1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 608
Although Fujian has to pay a lot of money every year in exchange for Haihan's various aids, for Xu Xinsu and others, how much money is not a problem, the key is to get this unique military aid, after all, these are ahead of the times The sophisticated weapons and corresponding tactics are no other than Haihan.If Xu Xinsu and the others wanted to keep their vested interests, they had to hold on to Hai Han's thigh.And a very important point is that the Haihan people are not as open to money as the Frangji people or the red-haired people. As long as they can afford the price, they will sell weapons to anyone. Han's weapons are much taller.

However, the Haihan people's weapons sales in Fujian have always been only targeted by the Xu Xinsu Group-according to the Haihan people, this is to prevent these weapons from flowing into the hands of Shibazhi, the opponent of the Fujian government army. Lanterns are hard to find.Although Haihan weapons are also not cheap, the supply is stable and the quality is obviously better than that of Fanren, so the price/performance ratio is still very high.

But before that, Xu Xinsu had always had doubts about the reason and purpose of Haihan's spare no effort to support her.As a businessman, he didn't believe that the shrewd Haihan people did this just out of kindness or to join in the fun, or what they said at the beginning that "the protracted war will harm the people of Fujian".In Xu Xinsu's view, the Haihan Militia was able to train its own troops, manufacture guns and even warships, and complete cross-sea expeditions. They did not choose to directly attack Shibazhi, but supported the Ming army to fight pirates. The reason for this really made Xu Xinsu Can't figure it out.

Xu Xinsu has actually been waiting for a long time for an opportunity like today to have a frank and honest talk with the high-level people of Haihan.Although he had been to Guangzhou last time, Maliko and He Xi were not considered top figures in the Haihan Power Organization, so he did not dare to give Xu Xinsu too many guarantees for some major political affairs, and spent most of his time communicating Issues in the field of commerce and immigration between the two sides.Therefore, although he bought a considerable amount of Haihan munitions in Guangzhou last time, Xu Xinsu was not very satisfied with the results of the talks.

This time Haihan offered to send a mission to visit Fujian, and was led by a high-ranking Haihan like Ning Qi. Xu Xinsu also thought that this was a good opportunity for the two sides to discuss some substantive issues.But what Xu Xinsu didn't expect was that Ning Qi and his party had only been in Zhangzhou for two days, and they had caused such a big mess. At this moment, he really couldn't take the initiative to discuss such a serious and essential topic with Special Envoy Haihan. .Fortunately, Ning Qi did not blindly blame the Fujian side for the assassination, but at this time he took the initiative to ask for a meeting.

Although the explanations made by Ning Qi sounded really worrying about their credibility, but Xu Xinsu felt that Ning Qi didn't have much to do with acting.Most importantly, Xu Xinsu didn't think it was necessary for the Haihan people to fabricate lies to deceive themselves on this matter.And Ning Qi's evaluation of him undoubtedly gave him a shot in the arm.

At least in the Fujian region, the only person Haihan is optimistic about is Xu Xinsu.This conclusion made Xu Xinsu's originally anxious mood relax a lot, and finally there was a smile on his face: "Mr. Ning is too flattering! How can Xu be so valued by you! "

Ning Qi also responded with a smile: "Being able to manage Fujian Haiphong to today's situation has already demonstrated Master Xu's ability. To be honest, our Haihan Executive Committee is quite satisfied with what Master Xu has done during his tenure. That’s why we decided to further increase military aid to Fujian this year.”

"If you can sell more weapons, ammunition and warships to the old man, then what is there to be afraid of? Within a year or two, the old man can destroy its lair and destroy its wings, so that the word Shibazhi can never be used. The coast of Fujian has completely disappeared!" Xu Xinsu immediately expressed his determination without losing the opportunity.He knew that whether the purchase of arms in the next period of time would still be subject to the same restrictions as before probably depended on the outcome of the meeting with Ning Qi, so he also seized the time to build a good impression in front of Ning Qi.

Ning Qi responded: "Master Xu, don't be in a hurry. As for the arms order, we can wait two days after our joint military exercise is over, and then talk about the content slowly. Let you take a look at the things first, and if you think the things are good, you can order them later." It's not too late to order."

