Chapter 399 Victory and Triumph
When the two sides signed a series of agreements on the "concession", the North Vietnamese court was eager to exchange seemingly less useful vacant areas for Hai Han's military assistance, and did not pay special attention to the impact that some of the provisions would have in the future. . After all, the ideologies of those in power are limited by the times and the environment, and therefore lack strategic foresight when making decisions. However, these provisions that were once considered irrelevant by the North Vietnamese court are slowly beginning to take effect after a period of time. ——Some effects that made North Vietnamese officials feel uncomfortable but helpless.
Even if Zheng Bai was dissatisfied with the decisions made by the court, he had no way to change the status quo. After all, he was just a warrior and did not have much influence in the court. Although Zheng Bai really wants to arrest all the Ruan family members, but now the Haihan people want to stand up to protect them, and even use the "concession" as a shield, all Zheng Bai can do is to use the Haihan people's attitude to protect them. Reflecting on it, as for whether to argue with Haihan in the follow-up, that is also the task of civil servants, and it is no longer within the scope of Zheng Bai's participation.
The only thing Zheng Bai felt lucky about was probably that the Haihan people did not open their mouths before the war and asked Hue to come as a concession. Of course, this condition was more likely to be rejected by the North Vietnamese court, but if the Haihan people were in the city Outside the city and even in the city, there is a request to set aside a "special exclusive area" in the nature of a concession. In fact, the possibility of it happening is quite high. If that happens, the local officials stationed in Hue will be in big trouble in the future.
However, Zheng Bai's worries were actually unnecessary. Hai Han never had the idea of occupying Hue City from the beginning to the end. Compared with the big cities of the same era, Hue's conditions are pretty good. The city defense facilities are quite complete. There are vast arable lands around the city to provide food, and there are waterways leading directly to the sea. However, in the view of the Executive Committee and the Military Commission, the location of Hue City is actually not very suitable for Hai Han’s development strategy. It is twenty miles away from the coastline and there is no natural harbor terrain to develop large-scale maritime trade. , the four southern port areas requested by the Executive Committee from the North Vietnamese court were superior to Hue City in terms of sea trade development potential. Of course, if we want to build a port city in the short term in several seaport areas that are still in a state of wilderness, only Haihan's organizational and operational capabilities can achieve it. The North Vietnamese court certainly does not have such great courage.
"Take a good look here again. After you leave Hue this time, you probably won't be able to come back for several years." On the dock outside Hue, Wang Tom said to a group of South Vietnamese surrenderers who were about to embark on an unknown journey. : "The imperial court in the north does not want to see you appear in the Hue area again. In order to save your lives and property, this is also a no-brainer. We can only help here."
The Ruan clan members saved by the Haihan Militia this time were actually far more than the ones on the list Yan Chujie gave to Zheng Bai. The names on the list are all people who actually provided assistance to the Hai Han militia during the attack on Hue, but in addition, there are many people with black accounts who are not included on the list. Most of these people were family members of officials who were captured by the Haihan militia after the city was broken. Some were separated from their families due to the chaos of the war, and some were blocked in their homes before they could escape.
The next thing is very simple. In order to save their lives, these Ruan clan members "actively" paid valuable protection fees to the Haihan militia in exchange for the "freedom and security" promised by the Haihan people. Of course, even after spending money, the Hai Han people still insisted on leaving their homes and leaving Hue. The so-called "freedom and safety" only refers to the process of leaving Hue.
The Haihan Militia only relied on this unplanned revenue to earn more than 300,000 taels of silver, nearly 20,000 taels of gold, and several jewelry items. In terms of gold and silver alone, this is more than the income from the imperial palace. More generous. Several senior military officers even held a special meeting to discuss whether they should step forward to save the senior Nguyen family officials captured by North Vietnam. After all, these people still have quite a lot of various types of real estate in the private sector, and it will be difficult to sell them in the future. Little money.
