Chapter 2057
It was nearly midnight. The courtyard where the Jinfa is located is still under a tight blockade by the city defense army. Horses are set up at the nearest street intersections and are guarded by fully armed soldiers. There are even several cavalry on standby at each roadblock. Complete. At this time, there were actually no people walking around on the street. The main purpose of setting up checkpoints was to prevent people from escaping from the designated circle.
As for whether anyone from the outside world will try to rescue these people detained in Jinfa No., there is no need to worry about this issue. Almost all the Jinyi guards registered in Zhangzhou City have been arrested and prosecuted. It is unlikely that some fish who slipped through the net will be under martial law again. There was a storm in the city of Zhangzhou.
However, even late at night, carriages still came and went in and out of this blocked area from time to time. These black four-wheeled carriages of the same standard are all the private property of the Xu family. They are constantly bringing Jinyiwei related personnel arrested in other places in the city to this temporary detention center for interrogation together, so that intelligence personnel can cross-check their confessions in real time. The various information obtained from the interrogation here will also be sent to various government offices in the city by these carriages as soon as possible, and the big shots will decide the next steps to be taken.
When Xu Yuxing set out early in the morning, he had no idea that the day would be so busy that he barely had time to stop and have a good meal. If he hadn't considered that there was a Haihan intelligence officer beside him who needed to take care of him, he might have skipped the meal, because the smell of blood in the air in this place made it really hard for him to have an appetite to swallow. When his subordinates brought dinner, he just took a few bites of it.
Since the establishment of the intelligence agency under his command, it seems that this is the first time that such a situation has required all employees to work continuously. In the past, most of the tasks of this agency were just to collect and organize intelligence from all parties, and it rarely required large-scale arrest missions, let alone directly fight against Jin Yiwei.
Although he was angry at Jin Yiwei's bold behavior, Xu Yuxing was actually a little excited because of the current situation. He remembered that when he was training in Sanya, he heard a theory mentioned by the instructor. The intelligence department usually kept a low profile and had no sense of presence. It is equal to nothing. Only when encountering a crisis will the value of the intelligence department be truly highlighted. The current situation in Zhangzhou City is exactly the time for the intelligence department to show its talents.
It's just that the information obtained through interrogation so far seems to have not made a real breakthrough. In particular, there is still no clear information about the weapons smuggling channels that Haihan asked to find out.
This was not because Xu Yuxing's men were not working hard enough. After half a day of interrogation, ten more people had died during the execution. If it hadn't been for Xu Yuxing's special warning, Shi Biao, who was already dying at this time, would have already committed his life to Jinfa. But among the group of people captured, Shi Biao was the only one who was considered a valuable insider, and there was really nothing that could be gleaned from the others.
Xu Yuxing looked at Jin Ming who was reviewing the confession transcript next to him, and couldn't help but persuade him: "Master Jin, it's too late now, and it seems that it will be difficult to make any progress today. Why don't I send a carriage to take you back first?" Rest? ”
Jin Ming raised his head when he heard this and said: "There is no rush. In fact, if you look carefully at the confessions of these people, you will still find some valuable information."
"Oh? Please give me some advice, Mr. Jin!" Xu Yuxing naturally wanted to know whether Haihan's intelligence officer could discover new information from the confession he had already read.
Jin Ming said: "So far we have obtained more than twenty confessions. If we cross-compare these confessions, it is easier to determine the authenticity of some key information."
"For example, their confessions mentioned that the origin of these muskets was that the local Jinyi guards went to sea to complete the handover with another foreign Guangzhou ship, and several people mentioned that the other party was not a fellow ship, but more like a maritime merchant. This information is basically consistent with the information our country has previously obtained.”
