1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 614 Battle of Nanri Island ([-])

At present, the Ministry of Civil Affairs’ immigration policy in Fujian is based on the guiding ideology of “fewer but better”. When it is temporarily impossible to recruit large numbers of immigrants, Hainan Island is short of craftsmen, sailors, and active-minded literati. The main recruiting target.For these personnel, the Ministry of Civil Affairs has given more flexible conditions to the overseas agencies, allowing them to promise some more favorable conditions to the immigrants as appropriate, such as the remuneration and treatment after the immigrants take up a job in Hainan Island.

Compared with ordinary recruitment methods, the role of this method in recruiting professionals will be more obvious.Especially with Zhang Qianren, who was born in Fujian and knows how to build and navigate ships, sitting here, the efficiency of recruiting shipbuilders and sailors is quite impressive.Zhang Qianren specifically explained that among the more than 1000 immigrants sent to Sanya in the first three months of this year, more than two-thirds were sailors, shipwrights and other craftsmen, and the proportion of skilled craftsmen was much higher than that of Guangdong.From this perspective, Quanzhou's immigration recruitment work is still remarkable.

After listening to Zhang Qianren's explanation, Shi Diwen suddenly said: "If you just look at the paper data, you will be wrongly blamed for your ineffectiveness."

Zhang Qianren said: "Although Beizhi's ability is limited, he has always done his best and dare not slack off in the slightest. In addition, Beizhi also has a small suggestion. I hope the two chiefs can pass it on to the executive committee."

"You said."

"Beizhi would like to suggest that in the future, more people of local origin can be sent back to attract immigrants, especially those who have made a name for themselves after immigrating to Qiongzhou. It will be more convincing for them to speak out."

"Is it a cadre like you?" Shi Diwen nodded understandingly and said, "I understand what you mean, and I will convey it to the executive committee when I go back."

The successful people like Zhang Tiangui's family who got a new life because of taking advantage of the wind, indeed have a strong exemplary role in recruiting immigrants.In fact, after Zhang Qianren returned to Fujian, he successively recruited many relatives from his Zhang family and sent them to Sanya, at least six to seventy people.If such a demonstration group can be further increased, the effect it can obtain should also be amplified geometrically.After a certain period of time, the word-of-mouth of Haihan immigration has been established, and the difficulty of recruiting will be reduced accordingly.

An approach like this was actually implemented in Annan the earliest, and the effect achieved is also the best.In the early years, the Annan court begged Haihan to send troops for help, and bought a large number of Haihan weapons on credit, so they could only turn a blind eye to Haihan's behavior of recruiting people in the country.After all, two years earlier, the Annan court organized immigration on its own and handed it over to Haihan to repay the war debt. Although the situation is not as embarrassing as it was during the civil war, the economic and military dependence on Haihan seems to be increasing. , and the payment of population and land has become one of Annan's few means of compensation.

Now in the hearts of the naturalized people of Annan origin, most of them are proud of being able to settle in Hainan Island, and regard it as the last step to become a true Haihan people.Every year, the local Haihan colony in Annan selects some outstanding naturalized individuals or families and rewards them for immigrating to Hainan Island. This is a great honor for the local naturalized people.And now, the Annan people who apply for Haihan naturalization each year are stably maintained at five figures.

In fact, without Zhang Qianren's suggestion, the executive committee has already thought of applying such a strategy of attracting immigrants to Fujian.But considering the feelings of Xu Xinsu, a local snake, the executive committee has never tried to expand the scale of poaching people from Fujian.After all, most of the immigrants that Haihan recruited from Fujian were professionals. Even if Xu Xinsu didn't say anything about poaching people, he would definitely feel uncomfortable.

"How is Haihan Bank's local promotion work going?" Shi Diwen suddenly remembered what Ning Qi had told him before departure, and hurriedly asked again.

In addition to promoting various industrial products in the territory of Ming Dynasty, Haihan's other key promotion project is the financial operation model led by Haihan Bank.According to the executive committee's plan, Haihan's financial system should be promoted outwards simultaneously with the development of business channels. Therefore, Haihan Bank has set up an office in Zhangzhou, Fujian since the year before last.However, the business scope is not as large as that of the Guangzhou branch, and it is mainly responsible for the payment settlement business with a few large merchants such as Xu Xinsu.The bank office in Quanzhou was only established last year, and it has not been a year yet.

