1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 801 In Trouble
Haihan has always launched wars with a very clear purpose, either for the land, or for the population, or for a special strategic point, or for the origin of important resources. After identifying the target, we will act decisively and never make a loss. buy and sell.Areas with gold deposits like Taipei happen to be within the reach of Haihan, so it is only reasonable to put it under his own name.As for what the Spaniards currently occupying the area would think, Haihan didn't need to consider such issues, just as the Spaniards would never consider the feelings of the local natives towards foreign invaders like them.

Taking the situation in another time and space as a reference, the Jinguashi area is an important gold-producing area in East Asia. It has been mined for nearly a hundred years, and it was not until the 80s that the ore veins here were almost excavated. It can be seen that its reserves are still considerable. of.If Haihan's military expenditures in launching foreign wars in the past are measured, the attack on Taipei is definitely a profit but not a loss.Since large economic gains can be obtained, the objections such as militarism and high military expenditure are not so powerful.As for questioning the combat effectiveness of the Special Operations Battalion, no one will take it seriously. It is the Haihan Militia with the most outstanding record and the most elite personnel in the amphibious force, and Qian Tiandun's military order to win the battle. worried.

Of course, since the horse is going to run, the horse must be fed first, and the supplies needed for combat still need to be allocated as soon as possible.In addition, although Qian Tiandun claimed in the report that the Penghu garrison is sufficient to complete the corresponding combat tasks, and there is no need to send additional troops to coordinate, but considering the possible defense emptiness after the troops go out, the Military Commission is still planning to temporarily transfer half of the troops from the military base on Hong Kong Island. The fleet went to help defend.

When Haihan began to quietly prepare for the battle, the Spaniards in Taipei did not realize that the danger was approaching.In the city of San Salvador in Jilonggang, Alcarazo, the local supreme officer, was venting his dissatisfaction with his subordinates with a livid face: "It's been six full days! These slackers haven't repaired my armor yet, they really don't want to eat this anymore Is there a bowl of rice?"

The subordinates responded tremblingly: "My lord, Jose from the blacksmith shop has been missing for eight days, and his apprentices can only do odd jobs, and they cannot do such delicate work as armor repair."

"The castle is such a big place, can't you find him in eight days?" Alcarazo scolded angrily, "They're all idiots! It took me so long to find a drunkard!"

"My lord, we have searched everywhere in and out of the city, and we also went to the tavern to ask everyone who saw Jose that day, I'm afraid... we won't be able to find him back." The subordinates reported cautiously: "Someone saw Jose that day. He left the tavern drunk and headed towards the pier. There is no light on the pier at night, so maybe he fell into the sea."

Alcarazor said silently for a long while: "It's not a big deal for this drunkard to drown, it's troublesome to delay the daily affairs of the local area. I also expected him to bring a few apprentices out and assign them to work in Santo Domingo. Taught them how to make stoves! It will take another one or two months to apply for a blacksmith from Manila... Send me an order to confiscate the blacksmith's shop of that bastard, José!"

Just as the unlucky Jose expected, Master Alcarazor would not mobilize manpower to retrieve his corpse from the sea, but would immediately confiscate all his personal property—in fact, put it in Alcarazor’s personal pocket .What the upper class cared about was not the life and death of his little blacksmith, but the inconvenience caused by the absence of a blacksmith in El Salvador.Of course, no one would have thought that this drunk blacksmith was not actually drunk and fell into the sea to feed the fish, but was quietly kidnapped. After all, he was just a blacksmith, and he was not a big shot. He wanted money, no money, no status. Identity, the only property is the blacksmith shop in the castle, and it can't be moved or discounted, so it doesn't make any sense for him to start.

After Alcarazo finished cursing, he still felt very uncomfortable.The conditions here in Taipei are not good, and people in Manila are not willing to come and settle here, especially those craftsmen with special skills, and they are even more reluctant to travel so far to suffer in the wilderness.So the Jilonggang stronghold has been established for so many years, but there has always been only Jose, a professional blacksmith. He was also assigned when he first came. If it wasn't like this, he probably wouldn't have applied to settle here.

