Chapter 1350
Information Sources
Chapter 1350 Information Sources
Of course, Chen Yixin was not the only one in the room. Zheng Ai glanced over, and there were at least twenty Haihan soldiers with live ammunition in the room.In addition, there is another person wearing women's clothing, which is the back figure that Zheng Ai saw entering the room from the corridor before he started.At that time, Tie Pingjiang said that this person was Ma Yuling, Chen Yixin's wife, but when Zheng Ai saw this person's face, he knew that he had been deceived by Tie Pingjiang, because this person could never be Ma Yuling—even if Chen Yixin was blind No, it's impossible to marry a guy with a beard.
Zheng Ai figured out the reason in an instant. The people of Haihan had known his purpose of coming here for a long time. They were afraid that he would not do anything when things came to an end, and specially made someone pretend to be Ma Yuling to mislead him, making him think that he had a chance to marry Chen Yixin and his wife. They are all trapped in this room and captured alive.
When Zheng Ai saw Ma Yuling entering the room, he thought that there were probably only Chen Yixin and his wife in the room, so they still launched the charge according to the original plan when the situation was unknown, but they never imagined that they were waiting for them in the room. It is a group of Haihan soldiers who have been ready for battle for a long time. They not only have muskets, but even a cannon.
Even if the downstairs is not fortified, Zheng Ai and his party all rush to the second floor, they may not be able to reach the door of this room alive.The shields and steel knives in the hands of the assassins are like toys in front of these heavily armed Haihan soldiers. This corridor, which is only a few feet long, is no different from mountains of knives and seas of fire to them.
Zheng Ai noticed that there was a uniquely shaped weapon on the desk in front of Chen Yixin. It looked like a musket, but it was obviously different from the Haihan musket he knew.Zheng Ai has also heard that the Haihan people have many powerful weapons that are not in the army. Presumably this weapon is the musket that fired three shots in the door and killed three companions just now.If he had launched a charge recklessly just now, he might have become the ghost of this gun.
As if feeling where Zheng Ai was looking, Chen Yixin patted the gun on the table and said: "This gun can fire thirty rounds in a row, and the shield you use can be shot if two pieces are stacked together. Wear it. With your flesh and blood, you cannot rush into this room."
Although Zheng Ai had already guessed that the weapon was powerful, but when he heard Chen Yixin say it so directly, the expression on his face still dimmed a bit.The gap in combat effectiveness between the two sides is too great, and it cannot be made up by manpower, but it is a pity that it is too late to realize this.
"Now that everyone has met each other frankly, I won't go around with you anymore." Chen Yixin fixed his sharp eyes on Zheng Ai's face, and finally spoke to the business: "Zheng Ai, tell me, the person who sent you is Who?"
Zheng Ai responded silently for a moment: "My movements are all under your control, so you should have known about this a long time ago, right?"
Chen Yixin said: "I spare your life, not for you to talk to me, ask you what, you answer honestly, and you can leave this place alive after the answer."
Zheng Ai said: "Zheng is not a person who is greedy for life and afraid of death..."
Chen Yixin didn't give him a chance to finish his sentence. He shook his head and interrupted him: "If you wanted to die, you wouldn't have surrendered just now. I gave you the chance to live, but I can take it back."
Chen Yixin's words had no tone, but there was an undeniable flavor in them.This condescending aura made Zheng Ai feel a little difficult even to breathe.He had dealt with Chen Yixin before, but in his impression he was not so strong. Maybe it was because he shot and killed three people at the door just now, which aroused Chen Yixin's bloodiness that had not flared up for a long time.
The smell of blood in the air has not yet dissipated. Of course Zheng Ai knew that Chen Yixin's words were not false threats. If the other party lost patience, it would not be surprising to order him to be dragged out and shot the next moment.It's just that he still couldn't figure it out, since the other party already knew about the assassination, why did he spend time asking himself these details.
Chen Yixin did not intend to explain the inside story to the captives. His purpose was actually very simple. He just wanted to verify the accuracy of the current information through Zheng Ai's confession.
