Chapter 1350 Intelligence Source

Of course, Chen Yixin was not the only one in the room. Zheng Ai glanced over and saw that there were at least twenty Haihan soldiers with guns and live ammunition in the room. In addition, there was another person wearing women's clothing, the one who Zheng Ai saw entering the room from the corridor before taking action.

Back view. At that time, Tie Pingjiang said that this person was Ma Yuling, Chen Yixin’s wife. But when Zheng Ai saw this person’s face, he knew that he had been deceived by Tie Pingjiang, because this person could never be Ma Yuling—even if Chen Yixin

Even if you are blind, you cannot marry a guy with a beard as your wife.

Zheng Ai figured out the reason in an instant. The Haihan people had long known the purpose of his coming here, and they were afraid that he would not take action when the situation was about to happen. They even asked someone to pretend to be Ma Yuling to mislead him, making him think that he had a chance to kill Chen Yixin and his wife.

They were all trapped in this room and captured alive.

When Zheng Ai saw Ma Yuling entering the house, he thought that there was probably only Chen Yixin and his wife in the house, so he launched the charge according to the original plan despite the unknown situation. However, he never expected that what was waiting for them in the house was

They were a group of Haihan soldiers who had already prepared for battle. They not only had muskets, but even a cannon.

Even if the downstairs was undefended and Zheng Ai and his party were allowed to rush to the second floor, they might not be able to reach the door of this room alive. The shields and steel knives in the hands of the assassins were like weapons in front of these fully armed Haihan soldiers.

It's like a toy. This corridor is only a few feet long. To them, it's no different than a mountain of swords and a sea of ​​fire.

Zheng Ai noticed that there was a unique-looking weapon on the desk in front of Chen Yixin. It seemed to be a musket, but it was obviously different from the Haihan musket that he knew. Zheng Ai had also heard of Haihan musket.

The Han people have many powerful weapons that have not been installed in the army. This weapon must be the musket that just fired three shots inside the door and killed three companions. If he had launched the charge desperately just now, maybe he would have become a

The soul of this gun is dead.

As if sensing what Zheng Ai was looking at, Chen Yixin patted the gun on the table and said: "This gun can fire thirty rounds in a row. The kind of shield you use can be hit if two of them are stacked together."

Wear it. You can't break into this room just by relying on flesh and blood."

Although Zheng Ai had already guessed that the weapon was extremely powerful, the look on his face dimmed a bit more when he heard Chen Yixin say it so directly. The gap in combat effectiveness between the two sides was too great, and it was simply not possible for manpower to do so.

It can be made up for, but it's a pity that it's too late when I realize this.

"Now that everyone has been honest with each other, I won't talk in circles with you." Chen Yixin stared at Zheng Ai's face with sharp eyes, and finally spoke about the business: "Zheng Ai, tell me, who sent you here?

who?"

Zheng Ai was silent for a moment before she responded: "My movements are all under your control, so you should have known this for a long time, right?"

Chen Yixin said: "I'm leaving you alive, not for you to talk nonsense with me. If I ask you anything, answer it honestly, and you can leave this place alive after you answer it."

Zheng Aidao: "Zheng is not a person who is greedy for life and afraid of death..."

Chen Yixin didn't give him a chance to finish his words. He shook his head and interrupted him: "If you wanted to die, you wouldn't have surrendered just now. I gave you the chance to live, but I can take it back again."

Chen Yixin's words had no tone, but there was an irrefutable flavor in them. This condescending aura made Zheng Ai find it difficult to breathe. He had dealt with Chen Yixin before, but he didn't remember him as being so powerful.

, perhaps it was the shooting of three people at the door just now, which aroused Chen Yixin's long-awaited bloody temper.

The smell of blood in the air has not dissipated. Of course, Zheng Ai knew that Chen Yixin's words were not false threats. If the other party lost patience, it would not be surprising to order him to be dragged out and shot at the next moment. But he still couldn't figure it out. Since the other party already knew

This assassination operation, then why do you still need to spend time questioning yourself about these details?

Chen Yixin did not intend to explain the inside story to the prisoners. His purpose was actually very simple. He just wanted to verify the accuracy of the current information through Zheng Ai's confession.

Regarding Zheng Ai's assassination, Haihan's intelligence sources were not limited to Tiepingjiang. What Hao Wanqing did after arriving in Shandong was not just behind closed doors on Zhifu Island, but also centered on Zhifu Island and Fushan County.

