1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 860 The Rolling Tendency
Using the "Enterprise" to take the lead to deal with these small boats with a displacement of less than [-] tons is really a bit of a sledgehammer. Even without the ship-mounted artillery attack, the metal attack angle of the bow alone is enough to easily tear the flesh of these small boats. The hull and even its keel were smashed together.However, compared to the simple and crude attack method of ramming, the visual and auditory impact brought by the artillery shooting is obviously greater. In the face of a strike, the possibility of being able to rush to the side of the "Enterprise" and then implement a gang-jumping operation is extremely slim.Unless the attacking ships can only be three or four times more, relying on the advantage of numbers to force the shells to gather together.Of course, having said that, the Haisha Gang can't afford the heavy price of this way of fighting.

Immediately behind the "Enterprise" were two expedition-class warships that were equipped with steam propulsion devices before departing from Sanya. Under the current one-sided combat situation, the two ships have automatically changed from the escort mode to the repair mode, and conducted a second strike against the enemy ship that had been shot and damaged at the front.

As predicted by the coalition command before the war, the sudden attack made Haisha Gang at a loss for a while. Although their vigilance and reaction speed were commendable, they launched ships out of the port to resist the enemy's attack as soon as the enemy attacked. Since they were unaware of the identity of their opponents, and the haste of the incident made it difficult to form an organized resistance, this kind of charge to the outside of the harbor was more like sending themselves to the muzzle of the Haihan warship as a living target.

Some of the ships that were not moving so fast started to turn around immediately after discovering that the vanguard had suffered heavy losses. They had never seen such a powerful warship in their lifetime, and they only thought about how to avoid this group of evil stars at sea. , and now the harbor exit channel has been completely blocked by pirate ships and coalition fleets that have flooded and overturned, and the only escape route is the Liuheng Island behind.

Ma Ling was lying on the side of the ship and trembling under his feet. This was the first time he had encountered such a sea artillery battle. After being shocked by the power of the artillery fire, he was also secretly glad that he chose to join the Haihan camp.From the way of fighting he saw before him, he can be sure that even if the naval forces stationed in Nanjing and Hangzhou come to the East China Sea, it will be difficult to win favor with such a fleet.As for the pirates on Liuheng Island, unless God can set off huge waves in the East China Sea to sweep away the fleet of the Haihan people, their ending will probably only be as determined in the battle plan of the Haihan people. Chances are unlikely.

Twenty or ten minutes after the start of the battle, there were already more than ten ships that were damaged and overturned in the access and exit channels of the three harbors, and even more ships returned to the port after being damaged.Although a few ships desperately escaped from the port through the gaps, this does not mean that they could escape to death. Within the range of two nautical miles outside, there are still dozens of warships waiting to pick up these fish that slipped through the net.In order to escape from the big net formed by these eager predators, in addition to good luck, a speed of more than ten knots and a hull that is at least three times stronger than the current one are required. These are impossible aspirations.

The battle in the waters between the east side of Liuheng Island and Yuanshan Island is even more one-sided. Since most of the armed ships and fighters of the Haisha Gang are concentrated in the southern harbor, most of the people docked here are fishing boats and Damaged ships to be repaired have almost zero resistance.However, some fishing boats operating in this sea area fled north immediately after discovering that the coalition fleet was approaching.Although according to the pre-war arrangement, there should be ships from the Sanlin Gang in that direction to help block the fleeing ships, but it is hard to say whether it will be leak-proof.The main task of the warships assigned to this direction was to control the coastline in this area, so they did not continue to chase north for a few small shrimps.

The Haisha gang concentrated most of their armed sailboats in the westernmost small harbor among the three harbors in the south of Liuheng Island. What they considered was that if something happened, the commanders on the island could gather their sailors in the shortest possible time. Surface forces resist intruders.However, it was precisely because of this that the attack on this small harbor was the strongest among the three harbors at this time.