As soon as Jose disappeared, several apprentices under him couldn't stand up at all, and the blacksmith shop immediately came to a standstill.This may not cause any trouble in a short period of time, but after a long time, various things in the castle will definitely be affected.Even if they ask Manila for help, they don't know how long it will take before the next blacksmith arrives.

The room was leaking due to continuous rain, the boat was late and the wind was blowing, the more Alcarazo was afraid of something, the more he would come. As soon as the cause of Jose's disappearance was determined, his officers came to report that there were two cannons and Seven rifles need to be repaired before they can be used, and there are more than ten pieces of armor that need to be maintained.The small apprentices in the blacksmith shop obviously couldn't take on this important task, and these damaged weapons and equipment could only be temporarily thrown into the warehouse. When the next blacksmith came, they could be repaired.

Due to the hot and humid environment in Taiwan, the rust and loss of metal weapons is very fast, and regular maintenance must be carried out to maintain normal functions.But the professional skills of the soldiers are limited, at most they can only do the simplest external rust removal by themselves, and more professional repairs and maintenance can only be handed over to blacksmiths.Jose is the only person who has mastered the technology of repairing weapons and equipment in the entire Taipei area. His disappearance will affect the garrisons in the entire area.

Alcarazor also tried to hire blacksmiths from Ming Dynasty from Fujian to work for him, but because Shibazhi was powerful in the strait at the time, all the blacksmith shops along the coast of Fujian were closely monitored by the government, lest they be taken away by Shibazhi Or take the initiative to take effect.Although the Spaniard had no bad intentions, he was also blocked, and no one dared to take the initiative to accept his employment.Having said that, even if Alcarazor was able to hire a blacksmith from Daming, the effect would be extremely limited, because the guns used in the Spanish army were basically produced in Europe, and not everyone could repair them.What's more, there are voices of opposition among the Spaniards, who believe that the employment of Ming blacksmiths may cause the country's advanced military technology to leak out from this link, cheapening the terrifyingly large Far Eastern Empire.

However, there are also very few people who are more sensitive to external changes and have noticed another large arms dealer that has recently emerged in the South China Sea. Over [-]% of the arms purchased by the Fujian military in recent years have come from Haihan, and according to the According to the description, the Haihan people can not only make weapons, but also use them well. Their private armed forces have very strong combat effectiveness, and they have been providing military support to the Fujian military to resist the offensive of the Shibazhi pirate gang. .

However, this attention did not attract the attention of Alcarazo. Fujian was only a part of the Spaniards’ trade network in Northeast Asia, and more transactions came from Zhejiang, Ryukyu, North Korea, Japan and other places.Haihan never took the initiative to contact Spain, and Alcarazo didn't think it was necessary for him to condescend to make friends with these arms dealers.In his mind, Haihan is very similar to the Portuguese. He is involved in all kinds of business activities, as long as it can make money.As for arms, didn't the Portuguese also do such nasty things as salvaging the sunken British ship and then selling the artillery on the ship to Daming?Alcarazo does not believe that Haihan has the same weapons manufacturing technology as Europe. Most of the arms they sold to the Fujian military were resold from Portugal or other European countries. There are really not many groups in the Far East, and Alcarazo thinks that Haihan should be only one of them.

The backward intelligence system and arrogant attitude made the Spaniards very slow in understanding the changes in the situation in the Far East. They did not realize what the series of movements of the so-called arms dealer Haihan in the Strait meant.While the Spaniards were still dawdling around, their potential opponents had quietly entered the mouth of the Danshui River, conducted close reconnaissance on their stronghold, and listed it as one of the next military strike targets.If this object were changed to Dayuan Port, the local chief Hans would have been too scared to sleep.

In January 1633, the Penghu militia was stationed.

