1635 Han style rises again

Chapter 344
September 1639, 8, Hanzhou, Jianye Port.

The four warships led by Qi Dajiang finally returned to the dock of Jianye Port (now Darwin, Australia) after a lapse of 9 months. The ship also brought 700 immigrants from the Ming Dynasty, which caused a sensation in the entire Jianye City.Prior to this, the fleet successively dropped off more than 200 people at several supply points on Weiyuan Island (now New Guinea Island) to supplement the local population.Nearly [-] people were unloaded when they passed Cape Fort (now the small town of Bamaga, Australia), and they were to be transported to Weihai (now Cairns, Australia) by a follow-up ship.

The wharf of Jianye Port was crowded with family members of sailors and marines, eagerly looking forward to seeing their relatives.After Cao Xiong got the news of the return of the fleet, he immediately returned to Jianye from Heishan City with Qi Tian.

"Didn't the other five ships come back with you?" Cao Xiong asked nervously when he saw that there were only four ships docked at the dock.

"When I loaded people from Hanxing Island, Luo Rucheng was still collecting immigrants in Daming with five other boats." Qi Dajiang said: "I thought I would bring people back in a hurry, so I didn't wait for them to come back together. Don't worry, uncle. With their five ships together, except that Zheng Zhilong's navy can threaten them, there should be no serious problems along the coast of Daming."

"How many people have you recruited?" Cao Xiong breathed a sigh of relief, and then asked again.

"When I returned to Hanxing Island, more than 200 people had gathered there." Qi Dajiang said with a smile; "If Luo Rucheng pulls people back to Hanxing Island for the third time, there should be about [-] immigrants."

"How about the sea route?"

"It's very difficult to go back against the wind." Qi Dajiang said and shook his head, "In the future, we need to re-plan the immigration time, and it is best to transport immigrants in seasons that match the monsoon direction. In this way, it will be faster than the current boat. a little."

"Dajiang is thoughtful." Cao Xiong nodded and said, "Can the supply transfer points along the way still withstand this immigration transportation?"

"Several supply points on Weiyuan Island are acceptable, but Midway Island needs to increase construction efforts." Qi Dajiang said: "I threw more than 200 Annan and Ryukyu natives there, plus the original more than 100 people, in the next few days In a few months, the foundation of Midway Island should be perfected by one or two."

"Annan people? Have you gone to Xinsheng Island? How is the situation there?" Cao Xiong asked.

"Go. Xinsheng Island also fought two battles with the Annan people." Qi Dajiang said with a smile: "The first time was in March, defeating more than [-] Annan people and capturing their commander alive. The second time was in May , we just rushed over. This battle was another big victory, nearly annihilating more than [-] Annan troops, and captured more than [-] of its leading generals."

"Haha..." Cao Xiong laughed loudly when he heard the words, "I never imagined that I, Hanzhou Erlang, could defeat Annan's army in two battles. I think the Annan people dare not think too much about me on Xinsheng Island."

"On the way back to Hanxing Island, we went to their royal city near Fuchun (now Hue, Vietnam), broke their navy, and then went up the river to Fuchun port and bombarded their wharf. Annan If people don’t want to take their own humiliation, they will definitely lay down their armor and dare not come to Xinsheng Island lightly.”

"In this way, since our Hanzhou had a bad relationship with the Netherlands last October, we have not had a single territory captured by others. Our Hanzhou sons are all good!" Cao Xiong turned his head and watched as they got off the boat one after another. The sailors and marines were all proud and gratified.

"Da Jiang is back, let's celebrate with a banquet tonight." Yu Fukun said with a smile: "Although we haven't won the final victory with the Dutch, we have withstood all kinds of pressure from the Dutch for more than half a year. Now, even Xinsheng Island, which is thousands of miles away, can defeat the Annan people. Our Hanzhou is really mighty!"

"That's right, the son who came back is a hero of our Hanzhou, so I have to give him some condolences." Cao Xiong nodded, then turned his head and said to Pan Qifeng, the deputy director of the civil government next to him: "Tonight, there will be an arrangement by Director Lao Pan." Let’s treat our Erlang who has been fighting hard in Hanzhou for more than half a year.”

"The commander-in-chief ordered, and the subordinate officials will arrange it immediately." Pan Qifeng was also happy to see a large number of new immigrants arriving.This means that Hanzhou can completely get rid of the Dutch route blockade, and can receive a large number of immigrants from Ming Dynasty every year, expanding the population base of Hanzhou.Just now I heard that Xinsheng Island defeated Annan twice, Megatron Zhongnan was even more exciting and honorable.

"Fourth, is there still no news from Dili City?" Qi Dajiang asked Qi Tian in a low voice.

"No." Qi Tian's face also became serious, and he said worriedly: "We must find a way to go there to see. It's been almost ten months, and we don't know what's going on there."

"I heard that the Dutch have always had a fleet hovering outside Dili Port for surveillance. They must wait for our warships to come and rescue them." Qi Dajiang said: "We have to find a way to drive them away."

"If you want to drive them away, the only way to be effective is to attack where they must be saved." Qi Tian smiled wryly: "Then the only way is to fight Batavia."

Qi Dajiang was startled when he heard this, and then smiled wryly.All the warships in Hanzhou gathered together, and they didn't dare to touch the headquarters of the Dutch East India Company.

"About the support of Dili City, the staff has formulated several plans, which have been shelved until now because there are not enough warships to implement them. You can rest for a few days, and then we can have a good discussion to see how to choose the best one. plan." Qi Tian said.

