Chapter 1619
Harbinger clues
Chapter 1619 Harbinger clues
What these businessmen were talking about had something to do with Haihan's recent military mobilization, so Fei Cexian, who happened to hear it, was interested.One of his missions in coming to Haihan is to pay attention to Haihan's military movements, especially large-scale military transfers. The Minister of War specially told him to keep an eye on this information, because it is very likely that it will be the beginning of a war. harbinger.
Then one of the businessmen with a Jiangsu-Zhejiang accent asked: "Boss Zhang, have you ever been interrogated by the navy on your way to Sanya?"
When the boss of that chapter opened his mouth, it was with a Fujian accent: "I met you! When we arrived at Hong Kong Island, everyone was not allowed to disembark and could only wait for inspection on the ship. It was delayed for two days before being allowed to leave the port. I heard that The naval forces stationed in Zhejiang and Fujian went south to Hainan Island to rest and recuperate, so the ports controlled by Haihan are all under martial law, and all merchant ships must be inspected and registered before they can get permission to come to Sanya."
Another businessman speaking with a Guangzhou accent replied: "It's the same here in Guangzhou. A notice was posted on the Pearl River Wharf a few days ago, asking ships that are coming to Hainan Island to register with the Haihan Embassy in Haizhu Town first, saying It was the recent navy mobilization of the defense area. This arrangement was made to prevent Ming merchant ships from accidentally entering the forbidden sea area. But I don’t believe it. The navy is mobilizing every year. I haven’t seen such a big formation before. I’m afraid it’s the Haihan people. conspired."
The businessman with a Jiangsu-Zhejiang accent said: "Boss Wang, do you mean to go to war? How is that possible? Just look at the prices in the market. There is no sign of a shortage of supplies and a sharp rise in prices, which means that the Ministry of National Defense has not yet made large purchases in the market." Into combat supplies."
The combat supplies that Haihan publicly procures are basically logistical medical supplies, and raw materials are often imported from Daming. The bulk purchase of these supplies can easily attract the attention of interested people in the market.
The businessman surnamed Wang in Guangzhou muttered: "It was true in the past, but it's hard to say now. Don't forget that Dengzhou Prefecture in Shandong also has a port in Haihan Kingdom. Some people directly purchase some things from the north, so it doesn't necessarily have to be in Buy from Jiangsu and Zhejiang. I know that Boss Jiang’s family is in the cotton cloth business, but you may not be able to take all of Haihan’s orders, right? I heard that Haikou Port has recently arrived with a lot of cotton cloth and cotton yarn.”
Boss Jiang replied: "It's impossible to get all the orders, even Fu Ruifeng can't do it! But you are right, if you buy cotton cloth and other materials from Shandong, it will not affect the market in Zhejiang. But If that's the case, I'm afraid things will be bigger!"
The three businessmen exchanged glances with each other, and each of them knew it well. It is fine to understand this kind of thing, but it is easy to be taboo to talk about it casually.Although they are not from Haihan, they also know that Haihan supervises the military intelligence very strictly. If someone listens to them through the wall, it may be difficult for the three of them to leave Sanya safely.
But there was a sharp-eared Fei Cexian next to him who heard the conversation verbatim. He closed his eyes and pretended to be dozing off, but he was thinking about the meaning of the conversation between the three businessmen. mean.
He could understand the meaning of the previous conversation, but in the end, the businessman surnamed Jiang said that if Haihan buys military supplies from Shandong, then the matter will be even bigger, but it is necessary to think carefully about the meaning.
First of all, through the dialogue between these three people, he learned that the Haihan Navy stationed in Zhejiang, Fujian, and Guangdong have recently been mobilized in the direction of Hainan Island, and it seems that the situation of the troops changing defenses in previous years is different.The Guangzhou businessman surnamed Wang believed that this might be a precursor to some kind of military action by Haihan, and tried to prove his judgment with the relationship between Haihan’s military action and the market conditions of military supplies.However, a businessman surnamed Jiang from Zhejiang said that the local market for military supplies has not changed much, and Haihan has not purchased commodities such as cotton cloth.
