Thomas felt that he had been wronged. He had been carrying out the instructions of the Governor-General of Malacca without compromise and doing his best to complete the tasks assigned by his superiors. However, in Simang's words, his selfless dedication turned into a serious dereliction of duty.
Governor Costa asked the embassy to do more work in terms of public opinion and reduce the influence of Xingdao in Haihan as much as possible. Therefore, Thomas has spent a lot of time in this aspect in recent years, and has spent a lot of money on it. .
Now, with great difficulty, we have managed to win over some scholars from Hainan and Han Dynasties. They publish articles on various channels from time to time to advocate and build momentum for Portugal, and they have begun to have some visible results.
As for monitoring the Sing Tao office in Sanya, there is no need for any word from the Governor's Office. The embassy has always been performing its daily tasks.
Thomas even allocated funds for this purpose, selected some elite soldiers from local people, and established a special surveillance team to monitor the movements of the Star Island Office for a long time.
Not long after Tan Tianming arrived in Sanya, Thomas got the news and immediately made targeted arrangements.
But Tan Tianming spent most of his time in the School of Administration. Occasionally he would go out alone to a teahouse in the city to drink tea and read newspapers to kill time. However, he hardly contacted the Xingdao office. It seemed like nothing at all. Monitor value.
As time passed, the embassy's intelligence officers determined that Tan Tianming did not pose a threat, and Thomas was happy to save trouble and devote his limited manpower to other more valuable projects, so he crossed Tan Tianming off the watch list.
Who could have imagined that not long after, Tan Tianming would cause such a big drama in Sanya.
Thomas actually has another view on the current situation. This is not Tan Tianming's work, but the planning and organization of the Singdao authorities behind the scenes. Tan Tianming is just a puppet who was pushed to the stage to perform.
There is also the Singdao office in Sanya, which has been quiet recently. Thomas suspects that the office there is deliberately holding back in order to paralyze the embassy's surveillance measures and provide cover for Tan Tianming's actions.
It seems that Tan Tianming is organizing the event, but in fact there is another mystery.
Of course, if he mentioned such speculation now, Simang would only regard it as a useless afterthought, so Thomas consciously did not take the initiative to bring it up.
But solving problems is not Thomas's strong point. Now that he was reprimanded by Simang, it made him feel on pins and needles, and he did not dare to speak casually again.
Seeing the timid appearance of these people, Simang became even more angry, and immediately ordered: "Since you have no idea, let me just say a few words."
"First, you continue to keep an eye on the Xingdao office. Tan Tianming will definitely be too busy for such a big event. I think he will still use the office's manpower sooner or later."
"Second, send a special person to monitor Tan Tianming from now on to find out who he has been in contact with recently, who is working for him, and who is advising him."
"Third, Mr. Thomas, please use your local connections and find a way to publish an article in the newspaper as soon as possible. The content must be related to the current lottery. Be careful not to question the true validity of the activity, but start from other angles. , for example, to discuss whether using Xingdao’s resources to hold such an event is in compliance with the national laws of the Haihan Kingdom and whether it has been approved by the Executive Committee.”
"Fourth... forget it, let's finish these three items first!" Ximang really has no confidence in the staff of the embassy. It's hard to say whether they can carry out the orders he issued. It's better not to issue more complex tasks to them for the time being. .
Thomas was relieved and quickly directed his subordinates to implement Simao's order.
However, Tan Tianming, who was listed as a key surveillance target, did not know that his situation was quietly changing. He is now focused on the current promotional activities and has no time to ponder his opponent's reaction.
In fact, the Portuguese's judgment was not entirely wrong. After Tan Tianming came to Sanya, he rarely dealt with the Xingdao Office.
This is because Tan Tianming spends most of his time in the School of Administration and has less outing activities. Secondly, he was not familiar with the person in charge of the office, and he did not want the other party to fawn over him too much because of his identity.
Another point is that he does not have a good impression of the Xingdao Office. This is mainly due to the influence of his father Tan Juren.
The office spends a lot of money every year, but the results seem to be poor. Neither the image and reputation of Sing Tao nor the number of immigrants brought in have achieved the results Tan Juren expected.
Although Tan Juren is willing to change generals, Singdao does lack professional talents in this field. Although the current head of the office is incompetent, he is at least loyal to Singdao and has not found any obvious corruption. It would be impossible to replace him with someone else. It's not as good as the current one, so I can only make do with it temporarily.
Later, the person in charge suddenly became seriously ill. Sing Tao was busy carrying out military operations in the Malacca Strait area and had no time to take care of the other side, which caused the office to fall into a state of semi-paralysis.
Before Tan Tianming came to Sanya, he often heard that Tan Juren was dissatisfied with the office's performance. So when he usually walks around the city, he would rather go to Jingxin Pavilion to drink tea and pass the time than deal with the people in the office.
Tan Tianming had a serious lack of confidence in the office. When planning the event, he did not seek advice at all, let alone seek help from the office. In his eyes, the people in the office were even far less reliable than Huo Dechuan, who was paid to do things.
However, the actual impact of this event far exceeded his expectations. The existing manpower alone was already stretched thin, and Tan Tianming himself did not have so much time and energy to follow up on the follow-up activities. And the only people he can directly mobilize now are the people in the office.
When Tan Tianming couldn't get out of his own way, someone had to come forward to participate in the activities on behalf of the Sing Tao official. However, Huo Dechuan and those Yahang shopkeepers obviously did not have such conditions.
No matter how incompetent the people in the office are, they still belong to Xingdao. Tan Tianming can only choose to let them assist him now.
The next afternoon, Tan Tianming took Huo Dechuan to a street west of Victory Square. One of the inconspicuous courtyards is the location of Xingdao's Sanya office.
It was Huo Dechuan's first time to come to this place, and he couldn't help but sigh: "I often pass by here, but I never noticed that this is the office of Xingdao."
You can't blame Huo Dechuan for complaining. If you weren't paying attention, you wouldn't have noticed the Xingdao Office sign hanging by the door, which was almost half covered by vines. Even when Tan Tianming came here for the first time, it took him a long time to find a place.