1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 855

Unsurprisingly, Zhao Cheng found the information of Haihan products here. Glassware, rum, soap and other products are listed for sale, but the types of Haihan products seen here are obviously less than those in Fuguang. , and the quantity of supply is not much, and the price is also high.

For example, there are many kinds of Haihan glass stationery on the market in Guangdong, but here there are only the most basic styles, and the price is more than double that of Guangdong.The price of glass mirrors is even more outrageous. The price of a five-inch round mirror is 100 taels higher than the FOB price in Shengli Port. Yes, it's just that the quantity of this batch is too small, and the total price is less than 3000 taels of silver.

But for the smugglers who come here to buy goods, the price is not the primary factor they consider, whether the goods are good or not is the last word. The supply of goods here is not stable, and most of the Haihan goods come and go. So as long as someone thinks they can resell this batch of goods, they will eat them in this market without hesitation.The two watched for a while, and sure enough, several people saw the information of Haihan's goods and immediately finished copying them and went to go through the formalities.After a while, a person came out from the inner courtyard and took off the wooden signs with the information of Haihan's goods one by one. Xu Ke stepped forward and asked, saying that these batches of goods had already been sold.

"This money should be in our Haihan's pocket!" Zhao Cheng clenched his fists and thought to himself: "Haihan has never entered Zhejiang, but it is a pity to fatten up these smugglers! If it is operated by the Ministry, the annual turnover is more than one million, and the navy will probably benefit from building a few more warships into the water."

Haihan's current trade strategy in Fuzhou and Guangxi provinces is a variety of commercial marketing methods plus sea control as a guarantee. On the one hand, it controls the market in the two provinces by controlling big agents such as Li Jifeng and Xu Xinsu. To ensure Haihan's voice and control in maritime trade.This method of operation has been proven to be feasible and stable in Fuzhou and Guangxi provinces, and brings Haihan considerable trade income every year. After Haihan enters Zhejiang in the future, it will probably continue to be used here.

The two stayed in the exchange for more than an hour, and after seeing the content and methods of the transactions here, they came out to find another place to eat.In order to facilitate the conversation, Xu Ke specially asked for a private room. The waiter handed over the menu. Zhao Cheng flipped through it casually and found that the menu was similar to the one in Sanya. With the text introduction, I suspect that the person in charge of this place is following Hai Han's example.

In the past few years, there have been thousands of Daming merchants who have been to Sanya, and many of them came from other areas besides Fuguang. Some of the content that is easy to imitate is copied back.It is not too difficult to implement such a small technique of drawing illustrations on the menu, it just costs more money to hire an artist.

The price of the dishes in this restaurant is not cheaper than that of Haisha Gang, but the finished products delivered are slightly better. Although it is not "value for money", at least the cost performance is better than the previous day.

After the two finished their meal, they walked around the pier again, but they still didn't meet the leaders of the Sanlin Gang.There is neither a strong city nor a coastal defense fort in this place. The only defensive facility is a camp in the eastern mountain depression. However, in Zhao Cheng's opinion, the stone wall, which is only a little over a foot long, does not have much defensive power. The army's 12-pound Cannons are enough to destroy it, but it is better than nothing.As for the observed pirate individual equipment, they are still mainly cold weapons such as spears, knives and bows, and it is also difficult to cause any trouble to the coalition forces.

What Zhao Cheng is really worried about is that the pirate dens at the north and south ends of Liuheng Island have a large area of ​​mountainous and hilly terrain. Although the altitude of the highest place is only 200 meters, this complicated situation will definitely give rise to the post-war eradication. causing a lot of trouble.The coalition forces are limited, and they don't want to waste too much time on Liuheng Island. After all, this place is just the southern gateway of the entire Zhoushan Islands, and there are still a lot of islands waiting for the coalition forces to occupy.If the delay in Liuheng Island is too long, first, it will affect the implementation of the original combat plan, second, it will give the local pirates more breathing time to organize resistance, and third, it may leave time for the Ningbo government to intervene in this matter. of space and time.

