Chapter 614 Battle of Nanri Island (1)
The current immigration policy of the Ministry of Civil Affairs for the Fujian region is based on the guiding ideology of "fewer but better". During the period when it is temporarily impossible to recruit immigrants in large numbers, Hainan Island's current shortage of craftsmen, sailors and intellectuals with active ideas will be used as the guide. Main recruitment targets. For these personnel, the Ministry of Civil Affairs has given relatively flexible conditions to the overseas institutions, allowing them to promise some relatively favorable conditions to the immigrants as appropriate, such as remuneration and benefits after immigrants work in Hainan Island.
Compared with ordinary recruitment methods, this method can play a more obvious role in recruiting professionals. Especially with Zhang Qianren, a man from Fujian who knows how to build and sail ships, sitting here, the efficiency of recruiting shipbuilders and sailors is quite impressive. Zhang Qianren specifically explained that among the more than 1,000 immigrants sent to Sanya in the first three months of this year, more than two-thirds were sailors, shipwrights and other craftsmen, and the proportion of skilled craftsmen was much higher than that in Guangdong. From this perspective, Quanzhou’s immigration recruitment work is still remarkable.
After listening to Zhang Qianren's explanation, Shi Diwen suddenly said: "If you just look at the data on paper, you will be wrongly accused of incompetence."
Zhang Qianren said: "Although my ability is limited, I always do my best and dare not slack off. In addition, I also have a small suggestion. I hope the two leaders can convey it to the executive committee on my behalf."
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"You said."
"I would like to suggest that in the future more local people can be sent back to recruit immigrants, especially those who have become famous after immigrating to Qiongzhou. Their personal opinions will be more convincing."
"Is it a cadre like you?" Shi Diwen nodded with understanding: "I understand what you mean, and I will convey it to the Executive Committee when I get back."
Successful people like Zhang Tiangui and his family who got a new lease of life by riding a smooth sailing boat indeed have a strong role model in recruiting immigrants. In fact, after Zhang Qianren returned to Fujian, he successively recruited many relatives from the Zhang family and sent them to Sanya, at least sixty or seventy people. If such a demonstration group can be further expanded, the effects it can achieve should also be magnified in a geometric progression. After a certain period of time, the reputation of Haihan immigrants has been established, and the difficulty of recruitment will be reduced accordingly.
Practices like this were actually implemented earliest in Annan and achieved the best results. In the early years, the Annan court begged Haihan to send troops for help and purchased a large number of Haihan weapons on credit. Therefore, it could only turn a blind eye to Haihan's behavior of collecting people in the country. After all, two years ago, the Annan court organized immigrants on its own and handed it over to Haihan to pay off war debts. Although the situation is not as embarrassing as it was during the civil war, its economic and military dependence on Haihan seems to be increasing. , and paying population and land became one of Annan's few means of compensation.
Nowadays, most of the naturalized people of Annan descent are proud to be able to settle in Hainan Island, and regard it as the last step to become true Hainan people. Every year, the local Haihan colony in Annan selects some outstanding individuals or families of naturalized citizens and gives them rewards for immigrating to Hainan Island. This is a great honor for the local naturalized people. Nowadays, the number of Annan people who apply to become Haihan naturalized citizens every year has steadily remained above five figures.
In fact, without Zhang Qianren's suggestion, the Executive Committee has already thought of applying a similar strategy to attract immigrants to Fujian. However, considering the feelings of Xu Xinsu, a local snake, the executive committee has not tried to expand the scale of poaching people from Fujian. After all, most of the immigrants Haihan recruited from Fujian were professionals. Even if Xu Xinsu didn't say it openly, she would definitely feel uncomfortable about poaching.
"How is Haihan Bank's local promotion work going?" Shi Diwen suddenly remembered what Ning Qi had told him before setting off, and quickly asked again.
In addition to promoting various industrial products in the Ming Dynasty, Haihan's other key promotion project is the financial operation model led by Haihan Bank. In the plan of the executive committee, the Haihan financial system should be promoted outward simultaneously with the development of business channels. Therefore, since the year before last, Haihan Bank has begun to set up an office in Zhangzhou, Fujian. However, the business scope is not as large as that of the Guangzhou branch. It is mainly responsible for payment settlement business with a limited number of large merchants such as Xu Xinsu. The bank office in Quanzhou was only established last year, and it has not been a year yet.
