1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 583 Unable to copy the pattern

But after listening to Wang Tom's bullshit, Li Jin still didn't understand how Haihan made a profit after investing huge sums of money to build a fleet. If this key issue is not clear, Haihan's "advanced experience" cannot be introduced. To Daming use.Li Jin had no choice but to thicken his skin, and asked his previous question again: "General Wang, how does this fleet operate to earn profits?"

Tom Wang stared at Li Jin and couldn't help laughing out loud: "General Li, are you joking or serious?"

Li Jindao: "Naturally, I am seriously asking for advice, and I implore General Wang to help me solve my doubts!"

Wang Tom nodded and said, "Da Ming has fought against the wild boars outside the pass for so many years in the north, and there are wins and losses for each other, but why the wild boars still raise troops to attack every year, has General Li ever thought about the reason for this?"

Li Jin replied without hesitation: "Naturally, it is because the wild boar skin can plunder a large amount of property and people from the pass... General Wang means that the Haihan militia also makes profits in this way?"

Wang Tom nodded and said: "The reason is so simple. To maintain a strong army, you have to invest more. If you want to invest this money in vain, you have to find a way to make money by launching wars abroad. Of course, the premise is that You have to be able to beat your opponent, otherwise, no matter how much you invest, it will be useless."

Li Jin was half discouraged after hearing this: "So if this method is to work, you must first invest a huge amount of money to build an army like the Haihan Militia?"

Wang Tom replied: "Yes, this is actually the same as doing business. If you don't have capital, you can only do a small business to make ends meet. If you want to make a lot of money, you still have to invest more capital to operate."

Li Jin thought to himself that this theory of doing business can only be played by you Haihan people. If it can work in Daming, the northern battlefield will not have been passive for many years. Grab the land of wild boar skin.However, the fact is that the imperial court invests huge sums of money in the northern battlefield every year, but the Guanning iron cavalry it built is difficult to carry out active strikes against the enemy, and it is almost always in a passive state of defense. This so-called "gain through war" effect.

Li Jin couldn't accept it, and continued to ask: "What benefits has the Haihan militia gained from the war so far, can General Wang give you some examples?"

Wang Tom smiled and said, "General Li is really curious...Since you asked, I'm not afraid to tell you. First of all, let's talk about the population. As we all know, the Haihan people who came to Qiongzhou Island after crossing the ocean are not and Sanya where we settled is a place with a vast land and few people, but our development model requires a large amount of labor to complete various infrastructure projects and production tasks. In addition to recruiting people from Ming Dynasty to work for us, we also introduced people from Annan So far, tens of thousands of Annan immigrants have become naturalized people and worked for us on this island. Why did the Annan court allow these people to immigrate to Qiongzhou Island? It is precisely because our militia army was brave in Annan Fighting and assisting them in completing the unification of the country."

There have been rumors of the Haihan militia fighting across the sea and intervening in Annan's internal affairs for several years, and Li Jin had heard of it, but it was only today that he heard a senior Haihan officer admit the veracity of these rumors face to face.

Then I heard Wang Tom continue: "We have a strong maritime armed force, enough to block the entire coastline of Annan. We passed through the defense line of the southern rebels and directly attacked the cities behind them, and the facts have proved that our approach is very effective. We not only broke through Hoi An, the number one port city in Annan, but also packed up Hue, which is known as the number one strong city in Annan!"

When Tom Wang said this, he suddenly lowered his voice and said, "I'm not afraid to tell you that after a big city like this is breached, the income will be calculated in millions of taels of silver."

Li Jin's heartbeat couldn't help but beat a few beats faster, which was an astronomical figure for him.Of course, he has heard of the names of Hoi An and Hue, and it is said that their prosperity is not much worse than that of some seaport cities in Ming Dynasty, and the Haihan militia is able to attack cities and fortresses locally, and its combat power is indeed amazing.With their tactics of directly attacking cities, the benefits of natural warfare are considerable.Even for this city of Danzhou, it is said that the losses during the pirate occupation of the city last year were as high as nearly one million taels.

