Chapter 841 Continue heading north
Haihan did not have too many concerns about the coalition forces' operations in Zhejiang waters that lasted for many days. However, Xu Yuzhuo and the Ming army led by him were more sensitive. If they were caught by the local government after their identities were exposed, there might be some consequences in the future. Please come to your door. The coalition forces have been delayed here for more than three days, and their whereabouts must have been inevitably exposed. However, the people and pirates who have been in contact with the coalition forces are temporarily under control, and the government and people on the mainland probably have not figured it out yet. What is the origin of this sudden armed force? But if they continue to stay, this identity may not be concealed for long.
Originally, the coalition forces planned to leave Wenzhou Bay and head north the next day, but the two ships of Ming troops rushing to Yandang Town in Yueqing did not return to the assembly point in Wenzhou Bay until the afternoon of the next day, a full two or three hours later than expected. . According to the account of the leading officer, this mission did not go as smoothly as expected.
After arriving at Yandang Town last night, the two boatmen went ashore in the dark and headed for the Yueqing Boat Gang's home base. This group of pirates almost went out in full force for the one hundred thousand taels of silver. Only a few old, weak, sick and disabled people were left behind. The wolf-like Ming army cleared these people without much effort. But what they didn't expect was that the silver stored in the Yueqing Ship Gang's secret location was all cast into silver winter melons. Each one weighed hundreds of kilograms, and its round and smooth shape made it extremely inconvenient to carry.
This method of storing silver was passed down from the north. In order to prevent their silver from being stolen, rich people cast it into melon shapes and buried them in the cellar. In this way, two or three beetles would definitely not be able to steal the heavy silver melons. Taken away. Such a method of storing money is rare in Fujian. The officer sent to retrieve the treasure was dumbfounded. In the middle of the night, he couldn't find any equipment such as ropes or sticks. He couldn't even find a flatbed truck, so he had to use his hands. It was carried on the shoulders and carried to the ship by manpower.
But the little talent of the three leaders of the Yueqing Ship Gang was probably used in hiding the silver. This bank is two miles away from the shore, and it is located on a hillside, which greatly increases the number of people hiding money. The difficulty of transporting silver. The only good thing is that the place where the money is buried is not in Yandang Town. Otherwise, these people would be doing this in the middle of the night, which would definitely attract the attention of the outside world. Even so, the dozens of people who went on the mission were exhausted, digging and moving at the same time. It was not until dawn that all the silver winter melons in the secret bank were moved onto the ship.
This night's hard work was not in vain. A total of thirty-two silver winter melons were brought back, and the total value was nearly two hundred thousand taels of silver. This also shows that these people had a pretty good life as pirates in Yueqing. According to the original agreement between the two parties, Xu Yuzhuo wanted to hand over all the money to Haihan as a fund and reward for this temporary operation.
This operation was not part of the coalition's original plan, and military expenditures were naturally unplanned. Although there is a huge disparity in strength between the two sides, in order to achieve a quick victory and ensure that no fish slipped through the net, the coalition forces invested almost all combat personnel and ships in the final battle. They even used full firepower when bombarding the pirate fleet, which consumed a lot of money. Not too small either. Coupled with the several days that the entire coalition fleet was delayed here, the expenses of more than 2,000 people from Haihan, and the post-war combat rewards, it was not a small amount.
However, Qian Tiandun thought that it would not be good to just accept everything as ordered. After all, the Ming army also sent troops in this process. In the end, even the menial work of digging out the bank was done by the Ming army. If Tang doesn't leave anything for others, then when the two sides cooperate on the battlefield again, the Ming army may not continue to do its best to provide support. After the two sides were polite to each other, Haihan's side took 70% and the Ming army got 30%. The commanders of both armies issued commendation orders to their subordinate troops, and the morale of the coalition forces was once again boosted.
After nightfall that night, the coalition fleets set off from Wenzhou Bay one after another and continued northward. A few ships responsible for logistics carried pirate prisoners captured in the past few days, as well as some fishermen on the islands where the coalition fleet docked during the operation, and headed south back to Fujian. The reason why even the fishermen on the island had to be taken away was mainly because they were worried that the news would leak out too early. Especially since the identity of the Fujian navy was relatively sensitive, they had to cover it up for as long as possible.