"The General Staff Department?" Qi Dajiang heard this name for the first time, and asked curiously: "What does this General Staff Department do?"

"The General Staff Department is composed of more than a dozen elite personnel from military and civil affairs departments. It is responsible for Hanzhou's general external combat planning and guidance, internal combat readiness construction planning and organization, and military training. Feasible combat strategy." Qi Tian said.

"War outside, and you can still guide while sitting at home?" Qi Dajiang didn't quite understand the work content of this staff department, and felt that it should be the military staff next to the general officers of the Ming Dynasty.

"It's not to guide the outside army how to fight." Qi Tian explained: "One of the functions of the staff department is to formulate various combat plans in advance according to the external combat intentions of the commanding government and the military government, for the frontline generals to choose during the war."

"Then when we fight in the future, the army commander will not do anything. He only needs to make a choice based on the advice of the staff to complete the combat mission." Qi Dajiang asked in surprise: "Then what is the use of the army commander?" ?”

"Decision!" Qi Tian said: "A large-scale war, or a series of battles, requires the commander to make proper choices and decisions. This is a test of an excellent commander's comprehensive quality and improvised judgment."
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"In view of the fact that the Dutch have a large number of armed merchant ships, and their naval warfare skills are much higher than those of our Hanzhou, our Hanzhou navy should try our best to avoid direct confrontation with the Dutch navy." He Yunfeng stood at the front desk of the conference room, looking at the audience The commander in chief and many high-ranking Hanzhou officials felt both nervous and excited at the same time.

"Our staff department has made two major plans according to the prompt of the general manager. One is to concentrate 4-5 warships into the waters of the Spice Islands (Maluku Islands) to intercept and attack the Dutch order Merchant ships can even patrol the waters near Java Island and intercept Dutch merchant ships that may pass by near Borneo."

"Secondly, the attacking fleet carried the Marine Corps, took the opportunity to break through the many strongholds of the Dutch in the Southeast Asia region, and completely destroyed them. Here, our staff has listed several priority attack targets: Batang (later Bali Denpasar) , Surabaya (now Surabaya, Indonesia) Kupang, and Ambon. As for the several Dutch strongholds west of Batavia, because the distance is too far and the supply is inconvenient, they will not be considered for the time being.”

After finishing speaking, He Yunfeng looked at the audience anxiously, waiting for them to ask questions.He is only 19 years old this year. He is neither a naval officer nor a marine.Because I have studied with Qi Tian for three years, I am particularly interested in the politics, economy, and geography of the world today, and I have studied them carefully.

When the military government set up a staff department, it needed a person familiar with the distribution of forces in the Nanyang region, so he was transferred here to support the basic framework of the Hanzhou staff department together with more than ten professionals from other fields.

Qi Tian doesn't have high requirements for the new staff, but hopes that they can brainstorm and provide various combat strategies for the commander and the military government, and conduct some deduction on the implementation of the strategies to avoid mistakes in Hanzhou's military decision-making. .As for whether the General Staff can develop into a comprehensive system of strategy, campaign planning, military mobilization, military training organization, and rapid mobilization mechanism under the modern military system, it can only be slowly evolved and improved under the continuous training of wars.

"I tend to attack Dutch strongholds." Niu Hu, the chief officer of the Marine Corps, said: "The sea is vast, and if you attack Dutch merchant ships, you may not be able to find a ship for ten days and a half months. This is too wasteful for our ships to fight." We know the locations of the Dutch strongholds. We just lead our troops there, break through them quickly, and leave quickly after destroying them. Even if the Dutch strongholds are difficult to attack, we just abandon them and choose the next target. But as long as one or two strongholds are breached, the Dutch will definitely suffer huge losses. Maybe they can also mobilize many Dutch warships and make them exhausted."

After hearing this, the high-ranking military officers of Hanzhou who were sitting nodded their heads in agreement with Niu Hu's opinion.Taking advantage of the few months before returning to Daming to transport immigrants at the end of the year, select a few Dutch strongholds, quickly implement strikes, bloodlet the Dutch, and continue to exert pressure.After finishing the work, everyone still has enough time to run to Daming to pull people with the help of the weak southeast wind.

"If that's the case, let's discuss where to fight?" Cao Xiong also believed that it was really negative to sit on the sidelines at sea and find a single Dutch merchant ship.

"How about Batang?" Niu Jinmin said: "It's relatively close to our Gou'er Island (now Christmas Island, Australia). After the fight, you can go there to replenish and refresh."

"Batang is the most important supply point for the Dutch outside of Java Island. There are many ships coming and going, and there may be many Dutch warships." Qi Dajiang thought for a while, and then said.

"If Batang can't do it, then there is no need to think about Gubang." Yu Fukun said: "They blockade the fleet of Dili City, maybe they will put the supply there."

"What about An Wen?" Qi Tian said softly.

"Anwen?" Qi Dajiang was taken aback for a moment, and then said: "Anwen, we fought once."

"Then fight for the second time. The Dutch certainly didn't expect us to fight Ambon again." Qi Tian said: "After more than half a year of recovery, Ambon should have accumulated a lot of supplies and personnel. After all, there are Dutch people there. In the center of dominion in the Spice Islands."

When everyone heard the words, they couldn't help but look at Qi Tian, ​​saying that our Hanzhou wants to treat Ambon like a leek for the Dutch!

(End of this chapter)