Chapter 2019
If Hispanic people want to get a life-changing opportunity after the change of rulers in the Manila area, they can only find such official jobs and rely on working for the official to gain recognition from the authorities, thereby gaining the opportunity to naturalize. After successfully joining the Haihan nationality, one can hope to break through the class and transform from a lower-class person to a superior person. Jose may not have had such awareness before, but he has been gradually instilled with many concepts in the past six months since he joined the army, and naturally he has already understood where his future lies.
Becoming a Hispanic intelligence officer means that Jose will completely break away from his previous status and truly enter an official career. This is a situation that he did not even dare to think about during the Spanish rule. Jose's family has been farmers for several generations, but starting from his generation, the family's destiny seems to be finally developing in a better direction.
Therefore, for the intelligence agencies, it is a catch-up operation, but for participants like Jose, it is an excellent opportunity to change their destiny, even if he knows that his professional abilities may still be relatively lacking, and he may even He was willing to take the risk despite taking great risks during the mission.
Not to mention, there are two excellent role models in front of him. Jose once listened to Ran Tianlu and Fang Peng recount their experiences of lurking in Manila City. The mission that these two men performed at the beginning was the same as the mission he received now. ? They were also lurking in enemy territory to collect intelligence, and the targets were also the Spanish colonial authorities, and they at least had Hispanic status as a cover. Logically speaking, the difficulty of performing the task should be easier than the original situation of these two officers.
These two officers relied on their achievements as spies in Manila City to be promoted to regional leaders. As we all know, Haihan's main opponent in this region is Spain. In the future, some professionals will inevitably be needed to take charge of intelligence work on Spain. It is obviously very likely that the first Hispanic intelligence officer will receive excellent treatment as a An example for those who come after him, this is indeed a goal worth risking for Jose.
As for everyone except Jose, they have not shown many strengths yet, especially the local natives of Luzon Island. Perhaps they are limited by their vision and knowledge. Basically, they can only do things step by step according to the instructions, which is subjective. Less active. If it were not for the need for a group of indigenous intelligence agents who could easily conceal their identities, the Ministry of Security and Military Intelligence would not even want to recruit these indigenous personnel with low qualifications.
The main responsibility of these indigenous intelligence agents who were selected to participate in this operation was actually to serve as crew members, transporting Jose safely to Cebu, and to cooperate with his actions as witnesses who could prove Jose's identity - to put it bluntly. That is, tool people.
Ran Tianlu did not expect these people to collect any valuable information from Cebu. As long as they could cooperate with Jose safely, it was enough. Therefore, the most important thing he told them was to "forget their identities and put themselves aside." Just be an ordinary sailor." As long as these people don't take the initiative to cause trouble after arriving in Cebu, Ran Tianlu believes that his arrangement will be able to deceive the Spaniards and allow them to settle down safely there.
Due to the rush of time, it is difficult to impart more systematic professional knowledge to these personnel. We can only seize the time to strengthen their understanding of intelligence collection work, let them know where to start after they go to the local area, and clarify what they need to investigate. Through which channels the information will be obtained, and what taboos in intelligence work must be avoided.
As for the goal of building an intelligence network, Ran Tianlu and Fang Peng hold relatively conservative opinions on this for the time being. Although they also want to achieve this goal, the people they send out have no relevant experience, and it is easy to cause trouble if they operate rashly, so they plan to After Jose successfully settles in the local area, he will slowly plan to establish an intelligence network. Of course, if Jose can successfully complete the preliminary preparations, then when the intelligence network is initially established, it will most likely be handed over to him for operation.
While the personnel participating in the operation were being trained, the preparation of relevant materials was also quickly completed. The Military Intelligence Agency specifically found a small sailboat that was captured at a local port at the beginning of the year, and hid a large amount of operational funds in the cabin on the ship. However, Fang Peng asked Jose not to use the spare funds unless absolutely necessary, so as not to attract the Spanish authorities' suspicion. Of course, if Jose becomes greedy and wants to keep the operation funds for himself, then he may have to consider the situation of his family in Manila.
After ten days of intensive special training, Jose and others boarded the sailboat from the pier at the mouth of the Pasig River one early morning and quietly sailed away from Manila.
"Brother Fang, what do you think? What are the chances of something happening?" Ran Tianlu asked Fang Peng, who was also coming to see him off, as he watched the sailboat go away on the sea.
Fang Pengsurong said: "If they can successfully settle down there, then I think there should still be a chance to continue the plan. As for how far Jose and the others can achieve, it's hard to predict. It depends on the local people. What do you think?”
"Me? I'm more optimistic." Ran Tianlu returned his gaze to the sailboat: "I should be 30% sure!"
Fang Peng was not surprised at all, and nodded with a matter-of-fact expression: "Thirty percent...then you are indeed quite optimistic."
This was a relatively optimistic view after completing the special training. One can imagine how uneasy they were when they received this order. Although the 30% chance still sounds quite risky, it is better than dying in vain. As for what achievements Jose and others can achieve in Cebu, it probably depends on their fate. If their fate is not good, they may die as soon as they arrive in Cebu.
Jose has also had the experience of going out to sea by boat before, but it was just fishing with other people's boats, and the range was within Manila Bay, and the farthest he only went to Corregidor Island at the mouth of the bay. Since he was born, he has never really left Luzon Island, but he never thought that when he left Luzon Island for the first time, he would go out to do big things.
The twelve people on this ship were selected by two intelligence agencies, but only two of them have relatively rich navigation experience and can understand charts, identify directions, and calculate voyages, while the rest can only serve as Sailors are responsible for manual labor such as manipulating sail ropes.
