1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 511

On August 1630, 8, Qiongzhou Strait.

Wang Tom stood on the bow deck, looked at the sea ahead with a telescope, and asked after a while: "The current speed?"

"Report to the chief, the current speed is five knots." Soon someone answered beside him.

Wang Tom frowned. This speed really made him feel a little uncomfortable who was used to the new sailboat.Starting from the coast near Qiongzhou Fucheng, cross the Qiongzhou Strait to a bay somewhere in the southwest corner of the Leizhou Peninsula.If you take a Haihan-style sailboat, you can reach your destination in about four hours. However, you have sailed for nearly six hours on this Chinese-style sailboat.

Wang Tom looked back towards the direction of the stern, and the other three ships were following behind, carrying militiamen from two companies of the Annan Militia Army, and this ship disguised as pirates for nearly half a month The "results" obtained by the team's frequent activities on the coast of Qiongzhou Island.

Of course, it is a bit of an exaggeration to say that the results of the battle are actually a bit exaggerated. Tom Wang led this team to work for so many days, and he only grabbed a few thousand catties of grain and a small amount of gold and silver, whose value was far from enough for the military expenditure of this group of people.These harvests basically come from fishing villages and households near the coastline. As for the merchant ships and civilian ships that were looted at sea, they were all entrusted in advance, so no matter how the navy in Qiongzhou Prefecture patrols the offshore, they will always be there. A ship encountered pirates in the nearby waters.

The militia's offensive on land basically chooses random targets. As long as there is no resistance, they will not take the initiative to kill-this is the bottom line that Wang Tom can do. No, then this role-playing trick will be very difficult to bluff people.On the northern coastline of Qiongzhou Island, there were indeed no villages with resistance. Once these hundreds of soldiers with shining swords and guns came ashore, very few of them could develop the courage to resist when facing them.

However, Huangjiazhuang, which was breached by the militia army yesterday, was a small exception, because this place was not randomly selected to intimidate the people, but a specially designated target by the Ministry of Security.Since Haihan appeared in Qiongzhou, the Huang family and his son have been the main advocates of anti-Haihan activities near Qiongzhou's capital city, and they have also been the focus of attention of the Ministry of Security for a long time.

Those who hold this attitude are mainly big landlords in Qiongzhou Prefecture. These people basically rely on land rent to earn money, and have little to do with the trade method promoted by Haihan, and they can't get much benefit from it.Of course, if this is all it is, the relationship between the two parties will not develop to the level of mutual hostility. The most fundamental reason is that the land policy implemented by the Haihan Executive Committee in the southern region has made the big landlords in the north smell a little dangerous. odor.

Haihan has been promoting the public ownership of land in his own ruling area. No matter who the land originally belonged to, all the land must be taken back to the public.Those who can get the land title deed can also get some land acquisition compensation from Haihan. If they can't produce clear evidence, there is no way, and the land will be forcibly expropriated by the executive committee.If they try to take a tough confrontation, then what awaits these people will be the muskets and bayonets of the Haihan militia.During the land expropriation process, the landlords suppressed by the militia were not one or two families. Although the south had long been dominated by Haihan, these things inevitably spread to the north through various channels.

This approach of the Haihan people naturally attracted the attention of the northern landowners. They did not realize that Haihan’s tactics were to completely change the social structure and labor relations, but simply thought that this was Haihan bullying the weak and shamelessly annexing land the wrist of.

If it's just a small rural landlord with a hundred or so mu of land under his name, then that's fine. At worst, he can calculate the price according to the land deed, sell the land to the Haihan people, and use the money to go to Guangzhou to be an apartment.But big landlords like the Huang family often have a lot of land under their names without legal procedures.These lands are basically accumulated by landlords who organized land reclamation or merged the land of ordinary farmers. Since there is no registration in the government, the income from planting agricultural products on these lands does not need to pay due taxes to the government.

