Chapter 2025
Chapter 2025
Chapter 2025
Compared with those Spanish officials, the man surnamed Chen was obviously much more vigilant. Even though the experience of Jose and others had been certified by the colonial authorities before, he still questioned this magical good luck .
And this is actually the part of the background of the story fabricated by Haihan's intelligence department that cannot withstand careful scrutiny. After all, the group of people used in the operation has never been to Cebu, and it is true that they can only rely on the route planned in advance. After completing the voyage of hundreds of nautical miles, if you are carefully interrogated by someone with a heart, you may notice something unreasonable in it.
The focus of the Spanish officials' attention was that the various physical evidence on the ship was completely consistent with the descriptions of Jose and others, and there was not even a single Han Chinese on board, but there were several corpses of Hai Han soldiers, which greatly reduced their vigilance.In addition, the secret letter sent among senior Haihan officials convinced Spanish officials of the authenticity of the whole incident.
The most important thing is that all senior officials, including Aragones, subconsciously believe that when Haihan has an absolute advantage in the military, it seems that there is no top-secret military situation on his side that is worthy of such a big game for the other party to investigate. information.What's more, Jose and others have clearly rejected the suggestion of enlisting in the army. It is obviously impossible to come here to inquire about the military situation. This undoubtedly completely dispelled the doubts of Spanish officials.
However, due to the lack of real-time information, Spanish officials did not know that Haihan was stepping up investigations into related cases related to his military exports in various parts of the north at this time, and had even begun to frequently attack their partners. The Hanhui specially arranged an intelligence-gathering operation for this purpose.
But this man surnamed Chen was not from the colonial authorities, and he didn't have much trust in the Spaniards.Originally, he didn't care about the small matter of Hispanic people escaping from Luzon Island, but Aragones claimed that he got a secret letter from a high-ranking official in Haihan from this incident, and it is necessary to expand the scale of overseas cooperation in the coming time , and asked him to pay more remuneration to the colonial authorities. He did not fully believe in this, but after cross-examining Jose and others, he still found some details that were not convincing enough in his opinion.
Of course, Jose knew where his own loopholes were. He immediately reasoned that the sailors on the ship who knew how to sail were able to identify the course according to the rising and falling of the sun and the azimuth of the stars, and he was just manipulating the sails on the deck with the others during his escape.Of course, this kind of statement is only a stopgap measure. If the other party really wants to get to the bottom of it, and bring those aboriginal sailors back for careful interrogation, they will also find that those people's navigation skills are limited, and they are far from reaching the level of breaking away from the chart. .
Although the man surnamed Chen was still a little skeptical, his focus of attention on this matter was also the changes in the overseas situation, so although he thought there were still doubts, he did not delve further into this issue, and instead asked about the current situation in the Manila area.
This is also a concern of many Spanish officials. They are eager to know how the Haihan people have changed the city of Manila after they occupied it this year.To put it bluntly, they want to confirm whether it is still possible to take back Manila City from the Haihan people.
The purpose of the man surnamed Chen asking this matter is not only to confirm the current situation of Manila City, but also to know whether Haihan has any plans to expand outwards in the next step.If Haihan continues to use military means to expand the control area in the Philippine Islands, then there will inevitably be some signs that are easier to detect in Manila, such as the sudden assembly of a large number of warships, the deployment of military supplies such as food and medicine, and the local garrison. Training density changes, etc.This information often does not require professional intelligence personnel to collect it, and ordinary people can notice it with a little attention.
For this kind of problem, Jose and others have long been prepared.According to the pre-arrangement of the intelligence department, it is necessary to downplay the military measures taken by Haihan after the war as much as possible, and appropriately exaggerate the anti-Haihan sentiment of the people in Manila, so as to create some illusions for the opponent, making them think that Haihan's current rule in Manila is not stable. .
The purpose of this show of weakness is not to lure the Spaniards to immediately counterattack Manila. After all, the Spaniards have not yet recovered their vitality, and they also know that their strength has not yet recovered to the level where they can compete with Haihan again. The main reason is to let the Spaniards Focus on other places, so that Jose and others can get more cover.
In addition to repeating most of the questions asked by the Spanish officials, the man surnamed Chen also asked about the current proportion of Han Chinese in Manila, whether foreigners will be strictly interrogated when they arrive in the area, and so on.As an intelligence officer, Jose was naturally very sensitive to this, and he immediately thought of the purpose of the other party's inquiring about the information. Could it be that he wanted to plan an operation similar to his own trip, and arranged for Chinese spies to enter Manila to lurk.