Zhang Qianren responded: "As of last month, we have signed payment agency settlement agreements with eight local merchants. In addition, registered checks have also begun to be promoted to merchants, and the reviews they have received are pretty good. However, at present, because many merchants have various I'm worried about this, so the flow of funds is not large. I can't tell you the specific situation. Why don't I go back and ask someone from the bank to come over?"
"Forget it, the fleet will set off early tomorrow morning. We have to rest early. There is no need to elaborate on any special circumstances. Just follow the regulations." Shi Diwen was not interested in hearing the accounting report and immediately refused. Zhang Qianren's initiative.
Zhang Qianren understood this and after briefly reporting on the work situation, he said goodbye and left. For a cadre like him who is stationed abroad, being able to successfully pass a face-to-face report means that the work results during this period have been recognized.
There was no talking all night, and early the next morning, all members of the fleet lined up again and set off, leaving Quanzhou Port and sailing to the next destination.
Only more than ten nautical miles away from Quanzhou Port, the fleet arrived at Chongwu Institute, the northernmost of the five subordinate institutes under Yongning Guard. It is worth mentioning that the Yongning Guard Office in Quanzhou has five thousand-household offices under its jurisdiction, but only Fuquan Office and Chongwu Office are located near Quanzhou Bay, while Zhongzuo Office, Kinmen Office and Gaopu Office are far away. Zhangzhou Prefecture is closer.
Chongwu built a large defensive stronghold no less than Zhongzuo, located at the southern end of the Chongwu Peninsula in Hui'an County. The city walls are all made of white granite, with a height of seven meters and a circumference of 2,457 meters. The city walls are equipped with city defense facilities such as dishes, arrow windows, and nests. There are gates on all sides of the city wall. There is a beacon tower on each of the three gates in the east, west and north. There is a wall outside the south gate. There are defenses, piers, post offices, military camps and martial arts halls built in the city. Facilities, there is also an observation deck on the commanding heights of Lotus Mountain.
In 1387, in order to resist the invasion of Japanese pirates, Emperor Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang of the Ming Dynasty appointed Zhou Dexing, Marquis of Jiangxia, to inspect the southeastern coast. After Zhou Dexing arrived in Quanzhou, he organized and built several large defensive strongholds under the Yongning Guard. During the Yongle period, the city wall of Chongwu City was increased by four feet, and the east and west gates of the Moon City were added. During the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, city defense facilities such as gate towers and horse racing tracks were built. In the first year of Longqing in the Ming Dynasty, more than 60 years ago, the famous anti-Japanese general Qi Jiguang practiced martial arts here and organized Fujian soldiers and civilians to resist the Japanese invasion. "History of the Ming Dynasty·Bingzhi" records: "Hui'an is east of Hui'an, ending at the barren sea, and its town is worshiped by martial arts. In the early days of the country, it was used as a way for island barbarians to come and go, and thousands of households were set up, and official garrison was set up to protect the inside from the outside. , It’s too far away.” In the original time and space, Zheng Chenggong sent his troops eastward to regain Taiwan, and the People’s Liberation Army sailed south to conquer Xiamen. Chongwu City was used as a starting base, which shows that the strategic location of this place is very important.
However, there was no arrangement to visit Chongwu City ashore during this trip, so in addition to looking at the walls of Chongwu City through the telescope, the most intuitive understanding Morgan and Shi Diwen had about this place was the Chongwu swimming crab they enjoyed in Quanzhou yesterday. And Chongwu fish roll.
After the fleet bypassed the Chongwu Peninsula, it was only more than thirty nautical miles away from the final destination of the trip, Nanri Island. If it were not for the speed of the Ming Navy, the Haihan ships could have completed this voyage in about three hours. However, Shi Diwen's purpose in planning this battle was to show off his force to the Fujian Ming Army, so he still had to slow down and wait for the large forces to advance together.
Nanri Island is located in the northeast of Quanzhou. It is the main island among the eighteen large islands and reefs. It covers an area of more than 40 square kilometers and is long and narrow from east to west in the shape of a dumbbell. During the Hongwu period, this place once had a water fortress and nearly a thousand troops stationed there to defend against Japanese pirates and pirates who invaded the place. However, because this place was isolated in the sea, support and supplies were inconvenient, so the garrison eventually moved away.
