The data provided by the Ministry of Commerce was sent back to the command center of the Ministry of Security in Danzhou City in the shortest possible time, which made several naturalized cadres who were worried breathe a sigh of relief. The situation found by the front-line spies, combined with the recent pig iron sales figures in Danzhou provided by the Ministry of Commerce, are matched with their previous inferences, which shows that the direction of reconnaissance so far is very correct.

Although these reactionaries had tried to avoid the investigation of the Haihan and transported the purchased pig iron to the blacksmith shop in the countryside to quietly build weapons, their counter-reconnaissance capability was not so high, and their suspicious deeds were soon exposed in the face of the targeted investigation methods of the Haihan Security Department.

Having found one of the sources of the preparation for the supply of weapons to the reactionaries, the subsequent investigation of the Ministry of Security was made easier. By keeping an eye on the blacksmith and the head of the avant-garde, they can quickly identify those in the vicinity who are involved with them.

After another seven days, the Ministry of Security's surveillance targets have expanded from two or three at the beginning to many towns and villages in Danzhou and its vicinity, and the list of people involved in the case has also increased to more than 20 people.

At this stage, the Ministry of Security's manpower in Danzhou has once again become overstretched, and in order to avoid scaring away the big fish that still have not shown their heads, the Ministry of Security cannot immediately arrest these people, but can only control the scope of monitoring and issue warnings in advance to other prefectures and counties where reactionary elements may be hiding.

Zhang Qianzhi also made some gains in his lurking in Zhongming Academy, and identified several Confucian scholars who would participate in the assassination operation with him and be responsible for setting fire to disrupt the order, but for the time being, the whereabouts of the Ming military attache mentioned by Huang Zixing have not been found.

"As we expected, the Danzhou Chamber of Commerce chartered the Nanhai Restaurant in the city as the venue for Director Zhang's birthday this time. Wang Baisuo entered the house in the dust, and said to Lin Nan and Li Qingyang, who were immersed in studying the map of Danzhou: "This restaurant is the place we went to see a few days ago. ”

In order to prevent leakage of information, the Ministry of Security did not make official arrangements for the venue of Zhang Xin's birthday in advance, but let the Danzhou Chamber of Commerce choose it by itself. However, there are not many high-end restaurants in Danzhou City, and the range of choices is actually limited. And the Nanhai restaurant finally determined by the Danzhou Chamber of Commerce happened to be the place where the three of them had just visited the site five days ago, and they were quite impressed.

"Who owns this restaurant?" asked Lin Nan succinctly.

Wang Baisuo understood the point at once, and immediately responded: "The owner of this restaurant is a native of Danzhou, surnamed Yu, but he has not done anything against my Haihan, and as far as he knows, this person has no direct relationship with the people of the Danzhou government." Director Zhang often goes to this restaurant to eat, and the people of the Chamber of Commerce must also take into account Director Zhang's preferences. ”

"On the day of the birthday, the restaurant ran the hall and the counter kitchen, all of which had to be replaced by our people, and you tried to get the boss to cooperate with our arrangement. Lin Nan immediately made arrangements, thought about it and added: "Qingyang, you ask people to check if there are any new recruits in this restaurant in the past three months, and in the next few days, have anyone taken the initiative to come to the door to find something to do." If there is, you know what to do. ”

Lin Nan didn't think that the opponent's assassination plan was just to arrange some assassins with sharp blades to carry out face-to-face assassination at close range, if the other party was smart enough, then send someone to infiltrate the restaurant and directly put poison in the wine and food to poison the head of Haihan, that could also achieve the same effect, and it would be easier to get out of the chaos afterwards. Therefore, the staff of the restaurant is definitely one of the loopholes that must be guarded against, and the safest way to protect it is, of course, to replace all the people inside and outside the restaurant with their own people.

Wang Baisuo pointed to the map and said: "The houses and streets near the Nanhai Restaurant also need to be controlled as soon as possible, and I will ask people to find a few residents who are willing to become naturalized in the vicinity, and let them vacate the house for a few days first." ”

"Be careful not to reveal your identity!" Lin Nan reminded: "If these people find out that something is wrong and retreat, then it will be in vain for us to set up such a big situation." ”

With Haihan's control in Danzhou today, it is not difficult to requisition private houses on the periphery of the Nanhai Restaurant and arrange a secret cordon, but the main thing is to try to avoid making the noise too loud and exposing the intention of the layout.

