Chapter 2095
Chapter 2095
Chapter 2095
Since the Haihan Fleet approached the city of Hangzhou in 1635, every move of the Zhoushan garrison inevitably attracted the attention of all parties.Among them are not only the Ming officials who were very nervous because of the Yangzhou incident last year, but also other organizations and individuals who have interests in Haihan.Some are thinking of taking advantage of the opportunity to make a fortune, while others are worried that Haihan's military actions will harm their own interests.
The merchants that can be listed as the procurement targets of military supplies by the Zhoushan authorities basically maintain a close relationship with Haihan, and many of them even have local officials as their backers. For example, the designated food supplier of the Zhoushan authorities is Qu Yutong, the prefect of Ningbo. The rice shop operated by the He brothers, the staff under his command.Such a relationship and background are basically difficult to be leveraged by others, so this kind of purchase can be regarded as an exclusive business with the nature of benefit transmission.
The suppliers mentioned by the man in black just now are basically in a similar situation. It is extremely difficult to grab Haihan's orders from these merchants, so their real purpose is not to compete for this It is not a lucrative temporary purchase order, but I want to find out the intention behind the Zhoushan authorities' purchase of these combat readiness materials.
The old businessman pondered: "Even if the Haihan people plan to attack other places, Ningbo may not be so safe!"
The man in black nodded and said, "It's better than they did something in Ningbo... Maybe the Haihan people are going to attack Yangzhou again!"
The old businessman said: "Lu Kangtai from Yangzhou was seriously injured after he fought with the Haihan people last year. Many of his men died. It is not easy to rebuild a musketeer team in a short time. And Yangzhou must Some people are watching the movement of their salt merchants in Shanshan and Shaanxi, and they report to Zhoushan at any time. Now the Anhui salt merchants have the upper hand in Yangzhou. I heard that they have already discussed with the Haihan people to sell salt. It seems that there is no need to do it, but it will disrupt their own advantage."
"Then what do you mean?" the man in black asked respectfully.
The old businessman said: "The Haihan people have always been scheming. They took down many of our commercial houses in Fujian without warning. If Zhejiang is not managed by the old man, I am afraid that they will also be taken over by the Haihan people! Although our side is fine for the time being, we don’t know how much information was leaked from the place where the accident occurred earlier, and maybe they already know about our business situation in Zhejiang, and they plan to attack various places!”
The old man paused and continued: "As for this Ningbo... If they really have grasped our movements, then there is no need to rush to deal with Ningbo. To catch us, the Haihan people only need to use their mouths, and there will be people in this city Stand up for them!"
The man in black said unwillingly: "Although the Haihan army is difficult to defeat, we can't just sit back and die like this, we have to do something!"
The old man was very calm. He looked out of the window and said, "We came to Zhejiang to lurk. We are fighting for our lives. If our opponent finds out, we will have to die! I will write a text message later, and you should send the message as soon as possible. Don't delay the business!"
The Eighteenth Zhiyu Party worked so hard to set up the situation in various parts of the Fujian Strait, and was hunted down by Haihan in just over a month. The news came out through a few people who escaped by chance.After the old man got the news in Ningbo Mansion, he quickly cut off all contact with Fujian to protect himself.
First, there was an accident in the private firearms team of Yangzhou salt merchants in the north, and then many hidden piles were pulled out in Fujian in the south. The old man knew that the Haihan people should have been aware of their own arrangements in the coastal area of Daming.Although the several underground strongholds on the Zhejiang side have not yet been discovered by the Haihan people, they probably won't last for too long.So when the Zhoushan garrison began to order military supplies on the market, this signal was no different from a warning signal to him.
Originally, it was a situation where the enemy was in the clear and they were in the dark, but now they don't know how much Haihan has grasped, whether they will launch a surprise attack on their place, making the supposedly safe lurking into a torment.
Taking the initiative to evacuate Zhejiang might be an option, but the old man is unwilling to do so, because it would mean that they voluntarily gave up the intelligence channels that they had worked so hard to manage, and all the investment in the early stage.