, a large intelligence network was gradually set up in the Dengzhou area.

Although Zheng Ai and others planned this matter in an extremely secretive manner and took a long time to prepare, leaving few loopholes to the outside world, Haihan's intelligence network still discovered some clues when he mobilized manpower through the Dengzhou military.

.

The people Zheng Ai wanted were all good soldiers in the army, but these people disappeared from the army almost at the same time in the name of retiring, and they all went through formal separation registration procedures, so this situation still attracted the attention of interested people. Although it was not

It was clear what the disappearance of these people meant, but this information was eventually sold to Haihan's intelligence officers for a hundred taels of silver.

Haihan's intelligence strategy in the Dengzhou area can be described as simple and crude, which is to directly use money to buy useful information. A certain pawnshop in Dengzhou City can not only exchange common items for money, but also military and political intelligence, and the price is expensive.

Of course, it is impossible for ordinary people to know this routine. Only a very small number of officials who have secretly received benefits from Haihan know about the special projects operated by this pawn shop.

The Haihan people can afford the price and pay readily, so they often receive a lot of seemingly useless information. The news that many military veterans were discharged at the same time did not attract special attention from the intelligence personnel at the beginning.

In fact, more than half of the reason why money is used to buy intelligence is just to maintain business relationships with certain officials. The Ministry of Security does not feel bad about the money given away. As long as a market is formed, sooner or later it can rely on the intelligence to spend money.

Earn everything back.

Even though there seemed to be nothing special about this piece of information bought with a hundred taels of silver, the pawn shop still followed standard work procedures and promptly sent it back to Zhifu Island for filing and summary.

As the residence of Hao Wanqing, the second-in-command of the Ministry of Security, the intelligence center on Zhifu Island is also of considerable scale, with dozens of personnel responsible for analyzing, classifying, and recording various intelligence. Even seemingly insignificant news is different from other information.

After all aspects of information are combined, a different taste will be tasted in the eyes of these professionals.

At first, due to the extremely limited content of the intelligence, analysts did not draw any clear conclusions, nor could they connect the incident with Haihan. However, a certain analyst believed that the news was strange and followed up.

The need for investigation. As a result, a steady stream of intelligence was sent back from all over Dengzhou. The names, ages, places of origin, past performance in the military, etc. of these veterans were all identified one by one. Many of them were

They were born in Dengzhou, but the strange thing is that after these people were discharged from the army, they did not return to their place of origin, but disappeared on the spot.

The disappearance of one or two people can be said to be a coincidence, maybe they went to make a living elsewhere, but if none of this group of retired soldiers can be found, it would be unusual. But by this time, the intelligence analysts still have no

Any evidence linking this to Haihan's local interests is just a matter of continuing the normal investigation.

These investigations may seem complicated, but in fact, there is no need for Haihan intelligence personnel to do any errands at all, because there are no military secrets involved at all, so you can basically collect the required information just by spending money. Although the Ministry of Security does not know about the Dengzhou Army for the time being,

Fang was playing some tricks, but as the intelligence gradually increased, analysts gradually noticed this case and reported it to Hao Wanqing.

By this time, the Ministry of Security had been investigating this incident intermittently for nearly a month, and the money spent had reached several times that of the original purchase of this piece of information, but in fact, no substantial results had been obtained.

As a result, Hao Wanqing believed that this group of people were in their prime, and they were all veterans who had served in the army for many years and had made many meritorious deeds. Their collective discharge was most likely because the top brass of the Ming Army deliberately arranged for these people to retire and then engage in certain tasks as civilians.

Sensitive and non-public tasks.

Normally speaking, it is much easier to do things if you have a military identity and military background. However, the Ming army did the opposite, which further deepened Hao Wanqing's doubts. The Shandong military's biggest fear at present is probably the occupation of Fushan.

The Haihan Army in some areas of the county had been invaded. In addition to going against Haihan, Hao Wanqing could not think of anything else that would make the Ming army so fearful that he would have to secretly change soldiers to civilian identities to carry out tasks.

As a result, this incident that was originally out of reach of Haihan was once again upgraded to an investigation level, and Hao Wanqing personally took over the supervision. This means that Haihan’s local intelligence resources will be greatly tilted towards this incident. Safety

The Ministry will pay more attention to it.