At the end of February, the surveillance objects of the Ministry of Security began to enter Danzhou City in batches. Most of these people have been identified, and most of them are members of the former Daming Guard's army and local regimental training. It's just that when they disguised themselves as various identities to enter the city, they probably didn't expect that they had fallen under the strict surveillance of the Haihan people.

On the last day of February, Yan Mingjun and Li Jin both received an invitation letter from the Danzhou Chamber of Commerce, inviting them to attend the birthday of Zhang Xin, director of the Danzhou Management Committee, at the Nanhai Restaurant in the city five days later.

Yan Mingjun had already met Huang Zixing early before this, and he actually knew what would happen on this birthday. But for confidentiality reasons, he did not inform Li Jin before this. It wasn't until after receiving the official invitation that Yan Mingjun invited Li Jin over and told him the truth.

Li Jin was also shocked when he heard this: "Brother Yan is saying that a group of scholars in Danzhou are going to assassinate the Haihan people? Are these nerds stupid to read? With their little ability, they still want to kill the Haihan people, could it be that the Haihan people stretched their necks and waited for them to cut them with knives?"

Yan Mingjun shook his head and said: "I said that the literati was only one of the initiators, if it was really presided over by a group of literati, how could I rest assured? According to him, in fact, there was another Jinyi guard general from Nanjing who was in charge of this operation. As long as they can succeed, you and I will immediately come forward to take over the local military administration and regain the land of Danzhou for the imperial court. ”

Li Jin's face didn't show much joy because of this, but continued to ask: "Then Brother Yan, do you know how many troops these people who are ready to do things have? How do you plan to defend Danzhou and prevent the Haihan people from coming to retaliate later?"

"This ......" Yan Mingjun also muttered, about the details of the assassination plan, the part he knew was only what Huang Zixing said, he only knew that he would arrest or kill the Haihan people on Zhang Xin's birthday, and then the magistrate would immediately take over the local government affairs, so that Danzhou would return to the rule of the Ming Dynasty. As for the details of the group in charge of doing it, and how they can defend Danzhou after they succeed, Yan Mingjun has not studied it deeply. Of course, even if he took the initiative to ask, Huang Zixing's side might not be able to tell him all these arrangements with confidence.

Li Jin continued: "Brother Yan, have you ever thought about whether you and I will be implicated if things fail? With the control of the Haihan people on Qiongzhou Island today, if they want you and me to disappear completely, I am afraid that there is nothing to fear. ”

"Brother Li, I haven't seen you for a few days, why have you become timid?" Yan Mingjun replied with some dissatisfaction.

Yan Mingjun's impression of Li Jin is a straight-tempered man who started with others when he first arrived in Danzhou, and his resentment towards Haihan is no less than his own, if he wants to be an enemy of Haihan, Yan Mingjun thinks that Li Jin must be very happy to stand up and take the lead. But listening to his remarks today, it seems that he is not too optimistic about the assassination.

Li Jin shook his head and did not respond to his question, but asked: "In the past few days when I came to Danzhou, I think Brother Yan also has an understanding of the local people's feelings, dare to ask, what does Brother Yan think about the current situation in Danzhou compared to Luo Dingzhou, where you and I served earlier?"

Although Yan Mingjun didn't know what he meant, he still responded honestly: "Danzhou is prosperous in culture and education, prosperous in commerce and trade, and stable in the people. ”

"This Haihan militia can be seen everywhere inside and outside the city, Brother Yan should have seen it, how is it better than my Ming army?" Li Jin continued to ask.

Yan Mingjun responded: "Its ships are strong and the guns are sharp, the military discipline is strict, and the strength should be above the garrison of Qiongzhou Island." ”

Li Jin added: "In my opinion, not only the garrison of Qiongzhou Island, but also the entire Liangguang, it is difficult to pull out a team that can be compared with the Haihan militia. ”

Li Jin's point of view is indeed difficult to refute, because since a few years ago, the Haihan militia has been clearing those hard bones for the Ming government and the military. From bandits to pirate giants, these bandits that the Ming Dynasty could not exterminate were finally solved by the Haihan militia. Judging by the results alone, the armed strength of the two sides is far from the same level.

