Chapter 511 Plan
August 18, 1630, Qiongzhou Strait.
Tom Wang stood on the bow deck, looking at the sea ahead with a telescope, and asked after a moment: "What is the current speed?"
"Reporting to the commander, the current speed is five knots." Someone responded soon.
Tom Wang frowned. This speed really made him feel a little uncomfortable as he was used to the new sailboat. Starting from the coast near Qiongzhou Fucheng, we crossed the Qiongzhou Strait and headed to a bay in the southwest corner of Leizhou Peninsula. If you take a Haihan-style sailing boat, you can reach your destination in about four hours. However, with this Chinese-style sailing boat, you have already sailed for nearly six hours and still haven't arrived.
Wang Tom turned back and looked towards the stern of the ship. The other three ships he was traveling with were following behind, carrying militiamen from two companies of the Annan Militia Army, as well as the ship that had been disguised as pirates for the past half month. The "results" obtained by the team's frequent activities on the coast of Qiongzhou Island.
Of course, calling it a victory is actually a bit exaggerated. After Wang Tom and his team worked hard for so many days, they only managed to grab several thousand kilograms of grain and a small amount of gold and silver, the value of which was far from enough for the military expenses of this team. These harvests basically come from the fishing villages and farmers near the coastline. As for the merchant ships and civilian ships that were robbed at sea, they were all arranged in advance, so no matter how the navy of Qiongzhou Fucheng patrols the offshore, they will always be there. A ship encountered pirates in nearby waters.
As for the militia's offensive on land, they basically select random targets. As long as they encounter no resistance, they will not take the initiative to kill. This is the bottom line that Wang Tom can achieve. After all, if there is no looting, No, then this role-playing trick will be difficult to fool people. There are indeed no resistant villages on the northern coastline of Qiongzhou Island. Once these hundreds of soldiers with bright swords and guns came ashore, few people had the courage to resist when facing them.
However, Huangjiazhuang, which was captured by the militia army yesterday, is a small exception, because this place was not randomly selected to intimidate people, but a specially designated target by the Ministry of Security. Since Haihan appeared in Qiongzhou, the Huang family and his son have been the main advocates of anti-Haihan activities near the capital of Qiongzhou, and they have also been the focus of the Ministry of Security for a long time.
People who hold this attitude are mainly large landowners in Qiongzhou Prefecture. These people basically rely on land rent to make money. They have little to do with the trade method promoted by Haihan, and they cannot gain much benefit from it. Of course, if it were just like this, the relationship between the two parties would not develop to the level of mutual hostility. The most fundamental reason is that the land policy implemented by the Haihan Executive Committee in the southern region gave the large landowners in the north a hint of danger. odor.
Haihan has been promoting public ownership of land in his area of rule. No matter who originally owned the land, it must be returned to public ownership. Those who can get the land title deeds can also get some land acquisition compensation from Haihan. If they can't get clear proof, there is nothing they can do, and the land will be forcibly expropriated by the executive committee. If a tough confrontation is attempted, the muskets and bayonets of the Haihan militia will be waiting for these people. During the land expropriation process, the landlords who were suppressed by the militia were not just one or two households. Although the south had long been dominated by Haihan, these things inevitably spread to the north through various channels.
This practice of the Haihan people naturally attracted the attention of the northern landowners. They did not realize that Haihan's method was to completely change the social structure and labor relations. Instead, they simply believed that this was Haihan's bullying of the weak and shameless annexation of land. a means.
If you are just a small landowner in the countryside with a hundred or so acres of land to your name, then that's fine. At worst, you can calculate the price according to the land deed, sell the land to the Haihan people, and use the money to live in an apartment in Guangzhou. But large landowners like the Huang family often have a large amount of land under their names without legal procedures. These lands were basically accumulated by landowners who organized wasteland reclamation or by annexing the land of ordinary farmers. Since it was not registered with the government, there was no need to pay due taxes to the government for the agricultural products grown on these lands.
