1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 518 Convince Wang Zunde

October 1630, 10, the ninth day of September in the third year of Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty, Zhaoqing, Guangdong.

Although today is the Double Ninth Festival, Wang Zunde, Governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, is not in the mood to celebrate the festival at all.He received an urgent report early in the morning, saying that Qiongzhou Mansion was attacked by pirates and suffered heavy losses. He needed immediate reinforcements from Guangzhou, otherwise the outcome of the battle would be unpredictable.

The news came from the special envoy sent by Qiongzhou Fucheng to Guangzhou to report the letter. The letter of appeal for help was stamped with the seal of Qiongzhou Zhizhou, which should not be fake.Moreover, the special envoy said that Danzhou and other places had been occupied by pirates. When he left Qiongzhou Fucheng, the city had been besieged by pirates from east, west, and south.

There has been relatively clear information about the origins of the identities of these pirates.These pirates are the remnants of the Annan Mo family dynasty, and they have always only been active in the mountains and coastal areas in the northern part of Annan, but this year, they did not know what kind of monsters went crazy, and they directly directed their ideas to Qiongzhou Island.Moreover, this group of people did not simply go ashore to plunder. After taking down Danzhou, they continued to advance eastward and surrounded the capital city of Qiongzhou.The garrison in Qiongzhou did not play a big role in this process. On the contrary, it lost thousands of people before and after—if all the vacancies in the guard army are counted.

There is no doubt that this is the biggest crisis that Qiongzhou Mansion has encountered in recent decades. Even in the past two years, there were many bandits in Guangdong, and there were tens of thousands of bandits at most, but they did not cause trouble to the point of losing the city.Unexpectedly, the pirate invasion of Qiongzhou Island would be so serious.

What made Wang Zunde and other senior officials in Guangdong unable to resign the most was not the loss of Danzhou and other places, but that there had been various rumors about this matter a month or two ago, and all signs and news indicated that pirates had a high possibility Sex will attack Qiongzhou Island.Moreover, Qiongzhou Mansion had already sent a letter to Guangzhou asking for help a month ago, asking Guangzhou to send a navy to go to the Beibu Gulf to eliminate pirates, but in the end they did not receive assistance from Guangzhou.However, the local navy on Qiongzhou Island still has no news after setting off for more than half a month.

If it was a sudden attack, it seems that the loss of the city and land is understandable, but the problem is that this matter has long been exposed, and the relevant departments have not made corresponding preparations at all, so that the garrison was killed as soon as they fought. Defeat after defeat, they have been retreating from Danzhou to Qiongzhou Fucheng. If Qiongzhou Fucheng is also lost, it is really equivalent to losing Daming's control over Qiongzhou Island.As for the responsibility for losing the territory, even Wang Zunde, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, cannot bear it. If he does not want to lose the black hat on his head, he must find a way to repel the pirates on Qiongzhou Island as soon as possible and regain the lost land.

The situation had deteriorated to the point where Wang Zunde naturally had no way to sit idly by, so he immediately ordered the Guangdong army to gather and prepare to fight back to Qiongzhou Island.However, someone nearby objected to this approach: "My lord, according to people from Qiongzhou Island, this group of bandits has thousands of troops, and they are well-equipped, most of them are firearms. The local garrison is completely unable to resist. The guards on the side may not be able to turn the tide of the battle, please think twice!"

Wang Zunde still knows what the real strength of the guard army is. These troops are more useful for suppressing small-scale civil unrest, but if they want to fight big battles, the army in Guangzhou may not be as good as Qiongzhou Where are the guards on the island going?However, some things can not only be considered from the military point of view. Whether Qiongzhou Island can be saved is not only a military issue, but also a political issue.

Wang Zunde said in a deep voice: "Qiongzhou Island is my gateway to the south, and it must not be lost. How can I sit back and watch pirates wreak havoc on Qiongzhou Island? Master Liu, if you want to persuade me not to send troops, then there is no need to say any more."

This master Liu who made a suggestion in front of Wang Zunde was Liu Qian who had been in contact with the Guangzhou Office at the beginning.The year before, Haihan occupied land in the south of Hong Kong Island to build a port, which was the way of Master Liu.Later, the military industry department also sold a batch of old-fashioned rifles and small-caliber artillery to the Ming army in Guangdong through this method.Of course, Master Liu's work is not for nothing, because he can talk in front of Wang Zunde, the hard work paid by the Guangzhou Office is really not a small amount.

