Volume 4: Hot! The whole world is a warring state Chapter 654: Upgrading the European Spy Network
The Pacific Ocean is much wider than the Atlantic Ocean.
Therefore, when Zhu Youdong received the letter from Sun Chuanting, it was already May 1637.
After reading the letter over and over again, he closed his eyes and pondered for a while, then asked Fang Zhenghua to invite Tian Ergeng and Richelieu over.
Tian Ergeng is needless to say. As for Richelieu, he performed very well in assisting Ming officials in carrying out civil affairs in India some time ago and won unanimous praise from Ming civil officials, so Zhu Youdong naturally gave him a lot of rewards. Of course, it was just various honors and monetary rewards, and the title was still a viscount, and it was a nominal title without fiefdom.
As a person who came to the Ming Dynasty from Europe where feudal lords and vassals were still everywhere, Richelieu felt very sorry that he could not obtain his own fiefdom. But at the same time, he was very happy to see that the Ming Dynasty had conquered India and that the journey to his home was a little shorter. He worked harder on the work assigned by Zhu Youdong.
Recently, he mainly assisted the officials of the Supreme Court in translating some ancient Roman codes brought back by Chen Zizhuang from the Ottoman Empire, and collaborated with the judges of the Supreme Court to try some major cases, and subtly influenced the judges who were traditional and accustomed to the concept of governing the country with morality.
It should be said that his work was quite effective. The most typical example is that in the 18th year of Tianqi (1636), the White Lotus Rebellion in Shandong and northern Nanzhili was easily suppressed by the local armed police force. In addition to arresting some leaders, a large number of ordinary believers were also arrested.
According to the custom before the Ming Dynasty, in the case of treason, the leader would definitely be the three tribes of the Yi clan. The backbones would also be beheaded, and their wives and daughters would also have a miserable fate. However, for ordinary blind followers, they would usually just be reprimanded and the matter would be settled.
But when Richelieu got involved in this matter, he had a violent conflict with the judges of the Supreme Court. Because, his point of view was: the leader should be hanged, but it was not necessary to kill the three clans - in the West, there were not many cases where the monarch killed the father and let the son continue to serve him. And the son would work very hard to wash away the shame of the family.
If he thought the punishment for the leader was too severe, he also thought the punishment for ordinary followers was too light: you are all adults, how can you really rebel if someone persuades you to rebel? Since you have chosen to rebel, you must be prepared to pay the price. So for ordinary followers, his opinion is: according to the severity of the individual's circumstances (whether there was murder, robbery, rape, etc. during the rebellion), they should be hanged, beheaded, imprisoned, and admonished.
Zhu Youdong did not easily make a judgment on the two completely different opinions. Instead, he asked them to publish their respective views and the basis for their handling in the newspaper. As a result, in the 18th year of Tianqi, a wave of nationwide discussion on the existing legal system was set off throughout the Ming Dynasty.
In Zhu Youdong's opinion, although Western democracy has been ruined in the 21st century by white leftists who are engaged in various political correctness for votes, he still likes the value of equal rights and obligations developed from equal exchange in the 17th century.
Therefore, he was not in a hurry to make a ruling himself, and let the two sides quarrel. Taking this opportunity, he did not say to the whole nation - he never arrogantly thought that the six major newspapers could cover all the people in the entire Ming Dynasty. But at least, he carried out a legal publicity for officials, literati, soldiers, citizens and a small number of farmers, which was a great gain.
…
While Zhu Youdong was in deep thought, Tian Ergeng had quickly finished reading Sun Chuanting's letter and understood why the emperor had summoned him urgently.
"Your Majesty, I am incompetent and did not know in advance that the Western bandits were actually building such a huge ship."
"Don't talk about useless things. The most urgent thing now is to confirm whether the other party has such a giant ship. Second, if the other party does have it, how to get the core technology out."
"Yes. I just thought about it for a while, and the general strategy is, first, to use the spies under Xu Xianchun to verify whether the Western bandits have such a huge ship. Second, use the spies and assassins we have sent to Europe to kidnap one or two key figures who built this huge ship and bring them to Ming Dynasty."
"..." Looking up at the roof, Zhu Youdong said expressionlessly: "How many hidden troops have we put in Europe?"
"Well……"
"Mr. Richelieu is a person I trust. Don't be shy and speak directly."