Ruan Jinggui stepped forward and cupped his hands and said: "Thank you, Mr. Haihan, for keeping your promise. After I, the Ruan clan, leave Hue, I will ask you to take care of me!"
These Ruan clan members will not be sent to the same residence. For safety reasons, the Haihan side will separate them and place them in different areas. Some maritime merchants like Ruan Jinggui will be resettled in several newly opened ports in the south in the future, while most of the others will be transported back to Hainan Island and assigned to various resettlement sites under the executive committee. As for the very few people who still have a certain amount of property after paying protection fees, resettlement fees, transportation fees and other various fees, but are unwilling to put themselves under the protection of Haihan, the military has also given them another option, which is Send them to the coastal areas of Ming Dynasty to land. As for where they will go from now on, it will be completely up to them to fend for themselves.
On March 30, the first batch of ships carrying loot and Ruan immigrants sailed out of the Xiangjiang estuary and returned to Sanya. The total value of the loot shipped on this batch of ships alone has exceeded two million taels of silver. This is a level that the total harvest of the Haihan Militia Group's several attacks in the past has not reached. Although the current communication with the base camp can only be through brief telegrams, several senior officers at the frontline command headquarters can basically imagine the executive committee members smiling from ear to ear after receiving the news.
For the military, the biggest gain from this battle is not the amount of materials and money seized, but the expansion opportunities it will gain. The military's various military expansion and war preparation plans have always been denied or cut in half by the executive committee in the name of "over budget", but this time the troops were dispatched to Hue and the astonishing income proved that the Military Commission "supports war with war" The development method is quite feasible. This time I will go back and submit the army expansion report to the Executive Committee. I believe that the Executive Committee will no longer be able to use the same excuses.
Even out of practical considerations, the Haihan Militia's next military expansion is imperative. After the battle of Haihan, there were four more ports to be built in the Indochina Peninsula. One of them was Cam Ranh Bay, a military port that the military had coveted for a long time. Even if these four ports were configured with the lowest military strength, There must be at least two to three thousand permanent troops. However, the militia army and reserve militia currently stationed in Annan are only about half of this number. The gap in military strength is still quite large.
In the expansion of military power in Indochina, the soldiers will not only come from the local area, but a considerable part of them will come from the Sanya area. According to the principle of serving in different places, soldiers recruited from the Indochina Peninsula will take turns to serve in Hainan Island, while soldiers recruited from the Ming Dynasty will be sent to serve overseas one after another. If nothing else happens, most of the first batch of troops stationed in the four new ports will be troops from the Sanya Military Region.
However, the militia troops participating in the Battle of Hue did not evacuate immediately with the cargo ship, because although the destruction of Hue symbolized the collapse of the South Vietnamese regime, Annan's unification war did not end there. In the Guangzhi area south of Dong Hoi and north of Hue, there are at least thousands of remaining South Vietnamese forces controlling Guangzhi City. In the offshore areas south of Hue to the southern tip of the Indochina Peninsula, there are at least a dozen states and counties that are unaware of the changes that have occurred in Hue. The two sides must also reach an agreement on the next military action. In other words, everyone must first settle the accounts ahead. Then think about whether we should fight the next battle together.
"General Yan, last month our army has not sent an observation team to station in your army. The accounts for last month...I think there are some issues worthy of discussion. The daily expenditure for this cruise is 8,000 taels of silver. Where did it come from? ? How to confirm? ”
"Oh? General Zheng can't trust our army's accounts? So in the eyes of General Zheng, our army's credibility is not enough? We send more than twenty ships to patrol the waters off Hue every day to block the ships sent by South Vietnam. Soldiers go out early and come back late every day, and they have to perform six or seven hours of tasks at sea. But if you say something like this, all your work has been in vain.”
When it comes to the huge military expenditures involved in this battle, the generals on both sides insist on their own opinions and will not give in. If not for everyone wearing military uniforms and speaking solemnly, the scene would have felt like a market hawker haggling.
