1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 842 The Leading Party

"...the year before last, my official went to Nanjing for business. In my spare time, I drank with a few colleagues from Zhejiang. I realized that their coastal defenses were in vain. Compared with Fujian six or seven years ago, they were worse." During the fleet's northward march, Xu Yuzhuo also took the time to share some of his past experiences with Qian Tiandun and Shi Diwen.

Chang Guowei's paper strength looks strong, but the actual strength is far from the number on the list.This kind of thing not only happens on the remote Qiongzhou Island, but also in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, which is famous for its affluence. There are nearly 5000 officers and soldiers in Changguowei, but the actual strength is only about half, and there are many veterans among them. The weak, the sick and the disabled are mixed in to make up for it.The training of the troops responsible for defending the sea was neglected, and the armaments were slack. Under such an environment, the offshore islands were occupied by criminals, and the government often turned a blind eye to them and didn't bother to take care of them.

But just eating empty salaries and drinking the blood of soldiers can no longer satisfy the needs of some people in Zhejiang officialdom to make money. Colluding with nearby pirates to do smuggling has become another important way to make money.Of course, after this kind of relationship is established, in order to facilitate the operation, the government's supervision of coastal defense has gradually become useless.

Of course, the inaction and chaos of the Zhejiang government is actually a good thing for the coalition fleet fighting in different places.The fleet does not need to worry about colliding with the fleet of the Zhejiang Navy going out to sea for inspection, because the local garrison simply does not have such an arrangement for patrolling coastal defense.According to the information obtained by Xu Yuzhuo, the navy garrisoned by Chang Guowei has almost completely abandoned the sea defense zone, and the frequency of sea patrols has probably dropped to the level of once a year.Although the navy led by Xu Xinsu was passive for a long time and was suppressed by Shibazhi, at least there were exchanges on the scene, and they did not completely give up control of the defense of the sea. The coastal defense situation here is indeed hard to see directly.

Xu Yuzhuo continued: "Although this Chang Guowei is known as one of the four famous guards of the Ming Dynasty, the scope it really guards is only the half of Ningbo Prefecture in Sanmen Bay and the area of ​​Xiangshan Harbor Bay. East of Xiangshan If a private ship is robbed by pirates and reported to the government, there is often no further information. If you want to do a good job in maritime trade, you can only pay tribute to the local pirates to buy peace General Qian, General Shi, you Haihan have always said that the cost of transporting immigrants from the north is too high. If this boat passes through Ningbo once, you have to pay 100 taels of silver tolls, and ten boats cost a thousand taels. If you add more, the ship owner will definitely not bear the expenses by himself, and it will be passed on to you, so the cost will definitely remain high."

Qian Tiandun and Shi Diwen are not ignorant of the tricks involved. At present, transporting immigrants from the north is entirely dependent on the shipping capacity of the Daming Maritime Merchant. The extra expenses on the way alone account for [-] to [-]% of the entire shipping cost.One ship with two ships is fine, but over the years, the additional expenses for the Haihan immigration department have reached thousands of taels of silver every month, and it has shown a monthly upward trend with the increase in shipping capacity. Naturally, the immigration department is full of complaints.And this kind of complaint was reflected to the executive committee, and eventually it became a task that fell on the military.

Qian Tiandun has a high position and authority, so of course he would not complain about these things in front of the Allied generals, but he still had to express Haihan's attitude towards this: "Our Haihan has always attached great importance to navigation safety, whether it is in Guangdong, Guangxi or Fujian, Ensuring the safety of maritime trade routes is part of the responsibilities of the Haihan Militia. The main problem here in Zhejiang is not the shipping cost, but the inability to guarantee the safety of the shipping routes. We came to Zhejiang this time to solve this problem once and for all. Zhejiang We can’t and don’t want to control the way the Ming army does things, but we will deal with it in our own way.”

Xu Yuzhuo thought in his heart that your so-called "method" means to solve it directly.Although the two sides formulated a general action plan before setting off from Fujian, the content mainly focused on logistical support rather than specific tactics.For the Fujian Navy and the Haihan Militia, the coastal waters of Zhejiang are almost all unknown areas with unknown conditions, and the plan will never keep up with changes.During this journey from Wenzhou to Taizhou, three groups of pirates have been encountered. In fact, none of them were included in the coalition's combat plan, but relying on the super strength of the coalition to crush them directly, there was no trouble.

