1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 1076 Jiaozhou Bay

These guards are hundreds of kilometers away from Dengzhou City, the central area of ​​the Denglai Rebellion, so they were relatively less affected by the civil strife, and they still maintained the basic organizational system.Among them, Jiaozhou Bay in the Lingshanwei area is the largest ice-free port in the entire Jiaodong Peninsula, and the Ming army still retained a small-scale naval organization in this place.Although Haihan did not regard it as too much of a threat, they did not want to be detected by the Ming army before the northbound fleet arrived at its destination. Therefore, during the voyage along the southern coastline of Jiaodong Peninsula, the main fleet will Keep a distance of about [-] nautical miles from the coast to avoid being discovered by the garrison Ming army.

However, in order to get a better grasp of the situation in Jiaozhou Bay, Tom Wang still sent a reconnaissance sailboat disguised as an ordinary merchant ship to conduct reconnaissance in the bay. seventeen.In order to better conceal its identity, the scout ship also specially shipped some products produced in Zhejiang in order to cope with possible interrogations from the local defenders.

Jiaozhou Bay covers an area of ​​nearly 1372 square kilometers. Eleven rivers such as Nanjiao River and Dagu River flow into the sea from Jiaozhou Bay. In [-], Duke Xu Da of Wei State of the Ming Dynasty sent commander Zhu Xing to Jiaozhou Bay, where he built Lingshan Guard and deployed garrisons to prevent Japanese pirates from invading.

Lingshanwei has three thousand households under its jurisdiction, administratively under the jurisdiction of Laizhou Prefecture, and militarily subordinate to the Jimo Battalion under the command and envoy of Shandong Capital.Lingshan Acropolis is located on the south bank of the mouth of Jiaozhou Bay. In the second year of Yongle (1404) and the first year of Hongzhi (1488), Guo Chong, the commander, and Zhao He, the deputy patrol envoy, presided over two large-scale expansions respectively.Today's Lingshan Acropolis City, Wuli, is covered with blue bricks, with a height of two feet and five feet and a thickness of one foot and two feet. gatehouse.There is a moat outside the city, which is two feet five feet deep and two feet wide.

"Lingshan Weicheng Construction Records" records: "The four gates reach, the streets are crosses, all square and square, shaped like a chessboard, there are stones at the entrance of the alley like chess pieces, and there is a boundary river entering from the North Water Gate, exiting from the South Water Gate, and converging in the south of the city. , Gradually return to the sea.” In the middle of the city, there are facilities such as the health department, experience department, warehouse, and martial arts field, with more than [-] troops garrisoned.

After three constructions, the Lingshan Acropolis has become an important military and political site along the coast of Jiaozhou Bay. The administrative area of ​​Lingshanwei is also much larger than that of prefecture-level cities in later generations.

However, during the Denglai Rebellion, Lingshanwei also received orders from the Shandong Capital Division and mobilized most of its troops to Dengzhou to participate in the war. During the period, there were quite a lot of casualties, so it is currently in the post-war recovery period, and the scale of the garrison must not be able to keep up with the war. before.Fortunately, the activities of the rebel army were mainly concentrated on the north coast of Jiaodong Peninsula, but did not directly affect Lingshanwei, so Lingshanwei City and its surrounding facilities were preserved intact.

But it is inevitable that a large number of people who fled from the north during the war gathered near Lingshan Acropolis, and these refugees who lost their land and production tools basically had to rely on the limited relief from the government to survive.Food is not the biggest problem. In winter, there is no warm place to live. It is a contradiction that the government cannot solve. In order to survive the severe winter, the homeless refugees can only continue to go south, where the temperature is relatively warmer. A little bit of Jiangsu territory.Some of the refugees met maritime merchants who recruited immigrants for Haihan in Huai'an Mansion. Under the temptation of the "warm south" and "controlling food and housing", they set foot on the immigration ship in order to survive, including Sun Zhen, who was born in Dengzhou and is currently serving in the special warfare battalion, is included.

For missions like this that require close inspection, Gong Shiqi naturally did not forget to arrange as many Shandong people who are familiar with the local conditions as possible on board. When Sun Zhen escaped from his hometown two years ago, he also stayed near Lingshanwei. It's been a while, so I still understand the situation here.

