1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 416
Luo Shengdong had dealt with the Haihan people much longer than these three South Vietnamese surrenders, and naturally he knew much more comprehensive information than them.If the Haihan people were still wearing the sheepskin of armed merchants at the beginning, then after they gradually took control of Sanya and Yazhou, they have slowly torn off this layer of camouflage, revealing their sharp minions.

The Haihan Executive Committee's control over the local area is different from that of ordinary Ming landlords. Luo Shengdong doesn't fully understand the policies of the Executive Committee, but he can feel that the Executive Committee's control is comparable to that of his allegiance. The Ming court was much stronger.Luo Shengdong had personally transported boatloads of immigrants for Haihan, and he had also seen the panic, confusion, doubt, helplessness and other emotions shown by these people when they first arrived in Shengli Port, but only a few months later, these people Immigrants who chose to come to Victory Port just to survive are like being reborn, with some temperament that is different from the people of Ming Dynasty.Luo Shengdong didn't know how to describe these temperaments specifically, but he could feel that these people probably would no longer regard the Ming court and the emperor in the Forbidden City as the only authority and belief in their hearts—just like he himself is currently same mentality.

In this social system dominated by Haihan people and composed of naturalized people, most of the production activities are concentrated. Ordinary people do not have the right to obtain private land, but they are not as miserable as the bankrupt farmers under the Ming Dynasty. Citizens don't need to worry about their own livelihood at all.Under the governance of the executive committee, there are almost no idlers in Sanya. Everyone will be assigned a position and job, and everything the public does is to continuously strengthen the collective strength of the Haihan.Luo Shengdong heard from Tao Dong that this is called "thinking in one place, working in one place", the reason sounds simple, but it seems that this kind of scene can only be realized under the rule of the executive committee.

This peculiar social system is being implemented outwards with the gradual expansion of Haihan's governance area. Although there have been some voices of opposition among the people during the process, these individual dissidents are fundamentally suppressed by powerful institutions. There has never been any trouble—even the government of Yazhou has publicly sided with Haihan. It can be said that there is no force in the entire Qiongnan area that can compete with Haihan.

If Haihan really wanted to establish a local government, at least in the Qiongnan area, there would be no outside pressure, and he might even get the support and support of tens of thousands of naturalized people in this area.A considerable number of these people have become diehard members of the Executive Committee, especially those Limiaoshan people and Annan immigrants who have a weak sense of identity with Ming Dynasty. For them, the Executive Committee is at least the supreme authority, although they are not independent. The name of the country, but under the rule of the Executive Committee is a de facto country within a country.

Since its establishment, the Haihan militia has waged many wars, and it has remained invincible. Almost all naturalized people have enjoyed the war dividends brought about by victory in various ways, which has prompted the local people to go further. Strong support for the ruling power of the Executive Committee.Now every time the military announces that it will go to war, the civilians will not only have no fear of war, but will actively participate in various preparations to prepare for the militia's expedition, hoping that the victory of their soldiers on the battlefield will bring more A lot of war dividends.

Luo Shengdong believes that the executive committee has been reluctant to stand up and show its banner because it is just waiting for the most suitable opportunity.Before this time comes, the executive committee will probably continue to show itself as an armed business group, and Wu Sen believes that Haihan will choose to establish a country in the future. In Luo Shengdong's view, this kind of speculation is almost certain. Taking advantage of the situation, I will show off my knowledge again.

"Do you know why the executive committee doesn't establish its own country name?" Luo Shengdong looked around the three of them and asked.

Both Wu Sen and Ruan Jingwen quickly shook their heads, expressing their ignorance. Only Ruan Jinggui was more familiar with this, and twirling his beard on his chin, he replied: "In my humble opinion, the executive committee does not want to set up its own family at this time. related!"

"How do you say that?" Wu Sen asked puzzledly: "The Ming army can't even beat me, Annan, so how could it be the opponent of the Haihan militia?"

After Wu Sen said this, he suddenly remembered the identity of Luo Shengdong next to him, and quickly apologized: "Brother Luo, I don't mean to be sarcastic."

"It doesn't matter." Luo Shengdong shook his head nonchalantly and said, "After all, this is also the truth. Please continue, Mr. Ruan."

"Although Haihan's development is going smoothly, where do the manpower and financial resources needed for its development come from? It didn't just fall from the sky. As far as I know, Daming is currently the most traded person with Haihan. And among the immigrants who entered the Haihan rule, more than [-]% of the people of Daming also stood. If they choose to establish their own country on the territory of Daming, it is tantamount to declaring war on Daming. However, trade and population imports related to Ming Dynasty will definitely be greatly affected, and the disadvantages of establishing a self-contained country will soon become apparent." Ruan Jinggui's analysis was well-founded, and several people nodded after hearing it.

"Although it's not perfect, it's about the same. Mr. Ruan really has real skills. No wonder Mr. Shi, who is known for his shrewdness, picked you to work by his side." Luo Shengdong also agreed with Ruan Jinggui's speculation: "If Hai When Han establishes the country, Qiongzhou Island will become a battlefield. Although the Haihan militia is powerful, if the two countries go to war, then the business and immigration channels will be blocked, and the development of Haihan will inevitably stagnate. This is the executive committee would be the worst situation to face.”

