1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 587 Takeover of Hong Kong Island
"Did anything good be found on the buckled Dutch sailboat?" Mu Xiabo asked subconsciously when he saw Tom Wang entering the room excitedly.He had just received the news half an hour ago that the navy had detained a Dutch sailing ship that had entered the port and docked on its own at the port. Judging from the emotions shown by Wang Tom, it was obvious that he had gained something on this ship.

"I got my money back!" Tom Wang smiled while rubbing his hands: "This time I found a treasure, and I got my money back in no time!"

"Oh? There are gold and silver treasures on this ship?" Mu Xiabo became interested when he heard this, and asked quickly.

"It's not just treasure..." Tom Wang grabbed the water glass and took a big sip of tea, then raised his hand to wipe the corner of his mouth and said, "Where do you think this ship is going?"

Mu Xiabo responded with a smile: "Where else can I go? Either go south to Batavia, or go north to Taiwan. Is there a third destination for this route?"

"It's a ship going to Taiwan." Tom Wang nodded and said, "Their destination is the city of Zeelandia in Taiwan. The goods on board are all kinds of supplies destined for the local area. There are many good things."

After the Dutch East India Company seized Penghu in 1622, it was used as an entrepot for maritime trade in East Asia. In 1624, the Dutch and the Ming navy fought in Penghu for several months, and finally reached a ceasefire agreement. The Dutch withdrew from Penghu, while the Ming did not interfere with the Dutch colonial occupation on Taiwan Island.

So the Dutch built a large-scale castle, Orange City, on the southern coast of Taiwan, which was renamed Zeelandia City in 1627.At this point in time when the Haihan militia occupied the island of Ambuna, the construction of Zeelandia City was still unfinished. In the original time and space, the Dutch stronghold on Taiwan Island did not complete the first phase of the project until 1632.

It is worth mentioning that in the original time and space, Zheng Chenggong captured the city of Zeelandia 30 years later, expelled the Dutch from Taiwan Island, established the first Han regime in Taiwan history, and separated the local It was renamed Anping City, which is the location of Anping Castle, a famous scenic spot in Tainan in later generations.Of course, since the Haihan regime has appeared in this era and regards the Far East as its own future territory, then naturally there will be no battle for Zeelandia after 30 years, and the Dutch will never again Opportunity to gain 30 years of development time on the island of Taiwan.

Tom Wang took out a list of goods and explained to Mu Xiabo the materials seized from the Dutch sailing ship that had thrown itself into the net.In addition to the large amount of gold and silver needed to maintain the local operation and trade of the city of Zeelandia, this ship also has some commodities shipped from Europe across thousands of miles, as well as spices and jewelry originating in India and Southeast Asia. .The most important thing is that this ship also shipped a batch of brand new weapons, including 10 matchlock guns, [-] artillery pieces of different calibers and a considerable amount of ammunition.According to the crew, these weapons were sent to Zeelandia to arm the local Dutch.The total value of this batch of weapons and ammunition alone exceeds [-] taels of silver.

"According to the preliminary statistics, this cargo is worth at least 20 taels of silver. Do you think we will get back our money in no time?" If it is dropped, the navy can add another capital ship!"

"What's the matter with our army?" Mu Xiabo reminded: "This time it's a joint operation between the army and the sea. Commander Wang, don't take all the credit for it!"

"Yes, yes, you are right. Of course, there is also a share of the army!" Tom Wang knew he had made a slip of the tongue, and hurriedly added.

"Speaking of which, the Dutch are really courageous enough to carry so many valuables, yet travel on such a boat without even a support." Mu Xiabo sighed.

"Probably the Dutch think that no one can shake their position in the Far East." Wang Tom responded, "What I want to say is that there must be two such things, and there will definitely be Dutch ships coming to the island. Dock for resupply, you know what to do."

"Needless to say, the Dutchman's ships must all be detained. What I want to know is if there are merchant ships from Ming Dynasty coming to dock here, what should we do?" Mu Xiabo asked.