"At least half of the group of people who fled to Jiaozhou together died here. Many people didn't want to flee south again. As a result, when winter came and two snowfalls, the number of people who died of freezing went up to three digits. To be honest, if it weren't for the freezing cold, I wouldn't want to go south again, after all, the farther I go, the less chance I will come back!" Sun Zhen still had lingering fears when he talked about the embarrassing situation back then.

"If you didn't go south, you might have died in this place for nothing. How wronged! Don't you regret joining Haihan now?" Gong Shiqi asked with a smile.

Sun Zhen quickly replied: "Of course I don't regret it! If I stayed in Shandong, even if I could survive, I would at most go back to Dengzhou to continue farming. How can I live wonderfully now! Speaking of which, if Shandong had a With a strong army like the Haihan army guarding the place, the Kong bandits will not be able to run rampant for a while and harm the place!"

Gong Shiqi nodded in agreement. He is not a political cadre, and he can't say much in this regard. He only knows to be loyal to Haihan and try his best to complete the tasks assigned by his superiors.

Sun Zhen raised his finger forward and said: "In front is the site of Lingshan Weicheng. In the past, a navy fleet was deployed here, and it was stationed in Tangdao Bay ahead. I don't know if it is still here now. This Tangdao Bay The area is small, and if our ship goes in, it will be a bit of an eye-opener. Since this trip is aimed at Jiaozhou Bay, I suggest not to get too close, so as not to cause complications, and go around the sea to enter Jiaozhou Bay."

Gong Shiqi did not raise any objection to Sun Zhen's suggestion. The order he received focused on the geographical conditions in Jiaozhou Bay, not the deployment information of the Ming army in this area.And in order not to leave the main force, there are certain requirements on the time of action, and you can't delay in this place for too long. Going straight to the point is probably the most efficient solution.

The reconnaissance ship passed Lingshanwei slowly on the ocean less than two nautical miles from the coast, and did not encounter the maritime investigation they were worried about. Gong Shiqi watched for a long time in the telescope, but did not see a ship The warship of the Daming Navy.

After the sailboat sailed into Jiaozhou Bay smoothly, a small number of fishing boats were spotted sporadically near the shore.Sun Zhen touched the scene and said emotionally: "When I fled to Jiaozhou Bay, even if the government didn't have any relief food to distribute, it was a place that relied on the sea to eat the sea, so I wouldn't starve to death. I remember that the government's granary was empty for two months, and everyone went to the Jiaozhou Bay. I could only live on seafood and wild vegetables. At that time, I went to the beach every day to pick up various shellfish and sea vegetables after low tide, and sometimes the local fishermen had a good harvest, and they would share some fish and shrimp with us.”

Gong Shiqi asked: "Then after you escaped here, why didn't you build your own houses to withstand the winter cold?"

Sun Zhen smiled wryly and said, "How could it be so easy? When most people escaped, they only had time to bring some clothes and money. They walked slowly. Once the rebels arrived, they would not only steal money, but also risk their lives." I have to take it away! I am not familiar with this place, except for some people who escaped from whole villages and villages and can organize to build houses. People like me with a single family brought a hoe when they escaped. , there is no way to build a house at all, it would be nice to build a shelter from the rain.”

Gong Shiqi was from the south, and he had never been to the north of the Yangtze River before, so he didn't know the severity of the Little Ice Age in the late Ming Dynasty.Although places like Jiaozhou Bay are known as ice-free ports, in recent winters, large areas of ice have also appeared on the sea surface in Jiaozhou Bay. This is because there are many rivers flowing into the sea here, and the relatively abundant water flow makes it difficult for the sea surface to freeze. It's completely frozen.In winter, the temperature in this place is often as low as minus [-] or [-] degrees, which is an insurmountable difficulty for refugees without heating facilities.

The reconnaissance of Jiaozhou Bay is not just a matter of sight, but has a special focus. Before Gong Shiqi set off, his immediate boss Hao Wanqing and Navy Commander Wang Tom specifically pointed out to him the areas in Jiaozhou Bay that needed to be reconnaissance based on the map.This place is located near the mouth of the bay on the east coast of Jiaozhou Bay. It is a semi-enclosed harbor with a small area.Of course, this "not big" is relative to the area of ​​the entire Jiaozhou Bay. When they entered this harbor, they found that it was more than enough to park the entire northbound fleet in this harbor.

