1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 166 Adjustment of Defense Strategy

The time-traveling group named itself "Haihan", and has always attached great importance to the control of the sea.Relevant units such as the Military Police Department and the Ministry of Shipping are almost always studying the information of contemporary maritime competitors in their spare time.Of course, most of the materials they studied came from the collection and arrangement of amateur historians like the Ministry of Information Industry and Ning Qi.

A super-large pirate gang like Shibazhi is naturally the focus of research.Zheng Zhilong's family history is to rely on the continuous annexation of other forces to strengthen himself, first annexing Yan Siqi, then Li Dan, and then the pirates of Shibazhi.If he realizes that there is a force at the southern tip of Hainan Island that could threaten him in the future, then he will definitely not sit idly by and let this force continue to develop.

Correspondingly, it is also impossible for the Time Traveling Group to watch Zheng Zhilong develop and strengthen himself step by step-the Zheng Zhilong in 1627 is completely different from the Zheng Zhilong in 1635.It is definitely not a good thing for the time travel group to let his power develop to a scale that has never appeared in history.The Executive Committee will definitely not agree to its own ship paying the so-called "protection fee" to pirates like Zheng Zhilong. It should only be a matter of time before the two parties have conflicts of interest in the future, so the possibility of peaceful coexistence with Zheng Zhilong is extremely small. Some things must be done now. It's time to start preparing.

Tao Donglai said: "For Zheng Zhilong's opponents, we should provide some strategic support. For example, we need to consciously tilt some in the arms sales strategy."

Schneider nodded understandingly and said: "I will discuss this matter with that young master Li again, and ask his firm to adjust its arms sales strategy, and try to sell less or no sales to Zheng Zhilong."

"Delaying the unification of the southeast coast by the Zheng Zhilong Pirate Group as much as possible is actually giving us time and space for development." Tao Donglai continued: "Our future maritime trade wants to reach Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and even further north. , then we must ensure the stability of the shipping route, and the existence of the Zheng Zhilong Pirate Group will obviously become a big stumbling block to our future development of northern maritime trade!"

"But at the same time, we can't let him notice our existence too early." Yan Chujie pointed out a loophole that everyone didn't pay much attention to: "If Zheng Zhilong learned that there is a place in Hainan Island that can produce guns and artillery, what would he do? Is he bringing money to do business? I can’t see it, maybe he will attack here directly with his men, and go back to Taiwan with people and goods.”

"It's not difficult to make 'Furuifeng' agree to keep business secrets, but it's difficult to prevent people who want to inquire about these information." Schneider shook his head and said: "As long as they sell the first batch of arms, someone will soon inquire about it." The origin of these arms. I think that instead of thinking about how to keep trade secrets in the trade across the three provinces, it is more practical to think about how to strengthen our defense measures here."

Tao Donglai frowned, and asked Yan Chujie, "When will the fortifications of the Shengli Port artillery be built?"

Yan Chujie said: "If we only build forts and fortifications, more than [-]% of the first-phase design plan can be completed before the end of the year. But the problem is that we still have two big gaps, one is the gun, and the other is the gunner."

"The turrets of coastal defense guns are all designed according to the 24-pound or even larger artillery, but there are some minor technical problems in the casting process of the 24-pound artillery. Can be finalized and produced."

"The other 24-pound muzzle-loading gun is very bulky. Even if we use mechanical brakes and guidance devices, at least six gunners are still required to operate it. We mentioned this problem when we opened the artillery discussion meeting. The gunners trained The cycle is relatively long and the investment is large. This gap cannot be filled in a short period of time. According to the design of the fort in the first phase of the plan, there are eight 24-pound guns, so we need at least [-] gunners. In fact, considering For possible attrition during combat, we have to set aside some replacement personnel, so the actual number will increase by at least one-third.”

"This is only the first phase of the project. The second phase of the project will build the same number of forts on the steeper Yulinjiao side, so the number of gunners stationed will probably need this much. As for the coastal defense artillery fortress conceived by the Military and Police Department system, because the fort modification cannot be carried out until the breech-mounted artillery is finalized and put into production, I am afraid that construction will not be possible within a year or two."

Tao Donglai sighed and said, "This means that if we want to complete the initial coastal defense artillery system, we must have at least one company of artillery formation?"

Yan Chujie nodded solemnly, but before he opened his mouth, Ning Qi had already said: "Counting the third batch of militias just recruited, there are only three companies of militias in the mainland. I'm afraid it will be difficult to train so many artillerymen." It’s too realistic. But you don’t want to continue to think about expanding enrollment, the ratio of our current military personnel to ordinary people is almost ten to one, I think you should know what this number means.”

