1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 469 Whispering
Hao Wanqing shook his head dumbfoundingly and said, "We won't blame him, he was born with it and has nothing to do with us."

The Li Qingyang that Tao Donglai saw was a fair-skinned, slightly fat young man who didn't look like someone who had been traveling all year round.Different from the prisoners Tao Donglai had interrogated in the past, this Jin Yiwei named Li Qingyang didn't show any panic or uneasiness, and even his eyes seemed relaxed.

Tao Donglai turned his head and asked, "When you first interrogated him, how did he react?"

Hao Wanqing replied: "It's basically the same as now. We were a little surprised at first, but after thinking about it, this kind of reaction is probably one of their anti-interrogation techniques of Jin Yiwei. After all, they are trained professionals. Hairy thieves are not at the same level."

"It makes sense!" Tao Donglai agreed with Hao Wanqing's statement: "Looking at his calm appearance, he must have undergone special training. This skill should be what we are lacking now."

In the interrogation room, Yan Chujie has already started to question Li Qingyang: "Li Qingyang, I have read your interrogation records, and there are still a lot of inaccuracies about your Jinyiwei yamen, if you explain the problem honestly, we might as well Give you a way out."

Li Qingyang shook his head and said, "My dear friend..."

"My surname is Yan, and my color is Yan." Seeing that the other party wanted to speak, Yan Chujie took the initiative to introduce himself: "If you want to get out of the current predicament, then please cherish this opportunity to talk, because it is very difficult. It is possible that your fate will be determined. If you still come around in circles with my previous attitude, then we probably have no choice but to give up on you. "

The light in Li Qingyang's eyes flashed, and he immediately returned to his normal demeanor and replied: "It seems that Brother Yan is in an important position in Haihan? Could it be that he is one of the nine elders of the legendary Haihan Executive Committee?"

"It's a member of the executive committee. We don't use the title of elder. As you can see, my age has nothing to do with being old." Yan Chujie immediately corrected his statement.

Tao Donglai in the observation room next door snorted softly and said, "It seems that Jin Yiwei also did some targeted investigations on us beforehand."

Hao Wanqing replied softly: "But the information they have learned is superficial. Like the social system we have built, how can people not understand how it works if they are not in it. If they can find out everything, Jin Yiwei will also There is no need to send spies to Sanya to carry out hidden missions."

"So my life and death, Brother Yan, can be settled with one word?" Li Qingyang in the interrogation room continued to ask.

"Strictly speaking, it's not up to me alone, but if you want to understand it this way, it's reasonable." Yan Chujie nodded and said: "As long as you can prove to me that you are worthy of our preferential treatment, then I can get rid of you." Prisoner status now."

"Sounds good, so what should I do to prove my worth? Tell you everything in the yamen?" Before Yan Chujie could respond, Li Qingyang shook his head and said, "If I just said everything in one go , you will really become a worthless person, and I am afraid that you will die faster when the time comes."

There is no doubt that Li Qingyang is not an idiot, and he will not be easily seduced by such a simple trick.Of course, Yan Chujie didn't expect to change this stubborn guy's mind with just a few words. If it was such an easy thing to handle, he, the executive committee member, would not have to do it himself.

Yan Chujie followed his words and said: "If you don't want to die, that's easy. There is a way to keep you alive. You are a smart person, so you should be able to understand what I mean."

Li Qingyang was silent for a while, and then asked tentatively: "You want me to do things for you?"

"Is there anything wrong?" Yan Chujie said: "You do things for the court for the stability of the world, and you do things for us for the same purpose."

"That's inappropriate!" Li Qingyang shook his head and said, "You privately manufactured weapons, organized armies, privately set up money houses, colluded with local officials to swallow up fertile land, all of these things violate the laws of the Ming Dynasty, why do you say that? For the sake of world stability?"