Heading north from Wenzhou, you enter the boundary of Taizhou. Taizhou borders the East China Sea to the east, Wenzhou to the south, Shaoxing Prefecture and Ningbo Prefecture to the north, and Jinhua Prefecture and Chuzhou Prefecture to the west. The terrain of Taizhou is mainly mountainous, with Yandang Mountain as a barrier to the south. There are peaks such as Dalei Mountain and Tiantai Mountain within the territory. Misielang, the main peak of Tiantai Mountain, the highest peak in eastern Zhejiang, is located in Taizhou. The Yueqing Bay where the Yueqing Boat Gang was hiding belonged to Wenzhou in the west, toward the mainland, and the Chumen Peninsula and Yuhuan Island in the east belonged to Taizhou.
Taizhou has a long history. It had an official administrative seat as early as the pre-Qin period. However, it was not until the fifth year of Wude in the Tang Dynasty that Taizhou was named after the Tiantai Mountain in the territory, and it has been used ever since.
Taizhou's coastline is more than a thousand miles long. There are 12 island groups and nearly 700 large and small islands in the offshore. The maritime conditions are also very complex. Although there are no pirate gangs on the scale of the Yueqing Ship Gang, there are quite a few small pirate gangs with two or three ships like the one the Song brothers were in before.
The coalition fleet's combat ships, logistics ships, and the merchant fleet used as decoys totaled nearly a hundred ships. If such a large mixed fleet acted together, it would be difficult not to attract the attention of the officials in the offshore areas. Therefore, under Shi Diwen's suggestion, the combined fleet was split into several parts. The merchant fleet traveled along the coastal route. A few nautical miles east of it were small and medium-sized warships, and the largest tonnage "Enterprise" Together with the accompanying frigates and logistics supply ships, they keep traveling on a route about thirty or forty nautical miles offshore to reduce the chance of being discovered as much as possible, because the appearance of this ship is indeed too obvious, and it will be very obvious once it appears. It’s hard to hide your identity.
During the coalition operation in Wenzhou, the "Enterprise" only appeared in the final battle. At other times, it was as concealed as possible in order to prevent future opponents from predicting the existence of this killer weapon. Before arriving at the final destination of Zhoushan Islands, the "Enterprise" will follow this principle and minimize its appearance in public.
The fleet encountered pirates again when passing by Dachen Island. These two islands are very similar to the battlefield in Wenzhou the day before. They are also two islands facing each other, one in the north and one in the south. Together they are called Dachen Island, also known as Dongzhen. Mountain or Dongzhengshan.
Merchant ships traveling from Wenzhou and Taizhou to North Korea and Japan will pass through the waters near Dachen Island and use the Gaolitou Reef on the island as a navigational sign. In the middle of the last century, Dachen Island was also one of the battlefields of the Ming Navy's maritime anti-Japanese war. In the thirty-fourth year of Jiajing's reign, the navy of the Ming Dynasty was chasing Japanese pirates here. There were also alarm smoke piers and strongholds built by the Ming army who stayed behind at that time on the island. However, by this time, the coastal defenses were relaxed, and the Ming Navy was no longer able to compare with its situation a hundred years ago, and troops were no longer stationed on these offshore islands. What was once an anti-Japanese outpost has now become a paradise for pirates.
There is only about two nautical miles between Upper Dachen Island and Lower Dachen Island. There is actually a group of pirates stationed on each of the two islands. They usually make a living by fishing, but when they encounter a lone merchant ship at sea, they will immediately turn into pirates. . The merchant ships used by the United Fleet as bait were all in batches of two, and the two ships at the forefront happened to encounter the Dachen Island pirates who were operating at sea. The first people to discover the target were the people from Dachen Island. After confirming that there were two ships in the target, the pirates who felt they were not strong enough sent a signal and asked the pirates from Dachen Island to come to help.
The crew members on the bait boat had received special training before setting off. When they saw several fishing boats heading straight towards them in the distance, they immediately adjusted their direction to test their intentions. After seeing that the other party also immediately changed direction and tried to cut into its own forward route, the two bait boats immediately turned decisively to the east and fled towards the East China Sea.
If the two ships turned westward and fled toward the Jiaojiang estuary in Taizhou Bay, the pirates might not pursue them, because there was a naval camp at the Jiaojiang estuary. Although there were not many troops, the pirates did not want to provoke the authorities. However, since these two ships plan to run to the East China Sea, they have to chase them - there are no docking or sheltered islands within hundreds of nautical miles to the east of this place. The nearest Amami Oshima Island in Ryukyu Kingdom to the east is about 30 kilometers away from Dachen Island. It was a full four hundred nautical miles away, and the pirates did not believe that these two merchant ships could escape that far. Two groups of pirates and four ships communicated with each other using simple signals and immediately decided to continue chasing.
