1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 3637

In Dong Shangyi's opinion, Xu Kaiyuan is considered to be the best among the younger generation of the Xu family in Fujian. The troops he leads are also the elite of the Fujian fleet. He should have performed well in this military operation to assist in the war against Luzon.

Of course, the most important thing is that Taiwan also sent people here this time. Xu Kaiyuan’s performance represents the face of Fujian, and he must not lose to his old rival.

However, since the battle in Luzon had come to an end, why didn't Xu Kaiyuan return to Manila? This made Dong Shangyi a little surprised. After all, the Fujian Fleet was only there to assist in the battle. After completing the mission, it should have withdrawn from the front line and returned to Manila to receive commendations, just like the Taiwan Fleet.

Moreover, every extra day the Fujian Fleet is stationed at the front line means one more day of expense for Luzon, which is no small amount, and Luzon is certainly not rich enough to pay for reinforcements to go on vacation at the front line.

The specific reason may only be revealed after meeting the two senior officials of the Luzon Region. However, the celebrations in the past few days obviously made the bigwigs too busy to attend. Two days after applying for the meeting, Dong Shangyi received the notice that the other party summoned him.

The meeting was arranged at the residence of Qiu Yuan, the governor of Luzon, which made Dong Shangyi feel a little unusual, because if civil and military officials wanted to meet him at the same time, such a formal official meeting would not usually be arranged in the private residence of one of them.

This arrangement was most likely made because Xiao Liang, the supreme commander of the Luzon garrison, would not attend the meeting.

Sure enough, when Dong Shangyi arrived at Qiu Mansion, he only saw Qiu Yuan.

Qiu Yuan also explained: "General Xiao left Manila yesterday and went to the southern theater to supervise the post-war affairs. He is expected to return next month."

This explanation is reasonable. The end of a war does not mean the end of the matter. It will take some time to complete the compensation for the dead and wounded, the handling of prisoners of war, the calculation of combat losses in the army, the assessment of military merits and the awarding of rewards, etc.

With a senior official like Xiao Liang personally visiting the war zone to inspect and comfort the troops, subsequent matters would certainly be handled more quickly, and it would also be of great benefit to maintaining the morale of the army.

One of Dong Shangyi's purposes of coming to Luzon was also to express his condolences to the Fujian fleet that came to help in the war.

Since the topic of visiting the troops came up, Qiu Yuan naturally mentioned the performance of the Fujian Fleet and Xu Kaiyuan.

"We originally planned to have the Fujian Fleet perform escort missions to protect the supply fleets that transported materials and personnel in and out of the war zone, but we didn't expect that this young man Xu Kaiyuan was so aggressive that he started fighting the Spaniards when he got to Sulawesi!"

"We are also surprised by the combat effectiveness of the Fujian Fleet. It shows that Lord Xu Yuzhuo has a good command, which allows the troops to be well-trained and ready to fight when called upon! Many people say that this performance does not seem like a force from a peaceful place like Fujian."

Dong Shangyi responded: "When the old master was alive, he attached great importance to military affairs. After Master Xu Yuzhuo succeeded him, he also continued the old master's approach and always regarded the combat effectiveness of the Fujian Army as a top priority, and was ready to serve the country at any time."

Qiu Yuan nodded and said, "Now that the country is expanding vigorously overseas, it is time for Fujian's strong army to make its debut!"

Dong Shangyi heard Qiu Yuan's encouragement and thanked him for his compliment. Although the Xu family has been actively involved in various military operations at home and abroad, for various reasons, the Fujian Army has not had many opportunities to actually fight. However, now that there is a precedent in Luzon, and the Executive Committee has relaxed restrictions, Fujian will definitely have more opportunities to send troops overseas in the future.

Dong Shangyi then followed up the conversation and asked why Xu Kaiyuan did not leave the war zone and return to Manila after the war ended.

Qiu Yuan explained: "This is not an order from Manila, but Xu Kaiyuan saw that our local military force was insufficient, and took the initiative to ask to stay temporarily to help us deal with post-war affairs."

Although Sulawesi is an island, its area is almost twice that of Luzon Island, and even nearly half that of Fujian Province. Spain has built a large number of small and medium-sized colonies there, some of which have even penetrated into inland areas ranging from tens to hundreds of miles from the coastline. According to intelligence, at least several thousand immigrants have settled on the island.

Although Spain was defeated, the Spanish immigrants in these colonies would not come out and surrender to the Hai Han army on their own, and a large number of troops were still needed to clean up the local area.

As for the effect and progress of the operation, it is naturally proportional to the number of troops invested. Seeing that there were still merits to be gained from these clearing operations, Xu Kaiyuan was not in a hurry to withdraw his troops and took the initiative to apply to continue to carry out missions with the Luzon Army in the local area.

Although the Fujian Army led by Xu Kaiyuan will have to pay additional expenses during the operation, Qiu Yuan and Xiao Liang both believe that the Fujian Army has a positive attitude, can ensure a relatively high operational efficiency, and can temporarily rotate their own exhausted troops for rest and recuperation, so even if there are some expenses, it is worth it.

However, his competitor Li Zhencheng obviously did not grasp Xu Kaiyuan's movements. After the war, he led his troops back to Manila after receiving the order. This time, it was obvious that Taiwan lost the game to Fujian.

However, Dong Shangyi would not take the initiative to mention topics related to Taiwan in front of Qiu Yuan, as doing so would not serve the purpose of this visit to Manila.

Dong Shangyi then told Qiu Yuan his real purpose: "Lord Xu Yuzhuo asked me to visit Luzon, firstly to comfort the Fujian fleet that went out on the expedition, and secondly to communicate with Lord Qiu and Lord Xiao, so that Fujian and Luzon can establish a more stable and extensive cooperative relationship in the future."

Qiu Yuan asked calmly, "I wonder what Master Xu Yuzhuo is planning?"

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Dong Shangyi said: "Fujian, relying on the mainland, can provide Luzon with all kinds of materials needed for development, and can also purchase various local specialties from Luzon. Both sides can take what they need, exchange what they have and what they don't have, and jointly promote trade prosperity. This is one of them."

Qiu Yuan nodded, motioning for him to continue.

Dong Shangyi continued, "For the various exploration activities in the Luzon region to the south, Lord Xu is very happy to let Fujian provide the assistance needed by Luzon. I hope that more such coordinated combat operations will be increased in the future to make the military cooperation between the two places close and seamless. This is the second."

Qiu Yuan said: "We are also very grateful for the help of Lord Xu and Fujian. There are indeed some projects that we can cooperate on in the future... Lord Dong, please continue."

Dong Shangyi was cheered up after hearing this and continued, "Lord Xu hopes to strengthen communication with Manila on domestic political affairs, speak out together, and strive for more and greater overseas interests."

Qiu Yuan smiled but did not respond. He understood the hidden meaning of Dong Shangyi's words, which was that he wanted to form a political alliance with Luzon.