Chapter 1619 Premonitory Clues

What these businessmen were discussing had something to do with Haihan's recent military deployment, so Fei Cexian, who happened to hear it, took notice. One of his tasks when he came to Haihan was to pay attention to Haihan's

Regarding military trends, especially large-scale military mobilization, the Minister of War specially told him to pay close attention to this information and not to miss it, because it was likely to be a harbinger of war.

Then I heard one of the businessmen with a Jiangsu and Zhejiang accent ask: "Boss Zhang, during your trip to Sanya, did you encounter any naval interrogations on your way to Sanya?"

When Boss Zhang spoke, it was with a Fujian accent: "We encountered it! When it docked at Hong Kong Island, no one was allowed to get off the ship. They had to wait for inspection on the ship. It took two days before they were allowed to leave the port. I heard that

The naval forces stationed in Zhejiang and Fujian went south to Hainan Island to rest and recuperate, so all the ports controlled by Haihan were under martial law, and all merchant ships had to be inspected and registered before they could get permission to come to Sanya."

Another businessman with a Guangzhou accent responded: "It's the same here in Guangzhou. A few days ago, a notice was posted on the Pearl River Pier, asking ships that are coming to Hainan Island in the near future to register at the Haihan Embassy in Haizhu Town first.

The navy recently mobilized defense zones to prevent Ming merchant ships from accidentally entering the forbidden waters. However, I don’t believe it. The navy mobilizes every year. How come we have never seen such a large formation before? I’m afraid it’s the Haihan people.

The plan."

The businessman with an accent from Jiangsu and Zhejiang said: "Boss Wang, do you mean to go to war? How is that possible? Just look at the prices on the market and you will know that there is no sign of a shortage of supplies and a sharp rise in prices, which means that the Ministry of National Defense has not made large purchases in the market.

Enter combat supplies."

The combat materials purchased publicly by Haihan are basically logistical medical supplies, and raw materials are often imported from the Ming Dynasty. Bulk purchases of these materials can easily attract the attention of interested people in the market.

A businessman surnamed Wang from Guangzhou muttered: "It was true in the past, but it's hard to say now. Don't forget that Dengzhou Prefecture in Shandong Province also has a port in the Haihan Kingdom. Some things are purchased directly from the north, and it doesn't necessarily have to be in the country."

Buy from Jiangsu and Zhejiang. I know that Boss Jiang, your family is in the cotton cloth business, but you may not be able to take all the orders from Haihan, right? I heard that a lot of cotton cloth and cotton yarn have just arrived at Haikou Port recently."

Boss Jiang responded: "There is no way that we can win all the orders. Not even Furifeng can do it! But you are right. If we purchase materials such as cotton cloth from Shandong, it will not affect the market in Zhejiang. But

If that’s true, I’m afraid the matter will be even bigger!”

The three businessmen exchanged glances with each other, and each of them understood it well. It is okay to understand this kind of thing in your heart, but it is easy to violate taboos if you talk about it casually. Although they are not from Haihan, they also know that Haihan supervises military intelligence extremely well.

Yan, if the walls have ears and someone listens, I'm afraid it will be difficult for the three of them to leave Sanya safely.

But there happened to be a sharp-eared Fei Cexian next to him who listened to this conversation word for word. He closed his eyes and pretended to be dozing off, but in his heart he was pondering what was contained in the conversation between the three businessmen.

mean.

He could understand the meaning of the previous conversation, but in the end the businessman surnamed Jiang said that if Haihan purchased military supplies from Shandong, the matter would be bigger, but he needed to carefully consider the meaning.

First, through the dialogue between these three people, he learned that the Haihan navy stationed in Zhejiang, Fujian, and Guangdong had recently been mobilized towards Hainan Island, and it seemed that the situation of troop transfers was different from previous years. The Guangzhou businessman surnamed Wang believed that

This may be a precursor to some kind of military action that Haihan will take, and he is trying to use the relationship between Haihan's military actions and changes in the market conditions of military supplies to prove his judgment. However, a businessman named Jiang from Zhejiang said that the local military supplies

The supply market has not changed much, and Haihan has not purchased goods such as cotton.