And Liu Qian received a big order from the Guangzhou Office about two months ago.At that time, Maliko filled out an unregistered bank note of 5000 taels and gave it to him. The condition was that when Wang Zunde was about to use troops on Qiongzhou Island next time, Liu Qian would persuade Wang Zunde to let the Haihan militia perform combat missions.

At that time, the news of pirates raiding Qiongzhou Island had already spread in Guangzhou, so Liu Qian believed that Haihan's move was probably to take the opportunity to seek the legal status of the Haihan militia, so that the militia could be upgraded from a private armed force to an auxiliary army. status.This routine may not work on the mainland, but it is possible to implement it on Qiongzhou Island, because Qiongzhou Island has a large population of Li and Miao, and the armed forces of the Li and Miao have always been as Ming The government's auxiliary army exists.Now that there is already a precedent, it seems that there is not much sense of disobedience to include the militia formed by the Haihan people in this field.

Since this matter is not difficult to deal with, Liu Qian naturally accepts the money with peace of mind.In his opinion, the price of collecting the 5000 taels of silver is much easier than doing things for Haihan in the past few times. It is nothing more than a few words of praise for Haihan when necessary, and let them send troops to deal with the raiders who harassed Qiongzhou Island. Just pirates.

At that time, Liu Qian did not expect that the situation would take a turn for the worse in just a few dozen days. The pirates not only made the officers and soldiers on Qiongzhou Island helpless, but also occupied most of the territory in the northern part of the island. The momentum of Qiongzhou Island.A few days ago, He Xi personally went to the city to find him, asking him to fulfill the original agreement as soon as possible, and must persuade Wang Zunde to let Haihan replace the Ming army.

Today is different from the past. If it is just a pirate attack, it is understandable for the government to let the local militias conduct defensive operations.But the current situation on Qiongzhou Island is that the momentum of the pirates can no longer be suppressed. At this time, if the monster Haihan is also released from the cage, no one can make an accurate prediction of the final result.Liu Qian really wanted to return the 5000 taels of silver to the Haihan people, but before that, he bought a new manor outside Guangzhou and married a concubine. Most of the 5000 taels had already been spent. If you want to refund for a while, you can't afford so much money, so you can only grit your teeth and bite the bullet.

Of course Liu Qian would not give up on this, and continued to persuade: "My lord, even if we want to mobilize the local army to go to Qiongzhou Island to suppress the bandits, the materials needed for this will not be able to be collected in a short time. It will take ten and a half days for our army It’s hard to say what the situation in Qiongzhou Prefecture, which was besieged by pirates at that time, will be after preparing the supplies for the first month!”

"This..." Wang Zunde couldn't help hesitating after hearing this.

What Liu Qian said is indeed the truth. If Guangzhou wants to mobilize six or seven thousand troops, it is impossible to exhaust the garrison in Guangzhou city and turn Guangzhou into an empty city. It is bound to have to mobilize a small amount from surrounding counties garrison.This mobilization of the army is a rather time-consuming process, and with the addition of thousands of people eating horse chews, the daily consumption of supplies is not a small amount.Moreover, it is difficult to predict whether the other side of the sea will be able to provide supplies. The safest way must be to gather enough supplies for the reinforcements to fight on Qiongzhou Island before departure, and then cross the sea to fight.And the time required for this process is probably longer than the mobilization of the army. The ten days and a half months Liu Qian said is really not an exaggeration.

Seeing Wang Zunde's expression of hesitation, Liu Qian quickly seized the opportunity and continued to persuade him: "Also, if our army is going to Qiongzhou Island, we must either take a boat south from the mouth of the Pearl River, or march to Leizhou to cross the sea. A large number of seagoing ships are required. Even if they cross the sea from the southern tip of Leizhou, it will take a day to cross the sea in batches, and there is a risk that the troops will be scattered. If they cross the sea at the same time, they may not be able to prepare so many ships. What's more, those pirates have the ability to send thousands of people to Qiongzhou Island to cause chaos, and their naval combat power must not be underestimated. Now that the pirates have blocked the Qiongzhou Strait, the reinforcements we sent may have to go to the island before they land on the island. Let's fight these pirates at sea first."