But if the businessman surnamed Wang mentioned that the cotton cloth and cotton yarn arriving at Haikou Port did not come from Zhejiang, then the biggest possibility is that it is really only Shandong.But if Haihan really wants to buy these materials in Shandong, besides cost considerations, what other reasons are there?Although Shandong is closer to the cotton cloth production area, its procurement cost is definitely lower than that in the south, but the increase in freight has actually offset the difference in procurement costs. There is no obvious price advantage in purchasing from Shandong, but it will be due to the longer sea voyage. And increase the transportation risk.Moreover, Shandong is closer to the capital. If Haihan purchases a large amount of military supplies locally, wouldn't it be easier for the court to notice?With the shrewdness of the Haihan people, they should not have made such a low-level mistake, unless they didn't care about being discovered by the court at all.
The two countries have just signed an agreement on formally establishing diplomatic relations, and they are still in the honeymoon period. It is reasonable to say that Haihan will not take military action against Ming Dynasty so confidently at this juncture, and Haihan's naval fleet will be transferred south, which should not be the case. It is a harbinger of Haihan's invasion of Guangdong and Guangxi. After all, Haihan has great influence in Guangdong and Guangxi, and there are many related interests. It is actually of no benefit to Haihan to mess up Guangdong and Guangxi.The most critical reason is that if Haihan wants to target Guangdong and Guangxi, then they really don't need to do any extra cover-up work, just order Qi Bing to go directly.So even though Fei Cexian was suspicious, he didn't think that Haihan's actions were preparing to attack Daming.
Then there is only one theoretical possibility left, that is, Haihan's mobilization of troops and purchase of military supplies are really preparing for the next military operation, then this target is most likely not Daming, but far away in the South China Sea some where.Because only in this way can we reasonably explain why Haihan assembled and deployed overseas fleets and went south, and also specially purchased some military supplies from distant Shandong. This is obviously preparing for military operations that need to cross the sea.
To the north of Hainan Island is Daming, and to the west is Annan. These two directions are definitely not Haihan's goals. Fei Cexian heaved a sigh of relief after making the judgment, but immediately began to wonder who Haihan wanted to deal with.It's just that he doesn't know much about the geography of the South China Sea. Although he knows the names of some countries, he doesn't know the specific locations of these countries and their national conditions.When the book is used, there is little regret, and Fei Cexian can't help but regret that he didn't study the materials such as Haiguo Tuzhi when he was in the pedestrian department, and now he can only scratch his head when he is about to use this knowledge.
However, Fei Cexian remembered that Zhang Qianzhi once introduced to himself that there is a municipal library in Sanya that is open to the public, and there are various astronomical and geographical materials available for reference. Presumably, the situation in the South China Sea can also be found there. Go back and ask Zhang Qianzhi, how can foreigners go in and check the information.
The three businessmen knew that the topic they were talking about was too sensitive, so they didn't mention military news after that. Fei Cexian was disappointed, but remembered a source of information that he had neglected, which was the newspaper published by Haihan.
According to the information obtained by the intelligence agency of the Ming Dynasty, before each major military operation in the past few years, Haihan used newspapers to control and guide the direction of public opinion, and at the same time encouraged the public to support these means of war.If you just read the contents of the newspaper, you may not immediately think of the military actions that Haihan will take, but if you combine the two to study, there are many things worth pondering.
It was precisely this that Fei Cexian had thought of, and realized that he might have missed something when he read the newspapers before. He only needed to read the previous newspapers carefully, and he might be able to find some clues from them.
Thinking of this, Fei Cexian didn't bother to continue pretending to sleep in line, and didn't wait to go to the bank to go through the formalities. He hurried back to the guest house in a carriage, took out all the newspapers he bought after arriving in Sanya, and started reading again.
Of course, Fei Cexian will not read all the contents of the newspaper from the beginning again. He only needs to know which country has been picked on by Haihan recently, or some kind of problem has occurred in Haihan's trade in the local area. These should be These are all important clues that can be followed.Especially the "Haihan Times", which is the official media, the news released on it is the most direct reflection of the official intention.Fortunately, after he arrived in Haihan, he managed to collect the "Haihan Times" issued in the past three months. The news published on it should have a certain degree of coherence.
