Chapter 842 The Leading Party
"... I went to Nanjing for business the year before last. I drank with several colleagues from Zhejiang in my spare time, and I realized that their coastal defense was in vain. It was worse than Fujian six or seven years ago." While the fleet was heading north, Xu Yuzhuo also took the time to share some of his past experiences with Qian Tiandun and Shi Diwen.
Chang Guowei's paper strength looks strong, but the actual strength is far less than the registered number. This kind of thing happens not only on the distant Qiongzhou Island, but also in the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions, which are famous for their prosperity. There are nearly 5,000 officers and soldiers in the Changguo Guard, but the actual strength is only about half, and there are many of them. The old, weak, sick and disabled were mixed in to make up the numbers. The training of the troops responsible for defending the sea frontiers was neglected and their armaments were lax. Under such an environment, offshore islands were occupied by lawless people, and the government often turned a blind eye and was too lazy to take care of them.
But just eating empty pay and drinking soldiers' blood can no longer satisfy the needs of some people in Zhejiang's officialdom for making money. Collaborating with nearby pirates to engage in smuggling has become another important way to make money. Of course, after this relationship was established, the government's supervision of coastal defense gradually became ineffective in order to facilitate operations.
Of course, the inaction and chaos of the Zhejiang government are actually a good thing for the coalition fleet fighting in remote places. The fleet does not need to worry about running into the Zhejiang Navy's fleet patrolling the sea, because the local garrison does not have such arrangements for patrolling coastal defense. According to the intelligence obtained by Xu Yuzhuo, the navy stationed in Changguo Guard has almost completely abandoned the maritime defense zone, and the frequency of sea patrols has probably been reduced to once a year. Although the navy led by Xu Xinsu was passive for a long time and was suppressed by Shibazhi, at least there was some interaction on the scene, and it did not completely give up control of maritime defense. In contrast, Zhejiang The coastal defense situation here is indeed incredible.
Xu Yuzhuo continued: "Although the Changguo Guard is known as one of the four famous guards in the Ming Dynasty, the scope it really protects is only the half of Sanmen Bay belonging to Ningbo Prefecture and the Xiangshan Port Bay. To the east of Xiangshan In the sea area, the government is indifferent. If a civilian ship is robbed by pirates and is reported to the government, there will often be no progress at all. If you want to do a good maritime trade, you can only pay tribute to the local pirates to buy peace. . General Qian, General Shi, you Haihan have always said that the cost of transporting immigrants back from the north is too high. For one boat to pass through Ningbo, you have to pay a toll of one hundred taels of silver. For ten boats, it will cost one thousand taels. A big boat. If you add more, the ship owner will definitely not bear the expense himself, and will naturally pass it on to you, and the cost will definitely remain high.”
Qian Tiandun and Shi Diwen are not unaware of the tricks involved. At present, transporting immigrants from the north completely relies on the transportation capacity of the Ming Dynasty maritime merchants. These additional expenses along the way alone account for 20 to 30% of the entire freight. One ship and two ships are okay, but after years of this, the additional expenses added to the Haihan Immigration Department each month amounted to thousands of taels of silver, and the trend continued to increase month by month as the transportation capacity increased. Naturally, the Immigration Department was full of complaints. This complaint was reflected to the Executive Committee, and eventually the task fell on the military.
Qian Tiandun held a high position and would certainly not complain about these things in front of the Allied generals, but he still had to express Haihan's attitude towards this: "We Haihan have always attached great importance to navigation safety, whether in Guangdong, Guangxi or Fujian. Ensuring the safety of maritime trade routes is part of the responsibilities of the Haihan Militia. The main problem in Zhejiang now is not the freight, but the inability to ensure the safety of the routes. We come to Zhejiang this time to solve this problem once and for all. We can’t control and don’t want to control how the Ming army does things, but we will deal with it in our own way.”
Xu Yuzhuo thought that your so-called "method" is to solve it directly. Although the two sides formulated a general action plan before setting off from Fujian, the content mainly focused on logistical support rather than specific tactics. For the Fujian Navy and the Haihan Militia, the coastal waters of Zhejiang are almost all unknown areas with unknown conditions, and plans can never keep up with changes. We have already encountered three groups of pirates along the way from Wenzhou to Taizhou. In fact, they were not included in the coalition's combat plan, but they were directly crushed by the coalition's super strength, and they did not cause any trouble.