But if the businessman surnamed Wang mentioned that the cotton cloth and cotton yarn arriving at Haikou Port did not come from Zhejiang, then the most likely possibility is only Shandong. But if Haihan really chooses to go far away to purchase these materials in Shandong, in addition to cost considerations

, are there any other reasons? Although Shandong is closer to the cotton production area, its procurement cost is definitely lower than that in the south, but the increase in freight has actually offset the difference in procurement costs. There is no obvious price advantage in purchasing from Shandong.

On the contrary, transportation risks will increase due to the longer sea voyage. Moreover, Shandong is closer to the capital. If Haihan purchases certain military commodities locally in bulk, wouldn't it be more likely to be noticed by the court? With the shrewdness of the Haihan people, it should not be

Would they make such a low-level mistake unless they don't care about being discovered by the court in this kind of procurement activity.

The two countries had just signed an agreement to formally establish diplomatic relations and were still in the honeymoon period. It stands to reason that Haihan would not take military action against the Ming Dynasty so confidently at this juncture. And Haihan's naval fleet was mobilized south, which should not be the case.

It is a harbinger of Haihan's invasion of Guangdong and Guangxi. After all, Haihan has great influence in Guangdong and Guangxi, and has many related interests. It will actually be of no benefit to Haihan to mess up Guangdong and Guangxi. The most important reason is that if Haihan

If Han wants to target Guangdong and Guangxi, then they really don't need to do any extra cover-up work. They can just go ahead and attack directly. So even though Fei Cexian has doubts, he doesn't think that Haihan's actions are preparations.

Attack the Ming Dynasty.

Then there is only one theoretical possibility left, that is, Haihan's troop mobilization and military supplies procurement are really preparing for the next military operation. Then this target is most likely not the Ming Dynasty, but far away in the South China Sea.

Somewhere. Because only in this way can we reasonably explain why Haihan assembled the fleet deployed overseas and headed south, and also specially purchased some military supplies from distant Shandong. This was obviously to prepare for military operations that required cross-sea operations.

To the north of Hainan Island is Daming and to the west is Annan. These two directions are definitely not Haihan's goals. Fei Cexian breathed a sigh of relief after making his judgment, but immediately began to wonder who Haihan wanted to deal with. It was just him.

I don’t know much about the geography of the South China Sea. Although I know the names of some countries, I don’t know the specific locations of these countries and their national conditions. When I used the book, I regretted it. Fei Cexian couldn’t help but regret that he had been in the Pingren Division.

I didn't delve into the information such as the Map of the Sea Kingdom when I was a child. Now that I'm about to use this knowledge, I can only scratch my head.

However, Fei Cexian remembered that Zhang Qianzhi once introduced to him that there is a municipal library in Sanya that is open to the public. There are various astronomical and geographical materials available for review. Presumably, the answer to the situation in the South China Sea can also be found there.

Let me ask Zhang Qianzhi later how foreigners can access the information.

The three businessmen knew that the topic they discussed was too sensitive, so they did not mention military news again. Fei Cexian was disappointed, but he remembered an intelligence source he had ignored, which was the newspaper published by Haihan.

According to the information mastered by the Ming Dynasty’s intelligence agencies, Haihan used newspapers to control and guide the direction of public opinion before every major military operation in the past few years, and at the same time encouraged the public to support these war methods. If you just look at the contents of the newspapers, it may not be true.

We would not immediately think of the military actions Haihan would take, but if we combine the two and study them, there is a lot worth pondering.

Fei Cexian thought of this and realized that he might have missed something when he read the newspaper before. As long as he carefully read the previous newspapers, he might be able to find some clues.

Thinking of this, Fei Cexian no longer bothered to pretend to be asleep and wait in line, nor did he wait to go to the bank to complete the procedures. He immediately took the carriage back to the guest house, took out all the newspapers he bought after arriving in Sanya, and started reading again.

Of course, Fei Cexian will not read all the contents in the newspaper from scratch. Now he only needs to know which country has been criticized by Haihan recently, or there are some problems in Haihan's trade locally. These should

These are all important clues that can be followed. Especially as the official media "Haihan Times", the news published above is the most direct reflection of the official intention. Fortunately, after arriving in Haihan, he managed to collect nearly three

The "Haihan Times" is published every month, and the news published there should have a certain degree of consistency.

