Chapter 1650 The Treasure of the Church

In Ran Tianlu's view, what Father Blanco said was quite credible. After all, the senior Spanish officials in the city would come to the church to confess, and would more or less leak some military information and true thoughts to the priest.

The fighting situation of the Manila garrison has become increasingly tense in recent days, and refugees from the south continue to flee into and outside the city. These conditions will definitely increase the psychological pressure on local civil and military officials.

But compared to outside the city, of course, it is safer inside the city, which is protected by city walls and artillery. Although it will soon become the target of attack by the navy and Han army, most people in the city will still take chances.

, hoping that city defense measures can stop the invaders here.

Father Blanco was obviously not too optimistic that the local defenders could repel the Haihan Army's next offensive. In order to prevent these precious religious artifacts and documents from being destroyed by the war, he came up with such a solution that surprised Ran Tianlu.

plan.

Ran Tianlu couldn't help but said: "Father, why don't you leave the city early to avoid this war. You have a special status. I believe the Haihan people will not make things difficult for you."

Father Blanco shook his head and replied: "I can't leave here. The army has to protect this city, and I have to protect my faith. The believers in the city need me, especially when we encounter a disaster, I must

Let them know that the Lord is always protecting us.”

Although the camps to which both parties belong are hostile, Father Blanco's calmness and firmness in faith in the face of war still made Ran Tianlu deeply moved. After all, not everyone can survive when war comes.

Staying calm, let alone giving up his own personal safety to help others, at least it would be difficult for Ran Tianlu to convince himself to do something like this.

"If there is a chance, I will report the situation to my superiors and try to save your life after the city is destroyed." Ran Tianlu said secretly in his heart. It is rare to have such a Spaniard who can make him look at him differently, and he does not want to see the other party in the war.

Lost his life.

Ran Tianlu and Father Blanco agreed on the handover matters in the evening, then left the city and returned to the store, asking his subordinates to free up two warehouses to store items that would be shipped from the church later. Chaosheng Shang

The warehouse occupies a large area, with more than thirty rooms in the warehouse alone, so freeing up some space is not a problem.

After nightfall, Ran Tianlu went to wait at the city gate. Not long after, three carriages drove out of the city, and in the first car sat Father Blanco wearing a black cloak. Ran Tianlu noticed that the escort of this motorcade was not a church.

Instead of clergy, they were Spanish soldiers with live ammunition. It seemed that the priest also used his connections to buy insurance and specifically asked the Spanish soldiers guarding the city to help the church escort these items.

However, Ran Tianlu was not too surprised by this. After all, Father Blanco also said that the items to be transported out of the city this time included church property, which must be valuable. In order to prevent the refugees from causing trouble inside and outside the city, it was natural for the army to

Being responsible for escorting is the most reassuring. As for the safety issues after these things entered Chaosheng Merchant Store, Ran Tianlu was not too worried about safety issues. The store itself was equipped with more than 20 armed security guards belonging to the "Golden Shield Escort". These people were all trained

The trained professionals are not only very skilled, but can also use Haihan's special pistol when necessary, which is enough to control the situation.

Of course, the identities of these people are also registered as Ming people. To the outside world, these people are just ordinary housekeepers and nursing homes. Only Ran Tianlu knows their true identities.

When the convoy was approaching the store, Ran Tianlu had already ordered someone to open the door of the store in advance and let the carriages drive directly into the courtyard so as not to attract attention on the street outside.

After the car stopped, Ran Tianlu planned to order someone to unload the goods, but the priest rejected his arrangement and instead asked the accompanying Spaniards to complete the laborious work.

"These are important items of the church and cannot be easily touched by pagans," the priest explained.

This explanation makes sense. Ran Tianlu has been in the Spanish church in the city for so long, and of course he knows that there are all kinds of weird rules in the church. Although the priest usually uses slogans like "God loves the world and saves all living beings"

It's a word of mouth, but the Western colonists were not very merciful when dealing with heretics. There was only one believer, Ran Tianlu, in the Chaosheng Merchant Store, so it was a reasonable reaction for the priest not to trust other people.