Ruan Jinggui said: "In General Luo's opinion, what will Haihan do in the future?"

Luo Shengdong shook his head and said, "The heads of the executive committee are all capable. I don't dare to speculate on their thoughts. But in my humble opinion, at least this Qiongzhou Island must be taken, so that they can rely on the sea route. Tianzhu and Daming are fighting against each other, and then they will make great achievements. As for whether to go south or go north first after that, I really can't guess."

Among the four people present, except Ruan Jingwen, who was a little more simple-minded, the other three were not easy-going.Luo Shengdong has been working with Haihan people for almost two years, his way of thinking has long been affected by them, and his butt is almost sitting on Haihan's side, without the awareness of a military officer of the Ming Dynasty.And Ruan Jinggui demoted Haihan early on, thinking of doing something on Haihan's side, using Haihan's achievements after the founding of the country in the future to wash away his reputation as a "traitor".Wusen's situation is even simpler. If he wants to regain his life now, he must consider how to give Haihan's examiners a satisfactory answer. He doesn't want to be sent back to the hard labor camp, or Assigned to a merchant ship as a sailor or something.

In the afternoon of the same day, the warship turned to the north, and met with three other naval warships in the waters of Ximaozhou Island, west of Sanya Port, and then conducted a sea-to-land attack drill around Ximaozhou Island.The content of the exercise was that four ships lined up in a long snake formation, using the ship's guns to bombard the target area on the island, and then lowered the small boats, and the naval guns covered the amphibious soldiers to carry out landing operations and establish a beachhead.

Wu Sen had personally experienced the bombardment of Hai Han warships in Dong Hoi and Hoi An, but this time he was lucky enough to observe this combat method from the perspective of the victor, which also made him sigh the magic of fate.Although he had known for a long time that the amphibious warfare tactics of the Haihan Militia were very sharp, after seeing the implementation process of this kind of warfare with his own eyes, Wu Sen still couldn't help feeling a lot of emotion.

In addition to the need for powerful shipboard artillery for support and cover, this kind of operation also requires the establishment of a beachhead as a very important part of the operation.Wu Sen did not witness the process of the Hai Han militia raiding the South Vietnamese army's flanking coast and establishing a beachhead during the Vietnam aid operation last year, but after seeing this small-scale landing combat exercise today, Wu Sen can already deduce from this that at that time The general situation of the landing battle.The cold weapons equipped on a large scale by the South Vietnamese troops were obviously unable to cope with the Haihan militia's tactics of relying on beachhead fortifications and long-range firepower to gradually advance, and failure was inevitable.

However, this seemingly uncomplicated tactic is difficult to replicate. Without the fire support from the sea such as the Haihan warship, the troops landing on the beach would easily be directly defeated by the defenders due to their inferior strength. Catch the sea.As for the warships equipped with heavy firepower of the Haihan people, neither Da Ming nor Annan has the ability to manufacture them. Even after seeing this kind of warfare, it is difficult to think of a defensive method that can restrain them.

"Wu Sen, what do you think of this method of landing operations?" While watching the exercise, Wang Tom asked Wu Sen for his opinion. Of course, this was also an examination of Wu Sen's military attainments.

Wu Sen bowed in response: "In my humble opinion, the militia's tactics are indeed sharp, and it may be difficult for the defenders who are not equipped with guns to resist. It's just that this tactic requires a lot of ammunition, and it must be very expensive to fight! "

Wang Tom nodded and said: "It is indeed a lot of consumption. Like today's exercise, we need to mobilize four warships to go out to sea for coordination. There are nearly 500 sailors and soldiers, and more than 200 rounds of shells are fired, and at least [-] rounds of bullets are fired. .These material consumption, personnel costs plus the wear and tear and depreciation of the guns, there must be thousands of circulation coupons."

Wu Sen was stunned when he heard it. After he came out, he also learned about the local income and prices, and roughly knew how much a few thousand circulation coupons cost.It costs several thousand for one exercise. It seems that Luo Shengdong was not joking when he said that the Haihan Navy is rich and self-willed.

"But for us, how much money is spent is not the most important thing." Sure enough, Tom Wang's next words confirmed Wu Sen's feelings: "Except for shipbuilding, most of our navy's military budget is spent on When it comes to daily training. As you have just seen, we will treat each exercise as actual combat, so as to ensure that our soldiers can fully exert their daily training skills when they actually set foot on the battlefield. Combat level. I think, as a soldier, you understand what that means."

Wu Sen certainly understood that the combat effectiveness of the South Vietnamese army was relatively low. A large part of the reason was due to the uneven military quality of the soldiers. There were a large number of peasants and soldiers in the army who had no combat experience at all. Maintaining the same level and pace of fighting makes it easy to fail when setbacks occur.Although the strength of the Haihan militia is small, it has maintained a frequency of foreign combat for half a year or less since the beginning of last year. To a certain extent, it can be called "training through combat" to train these soldiers and grassroots officers. , Its performance on the battlefield and actual combat capability are far better than the South Vietnamese army, which seems to have a huge force but is like a mess of sand.