According to the boss's instructions, the scout ship specially docked on the coast here, and made a rough survey record of the topography.Although they don't know how their superiors know that there is such an undeveloped natural harbor thousands of miles away from Zhoushan, the purpose of surveying and drawing military maps of this place is very obvious-the Ministry of National Defense probably has If you take a fancy to this place, you may have to find an opportunity to occupy it later.

Gong Shiqi and Sun Zhen didn't know that this place was one of the main ports where the North Sea Fleet stationed warships in later generations. Although Haihan's current main target is Zhifu Island, the destination on the north coast of the Jiaodong Peninsula, this does not prevent the The coveted Ministry of National Defense of Jiaozhou Bay first came to explore the way.If it is said that the port of Zhifu Island cannot maintain its navigation capability in all seasons, then this place can be regarded as a port more suitable for large fleets to station all year round.In the future, Haihan's North Sea Fleet can definitely use this place as one of the main ports of residence.

The only problem with this place is that it is only about ten miles away from the residence of Qianhu in Fushan, which belongs to Aoshanwei. If they want to settle here, it will definitely attract the attention of the Ming military, and then they will be able to use force to clear the way.

Fushan Institute has a circumference of three miles, and the fortifications of the city are almost the same level as Lingshan Weicheng. The current size of the garrison is unknown, but theoretically the maximum number of garrisons is about [-], which is not enough to cause too much damage to the Haihan Army above the company level. threaten.If Haihan is determined to occupy this place, the local garrison alone will definitely not be able to stop Haihan's actions, at most it will just add some chaos to delay the time.

Although there is no government agency in this natural harbor, there are still some fishermen living nearby scattered.It took Sun Zhen nearly an hour to find a fisherman who claimed to be a sea merchant who went north to Dengzhou to do business. He used a jug of wine as the price and asked him some questions about the frequency of local Ming army activities.

People in this era don’t have much sense of secrecy. In fact, many of the guards of the Thousand Households in front of Fushan came from this surrounding area. When Sun Zhen found this fisherman, it happened that his family had children serving in Fushan.The family did not doubt that he was the one who took advantage of it, and only regarded Sun Zhen as a businessman who was worried about the local security situation, and told him everything he knew, and asked him if he wanted to go to Fushansuo City to have a look.If it wasn't for the limited time for action, Sun Zhen really wanted to go to Fushan Institute to see it.He himself was born in Shandong, so it is not difficult to mix into the local area by himself.

These seemingly trivial information, after being recorded, will be compiled and summarized by the Ministry of Security and the Military Staff Department, and will become reference materials for future military operations, and locals like Sun Zhen obviously have the ability to collect and investigate intelligence With an incomparable advantage, he can save the security department a lot of work.

The reconnaissance ship stayed here for about two hours, then set sail and continued to travel along the coastline of Jiaozhou Bay to conduct a rough survey of the coastal topography in the bay.In the afternoon of the same day, the team that successfully completed the investigation mission left Jiaozhou Bay and rushed forward at full speed.At present, the main force has reached about [-] nautical miles in front of them, and they have to hurry up to catch up.

In fact, there is another natural harbor, Aoshan Bay, near Aoshan Weicheng, a hundred miles east of Jiaozhou Bay, but the local port conditions are far inferior to Jiaozhou Bay, and Aoshan Weicheng is located in the bay. The local area is listed as one of the candidates for the military port.

The reconnaissance ship did not catch up with the main force until the afternoon of the next day, and then Sun Zhen and Gong Shiqi went to the flagship in small boats and reported the local reconnaissance results to the headquarters.Another day later, the fleet arrived at the easternmost tip of the Jiaodong Peninsula, Chengshanjiao, which is under the jurisdiction of Chengshanwei.A few travelers who happened to be on the flagship came to the deck and took a photo with the coast of Chengshanjiao as a commemorative photo.

This is not their personal bad taste. This digital photo will be read out with a laptop in the future, and then the artist will make an enlarged version of the portrait, and then the ship going south will send it back to Sanya one by one, and publish it on Hainan Island. The most influential official media "Haihan Daily" publicized the latest achievements of the Haihan Army to the public.Of course, this kind of propaganda article will definitely be accompanied by a corresponding map to indicate the location where the Haihan army arrived after going north.

Every time Haihan expands overseas, it will be accompanied by a corresponding publicity campaign to increase the self-confidence and pride of the naturalized people.Over the past few years, the glorious image of Haihan's invincibility has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and the people will be proud of Haihan's continuous expansion of overseas territories.

(End of this chapter)