His subordinates also suggested to evacuate first, and then return to Zhejiang to continue lurking after the wind has passed, but the old man thinks this is extremely risky, because they don't know whether their identities have been exposed at all, and if they risk coming back after leaving, If they don't do it well, they will end up in a trap.And what they are doing is extremely dangerous. If you are lucky about your situation, it is likely to be a dead end.
The old man sat upright in the study for a long time before grinding the paper, picked up the thinnest brush pen from the pen holder, and slowly wrote several rows of dense soybean-sized characters on the paper.After finishing writing, he read it carefully again, then put down the pen and took out a knife, and when the ink was completely dry, he began to slowly cut off the writing part on the paper, which was about three and a half inches wide and four inches long. strip.
He carefully rolled up the paper strips slowly and rolled them into a bundle, stuffed them into thin bamboo tubes no thicker than the little finger, and then sealed the tube mouth with wax.
"Send the secret letter as soon as possible!" After doing all this, the old man seemed to be quite depressed, and slowly pushed the three small bamboo tubes in front of the man in black, and said to him: "After sending the letter, you also Leave here as soon as possible! Go to Yangzhou, Liaodong, or return to Hirado, in short, leave here first.”
"How can this be done?" The man in black didn't go to get the three small bamboo tubes, but persuaded the old man: "Even if I want to leave, I have to evacuate with you."
The old man shook his head and said: "I'm old, I can't go to battle anymore, so I just stay in Ningbo. If the Haihan people do something here, maybe I can spread some news. You are in your prime, and you will be able to fight in Ningbo in the future." It can also assist the young master to make a comeback, and should not bury his talents here. Although there are a few capable people in the Tianchuan family, they are Japanese after all, and Shibazhi still has to be in charge of the Han. Remember, there is no way When you can retreat, don't fight hard with Haihan, keep the green hills, don't be afraid of running out of firewood, remember! Remember!"
Seeing the old man's firm attitude, the man in black knew that he couldn't be persuaded to change his decision, so he got up and knelt down on the ground, kowtowed three times to the old man, and said: "Today's matter, when I return to Hirado in the future, I must I will report to the young master and ask for credit for your old man!"
"Get up, just get things done, don't bother with other things." The old man slowly leaned his body back on the chair, slowly closed his eyes and said: "When you go out, close the study door, The old man wants to be quiet for a while."
The man in black got up and grabbed the three small bamboo tubes containing the secret letter in his hand, and bowed deeply to the old man who had closed his eyes, and then slowly exited the study, closing the door behind him.
The three secret letters he got will be tied to the legs of the pigeons and sent out. To be on the safe side, the content of these three secret letters is actually the same, and the destination is the same place-Hirado, Japan.
Of course, the distance from Ningbo to Hirado is too far, and it is impossible for most pigeons to complete such a long-distance cross-sea journey, so the actual flying location will not be in Ningbo, but the pigeons will be taken to The East China Sea will be released again to ensure that they have a high enough chance to fly back to Hirado.
The time saved by doing this is actually very limited, but this method of transmitting information is a special method that is only used in emergencies. Even if it can save a day or two, it is very worthwhile.
After leaving the courtyard, the man in black rode out of the city in a carriage, and then went straight to the wharf at the mouth of the Yongjiang River.After arriving at the destination, he boarded a ship without stopping. After a while, the ship lifted anchor and sailed away from the pier.And almost at the same time, a Ming army of about a hundred people quietly began to set up roadblocks outside the house, blocking the block.
However, in a street not far from the roadblock, there were more soldiers of the Ming army quietly assembled. At the entrance of the alley, there were two people on horseback, watching coldly the soldiers who were setting up the roadblock.
"Lord Cui, I really have to work hard this time!" One of them was dressed in black, but he was not dressed as a soldier, and complimented the man on the horse beside him: "With you personally leading the battle, today's errand should be very safe."
The military officer known as Mr. Cui was not flattered by the other party's flattery, but responded politely: "Mr. Duan, you are polite. This is a matter that General Shi and his old man personally intervened. Naturally, I have to fight ten times. If you have a two-point spirit, you can do things beautifully. Besides, this idea is so tricky, if Lord Duan hadn't warned you in advance, I might have to make some troubles in Ningbo City!"
