Chapter 1617
Gathering Intelligence
Chapter 1617 Gathering Intelligence
Fei Cexian led the mission to Haihan this time. Apart from negotiating with Haihan on various disputes between the two countries, another important task is to collect various intelligence information about Haihan. Sort out and restore a more comprehensive and true Haihan social situation, and submit written materials to the imperial court.
This is different from what Jinyiwei and Dongchang have done. The intelligence and information that Fei Cexian wants to collect mainly comes from public domains and channels, such as daily social life, Haihan official announcements, newspapers and other publicity media. news and more.Moreover, because of his special status, he has access to high-ranking officials in Haihan far more often than those intelligence officers who hide their names and lurk in Haihan, and he has correspondingly more opportunities to know the upper class and ruling class of Haihan society. For Da Ming, it may be more useful than how many warships Haihan has deployed in a certain place.
The imperial court did not make very detailed requirements for Fei Cexian's mission, because after all, he was not a professionally trained spy. He had been just a diplomat in charge of dealing with foreign envoys for the past ten years.During Fei Cexian's stay in Haihan, he had a very high degree of freedom in his actions, and he could decide all matters by himself, including how to collect Haihan's military, political, and business-related information.As for which field to focus on, it is also up to Fei Cexian to decide.
Of course, Da Ming gave Fei Cexian this kind of freedom is actually a helpless move. After all, Hainan Island is thousands of miles away from the capital, and it is impossible to ask the boss for everything. On Haihan Country's side, judge the situation and play on your own.Moreover, Fei Cexian's loyalty to the imperial court and professional ability are also deeply trusted by his superiors, otherwise, how could he be qualified to take on such an important task with his only official position of seventh rank.
However, Fei Cexian's intelligence professional ability is indeed only at the level of beginners, and this is the result of more than ten days of training for him by Jin Yiwei and Dongchang.Therefore, regarding how much valuable information Fei Cexian can collect in Haihan, Da Ming did not set him a specific goal, but hoped that he could judge the trend of Haihan's external expansion based on the changes in the situation in Sanya, especially for Da Ming. attitude will change.
Although Haihan has not shown obvious hostility towards Daming in recent years, on the contrary, the entanglement in trade and immigration has become more and more serious, and the possibility of war between the two countries has also become smaller and smaller, but Daming dare not relax. Haihan's surveillance.This country in the South China Sea has demonstrated more and more amazing fighting power in recent years, and its tentacles have even extended to the Liaodong Peninsula area thousands of miles away from its mainland. This means that Haihan can send troops to any place in Ming Dynasty by sea at any time coastline.
The combat effectiveness of the Haihan army is not at the level of civilian armed organizations such as pirates and Japanese pirates. Its record is enough to make a regional power like Ming Dynasty feel ashamed, and the facts of the past few years have also proved that if Haihan sends troops to the coast of Daming, then basically They all settled in the local area very smoothly.Leaving aside Fuguang and Guangxi, which have been infiltrated by Haihan for a long time, the same is true for Zhejiang and Shandong, which are further north. Although the local government and garrison in Shandong have tried to resist and drive away the Haihan army, the results are not satisfactory. .
For the Ming court, the presence of the Haihan army in the coastal area was like a knife on Daming's neck. It was up to the Haihan people to decide whether or not to do it and when to do it.Daming is naturally not willing to be in this passive situation all the time, and he doesn't want his territory to be encroached on by Haihan year by year. However, Daming himself has a lot of troubles at the moment, so naturally he doesn't want to get too stiff with Haihan. Daming must be the one who suffers on the scene.
But it was impossible for Daming to just sit back and watch Haihan ride on his head little by little, and he still wanted to try to resolve Haihan's overwhelming military advantage.These islands outside the mainland, including Qiongzhou Island, are lost if they are lost. There is no need to rush to get them back for the time being, but the area Haihan occupies on the mainland makes Daming feel like he is on pins and needles, even if he clearly knows that Haihan is not Will take the initiative to launch a war, but who can feel relaxed when they see the military facilities in occupied areas such as Shandong and Liaodong?
