1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 1081
In Haihan's northward movement this time, war is not the preferred response method of the headquarters. If there is a choice, Haihan will try to avoid direct armed conflicts with the local Ming army, but the current situation It is Weihaiwei that has regarded the transiting Haihan fleet as a potential threat, and sent an investigation report to all guards on the adjacent coast, including where Qishan is located.Once the Qishan Institute discovered that the Yantai Mountain Outpost had fallen, the nature of the matter probably could no longer be explained by "misunderstanding".

Of course, there are actually some ways to save the current situation. For example, Haihan used the tactic in both Hainan and Zhejiang, sending armed forces to forcibly occupy the land under the pretext of "assisting the government in suppressing pirates".When he went north to Zhejiang to attack Shipu Port, Haihan claimed to assist the government to suppress the bandits after capturing the city of Shipu Qianhu, and coerced Ma Ling, a thousand households of Shipu, to accept such an arrangement. Haihan's intended target Zhoushan Ship Gang.

But now if you want to use this routine again, there is a difficult problem to solve, that is, where does this "bandit" come from.In the early years when Qiongbei used this trick, they sent a special warfare battalion to act as pirates, and in the early stage, they also destroyed the Daming navy stationed in Qiongbei, captured most of Qiongbei's cities including Danzhou, and created a A real sense of urgency.Afterwards, Haihan also played a full set of plays, and even staged a complete offensive and defensive battle in Qiongbei, which made the Guangdong government know that there was fraud, but afterwards they couldn't produce any actual evidence to overturn Haihan's statement.

And the subsequent military operations in Shipu Port, Zhejiang Province also had the actual target of the Zhoushan Ship Gang, which made the whole plan reasonable.However, there are not many people living here in Zhifu Bay at present, and it is extremely unreasonable for pirates to appear, so it is probably difficult for this old routine to come in handy here.

If Gao Qiaonan directly used force to send back the troops sent by Qishan, the headquarters would not worry about the combat effectiveness of the company he led, but in this case, it might not end well later.

"That is to say, if we want to block Zhifu Bay temporarily, we will inevitably have a conflict with Qishan, right?" Harukon had already realized the crux of the problem, and asked directly.

Tom Wang nodded and said, "Exactly, so we need to make a choice now."

Chen Yixin said: "Whether or not we confront Qishan Institute now, our movements in Zhifu Bay will be exposed, right? Even if Gaoqiao South guards the fortress of Yantai Mountain, Qishan Institute will find a way to enter this area from the sea. Unless we make up our minds to wipe out all the Ming army navy in Shandong Peninsula, it will only be a matter of time before they find out that this place has changed."

Tom Wang asked, "Then what is your attitude?"

Chen Yixin said: "I think we should deal with the current situation in a peaceful way as much as possible. Occupying Yantai Mountain has very limited practical effect for us, and it is impossible to completely hide our whereabouts through this means. It is better to take those After the place was cleaned up, it was returned to the Ming army, and then the relationship was separated. We are just southern businessmen who came to Shandong to build a storehouse and help the victims. As for what happened to Yantai Mountain, it has nothing to do with us."

"I agree with Xiao Chen." Sun Changmi also added: "In a fight with the Ming army, there will be no suspense about the outcome, but considering that we will be stationed here for a long time, it's okay to have too much trouble with the local government. The advantage is that it is better to clean up the whitewashing earlier, so as not to be difficult to carry out work in the local area in the future."

The work that Sun Changmi mentioned naturally refers to the commercial and immigration functions that Haihan overseas bases will have, and these related affairs often require a certain degree of cooperation from the local government to facilitate their development.Although it is not difficult for the Haihan troops going north to destroy the garrisons of several guards, once a large-scale armed conflict occurs, it will easily cause irreversible damage to Haihan's reputation in this area.At that time, the common people will think that Haihan is another rebel army, so how dare they take the initiative to join Zhifu Island.

"You don't have to ask me, I'm leading cavalry, and whether the Ming army seals it or not doesn't really have much impact on my people." Haru Gong was very proud, and didn't directly express his position on this issue.Although the establishment of the cavalry battalion is not large, it may indeed be regarded as the most mobile and combat-effective armed force on the border of Dengzhou. The Ming army has not even returned to the full strength of the guard army. There was not enough cavalry to target and limit Haihan's cavalry battalion within a short period of time.From this point of view, Harukon's judgment is very accurate, and he is notoriously deaf to things outside the window. Whether other departments will be affected by this is not something he needs to consider.

