Chapter 2096
When Cui Hongfang first heard about this errand from Qu Yutong, he only thought that it was a credit to him who came to his door. He did not think carefully about why Qu Yutong wanted him, the commander, to personally handle this kind of problem that only required hundreds of households to come forward. Little things that can be settled. Later, after he met with Duan Tiancheng, the other party requested that the city gate be blocked during the arrest, traffic in the area around the target be cut off, and heavy armored infantry be sent to prepare for the attack. Only then did he realize that the mission assigned by the Haihan people was not what he had expected. So simple.
The so-called secret strongholds of pirate gangs are not just as simple as lurking in the city of Ningbo to gather information. According to Duan Tiancheng, most of the underground strongholds seized by Haihan in the Fuguang area in the south have hidden muskets. , knives, bows and other weapons, and the relevant personnel will fight to the death when being arrested. During this period, the arresting personnel have been killed or injured in the battle. Although Cui Hongfang was in a high position and did not need to go into battle personally, he did not want his subordinates to suffer casualties in vain. Since the Haihan people had early warning, he could avoid it as much as possible by making arrangements in advance.
Cui Hongfang also wanted to take this opportunity to please the Zhoushan authorities, so he asked Duan Tiancheng how to arrange the arrest operation. Then, following Duan Tiancheng's instructions, he mobilized manpower to make comprehensive arrangements, and then began to seal off the city and recruit people. However, because Cui Hongfang arranged the attack in the evening before sunset based on Duan Tiancheng's suggestion, some of the other party's personnel took advantage of this opportunity and slipped out of Ningbo City.
Roadblocks were set up on the periphery, the blocks were blocked, and heavy armored infantry, archers, and musketeers were mobilized. After everything was prepared, Cui Hongconveniently ordered the clearance to begin.
At this time, the blocked area was actually closed to the public. People who wanted to leave were first taken to other streets and alleys. The policemen transferred from the Ningbo Prefecture verified their identities one by one and confirmed that they were completely connected to the dry goods store. You can leave only after there is no relationship.
At this time, most of the shops facing the street were closed, and the dry goods store was no exception, so the arrest team did not encounter any trouble when cleaning up the surrounding area. However, in order to prevent the enemy from being alerted and prepare the target, the Ming army did not clean up the surrounding areas of the dry goods store, but only included them in the blockade and searched them after the operation was over.
Then the combatants such as the heavy armored troops, shield bearers, and door-breaking teams entered the combat positions one after another, preparing to break in directly from the main entrance of the dry goods store. There were only a small number of musketeers in the local guard force in Ningbo Prefecture, with limited training and no actual combat experience. Cui Hongfang was worried that these musketeers might accidentally injure his own people by standing behind during the battle later, so he simply transferred them all to block the attack. Staying at the back door, as long as someone tries to escape through the back door, the musketeers only have to fire at the person. The task of providing fire support at the front gate was handed over to more than thirty archers.
After everything was ready, Cui Hong gave the order to take action. Although these soldiers had not been rehearsed beforehand, they were still elites under Cui Hongfang, and they were very neat in their actions. The door-breaking team carrying wooden stakes stepped forward and broke the latch of the dry goods store door in a few clicks. Then, the shield soldiers followed closely behind the heavy armor soldiers and poured in through the door.
The people inside were obviously unprepared for the sudden attack. Before they had time to use weapons to resist, they were overwhelmed by the rapid influx of dozens of heavy armored soldiers. Following the heavy armored soldiers, dozens of soldiers wearing cotton armor poured in. They were responsible for quickly taking the subdued people out of the shop, stuffing hemp cores into their mouths, dragging them outside the dry goods shop, and locking them with shackles. Its hands and feet. In just a moment, the Ming army had successfully controlled the situation.
The division of labor between the several arms units was clear beforehand, and their on-the-spot performance was almost perfect, leaving no opportunity for the other side to organize resistance. Therefore, the raid went very smoothly, and the performance of the arresters far exceeded the expectations of the two commanders. .
"Sir, the dry goods shop has been cleaned up and you can go in." Later, soldiers came to report the results of the battle to Cui Hongfang.
Cui Hongfang did not leave in a hurry, but asked: "Has the leader of the thieves, Sun Feizhou, been caught?"
The soldier responded: "The leader of the thief has been captured, but this person seems to have taken poison and committed suicide before we caught him. Military doctors are inside carrying out rescue operations."