According to the figures provided by Hai Han's side, the North Vietnamese court must provide more than 1.8 million taels of silver as compensation for the Hai Han militia's battle. Under Zheng Bai's strong request, Haihan made a slight concession and deducted the first year's rent from the four southern ports. They also stated that they would make certain financial compensation for North Vietnam's release of thousands of South Vietnamese surrendered troops, and the overall cost would be reduced. It was reduced by about 10%.
However, even so, there is no substantial difference between 1.8 million and 1.6 million for the already extremely poor North Vietnamese court. Zheng Bai originally planned to use the property confiscated in Hue city to offset the military expenses required by the Hai Han militia. However, the actual situation was too different from what he had imagined. After entering the city just one day late, the property in the city was lost to the Hai Han people. Most of it was scraped away. Zheng Bai used tens of thousands of people to search the city for five days, but the money he obtained was only more than 300,000 taels of silver. Zheng Bai's estimated number before the war was no less than two million taels, but the gap in the actual number was simply too large for him to accept. Such a small amount of money, let alone paying the military expenses of the Hai Han people, is far from enough to pay the imperial court. Over there in Thang Long Palace, the Qing Dynasty King Zheng Jie was eagerly looking forward to the capture of Hue City after paying the military expenses of the Hai Han people. , and even left a few money to go into the treasury. However, now it seems that all this is just a delusion. It is hard for Zheng Bai to imagine whether Zheng Jie will be so angry that he vomits blood when he receives the report a few days later.
For practical reasons, Zheng Bai certainly hopes to continue to cooperate with the Haihan militia, which can save the North Vietnamese Army a lot of consumption. However, although the combat effectiveness of the Hai Han Militia was good, the military expenditure was too high for North Vietnam to bear. Zheng Bai is not the Minister of Finance and does not have the authority to make decisions. All he can do now is to try to keep the price of military expenditures that need to be paid as low as possible, and then report the figures to Shenglong Palace for decision-making. Of course, no matter what the final figure of the money is, no matter whether Thang Long Palace can pay it off in one lump sum, it must still be acknowledged. Otherwise, Zheng Bai cannot guarantee whether the Hai Han militia will simply choose to travel by sea after they withdraw from Hue. Go north to the Red River Delta and head straight to Thang Long Province. Since these madmen have a way to tear down the inner and outer walls of Hue City, then the city defenses of Thang Long Palace may not be able to stop them.
Although Zheng Bai really wanted to continue cooperating with the Haihan Militia to wipe out the remaining forces in South Vietnam, Yan Chujie's attitude was also very clear. If the previous accounts were not settled clearly, the Haihan Militia would not participate in subsequent military operations. The time limit Hai Han left for North Vietnam was also very short, only five days - which was not enough to run back and forth from Hue to Thang Long, or even one way.
On April 3, the Hai Han militia, which did not wait for a confirmed response from North Vietnam, began to organize troops to evacuate Hue. Zheng Bai was really happy and worried when he saw this scene. He was happy that these troublesome guys were finally leaving Annan - the Hai Han Militia had extremely high requirements for logistical supplies, and the poultry and livestock within thirty miles of Hue were , almost all of them complied with their request and were used as food supplies for the Haihan militia. If they didn't leave, Zheng Bai might have to send tens of thousands of people under his command out to hunt and fish.
The worrying side is that after the Haihan people leave, the battle to suppress the remaining forces in South Vietnam will inevitably slow down. After the Hai Han Militia withdraws, the corresponding maritime transport capacity will be greatly reduced. In the future, there will be only limited maritime transport capacity to support the North Vietnamese Army's suppression operations. Just maintaining a long supply line will require too much energy and materials from the North Vietnamese Army. If nothing unexpected happens, Zheng Bai estimates that he will spend most of the next half year in constant marches and wars.
On April 8, the militia troops returned to Sanya by boat. Although they missed the celebration of the second anniversary of the crossing, the Executive Committee still mobilized the people of Sanya area to come to the port area to welcome the troops returning from the expedition with honor. This welcome event was also the largest since the militiamen were mobilized several times. All members of the executive committee and more than 10,000 people came to the port area to welcome the victorious militiamen.
