Chapter 2053
Chapter 2053
Chapter 2053
Although the Xu family has a great influence in Fujian, and has even gradually replaced the command of the imperial court and the Ministry of War in the military field, they are still subjects of the Ming Dynasty in name, and they dare not easily violate some established rules.For example, Xu Xinsu would strictly order his subordinates to avoid conflicts with Jin Yiwei, who was known as the emperor's pro-army, so as not to cause unnecessary trouble.
No matter how good the relationship with Jin Yiwei is, there will be no benefits, but if he offends this group of people, troubles will continue to flow.Xu Xinsu didn't want his family's business and contacts outside of Fujian to be the targets of Jinyiwei, so he always kept Jinyiwei at a respectful distance, and tried his best to keep the well water out of the way.
But if Jin Yiwei acted recklessly and wanted to bully himself, that would be another matter.Xu Yuxing sensed that the Jinyiwei in this place was behaving badly, and tried to engage in some unfriendly actions under the Xu family's nose, so naturally he would no longer exercise restraint.It was about the safety of the Xu family, so there was no room for concessions.
After the city defense army and their subordinates conducted a preliminary search of the inside of Jinfa and confirmed that there were no potential safety hazards, Xu Jiaqi, Xu Yuxing and Jin Ming entered this place to check the real situation inside.
The area of Jinfa’s house is not small, and there are four entrances in total. The city defense army has gathered all the people arrested here, as well as the few people who were shot and killed by muskets during the attack, to the second entrance. In the patio.
The three of Xu Yuxing walked into the yard, and saw a crowd of people kneeling densely in the courtyard, their hands shackled behind their backs.Various weapons seized from these people were placed on the open space next to them. In addition to a few hand crossbows, there were also several Jinyiwei standard waist knives, and two long and short firecrackers.
Ordinary businessmen who do business would not have so many weapons hidden in their own firms. These seizures alone can basically confirm that these people are by no means ordinary people.
"No badge?" Xu Yuxing glanced at it and asked the subordinate who was in charge of searching for evidence.If these people's identities are Jin Yiwei, then they must also carry the unique identity badges of Jin Yiwei.
The subordinate was very clever, leaning behind Xu Yuxing and lowering his voice, he replied, "My lord, I have found the waist card. I thought it might be difficult for the lord to deal with it, so I put it away first."
Xu Yuxing glanced at him sideways, and nodded slightly to confirm his approach: "You are quite clever... Well done!"
If these people show their badges, then this matter will become a business-to-business relationship between the two yamen. Although Xu Yuxing is not afraid of Jin Yiwei, it will inevitably cause a lot of trouble in handling it.But first confiscated their badges, even if these people reported their identities, Xu Yuxing could not accept them and treat them as a group of thugs fighting against the government with force.Even if Jin Yiwei came forward to find people afterwards, Xu Yuxing could openly say that it was impossible to confirm the identities of these people when they were arrested.
Of course, this also brings up another question. Since there are real Jinyiwei inside, why didn't they directly reveal their identities before, but chose to fight against them. Even after the city defense army arrived here, they still had a chance to reveal their identities. But why didn't they do it in the end?
The answer lies in the third courtyard.Xu Yuxing saw a large pile of smoking ashes here, and it was not difficult to tell from the shape that this was the remnant of a large amount of paper burning, that is to say, when this place was besieged just now, the people inside gave up showing The identity then surrendered the opportunity and seized the time to destroy some information recorded on paper in the form of incineration.
Xu Yuxing's face was very ugly, which meant that the situation that Jin Ming reminded him earlier had become a reality, and the reason why he gave the other party the opportunity to take advantage of it was more or less due to his command error.He originally wanted to show his skills in front of Hai Han's colleagues, but now it looks a bit messed up.
Of course, this cannot all be blamed on Xu Yuxing's ineffective command. If he directly ordered a storm before mobilizing the city defense force, there is of course a chance to take down this stronghold and prevent the opponent from burning the evidence, but judging from the seized weapons, it must be Only by paying a certain amount of casualties can the goal be achieved, and this is exactly the situation that Xu Yuxing is trying to avoid.