"As for the information that was destroyed before we broke in, it can be basically determined from the confessions of these people that it includes the Jinfa account books and cargo entry and exit records. It is very likely that this involves the group that traded weapons with Jinyiweijin. Although they destroyed the records here on the Jinfa, it does not mean that they did not leave traces elsewhere. I specifically read every confession and found that no cash was used when completing the transaction with the other party at sea. He did not trade other goods at a discount, but returned to Zhangzhou immediately after receiving these boxes. ”
Jin Ming paused deliberately when he said this, wanting to test Xu Yuxing: "According to the information we currently have, Jinfa has received a lot of Spanish silver coins in past transactions, which means that they used to trade in cash, but The party that shipped the goods in this arms transaction was not Jinfa, and they neither paid nor traded other goods to the other party, but it was obviously impossible for the other party to give these things to Jinyiwei for free as a charity. The third young master believed that this account How is it settled? ”
Xu Yuxing reacted very quickly, his eyes brightening and he said: "Master Jin means that Jin Yiwei may have found it inconvenient to conduct cash transactions, so he transferred the money directly to the other party through an institution such as a bank?"
Jin Ming nodded and praised: "The third young master is really quick-thinking, and that's exactly what I mean. Although these Jin Yiwei have destroyed the relevant transaction records of Jin Fahao, we may still be able to find some clues in other places. From the bank Of course, it is only a theoretical possibility that the two parties had unsettled accounts before, and this batch of weapons happened to be used to settle the accounts. But I think if someone is sent to the Huifeng to check the Jinfa carefully. There may be new discoveries about the accounts related to the number!”
"What Mr. Jin said makes sense, I'll send someone to handle it right now!" Xu Yuxing realized that this was indeed an investigation direction that might lead to new clues. He immediately called a capable man over and asked him to rush to the Huifeng immediately. , investigate all accounts related to Jinfahao.
Jin Ming added next to him: "We need to interrogate the Jinfa accountants again to confirm whether they have money transactions with other banks in addition to the Huifeng account."
This tiny hidden clue discovered by Jin Ming through the confession transcript indeed reflects his advantage of rich investigative experience, which just makes up for Xu Yuxing's shortcomings in this regard. And Xu Yuxing's execution ability is also very strong, and he immediately began to pursue this clue that currently only exists in theory.
Jin Ming was actually very tired at this time. He was holding the confession and reading it under the oil lamp. He felt that the words on the paper were a little blurry. However, he knew that the current investigation in Zhangzhou had made significant progress, and it was very likely that more clues would be uncovered. If the identity of the middleman could be found, it would be a great achievement.
However, Xu Yuxing sent someone to Huifeng in the middle of the night to check the accounts. Even if they cooperated fully, it would not be possible to find out something in a short time. Fortunately, there are quite a few occupied rooms in Jinfa No., and two quiet upper rooms have been cleared out, allowing Xu Yuxing and Jin Ming to lie down and rest for a while. Although the screams from the torture process could be heard from time to time, they fell asleep quickly because they were very tired. It was not until daybreak that the latest news was sent back from the Huifeng. They were woken up from their sleep and hurried to the study to check the statistical data sent back.
Shopkeeper Qin of the Huifeng had been specifically called to talk to him before, so even though he came unexpectedly in the middle of the night, the Huifeng still cooperated and provided assistance, and picked up several accountants overnight. Check the relevant accounts of Jinfahao for investigators.
One of the reasons why the Huifeng number was found was that Xu Yuxing wanted to investigate through the exchange channel of bulk silver coins, and it did work. The Jinfa number was confirmed through the list provided by Shopkeeper Qin. However, Xu Yuxing was really busy at the end of the day. If it weren't for Jin Ming's reminder, he would never have thought of reviewing Jinfahao's accounts through the bank again.
However, after a good sleep, Xu Yuxing's mind became much clearer, and he thought of more details about the settlement method. Regardless of the settlement method between the middleman and Jinyiwei, since Jinyiwei chose to use Jinfahao as a cover to conduct transactions with the other party, and it has been confirmed that there is a large amount of money exchanges, then this middleman is most likely to interact with Jinfahao on a daily basis. Merchants who have transactions must first have a basis for trade cooperation before they can develop to the level of smuggling weapons step by step.
Therefore, investigating the objects of his money transactions through banks is not just a chance as Jin Ming said, but a very useful investigation method, and the possibility of obtaining information is much greater than Jin Ming expected.
