1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 901 Visiting the North ([-])

After sending Li Zian away, Chen Yixin didn't take this matter to heart.These Ming maritime merchants are notoriously daring. Many so-called maritime merchants have another identity in private as pirates. The armed forces on merchant ships are not necessarily used for self-protection. robbers.In particular, these maritime merchants who can trade between Japan and Ming Dynasty all the year round are often not very fuel-efficient, otherwise they would have been looted by Japanese pirates and ronin operating in the coastal waters of Japan.Although Chen Yixin treated Li Zian politely, it was because he had some knowledge, and he didn't really treat Li Zian as a weak person in his heart.

Intervening in Japan's import and export trade is not the mission of Chen Yixin's trip. His mission in Nagasaki is mainly to understand Japan's current trade situation with other countries, so as to provide reference for the Executive Committee to formulate strategies for Japan in the future.From the next day, Chen Yixin asked the invited guide to take him to various places in Nagasaki to learn about the trading prices and conditions of bulk commodities. By the way, he also called on some Ming people who lived in the local area all year round to learn about the current political situation in Japan. .

Although the Japanese history of this period is recorded in the large database in Sanya, it is clear that the first-hand information is more detailed and reliable for specific people and events.However, people in this era pay little attention to economic information, and Chen Yixin hardly encountered any obstacles in the process of collecting information. On the contrary, many people hoped to obtain the source of Haihan goods from Chen Yixin, so they were interested in him. Knowing everything without saying anything, Chen Yixin can get all kinds of information he wants with almost no effort.

In order to cover up the real purpose, the fleet led by Chen Yixin also shipped a lot of goods when they set sail from Zhoushan Dinghai Port. During their stay in Nagasaki Port, these goods shipped came in handy.There are not many maritime merchants like Li Zian who can go to Zhoushan to buy goods, so Haihan products are also extremely sought-after in the Japanese market. Chen Yixin used the goods in hand as an exchange and obtained a lot of valuable information. It even includes hydrographic data of Nagasaki Port and information on military deployment.

The official in charge of port affairs at Nagasaki Port did not keep his integrity in front of the Haihan glassware and boxes of silver delivered to his home. Of course, he may not know what integrity is at all. After receiving the bribes, he quickly disclosed the information he had He took out a bamboo tube and poured out the beans, and told the Haihan people all about it.

Compared with Sanya, which is in a period of rapid development, the volume of trade in goods here in Nagasaki may be slightly better. After all, the import and export trade here concentrates the resources of the entire country.However, in terms of the degree of prosperity and urban development in the market, Sanya, an emerging seaport city, far surpasses Nagasaki.The wharf facilities and urban construction here are far inferior to those of a Ming seaport city like Ningbo. In Chen Yixin’s opinion, the level of port construction here can only be described as “rudimentary”, at most it is similar to Zhoushan’s Dinghai Port before Haihan entered. .

However, the level of port construction is still second. After all, the ports controlled by Haihan are not much better in the early stage of construction. The real gap lies in the level of port operation. The management method of Japanese counterparts is almost the same as that of Haihan. Compared with fine planning, it will inevitably appear very backward.In terms of port management and operation, Haihan has accumulated hundreds of years of experience ahead of this era. This advantage is completely impossible for its peers to catch up with.

In time, Sanya Port, Kaohsiung Port, and even Dinghai Port, which has just been included in Haihan's territory, will definitely surpass Nagasaki Port in terms of business scale. It will also become precarious because of this.

The expedition fleet stayed in Nagasaki Port for three and a half days before leaving the port and continuing northward along the coastline.After a voyage of about thirty nautical miles, we arrived at the entrance of Sasebo Bay.The width of this pincer-shaped entrance formed by the encirclement of the northern and southern peninsulas is less than one kilometer, and there are commanding heights on both sides. It can be regarded as the military's favorite port terrain. Just set up a solid firepower point on a high place to easily control the waterway entering and leaving the port. .