But in order to expel the Haihan army, it is unlikely that Da Ming will use force means with little hope of victory, so he can only settle for the next best thing, see if he can catch any weakness of Haihan, or find a Haihan who has no time to take care of When the time comes, these occupied areas will be recovered.It’s just that it’s not easy to do this, and it requires a strong intelligence system as support, especially to understand the latest trends of the Haihan Army. If there is a lack of intelligence information in this area, then all judgments made are just on paper. .
Although Daming currently has full-time intelligence personnel lurking in Haihan, it is definitely not as convenient as Fei Cexian, an envoy of Ming Dynasty, so even though Fei Cexian is not professional, he still undertakes the task of collecting information on various aspects of Haihan for Daming.
Whether it was Zhang Qianzhi, the tour guide sent by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, or the staff of the Guest House that he could meet on a daily basis, Fei Cexian regarded everyone around him as a potential source of news.Although the information these people can provide may not be confidential, Fei Cexian is sure that after sorting out and analyzing the information, he should get something of value.For example, from Zhang Qianzhi's mouth, Fei Cexian learned about many methods Haihan used to win over Daming officials. No matter what the purpose Zhang Qianzhi told him was, but after sorting out the information and sending it back to Daming, the court may find a way to deal with it. Haihan's method of corrosive means.
After seeing it with his own eyes, Fei Cexian also had to admit that Haihan's economic and military advantages really made it difficult for Da Ming to catch up.Although Haihan seems to be a small country with a population of less than 30, its national strength is completely out of proportion to its population. In particular, its military deterrence can reach places thousands of miles away from the mainland. This is probably only the Ming Dynasty in its heyday. do it.While Fei Cexian was vigilant, he couldn't help feeling a little envious and jealous. After all, it is impossible for Daming to have such majesty.During the negotiations in Liaodong, even North Korea's follower's position has been shaken by the appearance of Haihan.
In addition to contacting the Haihan people, which is the most direct source of intelligence information, Fei Cexian's other main source of intelligence is various local newspapers published in Sanya.This thing is actually no stranger to Fei Cexian, because Daming also has an official residence newspaper.
The imperial court even set up a yamen named "Tongzheng Shi" for this purpose, and set up a third-rank Tongzheng Shi to handle internal and external chapters and official rebuttals.There is one person in charge of the left and right of the four ranks, and the inner and outer Zhang Shu and the subjects seal the appeal.There are also officials such as left and right councilors, experience divisions, and governors.At present, due to the large circulation of the Di Bao issued by the imperial court, handwriting or woodcut printing has been abandoned, and movable type printing has been changed.
However, there is a completely different difference between Daming's Dibao and Haihan's newspapers, which is the scope of distribution.The Daming Mansion Newspaper was basically not distributed to the people, and the content that was occasionally circulated to the people was only copied.However, Haihan's newspapers are published publicly and can be read by all the people. Many government orders and policies are even publicized through newspapers to let the public know.And there are quite a few public places in the urban area of Sanya that have relevant publicity activities. Even storytellers in restaurants and restaurants will tell the public about the contents of newspapers from time to time, so as to ensure that the key information above can be spread in the shortest possible time. .
The benefits of doing this are obvious. Haihan’s official decrees can be quickly conveyed to the people, and even the illiterate people can get information at the first time through various preaching methods.As for whether the distribution fee can be earned back through sales, Fei Cexian did not consider this kind of commercial issue. He focused on the political significance of this form, and did not care too much about its commercial use. .
Like most foreign envoys who first arrived in Sanya, Fei Cexian quickly sent someone to buy a copy of all kinds of newspapers on the market. During the day, when he was supervising the construction site of the embassy, he would make a pot of tea and sit slowly. look through.Occasionally there was something that I didn't understand in the newspaper, so I asked Zhang Qianzhi nearby for an explanation.
When he finished work and returned to the Guest House in the evening, Fei Cexian wrote down all the issues he had thought about during the day, and then selected the valuable parts to organize and include them, and later wrote them as a memorial and sent them back to Beijing.