Wang Tom replied: "Don't worry, we have specially trained a group of Southeast Asian sailors. When the time comes, we will arrange these people to work on the pier. Everything will be done according to the previous rules. When Ming's merchant ships come, they will still be charged for supplies."

"There will be no Dutch on that island, and it will eventually arouse suspicion." Mu Xiabo was still a little worried.

"We also have a way to deal with this." Tom Wang said with a smile: "Don't forget, we also have Western partners, and it is not difficult to impersonate."

"You mean...the Portuguese?" Mu Xiabo immediately realized.

"That's right, it's the Portuguese." Wang Tom nodded to confirm Mu Xiabo's guess: "The Portuguese have been competing with the Dutch for the colonies in the Far East in recent years, but after the Netherlands established the East India Company, the Portuguese have been in a Downwind. They have relatively few colonies, which leads to slow response to events, and their maritime strength in the Far East is not as good as that of the Dutch. Sooner or later, as in history, they will be robbed of all the cakes in their hands by the Dutch. The previous paragraph The Time Executive Committee specifically talked to the Portuguese envoy Thomas, asking if they would help us establish a stronghold in the South China Sea to fight against the Dutch, and he quickly agreed. The next time a supply ship comes here, it will probably be Bring thirty or fifty Portuguese immigrants, and then you can arrange the roles they will play."

Regarding the role that Abunna Island will play in the coming period, the Executive Committee and the military have planned a relatively complete camouflage strategy, and strive to let the Dutch discover the changes here as late as possible.The voyage from Batavia to Zeelandia on Taiwan Island is more than 2000 nautical miles. It takes almost two months to travel back and forth, and the communication conditions in this era are extremely backward. Wait until the Dutch find something is wrong. During the investigation, no one knew how long it had been.

After the capture of Abunna Island, Mu Xiabai commanded the troops to conduct another dragnet-like investigation on the whole island, and checked all the settled places to make sure that there were no Dutch people who slipped through the net on this island. exist.In fact, the Dutch colonists did not dare to disperse to live in the wild. After all, the traffic conditions on the island are relatively primitive. Can fend for itself.

On May [-]st, after leaving Hainan Island for a full month, the rested task force was preparing to leave Haihan's newest colony and return to Hainan Island.In order not to easily expose the real situation in the area, all the warships going south this time will leave and will not stay here.Only the six troop carriers that joined in from Annan halfway will stay here. After all, these ships are lucky ships, and it is not easy to be directly exposed.Returning with this fleet was the captured Dutch galleon, and all the captured Dutch on the island.Due to the limited loading capacity, it was not arranged for the people on the island to leave with the fleet, and Mu Xiabo was able to seize this time when the labor force was still sufficient to speed up the construction of the port and coastal fortifications.

In this southward battle, the Haihan militia had basically zero losses. Except for a small number of people who fell ill due to acclimatization, there were no casualties during the attack on the island.Not only that, the militia also seized a large amount of wealth that originally belonged to the Dutch during this period, not only able to offset the military expenses of this operation, but also more than enough to add a considerable amount of income to the military's account.

While the Haihan militia secretly went south to seize the Dutch colony, their colleagues in the north were not idle.The Hong Kong Island Town Nangang Project, which was launched two years ago, has now divided the surrounding area into seven or eight. The narrow area limits the continued development of Zhennan Port and seizes the entire Hong Kong Island, especially the key points in the northern part of Hong Kong Island. Lei Yue Mun, a waterway, has become the military's next target.

The Daming Marine Division, who was originally stationed in Shau Kei Wan next to the Lei Yue Mun Waterway, is now getting more and more sad.The former general who commanded this army had resigned at the end of last year, and the new general had spent 8000 taels of silver to come back for a spot, but the person who came forward to pay the money was "Joan "Lianfa" is a major shareholder, so this general disappeared for a long time after he took office, in order to create better objective conditions for Haihan to attack this area.

Since the end of last year, the station of the Daming Navy on Hong Kong Island has been left unattended, and no one has paid for it.Some well-connected soldiers and low-level officers have begun to sell military supplies in the water village, such as gunpowder, armor, weapons and so on.Even if the Haihan people don't make a move, this place will collapse by itself in a year or so.During this period, there were indeed quite a few navy officers and soldiers who benefited from Haihan in various forms, and were even directly bought.