If you have to find fault, you can only blame Xu Yuxing for not making thorough preparations in advance and underestimating the difficulty of this mission.If he had used the city defense army to participate in the operation from the beginning, he wouldn't have been blocked for so long.After all, this still underestimated Jin Yiwei's strength, and he never expected that the other party would dare to make such a strong reaction in Zhangzhou City.
Jin Ming also sighed secretly when he saw these ashes, after all, he came a step too late and let the other party destroy the key evidence.I don't know if there is any part related to Haihan in these ashes. If it involves the matter he is investigating, it will inevitably delay the investigation process greatly.Although there are quite a few people caught, these people are all specially trained personnel, and it is estimated that it is not an easy task to obtain credible information from them.And because of the special identities of these people, Xu Yuxing must have a headache about how to deal with them.
Xu Yuxing said: "If there are only things on paper, they may not be so nervous. Search this place for me! What are they hiding, even if they dig three feet, they have to find it!"
Most of Xu Yuxing's men had received training in reconnaissance and search, and they also had corresponding skills in how to find hidden places in the house. At that moment, everyone split up and followed his request to find important evidence that might exist in a certain place.
When Xu Yuxing gave the order, Jin Ming was carefully observing the movement of the captured people.If there is really some great secret hidden here, Xu Yuxing's order to search again will surely make the insiders among them react.
And just as he expected, when they heard Xu Yuxing's loud order, several of them silently turned their heads and exchanged glances with each other, as if they were a little nervous about the situation.
Jin Ming immediately informed Xu Yuxing of his observations, and without the slightest hesitation, the latter ordered the few people identified by Jin Ming to be brought aside first.Since these people have responded, it is very likely that they are insiders, and they can focus on interrogation later.
Although the yard of Jinfa is not small, but this time Xu Yuxing has transferred enough people, even if it is carefully searched foot by foot, it will be very fast.Xu Yuxing asked people to move three chairs out of the flower hall, and sat in the courtyard with Xu Jiaqi and Jin Ming, making up their minds to wait for a result here.
It has to be said that Xu Yuxing's people are quite capable, and after about a stick of incense, someone came to report and found something in the woodshed.
"Go, take a look!" Xu Yuxing was waiting for this, and immediately jumped up from his chair, beckoning Xu Jiaqi and Jin Ming to go and check together.
For a house with such a large area, the kitchen and firewood room are naturally indispensable, and these are often easily overlooked during the search process.After all, most people hide important items in their daily living places, so that it is easier to check at any time, but it is not so convenient for servants to enter and exit such as the kitchen and woodshed.If it was an ordinary police officer who came to search, they would probably come out after going in and turning around, but Xu Yuxing's subordinates were really honest. They even moved out all the thousands of catties of firewood piled up in the firewood room, and only then did they reveal the firewood hidden in the woodshed. Heap things below.
These are three long wooden boxes stacked together, about six feet long, two feet wide, and about seven inches thick.There seems to be a layer of darker paint on the surface of the box. This treatment is mostly for waterproof and mothproof.The top box had already been opened by the search personnel, and several muskets wrapped in tarpaulins were neatly placed inside, and a lot of dry straw was placed in the box for cushioning.Obviously, after opening the box, the investigators realized that these items were important evidence, and immediately notified Xu Yuxing, and were not in a hurry to further check the contents of the box.
"Master Jin, you said they closed the door just now and kept silent, are they just hiding these things in the firewood room?" Xu Yuxing asked with a smile when he saw the things in the box.
Jin Ming echoed: "The third young master is right. They obviously have so many weapons, but they didn't use them just now. It seems that they don't want us to find out that they have these things."
Xu Yuxing waved his hand and said, "It's too dark in this woodshed, so take all these boxes outside."
Jinfa and the others would rather use crossbows than these muskets in the resistance just now. Either they don't know how to use this kind of weapon, or they dare not expose these weapons to the broad daylight.In the eyes of Jin Ming and Xu Yuxing, it is very likely that it is the latter situation. After all, one of their original intentions to investigate Jinfahao was to try to find the connection between this place and the Spanish arms smuggling case. It seems that they have found the most powerful evidence.
