1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 486 Battleship Launched

Although Sha Xi has been away from the power center for a long time, he still has some reliable sources of information, and he also has some understanding of the executive committee's trends in personnel appointments and dismissals.He wants to stay here to do civil affairs work after the administrative level of the Guangzhou Office is promoted, so now he must seize every opportunity to show his ability and win more support from the executive committee.

It was under the command of Sha Xi that the order of the Lijiazhuang immigrant camp was not greatly affected by the thousands of victims who flocked here in a short period of time, and took advantage of this opportunity to quickly absorb more than a thousand people who voluntarily went to Qiongzhou Island to work of new immigrants.

The treatment that people who choose to immigrate to Qiongzhou are naturally far better than those who are unwilling to leave their hometowns and can only eat and sleep outside Lijiazhuang.The new immigrants not only get sufficient food supply every day, but also enjoy accommodation and medical conditions that are much better than those of the outside world.Sha Xi also organized a lot of immigration cadres who could talk about going back to the disaster victims gathering area outside Lijiazhuang every day to preach Haihan's immigration policy, attracting more people to join the ranks of immigrants.

A considerable number of these grassroots naturalized civilian cadres are from the mainland, and their influence is considerable when they preach as witnesses.Some ordinary people who had no real estate and lost all their properties in this typhoon, after hearing about the various benefits of Sanya, will inevitably be tempted to sign up.

But for Sha Xi, the current speed of absorbing immigrants has not met his ideal requirements.He had already sent a report to the executive committee two months ago, requesting further reconstruction and expansion of the Lijiazhuang immigrant camp, in preparation for increasing the scale of immigrant introduction from the mainland.

With the expansion of Haihan's control area in Qiongzhou Island, the demand gap for the labor force is no longer the 800 people in the early days of crossing. Only the re-built Changhua-Shilu Coal and Iron Complex Industrial Base will be built in the future. The required labor force must exceed 20.The super-large collective farm project planned by the Executive Committee in the coastal areas of Qiongnan and Qiongxi is also a labor-intensive industry, which requires a large number of labor participation to be implemented.According to the executive committee's estimate, the existing population of [-] on the island alone is enough to develop the coastlines of Qiongnan and Qiongxi at most. To complete the layout of the whole island, the population figure must be more than doubled. just work.

Such a large gap mainly depends on the introduction of immigrants from the outside world.In the past, there was a large immigrant family in Annan as support, but with the end of the Annan Civil War, the number of immigrants introduced from Annan is also showing a monthly decline. From 3000 people per month during the war last year, it has gradually dropped to the current monthly Only the level of seven 800 people.However, the scale of this kind of immigrant importation has been difficult to keep up with the speed of development under the current situation.

Although the scale of immigrants from the mainland of the Ming Dynasty was not as high as that of Annan during the peak period, it has great potential and a relatively stable flow of immigrants. The number of new immigrants sent from Panyu to Sanya every month has basically remained at more than [-].In Sha Xi's view, the mainland as a source of immigrants actually has considerable potential for deep tapping. If some methods are thought out, the pace of immigration introduction will definitely be greatly accelerated-of course, to achieve this goal, the mainland must first be allowed to The social order under the Meiji was no longer guaranteed, so the people had the idea of ​​leaving the area.And this is exactly in conflict with the current foreign policy that the Executive Committee is seeking to stabilize.

The Executive Committee believes that under the current situation, maintaining the stability of Daming, the sales market, will be more conducive to the development of Haihan. At this time, if chaos is created in the south and looting Daming, it is inevitable that one thousand enemies will be killed and eight hundred will be injured. suspicion.Therefore, in the orders issued by the Guangdong Office, it has always been emphasized not to disrupt the social order in Guangdong for the purpose of increasing the scale of immigration—at least not to take the initiative.

