1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 1013 Founding Ceremony ([-])

Fireworks, also known as fireworks or fireworks, began in the Song Dynasty. They are mostly used for festivals. Haihan has also arranged for fireworks to be set off on anniversary celebrations in the past few years. It is not a particularly new thing for the public.However, [-] fireworks were set off in succession for this anniversary performance, which is much larger than in previous years. It is a rare life experience for spectators who are lucky enough to watch this scene.

For safety reasons, the fireworks were set off on several flat-deck cargo ships in the harbor, one mile away from the nearest coastline, so there was no need to worry about the fireworks going in the wrong direction and causing a fire.In addition, this discharge location can be seen in the entire Victory Harbor Bay, and it is also convenient for the public to watch on the coast.

As each firework blasted into the sky and illuminated the night sky, the crowd on the shore would burst into admiration.This kind of large-scale fireworks that can be launched tens of meters high and can be clearly seen from several miles away is rare in this era, and only a very small number of garrisons in major cities will have this kind of thing. In other words, In this era, it is military supplies used to send alarms, and the fireworks set off by ordinary people during the Chinese New Year are not so powerful.

Among the foreign envoys, there are naturally many people who know the goods. Seeing Haihan's spectacle, they can only sigh to themselves. This fireworks show will cost at least tens of thousands of taels of silver, and there is no return. This is not something that ordinary small countries can have. financial resources.In the past, it was only heard that Haihan was the richest country in the world. From the various details of this celebration, the envoys of various countries have personally confirmed such rumors.

The place where Sun Zhen watched the fireworks show was only [-] meters away from the banquet venue. He was brought here by Chen Yixin before the banquet started, and received the commendation order and medal personally issued by Minister of National Defense Yan Chujie.After finishing the work, he was left at the naval base. It is said that there are other arrangements after the banquet, so he can only wait patiently.However, as a hero who just received the award, Sun Zhen also had the honor to participate in the grand dinner and enjoyed the most sumptuous meal in his life.Being able to dine with many heads of state and guests from various countries will definitely blow a wave to the comrades after returning to the team.

While watching the firework show, Sun Zhen ate a full plate of food for three people. If Chen Yixin hadn't come to him, he would probably be able to destroy another plate of food before the show ended.

"Let's go now?" Sun Zhen looked at the self-service dishes on the dining table not far away with some reluctance. He planned to eat a sauced pig's trotter later, but Chen Yixin asked him to leave immediately venue.

Chen Yixin smiled and said: "There is an urgent task now, so you can finish your meal here. Minister Yan, who presented you the award today, will be here later. Do you want the Minister of Defense to wait for you?"

"Don't dare to be humble." Sun Zhen quickly got up and put down the tableware in his hand.

At the same time, the traversers serving in the Haihan Army also began to leave the field one after another.The end of the military parade does not mean the beginning of the military holiday. On the contrary, the military should discuss with relevant departments and formulate the military action plan for this year and next two years while this person is more together.

Sun Zhen followed Chen Yixin to the small auditorium of the naval base, and found that it had been set up as a meeting place. He saw that almost all the senior military leaders he had met in the past few days had arrived. He knew that what Chen Yixin said just now was not a joke. Immediately, he quickly stretched his military uniform vigorously, straightened his chest and followed Chen Yixin into the arena.

Of course, grassroots military officers like Sun Zhen are not qualified to sit in such high-level meetings, and can only stand and listen at the outermost edge of the venue.Sun Zhen looked left and right, and most of the people standing and listening in the venue were second lieutenants and above, including both the army and the navy. I really didn’t see many low-level officers like him, and I felt a little nervous for some reason. .

After all the participants arrived, the meeting began, which was presided over by Yan Chujie himself.

"Everyone, today is the big day for Haihan's founding ceremony. Logically speaking, this time should let you go back to reunite with your family, but considering the schedule of the past few days, we can only arrange such a meeting when there are more people. Meeting, briefly talk about the foreign military operations arrangements of the Ministry of National Defense this year." Yan Chujie cut to the point succinctly as soon as he opened his mouth.

