1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 411 The situation in Fujian

From the beginning of the establishment of foreign commercial and trade relations by the Transit Group, the arms trade has become an extremely important part of the export trade.Compared with other exported industrial products, the export products in this field not only have extremely high gross profit margins, but also the benefits that can be generated are not limited to the economy, but the political and military impacts brought about by arms exports Strength is also a trait valued by the Executive Committee.

For example, the Li family, which was the first to obtain the arms monopoly, established its own powerful private armed forces with the assistance of Haihan.Although the scale of this armed force is small and its combat effectiveness is not comparable to the original version of the Haihan Militia, its strength has surpassed that of the official local guards of the Ming Dynasty.Compared with other wealthy businessmen in Guangdong, the Li family is probably the first local power that really meets the standard of "toubob".

It is powerful, but the dependence of local private armed forces like the Li Family Militia on Haihan is also very obvious. Not only do all personnel have to rely on Haihan instructors for military skills training, but more importantly, the weapons and ammunition they use are only Able to come from Haihan's supply.Once Haihan’s support is lost, the combat effectiveness of the Li family militia that has been cut off will plummet, and Haihan’s side also has many demands on the political attitude of the Li family. hostile measures".

Although many actions of the Haihan people seem to be wary and hostile to the government, but compared to the Ming government army who was besieged by the rogues at Lijiazhuang, the Li family is still more willing to choose to trust the Haihan who once fought side by side. Han people.Hanging around with the Haihan people, you can make a lot of money and get the protection of the militia army. Anyway, the Haihan people have not directly raised the flag to rebel now, and the Li family is also happy to pretend to be confused, and only treat Haihan's various actions near Guangzhou. invisible.

In recent years, the Guangdong and Guangxi regions have suffered from natural disasters one after another, and bandits in the province are rampant. The government is unable to change this vicious cycle, and the people often have to rely on associations to protect themselves.With the establishment of "Qiong Lianfa" and the success of Lijiazhuang's defensive battle, a large number of wealthy businessmen who cooperated with Haihan also began to follow the example of the Li family and set up private armed forces in their hometown.Merchants who are eligible to join the "Qiong Lianfa" shareholders' meeting naturally have no doubts about their financial resources. Spending tens of thousands of taels of silver to buy Haihan weapons and invite Haihan instructors to form a reliable private armed force is a fortune for these wealthy businessmen. Good deal for the price.Haihan sold more than 40 rifles through this channel last year, and more than [-] small-caliber artillery pieces. If they were gathered together, this firepower would be enough to fight the defenders of Guangzhou Mansion.

These wealthy businessmen often have inextricably linked interests with the government, and some of them are even from the background of the government and businessmen. Therefore, the local government often just keeps a blind eye to the private armed forces organized by them. As long as they don't take the initiative to cause trouble, the people in the government will not ask for trouble to restrain these powerful forces with money and guns.And in this kind of tacit agreement reached by many parties, Haihan quietly built an allied army of thousands of people in Guangdong and Guangxi.

The Executive Committee and the Military Commission did not place too high hopes on the combat effectiveness of this kind of allied army. After all, most of these people are not professional soldiers. It is enough to provide support for Haihan's various non-public or semi-public actions in the mainland.When Haihan assisted in the formation of these local militia groups, he reached an agreement with the various bosses. As long as there is a document issued by the Armed Forces Department under the Guangzhou Office, the militia groups can be assigned to complete some low-intensity tasks in the local area, such as escorting goods, protecting important people, Monitor specific targets and more.

If militias are called out for such missions every time, firstly, the cost of action is too high; secondly, the militias have a limited number of armed personnel stationed in the mainland and are often unable to perform multiple missions at the same time; The local people are familiar with it, and the efficiency of action will be correspondingly limited.Therefore, such low-level tasks are often entrusted to the private armed forces of the cooperative merchants to carry out, which also makes up for the lack of Haihan's lack of armed forces in the mainland to a large extent.

As for whether Haihan can gradually merge these civilian armed forces into his own banner after the establishment of the regime in the future, this needs to be paved slowly from now on.The executive committee believes that with the means at its disposal, even if it cannot completely take these civil armed forces into its own use, at least most of them will not take a hostile attitude towards Haihan, and this will greatly reduce the number of civilian armed forces. The young man will be under pressure when the Haihan regime invades the mainland.

The situation in Fujian is different from that in Guangdong and Guangxi. The main purpose of Haihan people assisting the Xu Xinsu Group is not to establish a local armed force that can be used by themselves in advance, but to use Xu Xinsu's power to hold back the most powerful people in the southeast coast. The speed of development of the powerful "Eighteen Zhi" prevents it from monopolizing the entire sea trade lanes along the Fuguang coast and even the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions before Haihan's own sea power takes shape.

This kind of cooperation is more out of strategic considerations that benefit Haihan's own development, and the Executive Committee does not want to step on the "Eighteen Zhi" while supporting another behemoth beyond its control.Different from the local armed forces in the Guangdong and Guangxi regions, Xu Xinsu's troops were genuine officers and soldiers of the Ming Dynasty. Identity still endows this force with more power, and for Haihan, it means that there are more uncontrollable possibilities.

