Chapter 849 Loot
In fact, the guard armies in Fuzhou and Guangzhou are not much better than their counterparts in Zhejiang. The guard armies along the coast of Guangdong, especially on Qiongzhou Island, were completely eliminated by Haihan a year or two ago, leaving an empty establishment. With the framework and a bunch of paid officers, the local defense has been completely taken over by the Haihan Army. Fujian has been slightly less affected because of its close cooperation with Haihan. However, almost all officers in the coastal states with levels above 100 households have received military training from Haihan. Even if they are not high enough and have not been to Sanya, they at least go to Zhangzhou. Passed a short training course.
Fujian has been tortured by pirates for many years, and once it was bitten by a snake, it was feared for ten years. After it recovered, the government was very willing to spend money on border defense. In addition to regularly inviting instructor Haihan to the local area every year to hold classes for these low-level officers, Fujian also A lot of guns and ammunition produced by Haihan were purchased to arm these grassroots troops. Although the establishment of the Fujian Coastal Guard Station still maintains the original system, the tactical command and weapons and equipment have obviously moved closer to Haihan. This trend is becoming more and more obvious among the upper echelons of the Fujian military. The elite troops under Xu Xinsu are almost copying Haihan's military system and training methods. This is why he will boldly hand over the command of the Ming army troops to Haihan. One of the main reasons.
In terms of combat strength, among the three provinces in the coastal area south of the Yangtze River, Fujian's garrison army is undoubtedly the strongest, and Zhejiang is definitely not the weakest. At least they still retain most of their establishment. Maybe they will not be able to send out enough troops in a real war. It is useful, but the usual deterrent effect is still there. Only a powerful force like Haihan dared to step on their faces like this.
The surrender of Shipusuo defenders did not make the coalition forces relax their vigilance. In fact, at the same time that the large forces landed, the elite of the special operations battalion had already sneaked into the mountains surrounding Shipusuo City from the north to prevent the city's defenders from abandoning the city and moving to Xiangshan in the north. The county fled. If the rebels in the city had really planned to do this, they might have suffered more casualties while escaping than if they had chosen to defend the city.
"Are you Ma Qianhu?"
When the Haihan Army took over Shipu Suo City, Ma Ling was taken to the Chinese Army's headquarters tent to be questioned by Qian Tiandun and Shi Diwen. They all had rich experience in interrogating prisoners of war in the past, so Ma Ling's interrogation was also conducted separately so that they could get more information out of him.
"I'm Ma Ling. I'm a member of Shipu County. I only hope that your army will abide by its promise and not harm our soldiers of the Ming Army." As a defeated general, Ma Ling hung his head and had no confidence. Now his life is in the hands of the Haihan people. In his hands, he could only hope that the Haihan people would keep their promise.
"Don't worry, everything we said counts. As long as your people don't cause trouble, no one will harm them." Qian Tiandun gave Ma Ling a reassurance before continuing to ask questions. Said: "Let's talk about the staffing of your Shipu Institute first. We need to check the actual number of people."
When Ma Ling left the city to surrender, he had actually presented a roster. However, there were many shorts in the roster, which was very different from the actual situation, so he had to ask the commander. Qian Tiandun was not afraid of what tricks he would play. No matter whether he over-reported or under-reported, as long as the difference was too big when the headcount was counted later, Ma Ling would naturally have to take the blame.
Ma Ling had no intention of resisting at this time. Besides, he knew that Haihan would never judge him alone, so he reported the number of people honestly, and at the end he added: "Two boats went west earlier. , there are sixty or seventy people on those two boats, and my deputy is also on board.”
"Well, you don't have to worry about this. We have intercepted those two boats." Shi Diwen responded with a smile: "Sir Vice Qianhu got here before you."
Ma Ling thought to herself that it was lucky that I didn't say anything wrong, otherwise I might have had to sell him. His second-in-command was a navy man and had close ties with East China Sea pirates. After being caught by this group of Haihan people, the first thing he would do was to shift the blame to his side in order to escape.
Sure enough, Shi Diwen continued: "Your deputy thought we were pirates at first, and wanted to get close to him, saying he wanted to help us persuade the Ming army to surrender in the city. Later, he heard that we were here to fight pirates, and he immediately changed his mind. It’s you, Ma Lingma Qianhu, who said that Shipura was colluding with pirates. Hey, that’s very interesting!”
