1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 551
However, what Yan Mingjun also didn't know was that Liu Qian didn't specially invite Haihan to send out a warship to escort them for their safety, but to provide such a ship to the Haihan militia to demonstrate their maritime strength at Haihan's request. Opportunity.Of course, there are no so-called pirates on the route from Guangzhou to Hainan Island. Even if the fleet does not need to be escorted, there will be no security risks in this regard.And the Haihan military wanted to take this opportunity of escorting and intimidate these alternate officials at close range, so that they could be more honest and cooperate with Haihan's arrangement after they arrived in Qiongzhou.

But Liu Qian did not lie about one thing. The Daming Navy stationed at the Pearl River Estuary did not dare and was unwilling to take on this escort job.Haihan has already entrusted Chen Lin, a timber merchant, to give a message to the navy, telling them to be more "conscious" and find a way to avoid possible escort missions.Sure enough, when the navy received the transfer order, they shirked the transfer order from their superiors under the pretext that the ships were all under maintenance in the dock. Liu Qian then logically recommended the Haihan Civil Corps to take over this task.In view of the excellent performance of the Haihan militia in the early stage of quelling the bandits in Qiongbei, Liu Qian's recommendation did not encounter much resistance. The government organized its own armed forces to go to sea and saved a lot of money.

As a civil servant, Yan Mingjun didn't feel too deeply about this, but as a military officer, Li Jin found it difficult to accept such an arrangement from his superiors.Although Yan Mingjun explained this arrangement, Li Jin still responded a little unconvinced: "Today I want to see how powerful this Haihan militia that has been blown up to the sky is!"

Yan Mingjun didn't argue with him, just laughed without saying a word.He has never seen the real body of the Haihan militia, but it is said that they are the armed escort team of the "Golden Shield Escort" trained by the Haihan people. He has had contact once or twice.Although they were only two swords trained by Haihan, in Yan Mingjun's opinion, those armed bodyguards were better than the local Daming Guards in terms of discipline and equipment.

The bodyguards of the "Golden Shield Escort" are all dressed in Haihan style short shirts, and the weapons they use are also authentic "Haihan blunderbusses". Still very bluffing.Yan Mingjun felt that the only thing they were inferior to the guards was that they were not equipped with armor, not even cotton armor, they were just clothed in civilian clothes.If this is an occasion that really requires combat, the chance of being injured will undoubtedly be much greater than that of the Ming army.

However, the record of the "Golden Shield Escort" is obviously much better than that of the Guards Army. Since its establishment, the escort missions they have taken over have not had any major accidents such as being robbed of goods.On the contrary, the heroes from all walks of life who tried to go to rob, lost many soldiers and killed many people under their guns.Gradually, bandits and bandits gradually disappeared on several fixed freight lines of the "Golden Shield Escort", but this is a result that the guards in charge of local security have not been able to achieve for a long time.

It is rumored that the Haihan militias are all fierce men who can fight ten on the battlefield. Yan Mingjun is really curious about what the real militia army looks like.When he saw the armed men escorting Maliko on the pier earlier, Yan Mingjun thought they were members of the Haihan militia, but later he took the time to ask Liu Qian, but he heard that those were just the bodyguards of the Haihan Office in Guangzhou. It is not yet a regular army of the Haihan militia.

At noon, some servants took out the meals prepared the night before, went to the kitchen at the stern to heat up, and then sent them to the deck for the two people who were still talking and talking.After lunch, the two returned to their cabins to rest.Yan Mingjun felt a little sleepy, so he took a nap with his clothes on, and slept until the noise on the deck woke him up.

Yan Mingjun lay on the bed and couldn't hear it clearly, so he got up and went outside to see what happened.Walking to the deck, Li Jin was already standing on the side of the ship, and he was the one who was yelling excitedly.

Yan Mingjun walked over and asked, "Why is Brother Li so excited?"

"Brother Yan, look at the river ahead! The warship of the Haihan people!" Li Jin leaned out of the side of the boat with almost half of his body. The Navy's ship is much more powerful!"