The two people who were talking to each other, one was Cui Hongfang, Commander of Dinghaiwei, and the other was Duan Tiancheng, Lieutenant Commander of Haihan Navy, who came from Zhoushan in plain clothes.And the target they were going to clear was the storehouse of Sun Feizhou, a dry goods merchant. The front shop, the back house, the store warehouse and the house were all in one yard.
The reason why he found this place was actually the series of investigation measures Haihan had made in the south before.The investigation in Fujian shows that such small strongholds under the cover of commercial organizations arranged by the behind-the-scenes not only exist in the Fuguang area, but also in the coastal areas north of the Fujian Strait.
It's just that the system in the north of Fujian seems to be different from that in the south. Haihan used this method in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, which has been fruitful in Fuguang and other places, but it did not have the expected effect. Therefore, the intelligence department judged that in the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions The commanders leading the operation of these institutions should be someone else, and the original investigation methods must be combined with some corresponding changes.
This back and forth made the investigation progress in the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions much slower than in the south, and it was not until the last few days that some clues were finally found.Although the opponents in Jiangsu and Zhejiang are slippery, the Haihan intelligence department now has a lot more information than two months ago, and the flow of goods and funds operated by commercial organizations such as opponents has also been known earlier. clearer judgments.
The business status of Sun Feizhou, a dry goods merchant, did not attract Haihan's attention at first. After investigating many clues, the intelligence department noticed that some of Sun Feizhou's dry goods came from Japan.At this time, the news about the Eighteenth Zhiyu Party hiding behind the Hirado Domain in Japan and conducting behind-the-scenes command has been reported to Haihan's intelligence system, so information about Japan has also become the focus of investigation.
After the intelligence department focused its attention on Feizhou Sun, it soon confirmed through other means that there were often large account transactions in the course of its operations, which far exceeded the scale of its daily operations.From this, he traced the clues and found more suspicious clues, and basically identified his dry goods store as an underground stronghold of the Shibazhiyu Party in Ningbo.
But Ningbo is the territory of Ming Dynasty after all. Even if the intelligence department determines that there is something wrong with Feizhou, it is still inconvenient to send armed personnel to the city of Ningbo to arrest him. Therefore, this errand must be resolved by the local government.
Before that, Shi Diwen had already made peace with Qu Yutong, hoping that Qu Yutong would come forward to mobilize the Ming army stationed in the city to resolve the matter.But Qu Yutong knew that this place might be the secret stronghold of the armed pirate gang in Ningbo city, so he didn't dare to be careless at the moment, and asked Cui Hongfang, the commander of Dinghaiwei, who was in charge of part of the city defense task, to lead his troops to deal with it himself. this matter.
Dinghaiwei under the jurisdiction of Cui Hongfang actually has a lot of connections with Haihan, Zhoushan Island is where Dinghaiwei Zhongzuo is located, but Cui Hongfang dare not ask Haihan for an explanation because of this reason.This person was relatively cautious and low-key a few years ago, and he didn't take the initiative to contact Haihan at the beginning. Later, he saw that the magistrate, Changguowei and Guanhaiwei in Ningbo were flirting with Haihan people, making a lot of money in secret, so he felt at ease. Haihan cooperates.
The largest trading hub on the coastline of Ningbo, Yongjiangkou Wharf, is in the jurisdiction of Dinghaiwei. Now there are hundreds of merchant ships entering and leaving the Yongjiangkou Wharf every day. The abundance of oil and water has also made Cui Hongfang a lot of money.
However, Cui Hongfang is also very clear about where the money came from, so he has always been polite to the Zhoushan authorities.After watching several military exercises organized by Haihan on the spot, Cui Hongfang dispelled all unrealistic thoughts and focused his energy on earning money with peace of mind.
The task that Qu Yutong gave him this time was the first time that Cui Hongfang cooperated with the Zhoushan authorities in military operations. He also wanted to take this opportunity to prove his strength, handle this task properly, and use it to gain more support from the Haihan people. Much trust and support.After all, as a military officer guarding the coast of Daming, who wouldn't want to be appreciated and assisted by Haihan people and become the next Xu Xinsu?