Haihan's intelligence department probably didn't expect that Jose and others would be questioned about these Han Chinese-related questions after they arrived in Cebu, so they didn't prepare corresponding plans.Jose didn’t have a standard answer at hand, so he could only guess and answer the other party’s question. He thought it would be better not to cause trouble for his boss, so he said that after the war, a large number of Han Chinese in Manila were relocated to other places. Many Hai Han immigrants were introduced to settle in the local area, presumably because they were worried about the instability of the local Han people's hearts, so they had to check the people entering and leaving the port. The boat reconfirmed their identities.
Jose made up his remarks in a decent way, and he also used his own experience as an example, so the questioner couldn't believe it.After the man surnamed Chen listened to the interpreter's report, he had a "really so" expression on his face. It seems that Jose's statement is also in line with his guess about the current situation in Manila.
But in fact, the situation in Manila is not as severe as Jose said. Haihan officials did adjust the local population composition after the war, and moved away some ethnic groups that may have potential hidden dangers in the official view, and then landed one after another. About [-] immigrants continued to move in from Hainan Island. In addition to the Han, Li, and Miao tribes, there were even some naturalized immigrants of Annan origin.After settling in Manila, these immigrants can obtain officially rewarded land and real estate, and their loyalty is much higher than that of the local people in Manila.
In addition to the adjustment of the immigration policy, Haihan also used his proficient trade methods at the same time. Soon after the war, he opened trade routes between Victory Port, Hong Kong, Kaohsiung Port and Manila Port, allowing the Manila area to Production can be transported to the northern market with higher efficiency than in the past, and at the same time, various materials that are lacking in the market can be delivered to the local area.
Qiu Yuan, the chief executive of Manila, had previously served as the director of the management committees of the two ports of Victory Port and Haikou Port. He has extremely rich experience in the operation of ports and maritime trade. After many centuries of operation, there is also a relatively complete infrastructure, and the damage suffered during the war is not serious, and there are a large number of skilled port operators available, so Qiu Yuan can make full use of it when formulating post-war development strategies. The local area can be regarded as excellent port conditions, and the scale of foreign trade has been further increased on the basis of the Spaniards.
Haihan seized a huge amount of wealth from the local area during the Battle of Manila. Except for the part that was transported back to Sanya, a considerable part was left in the local area as funds for post-war reconstruction. He implemented the transformation measures for Manila from multiple levels.
Qiu Yuan has experience in governing in many places. He knows very well that as long as the port and foreign trade can be operated, the local people can have a stable livelihood and supplies, and the people's hearts will not be easily chaotic.As for whether to fight against the new ruler and try to welcome back the previous master, this is not something that most people will consider.As long as they are given a stable living environment, the people will generally not risk their lives and wealth. If there is still a way to make progress, most of them will quickly choose to be loyal to the new master.
And the actual situation is exactly like this. After receiving the promise of selecting their children to enter the official system, the local Qin family, Ding family and other influential Han families quickly expressed their position and joined the official camp.During this period, although Qin Huacheng, the youngest son of the Qin family, was sentenced to exile on Xingdao for committing a crime, he was also blessed by misfortune. He was recruited by Cheng Dapeng in Xingdao to the Ministry of Security and took him to work in Batavia.
Qiu Yuan knew very well what people of different classes needed after the change of dynasty, and it took him less than three months to stabilize the situation in Manila.After that, Manila gradually began to implement Haihan's social system step by step from top to bottom like other Haihan-controlled areas.
Now about [-]% of Manila’s local population has been registered, and various civil administration agencies have begun to operate normally. Except for the replacement of the local official language and script and the currency in circulation, there are not too many changes in other aspects for the time being.In this case, it is basically difficult for the Spaniards to regain control of Manila through conventional means.
As for sending Han Chinese spies to infiltrate Manila, although it is not too difficult to achieve, this kind of measure actually does not have much effect. Hide your identity well—after all, the bounty for exposing foreign spies in Manila now starts at five hundred Hai Han Yuan, and there is no upper limit, depending on the final investigation of the case.This means that every foreign spy is a walking purse, who dares to develop resistance forces in the local area, and will be sold to the government at any time in exchange for rewards.
Jose answered the question for a long time, but still couldn't figure out the other party's way.Although he vaguely felt that the other party was the target person he was looking for on this trip, but he had no way to verify the other party's identity, so he could only write down the other party's face first, and planned to wait for this matter to settle, and then slowly in the local area. Find out the person's identity.
This was originally a celebration dinner on the grounds of Jose and others, but they didn't actually appear at the banquet for a long time, and they were brought out to talk alone before they even had a few mouthfuls of food.By the time the man surnamed Chen had finished asking, the dinner party was over, so he could only pack some bread and sausages and bring them back to his residence.