"Yes, yes, the heads of Haihan are thoughtful!" Xu Xinsu accidentally used the title he heard from the overseas students under his command.

Ning Qi smiled slightly and said, "This assassin case needs to be investigated, but Master Xu should hurry up and prepare for the joint military exercise. We have limited time for this visit, and we want to see if we can go further north."

"Your mission wants to go to Jiangsu and Zhejiang?" Xu Xinsu immediately asked sensitively.

Ning Qi nodded and said: "If there is enough time, I have this plan. But it's hard to say now, let's wait and see after the military exercise."

"The old man turned around and urged his subordinates to hurry up and prepare. How about replying to Mr. Ning within three days?" Xu Xinsu's cooperation is quite high now, almost obeying Ning Qi's words.

Ning Qi nodded and said: "Then I will wait for the good news from Master Xu. By the way, I also hope that Master Xu can inform you in time about the progress of the investigation of the assassin case."

"Definitely, I must inform Mr. Ning as soon as I have any news." Xu Xinsu responded quickly.

After leaving the hall, Xu Xinsu asked someone to immediately send a letter to the Zhongzuo Office, asking Xu Yuzhuo who was stationed there to immediately contact the senior officials of the Haihan Fleet about the exercise, and report the size of the troops to be mobilized, the status of supplies, and Specific arrangements for setting sail for maritime drills.

That night, the dictated order was sent to the Central Left Office together with the latest investigation progress of the assassination case. After reading the content, Xu Yuzhuo hurried to find Shi Diwen and informed him of the situation: "Today, an assassin tried to Assassinated Mr. Ning, fortunately, the guards were proper, and Mr. Ning escaped the catastrophe without incident."

He didn't know that Shi Diwen had learned about the process of the assassination in Zhangzhou City from the telegram a few hours ago, and even the results of the meeting between Ning Qi and Xu Xinsu had already been sent by radio telegram.

Shi Diwen also deliberately wanted to tease Xu Yuzhuo, and replied with a smile: "Don't tell me, let me guess what other good news... Well, Mr. Xu probably arranged a joint military exercise between the two armies."

Xu Yuzhuo widened his eyes and subconsciously said, "How did Mr. Shi know about this..."

But before he finished speaking, he had already reacted: "...Could it be that he used Haihan's technique of sending messages across thousands of miles?"

Seeing that Xu Yuzhuo saw through the trick, Shi Diwen didn't continue playing, nodded and said, "Tell me, what instructions does Master Xu have for you?"

Xu Yuzhuo replied: "Master Xu ordered me to work with Mr. Shi as soon as possible to list the action plan and the scale of the required materials and personnel for the joint military exercise, and report the plan to Zhangzhou."

"It's simple." Shi Diwen immediately took out a pen and paper, and began to explain to Xu Yuzhuo: "We will dispatch three warships and two of the four supply ships, a total of five combat ships. The personnel quota is about About 540 people. Assuming that the number of personnel dispatched by the Ming army is similar to that of ours, because the ships of the Ming army are relatively small, I estimate that you will roughly need to dispatch [-] to [-] ships. Is there a big error in this number?"

"That's roughly the case." Xu Yuzhuo nodded and confirmed Shi Diwen's calculation: "It also depends on the current maintenance status of the navy's ships. If the condition of those large ships is suitable for going to sea, then about twelve ships should be enough. "

"Okay, then we can prepare supplies according to the scale of about 1200 people. The quantity... Our planned exercise this time is two to three days, but I ask for at least seven days of fresh water and food to be prepared in case Any temporary changes." Shi Diwen continued while writing on the paper.

What Shi Diwen recorded on the paper was very simple. In fact, it was just a row of abbreviated Arabic numerals. If Xu Yuzhuo hadn't studied in Shengli Port, he probably wouldn't be able to understand the meaning of these ghostly symbols.While listening to Shi Diwen's explanation, Xu Yuzhuo silently calculated how much supplies he would need to prepare according to the plan proposed by the other party.

"Then during the exercise, will we stop and resupply off the coast of Fujian?" Xu Yuzhuo asked.