To put it bluntly, this is actually a means of evading taxes. If the Haihan people want to expropriate land, these legally unowned lands will be taken away by the Haihan people in vain, and the landowners will not get any compensation. This kind of loss will be detrimental to the people. This is no small amount for the landowners.
In order to avoid such a situation, the landowners believe that the most effective way is to curb Haihan's expansion to the north, otherwise these overseas barbarians will sooner or later implement their terrible land policy across the island. And they did not sit still and resisted Haihan's economy, culture, and system within the scope of their influence.
Although what the landlords did did not affect the overall situation and could not stop Haihan's progress, it was really annoying to have such a swarm of flies flying in front of him all the time. Two months ago, when a naturalized employee under Haihan was selling various daily necessities in Huangjiazhuang, he was arrested by the Huang family and his son. They also lynched the employee and broke his legs. It was a good idea to die, but it turned out that this unlucky naturalized citizen was a spy sent by the Ministry of Security to collect intelligence around Fucheng, so the relationship was formed.
Later, when the Ministry of Security formulated the local targets that needed to be attacked during the operation, Huangjiazhuang was included as a target to scare the monkeys. This is not a public revenge, but the Huang family and his son have united with many Zhuangzi near Qiongzhou City to jointly ban Haihan, and they have also contacted the gentry in each county to jointly submit a letter to ask the prefect to punish these people who do not comply with the Ming Dynasty law. The aliens from France were driven out of Qiongzhou Island.
Since he was seeking his own death, Haihan would naturally not be merciful. After the security department found out the situation in Huangjiazhuang, Wang Tom led a team to the nearby coast, landed at dawn, and directly attacked Huangjiazhuang.
Wang Tom also had to admit that the group of people trained by Qian Tiandun were indeed easy to use. A force of more than 200 people controlled a village of 1,000 people. It only took about half an hour to complete the combat mission, and in The three Huang family father and son were captured at a loss without any casualties.
Although the target of the operation had been set long ago, Wang Tom was not interested in executing such a few helpless people in person, so this glorious task fell to Gao Qiaonan, who was appointed by Qian Tiandun as the combat commander. . As the officer leading the team this time, Takahashi himself knew that he was not only responsible for the front-line command, but more importantly, the face of the Annan Militia Army. After receiving this order from Qian Tiandun, he thought it was important for him. Words are a great compliment. For this reason, Takahashi Minami even took out his collection of samurai swords and chopped off the three heads one by one in front of hundreds of villagers.
Neither Takahashi Minami nor Wang Tom could have imagined that this arrangement would turn out to be a mistake, and would instead confirm their pirate identities. After they evacuated Huangjiazhuang, the government received a report of pirate landing and harassment, and the content was conclusive - the person who beheaded Mr. Huang and his son was an authentic Japanese pirate. Hundreds of people witnessed this with their own eyes. Absolutely no moisture.
Information about this incident quickly spread to Qiongzhou City, forcing some people who originally suspected Haihan to be causing trouble to abandon their previous speculations and start inquiring about the whereabouts of this group of pirates - no one could be sure. Wherever they will land next time, it is obviously unrealistic to rely on the protection of the government. In that case, it is better to run away as soon as they hear the news.
The fleet led by Wang Tom finally arrived at its destination in the evening of the same day, Liusha Village on the west coast of Leizhou Peninsula. There is a natural bay here for fleets to enter and dock. More than a thousand acres of land near Liusha Village was purchased by relevant departments last year in the name of a certain Ming businessman. Although there was a plan to establish a military stronghold here at that time, no one thought that it would only take more than half a year. , it is put into practical use here.
Before arriving at Liusha Port, all the black flags on the ships had been changed, and all the weapons had been put away. The current identity of this fleet was a caravan coming from Sanya to traffic in sugar. The fleet will rest here for two or three days. After completing the supplies, it will set off again to the south coast of Qiongzhou Strait to continue its raiding mission. Liusha Port is only about thirty nautical miles away from the northern coastline of Qiongzhou Island. Although the speed of these Chinese sailing ships is slow, they can reach their destinations on the same day, and it is relatively convenient to perform tasks.