Maybe it was because Aragones didn't show up again when he left because he felt that these little people had run out of use value, but Fernando came to tell them a few words, asking them to abide by the law after settling in the local area, and not to act recklessly just because they had done meritorious service.
As for the reward that Aragones had promised them, Fernando gave José a bag of silver coins to go back and distribute among the crowd.Jose weighed the amount, and it was estimated to be less than a hundred silver coins, and one person would not even be able to share ten silver coins. I don't know if Aragones was stingy, or was deducted by Fernandoque. Jose He didn't dare to ask more questions, nodded and bowed to accept the bag of silver coins, and then the carriage arranged by Fernando took them back to the small hotel at the port.
The only good news is that the colonial authorities did not confiscate their sailboat, but carried out the order of Aragones, and rewarded it to Jose and others as part of the reward.However, Jose suspected that the main reason why the authorities did not want to accept the ship was that the few rotting corpses had been placed in the cargo hold below the deck.
But this ship still plays an important role for Jose and the others. In addition to the operational funds and weapons hidden on the ship, they can also drive this ship to leave Cebu when necessary.Now their identities have basically been washed, and they don't have to worry about being restricted when they go to sea.In fact, Jose believes that the colonial authorities should not care about their stay or stay at all. Anyway, the information that should be obtained from them has almost been collected, and whether they stay or leave has no direct impact on the authorities.
After returning to the hotel, in the name of sharing money, Jose called everyone together to discuss the current situation and the next steps to be taken.
Jose believed that the man surnamed Chen he was talking to today was the target he was looking for, and his temporary residence must be in Cebu. If he could find his location, he would have a chance to find out his identity.However, the only ones who saw that man today were Jose and the other three, and the local population of Cebu is at least several thousand. If the man lives in seclusion, the three of them will have to wander around the city, and they may not be able to find him in a short time. its whereabouts.
"Tomorrow, we will first look for places where Han people live together, especially places where rich Han Chinese sea merchants often come and go. The man's surname is Chen, and the governor calls him Mr. Chen, and his status should be very honorable. We can find his whereabouts."
After all, Jose was an intelligence officer who had received formal training for half a year, and he still had basic professional skills. He quickly cleared his mind and made deployments to others.
(End of this chapter)
Compared with those Spanish officials, the man surnamed Chen was obviously much more vigilant. Even though the experience of Jose and others had been certified by the colonial authorities before, he still questioned this magical good luck .
And this is actually the part of the background of the story fabricated by Haihan's intelligence department that cannot withstand careful scrutiny. After all, the group of people used in the operation has never been to Cebu, and it is true that they can only rely on the route planned in advance. After completing the voyage of hundreds of nautical miles, if you are carefully interrogated by someone with a heart, you may notice something unreasonable in it.
The focus of the Spanish officials' attention was that the various physical evidence on the ship was completely consistent with the descriptions of Jose and others, and there was not even a single Han Chinese on board, but there were several corpses of Hai Han soldiers, which greatly reduced their vigilance.In addition, the secret letter sent among senior Haihan officials convinced Spanish officials of the authenticity of the whole incident.
The most important thing is that all senior officials, including Aragones, subconsciously believe that when Haihan has an absolute advantage in the military, it seems that there is no top-secret military situation on his side that is worthy of such a big game for the other party to investigate. information.What's more, Jose and others have clearly rejected the suggestion of enlisting in the army. It is obviously impossible to come here to inquire about the military situation. This undoubtedly completely dispelled the doubts of Spanish officials.
However, due to the lack of real-time information, Spanish officials did not know that Haihan was stepping up investigations into related cases related to his military exports in various parts of the north at this time, and had even begun to frequently attack their partners. The Hanhui specially arranged an intelligence-gathering operation for this purpose.
But this man surnamed Chen was not from the colonial authorities, and he didn't have much trust in the Spaniards.Originally, he didn't care about the small matter of Hispanic people escaping from Luzon Island, but Aragones claimed that he got a secret letter from a high-ranking official in Haihan from this incident, and it is necessary to expand the scale of overseas cooperation in the coming time , and asked him to pay more remuneration to the colonial authorities. He did not fully believe in this, but after cross-examining Jose and others, he still found some details that were not convincing enough in his opinion.
Of course, Jose knew where his own loopholes were. He immediately reasoned that the sailors on the ship who knew how to sail were able to identify the course according to the rising and falling of the sun and the azimuth of the stars, and he was just manipulating the sails on the deck with the others during his escape.Of course, this kind of statement is only a stopgap measure. If the other party really wants to get to the bottom of it, and bring those aboriginal sailors back for careful interrogation, they will also find that those people's navigation skills are limited, and they are far from reaching the level of breaking away from the chart. .