"As ordered. Your Majesty, the Jinyiwei Yangon Spy School trained more than sixty white children in total. In the end, only thirty-two passed various training and loyalty tests. Fifteen of them were assassins. The rest, after our operation, successfully returned to Europe, only two socialites, two cooks, and six businessmen. The two socialites are now in Lisbon and Porto. One of the two cooks follows a Spanish viscount and is now working in the viscount's manor in Seville. Another one works in a restaurant in Lisbon. The six businessmen are relatively freer than the first four, but they are all small businessmen. If they hadn't received some support from the Ming Dynasty, they would have gone bankrupt long ago."
"Well, from what you just said, these people are all Portuguese, right?"
"Yes, Your Majesty. After all, when we took over Sadian across from Yangon, it was nominally a Spanish colony, but in fact it was opened up by the Portuguese. Moreover, we always felt that using the restoration of the country to guide those Portuguese would better ensure their loyalty."
"Where are the killers?"
"Your Majesty, I am not slandering my colleagues behind their backs. However, I have always felt that Xu Xianchun's training of assassins was almost the same as the way my Jinyiwei trained our own assassins. He did not consider that these children were all from foreign races. In short, the assassin school taught them too many ways to kill, and the training was cruel enough. However, they lacked warmth, and I am not very optimistic about the loyalty of these assassins."
"Is there anything that can be used?"
"After I took over the affairs in Yangon, I classified the fifteen assassins and found three of them I could fully trust. I have sent them to lurk in the slums of Madrid. As for the remaining twelve, I sent them to Osman."
"This arrangement is not a big problem. So, is the current spy school still running?"
"Yes, Your Majesty. Since we conquered India, and in recent years, after the unification of the European Union, some people whose interests were damaged by the establishment of the European Union have come to Asia to make a living. Therefore, we have a wider range of students to choose from. But these people are all adults, and their plasticity is very poor."
" Well, speaking of children..." After thinking for a while, Zhu Youdong turned around and asked, "Fang Zhenghua, who is leading the armed police in the Mongolian region?"
"Your Majesty, the situation in the Mongolian region is rather special. The ordinary police and armed police are combined into one, and are all under the unified command of the Public Security Bureau. Uh, let me look it up. Oh, Your Majesty, the director of the Mongolian Regional Public Security Bureau is Wu Sangui, a native of Liaodong, and he is 25 years old this year."
"Hiss~ It's actually him."
"Your Majesty, is there anything wrong with this person?"
He has no problems now, but I don’t know if he will have any problems in the future in this dimension.
"I will give him an imperial decree later, asking him to lead the elite cavalry deep into Siberia and bring back some white children for me, no, for the Imperial Guard. Please note, this is a secret decree."
"As you wish, I will do it later."
"Well, regarding this matter, Tian Ergeng, both your Jinyiwei and Lao Wei's Dongchang should send people to follow Wu Sangui northward."
"As you wish."
"Okay, this is the current situation of our Ming Dynasty's spies in Europe. Although I am not satisfied, I also know that there are huge racial differences between our Ming Dynasty and Europe. It is not easy for you to achieve this level. Mr. Richelieu?"
"Your Majesty." Having been in Ming for many years, this gentleman already speaks fluent Chinese: "As long as France can be revived as soon as possible, all the risks are worth it to me. I am willing to sneak back to Europe and support the entire European intelligence network for you."
"Thank you for your loyalty and bravery. How much danger will it put you in if you go back?"
"Your Majesty, even in France, not many people know me, because many of the French leaders were killed by the devil-controlled Spain. And..." He patted his round face and bulging belly: "Even if there are people who know me, who would have thought that more than ten years have passed, and the skinny guy has become a fat man now?"
"That's good. But Mr. Richelieu, I believe you have heard just now that my Ming Dynasty needs to know some core secrets of Spain, but my Ming Dynasty's spies in Europe are just starting out now, and their status is still too low. Therefore, I hope that after you return, you can effectively improve the level of this spy network. And this will inevitably involve considerable risks ."
"I know , but as I said before, for France, all the risks are worth it."
"Well, Mr. Richelieu, I wish you good luck. I will let Tian Ergeng come down to hand over to you. All the current intelligence personnel of the Ming Dynasty in Europe will be under your command."
"As you command, Your Majesty. I will return to Europe as soon as possible and do my best to complete the two tasks you just assigned me, and then strive to achieve greater results."
