1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 700 Joint Action
Haihan's military didn't mind the fact that the Allies sent a military observer group composed of senior officers to observe the militia during the war. In fact, Haihan first initiated this practice.At the beginning, of course, the main purpose was to promote their own weapons, and by the way, to promote force.With the increasingly close contacts with the Fujian military, there are more and more opportunities for the two sides to cooperate in combat operations. The Haihan militia does need the Ming army to better cooperate with itself in coordinated operations on the battlefield. Therefore, through military It is even more necessary to enhance mutual understanding in the form of observation missions.

Arriving at the Kinmen Island base with this troop transferred from Hainan Island was the military observation team of the Ming Army, a total of 25 people.All the officers of the Ming army had the experience of receiving training at the Shengli Port Military Academy. They can be regarded as a group of people in the Fujian Ming army who have a relatively deep understanding of the Haihan military system.Moreover, ten of them had the surname Xu, and the rest were from Xu Xinsu's camp, so it could be said that they were all the elite of Xu Xinsu's private army.Xu Xinsu's fourth son, Xu Yuzhuo, and his nephew Xu Jiaqi were all among them, which shows how much Xu Xinsu attaches importance to this matter.

On the afternoon of February 2, the first joint combat preparatory meeting between the Fujian Ming Army and the Haihan Militia was held at the Haihan Camp on Kinmen Island.

"The purpose of gathering everyone here for a meeting today should be clear to everyone here. We will launch an operation against the Penghu Islands by the middle of the year at the latest. The content of today's meeting is to make specific arrangements for the first phase of operations. Qian Tiandun personally attended and presided over the meeting, and behind him was a huge map of the Taiwan Strait, which accurately marked the location of Kinmen Island and the Penghu Islands.

Qian Tiandun continued: "According to what we have now, the subordinate forces of Shibazhi have basically been driven out of the coast of Fujian, and their scope of activities has also been compressed to the waters around the Penghu Islands, but Shibazhi probably won't Just sitting there waiting to die, so we need to know how they are reacting now and what measures they have taken to confront us."

Xu Yuzhuo replied: "General Qian, since the second half of last year, according to your request, we have tightened up the trading of grain, medicine, pig iron, etc. in the coastal states and counties of the province, and tried our best to prevent these things from entering through trade again. to Shibazhi. But Shibazhi is still trying to buy the supplies they need from Jiangsu and Zhejiang. Our province’s navy ships are limited, and it is difficult to block the waterway between Penghu and Jiangsu and Zhejiang. There is no more effective way now. Method."

Qian Tiandun said: "As long as Shibazhi still has money in hand, there will always be people willing to sell things to them. Even if Fujian can be banned, it cannot be banned from places other than Fujian. But if we block the channels in Fujian, we can Increase the cost and time for them to purchase materials from Daming. Shibazhi no longer has any stable income and has to support tens of thousands of mouths. If we were in Zheng Zhilong's position, the pressure would be very high. What's more, they buy from Jiangsu and Zhejiang The channel for the materials should not be so stable, if we get the exact news, we may intercept the ship carrying the goods at sea at any time."

Xu Yuzhuo nodded in agreement and said: "General Qian is very right, as long as Shibazhi knows that we can cut off their way at any time, it is enough to make these thieves worry all day long."

Qian Tiandun continued: "Although we have no control over how the merchants in Jiangsu and Zhejiang do business, it shouldn't be too difficult to find out what they bought, right?"

Xu Yuzhuo said: "After you proposed this plan two months ago, your lord also expected that Shibazhi would bypass Fujian to buy supplies from other places, so he has already sent people to go to several major counties and ports in Jiangsu and Zhejiang to lurk. Recently, some news came back.”

While talking, Xu Yuzhuo took out the materials he had prepared, and introduced to the people present: "This is the list of materials purchased by Shibazhi in Ningbo last month. There are 380 dans of rice and 51 tons of four kinds of cloth in total. horses, [-] catties of pig iron, and [-] medicinal materials totaling more than [-] catties. In addition, they bought seven bird boats, two lucky boats, and some live poultry. The local market is very generous. As long as it is the item they need, most of them will buy it directly and ship it away without bargaining. We still have six or seven reports like this. The content purchased by Shibazhi is roughly the same, but The location is just different."