The executive committee is not a good man and a faithful woman, so naturally they don't believe that an old fox like Xu Xinsu, who has money and soldiers in his hands, will sincerely cooperate with him. Therefore, he has always been more cautious about military aid to Fujian. In terms of the scale and grade of arms exports It is also reserved.

Taking the Type [-] flintlock gun as an example, although it has begun to be gradually replaced by the latest Type [-] breech-loading flintlock gun in the militia army, the rifles exported to Fujian are still based on the Type [-] matchlock gun. The main body, the Type [-] flintlock guns are only sold at a ratio of [-] to [-], that is, for every [-] Type [-] purchased by Fujian, the order quota for one Type [-] can be obtained, and the price is lower than that of Type [-]. The matchlock gun was three times higher.As for the newer rifles, they are not on the foreign quotation list of "Haihan Military Industry" at all.

The export restrictions on artillery are more obvious. So far, the most powerful artillery that Fujian can buy from Haihan is the 12-pound army artillery, and it is also a monkey version with castrated performance.As for the large-caliber coastal defense gun that Xu Xinsu has always wanted to buy, it has long been included in the prohibited sale list by the Executive Committee-if this thing is erected on the city wall of Zhongzuo or the coast of Weitou Bay in the future, The difficulty for the Haihan warship to capture the local area has to be raised several levels because of this.

With coastal defense guns already listed as prohibited items, warships with higher technological content and greater threats will naturally not be sold in batches to the Ming military, which may become an opponent in the future.Xu Xinsu would be able to offer a sky-high price. Haihan will definitely not sell a large number of active warships to him until the next generation of warships is installed. There may be room for negotiation for one or two ships. After all, the combat power that a small number of ships can form is also very limited, but there is basically no need to talk about ten or eight ships. In the current fleet establishment of the Haihan Navy, each fleet is only two large, six small, and eight warships, plus a few It's just a supply ship.

Schneider considered the issue from the perspective of a businessman, and naturally felt sorry for letting go of this business with a gross profit of hundreds of thousands of silver.But from Yan Chujie's point of view, security issues are far more important than the benefits of this arms deal. Not only that, he also proposed further ideas to Schneider.

"Judging from the information we have received this year, the battle of 'Eighteen Zhi' in Fujian is not going well, and its strength is also discounted compared to the first two years. If we continue to open arms to Xu Xinsu, it may appear that we I don't want to see a one-sided situation for the time being." Yan Chujie frowned and analyzed: "If Zheng Zhilong falls too quickly, then Xu Xinsu's family will dominate, which may not be a good thing for us to go north in the future, so I plan to make a suggestion to the executive committee. Cut and limit the scale of arms exports to Fujian."

"Our biggest trade partner in Fujian is Xu Xinsu, and the biggest trade item is arms. If we want to move this item, our economic benefits from Fujian will be significantly reduced!" Schneider shook his head and said, "I don't know what other people think. I know, but I'm definitely going to vote no."

"In terms of policy, we can be a little more flexible. For example, we don't need to limit the export of weapons, but we can limit the sales of ammunition." Yan Chujie probably expected that there would be objections, so he proposed a relatively compromise plan: "Without us Even if they buy more weapons, the power they can exert is limited.”

Ruan Jinggui was quietly listening to the conversation between the two of them. Although his face was calm, there were already waves in his heart.Originally, he thought that the forces that Haihan supported through the arms trade were only the North Vietnamese court family, but after listening to the conversation, he realized that the situation Haihan was managing far exceeded his expectations.The Haihan people supported many civilian armed forces in the Guangdong and Guangxi regions, formed a number of militia armed forces, and were also conducting arms deals with the Ming Dynasty army.Judging from the tone of the two people's discussion, if the local Ming army in Fujian had not been supported by Haihan's military assistance, it might have been defeated by the local pirate forces long ago.

When Ruan Jinggui was sighing in his heart, Schneider turned around and asked him, "Mr. Ruan, what do you think about the issues we discussed?"

Ruan Jinggui quickly responded: "I have a lowly position with shallow knowledge, so I dare not speak nonsense."

"It's okay, just talk about it casually. Letting you listen here means that I don't treat you as an outsider. Don't have any psychological burden, just talk about your views." Schneider persuaded with a harmless smile on his face.

Schneider didn't know whether it was intentional or unintentional when he said this, but Ruan Jinggui was moved by the sentence "I didn't treat you as an outsider". After all, he is a new immigrant who has not yet obtained naturalization. Not to mention, it is quite an honor to be able to participate in the private meeting of the two executive committee members of the Haihan Executive Committee.

Of course, Ruan Jinggui didn't know that Schneider dared to bring him with him to attend the meeting with other executive committee members. He didn't really trust him. In fact, this was also part of the selection of personnel.If Ruan Jinggui is not strict and dares to spread the news, he will naturally feed it back to the relevant departments through some secret channels, and he will most likely be sent to a hard labor camp in a daze before he becomes a full-time official.If he can understand the importance of secrecy without being reminded by his superiors, there is hope that he can be reused in the new environment.

