Chapter 513 The action begins
October 3, 1630, the twenty-seventh day of August in the third year of Chongzhen in the Ming Dynasty, off the coast to the west of Danzhou.
An unbelievably huge fleet slowly appeared on the sea and headed east towards Danzhou Bay. This fleet is actually composed of four smaller fleets. Each fleet consists of about ten sea-going ships, and each sea-going ship carries armed personnel ranging from 80 to 200 people. Coupled with the logistics ships transporting materials and supplies, as well as the armed ships patrolling and escorting the outside, the size of the entire fleet actually reaches more than 70 ships, and this is just the troop transport fleet from Annanjiba Island. It does not include the naval fleet that previously annihilated the Ming Dynasty Navy in the Beibu Gulf.
In order to achieve the wave of lightning attacks designed by the Military Commission, nearly 5,000 armed personnel from Annan were also transported to Danzhou at one time to carry out landing operations. This has put extremely high demands on the shipping department's ship deployment and coordination capabilities. For this reason, almost all personnel from the entire shipping department have come out. Yue Zhiyun and Sun Changmi have both joined the fleet as front-line commanders. Even many craftsmen from the Victory Port Shipyard were sent to Changhua and Danzhou in advance to prepare for emergency repairs of ships that may have problems.
In order to allow this huge fleet to arrive in Danzhou without anyone noticing, the militia army implemented a sea ban on the northern coast of Annan five days in advance, and the reason for the ban was also very sufficient: the militia planned to conduct a sea ban on the northern coast of Annan in the near future. The pirates raging in the Beibu Gulf were attacked. In order to avoid harming the fish and accidentally injuring innocent people, all ships heading to Qiongzhou Island and Daming were prohibited from leaving the port within 20 days. This order is not too difficult to execute. After all, several major ports in northern Annan are under the control of the militia. The decrees issued by the militia are basically golden rules. No one dares to challenge the authority of the militia in this area.
The shielding of the waters near Danzhou is relatively troublesome. On the one hand, spies from the Ministry of Security began to spread rumors in the Danzhou market, saying that the recent main activity area of Annan pirates is outside Danzhou Bay, scaring the timid. The ship owner did not dare to sail the ship at this time. Various maritime merchants who have close relations with Haihan have also received secret notices from Haihan, asking them not to send ships in and out of Danzhou Bay in the near future.
On the other hand, several lucky ships disguised as pirate ships in the early stage have also sailed south from Leizhou Peninsula and cruised outside Danzhou Bay. If there are really those who are not afraid of death and dare to rush outside, then they will be located at Baimajing Port at the entrance of Danzhou Bay. The early warning point will transmit the news to the "pirate ship" in the outer sea as soon as possible, allowing it to solve these potential dangers. Starting from October 2, six warships and two supply ships transferred back from Wanshan Port and Hong Kong sailed into the Qiongzhou Strait and began to monitor and blockade the sea outside Qiongzhou Fucheng.
At the same time as the "Para prairie Fire Plan" was launched, the office in Guangzhou was not idle either. Piracy activities have been rampant in the Qiongzhou Strait recently, and relevant news has already reached Guangzhou. However, the impact here is far less direct than that in Qiongzhou, so the attention of the government and the people is extremely limited. One of the current tasks of the Office in Guangdong is to guide the public opinion in Guangzhou and make it develop in a direction that is beneficial to Haihan before taking action.
However, rumors about this group of pirates have become more and more popular in the market recently. There are rumors that this group of pirates are the remnants of the former Annan Dynasty, combined with some pirates from the coast of Guangxi and Guangdong in the Ming Dynasty, and a small number of Japanese pirates. The number of pirates is far more than those who appeared in Qiongzhou. That point nearby, but ten times that. The purpose of this group of pirates in harassing Qiongzhou Island was not simply to rob homes and plunder money, but they had already set their sights on the land of Qiongzhou Island and were preparing to seize it as the foundation of another country.
When this idea first appeared, it was naturally scorned by the public - it was enough to rob places, but when it came to conquering cities and even establishing a country, no one believed that a group of pirates could be so capable. The "Eighteen Zhi" in Fujian are so powerful, with tens of thousands of soldiers and thousands of warships under their command, wouldn't Zheng Zhilong still have no choice but to be a pirate on Dayuan Island? Of course, people who hold this opinion do not know that if Haihan had not provided military assistance to the Fujian Navy in recent years, according to the original historical trajectory, Zheng Zhilong would have destroyed the Fujian Navy and then transformed into an official army of the Ming Dynasty. , and from then on controlled the southeast coast for several years.
