Chapter 162: Activities in Guangzhou

Lin Baiguang glanced at the courtyard outside. The weather had turned slightly cool, and even outdoors, the summer heat was gone. It was a completely different feeling from his time in the old world.

This was, after all, the south. He remembered a time in the old world when he went to Shenzhen for a meeting in November. The midday sun could still make one sweat, and it was impossible to wear a jacket; he could only walk the streets in a shirt.

However, this timeline was much colder. After a few rains, the temperature had dropped below thirty degrees Celsius. He stretched his body. He noticed that Chen Tong, who was on guard at the courtyard gate, was standing impeccably, looking very alert.

Lin Baiguang had transferred from Qiongshan to Guangzhou to begin his work there and had brought Chen Tong along as his assistant.

In Qiongshan, there was no longer a need for complex intelligence work—the fall of the place was only a matter of time. After its fall, it would be the job of the Political Security General Bureau.

He had Gao Di stay behind to officially manage the intelligence network headed by Ma Benyuan—until the occupation of Qiongshan, when it would be handed over to the “neighbors.” As for some of the capable individuals within Ma Benyuan’s intelligence network, Lin Baiguang considered transferring them to Guangdong for employment.

Chen Tong’s specific position in the Guangzhou special agency had not yet been announced, but he was essentially playing the role of the chief of general affairs. All intelligence gathering and mission assignments were handled through him. In most cases, Lin Baiguang only had contact with him and his confidential secretary. Chen Tong’s tasks were numerous and complex, but from Lin Baiguang’s cold observation, he was handling them in an orderly manner.

This child is making more and more progress, Lin Baiguang thought. He might be a promising talent in the future.

After bringing him to Guangzhou, to see if he would be dazzled by the temptations of the big city, Lin Baiguang deliberately gave him several field assignments, allowing him to fully experience the charm of urban life, and then suddenly assigned him to internal affairs. He was not allowed to go out for many days. He was even given the most boring and menial tasks to fully observe his performance.

Chen Tong’s performance satisfied him. Lin Baiguang thought, this person’s heart is as calm as water, not anxious or impatient. He is good material for intelligence work.

This was the temporary office of the Guangzhou Station. Strictly speaking, it was the office of the Guangzhou Station’s intelligence department. It had been three days since he had taken over this operation from Zhang Xin. Currently, the Guangzhou special agency led by Lin Baiguang was mainly engaged in collecting information on public sentiment, political affairs, and commercial matters. Another task was special propaganda. The intelligence personnel and materials previously managed and controlled by Zhang Xin had basically been transferred here.

Lin Baiguang naturally took over all the intelligence work and connections of the Guangzhou Station. He had been extremely busy these past few days. Besides receiving the intelligence system, he had also met with the staff of the special agency headquarters.

According to the intelligence work regulations formulated by Jiang Shan, Li Yan, and others, “connections,” “informants,” and “moles” were all part of the reconnaissance network. Each reconnaissance network had an instructor who had vertical control over the reconnaissance agents. The contact between the instructor and the special agency headquarters was carried out in stages through communication stations. If a problem occurred in one link, it could be easily cut off.

The instructors were all native intelligence trainees who had returned from rotation training in Lingao or had been trained in the intelligence bureau’s A-class program. Lin Baiguang also directly commanded the Guangzhou Station’s security department. This department consisted of more than forty people and was responsible for security work. Since these people were mostly from escort agencies, they had a strong traditional “martial virtue” mindset. Therefore, Lin Baiguang did not ask them to do “wet work,” but mainly assigned them to protect the agency and personnel.

Lin Baiguang sat at the headquarters, like a spider in the center of its web, able to feel the slightest vibration in every link.

The mission he had received was to do everything possible to facilitate peace talks between the Guangdong officialdom and the Lingao side, and to restore trade between the two. To this end, he was actively working to establish connections with local officials and gentry and to lobby them. He had a good grasp of the attitude of every official in the Guangdong officialdom and the gentry.

Now, peace talks were the general trend. The remaining resistance was clearly concentrated on Wang Zunde and Gao Shunqin. Wang Zunde was ill in Zhaoqing, his condition fluctuating. Even if he didn’t die, his departure from office was not far off. Gao Shunqin’s official career was still smooth, and it was said that he was also favored by the emperor. Lin Baiguang believed that the biggest obstacle to the peace talks was not Wang Zunde, but this Censor of Guangdong.

Wang Zunde’s attitude was no war, no peace. But his advisors and subordinates, including the Ming military commanders in Guangdong, all hoped to reach a peace agreement with the Aussies as soon as possible to avoid worse consequences from continued fighting. Although Lu Yizhong’s letter last time had not received a response from Wang Zunde, and the planned negotiating delegation to Macau had not gone, a clear message had come from a “connection” within Wang Zunde’s staff: including his most trusted advisor, Li Xijue, they all hoped to contact the Aussies—at least to rescue the remnants of He Rubin’s troops trapped in Qiongshan and reduce the shock to the court and the public.