The "Enterprise" cut in horizontally from the east side, and after indiscriminately bombarding the ships sailing out of the two commercial ports all the way west, it took the last small harbor exclusive to the Sea Sand Gang as its final target.Cooperating with him in the battle was a temporary formation composed of two expedition-class warships and more than a dozen exploration-class warships. These warships were divided into two layers inside and outside, sealing the access channel of the small harbor tightly.If there is room for small fishing boats to escape in the other two harbors to the east, it is impossible to swim out even if the blockade here is strong.

Ma Ling, Xu Ke, and Lin Xing silently watched the Haihan fleet bombard the harbor, and could no longer open their mouths to comment on the combat performance of the Haihan people.This method of combat has surpassed their previous understanding of naval warfare, and they really don't have much role to play as a leading party. They just need to quietly watch the coalition fleet crush the helpless struggle of the Haisha Gang.At this moment, all three of them doubted their existence value a little bit. The Haihan people are so powerful, do they really need the assistance of the leading party to complete these battle plans?
Of course, there is another group of people at this time whose mood is a hundred times more gloomy than the three of them, and that is the members of the Haisha Gang who are trapped in the harbor.In fact, when Lin Xing went to Shipu Port to ask to meet the Haihan people, the Haisha Gang also received news about the change of ownership of Shipu Port.But the sad thing is that neither the leader Li Luotou nor the second leader Mogi Shinobu paid enough attention to this news. They believed that the Haihan people had not openly opposed the government and the local government in Fuguang for many years, so there was no reason to run all the way. Come to Zhejiang to attack an irrelevant guard.Besides, although the geographical conditions of Nashipu Port are good, but because it is far away from the central area of ​​Ningbo Prefecture, there are no necessary conditions in the local area to make Haihan soldiers overwhelm the border.To put it bluntly, even if the Haihan people came to rob, the local area was almost all fishing villages, and there were no targets worth robbing.

Therefore, they believe that a fleet of Haihan people may have arrived at Shipu Port, and it may even be due to some misunderstanding, which caused friction with the local Ming army. However, they say that the Haihan people attacked Shipu City, occupied and blocked the local But they refused to believe it at Harbor Wharf, because they really couldn't think of the motives of the Haihan people to do such a thing.

Until yesterday morning, when Gomez, the third master, came back from Zhoushan after finishing his work, he yelled that it was not good after hearing the news, and quickly summoned Li Luotou and Motegi Shinobi to discuss countermeasures.

Speaking of this matter, we have to start with the immigration policy currently implemented by the Portuguese in the Far East. Since Haihan has extremely strict control over Western immigrants stationed in Hainan Island, except for businessmen who paid a deposit and those who received the Goa Governor’s Mansion or the Macau Council Authorized representatives, it is difficult for other Portuguese to be allowed to settle in Hainan Island for a long time or to lease land or purchase real estate.Therefore, immigrants sent to the Far East can only stay in Sanya for a while. If they do not choose to be naturalized as Haihan and Danggui Huamin, they must leave the country within [-] days.And these Portuguese immigrants transiting through Sanya will also have a small number of detours and come to the coast of Zhejiang, and many of them have joined Gomez's team because of their sense of identity.In addition, there are also some Portuguese businessmen who have achieved indirect trade with countries in Northeast Asia through the Haisha Gang where Gomez belongs.

Because of his Portuguese identity, Gomez obtained much more information about Haihan through Portuguese immigrants than these two masters, and even surpassed most of the smugglers in the East China Sea.Gomez is generally aware of Haihan's main trends in recent years, so there is a very important piece of information he has that the other two people don't know—the Haihan people solved the Eighteen Zhis in the Fujian Strait last year. Since then, attention has gradually turned north.

Gomez noticed that the indirect involvement of the Haihan people is not only in Zhejiang, but has even crossed Zhejiang to Jiangsu, Shandong and other places in the north. More and more Fujian merchant ships are constantly being transported back from the north one by one. War refugees, and it is said that the whereabouts of these refugees are the colonies developed by the Haihan people in the past two years, including the Penghu Islands that changed ownership last year and the newly opened Kaohsiung Port in Taiwan.