It seems that Haihan is not in a hurry to start diplomatic consultations with Fei Cexian during this period. Except for Ning Qi who occasionally comes to the construction site to have a look, other high-ranking officials of Haihan have never visited him again.However, Fei Cexian didn't think it was strange. He was a Deputy Secretary of the Ministry of Rites from Qipin, and it would be really unreasonable for high-ranking officials from Haihan to visit him every three days or so.
On the contrary, envoys from other countries stationed in Sanya came to the guest house to pay a visit to Fei Cexian one after another, and even the envoys of Annan, who had always had a rift with Ming Dynasty, also came to meet him.Fei Cexian knew it only after meeting several people. This is also one of the traditional activities of foreign embassies, that is, to call on new envoys in turn to promote understanding among countries.Fei Cexian thinks this is a good arrangement, at least it can have a certain positive effect on maintaining regional peace. Of course, it would be even better if the organizer of this event is not Hai Han - this kind of leading brother role should be played by Da Ming It's right to play, now Hai Han has taken all the limelight.
But Fei Cexian also knows that Haihan has extremely high authority and influence in the South China Sea region. The so-called South China Sea Business Alliance is actually an international political organization led by Haihan, and many countries have already cooperated with Haihan. A military alliance was concluded.The role played by Haihan in the South China Sea region is precisely to replace the international political functions that were in charge of by Ming in the past.Reminiscent of the fact that in recent years there have been very few vassal states from the South China Sea to pay tribute to Beijing, it is not difficult for Fei Cexian to imagine the role Haihan played in it.
But from Fei Cexian's standpoint, although he is dissatisfied with Hai Han's actions, he has no sufficient reason to accuse Hai Han of doing something wrong. The opportunity for Han to rise on the coast of the South China Sea.
After getting in touch with envoys from other countries, Fei Cexian also noticed that not all countries were of one mind with Haihan. For example, Western countries like the Netherlands and Portugal claimed to be Haihan's trading partners, but they were very concerned about Haihan. Han's vigilance is the strongest, especially when it comes to key waterway control and competition in the shipping industry. These countries, like Haihan, who are good at expanding their sphere of influence through the sea are not only Haihan's trading partners, but also rivals.
During the exchanges with the envoys of these two countries, Fei Cexian could clearly feel that they were uneasy about the establishment of diplomatic relations between Daming and Haihan, because these two countries are first-class powers in the Far East, a country with a vast territory and a large population, The establishment of diplomatic relations between two countries with strong military strength and good economic and trade operations, which have such highly complementary conditions, may not be a good thing for countries outside the region.
But compared to these deep-eyed and high-nosed Westerners, Fei Cexian feels a little closer to Haihan. After all, Haihan's citizens are all descendants of Han people, and they even immigrated from Daming.Haihan officials have always emphasized that they share the same root and family with Daming, and share weal and woe. This is undoubtedly a very good way to win favor.
Therefore, Fei Cexian carefully avoided the topic of Western envoys trying to win over relations during the conversation. Although the envoys of the two countries expressed that they could provide military assistance to Ming Dynasty, Fei Cexian knew very well in his heart that both countries Hai Han's defeated generals were also military aids, so of course Hai Han provided more secure and reliable aid.What's more, Haihan has several well-equipped military bases on the coastline of Ming Dynasty, and can send combat troops to Ming Dynasty by sea in a very short period of time. This is a condition that Western countries can't compare with.
Daming was also counting on Haihan to hold back the pace of Jin's southward movement in Liaodong. At this time, if he bypassed Haihan and chose other military cooperation partners, it would undoubtedly make the Haihan people feel dissatisfied.Offending Haihan is not among Da Ming's political options, and Fei Cexian will not make such a low-level mistake, so although the envoys of the two countries even hinted that they can give him some personal benefits in exchange for Da Ming opening up trade ports to him , Fei Cexian finally did not accept the move.
It was only then that Fei Cexian began to realize that his job as an envoy to Haihan was not just to deal with the people of Haihan, but also to deal with various countries in order to win more benefits for Ming Dynasty.It's just that there are not many exchange conditions that Daming can offer at present, and Haihan's feelings have to be taken into account, so it may be difficult to win other allies in a short time.