At this time, Qian Tiandun and Hao Wanqing, who had gone to climb Laoye Mountain early in the morning, also came back. After listening to the briefing, Hao Wanqing decisively joined Chen Yixin's group: "The people under me haven't started sending out yet. If this If I confront the Ming army and the local government from time to time, then my people will have trouble going out to act. If the military thinks it is necessary to fight, then it’s best to find a way to delay it for another two days, and wait until I send people out.”

"What do you think of the old money?" Tom Wang naturally would not ignore the existence of Qian Tiandun. After all, the army part of this northward force is based on the special warfare battalion commanded by Qian Tiandun, and the company currently stationed in Yantai is The opinions of Qian Tiandun, a member of the Special War Battalion, will directly influence the direction of this matter.

Qian Tiandun has led soldiers outside for so many years, and he has not fought too few battles, and he has a deeper understanding of the meaning and effect of war than others. After sorting out his thoughts, he said unhurriedly: "Actually How to decide, we just need to think about the purpose of our coming to Shandong. Will destroying the Ming army in the Qishan Institute be of great benefit or disadvantage to us? Solving the Qishan Institute will solve the problems we are currently facing ? I don’t think I need to analyze it in detail, you already know it. War is a means to solve problems, but if you know that this means can’t solve the problem, do you still need to use this thankless means?”

Tom Wang laughed and said, "I never imagined that the person with the most military exploits among us would describe the means of force by saying that it takes too much effort to please. To be honest, I thought you would definitely insist on using force to suppress the other party."

Qian Tiandun shook his head and said, "It's meaningless to fight this kind of battle. It's better to think about how to appease Qi Shansuo's emotions and not let the local government have too much hostility towards us."

Now that most people's opinions have been unified, Wang Tom didn't put forward any other opinions, and let Qian Tiandun take charge of the next action.Qian Tiandun immediately wrote a warrant, and then called his own soldiers to send the warrant to Yantai Mountain on the south bank of Zhifu Bay immediately.

Under the direct sunlight, the Yantai mountain pier is like a stone steamer. It is hot and stuffy, and there is no room for people inside. Even the Ming army stationed here is not willing to be on duty inside.Takahashi Nan brought a company to station on Yantai Mountain, but the barracks could not accommodate these 100 people at all. Fortunately, most of the people in the special warfare camp were from the south, and they were resistant to heat and sun. In the shade, tent cloths were used to set up large and small pergolas, which was not too difficult.

When Qian Tiandun's soldiers arrived here with the warrant, Gao Qiaonan was taking a nap on the floor under the awning. After reading the warrant, he immediately ordered the whole army to assemble and ordered some prisoners to be taken out of the barracks. .

"I'm sorry, everyone, but I have to trouble you to come with us." Gao Qiaonan didn't explain the details, and waved his hand and ordered: "Take them to Zhifu Island."

Zheng Laoqi and the others had originally hoped that the so-called Hundred Households of Jinyiwei would fulfill their promise and give them back their freedom, but they didn't expect that this was to escort them to another place.Zheng Laoqi was shocked and said: "Master Liao, when will you be able to fulfill the promise you made yesterday?"

Gao Qiaonan said vaguely: "When you get to Zhifu Island, you will naturally know."

Zheng Laoqi thought that the people on Zhifu Island had run away long ago, so what was the intention of taking me to Zhifu Island?Just as he was still puzzled, someone next to him slammed his shoulder hard and said, "Head Zheng, look... look at Zhifu Island..."

Zheng Laoqi turned his head to look, and was immediately surprised. There were many sailing boats parked in the bay on the south coast of Zhifu Island, two of which were quite large. Although separated by a Zhifu Bay, the general shape of the hull could still be seen clearly. According to the proportion, the length of the hulls of these two large ships may be more than ten to twenty feet, which can be regarded as the largest sea ships he has ever seen in his life.In the past, there were several big blessing boats in Dengzhou Shuicheng, and compared with these two big boats, they seemed relatively small.