With this foundation, Lin Baiguang was full of confidence in his work regarding Wang Zunde.

Gao Shunqin, on the other hand, was known for his firm attitude. This was not only because he had a particularly strong sense of the distinction between Chinese and barbarians, but also because he had no commercial interests in Guangdong’s maritime trade and was not responsible for specific military or political affairs. The success or failure of war, blockades, and so on had no direct relationship with his interests. Although this person could not be said to be as pure as water or as clear as a mirror, he resolutely refused bribes that went against his beliefs and ideals—otherwise, the Portuguese would have bought him off long ago. Therefore, Gao Shunqin was the most difficult person to deal with.

Lin Baiguang decided to focus his peace talk efforts on Gao Shunqin.

But he had not yet figured out a specific way to approach this.

“Master,” Chen Tong said softly from outside the window in the courtyard.

“What is it?”

“The new report has been delivered.”

“Bring it in!” Lin Baiguang ordered.

A thick notebook was brought into his office. He flipped through the latest intelligence summary, which contained local Guangzhou intelligence from the last 72 hours—not very important but possibly of reference value. The most important intelligence from within Guangzhou city was generally delivered to the agency within 4 hours.

He first looked at some news passed on by a “connection” in the governor’s yamen: Li Fengjie had sent an advisor to Macau, the purpose of which was unknown. This news piqued his interest. Why suddenly send someone to Macau? Macau was under the jurisdiction of Xiangshan County. Official business was usually handled by the Xiangshan County Assistant Magistrate, who was specifically responsible for Macau affairs. As the governor of a province, Li Fengjie had no reason to privately send an advisor to handle official business.

Li Fengjie had no business in Macau—this was something the Guangzhou special agency had long known. It was unlikely that he went to Macau for business-related matters.

The Foreign Intelligence Bureau had no permanent personnel in Macau, only a few “connections” that Zhang Xin had there to report on general local commercial and public sentiment. Of course, they couldn’t find out what Li Fengjie’s secret envoy was up to.

Lin Baiguang thought, at this juncture, Li Fengjie sending someone to Macau is obviously related to them. We must get to the bottom of this. Thinking of this, he called for Chen Tong.

“Go and do a few things immediately. Li Fengjie has sent someone to Macau. Pick a person to tail Li Fengjie’s envoy to Macau and try to find out what he’s planning to do there.”

Chen Tong nodded. “I’ll go right away.”

“One more thing, do we have any connections around Gao Shunqin? Find out immediately and tell me.”

“Understood.” Chen Tong immediately left.

Lin Baiguang watched Chen Tong leave and began to flip through the latest intelligence summary again. He picked out the intelligence on the most important officials to read first. A piece of intelligence about Gao Shunqin submitting a memorial to ban Portuguese from entering Guangzhou for trade and to prohibit common people from trading with them caught his attention.

There must be a connection here! Lin Baiguang ordered someone to immediately inquire if Li Fengjie had recently mentioned anything related to the Portuguese in Macau.

The intelligence agent had no trouble getting information from the servants in Li’s residence—Li Fengjie had once instructed his advisors that if any Portuguese inquired about Gao Shunqin’s memorial, they were to deny it completely.

Comparing this news with the general content of Gao Shunqin’s memorial, Lin Baiguang began to understand: Li Fengjie most likely needed something from the Portuguese, which was why he was afraid of Gao Shunqin’s memorial reaching their ears. He probably also knew that there were no secrets in Guangzhou, so he had instructed his people to “deny it to the death.”

He rang a bell, and a confidential secretary from the special agency, Lin Xuan, walked in. This was a young girl he had purchased with his maid welfare fund—a poor girl with only a nickname. Lin Baiguang had her take his surname. According to Lin Baiguang’s work nature, the General Office had sent her to the Political Security General Bureau’s confidential personnel training class. Now she was Lin Baiguang’s confidential secretary.

“Look up if there are any copies of Gao Shunqin’s memorials concerning the Portuguese or Macau affairs from mid-August to the present.”

Lin Xuan quickly returned and reported that she had not found the requested materials.

If there were none, he would have to send someone to get them specifically. Once Gao Shunqin’s memorials reached Beijing, it would be easy to get them—as long as the emperor didn’t keep them, he could get them from the court circulars. But it was not so easy in Guangzhou. He had to bribe the advisor who drafted the memorial or the trusted servant boy who managed the memorials and documents.

Unfortunately, there was no such reliable connection in Gao Shunqin’s residence—this was a major shortcoming. Originally, Pei Lixiu and Gao Shunqin’s favorite concubine, Su Ai, were close friends. With Su Ai’s position in the Gao residence, it should have been possible to secretly obtain a copy of the memorial.

Pei Lixiu was not in Guangzhou now, so this path was cut off. Of course, he could recall her, and the Lingao side would not object, but she was too famous, and too many people in Guangzhou knew her. It would be very dangerous to return rashly when the situation was still unclear.