The three wooden boxes were carried out of the woodshed by Xu Yuxing's subordinates. Xu Yuxing made a gesture of invitation to Jin Ming, meaning that he should be the first to check the origin of these weapons.
Jin Ming originally came here for this reason, and he didn't refuse at the moment. He reached out and took out a musket from the box, and removed the oilcloth tied to the gun body, revealing the complete body of the gun.
Although he is not from a military background, but due to work reasons, he has a lot of knowledge about weapons. He can tell at a glance that this thing is not made by Daming or Haihan. After careful inspection, he already has a preliminary understanding judge.
Jin Ming handed the musket to Xu Yuxing and said, "Third Young Master, General Xu, please take a look, the patterns on this gun are the characters used by the Spaniards!"
After Xu Yuxing examined it, he sneered and said, "Jin Yiwei dared to secretly collude with the Spaniards, that's really great!"
Although he didn't know Spanish, he also knew that Jin Ming would definitely not make fun of this kind of thing.There are actually Spanish-made muskets hidden in Jinyiwei's stronghold. I'm afraid it won't be so easy to clear up the matter. Although Daming hasn't turned against Spain, he hasn't formally established diplomatic relations either. The charge of arms smuggling can't be avoided.
The shock in Jin Ming's heart was actually more. Although the intelligence department had suspected that the Spaniards' export of arms was supported by some special institutions of Ming Dynasty, they had never found any relevant evidence. This time in Zhangzhou These weapons seized in the city can be regarded as providing strong evidence for this speculation.
However, just the discovery of these weapons is not enough to form a complete chain of evidence to prove that Jin Yiwei was behind the operation of importing Spanish weapons to the north.Because in any case, it is impossible for Jin Yiwei to help Spain provide military assistance to the mortal enemy of the Qing Dynasty.Only by clarifying the specific channel through which these weapons entered this place can we confirm the role played by Jin Yiwei in this matter.
Judging from the way the Jin Yiwei here resisted and destroyed the evidence, they obviously didn't want people to find out that they were holding these weapons—they hid so many muskets in Zhangzhou city, and they planned to use these weapons against whom. The goal seems to speak for itself.
Both Xu Yuxing and Xu Jiaqi had obviously thought of this.Xu Jiaqi inspected it carefully with a musket in his hand, his face was as black as charcoal, it was impossible to guard against what kind of things this thing could do in Jin Yiwei's hands.If it wasn't for the good fortune that these weapons were seized here today and Jin Yiwei put them to use, Fujian would be in chaos.
"This matter needs to be reported to your lord immediately." Xu Jiaqi said in a deep voice, "Since it is related to Jin Yiwei, then Jin Yiwei's other places in the city must be checked carefully!"
"More than that, the relevant people must be detained as soon as possible to find out the truth. If Jin Yiwei can't come up with a reasonable statement, it can only explain one thing." Xu Yuxing stopped abruptly at this point and did not continue Having said that, after all, this kind of thing can only be thought about, and cannot be announced, otherwise it is very likely to bring disaster to the Xu family.
However, Jin Ming already understood what Xu Yuxing wanted to express.If Jin Yiwei can't give a reasonable explanation for why they smuggled guns into Zhangzhou City and resisted the search by the local army, it can only show that this arrangement was not planned by Jin Yiwei, but an instruction from a higher level.
If those in power in the court have already moved their minds to use some special means to dismantle Xu Xinsu's dominance in Fujian, it means that the seemingly incompatible relationship between the two parties has come to an end, and there is no way to maintain the current superficial relationship between monarch and minister.
And this will undoubtedly be a huge test for Xu Xinsu, who has never planned to stand on his own and claim the title of king. This opportunity raises the flag to rebel and start anew.But public rebellion is a taboo at any time. Even though the Xu family is a local snake in Fujian, Xu Yuxing dare not talk about it in public.