But without the help of laborers from the store, the speed of unloading the three carts of goods into the warehouse was very slow. Ran Tianlu noticed that the boxes lifted from the cart were extremely heavy, and it took four men to lift them from the cart.

, it was necessary to use the small trucks provided by the store to transport them smoothly. In the end, it took almost two hours for more than 30 boxes of goods to be transported into the warehouse prepared by Ran Tianlu in advance, and then covered with cloth one by one.

Seal of Father Lanco's personal seal.

After counting the boxes in the warehouse, Father Blanc dismissed the rest, and then said to Ran Tianlu: "Ran, after the war is over, if the Haihan people are repelled, the property stored here can be left for you.

Box, as your reward. Of course, if we fail, then there is no need to talk nonsense."

Ran Tianlu said: "We agreed that we would do things for the church, so how can we collect compensation? I don't think it's necessary."

Father Blanco said: "If you work for the church, the church will not treat you badly. But you have to remember not to open these boxes in advance before the war situation is determined, so as not to cause trouble."

After Father Blanco and his party left, Ran Tianlu went back to the warehouse where the boxes were stored and looked at them again and again. Although Father Blanco told him not to open the boxes in advance, Ran Tianlu had his own way. He asked someone to push them away.

The scale came over and a few boxes were lifted and weighed. As expected, these boxes were extremely heavy. Father Blanco spent time and effort transporting these boxes out of the city. There was no way they were filled with bricks and stones. What was the remaining possibility?

There seems to be only one kind.

"So is the Manila Church so rich?" Ran Tianlu squatted beside the box, scratching his head and thinking. This box is probably filled with valuable things such as gold bricks and silver coins, so it has such weight and value.

Father Blanco went out of town himself to make this trip.

But in this case, if these more than thirty boxes of things are all gold and silver, the total value would be a quite astonishing amount. Father Blanco so boldly transported these things to Ran Tianlu outside the city, this

The courage is also great. Ran Tianlu thought to himself, is he really sure that my place is the safest place? He said that if he gave me a box as a reward, wouldn't he be afraid that if I get greedy, I would swallow the goods directly?

?

But Ran Tianlu thought about it and realized that what Father Blanco did was not unfounded. Even if he knew what was in the box at this time, judging from the normal conditions, he would not be able to transport it to other places. After all, the periphery was

From the area controlled by the Haihan Army, transporting so many valuable things out is tantamount to throwing yourself into a trap.

Of course, this is because Father Blanco does not know the true identity of Ran Tianlu and thinks that his relationship with Haihan is limited to normal trade. Father Blanco believes that the Haihan Army will not embarrass business partners who are businessmen.

, it is very likely that the goods stored in Chaosheng Warehouse will not be thoroughly inspected at all, so there is such a bold operation. There is another factor that cannot be ignored, which is of course Ran Tianlu's disguised identity as a Christian. If not,

, and he couldn't get Father Blanco's level of approval.

Should this matter be reported to the superiors? Ran Tianlu had no hesitation about this. The army would soon arrive at the city. The military would definitely come to him then, and Chaosheng Commercial Warehouse would most likely be directly requisitioned as a military warehouse. The most important thing is

Yes, the destruction of the city is almost an inevitable result, and it is unlikely that these goods will return to the hands of the church. Ran Tianlu has no guts to embezzle these goods - God knows if there are other people in this Chaosheng Merchant Warehouse who have a similar dual identity to himself.

.

Ran Tianlu is from the Ministry of Security, but this does not mean that the Ministry of Security is the only agency where Haihan places intelligence personnel here. The Military Intelligence Office under the Ministry of National Defense is also a very powerful intelligence agency, but its focus is different from that of the Ministry of Security.

Different. Naturally, the main focus of the Military Intelligence Office is military intelligence, while the intelligence collected by the Ministry of Security from other countries is not limited to the military field. Political, economic, cultural and other aspects are also the objects of the Ministry of Security's intelligence work.