Wang Zunde was secretly startled, at least he still had to fight the pirates on land, but for the sea battle... that really needs to be carefully considered.In the past few years, pirates in the Pearl River Estuary have been rampant, and the previous governor has not had a good solution.After Wang Zunde took office, he undoubtedly picked a bargain. The pirates at the mouth of the Pearl River were all driven away by the Haihan people.However, the Guangdong Navy has been oppressed by pirates for the past few years and even dare not go out of the water village, so it is impossible to talk about how much combat capability it has.If this is sent out to fight a naval battle, no one can guarantee the outcome.

"In your opinion, how should we deal with it now?" Wang Zunde didn't dare to jump to conclusions at this time, and he planned to listen to what ideas his staff could come up with.

"My lord, the Haihan people have already spoken earlier, saying that they will send troops to drive away the pirates on their own. In my humble opinion, this is a good time to let the Haihan militia come in handy!" Liu Qian made a big circle, Finally got to the point.

"What's the reason?" Wang Zunde leaned back on the chair, changed into a more comfortable position, and was ready to listen to Liu Qian's opinion.

Liu Qian saw that Wang Zunde was interested in continuing to listen, so he quickly started persuading according to the ideas he had prepared: "First, the Haihan militiamen are strong and strong. According to local news in Qiongzhou, their combat power is even far superior to that of the official army..." said Seeing that Wang Zunde did not express any objection here, Liu Qian continued: "The Haihan militia is also a hidden danger in the local area. I must have been thinking about how to eliminate this hidden danger. Now that some pirates have attacked Qiongzhou Island, the Haihan people are also Volunteering to do this, it’s better to fulfill their wishes, and consume their strength by the way, which can also reduce the hidden dangers in the place.”

Naturally, Wang Zunde would not express any objection to the fighting power of the Haihan militia. Wang Zunde had carefully studied the various achievements of the militia in the past two years. He also agreed with the view that the fighting power of the militia was higher than that of the Ming army. of.But the stronghold of the Haihan people is in Yazhou, a place far away from the emperor, and they seem to have no intention of expanding outwards, so Wang Zunde has always turned a blind eye to the existence of the Haihan militia.

But as Liu Qian said, the existence of the militia has always been an unstable factor for the Ming government. What's more, the Haihan people can make their own guns and cannons, and even warships when they have money. It is simply an act that should be punished.However, the Haihan people have become popular in Yazhou. Although the local taxes are paid a lot every year, Wang Zunde is not really deaf or blind. He has also heard all kinds of rumors about Sanya in the market. .Even if those exaggerated elements are removed, Haihan's influence in Yazhou has far surpassed that of the Ming government. This is probably an indisputable fact.

How to eliminate Haihan's military influence and let this group of people be obedient civilians has been a headache for Wang Zunde since he took office.Although the Haihan people seem to be selling his face and are not stingy at all when it is time to pay the government, Wang Zunde still believes that he must find a way to reduce Haihan's level of force.Direct orders obviously won't have any effect. Even if the Haihan people agree verbally, the place in Yazhou is already under the management of the Haihan people, and Wang Zunde doesn't want to force these dangerous guys back.

Now hearing what Liu Qian said, it seems like a good idea to send militias to wipe out the pirates.No matter how powerful the Haihan militia is, this battle will eventually kill people. What's more, a battle of this scale requires a lot of money and materials. The government can save a little, and the accounts handed over to the court next year will not be messed up too ugly.

However, Wang Zunde didn't immediately make up his mind after listening to this passage, and just nodded slightly after listening to it, motioning Liu Qian to continue.

Liu Qian hurriedly continued: "Secondly, the Haihan militia stationed in the lost area in the northern part of Qiongzhou Island is much closer than deploying troops from Guangzhou, and the Haihan people made their fortunes from sea trade. It is also enough to complete the task of projecting troops and transporting supplies in a short period of time, this is the right place!"

Wang Zunde still nodded, agreeing with Liu Qian's second reason.Compared with the several-day voyage required to transfer troops from Guangzhou to the capital city of Qiongzhou, the Haihan militia departed from the Sanya area and could reach their destination as long as they bypassed half of Qiongzhou Island.Moreover, it is said that the Haihan sailboat is far faster than the Fuchuan Guangzhou ship, and it can reach Qiongzhou Fucheng in two or three days. This speed should be enough to rescue the besieged Qiongzhou Fucheng.

(End of this chapter)