To put it bluntly, this is actually a means of evading taxes. If the Haihan people want to expropriate land, these legally unowned lands can only be taken away by the Haihan people for nothing, and the landlords will not get any compensation. Landlords are by no means a small number.

In order to avoid such a situation, the landlords believe that the most effective way is to curb Haihan's expansion to the north, otherwise, sooner or later, these overseas barbarians will implement their terrible land policy throughout the island.And they did not sit still, they resisted Haihan's economy, culture, and system within the scope of their influence.

Although the actions of the landlords did not hinder the overall situation, nor could they stop Hai Han from moving forward, but it was really annoying to have such a group of flies flying around in front of him all the time.Two months ago, when Haihan's Guihuamin employee was selling various daily necessities in Huangjiazhuang, he was arrested by Huang's father and son, and they were lynched, breaking the employee's leg.It's hard to die, but this unlucky naturalized citizen is a spy sent by the Ministry of Security to collect intelligence around the Fucheng, so this Liang Zi was formed.

Later, when the Ministry of Security planned the local targets to be attacked in the operation, it included Huangjiazhuang among them as a target to kill chickens and monkeys.This is not public revenge, but that the Huang family and his son have united many Zhuangzi near the Qiongzhou prefectural city to jointly ban Haihan, and also contact the gentry of the counties to jointly write a letter, asking the magistrate to punish those who do not follow the Ming law. The aliens from France drove out of Qiongzhou Island.

Since it was his own death, Haihan's side would naturally not show mercy. After the security department found out the situation of Huangjiazhuang, Wang Tom led the team to the nearby coast, landed at dawn, and directly attacked Huangjiazhuang.

Wang Tom also had to admit that the group of people trained by Qian Tiandun was really useful. It only took about half an hour for a team of more than 200 people to control a village with a size of [-] people to complete the combat mission. In the case of casualties, the three Huang family father and son who were at a loss were captured.

Although the goal of the operation has been set long ago, Tom Wang is not interested in personally executing these helpless people, so this glorious task falls to Gao Qiaonan, who was appointed by Qian Tiandun to serve as the combat commander. .

As the officer leading the team this time, Takahashi himself knew that he was shouldering not only the front-line command, but more importantly, the face of the Annan Militia Army. After receiving this order from Qian Tiandun, he thought it was important for him. Words are a great compliment.For this reason, Takahashi Nan took out his treasured samurai sword and chopped off the three heads one by one in front of hundreds of villagers.

Neither Takahashi Nan nor Tom Wang probably expected that this arrangement would be a mistake, and instead confirm their identities as pirates.After they evacuated from Huangjiazhuang, the report received by the government was of course pirates landing and harassing, and the content was true-the one who beheaded the three heads of Mr. Huang, his father and his son was a fake Japanese pirate. Hundreds of people witnessed this incident. Absolutely no moisture.

And the information about this incident quickly spread to Qiongzhou Fucheng, so some people who originally suspected that Haihan was playing tricks had to abandon their previous guesses and start to inquire about the whereabouts of these pirates—no one can be sure Where they will land next time, it is obviously unrealistic to hope for the protection of the government, so it is better to run away as soon as they hear the wind.

The fleet led by Wang Tom finally arrived at the destination in the evening of the same day, which was located in Liusha Village on the west coast of Leizhou Peninsula.There is a natural bay here for the fleet to enter and dock.More than a thousand acres of land near Liusha Village was bought by the relevant department in the name of a Ming businessman last year. Although there was a plan to establish a military base here at the time, no one thought that after only half a year , put into practical use here.

Before arriving at Liusha Port, the black flags on several ships had all been changed, and all weapons had been put away. The current identity of this fleet was a caravan that trafficked sugar from Sanya.The fleet rests here for two or three days. After completing the supplies, it will set off again to the south bank of the Qiongzhou Strait to continue the harassment mission.Liusha Port is only about [-] nautical miles away from the northern coastline of Qiongzhou Island. Although the speed of these Chinese sailboats is slow, they can reach their destination on the same day, and it is quite convenient to carry out their tasks.