On May [-], five warships belonging to the Haihan Navy bypassed the waters east of Hong Kong Island, sailed from Lei Yue Mun Channel into Shau Kei Wan, and blocked the entrance of this water village.

Nei Ying, who had already arranged in place in advance, quickly opened the water gate of the navy and let the Haihan warship enter the water village to dock.The Haihan militiamen who got off the boat quickly took control of the water village inside and outside without even encountering any decent resistance.Driven by the militia, the Ming soldiers in the water village quickly gathered at the gate of the White Tiger Festival Hall in the center of the water village.

Surrounded by a group of militiamen, Chen Yixin entered the Baihu Festival Hall of the Shuizhai, and sat down on the chair belonging to the general of the Shuizhai in the middle of the court without hesitation: "Come here, bring the roster of the Shuizhai!"

Immediately, someone presented the list of water villages, and no one seemed to think there was anything wrong with it.Chen Yixin also took it for granted, opened the roster and started to click.

There are a total of 530 people on the roster, including officers, sailors, soldiers, doctors in charge of logistics, shipwrights, cooks, etc.However, after the hour-long roll call, the vacancies were frighteningly large, and only about half of the people showed up.Although Chen Yixin was prepared for this result, he was still taken aback by the ratio of vacancies.

"Everyone, the situation of the roll call just now is very clear. Not to mention the combat effectiveness of this water village, it even lacks the ability to protect itself!" Chen Yixin closed the roster and began to make a speech: "In order to allow the Daming Navy to maintain its due In order to protect the safety of the local people, our Haihan militia was entrusted by the Guangdong government to dispatch 420 combat personnel and five warships to join the Xin'an water village of the Daming Navy. The original personnel of the water village can choose to stay or not You can leave on your own, and all those who want to leave will be paid ten taels of silver for severance. I am Chen Yixin, a major of the Haihan Militia. If you have any questions about the future arrangements, you can ask me. I want to emphasize here that the Haihan Militia If anyone wants to stay in Shuizhai for idle food, I advise him to take the severance pay and leave as soon as possible!"

Someone below asked: "At least I am a general flag, is the severance pay the same as that of ordinary soldiers?"

Chen Yixin replied without changing his face: "I don't care what official you are, your position is given by Daming, and the severance pay is given by Haihan. Why do you ask for the amount of severance pay with Daming's official position? If you think it is too little, You don’t have to, we won’t force you.”

At that moment, someone asked again: "If you stay, will you really pay more than the Ministry of War as promised?"

Chen Yixin said: "We did promise that the military salary would be doubled compared to Daming's standard, but at the same time there was a premise, that is, you have to have real skills! If you want to live and wait to die, you have to get double the military salary. I'm sorry, this kind of thing is not acceptable. It will happen in the Haihan militia. As for whether they have real skills, we will conduct a special assessment and screening, and those who pass will naturally be rewarded more generously."

Someone complained loudly: "Then I have been in the army for many years, and now you want to dismiss us with one word, what is the morality?"

Chen Yixin looked at the place where the voice came from, and said coldly: "You have been in the army for many years? Then what have you done in the army all these years? Is it fighting pirates or capturing water bandits? How did I hear that two or three years ago, this place was still Liu Xiang What is the final decision? If I guessed correctly, many people present should have benefited from Liu Xiang in the first place, right?"

There was a dead silence below, and no one dared to answer him on this question.Back when Liu Xiang was powerful, almost all the waters around Hong Kong Island were under his control. Merchant ships entering Lei Yue Mun Waterway had to pay him a certain amount of tolls in order to pass safely, and part of the money was transferred to the water. The side of the village has become a fixed source of income for the water village.However, since Liu Xiang was beaten away by the Haihan militia in the past two years, the money of this member has been cut off, and the people in Shuizhai are not brave enough to openly collect tolls from marine merchants, nor do they have enough strength to follow Haihan turned his face and could only suffer this loss silently.

(End of this chapter)