1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 348 Trooping the South Vietnam
It has only been a little over a year since the Haihan people arrived on Qiongzhou Island, but they have already established multiple colonization points and expanded outwards at an astonishing speed. This efficiency makes the Portuguese, who were once proud of colonizing the world, feel ashamed.

Portugal was the first European country to colonize Asia. In 1498, da Gama bypassed the Cape of Good Hope and arrived at Calicut, a port on the southwestern coast of India. He established a stronghold and was appointed as the first governor of India. During this period, it brought huge profits to the Portuguese.However, more than 100 years have passed, except for Goa on the west coast of India, the main Portuguese colonies in Asia have only increased a few places such as Malawi, Timor and Haojingao.Comparing the expansion speed of the Haihan people, Enrique felt that the governors of these Asian colonies should all be hanged.

Of course, Enrique, who is familiar with the history of Portuguese colonization, is also very clear that the process of his country's colonization in Asia is fundamentally different from that of the Haihan people. In contrast, the methods of the Haihan people can be described as "gentle".

When da Gama first arrived in India, because of his tough attitude, the locals rejected the trade request, so Da Gama ordered to attack the locals with artillery and took many hostages.More often, the Portuguese fleet played the role of robbers, slave catchers and criminals, rather than an advanced civilization that brought the gospel to backward areas.

Talis, a Mughal historian in the 16th century, described what the Portuguese did at that time in his work: "The pirates from Rakhine on the coast of northern Myanmar included both Portuguese and locals. They used to come here by water. Raids in Bengal. They take off those they catch, and pierce their palms, and put thin canes through the holes in their palms, and lock them up in a heap below decks. Every morning they leave some uncooked rice, and Like we feed chickens..."

Although the Portuguese themselves regarded their trip to Asia as a new crusade and made unremitting efforts to spread Catholic teachings, they tried to use methods such as massacres, torture, and extortion to force people to change their religious beliefs. It aroused strong religious hatred among the local people.

Of course, in Enrique's view, this situation is not all his own fault. Due to the weak domestic foundation, it is unable to continue to provide manpower and financial resources for overseas bases. So much so that many Portuguese had to engage in piracy, or take over small businesses that other European countries disdain to do.Due to limited manpower, the rule of the colonies can only be adopted in more simple and crude ways.

And the colonization practices of the Haihan people that Enrique saw were undoubtedly much better than their own methods.The living conditions provided by the Haihan people to the Ming people and Annan people under them are far better than before they came to Shengli Port, and they have a very complete civil affairs system to manage the increasing number of immigrants.

Although this method of using favorable conditions to attract immigrants is very effective, Enrique also knows that Haojingao or other Portuguese colonies cannot be imitated-the reason is very simple, the money and materials required to do so are too great Too much, without enough financial resources, it will definitely not be able to support such a big scene.Of course, even with such financial resources, dignitaries and dignitaries would never waste a single silver coin on ordinary people and slaves who are like ants.

The new guest house built on the slope of Fenghuang Ridge in the northwest of Victory Port was just opened in June, and Enrique was honored to be the first batch of guests here.He has long heard that the Haihan people live incomparably extravagant lives, but it was only after living here that Enrique understood the true meaning of this statement.In addition to the eye-catching glass windows, what caught his attention even more was that the bathrooms here are full of ceramic equipment, such as wall tiles, wash basins, flush toilets, and the hot shower equipment that supplies eight hours a day. Enrique felt that any one of these things would be enough to amaze the country bumpkins in Haojingao—although he himself couldn't help sighing when he saw it for the first time.

The three meals a day are also very rich. The staple food is rice, and the meat is mainly seafood, and sometimes chicken and duck.Enrique has a sensitive sense of taste, and he can taste the flavors of various spices from the meals provided by the Haihan people. He knows that this means that the spice trade that Tao Donglai mentioned earlier is not bragging.And this kind of food is placed in Europe, at least only the middle-class nobles can have the conditions to enjoy it.If something hadn't happened, Enrique really wanted to live in Victory Port for a few months and enjoy this rare life.

One morning, Enrique was awakened from his sleep by a loud noise.He got up and walked to the window, opened the curtains and looked outside, from here he could clearly see the beautiful scene of the entire Victory Harbor.But when he saw the scene on the pier, he lost all sleepiness immediately.

"Keko, you idiot, get up!" Enrique kicked the black servant who was sleeping on the ground awake.

The black slave stood up and frantically helped Enrique put on his coat and boots.

"Hold my hat, let's go to the pier now!" Enrique didn't care to check his clothes carefully, and went out in a panic.The servant Keke didn't even have time to put on his shoes, and quickly followed behind while grabbing Enrique's hat.

Enrique was so anxious because he saw a large number of armed men gathering and boarding at the dock. One large, four small and five warships, plus at least four supply ships, were preparing to leave the port at the dock.

If it had been a few days earlier, Enrique might not have panicked at such a situation, because the Haihan people like to gather troops to conduct various exercises without giving any warning.But yesterday, by chance, he overheard two local people talking, saying that they were about to go to sea to fight in Annan.

