Late Ming sea owl

Chapter 171 Spy

Chapter 171 Spy
  Miguel did not set off for Manila soon. It was still at the tail end of the south wind season, and Manila would not receive news of Keelung's fall for a while, so Lin Hai was not in a hurry.

He plans to use the Dingyuan first. This large Galen is now the flagship of Huiyou Company, but it is actually functioning as a training ship. Miguel needs to support the initial training of sailors on Western-style sailing ships. Edge up.

In addition, Lin Hai brought He Liangtao over from Tamsui to give priority to completing the design of Keelung Fortress, which was already the base camp of Huiyou Company's navy.

Lin Hai officially replaced the chicken coop with the name Keelung. Everyone felt that this name was a good choice, which indicated that Huiyou Company's Dongfan foundation would become increasingly prosperous.

The construction of the fortress has not yet begun. The prisoners are currently mining stones on Sheliao Island. The production capacity of the Danshui brick kiln is not enough. The Keelung fortress will be mainly made of stone, supplemented by blue bricks.

Lin Hai returned to Wanhua after staying in Keelung for a few days. Currently, there are four departments under the Tamsui Civil Affairs Bureau. In addition to the Security Department and Construction Department that were established in advance, the Education Department and the Finance Department were also officially listed after the opening of Huiyou Company. , the directors are Fang Xiu'e and Chen Yaozu respectively.

The Department of Education is actually in charge of Wanhua Volunteer School right now, and the Director of the Department of Education and the principal of the volunteer school are actually the same thing. The reason why Lin Hai wanted to put up this sign was because he was satisfied with Xiu'e's performance in the school, so he gave her the title of director in preparation for the transfer.

As for the Finance Department, this is actually a department directly under the company's board of directors, but it is currently affiliated with the Tamsui Civil Affairs Council. After all, Lin Hai currently only has this piece of land, so there is no need to create a two-level financial department.

In addition to accounting functions, the Finance Department is also responsible for the storage and circulation of materials, as well as trade with the natives, which is equivalent to the things that Lun No. [-] was responsible for before.

In addition, there is a bank under the Finance Department. Currently, in addition to accepting deposits, it is mainly used to lend money to newly arrived immigrants.

Since the establishment of the Huiyou Company, the newly arrived immigrants have not been able to enjoy the benefits of being in charge of food for half a year. All they can receive is a free ferry ticket to Tamsui and the land allocated to them by the company.

In addition, cattle, farm tools, housing, and rations all need to be purchased from the company. If you have no money, you can only find a bank loan. Of course, the interest rate is very low.

The early work of the Finance Department had to be led by Lin Hai, and Zhu Niang had a lot to learn, so after returning to Tamsui, the two of them were so busy that they barely had a day of leisure.

At the end of August, Ou Zuoji came to Tamsui via Xiamen from the East Ocean Route, and Xu Letian came with him.

Xu Xinsu and Ou Huayu were sworn brothers, and Xu Letian had been to Nagasaki several times, so they were no strangers to each other. They brought news to Lin Hai that Fujian was planning to recruit Zheng Zhilong.

"Recruitment? What position does Master Zhu Du intend to give to Zheng?" Lin Hai asked after hearing the news. The Master Zhu Du he was talking about was Zhu Qinxiang, the governor of Fujian. This man is a member of the Donglin Party and will be arrested soon. recall.

"I want to give him a name and a good name," Xu Letian replied.

"Killing a guerrilla, only to give him a boss, Zhu Du is too stingy." Lin Hai said with a smile. He didn't know that Zhu Qinxiang's official career was almost over, but he knew that in the sixth year of Tianqi This appeasement was not successful in the end.

"Brother Lin still has time to joke around. My father has used all his methods, but Mr. Zhu Du is determined to recruit this man named Zheng." Xu Letian continued, "So my father asked me to come and ask Lin Brother, let’s see if you have any ideas.”

"Brother Lotte, don't worry, this recruitment will not be successful." Lin Hai started to play the magic stick again. He originally thought that Xu Xinsu sabotaged this recruitment in history, but now it seems that may not be the case.

"Why does Brother Lin dare to be so sure?" Xu Letian expressed confusion.

"I just think this possibility is very high." Lin Hai did not speak too fully. After all, no one knows whether history will deviate from its original trajectory. He continued, "Even if Zheng Zhilong is really recruited, I’ll kill him anyway.”

Xu Letian didn't quite believe it: "You dare to kill an official?"

"What are you afraid of? Tamsui is booming now. At worst, I will just be a grass-headed king here." Lin Hai laughed and said that the Xu family contributed a lot to Tamsui immigration, mainly because Lin Hai said that he would do it in Dongfan. A base to facilitate Zheng Zhilong’s hometown in Zhengang in the future.

