1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 381

However, only some of the more than 100 captives could go to Sanya alive, because almost half of them were injured to varying degrees in this battle, and all the medical supplies on Wanshan Island were supplied from outside the island. , it is certainly impossible to waste too much on these pirates, at most it is to help them stop the bleeding.As for whether you can survive it, it depends on your personal physical fitness.

Fortunately, Haihan's casualties in this battle were controlled at the single digit level, maintaining an overwhelming advantage as always.Before the war, the battle at sea that most worried the military executives, on the contrary, there were no casualties, and the warships basically did not suffer major damage.

As for the materials captured in this battle, it is even more lackluster.A bunch of cold weapons confiscated from the captives, hundreds of taels of silver, a few small earthen guns that could only be remelted, and more than a dozen Type 27 matchlock guns that the pirates bought from no one knew where.In the eyes of the officers, these things can only be regarded as better than nothing - the value of the hundreds of shells fired in the battle alone is much higher than these rags.

Pirate ships, large and small, confiscated a dozen of them, but these ships were generally captured because their hulls were damaged and they could not escape in time.Some of the hulls were scarred by shells, flooded seriously, some masts were broken by shells, and some were seriously injured when they tried to stop the Haihan warship.In short, these pirate ships towed back to the port basically need major repairs before they can be restored to use, and there is no dock in Wanshan Port that can provide ships with major repairs, and the few carpenters and part-time repairmen can only do some repairs. They couldn't do small repairs, such as changing the mast and repairing the keel, and they couldn't do it.Wanshan Port Management Committee wants to turn the seized pirate ships into usable assets, and it is not something that can be realized in a short while.

"It's useless for you to talk to me about the ship repair! The Shengli Port Shipyard is not a unit under the Military Commission. It's useless for our military to talk about the transfer." Chen Yixin waved his hand and rejected Li Dou's entanglement: "Let's talk about victory The Hong Kong shipyard is now saturated with production tasks, and they are working overtime to rush to build warships, so how can they spare manpower to be transferred to us to do things."

Li Dou said relentlessly: "This is not just my business, think about it, after these ships are repaired, the executive committee will not be interested in taking them back to Sanya, and they will definitely be assigned to our side for use in the end." , At that time, no matter whether it is used for fishing, transporting goods, or transporting immigrants, or even if you use it as a patrol boat, it will come in handy anyway. The repair period has been delayed for a long time, and we are actually the ones who suffer... ..."

"Okay, okay, don't talk about it, you go with me to see Tom Wang now, and if you want to ask the executive committee for help, it would be more appropriate for him to come forward." Facing Li Dou's reluctance, Chen Yixin had no choice but to admit defeat .

Although Tom Wang is not a member of the Executive Committee, he is now the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy and the third in command of the Military Commission, and he speaks much more than Chen Yixin, Li Dou and other middle-level managers.Moreover, before the end of this military operation, Wang Tom, as the supreme commander of the theater, has the final decision-making power for all affairs in Wanshan Port. will vary.Chen Yixin knew that he was soft-spoken, but Li Dou's words really moved him. If Wanshan Port could have more than a dozen ships available, then the business that can be engaged in in the future will increase a lot compared to now. Regardless of the economic benefits, at least the living environment on the island can be improved and strengthened.

However, when they found Tom Wang and reported the matter, Tom Wang's attitude was not very optimistic: "I can report this matter to the executive committee, but you should not report too much hope for it. First, Victory Harbor The shipyard is indeed too busy right now, and may not be able to spare manpower to support Wanshan Port. Second, although we won the battle this time, the cost is not small, and the captured things are not worth much. If Let the base camp be responsible for the repair costs of these ships, and I am afraid that it will be stuck in the executive committee. Third, Wanshan Port is too small, and it is not easy to build a dock in the harbor. So realistic."

Wang Tom's answer undoubtedly poured a basin of cold water on the two young boys. Although they had many ideas on how to build and improve Wanshan Port, the reality may not develop according to their intentions.Especially in terms of material and personnel input, the disadvantage of Wanshan Port is actually obvious-the place is too small, and many projects cannot be arranged here at all.

Of course, Wanshan Port was not positioned as a large-scale base when it was planned. To put it bluntly, choosing this place is only a transitional choice at the current stage - if the strength is sufficient, then the military will definitely choose to develop prospects Better Hong Kong Island area.In the future, with the gradual increase of Haihan's military strength, the Pearl River Estuary stronghold will change its location sooner or later. It is not a very profitable business for the executive committee to invest too much resources in Dawanshan Island.

The foreign merchant ships that happened to be in Wanshan Port on the day of the battle basically did not suffer too much loss during the battle. Only one ship was torn out by shells because of a bad docking position. The difficulty is not too great, and the local carpenter is enough to do it.

"Gu shopkeeper, we will bear all the repair costs of your ship, but we will delay you for two more days, I am really sorry." Dealing with these merchants should have been a matter of the Ministry of Commerce, but because of Wanshan Island's The staffing is limited, this matter has been done by Lidou part-time job.