Most of the people under Gomez come from distant motherlands, and he naturally knows how difficult this long-distance sea immigration journey is.If he himself is in charge of this task, he will definitely find a way to build an immigrant transfer station halfway to ensure that these people can better adapt to the destination where the climate and environmental conditions change greatly.If the conditions are right, this kind of transfer station can be expanded into a new colony, just like what the Haihan people did in Panyu, Guangdong.

The Zhoushan Islands are undoubtedly an excellent choice. This is almost the midpoint of the route from Fujian to the northern Shandong Peninsula, and it is also a wild land that is difficult for the government to really govern. The islands here are basically occupied by large and small civilian armed forces. It is only a matter of course for the Haihan people to have a foot in here.Gomez even considered that if the Haihan people plan to do this one day, then he must go to the Haihan people to discuss cooperation matters as soon as possible.Among the Portuguese businessmen he knew, quite a few had done business with the Haihan people, and he could also introduce the wooing relationship at that time.

However, Gomez's idea was still in his mind and before he could put it into practice, the Haihan people had already arrived at his door.He had a different idea from the other two masters. In his opinion, the military action taken by the Haihan people in Shipu Port was a harbinger of big moves along the coast of Zhejiang.It is true that the Haihan people have no record of attacking the Ming army station in Fuguang and Guangxi provinces. However, Gomez is very clear that the method used by the Haihan people to snatch Hainan Island from Daming is not so fair. Someone told him that the Haihan people also used it back then. This goal was achieved by force, and then all the blame was placed on a group of pirates who did not exist.But the Guangdong government was afraid of the force of the Haihan people, and received a lot of benefits, so it has always turned a blind eye to this matter.

Gomez believes that the Haihan people can completely repeat this almost domineering operation mode in Zhejiang. As long as all the people in the Shipu Guard are dealt with, they can completely push this to a certain unlucky force in the East China Sea afterwards.At that time, the Haihan people can once again enter the East China Sea in the name of assisting the government to suppress bandits, and then rely on strong force to occupy an area here as a foothold.

Gomez told Li Luotou and Mogi Shinobu about his guess, but the two still had doubts about his opinion. After all, Gomez's speculation did not have any real evidence, and the suggestion he gave was actually It is to let the Haisha gang take the initiative to seek refuge with the Haihan people as soon as possible, which makes it difficult for the two of them to accept.

Although the Haisha Gang is not the most powerful armed force in the East China Sea other than the Daming army, at least they are ranked first. Looking at the entire East China Sea, no one dares to point fingers at the Haisha Gang.Before Fujian Shibazhi left Penghu, he came to Zhejiang to buy food and supplies, and he politely asked the Haisha Gang for help.Even when Zheng Zhilong's younger brother visited Liuheng Island, he never mentioned the topic of asking the Haisha Gang to pledge allegiance to Shibazhi.Although the Haihan people have a great reputation in the south, they don't seem to be strong enough to make the Haisha Gang surrender.

In fact, Gomez himself is not sure about the true intentions of the Haihan people. He can only hope that the Haihan people don't take Liuheng Island and the Haisha Gang seriously.But just in case, he still suggested that the other two masters strengthen the early warning range and defense strength of their own sites during this period.This is not to resist the attack that the Haihan people may launch, but if such a situation does happen, they can still rely on these means to delay the time so that they can evacuate Liuheng Island and escape.

Although Li Luotou and Mogi Shinobu felt that Gomez's plan was too exaggerated and thought that the Haihan people would not come to the door, they had also heard all kinds of rumors about the Haihan armed fleet, and they were not afraid of ten thousand, just in case. Defense still needs to be guarded, so Gomez made some adjustments to the island's defense deployment.However, this temporary measure has very limited effects. Gomez managed to convince the other two people yesterday. The door has been locked.

Although Gomez has never seen the Haihan fleet, he has heard Portuguese immigrants describe the shape of the Haihan warship, especially the red and blue Haihan double-color flag flying on the top of the mast, which can be seen from a long distance away. The true identity of this fleet has been identified.

(End of this chapter)