1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 896
Before the arrival of the Haihan people, Ma Yue's living standard was quite good.Jiangsu and Zhejiang are originally rich and prosperous places, and Jiaxing is also a famous land of fish and rice in the east of Zhejiang. Although the guards rely on farming to live, they rely on the mountains to eat the mountains and the sea to eat the sea. With such a good place, Ma Yue will not be poor even if he wants to. go down.

Haining Guard has two guards, Zhapu and Ganpu, and these two places happen to be the two largest and most prosperous seaports in Jiaxing. Just relying on these two ports, Haining Guard can bring tens of thousands of taels a year. silver income.Of course, the money is not enjoyed by Ma Yue alone. The big men above have to take care of it, and the people who work below have to appease. He can receive two or three of the money in his pocket.

After the Haihan people took control of Zhoushan, Jiaxing was not directly impacted very much, but there was a decrease in the number of passengers at the port for about ten days.However, since Haihan organized a business promotion meeting, a large number of merchants poured into Hangzhou Bay, and the two ports in Jiaxing became distribution centers for seagoing passengers, and the usual prosperity was basically restored.But Ma Yue was not satisfied with this situation, because he realized that the Zhoushan Islands and the East China Sea were leaving Daming's control.The Haihan people's gameplay is completely different from the previous smugglers. They do not rely on the Ming government, and they have money and soldiers, and they will not take the initiative to bow to the government.

Since Haihan focused his energy on Ningbo after occupying Zhoushan, Haining Guard, which is across the Hangzhou Bay, did not get much direct benefit from Haihan, so Ma Yue's view of Haihan was not the same as that of Yan Guowei, Huang Tao and others are so relaxed and friendly.Moreover, he was very worried that Haihan would continue to clean up the northern islands of the Zhoushan Islands after freeing up his hand. Ma Teng's men and horses would definitely not be able to stop the Haihan people's offensive. Among the losses that would occur at that time, there was part of him, Ma Yue. portion inside.

But Ma Yue is not an idiot. The Ningbo guards did not move, which means that the Haihan people are not so easy to deal with. Besides, the Haining guards do not have enough strength to launch large-scale naval operations.Although Ma Yue was worried about the arrival of the Haihan people, he could only temporarily wait and see the changes in the situation, and did not dare to act rashly.

It wasn't until Yu Pingfeng and others secretly came to Haining to lobby him that Ma Yue seemed to see the hope of changing the situation.Of the three, Yu Pingfeng is in charge of military affairs, Guo Zheng is in charge of criminal prosecution, and Liao Xun is in charge of intelligence, which seems to be a very reliable match.And Ma Yue has soldiers under his command, and there are people in the East China Sea, so it is perfect for him to be in charge of specific actions.The two sides hit it off almost immediately, and soon decided to organize and execute the interception and killing operation at sea planned by Yu Pingfeng and others organized by Ma Yuelai.

Although Ma Yue is a guard commander, since there have been no wars in the East China Sea in recent years, he has no actual combat experience in his career, and he lacks professional ability to plan and command large-scale combat operations. One of the main reasons why Seventeen easily obtained relevant information when he went to Jiaxing Zhapu Port.Although he knew that the Hai Han people were difficult to deal with, but he lacked a clear understanding of how powerful they were.Flaws in intelligence collection exposed the already flawed plan early on, and trying to use the pirates on Qushan Island who lacked the will to fight as a means to deal with Haihan was even more wrong.Ma Yue's arrangement forced Ma Teng, the owner of Qushan Island, to go to Zhoushan Island to ask for surrender, and at the same time completely exposed himself, but he still didn't know that he was in such a dangerous situation.

The news sent by Ma Teng made Ma Yue see the hope of making a fortune. He didn't even try to inform his allies in Hangzhou about the matter, so he organized a group of confidantes and set out to sea in two refitted lucky boats.

According to the agreement with Ma Teng, the two parties will meet and rendezvous near Dayangshan Island in the northwest of Qushan Island, and then squat here to guard the target merchant ship going north from Zhoushan to Yangzhou Prefecture in the north.

