1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 505
Haihan has been operating in Qiongzhou Fucheng for more than two years, but so far its influence is mainly concentrated in the economic and cultural fields, and the political influence that the executive committee values ​​most is still extremely limited, far inferior to that of Haihan in Qiongzhou Island. Those states and counties controlled by the South.Although Haihan's influence in the economic and cultural fields has become increasingly significant, and some pro-Haihan forces have also been established in the official circles of Fucheng, they are still unable to influence the political situation in Fucheng. There is even less hope for offering the city and the like.

He Xi and Wang Tom discuss the situation after returning to their residence every day, and they both think that this place will have to be resolved by force in the end.The city of Qiongzhou Prefecture is well-defended, even if the militia army comes prepared, it may not be able to take down this fortified city in a very short time.The opposite of the strait where Qiongzhou Prefecture is located is the mainland, and the voyage is less than [-] nautical miles. In order to prevent the Ming army from mobilizing reinforcements from the mainland, it is necessary to block the Qiongzhou Strait from the sea. The militia navy can come in handy at that time. .

"Fortunately, this place is close to the sea. If it is like Danzhou, there are still [-] miles to get off the boat, then our navy will have to be a spectator again!" Tom Wang stretched his waist and sighed happily.He and He Xi lay on the desk and studied the topographic map of Fucheng for almost three hours, and it wasn't until the end that they felt that they were exhausted.

"There is also the camp of the Qiongzhou Navy by the sea, and your navy must have work to fight Fucheng." He Xi did not forget to remind him: "This is the main force of the Qiongzhou Navy, and the water camp on the other side of Yacheng used to be At most, it’s just a detachment.”

"Well, let's set off early tomorrow to see how powerful this navy is." Wang Tom also seemed very excited about this. After all, it was a new opponent that appeared with great difficulty. How much military budget the Navy will get next year, If it doesn't work, it depends on the opponent's weight.

However, the greater the hope, the greater the disappointment. After Wang Tom went to reconnaissance the next day, he came back with a look of frustration: "What are you talking about Qiongzhou Navy, I don't think the situation is much better than the original Yacheng, no wonder the situation before departure I went to Luo Shengdong to ask about the situation, and he told me not to worry... there are just a few broken ships, I really have nothing to worry about!"

The navy stationed in Qiongzhou was originally quite large, with a total of more than [-] warships of various types, and nearly one third of them were deployed in the Yacheng water village.However, the situation of the naval garrison on Fucheng's side is not much better than that on Yacheng's side, except for a little more ships.In particular, Luo Shengdong later pulled out the naval warships and used them as smuggling ships. The navy in Fucheng also followed suit. They simply dismantled the firearms on the ship that had been in disrepair for a long time and used them for freight transportation. Business, so that in addition to the military salary, you can also have a good part-time income, and the ships used do not need to be paid by themselves. For the naval leaders, why not do it?

Therefore, it is not difficult to imagine what Wang Tom scouted near the water village—the military dock of the water village has almost become a cargo dock, and the soldiers of the guard are cheap civilian men who ship various goods to the Cargo warships.A considerable part of the goods are produced by Haihan, and these goods will be transported by warships to the Leizhou Peninsula on the other side of the strait, and then sold to local merchants for distribution.

If the Qiongzhou navy is only at this level, it will be very easy for Wang Tom to control the situation. At that time, he only needs to send a few gunboats to cross the river at the mouth of the Nandu River. How many.And such a weak opponent obviously couldn't satisfy Wang Tom's plan to use actual combat training.

After hearing his complaints, He Xi couldn't help laughing and said, "Think on the bright side! The opponent is so weak, it's just a quick battle, and the executive committee only needs you to complete the combat objectives, and not so many people care about your opponent's strength How the hell."

Tom Wang shook his head and said, "It's just a pity that I didn't have the chance to fight head-on with the Daming Navy. After all, this is one of the most powerful naval forces in the Far East."

