1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 710
The east-west and north-south directions of Penghu Island are only more than 20 miles in depth. The terrain of the island is flat, and there are almost no gullies with large drops.When the Dutch resisted the Ming army here, they only relied on their superiority in guns and weapons.Although Shibazhi inherited the stronghold fortifications left by the Dutch, they did not have the same level of weapons and equipment as the Dutch. Therefore, Zheng Zhilong gave up his plan to use Penghu as the final battlefield early on.Through the two confrontations in Nanri Island last year, he already knew very well that the gap between his own strength and that of the Haihan Militia could not be made up by the favorable location and people.

Qian Tiandun did not choose to stay at the headquarters today, but went to the front line to command in person.He doesn't like or is good at sitting in the rear, so it's better to leave it to Yan Chujie to control.

"This is really like the time when we chased and suppressed the deserters from South Vietnam in Annan." Qian Tiandun couldn't help saying with emotion as he looked at the rows of prisoners tied up with long ropes.

After the attack on Hue City, tens of thousands of South Vietnamese soldiers were captured inside and outside the city, and they were also bundled into long strings and escorted to prisoner-of-war camps as they are now.However, at that time, the scale of troops led by Qian Tiandun was far from what it is now, and Gao Qiaonan was just an ordinary soldier under him, but now he has become the battalion commander of Qian Tiandun's ace unit because of his repeated military exploits.

"This battle is much easier than when we fought against Hue!" Gao Qiaonan didn't have that much feeling. For him, it was a little disappointing to win Penghu so easily.

Before the start of the war, the staff estimated the difficulty of this battle to be relatively high, because it was necessary to land across the sea, and the opponent was not as helpless as South Vietnam at sea.As a unit stationed in Fujian last year, Gao Qiaonan’s former Annant War Battalion, which is now the Fujian Special War Battalion, will definitely be appointed as the leading unit. Therefore, in the first few months of the first half of this year Here, Gao Qiaonan's troops conducted multiple amphibious landing trainings on Kinmen Island and the nearby coastal areas, and made plans to deal with various possible situations.

Everyone in the battalion was ready to fight a tough battle, but they didn't expect that when it was the army's turn to take the stage, there would be nothing to sing about. The people who were stranded on the island before evacuating in time were almost stragglers. It is obviously difficult to make waves in front of the special warfare battalion armed to the teeth.Where the soldiers were pointing, their defenses were almost effortlessly defeated.Compared with the previous battles in Annan, the casualties in the encirclement and suppression of the bandits on the island were much lower. So far, the army has not reported any deaths in battle.

Although low battle damage is a good thing, there is no tough battle to fight, which means that the Army will not be able to make any great achievements in this operation.Of course, when the military calculates the military exploits afterwards, the army generals will definitely have to argue with the navy. If the navy hadn't been delayed by two waves of pirate ships, then the army wouldn't be unable to make money after landing.

Zheng Zhilong had clearly calculated the evacuation plan carefully, and did not leave much valuables on the island, not even much food left.Gao Qiaonan's subordinates searched the two captured strongholds, but they did not find any valuables at all, and the harvest was far less than when they cleaned up Shibazhi's dens in the Pearl River Estuary area.

"It's a big loss!" Yan Chujie checked the seized materials counted by the logistics department in the temporary headquarters set up in Magong Port, and couldn't help sighing: "The grain is less than three thousand catties, the silver is more than 2000 taels, and the small gold bars are twenty Roots, two red corals, and more than [-] pearls of different sizes... These things are not even enough to consume the troops transferred from Hainan! If it weren't for someone from Fujian to pay for it, we will lose this battle Home!"

Wang Tom replied with a smile: "Xu Xinsu is quite knowledgeable and interesting. I just asked Xu Jiaqi to inform me that within three days, 800 catties of rice will be transported here from Fujian. In addition, there are also construction craftsmen we need. We have gathered [-] people, and they will be delivered together with food and grass."

"You said this, but I remembered it. Have the people from the Ministry of Construction arrived?" Yan Chujie asked: "It's easy to settle the troops. At worst, we can use tents to overcome them in the near future, but the repair of the port still has to be done by the Ministry of Construction." It’s only good that people come over to host it.”

