1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 658

In the end, Xu Jiaqi was a little disappointed that Zheng Zhihu was not captured alive, but what made him feel even more regretful was that this credit was snatched by the navy, so he regretted that he didn't follow Qian Tiandun's suggestion earlier and led troops to attack ten Bazhi's camp, otherwise, there is still a chance to keep Zheng Zhihu on the shore, and he will take this great achievement by himself.

Qian Tiandun's thinking at this time is different from his. One of the main goals of this battle is to take down Zheng Zhihu. Now that this goal has been achieved, how the situation in the Fujian Strait region will develop in the future also needs to be carefully thought out. It's over.

The death of Zheng Zhihu will undoubtedly completely tear the relationship between the Fujian government and Shibazhi. If there were some under-the-table transactions and tacit understanding between the two sides before that, then from now on, the hatred value has risen to one Unbridgeable heights.Even if Zheng Zhilong had other ideas in his heart, he would have to fight to the death with the Fujian government from now on in order to maintain his image as a leader of "love and righteousness".For Haihan, who was worried about the attitude of the Fujian government, he solved his worries in one fell swoop, and no longer needed to worry about the repeated attitude of the Fujian government towards Shibazhi.

The attack on the Dutch on Nanri Island this time is another harvest. On the one hand, they have a general understanding of the strength and combat methods of the Dutch through the fight. For good reason.After the naval battle a few days ago, four Dutch armed sailing ships failed to leave the battlefield and were all captured by the Ming army navy. After counting, the crews on these four sailing ships totaled 472 people, of which 107 fought in the battle. They died or fell into the water and disappeared, and all the remaining personnel were captured-this is also the largest number of people captured in military operations since the Dutch East India Company entered the Far East.

Of course, these more than 300 captives were not all Dutch, most of them came from Dutch colonies around the world, and there were only more than 50 real Dutchmen.These captives have now been escorted to the city of Zhongzuo and locked up, and there is probably no possibility of escape in the near future.According to Haihan's proposal, the Fujian government is ready to send someone to the high officials to make representations to the Dutch, and will ask for a ransom fee for the prisoners of war.

If the Dutch wanted to retrieve these prisoners of war from the Fujian government, they would have to pay 5 taels of silver to the Fujian government as the price for this meddling.In addition, the Fujian government will demand 5 taels of silver "war compensation" from the Dutch on behalf of Haihan, on the grounds that the Dutch armed sailing ship killed and injured many Haihan crew members during the battle, and caused damage to Haihan's ships.In addition, the Fujian government will also require the East India Company to promise not to participate in or assist anti-Ming armed forces like Shibazhi in any form in the future.

Of course, it is impossible for the Dutch to agree to these demands. It would be hell if the Dutch really agreed to the conditions proposed by Hai Han.The real purpose of raising these demands is not to obtain the so-called compensation, but to pave the way for Haihan's subsequent measures.After the Dutch refused, it was convenient for Haihan to use this as a reason to take further action.

The results of the battle in Fujian were transmitted back to Hainan Island through radio waves at the first time. When Qian Tiandun and Xu Jiaqi, the representative of the Ming army, were cleaning up and counting the spoils together, the executive committee had already received the urgent telegram that had just arrived, and began to Discuss the next course of action.

"Qian Tiandun did not disappoint us!" Yan Chujie excitedly waved the telegram in his hand: "Almost all the invading pirates were wiped out, and four armed merchant ships of the Dutch were destroyed. The leader, Zheng Zhihu, was shot dead on the spot!"

"If you are called, you will be able to fight and win if you come. This is exactly the army we need!" Tao Donglai also expressed his admiration for Qian Tiandun and his subordinate troops without hesitation.In terms of being able to fight, the troops led by Qian Tiandun are indeed the ace elite of the militia, and this has once again been strongly confirmed on the battlefield in Fujian.

However, because the content of the telegram was too brief, the executive committee members did not know that Qian Tiandun's troops only behaved in a satisfactory manner in this battle, and it was the militia navy that performed outstandingly in the two naval battles that really made the first contribution.It was precisely because they put enough pressure on their opponents at sea that Shibazhi panicked and made consecutive moves.Finally, when it comes to rewards for meritorious deeds, naval officer Xie Li's contribution is actually greater than that of Qian Tiandun who sits in Nanri Village.

"The most important thing is that the Dutch participated in the war openly this time, and we have a good reason to fight with them next time." Gu Kai looked eager to try: "I really want to know what the Dutch are hearing about Fujian. What kind of expression will it look like after the news."

"We can start counting the time now." Ning Qi took over the conversation and said, "The Dutch who escaped from Nanri Island should have arrived at Dayuan Port, and they will pass the news to Batavia from there. It will take nearly a month. I think we can start making arrangements for the transfer of flags in the Amberna Islands."

After taking the Abunna Islands under the guise of pirates, how to take over the control of the local area from the "pirates" in a dignified and reasonable manner has always been an unresolved problem for Haihan, because doing so will inevitably cause Dutch People are dissatisfied, after all, they think that the local area is already a colony belonging to the East India Company.The attitude of the Executive Committee is not to take the initiative to provoke a war with the Dutch. This is not a question of whether it can be fought, but the Executive Committee believes that from the current stage it is necessary to start building the international image of the Haihan regime. up.

After the complete occupation of Hainan Island, the establishment of the Haihan regime has entered the countdown. Regarding the future handling of international relations, the Executive Committee has also begun to include relevant work on the agenda.Although the foundation of Haihan's nation-building is to absorb resources and labor through trade and war, and expand its territory outward, the Executive Committee does not want Haihan to have an aggressive image to the outside world.At least external military operations and means of expansion should be as moral as possible, so that the thoughts of the ruled classes can be more easily controlled.