Looking at the gathering places of disaster victims stretching for several miles outside Lijiazhuang, Sha Xi could only sigh. If the executive committee allows, he can play some tricks to make these hesitant disaster victims outside the village go to Haihan's side.For example, let the militia pretend to be bandits and bandits, and make a fuss nearby. Many people will definitely choose to apply for immigration to ensure their own safety. After all, everyone who comes here knows that the Haihan militia is not easy to mess with, and Within a few tens of miles, the only reliable armed force was the militia stationed in Lijiazhuang.

But Sha Xi also knew that the methods he thought were wrong, and it would be easy to lose control if he really played like this.Taking a step back, if he wants to play like this, the military probably won't cooperate, so these thoughts can only be kept in his head, and it is safer to continue to win over these victims by relying on disaster relief first.

While Sha Xi was running around on immigration matters, the Provisional Management Committee on Hong Kong Island finally received a reply from the Northern Ming Army, to the effect that they would not agree to the three conditions proposed by Chen Yixin, but agreed that Haihan was willing to maintain a peaceful coexistence. manner.

You Yihan felt a little puzzled when he received such a reply, so he found Chen Yixin and asked him about the mystery.Although Chen Yixin can be regarded as a professional in the military, he is not a person with a diplomatic background. He rubbed his chin and thought for a long time before responding: "I think the Ming army is just protecting their own face and refuses to promise me clearly. Those three conditions are all."

"How do you know?" You Yihan asked.

"They don't agree with our conditions, but they want to keep peace with us. To put it bluntly, they can't save face!" Chen Yixin analyzed: "At any rate, they are also dignified navy masters, so they just agreed to the conditions of losing power and humiliating the country. Do you still want the general's black hat?"

"It makes sense...but what if they make things difficult for our merchant ships?" You Yihan was still a little uneasy about the failure to reach a bilateral agreement in the end.

Chen Yixin smiled and said: "When I put forward the conditions at the beginning, I didn't think that they must agree. The main thing is to let them know where our bottom line is. To put it so clearly, if they still want to provoke us, then I probably can only Reluctantly, I took people to attack the water village directly. Anyway, there are so many pirates, so we can just plant them on whichever one we want. The pirates were driven away. In this way, the pot was also thrown away, and word of mouth also gained.”

"You kid has a lot of brains!" You Yihan was also amused by Chen Yixin's bold idea.

"Brother You, don't forget, the north has just been hit by a disaster. Their current situation, not to mention against us, is probably a bit difficult to protect themselves." Chen Yixin said firmly: "According to the situation we have Well, the navy's ships are old, and they will probably be damaged in such a strong typhoon. If they dare to provoke us at this juncture, it will be easier to clean them up."

In fact, Chen Yixin's guess is indeed very close to the actual situation. During the typhoon a few days ago, due to insufficient preparations, three ships on the navy's side directly capsized, and several other ships were severely damaged. Now the navy can The number of dispatched ships was less than half of that under normal conditions, and they had absolutely no ability to confront the Haihan Navy.

After this minor natural disaster passed, the construction of the new port resumed soon.Dozens of merchants who have already planned their sites here have also sent craftsmen and building materials from all over Guangdong to start construction in the planned business district.On this narrow plain near the sea, a small town composed of various commercial warehouses rose up almost at a speed visible to the naked eye, and the construction progress even exceeded the initial stage of the development of Victory Port.

By the end of 1629, the new port had begun to take shape. The first phase of the project had built a deep-water wharf for 3000-ton ships, and a camp area had been built on Ap Lei Chau Island, where two The army of the company, the sailors of half the fleet, and the coastal defense battery on the island have also begun to be built.On the day when the first phase of the project was completed, a total of 27 commercial facilities built by merchants were also put into use at the same time.

Under Haihan's prepared publicity, Guangdong's maritime business community has long known the existence of this new port, and is also very clear about its function-this is the last supply station after leaving the mainland on the route from Guangdong to Manila. After that, it is necessary to cross a voyage of six or seven hundred nautical miles before seeing the existence of a large piece of land again.

