Chapter 1329 Confessions of Prisoners of War

"The military strength gap between Ming Dynasty and Haihan is probably as big as Spain!" Liu Shang couldn't help but have such a strange idea in his mind. Although he didn't want to admit the existence of this gap.

, but the objective facts are before his eyes, and Liu Shang is not a person who chooses to escape reality.

If when he first arrived in Sanya, he still had the idea of ​​secretly learning Haihan's key military technologies to narrow the military gap between the two countries, then at this moment, in the face of vivid examples, he has basically given up on such an idea.

, after all, the gap between the two countries is so huge that it cannot be changed by one person. Moreover, Liu Shang has also been thinking about a very practical issue recently. If everything he saw and heard in Haihan in the past two months was written down.

If the secret report is sent back, will the superiors think that I am crazy?

If he were himself not long ago, Liu Shang would not believe that there is an island country on the coast of the South China Sea that is more advanced and powerful than the Ming Dynasty. There are too many new things that have not appeared in the Ming Dynasty, and many of them can even be described as unimaginable.

Describe things like steam engines and armored ships. Liu Shang does not think that his boss, and his boss’s boss, will be convinced of the power of these things through written descriptions. If he told his superiors that he had made something like "I'm sorry we can't defeat Haihan"

I'm afraid he will be punished for his judgment, right?

Liu Shang suddenly understood why there were always many unclear points in the reports sent back by intelligence personnel who had been lurking in Haihan in the past. Especially when it came to the more subjective opinions on the strength comparison between the two sides, they were usually mentioned in just a few words. It must have been the former

People also feel that it is not appropriate to tell the truth in some situations, and telling the truth will only cause trouble. Now I seem to be in such a situation, should I tell the truth, or should I learn from the predecessors to report good things but not bad things?

However, Liu Shang soon had no time to worry about this problem. A new order had been sent from above, requiring him to report back to the Youth League immediately and participate in formulating follow-up publicity activities about the "Sanya Victory" with the staff of the Propaganda Department.

Plan. Haihan officials have carried out vigorous publicity on the Star Island Battle, which is thousands of miles away. The current victory of the battle that was completed under the eyes of the people of Haihan will naturally be written in a large and colorful book.

The reason why Liu Shang was selected is also very simple. He once compiled a storyteller about the Battle of Star Island that was well received by the public. Later, he was temporarily recruited to serve in the propaganda department and his performance was very decent, so Yu Xiaobao named him again.

Liu Shang, let him join this relatively time-limited task.

This publicity campaign is also different from publication platforms like newspapers. Writers from various newspapers have already taken action immediately, striving to publish a "special issue" within a day or two to discuss this battle.

Report. What Liu Shang and others have to do is to cooperate with the publication to promote a wave of publicity. This time, it should not only target the domestic people, but also take into account external publicity. It should let all countries that have established diplomatic relations with Haihan know that Spain

This time I stumbled in front of Haihan's house.

The people set off firecrackers, served themselves two extra dishes for dinner, and went to bed in a happy mood. This was considered a simple celebration. However, on this night after the war, there were still many people who simply wanted to complete the follow-up cleaning work.

There is no time to rest.

The Security Department is one of the departments that really started to get busy after the battle. All prisoners of war collected by the military from the battlefield must go through the intelligence agency for preliminary identification and registration. According to the personal situation of the prisoners of war,

The vast majority of people will be sent to hard labor camps to perform hard labor, and whether they will have a chance to be reborn will be determined based on their performance in labor reform. However, a small number of prisoners of war who have special identities or master certain skills, such as officers, craftsmen, and navigators, will

Wait, they will be detained separately and processed separately.

Of course, before the prisoners of war are dealt with separately, the relevant departments will definitely arrange a grand victory parade in Sanya, escorting these unlucky ghosts to the streets to show the people the direct results of this war.

There are currently more than 700 prisoners of war detained in the Victory Port Naval Base. This is not a particularly large number in Haihan's wars over the years, but this is the first time Haihan has "resisted foreign invasion" since the founding of the country.

