In the past few mornings, Jiang Shan always walked into the Office of the Foreign Intelligence Service slightly later than usual. [Read the latest chapter] And he has also developed a habit that is not very noticeable. As soon as he sits down, he will unconsciously put his hands under his nose, as if there is still some good perfume smell left on his fingers.
The secretary in the bureau sent documents waiting for processing and placed them in different document baskets according to different labels. This is a confidential secretary who was transferred from the political security confidential training class and is only responsible for work. Jiangshan has never purchased a life secretary. He lives alone in an apartment and eats all his meals in the cafeteria.
He closed his eyes for a while to get rid of the lingering female image in his mind last night, and then picked up the red-stamped document bag on the first floor. The label on it indicated that the document came from the Macau station. Letters are classified as urgent and top secret.
The Macau station was a major window for the SOS to spy on European movements in Southeast Asia and maintained a first-class position with Jesuit channels and channels.
Opening the kraft paper bag sealed with sealing wax, a European-style letter slipped out. He knew from the exaggerated coat of arms that it was Lando's letter.
There was a thick stack of letterheads with exquisite family crests printed on them. Count Vananova's Portuguese writing is very sloppy, and the translation is attached below: In his letter, he used an extremely long length to discuss mineralogy issues to his subordinates who were purely imaginary, and he talked endlessly about various extremely complicated problems for the mining machinery ordered in Macao. Require. Jiang Shan glanced briefly and turned the letter over. The real information was written on the back. The decryptor in the confidential room has applied a layer of iodine solution on the paper, making blue writing appear on the back of the originally blank letter paper. The combination of letters is encrypted cipher text.
In addition to the original document, the document bag also contains a typescript that has been decoded and sorted by the confidential room. The report was written in English, a language Jiangshan was familiar with, and there was no translation. In the letter, Weiss described in detail his new discovery in Manila - a newly built artillery shooting range. The Spanish already had some kind of rifled gun, equipped with grenades and shrapnel equipped with some kind of fuse. Finally, Weiss cautiously put forward his speculation: armored ship. The Japanese-American Hale, the missing traveler on the Mackerel, is currently in Manila and has become the chief military engineer that the Governor of Salamanca relies heavily on.
Jiang Shan read the report three times from beginning to end and put down the manuscript in his hand. He grabbed the crank of the magnet phone on his desk and shook it a few times, then picked up the receiver and said, "Hello...the main telephone station...please answer the executive committee...Who is here?...Chairman Wen?...Okay, Then go to Chairman Wen’s office..."
Despite his limited public appearances, Count Vananova caused quite a stir among Manila's high society. Local ladies are very interested in him, and the legends about the earl are the most eye-catching topics at the boudoir tea party. This inevitably caused displeasure among the husbands, that is, the colonial officials and wealthy businessmen. The big businessmen especially hated the count because his quiet extravagance made their nouveau riche style of spending money worthless and ridiculous. Esteban Sanabria spread the word that the count was a complete liar, but was actually a swindler who had escaped from New Spain. However, at a fund-raising meeting held in preparation for the Feast of St. Peter, Sanavria was severely criticized for his remarks, "You are always used to judging others by yourself." A Jesuit from Macau criticized him. . The Dominican and Franciscan monks who had received a large donation from Mr. Lando also participated in this chorus with one voice. Sanavria found himself not only the laughing stock of the whole city, but also in danger of becoming the enemy of the priests and becoming a heretic - it is said that the Inquisitor has always been very concerned about the beliefs of wealthy businessmen, in order to avoid attracting their attention. He had no choice but to endure the count's anger, and secretly he hated the count even more.
This incident did not have any impact on Weiss Lando. In other words, he simply has no time to pay attention to these trivial matters. He now devoted himself to winning over colonial officers, inviting them to hunt together, and entertaining them with feasts in his villa that had never been seen in the country. All this soon bore fruit, with Major Alfonso praising the Count's excellent horses and weapons, as well as his excellent marksmanship. Colonel Echasu indulged himself in rum, rhubarb liqueur, fruit brandy and porcelain plates filled with delicacies. Especially the rum, which is added with fruit juice and cooled with well water, is like a nectar under the terrible temperature in Manila. Since the Jesuits praised the count for his valor in fighting to defend the glory of the Lord, and because he was so generous. Then this person is definitely "one of our own", which is the unanimous view of the colonial officers. For the first time, Echasu wrote a handwritten letter inviting Weiss to participate in the tile-throwing competition.