Although Sun Zhen is a rough person, he can also feel some subtle changes in the atmosphere of the camp recently. The veterans have obviously been stimulated by something, and the daily training volume has increased a lot compared to when he was first assigned some time ago. .Moreover, the amphibious landing training that needs to be carried out in cooperation with the navy has become more frequent recently.Although the officers never mentioned a single word, Sun Zhen is no longer the ignorant commoner when he first arrived in Penghu. He also has a certain analytical ability after several months of military training. Some kind of targeted preparations are underway.In other words, it may not be long before he will usher in his first combat mission after enlisting in the army.

"Keep up with the team! Don't wander off! You've already died once on the battlefield!" Sun Zhen kicked his ass in a daze.The person who kicked him was the platoon leader Wang who supervised the training. He was a veteran who joined the army five years ago. He followed Qian Tiandun all the way from Annan to Fujian. There is a sense of closeness, and I once thought that he also escaped from the north of Daming.

Like other veterans, Platoon Leader Wang treats new recruits like Sun Zhen very harshly. He always trains until they feel their bodies are hollowed out before stopping to rest. Soldiers privately call him the "Mean King".However, Sun Zhen admires the platoon leader very much. For example, in the field armed training that is going on now, the platoon leader is carrying more than 20 kilograms of equipment like them. The simple and rude way spurs the team to maintain the speed.

Of course, Sun Zhen also knows that one of the reasons why Platoon Leader Wang works so hard is that he made a bet with the steak captain in the second row. Whoever leads the team loses in today's field training, and the loser will give up the meat dishes for dinner to the other party. .Of course, it’s not a big deal to miss a meal of meat dishes, but the problem is that Platoon Leader Wang has lost three times in a row in similar bets. Today, he kept an eye on him very closely. As long as someone fell behind or lost his mind, he would use a light whip to remind him.

"There are still five miles left, everyone work harder, I won Lao Niu today, and I will pay for everyone's extra food!" Seeing the opponent who was chasing after his team, Platoon Leader Wang could only do his best. The killer feature: "One chicken per shift!"

This chicken blood fight was still quite effective. The soldiers who had already reached their upper limit of physical strength immediately regained their motivation, gritted their teeth and rushed to the distant end.In the end, the reward offered by the platoon leader Wang was not in vain. The platoon under his command completed the armed training with a distance of [-] miles ahead of the opponent by nearly half a mile, and also broke his own training record in this event .

Sun Zhen sat on the ground, unscrewed the stopper of the cowhide water bag, gulped down a gulp of water, and asked Panting to the platoon leader Wang: "Platoon leader, today's achievement should be considered in the special warfare battalion. Not bad, right?"

"That's not bad, it's so far away!" Plato Leader Wang probably felt sorry for his military salary afterwards, and his face was still as dark as a pot: "If it weren't for you few recruits holding back, the grades could at least improve half a stick of incense time. .When General Qian personally led the team to train, the marching speed was much faster than yours!"

"Platoon leader, are you bragging?" Sun Zhen didn't really believe this. In his eyes, senior military officials like Qian Tiandun, relying on their status, were already unlikely to lead the team to train in person.

"Bragging? The armed training led by General Qian is held once every six months. Then you will know how powerful you are, and you won't be able to cry until you run!" Platoon Leader Wang's face was grim, as if he had recalled some extremely bad memories.

Sun Zhen didn't bother with this issue anymore. Someone had argued with the mean king before and was fined to run [-] laps of the playground. He didn't want to be punished like this when he was exhausted.Sun Zhen wiped the sweat off his forehead, changed the subject and asked: "Platoon leader, the armed training has been arranged so frequently recently, and the amphibious landing exercise is still going on. Is there going to be a war?"

"It's up to the chiefs to decide whether to fight or not. What we have to do is to train well and be ready for battle!" Platoon Leader Wang replied with a straight face: "All actions are subject to command, and don't ask what shouldn't be asked!"

(End of this chapter)