Chapter 2095
Since the Haihan fleet arrived at Hangzhou in 1635, every move of the Zhoushan garrison has inevitably attracted attention from all parties. Among them are not only the Ming Dynasty officials who were nervous because of the Yangzhou incident last year, but also other organizations and individuals who have interests in Haihan. Some are thinking about taking advantage of the opportunity to make a fortune, while others are worried that Haihan's military actions will harm their own interests.
Businesses that can be listed as procurement targets for military supplies by the Zhoushan authorities basically maintain a close relationship with Haihan, and many of them even have local officials as backers. For example, the designated grain supplier of the Zhoushan authorities is Qu Yutong, the prefect of Ningbo. Mihang is run by his aides, the He brothers. With a relationship and background like this, it is basically difficult for others to leverage it, so this type of purchase can be regarded as an exclusive business with the nature of profit transfer.
The suppliers mentioned by the man in black are basically in a similar situation. It is extremely difficult to grab Haihan's orders from these merchants, so their real purpose is not to compete for this. This is a lucrative temporary purchase order, but they want to find out the intentions behind the Zhoushan authorities' purchase of these war preparation materials.
The old businessman pondered: "Even if the Haihan people plan to attack elsewhere, Ningbo may not be very safe!"
The man in black nodded and replied: "That's better than them taking action in Ningbo... I don't know if the Haihan people are going to attack Yangzhou again!"
The old businessman said: "Yangzhou Lu Kangtai was seriously injured after fighting with the Haihan people last year. Many of his men died. It will not be easy to reorganize a musketeer team in a short time. And Yangzhou is definitely there. Someone is keeping an eye on the activities of their Shanxi salt merchants and informing Zhoushan at any time. Now the Huizhou salt merchants have the upper hand in Yangzhou. It is said that the Haihan people are already discussing cooperation with the Haihan people to sell salt in Yangzhou. It seems that there is no need to take action, but it will disrupt their own advantageous situation.”
"What do you mean by that?" the man in black asked respectfully.
The old businessman said: "The Haihan people have always been cunning and cunning. They took over many of our trading houses in Fujian without any warning. If Zhejiang wasn't managed by me, I'm afraid they would have been taken over by the Haihan people too! Although we are fine for the time being, we have no idea how much information was leaked from the place where the incident happened earlier, so maybe they already know the situation of our operations in Zhejiang and are planning to attack various places!"
< br>
The old man paused and continued: "As for Ningbo...if they really have a grasp of our movements, there is no need to rush to Ningbo. To arrest us, the Haihan people only need to talk, and there will be someone in this city." Work hard for them!”
The man in black said with a look of reluctance: "Although the Haihan Army is difficult to defeat, we can't just sit back and wait for death. We must do something!"
The old man was very calm, looking out the window and said: "We came to Zhejiang to lurk, and we risked our lives. If our opponents find out, we will only die! I will write a text message later, and you can send the message as soon as possible. Don’t delay the business!”
The situation that the 18th Zhiyu Party worked hard to create in various places across the Fujian Strait was hunted down by Haihan in just over a month. The news came out through a few people who were lucky enough to escape. After the old man got the news in Ningbo, he quickly cut off all contact with Fujian in order to protect himself.
First, something happened to the Yangzhou salt merchant's private musketry team in the north, and then many hidden stakes in Fujian in the south were pulled out. The old man knew that the Haihan people should have been aware of their own arrangements along the coast of the Ming Dynasty. Although the several underground strongholds in Zhejiang have not been discovered by the Haihan people for the time being, they may not last long. So when the Zhoushan garrison began to order military supplies on the market, this signal was tantamount to a warning signal to him.
It was originally a situation where the enemy was in the open and we were in the dark, but now they had no idea how much information Haihan had grasped and whether he would launch a surprise attack on his place, which turned the originally safe hiding place into a torment.
Taking the initiative to evacuate Zhejiang may not be an option, but the old man is unwilling to do so, because that will mean that they voluntarily give up the intelligence channels they have managed to build with great difficulty, as well as all the previous investments.
