1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 849 Booty

In fact, the guards in Fuguang and Guangxi provinces are not much better than their counterparts in Zhejiang. The guards on the coast of Guangdong, especially on Qiongzhou Island, have been completely emptied by Haihan a year or two ago, leaving an empty establishment. With the frame and a bunch of officers on empty pay, the local defense has been completely taken over by the Haihan Legion.Because of the close cooperation between Fujian and Haihan, the impact was a bit less. However, almost all the military officers of the coastal states with more than [-] households have received military training from Haihan. Take a short course.

Fujian has been poisoned by pirates for many years. Once bitten by snakes for ten years, they were afraid of well ropes. After turning over, the government was willing to spend money on border defense. A lot of guns and ammunition produced by Haihan were purchased to arm these grassroots troops.Although the establishment of the Fujian coastal guards still maintains the original system, the tactical command and weapons and equipment have obviously moved closer to Haihan.This trend is becoming more and more obvious in the upper echelons of the Fujian military. Xu Xinsu's elite troops are almost copying Haihan's military system and training methods. This is why he will boldly hand over the command of the Ming army to Haihan's hands. One of the main reasons.

In terms of combat power, among the three provinces in the coastal areas south of the Yangtze River, Fujian's guard army is undoubtedly the strongest, and Zhejiang is definitely not the weakest. It is useful, but the usual deterrent effect is still there.Only a powerful armed force like Haihan dared to step on their faces like this.

The surrender of the defenders of Shipusuo did not let the coalition forces relax their vigilance. In fact, when the large troops landed, the elite of the special warfare battalion had sneaked into the mountains around Shipusuo City from the north to prevent the defenders from abandoning the city and heading north to Xiangshan. County fled.If those rebels in the city just now really planned to do this, they might have suffered more casualties during their escape than if they had chosen to defend the city.

"Are you Ma Qianhu?"

During the Haihan Army's takeover of Shipusuo City, Ma Ling was taken to the headquarters tent of the Chinese Army and questioned by Qian Tiandun and Shi Diwen.They all had rich experience in interrogating prisoners of war in the past, so the interrogation of Ma Ling was also carried out separately, so that more information could be obtained from him.

"I'm dismounting Ma Ling. I'm a thousand households in Shipu. I only hope that your army will keep its promise and don't harm our soldiers of the Ming army." As a defeated general, Ma Ling hangs his head and has no confidence. In his hands, he can only hope that the Haihan people can keep their promises.

"Don't worry, what we said counts. As long as your people are honest and don't cause trouble, no one will harm them." Qian Tiandun gave Ma Ling a reassurance before continuing to ask questions Said: "Let's talk about the staffing of your Shipu Institute first. We need to check the actual number of people."

When Ma Ling left the city and surrendered, he had actually presented a roster, but the roster contained a lot of short positions, which was very different from the actual situation, so you have to ask him, the commander.Qian Tiandun was not afraid of any tricks he would play, no matter how much the report was or how little it was, as long as the difference was too large after counting the number of people later, Ma Ling would naturally have to take the blame.

At this time, Ma Ling had no intention of resisting, and besides, he could also think that Haihan would never interrogate him alone, so he honestly reported the number of people, and added at the end: "There were two boats going west earlier. , there are six NO.70 people on those two boats, and my deputy is also on board."

"Well, you don't have to worry about that, we have already intercepted those two boats." Shi Diwen replied with a smile: "Master Vice Qianhu arrived here before you."

Ma Ling thought to himself that it's good that I didn't say anything wrong, otherwise he might have to be betrayed.His deputy was a sailor, and he had a close relationship with the pirates of the East China Sea. After being caught by these Haihan people, the first thing he would do would be to throw the blame on himself in order to escape.

Sure enough, Shi Diwen went on to say: "Your deputy thought we were pirates at first, and tried to get close, saying that he wanted to help us persuade the Ming army in the city to surrender. Later, when he heard that we were here to fight pirates, he immediately changed his mind. It’s you Ma Lingma Qianhu who said that the Shipu Office colluded with pirates. Hehe, it’s very interesting!”

Ma Ling said angrily: "This guy talks nonsense when he sees people, he talks nonsense when he sees ghosts, and he is a capricious villain! If the two of you can't trust me, you can ask him to come out and confront him!"

