Chapter 1316 Tao Donglai’s deployment
In the past few years after Haihan unified Hainan Island, almost all of the Haihan Army's combat missions were conducted overseas. The only large-scale military operation on the island was to quell the Shilu Mine Riot. During this period, no foreign enemies invaded or attacked Hainan Island, so the officers were a little surprised when they heard the news.
However, some more senior officers soon thought of why the Spaniards took the initiative to provoke Haihan. This was probably to avenge the expulsion of the Haihan army from the Taipei area. In early 1633, the Haihan Army launched offensives in the Taipei area against the Spanish seaside strongholds of Tamsui and Jilong. Not only did they seize these two fortresses, they also successfully drove them out of Taiwan Island. After Spain suffered this embarrassing loss, it did not immediately take military retaliation. It only conveyed its strong dissatisfaction to Haihan through an intermediary, demanding that Haihan voluntarily withdraw from the area and compensate Spain for its war losses. Of course, these requests were automatically ignored by Haihan. The war has come to an end. Who cares about the feelings of the defeated country? If you have the ability, don't argue with each other. Just see the real deal.
Haihan planned this action at the time because he was sure that Spain would be unable to immediately counterattack Taipei in such an environment, because at the end of the previous year, Haihan had reached an agreement with the Dutch East India Company on the division of rights and interests in Taiwan Island. If Spain If he wants to return to Taipei, he not only has to fight hard with Haihan's army, but he also has to be wary of his old rival the Dutch, who have already worn the same pants as Haihan, waiting for an opportunity to sneak attack on him. If you want to deal with the two maritime armed forces of Haihan and the Netherlands at the same time, even a country as powerful as Spain will have to think carefully.
After considering this, two years have passed, and the Manila authorities have not taken any retaliatory action. They seem to have acquiesced to Haihan's sole control in the South China Sea. After that, Haihan established the South China Sea Trade Alliance, and Portugal, the Netherlands and other countries in the region joined in, and it was likely to promote Haihan as a regional leader. However, the Manila authorities remained silent. Not only did they not make any statement, they also did not send anyone to participate in the meeting. They seemed to be independent from Haihan's diplomatic circle.
After Haihan had been wary of it for a period of time, he returned the focus of development to the north-south direction and stopped actively provoking the Spanish. Although the two countries have completely severed diplomatic ties, the private trade between Manila and the Ming Dynasty has always been relatively prosperous, so there are still many merchants from the Ming Dynasty who actively act as middlemen and engage in re-export trade between Hainan Island and Luzon Island. Various industrial products exported by Haihan can be purchased in the market in Manila, and products from Spanish American colonies can also be seen in the market in Sanya. Both countries pretend not to know about the re-export trade completed by middlemen, and they have not deliberately blocked this kind of international trade that is not easy to define, but is quite profitable.
Of course, the Spanish were not completely idle during this period, as the Spanish spy case that caused a stir in Port Victory in early 1634 fully proved this. That time, the number of lurking people involved in a seemingly unexpected death also sounded the alarm to the security department. The Spaniards seemed to have no reaction, but secretly they may have collected a large amount of relevant intelligence. If they were really found, If there is any loophole, perhaps retaliation will come unexpectedly.
After the espionage case, the Manila authorities continued to remain silent, as if the group of spies captured in Port Victory had nothing to do with them, and they did not even make any request to Haihan through an intermediary to redeem the prisoners. Unexpectedly, after more than a year, the Spaniards seemed to finally be ready for war and quietly began to assemble the fleet. It seemed that this time they were going to settle old accounts with Haihan. However, perhaps the Spaniards did not expect that Haihan was not at a disadvantage in his espionage work. He had also deployed intelligence personnel in Manila for a long time to collect local military and political information.
It is not difficult to judge the authenticity of the intelligence sent back this time. Large-scale cross-sea operations in this era involve combat supplies of thousands of people. Even powerful maritime countries must make long-term preparations. In a large seaport city like Manila, it is difficult to completely conceal the gathering of personnel and materials. As long as a thoughtful person conducts long-term surveillance of specific groups of people and areas, it is not difficult to detect signs of war. With some more targeted investigation work, we can basically confirm who the Manila authorities want to use military means to deal with.