"In the past year, our army went north and south, expanding our country's control area to Zhoushan in Zhejiang and Xingdao in the Strait of Malacca. We defeated the Spaniards on Taiwan Island and wiped out the remnants of Shibazhi. Cleared up the major pirate forces along the coast of Zhejiang, and facilitated the establishment of the South China Sea Trade Alliance."

"But these military achievements can only represent the past achievements of the Haihan Army. We still have to look forward. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the main task of our Ministry of National Defense remains unchanged. In addition to defending the country, we must continue to expand the territory , to control a larger area." Speaking of this, Yan Chujie stopped and ordered: "Hang up the map!"

There are no ordinary soldiers in this meeting place today, so even the task of hanging the map was performed by two second lieutenants.The map drawn on the white cloth is huge in size, one foot high and one foot five wide. Even if you stand about ten meters away, you can clearly see the outline of the map.

After Sun Zhen joined the army, he also learned basic map recognition skills, but he could barely identify the location of the coastal areas of Daming from this large map, and he couldn't understand it when he got to Hainan Island and went south.However, there are many areas marked in red on the map, and they are all concentrated near the coastline. Sun Zhen believes that these specially marked areas are Haihan's current control area, extending from Hangzhou Bay in Zhejiang Province to the south. in unknown areas.

"The foundation of our Haihan country is to control the sea. Controlling the throats and waterways of the sea and the seaports with favorable conditions are crucial to the safety of our maritime trade. As we all know, the most important trade partner of our country at present is Daming, with Fuzhou and Guangxi as the two provinces Lord, after we enter Zhoushan, we can probably add another Zhejiang. But our goals will not be limited to the existing regions, and we will have new goals this year.”

Yan Chujie stood up after finishing speaking, took the indicating stick from the entourage next to him, pointed to the upper right of the map, and said in a deep voice: "The Denglai area is the springboard for us to enter North China and Northeast China, and it is also the place to control the Yellow Sea area and North Korea across the sea. The strategic location of the peninsula. Our goal this year is to establish a stronghold in the Denglai area and open up a route from Zhoushan Dinghai Port to the north."

When Sun Zhen heard these words, he couldn't help trembling slightly.He suddenly understood why Chen Yixin had brought himself to attend such a high-level meeting. If the Haihan army wanted to settle down in the Denglai area, it was imperative that someone familiar with the local conditions lead the way.A soldier like myself, who was born in Denglei and joined Haihan, is the perfect candidate.

Although Sun Zhen has thought about returning to his hometown many times in the future when conditions permit, to see if his relatives' homeland is safe, he never expected that this moment would come soon.Unexpectedly, less than two years after going south to join the army, this dream opportunity has already come in front of him.He was so excited that he didn't hear most of what Yan Chujie said later.

Haihan's plan to enter the Jiaodong Peninsula is not a recent event. Long before the Denglai Rebellion broke out in 1632, Haihan's high-level officials had already discussed the possibility of sending troops to Shandong to intervene in this war.But at that time, the Haihan army hadn't even occupied Penghu, and they didn't even have a stable foothold on the southeast coast. If they rashly sent troops to Denglai, the risk was too great, and the supply line was too long. Excellent is also difficult to sustain.

The Denglei Rebellion broke out in January 1632, and Haihan only defeated Shibazhi to seize Penghu in May of the same year.After deliberation, Haihan finally did not want to intervene in Shandong affairs thousands of miles away. Instead, he focused on consolidating the control of the Fujian Strait, and then sought to gradually expand the control area northward.

In April 1633, when the coalition forces formed by Haihan and the Fujian Navy went north to attack the Zhoushan Islands in Zhejiang Province, the rebel generals Kong Youde, Geng Zhongming and others in the Denglai Rebellion had defected to the northeast and defected to Houjin, and the Denglai Rebellion was thus announced. End.Haihan did not directly intervene in this process, but only hired maritime merchants to transport many refugees back from the Jianghuai area bordering Shandong, and Sun Zhen was one of them.

