Chapter 700 Joint Action
Haihan's military did not mind that the Allies sent a military observation group composed of senior officers to observe the militia during the war. In fact, this practice was first initiated by Haihan. In the beginning, of course, the main purpose was to promote their own weapons and promote force by the way. As the exchanges with the Fujian military become increasingly close, the two sides have more and more opportunities to cooperate in combat operations. The Haihan Militia really needs the Ming army to better cooperate with them on the battlefield, so through the military It is even more necessary to enhance mutual understanding in the form of observation groups.
Arriving at the Kinmen Island base with this force transferred from Hainan Island was the Ming Army's military observation group, a total of twenty-five people. This group of officers of the Ming Army all had the experience of receiving training at the Shengli Port Military Academy. They can be regarded as a group of people in the Fujian Ming Army who have a relatively deep understanding of the Haihan military system. Moreover, there are ten people named Xu among them, and the rest are also people from Xu Xinsu's camp. It can be said that they are completely the elite of Xu Xinsu's private army. Xu Xinsu's fourth son Xu Yuzhuo and his nephew Xu Jiaqi are among them, which shows how seriously Xu Xinsu attaches importance to this matter.
On the afternoon of February 7, the first joint combat preparatory meeting between the Fujian Ming Army and the Haihan Militia was held at the Haihan Camp on Kinmen Island.
"The purpose of gathering everyone here for a meeting today should be very clear to everyone here. We will launch an operation against the Penghu Islands by the middle of the year at the latest. The content of today's meeting is to make specific arrangements for the first phase of the operation. "Qian Tiandun personally attended and presided over the meeting. Behind him was a huge map of the Taiwan Strait, which accurately marked the location of Kinmen Island and the Penghu Islands.
Qian Tiandun continued: "According to what we know now, the forces under the Shibazhi have basically been driven out of the Fujian coast, and their scope of activities has been compressed to the waters around the Penghu Islands, but the Shibazhi probably will not Just sitting there waiting for death, so we need to know how they react now and what measures they have taken to confront us.”
Xu Yuzhuo responded: "General Qian, starting from the second half of last year, in accordance with your request, we have tightened the sales of grain, medicine, pig iron and other industries in the coastal states and counties in the province, and strive to prevent these things from flowing in through trade again. But Shibazhi is still trying to purchase the supplies they need from Jiangsu and Zhejiang. Our province’s navy has limited ships and it is difficult to block the waterway between Penghu and Jiangsu and Zhejiang. There is no more effective one at the moment. Method.”
Qian Tiandun said: "As long as Shibazhi still has money in his hands, there will always be people willing to sell things to them. Even if they can ban it in Fujian, they can't ban it outside Fujian. But if we block the channels in Fujian, we can It will increase the cost and time for them to purchase supplies from Daming. Shibazhi now has no stable income and has to feed tens of thousands of mouths. If we were in Zheng Zhilong's position, the pressure would be very great, not to mention that they would buy from Jiangsu and Zhejiang. The channels for supplies should not be so stable. If we get the exact information, the ship transporting them may be intercepted at sea at any time.”
Xu Yuzhuo nodded in agreement: "General Qian is absolutely right. As long as Shibazhi knows that we can cut off their path at any time, it will be enough to make these thieves fearful all day long."
Qian Tiandun continued: "Although we can't control how the merchants in Jiangsu and Zhejiang do business, it shouldn't be too difficult to find out what they bought, right?"
Xu Yuzhuo said: "After you proposed this plan two months ago, your Excellency also expected that Shibazhi would bypass Fujian to purchase supplies from other places, so he had already sent people to lurk in several major prefecture and county ports in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. There has been some news recently. ”
As Xu Yuzhuo spoke, he took out the prepared information and introduced it to the people present: "This is the list of materials purchased by Shibazhi in Ningbo last month. There are 2,600 tons of rice and four types of cloth, totaling three One hundred and eighty horses, 7,200 kilograms of pig iron, and a total of 51,400 kilograms of medicinal materials. In addition, seven bird boats, two lucky boats, and several live livestock were purchased. The people of Bazhi are very generous in the local market. As long as they need the items, most of them will buy them directly without negotiating the price. We also have six or seven reports like this, which were purchased by Bazhi. The content is roughly the same, just the location is different.”