Now that there is a direction, it is not too difficult to implement it.After spending several hours, Fei Cexian finally found the information hidden between the text.There is only one person that Haihan has condemned through newspapers recently, and it has been mentioned five times in the Times, and it has been mentioned almost the same number of times in other newspapers.The target of Haihan's official condemnation is Spain, a western country whose colony is located in Manila Bay, Luzon Islands.
Fei Cexian probably knew about the feud between Haihan and Spain. The two countries fought against each other on Taiwan Island in the early years, and it ended with Haihan successfully expelling the Spaniards from Taiwan Island.Last year, the Spanish fleet attacked Sanya, but in the end they still failed to succeed. Instead, they were beaten by the Haihan fleet in the coastal waters of Sanya.Although Haihan did not completely ban the civilian maritime trade with Manila after that, this enmity must have been written down, and it was just to see when he would free up his hands to retaliate.
The Times brought up the old story several times back and forth, expressing dissatisfaction with Spain's presence in Luzon. At the same time, it also reminded the public not to forget that the two countries have fought several times in the past few years. This Liangzi has not completely ended. .If you want to maintain the peaceful situation in the South China Sea, you must first solve the hidden danger of Manila City.Although such an argument seems extreme to Fei Cexian, isn't this exactly Hai Han's proper attitude?Now that he has the intention to use force, all he needs is a reasonable excuse, and the fanfare in these newspapers is just paving the way for this.
It’s hard to say how many people can understand the hidden intentions of Haihan’s arguments in the newspaper, but Fei Cexian believes that he is not the only one who understands. It is also aware of Haihan's military intentions in the South China Sea.It's just that they are afraid of Haihan's authority, so they dare not talk about such a sensitive topic in public.Of course, if it were Fei Cexian himself, he wouldn't talk about whether Haihan would send troops to attack another country on this occasion.
Although the conflict between Haihan and Spain is just a dog-eat-dog fight in Fei Cexian's view, it is a matter of great practical significance to analyze the information and make a judgment.If the results pointed to by these intelligences become a reality, it will prove that Fei Cexian has mastered Haihan's behavior style to a certain extent, and if similar situations happen in the future, he can rely on the information from these public channels. Prejudged the changes in the political, military, economic and trade aspects of Haihan.
Connecting Haihan's procurement of supplies in the north of Daming and the mobilization of garrison troops on the southern coast with Haihan's future military operations in the South China Sea, Fei Cexian thinks his deduction is quite bold. And Haihan's small actions in the north are probably to cover up his real intentions and paralyze the Spaniards, making them think that Haihan's measures are only at the stage of talking.
In the latest issue of The Times, Minister of Defense Yan Chujie's signed article "The Road to Peace in the South China Sea" clarified Haihan's attitude.Yan Chujie stated in the article that Haihan established the South China Sea Business Alliance three years ago to gradually realize mutual understanding among regional countries and create and achieve a peaceful and stable trading environment through this form.However, some countries are unwilling to enter into the peace framework led by Haihan, and always want to use war to destroy the hard-won peace in the South China Sea region. This is Haihan's absolutely intolerable approach.In order to safeguard regional peace and the interests of Haihan, the Haihan Army will never stand idly by, and will take action when necessary to resolve hidden security risks in these areas.
Although the name of Spain was not clearly mentioned in Yan Chujie's article, it was full of gunpowder.Looking at the entire South China Sea region, there are only a handful of countries that have the guts to go to war with Haihan, and Spain is the most prominent one among them.Fei Cexian believes that this article is a symbol that Haihan's preparations for war are about to enter the final stage, because in the Ming Dynasty, high-ranking officials of the imperial court would issue combat proclamations before the war, which is very similar to the article published in this newspaper.
From the standpoint of Daming, Fei Cexian is of course wishing that the two countries would start fighting as soon as possible. The more intense the fight, the better. The more troops Haihan invests in the south, the less threat he will pose to Ming. At least it can survive for several years.Just looking at Haihan's preparations for the battle, it's hard to say whether the Spaniards can withstand a round of onslaught from the Haihan army.The city of Manila is also a seaport city like Sanya, but the strength of its military defense may not be comparable to that of Sanya.
