Chapter 658 The direction of the situation
Xu Jiaqi was indeed a little disappointed that he failed to capture Zheng Zhihu alive in the end, but what made him even more regretful was that the credit was snatched away by the navy, and he regretted even more that he had not followed Qian Tiandun's suggestion earlier and led his own troops to attack the Ten Bazhi's camp, otherwise there is still a chance to leave Zheng Zhihu on the shore and win this great achievement by himself.
Qian Tiandun was thinking differently from him at this time. One of the main goals of this battle was to capture Zheng Zhihu. Now that this goal has been achieved, how the situation in the Fujian Strait area will develop in the future also needs to be carefully considered. It’s time.
There is no doubt that the death of Zheng Zhihu will completely tear apart the relationship between the Fujian government and Shibazhi. If there may have been some transactions and tacit understanding between the two parties before this, then from now on the hatred value has risen to a Unbridgeable heights. Even if Zheng Zhilong had other ideas in mind, he would have to fight to the death with the Fujian government from now on in order to maintain his image as a "compassionate and righteous" leader. For Haihan, who was once very worried about the attitude of the Fujian government, his worries were solved in one fell swoop. He no longer had to worry about the recurrence of the Fujian government's attitude towards Shibazhi.
This attack on the Dutch on Nanri Island can be regarded as another gain. On the one hand, we have a general understanding of the strength and fighting methods of the Dutch through the fight. On the other hand, it also provides Haihan with some means to deal with them next. Excellent reason. After the naval battle a few days ago, four Dutch armed sailing ships failed to escape from the battlefield and were all captured by the Ming Navy. After counting, the crew of these four sailing ships totaled 472, of which 107 fought in the battle. Either dead or missing after falling overboard, the remaining personnel were all captured - this was also the largest number of prisoners captured in a military operation since the Dutch East India Company entered the Far East.
Of course, not all of these more than 300 prisoners were Dutch. Most of them came from Dutch colonies around the world. The real Dutch were only more than 50 people. This group of prisoners has been escorted to Zhongzuo City and imprisoned, and there is probably no possibility of escaping in the near future. According to Haihan's suggestion, the Fujian government was ready to send people to negotiate with the Dutch and ask for a ransom fee for prisoners of war.
If the Dutch wanted to take back these prisoners of war from the Fujian government, they would have to pay the Fujian government 50,000 taels of silver as the price for their meddling. In addition, the Fujian government will demand "war compensation" of 50,000 taels of silver from the Dutch on behalf of Haihan. The reason is that the Dutch armed sailing ship killed and injured many Haihan crew members during the battle and caused damage to Haihan's ship. In addition, the Fujian government will also require the East India Company to promise not to participate in or assist anti-Ming forces like Shibazhi in any form in the future.
Of course, it is impossible for the Dutch to agree to these demands. It would be a damned thing for the Dutch to agree to the conditions proposed by Haihan. The real purpose of making these demands is not to obtain the so-called compensation, but to pave the way for Haihan's subsequent measures. After the Dutch refused, Heihan conveniently used this as a reason to take further action.
The results of the battle in Fujian were immediately transmitted back to Hainan Island via radio waves. While Qian Tiandun and Ming Army representative Xu Jiaqi were cleaning up and counting the loot, the Executive Committee had also received the urgent telegram that had just arrived, and began Discuss next steps of action.
"Qian Tiandun really did not disappoint us!" Yan Chujie waved the telegram just sent in his hand with excitement: "Almost all the invading pirates were wiped out, and four armed merchant ships of the Dutch were destroyed. The leader Zheng Zhihu was killed on the spot!”
"When called upon, they can fight and win. This is exactly the army we need!" Tao Donglai also did not hesitate to express his appreciation for Qian Tiandun and his subordinate troops. In terms of being able to fight, the troops led by Qian Tiandun were indeed the elite aces of the militia, and this was once again strongly confirmed on the battlefield in Fujian.
