1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 1109
The Miaodao Archipelago consists of 32 large and small islands, located at the confluence of the Bohai Sea and the Yellow Sea, in the waters between the Jiaodong Peninsula and the Liaodong Peninsula, with a total area of ​​more than [-] square kilometers.Looking far away from Danya Mountain in Dengzhou, you can see the Miaodao Islands like jewels inlaid on the blue waves.

The archipelago is divided into three island groups from north to south. The North Island Group includes Nanhuangcheng Island, Beihuangcheng Island, Daqin Island and Xiaoqin Island.The Zhongdao Group includes Tuoji Island, Gaoshan Island, and Ji Island.The South Island Group includes South Changshan Island, Beichangshan Island, Miao Island, Daheishan Island, and Xiaoheishan Island.

The legendary Penglai, Yingzhou, and Fangzhanghai Sanshen Mountains, among which Penglai Xiandao refers to the largest Nanchangshan Island in the Miaodao Islands.According to the records in "Historical Records", Emperor Qin and Han Wu came to Danya Mountain in Dengzhou specially to pray for longevity to the Penglai Fairy Mountain in the sea.

Of course, what Tom Wang is concerned about is not these folk myths and legends, but what he pays attention to is the role of the Miaodao Islands in the Dengliao Seaway.In the future, Haihan will rely on these islands to build maritime strongholds and material transfer ports if it wants to enter the Liaodong region by sea and control the Bohai and Yellow Sea waterways.

Since the early Ming Dynasty, the imperial court has used Denglai, Shandong as its strategic base, and moved northward to Liaodong.In the fourth year of Hongwu, Ming generals Ma Yun and Ye Wang led their troops across the sea from Denglai, Shandong to the north, occupied the southern tip of the Liaodong Peninsula, and then gradually moved north and west, bringing the whole of Liaodong under the rule of Ming Dynasty.However, at that time, Liaodong was war-torn, sparsely populated, and supplies were insufficient. Therefore, military logistics and supplies had to be transferred from Shandong through the sea lanes between Deng and Liao. A large number of Shandong soldiers and their families were also stationed in Liaodong.For example, the Dingliao Left Guard in Liaoyang is composed of [-] Qingzhou soldiers, while the Dingliao Right Guard is all Laizhou soldiers.

It is also based on this close dependence and connection that when Hongwu established the national procuratorate in 29 years, the jurisdiction of the Liaodong capital was compiled as the Liaohai Dongning sub-road under the Shandong procuratorate. Shandong jurisdiction.Decades later, during the orthodox years, the civil affairs of the entire territory of Liaodong were officially assigned to the Liaohai Dongning sub-shoudao under the Shandong Chief Secretary.

In addition to the logistics transfer function, because the capital of the Ming Dynasty was still in Nanjing at that time, the Dengliao Sea Road was also the main road from the capital to the Liaodong area.If you bypass Shanhaiguan and take the land route, the journey will be thousands of miles longer. Therefore, in addition to transporting materials, the appointment and dismissal of Liaodong officials and the exchanges of North Korean envoys are also transported through the Liaohai Road.As a result, Dengzhou was upgraded from a state to a government and gained a higher administrative status.

Although the Dengliao shipping played an important role in stabilizing the foundation of Liaodong’s rule in the early Ming Dynasty, after entering the middle of the Ming Dynasty, due to the relocation of the capital to the north, the conflict of regional interests between Dengliao, and the imperial court’s implementation of the sea ban, this sea passage Gradually abandoned until it was banned, the Miaodao Islands were once occupied by refugees, deserters and pirates.

In the Wanli period, the border defense situation in Liaodong became increasingly severe, and the imperial court ordered the re-opening of the Dengliao shipping in desperation.Most of the materials and personnel needed to aid Liaodong were located in Shandong, which put heavy pressure on the social stability and economic development of this area.But such assistance failed to save the war in Liaodong. By the time of Tianqi, tens of thousands of refugees had fled across the sea from Liaodong to Denglai, and regional conflicts among the people became more and more serious.

These conflicts and grievances finally broke out in the fourth year of Chongzhen. Liao army general Kong Youde led a mutiny in Wuqiao and turned to attack various counties in Shandong.In Dengzhou City, because of the concentration of a large number of Liaodong refugees and the starting point of Kong Youde's army, after the local residents learned of the Liao army's mutiny, they immediately massacred the Liao people in the city. After Kong Youde's troops broke the city, out of revenge A massacre was also carried out on the people of Dengzhou in the city.The Dengliao mutual aid relationship originally established in the early Ming Dynasty ended in the tragedy of mutual killing between the soldiers and civilians of the two places.

