Chapter 3191
The statement made by Shi Diwen at this time is worth pondering.
At first glance, it seems that this is just to provide Dai Yingda with the support he hopes for, but if you think about it carefully, as long as the Yangzhou salt merchants start the shipping business that goes deep into the hinterland of the Ming Dynasty, any accidents in the future may become the reason for Haihan to send troops. Reason.
The other high-ranking Haihan officials present were all well-informed old foxes. How could they not hear the truth in Shi Diwen's words?
But Shi Diwen's move was a conspiracy, and there was no way anyone could object to it.
The Yangzhou salt merchants spared no effort to fund the capital relocation plan, and now they want a permit to enter the inland waterway shipping industry. If the executive committee refuses such a "simple" request, it will inevitably chill other civilians who are determined to serve the country.
The use of the military to provide safe haven for private businessmen engaged in transnational business is one of Haihan's traditions, and Shi Diwen's statement is unquestionable.
Given Shi Diwen's current status and influence, his words basically represent the attitude of the executive committee.
Dai Yingda is such a shrewd person. As soon as Shi Diwen finished speaking, he immediately stood up and thanked him. Now even if other people have other opinions, it's not easy to mention them at this time.
After the fireworks display, the senior officials returned to their base, where Gong Shiqi and Ji Yuanqing had been waiting for a long time.
There have been some new developments in the investigation of the Zhu Zhongyun case, and the situation needs to be reported to the Executive Committee.
"It has been verified that the prisoner Zhu Zhongyun was originally from Fusi Baihu, Jinyiwei North Town, and his accomplices were all personally selected by him from the Ming army. They were only temporarily granted the status of Jinyiwei Tiqi before the operation."
"The confessions obtained from the interrogation of many prisoners confirmed that Zhu Zhongyun was appointed by the Ming Dynasty Cabinet and the Jinyiwei Yamen to lead a group of people to sneak into Hangzhou with the intention of assassinating the Executive Committee."
"Zhu Zhongyun and his gang have all been arrested and brought to justice. Seven of them have died due to excessive injuries."
"The weapons used by Zhu Zhongyun and others are currently being traced to their source by the Military Intelligence Bureau."
The report was basically given by Ji Yuanqing, while Gong Shiqi stood aside silently.
The information Ji Yuanqing recounted was indeed the truth obtained after the investigation, but Gong Shiqi knew that the other party actually focused on it when reporting, deliberately emphasizing some information, while downplaying other information and passing it over.
As expected, after listening to Ji Yuanqing's report, most of the senior officials' attention was focused on the person behind the scenes, but there was not much interest in delving into the crime process of Zhu Zhongyun and others, the source of their weapons and other information.
"Gong Shiqi, do you have anything to add?"
When Gong Shiqi heard Shi Diwen ask him, he quickly bowed and responded: "What Master Ji just said is very detailed. I don't have anything to add."
At this time, Ji Yuanqing spoke up and said, "Sir, the criminal Zhu was well deployed in advance. If Master Gong had not arrived in Hangzhou in time to preside over the investigation, it would have been difficult to prevent the criminal Zhu from committing crimes in the city."
"In this case, we were able to find out the facts of the case so quickly, arrest the criminals, and crush the opponent's conspiracy. I think Lord Gong should be the first to do so." Of course Gong Shiqi understood why Ji Yuanqing went out of his way to praise himself. During the investigation of this case, Ji Yuanqing said this more than once He said that he would let Gong Qiqi and the Ministry of Security take the lead.
As for the exchange condition, it was natural for Gong Shiqi to shut up about the military's role in this case.
Of course, Gong Shiqi could not agree to this condition and report the truth to the Executive Committee, but the problem is that he does not have any evidence to prove that the military is actually one of the participants in this case.
Gong Shiqi was not afraid of fighting with the military, but the problem was that the military had spent a lot of time to lure Zhu Zhongyun into the trap and carefully orchestrated the assassination. The purpose did not seem to be to claim credit or reward.
Even if you win the fight, you won't get any actual benefits. Instead, you may send your own people to a military court, or even kill them.
At least with this opportunity, the dangerous hidden danger of Zhu Zhongyun was eliminated, and no one on the executive committee was affected, so the result was relatively satisfactory.
So Gong Shiqi finally compromised and let Ji Yuanqing be responsible for reporting on the progress of the investigation, and his silence could be regarded as an insistence on his professional ethics.
But Ji Yuanqing stood up to ask for credit for himself at this time. Gong Shiqi still felt that something was wrong and quickly responded: "The investigation of the case has not been completed yet. Sir Ji does not need to rush to ask for credit for me. Besides, there are many yamen co-organizing the case, Gong How can one person take over the results of the case?”
Shi Diwen nodded and said: "You don't have to push around. This time we were able to stop the enemy's assassination at a critical moment, and we were able to arrest all the prisoners. Afterwards, we will definitely reward them based on their merits. But right now. , I think Daming’s offensive behavior has seriously crossed the line, and a certain amount of revenge is still needed!”
Regarding this assassination incident, the Executive Committee has actually had several discussions in the past two days as to how Ming Dynasty should respond.
Shi Diwen naturally advocated escalation and wanted to retaliate against Ming at all costs. However, the Executive Committee has not yet unified its views on the possible consequences of war.
The difference of opinion is not about whether the Ming Dynasty can be defeated. It is the consensus of the executive committee on the future development direction of annexing the Ming Dynasty and replacing it. The current truce is just for each side to accumulate strength. When the time comes, the war will naturally resume.
But before coming to Hangzhou, the opinion of the executive committee was still more inclined to prioritize overseas expansion, and then digest the traditional territory of the East Asian continent.
At that time, the military's opinions were mostly in favor of overseas expansion and seizing territory around the world. But if Haihan goes to war with Ming Dynasty again, a lot of resources will have to be invested, which may inevitably affect the overseas expansion plan.
Gong Shiqi stood aside and listened for a while, then realized that Shi Diwen was deliberately trying to push Haihan to declare war on Ming Dynasty. The case of Zhu Zhongyun is obviously the most suitable reason.
He had been busy investigating the case for the past two days and was less likely to be around the executive committee. Otherwise, he would have realized that the shipping business proposed by the Yangzhou salt merchant was roughly the backup plan for the Zhu Zhongyun case.
If the Executive Committee does not agree to implement military retaliation against the Ming Dynasty because of the Zhu Zhongyun case, then there is a high probability that the cargo fleet of the Yangzhou salt merchants will have an accident in the Ming Dynasty soon, and the Haihan Army will also have to send troops.
No matter what the Ming Dynasty's attitude was towards the Zhu Zhongyun case, it probably couldn't escape the big net thrown by Shi Diwen. If you admit your mistake with a good attitude and agree to the various conditions that Haihan will propose, maybe you can get through this difficulty by getting a big piece of flesh cut off.
If Ming Dynasty had a tough attitude and refused to admit that it had ordered the assassination, then it would be almost certain that the two countries would go to war again.