Chapter 671 Frustration
The Haihan soldiers who boarded the ship carefully searched the two Dutch sailing ships and confiscated all the weapons on board. Even the cook's kitchen knife, the ship's carpenter's ax and the swords of several senior officers were not spared. It was packed and sent to the Haihan sailboat. Although Van Longen and others were very dissatisfied, they still chose to obey rationally and did not try to resist the "humiliation" of the Haihan people. After all, they also knew that if there was a conflict with the other party in this place, it was one thing whether they could escape or not. The negotiation with the Haihan people would definitely come to nothing.
"If they have other excessive demands, I might not be able to bear it any longer." Seeing the Haihan soldiers taking away his beloved sword, Fan Longen was so angry that his teeth itched. This sword was brought over from the Netherlands. Although it was not a valuable treasure, it was still a family heirloom. Carrying it with him was also a kind of spiritual sustenance for his hometown. The last time he was in such an embarrassing situation on Natuna Island, he didn't lose this sword, but now he had to compromise for the sake of the overall situation and give this sword to the Haihan people. Although the Haihans claimed that they would return the weapons when they left, Van Loungen did not quite believe their promise.
"You three are the leaders of the mission, right?" After the weapons were taken away, the young officer leading the team quickly came to them and asked again.
After receiving Su Keyi's affirmative answer, the young officer made a new request: "Please three of you come to our ship and take our ship to Sanya. You two ships can follow behind."
There is no doubt that this is to completely dismantle the command system on the Dutch sailing ship and temporarily hold the three of them hostage. However, the Haihan people had just seized their weapons, and now they had no choice even if they wanted to refuse or resist. No matter how unwilling the three of them were, they could only accept the other's arrangement helplessly.
However, Van der Wegen was not particularly resistant to this request. As the only senior officer in the team, his responsibility was to do everything possible to find out the military strength of the Haihan people, which naturally included weapons and equipment. After the Battle of Nanri Island, Van der Wegen could not forget the unique and powerful Haihan warship. Now that he had the opportunity to board the ship and observe the real thing, how could he miss such a good opportunity. Therefore, before Fan Longgen expressed his position, he signaled Su Keyi to agree to this request immediately.
However, things were not as simple and easy as Van der Wegen thought. When they stepped on the side of the ship to the deck of the Haihan warship, before Van der Wegen could carefully observe the layout of the ship, someone brought a few black cloth bags containing dry goods. They were put on their heads and asked to sit down and not to move or talk to each other. They were not given a chance to spy on the military situation.
After receiving the warning in Victory Port, in order to prevent unexpected events, the navy immediately dispatched two more "exploration-class" warships to the southern waters to respond.
Of course, the Executive Committee also received the warning immediately. Wang Tom originally planned to go to sea to handle the matter in person, but Tao Donglai stopped him: "Just two ships came, and it didn't look like they were coming. Those who are causing trouble, after calculating the time, I think it is possible that they sent envoys to negotiate with us. Since the Dutch came to us on their own, it would be better to take the stand when it is time to let the people below deal with it first. , and by the way, let’s see if it won’t work without us.”
"What Lao Tao said makes sense. If you demoralize them first, they will have more psychological advantages in subsequent contact." Ning Qi also agreed: "It's okay for the Dutch to talk to us, but they have to be straight first." mentality, don’t come into contact with us with the idea of a conqueror.”
"But you have to say hello to the people below, don't hurt these Dutch people, and don't deliberately humiliate them. After the ship comes back, first detain them at the army barracks." Tao Donglai warned.
Tom Wang nodded and said, "I'll go over and keep an eye on you right now to avoid anything happening."
"I'd better go for a run." Yan Chujie, the top leader of the military, came in following the voice. He was originally going to inspect the work at Tian Du's arsenal today and hold a meeting with the technicians of Haihan Ordnance Industry to discuss the development of new weapons. However, he had just left Fort Victory and had not yet boarded the train to Tian Du. Tao Donglai sent The visitor stopped him at the train station and informed him of the discovery of the Dutch fleet off the coast of Sanya. After hearing the news, Yan Chujie immediately canceled his plans to go to Tiandu and rushed back. When he arrived at the door, he happened to hear their conversation and picked up the conversation casually.