In a place like Chaosheng Commercial Store, Haihan has invested a lot of money and resources. Dozens of people work and live here. If such a large institution is only used to support and protect Ran Tianlu

One person, then he himself didn't quite believe in such an arrangement. So he always assumed that there were other Haihan intelligence personnel in the business warehouse, and it was very likely that there were more than one person - I heard that the Military Intelligence Office always operates in groups of two or three people.

, depending on the purpose of the operation, there may even be a configuration with more people.

The Spaniards secretly transported a batch of goods at night, but they could not hide it from their own eyes. In fact, Ran Tianlu had no desire to embezzle it. Although money was tempting, life and his future future were undoubtedly more important.

"Carry all the boxes back to the warehouse and put them away. The doors and windows of the two warehouses are all sealed and no one is allowed to approach." After Ran Tianlu figured out the stakes, he decisively issued the order. He could restrain himself, but he couldn't guarantee it.

Everyone in this store can restrain his desires, so before the Haihan Army arrives here, he must ensure that there is no problem with these things. Ran Tianlu has a hunch that if the follow-up is handled properly, this may be his

Another great achievement.

While Ran Tianlu was dealing with a mysterious cargo sent by a Spanish priest in the name of the church, the Haihan military's interrogation of prisoners at the Port of Cavite had also come to an end.

A total of thirty-four officers of all levels in the Manila fleet have been captured since Juan, and the information obtained through interrogation is basically consistent. Spain has no other established maritime armed forces in the local area, and the defensive measures of the defenders are also unknown.

Only the Manila city fortifications on land were left. As for the strength of the defenders, it was basically consistent with the intelligence collected before the war. The majority of the city was Spanish armed personnel, while the outside of the city was mainly composed of local armed forces who had submitted to Spain.

At this time, the total strength of the defenders no longer had much advantage. Haihan mobilized more than 4,000 combat personnel for this expedition, about three-quarters of which were army troops. In terms of the combat effectiveness of the Spanish defenders,

Facing this expeditionary force composed of elite units from the Hai-Han Army, it may be difficult to stand a chance of making a comeback.

The interrogation of Juan is the top priority of all interrogations, but it is indeed very difficult to persuade a general of his level to give up his inherent position. Even if Simang tried his best to use coercion and inducement, it still failed.

Can persuade him to accept the conditions offered by the Haihan people.

But in fact, most of the military information that Haihan wants to know has been collected through other channels. The reason why he wants to capture Juan is that he hopes to use his identity to persuade the defenders of Manila to surrender.

It is possible to avoid using war to solve the final problem. But this idea still hit a snag with Juan. The stubborn Spaniards were unwilling to betray their country and beliefs, and did not believe that the alliance formed by Haihan and Portugal could keep its promise.

Let any Spanish who are willing to surrender leave Manila.

"Well, we have already tried to solve the Manila problem through peaceful means. If it doesn't work, then let's prepare for war." Yan Chujie finally had no choice but to choose Juan, and could only choose the original plan to go to war with the city of Manila.

As for Juan and his hundreds of men, they will have to be detained at the Port of Cavite for a while until Haihan frees up enough shipping capacity after the war to transport them away. Of course, these

The Spaniards will not all be assigned to the same place for hard labor. Haihan's iron mines in Hainan Island, the coal mines in Black Tu Port, the tin mines in Bangka Belitung Island, the gold mines in Jinguashi, Taipei, and even the distant Fushan, Dengzhou, Shandong

The copper mines in the county and the state-owned plantations scattered throughout the Haihan territory may become their final destination. Except for a few of them who were very cooperative during the interrogation stage, most of them will spend the rest of their lives in

Spent a life of hard labor.

However, for Juan and other officers, they still have a chance to escape. Before attacking Manila, Haihan will provide the defenders with a list of captured persons. If the Manila authorities in the city are willing to pay ransom in exchange for their

If they are free, then Haihan will let them leave. Of course, the military's plan is also very clear. These people are all marines. When they return to the city, they can at most be used as ordinary infantry. Anyway, after the city is broken, they will

If we can capture these people again, we can try to extort a ransom payment from the Spaniards.

On January 20, the main force of Haihan Army completed its assembly in Pasay Town and set off to advance towards Manila City in the north.
Chapter completed!