As veterans, Tao Donglai and Yan Chujie certainly understand what it means that the proportion of military personnel in the total population is too high. This will make the politics, economy, culture, education, production and other aspects in the controlled area have to tilt towards the military. Social ideology and political systems will also be greatly affected by it. If it is not well controlled, it will sooner or later evolve into a corrupt regime.

Although the Military and Police Department has always advocated the strengthening of armaments, it is not crazy enough to turn the crossing group into the headquarters of the Communist Party.The results of the huge disasters and disastrous defeats caused by Germany and Japan's militarism during World War II are lessons that every soldier must learn from.So facing Ning Qi's beating, neither of them could argue.

Ning Qi went on to say: "Of course the fortifications of the coastal defense artillery should be repaired, and the gunners must also be trained, but I think that under our current conditions, it cannot be done overnight, but should be carried out in stages like the planning and construction plan. Our defense It’s not that we can only rely on coastal defense artillery. In fact, the No. [-] base where we are now has been built stronger than Yazhou City. Even if thousands of enemies attack from the sea or land, we can rely on it. Carry out an effective defense. It is impossible for foreign enemies to stay here for too long, because there is simply no supply nearby except our cultivated land."

Tao Donglai thought for a moment, then nodded and agreed with Ning Qi: "After we start selling arms, we may attract the attention of the Fujian side, and may even attract external armed attacks. But let's not forget, from Fujian or The straight-line distance from Taiwan to here is more than [-] nautical miles. It takes at least ten days for a large fleet to complete this voyage. It is not so easy to launch an expedition against us. The parties currently fighting in the Taiwan Strait, No matter which side is stronger than us, but no matter which side is impossible to draw too much power at this juncture to carry out an expedition against us."

After discussion, several people came to the conclusion that Victory Port may be attacked from outside in the next period of time, but the intensity will not be very strong, and it should be within the range that the local defense capability can bear.At present, there are only two routes to the outside of Shengli Port, one long and one short, in the direction of Yazhou and Heitu Port. In addition, there is a convenient radio station, so there is no need to worry too much about the ship returning to Shengli Port because of poor news. It was blocked outside the harbor.

Of course, this does not mean that the Executive Committee has underestimated the possible dangers. The Military and Police Department will continue to expand the training scale of gunners, speed up the training process, and strive to train at least [-] gunners when the coastal defense batteries are put into use at the end of the year. Qualified gunners left and right.However, there is no need to think about the expansion of recruits for the time being. The subsequent training of gunners will definitely cost a lot of money. The budget of the military and police department has indeed begun to be tight. This situation will at least wait until the arms export trade of the military industry department has reached a certain scale. .

The night before, Li Nai was fed up with all kinds of meat and vegetables by several veterans, and he was arranged to live in the guest house in the No. [-] base together with his entourage.It is said that it is a guest house, but it is nothing more than a row of prefabricated houses. Because quite a few people have moved to live in the No. [-] base of Tiandu Industrial Zone, so there are a lot of prefab houses here, and the civil affairs department cleaned up a few. The house is used as a guest house, and people from Yazhou who want to spend the night in Shengli Harbor will also be arranged here.

When Li Nai was in a drowsy sleep, a burst of loud music woke him up from his sleep.Li Nai didn't know where the loud noise came from, and jumped out of bed in a panic.He Qiang, who was in the same room as him, was also in a panic. The two hurriedly opened the door, only to see that the sky outside had already brightened, and the same sleepy-eyed Haihan people walked out of the barracks one after another. After saying good morning to each other, they turned in the same direction went.

The two exchanged glances in surprise, but quickly went back to the room, changed their clothes, and followed.But soon they discovered that this was just a false alarm. It turned out that the place where these people went was the stall where breakfast was distributed.The breakfast stall was located outside the gate of Base No. [-], and there were already two long queues when they arrived.Li Nai had long heard that the Haihan people had the rule of "queuing up", so he and He Qiang honestly lined up at the end of the line just like the front.

Li Nai noticed that not all Haihan people were in the team, but there were many Ming people, Li Miaoshan people, and even yellow-haired and white-skinned Westerners, so he couldn't help but be amazed.He Qiang discovered another point, touched Li Nai's arm and said softly, "Third Young Master, look ahead."

(End of this chapter)