Chapter 2044

After last year's Manila War, the Spanish ships still operating in the waters of the Philippine Islands chose to actively avoid the control of the Haihan Navy and rarely appeared openly near Manila Bay unless necessary. In the past, Manila and Suzhou

This strait, which is an important link on the shipping route between China and Japan, has gradually become very desolate, and it is impossible to see a passing ship for several days.

Jiao Fei led the fleet to wait here for a few days. He did not wait for the lucky ship mentioned in the intelligence, but only waited for a Spanish sailing ship. But it doesn't matter. Since it is a Spanish ship, let's intercept it first.

You can never go wrong.

But the Spanish sailing ship didn't know whether it didn't notice the Valiant on the distant sea, or it didn't regard it as a threat at all. It still sailed straight towards this direction with no intention of turning around.

"How courageous!" Jiao Fei saw that the other party was so unscrupulous, and he muttered a little at the moment. This is just an ordinary sailing ship, and its tonnage is not at the same level as the Formidable. What gave the other party such a big one?

courage?

He soon got the answer. When the ship was still three or four nautical miles away from the Valiant, a red and blue flag hung from the bowsprit - there was no doubt that the people on the ship were sending a signal to the ship.

The Valiant identifies itself.

"That ship is ours!" Jiao Fei saw the flag and immediately understood the identity of the other party. This should be the ship that went from Manila to Cebu to pick up the intelligence personnel. But even this ship had already left Cebu.

We turned back, but we still didn't see the lucky ship that smuggled the weapons. It seemed that the ship had slipped away on another route.

Later, the Spanish sailing ship took the initiative to slow down the ship, and Jiao Fei also confirmed from the telescope that the person standing on the bow of the ship waving to the Weiyong was the intelligence agent Jose. When the two ships got closer, the man on the Weiyong

The sailor lowered the gangway and asked Jose to climb up the ladder to the deck of the Valiant.

Jose can currently speak less than ten sentences in Chinese, which are just daily expressions, so he still has to communicate with Jiao Fei through a translator. It took a lot of time for Jiao Fei to roughly understand what Jose and others brought back.

latest news.

After sending the news to Manila, Jose and others continued to lurk in Cebu, collecting information about the "Hai Fa Ji" store and its shopkeeper Chen Bin.

Perhaps it was the "good news" that Jose brought to Cebu earlier that made both the Spaniards and Chen Bin a little carried away. They also relaxed their control over overseas military aid information, which actually allowed Jose to slowly find out some key information.

The method used by Jose was actually very common, and it was considered a real basic operation in the field of intelligence. That was to find ways to get to know the lower-level workers and sailors who worked for Haifaji. Although these people did not know much key information, they had to learn from it.

The difficulty of the formulas they speak is also relatively low, which is just suitable for novices like Jose to practice basic skills.

Moreover, these people are obviously not wary enough about Jose, who is of Spanish origin. They are still unable to associate the concepts of being Spanish and playing for Haihan, and they never thought that this enthusiastic and simple Spanish young man could be Haihan.

A spy sent by the Han people to Cebu. So while eating and drinking with Jose, he inadvertently revealed some information one after another. The speaker was unintentional and the listener was intentional. Jose relied on this simple method to slowly master the information.

provided more valuable information.

Before the real news from overseas reaches Cebu, Jose and others should be able to stay safely there for a while, but now that their superiors in Manila have ordered them to evacuate the area quickly, they do not necessarily take risks.

It was necessary to insist on staying. Moreover, the intelligence information they collected had basically achieved the purpose of this special operation, and the remaining things were beyond their control.

Compared with the information sent back to Manila before, the information brought back by Jose this time is undoubtedly more valuable. According to the information he has, Chen Bin, the shopkeeper of Haifaji, is from Zhangzhou, Fujian, and the Ming Dynasty specialties that were previously shipped to Cebu

Most of the goods are shipped from Zhangzhou and Quanzhou in Fujian, and Haifaji has local commercial institutions to connect with them. Chen Bin transported spices from the South China Sea and some specialties from Europe and America to Fujian for sale, and also used Spanish

The silver provided by people was used to purchase goods from Fujian. To put it bluntly, this trade model relied on the convenience of being a Han to act as a middleman, and one could obtain huge profits by simply entering and exiting.