Ma Ling said angrily: "This guy talks about people and ghosts. He is a capricious villain! If you two can't trust me, you can ask him to come out and confront you!"
Qian Tiandun said calmly: "There is no need for a confrontation. We will naturally judge who is lying and who is honest according to the situation you explained. Whoever wants to play tricks with us, we also have ways to make him regret it! Ask you about it , you answer honestly, maybe I can continue to be your Ishiura Senhu in the future, do you understand?”
Ma Ling didn't want to be too groveling in front of the enemy generals, but the power of General Haihan was so powerful that he subconsciously responded. Although he felt that the other party's words may not be credible, Qian Tiandun's words "I can continue to be your Shipu Qianhu in the future" left a trace of thought in Ma Ling's heart - this Haihan people have no roots in Zhejiang. If you want to settle here, you must find someone who is familiar with the local situation to manage it in the early stage. I heard that they also use a large number of Ming people to handle affairs in Fuguang. Is there a more suitable candidate for Shipu Port than me?
Before the coalition fleet came here, it only strategically determined Shipu Port as the forward base for this operation, and the target was still the Zhoushan Islands. But after coming here to see it on the spot, Qian Tiandun and Shi Diwen both believed that this place had the value of long-term occupation, but they still needed to think carefully about how to operate it.
The Shipu Port is crescent-shaped, with a port area of more than 20 square kilometers. The wind and waves in the port are light and flat, and it can avoid strong winds above level 10. The water depth in the port can accommodate 10,000 fishing boats, and even 10,000-ton seagoing ships can berth in the port. It is smooth sailing. In terms of the port conditions of the natural harbor, it is even better than Zhoushan. This place is more than a hundred miles away from Ningbo Fucheng, and is separated by the Xiangshan Port Bay and many mountains. It is farther than the distance between Zhoushan Islands and Fucheng. It can be regarded as an enclave under the rule of Ningbo Fucheng. Moreover, this place is under the jurisdiction of the garrison. In addition to the local fishermen, there are also the families of the garrison soldiers who live here. The situation among the people is relatively simple. They only need to control the garrison leaders.
In the eyes of Qian Tiandun and Shi Diwen, these officers from Shipu Institute are all the same, and there is no difference. However, now they need to appease the emotions of the local people, and it is necessary to find an available spokesperson. The level of those hundreds of households is slightly lower, and their reputation may not convince the people, so they can only choose a suitable person from the Qianhu and the deputy Qianhu to do this. So far, Ma Ling, who has been relatively cooperative, is obviously slightly more reliable than Fu Qianhu, who has a repetitive attitude. In addition to the specific status of the garrison at Shipu, the information that Qian Tiandun and others are more interested in is the local development status. Although there is Xu Ke in the army, who has been lurking in Xiangshan for several years, his understanding of Shipu is definitely not as good as the local snakes here. Information such as permanent population, cultivated land area, grain output, deed tax income, etc. are definitely unknown to ordinary people, and they must obtain more reliable data from official channels.
While Ma Ling was being interrogated by the Haihan Army, Takahashi Nan had led his troops into Shipura Castle. However, this small town is only used as a shore defense stronghold for the Shipu garrison and is not a city in the true sense. Therefore, the area within the city is not large and is basically filled with dense barracks and logistics facilities. The task of the troops led by Takahashi Minami is to count the people and property in the city to ensure that the profits obtained here can be included in the coalition's loot list in a timely manner - most of which will naturally belong to Haihan. .
After the Ming army in Shipu disarmed, their weapons were gathered at the city gate and piled up. Gao Qiaonan picked up a musket used by the Ming army. He first weighed the weight and then raised it for a test aim. The length of this gun is similar to the rifle used by the Haihan Militia Army, but it is heavier. This is because the material is not strong enough, so the structure of the gun body and barrel must be made thicker. However, such old-fashioned matchlock guns have basically been eliminated among the Haihan militia, and only some militia teams organized in towns and villages are still using them.
Even for this relatively primitive rifle, the proportion of equipment in the local Ming army is only about 30%. In addition, the military leaders have deliberately reduced the amount of training in order to reduce military expenses. They may not have the opportunity to conduct it several times a year. With live-fire shooting training, one can naturally imagine the combat effectiveness that the Ming army can exert.