Li Jin coughed dryly and continued to ask: "In addition to population and money, is there any other benefit to this strategy?"

"Yes, of course!" Tom Wang nodded and said, "The most important benefit, I'm just going to talk about it, is land! We are now in Annan, and there are as many as seven seaport concessions from north to south. It can be said that almost [-]% of Annan's shipping industry is controlled by us. These seaports will continue to bring us economic benefits and population in the next few decades, and control the distance between Daming and Nanyang for us. provide necessary mid-course supplies.”

Li Jin automatically ignored the unimportant water in these words, and focused on the sentence Wang Tom said "control the route between Daming and Nanyang".Li Jin was an official in Guangdong before, so he naturally understands how lucrative the ocean trade between Daming and Nanyang is. If Haihan can really control this route, the benefits he will get from it can be regarded as daily progress. Too polite.

Of course, Li Jin did not ignore the necessary prerequisites for this step - first of all, you must have a strong sea force.At present, it seems that in the South China Sea, only the Haihan people have such strength. Even if the Daming Navy has this idea, it can only stay at the level of imagination, and there is not enough funds to realize this. Big planning.

Although Li Jin is not a naval officer, he also knows that the combat scope of this navy is relatively limited. It is thousands of miles from the mainland to Nanyang. If there is no supply station in the middle, don't expect to survive such a trip How much combat power.The construction of ports and wharves is definitely a time-consuming, labor-intensive and expensive project, and only Haihan, who is not short of money, has the ability to build so many ports in foreign countries overseas.

Speaking of this, Li Jin also seems to understand why Zhang Xin and Wang Tom have repeatedly emphasized the importance of "money". Without these large investments, it is indeed impossible for the Haihan people to continue to expand their influence overseas. The huge benefits obtained in foreign wars are indeed closely related to their military investment. It is with the support of a strong army and navy that many ideas of the Haihan people can be successfully promoted and implemented.

But if the same method is applied to Daming, there are too many unfeasible points.First of all, the bigwigs of the imperial court would never agree to such a dangerous practice of taking the initiative to go to war to obtain income. After all, since the Yongle Dynasty for more than 200 years, the territory of the Ming Dynasty has been shrinking. It is equivalent to one-third of the area in its heyday during the Yongle period. Over the past 200 years, the experience of being passively beaten and forced to shrink the country has formed an inherent thinking in the hearts of the court, including the emperor.As for opening up territories to the outside world—it’s difficult to even defend now, so don’t think too much unrealistically.Even Li Jin himself thought that this kind of outward military expansion was simply crazy.

Li Jinxin thought that if he wrote a letter to the Ministry of War, asking for more investment in the army and taking the initiative to launch a foreign war, the Minister of the Ministry of War would definitely think that he was crazy, and would probably immediately order him to be dismissed for investigation.After all, there are constant internal and external troubles in the Ming Dynasty. The wild boar skins in the north are beaten every year, and they are getting stronger and stronger, while the refugees in the Central Plains are rebelling everywhere, and they are inexhaustible. How can there be any leisure time to open up a new battlefield for the outside world.

Therefore, although this method of the Haihan people has achieved great success in the South China Sea, it is difficult to directly copy it to Daming.Li Jin shook his head helplessly and said: "I understand the principles General Wang said, but Hai Han's approach makes it difficult for Da Ming to follow suit!"

Wang Tom laughed and said: "It is also divided into places and people. Not everything can be copied, but it is not impossible to learn all the benefits. You should have heard of the situation in Fujian. The current Fujian General Soldier Xu Xinsu , has a very close cooperative relationship with us. The ordnance and tactics used by his troops are all provided by us."

"It's no wonder that the Fujian Navy's record has been so amazing in recent years. It turns out that you are behind it!" Li Jin suddenly realized.

