Lu Ming

Chapter 570: Strait Security Rectification
At the end of June 1631, more than half a month after the southward fleet arrived in Qiongzhou, the Qiongzhou Strait was "blocked across the entire territory" for the first time in history.

The so-called blockade across the country is very simple: there are patrols day and night.In the movie, the scene where the boss is ruthless and "not even a fly can fly over" is usually said to be the case.

It is very easy for a traverser with technology to block the Qiongzhou Strait.Because Qiongzhou Prefecture is only a mere 20 kilometers by sea from Xuwen County, which is the closest across the strait.

In other words, it is only necessary to arrange one or two patrol ships with night vision goggles at night to cut off the strait.

Although night sailing is not popular these days, and native ships will not drive at night when they have nothing to do, this is a gesture—blocking the strait, which means that the crossing forces have invested their will, force, political influence, and business road protection capabilities in this area. area.

In other words: Lao Tzu is here.

In the early morning, the slender ship, the Taijiang-class 150-ton light patrol ship born out of the early schooner, opened three parallel lines 5 kilometers apart in the strait.The white triangular sails rotate flexibly to catch the wind, and the ship gallops on the ocean like an arrow.

From that day at the end of June, any ship that appears in the strait, whether it is a fishing boat sailing along the coast or a cumbersome merchant ship, whether it is a seemingly harmless pirate ship or an arrogant European-style armed merchant ship, will all be patrolled by patrol ships. Intercept and check.

This process will certainly not be peaceful.

In the Middle Ages, communication was backward and the speed of information dissemination was extremely slow.When Baisha New Port is in full swing for infrastructure construction and murderous dogs, most of the ships around Qiongzhou naturally don't know the news, let alone those colonial ships that traveled thousands of miles to East Asia.

Therefore, the aboriginals who met the net-style patrol for the first time were severely punished: those who disobeyed the order will enjoy the treatment of artillery fire immediately.

How do you say that?First fire, then fire, and then ask the other party's identity.

You know, this round of net patrols is not going to the countryside to send warmth to poor households.To some extent, the traversing forces rely on artillery fire to declare their sovereignty, so if there is a slight disobedience, they will fire. In order to increase the speed of reputation.

In this process, the fishermen who have been fishing for a long time did not suffer much loss.After all, those who drive a dilapidated boat and have fish in the cabin are mostly people who live an honest life.Seeing the strange ship rushing over, and then looking at the gleaming blue gun muzzle and the government's recognition flag, he stopped resisting.

The real pirates suffered the most from this sudden blow.

The pirates who had already tensed their nerves when they went to sea, saw the ships rushing in from afar, and then looked at the government flags above.

Because they knew very well that if the government stopped the ship for inspection, the empty fish tank would instantly reveal their attributes.

Then the pirate ship was bombarded. The deck was destroyed.

The dead ones were thrown into the sea to feed the fish, and those that survived were locked in the bilge.When these people got out of the bilge again, they were greeted by relatives wearing big caps and a hospitable labor camp.

European ships were also beaten.

Some ships that often hang out in East Asia will lower their sails to approach the visitor after seeing the familiar Cao character to recognize the flag.While the other part does not know the depth, it will put on a defensive posture.

This is a normal reaction.After all, the colonists came all the way and encountered too many ghosts and monsters along the way, so who knows what forces these clippers belong to.

The next moment, seeing the muzzle that was also pushed out of the porthole, the patrol ship, whose tonnage was much smaller than the armed merchant ship, went around and left.However, just as the colonists on the armed merchant ship breathed a sigh of relief, a striking white sail and faint black smoke appeared on the horizon again.

The "Youguang-class" destroyer with a draft of 400 tons is a sail and gunship specially designed for naval warfare.This level of gunship is equipped with ten 8-12 pound mechanically forged Napoleon guns, and its combat effectiveness is completely out of European-style merchant ships that mainly transport goods.

Next is the regular naval battle.

However, the battle usually ends in a short time.The side with advanced sighting equipment and long-range fast guns will soon let the opponent know how powerful it is.Most captains would order the hoisting of the white flag as soon as a third of the sailors were dead - it was hopeless that the gunfire on the merchant ship could not do harm to the opponent.

After the white flag is hoisted, the merchant ship will be escorted to Baisha Port for processing.This can refer to a series of programs after the urban management pulled the peddler's tricycle back.

Lessons in Blood and Fire is undoubtedly the most impressive.In just half a month, the surrounding sea area centered on Qiongzhou seemed to be blown by a typhoon.Now anyone who eats at sea, no matter what power they are in, knows that Qiongzhou has come to Qianglong and has drawn down the rules.

Since those with thick legs have drawn up the rules, those with thin arms have to abide by them—the unlucky ghosts who don’t obey all go to the sea to feed the fish, and those who are lucky go to labor camps.

As a result, the surrounding fishermen went to Shenying Port honestly, registered and reported, and prepared to join some kind of "fishery cooperative".

