1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 854
The Haihan military will not hesitate to spend a huge amount of military expenses to promote this expedition to Zhoushan, Zhejiang. In addition to its own expansion needs, the military is also quite optimistic about the economic benefits of this operation. Many generals believe that this expedition is very important. It is possible to exceed the seizures of the rebel city in the south of Annan in the early years.But so far, the coalition fleets have been fighting against some sporadic small groups of pirates along the coast of Zhejiang. There may be some gold and silver property seized, but the amount is not too much in the eyes of the military, and they have to follow the allies of the Ming army. share.Therefore, the military has always placed relatively high expectations on how much the final target Zhoushan Islands can be captured.

The secret casino that Xu Ke and Zhao Cheng discovered on the site of the Haisha Gang at the southern end of Liuheng Island is a huge treasure cave. Perhaps the capture of this place can be worth the cost of the entire expedition of the coalition fleet. Military spending.Xu Ke may not be aware of the significance of this place to the coalition forces, but Zhao Cheng knows that this unexpected discovery will definitely be a great achievement after being reported back, even more important than the original task of scouting the port.

In order to avoid complications, the two did not take any further actions after returning to their room, and stayed peacefully until the next day.Apart from the secret casino that I accidentally learned last night in this small port, there really isn't much to scout out, and you can basically see it at a glance.And the Haisha Gang has checkpoints in various passages, making it almost impossible for them to visit places outside the port, and they can only choose to leave the port after replenishing supplies.

In order to get a glimpse of the true face of the nearby port dedicated to the Haisha gang's ships, Xu Ke's ship waited until the sun was high and the morning fog on the sea cleared before setting off.This small harbor on the west side is much smaller than the two ports used for foreign trade on the east side, with a depth of only about half, and it is easier to observe the situation in the harbor.

In order to allow Zhao Cheng to have more time to observe, Xu Ke asked the sailors to lower the sails by half, and slowly slide across the sea outside the harbor.Zhao Cheng lay on the side of the ship, with thick canvas and fishing nets on his body as a cover, and observed the situation in the port with binoculars.There are two small piers in the east and the north in this harbor, and there is almost no shelter. Zhao Cheng can have a clear view of the situation in the harbor with a telescope.

Most of the sailboats of the Haisha Gang are small boats that are common in the coastal waters. Zhao Cheng estimates that the displacement is mostly less than [-] tons, and several sailboats with a displacement of more than [-] tons are already relatively conspicuous in the port.The real displacement is close to that of an exploration-class warship, and it can be regarded as the main warship of a "big ship" by Ming standards. There are only two or three lucky ships in the port.

This level of equipment made Zhao Cheng slightly disappointed. Except for a few more ships, the equipment level of the Haisha Gang did not seem to be much better than their counterparts in the southern Zhejiang sea area.If the strength of the Haisha Gang is like this, then the United Fleet only needs to send a small team to fight, and it is enough to crush these pirate ships.

After the ship sailed away from the port for a certain distance, Zhao Chengcai got out of the bunker, carefully handed over the telescope to his subordinates and put it in a special moisture-proof sealed box, and then stopped to wipe off his sweat.Although it's only April now, I was covered in a pile of airtight canvas for more than an hour just now, and the stuffiness and heat were really uncomfortable.

"How come there are only so few ships in the Haisha Gang?" Zhao Cheng showed Xu Ke the result of counting the ships in the port with the help of a telescope just now, but he was not completely sure of what he observed.

Xu Ke also felt that this was not in line with what he knew beforehand, so he scratched his head and said, "I don't know, maybe some of their ships have gone to sea! The Haisha Gang can occupy a place here, and the strength must not be too weak. .”

Zhao Cheng frowned slightly, not satisfied with the results of such reconnaissance.According to the confession of Ma Ling, a thousand households in the Shipu Guard, there are nearly [-] armed members of the Haisha Gang and more than [-] armed sailboats. There are more than a dozen armed sailboats, and the others are at most fishing boats or cargo ships. It seems that they are not the entire maritime armed forces of this group of pirates.He wasn't worried that the pirates could create an ambush with this little force, but he was worried that it would be difficult for the coalition fleet to wipe out the Haisha gang when they attacked.