Now that there is a direction, it is not too difficult to implement it. It took Fei Cexian several hours to finally find the information hidden in the text. Haihan has only condemned one person through newspapers recently, the Times

It has been mentioned five times, and other newspapers have also mentioned it almost the same number of times. The object of official condemnation by Haihan is Spain, a Western country whose colony is located in Manila Bay, Luzon Islands.

Fei Cexian probably knew the old grudge between Haihan and Spain. The two countries had fought against each other on Taiwan Island in the early years, which ended with Haihan's victory and the Spaniards expelled from Taiwan Island. Last year, the Spanish fleet attacked Sanya, but in the end it was still

He failed to succeed, but was beaten to a pulp by the Haihan fleet off the coast of Sanya. Although Haihan did not completely ban civilian maritime trade with Manila after this, he must have taken note of this grudge. It just depends on when he will free up his hands.

Just to take revenge.

The Times brought up the past several times, expressing dissatisfaction with Spain's presence in Luzon. At the same time, it also reminded the public not to forget that the two countries have been at war several times in the past few years. This conflict has not completely ended.

.If you want to maintain the peaceful situation in the South China Sea, you must first solve the hidden danger of Manila City. Although this argument is a bit extreme in Fei Cexian's view, isn't it exactly the attitude Haihan should have?

Now that we have the intention to use force, we just need a reasonable excuse, and the propaganda in these newspapers is paving the way for this.

It's hard to say how many people can understand the hidden intentions behind Haihan's remarks in the newspaper, but Fei Cexian believes that he is not the only one who understands. For example, most of the three Ming businessmen who discussed Haihan's military deployment at the bank door

They have also noticed Haihan's military intentions in the South China Sea. It's just that they are afraid of Haihan's authority and dare not talk about such a sensitive topic in public. Of course, if it were Fei Cexian himself, he would not do it.

On this occasion, let’s talk about whether Haihan will send troops to attack another country next.

Although the conflict between Haihan and Spain seems to Fei Cexian to be just a dog-eat-dog fight, analyzing this intelligence and making judgments is a matter of great practical significance. If the final result of this intelligence becomes

Reality proves that Fei Cexian has mastered Haihan's style of behavior to a certain extent. If a similar situation occurs in the future, he can rely on the information from these public channels to understand Haihan's politics, military, economy and trade, etc.

Changes in the situation have been predicted.

Connecting Haihan's material procurement in the north of the Ming Dynasty and the mobilization of garrison troops on the southern coast with Haihan's future military operations in the South China Sea, Fei Cexian believed that his inference was quite bold.

Haihan's small actions in the north were probably intended to conceal his true intentions and paralyze the Spaniards, making them think that Haihan's measures were just rhetoric.

In the latest issue of the Times, an article "The Road to Peace in the South China Sea" signed by Defense Minister Yan Chujie clarified Haihan's attitude. Yan Chujie stated in the article that Haihan's purpose in forming the South China Sea Business Alliance three years ago was to

In order to gradually realize mutual understanding among regional countries and create and achieve a peaceful and stable trade environment through this form. However, some countries are unwilling to enter the peace framework led by Haihan and always want to destroy the South China Sea region through war.

This is something that Haihan will never tolerate in order to safeguard regional peace and Haihan's interests. The Haihan Army will never sit idly by and will take action when necessary to resolve security risks in these areas.

Although Yan Chujie's article did not explicitly name Spain, it was already full of gunpowder. Looking at the entire South China Sea region, there are only a handful of countries that have the courage to go to war with Haihan, and Spain is the most prominent one. Fei Cexian believes that

This article is already a symbol that the preparations for the Hai-Han war are about to enter the final stage, because in the Ming Dynasty, senior officials of the imperial court would also issue battle proclamations before the war began, which is very similar to the article published in the Times at this time.

From the perspective of the Ming Dynasty, Fei Cexian certainly hopes that the two countries will start fighting as soon as possible. The more fierce the fight, the better. The more troops Haihan invests in the south, the smaller the threat to the Ming Dynasty. If both sides suffer losses, then the Ming Dynasty will lose.

At least they can live in peace for several years. Just looking at Haihan's war preparation posture, it is hard to say whether the Spaniards can withstand a fierce attack by Haihan's army. Manila City is also a seaport city like Sanya, but the strength of its military defense

, it may not be comparable to Sanya.
Chapter completed!