Chapter 2025

Compared with the Spanish officials, the man surnamed Chen was obviously much more vigilant. Even though the experiences of Jose and others had been certified by the colonial authorities before, he still questioned this magical good luck.

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In fact, this is the part of the background of the story fabricated by the Haihan Intelligence Department that is least able to withstand careful scrutiny. After all, the group of people used in the operation have never been to Cebu, and they indeed relied on the routes planned in advance.

After completing the voyage of hundreds of nautical miles, if someone is carefully interrogated, they will probably notice something unreasonable in it.

The Spanish officials focused on the fact that the various physical evidence on the ship were completely consistent with the descriptions of Jose and others, and there was not even a Han Chinese on the ship, but there were several corpses of Han soldiers, which greatly lowered their vigilance.

In addition, the secret letter sent between high-ranking officials in Haihan convinced Spanish officials of the authenticity of the whole matter.

The most important thing is that many high-ranking officials, including Aragones, subconsciously believe that even though Haihan has an absolute advantage in the military, there does not seem to be any top-secret military information on our side that is worthy of the other party setting up such a big plan to find out.

News. What's more, Jose and others have clearly rejected the suggestion to join the army. It is obviously impossible for them to come here to inquire about the military situation. This undoubtedly completely dispels the doubts of Spanish officials.

However, due to the lack of real-time information, Spanish officials did not know that Haihan was stepping up investigations into cases related to his military exports in various parts of the north at this time, and had even begun to frequently take action against their cooperation partners. They thought that the external situation was good, and naturally they did not expect Haihan to do so.

The Han Hui specially arranged an operation to collect intelligence for this purpose.

But this man surnamed Chen was not a member of the colonial authorities, and he did not have much trust in the Spaniards. Originally, he did not care about such trivial matters as Spanish people escaping from Luzon, but Aragones claimed that from this incident

After obtaining the secret letter from a senior official of Haihan, it was necessary to expand the scale of overseas cooperation in the next time and ask him to pay more remuneration to the colonial authorities. He did not completely believe this and asked Jose and others

Under cross-examination, he still found some details that were not reliable enough in his opinion.

Of course, Jose knew very well where his own loopholes were. He immediately deduced that the sailors on the ship who knew how to navigate determined the course based on the rise and fall of the sun and the position of the stars, and that during his escape, he only operated the sail ropes on the deck with others.

Of course, this statement is only an expedient. If the other party really wants to get to the bottom of it, and brings those indigenous sailors back for careful interrogation, they will also find that their navigation skills are limited, and they are far from the level of being able to leave the charts.

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Although the man surnamed Chen was still a little doubtful, his focus on this matter was also the changes in the overseas situation. Therefore, although he thought there were still doubts, he did not delve into the issue further and instead asked about the current situation in Manila.

This is also an issue that many Spanish officials are concerned about. They are eager to know what changes the Haihan people have made to the local area after they occupied Manila this year. To put it bluntly, they want to confirm whether there are still more people from the Haihan people.

Possibility of retaking the city of Manila.

The purpose of the man surnamed Chen's inquiry was not only to confirm the current situation of Manila City, but also to understand whether Haihan had any plans to expand outward. If Haihan continues to use military means to expand his control area in the Philippine Islands,

Then there must be some easily detectable signs in Manila, such as the sudden assembly of a large number of warships, the deployment of military supplies such as food and medicine, changes in the training intensity of local garrison, etc. These intelligence often do not require professional intelligence

People go to collect it, and ordinary people can notice it with just a little attention.

For this kind of problem, Jose and others were already prepared. According to the intelligence department's advance arrangements, they must try to downplay the military measures taken by Haihan in the local area after the war, appropriately exaggerate the anti-Haihan sentiment of the people in Manila, and create some illusions for their opponents.

, making it believe that Haihan’s current rule in Manila is not stable.

The purpose of this show of weakness is not to induce the Spaniards to immediately counterattack Manila. After all, the Spaniards have not yet recovered their strength, and they also know that their strength has not yet recovered to the point where they can compete with Haihan again. The main purpose is to let the Spaniards

Focus on other places to get more cover for Jose and others.