Dayangshan Island is located outside Hangzhou Bay, about 200 nautical miles away from Hainingwei.The island covers an area of ​​about four square kilometers, with flat terrain in the northeast and mountains in the south, with the highest point over [-] meters above sea level.There are three large yellow croaker fishing seasons in the waters near Dayangshan Island in the first half of each year, and fishermen along the coast of Jiangsu and Zhejiang will rush to the local area to fish at that time.During the Song and Yuan dynasties, there were sea patrol officers and soldiers stationed on Dayangshan Island. It was only after the Ming Dynasty that Japanese pirates flourished in the East China Sea and the imperial court imposed a ban on the sea, it returned to a wild state.

There are many islands and reefs near Dayangshan Island, and many islands and reefs have fresh water sources. It is easier for ships to dock here for supplies or to hide their tracks.And on the route from Zhoushan back to the Jianghuai area, this is also a must pass.When Ma Yue set off for his destination, he never thought that this was a trap set up by Ma Teng and his enemies.

On the morning of June 29, after a night of sailing, the two boats led by Ma Yue arrived at the waters near the destination Dayangshan Island, and met Ma Teng's boat on the seaside of Keyao in the north of the island as promised.However, seeing that Ma Teng only brought one ship to join the battle, Ma Yue felt a little unhappy. Originally, he wanted to use Ma Teng's men and horses as tools, but now the situation seems to have been reversed, and he wanted to use Ma Teng's men and horses as tools. Play the main position in the action.Ma Yue figured out that the [-]-[-] split that he had previously discussed with Ma Teng was a bit uneconomical, and the ratio would have to be re-negotiated afterwards.

But fortunately, Ma Teng knows how to be a man. Before Ma Yue mentioned this issue, Ma Teng himself expressed his attitude, saying that he could take less from the seizure this time. Unreasonable.

While Ma Yue was overjoyed, he also noticed that Ma Teng's subordinates were all strong and strong men, who seemed to be much more energetic than the soldiers under his own. Batch of elite soldiers.How could he have guessed that these people brought by Ma Teng were all Haihan militiamen, not pirates from Qushan Island at all.Qian Tiandun was worried about letting Ma Teng join Ma Yue, so he simply replaced all his subordinates.If this Ma Teng was dishonest, the special soldiers who followed him would take his life at any moment.

Ma Yue was also a little worried that if the target was rushing day and night and passed here overnight, there would be no way to intercept it.But Ma Teng patted his chest and vowed that such a situation would not happen: "The villain has already found out that the two ships will set off from Dinghai Port in Zhoushan tomorrow morning and head north. Calculate the distance and arrive at about lunch time. Here. At that time, the adults will be in charge of one boat, and the villain will be in charge of the other. Attack separately, and don’t let them slip away. After you succeed, you will directly sail the boat to Qushan Island, and take it without anyone noticing. This is a deal! I will send your share to Jiaxing after the confiscation and inventory are completed."

Ma Yue was happy to hear that, and couldn't help but praised: "I didn't realize that you are so good at things before. It's not bad. After forcing the Haihan people back and taking back this Zhoushan Island, I will be the master and let you go to Zhoushan The island group holds the overall situation!"

Ma Teng thought to himself that it would be hell if you could force the Haihan people back, but he kept thanking him and ordered people to bring supplies so that Ma Yue's people could rest here for a whole day.Ma Yue was not afraid of being cheated, and after discussing with Ma Teng the various signals and actions of the sea operation, he rested in peace of mind.

At midnight that day, several troop carriers commanded by Shi Diwen quietly docked from the east side of the island, and a company of the army quietly boarded the coast in the dark, and marched towards the predetermined location in the dark.

In the early morning of the next day, the drowsy sentinel suddenly discovered that the boat on Qushan Island docked on the shore had disappeared without a trace.When Ma Yue received the news and came to the beach to check the situation in a hurry, he found that not only a boat had disappeared, but two strange-looking sailing boats were on the sea less than a hundred feet away from the shore. Coming through the waves.On the tops of the masts of these two ships, a two-color flag of half red and half blue was flying. When Ma Yue was wondering, some of his men who knew the goods exclaimed: "It's Haihan people! It's Haihan people!"

Why did the Haihan people come out at this juncture? Ma Yue hadn't figured out the mystery for a while.But he wasn't too flustered, and reprimanded loudly: "What are you panicking about! We are the army of the Ming Dynasty, and this is the sea area of ​​the Ming Dynasty, so hurry up and hold the flag to show your identity!"