Yan Mingjun looked in the direction Li Jin pointed, and sure enough, he saw two Haihan sailboats with red and blue flags docked on the river bank ahead.Although he had never seen Haihan's sailboats before, he had also heard that the sailboats made by Haihan were quite different from the traditional ones. Fuchuan and Canton boats are narrower and longer, with higher sides and sails more like Saifan sailboats, and the neat and square rows of gun ports on the sides are also the same as those of Saifan armed sailboats.

Yan Mingjun had also seen the navy's blessing boat on the Pearl River in his early years, and the size was actually not inferior to this Haihan warship. In terms of the size of the boat, it might even hold more sailors.However, there is only one serious cannon on the lucky boat of the navy, and the rest are all Franco cannons, firecrackers of various sizes, and a wide variety of firearms.But there are five gun ports on the side of the warship of the Haihan people. Although you can’t see the other side of the ship, it must be a symmetrical design. Such a ship is equipped with ten cannons. This kind of firepower is indeed very scary. .

Li Jin suddenly turned his head and said: "Brother Yan, you have more knowledge than I do. In your opinion, do the Haihan people really have so many cannons on this ship, or are they just pretending to be mysterious and frightening?"

Yan Mingjun sighed: "At the end of the first year of Chongzhen, the Haihan people fought fiercely with the big pirate Liu Xiang in Wanshan Port, Pearl River Estuary. That battle directly drove Liu Xiang out of the waters of the Pearl River Estuary, and retreated all the way to Fuguang and Guangxi provinces. We have gone to the handover place. According to the witnesses who witnessed the battle on Wanshan Island, the main warship of the Haihan people at that time should be the kind of ship you and I see today. At that time, the number of ships Liu Xiang had was Haihan was several times stronger, but he was defeated in the end, so one can imagine how big the difference in strength between the two sides is."

Yan Mingjun did not answer Li Jin's question directly, but the examples he gave were enough to illustrate the huge advantages of the Haihan warship in terms of performance and equipment - there is no need to pretend, this is a warship that has actually won battles.

Li Jin's expression was obviously a bit depressed. He probably hadn't heard about the achievements of the Haihan Navy, but he just wanted to use Yan Mingjun's mouth to deny his pessimistic views.However, it is clear that Yan Mingjun's opinion tends to agree with him. If we only look at the ship factor, the warships of the Haihan Militia are indeed better than those of the Daming Navy.The only thing that is uncertain is how many of these powerful armed gunboats are equipped by the Haihan Militia?five?ten?Or an even more staggering number?

Soon the boat they were on sailed to a position parallel to the Haihan warship on the shore. There was only a distance of seven or eight feet between the two sides, and the faces of the crew members on the opposite deck could basically be seen clearly.Yan Mingjun and Li Jin suddenly discovered that the personnel on the Haihan warship stood in a neat single row on the deck, facing their direction.None of these personnel were equipped with weapons, and they all put their hands behind their backs, watching their fleet in silence.

"It's a bit imposing..." No matter how uncomfortable Li Jin felt, his eyes were still not blind. Although there was still a distance between them, he had indeed felt the chilling spirit emanating from the people on the opposite boat from the inside out. Qi, this is not the aura that ordinary sailors can possess. Only soldiers who have really been on the battlefield and seen blood and fire can possess this kind of murderous aura.

After the fleet passed the two ships, Yan Mingjun recovered from the shock just now: "This place is already Panyu County?"

"I've already entered Panyu County." Li Jin responded, "The pilot ship has sent a message that it's already getting late today, so don't rush on the road. Rest here at Lijiazhuang for a night, and then set off tomorrow morning."

Yan Mingjun asked: "The warship of the Haihan people?"

"Of course the Haihan people will go with our fleet tomorrow." Li Jin replied: "Otherwise they would not have docked at the shore just now, but should have joined our fleet. Haihan's ship has already stopped Here, there is no plan to join our fleet, and it seems that this itinerary has been decided long ago."

"It is said that the Haihan people have a method of sending messages across thousands of miles. When we set off at the Pearl River Wharf, they probably had already sent the message here. After calculating the approximate time when we arrived here, we naturally knew that the fleet would not leave overnight. Hurry up." Yan Mingjun explained.

"There is such a thing? Is it true or not?" Li Jin said in amazement: "If this is used on the battlefield, wouldn't it be a stunt that makes it difficult for the enemy to parry?"