Qian Tiandun said lightly: "There is no need for confrontation. We will naturally judge who is lying and who is honest. Whoever wants to play tricks with us, we have a way to make him regret it! Ask about your matter , you answer honestly, maybe you can continue to be your Ishiura Chito in the future, understand?"

Ma Ling didn't want to be too submissive in front of the enemy general, but General Haihan's power was too strong, so he subconsciously responded.Although I feel that the other party's words may not be credible, Qian Tiandun's words "I can continue to be your Shipu Qianhu in the future" made Ma Ling think a little bit - this Haihan people have no roots in Zhejiang, If you want to settle here, you must find someone who is familiar with the local conditions to manage it on your behalf. I heard that they also use a large number of Ming people to handle affairs in Fuguang. Is there any more suitable candidate than Lao Tzu in Shipu Port?
Before the coalition fleet came here, it only determined from a strategic location that Shipu Port was the forward base for this operation, and the target was still the Zhoushan Islands.But after visiting here, both Qian Tiandun and Shi Diwen believe that this place has the value of long-term occupation, but how to operate it still needs to be carefully calculated.

The harbor of Shipu Port is crescent-shaped, with an area of ​​more than 20 square kilometers. The wind in the port is light and the waves are flat, which can avoid strong winds above level 10. The water depth in the port can accommodate tens of thousands of fishing boats. Unimpeded, in terms of the port conditions of the natural port, it is even better than Zhoushan.This place is more than a hundred miles away from Ningbo Fucheng, separated by Xiangshan Harbor Bay and many mountains. It is farther than the distance between Zhoushan Islands and Fucheng. It can be regarded as an enclave under the rule of Ningbo Prefecture.Moreover, this place is under the jurisdiction of the guard. Apart from the fishermen, the local people are the family members of the guards who settled here.

In the eyes of Qian Tiandun and Shi Diwen, the officers at the Shipu Institute were all the same breed, and there was no difference, but now they needed to appease the emotions of the local people, and it was necessary to find an available spokesperson to come forward.The rank of those hundred households is slightly lower, and their reputation may not be convincing to the public, so we can only choose a suitable person from the thousand households and the deputy thousand households to do this.So far, Ma Ling, who is still relatively cooperative, is obviously a little more reliable than the deputy Qianhu who has a volatile attitude.

In addition to the specific situation of the troops stationed in Shipu, the information that Qian Tiandun and others are more interested in is the local development status.Although there is Xu Ke, a hidden stake in Xiangshan who has been lurking in Xiangshan for several years in the army, his understanding of Shipu is definitely not as good as the local snake here.Information such as resident population, arable land area, grain production, deed tax income, etc., is definitely unknown to ordinary people, and they must inquire about more reliable data from official channels.

While Ma Ling was being interrogated in the Haihan Army, Gao Qiaonan had already led his troops into Shipusuo City.However, this small city is only used as a coastal defense stronghold for the Shipu garrison, not a city in the true sense, so the area in the city is not large, and it is basically filled with densely packed barracks and logistics facilities.The task of the troops led by Takahashi Nan is to count the personnel and property in the city, and ensure that the benefits obtained here can be included in the list of spoils of the coalition forces in time - most of them will naturally belong to Haihan .

After the Ming army in Shipu disarmed, all their weapons were piled up at the city gate. Takahashi Nan casually picked up a firecracker used by the Ming army, weighed it first, and then lifted it up for a test aim.The length of this firecracker is similar to the rifle used by the Haihan Militia Army, but its weight is heavier. This is because its material is not strong enough, so the structure of the gun body and barrel must be made thicker.But such old-fashioned matchlock guns have basically been eliminated in the Haihan militia, and only some militias organized in towns are still using them.

And even with this relatively primitive rifle, the proportion of equipment in the local Ming army is only around [-]%. In addition, the military leaders have deliberately reduced the amount of training in order to reduce military expenditures. With live ammunition shooting training, one can imagine the combat effectiveness that the Ming army can display.

As for artillery, Takahashi Minami looked down on him even more.The several Franco cannons in Shipu City are all small-caliber guns, each weighing about 300 jin. The mother gun is equipped with four sub-guns, which are pre-filled with ammunition for backup, and they are loaded into the mother gun in turn to fire during wartime.Due to the poor airtightness of the barrel of this kind of gun, the range is extremely limited, so the coalition forces dared to deploy artillery positions very close to the outside of the city, preparing to fire against the city.However, the defenders were discouraged before the battle started, and a few test-fired shells destroyed their fighting courage, which saved the attacker a lot of trouble.

