Chapter 1469 Northern Route (2)
The goods that He Li's fleet needs to transport have actually arrived at the dock warehouse two days ago. However, due to limited manpower at the dock, the shipment tasks can only be carried out in batches, and the scheduled departure time can only be postponed by a few days. . Important materials such as weapons and ammunition are naturally given priority for shipment, while private carrier fleets can only be placed last. But this didn't have a big impact on He Li. He had to set off to the north with the fleet anyway, so it didn't matter how early or late it was. By setting off a few days later, we can learn more about the relevant situation and make better preparations.
Because these supplies also involve the military secrets of Haihan's garrison in Liaodong, all crew members must leave the ship during the loading of the goods, and civilians hired by the military will move the goods to the ship. Apart from knowing that he was transporting food and military uniforms to the north, He Li didn't know any other information. The military didn't even tell them the specific quantity of the goods, nor did they tell him about the stops along the way. port, only knowing that the final destination will be the Liaodong Peninsula. This is also to prevent anyone from deriving Haihan's garrison strength in Liaodong based on the number of supplies Haihan shipped to the north.
To be honest, if another employer wanted to act in such a mysterious manner, He Li would have given up the job long ago. You don't know what to transport, where to go, or how to go. If you follow the other party's ship out to sea, it will be equivalent to handing over your wealth and life to the other party. I'm afraid not many ship owners would dare to do such a risky thing. But Haihan was different. Everyone knew that Haihan was almost invincible outside the Ming Dynasty, and his wealth was far beyond imagination. It was impossible for him to covet the carrier's wealth. Besides, there are many people who want to make a fortune following Haihan. If anyone has doubts about this, there will naturally be a large number of candidates who can immediately replace him.
Because of this, although He Li was full of curiosity about Haihan's arrangements, he did not have any worries. Moreover, He Xiao had also warned him before that he must not take the initiative to inquire about Haihan's military intelligence to avoid any untoward consequences. Necessary misunderstanding. And during these days when he arrived at Zhoushan Island, he really felt the importance Haihan attached to military secrets. Zhoushan Dinghai Port has been divided into different docks according to different military and civilian uses. Ordinary people can't even enter the military port, let alone inquire about military secrets.
After taking a day to complete the loading, officials from the Shipping Department called He Li over and asked him to sign the cargo manifest. He Li took a look at it and saw that it only contained the contents of the goods and still did not specify the specific quantity. He then asked cautiously: "If there is any discrepancy with the goods on this ship, how can we check it?"
The official explained: "There will be people from the military boarding the ship to escort it. Even if there are mistakes, it is not your responsibility. This is the rule. Don't worry about signing!"
He Li felt a little relieved after hearing this. He picked up a pen and signed his name at the end of the page. When the ink dried, he pressed his fingerprint on the name with ink pad. This was regarded as taking over the cargo as the owner of the ship.
As introduced by officials, the Haihan military will send dedicated personnel to follow the ship for the entire journey of the goods escorted by the carrier. On the one hand, they will guard the goods to prevent accidents, and on the other hand, they will also act as armed escorts and pilots during the voyage. If the quantity of goods on the ship is incorrect or damaged for no reason during the journey, the escort must bear the corresponding responsibility.
The reason for such a regulation is that there have been cases in the past where carriers secretly exchanged goods or even tampered with them. As a result, the military was not so confident about the integrity of civilian carriers. Coupled with other objective reasons, the military simply sent its own personnel. Ship with us for peace of mind. Therefore, the carrier does not have to worry about what happens to the goods and needs to take responsibility for it. Both parties to the transaction can feel more at ease because of this small measure.
Naturally, He Li's fleet has been assigned a lot of escorts to board the ships. Smaller ships usually have two to three people per ship, while Dafu ships have three to five people per ship. These escorts are all active navy soldiers, and they board the ship fully armed. Their image of carrying guns and live ammunition is quite intimidating. Fortunately, these escorts had already met with the crew in the previous three days of training, and at this time, the crew would not panic because of the weapons they carried.