However, because the content of the telegram was too brief, the executive committee members did not know that Qian Tiandun's troops only performed well in this battle. The real success was actually achieved by the militia navy, which had performed outstandingly in both naval battles. It was precisely because they exerted enough pressure on their opponents at sea that Shibazhi was panicked and made many foolish moves. Finally, in terms of rewards based on merit, naval officer Xie Li's contribution was actually greater than that of Qian Tiandun who was in charge of Nanri Village.
"The most important thing is that the Dutch have openly participated in the war this time. We will have good reasons to fight with them next." Gu Kai looked eager to give it a try: "I really want to know what the Dutch are hearing about Fujian now. What kind of expression will it look like after the news?”
"We can start counting the time now." Ning Qi took over and said: "The Dutch who escaped from Nanri Island should have arrived at Damuan Port and passed the news to Batavia from there. It will take nearly a month. I think we can start making arrangements for the flag change of the Ambrosia Islands.”
After taking over the Ambrosia Islands under the guise of being a pirate, how to decently and reasonably take over local control from the "pirates" has always been an unresolved question for Haihan, because doing so will inevitably cause the Dutch to After all, they believed that the area was already a colony belonging to the East India Company. The attitude of the Executive Committee is not to actively provoke a war with the Dutch. This is not a question of whether the war can be fought, but the Executive Committee believes that from the current stage it is necessary to start building the international image of the Haihan regime. .
After completely occupying Hainan Island, the countdown to the establishment of the Haihan regime has begun. Regarding the future handling of international relations, the Executive Committee has also begun to include relevant work on the agenda. Although the foundation of Haihan's founding is to absorb resources and labor and expand its territory through trade and war, the executive committee does not want Haihan to have an aggressive image externally. At least external military operations and expansion methods must be as moral as possible, so that the thoughts of the ruled class can be more easily controlled.
The Dutch East India Company has long been one of the competitors that the Executive Committee planned to deal with, but the Executive Committee also hopes to do a decent job in this process and not make it too ugly. It is best to make the Dutch To play the villain in the eyes of the world, Haihan could have a reasonable reason to launch armed action against the East India Company. Of course, in fact, Haihan had secretly carried out a number of military operations against the Dutch, and also took back the Ambrosia Islands in the South China Sea that the Dutch had seized from the Ming Dynasty, but he had never made it public. But this time the Dutch intervened in the war between the Fujian government and the Shibazhi, which gave Haihan an excellent opportunity. Before the war started in Fujian a few days ago, Qian Tiandun had already sent back the news that Dutch armed sailing ships had appeared in the waters near Nanri Island, and suggested that the Executive Committee should take advantage of this opportunity to build reasonable momentum to deal with the Dutch in the future. After the results of the Nanri Island victory came out, the focus of the executive committee was no longer on the subsequent cleanup of the results, but instead began to focus on discussing the post-war situation and how to use this victory to deal with the Dutch.
"The propaganda department must take this matter seriously and let the masses understand that the Dutch are not only enemies of Ming Dynasty, but also our enemies. Their hostile actions against the Haihan militia are a provocation and challenge to the entire Haihan regime. Humiliation! And we defeated the Dutch fleet in Fujian. This honor belongs to the executive committee and all Haihan people. It is a record that each of us should be proud of!" Tao Donglai began to personally give instructions on the propaganda work, Several young naturalized citizens sitting outside hurriedly copied these words on paper.
These teenagers are a new generation of scholars who have graduated from the Haihan education system in the past two years. Most of them are orphans and refugees recruited from other places. They have no interest in passing the imperial examinations of the Ming Dynasty and are only loyal to the Haihan Executive Committee that gave them a new life. . For them, what the Ming Dynasty gave them was endless suffering and panic, and there was nothing worth remembering. The name Haihan people was the identity they truly recognized.
During the Ming Dynasty, they might just be orphans that no one cared about, and they were inconspicuous members of the fleeing army. They might die on the way to begging at any time due to lack of food and clothing. However, after crossing the ocean and arriving in the Haihan area, they However, they received excellent living conditions. Not only did they have food and housing, but they were also taught various knowledge and skills, allowing them to gradually become respected "cadres."
