Chapter 688 International Situation
Although Haihan had an absolute advantage in terms of force, it was still difficult to completely avoid casualties during the battle. Fortunately, the level of casualties was acceptable. So far, only two soldiers have died in the battle, and there are more than 30 injured with varying degrees of injuries. However, when evaluated in a battle environment of thousands of people, this casualty rate is actually quite low. You must know that the casualty rate of the other side of the war was much higher than this number. There were more than 140 corpses collected after the war, and there were more than 400 lightly and seriously injured people. Due to limited medical conditions, it is basically impossible for those seriously injured to receive timely treatment like militia soldiers, and most of them will die in the next day or two.
In addition to these wounded, the militia army will probably execute a group of fugitives from the hard labor camp and the accomplices of Heishandong here, and then escort the remaining prisoners back to the Shilu mining area in batches. As for the village of Heishandong, Qiao Zhiya did not plan to destroy it directly after seeing the environment here. He believed that it was entirely possible to move those Lidong Miao villages who were willing to attach themselves to Haihan, and then carry out agriculture in the surrounding mountain plains. development. Of course, he does not need to handle these tasks. The Ministry of Civil Affairs and the Ministry of Agriculture will take over the follow-up matters.
After visiting the wounded, Qiao Zhiya returned to his tent and began drafting a battle report to be sent back to Sanya.
"... There is still a big gap between Li Dong in the Qiongzhong area and our army in terms of combat effectiveness. If short-term combat supplies can be guaranteed, preemptive strikes can be considered to decisively launch military strikes against local forces that refuse to obey. In addition, Annan The Second Battalion showed excellent adaptability to the mountain combat environment during the battle, and it is recommended to use it as the main force to pacify the Qiongzhong area.”
At the end of the message, Qiao Zhiya attached some of his views on the mission. As a member of the military, there is no doubt that he is also a staunch militant, so he is dissatisfied with the Executive Committee's delay in coming up with a feasible plan for the governance of the Qiongzhong area. In the past, every time the military proposed to use force to solve the problem of parts of Qiongzhong that were unwilling to be brought under the jurisdiction of Haihan, someone would stand up and oppose it for various reasons, and in the end the matter could not be settled. From a certain perspective, the riots that occurred in the Shilu Mining Area were actually one of the consequences of the Executive Committee's long delay in handling the Qiongzhong plan.
Starting from the next day, the Annan Second Battalion led by Qiao Zhiya took Heishan Cave as a stronghold and launched attacks on several Li Cave in the surrounding areas. These Lidongs usually follow the lead of Heishandong, and they also contributed their efforts to participate in the Shilu riots. Naturally, they cannot escape the wave of liquidation afterwards. The strength of these Lidongs is relatively weak, and the difficulty of attacking them is not too great, so it won't be too much trouble to deal with them. It only took two days for the militia army to conquer the other three Ledongs one by one and capture a large number of people.
Qiao Zhiya calculated that, including the fugitives and Li people arrested in this operation, the number of prisoners in the hard labor camp should have increased instead of falling. However, the Li people captured this time were obviously not suitable to be detained together. At least some of them had to be separated.
On October 2, the armed raids on Heishandong and surrounding areas basically came to an end, and the militia army and a large team of more than 2,000 prisoners began to return to Shilu in a mighty manner. However, these prisoners were not the entire population of Lidong. There were still some people who were lucky enough to escape this wave of raids. Qiao Zhiya ordered the Li Miao Company, which acted in this coordinated operation, to stay at the village in Heishandong for another month to prevent the resistance from resurrecting.
The Li riot that broke out in Shilu did cause relatively large losses to the production of the mining area, but on the other hand, this incident also forced the executive committee to face the unresolved security risks in Qiongzhong head-on, and took measures. Use military means to combat hostile civilian forces. To a certain extent, this riot can be said to have accelerated the process of Haihan's unification of the entire Hainan Island, and also affected Haihan's future policy preferences for resolving hostile civilian forces.