"Li Qingyang, your view is too one-sided." Yan Chujie immediately retorted: "In the past two years, there have been pirates and rogues in Guangdong. We did not ask for a penny of hard work from the government before and after, and the Ming army would not have dispatched at all if they could not get the start-up fee. Guangdong was hit by a natural disaster, and refugees were everywhere No one bothered. We bought a large amount of food at our own expense and sent it to Guangdong for disaster relief. We recruited those refugees who had lost their families and had no one to rely on to come to Sanya and gave them a job with a stable income. We took the initiative to do it for the government. Are these things conducive to the stability of the world?"

"It's nothing more than disaster relief and helping refugees. What about setting up banks and troops without permission?" Li Qingyang was not convinced by this, but tried to continue the debate with Yan Chujie.

However, Yan Chujie is a well-known advocator in the leadership of Haihan, and his verbal skills are far superior to Li Qingyang. Naturally, he will not be stumped by his rebuttal. Hearing this, he just smiled and said: "Without an army, how can we maintain success?" The order of tens of thousands of refugees? Thousands of refugees who have nothing to eat gather together. What do you think will happen to these people in order to survive? Without a bank, how can the money spent on disaster relief be effectively distributed? Is it going to be handed over to the local government? I'm afraid that ten of the disaster relief funds that the refugees can enjoy will not be saved by then. Li Qingyang, you are also a person from the yamen, and you should know more about this issue than me a lot?"

Li Qingyang really didn't have much capital to refute this question, because what Yan Chujie said was indeed the truth, even if the Haihan people were willing to follow the official rules and hand over the money and food to the Guangdong government, it would be difficult to appease Guangdong and Guangxi. In the past two years, there have been natural and man-made disasters in the region.

Li Qingyang is in the special organization of Jinyiwei, and the information he can get access to is far better than that of ordinary people. He knows that a large part of the reason for the ineffective disaster relief in Guangdong in the past two years is that the local government has mishandled it. Various rogue forces networked together. At the worst time, the garrison in Guangzhou didn't even dare to go to Panyu County, which was only [-] miles away from the city, to solve the bandit chaos. Their morale and combat effectiveness were so low that it was simply amazing.

In the internal report that Li Qingyang saw before, he also mentioned the fighting process of the Haihan Militia against the rogues in Lijiazhuang, saying that "the sound of cannons was like thunder, and the number of rogues was like rain. But they couldn't advance an inch. At that time, the corpses of the bandits outside the village were piled up like a mountain, and the bandit leader Liao Dabi and others were killed in front of the battle. The people said that if the Haihan militia exceeds a hundred, it will be invincible!"

Although Li Qingyang thought the description in this report was too exaggerated at the time, but after he saw the gunboats of the Haihan people in Wanshan Port at the mouth of the Pearl River, he realized that there was indeed a rise in the south of the Ming Empire that could not be ignored. New forces.

Compared with ordinary wealthy businessmen, this group of people is obviously more organized and dangerous. As the chief intelligence agency of Ming Dynasty, it will naturally not let go of a comprehensive investigation of this potentially dangerous object.However, it was too late for Li Qingyang to realize the danger. The five of them almost didn't even have a chance to resist, so they were sent to an isolated island overseas by the Haihan people to catch them.

Undoubtedly, the reasons Yan Chujie just mentioned could not completely cover up Haihan's military ambitions. Li Qingyang knew this, and Yan Chujie himself knew it too.In the final analysis, these explanations he made were just to put on a legal cloak for the existence of Haihan Armed Forces.It doesn't matter if the Jinyiwei doesn't admit it, as long as the local government admits it, and for the Jinyiwei's intervention, Haihan's current response is to try to refuse - to isolate the Jinyiwei's tentacles from the social system controlled by Haihan.

If Li Qingyang regarded this latent operation as an ordinary operation when he set out, when he was captured by the Haihan militia, he knew that this group of people were not ordinary landlords and bullies, they knew exactly what they were doing , also knowing the real identities of Li Qingyang and others, it can be seen that they do have a lot of fear of the Jinyiwei brand, but they are not afraid of dealing with Jinyiwei.Li Qingyang could feel that they were full of confidence when treating them like himself, and this confidence probably came from their strong economic and military strength.