With the precedent of Wanshan Port, maritime merchants are very clear about how to use the location of this port to achieve tax evasion and reduce transshipment costs.Moreover, most of the maritime merchants in Guangdong know that the Ming government will not intervene in the area under Haihan's rule, so some maritime merchants who originally called at the northern port of Hong Kong Island also transferred their berths to the southern port controlled by Haihan. , including Chen Lin who was the messenger between Daming Navy and Haihan.Although it sounds like a bit of abnormal prosperity, almost all the ports under Haihan's rule developed along this path, and the understanding of Haihan Free Port has long been deeply ingrained in the hearts of maritime merchants.

At the end of 1629, three days before the coming of the new year, the first flagship of the Haihan Navy, the Majesty, held a grand enlistment ceremony at the Victory Harbor Military Wharf.Almost all the members of the executive committee and the heads of the various units were present to watch the commissioning of this large warship that embodies the efforts of the entire crossing group.

In fact, this ship was already in the construction plan of the shipping department long before the crossing, and the relevant design plan was also prepared early.However, due to the limitation of shipbuilding technology in the initial stage, the implementation was not immediately implemented. It was not until the Shengli Port Shipyard was expanded that the newly built large slipway could finally lay the keel for the construction of this large ship.

这艘三桅帆船的排水量达到了1762吨，全长50米，甲板最宽处12米，主桅杆高度55米。船上设计了三层火炮甲板，安装有12磅、24磅、48磅三种口径的火炮共计52门。额定的船员加上战斗人员共计388人，只使用风力推进的理论航速在6-12节。

The biggest highlight of this ship is of course not just the huge hull and densely packed muzzles. The most important part is actually at the rear of the bilge, a steam power system with a design power of 800 horsepower.In the case of using two sets of steam and wind propulsion systems at the same time, the maximum speed can exceed 15 knots, and it is absolutely impossible to find an opponent in this time and space.

Due to Haihan's great advantage in artillery manufacturing technology, the artillery equipped by "Majesty" greatly surpassed its contemporary opponents in terms of range and accuracy, so this ship was not built like Western warships. The super-thick outer deck and iron skin are used to build the hull, but the limited load capacity is more reserved for the heavy steam propulsion system, as well as the coal and fresh water required to maintain its operation.

In order to allow this main ship to have stronger sea cruising capabilities, the Navy also specially modified and ordered two "Explorer-class" supply ships for it to load fuel, fresh water, ammunition and supplies needed by hundreds of people on board. living supplies.According to the navy's estimate, the ship is qualified if it can maintain a combat radius of at least 500 nautical miles at sea, but whether it can reach such a level in actual operation still has to be a big question mark. After all, there is no such thing as a steam warship. People have played, whether it is machine maintenance on the way or logistics supply implementation at sea, it still takes a lot of time to explore and practice.

The sister ship "Prestige", which was built at the same time, has also entered the stage of launching and outfitting. It is estimated that the completion period will take about three months, and it should be officially listed in the first half of next year.

Tao Donglai stood on the rostrum, clapped his head slightly and said to Yan Chujie next to him, "Is this ship really going to be listed now?"

Yan Chujie said calmly: "Enter the queue first, and then solve other problems slowly."

After Tao Donglai heard this, the expression on his face did not change much.The delivery of this ship was much earlier than the expected construction period. Although Tao Donglai is not a professional in shipbuilding, he is more or less a military fan. Just asking.And Yan Chujie's words undoubtedly affirmed his guess. When the "Majesty" was enlisted, it should not have completed all the adjustment work.In other words, this ship can only be said to be forcibly entered into the ranks now, but I am afraid there is still a lot of work to be done in order to form combat effectiveness.

Tao Donglai knew that this occasion was not suitable for continuing to ask what happened, so he didn't discuss this issue any further.He knew Yan Chujie's character well, and believed that Yan Chujie would not make fun of such a big project, and would definitely explain it to him later, as long as he waited patiently.

(End of this chapter)