By late August, the local governments, overwhelmed by the disturbance, began to write to the city, requesting the city to send troops as soon as possible to quell the increasingly rampant pirates. And Fucheng has been unable to find a better solution, unless it is to ask for help from Guangzhou. However, if we have to wait for Guangzhou to reply before dispatching troops and arranging a battle plan, I am afraid it will take at least two months to see any action. . In the end, the government government became cruel and decided to try to solve the problem on its own first. If it didn't work, it would ask Guangzhou for help.
Only an hour after the governor and the commander agreed, the news was transmitted from the government office's study to the Haihan office, and then a few minutes later, it arrived at the information center of Sanya Victory Fort along with the radio waves. This telegram, marked as a top-secret emergency, was delivered to the Executive Committee by staff. While Lord Zhizhou of Qiongzhou was still drafting relevant documents in his study, the executive committee had already held an emergency meeting to discuss the next steps.
"This is the telegram we just received. Qiongzhou Fucheng has decided to send the local navy to encircle and suppress our pirate fleet." Yan Chujie took out the telegram and handed it to the officials from various departments present for circulation.
"Where is our fleet now? They all used old ships this time, so they don't really get hit by the Ming Navy." Gu Kai asked worriedly.
Yan Chujie responded: "The fleet is now in the Leizhou Peninsula. Don't worry, and the movements in Fucheng will not affect our action plan for the time being. They raise supplies and then mobilize troops. It cannot be completed in three or five days. When the Daming Navy begins to move, our pirate fleet will have no time to respond. What we need to decide now is how to deal with this attack by the Daming Navy."
"Where is the target of their attack? Did the news we spread earlier really take effect?" Ning Qi asked.
"Let He Xi answer this question." Yan Chujie extended his hand to indicate to He Xi.
"From the beginning of the pirate ship operation, we began to spread news all over the north, claiming that the home base of this group of pirates was on Weizhou Island. If the Ming Dynasty navy really planned to suppress the bandits, then their only target could only be Weizhou, who was rumored in the world. Zhoudao." He Xi explained: "As far as we know, there is no other statement from Fucheng, so we can make some targeted arrangements in advance. Of course, it still depends on what effect we want to achieve. The purpose of your military’s combat.”
He Xi kicked the ball back to Yan Chujie, and Yan Chujie said in a deep voice: "Considering that in the subsequent battle plan, our navy needs to blockade the Qiongzhou Strait to prevent the Ming Dynasty from sending reinforcements from Leizhou Peninsula to Fucheng, then we should solve the problem in advance. The Ming Dynasty Navy in the government is also a necessary means. Originally, the battle plan we prepared was to send ships to harass Qiongzhou City, lure this navy out, and kill them in the Qiongzhou Strait. But now that the situation has changed, I I think we might as well put this battlefield to the west of the Qiongzhou Strait, a little further from the coast.”
"As far as we know, the naval force stationed near Qiongzhou Fucheng is well-equipped and neglected in training, and it is also following Luo Shengdong's example and using warships to run maritime smuggling business. Their combat effectiveness should be quite limited, right? "Ning Qi continued to ask.
"That's right, according to what we know, there are no more than ten warships in this navy that still retain basic combat capabilities. The largest warship is the Fuchuan with about 400 materials, which is similar to that of our militia navy. There is a huge difference in combat effectiveness." Yan Chujie paused here and changed the subject: "But just because the opponent is not strong, we plan to use two main warships that have been commissioned this year in this battle to practice their use. New warship combat routines ”
Since the two hybrid warships "Dignity" and "Dignity Signal" were put into service, they have been in a state of training and running-in and have not been used in real combat missions. The military leaders obviously do not want to see the two combat ships built at a huge cost to serve as patrol ships and be put to use on the battlefield as soon as possible. That is a scene that senior officers like to see. The battle plan against the Ming Navy this time is obviously a perfect opportunity - the opponent is weak and can be used to practice tactics, and there is no need to worry about any danger.
(End of chapter)