Although Jose is the commander of this team, he can only play the role of an ordinary sailor on the ship. However, he didn't take it seriously, thinking that this could be regarded as a learning process. After these hundreds of nautical miles, he should be able to learn a lot of sailing skills. After the sailboat sailed out of Manila Bay, it traveled south along the coastline, then turned east and passed through the strait between Luzon and Mindoro.
The Spanish established colonies on both sides of the strait, Batangas and Puerto Galera respectively. However, after this year's Battle of Manila, the Haihan Navy visited these places from time to time, so the Spanish immigrants in these two places Most of them moved to the southern islands, and the few who stayed there also chose to move inland and settle for safety.
Since the special training period had already consumed too much time, and the information they wanted to collect was of a certain timeliness, there was no plan to stop at the coast during the voyage after departure, and they rushed to Cebu Port day and night. But even the two people on board who had sailing experience almost lost their way at sea when faced with the complex marine environment of the Philippine Islands. The original voyage of more than 400 nautical miles did not arrive at Cebu Island until the sixth day. North end. At this time, time has entered 1638.
Cebu Port is located on the central coast of the east side of Cebu Island. It is also where the navigator Magellan landed when he first arrived in the Philippines in 1521. As Spain's maritime pioneer, Magellan used force to coerce the chiefs in this area to surrender to the Kingdom of Spain. However, his luck was not very good. When he personally led his army to attack an island tribe, he was killed by the natives of the island and failed. to continue his sailing career.
After General Legaspi led his army to conquer Cebu in 1565, he used it as a stronghold to expand throughout the Philippine Islands, and thus began his rule of the Philippines for more than three hundred years. Of course, due to the appearance of the uninvited guest Haihan, the Spanish rule in the Philippine Islands has changed, and their next days may not be as easy as they were in history.
After losing Manila, Cebu became the capital of the Spanish colonial authorities in the Philippine Islands. Although its vitality was severely damaged during the war, there was finally such a backup port city that stepped in in time, so the colonial authorities could still barely operate. It won't completely turn into a mess just because of the defeat of a war.
For Jose and others, Cebu is just a place that exists in rumors. They know that the Spaniards set foot in this place much earlier than Manila, but they have no idea what kind of city Cebu is. No concept at all. As for how they will settle down and carry out operations after arriving in Cebu, their superiors only gave a general framework for action. How to implement it will have to be decided on their own after they arrive locally based on the specific situation.
In other words, Jose needs to make a decision on the spot on how to achieve the mission goal. If he makes a wrong decision and fails in action, the identity of the twelve of them may be exposed, and they may not be able to get out of Cebu by then.
Jose also knew that he had a heavy responsibility, so in addition to working as a part-time sailor during the journey, almost all his time was spent repeatedly reviewing several plans prepared by his superiors to ensure that he could perform more naturally after arriving in Cebu. .
When there were still more than ten nautical miles away from Cebu Port, two Spanish armed sailing ships appeared on the sea and approached Jose's ship in an attempt to verify their identities. Jose quickly asked someone to display a red cross-on-white flag symbolizing the Kingdom of Spain to show his identity.
The reason why it was not hung on the mast but displayed on site was a special arrangement by the intelligence department. They set up Jose's ship as a sailing ship escaping from near Manila, so it could not fly the Spanish flag on the way to avoid being noticed by the Haihan warships cruising near Luzon Island. When we arrived near Cebu, which was under Spanish control, it made sense to take out the flag and display it at this time.
However, perhaps because of the heavy losses suffered in the Manila War, the Spanish colonial authorities now have very strict control over the sea. Even though the Jose ship has displayed its flag, the patrolling armed sailboats are unfamiliar with the ship. , or a specially divided ship was sent out to follow Jose's ship to Cebu Port.
Compared with Manila Port, the conditions of Cebu Port are obviously worse. Both the port size and supporting facilities are not as good as those of Manila Port. In addition, Spain is the losing side. Businessmen from Daming and other places are worried that Haihan will impose a trade blockade on Spain, so in order to avoid getting into trouble, they simply don’t come to Cebu. This resulted in the business atmosphere in Cebu being far inferior to that of pre-war Manila. Jose took a careful look when entering the port. Almost all the sailing ships docked on the shore belonged to Spain, unlike pre-war Manila where there were many sailing ships from the Ming Dynasty. Chinese sailing ship.
If Ran Tianlu saw this scene, he would analyze to Jose the negative impact this trade situation would have on the colonial authorities. The large amount of silver that the galleons shipped from the Americas every year was supposed to be exchanged for goods through trade between the Philippines and the northern countries, and then shipped back to Europe to earn greater profits. But now the scale of trade between the Philippine colonies and the outside world has been greatly reduced due to the failure of the war. As a result, a large amount of silver is accumulated in Cebu, and there are not many goods for sale on the market. The direct consequence is inflation.
However, Jose may not be able to understand such complex economic knowledge at his level. Besides, he has no intention of disguising himself as a businessman, so there is no need to consider the causal relationship between the depression of the local port and cross-border trade for the time being. What he has to do now is to settle down locally as soon as possible. Only after settling down can he find opportunities to collect the information required by his superiors.
At the signal of the accompanying armed sailboat, Jose's ship docked at a pier. Before the gangplank could be lowered on the ship, a small group of Spanish soldiers came to the dock and asked those on board to identify themselves and the status of the ship. It seems that Cebu is still in a state of turmoil after the war, and any foreign ship entering the port will be subject to such strict inspections.
However, Jose was certainly prepared for this and asked these Spanish soldiers to negotiate with a higher-ranking officer, because some of the things on the ship must be officially confirmed by the colonial authorities.
(End of chapter)