The secret report pointed out that the Manila authorities have recently secretly hired a group of Chinese sailors who have been in and out of Sanya many times or are familiar with the coastal terrain of Hainan Island. It is very likely that they will be used to lead the way. Although this incident has not spread to the general public, many people in the local Chinese circle have heard the news to a greater or lesser extent. However, when the Spaniards were going to take action, local intelligence personnel did not find out the exact time. They could only infer from some fragmentary information such as the progress of material preparations that the Spanish armed fleet should set off within half a month.
After Tao Donglai introduced the general situation, he asked people to hang up a map of the South China Sea in the conference room. The straight-line voyage from Manila to Sanya exceeds 700 nautical miles, crossing most of the South China Sea from east to west, and there are no large islands and reefs in this sea area that can be used as supply points. Therefore, if the Spaniards want to attack Hainan Island, they must sail all the way in one go. Come towards the goal. At the normal speed of a Spanish sailing ship, if the weather is fine, a large fleet will need to sail for about a week from Manila to Sanya. Considering the difficulty of obtaining supplies during such a long-distance raid, there may be subsequent supply fleets that are delayed for a few days. Following behind, perhaps this is one of the main reasons why the Spanish have not launched military retaliation against Haihan.
If we take the half-month time limit in the intelligence and include the few days it took to transmit the news on the way, then it will take five to seven days at most before the Spanish fleet will set off from Manila. Of course, it is also possible that when the secret report was received in Sanya, the Spanish fleet had already left Manila Port and was currently on its way to Hainan Island. The time left for Haihan to prepare for the war may be only four or five days at the shortest and no more than ten days at the longest.
Although time is tight, it is better to have a little buffer time than to be caught off guard by an enemy sneak attack. Tao Donglai quickly made arrangements. First, he immediately notified coastal cities and counties around Hainan Island to assemble garrison and militia forces to strengthen coastal patrols in the near future; second, the Sanya Navy doubled the number of patrol vessels in the outer seas from now on, and the scope of maritime patrols was The radius of 30 nautical miles from Sanya as the center was expanded to 50 nautical miles. At the same time, light reconnaissance ships were sent eastward to conduct a wider search of sea routes that the enemy fleet might use; third, the Sanya Army entered preparations for war. According to the state, all coastal defense forts must have enough combat personnel on duty 24 hours a day; fourth, strictly check the ships and personnel arriving in the port recently to prevent the other party from sending people to sneak in in advance and take advantage of the chaos to cause trouble at this juncture; fifth It is for each logistics unit to make preparations for combat supplies and medical treatment as soon as possible in accordance with wartime standards.
Although Tao Donglai has not commanded operations on the front line in recent years, he is still quite familiar with these basic defensive measures. As for whether it is necessary to publicly inform the public, Tao Donglai believes that it is not necessary yet. If the people know that a war is going to start on their doorstep, it may lead to mass panic, and there is no guarantee that there will not be mass exodus and other chaos. In addition, Tao Donglai did not think that the Spaniards had any hope of setting foot on Sanya. If the opponent's fleet could rush to the port to land, then Tao Donglai would probably have to seriously reflect on the combat capabilities of his own army.
After Tao Donglai gave the order, various departments of the Ministry of National Defense immediately split up to implement it. After he had roughly made arrangements here, he rushed back to the office of the executive committee. After being notified, the main heads of various departments in Sanya had all come here to gather and wait for Tao Dong to report on the situation.