The Dutch East India Company has long been one of the competitors that the executive committee plans to deal with, but the executive committee also hopes to do a decent job in the process, not to make the food look too ugly, it is best to let the Netherlands To play the villainous role in the eyes of the world, so that Haihan can have reasonable reasons to launch armed actions against the East India Company.

Of course, in fact, Haihan had already carried out several military operations against the Dutch in secret, and also snatched back the Annabuna Islands in the South China Sea that the Dutch had taken from Daming, but they never made it public.But this time the Dutch intervened in the war between the Fujian government and Shibazhi, which gave Haihan an excellent opportunity.A few days ago, before the Fujian war started, Qian Tiandun had sent back the news that the Dutch armed sailboat had appeared in the waters near Nanri Island, and suggested that the executive committee make good use of this opportunity to create a reasonable momentum for dealing with the Dutch in the future.After the results of Nanri Island came out, the focus of the executive committee was no longer on the subsequent cleanup of the results, but began to focus on discussing the trend of the post-war situation and how to use this victory to deal with the Dutch.

"The propaganda department should pay attention to this matter, and let the masses understand that the Dutch are not only the enemy of Ming Dynasty, but also our enemy. Their hostile actions against the Haihan militia are a provocation and a challenge to the entire Haihan regime. Humiliation! And we defeated the Dutch fleet in Fujian, this honor belongs to the executive committee and all Haihan people, and it is a record worthy of pride and pride for each of us!" Tao Donglai began to give instructions on the propaganda work in person, Several young naturalized people sitting outside hurriedly copied these words on a piece of paper.

These teenagers are a new generation of scholars who have graduated from the Haihan education system in the past two years. Most of them are orphans and refugees recruited from other places. .For them, what Daming gave them was endless suffering and panic, and there was nothing worth remembering, and the title of Haihan people was the identity they really recognized.

In the Ming Dynasty, they were probably just orphans that no one cared about, inconspicuous members of the fleeing army, and they might die on the way of begging at any time due to lack of food and clothing. However, they received excellent living treatment, not only food and housing, but also people taught them various knowledge and skills, so that they gradually became respected "cadres".

Most of these helpless immigrant children introduced by the Ministry of Civil Affairs have undergone more than three years of cultural training, and some who were considered talented by the military or other departments were selected halfway through, and entered military academies or departments affiliated to various departments. Vocational training institutions receive more specialized training.These clerks who can audit the executive committee are all students directly recruited by the executive committee office. It can be said that they are all talents selected from a hundred. Not only do they have extremely high loyalty, but they all have a certain cultural foundation, so that They can integrate into Haihan's administrative system faster and better than others.

Except for very few topics that require high confidentiality, most of the meetings of the executive committee will arrange for clerks to take on-site notes, and then the supervisor will select some positive parts from the discussion content, and the publicity department will use various channels Propagate and disseminate in the Haihan ruled area to guide the direction of public opinion among the people.

The results of this battle against the Netherlands will also become the main work of the propaganda department in the near future.Although Haihan's external military operations have never been interrupted, due to various considerations, most of the time there is no public propaganda in the ruled area.In the minds of ordinary people, the last time Haihan made a big move abroad was the previous year when the Haihan militia sent troops to Qiongbei to "assist" the Ming officials in driving out the pirates.The two battles in the South China Sea in the first half of this year, as well as the local military operations conducted by the mission to Fujian more than two months ago, were actually not publicized on Hainan Island.

There was no publicity at that time because the timing was inappropriate, and it might be counterproductive to disclose these situations. However, after the end of this match with the Dutch, the executive committee believed that the time for publicity had come.If done properly, many remaining problems can be solved at once this time, and at the same time, the unity of the people can be further consolidated.

Although mass education has been carried out in the ruling area for several years after traveling through time and space, due to the limited number of teachers and objective conditions, the degree of cultural popularization in the ruling area is not high, and the literacy rate can only exceed [-]%. Most of the naturalized people are purely illiterate who can't even write their own names.In such a social environment, the propaganda department did not unrealistically issue mass newspapers as a means of propaganda.

In fact, there are only two types of publications in the entire ruling area. One is for internal current affairs reference issued by the public, which is published once a month. Traveling through the personnel transfer arrangements and so on.There are only fifty copies of this kind of internal reference in each issue, which are distributed to various units and kept by the supervisors, and then circulated internally among the cross-travelers.According to the confidentiality system, ordinary naturalized civilian cadres are not qualified to read this kind of internal reference.

Another type of publication is aimed at the general public. It is also a monthly magazine, but its distribution targets are only units rather than individuals. The content is explained to ordinary people in a relatively easy-to-understand way.For some units whose literacy rate is too low to organize their own activities, such as remote farms, the propaganda department will send special personnel to go to the local area to give lectures after the publication is released.

Speaking of propaganda work, the time-travelers have hundreds of years more experience than all the ruling classes of this era, so from formulating policies to writing manuscripts, from publishing publications to organizing lectures, the Executive Committee has excellently controlled the rule It is the only media in the region, and it has always maintained an excellent role in guiding public opinion.Compared with the practices of various feudal empires at the same time, Haihan's methods are undoubtedly far ahead of this era.

As soon as the decision of the executive committee came out, the publicity department immediately started to mobilize, and even deliberately advanced the release time of this internal and external publication by several days, in order to meet the request of the executive committee to start relevant publicity as soon as possible.

On August [-]th, the latest issue of the public publication "Haihan Monthly" was freshly released. The headline on the front page was extremely eye-catching - "The Western Bandits Invaded Daming, Haihan Sent Troops to Rescue the Siege".The second piece of news immediately below it is equally eye-catching - "Whose fault is it that the islands in the South China Sea have become a den of pirates?" "

(End of this chapter)