Entering Sasebo Bay, to the south is a huge closed harbor, Omura Bay. This bay is about 26 kilometers long from north to south and 11 kilometers long from east to west, covering an area of ​​more than 300 square kilometers. It is connected to Sasebo Bay and the outside sea through a waterway with a width of only 200 meters. .The southern end of Omura Bay is twenty miles inland to the north of Nagasaki Port.

The main natural harbor areas of Sasebo Bay are concentrated in the northern part of the bay, which is also the key project of the expedition team.Almost all the military bases and military ports built by the Americans in Sasebo Bay are concentrated in the northern bay, and there are also large-scale shipyards in the bay.The planning and construction plan of the Americans for Sasebo Harbor will also become a reference material for Haihan to develop this place in the future.

However, Sasebo Bay in the 17th century was still a sparsely populated place. At present, only a few fishermen settled here. Even Japanese pirates are reluctant to choose this place as their foothold. The reason is very simple. The access channel here is too narrow. It is difficult to escape from the sea by boat.This actually provides more convenient conditions for Haihan's future development plans, and there is no need to spend a lot of manpower, material and financial resources to organize and suppress bandits like in the Zhoushan Islands.

Fleet Commander Takemori cautiously dispatched a small boat to investigate the water conditions near the shore in the harbor, and then ordered the fleet to anchor near the coast near the later Sasebo Circuit.After the army soldiers landed to conduct a simple search on the nearby coast, Chen Yixin also led a team to land.In later generations, at least two-digit warships have been stationed in this area all year round. Chen Yixin also intends to investigate the hydrological conditions here for the military to see how to develop it to best meet the needs of the military.

This kind of field investigation is relatively difficult, but this time the army that came with the fleet is all attached to the special warfare battalion. Mountains and jungles are the combat environment they are good at. Such field activities are of no use to them. If you don't get used to it, you will have a sense of freedom like a duck to water.

The troops first established camps on the coast and deployed perimeter defenses in accordance with standard operating procedures.Takemori left a ship and a platoon of sailors as support, and then left with the rest of the ship to inspect other areas of Sasebo Harbor, and revised the topographic map drawn based on the satellite map according to the actual situation.This task is very time-consuming, but it has to be done, because it may also affect the future development and construction process of the local area.

Wu Sen is very impressed by the fact that the chiefs actually have a detailed map of this kind of place in their hands, because obviously the chiefs have never been to this place before, how this high-precision map is drawn, really only God knows .However, Haihan Guihua people have always regarded the chiefs as omnipotent gods. It is said that "the sky knows half, and the earth knows everything". This is really not a joke.The foresights shown by the chiefs in various events, as well as various miraculous inventions and creations, have fully demonstrated their ability to be almost half-human and half-god.And Wu Sen himself has now become a fanatical Haihan fan. The longer he stays in this system, the more he can feel the various magical abilities of the chiefs.

Wu Sen's ship has a radio station and is equipped with a specially trained dispatcher so that he can keep in touch with Chen Yixin on land at any time.For this ability of sending messages across thousands of miles, Wu Sen really has nothing to say except his admiration.As a soldier, he naturally knows how useful this thing is in the military.

In fact, the Haihan Militia also has training courses on radio operation for naturalized officers who have reached a certain level of military rank. Wu Sen is one of the officers who are qualified to learn how to send and receive reports, but he thinks it is too difficult to master this skill, and he does not want to touch it easily. Touching the "artifact" of the radio station, he gave up after taking two classes, and handed over the operation of the radio station under his command to a full-time communication soldier.

That night, the land and water teams camped and rested in Sasebo Bay and Omura Bay respectively, and nothing happened overnight.However, early the next morning, Wu Sen received a message from Chen Yixin's department on the radio, saying that suspicious armed ships were found near Sasebo Bay, and Wu Sen was required to rush back immediately for support.Wu Sen didn't dare to neglect, and quickly ordered to turn around and return to the north.

