Not long after Ye Hua's European fleet set off, waves of typhoons swept across the Taiwan Strait, and also swept across the Quanzhou Prefecture after the earthquake. Thanks to the Chinese company, before the arrival of the typhoon, there was a steady stream of free food and material relief. After being sent ashore, hundreds of thousands of victims were able to survive the typhoon safely.
When the typhoon arrived, the port stopped operating. Merchant ships and fishing boats took shelter in the port. The entire formerly busy Taiwan port city seemed to have taken a temporary break.
Yin Feng was not idle for a moment. He braved the wind and rain and came to the old camp of the Guard Base in the north of the city. Today, the opening ceremony of the intermediate class of the military academy will be held.
When the Zhonghua Company Military Academy was founded three years ago, there were no classes. All military students selected for admission had to take introductory literacy classes, basic tactics classes, and art of war classes. After several wars, the army has produced a group of veterans who have experienced actual combat. In order for middle and lower-level officers to improve their quality and skills, it is necessary to teach tactics and overall strategic knowledge of various arms in military school education. Therefore, military schools are divided into infantry schools, artillery schools and naval schools. Each school is divided into junior, There are three parts: intermediate and advanced. The junior level mainly trains junior non-commissioned officers and lower-level officers. The intermediate level is for the training of middle and lower-level officers. The advanced level is to cultivate all-round strategic and tactical talents. At the moment, there is no advanced class yet, and only junior and intermediate classes have begun teaching in various military academies.
The establishment of the artillery school was strongly promoted by Yin Feng. He made the emergence of China's professional artillery school second only to France in world history.
This time, the opening ceremony of the intermediate class of the military academy in the lobby of the old camp gathered more than 300 intermediate students from the infantry, sailors, and artillery branches, including artillery trainee Li Kuiqi, infantry trainees Yan Siqi, Zhao Xuanming, and others. They were all determined The mid-level officer with military exploits was sitting there with his back straight and his eyes looking directly at Yin Feng on the podium.
"Open the sea to enrich the country, trade and benefit the people! This is the purpose of our China United Company, and it is also the purpose of our Chinese Army. We are an army established to protect the Chinese businessmen and people in Taiwan, Luzon, and all over the East and West and Southeast Asia. "We are the people of the Ming Dynasty and the defenders of all the people of the Ming Dynasty overseas," Yin Feng said eloquently on the stage: "We defeated the Hongmao Yi, the Folangji people, the Qianla people, and wiped out the Dongfan people. All the indigenous people have defeated the Japanese pirates and eliminated all the pirates in Fujian. What can we rely on?"
More than 300 military cadets below shouted loudly: "Determination, courage and weapons,"
"Okay, determination makes our goals clear, courage makes us not afraid of death, weapons make us able to kill the enemy..."
More than 300 students were listening carefully. The junior class students who were watching were at the back. They were also sitting upright and looking intently. Only Chen Di's nominal nephew, Chen Dagao, was a little absent-minded.
Chen Dagao and Yu Zigao were enlightened at the age of six and had a good level of education since childhood. He looked down on those fishermen, farmers or pirates who studied with him. Because of his high level of education, he skipped over most of the students. He only needs to go through a lot of time to learn literacy and participate in queue and tactical training. However, those children of farmers, fishermen, and pirates are far better than him in terms of enduring hardship, observing discipline, and obeying orders. They also receive better ideological indoctrination than he does. Quickly, he ranked low in the recent physical fitness test and shooting test, which dealt a heavy blow to his self-esteem. Therefore, he was always a little depressed at the venue, and then he found an excuse for a stomachache to take leave, and quietly slipped away Outside the lobby.
Since most of the military academy cadets were meeting in the lobby, there was no one near the warehouse of the military academy training department except for one sentry.
In the heavy rain and strong wind, even if the sentry huddled in the sentry box made of bamboo, he was drenched by the flying rainwater.
The "annoying wind lantern" outside the warehouse door suddenly went out. The sentry stamped his feet and cursed: "Damn it, bad luck, it must be out of gas." He put on his raincoat, put down his flintlock gun and walked over to light the lantern in the rain. Such a big lantern Feng Yu, this flintlock gun is just a decoration, so his gun has a bayonet.
The rain immediately surrounded him, and the pounding raindrops were the whole world. A black shadow quickly jumped up from behind, but he was still unconscious.
The dutiful sentry was attacked by a dark shadow and received a heavy blow on the back of his head. He fell down without saying a word. The typhoon and heavy rain obscured all movements.
The sentry lay in the muddy water until a group of junior cadets from the military academy passed by and discovered him. By then, the flintlock musket he had placed in the sentry box had disappeared.
"What, the flintlock gun was stolen," Lin Xiao was shocked when he heard the news. This is not the first time someone has tried to steal a flintlock gun; a few days ago, a Dutch technician from the musket branch of the weapons factory stole samples of flintlock guns. As a result, he was discovered in time, the man was caught and the stolen goods were confiscated. Later, after passing through the Dutch merchant house, he sent someone to intercede. In order to build a good relationship with the Dutch, Yin Feng drove the man away.
"Fortunately, the sentry's gun is one of the first batch of flintlock guns we trial-produced. The trigger structure often fails, and the barrel is also rough and unpolished,"
In Yin Feng's study, Lin Xiao was reporting the investigation results to him. Zeng Rui, the director of the Military Supervision Department of the escort team, Mai De, the leader of the first regiment, Li Yue, the director of the Ministry of Industry, and others were also sitting on the side.