Xu Letian heard this and said, "Brother Lin, if you can really do this, my brother will be considered a slave."

"If you don't believe it, just wait and see." Lin Hai added, "Actually, if the man named Zheng is really recruited, it might be easier to kill him. After all, Yingang has the red hair of a senior official on his back. If we want to correct him His home base has to worry about Hongmao’s support.”

Of course Lin Hai was not afraid of the red hair of the senior official, but he just didn't want to arouse Batavia's hostility too early. He then asked: "Last year, your father wrote to Captain Su in Bar City. Is there any follow-up to it now?"

Xu Letian said: "Captain Su sent a reply to my father, saying that the red-haired senior officials had different opinions. The people in the Indian committee who supported us were mainly Spikes, who was on good terms with the old captain, but their governor-general Carpentier was leaning towards Yu respects the opinions of Taiyuan Commercial House."

The highest authority of the VOC in Asia belongs to the Indian Committee headed by the Governor of Batavia. This committee generally has six members, and the Spikes mentioned by Xu Letian is one of them. He was the first director of the Hirado Merchant Store in the Netherlands. He had worked in Hirado for sixteen years and had a very good personal relationship with Li Dan.

"In this way, we can't get the leader Hongmao to give up his support for Zheng Zhilong yet." Lin Hai was a little disappointed when he heard this. Now that his old lock fleet is back, and with the addition of the Dingyuan, he originally planned to At the end of the year or the beginning of next year, I will go to Jingang to trouble Zheng Zhilong, but I am a little worried that I will have a fight with the leader Hongmao.

"Brother Lin, don't worry. When Zuo Ji left from Dongfan, he caught a man near the officer. With this person, Captain Su may be able to bring down the officer's red-haired officer."

Lin Hai didn't know what was going on and only listened to what Xu Letian and Ou Zuoji talked about.

The man they are talking about is Salvador Diaz. He was originally a Chinese and Western man from Macau. In the second year of the Apocalypse, he was captured by the Dutch on a merchant ship bound for Manila. He was used as a Chinese and Portuguese translator by the Taiyuan authorities, and gradually Gained the trust of the Dutch.

This man was a devout Catholic, and perhaps for this reason, the current chief minister, De Wet, once revealed a surprising secret to him.

It turned out that this de Wet was also a secret Catholic. He had a golden reliquary and a papal charter in his hand, and he had shown it to Diaz.

In early March this year, Diaz bought a small sampan from Ming Dynasty fishermen. He planned to secretly leave the officials and return to Macau, and then betray the information he knew about the officials to the council. However, he ended up in the Taiwan Strait. Captured by Ozoji. Ou Zuoji found a notebook from him, which recorded many commercial and military secrets about the Dajuan authorities in Chinese, so he detained the man on the ship, thinking that it might be useful in the future.

As a result, after he returned to Xiamen, he found out that Diaz and Xu Letian knew each other, and that he had been selling information about senior officials to the Xu family. But because he was worried about arousing the suspicion of the senior officials, he only sold high-end goods to the Xu family.

After meeting Xu Letian this time, Diaz directly revealed all the information he knew in order to be rescued, including why the current chief executive De Wet was so determined to help Zheng Zhilong.

There are two reasons. One is that Zheng Zhilong also knows that he is a secret Catholic, and the other is that Zheng Zhilong often bribes De Wet. It can be said that he pinches his weakness and feeds him two things from time to time. Sweet dates.

At this point, the mystery of why Zheng Zhilong was able to obtain the support of the Dutch and the death of former Chief Song Ke have been completely revealed.

Lin Hai couldn't help but be surprised after hearing what Xu Letian and Ou Zuoji said. He never expected that such a bizarre story like a spy drama would be lost in the smoke of history.

"Where is this Diaz now?" Lin Hai quickly thought of how to take advantage of this matter, so he quickly asked Xu Letian and Ou Zuoji.

"In Xiamen, my father plans to send him to Batavia at the end of the year." Xu Letian continued, "Red Hair will never tolerate the chief executive being a Catholic, so after having Diaz , Captain Su should be able to remove De Wet from his position as chief officer."

Lin Hai pondered for a moment and then said: "Have you ever thought about it, Diaz defected from the senior staff, will his words be accepted by the Batavia high-level officials? De Wet only needs to be beaten to death and it will be over. "

Xu Letian said: "Isn't there the reliquary box and the papal commission? Diaz knows where Waite has hidden these things. He just needs to ask Bacheng to send an imperial envoy to come and conduct a raid. Now that we have the evidence, Captain Su can still do it, after all, there is Spikes on the committee in Bar City."

Lin Hai shook his head and said: "Since Diaz knows Waite's secret, and now that he has defected, Waite will probably move the reliquary and the papal mandate elsewhere."