The sailors He Li brought to Zhoushan only knew they were going to the north after they arrived here. However, neither Haihan nor He Li told them the specific destination in advance. They had to wait until the fleet was on the road before announcing it to avoid anyone After retreating, spread the news.
These various confidentiality measures also made He Li truly realize that his errand was not just an ordinary delivery, but a link in Haihan's series of military operations in the north. It is really ironic to think that the territory that Haihan occupied in the north was all Ming Dynasty territory, but now it is a group of merchants and sailors who are citizens of the Ming Dynasty running around the sea to transport supplies to Haihan's army. The most amazing thing is that no one seems to think there is anything wrong with doing this, and no one thinks it is necessary to report it to the official.
Of course, the people on these boats all know He Li's identity, and they don't really think that reporting the "illegal acts" of the Haihan people in Ningbo Prefecture will be of any use. They might as well go north with the boat. Route, the income for the same period of time can be three times that of usual sea voyages. The most practical thing is to get the money. Under such conditions, who cares which country the destination of this errand belongs to.
After all the ships have loaded their cargo, the last batch to be loaded onto the ship is fresh fruits and vegetables, live poultry and livestock, and fresh water. Although these survival supplies can be replenished at the shore on the way, Haihan Shipping Department has a certain time limit for transportation tasks. Requirements, so the scheduled route is a direct flight from Zhoushan to Shandong. Unless there is bad weather or other emergencies on the way, it will not stop at the coast.
In the end, the actual departure time of the fleet was more than half a day earlier than the scheduled time notified in advance. He Li believed that this was probably one of Haihan's confidentiality measures, and it was kept secret so that the outside world could not know the exact itinerary of the fleet. He personally had no objection to this, but secretly lamented the care and meticulousness of the Haihan people in doing things.
This fleet going north is mainly cargo ships. In addition to more than 30 civilian carrier ships, there are also nine heavy-duty sailing ships from the military and two "Exploration" class warships responsible for escort missions. However, in He Li's view, the two escorting warships seemed a bit redundant, because these heavy-loaded sailing ships belonging to the military were obviously equipped with several deck guns. Regardless of tonnage or firepower, it is probably difficult for any warship in the Ming Dynasty's coastal waters to compete head-on with these so-called "cargo ships." If this was put into the establishment of the Ming Dynasty Navy, it would definitely be the main warship.
The fleet sailed out of Dinghai Port at an overall speed of about six knots, then turned north through Hangzhou Bay and entered the waters of the Yangtze River estuary at dawn the next day. At this time, the leader of the Haihan sailboat sent a signal to He Li's fleet, indicating that they should slow down and stop sailing. Although He Li didn't know what it meant, he still ordered it to be carried out. The fleet anchored not far from the land. After waiting for about two hours, a fleet of seven ships sailed out from the Yangtze River Estuary to join them.
Only then did He Li realize that he had stopped specifically to wait for these sailboats to join them. He saw that the masts of these sailing ships were also hung with flags symbolizing the status of private carriers, and he knew that their missions were probably the same as his own. They were all Ming merchants running errands for Haihan. This fleet sailed from the Yangtze River, presumably from one of the state capitals of Yangzhou, Zhenjiang, Changzhou, Suzhou, and Songjiang. Most of them purchased goods locally and made an appointment to arrive on the way. meet.
He Li couldn't help but have a question in his mind, how many maritime transport fleets like this were serving Haihan in the entire Ming Dynasty? This is still in the Jiangsu and Zhejiang areas where Haihan's influence is weak. What would it be like if it were in the Fuguang area where Haihan is said to have a fierce fight. If Haihan moves his entire set of practices in the south to Jiangsu, Zhejiang and even the north, it shouldn't take too long to penetrate the coastal areas. After all, there are not many people in this world who can resist the temptation of money and the threat of force at the same time, and Haihan is the best at these two offensives.
A huge ocean-going fleet consisting of more than fifty ships has never been seen in He Li's life experience. However, according to the armed escorts accompanying the ship, this is just a monthly trip to and from Zhoushan Island. The fleet between the northern colonies of Haihan is normal. It is precisely because of such a large transportation volume that Haihan will recruit private carriers through the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Shipping, hoping to relieve some of the official transportation pressure.
