Chapter 2012

When it comes to interrogation, this is Gong Shiqi's area of ​​expertise. He has been engaged in intelligence work for nearly ten years, and the number of subjects he has personally interrogated has long been in the triple digits. Whether it is verbal intimidation or torture to extract confessions, he has rich experience.

Practical experience. As for the fact that the interrogation subjects are a group of injured people, this is even more common for him, because even healthy people will often turn the other party into injured people during the interrogation process.

Saved a lot of time.

But today, Gong Shiqi obviously couldn't do anything to the interrogation subjects himself. The injuries on his body forced him to sit upright in a chair and give orders. But this did not prevent him from using words to intimidate the interrogation subjects, and from their mouths

Get the information you need.

For these prisoners, they are actually in a desperate situation at this time. If they do not receive timely and effective treatment, they will die in pain from the complications caused by the gunshot wounds within three to five days at most.

Die. At this time, the desire to survive often overwhelms loyalty to the employer, and it is also the time when it is easiest to reveal the secrets in their minds. Gong Shiqi did not spend too much effort, and successively obtained the secrets from several interrogation subjects.

Got some valuable information.

These people admitted that the employer they worked for was Yangzhou salt merchant Lu Kangtai. Before joining the Musketeers, most of them worked under Lu Kangtai, and some were even originally from the Lu clan. And their

The earliest training time was about half a year ago, and the newcomer was only selected into this team two months ago.

As for the sources of weapons that the Haihan Intelligence Department is most concerned about and the collaborators who provide military training to salt merchants, they finally have some news.

According to the accounts of these prisoners, there are two commanders of this musketeer team. One is Lu Kangtai’s cousin, and the other is from Franji. But unfortunately, both of them were killed last night.

died in the battle, and the Franji man among them was the Western-looking corpse that Ji Yuanqing had noticed before. But how these weapons flowed into the hands of Yangzhou salt merchants, these prisoners could not say

Obviously, given their status, it is reasonable for them not to have access to these secrets.

The gun is a musket made in Spain, and one of the commanders is also a Spaniard. There is no doubt that this matter is inseparable from the Spaniards. But there are still many unexplained circumstances, such as how the Spaniards got around the sea.

The Han blockade on the southeastern coast quietly entered the Yangzhou area? The two parties in this cooperation had no contact in the past. What caused them to come together? If there was someone in the middle to help them bridge the gap, then who was this middleman?

?

In addition, whether the clues from the Yangzhou salt merchants are related to the gun cases that occurred in Hainan Island and Liaodong are also key points that need to be paid attention to in the investigation. The Ministry of Security had already suspected that the Spaniards had found helpers before.

It was possible to extend its tentacles from the South China Sea to the vicinity of the Ming Dynasty again, but this is just an unconfirmed guess so far, and more evidence is still needed to confirm the possibility of this happening.

Gong Shiqi did not get any clues related to this from the prisoners who were temporarily interrogated. Although these people working for the Yangzhou salt merchants can be regarded as reliable personnel within the company, the information they have is still very limited.

He has no knowledge of things outside Yangzhou, and has never heard of things in Liaodong and Hainan Island.

"We probably have to capture that Lu Kangtai!" Gong Shiqi came out of the cabin to get some air and smoke a cigarette, and exchanged the results of the interrogation with Ji Yuanqing: "In addition to being used as gunmen, these gangsters have done everything.

I don’t know, it seems like I can’t expect them to provide any key information.”

"Catch me back... I'm afraid I won't be able to leave if I'm really caught!" Ji Yuanqing bowed and took the cigarette handed over by Gong Qiqi with his mouth, and responded vaguely: "It is said that Lu Kangtai is a salt merchant in Yangzhou.

He is a celebrity who has considerable influence in the local area. If you think about it, after his musketeers were defeated, he quickly organized hundreds of people and dozens of boats to chase him to the canal. If he himself was captured, that would be a big deal.

Stirring a hornet's nest?"

Gong Shiqi shook his head and said: "That's not necessarily the case. Think about it, these minions are definitely not worth as much as him. If you catch him, you will be a hostage who can really coerce the other party into submission. Whoever dares to catch up, I will hang him to the mast.