(End of this chapter)
Since the Haihan Fleet approached the city of Hangzhou in 1635, every move of the Zhoushan garrison inevitably attracted the attention of all parties.Among them are not only the Ming officials who were very nervous because of the Yangzhou incident last year, but also other organizations and individuals who have interests in Haihan.Some are thinking of taking advantage of the opportunity to make a fortune, while others are worried that Haihan's military actions will harm their own interests.
The merchants that can be listed as the procurement targets of military supplies by the Zhoushan authorities basically maintain a close relationship with Haihan, and many of them even have local officials as their backers. For example, the designated food supplier of the Zhoushan authorities is Qu Yutong, the prefect of Ningbo. The rice shop operated by the He brothers, the staff under his command.Such a relationship and background are basically difficult to be leveraged by others, so this kind of purchase can be regarded as an exclusive business with the nature of benefit transmission.
The suppliers mentioned by the man in black just now are basically in a similar situation. It is extremely difficult to grab Haihan's orders from these merchants, so their real purpose is not to compete for this It is not a lucrative temporary purchase order, but I want to find out the intention behind the Zhoushan authorities' purchase of these combat readiness materials.
The old businessman pondered: "Even if the Haihan people plan to attack other places, Ningbo may not be so safe!"
The man in black nodded and said, "It's better than they did something in Ningbo... Maybe the Haihan people are going to attack Yangzhou again!"
The old businessman said: "Lu Kangtai from Yangzhou was seriously injured after he fought with the Haihan people last year. Many of his men died. It is not easy to rebuild a musketeer team in a short time. And Yangzhou must Some people are watching the movement of their salt merchants in Shanshan and Shaanxi, and they report to Zhoushan at any time. Now the Anhui salt merchants have the upper hand in Yangzhou. I heard that they have already discussed with the Haihan people to sell salt. It seems that there is no need to do it, but it will disrupt their own advantage."
"Then what do you mean?" the man in black asked respectfully.
The old businessman said: "The Haihan people have always been scheming. They took down many of our commercial houses in Fujian without warning. If Zhejiang is not managed by the old man, I am afraid that they will also be taken over by the Haihan people! Although our side is fine for the time being, we don’t know how much information was leaked from the place where the accident occurred earlier, and maybe they already know about our business situation in Zhejiang, and they plan to attack various places!”
The old man paused and continued: "As for this Ningbo... If they really have grasped our movements, then there is no need to rush to deal with Ningbo. To catch us, the Haihan people only need to use their mouths, and there will be people in this city Stand up for them!"
The man in black said unwillingly: "Although the Haihan army is difficult to defeat, we can't just sit back and die like this, we have to do something!"
The old man was very calm. He looked out of the window and said, "We came to Zhejiang to lurk. We are fighting for our lives. If our opponent finds out, we will have to die! I will write a text message later, and you should send the message as soon as possible. Don't delay the business!"
The Eighteenth Zhiyu Party worked so hard to set up the situation in various parts of the Fujian Strait, and was hunted down by Haihan in just over a month. The news came out through a few people who escaped by chance.After the old man got the news in Ningbo Mansion, he quickly cut off all contact with Fujian to protect himself.
First, there was an accident in the private firearms team of Yangzhou salt merchants in the north, and then many hidden piles were pulled out in Fujian in the south. The old man knew that the Haihan people should have been aware of their own arrangements in the coastal area of Daming.Although the several underground strongholds on the Zhejiang side have not yet been discovered by the Haihan people, they probably won't last for too long.So when the Zhoushan garrison began to order military supplies on the market, this signal was no different from a warning signal to him.
Originally, it was a situation where the enemy was in the clear and they were in the dark, but now they don't know how much Haihan has grasped, whether they will launch a surprise attack on their place, making the supposedly safe lurking into a torment.
Taking the initiative to evacuate Zhejiang might be an option, but the old man is unwilling to do so, because it would mean that they voluntarily gave up the intelligence channels that they had worked so hard to manage, and all the investment in the early stage.