Qian Tiandun nodded and said, "How is the situation on Dayuan Island?"

"The red-haired man has probably received the results of the Sanya negotiations and expelled Shibazhi's envoy in Dayuan Port. Judging from what he has learned, the red-haired man seems to have no intention of further intervening." Xu Yuzhuo replied.

"Count them clever!" Qian Tiandun was even a little disappointed when he heard the news.He is not worried that the Dutch will continue to provide military assistance to Shibazhi. The reason why he pays attention to this information is mainly because he hopes to catch some clues about the Dutch, so that if he finds trouble with the Dutch in the future, he can have a high-sounding reason.But the Dutch probably don't want to give Haihan a reason to go to war for the sake of Shibazhi. After all, the war prospect that Haihan described in the negotiations is too terrible. The Dutch don't want to see a real alliance of all forces in the South China Sea Get up and banish your own situation.

Without the Dutch as backup, the supply of Shibazhi's weapons and equipment was basically cut off. For the Ming army and the Haihan militia, it could reduce some troubles and risks in the combat process.Moreover, the Dutch no longer participated in the war, so Shibazhi's armed forces at sea really had no advantage at all.Although Shibazhi's ships are probably several times more than the coalition forces here, the combat power gap between warships, merchant ships, and civilian ships is still very large, and it cannot be made up simply by relying on quantitative advantages. It has been fully proved in the two Nanri Island naval battles.

Qian Tiandun quickly adjusted his mood and returned to the main topic: "Next month, our warships will arrive at the local garrison one after another. We hope that the Fujian Navy can also mobilize some elite soldiers and form a mixed fleet with our warships. Carrying out cruise training in the waters east of Kinmen Island, on the one hand, is practicing sea tactics, and on the other hand, it is also used to isolate Shibazhi from spying on the waters near Zhangquan, further reducing their space for activities."

Xu Yuzhuo agreed without any hesitation.He himself served as an admiral in the Fujian Navy. He received naval training in Sanya, visited the warship berth of the Shengli Port Shipyard, and personally participated in the two Nanri Island naval battles led by Haihan. For Haihan The strength of the navy has a very deep understanding.

Although in the first two naval battles, the Haihan Navy also brought the Fujian navy to play together, but almost all of them fought independently, and there was not much part of the coordinated operations. The Fujian navy even had to act as a bait on the battlefield. Characters, to attract the attention of the enemy with an image of weakness, this is not a job that a navy officer like Xu Yuzhuo is willing to do.

With the gradual liberalization of Haihan's military purchases, the Fujian Navy finally had the opportunity to start equipping combat ships with the same specifications as Haihan's Navy, which means that they can finally mix their fleets with Haihan's Navy without worrying about sailing. The gap in performance dragged the opponent back.In the previous Nanri Island naval battle, only two "exploration-class" warships belonging to the Fujian Navy enjoyed such treatment, but after more than half a year, the number of new warships of the Fujian Navy has increased from two to six. He is fully qualified to be incorporated into Haihan's fleet to undertake a certain degree of combat missions.

Only an officer like Xu Yuzhuo who has personal experience understands that if he wants to learn real skills from the Haihan people, he must live, eat and train with them.This kind of mixed cruise like Qian Tiandun said is exactly the opportunity that the Fujian Navy needs at present.

As for how much money this kind of cruise will cost, Xu Yuzhuo is not worried. After all, his old man Xu Xinsu has already said that as long as Shibazhi can be wiped out within the year, even if it costs gold and silver, he must spend the money. Years to survive.After all, for the maritime interest groups, the control of Fujian's sea area is far more than the value of the current military expenses paid to Haihan.The money spent now can be recovered in other ways soon after Shibazhi is destroyed and the control of the sea is regained.