"Keep your energy, and use it after two years of playing Shibazhi!" He Xi smiled, and did not continue to persuade.He finally understood that Tom Wang was not unfriendly to fighting, but he always wanted to find a comparable opponent to fight.However, such opponents no longer exist on Qiongzhou Island today.Whether it is the Ming Dynasty army or the Li and Miao tribes on the island, their strength is completely incapable of confronting the Haihan militia head-on. Indeed, the value of military training is relatively limited.

The two spent a little longer in Qiongzhou Fucheng. After staying for a full week, the various reconnaissance missions they shouldered were completed.After leaving Fucheng, the fleet crossed the river from the south to the sea, and continued to sail eastward. After bypassing Hainan Cape and Jingxin Cape, they turned south and entered Wenchang County.

Wenchang was considered a large county in Qiongzhou Island at this time, with a population of more than 2. There is not much difference in population size compared with Yazhou. However, the current population is basically agricultural, and the economic level is still relatively backward.The military defense here is also relatively weak. There are only two to three hundred guards stationed in the county. Coupled with the old and disrepaired city walls and city defense facilities, they are powerless to stop the Haihan militia army.From a military point of view, this is actually not an area that needs special attention.

However, this stop was still arranged in He Xi and Wang Tom's inspection schedule, and it was specially designated by the Executive Committee. Naturally, there were special reasons for this.

Wenchang County is one of the areas with the richest mineral resources on Hainan Island. There are more than ten kinds of minerals in its territory, such as iron, titanium, tungsten, aluminum, coal, crystal, kaolin, sapphire, and quartz sand. For the Executive Committee, this place is simply a treasure house, and its importance is no less than that of the Shilu Iron Mine in the west of Qiongzhou Island.

The local quartz placer in Wenchang has proven reserves of more than 3 million tons in the time and space before the time travel, and the difficulty of mining is low, and the quality of the ore sand is high. In the current industrial system of Haihan, glass, casting, ceramics and other fields are very important for high-quality quartz The demand for sand is very high.In addition, the local bauxite reserves are more than 2000 million tons. This is one of the important raw materials that the industrial sector is looking forward to day and night, and has a very wide range of uses.The Ministry of Construction has also been waiting for this thing. With thermite, the current welding problems in rail engineering can be easily solved.

Of course, the military department also has great hopes for the production of aluminum mines. The explosives made of ammonium aluminum explosives and thermite are quite powerful weapons. Even under the action of the agent, it will still burn. This is definitely a magic weapon for defeating the enemy in the tough battle.

Just for these mineral resources, they have to come here for a trip.It's not that they need to come here to find out the distribution of mineral deposits, that kind of professional work still needs to be done by special personnel, but to come and see what the development prospects here are, such as the local labor force, land, transportation, and natural environment Waiting for the situation, evaluate how much resources Haihan needs to invest in if he wants to carry out large-scale mining operations here.

The fleet is docked at Qinglan Port at the mouth of Bamen Bay—of course, there is no other time and space that can load and unload rockets. There is only a small fishing port.

The fishermen by the sea were not surprised when they saw the big Haihan ship coming slowly, because this place is an important supply port on the east coast of Qiongzhou Island. Serve as a resupply stop.After the Haihan fleet arrives here, they will sell the last batch of goods on board to the local residents, mainly some cheap daily necessities, as well as iron kitchen utensils, farm tools and so on.

Haihan also has an office here, but he didn't appoint a traveler to preside over the work here.The reason is actually very simple. Haihan is temporarily unable to develop the minerals here, so naturally no one is willing to come to this fishing village for a long time.

However, this place is not so difficult that it is useless. There are large fishing grounds in the waters near Qinglan Port. The fishing season is long and there are many kinds of seafood, such as grouper, mackerel, lobster, prawn, abalone, squid, sea cucumber and other economic species. Seafood is produced in large quantities here.Tom Wang and He Xi walked half a circle around Hainan Island this trip, and still found the freshest seafood here.Naturally, Tom Wang didn't forget his special job, and directed the sailors on the ship to prepare a seafood barbecue feast, and then the whole fleet ate enough before leaving Qinglan Port.