The shopkeeper surnamed Gu hurriedly cupped his hands and said, "It's only two days, so why delay. But how can you afford the repair costs! This Liu Xiang gang is menacing. If it weren't for the brothers of the militia fighting to the death, the villain Even the goods on the boat may not be able to keep it, and it is too late to be grateful, so how can we put this account on your head. Director Li, the villain has prepared 200 taels of silver here, to comfort the brothers of the militia, don't refuse!"

Li Dou appeased the businessmen from all walks of life one by one, and he didn't hear much complaints, but received more than 1000 taels of silver in various names of condolences, which could barely subsidize the expenses of this operation.

The foreign businessmen have the same perception of this battle - the Haihan militia not only can fight on land, but also perform well at sea. Liu Xiang is the most powerful pirate leader on the coast of Guangdong, but his fleet is attacking Wanshan Port's actions obviously suffered a big loss.The merchants didn't know that Tom Wang chased Liu Xiang all the way, but the scene of the pirate fleet being attacked in the port area and being beaten and fled in embarrassment was witnessed by everyone. .Afterwards, the Haihan fleet returned unscathed, the captives chained in chains, and the pirate ships that were wounded and captured at the pier fully proved that this was a game with a clear outcome. fighting.

These businessmen don't know how powerful Haihan's weapons are, how advanced their tactics are, and how high-quality their soldiers are, but the comparison of the strengths of the two sides is obvious-the pirates have dozens of ships, and Haihan's side is fighting There are only a dozen or so ships in the sea, but in this situation, Haihan still wins with less and beats the opponent with no power to fight back. The difference in strength between the two sides can be seen.

Although Haihan will not take the results of the battle to report to the Guangzhou government, but this battle will soon be spread among the people through various channels. I don’t want to know that in the next period of time, there will be all kinds of miracles about the Haihan militia. The rumors will become the main topic of Guangzhou people's gossip again.

The Portuguese Council of Macau received a report of the battle on the second day—a merchant ship docked in Wanshan Port was returning to Guangzhou from Nanyang, and after leaving Wanshan Port, it was going to Macau to unload. The sailors and crew on board So he spread the news of the first day with embellishment.The Portuguese Council was shocked by this news, but somewhat rejoiced. If peace had not been reached with the Haihan people two months ago, then the Portuguese ships near Macau would inevitably have to fight the Haihan militia. What will be the outcome? Liu Shannon has set the best example for the Council.

Naturally, the Executive Committee received the battle report from Wanshan Port through the radio at the first time. Although it was expected to achieve such a result, the Executive Committee members were still very happy.After all, this is a manifestation of the strengthening of one's own strength. Looking back on the establishment of the Wanshan Port stronghold in the first half of the year, everyone was still full of doubts about the strength of their own surface armed forces, and worried that this stronghold would be attacked by pirates in nearby waters. attack.However, half a year later, the militia navy defeated the attack of Liu Xiang's pirate gang near Wanshan Port. This has fully proved that the huge investment of the Executive Committee in Wanshan Port and the navy was not in vain, and the effect is quite satisfactory. .

Although the Liuxiang pirate gang suffered heavy losses in this battle, it is certain that they will not be able to launch another attack for a period of time, but the executive committee still did not leave much time for the expeditionary troops to rest slowly, and called back to ask Tom Wang After arranging the local defense, he led his troops back to Port Victory before the 25th of this month.

The reason why the Executive Committee is so eager to recall the troops that went out is because there are people who are more eagerly looking forward to the emergence of the militia navy than the Executive Committee.Just two days before the outbreak of the Wanshan Port naval battle, envoys from Thang Long Mansion arrived at Victory Port and expressed to the Executive Committee the intention of the North Vietnamese Dynasty to send troops to help the Haihan militia.

The North Vietnamese army had already fought the Zhengjiang defense line three months ago, and established a large camp north of the Zhengjiang River, and gradually moved its troops south.However, three months have passed, and the North Vietnamese army has made very limited progress on the battlefield. Now it has only advanced the front line to the south for more than 50 miles, and the two sides have formed a new confrontation across the river near Dong Hoi.

This is not entirely due to the limitation of the combat effectiveness of the North Vietnamese army. In fact, the combat effectiveness of the North Vietnamese army is in a steady upward stage due to the fact that more and more Haihan guns and artillery are installed in the North Vietnamese army. Because of the contradiction between the upper limit of capacity and the demand for replenishment.

At present, the transportation of North Vietnamese military supplies is mainly carried out by sea, from the Red River Delta in the north to the Yongan Port controlled by Haihan in the south, and then transferred from Yongan Port to the front line 40 nautical miles away.Among them, the voyage from the Red River Delta to Yong'an Port was almost all arranged by Haihan cargo ships, while the few seagoing ships in North Vietnam were mainly responsible for the transportation task of the latter one-fifth of the distance.Even so, the daily needs of tens of thousands of people on the front line still put great pressure on the North Vietnamese transport fleet. When the sea conditions are not good, it may even cause a shortage of supplies on the front line in a short period of time.