The meaning of this war is different from previous battles to expand territory overseas.

Among the more than 700 prisoners of war, not all are Spanish. About half of them are a motley crew composed of Luzon natives, Chinese descendants, Malays, blacks, and sailors from other European countries. The rest

The other half were the real Spaniards. These prisoners of war were divided into groups of ten and their ankles were locked with chain shackles to prevent them from escaping. There were many injuries among the prisoners of war, but those with more serious injuries could only

Resigned to their fate, the people Haihan sent to treat them were all interns from the medical department. It was inevitable to be careless when dealing with wounds - of course, maybe these students didn't want to treat the enemy's wounded soldiers properly and took the opportunity to vent.

dissatisfaction.

The Ministry of Security temporarily borrowed a warehouse at the naval base as a venue for the preliminary interrogation of prisoners of war. Dozens of tables were lined up in the warehouse, with two people sitting behind each table, belonging to the Ministry of Security and the military.

There was one more person sitting at several tables, a Spanish translator temporarily recruited from various departments and civilians. Since the number of translators was extremely limited, the interrogation of Spanish prisoners of war could only be concentrated. Anyway, among the prisoners of war,

The key figures are basically Spanish, and it is not particularly important how much the other prisoners of war can understand their confessions.

The Ministry of Security and the military already have relatively mature experience in interrogating large numbers of prisoners of war. They first asked the prisoners to identify each other and identified several Spanish officers or captains among them, and then asked them to identify the sea captains.

Special occupations such as craftsmen and navigators designated by the Han Dynasty. After it is basically confirmed that all people with special identities have been selected, targeted interrogation and identity registration can be carried out to achieve twice the result with half the effort.

Among the Spanish personnel captured this time, there were only about ten officers and captains, and the flagships of the two Spanish fleets had successfully escaped, so the rank of these commanders was not particularly high. The intelligence that could be extracted from them was not accurate.

Haihan's reference value is actually relatively limited. After a night of hard work, the confession reports of these people were finally sorted out before dawn and sent to the desk of Security Minister He Xi.

Although He Xi is the head of the intelligence department, he did not sleep the whole night like everyone else in the department. All the gains of the intelligence department have to be summarized by him, even though the people below have helped him filter out a lot of useless or

Low value information, but there are still many things that need to be reviewed by him personally.

Haihan's top priority is naturally to figure out the fundamental reason why the Spaniards launched a surprise attack on him at this point in time. Although the two sides had formed a lot of rifts before, the Spaniards have died down in the past two years, although there are some

It was a small move under the table, but it did not create too much trouble for Haihan with an openly hostile attitude. Previous reports sent back by intelligence agents lurking in Manila stated that this was an action organized unilaterally by the Manila authorities. If it were just like this, then that would be

Fortunately, the Philippine colonies alone were not enough to truly threaten Haihan's safety, but He Xi still had to eliminate other possible hidden dangers.

What He Xi is worried about is that this action was personally ordered by Spain. In that case, the Spaniards may not stop because of this defeat, and may even launch a larger follow-up offensive. With the strength of Spain,

As long as they prepare for a period of time, it is not difficult to launch a cross-sea operation with tens of thousands of people in the Far East. And after learning this lesson, I am afraid they will not be so reckless next time. Haihan Navy

Although its strength is strong, it is ultimately limited by the number of combat ships. If Spain really feels at ease and organizes a large-scale attack, the navy can protect Sanya, but it may not be able to protect the entire Hainan Island.

Of course, there are other possibilities. Maybe the Spaniards secretly have other means that they have not used. For example, after the fleet invades Sanya, armed personnel lurking in the local area launch an attack to create a situation of cooperation from inside and outside, or serve as a leading party.