Although the man surnamed Chen was still a little skeptical, his focus of attention on this matter was also the changes in the overseas situation, so although he thought there were still doubts, he did not delve further into this issue, and instead asked about the current situation in the Manila area.
This is also a concern of many Spanish officials. They are eager to know how the Haihan people have changed the city of Manila after they occupied it this year.To put it bluntly, they want to confirm whether it is still possible to take back Manila City from the Haihan people.
The purpose of the man surnamed Chen asking this matter is not only to confirm the current situation of Manila City, but also to know whether Haihan has any plans to expand outwards in the next step.If Haihan continues to use military means to expand the control area in the Philippine Islands, then there will inevitably be some signs that are easier to detect in Manila, such as the sudden assembly of a large number of warships, the deployment of military supplies such as food and medicine, and the local garrison. Training density changes, etc.This information often does not require professional intelligence personnel to collect it, and ordinary people can notice it with a little attention.
For this kind of problem, Jose and others have long been prepared.According to the pre-arrangement of the intelligence department, it is necessary to downplay the military measures taken by Haihan after the war as much as possible, and appropriately exaggerate the anti-Haihan sentiment of the people in Manila, so as to create some illusions for the opponent, making them think that Haihan's current rule in Manila is not stable. .
The purpose of this show of weakness is not to lure the Spaniards to immediately counterattack Manila. After all, the Spaniards have not yet recovered their vitality, and they also know that their strength has not yet recovered to the level where they can compete with Haihan again. The main reason is to let the Spaniards Focus on other places, so that Jose and others can get more cover.
In addition to repeating most of the questions asked by the Spanish officials, the man surnamed Chen also asked about the current proportion of Han Chinese in Manila, whether foreigners will be strictly interrogated when they arrive in the area, and so on.As an intelligence officer, Jose was naturally very sensitive to this, and he immediately thought of the purpose of the other party's inquiring about the information. Could it be that he wanted to plan an operation similar to his own trip, and arranged for Chinese spies to enter Manila to lurk.
Haihan's intelligence department probably didn't expect that Jose and others would be questioned about these Han Chinese-related questions after they arrived in Cebu, so they didn't prepare corresponding plans.Jose didn’t have a standard answer at hand, so he could only guess and answer the other party’s question. He thought it would be better not to cause trouble for his boss, so he said that after the war, a large number of Han Chinese in Manila were relocated to other places. Many Hai Han immigrants were introduced to settle in the local area, presumably because they were worried about the instability of the local Han people's hearts, so they had to check the people entering and leaving the port. The boat reconfirmed their identities.
Jose made up his remarks in a decent way, and he also used his own experience as an example, so the questioner couldn't believe it.After the man surnamed Chen listened to the interpreter's report, he had a "really so" expression on his face. It seems that Jose's statement is also in line with his guess about the current situation in Manila.
But in fact, the situation in Manila is not as severe as Jose said. Haihan officials did adjust the local population composition after the war, and moved away some ethnic groups that may have potential hidden dangers in the official view, and then landed one after another. About [-] immigrants continued to move in from Hainan Island. In addition to the Han, Li, and Miao tribes, there were even some naturalized immigrants of Annan origin.After settling in Manila, these immigrants can obtain officially rewarded land and real estate, and their loyalty is much higher than that of the local people in Manila.
In addition to the adjustment of the immigration policy, Haihan also used his proficient trade methods at the same time. Soon after the war, he opened trade routes between Victory Port, Hong Kong, Kaohsiung Port and Manila Port, allowing the Manila area to Production can be transported to the northern market with higher efficiency than in the past, and at the same time, various materials that are lacking in the market can be delivered to the local area.
Qiu Yuan, the chief executive of Manila, had previously served as the director of the management committees of the two ports of Victory Port and Haikou Port. He has extremely rich experience in the operation of ports and maritime trade. After many centuries of operation, there is also a relatively complete infrastructure, and the damage suffered during the war is not serious, and there are a large number of skilled port operators available, so Qiu Yuan can make full use of it when formulating post-war development strategies. The local area can be regarded as excellent port conditions, and the scale of foreign trade has been further increased on the basis of the Spaniards.
Haihan seized a huge amount of wealth from the local area during the Battle of Manila. Except for the part that was transported back to Sanya, a considerable part was left in the local area as funds for post-war reconstruction. He implemented the transformation measures for Manila from multiple levels.