However, the pirate gangs in Wenzhou and Taizhou are basically "wild", while the situation in Ningbo is somewhat different. The pirate gangs have more or less entangled interests with the government, and touching them is equivalent to touching the interests of some powerful figures. It may lead to some local resistance or even tough measures. Xu Yuzhuo believes that this is an aspect that the coalition forces have to guard against.
"General Qian, there will be people lurking in Xiangshan County to meet us tomorrow. You might as well listen to the local news first, and then consider how to take action." Xu Yuzhuo did not point it out. He knew that Haihan and other soldiers were fanatical war elements. , if something can be solved through combat, other methods of handling it will probably not be considered. However, the purpose of the Ming army's participation in this operation was to train troops and protect the Xu family's future interests in Zhejiang waters in advance. They did not come here specifically to confront the Zhejiang government. The Haihan people had no scruples, but Xu Yuzhuo did. He did not want a direct rift between the Haihan people and the Zhejiang government, or even a military conflict.
Qian Tiandun didn't know Xu Yuzhuo's thoughts, but he also planned to contact the hidden stakes sent by the Xu family to Zhejiang first, and learn more about the local situation before making a decision. Although he has 100% confidence in his own military strength and can be sure that the combat capability of this fleet far exceeds that of the Zhejiang Navy and the pirate gangs off Ningbo, but if he can be more fully prepared and have a greater grasp of the target, To be more clear, Qian Tiandun didn't mind spending a little more time on intelligence gathering before taking action.
Xu Ke has been in a state of restlessness since he sent away the emissary from Fujian a few days ago. If the Haihan people go north, there is a high probability of armed conflict with the pirate gangs in the waters near Ningbo Prefecture, and it is very likely that they will also confront the local government. By then, it may be difficult for leading parties like Xu Ke to continue to lurk.
Xu Ke did not have a very intuitive understanding of the strength of the Haihan people. Everything came from hearsay, so he did not have great confidence in Haihan's plan. If the Haihan people can deal with the local armed forces, then Xu Ke will probably be able to restore his family name and return home in glory. But if the Haihan people failed in Ningbo, part of the responsibility might be attributed to him. After all, almost half of the various information provided to Fujian was sent from him.
On this day, Xu Ke finally received new news. The Haihan fleet was already on its way north and would arrive in Ningbo soon. Xu Yuzhuo, the fourth son of Xu Xinsu, the patriarch of the Xu family, and a senior general of the Fujian Navy, were also in the fleet, and he was ordered to meet at a certain place on the sea on the designated date.
The appearance of Xu Yuzhuo showed how resolute the attitude of Fujian was, but what Xu Ke didn't know was that not only the representative Xu Yuzhuo was going north with Haihan this time, but there were even more than a thousand Fujian naval forces who were still in the establishment. officers and soldiers. This action was not a unilateral act by Haihan, but a coalition fleet composed of Haihan and the Fujian Ming Army. Xu Xinsu's determination in intervening in Zhejiang's coastal defense was far greater than he imagined.
Xu Ke arranged all the affairs at home two days in advance. He only said that he was going to take the fleet out to sea for fishing, but did not reveal the truth to his family. After taking the fleet out to sea, Xu Ke did not direct the fleet to Zhoushan where there were more fish as usual, but chose to go south along the coast. When they arrived at Nantian Island near Sanmen Bay, Xu Ke arranged for his fishing boats to operate in the eastern waters, while his own boat turned southeast and sailed towards the Yushan Islands.
The Yushan Islands are about 30 nautical miles southeast of Changguo Wei Shipu Station. They are the southeasternmost islands under the rule of Xiangshan. They are divided into three archipelagos: Nanyushan, Beiyushan and Wuhu Reef, and are composed of 13 islands and 41 reefs. There are freshwater resources on Beiyushan Island, but due to the unrest in the sea, the distance between this place and the mainland is a little far, and life is not very convenient. Therefore, except for fishermen who come here to escape the wind and waves, most people usually come here. There is no human footstep. In the secret report Xu Ke wrote back to Fujian, he suggested that when the Haihan fleet went north, it could consider setting up a supply point on Beiyushan Island outside Shipu's control to avoid the local Ming army. After the coalition fleet left Taizhou waters this time, Qian Tiandun and Xu Yuzhuo discussed this place as the place to meet Xiangshan Neiying.
Originally, there was no need to go to such trouble to meet with Xu Ke. Sending a boat directly to Xiangshan County would have the same effect. However, Qian Tiandun and others considered that there were certain risks in going to the local area in person, and that if someone was asked to pass the message, the communication effect might not be sufficient, so Xu Yuzhuo ordered someone to go to Xiangshan in advance and informed Xu Ke to come here for a while.