By the end of August, the government officials from all over the world began to write letters to Fucheng, requesting that Fucheng dispatch troops as soon as possible to quell the increasingly rampant pirates.And Fucheng can't find a better solution, unless it is to ask for help from Guangzhou. However, if you have to wait for Guangzhou to reply, then dispatch troops and arrange a battle plan, I am afraid that you will not see action until at least two months later. .In the end, the Fuya became ruthless and decided to try to solve it by itself first. If it really doesn't work, it will ask Guangzhou for help.

The news spread from the government office's study to the Haihan office only an hour after the Zhizhou lord and the commander agreed, and then a few minutes later, it arrived at the information center in Sanya Shengli Fort along with the radio waves.This telegram, which was marked as top secret and urgent, was sent to the executive committee by the staff.When the magistrate of Qiongzhou was still drafting relevant documents in his study, the executive committee had already held an emergency meeting to discuss the next step.

"This is the telegram we just received. Qiongzhou Fucheng has decided to send local navy to encircle and suppress our pirate fleet." Yan Chujie took out the telegram and handed it to the officials of various departments present for circulation.

"Where is our fleet now? They used old ships to go out this time, so don't be hit by the Daming Navy." Gu Kai asked with some concern.

Yan Chujie responded: "The fleet is now in Leizhou Peninsula, you don't have to worry, and the movement in Fucheng will not affect our action plan for the time being, they collect supplies, and then dispatch troops, it is not something that can be completed in three to five days. When the Daming Navy starts to move, our pirate fleet will have time to react. What we need to decide now is how to deal with the attack of the Daming Navy.”

"Where is the target of their attack? The news we spread earlier really took effect?" Ning Qi asked.

"Let He Xi answer this question." Yan Chujie gestured to He Xi with his hands outstretched.

"Since the pirate ship operation, we have spread news all over the north, claiming that the pirates' lair is on Weizhou Island. If the Daming Navy really intends to suppress the bandits, then their only goal can only be the rumored Weizhou Island. Zhoudao." He Xi explained: "As far as we know, there is no other statement in Fucheng, so we can make some targeted arrangements in advance. Of course, it depends on what kind of effect we want to achieve. The purpose of your military's operations."

He Xi kicked the ball back to Yan Chujie, and Yan Chujie said in a deep voice: "Considering that in the future battle plan, our navy needs to block the Qiongzhou Strait to prevent the Ming Dynasty from sending reinforcements from the Leizhou Peninsula to Fucheng, so we should solve the problem that belongs to Qiongzhou in advance. The Daming navy in the government is also a necessary means. Originally, the battle plan we prepared was to send ships to harass the city of Qiongzhou, lure this navy out, and kill them in the Qiongzhou Strait. But now that the situation has changed, we I think it’s better to place this battlefield west of the Qiongzhou Strait, a little farther from the coast.”

"As far as we know, the naval force stationed near Qiongzhou Fucheng has good equipment and lack of training, and is now following Luo Shengdong's example in using warships to run smuggling business at sea. Their combat effectiveness should be quite limited, right? " Ning Qi continued to ask.

"That's right, as far as we know, there are no more than ten warships in this navy that still have basic combat capabilities, and the largest warship is a Fuchuan with about four hundred materials. There is a huge difference in combat power." Yan Chujie paused here, and changed the topic: "But because the opponent's strength is not strong, we plan to invest in this battle with two main battleships that will be in service this year, and practice how to use them. A new style of warship combat."

The two hybrid battleships "Majesty" and "Prestige Signal" have been in a state of training and running-in since they were commissioned, and have not been used in real combat missions.And the high-level military obviously does not want to see the two combat ships that have spent huge sums of money always serving as patrol ships and being able to come in handy on the battlefield as soon as possible. That is the scene that senior officers like to see.And the battle plan against the Daming Navy this time is obviously a perfect opportunity - the opponent is weak and can be used to practice tactics, and there is no need to worry about any danger.

(End of this chapter)