A group of people on the Huifeng had been working on the preliminary investigation results for most of the night. All the preliminary investigation results had been copied and sent to Xu Yuxing. This investigative report includes two records. The first one contains all the expenditure records of Jinfa account transfer money through Huifeng account in the past year. The second record contains the records of Jinfa account transfer money received by other people during the same period. Accounting records. Time, quantity, objects, all entries are recorded in extremely detail.
The items in the two records are the same, but the content is very different. There are only a few accounts transferred to Jinfa account, and the largest amount is only two hundred taels of silver. It is obviously not a big deal. However, there are indeed many accounts of expenditures, and the copywriters carefully marked the large expenditures of more than a thousand taels for easy viewing.
Xu Yuxing put the records on the table and looked at them with Jin Ming. Both of them were very fast readers. They quickly read through the accounts and found something worth noting.
"Jinfa Hao had exchanged a lot of silver coins through Huifeng Hao before. It can be seen that when the other party traded with Jinfa Hao before, they mostly used cash to purchase goods. However, Jinfa Hao's local operations in Zhangzhou are very low-key and rarely The goods are sold publicly, so there is no record of this entry. ”
Xu Yuxing first expressed his views on the difference in the contents of the two records: "Judging from the expenditures of Jinfa numbers, most of them are local merchants. The number is small but the time is relatively concentrated. Compared with the Jinfa number exchanges we have previously mastered, The timing of the silver coins is just right. This is very much like Jinfahao coming out to purchase various goods locally and then selling them to middlemen who use Spanish silver coins.”
"My thoughts are the same as those of the third young master." Jin Ming agreed with Xu Yuxing's reasoning: "Judging from these account records, Jinfahao's business model is relatively simple, and the money earned is the difference in price. But since the other party He is a Han maritime merchant. Logically speaking, he can complete the purchase in the Zhangzhou area on his own, but he has to use the Jinfa to do this. The reason is worthy of study. "
"Either they have something to hide and don't dare to show their faces in the Zhangzhou market, or they deliberately send money to Jinfahao through this kind of transaction, so as to gain the trust of Jinyiwei, so as to facilitate subsequent weapons smuggling activities. Also There is a possibility that they need to use a relatively safe channel to exchange the large amount of silver coins in their hands into official silver that can be circulated smoothly in the Ming Dynasty, and then the Jinfa account can be transferred directly to the other party's account through the bank." Xu Yuxing responded. Three possibilities were immediately analyzed.
Jin Ming said: "Having the property under Jin Yiwei's name come forward to exchange official silver will naturally save a lot of trouble, but they probably didn't expect that the bank where Jin Yiwei's money is stored would be so easily audited by us. Third Young Master, we can Based on this judgment, we need to investigate the relevant merchants who have money transactions with Jinfahao to see if any of them only collect money from Jinfahao and have never sold any goods to Jinfahao.”
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After some analysis and sorting out, the two suddenly felt that the situation that had reached a dead end suddenly became clear again.
According to the records obtained, the large amount of expenditures from the Jinfa account were actually not large, and the targets were even smaller. It is not difficult to conduct the next step of investigation.
At this time, there was the sound of roosters crowing outside the window. Xu Yuxing stood up and opened the window. Seeing that the sky was getting brighter, he patted his stomach and said, "Suddenly I feel very hungry. Mr. Jin, would you like to have breakfast together?"
Jin Ming responded with a smile: "That's what I meant."
Xu Yuxing called his men, and after giving some instructions, he and Jin Ming left Jinfahao. There is really no need for them to stare here at this time. Take the time to have breakfast to replenish your physical strength, and if possible, catch up on some sleep. Perhaps new news will come back soon after dawn, and then a new round of arrests and interrogations may not be possible. We must ensure a clear mind and abundant energy.
Although their speculations have not been verified so far, Jin Ming has a faint feeling that he is getting closer and closer to the truth of the matter, and will soon be within reach.
(End of chapter)