Of course, Enrique was very aware of the attitude of the Haihan people on the issue of the Annan civil war. If the Haihan people sent troops again, it was self-evident who they planned to deal with.Enrique wanted to talk to Tao Dong again today about South Vietnam. Even if he couldn't organize the Haihan people, he should at least try to give his family more buffer time to minimize the economic losses of the Portuguese in South Vietnam. .But what he didn't expect was that the Haihan people would do it as soon as they said they would do it. They just heard the rumor yesterday, and they are ready to go today.

In fact, the preparation period this time was not short. The Military Commission had already proposed a plan to attack the port cities of South Vietnam in early June, but due to various objective reasons, the plan was postponed until late July before it entered the implementation stage.Before that, all departments had already prepared for the battle, and they were waiting for the final order from the executive committee.The battle will be led by Navy Captain Wang Tom as the commander-in-chief, leading a fleet of nine ships to set off from Victory Port. Captain Qian Tiandun of the North Vietnamese Army Division will serve as the second in command, leading the special warfare forces of Heitu Port to disembark from North Vietnam.The two forces would meet near Hoi An in South Vietnam and then attack the city of Hoi An.

"Tao... Mr. Tao, what are you... are you doing...?" Enrique, who was out of breath, rushed to the pier and immediately questioned Tao Donglai.

"You see, send troops!" Tao Donglai said calmly: "North Vietnam's allies have applied for assistance from us. From our point of view, there is no reason to reject them. So we decided to send troops to deal with the rebels in South Vietnam." The army strikes."

"You are starting a new round of war!" Enrique scolded angrily.

"No, we are speeding up the end of Annan's civil war. After destroying the rebels in South Vietnam, Annan will be able to exchange for peace and unification." Tao Donglai didn't care about Enrique's reprimand at all.Tao Donglai had watched the spokesman of the Lighthouse Kingdom perform this trick of thieves and thieves countless times before crossing, and his thick skin was far beyond that of Enrique.

"If you think our approach is inappropriate, you can take a boat to Annan now to prevent this war from happening." Yan Chujie was not as deep as Tao Donglai, and immediately launched a counterattack: "As long as you let the Ruan family offer If the city surrenders, then we can keep his family safe and avoid unnecessary killings, okay?"

Enrique was dumbfounded, not knowing how to answer.Go to Annan as a peace envoy to lobby these companies to lay down their arms?How could it be possible? This is not a dispute that can be settled by paying money and apologizing, but a war for power in a country. No matter whether it is South or North, those in power will definitely not give up the power in their hands—even if it costs money. Thousands of lives are not spared in the eyes of those in power.

"What you can't get on the battlefield, don't expect to get it back just by talking!" Yan Chujie finally felt better when he saw Enrique's deflated look, but he still didn't forget to taunt him again.

Hearing this sentence, Enrique suddenly realized why the attitude of the Haihan people was so tough, after all, it was because of the force in their hands.If South Vietnam can perform well on the battlefield, then the Portuguese mediation may be able to play some role.However, the combat power of the Haihan militia was obviously much greater than that of the South Vietnamese army. It was indeed an oversimplification to simply rely on the mediation at the negotiating table to stop the Haihan people from attacking.

Enrique took another look at the Haihan warship that was slowly leaving the pier. The sailors and crew members stood in a row on the side of the ship and raised their right hands to salute the Haihan military salute to the seeing-off team on the pier. With warm cheers.It doesn't look like a fleet at all, but it looks like an ordinary sea patrol. Enrique also understands that this is because the local people have extremely high confidence in the combat power of the Haihan Militia, because this force is naturally Since its establishment, it has never lost a battle.The militia's participation in the war half a year ago finally won a lot of war dividends for Victory Port. Now that they are fighting South Vietnam again, the people must be convinced of the result of victory.

"Is there no other solution to all this?" Enrique said in great frustration.

"Maybe, but that's not what we want." Tao Donglai looked at the sail shadow going away, and replied without looking back.

Ten days before the Haihan troops were dispatched, the North Vietnamese army had already begun to mobilize large-scale troops on the front line of Zhengjiang Hengshan in accordance with the prior agreement.Thousands of North Vietnamese troops were added to various checkpoints, which also aroused the vigilance of the South Vietnamese Army.In order to prevent the North Vietnamese Army from breaking through this line of defense, the South Vietnamese Army began to mobilize troops from Quang Binh and Quang Tri provinces to gather north.South Vietnam even specially dispatched 5000 troops to station in Donghai, which was attacked by the Haihan militia from the sea last time, in case the food and grass transported to the front line were damaged by the enemy again.But what they didn't expect was that this time the opponent didn't have the idea of ​​attacking Dong Hai at all, but set the target in the hinterland of South Vietnam, which was far away from the combat zone.

