Due to the long distance of Fujian, once an accident occurs, the base camp is helpless, and for safety reasons, Haihan has not stationed crossers in the local area. And the local information is only collected and summarized by naturalized personnel, and then transmitted back to this side on a regular basis. At present, it is very difficult to achieve the desired effect of the Ministry of Security by such relatively backward means of intelligence transmission, so in Wanshan Port, Zhennan Port, and other places, it has become another simple and easy means of intelligence gathering to inquire about the Fujian side from those businessmen who travel between Fuguang and Guangzhou. And this does not necessarily have to be done by someone from the Ministry of Security, such as You Yihan, who often gets some useful information in casual conversations with businessmen.

Xu Xinsu was promoted all the way to become the chief soldier of Fujian with his proud achievements, while Zheng Zhilong is still just a big pirate leader, and the direction of development of things is completely different from the historical trajectory, so Haihan's side can no longer make inferences about what has not happened based on the original history, and in order to make decisions, it must rely more on the collection of intelligence information.

What is the focus of intelligence gathering in the Fujian direction? Of course, it is the protracted confrontation between the 18 Zhi and the Ming army. Out of vigilance against the Eighteen Zhi, Haihan began to take the initiative to provide military support to the Fujian side when his own strength was not strong enough at the beginning of the crossing, so that he would not be defeated in the armed confrontation with the Eighteen Zhi. And this kind of military aid has indeed received good results in the past few years, Xu Xinsu was not killed by Zheng Zhilong after defeat as in the original history, and Zheng Zhilong also failed to defeat Xu Xinsu and then accepted Zhao'an to become a hegemon in Fujian.

However, Haihan's purpose in supporting Xu Xinsu was not simply to help him grow up in Fujian, but to maintain a situation of confrontation between the two families along the coast of Fujian. In other words, Haihan does not want the fighting between these two companies to end, whether from the perspective of politics or from the perspective of arms sales interests, it will be beneficial and harmless for Haihan to continue fighting.

But if the two stop fighting, it will attract the attention of Haihan. Every year, the Fujian side has to buy a large amount of arms from Haihan, and Haihan has paid for it to train officers and technical troops, and now even warships have conditionally opened up the right to purchase them to the Fujian side. But if there is no war, then the effect of the armistice will soon be fed back to the arms sales order, which will affect Haihan's income in the arms trade.

Of course, there is another possibility, that is, as usual, Xu Xinsu will continue to pay for it, but this will also make Haihan worry - if Xu Xinsu's strength grows to a certain extent, it may hinder Haihan's mainland strategy to be implemented in the future.

In contrast to the situation in which the Haihan army aided Annam, there was no garrison of the Haihan militia in the coastal areas of Fujian, and the Haihan navy had not even set foot in Fujian waters so far, so it had no influence in the local area. In addition to providing military assistance, Haihan did not have a better means of controlling the Fujian side, which can be said to be one of the fundamental reasons why Haihan could not relax about the situation in Fujian.

If something happened to Annan, the local garrison of the Haihan militia would be able to block Annan's coastline in a short period of time and have the ability to respond further. But if something happens in Fujian, Haihan can really only watch, and it will be difficult to take effective action in a short time. As for the news of the truce and peace between the warring parties in Fujian, the Haihan side did not receive the news before that.

You Yihan's face changed, just because he noticed this detail, and immediately asked: "Boss Chen, what's going on with the peace talks? Where is the news, can you tell me about it?"

Chen Lin saw that You Yihan was asking cautiously, and hurriedly responded: "Speaking of which, the villain also learned the news by accident......

When Chen Lin arrived in Zhangzhou a few days ago, when he went to the city to go through the formalities for the entry of goods into the port, he heard from others that Shibazhi had sent an envoy to Zhongzuo City on Jiaheyu Island off the coast of Zhangzhou to prepare for armistice negotiations with Xu Xinsu. Although the authenticity of this news remains to be verified, Chen Lin learned from the local area that Shibazhi has indeed not launched an attack on the coastal areas of Fujian for nearly two months.

"What is the reason?Is it because Eighteen Zhi can't fight anymore?" Of course, You Yihan would not be satisfied with such a shallow description, he had to try to see if he could dig out the deeper reason.