Regarding Zheng Ai's assassination, Tie Pingjiang is not the only source of Haihan's intelligence.What Hao Wanqing did after he came to Shandong was not only to plan behind closed doors on Zhifu Island, but to gradually set up a large intelligence network in the Dengzhou area centered on Zhifu Island and Fushan County.
Although Zheng Ai and others planned this matter very secretly, and the preparation time was quite long, leaving few loopholes to the outside world, Haihan's intelligence network still found some clues when he mobilized personnel through the Dengzhou military. .
The people Zheng Ai wanted were all good soldiers in the army, and these people disappeared from the army almost at the same time in the name of retiring from the army, and they all went through the formal resignation registration procedures, so this situation has aroused the attention of interested people.Although it is unclear what the disappearance of these people means, this information was eventually sold to Haihan's intelligence personnel for a hundred taels of silver.
Haihan's intelligence strategy in the Dengzhou area can be described as simple and crude, which is to buy useful information directly with money. A certain pawn shop in Dengzhou City can not only exchange common items for money, but also military and political information, and the price is not cheap.Of course, it is impossible for ordinary people to know this kind of routine. Only a very small number of officials who have secretly received benefits from Hai Han know about the special projects operated by this pawnshop.
Haihan people can afford the price, and pay the money readily, so they often receive a lot of seemingly useless news.The news that these veterans retired at the same time did not attract the special attention of the intelligence personnel at the beginning. The reason why they paid the money to buy the information is actually more than half of the reason is to use it to maintain business relations with certain officials. That's all.The Ministry of Security doesn't care about the money sent out. As long as there is a market, sooner or later they will be able to rely on these information to earn back all the expenses.
Although there seemed to be nothing special about the piece of information that was bought back with a hundred taels of silver, the pawn shop still followed the standard workflow and sent it back to Zhifu Island in time for filing and summary.
As the residence of Hao Wanqing, the second-in-command of the Ministry of Security, the intelligence center on Zhifu Island also has a considerable scale, with dozens of personnel who are responsible for analyzing, categorizing, and recording various types of intelligence.Even seemingly inconspicuous news, when combined with other information, will give a different taste in the eyes of these professionals.
At the beginning, due to the extremely limited intelligence content, the analysts did not draw any clear conclusions, nor could they link this incident with Haihan.But one analyst thought the news was weird and warranted further investigation.As a result, a steady stream of information was sent back from all parts of Dengzhou in the follow-up. The names, ages, places of origin, past performances in the army, etc. of these veterans were all ascertained one by one.Many of them were born in Dengzhou, but what is strange is that these people did not return to their original places after they were discharged from the army, but disappeared on the spot.
The disappearance of one or two people can be said to be a coincidence, maybe they went to other places to make a living, but if none of this group of veterans can be found, this matter will not be so common.But by this time, the intelligence analysts still had no evidence to connect Haihan with his local interests, and were just continuing to do routine investigations.
These investigations may seem complicated, but in fact there is no need for Haihan intelligence personnel to run errands at all, because there are no military secrets involved at all, so basically only need to spend money to collect the required information.Although the Ministry of Security does not know what kind of tricks the Dengzhou military is playing for the time being, as the information they have gradually increased, analysts have gradually noticed this case and reported it to Hao Wanqing.
By this time, the Ministry of Security had spent nearly a month intermittently investigating this incident, and the money spent was several times that of the initial purchase of this information, but in fact, no substantial results were obtained. result.Hao Wanqing believed that this group of people was in their prime, and they were all veterans who had served in the army for many years. Tasks that should not be made public.
Normally speaking, it is much more convenient to have a military status and military background, but the Ming army's approach is completely opposite, which further deepened Hao Wanqing's doubts.The biggest fear of the Shandong military at present is probably the Haihan army that has occupied some areas of Fushan County. Apart from going against Haihan, Hao Wanqing can't think of anything else that can make the Ming army so afraid, and the soldiers need to be secretly replaced. tasks performed as civilians.
As a result, this incident, which had nothing to do with Hai Han, was once again raised to the level of investigation, and Hao Wanqing personally took over the supervision.This means that Haihan's local intelligence resources will be greatly inclined to this incident, and the Ministry of Security will pay more attention to it.