Although Xu Ke had been mentally prepared before coming here, when Xu Ke saw the Haihan warship cruising near the Yushan Islands, his heart was still quite shaken. He has been in Zhejiang for several years, and has long been accustomed to the old equipment of the navy here. Compared with Haihan's warships, the navy's ships are really old and small, and they lose out just in appearance. Big cut.
After Xu Ke's ship sailed into the monitoring range of the coalition fleet, two ships immediately approached it. If it were an ordinary civilian ship, these two ships would drive it away from this sea area to avoid exposing the hidden secrets. The fleet of Beiyushan Island. Xu Ke quickly ordered people to unfurl a red and blue flag on the bow of the ship - this was the token sent when the messenger came to notify him two days ago.
When the coalition sailboat saw the token, they put down their boats and rowed over to pick up Xu Ke. One ship stayed in place to monitor, while the other ship carried Xu Ke to Beiyushan Island.
Xu Ke's business is fishing at sea, and he is quite familiar with this sea area. He knows that there is a small haven to the north of Beiyushan Island. A sailboat as big as the Haihan Warship can accommodate twenty or thirty ships. . However, when he arrived at this area, he saw several larger sailing ships docked outside the harbor. One of them was at least four or five times larger than the largest fortune ship he had seen in Zhejiang. Even for him, I consider myself to have seen the world, but my jaw almost dropped when I saw this ship.
"The legendary treasure ship that the Three Treasures Eunuchs took to sail to the West must be just like this!" Xu Ke couldn't help but sigh.
The era of Zheng He's voyages to the West can be regarded as the peak period of the Ming Dynasty's shipbuilding industry. During his seven voyages to the West, the Ming Dynasty built nearly 4,000 large-scale sea-going ships. At that time, the Ming Dynasty Navy had 3,800 ships, including There are more than 1,300 patrol ships, and 400 large capital ships are stationed at Xinjiangkou in Nanjing alone. During that period, the strength of the Ming Navy even exceeded the combined navies of all European countries at the same time.
The Longjiang Shipyard in Nanjing and the Changle Shipyard in Fujian are the two main places where Zheng He's treasure ships were built. "History of the Ming Dynasty: Biography of Zheng He" records: "The treasure ship No. 63 was 44 feet long and 18 feet wide. ." This translates into a hull length of approximately 138 meters and a width of 56 meters, which is much larger than the "Dignity-class" battleship currently in service in the Haihan Navy.
However, such an advanced and developed shipbuilding industry was suppressed after Zheng He's death. A large number of valuable shipbuilding blueprints were destroyed by the government, and private shipbuilding tonnage was strictly limited by law. After two hundred years, the maritime power of the Ming Dynasty has not been greatly developed. On the contrary, it has regressed a lot compared to the Yongle period. The shipbuilding industry has also made great strides in retreat, so that latecomers like Haihan can easily move south of the Ming Dynasty. It used maritime armed forces to gain control of the sea and controlled most of the maritime trade in Fuzhou and Guangzhou in a near-monopoly.
Although the "Enterprise" of the Haihan Navy was placed in Zheng He's fleet, it was larger than the medium-sized treasure ship. However, in the era when Xu Ke lived, the Ming Dynasty's shipyards could no longer build a ship like the "Enterprise". A large battleship of tonnage. This is the tragedy of the Ming Dynasty, but it is also the luck of the travelers. Otherwise, they would not have the opportunity to become the maritime overlord on the southeast coast, and enter completely unfamiliar waters to carry out military operations in such an arrogant way.
Xu Ke entered the small haven on Beiyushan Island in amazement. It was also full of ships, almost all of which were logistics cargo ships carrying various supplies and troop carriers carrying the army. After landing on the shore, Xu Ke finally met the legendary Haihan people and his distant cousin Xu Yuzhuo whom he had not seen for many years.
"Xu Ke, a humble citizen, have met all of you!" After meeting his family, Xu Ke immediately returned to his surname. However, he did not hold any official position, and his attitude was still very humble.
Xu Yuzhuo greeted him warmly: "Brother, you and I have not seen each other for many years, but do you still recognize my brother?"
This "brother" actually eliminated some of Xu Ke's uneasiness, and he responded with a smile: "Of course I recognize the fourth brother. After not seeing each other for these years, the fourth brother has become a lot richer!"
(End of chapter)