Chapter 413: Sharpening the Sword

Two days later, the confidential communications room delivered a small wooden box to her, still smelling of the sea. The box was the smallest standard container manufactured according to the packaging standards issued by the Joint Logistics Headquarters, specifically for transporting official documents and small miscellaneous items. It was made of Southeast Asian teak, with iron-clad corners and a waterproof animal hide lining.

The box was painted with black and white vertical stripes and a row of Arabic numerals, indicating that it contained important official documents. The clasp had a lead seal.

Ke Yun broke the lead seal and took out the files from the box. She quickly glanced at the covers and checked them against the packing list that had been sent by telegram beforehand.

There were three documents in total. The first was the record of Li Mo’s outing written by the female bodyguard, the second was the oral statement of the Ziminlou attendant, and the third was a report on the eavesdropping records of the Ziminlou.

The latter two were specially requested by Ke Yun based on the information provided by the informant—after all, she had spent the longest time at the Ziminlou during her entire outing. She first opened the first surveillance report. The report was very detailed, covering everything from the moment Li Mo left the house that day, down to the snacks she ate in Guangzhou. However, in Ke Yun’s opinion, the only valuable thing in this report was that it confirmed the informant’s information that she had been to the Ziminlou.

Next, she opened the second report, which was the oral statement of the Ziminlou attendant, confirming that the female bodyguard’s record was correct: Li Mo had indeed gone to the Ziminlou and had indeed booked a private room.

This report cross-verified Li Mo’s whereabouts in the Ziminlou, but it still provided no information about what she had done there.

Ke Yun placed her hopes on the third report. She knew that several of the private rooms on the third floor of the Ziminlou were equipped with eavesdropping devices. But after opening it, she was greatly disappointed. The third report clearly stated that there were no eavesdropping records of Li Mo in the “Liuxiang” private room.

The telegram requesting the review of the materials had attracted Lin Baiguang’s attention as soon as it arrived in Guangzhou. He immediately ordered the retrieval of the Ziminlou’s eavesdropping records for that day, but there was no report on the Liuxiang private room in the records. However, there was a report on the investigation of all the guests in the third-floor private rooms that day.

As electronic eavesdropping equipment was a first-level controlled item, the entire Guangzhou station only had three sets. To extend their service life, each use of the equipment had to be approved by Lin Baiguang himself.

To compensate for the lack of modern equipment, copper eavesdropping tubes were installed in all private rooms when the Ziminlou was renovated. However, the actual effect of the eavesdropping tubes was very poor, the sound was muffled, and the pickup range was limited. Moreover, it was impossible for the security department to dispatch listeners 24 hours a day.

Li Mo was not an important person and was not on the key surveillance list. Moreover, she entered the private room alone, so the security personnel on duty did not arrange for a listener to monitor her room.

Lin Baiguang knew that the General Bureau would not request Li Mo’s surveillance materials for no reason. It was clear that this person had some “problems” that had aroused the “interest” of the General Bureau, so he immediately arranged for a comprehensive investigation of the Ziminlou’s staff on duty that day.

The focus of the investigation was, of course, the attendants on the third floor, as they were the only ones on duty upstairs that day.

Because the incident happened during the day, which was the slowest time for business—the Ziminlou had few customers during the day, especially in the third-floor private rooms—there were only two attendants on duty on the third floor during the day shift.

According to the recollection of these two attendants, there were two other groups of guests on the third floor at the same time as Li Mo. Lin Baiguang repeatedly asked if Li Mo had had any contact with these two groups of guests, but the attendants could not recall, because the other two groups were wealthy families with large entourages, and they were constantly being called upon, so the attendants could not pay constant attention to the flow of people in the private rooms.

Lin Baiguang had someone retrieve the guest registration book and billing records for that period. One of the two groups of guests was a regular customer of the Ziminlou, while the other was a new customer who was visiting for the first time: a young master, a middle-aged servant, a young servant, a maid, and an old woman. According to the attendant, the young master was accompanied into the private room by the young servant and the maid, while the others rested in the lounge on the first floor.

The address of the new customer caught Lin Baiguang’s attention. The address was “Risheng Inn,” a large inn that catered to officials and wealthy merchants from out of town.

This meant that the guests were from out of town. This in itself was not suspicious, as many out-of-towners came to the Ziminlou to experience the “Australian style,” but they usually came at night when the atmosphere was at its liveliest, and rarely during the day.

He immediately ordered someone to go to the Risheng Inn to investigate the identity of this group of new guests. The person sent to report said that this group of guests had indeed stayed at the Risheng Inn, but they had left the day after visiting the Ziminlou.

The guests had filled in “From” as Fenyi, Jiangxi, and “To” as Fenyi, Jiangxi, at the Risheng Inn. No matter how Lin Baiguang looked at it, he felt that this group of people was suspicious. He immediately sent men from the Qiwei Escort Agency to the waterway docks to investigate whether such a group of people had gone to Jiangxi in the past few days. The result was that there was no such group.