Of course, in the future, the Fujian Navy will not be able to control the seas in Fujian waters alone. According to the cooperation agreement reached between the two parties during the visit of the Haihan Mission to Fujian last year, Haihan ships will have the right to freely navigate and trade in Fujian waters. The authority of freedom is not only granted to civilian ships, but also to Haihan Navy.This is almost a tacit agreement that the Haihan people have the highest control over the sea area of ​​​​Fujian, because the strength of the Fujian Navy is not enough to be on an equal footing with the Haihan Navy.But at the same time, Haihan also promised not to intervene in the management of the maritime trade by the Fujian government, so that most of the oil and water of the maritime trade will remain in the hands of the Fujian government, or in the hands of interest groups like Xu Xinsu.

Such an agreement can be regarded as a win-win situation for both parties.The prerequisite for realizing this situation is to remove the stumbling block Shibazhi first.In the case of the same interests of both parties, whether it is sending a military observation mission or joint operations, it seems very logical.

Five days after the meeting ended, Xu Yuzhuo returned to Kinmen Island with six Haihan-made warships belonging to the Fujian Navy.Although Qian Tiandun said at the meeting that the cruise mission would not begin until the arrival of the naval ships next month, under Xu Yuzhuo's strong request, the six ships and the two "expedition-class" and two The "Exploration Class" naval warships were still mixed in advance, and they started daily training with the same content as the naval personnel.

On March 3, the United Fleet, which performed its first cruise mission in the Fujian Strait, successfully intercepted a convoy of merchant ships from Zhejiang to Penghu about 3 nautical miles east of Nanri Island based on accurate information.

There are a total of seven merchant ships in this team, all of which are transported various materials purchased by Shibazhi in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. The owners are all merchants from Jiangsu and Zhejiang. In addition, there are two armed merchant ships belonging to Shibazhi as escorts.

This time, Shibazhi’s people were already being watched by spies sent by Fujian when they were buying in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. After a lot of work, they finally bought off the boss of one of the ships and learned their approximate voyage route and departure. date.So the spies immediately sent the news back to Fujian, and after Xu Xinsu got the news, he quickly notified the Haihan people on Kinmen Island.Just when the joint fleet was mixed, Qian Tiandun entrusted them with the task of intercepting the fleet.

The officer leading Haihan's team is Xie Li, a naturalized civilian officer. He was the first officer in the navy to be appointed as the first officer, and his qualifications can be regarded as old people.Today, the commanders of the traversers of the several major fleets of Haihan have not yet arrived in Fujian. He is currently the supreme commander of the navy stationed in Fujian, and he is also responsible for planning and commanding all missions to sea.

The leading officer of the Fujian Navy was Xu Yuzhuo, who went off in person. During his training at the Shengli Port Military Academy, he had a brief friendship with Xie Li as schoolmates, so he could be regarded as a fellow student. Reduced a lot of unnecessary barriers.

This fleet consisting of twelve warships and five logistics supply ships sailed around the waters east of Nanri Island for two days before waiting for the prey to appear.After showing the flag and carrying out warning bombardment, several ships of Jiangsu and Zhejiang maritime merchants lowered their sails and slowed down, waiting for inspection.But the two armed merchant ships of Shibazhi turned their course and tried to escape.

Although there was a distance between the two sides when they encountered each other, the speed advantage of the ships of the United Fleet quickly made up for the distance. After half an hour, they caught up with the two armed merchant ships and directly bombarded the two ships. Attacked at close range.Although the pirates on the armed merchant ship also tried to fight back with weapons such as guns, muskets, and bows and arrows, the range and accuracy of their equipment were too poor to pose any threat to the chasing warship. Instead, they were fired by the warship. Several rounds of grape bombs harvested a lot of heads.

It took the United Fleet just over two hours to capture the smuggling fleet.According to the preliminary statistics of the results of the battle, the supplies that this fleet tried to transport to Penghu were mainly food, and there were as many as 170 tons of rice alone.In addition, what attracted the attention of the officers was the Daming-style firearms purchased by Shibazhi from the Weisuo Army in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, including more than 30 bird guns, more than 40 Lumi guns, 80 Flang cannons and more than 500 guns. Barrels of gunpowder, more than [-] sets of standard armor, and more than [-] swords and bows.Relying on these weapons, it is possible to arm a small-scale elite army - of course, this elite is only at the level of Shibazhi and ordinary Weisuo Ming army, and it is still far behind the current Fujian Ming army's equipment. A certain gap.

(End of this chapter)