(End of this chapter)
What these businessmen were talking about had something to do with Haihan's recent military mobilization, so Fei Cexian, who happened to hear it, was interested.One of his missions in coming to Haihan is to pay attention to Haihan's military movements, especially large-scale military transfers. The Minister of War specially told him to keep an eye on this information, because it is very likely that it will be the beginning of a war. harbinger.
Then one of the businessmen with a Jiangsu-Zhejiang accent asked: "Boss Zhang, have you ever been interrogated by the navy on your way to Sanya?"
When the boss of that chapter opened his mouth, it was with a Fujian accent: "I met you! When we arrived at Hong Kong Island, everyone was not allowed to disembark and could only wait for inspection on the ship. It was delayed for two days before being allowed to leave the port. I heard that The naval forces stationed in Zhejiang and Fujian went south to Hainan Island to rest and recuperate, so the ports controlled by Haihan are all under martial law, and all merchant ships must be inspected and registered before they can get permission to come to Sanya."
Another businessman speaking with a Guangzhou accent replied: "It's the same here in Guangzhou. A notice was posted on the Pearl River Wharf a few days ago, asking ships that are coming to Hainan Island to register with the Haihan Embassy in Haizhu Town first, saying It was the recent navy mobilization of the defense area. This arrangement was made to prevent Ming merchant ships from accidentally entering the forbidden sea area. But I don’t believe it. The navy is mobilizing every year. I haven’t seen such a big formation before. I’m afraid it’s the Haihan people. conspired."
The businessman with a Jiangsu-Zhejiang accent said: "Boss Wang, do you mean to go to war? How is that possible? Just look at the prices in the market. There is no sign of a shortage of supplies and a sharp rise in prices, which means that the Ministry of National Defense has not yet made large purchases in the market." Into combat supplies."
The combat supplies that Haihan publicly procures are basically logistical medical supplies, and raw materials are often imported from Daming. The bulk purchase of these supplies can easily attract the attention of interested people in the market.
The businessman surnamed Wang in Guangzhou muttered: "It was true in the past, but it's hard to say now. Don't forget that Dengzhou Prefecture in Shandong also has a port in Haihan Kingdom. Some people directly purchase some things from the north, so it doesn't necessarily have to be in Buy from Jiangsu and Zhejiang. I know that Boss Jiang’s family is in the cotton cloth business, but you may not be able to take all of Haihan’s orders, right? I heard that Haikou Port has recently arrived with a lot of cotton cloth and cotton yarn.”
Boss Jiang replied: "It's impossible to get all the orders, even Fu Ruifeng can't do it! But you are right, if you buy cotton cloth and other materials from Shandong, it will not affect the market in Zhejiang. But If that's the case, I'm afraid things will be bigger!"
The three businessmen exchanged glances with each other, and each of them knew it well. It is fine to understand this kind of thing, but it is easy to be taboo to talk about it casually.Although they are not from Haihan, they also know that Haihan supervises the military intelligence very strictly. If someone listens to them through the wall, it may be difficult for the three of them to leave Sanya safely.
But there was a sharp-eared Fei Cexian next to him who heard the conversation verbatim. He closed his eyes and pretended to be dozing off, but he was thinking about the meaning of the conversation between the three businessmen. mean.
He could understand the meaning of the previous conversation, but in the end, the businessman surnamed Jiang said that if Haihan buys military supplies from Shandong, then the matter will be even bigger, but it is necessary to think carefully about the meaning.
First of all, through the dialogue between these three people, he learned that the Haihan Navy stationed in Zhejiang, Fujian, and Guangdong have recently been mobilized in the direction of Hainan Island, and it seems that the situation of the troops changing defenses in previous years is different.The Guangzhou businessman surnamed Wang believed that this might be a precursor to some kind of military action by Haihan, and tried to prove his judgment with the relationship between Haihan’s military action and the market conditions of military supplies.However, a businessman surnamed Jiang from Zhejiang said that the local market for military supplies has not changed much, and Haihan has not purchased commodities such as cotton cloth.