In fact, before the Wuqiao mutiny, Sun Yuanhua, the governor of Denglai, and Wang Zheng, the military supervisor, were already preparing a battle plan to use Dengzhou as a strategic base and march by sea to recover Liaodong.However, Kong Youde's rebellion completely disrupted his plan. In 1633, he took a large number of people, horses and weapons and fled across the sea to Liaodong and surrendered to Houjin. The waterway, and also had a profound impact on the subsequent Ming and Qing battles.

Haihan's plan for the Liaodong region has a long history. The Liaodong Peninsula is of great strategic significance for controlling Northeast Asia. It can be said that Haihan must occupy it in the future. The Han army has always been beyond its reach, and can only advance step by step to the north.One of the reasons for establishing a stronghold in the Jiaodong Peninsula is to prepare for the next step into the Liaodong Peninsula.The Bohai Strait and the Miaodao Islands in between will naturally become the areas that the Haihan Navy will focus on investigating next.

One morning at the end of August, a group of Haihan warships sailed away from Zhifu Bay, rounded the east corner of Zhifu Island, and then turned westward.Wang Tom personally led the fleet to investigate the coastal area west of Zhifu Bay and the Bohai Strait.

The distance from Zhifu Bay to the coast near Dengzhou City is only about [-] nautical miles, and at the speed of the Haihan Fleet, it only takes half a day to get there.In order to avoid causing unnecessary panic, the fleet kept a distance of about ten nautical miles from the coastline. Under the cover of sea fog, it was not easy to be spotted by the Ming army on the shore.At present, Dengzhou Water City has not resumed the garrison. There are only a few small-tonnage transportation ships, and they rarely go to sea to perform missions, which are not enough to pose a threat to the Haihan fleet.

When it was about ten nautical miles away from Dengzhou City, Wang Tom left the flagship and changed to a reconnaissance boat, and went to the coastal waters to observe the location of Dengzhou Water City.However, due to the weather, it was difficult for him to observe clearly the waterway of Dengzhou Water City entering and leaving the harbor through the telescope, and he could not get too close to alert the defenders, so he had to leave in a circle.

However, this is not a setback for Wang Tom. After all, Dengzhou Water City is currently only an empty shell, and the potential threats are limited. The main direction of the fleet's investigation is still in the Bohai Strait north of Dengzhou.

The land at the north and south ends of the Bohai Strait is about [-] nautical miles apart. In the south, there are Miaodao archipelago distributed longitudinally. The strait is divided into more than a dozen waterways connecting the Bohai Sea and the Yellow Sea, including the Laotieshan Waterway, Changshan Waterway, and Dengzhou Waterway.But now that the Dengliao channel has been cut off, there are very few ships in this sea area.In addition, Kong Youde defected to Liaodong last year. In order to prevent Houjin spies from lurking near the shore of Dengzhou, the government has moved all the people of Miaodao Islands to the mainland, and implemented a defensive strategy for these islands.

Of course, whether this method is really effective remains to be tested by time. After all, it was only last year that Ming lost the Liaodong Peninsula, and Hou Jin may not be able to digest the newly occupied areas so quickly.Because of this, the navy led by Wang Tom can safely and boldly land on Changshan Island and conduct a comprehensive investigation on the island.

Wang Tom also landed on Nanchangshan Island with the army. There are still many vacant houses on the island, but the few cultivated land in this place is basically abandoned, and it has been covered with knee-high weeds and shrubs.When the Haihan Ministry of National Defense first planned the northward operation, it was also one of the alternative landing sites.At Haihan's level of development, at least a few thousand residents could be placed on this island with an area of ​​more than twelve square kilometers.The only problem is that it is too close to Dengzhou City, so close that when the weather is fine, you can face the mainland across the sea. Zhifu Island, which is directly connected to the mainland.

There is a sandbar between the South Changshan Island and the North Changshan Island, but the area of ​​the North Changshan Island is slightly smaller, and the mountainous and hilly terrain accounts for more than half, and the land area available for reclamation and growing grain is also less.Although the islands to the north of Changshan Island in the north and south can also be inhabited, the area that can be developed is much smaller.

The fleet stayed at Changshan Island for about two hours before continuing to head north.Although the islands to the north of Changshan Island are also habitable, their area is much smaller.Before dark that day, the fleet arrived at Beihuangcheng Island, the northernmost of the Miaodao Islands.The area of ​​this island is less than three square kilometers, and it is only a small area in the sea.More than 20 nautical miles further north from here is Laotieshan, the southernmost tip of the Liaodong Peninsula.Wang Tom was not in a hurry to go to the Liaodong Peninsula overnight, and ordered to camp on Beihuangcheng Island for one night, and then set off after dawn tomorrow.