Of course, there is still a big difference between the rumors and the actual feelings, before Li came to Qiongzhou Island, there were many doubts about some rumors that the Haihan militia was about to blow into the sky, but from Guangzhou all the way to Qiongzhou, on the way to constantly see the amazing strength of the Haihan militia, Li Jin's doubts in his heart have been dispelled a lot. Although the experience in the first few days after arriving in Danzhou was not so pleasant, he also got a lot of opportunities to get close to the Haihan militia, and his feelings about its strength were even more profound.

Yan Mingjun said: "Brother Li, you are growing the morale of others and destroying your own prestige! Although the combat strength of the Haihan militia is stronger than that of the Ming army, they are not orthodox here......

"Brother Yan, you scholars have a problem, you just like to talk nonsense about orthodoxy and the like!" Li Jin shook his head and interrupted Yan Mingjun's words: "If orthodoxy is useful, can the war between the imperial court in the north and the Central Plains be so difficult?

In the past two years, the war faced by the Ming Dynasty has become more and more intensive, in addition to the wild boar skins that knock on the customs in the north every year, since the first year of Chongzhen, the Central Plains region is also full of bandits. Because of the famine and lack of food, and the imperial court was weak in disaster relief, Wang Jiayin organized the victims in Fugu, Shaanxi Province to rise up, and the responders flocked to it, Gao Yingxiang, Zhang Xianzhong, Li Zicheng and other leaders all served under his command, and soon the beacon fire burned all over Shaanxi, and spread to the three provinces of Jin, Ning, and Gansu, and the size of the armed team reached tens of thousands.

Although the place where the accident occurred is still far away from Guangdong in the south, the indirect impact has begun to appear, in addition to the gradual reduction in the supply of various products from the Central Plains on the market, the imperial court has also increased its efforts to levy salaries from the south in the past two years. This reason is also very simple, the salaries of those provinces cannot be collected, and the imperial court has to increase troops to fight, so the money must be apportioned to other provinces that have not had an accident.

As a soldier, Li Jin naturally cared much more about these wars than Yan Mingjun, and when he heard that Yan Mingjun had come out to talk about orthodoxy, he was a little anxious -- civilian officials always thought that they could achieve victory on the battlefield by adhering to the great righteousness, but they did not know that fighting a war requires someone to work hard and to spend money constantly. Having said that, the matter of war really has to be solved so easily, and when there was chaos on Qiongzhou Island last year, why did the Guangdong government pretend to be dead and let the Haihan people come forward to clean up the mess.

Yan Mingjun didn't expect Li Jin to refute himself like this, and he was stunned for a while and didn't know how to answer.

Li Jin continued: "In the past few days, I have been going out of the city every day to watch the exercises of the Han militia in the sea, and I know a little about their tactics. To be honest, if I were to lead troops to fight with them now, I really wouldn't have much confidence. ”

Yan Mingjun said: "Brother Li, did you take the silver of the Haihan people again, so you will speak for them?"

Li Jin shook his head and said: "Brother Yan, I have already figured it out, the Haihan people took the initiative to send silver, not because they were afraid of us, but because they didn't want to cause more trouble." For them, giving us this little money is far less than the money it costs to pull the army out to fight. But these people are not afraid of war, but they are always preparing for war! If we are silent, they will not take the initiative to tear their faces with the Ming Dynasty. If they really killed the Haihan people in Danzhou, do you think they would give up? If the Haihan people were to go to war with the Ming Dynasty, do you think the army in Guangdong would be able to stop them? Even if they could, how long would they be able to stop them? Would the imperial court want to see a new battlefield open up on the Liangguang side?"

Li Jin's words were Yan Mingjun again, it was definitely wrong not to resist the encroachment of the Haihan, one of the original intentions of their coming to Danzhou was to take back the control of this place for the Ming Dynasty and the imperial court. However, Li Jin's current attitude is that he can't take drastic actions, and he will start a war with Haihan, and the consequences will probably exceed the loss of Qiongzhou Island for the Ming Dynasty.

Yan Mingjun didn't want to admit the existence of this possibility, after all, it was an extremely humiliating thing for Da Ming. But in the case of what Li Jin said, the retaliation that would result from angering the Haihan people could indeed lead to more severe consequences—and this was not a responsibility that he or Li Jin could afford.

Yan Mingjun hesitated for a moment before speaking: "But if the Haihan people are allowed to act recklessly, this land of Qiongzhou Island will be annexed by them sooner or later, and it will be the responsibility of you and me to blame the imperial court at that time!"