A subordinate responded: "My lord, we didn't bring a flag when we came out this time..."

It was only then that Ma Yue remembered that in order to ensure that their identities would not be seen through, the two ships did not carry anything that could be used to identify them. Not only did they have no flags, but all the weapons used by everyone were changed. The official markings are chiseled on the weapon.

"That's okay, the Haihan people may not be here for us." Ma Yue could only force himself to comfort himself, but in his heart he already realized that it might not be a coincidence that the Haihan people appeared here and now, and things didn't seem to be so easy.

What completely smashed Ma Yue's hope was a Haihan army that appeared behind the camp, and a special person shouted with a tin horn: "People on the beach immediately put down their weapons and kneel and surrender, otherwise they will be shot!"

Before Ma Yue could give an order, the panic-stricken Ming soldiers began to flock to the two ships parked on the shore, which was their only hope of leaving the island.The reason why they did not choose to confront the Haihan soldiers on the shore but retreated directly was because they all saw the muskets in the hands of these Haihan soldiers.The Ming army was originally equipped with similar weapons, but in order to completely conceal their identities, they were all replaced with cold weapons before going to sea this time.These Ming soldiers were not uninformed pirates and bandits. They were well aware of the lethality of muskets, and they had no intention of trying to attack the Haihan musket array with their flesh and blood.

However, the sea is not an ideal escape route. The two Haihan ships showed their side cannons and launched a round of close-in bombardment at the two immobile sailboats by the sea.Due to the short distance, after some shells penetrated through one side of the ship, they directly penetrated through the interior of the ship and broke through the other side of the ship. military.Before the Ming soldiers who were trying to escape boarded the ship, several transparent holes had been punched out of the hull by Haihan's artillery fire.

The situation on the shore was not much better. After only two warning calls, the Haihan soldiers fired under the command of the copper whistle, and there were screams on the bare beach.

Ma Yue lay on the ground trembling, cursing Ma Teng desperately in his heart for driving him to death.If he hadn't figured out what had happened by this time, he was really hopeless.Of course, even if he is now sure that Ma Teng betrayed him, he still cannot change the current situation of being besieged by the Haihan militia.Although the dozens of confidantes he took out to sea this time were all military elites, they were powerless to fight back in the current situation.And here is an isolated island in the sea, there is nowhere to escape even if he escapes, he either resists to the death, or he can only be captured without a fight.

Ma Yue chose the latter.When he found that the two ships he brought had no chance to leave the coast, he decisively chose to surrender.But when two Haihan soldiers came to tie him up with cowhide ropes, he still tried to make a final resistance: "I am the commander of Haining Guard, Ma Yue, you bold and lunatics, are you going to challenge Daming?"

However, only two gun butts responded to him, one on the shoulder and one on the back, causing him to fall to the ground immediately in pain.Immediately, he felt a big foot stepping on his back, and then his hands were twisted behind his back and tied tightly.Haihan soldiers grabbed his arms and pulled him up from the ground.When Ma Yue was about to continue defending his dignity with words, someone had already pinched his chin and stuffed a rag with a sea smell into his mouth, and he could only whimper and was speechless.

Ma Yue brought out the team of 55 people including himself, and none of them escaped the siege.Seven of them were killed in the brief confrontation, and about a dozen others were wounded in varying degrees.Apart from the consumption of ammunition, Haihan's side suffered no casualties, and this battle can be regarded as a complete victory.

Since the war broke out in the early morning, and the tea time had already ended, there was not much movement.Although the Haihan warship fired a round of artillery, the distance from the nearest coast was more than [-] nautical miles, so no one would notice it at all.

After a brief search of the two Ming ships, Shi Diwen ordered them to be towed away from the shore and then scuttled in the sea.And the crew of this ship, whether dead or alive, were all transported away on the Haihan warship.In addition, a platoon was specially left to eliminate traces of combat on the coast.When the sun was three poles, the tranquility of the past had been restored here, and it was impossible to see that a small-scale battle broke out here two hours ago.

Since Ma Yue only explained his destination and combat objectives to these confidants who followed him to sea before setting off, he and his group of subordinates have now quietly become missing persons with nowhere to be found.

(End of this chapter)