(End of this chapter)
Although the Xu family has a great influence in Fujian, and has even gradually replaced the command of the imperial court and the Ministry of War in the military field, they are still subjects of the Ming Dynasty in name, and they dare not easily violate some established rules.For example, Xu Xinsu would strictly order his subordinates to avoid conflicts with Jin Yiwei, who was known as the emperor's pro-army, so as not to cause unnecessary trouble.
No matter how good the relationship with Jin Yiwei is, there will be no benefits, but if he offends this group of people, troubles will continue to flow.Xu Xinsu didn't want his family's business and contacts outside of Fujian to be the targets of Jinyiwei, so he always kept Jinyiwei at a respectful distance, and tried his best to keep the well water out of the way.
But if Jin Yiwei acted recklessly and wanted to bully himself, that would be another matter.Xu Yuxing sensed that the Jinyiwei in this place was behaving badly, and tried to engage in some unfriendly actions under the Xu family's nose, so naturally he would no longer exercise restraint.It was about the safety of the Xu family, so there was no room for concessions.
After the city defense army and their subordinates conducted a preliminary search of the inside of Jinfa and confirmed that there were no potential safety hazards, Xu Jiaqi, Xu Yuxing and Jin Ming entered this place to check the real situation inside.
The area of Jinfa’s house is not small, and there are four entrances in total. The city defense army has gathered all the people arrested here, as well as the few people who were shot and killed by muskets during the attack, to the second entrance. In the patio.
The three of Xu Yuxing walked into the yard, and saw a crowd of people kneeling densely in the courtyard, their hands shackled behind their backs.Various weapons seized from these people were placed on the open space next to them. In addition to a few hand crossbows, there were also several Jinyiwei standard waist knives, and two long and short firecrackers.
Ordinary businessmen who do business would not have so many weapons hidden in their own firms. These seizures alone can basically confirm that these people are by no means ordinary people.
"No badge?" Xu Yuxing glanced at it and asked the subordinate who was in charge of searching for evidence.If these people's identities are Jin Yiwei, then they must also carry the unique identity badges of Jin Yiwei.
The subordinate was very clever, leaning behind Xu Yuxing and lowering his voice, he replied, "My lord, I have found the waist card. I thought it might be difficult for the lord to deal with it, so I put it away first."
Xu Yuxing glanced at him sideways, and nodded slightly to confirm his approach: "You are quite clever... Well done!"
If these people show their badges, then this matter will become a business-to-business relationship between the two yamen. Although Xu Yuxing is not afraid of Jin Yiwei, it will inevitably cause a lot of trouble in handling it.But first confiscated their badges, even if these people reported their identities, Xu Yuxing could not accept them and treat them as a group of thugs fighting against the government with force.Even if Jin Yiwei came forward to find people afterwards, Xu Yuxing could openly say that it was impossible to confirm the identities of these people when they were arrested.
Of course, this also brings up another question. Since there are real Jinyiwei inside, why didn't they directly reveal their identities before, but chose to fight against them. Even after the city defense army arrived here, they still had a chance to reveal their identities. But why didn't they do it in the end?
The answer lies in the third courtyard.Xu Yuxing saw a large pile of smoking ashes here, and it was not difficult to tell from the shape that this was the remnant of a large amount of paper burning, that is to say, when this place was besieged just now, the people inside gave up showing The identity then surrendered the opportunity and seized the time to destroy some information recorded on paper in the form of incineration.
Xu Yuxing's face was very ugly, which meant that the situation that Jin Ming reminded him earlier had become a reality, and the reason why he gave the other party the opportunity to take advantage of it was more or less due to his command error.He originally wanted to show his skills in front of Hai Han's colleagues, but now it looks a bit messed up.
Of course, this cannot all be blamed on Xu Yuxing's ineffective command. If he directly ordered a storm before mobilizing the city defense force, there is of course a chance to take down this stronghold and prevent the opponent from burning the evidence, but judging from the seized weapons, it must be Only by paying a certain amount of casualties can the goal be achieved, and this is exactly the situation that Xu Yuxing is trying to avoid.