In addition to asking again most of the questions asked by the Spanish officials, the man surnamed Chen also asked separately about the current proportion of Han Chinese in Manila, whether foreigners would be subject to strict interrogation when arriving there, etc. As an intelligence officer, Jose

The personnel were naturally very sensitive to this, and they immediately thought that the purpose of the other party's inquiring about this information was to plan an operation similar to their own and arrange for Han spies to enter Manila to lurk.

The Haihan Intelligence Department probably did not expect that Jose and others would be questioned about these questions related to the Han people after they arrived in Cebu, so they did not prepare corresponding plans. Jose had no standard answers at hand, so he could only answer them by himself at the moment.

Regarding the other party's problem, he thought it would be better to cause less trouble to his superiors, so he said that after the war, a large number of Han people in Manila were moved to other places, and many Haihan immigrants were introduced to settle there. He must also be worried about the local people.

The Han people's public sentiment was unstable, so everyone entering and leaving the port was subject to interrogation. Even the prisoners who were exiled to Xingdao had someone board the ship to confirm their identity again before leaving the port.

Jose's remarks were well crafted and he used his own experience as an example, so the questioner couldn't help but believe him. After hearing what the translator said, the man surnamed Chen showed an expression of "Sure enough," on his face. It seemed that Jose

His statement is also consistent with his speculation about the current situation in Manila.

But in fact, the situation in Manila is not as severe as Jose said. Haihan officials did adjust the local population composition after the war, and relocated some ethnic groups that may be hidden dangers in the official view, and then gradually

About two thousand immigrants continued to move from Hainan Island. In addition to the Han, Li, and Miao ethnic groups, there were even some naturalized people of Annan origin. These immigrants could obtain official land and real estate rewards after settling in Manila.

, whose loyalty is much higher than that of the local people in Manila.

In addition to adjusting the immigration policy, Haihan also used the trade methods he was good at. Soon after the war, he opened trade routes between Victory Port, Hong Kong, Kaohsiung Port and other places and the Port of Manila, allowing people in the Manila area to

Produce can be transported to the northern market more efficiently than in the past, and at the same time, various materials that are lacking in the market can be delivered to the local area.

Manila's chief executive, Qiu Yuan, had previously served as director of the management committees of Victory Port and Haikou Port, and had extensive experience in operating ports and maritime trade. Manila's local port had been half a century old after being colonized by the Spaniards.

After more than a century of operation, there is a relatively complete infrastructure, the damage suffered during the war was not serious, and there are a large number of skilled port operators available, so Qiu Yuan can make full use of it when formulating a post-war development strategy.

The local port conditions are excellent, and the scale of foreign trade has been further increased based on the Spanish.

Haihan seized a huge amount of wealth from the local area during the Battle of Manila. In addition to the part that was transported back to Sanya, a considerable part was left locally as funds for post-war reconstruction. Therefore, Qiu Yuan had very abundant funds in his hands, which could allow him to

He implemented measures to transform Manila from multiple levels.

Qiu Yuan has governance experience in many places. He knows very well that as long as the ports and foreign trade can operate, the local people will have a stable livelihood and material supply, and their lives will be sustainable, and the people's hearts will not be easily disturbed. As for whether to

Fighting against the new rulers and trying to bring back the previous masters is not something that the vast majority of people would consider. As long as they are given a stable living environment, people generally will not risk their lives and property. If

If there is still a way to advance, most of them will quickly choose to be loyal to the new master.

The actual situation is exactly like this. After receiving the promise to select their children to enter the official system, the local Qin family, Ding family and other influential Han families quickly expressed their stance and joined the official camp. During this period

Although Qin Huacheng, the youngest son of the Qin family, was sentenced to exile on Xingdao for committing crimes, he was a blessing in disguise. He was recruited by Cheng Dapeng from Xingdao into the Ministry of Security and was taken to Batavia to work.