Because the Qiongzhong area is located in the hinterland of Hainan Island and has mostly mountainous terrain, the Ming government's rule over this area was more of a formality. In many places, the owners of caves and villages were still the local emperors. Prior to this, the Executive Committee was not willing to use force to resolve the jurisdictional issue in the Qiongzhong area. First, military means would consume a lot of money and the short-term returns were very limited. Second, the Executive Committee did not want to use force to solve the jurisdictional issue in the Qiongzhong area. He intensified the conflict with the Li and Miao people and made himself unhappy.
However, with the success of this military expedition against Heishandong, solving the Qiongzhong problem by force has become a feasible option, and the combat environment that senior officials have been worried about does not seem to be an insurmountable problem. Especially for the Annan militia, which is good at mountain warfare, they don't even need much time to adapt to the environment, they can quickly enter the combat state, and they also performed in the battle to the satisfaction of the military brass. tactical literacy.
Of course, the one who is most delighted with this victory is the Ministry of Security. After half a year of tracing and arresting, Zhao Ye's case can finally be successfully concluded. In the past six months, half of the field staff of the Ministry of Security have been busy inside and outside Danzhou, trying to arrest Zhao Ye as soon as possible. However, it was the military that finally achieved this goal. The main role of the Ministry of Security only played a role The role of assisting and doing chores. But Lin Nan and Li Qingyang, who were handling the matter in Shilu, would not blame the military for stealing their limelight in this matter. On the contrary, they were very grateful that the military was finally willing to take action. Otherwise, Zhao Ye would have been hiding in the mountainous area and would not come out. This case will continue to be dragged on and there will be no way to close it. Originally, the Ministry of Security had merit in handling the Danzhou assassination case in March, but the case could not be closed because the main criminal escaped, so this merit has been pending. When the two return to Sanya this time, what will most likely be waiting for them is a commendation order issued by the Executive Committee.
At the same time, good news came back from Fujian. Under the constant persuasion of Qian Tiandun and others, Xu Xinsu finally agreed to temporarily hand over part of Kinmen Island to Haihan as the residence of the military advisory group. Of course, this kind of use right is not just about building a few rows of barracks and building a training ground, but an exclusive area where fortresses, coastal defense batteries and military docks can be built, and Haihanfang will have extraterritorial rights in this area. This basically It is consistent with Haihan's treatment in Annan.
The reason why Qian Tiandun insists on demarcating a piece of land on Kinmen Island to camp is because the next strategy currently being considered by the military is to attack the Penghu Islands, and Kinmen Island is the place with the shortest voyage between the coast of Fujian and Penghu. .
The Penghu Islands are still the home base of the Shibazhi. Although the Shibazhi have lost miserably in several consecutive battles, they can still gain certain profits by controlling the strait waterways by virtue of the geographical location of Penghu. , and thus continue to survive, which is obviously a situation that Haihan does not want to see.
So far, the Shibazhi have not launched retaliation against the Fujian army or Haihan, but they have not made any further attempts at peace talks. Qian Tiandun believed that Shibazhi was re-accumulating strength, and at the same time he was waiting for the Dutch to come up with a clear attitude. Since the Battle of Nanri Island, the Dutch had remained silent and had neither disclosed it to Ming Dynasty nor Haihan. Declaring war, he did not explain his future attitude to Shibazhi. Of course, the Dutch also have their own difficulties, but they can't explain it to Shibazhi, because the instructions from Batavia are for them to keep silent, not to take the initiative to stir up trouble, and wait for the results of the negotiations with the Haihan people to come out. But the envoys sent by the East India Company to Sanya were still staying at the Guest House in Victory Port. Although the negotiations between the two parties have been going on for dozens of days, the progress made is still almost zero. Van Longen and Van der Wegen plus Su Keyi are not willing to return to Batavia empty-handed. , so it was dragged down all the way.
Schneider had already let go of this matter, and Yu Xiaobao was still in charge of negotiating with the Dutch. However, after a long tug-of-war of negotiations, both parties now have little interest in having meaningless arguments on some detailed issues. When they meet every day, they mostly talk about the past and the present, talking about everything in the world, and wasting time. There is more to the situation than negotiation.