(End of this chapter)
Fei Cexian led the mission to Haihan this time. Apart from negotiating with Haihan on various disputes between the two countries, another important task is to collect various intelligence information about Haihan. Sort out and restore a more comprehensive and true Haihan social situation, and submit written materials to the imperial court.
This is different from what Jinyiwei and Dongchang have done. The intelligence and information that Fei Cexian wants to collect mainly comes from public domains and channels, such as daily social life, Haihan official announcements, newspapers and other publicity media. news and more.Moreover, because of his special status, he has access to high-ranking officials in Haihan far more often than those intelligence officers who hide their names and lurk in Haihan, and he has correspondingly more opportunities to know the upper class and ruling class of Haihan society. For Da Ming, it may be more useful than how many warships Haihan has deployed in a certain place.
The imperial court did not make very detailed requirements for Fei Cexian's mission, because after all, he was not a professionally trained spy. He had been just a diplomat in charge of dealing with foreign envoys for the past ten years.During Fei Cexian's stay in Haihan, he had a very high degree of freedom in his actions, and he could decide all matters by himself, including how to collect Haihan's military, political, and business-related information.As for which field to focus on, it is also up to Fei Cexian to decide.
Of course, Da Ming gave Fei Cexian this kind of freedom is actually a helpless move. After all, Hainan Island is thousands of miles away from the capital, and it is impossible to ask the boss for everything. On Haihan Country's side, judge the situation and play on your own.Moreover, Fei Cexian's loyalty to the imperial court and professional ability are also deeply trusted by his superiors, otherwise, how could he be qualified to take on such an important task with his only official position of seventh rank.
However, Fei Cexian's intelligence professional ability is indeed only at the level of beginners, and this is the result of more than ten days of training for him by Jin Yiwei and Dongchang.Therefore, regarding how much valuable information Fei Cexian can collect in Haihan, Da Ming did not set him a specific goal, but hoped that he could judge the trend of Haihan's external expansion based on the changes in the situation in Sanya, especially for Da Ming. attitude will change.
Although Haihan has not shown obvious hostility towards Daming in recent years, on the contrary, the entanglement in trade and immigration has become more and more serious, and the possibility of war between the two countries has also become smaller and smaller, but Daming dare not relax. Haihan's surveillance.This country in the South China Sea has demonstrated more and more amazing fighting power in recent years, and its tentacles have even extended to the Liaodong Peninsula area thousands of miles away from its mainland. This means that Haihan can send troops to any place in Ming Dynasty by sea at any time coastline.
The combat effectiveness of the Haihan army is not at the level of civilian armed organizations such as pirates and Japanese pirates. Its record is enough to make a regional power like Ming Dynasty feel ashamed, and the facts of the past few years have also proved that if Haihan sends troops to the coast of Daming, then basically They all settled in the local area very smoothly.Leaving aside Fuguang and Guangxi, which have been infiltrated by Haihan for a long time, the same is true for Zhejiang and Shandong, which are further north. Although the local government and garrison in Shandong have tried to resist and drive away the Haihan army, the results are not satisfactory. .
For the Ming court, the presence of the Haihan army in the coastal area was like a knife on Daming's neck. It was up to the Haihan people to decide whether or not to do it and when to do it.Daming is naturally not willing to be in this passive situation all the time, and he doesn't want his territory to be encroached on by Haihan year by year. However, Daming himself has a lot of troubles at the moment, so naturally he doesn't want to get too stiff with Haihan. Daming must be the one who suffers on the scene.
But it was impossible for Daming to just sit back and watch Haihan ride on his head little by little, and he still wanted to try to resolve Haihan's overwhelming military advantage.These islands outside the mainland, including Qiongzhou Island, are lost if they are lost. There is no need to rush to get them back for the time being, but the area Haihan occupies on the mainland makes Daming feel like he is on pins and needles, even if he clearly knows that Haihan is not Will take the initiative to launch a war, but who can feel relaxed when they see the military facilities in occupied areas such as Shandong and Liaodong?