In terms of weapons and equipment, the defense here is not as strong as the two strongholds of the Spaniards in Taipei. Although the Spanish defenses also failed to cause too much trouble for the Haihan Army, at least there are still some that can make the Haihan Army The more dreaded city fire cannon.And the Fran cannons at Shipu Station are basically useless in Takahashinan's view. Even if the defenders dare to use these cannons to fight against the coalition forces outside the city, Takahashinan thinks that their best chance is to load the ammunition They just fired all the sub-guns once. In front of the Haihan artillery with rich combat experience, they probably would not have the chance to reload the ammunition and do it again.

For the Haihan army, these weapons obviously have no recycling value and can only be treated as scrap copper and rotten iron.On the contrary, Xu Yuzhuo might be interested in these things. After all, this is also an official standard weapon supervised by the Ministry of War of the Ming Dynasty, and it can be used to some extent when it is transported back to Fujian.

On the other hand, Gao Qiaonan was a little surprised when he checked the material warehouse. There are actually many good things hidden in this rural place.Needless to say rice, white flour and other food and grass, there are many things in the warehouse that obviously do not belong to military supplies.For example, [-] bolts of fine silk from Hangzhou, Longjing tea packaged in crock pots weighing nearly [-] jin, hundreds of altars of Shaoxing Nurhong, etc., among which there are even more than [-] boxes of glassware from Haihan, Takahashi Nankai After looking at a few boxes, it is estimated that the market value of this batch of goods in Zhejiang can reach [-] taels of silver.

With the financial resources of these officers in Shipu Suo, they probably can’t handle such a large transaction. These things can be transported into the warehouse of Shipu Suo City. There is no doubt that they are passing goods of some big people, but this time they are cheaper before they are shipped out. The Haihan people who suddenly rushed into Shipu Port.Gao Qiaonan only saw the two warehouses, and felt that they were too valuable, so he rushed to sue Qian Tiandun.

Qian Tiandun was also a little surprised when he heard the news, and immediately handed over the question to Ma Ling, the only answerer: "We found a lot of good things in the warehouse in the city, Ma Qianhu, these goods could not be just Yours?"

Ma Ling said with a mournful face: "There is a thousand households in the lower district, and the annual military salary is only more than 100 taels of silver. How can we buy so many good things... Most of the goods in Shipu City belong to the adults of Ningbo Prefecture."

Although he knew that the Haihan people would definitely find these goods, when the news actually came, Ma Ling still felt his eyes darkened and almost fell to the ground.He didn't lie, most of the goods in the city belonged to some big names in Ningbo Mansion, and they were temporarily stored here.However, the remaining small part is the goods purchased by Ma Ling. He thought of a lot of ways last month and bought more than 20 boxes of Haihan glassware from Wenzhou related households. He plans to put them in In the Ningbo government market, you can make a steady profit.This batch of goods cost several thousand taels of silver, and Ma Ling almost put all his belongings in it, but now the house was ransacked by the Haihan people, I am afraid that there will be no hair left.

Ma Ling was afraid of interrogating his two Haihan generals, and he didn't dare to tell the truth, so he could only push it to the big shots in Ningbo Mansion.But when I think about it, even if I can save my life this time, I lost these goods, and it will be difficult to explain to the superior afterwards, and my heart is really anxious and painful.

Qian Tiandun asked: "Since you are a big shot in Ningbo Mansion, why don't you ship these goods back directly, but store them in the Shipu Institute?"

Ma Ling slowly adjusted his breathing, and then responded: "There are many reasons for this, some of which are because the cargo ship was damaged by wind and waves. After entering the port to unload the cargo, the ship went back to Xiangshan Port or Ningbo for repairs. Others It is inconvenient for public transactions in Ningbo, so it is placed here, waiting for the merchants to pick it up. There are also some merchants who want to see the market in Ningbo and release it bit by bit to make money. They need to find a reliable place to store it. This Although the city of Shipu is small, it is guarded by garrisons, so it is perfect for storing these valuables."

(End of this chapter)