After constant conversations, the three East India Company envoys also discovered that this young man's knowledge definitely exceeded their expectations. Although Yu Xiaobao claimed that the farthest place he had been to was Guangzhou, his knowledge seemed to be nothing at all. No less than these old fur seals who run around on the sea all year round. Especially for those distant places, such as India, the Arabian Peninsula and the further continent of Europa, this young Haihan official seems to have some knowledge. Obviously this is not a clean thing.
When talking about the current state of war between the two sides today, Yu Xiaobao's remarks once again surprised the Dutch envoys: "I can only express my incomprehension that you have been using war as a threat. Is it possible that in Europa? When all the countries are in a mess, does your country still have enough energy to invest a lot of maritime weapons in the Far East? At this time, your country's parliament should pay more attention to the war with the Spanish instead of fighting for a small island with no production in the Far East. ?”
Of course Yu Xiaobao's words were not thought up by himself, but came from the guidance of Schneider and Ning Qi. Historically, the Netherlands has been under Spanish rule since the early 16th century. By 1568, the Eighty Years' War broke out in the Netherlands against Spain. When the United Republic of the Netherlands was proclaimed in The Hague in 1581, the first article of the declaration was to abolish the Spanish king's right to rule the Dutch provinces.
Of course, the independence of the Netherlands is not something that just a few people declare verbally. The historical Dutch War of Independence lasted from 1568 to 1648. It took eighty years to gain independence recognized by the Spanish royal family. During this period, the price paid It's really not small. As one of the major powers on the European continent at that time, Spain was significantly stronger and had always been in an advantageous position in the war against the Netherlands. This situation did not begin to change until Spain was involved in the Thirty Years' War in 1621.
The period from 1621 to 1648 can be said to be the most intense period of fighting between the Netherlands and Spain. The battlefields between the two sides were not limited to Europe. The battles between the two sides were also ongoing in the American colonies and the Far East. A few years ago, the East India Company occupied Damuan Port in southern Taiwan and blocked the Ming Dynasty shipping route to Manila. This was one of the methods. Later, the Spanish also sent a fleet to occupy Jilong Port in Taipei, trying to cut off the shipping routes between the Netherlands and Ryukyu, Japan, Korea and other places, which was also a countermeasure.
Which one is weaker than Haihan and Spain? There is basically no need to discuss this issue. Although Spain faces many problems and is trapped in the quagmire of war, it is still a powerful empire after all, far from being comparable to the current local power like Haihan. Moreover, the war between Spain and the Netherlands can be said to be of a life-and-death nature, far beyond the regional territorial disputes between the East India Company and Haihan. The Executive Committee saw this very clearly, and they believed that the top brass of the East India Company also understood this. In the fight with Haihan, the East India Company was not 100% sure of winning, and it was very likely that the Spanish would take advantage of it. The Executive Committee believed that this could be regarded as a weakness of the East India Company.
After talking for so many days, Schneider thought it was time to wake up the other party and make them realize whose hands the initiative was, so he instructed Yu Xiaobao to make such a statement.
"The war between us and the Spanish is another matter that you don't need to worry about." After listening to Su Keyi's translation, Fan Longgen suppressed his inner surprise and said deliberately with a blank expression.
Every time I return to Batavia, I can get the latest war situation in Europe, but for these countries in the Far East, very few people know about the war happening thousands of miles away, let alone understand it. The origin and meaning of. Yu Xiaobao's few words seem to have revealed the reality that the Dutch least want to face at the moment.
"We indeed have no intention of intervening in the war between your country and Spain, but..." Yu Xiaobao recalled Schneider's words as he spoke, trying his best to imitate his tone: "...if the East India Company repeatedly uses war as a threat, Then when necessary, we may also unite with other forces with similar interests, just like you united with Shiba Zhi.”
"No, you won't cooperate with the Spaniards. They are a group of greedy liars and magicians. They do nothing but exploit others." This time Su Keyi did not translate first, but responded directly to Yu Xiaobao .
(End of chapter)