But in order to expel the Haihan army, it is unlikely that Da Ming will use force means with little hope of victory, so he can only settle for the next best thing, see if he can catch any weakness of Haihan, or find a Haihan who has no time to take care of When the time comes, these occupied areas will be recovered.It’s just that it’s not easy to do this, and it requires a strong intelligence system as support, especially to understand the latest trends of the Haihan Army. If there is a lack of intelligence information in this area, then all judgments made are just on paper. .
Although Daming currently has full-time intelligence personnel lurking in Haihan, it is definitely not as convenient as Fei Cexian, an envoy of Ming Dynasty, so even though Fei Cexian is not professional, he still undertakes the task of collecting information on various aspects of Haihan for Daming.
Whether it was Zhang Qianzhi, the tour guide sent by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, or the staff of the Guest House that he could meet on a daily basis, Fei Cexian regarded everyone around him as a potential source of news.Although the information these people can provide may not be confidential, Fei Cexian is sure that after sorting out and analyzing the information, he should get something of value.For example, from Zhang Qianzhi's mouth, Fei Cexian learned about many methods Haihan used to win over Daming officials. No matter what the purpose Zhang Qianzhi told him was, but after sorting out the information and sending it back to Daming, the court may find a way to deal with it. Haihan's method of corrosive means.
After seeing it with his own eyes, Fei Cexian also had to admit that Haihan's economic and military advantages really made it difficult for Da Ming to catch up.Although Haihan seems to be a small country with a population of less than 30, its national strength is completely out of proportion to its population. In particular, its military deterrence can reach places thousands of miles away from the mainland. This is probably only the Ming Dynasty in its heyday. do it.While Fei Cexian was vigilant, he couldn't help feeling a little envious and jealous. After all, it is impossible for Daming to have such majesty.During the negotiations in Liaodong, even North Korea's follower's position has been shaken by the appearance of Haihan.
In addition to contacting the Haihan people, which is the most direct source of intelligence information, Fei Cexian's other main source of intelligence is various local newspapers published in Sanya.This thing is actually no stranger to Fei Cexian, because Daming also has an official residence newspaper.
The imperial court even set up a yamen named "Tongzheng Shi" for this purpose, and set up a third-rank Tongzheng Shi to handle internal and external chapters and official rebuttals.There is one person in charge of the left and right of the four ranks, and the inner and outer Zhang Shu and the subjects seal the appeal.There are also officials such as left and right councilors, experience divisions, and governors.At present, due to the large circulation of the Di Bao issued by the imperial court, handwriting or woodcut printing has been abandoned, and movable type printing has been changed.
However, there is a completely different difference between Daming's Dibao and Haihan's newspapers, which is the scope of distribution.The Daming Mansion Newspaper was basically not distributed to the people, and the content that was occasionally circulated to the people was only copied.However, Haihan's newspapers are published publicly and can be read by all the people. Many government orders and policies are even publicized through newspapers to let the public know.And there are quite a few public places in the urban area of Sanya that have relevant publicity activities. Even storytellers in restaurants and restaurants will tell the public about the contents of newspapers from time to time, so as to ensure that the key information above can be spread in the shortest possible time. .
The benefits of doing this are obvious. Haihan’s official decrees can be quickly conveyed to the people, and even the illiterate people can get information at the first time through various preaching methods.As for whether the distribution fee can be earned back through sales, Fei Cexian did not consider this kind of commercial issue. He focused on the political significance of this form, and did not care too much about its commercial use. .
Like most foreign envoys who first arrived in Sanya, Fei Cexian quickly sent someone to buy a copy of all kinds of newspapers on the market. During the day, when he was supervising the construction site of the embassy, he would make a pot of tea and sit slowly. look through.Occasionally there was something that I didn't understand in the newspaper, so I asked Zhang Qianzhi nearby for an explanation.
When he finished work and returned to the Guest House in the evening, Fei Cexian wrote down all the issues he had thought about during the day, and then selected the valuable parts to organize and include them, and later wrote them as a memorial and sent them back to Beijing.
