1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 826 Report the situation
Compared with rifles, it is the heavy artillery and Haihan warships with higher technical content that are really difficult to imitate.The material processing and casting technology of the heavy artillery are insurmountable technical obstacles for the military craftsmen of the Ming Dynasty. Even the quantitative gunpowder packs and fire tubes with low technical content, the imitations made by the Ming Dynasty have not been able to reach the level. To the authentic use effect.If Xu Jiaqi was lucky enough to see the artillery battles of the Haihan army outside the two Spanish castles in Taipei, he would further realize that although the artillery equipped by the two sides looked the same, their performance on the battlefield was the same as that of a synchronous gun , there is an obvious generational difference between the two.

As for warships, it is less difficult to imitate than muskets and artillery. Experienced old shipwrights can spend time to figure out the structure of the hull and reverse the approximate shipbuilding method.However, the Haihan warship uses a large number of metal structural parts to strengthen the hull in the ship's ribs, and the unique steel core mast of Haihan is a part that is difficult for the Daming Shipyard to manufacture.In addition, it is widely used on Haihan warships. The steering wheel system that should have been invented by the Dutch in the next century has a special anti-disassembly device. As long as it is hard to dismantle, it will destroy the gear transmission system inside, so the imitation is at most only one It can imitate its shape, and for these black technologies that transcended the times, the shipbuilder of Ming Dynasty racked his brains and couldn't figure out how to copy them.

Since it cannot be imitated, the final solution can only be bought with money.Xu Xinsu has always been in charge of the Fujian Ming Army's military purchase contracts. The content and price of the purchased military equipment are directly negotiated with Haihan's senior management, and no one else can intervene.However, the inspection and handover matters are in the charge of his trusted generals.In the past, the handover of armaments between the two parties was usually in Sanya or Zhangzhou, depending on how the freight was handled in the contract.After the Haihan people occupied Penghu, they took the initiative to change the trading location to Penghu, and the person responsible for receiving the goods from the Ming army was naturally the turn of the military observers stationed here.

For Xu Jiaqi, this is really a lucrative job. Every time there is an armament handover, he will privately receive a red envelope from Haihan - a brand new Haihan Bank bearer bank note, and the amount depends on the value of the handover goods. It depends, but since Xu Jiaqi took over this matter, the red envelope has never been less than 1000 taels.This is much easier than eating empty wages and drinking blood in the army. At the beginning of the year, a batch of Haihan artillery and two Haihan warships worth more than 30 taels of silver were delivered here, and the Haihan people directly sealed one A red envelope of 5000 taels of silver was given to Xu Jiaqi, which was extremely generous.

After Xu Jiaqi took the money, he quickly signed the relevant documents to receive the goods knowingly, and asked Zhangzhou to pay the money to Haihan Bank--in fact, the money had already been deposited in it, and it was just a formality to transfer the account.But for Haihan, the faster the delivery takes, the less likely there will be complications, and the less related costs will be incurred. In this link, a certain amount of fees will be paid in exchange for a smooth handover. For Haihan, it can't be said to be a disadvantage.

Xu Jiaqi lives here in peace and stability, the money is properly received, and after a long time, he can become brothers and sisters with Qian Tiandun and other senior Haihan officers, and at the same time he is gilding his military history. Military observers are indeed a beautiful thing.

Having been together for a long time, Xu Jiaqi can also feel that the Haihan people do not have any hostility towards Da Ming, but the way they look at Da Ming is not in awe, and even more of a condescending perspective.Qian Tiandun has expressed his views on informal occasions like the wine table more than once, believing that the Ming Dynasty is full of various problems that are difficult to solve, and the root of these problems lies in the political system of the Ming Dynasty.

For such "rebellious" remarks, even if Xu Jiaqi drank too much, he would not make any reactions or comments, because he could feel that although the people of Haihan couldn't see Da Ming's various problems, they were willing to use their own methods to help Daming solves the problem.Drive away Shibazhi, accept refugees from the north, sell arms and train officers for the Ming army in Fujian. Although Haihan took these measures out of self-interest, they did help Ming to ease the military tension in the southeast sea to a certain extent. Social problems arising from pressure and civil strife in the north.