However, this result did not prove anything. Investigation is not omnipotent, and the absence of a witness does not mean that it did not happen. But it was impossible to pursue this line of investigation any further.

Because these two groups of people were neither important figures nor on the surveillance list, the security department naturally did not arrange for anyone to eavesdrop on their conversations—otherwise, even if the security department were expanded a hundredfold, it would not be enough.

Ke Yun finished reading this supplementary report from the Guangzhou Security Department. It was clear that Li Mo’s visit to the Ziminlou was very suspicious, and the out-of-town guests whose whereabouts were unknown were even more so. It was a pity that the attendant had not been able to monitor them the whole time, and the Ziminlou had no eavesdropping records—of course, she hadn’t had high hopes for the eavesdropping records in the first place.

But this left a possibility: Li Mo might have had contact with this wealthy young master and his subordinates at the Ziminlou. It was most likely the young master’s young servant or maid.

Although no decisive information was obtained from Guangzhou, Ke Yun believed that she had determined one thing: Li Mo was problematic. This case was worth her continued investigation.

A transport ship of the Dabo Shipping Company was anchored in Weitou Bay, its anchor down. On the deck, sailors in uniform white uniforms were scrubbing the deck.

This was a salt transport ship. According to the commercial agreement signed by both parties, fifteen salt-laden ships from the Dabo Shipping Company would arrive each month to sell salt to the Zheng family. The Zheng family would pay for half of the goods with spot goods: indigo, indigo blue, medicinal materials, timber, porcelain, and tea, and the other half with silver.

This trade had been going on for more than half a year, and so far, the trade cooperation between the two sides had been very smooth. There had been no trade friction.

Xu Ke and Qian Shuixie stood at the window of the sterncastle, which was fitted with a screen, observing the entire Weitou Bay and the islands within the bay, such as the Greater and Lesser Kinmen Islands, Xiamen Island, and Gulangyu, with a large-caliber telescope.

These islands were now all under the control of Zheng Zhilong, and each island had a garrison. In particular, Kinmen Island, opposite Anping, was heavily guarded and formed a pincer formation with Anping.

The main force of the Zheng family’s fleet, including several European-style two-masted and three-masted sailing ships, was anchored at various anchorages in Weitou Bay. However, there was no grand scene of a thousand sails here. At most, there were only about a hundred ships, and most of them were small and medium-sized Guang boats and Fu boats.

Judging by the condition of the ships, it was no wonder the Dutch had always looked down on Zheng Zhilong’s maritime combat capabilities. Zheng Zhilong was still essentially a pirate. Not only were his ships of various types, but they were also poorly maintained and looked dilapidated.

Such a fleet would have a hard time gaining an advantage against the Dutch in open sea battles. No wonder they all liked to use fire ship tactics.

Although Zheng Zhilong had many ships, he was not maintaining a navy but a trading fleet. He could not maintain too many armed warships that only consumed resources and produced nothing. Therefore, most of his ships were on trade voyages. If it weren’t for the fact that his last rival, Liu Xiang, had not yet been eliminated, he probably wouldn’t even have kept these hundred or so ships here. Maintaining men and ships cost a lot of money.

Qian Shuixie said, “Although there are few ships, these ships should be their main force, right? After all, they are always ready for battle to defend their lair.”

“Not necessarily,” Xu Ke said as he marked the observed ship anchorage positions, forts, and barracks on the drawing board. “Zheng Zhilong’s biggest and best ships are on the Japan and Manila routes. After all, these two routes are the foundation of his power. The Japanese say that the Anhai ships that go to Nagasaki are very large. What Zheng Zhilong wants is trade, not war.”

“So it’s difficult for us to launch a surprise attack to wipe them out in one fell swoop?”

“That’s right. It’s difficult to annihilate his main force in a single battle because it’s unlikely that he will concentrate all his ships.” Xu Ke said, “But Anping is his lair. If we can uproot the Zheng family’s power in Anping, as well as on Gulangyu, Xiamen Island, and the Greater and Lesser Kinmen Islands here.”

“So what we’re actually going to do is not a Manila Bay battle but a large-scale amphibious assault?”

“At least that’s my suggestion,” Xu Ke said. “As for what strategy the military command and the Executive Committee will adopt, I don’t know.”

Qian Shuixie thought: This is indeed very likely. If it were just an impressive naval bombardment to give Zheng Zhilong a lesson, there would be no need to mobilize two special reconnaissance teams to Kaohsiung to prepare for war, and there would be no need for him to come here for a pre-battle reconnaissance. This was clearly a request for them to conduct a reconnaissance-in-force and a preliminary operation before an amphibious assault.

“It is said that Kinmen Island and Xiamen Island are where the Zheng family’s wealth is gathered. When the Qing army launched a surprise attack and took Kinmen Island, they seized millions of taels of gold and silver, and everyone from top to bottom made a fortune,” Xu Ke said. “But that was decades later. The Zheng family probably hasn’t accumulated so much wealth yet.”