However, according to the plan, Zhao Cheng didn't have time to delay in this small port. There was a second stop for them to scout, which was the Shuangyu Waterway at the northwest end of Liuheng Island.

The Shuangyu waterway is the waterway between Liuheng Island and the adjacent Fodu Island. Fodu Island is located to the west of Liuheng Island. It has a winding coastline, long and narrow headlands, and many mouths.It is said that before he found Mount Putuo, Guanyin stopped on this island for a transition, hence the name Buddha Ferry.

Fodu Island is less than 2000 meters away from Liuheng Island. The two islands face each other across the sea and guard each other.On the coastline of Liuheng Island, there are many small harbors that can be used for docking ships. Although the natural harbor with the best conditions has been encircled and suppressed by the Ming army during the Jiajing period, the waterway has been filled. Over the past century, smugglers and pirates have Other ports were successively developed and constructed here.According to Ma Ling's confession and Xu Ke's knowledge, at least four ports in this place are still in operation, and the forces controlling these ports are another group of pirates on Liuheng Island, the "Sanlin Gang". up.

The Sanlin Gang occupies a longer coastline than the Haisha Gang, but the port conditions are not as good as the three side-by-side harbors of the Haisha Gang.The depth of these small bays on the west coast of Liuheng Island is very shallow, and the effect of sheltering from wind and waves is not as good as that of the southeast bay. Many smugglers are still willing to choose the territory of the Sanlin Gang as their trading place.

According to Ma Ling, the Sanlin Gang is backed by local officials in Ningbo, so although the armed strength is not as strong as that of the rival Haisha Gang on the same island, no one dares to provoke them easily.There was still a distance from the Shuangyu waterway, so Xu Ke took out the flag issued by the Sanlin Gang, asked the sailors to hang it on the mast, and replaced the flag of the Haisha Gang by the way.Of course, he had exchanged these two flags with silver before, so he could travel safely in the waters controlled by these armed forces.

In order to complete the task, Zhao Cheng had to get into the bunker piled up with canvas and fishing nets again, and secretly observe the various port facilities and ships on the shore.To Zhao Chengwei's surprise, although the port conditions here are not as good as those of its competitors, there are more merchant ships berthing here than the ports of the Haisha Gang.

According to Xu Ke's suggestion, the boat went straight to a port at the northern end of the Shuangyu waterway. It is said that this is also the location of the so-called New Shuangyu Port.Zhao Cheng noticed that there were no less than [-] merchant ships parked densely in this harbor, and the density of houses on the docks on the shore was obviously higher than that of the counterparts in the south. It seemed that the business conditions seemed to be good.

The Sanlin Gang also deployed a lot of small boats in the Shuangyu waterway for monitoring and early warning, but because the harbors here are relatively small, they did not specially arrange small boats to lead the way. As long as the ships with the Sanlin flag on their masts, They can enter the port and berth on their own.Xu Ke also came here before to stop the ship for supplies, and introduced to Zhao Cheng: "Master Zhao, please look at the two-color flag on the pier. The trestle and pier with the red cloth are the places that already have owners. Stop at will. If you see the one with the blue cloth hanging on it, it means there is a space to park there.”

After observing for a while, Zhao Cheng said: "The people who manage this port have some brains. It is not easy for such a small and crowded port to be so orderly."

In fact, a similar port traffic command system has long been popularized in the ports under Haihan's rule, and it is more comprehensive and scientific.The two heads of the Ministry of Shipping are professionals with professional backgrounds, and their knowledge of port planning and operation is far beyond this era. Although it is impossible to completely copy the port management system centuries later to this era, they can be changed according to local conditions. It is enough to make the operation efficiency of Haihan Port far exceed the average level at this time.

Zhao Cheng was a little surprised to see such a measure in a port operated by a smuggler. In terms of port utilization efficiency, it must have surpassed the Haisha gang.