It wasn't until the Haihan army captured Zhoushan outside Hangzhou Bay and began to establish a military base that the military put the plan of entering the Jiaodong Peninsula north on the agenda.Although the civil strife in Shandong has ended at this time, the locality has not completely settled down. Although the perpetrators have fled across the sea to the northeast, there are still many civilian bandit armed organizations that emerged during the two years of war in Shandong. .In the face of weak official bandit suppression, the territory of Shandong, especially the Jiaodong Peninsula, where official institutions have been severely destroyed by the war, still presents an unmanageable chaos.

Judging from the information we have so far, the Ming Dynasty still lacks effective means of channeling and managing the chaos in the Jiaodong Peninsula. A large number of people were displaced during the war, which led to the barren fields in many areas after the war, and the lack of food and income in the localities. Relying on the limited disaster relief materials and funds of the imperial court alone, it is impossible to complete the reconstruction work.In order to survive, the people who did not receive timely assistance had to succumb to the bandits or flee to other places, which further aggravated the reduction of local income and production, resulting in round after round of vicious circles.

This situation is a disaster for the local people, but for Haihan, it is a good opportunity to take advantage of it.With the weak organization of the local government, it is much less difficult for Hai Han to settle down.If done properly, the Jiaodong Peninsula can truly become another major source of population for Haihan.The scale and speed of the immigration action organized by the Haihan government will definitely far exceed the spontaneous actions of private businessmen.

When Sun Zhen came back to his senses, Yan Chujie had already finished his speech and was replaced by another high-ranking Haihan official.Sun Zhen seemed to have a vague impression of the Ministry of Security, but he had never heard of the head named Hao Wanqing before.

Hao Wanqing will appear here, on the one hand because of his identity as the leader of the intelligence department, and on the other hand because of his Shandong background.The executive committee planned to let He Xi temporarily return to Sanya to sit in charge, and transferred Hao Wanqing to the north to take charge of local intelligence work, most likely because of his background.

But in fact, this arrangement is somewhat superficial. Except for the accent and some eating habits, Hao Wanqing's understanding of Shandong is actually quite different from the situation of this era.In addition, he is not a professional in geography, and the reference information that can be provided to the military at present is actually not much, which is far less useful than the information that the military consults from large databases.But the person involved and He Xi, another director of the security department, both agreed to such an arrangement, so they could only proceed as it is.

"After receiving this task, our Ministry of Security has obtained information on immigrants imported from the north for more than two years, especially those who are originally from Denglai, Shandong. Among them, more than [-] people have joined the army and police after passing the review. Army and other government agencies. Considering that this operation is led by the military, we put the screening list mainly in the military, checked with the Ministry of National Defense, and selected more than [-] reliable soldiers. Among them There are both ordinary soldiers and officers who have already made military achievements..." Hao Wanqing looked down at the information, and then asked: "Sergeant Sun Zhen from the Special War Battalion, has he arrived?"

"Humble Sun Zhen, please give instructions!" Sun Zhen stood at attention as soon as he heard his name, and answered loudly with his head held high.His response immediately attracted the attention of the officers in the venue, and everyone carefully looked at the soldier named by the head of the Ministry of Security.Although Sun Zhen was nervous, his expression was still taut.

Hao Wanqing nodded to Sun Zhen, and then continued to introduce: "Sergeant Sun Zhen joined the army in Penghu in 1632, participated in two important battles in Taipei and Zhoushan in 1633, and captured the bandit leader Wang Jialin in Zhoushan in April 1633. Personal second-class merit once, promoted to the rank of sergeant. If I remember correctly, the commendation order and medal were awarded by Minister Yan himself two hours ago."

Hao Wanqing put down the materials in his hand, and then said: "Before the army sets off, we need to send a team to the local area to fight the front station. This requires familiarity with the local conditions and better integration into the local society. This team The team will be composed of personnel jointly drawn by the Ministry of Security and the Ministry of National Defense. Among the candidates recommended by the military, Sergeant Sun Zhen is the only person present. So I would like to invite Sergeant Sun Zhen to come forward and tell us what you know about the local situation Tell me roughly."

There was a buzzing sound in Sun Zhen's mind, and it immediately became blank.He originally thought that he was only here to attend the meeting of the high-level military, but he didn't expect to be named on the stage to give a report to these military leaders who were several levels higher than himself. For a while, he didn't even know where to put his hands and feet.

(End of this chapter)