After tracking the identities of these people, intelligence analysts found that most of them had been in the same army for a while, and the former commanders of these people had disappeared during the Dunlay Rebellion— — just like the way they disappeared, discharged, and then disappeared.
After analysis, the Ministry of Security believed that this officer might be the key element in this mysterious incident, so they continued to dig deeper into this clue.Money can turn ghosts around, and after paying hundreds of taels of silver, the Ministry of Security finally learned that this person was actually a remnant of the rebels lurking in the civilian population to investigate the whereabouts of the Denglai Rebellion after he retired from the army.
It is actually not difficult to deduce more truths so far. Those soldiers who have been discharged en masse inexplicably may also, like their former commanders, carry out the operation to capture the remnants of the rebels.And the removal of the military post first may be just to avoid alarming the snake.Although this matter is a bit weird, it is also reasonable, and there is no obvious conflict with Hai Han's interests.
However, out of a cautious attitude, the Ministry of Security still decided to check the status quo of this veteran officer, so the investigators were surprised to find that this veteran officer who temporarily lived in Guxian Town as a businessman had actually become a He became one of Haihan's designated local suppliers, and has done well in trade, earning a lot of money from Haihan.
If the previous investigations did not find that this incident could be related to Hai Han, then from this moment on, the Ministry of Security realized that there was indeed a conflict of interest between the two that had not been found before.And this Ming Dynasty veteran named Zheng Ai also officially entered the field of vision of the Ministry of Security.
The next thing entered the rhythm of the Ministry of Security. Zheng Ai didn't know that he had been listed as a monitoring target by the Haihan Security Department, and he still carried out step by step according to his established plan.However, he found someone to modify the flatbed trailer and had frequent contact with unidentified people. All these actions were noticed by the Haihan Security Department.
Zheng Ai came to Majiazhuang a few days ago and had a private meeting with military supply officer Tie Pingjiang. People from the Ministry of Security approached Tie Pingjiang immediately and asked him to cooperate with the investigation.In fact, at this time, the investigators did not expect that Tie Pingjiang and Zheng Ai had conspired against each other. They just planned to obtain more information about Zheng Ai from Tie Pingjiang in order to continue the investigation.
But Tie Pingjiang did not expect the real reason for the sudden appearance of the Ministry of Security. He was already guilty of Zheng Ai's threat. Seeing Zheng Ai's departure, the Ministry of Security came to the door with the gendarmerie and asked him to cooperate with the investigation, so he thought it was When the incident happened to him, he didn't make any resistance at all, and poured beans out of the bamboo tube to spit out the whole incident.
Incidentally, this investigation also uncovered a corruption case, which the investigators did not expect beforehand.However, I did get useful information from Tie Pingjiang. Zheng Ai's purpose of blackmailing Tie Pingjiang was only to ask him to cooperate in applying for a pass in the Haihan occupied area, and to escort the goods to Zhifu Island as an escort.
Zheng Ai claimed to Tie Pingjiang that the goods he was transporting were to be handed over to a certain important person on Zhifu Island. Tie Pingjiang had no way to verify the authenticity of this statement, so he would be bluffed by him, but the Ministry of Security asked for proof of this matter. But it is not difficult.Hao Wanqing directly contacted several other traversers stationed in the local area, and asked them if any secret cargo had been handed over to Zheng Ai for escort.After getting the answer, Hao Wanqing was basically sure that what Zheng Ai said to Tie Pingjiang were all lies, and there should be other schemes.
Zhifu Island is the base camp of Haihan in Shandong, and the security is very strict, and the private convoy cannot go to the island at all.Even if they arrived at Zhifu Island, they could only hand over the goods to the Haihan military for transshipment to the island. Zheng Ai probably had no chance to meet senior Haihan officials at all.So Hao Wanqing thinks that Zheng Ai's goal may not be on Zhifu Island, it's just a smokescreen he released.
Among the places along the route from Guxian Town to Zhifu Island, only Majiazhuang has Chen Yixin, a high-ranking Haihan official.In terms of the scope of activities that Zheng Ai got the pass order, this is probably the only senior Haihan official he has the opportunity to meet.Could it be Chen Yixin who he wanted to deliver the goods to?