, leading the landing Spanish troops to attack various key areas in the local area. However, the Spaniards did not even get the chance to dock in the end. Even if there were any other deployments in Sanya City, it was too late to launch them. And the Ministry of Security's

The responsibility is to eliminate these possibilities. If the Spaniards really arranged these methods locally, they must be eradicated as soon as possible without leaving any future troubles.

He Xi quickly browsed the confessions of several Spanish officers. In fact, he had personally participated in the trial of two of them just now, but to be honest, the information these low-level officers had was limited and did not have much reference value. They only followed the instructions of the Manila authorities.

Arrangements and participation in this military operation, all they knew was the benefits they would gain from capturing Sanya and some of the tactics developed around capturing the port, but they knew little about higher-level strategic considerations.

He Xi did not have much doubt about the authenticity of these confessions. He had confirmed with his own eyes at the interrogation site that most of these so-called officers and captains were actually of poor quality. They were not standard Royal Navy soldiers, but armed men.

Maritime merchants, privateer ship owners, retired veterans, etc. serve as commanders. These people are all thinking about Haihan's gold and silver mountains, and they seriously underestimate the difficulty of the battle. Moreover, these people don't seem to have much scheming at all.

, in He Xi's eyes, their little calculations were just at the level of pediatricians.

Many people even immediately asked the interrogators to demand ransom, because this was a very common behavior in wars in European countries. As long as the two sides could negotiate a reasonable amount, the prisoners of war could regain their freedom. He Xi personally responded to this

I'm not disgusted with it. Anyway, these wealthy prisoners of war don't have much value anyway. It's a good thing to be able to get some profit. Besides, this kind of redemption is not uncommon in Haihan's past wars. Previously, Xingdao

Many British prisoners of war captured in the battle had clearly marked prices and demanded ransom payments from the British East India Company.

However, this time the Spaniards came and directly attacked Sanya, the capital of Haihan. The severity of this incident was not comparable to previous foreign wars. He Xi was not responsible for negotiating ransoms with prisoners of war, but he could imagine Schneider

At this time, he was gearing up. Taking advantage of this rare opportunity, it would be strange if he didn't squeeze the oil and water out of the Spaniard's bones.

He Xi's mind returned to the confession report in front of him. If he was a senior official planning this battle, he probably would not inform these low-quality commanders of the detailed strategic plan. Most of these people have not received confidentiality training.

, there is no clear understanding of what should be said and what should not be said. Their interrogation does not even require any means at all, and most of the required information can be obtained through clichés.

Although there is no valuable information, through the confessions of these people, He Xi can basically confirm that the offensive launched by the Manila authorities is a wave. Apart from the invading Spanish fleet, the Manila authorities have not prepared any follow-up attacks.

Offensive. This may be because the fleet size it can use is limited to this, or it may be a miscalculation of Haihan's defensive strength and response methods. However, in He Xi's view, the former is more likely, because of the incoming attack

About half of the warships in the fleet are affiliated with the American Fleet.

These large sailing ships belonging to the American colonies would only visit Luzon once a year during the right season and would not stay in Manila Port for a long time. Judging from this detail, it seems that the timing of the Manila authorities' launch of the war was to suit the interests of the Americans.

The fleet's itinerary - after making a fortune in Sanya, they will return to Manila to rest for a few days. It is just the time to return to the American colonies.

If this inference is true, it becomes clearer why He Xi believed that the Manila authorities would choose this time to plan this war. The Spaniards may not have considered too much the situation on Haihan's side, but based their own troop concentration conditions on

Lord, as long as the time is right and enough troops are gathered, launch a sneak attack. If the effect is ideal, try to occupy Sanya. If the effect is not ideal, retreat to Manila to avoid the limelight.

Of course, in the view of the Manila authorities, the probability of a successful sneak attack is quite high, so they were obviously unprepared when facing Haihan's response, and could even be said to be at a loss. If it hadn't been for the decisive decision of the fleet commander

After receiving the order to retreat, if we delay for another hour and a half and wait for Tao Dong's fleet to come back, then we really won't be able to leave even if we want to.
Chapter completed!