If you have to find fault, you can only blame Xu Yuxing for not making thorough preparations in advance and underestimating the difficulty of this mission.If he had used the city defense army to participate in the operation from the beginning, he wouldn't have been blocked for so long.After all, this still underestimated Jin Yiwei's strength, and he never expected that the other party would dare to make such a strong reaction in Zhangzhou City.
Jin Ming also sighed secretly when he saw these ashes, after all, he came a step too late and let the other party destroy the key evidence.I don't know if there is any part related to Haihan in these ashes. If it involves the matter he is investigating, it will inevitably delay the investigation process greatly.Although there are quite a few people caught, these people are all specially trained personnel, and it is estimated that it is not an easy task to obtain credible information from them.And because of the special identities of these people, Xu Yuxing must have a headache about how to deal with them.
Xu Yuxing said: "If there are only things on paper, they may not be so nervous. Search this place for me! What are they hiding, even if they dig three feet, they have to find it!"
Most of Xu Yuxing's men had received training in reconnaissance and search, and they also had corresponding skills in how to find hidden places in the house. At that moment, everyone split up and followed his request to find important evidence that might exist in a certain place.
When Xu Yuxing gave the order, Jin Ming was carefully observing the movement of the captured people.If there is really some great secret hidden here, Xu Yuxing's order to search again will surely make the insiders among them react.
And just as he expected, when they heard Xu Yuxing's loud order, several of them silently turned their heads and exchanged glances with each other, as if they were a little nervous about the situation.
Jin Ming immediately informed Xu Yuxing of his observations, and without the slightest hesitation, the latter ordered the few people identified by Jin Ming to be brought aside first.Since these people have responded, it is very likely that they are insiders, and they can focus on interrogation later.
Although the yard of Jinfa is not small, but this time Xu Yuxing has transferred enough people, even if it is carefully searched foot by foot, it will be very fast.Xu Yuxing asked people to move three chairs out of the flower hall, and sat in the courtyard with Xu Jiaqi and Jin Ming, making up their minds to wait for a result here.
It has to be said that Xu Yuxing's people are quite capable, and after about a stick of incense, someone came to report and found something in the woodshed.
"Go, take a look!" Xu Yuxing was waiting for this, and immediately jumped up from his chair, beckoning Xu Jiaqi and Jin Ming to go and check together.
For a house with such a large area, the kitchen and firewood room are naturally indispensable, and these are often easily overlooked during the search process.After all, most people hide important items in their daily living places, so that it is easier to check at any time, but it is not so convenient for servants to enter and exit such as the kitchen and woodshed.If it was an ordinary police officer who came to search, they would probably come out after going in and turning around, but Xu Yuxing's subordinates were really honest. They even moved out all the thousands of catties of firewood piled up in the firewood room, and only then did they reveal the firewood hidden in the woodshed. Heap things below.
These are three long wooden boxes stacked together, about six feet long, two feet wide, and about seven inches thick.There seems to be a layer of darker paint on the surface of the box. This treatment is mostly for waterproof and mothproof.The top box had already been opened by the search personnel, and several muskets wrapped in tarpaulins were neatly placed inside, and a lot of dry straw was placed in the box for cushioning.Obviously, after opening the box, the investigators realized that these items were important evidence, and immediately notified Xu Yuxing, and were not in a hurry to further check the contents of the box.
"Master Jin, you said they closed the door just now and kept silent, are they just hiding these things in the firewood room?" Xu Yuxing asked with a smile when he saw the things in the box.
Jin Ming echoed: "The third young master is right. They obviously have so many weapons, but they didn't use them just now. It seems that they don't want us to find out that they have these things."
Xu Yuxing waved his hand and said, "It's too dark in this woodshed, so take all these boxes outside."
Jinfa and the others would rather use crossbows than these muskets in the resistance just now. Either they don't know how to use this kind of weapon, or they dare not expose these weapons to the broad daylight.In the eyes of Jin Ming and Xu Yuxing, it is very likely that it is the latter situation. After all, one of their original intentions to investigate Jinfahao was to try to find the connection between this place and the Spanish arms smuggling case. It seems that they have found the most powerful evidence.