"Reason...... The villain really doesn't know. Chen Lin hurriedly confessed: "The villain only said a few words from hearsay, and the news may not be reliable, Director You is not strange!"

"It's okay, just know how much to say. You sit down for a while, and I'll help you write a statement of the situation, and you can go to the Ministry of Commerce to go through the registration procedures. Although You Yihan was a little disappointed, he didn't mean to blame Chen Lin for this, after all, the other party was not Haihan's intelligence officer, and he had no obligation to collect this information for Haihan.

Chen Lin was a little reluctant, and took advantage of You Yihan's pen to write and recalled what he heard that day, and this thought was really remembered by him for a little thing: "Director You, the villain remembered that he heard a sentence at that time, but after many days, he had a vague impression, and he was not sure if he heard it wrong, and he didn't know whether to say it or not." ”

You Yihan stopped his pen and looked up and said, "You say." ”

Chen Lin responded: "The villain also heard the person who talked about this matter that day said that the reason why Shibazhi wanted to negotiate peace was because there was a red-haired person behind it, and this Fujian had been fighting for several years, so that the red-haired people could not buy goods from Fujian, and they were a little annoyed. ”

"I see. You Yihan nodded, and now it makes sense.

The reason why the Dutch had to establish a colonial base near the Taiwan Strait was to maintain trade routes with Japan on the one hand, and to be able to trade with the Ming Dynasty on the other hand, to buy raw silk, tea, porcelain and other specialties from Fujian and transport them back to Europe for profit. The successive battles between the Eighteen Zhi and the Fujian Ming army will definitely affect the local trade of the Dutch in a certain way, and then affect their profits.

In the original history, Xu Xinsu and Zheng Zhilong both served as suppliers to the Dutch, and even for a long time, Fujian's raw silk export trade was controlled by Xu Xinsu, and Zheng Zhilong's reason for wanting to kill Xu Xinsu was also to replace his position. Zheng Xu and the two went to war for their own interests and survival, and the Dutch could not get any benefits from it, but had to bear the economic losses caused by the war, so they naturally became the natural lords and factions.

If Eighteen Zhi negotiated peace with Xu Xinsu with the entrustment of the Dutch, then it is really possible to achieve this matter, after all, for Xu Xinsu, being able to resume trade with the Dutch means at least hundreds of thousands of taels of silver per year, plus the military expenses saved by the armistice, the annual income is still quite considerable. Xu Xinsu is a businessman, and for him, the benefits that can be calculated in silver are far more important than things like political attitudes, and it is difficult to guarantee that he will not do anything to negotiate a truce with Zheng Zhilong behind Haihan's back.

Of course, You Yihan didn't dare to make a conclusion about this, after all, this was just news from Chen Lindao's hearsay, and there was no real evidence. Moreover, the Haihan agency stationed in Zhangzhou has not sent back relevant news, and it is temporarily impossible to confirm the authenticity of the news Chen Lin said.

After sending Chen Lin away, You Yihan immediately got up and left the office, went to the confidential room of the third courtyard, turned on the radio, and sent a telegram to Guangzhou and the base camp respectively about the news he had just learned. This matter is not within the purview of You Yihan, and he has no right to directly intervene in what to do next, so it is safer to hand it over to the Ministry of Security, which is in charge of this matter.

"The Ministry of Security is not as reliable as me!" After You Yihan finished sending the telegram, he couldn't help muttering, he was very proud of his carefulness, and at the same time he also despised the efficiency of the Security Department. Such an important news, if it weren't for Chen Lin, a timber merchant, who reported the news by mistake, when would he have to wait until he received the news?

In fact, the Ministry of Security was not so useless as You Yihan thought, only two hours after he sent this telegram, the channels under the Ministry of Security also sent back information from Fujian, and the content and Chen Lin said can basically corroborate each other, that is, at the request of the Dutch, Shibazhi took the initiative to send people to visit the city of Zhangzhou Zhongzuo, and was ready to negotiate with Xu Xinsu on a ceasefire agreement.