Of course, the next development of the matter did not go as the pirates expected. After they chased for more than ten nautical miles, they suddenly discovered that there was another huge fleet on the sea in the direction of the escape of the two ships. Although they couldn't figure out the origin of this fleet, they could smell danger in the air. However, it was too late to turn around and escape at this time. The pirates suddenly discovered that unidentified sailboats appeared from the north and south to attack them.
The pirates turned around and prepared to escape, while at the same time they picked up their weapons and tried to fight. Their weapons are no better than those of the pirates in Wenzhou. They are still mainly cold weapons such as harpoons, spears, and waist knives. There are also cannons and cannons, but with only four or five guns and one or two cannons, their combat effectiveness is simply negligible in front of the coalition fleet.
After the coalition warship approached, they did not try to persuade them to surrender. They directly fired a round of grapeshot from their artillery guns across the deck, causing the pirate ship to cry and howl. The pirates never expected to encounter such an iron plate at their door, and almost lost the ability to fight back at the same time.
After clearing the decks of the four pirate ships with crossfire, the warships slowly moved closer. In order to prevent any survivors from joining the gang, the sailors on the ship stood in a row on the side of the ship and aimed their muskets at the deck of the pirate ship.
However, the pirates were hit hard and were no longer able to resist. The people on the deck were either dead or injured and lay down in pieces. Those who were lucky enough to escape the disaster all huddled in the cabin and shivered, not daring to show their heads at all.
The sailors spent half an hour cleaning up these ships, transferring all the survivors who had narrowly escaped to the coalition ships, and then dug through all four severely damaged pirate ships, allowing them to carry the pirates' bodies. It sank into the sea with a few seriously injured people. This is not because the coalition forces are cruel. Firstly, they want to try their best to keep their whereabouts secret. Secondly, these seriously injured people will take up the limited resources of the coalition fleet. Simply disposing of them is the most cost-effective way.
As for the surviving prisoners, after interrogation is completed, they will be handed over to the next batch of logistics ships returning to Fujian. Their future destination will probably be in northern Taiwan. Whether it is the mouth of the Tamsui River or the gold mines near Jilong Port, there are still a large number of labor gaps that need to be filled. These prisoners-of-war labor force are most suitable for use in gold mines that require fully closed management. Although the number of this group of prisoners of war is not large, Qian Tiandun believes that as the coalition fleet continues to move north, it will encounter more and more pirate forces. When the Zhoushan Islands are captured, at least thousands of prisoner-of-war laborers can be sent to Taiwan Island.
The two groups of pirates on Dachen Island disappeared almost silently into the sea. It was only after a long time that they were noticed by the fishermen in the nearby area. The Songmen Guard garrison responsible for the military defense of this area was sufficient. It took ten days to learn about the changes that had occurred on Dachen Island. At that time, the coalition fleet had arrived at the Zhoushan Islands and launched operations there. Officials who knew the situation in various parts of Zhejiang began to connect the mysterious disappearances of pirate gangs that had appeared in various states in recent times with this huge fleet that fell from the sky.
This little episode on Dachen Island only delayed the coalition fleet for less than half a day. After the final matters were dealt with, the fleet continued to move north along the established route in three directions: left, center and right. Originally, Qian Tiandun wanted to divide several merchant ships into Taizhou from Jiaojiang River and go to Taizhou City to see the local public security situation and business environment. However, Xu Yuzhuo was worried about unintended consequences and urged to continue heading north. Qian Tiandun knew that he was afraid that the presence of Ming navy personnel in the coalition fleet would be exposed prematurely, so he did not insist anymore and continued northward according to his wishes.
About ten nautical miles north from Dachen Island, you will reach Dongji Islands, one of the landmarks dividing Ningbo Prefecture and Taizhou Prefecture. The Dongji Islands, which consists of 57 islands, belong to Taizhou waters to the south and Ningbo Prefecture to the north.
The first important place to enter the waters of Ningbo Prefecture is Chang Guowei, one of the four famous sea defense guards in the Ming Dynasty. Changguowei is located 80 miles southwest of Xiangshan County and 350 miles away from Ningbo Fucheng. During the Hongwu period, a guard city was built on Dongmen Mountain in the south of Changguo County. During the Yongle, Chenghua, and Jiajing years, it was repaired and expanded several times. There were several guardhouses for thousands of households under it, such as Shipu, Qiancang, and Juexi, as well as water and land. There are thousands of troops garrisoned - of course, this is just a figure on paper.
(End of chapter)