"Probably not. I suggest that you prepare for actual combat in advance. None of us can predict what will happen after going to sea." Shi Diwen said.

In fact, even if he didn't tell him this, Xu Yuzhuo would probably make corresponding preparations. After all, there are often Shibazhi's pirate ships appearing in groups off the coast of Fujian, and anyone who is not careful will be hit.And this time with the Haihan warships, the Fujian navy no longer has to shy away from being besieged by pirate ships. If they really encounter Shibazhi's ship again, then the navy's men and horses must seize the opportunity to perform well.

"Next we have to do the most difficult part, to see how to arrange the voyage of this sea exercise and the corresponding combat exercise plan." Shi Diwen opened his briefcase and took out a hand-painted Fujian coastal map from it .

Shi Diwen didn't shy away from Xu Yuzhuo, because when the other party was receiving training in Shengli Port, he had seen such accurate charts a long time ago, so it was not surprising.In addition to marking the outline of the coastline of Fujian, this map also marks the various guards stationed by the Ming army along the coast. The fineness of this map copied from the satellite image is naturally far superior to that used by the Ming army in the same period. map.

Of course, it is not enough to have such a detailed map. As outsiders, the Haihan Fleet has no idea about the sea conditions along the coast of Fujian. Only sailors and crew members who have been active in the local waters for a long time can master the weather here. conditions, ocean currents, etc.For the Ming Army of Fujian, this was a joint military exercise with trumpets and trumpets, but for Haihan, it was a good opportunity to get familiar with the sea conditions in Fujian in advance.

While Zhongzuo Institute was intensively planning the joint military exercise, the interrogation in the prison of the Zhangzhou City Defense Army did not stop for a moment.Although the interrogation time was only a few hours, the mental state of the wounded and hungry assassins was already very bad.According to the method taught by Morgan, the police who interrogated them lit several torches in the secret room to make the small dark room bright and dazzling, and prepared ice water, acupuncture and other methods to continuously treat the drowsy interrogators. Personnel stimulated them, bringing them out of their semi-trance state over and over again.

And every time after waking up, the interrogators would keep asking the same questions repeatedly—where did you come from?Who do you obey?Where are your accomplices hiding?
Interrogators switch shifts every hour to make sure they don't hypnotize themselves with their repetitive questioning patterns.Morgan visited twice and instructed the interrogators to give the assassin some brown sugar water regularly to maintain his strength and prevent him from fainting from hunger.

The effect of this method was unexpectedly good. The next morning, some people chose to confess because they couldn't bear such mental torture.The fragments of words given intermittently by the trance assassin basically confirmed the connection between the assassination case and the year of Shibazhi Pirate Group.

Shibazhi had asked Xu Xinsu for peace talks through some unofficial channels a month and a half ago.Later, Zheng Zhilong sent Zheng Xinzhi, one of his staff, to sneak into Zhangzhou secretly, looking for an opportunity to have face-to-face contact with Xu Xinsu.But the contact between the two sides that they thought was very covert was not so safe. Not only the Haihan intelligence agency quickly learned the relevant information, but even Chen Lin, a timber merchant who came to Zhangzhou to do business, also inadvertently learned the news. .So after the news leaked out, Haihan responded quickly and sent a mission to visit Fujian.

Originally, this news should have been kept confidential, but Xu Xinsu's subordinates were not monolithic, and this news was reversely transmitted to Zheng Xinzhi under the operation of someone with a heart.The news of the Haihan Mission's visit made Zheng Xinzhi feel very anxious.

Shibazhi is not a fool. Over the past few years, they have lost many battles and their control territory has been shrinking day by day. Of course they know who is Xu Xinsu's strong backer.Even if it was not clear at first, it became clear after the Pearl River War at the end of 1628.How strong the Haihan people are, you can find out without any troublesome means. Shibazhi knows that he can't go to Qiongzhou Island to fight with the Haihan people's fleet, so he can only endure this and retreat to the Fujian Strait.But Shibazhi had to get rid of Xu Xinsu's stumbling block if he wanted to consolidate his sphere of influence here. However, in the next two years, he still fought repeatedly and failed repeatedly, and it was impossible to continue fighting.

(End of this chapter)