His subordinates also suggested evacuating first and then returning to Zhejiang to continue lurking after the news had passed. However, the old man believed that this approach was extremely risky because they had no idea whether their identities had been exposed. If they risked coming back after leaving, Maybe it will be the result of throwing yourself into a trap. And what they did was extremely dangerous. If they took any chances with their situation, it would probably be a dead end.
The old man sat in the study for a long time before grinding the paper, picked the thinnest brush from the pen holder, and slowly wrote several rows of densely packed soybean-sized words on the paper. After he finished writing, he read it again carefully, then put down the pen and took out a knife. After the ink was dry, he slowly cut out the writing part on the paper, which was about three pieces of paper half an inch wide and four inches long. strip.
He carefully rolled up the strips of paper into a bunch, stuffed them into small bamboo tubes no thicker than his little finger, and then sealed the mouth of the tube with wax.
"Send the secret message as soon as possible!" After the old man did all this, he seemed to be a little depressed. He slowly pushed the three small bamboo tubes in front of the man in black and said to him: "After the letter is sent, you also Get out of here as soon as possible! Go to Yangzhou, go to Liaodong, or go back to Hirado. Anyway, get out of here first.”
"How to do this?" The man in black did not go to get the three small bamboo tubes, but advised the old man: "Even if I want to leave, I have to evacuate with you."
The old man shook his head and said: "I'm old and can't fight anymore, so I'll just stay in Ningbo. If the Haihan people do anything here, maybe I can spread some news. You are in your prime, in the future It can also help the young master make a comeback, and his talents should not be buried here. Although the Tagawa family has several capable people, they are still Japanese, and the Shibazhi must be controlled by Han people. Remember, there is no way out. When it’s time to retreat, don’t fight hard with Haihan. Don’t worry about leaving the green hills behind. Remember!”
Seeing the old man's resolute attitude, the man in black knew that he could not persuade him to change his decision. He stood up and knelt on the ground, kowtowed to the old man three times, and then said: "What happened today will be dealt with when I return to Hirado." I will report it to the young master and ask for credit for you!”
"Get up, just get things done, don't bother with other things." The old man slowly leaned back on the chair, slowly closed his eyes and said, "Close the study door when you go out. I want to be quiet for a while." The man in black stood up and took the three small bamboo tubes containing the secret messages in his hands. He bowed deeply to the old man who had closed his eyes, then slowly exited the study and closed the door. .
The three secret letters he got will be tied to the legs of pigeons and sent out. To be on the safe side, the contents of these three secret letters are actually the same and the destination is the same place - Hirado, Japan.
Of course, the distance from Ningbo to Hirado is too far. It is impossible for most pigeons to complete such a long-distance cross-sea journey. Therefore, the actual release location will not be in Ningbo, but will be taken to They will be released again over the East China Sea to ensure that they have a high enough chance of flying back to Hirado.
The time that can be saved by doing this is actually very limited, but this method of transmitting information is a special method that is only used in emergencies. Even if it can save a day or two, it is very worthwhile.
After the man in black left the yard, he took a carriage out of the city, and then rushed straight to the dock at the mouth of the Yongjiang River. After arriving at the destination, they boarded a ship without stopping. After a while, the ship lifted anchor and sail and left the dock. At almost the same time, a group of about a hundred Ming troops quietly began to set up roadblocks outside the house and blockade the neighborhood.
In an alley not far from the roadblock, a larger number of Ming soldiers were quietly gathering. There were two people riding horses at the entrance of the alley, staring coldly at the soldiers who were setting up the roadblock.
"Mr. Cui, you have really worked hard this time!" One of them was dressed in black, but not in military attire. He complimented the person on the horse next to him: "With you personally holding the battle, this job should be very safe today."
The military attaché, who was called Mr. Cui, did not get carried away because of the other party's compliments. Instead, he responded politely: "Mr. Duan, you are so polite. This is a matter that General Shi will personally take care of. Naturally, I will have to fight ten times." I have to be diligent and do things beautifully. Besides, this idea is so tricky. If Mr. Duan hadn’t warned me in advance, I might have failed in Ningbo City.”