Cui Hongfang nodded and said to Duan Tiancheng next to him: "In that case, Sir Duan, would you like to go in and have a look together?"
Of course Duan Tiancheng would not refuse to review the results of the battle, and responded with a smile: "Master Cui, please!"
The two dismounted and walked to the door of the dry goods store. There was a row of people against the wall who were shackled behind their backs and lying face down on the ground with their hands. A soldier stood next to each person and stepped on his waist to prevent him from moving. , I couldn’t tell whether these people were dead or alive for a moment.
Entering the dry goods store, it was already a mess. In addition to the various traces of fighting left during the arrest just now, the personnel who came here later to perform search tasks were even more aggressive and wanted to demolish the house.
The soldiers led the way through the shop and the patio at the back, and entered a study at the back. The military doctor mentioned by the soldiers was treating an old man lying on the ground, but Duan Tiancheng saw that the old man's eyes were closed tightly, blood was flowing from the corners of his mouth, and there was no sign of breathing. It was obvious that he was in serious danger.
"Can it be saved?" Cui Hongfang didn't care about this person's life or death, but he saw that Duan Tiancheng should be more concerned about it, so he took the initiative to ask the military doctor.
The military doctor did not dare to stop what he was doing, and responded: "Sir, the poison this man took has never been seen before, so I can't treat it. I can only try to see if it can save his life." Delay for a moment.”
"Try your best to treat him. If you can be rescued, I will reward you with a hundred taels of silver!" In front of Duan Tiancheng, Cui Hongfang naturally wanted to show that he paid enough attention to this matter and immediately issued a reward.
The military doctor responded quickly, but he was secretly complaining. He had checked this person's pulse when he came in, and it was already weak and about to stop. If he hadn't used silver needles to prick a few acupuncture points that stimulated vitality, he might have died before Cui Hongfang came in. Already dead. It's not easy to rescue people in this situation. Even if Cui Hongfang offers ten times more rewards, he still doesn't have the incredible ability to get the money. Now I just hope that after this man is poisoned and dies, Cui Hongfang will not accuse himself of failing to treat him well.
However, Duan Tiancheng didn't seem to care that much about Sun Feizhou's life and death. After listening to the military doctor's explanation of the situation, he turned his attention to the furnishings in the study. After walking around the room with his hands behind his back, Duan Tiancheng stopped in front of the bookshelf.
Before he joined the army, he had attended a private school and knew some words. After joining the army, because he was smarter and performed better in previous missions, he was selected by his superiors as a staff officer to receive further education. Over the past few years, his cultural level has also improved. Quite a few, there is no problem in understanding ordinary books. However, the book that caught his attention was not a common reading book such as the Four Books and Five Classics, but a book officially published by Haihan.
Duan Tiancheng could see this book at a glance, not because he had read it, but because the characters on the spine were clearly the simplified characters commonly used by the Haihan Kingdom, which were slightly different from the characters used by the Ming Dynasty. Duan Tiancheng reached out and slowly pulled out the "South China Sea Customs Chronicles" from the bookshelf. Sure enough, in addition to the big book title, there was also a line of small words "Sanya Publishing House" on the cover, indicating that the source of this book was indeed from Haihan. .
Duan Tiancheng casually flipped through a few pages. The content was actually just a relatively superficial introduction to the customs and customs. However, this book was particularly special because it came with a more detailed map of the South China Sea, including the many overseas colonies ruled by Haihan south of Hainan Island. They are all tagged, too, and all come with a brief introduction. For example, the book not only indicates the geographical location of Amborna Island in the center of the South China Sea, but also introduces the island's unique tourism industry. Xingdao further south is called "the southern border town of Haihan Kingdom", which emphasizes the importance of the local strategic location.
As for the introduction to the Haihan Kingdom, it is obviously the content that the owner of this book focuses on reading. Some key words and sentences are underlined in very fine handwriting, and some comments are also attached. It's just that the handwriting was small and dense, and it took a lot of effort for Duan Tiancheng to read a few of them.
"Controlling the sea is a strategy for the development of Haihan, and the size of the sea area controlled by Haihan has surpassed that of the Ming Dynasty"; "There are Haihan strongholds in the southeast, northwest and middle of the South China Sea, and the climate has been established"; "If you develop southward, you will definitely conflict with Haihan , which is extremely unwise." Comments like this made Duan Tiancheng realize that the commentator had some insights into the general trend of the world. If this person was Sun Feizhou who committed suicide by taking poison, it would be a pity indeed. This person has such vision and insight. As an eighteenth-year-old The Zhiyu Party should have a lot of inside information.