(End of this chapter)
Of course, Chen Yixin was not the only one in the room. Zheng Ai glanced over, and there were at least twenty Haihan soldiers with live ammunition in the room.In addition, there is another person wearing women's clothing, which is the back figure that Zheng Ai saw entering the room from the corridor before he started.At that time, Tie Pingjiang said that this person was Ma Yuling, Chen Yixin's wife, but when Zheng Ai saw this person's face, he knew that he had been deceived by Tie Pingjiang, because this person could never be Ma Yuling—even if Chen Yixin was blind No, it's impossible to marry a guy with a beard.
Zheng Ai figured out the reason in an instant. The people of Haihan had known his purpose of coming here for a long time. They were afraid that he would not do anything when things came to an end, and specially made someone pretend to be Ma Yuling to mislead him, making him think that he had a chance to marry Chen Yixin and his wife. They are all trapped in this room and captured alive.
When Zheng Ai saw Ma Yuling entering the room, he thought that there were probably only Chen Yixin and his wife in the room, so they still launched the charge according to the original plan when the situation was unknown, but they never imagined that they were waiting for them in the room. It is a group of Haihan soldiers who have been ready for battle for a long time. They not only have muskets, but even a cannon.
Even if the downstairs is not fortified, Zheng Ai and his party all rush to the second floor, they may not be able to reach the door of this room alive.The shields and steel knives in the hands of the assassins are like toys in front of these heavily armed Haihan soldiers. This corridor, which is only a few feet long, is no different from mountains of knives and seas of fire to them.
Zheng Ai noticed that there was a uniquely shaped weapon on the desk in front of Chen Yixin. It looked like a musket, but it was obviously different from the Haihan musket he knew.Zheng Ai has also heard that the Haihan people have many powerful weapons that are not in the army. Presumably this weapon is the musket that fired three shots in the door and killed three companions just now.If he had launched a charge recklessly just now, he might have become the ghost of this gun.
As if feeling where Zheng Ai was looking, Chen Yixin patted the gun on the table and said: "This gun can fire thirty rounds in a row, and the shield you use can be shot if two pieces are stacked together. Wear it. With your flesh and blood, you cannot rush into this room."
Although Zheng Ai had already guessed that the weapon was powerful, but when he heard Chen Yixin say it so directly, the expression on his face still dimmed a bit.The gap in combat effectiveness between the two sides is too great, and it cannot be made up by manpower, but it is a pity that it is too late to realize this.
"Now that everyone has met each other frankly, I won't go around with you anymore." Chen Yixin fixed his sharp eyes on Zheng Ai's face, and finally spoke to the business: "Zheng Ai, tell me, the person who sent you is Who?"
Zheng Ai responded silently for a moment: "My movements are all under your control, so you should have known about this a long time ago, right?"
Chen Yixin said: "I spare your life, not for you to talk to me, ask you what, you answer honestly, and you can leave this place alive after the answer."
Zheng Ai said: "Zheng is not a person who is greedy for life and afraid of death..."
Chen Yixin didn't give him a chance to finish his sentence. He shook his head and interrupted him: "If you wanted to die, you wouldn't have surrendered just now. I gave you the chance to live, but I can take it back."
Chen Yixin's words had no tone, but there was an undeniable flavor in them.This condescending aura made Zheng Ai feel a little difficult even to breathe.He had dealt with Chen Yixin before, but in his impression he was not so strong. Maybe it was because he shot and killed three people at the door just now, which aroused Chen Yixin's bloodiness that had not flared up for a long time.
The smell of blood in the air has not yet dissipated. Of course Zheng Ai knew that Chen Yixin's words were not false threats. If the other party lost patience, it would not be surprising to order him to be dragged out and shot the next moment.It's just that he still couldn't figure it out, since the other party already knew about the assassination, why did he spend time asking himself these details.
Chen Yixin did not intend to explain the inside story to the captives. His purpose was actually very simple. He just wanted to verify the accuracy of the current information through Zheng Ai's confession.