The two people having this conversation were Cui Hongfang, the commander of Dinghaiwei, and Duan Tiancheng, the commander of Haihan Navy from Zhoushan, who was in civilian clothes. The target they were planning to clear out was the store of Sun Feizhou, a dry goods merchant. The front store and back home were all in the same yard.
The reason why we found this place was actually due to Haihan's previous series of investigation measures in the south. The investigation in Fujian showed that the small strongholds deployed by the masterminds behind the scenes and covered by commercial institutions did not only exist in the Fujian-Guangzhou area, but also in the coastal areas north of the Fujian Strait.
It’s just that the system in the north of Fujian seems to be different from that in the south. Haihan used this method that was very fruitful in Fujian and Guangzhou in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, but it did not have the expected effect. Therefore, the intelligence department judged that in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, The commander who leads the operation of these institutions should be someone else, and the original investigation methods must be combined with some corresponding changes.
This back and forth made the investigation progress in Jiangsu and Zhejiang areas much slower than in the south. It was only in the past few days that some clues were finally found. Although the opponents in Jiangsu and Zhejiang are slippery, the Haihan Intelligence Department now has a lot more information than two months ago. It also has earlier knowledge of the flow of goods and funds operated by the opponents' commercial institutions. A clearer judgment.
The business conditions of dry goods merchant Sun Feizhou did not attract Haihan's attention at first. After investigating many clues, the intelligence department noticed that some of the dry goods sold by Sun Feizhou came from Japan. At this time, the news that the Eighteen Shiba Party was hiding in the Hirado Domain of Japan and conducting behind-the-scenes commands had been reported to Haihan's intelligence system, so information about Japan had also become the focus of investigation.
After the intelligence department turned their attention to Sun Feizhou, they quickly confirmed through other channels that there were often large accounts transactions in his business process, and the amount was far beyond the scale of his daily operations. Then they followed the clues and found more suspicious clues, and basically determined that his dry goods store was an underground stronghold of the Shiba Zhiyu Party in Ningbo.
But Ningbo was Ming Dynasty's territory after all. Even if the intelligence department determined that there was a problem with Sun Feizhou, it would still be inconvenient to send armed personnel to Ningbo City to pick him up. Therefore, this errand would ultimately have to be resolved by the local government.
Shi Diwen had already expressed his anger with Qu Yutong before this, hoping that Qu Yutong would come forward to mobilize the Ming troops stationed in the city to resolve the matter. Qu Yutong learned that this place might be a secret stronghold of an armed pirate gang in Ningbo City. He did not dare to be careless at the moment. He called Cui Hongfang, the commander of Dinghai Guard who was responsible for part of the city defense tasks, and asked him to personally lead the troops to deal with it. this matter.
The Dinghaiwei under the jurisdiction of Cui Hongfang actually has a close relationship with Haihan. Zhoushan Island is where the center left of Dinghaiwei is located, but Cui Hongfang did not dare to ask Haihan for an explanation for this reason. This person was relatively cautious and low-key in the past few years, and did not take the initiative to contact the Haihan people at first. Later, when he saw that the prefect and the Chang Guowei and Guanhaiwei in Ningbo were flirting with the Haihan people, and secretly made a lot of money, he felt confident and bold to contact them. Haihan cooperated.
Yongjiangkou Pier, the largest trade hub on the Ningbo coastline, is under the jurisdiction of Dinghaiwei. Today, there are hundreds of merchant ships entering and exiting Yongjiangkou Pier every day. The abundance of oil and water has also made Cui Hongfang a lot of money.
However, Cui Hongfang knew very well where the money came from, so he was always polite to the Zhoushan authorities. After watching several military exercises organized by Haihan on site, Cui Hongfang gave up all unrealistic thoughts and focused on making money with peace of mind.
The task assigned to him by Qu Yutong this time was Cui Hongfang's first cooperation with the Zhoushan authorities in military operations. He also wanted to take this opportunity to prove his strength and handle the task properly, so as to obtain more information from the Haihan people. Much trust and support. After all, as a military attaché guarding the Ming Dynasty's maritime territory, who wouldn't want to be appreciated and assisted by the Haihan people and become the next Xu Xinsu?
(End of chapter)