Li Yue stood up and said: "Shipowner, it shouldn't matter. This kind of gun is very difficult to use in practice. One of the three shots must not fire..."
Yin Feng interrupted him rudely: "That's not what you said. The latest flintlock gun is an improvement on this kind of gun. We can improve it, and so can others. The problem now is; steal Whose side did the gunmen belong to, the Hongmao, the Folangji, the Japanese, or the officers and soldiers from the other side?"
"The only people who can enter the military academy are red-haired people, French people, and there may be government undercover agents in the academy." Zeng Rui stood up and analyzed: "I checked, there were Western mercenary instructors who were not at the meeting yesterday. There were more than ten people, and the officers of the Military Supervision Department who monitored them reported that they were all drinking or watching a movie in the city, or staying at home, and there was no way they could steal guns."
After Zeng Rui became the general manager of the Military Supervision Department, he has been busy carrying out loyalty education in the army and improving the training of personnel of the Military Supervision Department. He has never encountered such a big case, so now he is somewhat excited and walks back and forth in the room. He said: "Then the remaining possibility is that the college committed a crime. After investigating all the students, we found that three people left the auditorium midway,"
Yin Feng waved his hand and said: "Go check this. Lin Xiao will help you. This gun cannot be still hidden in the military academy. There must be someone outside to help. Lin Xiao, inform Mai Dahai that warships will be sent to strengthen the coast as soon as the typhoon stops. Patrolling, strengthening inspections in the direction of the port, but Ruizai, do you know what you did wrong?"
Zeng Rui blushed and lowered his head. Yin Feng said slowly: "There are regulations in the escort team. The sentries in warehouses and other places must be both light and dark sentries with double posts. Why is there only one person on guard this time? You are responsible for the security of the military academy. The military academy is also a part of our army, and everything must be done in accordance with military regulations. Although you are a first-time offender, I must punish you. You will be fined and deducted for three months. There will be training tomorrow morning. The result of the punishment must be reported to the entire school and the entire army,"
Zeng Rui's face was livid, he gritted his teeth and nodded, exiting the study. Lin Xiao stepped forward to persuade him: "Captain, Ari is still young, and carelessness is inevitable. He is thin-skinned, so there is no need to report the punishment in public,"
Yin Feng shook his head: "No, you have to act according to the rules. He is my brother-in-law, but you also have to act according to the rules. Do you understand?"
…
This is the first time that a flintlock musket has been lost in the China Company. Even on the battlefield, the guardsmen must pick up the guns of their fallen comrades and must not lose them. Therefore, after the storm passed two days later, the guards and the company security department Thousands of people were dispatched to investigate the city, and many people who were sneaking and abducting, drinking too much, causing trouble, and getting into fights were caught. However, the flintlock musket was not found. Among the three suspected students, There was Yu Zigao, but security personnel repeatedly searched his residence and found nothing.
Even the residence of Chen Di, who was temporarily teaching at the military academy, was secretly searched, but nothing was found. The other two people had witnesses who testified that they immediately returned after going out to urinate. There was no time or opportunity to commit the crime, and the flintlock musket was missing. The investigation of the case has reached a dead end.
The large-scale investigation lasted for three days, but the backlog of goods at various ports during the typhoon was busy shipping after the typhoon. The port was suddenly busy and crowded. Even if all the escort teams were dispatched, it was impossible to inspect all ships and personnel in detail. At this time, There are a lot of fishing boats and merchant ships coming to Taiwan, and most of them are owned by merchants preparing goods for Southeast Asian trade in winter; while those leaving Taiwan are merchants who have been trading with Chinese companies all year round, or fishermen and small traders from the other side, thousands of boats There is no way to check them one by one.
Monk Dasmarinas has been staying temporarily in the Taiwanese church during this period, and has taken the initiative to help Taiwanese Bishop Baradas with his missionary work. The security personnel monitoring him relaxed when they saw that he was honestly busy working in the church every day. However, it was Sunday and during the morning service, Deng Hanyang, a Jesuit novice in the church, discovered that Brother Dasmarinas was missing.
At first, he thought that the Spanish monk was going to the Yingang Chapel to help. Recently, Yin Feng approved the Jesuits to build a chapel outside the Yingang Navy Base to facilitate the worship of Manila refugees in the Navy.
Until dark, Monk Dasmarinas did not appear.
Deng Hanyang knew something had happened and quickly went to ask Bishop Baradas. The bishop told him that Brother Dasmarinas left the church last night, saying he was going back to Japan. He left quietly in the middle of the night, only to Wrote a note and left it with the bishop.
Deng Hanyang stamped his feet and sighed, immediately ran out of the church and reported to Lin Xiao.
Lin Xiao immediately connected the sudden departure of Monk Dasmarinas with the loss of the flintlock musket, and quickly sent people to the dock to check. As a result, he learned that the merchant ship of the Japanese Sendai clan had left the port in the morning, and the dock administration's The personnel recalled that they did not see any Western missionaries boarding the ship, but a thief did come to the dock operation area last night, which alerted the watchdog and the guard team on sentry duty, but no one was caught.
Lin Xiao beat her chest and shouted: "It must be him, it's him. It's already evening, and there's no point in sending another ship to chase. The Sea Spirit is still in Luzon. If the Sea Spirit is here, there might be hope."
He immediately brought Bishop Baradas to the company headquarters, including him and his wife. After some investigation, he discovered that this monk Dasmarinas was actually the son of the former governor of the Spanish Empire's Philippine colony.