After the ship docks, the staff on the wharf will board the ship to register the owner and the purpose of the dock.The defense here is obviously looser than that of the previous Haishabang pier. After registration, there is no need to ask for permission, and you can disembark and move around on your own.Xu Ke said that he came here to replenish and see what goods he could buy back from Xiangshan, and the person in charge of registration recommended them to go to the exchange on the island to have a look.

"There is an exchange on this island?" Zhao Cheng was a little surprised when he heard it, but he didn't ask immediately.The existence of a fixed and open organization like an exchange in a trading port shows that the trade volume here has reached a considerable level. Only when the business is booming will such a specialized trading organization emerge.The main trading ports on Hainan Island have commodity exchanges established by the Haihan Ministry of Commerce. Zhao Cheng has also seen its operation. He really wants to see what the exchanges run by pirates and smugglers are like. status.

Xu Ke's previous visits to this place were all passing by, and he had never seen the exchange on this island.So after the two went ashore, they asked for directions, but it was not far from the pier, so they walked along the stone road.After walking out of Lixu Land in the southeast direction, I saw the so-called exchange.

This exchange is actually a house, and you can't tell how big it is from the outside, but the walls on both sides of the gate extend to a width of twenty or thirty feet.In fact, the main entrance has no door, but a gate tower in the shape of an archway, with the words "Shuangyu Commercial Port" written on the plaque on it.The two of them did not stop at the door for too long before entering the courtyard.

The first entry courtyard is actually a small square-style courtyard without any houses.On the contrary, there are many three-inch-by-two-foot-long wooden signs hanging on the walls surrounding the courtyard. White paper of the same width is glued to them, and some words seem to be written on them.Many people stood in front of the wall and browsed these wooden signs, some of them were still holding charcoal pens and papers, copying something from time to time.

The two took a closer look, and it turned out that the wooden sign was written with information on various commodities and goods to be traded, with a brief introduction of the goods, quotations and the number of the dock where the owner's ship was docked.There are also some cargo owners who store the goods in the warehouse on the island, and also indicate that the Sanlin Gang can collect the payment and deliver the goods on their behalf.

The two of them glanced at it for a while, and found that the goods information on these walls were still classified according to the origin. From the south of the Yangtze River, goods from Japan, Ryukyu, and Korea are on the southern wall, while goods from Nanyang are on the north.Merchants have been watching for a long time, and they can rest on the stone benches and wooden benches in the middle for a while, and then continue to look for their favorite goods.If you find it, you can enter the courtyard behind through the doors opened on these walls, and go through the formalities of goods transactions with the people of the Sanlin Gang.

Xu Ke asked a few merchants, only to know that all transactions here will be taken by the Sanlin Gang as an intermediary fee. A simple calculation, the income earned by the Sanlin Gang from this is also a lot of money, and after the formation of the market, the source of customers and the supply of goods will increase In terms of stability, this business idea is undoubtedly a lot ahead of its competitors, Haisha Gang.

Zhao Cheng believes that this model also has many similarities with the exchanges in ports under Haihan’s rule, especially this way of listing goods to be traded to seek buyers is one of the characteristics of Haihan Exchange.Zhao Cheng suspected that someone might have brought Haihan's operating method to Zhejiang, and created this trading system according to the gourd painting.However, compared with the exchanges established by relatively mature commercial and trade ports such as Sanya Port and Shengli Port, the operation method here is still in its infancy, especially the settlement and delivery of goods, because there is no financial system support unique to Haihan. Some transactions must be delivered in cash and silver, and need to be inspected and weighed. The efficiency is definitely not as good as Haihan's paper money transaction method.

But for the Sanlin Gang to come up with this set of things, there is no doubt that there are knowledgeable experts behind it, which makes Zhao Cheng a little impressed.Compared with the Haisha Gang's underground casino, the Sanlin Gang's trading system is obviously better at maintaining long-term relationships with trade partners.Even those merchants who do not directly trade with the Sanlin Gang will use this place as the first choice market because of the complete range of goods and timely information release.This kind of operation concept is actually very close to Haihan's original concept of positioning Shengli Port and Sanya Port as the best.If given time, they might really be able to build a decent large-scale trading port off the coast of Ningbo, and even reproduce the glory of Shuangyu Port a hundred years ago.

(End of this chapter)