Although the coalition forces had already considered the situation where the local government would intervene here, in principle, they would try to avoid conflicts with the government as much as possible. After all, if Haihan wanted to expand its trade network in Zhejiang, it still had to deal with the government. If the bright muscles can scare people to achieve the effect, there is no need to push people to the ground and beat them up.Therefore, the plan of the coalition forces is to eliminate all kinds of civilian armed forces in the waters of the Zhoushan Islands as quickly as possible, and use force to deter the Ningbo government from easily intervening.

In the afternoon of that day, Xu Ke and his party left the Shuangyu waterway and continued to circle north along the coastline of Liuheng Island.The sailboat circled the northernmost headland of Donglangzui and then turned to the southeast, scouting the coastline in the northeast of Liuheng Island, which has not yet been visited.The coastal terrain here is relatively flat, mostly tidal flats, and does not have good port conditions. Only some fishing boats are active here.

However, when the boat walked into the waterway formed between the eastern end of Liuheng Island and the neighboring Wonsan Island, they found that there were multiple piers built on the coast on both sides.The outskirts of this sea area are covered by islands and reefs such as Liangtan Island and Yuanshan Island, forming a rather large safe haven.If it wasn't for walking around Liuheng Island in such a circle, it would be easy to overlook this place.

Xu Ke sighed: "There are too many places like this in the Zhoushan Archipelago, and it is indeed too difficult to find out one by one."

Zhao Cheng also agrees with this: "The coalition fleet only has about a hundred combat ships. It is really not easy to clear such a large sea area. But the chiefs have the best hands and eyes, and they will definitely find a way to solve it."

Seeing his determination, Xu Ke couldn't help asking: "Why do you trust Haihan's boss so much? You always feel that Haihan people are like omnipotent gods and Buddhas in your mind."

Zhao Cheng said seriously: "That's right, in our hearts, the chiefs are really gods and Buddhas. Boss Xu, if you have a chance in the future, you can go to Qiongzhou Island and see the situation there. When you understand After what the chief ministers have done on the ground, they will certainly share our views."

Of course, Haihan's group of timetravelers are not supernatural beings, they just used the knowledge and technology hundreds of years beyond this era to achieve in a short period of time what might have taken tens to hundreds of years to achieve in the original historical process , and these incredible measures are naturally easily regarded as "miracles" in the eyes of ordinary people in this era.In addition, Shanghai Han has special brainwashing propaganda methods in this field, and over time, it has formed a sacred image among the naturalized people.Not to mention worshiping the chiefs as saints, there are also many fanatical believers who are willing to sacrifice their lives for Haihan and the chiefs.

Xu Ke has never been to Haihan's control area, so it is naturally difficult to understand such an ideological atmosphere, but he has seen these former Ming people and now Haihan naturalized people so highly respect Haihan people, even A court military officer like Xu Yuzhuo also followed Haihan's lead and completely followed the arrangements of Haihan people in terms of battle plan. He really wanted to find an opportunity to go to Sanya, which was rumored to be the number one port in the South China Sea, after the incident in Zhejiang was over. , to see if the Haihan people are really miraculous and omnipotent, and to see if those legendary big iron boats and iron carts really exist.

After completing the reconnaissance mission around Liuheng Island, the boat that Xu Ke and his party took went south overnight and returned to Shipu Port.That night, Xu Ke and Zhao Cheng, who could not take care of the tiredness of the journey, reported the results of the trip to the headquarters.The information they collected on the ground are details that are difficult to reflect on the combat map, and even Ma Ling's previous confession did not mention much.Of course, Ma Ling may not have concealed it intentionally. If Xu Ke and Zhao Cheng hadn't deliberately investigated many things, it would be difficult for ordinary people to detect all the hidden things in the middle.For example, if there were not a knowledgeable person like Zhao Cheng for the exchange organization in the area controlled by the Sanlin Gang, Xu Ke would have gone there alone. Apart from being surprised, he probably would not have understood what this structure can do in bulk trading. play a real role.

From a military point of view, the private armed forces on Liuheng Island are not too threatening in terms of defensive strength. Whether it is at sea or on land, the coalition forces can easily rely on well-trained professional soldiers and excellent weapons and equipment. Defeating the opponent, the only thing that worries the headquarters is that the battlefield area is too large, and it is difficult for the coalition forces to rely on a surprise battle to completely wipe out the armed personnel on the island. Once the time is prolonged, the situation is likely to produce unexpected changes. Thus affecting the follow-up combat plan.