Zhang Qianren replied: "As of last month, we have signed payment agency settlement agreements with eight local merchants. In addition, registered checks have also begun to be promoted to merchants, and the evaluations received are not bad. However, because many merchants still have various This kind of worry, so the flow of funds is not big. I can’t say the specific situation, why don’t I ask someone from the bank to come?”

"Forget it, the fleet is leaving early tomorrow morning, and we have to rest early. There is no special situation, so I don't need to go into details, just follow the regulations." Shi Diwen was not interested in listening to the accounting report, so he immediately refused Zhang Qianren's initiative.

Zhang Qianren understood, and after reporting the work situation in twos and twos, he said goodbye and left.For a cadre stationed abroad like him, being able to successfully pass a face-to-face report means that the work achievements during this period have been recognized.

There was nothing to say all night, and early the next morning, all members of the fleet set off again, leaving Quanzhou Port and sailing to the next destination.

Only ten nautical miles away from Quanzhou Port, the fleet arrived at Chongwu, the northernmost of the five subordinate institutes of Yongningwei.It is worth mentioning that the Zhisuo is located in Yongningwei, Quanzhou, but among the five Qianhusuos under its jurisdiction, only Fuquansuo and Chongwusuo are located near Quanzhou Bay, while Zhongzuo, Jinmensuo, and Gaopusuo are located in the vicinity of Quanzhou Bay. Zhangzhou Prefecture is closer.

Chongwu built a large defensive stronghold no less than Zhongzuo, located at the southern tip of Chongwu Peninsula in Hui'an County.The city wall is entirely made of white granite, with a height of seven meters and a circumference of 2457 meters. The city wall is equipped with wall plates, arrow windows, nest shops and other city defense facilities.There are gates on all sides of the city wall, a beacon tower is built on each of the three gates in the east, west and north, and a lighting wall is built outside the south gate. Inside the city, there are defense villages, piers, posthouses, military camps and martial arts halls, etc. There is also a lookout on the commanding height of Lianhua Mountain.

In 1387, Zhu Yuanzhang, Emperor Taizu of the Ming Dynasty, appointed Jiang Xiahou Zhou Dexing to inspect the southeast coast in order to resist the invasion of Japanese pirates. After Zhou Dexing arrived in Quanzhou, he organized the construction of several large defensive strongholds under Yongningwei.During the reign of Yongle, the wall of Chongwu City was increased by four feet, and the moon city with east and west gates was added.During the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, city defense facilities such as gate towers and horse racing tracks were built.In the first year of Longqing in the Ming Dynasty, that is, more than 60 years ago, Qi Jiguang, a famous anti-Japanese general, performed martial arts here to organize Fujian soldiers and civilians to resist the invasion of Japanese pirates.

"History of Ming Dynasty Bingzhi" records: "Hui'an is on the east side, and ends at the poor sea. Its town is Chongwu. At the beginning of the country, it was used as the road for the barbarians to haunt the island. Thousands of households were set up, and officials were garrisoned to protect the inside from the outside. In the original time and space, Zheng Chenggong sent his troops to the east to recover Taiwan, and the People's Liberation Army sailed south to conquer Xiamen. Chongwu City was used as a starting base, which shows that the strategic location of this place is quite important.

However, this itinerary did not arrange to go ashore to visit Chongwu City, so apart from being able to see the city walls of Chongwu City through the telescope, Morgan and Shi Diwen's most intuitive understanding of this place is the Chongwu swimming crab that they enjoyed in Quanzhou yesterday Had the Chongwu fish roll.

After the fleet bypassed the Chongwu Peninsula, they were only 30 nautical miles away from Nanri Island, the final destination of the trip.If it weren't for the speed of the Ming army's navy, the ships of Haihan could have completed this voyage in about three hours.However, the purpose of Shi Diwen's plan to fight this battle was to show off his force to the Ming army in Fujian, so he still had to slow down and wait for the large troops to advance together.

Nanri Island is located in the northeast of Quanzhou. It is the main island among eighteen large islands and reefs, covering an area of ​​more than 40 square kilometers.During the Hongwu period, this place used to have a water village and a garrison of nearly a thousand people to resist Japanese pirates and pirates who invaded the place.However, because this place is isolated in the sea, support and supplies are inconvenient, so the garrison finally moved away from this place.