From Wenchang to the south, Qionghai, Wanzhou, Lingshui and other places passed through, which basically belonged to Haihan's control area.Although Haihan's control over these places is not as thorough as Yacheng, it is almost semi-open. As long as the Executive Committee issues a document, the local ownership will immediately change hands.Of course, a small number of local people may not welcome the Haihan people to settle in, because the Haihan people's reputation for public land ownership in the area under their control has spread here. This is definitely an unpopular policy for the landlord class.

However, the executive committee didn't really care about it. The militia army and the public security police had accumulated enough experience in dealing with these matters. If someone tried to resist the rule of the executive committee, then the relevant departments would naturally come forward to teach them how to behave.However, local small-scale groups that lack formal armed forces and militarized organizations are like chickens and dogs in front of the Haihan militia, and they will not cause much trouble.

By the time the expedition team returned to Sanya, the time had come to May of 1630.After the third anniversary celebration, the general direction of the Executive Committee's work began to adjust to military expansion and preparations for the unification of the entire Hainan Island within this year.Of course, during this period, other infrastructure projects did not stop. The track line from Changhua to Shilu, the port construction in southern Annan, and the improvement project of the Hong Kong Island base were all proceeding in an orderly manner.

In addition, in order to prevent the hostile relationship with Daming, the other party took some extreme measures. The Guangzhou Office and even the immigration transfer point in Panyu have been notified by the Executive Committee, requiring them to complete the relocation at any time before August. preparations.Some important materials and property can be shipped to the Hong Kong Island area in advance.All traversers working in the area ruled by the Ming Dynasty must also be prepared to evacuate the area immediately after receiving the notification from the base camp within 48 hours before the action.

It is not easy to do this job. The Guangzhou Office is full of traffic every day, and it seems to be a high-end business forum outside Guangzhou. Exchange the latest business information.The place where news about the supply and demand of various bulk commodities is released has changed from the tea houses and restaurants in Guangzhou to the Guangzhou Office outside the city.

"This is simply embarrassing us!" Maliko, who had just been promoted to the chief administrative officer of the Guangdong Administrative Region for more than a month, shook the telegram in his hand, and said a little angrily: "So many people come and go in and out of the Guangzhou Office every day, how can we Maybe evacuate here to cover people's eyes? If I don't show up for two or three days, I'm afraid the news will spread throughout the business district of Guangzhou City!"

Maliko's statement is not entirely exaggerated. As the head of the Guangzhou Office, his presence is completely a weathervane for the Haihan policy for local businessmen. All new trends and new policies, Maliko is the first The publisher of the hand.And the businessmen who are used to cooperating with Haihan already know the value of this information very well. If they can get the news half a day earlier, the benefits they can get are at least hundreds of taels of silver.And under this top-level circle, there are at least several thousand people inside and outside Guangzhou city, who are relying on the trade relationship between Haihan and Daming to make a living. Those wealthy businessmen.

It is almost impossible for the Guangzhou Office to evacuate Guangzhou without anyone noticing it under so many eyes.There might have been a chance to do it a year ago. At that time, as long as the city gates were closed at night, there were basically no people outside the city, and the people stationed in Guangzhou could still sneak away from the Pearl River in the dark.But later, a lot of hotels opened along the river outside the city, and most of the guests were businessmen who came to Guangzhou from other places to do business with Haihan people. After the hotel opened more, there was a flow of people, and other corresponding supporting places came into being. There are so many things to eat and play.The outside of the city was not like the inside of the city, and there was no curfew at night, so some people invested money to build some entertainment venues nearby for these well-fed and well-fed rich people to pass the time.

Although these places are not directly built on the land belonging to the Guangzhou Office, after all, they are all businesses developed around the Guangzhou Office, and they are already very close to each other. Even if there is any movement here in the middle of the night, most of them will escape. But caring eyes.

(End of this chapter)