"This... this is the legendary treasure ship built by the Sanbao eunuch!" Zheng Laoqi murmured involuntarily to this phenomenon that cannot be explained by common sense.When he was young, he heard from his seniors in the army that during the Yongle period, the Sanbao eunuch used to build a huge treasure ship for sailing to the west. It is said that the hull length reached twenty feet, but this kind of treasure ship appeared in history, and now However, due to various reasons, the Great Ming could no longer be made.But today's rumored big ship seems to correspond to the astonishing scene in front of him. Apart from this, Zheng Laoqi couldn't think of any other more reasonable explanation. Build such a large warship.

"You are very knowledgeable!" Gao Qiaonan also happened to hear Zheng Laoqi's words to himself. Of course, he would not explain the difference between the Haihan warship and the treasure ship of the Sanbao eunuch.

Zheng Laoqi suddenly looked at Gao Qiaonan with expectant eyes, and said a word: "My lord, this fleet... Could it be that the emperor is on a tour?"

Gao Qiaonan almost couldn't help spraying him with saliva all over his face. He could actually associate Haihan's northbound fleet with such a completely irrelevant matter. He really admired Zheng Laoqi's brain.But since this guy has already misunderstood the origin of the fleet, he simply acted to the end, pretending to be mysterious: "Military affairs, you can't guess randomly!"

When Zheng Laoqi saw Gao Qiaonan's expression, he was sure of his guess. This team of strangely dressed Jinyiwei must be the real imperial guards in the imperial city!Otherwise, how could they have so many new-style firecrackers that they have never seen before, and such a huge fleet docked in Zhifu Bay, let alone Dengzhou Prefecture, even if there is no adult in Shandong who can put on such a big show, Only big shots from the middle of Beijing could have such a big fight.

At this time, Zheng Laoqi still did not doubt the identity of Gao Qiaonan and others.All he could see in his eyes was that this group of people followed orders and prohibited them, and the military discipline was extremely strict. They were definitely not random mobs of the people, but elite troops with extremely high levels of training and equipment.He has served as a soldier in Terengganu for 30 years, and probably only the soldiers under the previous and subsequent chief soldiers can have this kind of performance.And the terrible thing is that this group of people speak with accents that are obviously very close to those in Hebei and the capital. Zheng Laoqi doesn't think they are from the south at all, and Gao Qiaonan previously claimed to be Jinyiwei, so Zheng Laoqi will subconsciously Consciously linking his identity with the capital, he came to the conclusion that "the emperor's tour" sounds absurd, but it makes people laugh and cry when they think about it carefully.

In this way, Zheng Laoqi's resistance to Gao Qiaonan and others inexplicably became much smaller. Thinking about it when he was sick this morning, didn't the officer of Jin Yiwei ask the doctor to give him an acupuncture treatment?This day, the son of heaven is close to the army, and there are still rules in doing things. Locking up his group of people is probably really just to keep the news from leaking.On the other hand, if I continue to make trouble, wouldn't I be suspected of committing a riot?But as for how big the crime is, Zheng Laoqi, who is only a small flag official, can't figure it out, and he doesn't dare to think about it in detail.

"My lord, my little one is willing to cooperate and go to Zhifu Island." Zheng Laoqi thought that he had figured out the cause and effect, and immediately expressed his opinion.

Gao Qiaonan smiled and said: "Okay, you have such a correct attitude, you will have a better life in the future."

Zheng Laoqi didn't understand what it meant, but it didn't sound like a bad thing, and he quickly responded: "Thank you for your appreciation!"

The order Gao Qiaonan received was to escort all the prisoners back to Zhifu Island, and then clean up the traces here.Although there is no further mission statement, Takahashi Minami can imagine that the headquarters' intention is probably to put aside the disappearance of the Ming army in Yantai Mountain, so that they can contact the local government in a peaceful manner in the future.Even if these captives survived, in order to keep the secret of Zhifu Bay, they probably would not be able to return to Qishansuo City in the future.According to Haihan's usual practice, these captives will definitely not stay on Zhifu Island for a long time. Most of them will be sent back to the south with immigrants and supplies, and then sent to an overseas enclave in the South China Sea to colonize.

But luckily in the misfortune, at least their orders were kept. If the order from the headquarters was only to clean up the traces and then withdraw, then Gao Qiaonan would probably order to destroy all the prisoners without hesitation.

(End of this chapter)