Qian Tiandun nodded and said: "How is the situation on Dajuan Island?"
"The red-haired people have probably received the results of the Sanya negotiations and expelled Shibazhi's envoys in Damuan Port. Judging from what they have learned, the red-haired people seem to have no intention of continuing to intervene." Xu Yuzhuo responded.
"They are smart!" Qian Tiandun was even a little disappointed when he heard the news. He is not worried about the Dutch continuing to provide military assistance to Shibazhi. The reason why he pays attention to this aspect of intelligence is mainly to hope that he can catch some clues about the Dutch, so that he can have a high-sounding explanation if he causes trouble for the Dutch in the future. reasons. But the Dutch probably don't want to give Haihan a reason to start a war for the sake of Shibazhi. After all, the prospect of war described by the Haihan people in the negotiations is too terrible. The Dutch do not want to see a real alliance of all the forces in the South China Sea. Get up and banish yourself from the situation.
Without the Dutch as backup, the supply of weapons and equipment to the Eighteen Zhi was basically cut off. For the Ming army and the Haihan militia, it could reduce some troubles and risks during the battle. Moreover, the Dutch no longer participate in the war, and the Eighteen Zhi's armed forces at sea really have no advantage at all. Although Shibazhi's ships are probably several times more than the coalition forces here, the combat effectiveness gap between warships, merchant ships, and civilian ships is still very large, and it cannot be made up by simply relying on numerical superiority. This has already been done It was fully proved in the two naval battles of Nanri Island.
Qian Tiandun quickly adjusted his mood and returned to the topic: "Next month, our warships will arrive for local garrison one after another. We hope that the Fujian Navy can also mobilize some elite soldiers and generals, and then form a mixed fleet with our warships. Conducting cruise training in the waters east of Kinmen Island is not only to practice maritime tactics, but also to isolate Shibazhi from prying into the waters near Zhangquan and further reduce their activity space.”
Xu Yuzhuo agreed without any hesitation. He himself served as a staff general in the Fujian Navy. He received naval training in Sanya, visited the warship slipway of the Victory Port Shipyard, and personally participated in the two Nanri Island naval battles led by Haihan. For Haihan We have a deep understanding of the strength of the navy.
Although in the first two naval battles, the Haihan Navy also brought the Fujian Navy to play with them, they almost all fought on their own, and there was not much coordination. The Fujian Navy even had to act as a decoy on the battlefield. Characters, showing weakness to attract the enemy's attention, this is not a job that a naval officer like Xu Yuzhuo is willing to do. With the gradual liberalization of Haihan military purchases, the Fujian Navy finally had the opportunity to start equipping combat ships with the same specifications as the Haihan Navy. This means that they can finally form a mixed fleet with the Haihan Navy without worrying about ship navigation. The performance gap holds the other party back. In the previous naval battle of Nanri Island, only two "Exploration-class" warships belonging to the Fujian Navy enjoyed such treatment. However, after more than half a year, the number of new warships of the Fujian Navy has increased from two to six. He is fully qualified to be incorporated into Haihan's fleet and undertake a certain degree of combat missions.
Only officers like Xu Yuzhuo who have personal experience understand that if they want to learn true skills from the Haihan people, they must eat, live and train with them. This kind of mixed cruise like what Qian Tiandun said is exactly the opportunity that the Fujian Navy currently needs.
As for how much money such a cruise would cost, Xu Yuzhuo was not worried. After all, his old man Xu Xinsu had already said that as long as the Shibazhi could be wiped out within the year, even if it costs gold and silver, he would still have to spend this time. Make it through the year. After all, for maritime interest groups, the control of Fujian waters is worth far more than the current military expenditure paid to Haihan. The money spent now can be quickly recovered through other methods after Shibazhi is destroyed and sea control is regained.