Regarding Zheng Ai's assassination, Tie Pingjiang is not the only source of Haihan's intelligence.What Hao Wanqing did after he came to Shandong was not only to plan behind closed doors on Zhifu Island, but to gradually set up a large intelligence network in the Dengzhou area centered on Zhifu Island and Fushan County.
Although Zheng Ai and others planned this matter very secretly, and the preparation time was quite long, leaving few loopholes to the outside world, Haihan's intelligence network still found some clues when he mobilized personnel through the Dengzhou military. .
The people Zheng Ai wanted were all good soldiers in the army, and these people disappeared from the army almost at the same time in the name of retiring from the army, and they all went through the formal resignation registration procedures, so this situation has aroused the attention of interested people.Although it is unclear what the disappearance of these people means, this information was eventually sold to Haihan's intelligence personnel for a hundred taels of silver.
Haihan's intelligence strategy in the Dengzhou area can be described as simple and crude, which is to buy useful information directly with money. A certain pawn shop in Dengzhou City can not only exchange common items for money, but also military and political information, and the price is not cheap.Of course, it is impossible for ordinary people to know this kind of routine. Only a very small number of officials who have secretly received benefits from Hai Han know about the special projects operated by this pawnshop.
Haihan people can afford the price, and pay the money readily, so they often receive a lot of seemingly useless news.The news that these veterans retired at the same time did not attract the special attention of the intelligence personnel at the beginning. The reason why they paid the money to buy the information is actually more than half of the reason is to use it to maintain business relations with certain officials. That's all.The Ministry of Security doesn't care about the money sent out. As long as there is a market, sooner or later they will be able to rely on these information to earn back all the expenses.
Although there seemed to be nothing special about the piece of information that was bought back with a hundred taels of silver, the pawn shop still followed the standard workflow and sent it back to Zhifu Island in time for filing and summary.
As the residence of Hao Wanqing, the second-in-command of the Ministry of Security, the intelligence center on Zhifu Island also has a considerable scale, with dozens of personnel who are responsible for analyzing, categorizing, and recording various types of intelligence.Even seemingly inconspicuous news, when combined with other information, will give a different taste in the eyes of these professionals.
At the beginning, due to the extremely limited intelligence content, the analysts did not draw any clear conclusions, nor could they link this incident with Haihan.But one analyst thought the news was weird and warranted further investigation.As a result, a steady stream of information was sent back from all parts of Dengzhou in the follow-up. The names, ages, places of origin, past performances in the army, etc. of these veterans were all ascertained one by one.Many of them were born in Dengzhou, but what is strange is that these people did not return to their original places after they were discharged from the army, but disappeared on the spot.
The disappearance of one or two people can be said to be a coincidence, maybe they went to other places to make a living, but if none of this group of veterans can be found, this matter will not be so common.But by this time, the intelligence analysts still had no evidence to connect Haihan with his local interests, and were just continuing to do routine investigations.
These investigations may seem complicated, but in fact there is no need for Haihan intelligence personnel to run errands at all, because there are no military secrets involved at all, so basically only need to spend money to collect the required information.Although the Ministry of Security does not know what kind of tricks the Dengzhou military is playing for the time being, as the information they have gradually increased, analysts have gradually noticed this case and reported it to Hao Wanqing.
By this time, the Ministry of Security had spent nearly a month intermittently investigating this incident, and the money spent was several times that of the initial purchase of this information, but in fact, no substantial results were obtained. result.Hao Wanqing believed that this group of people was in their prime, and they were all veterans who had served in the army for many years. Tasks that should not be made public.
Normally speaking, it is much more convenient to have a military status and military background, but the Ming army's approach is completely opposite, which further deepened Hao Wanqing's doubts.The biggest fear of the Shandong military at present is probably the Haihan army that has occupied some areas of Fushan County. Apart from going against Haihan, Hao Wanqing can't think of anything else that can make the Ming army so afraid, and the soldiers need to be secretly replaced. tasks performed as civilians.
As a result, this incident, which had nothing to do with Hai Han, was once again raised to the level of investigation, and Hao Wanqing personally took over the supervision.This means that Haihan's local intelligence resources will be greatly inclined to this incident, and the Ministry of Security will pay more attention to it.