Of course, out of duty considerations, Xu Jiaqi will still report the attitudes and opinions of the Haihan people to his uncle Xu Xinsu on a regular basis, so that he can take care of the many businesses under the name of the Xu family with peace of mind.Although Xu Xinsu holds the official title of Fujian General Soldier, he is mainly responsible for making decisions at critical moments, and the specific matters in the army are basically handled by trusted officers.Xu Xinsu only needs to understand the general situation and movements of Haihan's troops stationed near Fujian, and make sure that they will not cause any harm to Daming.As for buying a large amount of armaments from Haihan every year, there was indeed an actual need to expand its strength to resist Shibazhi in the past. However, after Haihan drove Shibazhi away and suppressed the Dutch, Fujian's coastal areas no longer had the same great power as before. Against the pressure of defense, such a transaction has become more like a regular protection fee paid by the Fujian Ming Army to Haihan.

But for the business empire under Xu Xinsu's name, although this expense is not a small amount, it is not enough to cause him pain.Besides, the money was not spent in vain. The Fujian Ming Army did increase its combat power because of this, and the Haihan people would continue to maintain a military base in Penghu to provide a certain degree of protection for the coastal areas of Fujian.Of course, the most important thing is the bilateral trade brought about by the military trade, which is enough for the Fujian side to earn back the money spent in Haihan from other places in the Ming Dynasty in doubled amounts.As long as this trade system can function well and continue to bring benefits to Xu Xinsu's business empire, then spending money to maintain the current relationship between the two armies is a price worth paying.

Under this general background framework, it is not a big deal for people like Xu Jiaqi to obtain some personal benefits from military trade activities.Even if Xu Xinsu knew about it, he would definitely turn a blind eye to it. After all, he also needs special personnel to handle the relationship with the Haihan military. It may affect the relationship between the two parties for a period of time, and it must be weighed on the balance in Xu Xinsu's heart. The gain is definitely not worth the loss-a lot of money has already been thrown out, so do you care about this?

Of course, this kind of leisurely life will occasionally be disrupted suddenly. For example, Xu Jiaqi just got up this day and hadn't had breakfast yet, so he received a message from Qian Tiandun, inviting him to the base headquarters for a briefing. .

Usually the military observers of the Ming Dynasty are invited to meet at the headquarters, and it is a more formal matter that needs to be communicated.And ad hoc meetings like this that have not been booked in advance may be due to emergencies.Xu Jiaqi didn't dare to put on airs, so he quickly tidied up, took a few personal guards and rushed to the Haihan headquarters.

"General Qian sent someone to recruit the last general early in the morning. Could it be that there is an urgent military situation?" After seeing Qian Tiandun, Xu Jiaqi asked straight to the point.

"It is true that there is a military situation that needs to be reported to you." Seeing that Xu Jiaqi's face became tense, Qian Tiandun smiled and said, "Don't worry, General Xu, it's not Shibazhi who came back."

For the generals of the Ming army in Fujian, Shibazhi was undoubtedly a nightmare that had plagued them for many years. Even in the later stages of the war, the Ming army, which was supported by Haihan, gradually took the initiative, and even forced Shibazhi to retreat its scope of activities. However, it is still difficult to completely alleviate the psychological shadow caused by the long-term beating of the Ming army by voluntarily giving up the control area on the coast of Fujian.Even if the Haihan army took the initiative to drive Shibazhi out of the Fujian Strait last year, senior officers like Xu Jiaqi still have some bad memories of Shibazhi. Zhi body.

Xu Jiaqi forced a smile and said: "General Qian was joking, thinking that the thieves from Shibazhi were killed by the coalition forces last year, throwing away their helmets and armor, and fled without even giving up their old den. It's only been a short year, how can they do that?" Those who have come here have the courage to run back to die! With your army in Penghu, Fujian will not have to worry about coastal defense!"

Qian Tiandun accepted Xu Jiaqi's flattery very frankly, and continued: "Today, I invite General Xu to come over for a meeting. There are two main reasons. First, our army has formally attacked the Kingdom of Spain, that is, the Ming Dynasty. The so-called Franji country declared war. The second thing is that our army has conquered the two armed strongholds built by the Spaniards in the northern part of Taiwan Island and completely expelled them from Taiwan Island."