His subordinates also suggested to evacuate first, and then return to Zhejiang to continue lurking after the wind has passed, but the old man thinks this is extremely risky, because they don't know whether their identities have been exposed at all, and if they risk coming back after leaving, If they don't do it well, they will end up in a trap.And what they are doing is extremely dangerous. If you are lucky about your situation, it is likely to be a dead end.
The old man sat upright in the study for a long time before grinding the paper, picked up the thinnest brush pen from the pen holder, and slowly wrote several rows of dense soybean-sized characters on the paper.After finishing writing, he read it carefully again, then put down the pen and took out a knife, and when the ink was completely dry, he began to slowly cut off the writing part on the paper, which was about three and a half inches wide and four inches long. strip.
He carefully rolled up the paper strips slowly and rolled them into a bundle, stuffed them into thin bamboo tubes no thicker than the little finger, and then sealed the tube mouth with wax.
"Send the secret letter as soon as possible!" After doing all this, the old man seemed to be quite depressed, and slowly pushed the three small bamboo tubes in front of the man in black, and said to him: "After sending the letter, you also Leave here as soon as possible! Go to Yangzhou, Liaodong, or return to Hirado, in short, leave here first.”
"How can this be done?" The man in black didn't go to get the three small bamboo tubes, but persuaded the old man: "Even if I want to leave, I have to evacuate with you."
The old man shook his head and said: "I'm old, I can't go to battle anymore, so I just stay in Ningbo. If the Haihan people do something here, maybe I can spread some news. You are in your prime, and you will be able to fight in Ningbo in the future." It can also assist the young master to make a comeback, and should not bury his talents here. Although there are a few capable people in the Tianchuan family, they are Japanese after all, and Shibazhi still has to be in charge of the Han. Remember, there is no way When you can retreat, don't fight hard with Haihan, keep the green hills, don't be afraid of running out of firewood, remember! Remember!"
Seeing the old man's firm attitude, the man in black knew that he couldn't be persuaded to change his decision, so he got up and knelt down on the ground, kowtowed three times to the old man, and said: "Today's matter, when I return to Hirado in the future, I must I will report to the young master and ask for credit for your old man!"
"Get up, just get things done, don't bother with other things." The old man slowly leaned his body back on the chair, slowly closed his eyes and said: "When you go out, close the study door, The old man wants to be quiet for a while."
The man in black got up and grabbed the three small bamboo tubes containing the secret letter in his hand, and bowed deeply to the old man who had closed his eyes, and then slowly exited the study, closing the door behind him.
The three secret letters he got will be tied to the legs of the pigeons and sent out. To be on the safe side, the content of these three secret letters is actually the same, and the destination is the same place-Hirado, Japan.
Of course, the distance from Ningbo to Hirado is too far, and it is impossible for most pigeons to complete such a long-distance cross-sea journey, so the actual flying location will not be in Ningbo, but the pigeons will be taken to The East China Sea will be released again to ensure that they have a high enough chance to fly back to Hirado.
The time saved by doing this is actually very limited, but this method of transmitting information is a special method that is only used in emergencies. Even if it can save a day or two, it is very worthwhile.
After leaving the courtyard, the man in black rode out of the city in a carriage, and then went straight to the wharf at the mouth of the Yongjiang River.After arriving at the destination, he boarded a ship without stopping. After a while, the ship lifted anchor and sailed away from the pier.And almost at the same time, a Ming army of about a hundred people quietly began to set up roadblocks outside the house, blocking the block.
However, in a street not far from the roadblock, there were more soldiers of the Ming army quietly assembled. At the entrance of the alley, there were two people on horseback, watching coldly the soldiers who were setting up the roadblock.
"Lord Cui, I really have to work hard this time!" One of them was dressed in black, but he was not dressed as a soldier, and complimented the man on the horse beside him: "With you personally leading the battle, today's errand should be very safe."
The military officer known as Mr. Cui was not flattered by the other party's flattery, but responded politely: "Mr. Duan, you are polite. This is a matter that General Shi and his old man personally intervened. Naturally, I have to fight ten times. If you have a two-point spirit, you can do things beautifully. Besides, this idea is so tricky, if Lord Duan hadn't warned you in advance, I might have to make some troubles in Ningbo City!"