According to the survey conducted by the Black Earth Port Military District for the North Vietnamese Army, for every ten miles the front line advances south, the time required for sea ships to transport supplies back and forth will increase by at least three hours.If the next battle goes well, and the battle line advances from Dong Hoi to the city of Quang Chi, which is 160 miles south of Dong Hoi, known as the "Barrier of Hue Prefecture", then the time required to transport supplies will increase by a whole lot on the current basis. Two days, and relying on the existing transportation capacity at that time, it will definitely not be able to meet the combat needs of tens of thousands of people.

In the face of such facts, if the North Vietnamese court wants to continue to advance south, it must have more maritime transport capacity.However, the production capacity of the Black Earth Port Shipyard is limited, and it will not be able to meet the needs of combat for a while. The only external force that the North Vietnamese court can rely on is Haihan.

Sanya did not hide the fact that Haihan and the South Vietnamese envoy Ruan Jinggui reached a temporary armistice agreement before, and promised that if South Vietnam refused to surrender, then Haihan would continue to send troops to assist North Vietnam in attacking South Vietnam. At that time, North Vietnam also expressed its understanding.At that time, the agreed truce period was 30 days, but because of the situation in Guangdong, the executive committee had no time to pay attention to the war on Annan's side, and focused its energy on the Guangdong battlefield.

However, 30 days later, the North Vietnam did not see any move from Haihan's side. After [-] days, there was still no movement from Haihan's side, and the North Vietnam side became a little anxious-what about military assistance?What about coordinated operations?
In December, the Shenglong Mansion finally lost its temper and sent Zheng Zuo, the eldest son of King Qingdu, as an envoy to come straight to the door.In addition to sending a dignitary of Zheng Zuo's level as an envoy, besides the fact that he has dealt with Haihan many times and the relationship is relatively familiar, another reason is that the North Vietnamese court hopes to reach a package solution with Haihan. , to resolve the South Vietnam issue as soon as possible.

In the past, every time Haihan sent troops to help the war, they basically agreed on the conditions individually before dispatching troops. Every time, the two sides had to negotiate and bargain. For a period of time in half a year, North Vietnam even rejected Haihan's invitation to send troops together because they could no longer afford the military expenses Haihan requested. ,

In view of these previous situations, Thang Long Mansion hopes to reach an agreement with a longer period of time and a wider scope of cooperation, and negotiate the conditions for Haihan to assist North Vietnam in completing the great cause of reunification at one time.Although the Haihan people might charge a sky-high price for this, Thang Long Mansion thinks this is better than being bled every two or three months.

After listening to Zheng Zuo's proposal on behalf of the North Vietnamese court, the executive committee members were also very surprised.The Annan civil war has always been regarded by the executive committee as a test base for establishing the slave state system. Since the establishment of diplomatic relations with North Vietnam, Haihan has been gradually strengthening its influence in Annan through the export of economy, trade, culture, and military affairs. With a large amount of wealth and population, according to the current progress, it is almost a certainty that Annan will become Haihan's vassal after three to five or seven years.With regard to helping North Vietnam unify the country, the Executive Committee had already prepared a series of exchange conditions for them, but no one had imagined that all these conditions would be taken out at one time to make a deal with the North Vietnam court.

The reason why the Executive Committee set the price based on a single military operation or combat target in the past is because it is convenient to predict the trend of the war and calculate military expenditures.But if the goal is to eliminate the South Vietnamese regime to calculate military expenditures, this is more complicated.Even if the Haihan militia tried their best, it would be difficult to guarantee that the resistance forces in South Vietnam would be completely wiped out within a month or two.If there is no way to plan the approximate period of the war, it will be difficult to calculate a reasonable military budget, and it will be impossible to say a relatively reasonable price.

"Or just give them a big mouth, anyway, they have no other way out, they can only accept our account!" After sending Zheng Zuo to the guest house, Yue Zhiyun impatiently made a suggestion .

"I want money! I want people! I want land! I want power!" Yan Chujie put forward his opinion expressionlessly: "Since the Beiyue court has come to ask for it, I also agree with Xiaoyue. I will seize this opportunity to make a good fortune. Otherwise, after the reunification of Annan, it will not be so easy for us to control Shenglong Mansion."

"The stick must be knocked down, but which part to knock on and how to master the strength are still worth studying." Tao Donglai reminded in a circumstantial way: "These starting points mentioned by Lao Yan are very good. Let me add that the conditions we propose to North Vietnam, in addition to economic benefits and immigration, must also take into account how to strengthen our influence and control in Indochina.”

"I don't know much about the other aspects, so I'll just talk about the military aspect. The Indochina Peninsula is an important strategic node leading to the South China Sea in the future. Therefore, several major port areas in the South Vietnam region must be placed on our side. It doesn’t matter whether it’s ceding land, concessions, or governance rights, these places must be taken over.” Yan Chujie continued: “In addition, the second batch of officers sent by North Vietnam to the Victory Port for further training Students, they also graduated and returned to China last month, and the next batch will arrive soon. I suggest that the executive committee should consider how to gradually support the pro-Haihan forces there, so as to further increase our actual influence in the local area. .”

(End of this chapter)