On the same day that the naval forces set off from Victory Port, the Heitu Port Special Forces assembled in Yong'an Port also boarded the ship and headed south.The voyage from Yongan Port to Hoi An is almost the same as that from Victory Port to Hoi An, so the two sides agreed to meet directly in Hoi An instead of letting the fleet from the base camp go north for a circle.

After the war in January ended, the Black Earth Port Special Operations Company was rewarded for its outstanding performance in the battle, and the Military Commission also gave the green light to Qian Tiandun's military expansion plan.After half a year, the Heitu Port Special Forces has changed from one reinforced company to three reinforced companies.If it weren't for the serious shortage of artillery on the North Vietnamese side, Qian Tiandun actually wanted to add another artillery company to upgrade the special operations force to a battalion-level unit.

The current source of soldiers for the special forces is still mainly North Vietnamese immigrants, and more than [-]% of the soldiers are from Annan.The training place of this force is not in Heitu Port, but on Catba Island across the sea from Tushan Peninsula.The training environment of this army is much more difficult than that of the base camp, and the corresponding ability to survive and fight in the wild is also much stronger.But compared with the base camp, this force has much fewer combat opportunities.

The military commission dispatched troops from the base camp to participate in several military operations in the mainland, and Heitu Port basically didn't have a role because the distance was too far away.Although the opponents in the south were weak, Qian Tiandun did not dare to lead his troops south to fight on his own without the direct order of the executive committee.As for the sporadic pirates in the Beibu Gulf, they were wiped out by the special warfare company long ago, and now there are no more pirates from Heitu Port to Lianzhou Prefecture and Leizhou Prefecture on the Daming side.

Therefore, when a new combat opportunity appeared this time, Qian Tiandun also paid special attention to it, and started special training more than a month in advance.After returning from the reconnaissance operation in July, Qian Tiandun also used the information at hand to build a simple training ground in Yong'an Port to simulate the street fighting after the invasion of Hoi An.With the new short-barreled smoothbore shotgun provided by the military industry department, the special operations forces are even more powerful, and they are waiting to go south to do a big job.

On August [-], Qian Tiandun, who had made a big circle at sea, finally waited for the main fleet of the base camp.The two fleets met in the open sea about forty nautical miles away from Hoi An, and then Qian Tiandun boarded the flagship "Explorer" of this operation in a traffic boat.

The specific combat plan has already been formulated long ago, and this meeting is mainly to finalize some details after the landing.Wang Tom and Qian Tiandun are both veterans who have participated in many military operations, and their understanding and attitude towards this battle are relatively consistent, so the talks were quickly completed and the combat process was determined.

In the evening of the same day, the fleet sailed into the port of Cham Island, which is only ten nautical miles away from Hoi An.The militiamen on the boat took control of the fishing village on the island with lightning speed and temporarily detained more than 20 fishermen.In order to allow the soldiers to adjust to the best combat state, they did not rush to launch an attack the next day, but took a whole day of rest. It was not until the sky dawned on August [-] that the fleet left Cham Island. , heading west to the mouth of the Qiupen River.

Such a fleet with a total tonnage of more than 3000 tons driving on the sea is inevitably very eye-catching.As the most prosperous commercial port in South Vietnam, Hoi An had a constant stream of boats coming in and out at the mouth of the Thu Bon River, and soon someone discovered this fleet of unknown origin.Of course, at this time, no one really realized the danger, because no one expected that the rear of Hoi An would be attacked—and this attack actually came from the sea, which has always been regarded as a natural barrier by South Vietnam. .

When the fleet entered the mouth of the Qiupen River, someone finally discovered something was wrong: "This is not a merchant ship, this is a warship! Look at the gun ports on the ship's side!"

Some people rushed to the estuary by boat, trying to escape from the area that was about to be attacked; others rushed to the pier outside Hoi An city, trying to warn the city before the enemy arrived.But it is a pity that this warning came too late. It is only about 5 nautical miles from the mouth of the Thu Bon River to the city of Hoi An. Such a short time is not even enough for the defenders to mobilize troops-of course, maybe Wang Tom and others I hope that the defenders can gather their forces together so that they can directly take advantage of the fierce artillery offensive.

Although Nanyue also deployed some armed personnel and ships on the Qiupen River, compared with the intruders who broke into the Qiupen River, the Nanyue Navy's boats were simply small sampans, and they didn't even have the courage to approach their opponents.The only South Vietnamese warship that rushed over to try to stop the convoy was directly run over by the "Explorer" and turned into a pile of wood chips floating on the river without any suspense.

"All gunners enter the combat position, open the gun window, and prepare for battle!" Tom Wang issued an order to the warships in the team through the walkie-talkie.

"Infantry check their weapons and get ready for landing!" Qian Tiandun also issued an order to his subordinates.

Ahead, you can already see the riverside wharf outside Hoi An City, as well as the local people fleeing in panic on the wharf.So far, it seems that the local garrison has not been seen in an organic way.

"Fire and tell them we're coming!" Tom Wang put down his binoculars and gave an order to the artillerymen on the second deck.

(End of this chapter)