Although Jose did not find out about Haifaji's docking structure in Fujian, it would not be too difficult to trace this clue. He only needed to tell Xu Xinsu and it would be more convenient for the local government to investigate the matter.

And as long as you find the local dealer, there is a high chance that you can follow the clues to get more information, and maybe the true identity of the middleman can be found out.

In addition, Jose also inquired about an important piece of information, which was the destination of the goods shipped this time. It seemed to be a coincidence that one day he had nothing to do and went to have a drink with a clerk from Haifaji.

, the other party asked him to give him a temporary errand and asked him to help him go to the city to pick up a batch of goods. After Jose went there, he found that the goods were actually items that were not available locally. They were all heavy leather coats made of sheepskin.

When the goods came back to settle the wages, he asked the clerk whether these leather jackets were going to be sold to the north. The clerk laughed and said that they were for his own people, and then they sent the leather jackets to the sea with him.

The only cargo ship under Fa Ji's name that can go to sea.

On the boat, Jose heard more fragments of information. Some sailors said that the destination of this trip was far away and it would take at least two or three months to return. Moreover, the place was very cold, so he had to prepare heavy bags before departure.

Warm clothing and a variety of spicy food to ward off the cold.

Judging from these signs, the destination of this batch of goods is most likely to be in distant Liaodong, which is also consistent with the expected effect of false news deliberately created by the Haihan Intelligence Department.

But before Jose and others left Cebu and returned, the sailing ship carrying the arms had already set off. If it had taken this route, judging from the time, it should have arrived at the Navy's surveillance station a day or two ago.

This is the strait.

Unfortunately, although Jose found the destination of the ship, he was still unable to find out its intended route. Judging from the current situation, the chance that the ship will pass through the strait is extremely slim.

Although he knew before that the chance of intercepting the target here was limited, this conclusion still disappointed Jiao Fei, which meant that his mission had come to an end. In the vast sea, it was impossible to confirm where the target was now.

place, let alone interception.

"I will lead the fleet and wait here for another five days. If there is still no news, I will have no choice but to return to Manila." Jiao Fei could only act as a doctor at the moment and continue to stay here to try his luck. As for Jose and others

Having completed their mission, there was no need to stay any longer. Jiao Fei transferred a ship to escort the Galen ship they were on back to Manila.

One day later, Jose and others returned to Manila smoothly and immediately reported the latest progress to Ran Tianlu and Fang Peng after disembarking.

After listening to Jose's report, both of them were quite happy. This group of rookie intelligence agents went to Cebu and managed everything properly, and then returned home intact and brought back so much valuable information.

They didn't know for a moment whether this was due to luck or ability of Jose and others.

But there is no doubt that what Jose and others gained in Cebu is a major progress in this investigation. Some of the key information has not been obtained in previous investigations in other places. As long as it is reported to Sanya, it will be a great achievement.

It can be said that such a situation of a fledgling novice making meritorious service is extremely rare in the intelligence department. Due to the special nature of this industry, newcomers are generally not sent to more dangerous positions. Manila's arrangement was completely out of helplessness. I didn't expect it to happen.

Someone chosen by heaven appeared and successfully took on this very difficult task.

Considering that the ship transporting arms was already on the way, Ran Fang and the two did not dare to delay, so they split up immediately. Ran Tianlu went to report this major progress to Qiu Yuan, while Fang Peng quickly drafted a message to inform Sanya of the matter.

.

Since this matter had already been classified as a top priority by the Military Intelligence Bureau and the Ministry of Security, after the news was sent to Sanya, it was quickly sent to the desks of Yan Chujie and He Xi respectively. So the two departments held a temporary joint meeting again to discuss the next step.

action plan.

After an hour-long meeting, relevant departments made several decisions.

First, since new clues have emerged in Fujian, the Garrison Office in Zhangzhou should be notified as soon as possible to contact Xu Xinsu. He will help Haihan investigate relevant clues. If necessary, the garrison in Penghu and Kaohsiung can also wait for an opportunity to intervene.