"The Spaniards are coming. Although we can despise them strategically, we still have to pay enough attention to them tactically." After Tao Donglai entered the conference room and sat down in a hurry, he first set the tone for this matter: " I’m notifying everyone to come here, and I hope that everyone can make plans to tide over the crisis together.” “Since the Spaniards have come to your door automatically, don’t let them go in vain, use this opportunity to teach them a lesson.” I was at the Ministry of National Defense just now. During the meeting, Johnson didn't speak much, but now that the meeting was filled with internal members of the Traveler, he could freely say a few harsh words: "Don't just think about defense this time, why not think more about it?" Why keep all the Spaniards here! We gave them a break last time in Taiwan. It seems we have to give them some serious damage before the effect can be maintained for a few more years.”
"You are an angel in white who saves lives and heals the wounded. Can you not be so cruel when you speak?" He Xi took over the conversation with a smile: "If we want to fight a war of annihilation, it will probably be difficult to achieve the goal by encircling and suppressing them at sea, right? If we let them land, it is also possible. It will cause social panic. In my opinion, we should focus on expulsion and end the fighting as quickly as possible without causing too much psychological pressure on local people and foreign merchants.”
"I agree with Minister He. War can only solve superficial problems. The fundamental problem between our country and Spain is still the conflict of interests, which is difficult to completely resolve through local war." He Xi is a pacifist. Gu Kai has always opposed the use of military means to solve problems, and everyone has become accustomed to it, so this argument did not cause much reaction.
However, He Xi knew how to be a good person and immediately gave him a reward so that he could continue the conversation: "So, does Minister Gu have any good ideas for us to refer to?"
Gu Kai said: "I think as long as it can have a sufficient deterrent effect on the Spanish on the battlefield, we should stop it, so that during subsequent negotiations, both parties can sit down and communicate calmly. If they kill in one breath, Hundreds of Spaniards have been killed, and everyone has created a life-and-death situation. How can we stop the war afterwards? If we are not sure of ending the war, it is best not to start the war easily. "
"You may have made a mistake somewhere. We do not need to engage in any form of truce negotiations with the Spaniards before beating them to the ground." Although Johnson has been unarmed for a long time, this soldier's violent temper He still kept it, but when he heard the air of compromise in Gu Kai's words, he immediately responded blankly.
Gu Kai coughed dryly and said: "Of course we have to fight, but what I mean is that when fighting, we must also consider how to end the war in a reasonable way..."
"The best way to end the war is to completely defeat the enemy!" Johnson retorted again before he could finish his words: "Have you ever thought about it, if the Spaniards gain the upper hand in this war, then they would be willing to stop and follow Shall we negotiate? You may also say that you can try to communicate with the Spaniards at that time, but what I want to say is that only by defeating the opponent can you take the initiative in your own hands, and everything else is nonsense!" br>
"Stop, stop!" Tao Dong came to see the two people arguing, and quickly stepped forward to stop their argument: "We don't want to delve into the issue of war philosophy. The problem we need to solve now is how Resolve this crisis at the minimum cost and at the same time strive for the greatest benefit for ourselves. You two should think about it first and don’t rush to speak... Ning Qi, what do you think?”
Ning Qi responded calmly: "Actually, my opinion is more similar to that of Minister He. Since the other party is knocking on the door, we must take action to drive away the enemy. But the Spaniards are coming for Sanya. Sanya is in chaos. The whole Haihan will be in chaos, and what we have to do is to maintain the stable public security situation in Sanya as much as possible without affecting the overall situation. ”
The Sanya area is home to more than 30% of Hainan Island's population, nearly 50% of commercial institutions, and a large number of industrial production units. A considerable part of the wealth and talents of the entire Haihan Kingdom are in this area. If civil chaos occurs in Sanya due to the war, the losses to Haihan will be immeasurable.
He Xi, Gu Kai and Ning Qi have different levels of worry, but the general direction is the same, and their worries are not unreasonable. Since Haihan was officially founded, the mainland has never been invaded by war. Although Haihan The military has been winning battles outside, but it is really difficult to make a clear judgment at this time about how high the people's tolerance for war is. As the ruling class of this country, these people here have to weigh carefully whether to take risks and pursue a perfect victory, or to seek stability and achieve a staged victory.
(End of chapter)