When He Li first participated in the investment fair, he once thought that the number of ships gathered under his name was already quite large. However, according to the expectations of the Haihan people, today's transportation scale must be expanded at least four or five times to be barely reasonable. The cargo capacity of He Li's ships accounts for a really small proportion.
"We still have to try to buy a few big boats." He Li finally came to a conclusion silently. The same goes for Liaodong. It is true that the bigger the ship, the lower the freight cost, and the corresponding profits will be more generous. If you want to run on this route for a long time, replacing a larger ship is almost a necessary business measure. Although there is currently no condition to replace the heavy-duty sailing ship, this matter must be put on the agenda.
However, He Li still hasn't thought of a feasible shortcut on how to save money and time to buy Haihan's big ship. He probably can only wait until he comes back from this trip to discuss it with He Xiao. He knew that he was far less flexible than his brother in these fields, so he didn't plan to waste any more time thinking about it. Now that there were several Haihan soldiers on board who were responsible for escorting the cargo, he started to make friends. When he had nothing to do, he took the initiative to talk. He occasionally asked about things related to this route, but rarely mentioned that Haihan was there. Regarding the progress of the war in the north, he knew that most of the information that the Haihan military was unwilling to provide proactively was at a level that needed to be kept confidential. If he asked questions without discretion, he would easily arouse the other party's vigilance and resentment.
It was He Li's first time sailing on a ship to the northern seas, so it was still a bit fresh. The naval soldiers responsible for escorting the cargo had to act as navigators at the same time, so they were all veterans of this route many times. They did not deliberately hide anything from He Li's various questions. As long as they were not within the scope of the confidentiality regulations, they basically answered them all. After a few days, He Li actually got a lot of useful information from them.
Haihan had been sneaking into the north for two years. Before that, He Li only knew that Haihan had found a foothold in Shandong, and based on this, he sent troops to Liaodong to drive away the Jin people. But southerners like Haihan don't know much about the status of Haihan's operations in the north. After listening to the stories of these naval soldiers, he learned that Haihan had actually controlled a county in Dengzhou, Shandong, and had encircled the local area for self-government, making him completely independent from the Ming Dynasty.
But then he thought about it, Haihan was not like this in Zhejiang. This Zhoushan Island was also a county, wasn't it occupied under the nose of Ming Dynasty? The only difference from Shandong is that Zhoushan is isolated in the sea and is not directly connected to the mainland. The adults in Hangzhou City thought about falling out, but before they could do anything, the adults who danced the hardest all disappeared inexplicably. Later, the Haihan Fleet sailed from Hangzhou Bay into the Qiantang River and blocked it directly in Hangzhou. Outside the city, Zhejiang officials were forced to submit and open coastal state capitals to trade with Haihan. Shandong had suffered a lot from the rebels in the past few years. The Haihan people were many times more powerful than the rebels. Naturally, the government couldn't hold them back. They probably could only turn a blind eye and ignore all the Haihan's actions in the local area. Action.
Although He Li had not yet arrived in Shandong, he was mostly correct in his guesses about the local situation. After Haihan's successful experience in the south was moved to Shandong, the effect was also immediate, and a control area was quickly established there. Although it is still not possible to say that everything in the Shandong controlled area is under control, it can at least maintain a relatively stable public security situation, and there is no need to worry that Ming Dynasty will mobilize a large army to attack the area in the short term.
As expected, the fleet went northward without docking again after leaving the Yangtze River Estuary. After arriving at the Shandong Peninsula, it also bypassed the defense zones of Jinghaiwei, Chengshanwei, and Weihaiwei at the eastern end of the peninsula. Of course, these coastal guards affiliated with Dengzhou Prefecture have long known how powerful the Haihan fleet is. Even if they encounter it at sea, they will pretend to be transparent and will never cause trouble. This huge fleet sailed into the offshore waters of Fushan County without any hindrance, and entered Zhifu Port under the leadership of the guide ship.
(End of chapter)