However, someone soon got first-hand information from the Office of the People's Republic of China in Guangzhou, and it spread quickly in Guangzhou: this group of pirates was not just a mob, but included a large number of former Annan Army personnel. The robots purchased a large number of matchlock guns and artillery, and their level of armament was no less than that of the regular Ming army. The Haihan Militia and Annan officials have been encircling and suppressing this group of people for a long time, but still no obvious progress has been made. The back and forth fighting has only emboldened this group of people. The rumors of attacking Qiongzhou Island are not false news. But it is true.
Folk rumors may not be a pity, but if it comes from the mouths of Haihan people, it will be different. After all, the Haihan people fought against bandits and pirates on the coast of Guangdong in the past two years, and those were real achievements. It is already a consensus among the people that the combat power of the Haihan militia is higher than that of the Ming Dynasty official army. But if the Haihan people are holding pirates who can't do anything, then I'm afraid they really shouldn't be underestimated.
Haihan's representative in Guangzhou, Boss Malikoma, did not sit idly by and contacted more than 20 big figures in Guangzhou's business district and jointly submitted a letter to the Governor's Mansion, requesting Guangzhou to send troops to the Qiongzhou Strait to exterminate this group of very dangerous pirates. Maliko even generously said that Haihan could send out a militia group at his own expense to cooperate with official actions.
Of course, the result of the petition did not go beyond the expectations of the Executive Committee. Wang Zunde, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, who was also facing tight financial problems, did not regard the pirates in the Qiongzhou Strait as a serious problem. In his opinion, the reason why the Haihan people were so concerned about this matter They are particularly interested, and they may just want to use this to further expand the scale of the militia under their name, but this is not the development trend that Mr. Wang wants to see.
As for the folk rumors that this group of pirates was going to capture Qiongzhou Island, Wang Zunde didn't believe it. Could it be that all the eleven guards on Qiongzhou Island, with a total of more than 10,000 officers and soldiers, died, how could they be taken over so easily by a group of pirates. To take a step back, the Haihan people are all operating on Qiongzhou Island. If pirates come to the island, then the Haihan people can't fight with them? Even if the government does not send troops by then, I am afraid that the Haihan Executive Committee will not be able to sit still and will naturally send out militia groups to suppress the bandits. Regardless of the casualties on both sides, it will ultimately be a good thing for the government.
Sure enough, as the pirates' attacks near Qiongzhou became more frequent, the Haihan people finally couldn't sit still. A few days ago, Malik held a grand banquet at the Chinese Embassy in Guangzhou and invited the gentry and wealthy businessmen near Guangzhou. He claimed that he would serve the country and send his own armed forces to destroy the current unscrupulous pirates. All personnel, weapons and consumption will be borne by Haihan himself. The only thing he hopes for the cooperation of the Guangdong business community is not to send ships to Qiongzhou Island in the near future to avoid getting caught in the battlefield and being accidentally injured. After the Haihan militia eliminated the pirates, the shipping routes between the two places would be gradually restored.
Malico's words in front of the public often have the meaning of "the government has become a coward, but Haihan will never bow its head." Haihan's "high integrity" also received strong support from the Guangzhou business community. Although Malik said that all combat expenses would be borne by Haihan himself, many businesses with vital interests in Qiongzhou Island still donated enthusiastically. Eighty thousand taels of silver were raised in three days, and Li Jifeng, the head of the Guangzhou Chamber of Commerce, handed it over to the Guangdong Office as military expenses for the Haihan militia to send troops. This news made the Ming garrison generals in Guangzhou feel very sad. If they had known this, they should have taken the initiative to ask for orders and get the tens of thousands of taels of silver in their hands first. However, at this time, Wang Zunde, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, had already expressed his position that he would not send troops to suppress the bandits for the time being, so the officers and soldiers could only watch helplessly as the Haihan people played such a trick of voluntary donation.
The businessmen who donated money to Haihan were not cooperating with the show. Most of them did not know the truth. They simply believed that the Haihan people were really going to fight pirates when they prepared to go to war this time. Only the Li family and a very few people who are closely related to Haihan know a little bit of the inside story. Haihan's operation this time has a grand plan, and it is far from being over after the pirates are defeated.