But the Nanyue court was unable to follow Haihan's approach to change itself, because this involved the previous topic again-first of all, you have to have enough military spending to squander it.

With the financial resources of the Haihan people, they can only raise such a militia army of about 3000 people. In the Annan Civil War, tens of thousands of people were often dispatched to fight, and the court simply could not afford to support such a large-scale elite army.So for South Vietnam, the Haihan militia belonged to "other people's army", and they could only envy it, but they couldn't copy it to their own army to emulate.

"Our Haihan militia is taking the route of elite soldiers. The resources we invest in each soldier and officer are at least ten times, or even a hundred times that of the traditional army. It takes a lot of money to train them in normal times, but This kind of consumption can be supplemented by the battle victories won by the vigilantes, and there may even be a lot of profit." Wang Tom said proudly: "For example, the large warships we started to build in the second half of this year will be financed through spoils of war. of."

Tom Wang didn't make it too clear, but Wu Sen also understood that the money was actually brought back from Hue.It is said that after Haihan conquered Hue, he took property worth millions of taels of silver from the city, most of which would probably eventually become the military expenses of the Haihan militia to further expand its military strength.Of course, for Wu Sen, it is fortunate that he no longer needs to face the guns of the Haihan militia on the battlefield in the future, and Wu Sen naturally welcomes the fact that his own camp can have more powerful weapons.Although I don't know how big the "large battleship" Wang Tom called is, but I can be sure that after it is launched, the combat effectiveness of the Haihan Navy will rise to a new level.

"But if we need to fight against a big country in the future, with such a small force, I'm afraid there will still be problems!" Wu Sen couldn't help but raised his concerns.No matter how powerful the Haihan militia was, there were still too few people after all, otherwise they would not have retreated shortly after beating Hoi An and Hue.

Wang Tom laughed and said: "Your worry is not unreasonable, but there is another characteristic of the elite soldier route we take, that is, to train every soldier as an officer. If there is a large-scale war, we must treat the militia Ordinary soldiers can be promoted to squad leaders, squad leaders to platoon leaders, and platoon leaders to company commanders. As long as there are enough troops, 3000 people can be expanded to ten times or even larger in a short period of time.”

But Tom Wang didn't finish his sentence. If it really reached that level, the executive committee and all the units under it might have to sell their iron.The combat consumption of tens of thousands of combat troops may not be able to support the current Haihan.

But this kind of statement is already shocking enough for Wu Sen, who has just entered the militia system.Wu Sen stayed on the ship for most of the day, and carefully observed the performance of the sailors, crew and soldiers on the ship. It is true that they are far more elite than the sailors he led before. If the navy needs to expand, then most of the crew will be able to take care of themselves. The ability of the first mate and the second mate on the ship can basically be pulled out to command a ship alone.Of course, due to the limitation of shipbuilding speed, the expansion of the navy cannot be as easy as that of the army. Even if the army cannot build guns and cannons, it can still issue cold weapons to arm them first. But if the navy does not have combat ships, it is really a little bit It doesn't work anymore.

The exercise on that day lasted for about two hours and was not declared over until [-]:[-] pm.The navy's generous treatment of soldiers was once again reflected after the exercise. Four warships were on the shore of Ximaozhou Island, and then the soldiers and crew all went down to the island and had a traditional picnic activity of the Haihan militia. .

Different from the marching picnic in the concept of Wu Sen and others, the Haihan militia’s comfort-style picnic is actually more similar to post-war relaxing activities. Several small boats were dispatched to catch hundreds of catties of fresh fish and For other seafood, the cook on the boat will light a fire and set up a stove on the shore to cook the "Hai Han Paella" which is very popular with the local people.That's right, the so-called "Hai Han Paella" is actually an improved variant of "Spanish Paella", which is more suitable for the taste of the oriental people, and all the chefs of the warships are all opened by Fan Wei, the chief chef of Hai Han. He has studied in the famous "New Oriental" culinary training class, and it can be said that he is a well-known teacher.As a result, the navy officers and soldiers have also received a lot of benefits. As long as it is a large-scale amphibious exercise at sea, they will almost always arrange outdoor dinners like today, and paella is the most popular protagonist in this event.

It was the first time for Wu Sen to eat this kind of delicious food. Although Ruan Jinggui and Luo Shengdong reminded him, he almost bit off his tongue.Hearing that there is no limit to the amount of food eaten by each person, Wu Sen ate three large bowls in one go, which was really quite expensive.Even Wang Tom jokingly said after seeing it: "Wu Sen, if you eat like this, I'm afraid that my navy will be exhausted. It seems that I have to reconsider whether to transfer you to the navy!"

Wu Sen rubbed his stomach and said with a shy smile: "General Wang, stop joking. Although I have only been here for a day, I already know the slogan of Haihan Navy."

Wang Tom wondered: "Slogan? What slogan?"

Wu Sen cleared his throat and said solemnly: "To be rich is to be willful!"

(End of this chapter)