The time when the Ministry of Security got the news in Fujian was actually almost the same as Chen Lin, and even sent the news a day earlier than Chen Lin, but Chen Lin went straight to Zhennangang when he came back from Fujian for the sake of land acquisition on Hong Kong Island, while the messenger of the Ministry of Security wanted to run an extra waterway and send the news directly back to Guangzhou to He Xi. This came and went, and He Xi got the news a little later than You Yihan.

"It's really not worry-free!" He Xi couldn't help but sigh with the two pieces of news about the situation in Fujian that were delivered one after the other today: "If Fujian temporarily ceases fighting, then the arsenal in Sanya will be partially suspended!"

"The base camp already knows the news, right? Presumably, the people from the industrial mouth are making a generous statement at the meeting at this time, and they are going to tighten the dog leash around Xu Xinsu's neck. Marik next to him replied sarcastically.

"Shengli Port Shipyard only signed a contract with Xu Xinsu for four exploration-class warships two months ago, and Haihan Ordnance has just lifted the ban on the export of 24-pound army guns. ”

"If I were Xu Xinsu, I would continue to buy weapons, anyway, it's always right to have a little more, who knows when I'll start fighting again?" Mariko replied.

He Xi nodded and said: "This is the most unrelenting thing, they keep fighting, we at least know that the ammunition sold is constantly being consumed, but if we don't fight and Fujian has been buying arms, then we have to worry about the whereabouts and uses of these things." ”

Marik said: "But now in addition to military cooperation, we don't seem to have any other way to deal with Xu Xinsu, right?"

He Xiying said: "The executive committee probably won't take radical action immediately, and most of them will warn Xu Xinsu first, and if it doesn't work, they will consider other methods." Cutting off military aid is killing 1,000 enemies and losing 800 ourselves, which is not cost-effective for us. ”

Marico continued: "You are right, but the Executive Committee will certainly not sit idly by and watch the two sides negotiate peace. ”

"The problem is not that he wants to negotiate peace with Eighteen Zhi, for the sake of interests, which is understandable. When He Xi said this, he changed his words and said: "But his mistake is that he didn't talk to us in time and ask for our opinions." Of course, it's possible that he didn't intend to let us know about it in the first place. ”

In the previous cooperation agreement between the two sides, the mutual notification of the heavy measures was also part of the agreement, but now it seems that the Fujian side did not try to inform Haihan that the eighteenth Zhi had sent an envoy to negotiate peace. If it's just an inadvertent mistake, it's okay to say, but if Xu Xinsu deliberately arranged it this way, then the problem is different.

Marik replied: "It's just a matter of hiding it from us, this secrecy work is still so poor, even a timber merchant knows about it, does Xu Xinsu still expect to hide it from our eyes and ears?"

"Xu Xinsu is just a businessman, and when he is a military leader and a politician, he is still a little embarrassed. He Xi said: "He wants our military aid, he also wants to earn the Dutchman's silver, and he wants to take advantage of the benefits of both ends." It's a pity that there are not so many good things in this world, he wants to do business with the Dutch on the island of Taiwan, but what we are thinking about is how to expel those Dutch people from the island of Taiwan in the future, if we don't want to help him turn the right direction, then it may become a stumbling block on our way forward in the future!"

"In the end, the stumbling block is the Dutch. Marico added: "Whether it's in the South or in the North, they happen to play the role of a stumbling block. Even if we don't want to touch them for the time being, they are still making small gestures to save their zài sense. ”

The news that the Haihan Navy secretly went south to occupy the Ambuna Islands a month ago has long been known to the Guangzhou Office. The traversers are well aware that sooner or later there will be an armed conflict between Haihan and the Netherlands in South Asia because of the competition for the choke point of the sea, and the situation in the north is similar, and the key shipping route between Fujian and Taiwan, Haihan is also bound to win. Whether it is the Eighteen Zhi who settled in Penghu or the Dutch who established a colonial base in Tainan, they are all targets of future purge.

Of course, whether it is Batavia or Taiwan, the current Haihan Navy does not have enough strength to capture the local area for the time being, so it has never taken the initiative to provoke the Dutch. And the Dutch should have also learned from the side that the strength of this group of people on Qiongzhou Island is not weak, and they have not taken any hostile actions. However, this time the Dutch wanted Shibazhi to negotiate peace with the Fujian government, but they had inadvertently touched the interests of Haihan.