As for artillery, Takahashi Minami was even more disdainful. The several Fran cannons in Shipu Suo City are all small-caliber cannons, each weighing about 300 kilograms. The mother gun is equipped with four sub-guns, which are pre-filled with ammunition for use. During war, they are loaded into the mother gun in turn and fired. Due to the poor airtightness of the barrel and extremely limited range of this kind of gun, the coalition forces dared to deploy artillery positions very close to the outside of the city unscrupulously, preparing to engage in firepower exchanges with the city. However, the defenders were intimidated before the battle began. A few test-fired shells destroyed their fighting courage, which saved the attackers a lot of trouble.
In terms of weapons and equipment, the defense here is not as strong as the Spanish's two strongholds in Taipei. Although the Spanish defense also failed to cause too much trouble for the Haihan Army, at least there are still some that can make the Haihan Army The more feared city defense artillery. In Takahashi Minami's view, the Shipura Institute's several Fran cannons were basically useless. Even if the defenders dared to use these artillery pieces to confront the coalition forces outside the city, Takahashi Minami believed that their best chance would be to load them with ammunition. They just fired all the muskets once. In front of the experienced Haihan artillery, they probably wouldn't have the chance to reload the ammunition and try again.
For the Haihan Army, these weapons obviously have no recycling value and can only be treated as scrap copper and scrap metal. However, Xu Yuzhuo might be interested in these things. After all, these are the official weapons manufactured under the supervision of the Ministry of War of the Ming Dynasty. They can be put to some use if they are shipped back to Fujian.
However, when taking inventory of the material warehouse, Gao Qiaonan was a little surprised. There were actually a lot of good things hidden in this rural place. Not to mention grains such as rice and flour, there are many things in the warehouse that are obviously not military supplies. For example, there are 500 bolts of fine silk produced in Hangzhou, nearly 1,000 kilograms of Longjing tea packed in earthen jars, hundreds of jars of Shaoxing Nuerhong, etc., among which there are even more than 20 boxes of glassware produced in Haihan, Gaoqiao Nankai After looking at several boxes, I estimated that the market value of this batch of goods in Zhejiang could reach ten thousand taels of silver.
With the financial resources of these officers in Shipura, they probably cannot handle such a large transaction. These things can be transported into the warehouse in Shipura City. There is no doubt that they are passing goods of some big shots, but this time they are cheaper before they can be transported away. The Haihan people suddenly entered Shipu Port. Gao Qiaonan only looked at two warehouses and felt that the value was too great, so he hurried to report to Qian Tiandun.
Qian Tiandun was a little surprised when he heard the news, and immediately handed the question to the only answerer, Ma Ling: "We found a lot of good things in the warehouse in the city, Ma Qianhu, these goods won't happen to be Yours?”
Ma Ling said with a mournful face: "For a thousand households in the lower district, the annual military salary is only more than one hundred taels of silver. How can we buy so many good things... Most of the goods in Shipu City belong to the Ningbo Prefecture."< br>
Although he knew that the Haihan people would definitely search for these goods, when the news actually came, Ma Ling still felt that his vision went dark and he almost fell to the ground. He did not lie. Most of the goods in the city did belong to some important figures in Ningbo Prefecture and were temporarily stored here. However, the remaining small part includes the goods that Ma Ling paid for. Last month, he thought of many ways to buy more than 20 boxes of Haihan glassware from related households in Wenzhou, and planned to put them in one after another. Go to the Ningbo market and make a steady profit. This batch of goods cost several thousand taels of silver, and Ma Ling put almost all his belongings in it. But now that the Haihan people had confiscated his house, he was afraid that not even a hair would be left.
Ma Ling was afraid of interrogating his two Haihan generals and did not dare to tell the truth, so he could only blame it all on the big shots in Ningbo Mansion. But thinking that even if I could save my life this time, I had lost these goods and would have difficulty explaining to my superiors afterwards, I felt really anxious and painful.
Qian Tiandun asked: "Since you are a big shot in Ningbo Prefecture, why don't you just transport these goods back directly, but store them in Shipu Suo?"
Ma Ling slowly calmed down his breathing before answering: "There are many reasons for this. Some of them are because the cargo ship was damaged by wind and waves. After entering the port to unload the cargo, the ship went back to Xiangshan Port or Ningbo Prefecture for repairs. There are also some reasons. It is not convenient for public trading in Ningbo, so they are placed here and waited for merchants to pick them up. Some merchants want to release them little by little to make money, so they need to find a reliable place to store them first. Although Shipaso Castle is small, it is guarded by garrison, so it is perfect for storing these valuable goods. ”
(End of chapter)