A few years ago, Xu Xinsu was nothing more than a big merchant who donated his money to a military post. This situation is not uncommon in the southeast coast. For the convenience of coming and going, the merchants who do smuggling trade spend some money to buy gold from the military. An official position, so that his ships can freely enter and exit the harbor, and also avoid paying taxes.

But Xu Xinsu is stronger than ordinary smugglers. He not only has a large number of ships engaged in smuggling trade, but also has thousands of armed men at his disposal, so he has a bit of confidence in buying this position of military attache. of.But his opponent "Eighteen Zhi" is even stronger. Not only did he want to destroy Xu Xinsu, he even ignored the entire Fujian navy.However, in such an unbalanced comparison of strengths, the "Eighteen Zhis" were gradually cleared out of the coast of Fujian, while Xu Xinsu, who had just bought a position with money at the beginning, has climbed year by year by virtue of his combat achievements in suppressing pirates, and has already sat in the As for the position of Fujian General Soldier, his promotion speed is second to none in the southeast official circles.

Li Jin was an official in Guangdong, so naturally he didn't know how Xu Xinsu fought in Fujian, but there was a big victory there every few months, and Li Jin often saw related news in the mansion newspaper.Before he and Yan Mingjun came to Qiongzhou to take up their posts, they were waiting for Mariko, the leader of Haihan, on the pier outside Guangzhou. At that time, Maiko was late because he was going to meet Xu Xinsu.However, Li Jin didn't realize until today that it was the Haihan people who supported Xu Xinsu behind his back, so it was no wonder that his army was so capable of fighting, and he even won the position of the provincial commander-in-chief for him step by step.

Wang Tom went on to say: "Master Xu will send a group of young officers to Sanya every year to receive our military training, and then use our military training method on his army after returning. In addition, Master Xu buys from us every year. All kinds of weapons and equipment cost as much as 10 taels of silver, so it can be said that they are already the second strongest army in the southeast coastal area of ​​Ming Dynasty!"

Li Jin almost asked "Who is the number one?", but he suddenly came to his senses. Since the Fujian navy ranks second, their teacher, the Haihan Minzuan, is naturally the number one.In the past, Li Jin might not agree with such a ranking, but after living in Danzhou these days and seeing the true strength of the Haihan militia, he really has nothing to say about it.

Li Jin still couldn't help asking: "If the Haihan Militia fights with the Fujian Navy, what are the chances of winning or losing?"

"I personally think that the Fujian Navy is still capable of fighting." Wang Tom commented very calmly.

But before Li Jin could relax, Tom Wang added: "But there is a prerequisite for this kind of battle, that is, the size of their troops participating in the battle is at least three to five times that of the Haihan militia. Otherwise, they have no chance." .”

Li Jin almost spit out a mouthful of blood. Seeing Tom Wang's relaxed appearance, he didn't seem to be bragging about it.Li Jin asked: "General Wang is so sure of his own combat power?"

Wang Tom nodded and said: "Our weapons and equipment are better than theirs. We learned all the tactics from us. Even the ammunition they need to fight has to be bought from us. You said that if there is a fight, we have What reason would you lose?"

"This..." Li Jin was also at a loss for words, and couldn't find a reason to refute.For a combat method that relies heavily on the supply of ammunition, such as muskets and artillery, if this vital point is held in the hands of the Haihan people, then it is true that this battle cannot be fought at all.

Wang Tom went on to say: "Master Xu still wants to buy ships from us now, and we still have to rely on us to upgrade and maintain these ships in the future. It can be said that the strongest army in Fujian is a copy of our model in Ming Dynasty. Yes. If they have not benefited from the battles over the years, do you think Mr. Xu would have so much money to keep investing in it?"

Why Xu Xinsu from Fujian has been fighting endlessly with "Eighteen Zhi"? Even a layman knows a thing or two about this matter. sea ​​routes between.In the original time and space, after Zheng Zhilong killed Xu Xinsu, he began to collect fees from passing ships, but now, Xu Xinsu is doing the same thing.

(End of this chapter)