But no matter what kind of difficulty there is, the attack on Liuheng Island is already within reach.Combat materials, personnel, and ships are all in place, and it is time for the coalition command to come up with a specific action plan.

Ma Ling has been sitting on the crater for the past two days. Although he has temporarily received preferential treatment from the Haihan people through his statement, and has not been imprisoned on the uninhabited island in the port like other people in the Shipu Institute, he also knows that he wants to go to the sea. The intelligence information disclosed by the Han people has a great influence, and it is very likely that he will be implicated afterwards.On this day, the Haihan people put forward a new request to him. In the next attack on Liuheng Island, he must also go out with the army, act as a guide, and assist the coalition forces to identify the bandit leaders on the island after the war.The only good thing is that Ma Ling doesn't have to show up in public, he only needs to point out the direction and target for the attacking side in the fleet.Although Ma Ling is not willing to be driven by the Haihan people, but at this time, he is under the fence of others and his life is the most important thing, so he can only reluctantly agree first.

After the coalition fleet stationed in Shipu Port for a few days, the blockade measures gradually lost their effectiveness, and the news slowly spread in the surrounding area.The sudden arrival of the Haihan people was indeed a big stimulus to the local people. Many people didn't know what kind of armed force Haihan was, so in the first few days, many people asked for help after hearing the news. Either leave Shipu Port by boat, or flee by land into the mountainous area to the north, and the emotions of the people left behind are also extremely unstable.

Fortunately, the Haihan militia also has a lot of experience in dealing with this kind of situation. They took a few surrendered Ming army officers to various villages to appease the people, and paid real money to hire people to work as civilian husbands in the wharf area outside the Shipu Guardhouse—— This joint fleet has more than 100 ships and more than 3000 people. It also needs a lot of logistics personnel, and most of them must be recruited and hired from the local area.

The people saw that the Shipu Guardhouse still carried the banner of Ming Dynasty, but only detained some people who colluded with pirates, and now that they came out to work and got money, they gradually settled down.As for why the newly arrived Haihan Fleet blocked the port, they also gave a very clear answer - to prevent pirates from taking advantage of the opportunity to sneak in and attack Shipusuo City.

But just as the coalition command had guessed, there were also pirates in Shipu Port. A few days later, someone rowed out of Shipu Port at night and reported to the north.

The first to get the news was not the Haisha Gang, which was closer to Shipu Port, but the Sanlin Gang, which was a little farther away.However, apart from reporting the origin of the fleet, the spies who delivered the letter had no clear information on its establishment, troop size, number of ships, and purpose of coming here, so the actual reference value was also very limited.

The three Lin brothers took the news very seriously after they heard the news, and they called the sender to repeatedly interrogate the details, but apart from the undoubted information that "the Haihan Fleet captured Shipu Suo City in half a day", the other links were quite vague. .The Lin brothers attached great importance to the statement by the sender that there were "thousands of warships" in the Haihan Fleet, because Lin Xing, the eldest of the three brothers, had indeed been to Sanya two years ago and saw them in Shengli Port. Pass the huge mountainous Haihan iron ship, and the rows of Haihan warships docked on the east bank of Shengli Port.Compared with other people, Lin Xing has a deeper understanding of the maritime armed strength of the Haihan people.

"The Haihan people have always used the occupation of offshore islands and reefs as a way to expand their territory, and they did so in the coastal areas of Fuzhou and Guangxi. If the Haihan fleet really went north to Zhejiang, they would definitely choose a suitable place to settle down." Lin Xing said to the two The younger brother analyzed: "I just don't know whether the place they chose is Shipu Port, or they have other plans."

"Shipu Port is where the imperial court's guard is located. Even if the Haihan people have the audacity to occupy it, if the imperial court wants to liquidate it in the future, they still won't be able to stay there?" Lin De, the second child, is skeptical about this.

"If the Haihan people do it with peace of mind, the court may not be able to do anything." Lin Xing shook his head and sighed: "The Haihan people are not the same as you and me, they are playing a much bigger game."

(End of this chapter)