Qiu Yuan has experience in governing in many places. He knows very well that as long as the port and foreign trade can be operated, the local people can have a stable livelihood and supplies, and the people's hearts will not be easily chaotic.As for whether to fight against the new ruler and try to welcome back the previous master, this is not something that most people will consider.As long as they are given a stable living environment, the people will generally not risk their lives and wealth. If there is still a way to make progress, most of them will quickly choose to be loyal to the new master.
And the actual situation is exactly like this. After receiving the promise of selecting their children to enter the official system, the local Qin family, Ding family and other influential Han families quickly expressed their position and joined the official camp.During this period, although Qin Huacheng, the youngest son of the Qin family, was sentenced to exile on Xingdao for committing a crime, he was also blessed by misfortune. He was recruited by Cheng Dapeng in Xingdao to the Ministry of Security and took him to work in Batavia.
Qiu Yuan knew very well what people of different classes needed after the change of dynasty, and it took him less than three months to stabilize the situation in Manila.After that, Manila gradually began to implement Haihan's social system step by step from top to bottom like other Haihan-controlled areas.
Now about [-]% of Manila’s local population has been registered, and various civil administration agencies have begun to operate normally. Except for the replacement of the local official language and script and the currency in circulation, there are not too many changes in other aspects for the time being.In this case, it is basically difficult for the Spaniards to regain control of Manila through conventional means.
As for sending Han Chinese spies to infiltrate Manila, although it is not too difficult to achieve, this kind of measure actually does not have much effect. Hide your identity well—after all, the bounty for exposing foreign spies in Manila now starts at five hundred Hai Han Yuan, and there is no upper limit, depending on the final investigation of the case.This means that every foreign spy is a walking purse, who dares to develop resistance forces in the local area, and will be sold to the government at any time in exchange for rewards.
Jose answered the question for a long time, but still couldn't figure out the other party's way.Although he vaguely felt that the other party was the target person he was looking for on this trip, but he had no way to verify the other party's identity, so he could only write down the other party's face first, and planned to wait for this matter to settle, and then slowly in the local area. Find out the person's identity.
This was originally a celebration dinner on the grounds of Jose and others, but they didn't actually appear at the banquet for a long time, and they were brought out to talk alone before they even had a few mouthfuls of food.By the time the man surnamed Chen had finished asking, the dinner party was over, so he could only pack some bread and sausages and bring them back to his residence.
Maybe it was because Aragones didn't show up again when he left because he felt that these little people had run out of use value, but Fernando came to tell them a few words, asking them to abide by the law after settling in the local area, and not to act recklessly just because they had done meritorious service.
As for the reward that Aragones had promised them, Fernando gave José a bag of silver coins to go back and distribute among the crowd.Jose weighed the amount, and it was estimated to be less than a hundred silver coins, and one person would not even be able to share ten silver coins. I don't know if Aragones was stingy, or was deducted by Fernandoque. Jose He didn't dare to ask more questions, nodded and bowed to accept the bag of silver coins, and then the carriage arranged by Fernando took them back to the small hotel at the port.
The only good news is that the colonial authorities did not confiscate their sailboat, but carried out the order of Aragones, and rewarded it to Jose and others as part of the reward.However, Jose suspected that the main reason why the authorities did not want to accept the ship was that the few rotting corpses had been placed in the cargo hold below the deck.
But this ship still plays an important role for Jose and the others. In addition to the operational funds and weapons hidden on the ship, they can also drive this ship to leave Cebu when necessary.Now their identities have basically been washed, and they don't have to worry about being restricted when they go to sea.In fact, Jose believes that the colonial authorities should not care about their stay or stay at all. Anyway, the information that should be obtained from them has almost been collected, and whether they stay or leave has no direct impact on the authorities.
After returning to the hotel, in the name of sharing money, Jose called everyone together to discuss the current situation and the next steps to be taken.
Jose believed that the man surnamed Chen he was talking to today was the target he was looking for, and his temporary residence must be in Cebu. If he could find his location, he would have a chance to find out his identity.However, the only ones who saw that man today were Jose and the other three, and the local population of Cebu is at least several thousand. If the man lives in seclusion, the three of them will have to wander around the city, and they may not be able to find him in a short time. its whereabouts.
"Tomorrow, we will first look for places where Han people live together, especially places where rich Han Chinese sea merchants often come and go. The man's surname is Chen, and the governor calls him Mr. Chen, and his status should be very honorable. We can find his whereabouts."
After all, Jose was an intelligence officer who had received formal training for half a year, and he still had basic professional skills. He quickly cleared his mind and made deployments to others.
(End of this chapter)