Chapter 1151 Intelligence War (Second update, please subscribe)
Yingtian, as the temporary capital of the Ming Empire, is still as prosperous as before, even though the imperial capital has long been moved to Zhongdu. As the third largest city in the empire, the relocation of the imperial capital did not have much impact on it.
Thanks to the convenient water transportation of the Xin'an River and the criss-crossing railway network of the Pampas, although Yingtian is no longer the administrative center of the empire, it is still one of the most developed economic centers of the empire.
Although the administrative center of the empire has been moved to Zhongdu, as the former imperial capital, it still retains many traces of the past, such as a large number of embassies.
Although the embassy moved to Zhongdu, the embassy that remained in Yingtian became a consulate.
On the riverside road not far from the consulate, under the green trees by the river, there are cafes and restaurants everywhere. Every day, many customers come here to read newspapers, drink tea, and eat. While men and women in the open-air restaurants are reading or chatting, a 14 or 15-year-old newsboy is holding a large stack of new newspapers and selling them on the street:
"Sell newspapers, sell newspapers. Big news from the Voice of the People. A local wealthy family has been hit by a scandal. The rich man secretly transferred his property to his illegitimate son and was prosecuted by the prosecutor..."
A Western man dressed as a gentleman stopped the newsboy and asked in fluent Chinese:
"Is there today's Yingtian Daily?"
"Yes, yes, sir."
The newsboy quickly took out a copy of "Yingtian Daily" from his bag, which is the largest local newspaper in Yingtian.
"I want one."
The Western gentleman handed the newsboy a two-cent coin, took the newspaper, and walked towards a cafe while reading. On the way, a beautiful blond and blue-eyed Westerner patted his shoulder:
"Mr. Anderson, you seem to be quite free. Don't you have to take care of business?"
"Brand, have you forgotten that one of our jobs is to wander around the country and look up interesting things?"
Anderson smiled at Captain Brand, a naval captain from the German Consulate in Yingtian.
"So what interesting things did you find today?"
"Interesting things? ... There are a lot of interesting things here every day, but? You know, there are always some people watching us, and I have a hard time getting rid of them."
Anderson said, handing the newspaper to Brand.
"There may be news in the newspaper, but it certainly won't be news we care about. Let's go over to the side and have a cup of coffee."
Brand shrugged and handed the newspaper back. Then they walked into a cafe nearby, ordered a cup of coffee, and started chatting.
"How's that? Did you lose your tail too?"
"Yes."
Brand nodded and said.
"The game we play here is different from anywhere else. The eyes of the Imperial Security Bureau are always on us."
"Don't you want to know why they're staring at us?"
"Why else? They're afraid that we might obtain some of their military secrets, such as secret weapons."
Brand said bluntly.
"Indeed, if we were to say what last year's war taught us, it would be weapons. The Ming Empire possesses many new weapons that we have never heard of or seen before. Those weapons will have a subversive impact on the battlefield. As military attachés, we have the responsibility to collect intelligence in this regard."
"Torpedoes, silent automatic guns, God only knows how many advanced weapons they have."
Even when they were sitting in a corner, their voices were just barely loud enough for each other to hear.
If there was any aftereffect of the Peruvian raid, it was
"If we don't figure this out, my friend, in the next war we may end up like the Peruvians, like them..."
Anderson gestured with his fingers.
"All our warships will sink into the sea."
“It’s not just warships.”
Brand took out a gold cigarette case from his arms, took out a cigarette and lit it.
"There are many other weapons, but right now, we have very little intelligence on this. I have to say that they have done a very good job of keeping it secret, and we have almost no channels to get this information. Even if we get some, it is very likely that it is all lies."
"The most important thing is not this. The most important thing is that the Imperial Security Bureau has been keeping a close eye on us. It is difficult for us to get close to their factories. We don't even have a chance to figure out which factories produced those weapons."
What is dimensionality reduction attack?
If Anderson knew this word, he would definitely agree with this point. In this era, no country in the world has a full-time counterintelligence agency, but the Ming Dynasty had long established the Imperial Security Bureau, which specializes in domestic security and counterintelligence work.
Compared with their counterparts in later generations, the work of the Imperial Security Bureau can be described as easy, because the intelligence personnel of various countries are basically staff members of embassies and consulates. Ordinary embassy staff collect political and economic intelligence, and military attachés collect military intelligence.
Therefore, often just keeping a close eye on them can prevent 80% of leaks. This is also the reason why Andrin and others complain that there are eyes watching them. From the first day they took office, there were eyes watching them.
"The most important thing is that they watched too closely."
Brand said helplessly.
"Even if we get rid of them now, we won't be able to keep them away for long. I think if we want to get the intelligence we need, maybe we need to think of some other ways."
"Do you have any good ideas?"
Anderson asked curiously.
"It's not a good idea, but I think we can change direction. If we just stay in the present, we will definitely not get any new intelligence. We must think of some ways, such as establishing a network."
“Build a network.”
"right!"
Taking a deep puff of his cigarette, Brand said softly.
"We can use some Ming people to build an intelligence network. They don't necessarily need to work in the arsenal or the army, but they can have certain channels to contact these two places. All we need is to use their power to obtain the intelligence we need. Of course, this requires funds. After all, buying people off requires money! And it requires a lot of money!"
This is also the reason why Brand asked Anderson to come over. He himself could not come up with such a large sum of money.
"What do you mean? We do it together? That doesn't seem to be a problem, but..."
Anderson asked, looking at him.
"Have you found the right person?"
It must be true, otherwise, given this guy's habits, he would never say such a thing.
"I believe there are people all over here who could potentially work with us."
Brand said bluntly.
"As long as we find the right opportunity and the right people, we will definitely find those who are willing to help us."
Brand never doubted this, because this is human nature. What is human nature? Human nature is greed.
As long as they are given enough benefits, there will definitely be people willing to sell out their country. Now all he needs to do is to start working on it.
"Yes"
Said Anderson.
"There are indeed such people everywhere, but the question is how can we find them?"
(End of this chapter)
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