In the early morning of the next day, the fleet soldiers broke camp and set sail after breakfast, continuing to march north.The sea area from Beihuangcheng Island to Laotieshan is the junction of the Yellow Sea and the Bohai Sea, where the waves of the two seas meet, so the sea conditions here are also very dangerous.However, viewed from the sea level, because the sea water of the Yellow Sea is bluer, while the sea water of the Bohai Sea is yellower, a clear dividing line of water flow is formed here, which can be regarded as a rare sea wonder.Almost all the soldiers of the fleet came from the south, and most of them had never seen such a scene, and they were amazed by it for a while.

"Chief, the place that emerges from the sea ahead is Lao Tieshan!"

It was Sun Bing, the navigator on the flagship, who reported this information to Wang Tom. He used to serve in the Fuzhou Guard in Liaodong. State.Later, at the beginning of the Denglai Rebellion, Liao people and Shandong people killed each other indiscriminately. Sun Bing saw the opportunity early and fled Dengzhou City, the center of chaos, with his family. Zhejiang maritime merchants traveled all the way to Hainan Island under the rule of Haihan.

Because he was born in the Northeast and had military experience, he was naturally selected to join the army by the Ministry of National Defense, which wanted to make a career in the Northeast.Later, he was assigned to the Navy. After a year of training, because he was relatively familiar with the situation near the Liaodong Peninsula, he was temporarily designated as the navigator and followed the fleet northward to Shandong.This time Tom Wang led a team to investigate the Bohai Strait, so naturally he took him with him.Of course, if we only talk about familiarity with this sea area, then Sun Changmi, who once studied at Dalian Maritime University, may be more suitable to be the navigator, but now he has other important things on Zhifu Island, and he is dedicated to running with the fleet This trip was also a bit of an overkill, so in the end Tom Wang chose Sun Bing, a native of Northeast China, to complete this errand.

"Old Iron Mountain..." Wang Tom watched the outline of the land appearing on the sea level gradually become clear, but he was thinking about another thing in his heart.

According to the historical process, Houjin should have captured Jinzhouwei at the southern tip of the Liaodong Peninsula last year. It is very likely that an observation post was also deployed on the coast here, so as to prevent the Daming navy from the Denglai area from crossing the sea. Give a timely response.And if the arrival of the Haihan Fleet is discovered by the Hou Jin Army, it is indeed possible to reveal its strength in advance.

However, the Haihan Ministry of National Defense believes that if Houjin can be given the illusion that Ming is going to counterattack the Liaodong Peninsula, then Houjin may focus part of its attention on the Liaodong Peninsula, which can slightly reduce the military pressure on Daming in the direction of Shanhaiguan.So for this reconnaissance operation, Tom Wang did not intend to deliberately hide his whereabouts-of course, a fleet of this size appeared near the coast, and anyone who was not blind would definitely notice it.If Hou Jin had set up an outpost high on Laotie Mountain, then theory should have noticed the abnormal situation at sea.

"Sun Bing, when you came out of Liaodong, did you ever think that you would come back one day?" Tom Wang asked with great interest.

Sun Bing replied: "Reporting to the chief, I thought about the lowly position, but at that time, I never thought that I would come back with glory as a Haihan army!"

"Then if you want to fight against the Houjin people, are you still afraid?" Tom Wang asked with a smile.

Sun Bing stared at him and said: "Chief, when I fled Liaodong, I just couldn't bear the death of my family members in the war, not because I was greedy for life and afraid of death! Now that our Haihan army is suppressing the situation, after that the Jin barbarians can't wait and surrender. It's no good Scared!"

Wang Tom felt a little uneasy when he heard him say it a little slickly: "Then what if Hou Jin doesn't take the initiative to surrender?"

Sun Bing replied: "Then don't blame my Haihan army for being rude! Sun Bing is not talented, and he is willing to fight to the death for the executive committee!"

Wang Tom heard his loyalty, and then his face turned pale and he said: "The grievances between these Northeast wild boar skins and our Han people will be settled sooner or later. When the army enters Liaodong, it will be a good opportunity for you Northeast soldiers to make meritorious service. At that time Perform well, maybe after conquering Liaodong, you can also become a high-ranking official and honor your ancestors!"

Sun Bing hurriedly stood at attention, saluted the military, and said loudly, "Thank you, Chief, for your reminder!"

While talking, the fleet is getting closer and closer to the coast of Laotieshan, and the rugged rocky cliffs facing the sea can already be seen clearly.In one of the highlands, there is a black smoke rising from among the trees.

(End of this chapter)