"Who says it's not?" Yan Mingjun continued: "They set up an office in Guangzhou, and the turmoil in Guangzhou can be known to the Haihan headquarters in Yazhou in an instant, and they can formulate countermeasures. It takes several days to travel by sea to get to know Guangzhou, so it’s no wonder that after the Qiongzhou bandit rebellion, the Haihan people were ready to send troops before Guangzhou had time to respond.”

"The Haihan people dispatched troops so quickly, could it be that they knew about it a long time ago and were prepared?" Li Jin asked.

"The people of Haihan already knew about it? Brother Li, you haven't read the official document during that time, have you?" Yan Mingjun shook his head and said, "There were various omens before the Qiongzhou bandits rebelled, and civilian ships were frequently involved in accidents in the Qiongzhou Strait. There have also been many incidents of pirates coming ashore to loot villages along the coast of Qiongbei. After the Qiongzhou government reported the situation, the governor probably had no good solution, and finally let the Qiongzhou government solve it by itself. I believe you know the result, Qiongzhou water The division was almost completely annihilated, and they didn’t know why. The navy is gone, so do the pirates have any scruples about attacking the Qiongzhou government? Not only the Haihan people have known about it for a long time, but the local government and even the governor know about it Yes, it’s just that I didn’t come up with a countermeasure in time and was caught off guard by the pirates.”

"I see. It seems that my news is indeed a little too closed." Li Jin shook his head helplessly.

He himself is a Ming soldier, so he naturally understands the current situation of the Ming army.The establishment of guards in most places is useless, and even the number of soldiers cannot be made up, so there is no need to talk about combat effectiveness.Although the navy is organized as a regular army, its situation is not much better than that of the local guard army.Although Li Jin is not a member of the navy, he also knows that many of the navy's warships are old antiques from the Wanli period. In recent years, especially after the reign of Emperor Chongzhen, the Guangdong and Guangxi navy have not launched new ships at all.

Relying on the old antiques that were launched decades ago, not to mention competing with the warships of the Haihan people, even daily cruise duties are difficult.No wonder the Qiongzhou navy dispatched to fight the pirates, but was caught by the pirates instead.Only a soldier like Li Jin can truly experience the pain of being in the middle of the game but unable to change the backwardness of the status quo.

Not long after the fleet turned into the river from the Pearl River, they approached the shore one by one.Both Li Jin and Yan Mingjun who were standing on the side of the boat noticed that the pier embankment here is not built of bluestone, but a gray-white flat material, which looks like stone but not stone.Yan Mingjun is also somewhat knowledgeable, and he recognized it immediately: "This is Haihan cement. It is said that the official roads and various buildings of the Haihan people use stone as tendons, mix the mud and water, and then build it together. When I visited my colleagues in Guangzhou last year, I also saw a garden path built with Haihan cement in his home."

"It's rich, it's really rich." Although Li Jin didn't know the price of Haihan Cement, if a high-ranking official's family could only get a little to repair the garden path, it would definitely not be too cheap.And people directly use it to repair docks and roads, which can only be done with tens of thousands of catties?

When the ship they were on got close to the shore, the sailors on the ship threw the cable to the shore. After the people on the shore caught it, they dragged the cable around the cast iron stake on the pier to make a slipknot, and then pulled it with a hooked bamboo pole. Slowly tow the boat to the pier.

When the boat the two of them were on docked, the boats ahead had already started taking ladders to disembark people.The gangway used on this pier is also quite novel, it is not as narrow as usual, but is more than four feet wide, and there is a hook at one end, which can be hung on the ship's side to prevent the gangway from slipping off.Anti-slip grooves are engraved on the surface of the springboard, so passengers on board don’t have to worry about slipping their feet when they disembark.It is also more convenient and comfortable when transporting large luggage from the ship.

Seeing several handymen on the pier working together to put the gangplank onto the side of the ship, the two arranged their clothes and prepared to disembark.But at this time, a man in a Haihan short shirt came to the deck along the diving board, holding a book in one hand, and after looking at the people on the deck, he asked Yan Mingjun and Li Jin: "Excuse me, But Lord Yan Ming Junyan, Lord Li Jin Li?"

"Exactly." Yan Mingjun didn't understand what he meant, so he nodded in response.Li Jin also nodded in response.

(End of this chapter)