Among the strongholds established by Shibazhi on the coast of Fujian, Nanri Island is currently the only one that remains. Because of this, Shibazhi attaches great importance to the defense of Nanri Island. It re-reinforced the abandoned Ming army water stronghold on the island and stationed a large number of men and ships to guard it. This place happens to be on the only waterway between Zhangzhou and Quanzhou and Fuzhou. If the ships want to pass safely, they must pay a certain fee to Shibazhi.
Although Xu Xinsu organized several offensives against Nanri Island, they all returned without success due to various reasons. Xu Xinsu still had some doubts about the Haihan people's claim that they would capture Nanri Island within a day or two. However, since Shi Diwen has already said that there is no need for the Fujian Ming Army to take the lead as cannon fodder, Xu Xinsu is also happy to see this happen. It would be good to at least see with his own eyes the combat routine of the Haihan Militia.
When the fleet was still nearly twenty nautical miles away from Nanri Island, it had already encountered the sentry ships of Shibazhi scattered on the sea. This fleet of thirty ships naturally attracted the attention of the other party immediately. Soon, they saw a sky-rocketing rocket being released from the sentinel ship, which flew into the air and exploded. It seemed to be a method of communication from the other party.
"I just hope they can be better prepared and don't let us make this trip in vain." Facing the Shibazhi sentry ship that hastily issued an alarm, Shi Diwen looked relaxed and even made a joke.
Xu Xinsu put down the military telescope handed to him by Shi Diwen with some reluctance. This telescope was much more advanced than the ones sold by Haihan Military Industry. That kind of copper-cased monocular telescope is far inferior to the black guy used by Shi Diwen in terms of clarity and visual distance. But obviously this is not for sale, just like the small black box in the hands of the Haihan people that can transmit sound thousands of miles.
After spending the past two days on the "Prestige Signal", Xu Xinsu gradually understood why everyone who had visited Sanya and studied abroad said that he was a frog in the well when he came back. The Haihan people did have too many strange things in their hands. It simply exceeded the limit that Xu Xinsu could imagine. He even once thought that the Haihan people had mastered some magic, but Shi Diwen seriously denied this view and reexamined that this was the power of "Haihan science". Although she is still floating on the sea, Xu Xinsu has already planned to select more smart young people after returning and send them to Haihan to learn these magical "sciences".
"Sir Xu, there may be more intense artillery fire later. Do you need to move to another ship to watch the battle?" Shi Diwen was very considerate and asked Xu Xinsu's intention in advance. When the fighting started, the cannons on the ship opened fire at the same time. That formation was no joke. If the old man had a heart disease or something, he might not be able to bear such a fright.
Xu Xinsu waved her hand and rejected his kindness: "The reason why I took this ship is to observe how the militia army fights at the closest distance. Mr. Shi does not need to care about me, just direct the battle."
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Shi Diwen smiled and said: "Since Mr. Xu is so interested, then I will follow your wishes."
There were still about ten nautical miles away from Nanri Island, and when the vague outline of Nanri Island could be seen from the sea level, Shibazhi's fleet finally appeared in the sight of the combined fleet. Obviously, the garrison on Nanri Island did not intend to defend the island fortifications, but was preparing to fight unexpected enemies at sea. However, this was exactly what the Han militia in the sea wanted to do.
"Then let's get down to business!" After Shi Diwen confirmed at the mainmast lookout post that the opponent had raised the black flag, he put away the smile on his face and began to issue combat orders: "Send the signal and everyone is in combat mode! Our three warships broke away from the main force and moved forward at full speed! ”
According to the information from the lookout post, there were as many as twenty-five ships approaching from the opposite side. Although the number exceeded our own eight times, Shi Diwen and the naval officers on the ship did not panic, because the other party's ships were all Chinese-style sailing ships, and the largest one was not as big as the "Exploration-class" warship. In front of the three larger warships of Haihan, they were completely like a herd of sheep.
At this time, the wind direction on the sea is crosswind for both warring parties. The objective conditions are very fair. However, the sail system of the Haihan warship is more flexible and can utilize the crosswind more efficiently than traditional Chinese sails. Therefore, the speed still has a clear advantage. Shi Diwen ordered the engine room to be warmed up and on standby, and he would decide whether to activate steam auxiliary power depending on the direction of the battle. As for the ships of the Ming Navy, according to the prior agreement, they only needed to wait on the periphery to intercept those fish that slipped through the net.
(End of chapter)