Ruan Jinggui saw that Yan Chujie had no intention of objecting, so he thought about it and said, "Then I will dare to say a few words. I hope the two chiefs are not surprised. Although I don't know the situation in Fujian, I heard the two chiefs talking just now. It seems that Annan The situation earlier was somewhat similar, except that the opposing sides were replaced by the Ming government army and a certain powerful pirate, I wonder if this is the case?"

"The analogy is not particularly appropriate, but if you want to understand it this way, it won't be much worse. Go on." Yan Chujie nodded and gave Ruan Jinggui encouragement.

Ruan Jinggui relaxed his mind a little, and continued: "Mr. Shi wants to sell arms to the Ming army in exchange for benefits, but Mr. Yan is worried that his tail will get too big and it will be difficult to control in the future. In my opinion, why not support the pirates instead?" Power? They are not as reliable as the Ming army, so they should be easier to control."

"You don't know this. The leader of this pirate team is notoriously double-faced. He can turn his face faster than a book. His personal credit is very bad. We can't trust this person, and we can't cooperate with him." Yan Chujie shook his head and denied. Ruan Jinggui's suggestion: "In comparison, the reliability of the Ming military is a little higher."

Ruan Jinggui was not discouraged after being dismissed, he thought for a while and asked: "The two of you mentioned earlier that the pirate's nest is in Taiwan. I don't know where the bay is?"

"Taiwan is not a bay. Taiwan is what Da Ming called Dayuan Island." Yan Chujie patiently explained to him.

"That's how it is. I also know the place of Dayuan, which is across the sea from Fujian. Then why not unite with the Ming army to directly destroy this pirate, and then let our side occupy its lair? Since this pirate can always attack the coast of Fujian, it must be The sea distance is not far away, and after occupying the local area, it must be able to check and balance the Ming Dynasty army in Fujian from a short distance." Ruan Jinggui racked his brains and came up with another plan.He didn't know the specific situation along the coast of Fujian, so it was his best effort to think of this step.

Schneider nodded approvingly and said: "I heard that you have never been to Fujian, you can get so much information from our conversation, and you can also think of a way to deal with it, you can be regarded as a caring person!"

Ruan Jinggui was secretly pleased with Schneider's praise, and quickly said humbly, "President Shi laughs at a lowly job."

"You said that this method is a good one. In fact, we have always wanted to do this..." Yan Chujie took over the topic and said, "But the problem is that we are not strong enough to cross the sea to fight against the pirates over there. Winning a fight or two doesn't mean much."

"The Haihan army has crossed the sea and invaded Annan several times, Mr. Yan's words are too modest!" Ruan Jinggui hurriedly presented a high hat without losing the opportunity.

Yan Chujie glanced at him and said, "Do you know how far Zhangzhou and Dayuan are from Sanya?"

Ruan Jinggui quickly responded: "I don't know about the lowly position, please advise Mr. Yan."

"You have walked back and forth from Hue to Sanya several times, and you should be familiar with this journey." Yan Chujie explained to him: "The battle area from here to Fujian is not too far away, probably about It’s almost three round trips from here to Hue!”

Ruan Jinggui almost choked on his own saliva. He was not familiar with the geography of the southeast coast of Daming, and he thought that the place these two were talking about was not too far away from Sanya. Talking nonsense in front of me.

After the collapse of the South Vietnamese regime, Ruan Jinggui gradually understood why the frequency of the Haihan militia’s attacks on South Vietnam remained at about half a year. A wave of offensive.The voyage from Sanya to the coast of Nanyue is only about three days, and it is still so troublesome. The distance from the Fujian battlefield to Sanya is five or six times longer, and the journey will take about half a month. Naturally, the Haihan people do not want to cross the sea so easily. Fight far away.

The Haihan people in Annan always adopt the strategy of withdrawing after the fight is over. In such a far place, with Haihan's current strength and strength, even if they can defeat their opponents, it is difficult to maintain long-term actual control in the local area.The shrewd Haihan executive committee is definitely unwilling to implement this kind of practice of paying a lot for a low return.

However, the thing that surprised Ruan Jinggui was still to come. When he was regretting that he shouldn't be talking nonsense, he heard Yan Chujie continue to say: "...Besides, if we really want to fight, we may not be able to beat those pirates! "

Ruan Jinggui replied quickly: "With the combat power of the Haihan Navy, what fear do pirates have?"

Schneider shook his head and said, "These people are not mere 'pirates'. They beat the Ming garrison in Fujian like dogs a few years ago. If we hadn't sold a lot of weapons, the coast of Fujian would have belonged to them a long time ago. .”

"There are pirates so powerful?" Yan Chujie's statement sounded like he was joking, but Ruan Jinggui was a little skeptical when he saw that Schneider said the same.

"It's not particularly powerful..." Yan Chujie responded: "They only have thousands of warships under their command, and only [-] to [-] combat personnel."

(End of this chapter)