It was the light reconnaissance ship "Swordfish" deployed at the mouth of Sasebo Bay that discovered the abnormality. The biggest advantage of this small boat that imitated the shape of the later sloop is that it can sail fast enough. Under ideal conditions, the speed is no less than It was because of the two catamaran sailboats that the Traveling Group brought over from another time and space.The Sailfish found several armed ships rapidly approaching Sasebo Bay at sea, and quickly turned the bow and sailed back to the station to warn the garrison on the shore.

Chen Yixin's response to this was not in a hurry. The soldiers he brought with him were all experienced veterans. Although there was only one platoon, they relied on their equipment and standard fortifications outside the camp. It is not a big problem to deal with an enemy ten times larger than oneself.Chen Yixin told the Sailfish and the other supply ship left here to leave immediately. With their superior navigation performance, there is no problem in protecting themselves at sea.

However, the opponent's ability was worse than Chen Yixin expected. It had been an hour since all the members were summoned to fight, but there was no sign of the enemy at all.The reason is actually very simple, because the place where the Haihan militia is stationed has been consciously selected, and it is not conspicuous when viewed from the sea, and it is difficult to find it near the shore.Although the unidentified armed fleet sailed into Sasebo Bay, they could not catch up with the fast Sailfish, so they could only slowly search for Haihan's fleet along the coast. However, Haihan's other two combat ships were coming from the south. On the way back from Omura Bay, it was difficult to find the complete Haihan fleet here.

The battle finally started at [-] o'clock in the morning. The armed fleet managed to find the Haihan Camp hidden on the coastline, but the distance from the seaside was obviously beyond their weapons, so they could only choose to land on the shore. This gave the Haihan militia enough time to observe and react.

Chen Yixin confirmed the identities of the visitors with a telescope. Most of them were Japanese ronin costumes, and they seemed to be a group of Japanese pirates.Amakusa Shiro beside him immediately confirmed this judgment: "Sir, these ships are all Japanese pirates' Hachiman ships, and they should be coming for our money!"

A few days ago, the survey fleet made a lot of money in Nagasaki Port. It is well known in the market that this group of people is very rich, and it is not an accident that they were targeted by Japanese pirates.When the expedition fleet left the port, it was probably followed by someone. It was not until they sailed into the "dead end" of Sasebo Bay that the other party gathered people and killed them. Judging from this posture, they also planned to take the expedition fleet's money. bought and sold.

Of course, if they knew the performance of the Haihan people in the Zhoushan Islands in the past few months, they might not be so impulsive in delivering food to their door. This is really no different from voluntarily applying for suicide.Taking the garrison as a position, to deal with this kind of stragglers who mainly use cold weapons, the Haihan militia has already had a very complete tactical system. It is basically impossible to destroy Haihan's defense line by relying on primitive assault tactics.

The Japanese pirates also have a small amount of matchlock guns and flintlock guns, but their quality is not at the same level as the standard rifles equipped by the Haihan militia, and there are complete bunkers on the Haihan side. The risk of warfighters being shot is minimized.The two sides fired at each other at a distance of [-] meters, and the result was basically a one-sided situation.

However, what really stopped the Japanese pirates from charging was the concertina-style barbed wire fence that the Haihan militia used to deploy outside the camp. This thing is a magic weapon for assault infantry who lack large equipment. Rows of bullets would be fired from behind the parapet just 20 meters away, knocking these live targets to the ground.If the people behind react quickly enough and are ruthless enough to decisively use the wounded or dead bodies in front as cushions to cross the barbed wire fence, then there is still hope of rushing to the front of Haihan's formation, but most of them are difficult to do in the first place. Such a reaction.

Even if a few people can break through this line of defense, there is still a deer village in front of them on their way forward.These deer villages are simple fortifications made when camping, and they can't really stop the attack. At most, they can delay the advance speed for a while.But at a distance where shooting with eyes closed can hit a person, such a short delay is enough to kill a person.

After the Japanese pirates left more than 30 corpses on the barbed wire defense line, they finally found a breakthrough. However, before they rushed to the second line of defense, the sound of rumbling guns came from the sea.The two armed sailboats led by Wu Mori just happened to appear behind the Japanese pirates.

(End of this chapter)