Of course, in the future, the control of the sea in Fujian waters will not be exclusive to the Fujian navy. According to the cooperation agreement reached by the two parties during the Haihan mission’s visit to Fujian last year, Haihan ships will have the right to freely navigate and trade in Fujian waters in the future. This Free authority was granted not only to civilian ships, but also to the Haihan Navy. This almost acquiesces that the Haihan people have the highest control over Fujian waters, because the strength of the Fujian Navy is not enough to be on an equal footing with the Haihan Navy. But at the same time, Haihan also promised not to intervene in the Fujian government's management of maritime trade. In this way, most of the oil and water in maritime trade still remained in the hands of the Fujian government or interest groups like Xu Xinsu.
Such an agreement can be regarded as a win-win situation for both parties. The prerequisite for realizing this situation is to first remove the stumbling block of Shiba Zhi. When the interests of both parties are consistent, whether it is sending a military observation team or joint operations, it seems very logical.
Five days after the meeting, Xu Yuzhuo returned to Kinmen Island with six Haihan-made warships belonging to the Fujian Navy. Although Qian Tiandun said at the meeting that he would not start patrol missions until the arrival of naval ships next month, at Xu Yuzhuo's strong request, these six ships and the two "exploration-class" and two "exploration-class" ships stationed locally The "Exploration-class" naval warships were mixed in advance and began daily training with the same content as naval personnel.
On March 3, the combined fleet, which performed its first patrol mission in the Fujian Strait, relied on accurate intelligence to successfully intercept a group of merchant ships heading from Zhejiang to Penghu about 40 nautical miles east of Nanri Island.
There are seven merchant ships in this group, all transporting various materials purchased by Shiba Zhi in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. The ship owners are all businessmen from Jiangsu and Zhejiang. In addition, there are two armed merchant ships belonging to Shiba Zhi as escorts.
This time, when the people of Shibazhi were purchasing goods in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, they had already been targeted by spies sent by Fujian. After spending a lot of time, they finally bribed the boss of one of the ships and learned their approximate voyage route and departure. date. So the spies immediately sent the news back to Fujian, and Xu Xinsu quickly informed the Haihan people on Kinmen Island after getting the news. Just as the combined fleet was mixed, Qian Tiandun gave them the task of intercepting the fleet.
The officer who led Haihan's team was Xie Li, a naturalized civilian officer. He was among the first batch of officers appointed as chief mates in the navy, and his seniority could be considered an old man. Nowadays, none of the time-traveling commanders of Haihan's major fleets have arrived in Fujian. He is currently the top commander of the navy's troops stationed in Fujian, and he is responsible for planning and commanding all overseas combat missions.
The leading officer of the Fujian Navy was Xu Yuzhuo himself. During his training at the Shengli Port Military Academy, he had a brief friendship with Xie Li. Reduces many unnecessary barriers.
This fleet, composed of twelve warships and five logistics supply ships, wandered in the waters east of Nanri Island for two days before waiting for the prey to appear. After displaying their flags and conducting warning bombardments, several Jiangsu and Zhejiang maritime merchant ships lowered their sails and slowed down, waiting for inspection. However, the two armed merchant ships of Shibazhi changed their course and planned to escape.
Although the two sides were separated by a distance when they encountered each other, the combined fleet's ships quickly made up for the distance with their speed advantage. They caught up with the two armed merchant ships half an hour later and directly used artillery fire on the two ships. A close range attack was carried out. Although the pirates on the armed merchant ships also tried to fight back with cannons, muskets, bows and arrows and other weapons, the range and accuracy of their equipment were too poor to pose any threat to the chasing warships. Instead, they were fired from the warships. Several rounds of grape bombs killed many people.
It only took the combined fleet more than two hours to capture the smuggling fleet. According to preliminary statistics of the results of the war, the supplies that this fleet tried to transport to Penghu were mainly grain, with as much as 4,000 tons of rice alone. In addition, what attracted the attention of the officers was the Ming Dynasty-style firearms purchased by Shibazhi from the Weisuo Army in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, including more than 170 bird blunderbuss, more than 30 Lumi blunderbuss, and 17 Folang machines. Cannons and more than 40 barrels of gunpowder, as well as more than 80 sets of standard armor, and more than 500 swords and bows. Relying on these weapons, it is possible to arm a small-scale elite force - of course, this elite is only at the level of the Shibazhi and ordinary guard Ming troops, and is still far behind the current Fujian Ming army. There is a certain gap.
(End of chapter)