After tracking the identities of these people, intelligence analysts found that most of them had stayed in the same army for a period of time, but their former commanders had disappeared during the Denlay Rebellion—

—The same way they disappeared, retired, and then disappeared.

After analysis, the Ministry of Security believed that this officer might be a key element in this mysterious incident, so they continued to dig deeper into this clue. Money can make all the difference, and after paying hundreds of taels of silver,

The Ministry of Security finally learned that after he retired from the army, he was actually lurking among the people to investigate the whereabouts of the remnants of the rebels in the Denglai Rebellion.

At this point, it is not difficult to deduce more truth. Those soldiers who were discharged collectively for no apparent reason may also carry out the same operation as their former commanders to capture the remnants of the rebels. And removing their military positions first may just

Just to avoid alerting others. Although this matter is a bit strange, it is reasonable and has no obvious conflict with Haihan's interests.

However, out of caution, the Ministry of Security decided to further investigate the current situation of this retired officer. As a result, investigators suddenly discovered that this retired officer who temporarily lived in Guxian Town as a businessman had actually become a businessman in the past six months.

He became one of Haihan's designated local suppliers and became prosperous in trade, earning a lot of money from Haihan.

If the previous investigation work did not find that this incident could be related to Haihan, then from this time on, the Ministry of Security realized that there was an interest entanglement between the two that had not been discovered before. And this

A retired military officer from the Ming Dynasty named Zheng Ai also officially entered the Ministry of Security's sight.

The next thing happened in the rhythm of the Security Department. Zheng Ai didn't know that he had been listed as a surveillance target by the Haihan Security Department, and he still implemented it step by step according to his established plan. But he found someone to modify the flatbed trailer.

He frequently came into contact with unidentified persons, and these actions were observed by the Haihan Security Department.

Zheng Ai came to Majiazhuang a few days ago and had a private meeting with the quartermaster Tie Pingjiang. People from the Ministry of Security immediately approached Tie Pingjiang and asked him to cooperate with the investigation. In fact, the investigators did not expect this at this time.

Tie Pingjiang conspired with Zheng Ai, and only planned to obtain more information about Zheng Ai from Tie Pingjiang in order to continue the investigation.

But Tie Pingjiang did not expect the real reason for the sudden appearance of the Security Department. He was originally guilty because of Zheng Ai's threat. As soon as Zheng Ai left, the Security Department and the Gendarmerie came to the door together and asked him to cooperate with the investigation, so he thought it was

When the incident came to light, he didn't put up any resistance at all. He poured the beans into his own bamboo tube and vomited out the whole story.

This investigation also uncovered a corruption case, which the investigators had never thought of beforehand. However, they did get useful information from Tie Pingjiang. Zheng Ai's purpose of blackmailing Tie Pingjiang was just to ask him to cooperate with the application

A pass order for the Haihan occupied area, and as an escort to escort the goods to Zhifu Island.

Zheng Ai claimed to Tie Pingjiang that the goods he was transporting were to be delivered to a certain big shot on Zhifu Island. Tie Pingjiang had no way to confirm the authenticity of this statement, so he was frightened by him, but the Ministry of Security asked for proof of this.

But it was not difficult. Hao Wanqing directly contacted several other time-travelers stationed in the local area and asked them if any secret cargo had been handed over to Zheng Ai for escort recently. After receiving the answer, Hao Wanqing could basically confirm that Zheng Ai had no idea about Tiepingjiang.

All these things he said are lies, and he must have some other agenda.

Zhifu Island is Haihan's base camp in Shandong. The security is very tight. This private convoy cannot get to the island at all. Even if they get to Zhifu Island, they can only hand over the goods to Haihan's military for transfer to the island. Zheng Ai probably doesn't have it at all.

He had the opportunity to meet senior officials from Haihan. Therefore, Hao Wanqing believed that Zheng Ai's purpose might not be on Zhifu Island, and that this was just a smoke screen he put out.

Among the places along the way from Guxian Town to Zhifu Island, there is only one high-ranking Haihan official stationed in Majiazhuang, Chen Yixin. Judging from the scope of activities that Zheng Ai obtained from the pass order, this is probably the only Haihan official he has the opportunity to meet.

Senior Han official. Could it be that the person he wanted to deliver the goods to was Chen Yixin?
Chapter completed!