But if the businessman surnamed Wang mentioned that the cotton cloth and cotton yarn arriving at Haikou Port did not come from Zhejiang, then the biggest possibility is that it is really only Shandong.But if Haihan really wants to buy these materials in Shandong, besides cost considerations, what other reasons are there?Although Shandong is closer to the cotton cloth production area, its procurement cost is definitely lower than that in the south, but the increase in freight has actually offset the difference in procurement costs. There is no obvious price advantage in purchasing from Shandong, but it will be due to the longer sea voyage. And increase the transportation risk.Moreover, Shandong is closer to the capital. If Haihan purchases a large amount of military supplies locally, wouldn't it be easier for the court to notice?With the shrewdness of the Haihan people, they should not have made such a low-level mistake, unless they didn't care about being discovered by the court at all.
The two countries have just signed an agreement on formally establishing diplomatic relations, and they are still in the honeymoon period. It is reasonable to say that Haihan will not take military action against Ming Dynasty so confidently at this juncture, and Haihan's naval fleet will be transferred south, which should not be the case. It is a harbinger of Haihan's invasion of Guangdong and Guangxi. After all, Haihan has great influence in Guangdong and Guangxi, and there are many related interests. It is actually of no benefit to Haihan to mess up Guangdong and Guangxi.The most critical reason is that if Haihan wants to target Guangdong and Guangxi, then they really don't need to do any extra cover-up work, just order Qi Bing to go directly.So even though Fei Cexian was suspicious, he didn't think that Haihan's actions were preparing to attack Daming.
Then there is only one theoretical possibility left, that is, Haihan's mobilization of troops and purchase of military supplies are really preparing for the next military operation, then this target is most likely not Daming, but far away in the South China Sea some where.Because only in this way can we reasonably explain why Haihan assembled and deployed overseas fleets and went south, and also specially purchased some military supplies from distant Shandong. This is obviously preparing for military operations that need to cross the sea.
To the north of Hainan Island is Daming, and to the west is Annan. These two directions are definitely not Haihan's goals. Fei Cexian heaved a sigh of relief after making the judgment, but immediately began to wonder who Haihan wanted to deal with.It's just that he doesn't know much about the geography of the South China Sea. Although he knows the names of some countries, he doesn't know the specific locations of these countries and their national conditions.When the book is used, there is little regret, and Fei Cexian can't help but regret that he didn't study the materials such as Haiguo Tuzhi when he was in the pedestrian department, and now he can only scratch his head when he is about to use this knowledge.
However, Fei Cexian remembered that Zhang Qianzhi once introduced to himself that there is a municipal library in Sanya that is open to the public, and there are various astronomical and geographical materials available for reference. Presumably, the situation in the South China Sea can also be found there. Go back and ask Zhang Qianzhi, how can foreigners go in and check the information.
The three businessmen knew that the topic they were talking about was too sensitive, so they didn't mention military news after that. Fei Cexian was disappointed, but remembered a source of information that he had neglected, which was the newspaper published by Haihan.
According to the information obtained by the intelligence agency of the Ming Dynasty, before each major military operation in the past few years, Haihan used newspapers to control and guide the direction of public opinion, and at the same time encouraged the public to support these means of war.If you just read the contents of the newspaper, you may not immediately think of the military actions that Haihan will take, but if you combine the two to study, there are many things worth pondering.
It was precisely this that Fei Cexian had thought of, and realized that he might have missed something when he read the newspapers before. He only needed to read the previous newspapers carefully, and he might be able to find some clues from them.
Thinking of this, Fei Cexian didn't bother to continue pretending to sleep in line, and didn't wait to go to the bank to go through the formalities. He hurried back to the guest house in a carriage, took out all the newspapers he bought after arriving in Sanya, and started reading again.
Of course, Fei Cexian will not read all the contents of the newspaper from the beginning again. He only needs to know which country has been picked on by Haihan recently, or some kind of problem has occurred in Haihan's trade in the local area. These should be These are all important clues that can be followed.Especially the "Haihan Times", which is the official media, the news released on it is the most direct reflection of the official intention.Fortunately, after he arrived in Haihan, he managed to collect the "Haihan Times" issued in the past three months. The news published on it should have a certain degree of coherence.