And the surrounding pirates naturally began to disappear.Some temporarily stopped to wait and see the direction of the wind, and some ran away to continue to do business elsewhere.

However, this negative coping method of running away is not the answer after all, because the main conflict is not only unresolvable, but has become increasingly serious: after the blockade of the Qiongzhou Strait, ships with white sails began to expand their patrol area, including the entire Hainan Island.

In fact, since the Ming Dynasty, and even earlier in the Song Dynasty, the whole territory of Hainan has been patrolled by official ships.It's just that the finances of the imperial court collapsed at the end of the Ming Dynasty, and the so-called regular inspections before became a false story.

Now the picker is here.

Including Sanya, a place that belonged to birds in the Ming Dynasty, has begun to have clipper patrols.Cooperating with the official documents sent by the government, the officials, gentry and people in these remote places doubted their lives for a while: the sun came out from the west, and now as long as they report the bandits, within two days, there will be a fast boat to kill them. Not only the ocean surface, but also officers and soldiers with strange muskets went ashore, arresting thieves all over the world.

However, these fast boats also generously took out silver pancakes when they were replenishing, which made the aborigines flock to them overnight, and everyone vying to be the ghosts.

After such a big blockade model is implemented, the sea route from South Asia to Daming is completely blocked: not to mention the Qiongzhou Strait, the straight-line waterway from Sanya to Hue, Vietnam is also blocked, and no boards can enter the sea unless they go to the relevant The department stamps the certificate.

Now the pirates are completely wilted.Even if you want to pretend to be a fisherman, you will be dragged to buy a big boat to fish in partnership with others, and you will embark on the road of no return to getting rich through labor.

Some people resigned to their fate, and those with the toughest heads had to go south to the Beibu Gulf like their predecessors.Unfortunately, what they don't know is that it won't be long before they will meet that terrifying Cao character recognition flag again.

Just half a month after pulling the net across the Straits, the cabinet sent a large number of personnel and supplies to Qiongzhou after receiving a telegram from the duo of Sha and Shao that they were optimistic about the situation.

As the most important southward plan in 1631 and in the next few years, the crossing forces must invest a lot of resources to ensure the smooth progress of the plan.So as soon as Qiongzhou settled down, Guangzhou sent follow-up support non-stop.

Follow-up support is huge.Among them, the first is the Taijiang-class frigate with a number of twelve, followed by the two newly formed Youguang-class destroyers.

After the warships, there is an 800-ton transport fleet with twelve ships.

The transport fleet came to Qiongzhou this time and loaded a large amount of engineering materials, including expensive construction materials such as cement and steel bars.In addition, a large number of food and daily necessities, as well as barbed wire and other groceries were also carried.

And finally people.

Accompanied by the arrival of massive supplies, there are also a large number of construction machinery personnel.These talents are assets that are far more precious than material goods. Many of them have been cultivated little by little through many hours of hard work as night school teachers.

Finally, there is the most precious property of the time-traveling forces: the time-travelers themselves.

The most valuable person in this plane, needless to say, must be a traveler.Calculating with equal weight of gold seems to be a bit of a shame to the term traveler: the knowledge inheritance of human beings since the Industrial Revolution far exceeds the value of those gold.

Not only materials and technical personnel came with the ship, but also as many as 5 people traveled through the ship.Together with Shao Qiang and Sha Zhengming, these latecomers will form a southward military and political group, spread out points, and attack the countries in Southeast Asia.

The first phase of the task of entering Qiongzhou is now complete.As for the follow-up work, since there were reinforcements, Shao Qiang handed it over to others.

Next, Qiongzhou will walk on two legs.On the one hand, it is necessary to develop the local economy, and on the other hand, it is necessary to do a good job in infrastructure construction, and do a good job in the work of the southward advance base.

What is your job?As far as the current situation is concerned, I went to a certain place in Annan, Vietnam, occupied and built a bridgehead, and this is it.

Is there an exact destination?This has been determined when the Southward Fleet was formed: Annan Hongji Port.

Hon Gai Port is located in the northeast of Vietnam, on the northwest side of the Gulf of Tonkin. It is an important coal export port in northern Vietnam for later generations.

The Honji Coal Field near the port was first developed by the French to produce high-quality thermal coal.

The thermal coal reserves around Hon Gai Port have reached more than 20 billion tons, and the topsoil is thin, which is conducive to open-pit mining. It is the largest coal mine in Vietnam and the Indochina Peninsula, and one of the largest coal fields in Southeast Asia.

And Hon Gai Port does not have Hon Gai Port these days, only the original Halong Bay.Ha Long Bay is in the middle of the Beibu Gulf, only 350 kilometers away from Haikou.

In other words, even at the current standard speed of 5 knots per hour for the cross-force mixed fleet, the voyage from Baisha New Port to Halong Bay will not exceed 30 hours.

If the fleet is all warships, then the speed will be out of bounds. Under the condition of tailwind, it is entirely possible for the fleet to reach the end of the day.

So Shao Qiang and the others set off.

(End of this chapter)