Xu Jiaqi's expression at this time can only be described as stunned, he never thought that Qian Tiandun came to him to report such news.To be honest, the hands-on battle between the Haihan people and the Fulang robot had no effect on Daming. As for the seizure of the opponent's stronghold in the northern part of Taiwan Island, it had no direct relationship with Daming.What surprised Xu Jiaqi was that without any warning, the Haihan people suddenly declared war on the Fulang robot and launched an attack, and captured the opponent's stronghold in a very short period of time, and drove it out of Taiwan island.

In fact, Xu Jiaqi had heard a little about the establishment of a colonial stronghold in the northern part of Taiwan Island by the Folangji people.The Xu family's sea trade business is very big, not to mention the Frangji who live in Taiwan Island, even the city of Manila on the Luzon side has always had business dealings, so Xu Jiaqi has no doubts about the strength of the Frangji. Still have a certain understanding.Although they may not be stronger than the Haihan people, they are at least on the same level as the red-haired people in Dayuangang.I have also heard that the red-haired people have launched offensives to the Flangji stronghold in the north more than once, but they all returned in vain, which shows that the local stronghold is not so easy to deal with.

However, this does not seem to be a big problem for the Haihan people. According to Xu Jiaqi's observation records, the main force of the Haihan fleet in Penghu should have left Hong Kong about ten days ago. At that time, they left in the name of training at sea. There is also the main force of the special warfare battalion.Although Xu Jiaqi had some doubts at the time whether the daily training of the Haihan people was too strong, he quickly put this matter behind him.Looking back at this moment, probably the armed forces out of Hong Kong went straight to the north.However, Qian Tiandun never left during this period, but Gao Qiaonan had disappeared for many days. Thinking about it this way, it should be Gao Qiaonan who commanded this military operation on the front line.

But in just ten days or so, the Haihan people not only conquered the two strongholds of the Frangji people, but even expelled all the people from Taiwan Island. The speed of this battle is too fast.You must know that Nan Juyi, the governor of Fujian, led the Ming army to besiege the red-haired people in Penghu. They fought with 10,000 against [-] for seven months, and spent [-]+ taels of silver before finally expelling the red-haired people. Penghu.And the strength of the Flang robot is no worse than that of the red-haired man, and it has been operating in the northern part of Taiwan Island for several years. Under Haihan's offensive, it has not survived even half a month. Surprised.

Perhaps it was due to the consideration of confidentiality, or maybe it was because he did not intend to let the Ming army intervene in this matter. Haihan had not informed the Ming army about this before. Today, Qian Tiandun's calm and blunt narration is the only way for the Ming army to intervene in this matter. The official official bulletin of the Army.Although it was a bit late, it was still notified after all, and it can be regarded as a kind of respect for military allies.

Xu Jiaqi is not a fool. After the initial surprise, he quickly thought that Haihan had sent a fleet to frighten the red-haired people in Dayuan Port, and opened a port city in Kaohsiung Port.Now that the potential opponents in the north have been flattened quietly, there is no longer any formed force on the entire island of Taiwan that can compete with Haihan.In other words, Haihan has actually gained actual control over the island of Taiwan.

Xu Jiaqi certainly knows how big Taiwan is. From the fact that the Haihan people landed on Taiwan Island for surveys more than half a year ago, then occupied Kaohsiung, and now even Taipei. It only took half a year for the Haihan people to acquire this piece of land. It's just up and down, the speed of expanding the territory is indeed quite fast.Since the Ming Dynasty did not bring Taiwan Island under its rule, the Fujian government would not have any objections to the control of the Haihan people—even if it did, it would be useless, after all, strength speaks for itself.

For Daming, Haihan's occupation of Taiwan Island is actually a good thing to some extent. This means that it has set up a huge protective umbrella for Daming on the southeast coast. Daming, then you have to pass the level of Haihan first.

Xu Jiaqi quickly got rid of his surprise, and congratulated Qian Tiandun with a smile: "Congratulations to General Qian for another military exploit! Congratulations to Haihan for obtaining a new land!"

"Same joy, same joy!" Qian Tiandun also bowed his hands and said: "Taiwan Island is so big, and there is enough room for development. If the Fujian government is interested, it can also participate in the development of Taiwan Island. How about Kaohsiung Port?" If you do it, you can follow it in other places, and you can make a fortune together!"

(End of this chapter)