Yan Chujie didn't urge Li Qingyang to answer at this time, but just looked at him quietly, preparing for the next lines.

It took a long time for Li Qingyang to say: "If you are willing to let the five of us go, then there are some things that cannot be discussed."

For Li Qingyang, this was almost the bottom line for concessions. If he wanted to betray his profession and allegiance, he really couldn't do it for a while.

Yan Chujie shook his head expressionlessly and said, "This is impossible."

"No discussion?" Li Qingyang asked unwillingly.

"It's not a question of whether we can discuss it. It's because three of the five of you have already died. You don't have to look at me like this. We didn't torture them. One of the three died in a private fight in prison. The other two died due to dissatisfaction." Yan Chujie explained: "For us, it is more useful for you to live than to die, at least at this stage."

This team of Jinyiwei spies were detained separately after being arrested, so Li Qingyang didn't know how the other four were doing.After listening to Yan Chujie's explanation, Li Qingyang's expression quickly returned to calm: "If me and the rest of the people have been refusing to submit, then there is no point in keeping our lives?"

"You can understand it this way." Yan Chujie said very frankly: "Of course we will not execute you, you will be dispatched to overseas mines, and the rest of your life will be spent with black coal. As for your It will probably take some time for the superiors and colleagues in Nanjing to find out that something is wrong, and then send the next group of people to cast their nets."

"You won't be so lucky, you can catch our people every time." Li Qingyang retorted unconvinced.The fall of their team is really useless, it was completely played by their opponents, if the boss knew what happened, they would probably tear them alive.

"But we will definitely find someone in Jinyiwei who is willing to play for us, just like we can use money to buy news that your team is going south." Yan Chujie hit Li Qingyang unceremoniously: "In the end, there will be people who want to survive And those who choose to change, not to mention that this choice may not be a bad thing for you people. Do you know how many court officials are working for us now? From the state capital to the local inspection department, civil servants There are Zhizhou, Tongju, and Tongzhi. Military officers also have figures at the level of generals and generals. To be honest, even if you are let in, if you really find out some outrageous things in Sanya, when the time comes, the imperial court will send a letter to the local government to inquire about these places. The officials will still stand by our side and use memorials to block the dirty water that your Jinyiwei poured over."

Yan Chujie talked about the excitement, and continued: "Take a step back, even if the emperor believes your report and thinks that our Haihan must be eradicated, do you think Daming can afford this battle? People from the Guangdong and Guangxi regions Army, how many generals don’t know how powerful our Haihan militia is? Even if an order is issued, they will use various reasons to evade and avoid a direct war with us. Although everyone talks about being loyal to the king and serving the country, but Knowing that there is no hope of winning a war, how many people are willing to fight desperately?"

"But your armed forces are entrenched in Qiongzhou. For the imperial court, it is a hidden danger in the south!" Li Qingyang knew that he might not be able to argue with this eloquent Haihan Executive Committee member, but he still gritted his teeth and refused to let go.

"No, no, you're wrong. The real hidden danger of Daming is not us, but the herd of wild boars outside the northern pass. They are actually at war with Daming, and judging from the results of recent years, the situation of Daming is getting worse and worse. The more difficult it is." Yan Chujie consciously wants to explain this topic clearly: "It is impossible for the wild boars outside the customs to coexist peacefully with Da Ming. They must rely on plundering Da Ming's resources to achieve development. But we Haihan are different. In the areas under our control, the people live and work in peace and contentment without worrying about their livelihood and safety. We purchase a large amount of supplies from Daming every year, and we have always supported the authority of the imperial court. We have not denied that these areas under our control still belong to Daming land, but our approach is not to rely on plunder, but to let everyone work together to build a stable and strong development environment.”

(End of this chapter)