ran Tianlu and Fang Peng attached great importance to this. Both of them personally served as lecturers and conducted surprise training for the selected people.
However, this training is different from the past, because the people they train may have a better understanding of the action goals than they do, so they do not assign specific measures to these subordinates on how to carry out operations after arriving locally. Just give a certain range and let them decide according to the situation. The main explanation content is still focused on how to organize and transmit information.
A total of twelve people were selected by the Ministry of Security and the Military Intelligence Bureau. Taking into account the special nature of the task, no Chinese were selected. Among the twelve people, there were three young Hispanics, and the remaining nine were all Filipino natives.
There is no problem with Ran Tianlu’s Spanish, but communication with indigenous students is more troublesome. Due to objective language barriers, they must use a translator to communicate with these subordinates. The same content often needs to be repeated to the indigenous students. , so the training efficiency is really low.
If they are veterans, maybe it would be enough to tell them about the details that need to be paid attention to. However, the longest time these people have joined the Haihan Intelligence Department is only half a year, and none of them have experience in performing tasks overseas. Now they have to let go of these people directly. Being sent to the opponent's ruled area, whether it is loyalty or professional skills, will inevitably make people very worried.
During the training, Ran Tianlu specially asked Francis to come twice to explain to these newcomers some official rules of the colonial authorities and the personal situations of some senior Spanish officials.
As for how useful this information will be in the future, no one can predict it at the moment.
When Francis was teaching these people, he also noticed the South China Sea chart hanging here. The East Indies area including the Philippine Islands depicted above was much more detailed than the previous charts held by the Spanish authorities. .
Many places that Francis had only heard of but had never been to were marked in detail on this chart.
He carefully identified it. If the proportions and sizes of the islands on the Haihan chart were correct, then the Spanish authorities' chart was not very standard. Francis secretly thought that these Haihan people obviously didn't know much about the situation in the southern waters. , why can they have such detailed charts.
To draw such a fine level of nautical charts, it is not something that can be completed in a year and a half. If Haihan has the ability to do this, then why bother sending people to Cebu to find out the information and dispatching directly? It would be faster for the fleet to attack the port of Cebu.
However, since Haihan has such quality sea maps, it is not surprising that they were able to cross the sea to attack Manila. It is conceivable that other areas that Haihan has set foot on must have charts similar to this, which is a very scary thing.
This means that any country that wants to compete with Haihan on the sea, in addition to the performance gap of ship weapons, now also has to overcome the disadvantage of geographical data.
"It's too difficult, it's really too difficult!" Francis couldn't help but sigh in his heart after re-evaluating the strength of Haihan's maritime armed forces.
Historically, when Spain entered this area, it took several generations, invested countless financial resources and energy, and paid a considerable price before it finally established a foothold and established several colonies.
If such a detailed nautical map had been available at that time, the Spaniards could have saved at least several decades in the process.
But fortunately, the Haihan people appeared relatively late. If they arrived in this area at the same time as the Spanish, Francis estimated that the fate of the Spanish would be similar to that of the Portuguese and Dutch today. If they want to stay here, It all depends on Haihan's expression.
Of course, the situation of the Spaniards is not much better now. After defeating and losing the city of Manila at the beginning of the year, Spain's strength in this region has regressed to at least the last century. It is really difficult to turn around in the short term.
If the quality of the charts used to formulate combat plans is far inferior to that of the opponent, then there is no need to fight. At this moment, Francis really wants to repair a letter and send it to Cebu, so that the colonial authorities will stop wasting resources and continue fighting Haihan. , it is better to try to negotiate with Haihan, which may also alleviate the current passive situation. I think both the Netherlands and Portugal had fought with Haihan, but later they chose to actively seek peace to protect their own interests. Why did the colonial authorities want to get into trouble? Wouldn't it be good to learn from their Western counterparts and do business with Haihan?
Of course, these thoughts were only Francis' feelings after serving Haihan for nearly a year. If it had been placed before the Battle of Manila, he would have scorned such a "weak" idea and resolutely chosen to use force to resolve the dispute with Haihan. But the situation is different now. Since we know that there is an insurmountable gap in strength between the two sides, why bother to do thankless things again.
The plan between the two departments was to arrange a boat for the group to travel to Cebu as refugees.
However, if you just go there so recklessly, your identity will probably be revealed as soon as you arrive. The reason is because this group of people are all young and strong, and how can the refugees who escaped from Luzon Island not even have an old or weak person? There were no women or children. So in addition to the ship, we also have to give them a reasonable background story that makes sense.
Of course, such a trivial matter would certainly not be a problem for the experienced intelligence department, not to mention that this time the two departments joined forces and basically had access to any resources, and they were quickly given a credible background story.
Among this group of people, Ran Tianlu designated a young Hispanic named Jose as the operational commander. This man was a Spanish immigrant born and raised in Manila. His parents were ordinary farmers. He had never committed a crime or worked as a errand. , there is no special record in the colonial authorities, his family background is clean, and he is suitable for engaging in intelligence work.
Jose's family lives in an immigrant village on the north bank of the Pasig River, forty or fifty miles away from Manila. After the Battle of Manila, some officials and wealthy businessmen who fled from Manila did not have the opportunity to go to sea, so they chose to cross the Pasig River and flee to the northern interior. The immigrant villages along the way became the source of supplies for these people.