But the pirate gangs in Wenzhou and Taizhou are basically "wild", while the situation in Ningbo is a little different. The pirate gangs have more or less conflicts of interest with the government, and moving them is equivalent to touching the interests of some powerful people. Some local conflicts and even tough measures may be incurred, Xu Yuzhuo believes that this is an aspect that the coalition forces have to guard against.

"General Qian, there will be spies lurking in Xiangshan County to meet with us tomorrow. You might as well listen to the local news first, and then consider how to do it." Xu Yuzhuo didn't point out, he knew that Haihan and the soldiers were fanatical fighters , Things that can be solved by combat probably don't consider other ways of dealing with them.However, the purpose of the Ming army's participation in this operation was to train troops and to protect the future interests of the Xu family in the Zhejiang sea area in advance, and they did not come here specifically to confront the Zhejiang government.The Haihan people had no scruples, but Xu Yuzhuo did. He didn't want the Haihan people and the Zhejiang government to have a direct confrontation, or even a military conflict.

Qian Tiandun didn't know Xu Yuzhuo's thoughts, but he also planned to get in touch with the hidden piles sent by the Xu family to Zhejiang to learn more about the local situation before making a decision.Although he has 100% confidence in his own military strength, he can be sure that the combat capability of this fleet far exceeds that of the Zhejiang Navy and the pirate gangs off the coast of Ningbo. To be clear, Qian Tiandun doesn't mind spending more time on intelligence gathering before taking action.

Since Xu Ke sent away the secret envoy from Fujian a few days ago, he has been in a state of restlessness.If the Haihan people go northward, there is a high probability of armed conflict with the pirate gangs in the waters near Ningbo Prefecture, and it is very likely that they will also confront the local government.At that time, it may be difficult for a leading party like Xu Ke to continue lurking.

Xu Ke didn't have a very intuitive understanding of the strength of the Haihan people. Everything came from hearsay, so he didn't have much confidence in Haihan's plan.If the Haihan people can calm down the local armed forces, then he, Xu Ke, will probably be able to restore his family name and return to his hometown in fine clothes.But if the Haihan people were defeated in Ningbo, part of the responsibility might be attributed to him. After all, almost half of the various information provided to Fujian was sent from him.

On this day, Xu Ke finally received new news that the Haihan people's fleet was already on its way north, and it will arrive in Ningbo in a few days.Xu Yuzhuo, the fourth son of the head of the Xu family, Xu Yuzhuo, a senior general of the Fujian Navy, was also in the fleet, and ordered him to meet at a certain place in the sea on a specified date.

The appearance of Xu Yuzhuo can show how resolute Fujian's attitude is, but what Xu Ke didn't know was that not only Xu Yuzhuo, the representative, but also more than a thousand Fujian naval officers who were still in the establishment were accompanying Haihan to the north this time. Officers and soldiers.This action is not Haihan's unilateral action, but a coalition fleet composed of Haihan and Fujian Ming Army.Xu Xinsu's determination in intervening in the coastal defense of Zhejiang was far greater than he had imagined.

Xu Ke arranged all the affairs of the family two days in advance, only saying that he would lead the fleet to go fishing, but did not reveal the truth to his family.After taking the fleet out to sea, Xu Ke did not direct the fleet to the direction of Zhoushan where there are more fish as usual, but chose to go south along the coast.When they arrived at Nantian Island near Sanmen Bay, Xu Ke arranged for his fishing boats to operate in the eastern waters, while his own boat turned southeast and headed towards the Yushan Islands.

The Yushan Islands are about 13 nautical miles southeast of Changguowei Shippusuo. They are the most southeast islands under the rule of Xiangshan.There are fresh water resources on Beiyushan Island, but because of the restless sea, the distance between this place and the mainland is a little bit far, and life is not very convenient. No human footsteps.

In the secret report that Xu Ke wrote back to Fujian, he suggested that when the Haihan Fleet went north, it could consider setting up a supply point on Beiyushan Island, which was outside the control of Shipu, so as to avoid the local Ming army.After the coalition fleet went north and left Taizhou waters, Qian Tiandun and Xu Yuzhuo discussed this place as the place where they should meet with Xiangshan.

Originally, it would not be so troublesome to meet Xu Ke, and sending a boat directly to Xiangshan County would have the same effect.However, Qian Tiandun and the others considered that there would be certain risks in going to the local area in person, and if someone spread the word in the middle, it might not achieve enough communication effect, so Xu Yuzhuo ordered people to go to Xiangshan in advance and inform Xu Ke to come here for a while.