It seems that Haihan is not in a hurry to start diplomatic consultations with Fei Cexian during this period. Except for Ning Qi who occasionally comes to the construction site to have a look, other high-ranking officials of Haihan have never visited him again.However, Fei Cexian didn't think it was strange. He was a Deputy Secretary of the Ministry of Rites from Qipin, and it would be really unreasonable for high-ranking officials from Haihan to visit him every three days or so.
On the contrary, envoys from other countries stationed in Sanya came to the guest house to pay a visit to Fei Cexian one after another, and even the envoys of Annan, who had always had a rift with Ming Dynasty, also came to meet him.Fei Cexian knew it only after meeting several people. This is also one of the traditional activities of foreign embassies, that is, to call on new envoys in turn to promote understanding among countries.Fei Cexian thinks this is a good arrangement, at least it can have a certain positive effect on maintaining regional peace. Of course, it would be even better if the organizer of this event is not Hai Han - this kind of leading brother role should be played by Da Ming It's right to play, now Hai Han has taken all the limelight.
But Fei Cexian also knows that Haihan has extremely high authority and influence in the South China Sea region. The so-called South China Sea Business Alliance is actually an international political organization led by Haihan, and many countries have already cooperated with Haihan. A military alliance was concluded.The role played by Haihan in the South China Sea region is precisely to replace the international political functions that were in charge of by Ming in the past.Reminiscent of the fact that in recent years there have been very few vassal states from the South China Sea to pay tribute to Beijing, it is not difficult for Fei Cexian to imagine the role Haihan played in it.
But from Fei Cexian's standpoint, although he is dissatisfied with Hai Han's actions, he has no sufficient reason to accuse Hai Han of doing something wrong. The opportunity for Han to rise on the coast of the South China Sea.
After getting in touch with envoys from other countries, Fei Cexian also noticed that not all countries were of one mind with Haihan. For example, Western countries like the Netherlands and Portugal claimed to be Haihan's trading partners, but they were very concerned about Haihan. Han's vigilance is the strongest, especially when it comes to key waterway control and competition in the shipping industry. These countries, like Haihan, who are good at expanding their sphere of influence through the sea are not only Haihan's trading partners, but also rivals.
During the exchanges with the envoys of these two countries, Fei Cexian could clearly feel that they were uneasy about the establishment of diplomatic relations between Daming and Haihan, because these two countries are first-class powers in the Far East, a country with a vast territory and a large population, The establishment of diplomatic relations between two countries with strong military strength and good economic and trade operations, which have such highly complementary conditions, may not be a good thing for countries outside the region.
But compared to these deep-eyed and high-nosed Westerners, Fei Cexian feels a little closer to Haihan. After all, Haihan's citizens are all descendants of Han people, and they even immigrated from Daming.Haihan officials have always emphasized that they share the same root and family with Daming, and share weal and woe. This is undoubtedly a very good way to win favor.
Therefore, Fei Cexian carefully avoided the topic of Western envoys trying to win over relations during the conversation. Although the envoys of the two countries expressed that they could provide military assistance to Ming Dynasty, Fei Cexian knew very well in his heart that both countries Hai Han's defeated generals were also military aids, so of course Hai Han provided more secure and reliable aid.What's more, Haihan has several well-equipped military bases on the coastline of Ming Dynasty, and can send combat troops to Ming Dynasty by sea in a very short period of time. This is a condition that Western countries can't compare with.
Daming was also counting on Haihan to hold back the pace of Jin's southward movement in Liaodong. At this time, if he bypassed Haihan and chose other military cooperation partners, it would undoubtedly make the Haihan people feel dissatisfied.Offending Haihan is not among Da Ming's political options, and Fei Cexian will not make such a low-level mistake, so although the envoys of the two countries even hinted that they can give him some personal benefits in exchange for Da Ming opening up trade ports to him , Fei Cexian finally did not accept the move.
It was only then that Fei Cexian began to realize that his job as an envoy to Haihan was not just to deal with the people of Haihan, but also to deal with various countries in order to win more benefits for Ming Dynasty.It's just that there are not many exchange conditions that Daming can offer at present, and Haihan's feelings have to be taken into account, so it may be difficult to win other allies in a short time.
(End of this chapter)