Tom Wang had no intention of competing with him for this job. He nodded and said, "That's fine. Brother Yan, it would be safer for you to go there in person. I, a man from the Navy, will go over and give instructions. There is no guarantee that your brothers will not do anything." Ideas.”
Although the situation mentioned by Wang Tom is not obvious yet, there are actually faint signs of a land-sea conflict in the military. Since the Haihan Militia was separated from the land and sea, the military expenditures had to be divided in half for distribution, and the distribution of personnel had to take into account the needs of both families. Naturally, it was not as harmonious as before. In the past two years, the Navy has expanded its fleet with great fanfare, which has taken up a lot of military budget. This has definitely affected the Army to some extent. At least the number of live-fire training has been reduced by more than 30% compared with before, and these changes will definitely make some people The military personnel were dissatisfied.
Of course, these people did not dare to express this attitude clearly in front of Wang Tom. After all, Wang Tom was also the core task of the military. The navy commander and ordinary naturalized civilian officers could not afford to offend him, a giant Buddha. But when Wang Tom gave orders to the Army people, he would definitely not be able to do it without Yan Chujie's presence.
"Lao Yan, don't be in a hurry to have direct contact with the Dutch." Tao Donglai repeated to Yan Chujie what he had said to Tom Wang before.
Yan Chujie responded: "Don't worry, I still understand this diplomatic strategy. I will go over to arrange it first and call you later."
At this time, Van Longen and others were sitting on the deck with their backs against the side of the ship. Because their heads were covered with black bags, they had no idea where the ship was heading. Although their hands and feet were not tied, the Haihan people had warned them before, so they did not dare to move randomly. Fan Longgen felt extremely uneasy at this time. He didn't know what these Haihan people would do to him and his companions. If these Haihan soldiers didn't want the three of them to meet with their senior officials, the consequences would be unpredictable. In this way, he also vaguely regretted his decision just now. He should not have accepted the other party's request so obediently. He had to at least bargain for it, such as removing the bag from his head.
Van der Wegen was also very upset. He originally boarded the ship with the idea of spying on military affairs, but he never expected to be treated like this as soon as he boarded the ship. There was nothing I could do now except touch the planking under my butt with my hands. However, he noticed that the command process of Haihan's ship was orderly. Although he could not understand the content of these instructions at all, he could feel the difference between superiors and subordinates from the tone of the conversations, and these conversations were often Be brief and powerful. After one party gives an order, the party receiving the order will repeat the content. The neat sound of the whistle when the crew pushes the cable winch is actually not much different from the rhythm on the Dutch sailing ship.
Su Keyi's ideas were more complicated than those of the two Dutchmen. He was originally a very smart person, otherwise he would not have been favored by Cohen and entrusted with important tasks. After boarding the boat, the Haihan people put black cloth bags over their heads. Su Keyi relaxed because he knew that if the other party wanted to kill the three of them, there was no need to make it so complicated. He just didn't want the three of them to see someone. Just some things. What the other party didn't want him to see was obviously not the course, because there were hundreds of crew members on his two sailboats, and covering the heads of the three of them was not very effective in keeping secrets. This can only mean one thing, that is, the other party does not want them to see the specific situation on the ship.
After figuring out the reason why the other party did this, Su Keyi had nothing to be afraid of. Although he could not see the outside world, Su Keyi had an obvious advantage over the two people next to him, that is, he could understand the language spoken by these people on the ship without any obstacles. Although most of them did not speak the vernacular of Guangdong and Guangxi, but had an accent similar to that of northerners, Su Keyi could still understand them to a minimum of 70%. Judging from the orders issued by the commander on the ship to the crew, their course was still continuing north, obviously continuing towards Qiongzhou Island, which showed that the other party was indeed taking them into the jurisdiction of Haihan Sanya area.