After tracking the identities of these people, intelligence analysts found that most of them had been in the same army for a while, and the former commanders of these people had disappeared during the Dunlay Rebellion— — just like the way they disappeared, discharged, and then disappeared.
After analysis, the Ministry of Security believed that this officer might be the key element in this mysterious incident, so they continued to dig deeper into this clue.Money can turn ghosts around, and after paying hundreds of taels of silver, the Ministry of Security finally learned that this person was actually a remnant of the rebels lurking in the civilian population to investigate the whereabouts of the Denglai Rebellion after he retired from the army.
It is actually not difficult to deduce more truths so far. Those soldiers who have been discharged en masse inexplicably may also, like their former commanders, carry out the operation to capture the remnants of the rebels.And the removal of the military post first may be just to avoid alarming the snake.Although this matter is a bit weird, it is also reasonable, and there is no obvious conflict with Hai Han's interests.
However, out of a cautious attitude, the Ministry of Security still decided to check the status quo of this veteran officer, so the investigators were surprised to find that this veteran officer who temporarily lived in Guxian Town as a businessman had actually become a He became one of Haihan's designated local suppliers, and has done well in trade, earning a lot of money from Haihan.
If the previous investigations did not find that this incident could be related to Hai Han, then from this moment on, the Ministry of Security realized that there was indeed a conflict of interest between the two that had not been found before.And this Ming Dynasty veteran named Zheng Ai also officially entered the field of vision of the Ministry of Security.
The next thing entered the rhythm of the Ministry of Security. Zheng Ai didn't know that he had been listed as a monitoring target by the Haihan Security Department, and he still carried out step by step according to his established plan.However, he found someone to modify the flatbed trailer and had frequent contact with unidentified people. All these actions were noticed by the Haihan Security Department.
Zheng Ai came to Majiazhuang a few days ago and had a private meeting with military supply officer Tie Pingjiang. People from the Ministry of Security approached Tie Pingjiang immediately and asked him to cooperate with the investigation.In fact, at this time, the investigators did not expect that Tie Pingjiang and Zheng Ai had conspired against each other. They just planned to obtain more information about Zheng Ai from Tie Pingjiang in order to continue the investigation.
But Tie Pingjiang did not expect the real reason for the sudden appearance of the Ministry of Security. He was already guilty of Zheng Ai's threat. Seeing Zheng Ai's departure, the Ministry of Security came to the door with the gendarmerie and asked him to cooperate with the investigation, so he thought it was When the incident happened to him, he didn't make any resistance at all, and poured beans out of the bamboo tube to spit out the whole incident.
Incidentally, this investigation also uncovered a corruption case, which the investigators did not expect beforehand.However, I did get useful information from Tie Pingjiang. Zheng Ai's purpose of blackmailing Tie Pingjiang was only to ask him to cooperate in applying for a pass in the Haihan occupied area, and to escort the goods to Zhifu Island as an escort.
Zheng Ai claimed to Tie Pingjiang that the goods he was transporting were to be handed over to a certain important person on Zhifu Island. Tie Pingjiang had no way to verify the authenticity of this statement, so he would be bluffed by him, but the Ministry of Security asked for proof of this matter. But it is not difficult.Hao Wanqing directly contacted several other traversers stationed in the local area, and asked them if any secret cargo had been handed over to Zheng Ai for escort.After getting the answer, Hao Wanqing was basically sure that what Zheng Ai said to Tie Pingjiang were all lies, and there should be other schemes.
Zhifu Island is the base camp of Haihan in Shandong, and the security is very strict, and the private convoy cannot go to the island at all.Even if they arrived at Zhifu Island, they could only hand over the goods to the Haihan military for transshipment to the island. Zheng Ai probably had no chance to meet senior Haihan officials at all.So Hao Wanqing thinks that Zheng Ai's goal may not be on Zhifu Island, it's just a smokescreen he released.
Among the places along the route from Guxian Town to Zhifu Island, only Majiazhuang has Chen Yixin, a high-ranking Haihan official.In terms of the scope of activities that Zheng Ai got the pass order, this is probably the only senior Haihan official he has the opportunity to meet.Could it be Chen Yixin who he wanted to deliver the goods to?
(End of this chapter)