In this battle, nearly 2,000 combat personnel and nearly 1,000 civilians were dispatched to the Sanya area. During the battle, 174 people were killed and more than 60 were seriously injured and disabled. But considering the brilliant results achieved, this number of casualties is enough to be proud of.
Yan Chujie, Qian Tiandun, Qiao Zhiya, Wang Tom and others who achieved meritorious service in this battle were all publicly commended by the Executive Committee at the welcome ceremony on the pier. Internal promotions of the Military Commission will be decided at another date. Announce. On behalf of the frontline command, Yan Chujie read out the list of all those who died in the war at the welcome ceremony, and distributed pensions and commendation orders jointly issued by the Executive Committee and the Military Commission to their families on the spot. All those who died in the war will be posthumously awarded second-class personal military merit, and their remains will be placed in the Martyrs Cemetery. Their families will receive corresponding policy care in terms of work, house purchase, and children's education.
After completing these face-saving projects, the Executive Committee held a welcome reception at Fort Victory for the military officers who went on the expedition. In addition to internal staff, the participants also invited many foreign merchants and business representatives based in Sanya. Of course, official representatives of Ming Dynasty such as Luo Shengdong were also present.
The main reason for inviting these outsiders is that the Executive Committee wants to use this victory to promote military force. While shocking people, it also gives more confidence to those pro-Hai Han forces and interested allies. Let them understand how terrifying the Haihan Militia is.
After three rounds of wine and five dishes, Tao Donglai stood up, made a group salute and said loudly: "Everyone, please listen to me."
After the venue calmed down, Tao Donglai continued: "I believe everyone knows that the reason why we are here today is to help our militia soldiers clean up their dust. But where did they go to fight, what was the process, and what was the result? I believe Most of the people here may not be very clear about it. In order to give you a more intuitive understanding of how our militia groups fight for Haihan's interests outside, we have specially arranged a small program this time. Please stay where you are for the rest of the time. "Sit, don't move around."
After Tao Dong finished speaking, he clapped his hands, and the lights in the room were turned off. Just when everyone present was confused, they saw a light curtain lit up on a wall, and what was reflected on it was the Haihan Militia. The scene when the February expedition left Port Victory. Seeing such a scene, some people immediately exclaimed, and some people who had seen it knew that this was the secret technique of "point shadow" uniquely mastered by the Haihan people, and immediately explained it in a low voice.
This shot was probably taken on a certain warship on an expedition. Dozens of large ships sailed out of the harbor one after another, lining up in a row and towing a fleet that was several miles long on the sea.
Next, when the camera turned, several Haihan warships were seen chasing a sailboat on the sea. At this time, Wang Tom's voice sounded at the scene: "This is us chasing South Vietnamese cargo ships. These cargo ships are purchasing supplies for South Vietnam in Daming, but most of them are intercepted by us on their way back."
The scene soon switched to the landing of the fleet. Wang Tom explained: "This is our landing at the mouth of the Xiong River east of Hue. This place is about 20 miles away from Hue City."
The next scene made the spectators' blood boil. More than ten artillery pieces were lined up on the river bank, bombarding dozens of ships on the river. From the picture, you can clearly see the process of these ships being hit by bullets and catching fire. The South Vietnamese soldiers on board jumped into the river to escape, while the ships slowly sank into the water. It was the first time for many people to see real war scenes, and the rumble of cannons emitted from the live speakers made many people tremble and almost want to escape.
"This is us annihilating the South Vietnamese naval forces on the banks of the Xiangjiang River. Of course, to them this is the navy, but to us it is just a pile of broken wood floating on the river." Wang Tom's explanation The poem is full of disdain for the South Vietnamese Navy and pride for its own militia. Although the tone is arrogant, it is taken for granted in the eyes of the onlookers - under Hai Han's fierce artillery attack, this is not just a pile of broken wood. ?
(End of chapter)