Among the strongholds established by Shibazhi on the coast of Fujian, Nanri Island is the only remaining one.Because of this, Shibazhi attaches great importance to the defense of Nanri Island, re-fortified the abandoned Ming army water village on the island, and stationed a large number of manpower and ships to guard here.This place happened to be on the necessary channel between Zhangzhou and Quanzhou and Fuzhou. If ships want to pass through safely, they must pay a certain fee to Shibazhi.

Although Xu Xinsu also organized several offensives against Nanri Island, they failed in the end due to various reasons.Xu Xinsu still had some doubts about the Haihan people's claim that they would take Nanri Island within a day or two.But since Shi Diwen had already said that the Fujian Ming army was not needed to lead the battle as cannon fodder, then Xu Xinsu was also happy to see the success, at least it would be good to be able to see the fighting routines of the Haihan militia with his own eyes.

When the fleet was nearly [-] nautical miles away from Nanri Island, they had already met the sentinel ships of Shibazhi scattered on the sea.The fleet of thirty ships naturally attracted the other party's attention immediately, and soon saw a sky rocket released from the sentinel ship, which flew into the air and exploded, which seemed to be a communication method for the other party.

"I just hope they can prepare better, and don't let us make this trip in vain." Facing the Shibazhi sentry boat that hastily sounded the alarm, Shi Diwen looked relaxed, and even made fun of it intentionally.

Xu Xinsu reluctantly put down the military binoculars that Shi Diwen handed him. This binoculars are much more advanced than those sold by Haihan Military Industry.The monocular telescope with a copper shell is far inferior to the black guy Shi Diwen used in terms of clarity and viewing distance.But obviously this is not for sale, just like the small black box in the hands of Haihan people that can transmit sound for thousands of miles.

After spending the past two days on "Prestige Signal", Xu Xinsu gradually understood why everyone who had visited and studied in Sanya came back and said that he was a frog in a well, and the Haihan people really had too many strange things in their hands. It simply broke through the limit that Xu Xinsu could imagine.He even thought for a while whether the Haihan people had mastered some spells, but Shi Diwen seriously denied this view, and re-examined that it was the power of "Hainhan Science".Although he is still floating at sea, Xu Xinsu already plans to select some bright young people and send them to Haihan to learn these magical "sciences" after returning home.

"Master Xu, there may be more intense artillery fire later, do you need to transfer to another ship to watch the battle?" Shi Diwen asked Xu Xinsu thoughtfully in advance.When the fight starts, the artillery on the ship will fire together. That kind of formation is not a joke. If the old man has a heart attack or something, he might not be able to bear such a fright.

Xu Xinsu waved his hand and rejected his kindness: "The reason why this old man took this ship is to observe how the militia army fights at the shortest distance. Mr. Shi doesn't need to care about this old man, he just needs to direct the battle."

Shi Diwen smiled and said: "Since Mr. Xu is so interested, then it's up to you."

About ten nautical miles away from Nanri Island, when the blurred outline of Nanri Island could be seen from the sea level, Shibazhi's fleet finally appeared in the sight of the United Fleet.Obviously, the guards on Nanri Island did not intend to stick to the island fortifications, but were planning to fight against the unexpected enemy at sea, but this was in the hands of the Haihan militia.

"Then let's get down to business!" Shi Diwen put away the smile on his face after confirming that the opponent had raised the black flag at the mainmast observation post, and began to issue combat orders: "Send the signal, and everyone enters the combat state! The three warships of our army broke away from the main force and advanced at full speed!"

According to the information from the lookout post, there are as many as 25 sea ships coming from the opposite side.Although the number was eight times higher than that of our own side, Shi Diwen and the sailors on board were not panicked, because the opponent's ships were all Chinese-style sailing ships, and the largest one was not as big as an "exploration-class" warship. In front of the three larger warships of Haihan, there was a flock of sheep.

At this time, the wind direction at sea is a crosswind for both sides in the war, and the objective conditions are fair, but the sail system of the Haihan warship is more flexible, and the utilization efficiency of the crosswind is higher than that of the traditional Chinese sail, so the speed still has a clear advantage.Shi Diwen ordered the engine room to start warming up and stand by, and decide whether to use the steam auxiliary power depending on the battle situation.As for the ships of the Ming Army Navy, according to the prior agreement, they only need to wait outside to intercept those fish that escaped the net.

(End of this chapter)