After sailing for a while, Su Keyi heard a shout on the ship, and then an officer ordered a flag signal. Although he could not hear the semaphore orders issued by Officer Haihan to the messengers, Su Keyi speculated that they must have met their partners at sea-perhaps they came out of the harbor to meet them.
As Su Keyi expected, the two "exploration-class" warships driven out from Victory Port had just sailed out of the bay when they saw the returning fleet. After the two sides exchanged flags, two "exploration-class" warships also came forward to join the fleet. In accordance with the latest orders received, they sailed together to the Luhuitou Peninsula west of Victory Port.
The port of the army base was located on the west side of the Luhuitou Peninsula, roughly where the later International Yacht Club was located - it was here that the two catamaran sailing ships sailing from Europe underwent their last maintenance and rest before the crossing. However, the scale of the Army Military Port is not as large as the yacht dock in the previous life, and it can only accommodate about ten large warships docking at the same time. Only when large-scale troop mobilization occurs, a large number of ships will enter here to load soldiers. Usually, navy ships are stationed at the naval base in Victory Port and rarely dock here for a long time.
Before the fleet arrived, Yan Chujie had already arrived at the Luhuitou Peninsula camp, where two companies of armed forces had been assembled in advance to wait for his dispatch. After Yan Chujie gave the order, he went to the camp headquarters to sit and drink cold drinks.
With the commotion in his ears, Su Keyi knew that the ship he was on had entered the port and docked. The sailors were throwing cables to the shore. From time to time, some swear words were heard, which seemed no different from the port of Batavia. . It's just that the port here doesn't seem to have a strong fishy smell, and it's obviously not a wharf focused on fishing.
After the boat stopped, someone came to help the three of them get up and lay on the stretcher. Then the stretcher was lifted from the boat to the shore. After walking for a while, they heard the sound of the door opening, and then a voice soon informed them that they could take off their hoods on their own. Su Keyi took off his own hood first, and then took off the other two's. At this time, the three of them found that they had arrived indoors somewhere, and there was nothing else in the room, which was only one foot square except for a square table and a few benches. Apart from the entrance door, there was only a small one-foot-square window on one wall, and there was an iron fence embedded in it. The door was also very narrow, only two feet wide. It was covered with iron sheets and had a small sliding window on the top and bottom. However, after Su Keyi went up and tried it, he found that he could not open it from the inside. In addition to the small window, there are many bright tiles above the head for indoor lighting, so it doesn't look dark.
"It seems that we have become prisoners of the Haihan people." Su Keyi came to a conclusion after briefly observing the situation around him. His small window was too high. He was at least three feet away and couldn't see what was going on outside.
However, the two Dutchmen were obviously hard-working people. They immediately lifted the table under the small window, then stood on the table and looked out. But the scene outside the window made them feel deeply disappointed again - there was a high wall at most three feet away outside, completely blocking their view.
"What should we do now?" This was the first time Van der Wegen was in such a situation, and he couldn't help but feel a little at a loss.
"Just wait. Maybe the Haihan people are also worried about how to deal with us." After truly realizing his situation, Fan Longgen calmed down. Since the Haihan people locked them up here, they probably wouldn't just turn a blind eye and there would always be an explanation. But this kind of treatment really made him feel a deep sense of frustration.
In fact, detaining them and treating them coldly was one of the orders issued by Yan Chujie. These three people were locked in a confinement room in the military camp that was usually used for soldiers to reflect, and their two sailboats were being searched very carefully by Haihan soldiers. ——Even everyone on the ship will not be spared. Several doctors who had been ordered to arrive were conducting preliminary health checks on the crew to ensure that they did not carry any infectious diseases with obvious symptoms. After that, these crew members will also be detained and will have to spend at least a week of observation before they can be placed in the next step.
(End of chapter)