Chapter 2024
Fernando naturally felt Lopez's hateful gaze, but he didn't care about it now. For him, it was the last word to control the military power of the Philippine colonies as soon as possible.
Naturally, Aragones, the sinner, was responsible for the current decline of the colonial authorities. Fernando had not directly participated in the battle with Haihan before, so he could not be said to have any responsibility. Nowadays, almost all the senior generals of the colony were defeated in the Battle of Manila. Most of the remaining local armed forces were placed under Fernando's command and accepted his command. Whether Aragones falls or not, Fernando will Sitting firmly in the top position of the military.
But with a good relationship with Aragones at this stage, Fernando's process of taking over command will be much smoother. As long as the military power is obtained, no matter who becomes the governor of the Philippines next, will Fernando still have to give three points of face? If Lopez wants to be the next governor, sooner or later he will come to him in a humble manner to seek cooperation, and there is no need for Fernando to worry about the other party's attitude.
Aragones insisted on resolving the dispute with Haihan by force, which was in line with Fernando's wishes, which would make it easier for him to integrate military resources in the colony. Lopez opposed the use of force, which naturally made him different from Fernando. The relationship between the two became alienated and even antagonistic. It was precisely for this reason.
If the Haihan intelligence department could learn of these contradictions within the Spanish colonial authorities early, or if the personnel executing this plan were experienced veterans, they would definitely take more targeted measures to take advantage of these contradictions when formulating and executing the plan. To create internal conflict for the Spanish, thereby maximizing the effect of this plan.
However, after all, Jose and others are just newcomers who have just entered this industry for more than half a year, and it is obviously difficult for them to meet such high requirements. Therefore, even if they realize that the relationship between Spanish senior officials is not so harmonious, based on their existing experience and knowledge, it is still difficult for them to meet such high requirements. It is difficult to immediately think of how to take advantage of these conditions. All they can do at the moment is to wait and observe. Before departure, their superiors also asked them to try not to take any proactive measures, because only in this way can they ensure that they will not expose their flaws easily.
Since the evidence presented by Aragones is indeed very convincing, and there are both witnesses and material evidence, even Lopez cannot forcefully find fault with the eggs. After all, from the Spaniard's point of view, confronting Haihan is politically correct. , if he forcibly opposes Aragones's proposition without any basis, it will definitely be difficult to convince the public. At the moment, Lopez can only wait and see if there are other changes in the situation that he can take advantage of.
Regarding the authenticity of these messages, senior Spanish officials did not discuss it in depth at the moment, because everyone, including opposition officials, acquiesced that the escape experience of Jose and others was true, and the discovery of the escaping experience from the hijacked ship Naturally, the information cannot come from the advance arrangements of the Haihan people, so there is no doubt about its credibility.
Aragones also decided on the spot the rewards for Jose and others. In addition to obtaining the right of residence in Cebu, each of them will receive a settlement allowance, in addition to the sailboat they hijacked from Manila. , and was also awarded to them as a reward by Aragones by borrowing flowers and offering them to the Buddha.
Aragones even asked them on the spot whether they had any intention to join the army, but the plan that Jose and others wanted to implement had already been clearly arranged, so he politely declined the invitation.
The intelligence agency anticipated the possibility that the colonial authorities would invite Jose and others to join the army. However, their main purpose in going to Cebu was to investigate the Spanish collaborators and collect various local intelligence in Cebu. If they joined the army, they might be in trouble. It would be difficult to contact the outside world in a short period of time, let alone collect intelligence.
As for the military intelligence that can be collected by entering the army, the Ministry of Security and the Military Intelligence Bureau are not very interested. This is not because they look down on the Spanish, but because there were enough Spanish soldiers captured in the First World War in Manila, and even the city defense commander Officer Francis finally took refuge in Haihan, and he already knew almost all the information he should have.
The missions undertaken by Jose and others are far more important than collecting military intelligence, so the instructions they received were clear: avoid joining the army. If they can keep the ship, they will first do some business living on the sea. If they can't keep it, , then we must find another way to find a livelihood at the port first, so as to monitor the Chinese sailing ships and Han merchants entering and leaving Cebu.
The response of the colonial authorities was indeed within the prediction of the intelligence department, and the sailing ship was awarded to Jose and others as a reward. In this way, Jose and others will have a better reason to move on land and sea in Cebu, and the scope they can monitor will be larger. The intelligence department also hid a fund for activities on the ship, and now there was no need to worry about how to get it out quietly.
The following dinner was also held in the Provisional Governor's Mansion. However, due to the limited building scale of this manor, there was no large banquet hall. After the meeting, some local celebrities came to attend the dinner, so the scene seemed more... It was so crowded that the celebration banquet could only be held in the form of a semi-open-air buffet.
At the beginning of the banquet, Aragones still gave a speech. He explained the reason for holding the banquet to the guests present, and asked Jose and others to show their faces to prove that what he said was true. However, Aragones did not show off the secret letter found on the ship and most of the contents mentioned in the secret letter.
"Everyone, let us raise a toast together to these three brave young people! They have brought us hope of victory, and what we have to do next is to win on the battlefield, defeat the Haihan people, and regain the Manila!" Finally, Aragones raised his glass and shouted a toast.
"For the honor of the Kingdom of Spain!" Fernando immediately raised his glass in agreement.
The top civil and military leaders expressed their stance, and those present also cooperated with knowledge and interest. Jose smiled shyly and raised the wine glass in his hand.
Jose thought that these dignitaries would not really take these little people seriously, but after the dinner started, many people took the initiative to come around and talk to them. Some hoped that they could tell more about this adventure, others were interested in the current situation in Manila, and others asked if they were willing to work for them. The attention received far exceeded Jose's previous expectations.