"The early stage project will not be very big. I went to the port in the morning, and the conditions are still available. Only a small part needs to be renovated." Wang Tom comforted: "I will send a telegram to Jinmen Island later, so that They sent someone over as soon as possible."

Due to well-known reasons, Haihan's temporary station on Kinmen Island is not a long-term solution. It is inconvenient for Haihan to carry out military training or transfer supplies, and the Fujian government is definitely not at ease with this powerful armed force stationed for a long time. Near the gateway to the sea under the rule.In the past, there was an external threat of Shibazhi, and Haihan's garrison was undoubtedly a protective umbrella, but after Shibazhi was expelled from the Taiwan Strait, this umbrella may slowly change in the eyes of the Fujian government.

In the agreement before the war, the two parties had already agreed that after the recovery of Penghu, it would be handed over to Haihan in the form of a concession. Haihan could set up a free trade port here and station the armed forces.For the Fujian government, at least the Haihan people have always been very "friendly" towards Daming, and they have spared no effort to support Fujian's war against Shibazhi. It is better to hand over this place to Haihan. It is much more reassuring to fall into the hands of Shibazhi or the Dutch.

Having said that, the Dutch currently still have a stronghold on Taiwan Island. Although the two sides have reached an armistice agreement, the existence of Dayuan Port is still a threat to the coast of Fujian.And Penghu is located between Dayuangang and Fujian. After the Haihan people settled here, it would be impossible for the Dutch to cross Penghu to take military action against Fujian.From this point of view, Haihan's occupation of Penghu is equivalent to extending the original protective umbrella a bit.

After one day on May 5, the coalition forces captured more than 2 prisoners on Penghu Island, and killed and injured more than 400 people during the battle.The Fujian navy responsible for cleaning up nearby islands also made small gains, capturing more than 300 prisoners.The coalition forces suffered only a small number of casualties during this process, and the few people killed in battle belonged to the Ming army. Fortunately, there were only a few wounded on the side of the Haihan militia.

After a whole day of counting, the results of the coalition forces' attack on Penghu Island the day before have also been preliminarily counted.The coalition fleet sank and injured more than 80 enemy ships in the two naval battles yesterday, and captured more than 4000 ships.Since a considerable number of Shibazhi personnel who died in the naval battle have sunk into the sea together with the ship, it is difficult to calculate the specific number of casualties. At least a thousand lives were lost in the two naval battles.Of course, it is actually a good deal for Shibazhi to exchange the sacrifices of these people in exchange for the escape of Shibazhi's main force.If it weren't for the speed of these two fleets being dragged down, the number of people blocked on Penghu Island might not be [-] to [-], but tens of thousands.

Although the effect of the final interception was not particularly satisfactory, and it did not fully achieve the strike effect planned before the war, but from the perspective of the battle damage ratio, the coalition has indeed taken advantage of it, and it is indeed against Shibazhi's attack. The strength caused a certain blow.In the two naval battles on the first day alone, Shibazhi lost more than [-]% of its armed warships.At least in a short period of time, it may be difficult for Shibazhi to return to the level of force they had in their heyday.

On May 5, the army continued to carry out the task of clearing and hunting on the island, and the two fleets sent to pursue Shibazhi the day before also returned on this day.They had caught up with Shibazhi's last convoy leaving Penghu Island the previous afternoon, and a skirmish broke out at sea.

Of course, the Haihan Fleet with two "Majestic-class" battleships will not suffer in the slightest in this kind of confrontation. In the short-term confrontation, more than a dozen ships of the other side were left behind, more than half of which were severely damaged. Can be taken back to Penghu.Shi Diwen conducted a surprise interrogation of the captives on his way home, and further confirmed that Shibazhi's destination was Miyako Island in the Ryukyu Islands.

Although this kind of record is not outstanding in this battle, it is enough to make the army jealous.The three battalions of the army turned the land upside down on Penghu Island, and only captured [-] remnants of pirates who had lost their resistance. Most of them were old, weak, sick, and not even worth as coolies. big.But the property they found was extremely limited, Yan Chujie and Qian Tiandun didn't care about it at all.