Qiu Yuan knew very well what people from different classes needed after the change of dynasty, and it took him less than three months to stabilize the situation in Manila. After that, Manila gradually began to operate step by step like other Haihan-controlled areas.

Slowly implement Haihan's social system from top to bottom.

At present, about 70% of the local population registration in Manila has been completed, and various civil administration agencies have begun to operate normally. Except for the replacement of the local official language and script and the currency in circulation, other changes are not too big for the time being.

Under such circumstances, it was basically difficult for the Spanish to regain control of Manila through conventional means.

As for sending Han spies to sneak into Manila, although it is not too difficult to achieve, this measure actually does not have much effect. At most, it can get some information, but it is difficult to develop local resistance forces. Instead, it has to be done carefully.

Hide your identity well - after all, the reward for exposing foreign spies in Manila now starts as high as 500 Chinese dollars, and there is no upper limit, depending on the final investigation of the case. This means that every foreign spy is walking

Money bags that dare to develop local resistance forces will be sold to the government at any time in exchange for bounties.

Jose answered the questions for a long time, but still couldn't figure out the other party's route. Although he vaguely felt that the other party was the target person he was looking for on this trip, he had no way to verify the other party's identity, so he could only memorize it first.

I took a look at the other person's face, and planned to wait until the incident here was settled, and then slowly investigate the person's identity locally.

This was originally a celebration dinner for Jose and others, but they actually did not appear at the banquet for a long time. Before they even took a few bites of food, they were taken out alone to talk. When the man surnamed Chen asked

It was almost done, the dinner was over, and in the end I could only pack some bread and sausages and take them back to my residence.

Perhaps he felt that these little people had exhausted their usefulness. Aragones did not appear again before leaving. Instead, Fernando came to give them a few words, asking them to abide by the law after settling in the local area and not to act recklessly just because they had made meritorious deeds.

As for the reward Aragones promised them, Fernando took a bag of silver coins to Jose and asked him to go back and distribute it to everyone. Jose weighed the amount and estimated that it was less than a hundred silver coins, so each person had ten in a row.

The silver coins were not even shared. It was not clear whether Aragones was stingy or Fernando had detained the reward. Jose did not dare to ask any more questions. He nodded and accepted the bag of silver coins, and then the carriage arranged by Fernando took them there.

Return to the small hotel at the port.

The only good thing is that the colonial authorities did not confiscate their sailboat. Instead, they carried out Aragones' order and gave it to Jose and others as part of the reward. However, Jose suspected that the official did not want to take it.

The main reason for the ship was that there were a few rotting corpses in the cargo hold below the deck. Even if it was confiscated, no one would be willing to operate the ship.

But this ship is still of great importance to Jose and others. In addition to the operational funds and weapons hidden on the ship, they can also drive this ship out of Cebu if necessary. Now their identities have been basically cleared.

There is no need to worry about being restricted when going to sea. In fact, Jose thinks that the colonial authorities should not care at all about whether they go or stay. Anyway, the information that should be obtained from them has been collected almost. Whether they go or stay is right for the authorities.

There is no direct impact.

After returning to the hotel, Jose called everyone together to discuss the current situation and the next steps to be taken in the name of sharing money.

Jose believed that the man surnamed Chen who was talking to him today was the target he was looking for, and his temporary residence must be in Cebu. If he could be found, there would be a chance to find out his identity. But we met today.

Only Jose and three others were able to pass that man, and the local population of Cebu was at least several thousand. If the man lived in seclusion, just the three of them wandering around the city might not be able to find his whereabouts in a short time.

"Tomorrow we will first look for places where Han people live together, especially places where wealthy Han maritime merchants often come and go. The man's surname is Chen, and the governor calls him Mr. Chen. His status should be very noble. If we inquire about information in this direction, we will definitely

We can find his whereabouts."

After all, Jose was an intelligence officer who had received formal training for half a year, and he still had basic professional skills. He quickly clarified his ideas and made arrangements for others.
Chapter completed!