During the war, these upper-class figures had no intention of treating the people in the village as compatriots. All they needed was the money and food in the hands of these people and the horses at home. If they don't comply, they will directly expropriate the farmers' private property in the name of the government. If they don't comply, they will simply wipe their faces and force themselves to do so.
The Jose family did not have any background, so they were regarded as tool workers by the fleeing dignitaries. They were not only required to donate their family's food and pack horses, but also to act as porters and leave the village with the fleeing team.
Although there is an invasion of foreign enemies in Manila, the Jose family is not willing to leave their hometown. They believe that the Haihan people’s goal is the city of Manila and will not send troops to clear out rural farmers. Naturally, they do not want to give up their family property, let alone let these arrogant people As soon as the master's upper lip touched his lower lip, his property was taken away in the name of "official requisition".
But these gentlemen have completely different ideas. They believe that only by preserving themselves can Spain's rule on Luzon Island be preserved. As for the value of these tool men, how can they be compared with their own. Besides, if the money, food and horses are not taken away, when the Haihan people come over, they will all be confiscated by the enemy. By then, these will become a knife on one's neck. If you think about it this way, wouldn't farmers who are unwilling to cooperate be scheming to the enemy in disguise?
As a result, conflicts inevitably broke out between the men who were eager to obtain supplies and continued to flee, and the farmers who were unwilling to abandon their homes and property. How could an honest and honest farmer like the Jose family stand up to the armed attendants of these gentlemen? Not only did they suffer a severe beating and most of their property was robbed, but they also left with a smile on their faces. They burned down their houses, barns and cowsheds, and they also claimed that this was to strengthen the walls and clear the country so as not to leave supplies for the enemy.
As the saying goes, the Clay Bodhisattva also has three points of anger. Although Jose was born in a farmer's family, when he is forced to have no way out, an honest person will also explode. Later, when the Haihan army pursued here, Jose didn't know where he got the courage, so he took the initiative to find the Haihan officer who led the team, and wanted to lead them to pursue the dignitary who had escaped here just a day ago.
Finally, with the help of Jose, the Haihan Army found more than 200 Spaniards and their attendants hiding in a nearby valley, and then, as agreed in advance, took the place where Jose had been kidnapped. Part of the family property was returned to him. Before escorting the prisoners back to Manila, the officer leading the team suggested that Jose simply join the army so that he and his family could receive permanent official asylum from Haihan.
For Jose, it is easy to tell who is strong and who is weak. The city of Manila has been captured by the Haihan Army. The once arrogant men in the city are now escaping and evading capture. In the future, Manila will never be seen again. Belongs to the Kingdom of Spain. To put it bluntly, even if the Spanish army comes back one day, he and his family will definitely be sent to the gallows for "collaborating with the enemy" - in fact, if those gentlemen were not in a hurry to escape, they would not have time to build a On the gallows, their family was probably hanged on any random charge before the Haihan Army arrived.
From this point of view, joining Haihan was undoubtedly a way to protect himself. Jose only considered it for a moment before making the decision, and then followed Haihan's army back to Manila City, becoming the first group of Hispanics to defect to the army after the local area changed hands.
However, although Jose joined the army, he was not assigned to a combat unit. The main reason is that there are too few local young Hispanics who actively join the army. So few that the military feels that it is a waste to assign these people to combat troops and waste their ethnic advantages, so the Military Intelligence Bureau first These people were screened to select those who had the potential to do civilian work such as translation, and those who were suitable for espionage work.
Jose didn't have much education, but he had a clean foundation. Moreover, in order to protect his family, he chose to break with the Spanish upper class and voluntarily joined Haihan to join the army. This meant that he had almost no way to turn back, and it was even more likely that he would I will be loyal to Haihan in the future. With conditions like these, it would be a waste if he was not recruited into the Military Intelligence Bureau to become a spy.
So two months after Jose joined the army, he was transferred out of the boot camp and reported to the Military Intelligence Bureau. However, the training content of the Military Intelligence Bureau is far more complicated than that of ordinary combat troops. Therefore, although Jose has been in the Military Intelligence Bureau for more than half a year, the progress of his training is not enough to enable him to independently perform missions overseas. extent.
But the current situation is that Sanya has to catch up and ask the intelligence department in Manila to take measures. With no choice but to use newcomers like Jose.
Among the more than ten people jointly selected by the two intelligence agencies, Jose was the first to be recruited by the intelligence agency. He has been trained the longest. His family has also moved to Manila to settle down, and he is relatively loyal. Jose's conditions were better than the worst, so appointing him as the commander of this operation was actually a helpless move to choose a taller one among a short one.
However, Jose himself was extremely excited, because Fang Peng had promised when he recruited him to participate in this mission that as long as the mission could achieve certain gains, Jose's family could be naturalized as Haihan and receive land rewards, and he himself was on the mission After completion, you will also receive rewards and promotion opportunities.
"You have a chance to become the first Hispanic intelligence officer in the history of Haihan!" Fang Peng's encouragement has always been in Jose's mind, which makes him not care about the potential risks and difficulties of this trip, as long as it can be completed Task, he will become an official from now on. This is a great opportunity that even a lifelong farmer cannot get.
(End of chapter)