Most of these helpless young immigrants introduced by the Ministry of Civil Affairs have undergone more than three years of cultural training. Some who are considered talented by the military or other departments are selected midway and enter military schools or departments affiliated with them. Vocational training institutions receive more professional training. These secretaries who can observe the Executive Committee are all students directly recruited by the General Office of the Executive Committee. It can be said that they are all talents selected from a hundred. Not only do everyone have extremely high loyalty, but they also have a certain cultural foundation, so that They can integrate into Haihan's administrative system faster and better than others.
Nowadays, except for a few issues that require a high degree of confidentiality, most of the meetings of the Executive Committee will arrange for a clerk to take on-site transcripts, and then the leader will select some positive parts from the discussion content, and the publicity department will use various channels to Preach and disseminate within the Haihan ruling area to guide the direction of public opinion among the people.
The results of this battle against the Netherlands will also become the main work of the propaganda department in the near future. Although Haihan's foreign military operations have never been interrupted, due to various considerations, most of the time there is no public propaganda in the ruled area. In the minds of ordinary people, the last time Haihan made a big external move was when the Haihan militia sent troops to Qiongbei the year before to "assist" Ming officials in driving away pirates. The two battles in the South China Sea in the first half of this year and the military operations carried out by the mission to Fujian more than two months ago have actually not been publicly publicized in Hainan Island.
There was no publicity at that time because the time was not right, and disclosing these situations might be counterproductive. However, after the match against the Dutch, the executive committee believed that the time for publicity had arrived. If done properly, many remaining problems can be solved at once this time, and at the same time, it can further consolidate the unity of the people.
Although mass education has been carried out in the ruling area for several years after traveling through time and space, due to limited teachers and objective conditions, the degree of literacy in the ruling area is not high. The literacy rate can only exceed 30%, and there are still quite a few Most of the naturalized people are purely illiterate and cannot even write their own names. In such a social environment, the propaganda department did not unrealistically publish mass newspapers as a means of propaganda.
In fact, there are only two types of publications in the entire ruling area. One is for internal current affairs reference issued by Chuanzhong. It is published once a month. The content mainly covers the resolutions of the Executive Committee, the progress of key projects of various departments, major affairs of overseas agencies, and Through the public's personnel transfer arrangements, etc. There are only fifty copies of this internal reference in each issue, which are distributed to various units and kept by supervisors, and then circulated internally among the units. According to the confidentiality system, ordinary naturalized civilian cadres are not qualified to read this internal reference.
Another kind of publication is aimed at the public. It is also a monthly magazine, but its distribution target is only units rather than individuals. After receiving the publication, the person in charge of each unit organizes a collective publicity and publishes the directional and guiding information in the publication. The content is explained to ordinary people in a relatively easy-to-understand way. For some units whose literacy rate is too low to organize activities on their own, such as more remote farms, the propaganda department will send special personnel to carry out publicity in the local area after the publication is released.
When it comes to propaganda work, the time travelers have hundreds of years more experience than all the ruling classes of this era. Therefore, from formulating policies to writing manuscripts, from issuing publications to organizing propaganda, the executive committee has excellent control over the rule of law. It is the only media in the region and has always maintained an extremely effective role in guiding public opinion. Compared with the practices of various feudal empires at the same time, Haihan's methods were undoubtedly far ahead of this era.
As soon as the Executive Committee's resolution came out, the publicity department immediately started to take action, and even deliberately advanced the release date of this issue of domestic and foreign publications by several days to comply with the Executive Committee's request to start relevant publicity as soon as possible.
On August 5, the latest issue of the public publication "Haihan Monthly" was released. The headline on the front page was extremely eye-catching - "Western invaders invaded the Ming Dynasty, Haihan sent troops to rescue the siege." The second piece of news immediately following it is equally eye-catching - "Whose fault is it that the South China Sea islands have become pirate nests?" 》
(End of chapter)