"Shouldn't give Shibazhi so much time!" Qian Tiandun sighed.He had already given up on the front line of supervising the battle, and returned to the Magong Port temporary headquarters, because the current situation did not require him to go to the front line to watch, and Gao Qiaonan was enough to deal with the situation on the island.

There is no place for too many people to hide on Penghu Island, and the remnants of the pirates who fled in a hurry have no rations at all. Even if the coalition forces do not conduct a large-scale search on the island, these people will have to come out and surrender after a while.In fact, starting from the afternoon of May 5, some pirates who were lucky enough to escape the search in the first two days also came out of their hiding places. They have also realized that the enemy troops who attacked Penghu this time will probably not withdraw again and continue to hide If you go down, you will either be caught by the other party, or you will starve to death in the wilderness.

"It seems that the teacher can return to court earlier than the scheduled time." Yan Chujie's tone was not without a touch of disappointment.Had he known that Shibazhi had no resistance, Haihan should have raised the timing of the general attack further.

However, not everyone wants to fight a big fight. Xu Xinsu very much hopes to end the war in Penghu as soon as possible and withdraw the large troops to Fujian.At present, there are more than [-] coalition troops and logistics personnel here in Penghu, and the daily consumption of supplies is not a small amount.Moreover, there is nothing in Penghu except seafood, and most of the daily necessities have to be transported from the mainland continuously, which is also a great trouble for Xu Xinsu.The largest batch of ships under his transport fleet had gone south to Sanya a few days ago, preparing to deliver combat supplies for the Haihan militia, but the supplies hadn't been shipped back yet, but the battle had already been fought.

For Xu Xinsu, almost all of his troops and transportation were invested in this battle.Although he has also made preparations for the follow-up, if he can reduce unnecessary investment, he still hopes to save himself a little bit.After all, only half of the funds for this battle were disbursed from the Fujian government's finances, and the other half was funds raised from the private sector in various names, and more than half of them came from the Xu family.As for the combat expenses paid to Haihan's side, it was all paid by him. If the Haihan militia did not announce the end of the operation, he would have to pay for an extra day. This is definitely very painful for a businessman. buy and sell.

Therefore, before Yan Chujie had considered whether he really wanted to withdraw the large troops in advance, Xu Xinsu had already come to the door to be a lobbyist in person: "General Yan, since Shibazhi has emptied Penghu and chose to withdraw to Ryukyu to settle down, it must be the same. It is impossible to spend a lot of trouble to kill the carbine again. Now that the island has settled down and the remnants of the pirates have almost been caught, can we consider withdrawing the troops to the mainland to save the daily sea transportation between the two places?"

Of course, Yan Chujie could understand Xu Xinsu's voice, and replied with a smile: "Master Xu has been tired these days. I think so, our troops will rest here for two days, and then we will leave camp and go back to Sanya. Master Xu only needs to provide The food supplies we need on the way are enough. As for the withdrawal to the mainland, there is no need, after all, we have brought the troops to Fujian to fight, and the house is a bit empty, so it is safer to go back earlier."

What Xu Xinsu is most afraid of is that it is easy to ask God to send God away. Yan Chujie expressed his attitude so readily, and a big stone in his heart was immediately put down: "The supplies needed for your army's return journey, I will order people to prepare and deliver them within two days. Come to Penghu. As for the ownership of this place, it will be carried out according to the previously agreed regulations. But in order to explain to the imperial court, an inspection department will be set up here, and General Yan will know."

Yan Chujie nodded and said: "This is understandable. After all, this is the territory of Daming, and it is appropriate to set up a yamen for management. Mr. Xu has also been to Sanya. Do you think the local Yulin Inspection Department is operating in the same way? It is necessary to set up Penghu here. There is no problem with the inspection department, even if Mr. Xu appoints an inspection envoy, we will definitely provide food and drink."

Yan Chujie seemed to be polite, but he was actually setting conditions for Xu Xinsu - it is okay to get an inspection department, but how to operate it should follow Yulin's model, and don't bring other people over, just bring an official to act as a front, everyone It's enough to get by on the face.

(End of this chapter)