The two people who were talking to each other, one was Cui Hongfang, Commander of Dinghaiwei, and the other was Duan Tiancheng, Lieutenant Commander of Haihan Navy, who came from Zhoushan in plain clothes.And the target they were going to clear was the storehouse of Sun Feizhou, a dry goods merchant. The front shop, the back house, the store warehouse and the house were all in one yard.
The reason why he found this place was actually the series of investigation measures Haihan had made in the south before.The investigation in Fujian shows that such small strongholds under the cover of commercial organizations arranged by the behind-the-scenes not only exist in the Fuguang area, but also in the coastal areas north of the Fujian Strait.
It's just that the system in the north of Fujian seems to be different from that in the south. Haihan used this method in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, which has been fruitful in Fuguang and other places, but it did not have the expected effect. Therefore, the intelligence department judged that in the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions The commanders leading the operation of these institutions should be someone else, and the original investigation methods must be combined with some corresponding changes.
This back and forth made the investigation progress in the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions much slower than in the south, and it was not until the last few days that some clues were finally found.Although the opponents in Jiangsu and Zhejiang are slippery, the Haihan intelligence department now has a lot more information than two months ago, and the flow of goods and funds operated by commercial organizations such as opponents has also been known earlier. clearer judgments.
The business status of Sun Feizhou, a dry goods merchant, did not attract Haihan's attention at first. After investigating many clues, the intelligence department noticed that some of Sun Feizhou's dry goods came from Japan.At this time, the news about the Eighteenth Zhiyu Party hiding behind the Hirado Domain in Japan and conducting behind-the-scenes command has been reported to Haihan's intelligence system, so information about Japan has also become the focus of investigation.
After the intelligence department focused its attention on Feizhou Sun, it soon confirmed through other means that there were often large account transactions in the course of its operations, which far exceeded the scale of its daily operations.From this, he traced the clues and found more suspicious clues, and basically identified his dry goods store as an underground stronghold of the Shibazhiyu Party in Ningbo.
But Ningbo is the territory of Ming Dynasty after all. Even if the intelligence department determines that there is something wrong with Feizhou, it is still inconvenient to send armed personnel to the city of Ningbo to arrest him. Therefore, this errand must be resolved by the local government.
Before that, Shi Diwen had already made peace with Qu Yutong, hoping that Qu Yutong would come forward to mobilize the Ming army stationed in the city to resolve the matter.But Qu Yutong knew that this place might be the secret stronghold of the armed pirate gang in Ningbo city, so he didn't dare to be careless at the moment, and asked Cui Hongfang, the commander of Dinghaiwei, who was in charge of part of the city defense task, to lead his troops to deal with it himself. this matter.
Dinghaiwei under the jurisdiction of Cui Hongfang actually has a lot of connections with Haihan, Zhoushan Island is where Dinghaiwei Zhongzuo is located, but Cui Hongfang dare not ask Haihan for an explanation because of this reason.This person was relatively cautious and low-key a few years ago, and he didn't take the initiative to contact Haihan at the beginning. Later, he saw that the magistrate, Changguowei and Guanhaiwei in Ningbo were flirting with Haihan people, making a lot of money in secret, so he felt at ease. Haihan cooperates.
The largest trading hub on the coastline of Ningbo, Yongjiangkou Wharf, is in the jurisdiction of Dinghaiwei. Now there are hundreds of merchant ships entering and leaving the Yongjiangkou Wharf every day. The abundance of oil and water has also made Cui Hongfang a lot of money.
However, Cui Hongfang is also very clear about where the money came from, so he has always been polite to the Zhoushan authorities.After watching several military exercises organized by Haihan on the spot, Cui Hongfang dispelled all unrealistic thoughts and focused his energy on earning money with peace of mind.
The task that Qu Yutong gave him this time was the first time that Cui Hongfang cooperated with the Zhoushan authorities in military operations. He also wanted to take this opportunity to prove his strength, handle this task properly, and use it to gain more support from the Haihan people. Much trust and support.After all, as a military officer guarding the coast of Daming, who wouldn't want to be appreciated and assisted by Haihan people and become the next Xu Xinsu?
(End of this chapter)