The tile ball court is actually a piece of land circled on the training field outside Fort Santiago. It is surrounded by canopies of trees and the grass is as thick and soft as a blanket. The hollow tile balls made of clay will not break even if they fall to the ground. Eight o'clock in the morning. The officers had already gathered, and they were all dressed up and riding on war horses as if they were going on a battle, and they lined up majestically in two lines.
The drums were thundering, and the first person to step out was Captain Pilar, the cavalry captain under Echasu. A cavalryman next to Weiss immediately came up to meet him. The two started a wonderful chase. Captain Pilar showed off his riding skills, nimbly avoiding the tiles thrown by his pursuers, or accurately deflecting them with his shield. Another cavalryman rushed out from the opposite column to meet the captain, turning the pursuer into a runaway in an instant. Weiss rode out and rushed to support his companions. Riders one after another rushed out of the ranks, and the competition eventually evolved into a melee game of throwing tiles at each other. The followers were running around behind, using their hands and feet to pick up the balls and hand them to their owners, and they had to be careful to avoid the horses' hooves. This is a technical job. The clumsy Shlick was hit several times by the tile balls flying around like stray bullets, and fell to the grass. Fortunately, he was not stepped on by the horse's hooves.
The game ended at ten o'clock in the morning. The count was obviously very happy and proposed to visit the Fort Santiago. His request was naturally met, but the old colonel couldn't help but feel a little tired after two hours of intense exercise. He asked Captain Pilar to accompany him, and after he expressed his apology, he slipped back into the barracks.
"It's really cool here." Captain Pilar turned his head in surprise and found the count looking at him with his trademark toothy smile that was used to hide his true expression. It was nearly noon, and the tropical sun began to spit out its venomous white light. Sweat seeped out from under the cavalry captain's powdered wig, flowing like a river across his face. The Count's patience was almost too much for him. He seemed to be interested in every room, every corner and even every sewer and vent in the fortress. He wanted to examine it in detail, and he always used some unnatural and mechanical method. walking pace. Pilar did not know that his distinguished guest was using the foot test method to estimate the size of the fortress, the distance between the gun emplacements and fortifications, and the camp rooms. He thought that the count might have sprained his crotch while riding on horseback.
They climbed to the top of the castle. Behind the battlements of the city wall, dark-skinned Tagalog sentries with spears stood beside the gleaming cannons. The guns are all made of copper and equipped with four-wheeled gun carriages. The largest one has a 42-pound cannon, which is enshrined in a separate battery. Judging from the patina of the gun, it seems that this gun has been here for many years, but what caught Lando's attention was a pivot gun mount with an inclined slide that gave it a nearly 180° shooting range. This was not like a Spanish masterpiece. Weiss carefully observed the huge wooden gun mount and the iron sheet wrapped on the surface. The iron sheet was not rusty yet, indicating that it was recently manufactured. Weiss raised his hand above his head and touched the muzzle. There was no rifling. Mounted on this suspicious gun mount is just an ordinary front-loading smoothbore cannon.
"Look at this thing." Captain Pilar interrupted his thoughts.
"Isn't this a stove?" Weiss discovered that there was a brick stove every few gun emplacements on the fort. "I recognize that thing next to it. It's a bellows used by the Chinese."
"That's right, this is the furnace. We're surprised at how well-informed you are."
"If this is a stove used to throw grenades, I don't understand why such an elaborate wind stove is needed? Isn't the normal way to set up a brazier? Could it be that the colonel hopes that the soldiers on the fort can still have hot meals? Isn't this a lie? Proper approach will spoil them all."
"You are totally wrong now," the captain's sweaty face revealed the pretentious smile that fools often show when they think they are right. "This is the work of the Governor. He did it after listening to the Japanese guy's idea. Something new. What's being grilled on this stove is neither bread nor soup pots, but cannonballs. Have you ever seen that before firing a cannon, you have to put the cannonballs on the stove and heat them up?"
"No, this is the first time I've heard of it."
"Then you can make the target burn when you hit it - this is indeed a good idea - ha, maybe you should also wrap the cannonball in lemongrass, sprinkle with some salt and pepper, and turn it into a fragrant roast chicken. Then. Once the cannon is fired, the Netherlands and the British will definitely thank us sincerely for our gift. Are you tired? I will take you down."
Lando thought to himself that the captain's knowledge was really limited, or rather he had been on duty in the Philippines where he had only seen the low-level warfare of the natives. Red-hot incendiary bombs are nothing new in Europe.
However, it is better that the defenders of Manila are a group of rookies than a group of veterans of the Thirty Years War.