, live and die with the ship!"

If Gong Shiqi knew that the Lu Kangtai he was talking about was commanding the ship that was chasing them last night and fought with them all night, then his mind would probably have changed. Although the man was a little obese,

But his style of conduct is very ruthless. Even if he can really catch the opponent, he will probably still have to fight to the death, and he will not be able to get away as easily as Gong Shiqi thought.

Of course, it is definitely unrealistic to turn around and go back to Yangzhou to arrest people now, and there is no need for them to go against the wind and carry out another arrest mission at this time. Compared with the risk that has a very low probability of success, it is better to take advantage of the success obtained in Yangzhou this time.

It is more important to return the witnesses and material evidence to Zhoushan as soon as possible. Moreover, there were many casualties among our own personnel in this operation, and the combat effectiveness has been greatly reduced. It is unwise to carry out high-risk operations with a tired body.

Although the two were extremely tired, after taking a short break and eating some hot food, they returned to the cabin and continued to interrogate the prisoners. They hoped to obtain as much information as possible from some of the dying prisoners before arriving in Zhoushan, otherwise they would not wait until Zhoushan.

After that, these injuries may have been cold for a long time.

One day later, they met up with the two Haihan warships who came to meet them at the predetermined location at the mouth of the Yangtze River. This finally reassured the group of people who had been worried along the way. As long as they were escorted by the navy's warships, the two of them could

The safety of the ship is basically guaranteed. If there is another scene like being chased by a bunch of ships on the canal, it can be handled more easily if a warship comes forward.

The military doctors on board the two ships were also temporarily transferred to the two cargo ships to assist in the treatment of the many injured on the ships. The casualties of the personnel participating in the Haihan operation were mainly concentrated on the ship that stayed behind. In order to ensure that

In terms of combat effectiveness, the personnel remaining on this ship are mainly military personnel, and the field team of the Ministry of Security is not good at this kind of combat, so most of them were transferred to another ship. This makes the final casualties,

Most of them are soldiers.

But compared with the results obtained by this operation, this seems to be an acceptable price. After all, the military has many inconveniences and it is difficult to send a special force to Yangzhou to exterminate the musketry team. This time, with the help of the information provided by the Ministry of Security

He sneaked into Yangzhou under cover, completed the mission with relatively few casualties, and avoided the trouble of diplomatic disputes with the Ming Dynasty. As one of the commanders in this operation, Ji Yuanqing will definitely receive commendations from high-level officials afterwards.

As for Gong Shiqi, he himself felt that his trip south to participate in the operation was quite rewarding. In addition to adding a few scars to his body and an extra experience of escaping, more importantly, he handed over many people during the operation.

This friend is Ji Yuanqing.

Although the two men belong to different units, they are both intelligence officers. They have many common topics in work, and they cooperated so well during the operation that Gong Shiqi later forgot about the relationship between the Ministry of Security and the Military Intelligence Bureau.

competitive relationship.

However, he knew that he would not stay in Zhoushan for too long. At most, he would recover from his injuries for a few days and be almost able to move. Then he would have to return to the north to continue his previous mission. And if he meets Ji Yuanqing next time, he doesn't know what it will be.

What year and month it is.

When the fleet sailed out of Wusongkou and headed south from Hangzhou Bay, on the Liaodong Peninsula, two thousand miles away to the north, the lurking team led by Sun Bing finally obtained the information after many days of surveillance.

progress.

At Wang Tom's insistence, the Marine Corps took over the task of investigating the Qing Army's musketry team. However, this task was not easy to handle. It had been more than ten days since Sun Bing had led this team into the enemy-controlled area.

During this period, the enemy camp was monitored around the clock, but no trace of the musketeers was ever found.

So much so that Sun Bing had some doubts as to whether the other party had transferred the musketeers away from the Liaodong front and stationed elsewhere. In that case, even if he stayed here for a whole year, he would still not get any relevant information.

However, the military orders were overwhelming, and the order he received was to find clues about the Musketeers from the enemy camp. Therefore, although he did not gain anything, as long as the military orders did not change, he had to continue to perform the current mission.