Now that there is a direction, it is not too difficult to implement it.After spending several hours, Fei Cexian finally found the information hidden between the text.There is only one person that Haihan has condemned through newspapers recently, and it has been mentioned five times in the Times, and it has been mentioned almost the same number of times in other newspapers.The target of Haihan's official condemnation is Spain, a western country whose colony is located in Manila Bay, Luzon Islands.
Fei Cexian probably knew about the feud between Haihan and Spain. The two countries fought against each other on Taiwan Island in the early years, and it ended with Haihan successfully expelling the Spaniards from Taiwan Island.Last year, the Spanish fleet attacked Sanya, but in the end they still failed to succeed. Instead, they were beaten by the Haihan fleet in the coastal waters of Sanya.Although Haihan did not completely ban the civilian maritime trade with Manila after that, this enmity must have been written down, and it was just to see when he would free up his hands to retaliate.
The Times brought up the old story several times back and forth, expressing dissatisfaction with Spain's presence in Luzon. At the same time, it also reminded the public not to forget that the two countries have fought several times in the past few years. This Liangzi has not completely ended. .If you want to maintain the peaceful situation in the South China Sea, you must first solve the hidden danger of Manila City.Although such an argument seems extreme to Fei Cexian, isn't this exactly Hai Han's proper attitude?Now that he has the intention to use force, all he needs is a reasonable excuse, and the fanfare in these newspapers is just paving the way for this.
It’s hard to say how many people can understand the hidden intentions of Haihan’s arguments in the newspaper, but Fei Cexian believes that he is not the only one who understands. It is also aware of Haihan's military intentions in the South China Sea.It's just that they are afraid of Haihan's authority, so they dare not talk about such a sensitive topic in public.Of course, if it were Fei Cexian himself, he wouldn't talk about whether Haihan would send troops to attack another country on this occasion.
Although the conflict between Haihan and Spain is just a dog-eat-dog fight in Fei Cexian's view, it is a matter of great practical significance to analyze the information and make a judgment.If the results pointed to by these intelligences become a reality, it will prove that Fei Cexian has mastered Haihan's behavior style to a certain extent, and if similar situations happen in the future, he can rely on the information from these public channels. Prejudged the changes in the political, military, economic and trade aspects of Haihan.
Connecting Haihan's procurement of supplies in the north of Daming and the mobilization of garrison troops on the southern coast with Haihan's future military operations in the South China Sea, Fei Cexian thinks his deduction is quite bold. And Haihan's small actions in the north are probably to cover up his real intentions and paralyze the Spaniards, making them think that Haihan's measures are only at the stage of talking.
In the latest issue of The Times, Minister of Defense Yan Chujie's signed article "The Road to Peace in the South China Sea" clarified Haihan's attitude.Yan Chujie stated in the article that Haihan established the South China Sea Business Alliance three years ago to gradually realize mutual understanding among regional countries and create and achieve a peaceful and stable trading environment through this form.However, some countries are unwilling to enter into the peace framework led by Haihan, and always want to use war to destroy the hard-won peace in the South China Sea region. This is Haihan's absolutely intolerable approach.In order to safeguard regional peace and the interests of Haihan, the Haihan Army will never stand idly by, and will take action when necessary to resolve hidden security risks in these areas.
Although the name of Spain was not clearly mentioned in Yan Chujie's article, it was full of gunpowder.Looking at the entire South China Sea region, there are only a handful of countries that have the guts to go to war with Haihan, and Spain is the most prominent one among them.Fei Cexian believes that this article is a symbol that Haihan's preparations for war are about to enter the final stage, because in the Ming Dynasty, high-ranking officials of the imperial court would issue combat proclamations before the war, which is very similar to the article published in this newspaper.
From the standpoint of Daming, Fei Cexian is of course wishing that the two countries would start fighting as soon as possible. The more intense the fight, the better. The more troops Haihan invests in the south, the less threat he will pose to Ming. At least it can survive for several years.Just looking at Haihan's preparations for the battle, it's hard to say whether the Spaniards can withstand a round of onslaught from the Haihan army.The city of Manila is also a seaport city like Sanya, but the strength of its military defense may not be comparable to that of Sanya.
(End of this chapter)