Duan Tiancheng then thought about it, if it weren't for knowing too much and knowing that he would have no justice after being arrested, Feizhou probably wouldn't have chosen to kill himself so decisively. Sun Feizhou can be considered a ruthless person by committing suicide to keep the confidential information in his mind.
However, this book "South China Sea Customs" itself is a publicly printed and distributed reading material, and it does not involve many real military secrets, so it is not unusual for Sun Feizhou to obtain this book. Of course, in addition to going to the Sanya Library to look up relevant information in person, these kinds of books introducing the customs and customs of Haihan are probably one of the few media through which the outside world can learn detailed information about the territory of Haihan. Whether you can extract some higher-perspective opinions from the rough information provided by this kind of reading depends on the reader's own quality. This Sun Feizhou can obviously be regarded as the best among readers.
"Master Duan, is there anything fishy about this book?" Cui Hongfang saw that Duan Tiancheng did not ask about Sun Feizhou's life and death, but he took the book and flipped through it for a long time, so he came over to find out.
Duan Tiancheng closed the book, smiled and said: "This book contains a lot of information about our country, Haihan. It seems that Sun Feizhou must have put a lot of effort into studying this information."
Cui Hongfang, however, somewhat misunderstood what he meant: "This thief is very courageous and dares to take advantage of your country. He is really capable of anything if he is tired of living!"
Duan Tiancheng said: "They can only think about it. If they dare to cause trouble in our country, they will never come back!"
Cui Hongfang thought to himself that it was the same reason that these thieves came to Ming Dynasty to cause trouble, and it was not just you, Haihan Kingdom, who knew how to arrest people. However, he did not show the slightest impatience on his face, and instead asked Duan Tiancheng for his opinion on how to deal with Sun Feizhou: "The poison the thief took is quite strong, and it seems difficult to save him. Does it need to be transported to Zhoushan Island and released?" Can a doctor from your country treat me? ”
Duan Tiancheng glanced at the military doctor who was paralyzed on the ground and Sun Feizhou who was not breathing. He shook his head and said, "Since we can't save him, don't force it. General Shi didn't say that he must capture the thief's leader alive. As long as he doesn't let him Just run away! Even if he is captured alive, it looks like he won’t cooperate with us honestly.”
Cui Hongfang said: "In addition to the captured thieves, does Mr. Duan need to take away the things found here?"
Duan Tiancheng said: "If we find weapons and equipment, or other things that can identify this group of people, I need to take them back to General Shi. As for the other things..."
Duan Tiancheng lowered his voice when he said this, reached out and patted Cui Hongfang's shoulder gently and said: "Master Cui has worked hard today and contributed a lot. He should also take some benefits back to reward his brothers. The rest will be left to Master Cui." Arranged by yourself.”
An important clue that Haihan was able to find out about this dry goods store was that the flow of money here greatly exceeded the daily operating conditions. Duan Tiancheng was basically sure before coming here that there must be a lot of money hidden in this place. Funds for the day-to-day operation of the base. Haihan is rich and doesn't care too much about where this kind of money goes. It's perfect to use it to sell Cui Hongfang a favor. In this way, whether Duan Tiancheng wants to take away suspects or evidence from here, Cui Hongfang will be more likely to agree.
Seeing Duan Tiancheng's ambiguous eyes, Cui Hongfang stopped acting immediately. He called his soldiers over and asked the soldiers in front of Duan Tiancheng if they had found any valuables.
The soldier did not dare to hide anything and quickly reported the results of the current search. Various banknotes plus cash amounted to about ten thousand taels. In addition, they also found several small gold bars and several jade stones of high quality. When converted, it should be There are also two to three thousand taels of silver.
After Cui Hongfang heard this, he ordered: "Go and wrap up all the gold bars and jade stones and hand them over to Master Duan's men."
Duan Tiancheng quickly declined: "How to do this?"
"How could it be impossible? How could this errand go so smoothly if it weren't for Mr. Duan's guidance? Besides, Mr. Duan led a team to Ningbo for business, so he couldn't let his brothers go in vain, right? Some money should be given to the brothers. Now that the money for the drinks has been paid, Mr. Duan, please stop refusing!" Cui Hongfang seemed extremely polite and immediately thought up a reason for Duan Tiancheng to share the benefits.
(End of chapter)