Haihan did what he said and immediately purchased a large amount of various supplies and medicines in the Guangzhou market. As an example, he stopped all regular ships to the Sanya area. Wanshan Port and Hong Kong also began to enter a state of military control, and everything seemed to indicate that a war was coming.
Just after the Haihan Office in Guangzhou started taking action, a secret letter from Qiongzhou Island was also sent to the Jinyiwei Yamen in Guangzhou. This secret letter came from Jinyiwei's Tianzi No. 1 spy stationed in Sanya. Through this secret channel, a large amount of Haihan news has been continuously sent to the government offices in the mainland in the past six months. Although there is not much valuable information in it, the senior officials of Jinyiwei believe that the chess piece laid out will come in handy sooner or later - such as this pirate incident.
The information sent by Tianzi No. 1 secret agent this time can be regarded as the most valuable information he sent back after settling in Sanya, because the content of this secret message is related to the current piracy scandal.
According to the information obtained directly by the spies from a senior figure in Haihan, this group of pirates' plan to attack Qiongzhou Island has already begun to be implemented, and the time to launch the offensive is very close. The scale of the battle is probably far greater than what the government imagined. It is not fighting for a city or a pond, but really intends to take over the entire Hainan Island and use it as a pirate nest. In order to protect their own interests, the Haihan people have all mobilized and are preparing to fight a big battle with the pirates. However, in order to avoid suspicion, the Haihan people were unable to send troops in advance to assist the local government in defending the city. They could only wait until the pirates attacked before taking action.
At the same time, the secret agent also pointed out in the report that the officials in several cities and towns in the northern part of Qiongzhou Island were completely unaware of the seriousness of the situation and still thought that this was just a small-scale pirate attack. This attitude may cause them to suffer big losses in the subsequent battles. . According to the speculations of the Haihan people, there is a 90% chance that the pirates will use a sneak attack to seize the city. However, the local officials and defenders obviously lack corresponding vigilance and preparation for this. If the war breaks out, several cities in the north may be Throw it away quickly.
And this secret report, which confirmed that "pirates are about to attack Qiongzhou Island", was of course written by Li Qingyang, the Jinyiwei spy who had defected to Haihan. For the Ming Dynasty officials, the news spread through his special channel was far more credible than folk rumors. Moreover, the Ministry of Security has been planning for this for several months, and there are almost no loopholes in the entire plan. The wording in the secret report has also been carefully reviewed to ensure that Jin Yiwei will be 100% hooked once they get it.
After the Jinyiwei Yamen in Guangzhou received this secret report, it really paid enough attention. Qianhu, who was in Guangzhou, sent people 800 miles away to report to the Nanjing Zhenfu Division and notified the Governor's Office of the relevant information. It was only then that Wang Zunde realized that his previous judgment might be wrong, and the situation on Qiongzhou Island was far more serious than he expected. However, the Governor-General's Office just made a statement two days ago that it would not send troops. If it were to change its tune now, it would undoubtedly mean slapping itself in the mouth.
While Mr. Wang was still in a dilemma, Haihan had already started the first step of the plan - to capture Danzhou. Danzhou is an important town in the northwest of Qiongzhou Island, and it is also the shortest voyage from the Annan coast to Qiongzhou Island. In addition, there is a natural harbor where a large number of ships can enter and dock. It can provide a landing point for a large number of combatants coming from the sea when the offensive is launched. Therefore, when the military formulated the combat plan, they did not hesitate to use this place as the first point of attack.
The vanguard troops led by Mu Xiabai and Feng Annan had already sneaked into the areas west and south of Danzhou in batches on October 1st. When Annan's fleet arrived at the sea off Danzhou on October 3, the troops led by the two men took action at the same time to cut off Danzhou's main communication lines to the east and southwest.
At about 10 a.m. on October 3, residents of the fishing village near Baimajing gathered at the beach and watched in stunned silence as this huge fleet of ships, never seen before, sailed into Danzhou Bay. They had been put under house arrest by a group of unidentified armed men the night before. However, unlike the imagined pirates, these armed men did not kill or kill them, nor did they rob their property, wives and children. They are only asked not to come and go at will in the near future, and anyone who leaves the village without permission will be punished as spies.
As long as they could live peacefully, no one would foolishly fight against these armed men equipped with swords and guns, so the villagers stayed in the village obediently and became spectators.
(End of chapter)