Xu Letian sighed after hearing this: "What you said makes sense, but now we can only treat a dead horse as a living horse doctor. Waite was originally an acting chief, as long as the Bar City Committee has doubts about him, maybe he will He will be replaced."

"I still think there is little hope of success." Lin Hai said and added, "I have a better idea. Let Zuoji take this Diaz to Nagasaki and hand him over to Sueji Heizo."

"You mean to let Sue Heizo report to the shogunate that the Dutch are Catholics?" Xu Letian quickly reacted. Nagasaki Acting Governor Sue Heizo hated the Dutch people so much that he even passed the Li Dan acted as a pimp in the middle and put pressure on the Dutch Hirado Merchant House through Matsuura Nobukiyo.

"That's right." Lin Hai nodded and said, "It's best to encourage Sueji Heizang to kidnap Waite first and take him to the Japanese country for him to paint. This will be ironclad proof."

The so-called step-e is a method used by the Tokugawa shogunate to identify Christians. The specific method is to place crosses, icons, etc. on the ground, and then let people suspected of being Christians step on them. Those who do not want to step on them are judged as Christian.

Generally speaking, devout Catholics cannot pass this test, but Protestants are much more flexible in this regard. For example, the Dutch often set foot in Nagasaki in order to trade with Japan.

Since de Wet has a papal charter in his hand and always carries the reliquary with him, his faith must be very devout and he will definitely not be able to pass the painting test.

"Having Waite kidnapped? How easy is it?" Xu Letian was stunned when he heard this.

"As long as it's unexpected, nothing is impossible. The Dutch would not have thought that Heizang would do this. After all, they still have a lot of business dealings." Lin Hai felt that this was entirely possible, because this was just Hamada Ya in the first year of Chongzhen. It's just an advance of the Military Guard Incident.

In the original history, two years later, the bowman Hamada Yabei under Sueji Heizo successfully kidnapped the then chief officer Peter Nuiz. This incident eventually led to the interruption of Japan-Dutch trade for four years.

The Governor of Batavia first sentenced Nuizi, who had offended the Japanese, to prison. After two years in prison, he saw that the shogunate still did not agree to allow the VOC to re-establish a commercial office in the Japanese country, so he simply extradited Nuizi to the Japanese country and let him be dealt with. Such servility finally won the shogunate's understanding.

"Zuo Ji, do you think it's feasible?" Xu Letian then asked Ou Zuo Ji.

"I don't know much about the security situation of the chief officer on weekdays. I think I can ask Diaz about this." Ou Zuoji replied from the side.

"That makes sense, he should know the best about this." Xu Letian nodded and replied.

"Without further delay, please let Brother Lotte return to Xiamen as soon as possible, report my opinions to your father, and ask him to make a decision." Lin Hai said and added, "No matter what your father decides, please come to Tamsui as soon as possible and let Brother Lotte tell me and Zuoji, after all, the south wind season is coming to an end, and Zuoji can’t stay in Tamsui for too long.”

"Okay, then I'll leave now." Xu Letian had a fiery temper and was about to get up and go to the mouth of Tamsui River.

"Why are you in such a hurry? It's not too late to go back tomorrow." Lin Hai stopped Xu Letian again.

He added: "One more thing. Now that we know the relationship between Waite and Zheng Zhilong, I think there is no need for your father to sell goods to Hong Mao anymore. Cutting off their supply may be more effective in motivating Bada." The Viya authorities are on our side."

In fact, Lin Hai mentioned this suggestion to Xu Xinsu when he just returned from Japan, but it was not adopted because he was worried about pushing the Dutch people to Zheng Zhilong's side.

Now that it is known that Zheng Zhilong has pinched Waite's weakness, it would be too naive to expect the Dutch to remain neutral unless Waite is kicked off the stage.

 “一官曾将满载瓷器和其他货物及接济物品价值高达2万两的9条中国帆船在奴易兹到达前交给德·韦特,这批货物可能是他们抢劫所得。”——出自巴达维亚总督亨德里克·布劳沃尔在1632年12月1日的《东印度事务报告》。该报告定期由巴达维亚总督提交给荷兰的十七人董事会,以便掌握公司在亚洲的行动。

  In addition, the story of Salvador Diaz comes from the paper "Dutch East India Company and Chinese Pirates" by Ouyang Tai of Yale University. Historically, he successfully returned to Macau. De Wet was a Catholic and had shown the reliquary and the papal charter to Diaz, and Diaz had betrayed the Dutch intelligence to Xu Xinsu. This article comes from this article.

  
   
  (End of this chapter)

Tap the screen to use advanced tools Tip: You can use left and right keyboard keys to browse between chapters.

You'll Also Like