Every day before dawn, we set off from the temporary station at the seaside, march to the mountains near the enemy camp, and then monitor the target area for a whole day. After dark, we return to the seaside camp to spend the night. Others can take turns to work, but

As a commander, he must go to the front line to participate in monitoring work every day. This is really a very time-consuming and frustrating job.

During the surveillance period, they are not allowed to move around at will and can only stay at a few confirmed hidden surveillance points. They are also not allowed to talk at will during the surveillance period. They must remain silent most of the time to reduce the possibility of exposing their whereabouts.

At the lowest level. The food is only simple fried noodles, fried rice, compressed biscuits and other dry food, which are swallowed in the stomach with cold water. It is really uncomfortable in this season. Only after returning to the station every night can I have a hot meal.

Food.

After several heavy snowfalls in recent days, traveling in the mountains and forests has become increasingly difficult. The time spent on the journey has increased by at least one-third every day. When squatting at the monitoring point, due to the inability to move the body to a large extent for a long time, it is inevitable that

Will shiver with cold.

However, just when they all thought that the Qing army should have died down and would not cause trouble again this winter, the musketry team suddenly appeared at the camp they were monitoring.

This musketry team rode into the camp one afternoon. After many days of observation, Sun Bing was already familiar with the various troops stationed here, and the appearance of this cavalry team immediately aroused his interest.

Attention. He saw in the telescope that these riders were carrying a stick wrapped in cloth on their backs. It was about four or five feet in length. It was not an ordinary weapon of the Qing army. This made him immediately

Thinking of the goal that I have been waiting for to appear.

After continuous observation of this cavalry team, Sun Bing could basically confirm that this should be the target he was looking for. As a secret weapon in the Qing army's formation, this special force had a separate unit in this camp.

A camp is not a tent where ordinary soldiers live, but a residential house built by the Han people in the past. Although it is only equipped with mud walls and thatched roofs, it is already a high-end building in this camp. You can see the smoke coming from the chimney behind the house.

, obviously it can also burn a kang, and the living conditions are much better than in a tent.

The most important thing is that after these people dismounted, they continued to carry the stick-shaped package behind them. Obviously, the contents inside were very important. Apart from muskets, Sun Bing could not think of any other weapon that would make these Qing soldiers care so much.

However, the place where this unit is stationed is still far away from the observation point of Sun Bing's team, and there are other Qing troops stationed on the periphery. It is basically impossible to sneak nearby to find out. Sun Bing can only

You can continue to monitor and wait for a better opportunity.

On the same day that the Yangzhou salt merchants took action against Gong Shiqi, Sun Bing also looked forward to the opportunity he had been waiting for. This musketry team was probably training for snow warfare, and suddenly assembled one morning, and then set off towards the goal.

Heading south. And the direction they were traveling in happened to be where Sun Bing's team was.

However, Sun Bing does not think that this unit will enter the mountainous forest area for training at this time. Most of them will just go to the hillside to practice target shooting. In daily training, the Marine Corps will find a hillside near the station to use as a shooting range and erect the target.

In the direction of the hillside, this can effectively prevent stray bullets from hurting people.

As expected, the army stopped at the bottom of the hillside. It was actually only about twenty or thirty feet away from Sun Bing's position. However, considering the height difference, it was difficult for people at the bottom of the hillside to notice the movement in the forest high up the hillside.

Moreover, the monitoring points were specially camouflaged, and it was impossible to detect their presence from the bottom of the mountain, so Sun Bing continued to observe calmly and had no intention of moving.

The Qing army dug out several human-shaped chest targets made of wood from the snowdrifts at the foot of the hillside. I dare say this place was a shooting range before. But I don’t know why this Qing army has not been stationed here recently, so

This shooting range seems to have been abandoned for some time.

After the Qing army placed the targets, an officer walked aside, drew out his saber and shouted to command, asking the Qing army to form a battle formation. This was almost the same as the basic musket combat formation Sun Bing knew, which was based on numbers.

The horizontal line was used as a fire output surface, and shooting and loading were carried out in order to ensure the continuation of the fire output. However, Sun Bing's attention was not focused on the musketeers who were lining up. He stared at the commander through the telescope.

There seemed to be something about this man that particularly interested him.
Chapter completed!