Second, the information obtained by intelligence personnel in Manila indicates that a batch of arms will be shipped to Liaodong in the near future. The Northern Fleet needs to be notified in advance to intensify the patrol and blockade of the Liaodong coast in the future. The other party cannot easily trade arms to the Qing army.

superior.

Third, if the influx of Spanish-style weapons is discovered overseas, local troops will be dispatched to deal with it as soon as possible according to the specific situation, without first asking Sanya for instructions.

Later that day, these resolutions were sent by telegram to various places overseas.

As one of Haihan's most important allies, Xu Xinsu has always obeyed Haihan's words, and Haihan has also established multiple offices in the areas under his rule, among which the Zhangzhou office is the largest. Haihan

Gong Pinggong Shaoqi, the father and son of the Gong family who were stationed in Fujian, stayed in Zhangzhou City most of the time in order to communicate with Xu Xinsu on various matters as soon as possible.

In addition to having a large staff and great autonomy, the Office in Zhangzhou is also the only office among Haihan's offices in coastal Fujian that has a radio station. The radio station is turned on at fixed times every day at noon and in the evening to receive telegrams, all of which are controlled by the palace.

Shaoqi operated it himself. For this reason, Gong Shaoqi went to Penghu for a period of special training to learn how to use the radio to send and receive reports.

The power used by the radio station comes from several large batteries produced in Tiandu Industrial Zone in Sanya. These bulky batteries are charged through a hand-operated generator, which requires an average of four days of use. However, it needs to be charged once.

Gong Shaoqi would not do this kind of cumbersome work himself, and had a few thick-shouldered servants responsible for it.

Of course, when the radio was actually used, everyone had to stay away, and even his father Gong Ping had to avoid suspicion. It was the same today. After lunch, Gong Shaoqi went to the study and removed the radio from the rattan box.

He moved it out, carefully uncovered the white silk covering it, and connected it to the battery with wires. After checking everything, he checked the time and then pressed the power switch of the radio.

Generally speaking, if there is nothing special, he will receive a signal with fixed content, indicating that there is no content to receive in this communication, and this is the case most of the time. But today's situation is a little different, Gong Shaoqi

After receiving a very long telegram, he recorded the contents of the telegram and spent a long time converting the code into plain text. After reading it once, he quickly put away the radio and took the telegram to his father for discussion.

After reading it, Gong Ping pondered: "Since it is related to our country's intelligence security, we have to inform the brothers from the Security Department in advance and come with us to see Mr. Xu later, so that we can connect with the other party."

Gong Shaoqi nodded and said: "Father is right, I will inform you now."

Jin Ming, the person in charge of the Ministry of Security in Zhangzhou, also lived in Zhangzhou City. He came to meet the Gong family and his son not long after, and then carefully read the contents of the telegram.

Regarding the recent gun case investigation, Haihan's agency in Fujian has actually received notification. However, because Fujian was not the place where the incident occurred and there were no clues pointing to Fujian before, it has not been involved in the investigation.

And this phone call clearly stated that there were specialized commercial institutions in Zhangzhou and Quanzhou in Fujian that were doing business indirectly with the Spaniards.

This is all secondary. The key is to follow up on this clue. It is very likely that the middlemen and behind-the-scenes masterminds that the Haihan Intelligence Department has been tracking recently will be discovered. As long as this direction is found in the right direction, the subsequent investigation work may be relatively simple.

.

"Sanya means to ask Mr. Xu to come forward to investigate. The Xu family is doing everything in Fujian. It is certainly not difficult to investigate this kind of thing. But we still have to be on guard. We are not afraid of ten thousand, just in case. If this investigation continues, it will be like the Xu family in Fujian."

If it's related, it won't be easy to handle!" Jin Ming was very cautious and did not rush to see Xu Xinsu, but first analyzed the pros and cons and risks with the Gong family and his son.

What Jin Ming said is not impossible. Today, a considerable part of Fujian's maritime trade business is directly or indirectly controlled by Xu Xinsu's family, and most of the rest are more or less close relatives and friends of Xu Xinsu.

Colleagues, subordinates, etc. are running the business, and perhaps the Xu family themselves will be traced after repeated investigations.
Chapter completed!