However, Jose knew his task very well. While dealing with these celebrities, he also silently paid attention to the few Han guests present. Because Cebu is far away from the Ming Dynasty, and the former colonial capital was Manila, the main destination for Han immigrants and maritime merchants has always been Manila. There are not many Han people who have settled in Cebu all year round. After the Battle of Manila, many Han maritime merchants simply cut off all contact with the colonial authorities because they were worried about the liquidation of Haihan. As a result, there were even fewer Han Chinese in Cebu. Although there were dozens of guests on this occasion today, there were only a few Han Chinese-looking ones, which made them very conspicuous among a large group of Spaniards.
But the problem for Jose and others is that they do not understand Chinese, so it is difficult for them to take the initiative to talk to the several Han people present, and it is even more ridiculous to find a translator. Jose did not dare to act rashly and could only wait and see the situation. While responding to various questions raised by the Spaniards around him, he also paid attention to the movements of several Han people in the field.
In fact, the intelligence agency had already thought of the language problem when formulating the action plan, but failed to prepare a proper solution for this. Due to comprehensive considerations, the intelligence agency could only send non-Chinese intelligence officers to Cebu, and they needed fresh faces whose identities had never been exposed. In the end, they could only select a group of newcomers like Jose to perform the task. During the execution of this special task, how much advantage Jose and others took in language will also cause them great losses.
However, Jose estimated that the Han guests present should be able to speak Spanish, but he did not have the right time to test it now. There were too many people around. If he went up to chat rashly, he would accidentally overhear the conversation. , it is likely to cause unnecessary risks. Moreover, if these Han people appear here, they must have a pro-Spanish stance. Once they realize that there is something wrong with his intentions, they will most likely report it to the colonial authorities immediately.
It was not until the second half of the banquet that the number of people around Jose began to slowly decrease, giving him finally some room to move. At this time, he noticed two Han men standing next to Aragones and talking. One of them, an old man, whom he had seen in the afternoon, had been standing behind Aragones. It seemed that he should be one of his aides. The other Han man is a middle-aged man. Judging from his dark complexion, he must be traveling around all year round and is not a pampered person.
While Aragones was talking to the middle-aged man, another old Han man also spoke from time to time, seemingly translating for the two of them. After talking for a while, Aragones called Fernando over to join the discussion. During this period, other Spanish officials came, but they were stopped by Aragones's men. Obviously, the content of the discussion was not suitable for outsiders.
Recalling that he had heard Aragones say in the afternoon that he would discuss military export arrangements with his partners in the evening, Jose felt that the identity of this Han man was quite suspicious. Of course, he wanted to get closer and listen to their conversation, but He saw that everyone who had joined in the fun was stopped a few feet away, and he could only give up the idea at the moment.
But Jose might really be the chosen one. He was thinking about how to get close when he saw Aragones looking towards him, then giving a few instructions to a subordinate next to him, and the subordinate quickly came over. , leaving Jose and his two companions at their disposal.
Jose quickly put down the plate in his hand, raised his hand to wipe the grease from his mouth, and quickly followed.
"These are the three young men who found the secret letter on the boat they brought back from Manila. Mr. Chen, you can talk to them." Seeing Jose and others in place, Aragones signaled that he was talking to them. The middle-aged man he was talking to could question Jose and the others.
As expected, the middle-aged man spoke Chinese when he opened his mouth, and the other old Chinese man immediately translated it into Spanish. It turned out that he wanted to know the detailed time and process of the hijacking of the ship by Jose and others. It is estimated that Aragones had shared this information with him just now, but it must have been difficult to convince him that this was a real incident, so what would happen? Sai called several parties involved and asked the man surnamed Chen to question them personally.
Jose somewhat suspected that Aragones was deliberately testing himself to see if some of the details he said were completely consistent with previous descriptions. Fortunately, the intelligence agency has made arrangements for this. Before they set off, one of the daily training contents is to recite personal experiences repeatedly to ensure that these newcomers can keep all the details in their minds, even if they repeat the experience many times. There will be no discrepancies.
The man named Chen was very patient. After asking a few questions, he asked Aragones to provide a quieter place. So several people left the banquet and went to the conference room in the afternoon. The man surnamed Chen slowly asked Jose and others what happened.
At this time, Jose was not sure of the identity and purpose of the other party, so he could only tell the story of the ship hijacking and escape according to the script he knew by heart. Officials such as Joaquin, Fernando, and Aragones who had heard this story before quickly believed his words in the face of sufficient evidence, which shows that this story is indeed quite convincing.
However, this man surnamed Chen does not seem to be as easy to fool as the Spanish. He asked many more details than the Spanish officials. Many of them were even about navigation, such as how they identified the course at sea and found Cebu all the way south. .
Of course, it was impossible for Jose to tell him that he had the detailed nautical charts provided by the Haihan military as a guide. At that moment, he half-truthfully claimed that he was not familiar with navigation. Fortunately, there were some sailors on the ship who knew how to identify the course. I found a rough chart, then groped all the way, and finally luckily arrived in Cebu. But in fact, if you don’t have detailed navigation charts or someone who is familiar with the navigation route, and you just know the general heading, it is definitely not easy to find the destination in the Philippine Islands, which has more than 7,000 islands. An easy thing.
The man surnamed Chen obviously knew a lot about navigation. After hearing Jose's description, he did not immediately accept it. Instead, he shook his head and expressed doubts: "You mean you can sail from Manila to Manila with just a poorly detailed chart?" Arrived in Cebu smoothly? According to the flight you mentioned, it was just a little slower on the road, but it almost didn’t go in the wrong direction. This is really good luck, right?”
(End of chapter)