The three wooden boxes were carried out of the woodshed by Xu Yuxing's subordinates. Xu Yuxing made a gesture of invitation to Jin Ming, meaning that he should be the first to check the origin of these weapons.
Jin Ming originally came here for this reason, and he didn't refuse at the moment. He reached out and took out a musket from the box, and removed the oilcloth tied to the gun body, revealing the complete body of the gun.
Although he is not from a military background, but due to work reasons, he has a lot of knowledge about weapons. He can tell at a glance that this thing is not made by Daming or Haihan. After careful inspection, he already has a preliminary understanding judge.
Jin Ming handed the musket to Xu Yuxing and said, "Third Young Master, General Xu, please take a look, the patterns on this gun are the characters used by the Spaniards!"
After Xu Yuxing examined it, he sneered and said, "Jin Yiwei dared to secretly collude with the Spaniards, that's really great!"
Although he didn't know Spanish, he also knew that Jin Ming would definitely not make fun of this kind of thing.There are actually Spanish-made muskets hidden in Jinyiwei's stronghold. I'm afraid it won't be so easy to clear up the matter. Although Daming hasn't turned against Spain, he hasn't formally established diplomatic relations either. The charge of arms smuggling can't be avoided.
The shock in Jin Ming's heart was actually more. Although the intelligence department had suspected that the Spaniards' export of arms was supported by some special institutions of Ming Dynasty, they had never found any relevant evidence. This time in Zhangzhou These weapons seized in the city can be regarded as providing strong evidence for this speculation.
However, just the discovery of these weapons is not enough to form a complete chain of evidence to prove that Jin Yiwei was behind the operation of importing Spanish weapons to the north.Because in any case, it is impossible for Jin Yiwei to help Spain provide military assistance to the mortal enemy of the Qing Dynasty.Only by clarifying the specific channel through which these weapons entered this place can we confirm the role played by Jin Yiwei in this matter.
Judging from the way the Jin Yiwei here resisted and destroyed the evidence, they obviously didn't want people to find out that they were holding these weapons—they hid so many muskets in Zhangzhou city, and they planned to use these weapons against whom. The goal seems to speak for itself.
Both Xu Yuxing and Xu Jiaqi had obviously thought of this.Xu Jiaqi inspected it carefully with a musket in his hand, his face was as black as charcoal, it was impossible to guard against what kind of things this thing could do in Jin Yiwei's hands.If it wasn't for the good fortune that these weapons were seized here today and Jin Yiwei put them to use, Fujian would be in chaos.
"This matter needs to be reported to your lord immediately." Xu Jiaqi said in a deep voice, "Since it is related to Jin Yiwei, then Jin Yiwei's other places in the city must be checked carefully!"
"More than that, the relevant people must be detained as soon as possible to find out the truth. If Jin Yiwei can't come up with a reasonable statement, it can only explain one thing." Xu Yuxing stopped abruptly at this point and did not continue Having said that, after all, this kind of thing can only be thought about, and cannot be announced, otherwise it is very likely to bring disaster to the Xu family.
However, Jin Ming already understood what Xu Yuxing wanted to express.If Jin Yiwei can't give a reasonable explanation for why they smuggled guns into Zhangzhou City and resisted the search by the local army, it can only show that this arrangement was not planned by Jin Yiwei, but an instruction from a higher level.
If those in power in the court have already moved their minds to use some special means to dismantle Xu Xinsu's dominance in Fujian, it means that the seemingly incompatible relationship between the two parties has come to an end, and there is no way to maintain the current superficial relationship between monarch and minister.
And this will undoubtedly be a huge test for Xu Xinsu, who has never planned to stand on his own and claim the title of king. This opportunity raises the flag to rebel and start anew.But public rebellion is a taboo at any time. Even though the Xu family is a local snake in Fujian, Xu Yuxing dare not talk about it in public.
(End of this chapter)