Although he had made some psychological preparations before coming here, when Xu Ke saw the Haihan warships cruising near the Yushan Islands, his heart was still quite shaken.He has been in Zhejiang for several years, and he has long been used to seeing the outdated equipment of the navy here. Compared with Haihan's warships, the navy's ships are really old and small, and they lose a lot in terms of appearance alone. Big cut.

After Xu Ke's ship entered the monitoring range of the coalition fleet, two ships came forward immediately. If it was an ordinary civilian ship, these two ships would drive it away from this sea area, so as not to expose the hidden danger. The fleet of Beiyushan Island.Xu Ke hurriedly ordered people to unfurl a red and blue flag on the bow of the ship—this was the token sent by the courier two days ago when he came to inform him.

Seeing the token, the coalition sailing boats put down their small boats and rowed over to pick up Xu Ke. One boat stayed where it was for surveillance, and the other boat carried Xu Ke to the north of Yushan Island.

Xu Ke's business is fishing at sea, and he is quite familiar with this sea area. He knows that there is a small safe haven in the north of Beiyushan Island. A sailboat the size of this Haihan warship can accommodate twenty or thirty ships. .However, when he arrived in this area, he saw several larger sailing ships docked outside the harbor, one of which was at least four or five times larger than the biggest blessing boat he had seen in Zhejiang, and it was him He thought he had seen the world, and his jaw almost dropped when he saw this ship.

"It is said that the treasure ship that the Sanbao eunuch sailed to the west must be nothing more than this!" Xu Ke couldn't help sighing.

The age of Zheng He's voyages can be regarded as the peak period of Ming Dynasty's shipbuilding industry. During his seven voyages to the West, the Ming Dynasty built nearly 3800 large sea-going ships. At that time, the Ming Dynasty Navy had 1300 ships, including There are more than 400 patrol ships, and [-] large battleships are stationed in Xinjiangkou, Nanjing alone.During that period, the strength of the Ming Navy even surpassed the sum of the navies of European countries at the same time.

The Longjiang Shipyard in Nanjing and the Changle Shipyard in Fujian are the two main places where Zheng He's treasure ship was built. "History of Ming Dynasty Zheng He Biography" records: "Treasure Ship No. 63, the captain is 44 feet long and 138 feet wide." Converted The ship is approximately 56 meters long and [-] meters wide, much larger than the "Majestic-class" battleships currently in service with the Haihan Navy.

However, such an advanced and developed shipbuilding industry was suppressed after Zheng He's death. A large number of valuable shipbuilding blueprints were destroyed by the government, and the tonnage of private shipbuilding was also strictly limited by law. After 200 years, not only did Ming's sea power fail to develop significantly, but it regressed a lot compared to the Yongle period, and the shipbuilding industry made great strides back, so that latecomers like Haihan were able to more easily develop in the south of Daming. Gained command of the sea with armed forces at sea, and controlled most of the maritime trade in Fuguang and Guangxi provinces in a near-monopoly manner.

Although the "Enterprise" of the Haihan Navy was placed in Zheng He's fleet, it was larger than the medium-sized treasure ship, but in the era when Xu Ke lived, Daming's shipyards could no longer build a ship like the "Enterprise". Tonnage of large warships.This is the tragedy of Daming, but it is also the luck of the traversers. If not for this, they would not have the opportunity to become the maritime hegemony of the southeast coast, and enter the completely unfamiliar sea area to carry out military operations in such an arrogant way.

Xu Ke entered the small safe haven on Beiyushan Island with full of admiration, and it was also full of ships, almost all of which were logistics cargo ships carrying various supplies and troop carriers carrying the army.After landing on the shore, Xu Ke finally met the legendary Haihan people and his distant cousin Xu Yuzhuo whom he hadn't seen for many years.

"Little citizen Xu Ke, I have met all the adults!" After seeing his family, Xu Ke immediately returned to his real name, but he did not have any official position, and his attitude was still very humble.

Xu Yuzhuo greeted him warmly: "Brother, I haven't seen you for many years, but do you still recognize brother?"

This "brother" dispelled Xu Ke's anxiety, and he replied with a smile: "Of course I recognize the fourth brother. I haven't seen you in these years, and the fourth brother has become a lot richer!"

(End of this chapter)