Chapter 1607 Sufficient Reason
Although the Spaniards' sneak attack on Sanya ended in failure, this account was recorded by Haihan. Although no public military retaliation was taken afterwards, anyone with a discerning eye knows that Haihan would never give up and endure this. It sounds like I'm just waiting for the right time. Li Nai knew very well that the Haihan Security Department and the military sent so many people to lurk in Manila City. They were definitely not idle. Maybe the city defense drawings of Manila City had already been sent to Fort Victory for the senior military officials to refer to. . Perhaps Haihan's senior management believes that the time is ripe and it is time to prepare to attack Manila.
However, Li Nai feels that the news that the "Warrior" class battleship has completed sea trials on the front page may not be absolutely related to the actions that the military may take next. Even if this kind of battleship has been finalized, it will not be available for a while. built. Unless the Navy forcibly brings the prototype ship for testing when it is in action.
Of course, since newspapers have just begun to create public opinion and use the Haixi trade as a topic to attract public attention, Li Nai believes that it will be some time before the war breaks out. Haihan has always been very particular about launching foreign wars. He will definitely take the initiative in the propaganda war and let the domestic people realize the justice of the war. Only in this way will there be more sufficient reasons for mobilization. Haihan's strong military strength allows it to achieve final victory in every foreign war, so the people also have great trust in the executive committee's decision to start the war. After all, every war will be accompanied by the good news and expansion of territory. The huge economic gains after the war were a sufficient reason for war for ordinary people.
As for how the wind will blow next, Li Nai can actually predict that Haihan will gradually attract public attention to the topic of Haixi trade through various propaganda methods, and portray Spain as a hateful villain. , and then create an emergency at the right time, allowing the official to proactively declare war on the Spanish for just reasons.
How the Spaniards would eventually be taught a lesson, Li Nai could not yet imagine, but if Haihan really planned to expedition to Manila, there would still be quite a lot of preparation work required. In addition to public opinion building and the purchase of military supplies, the build-up of the army is also an obvious external feature before the war. Compared with other preparations, this is also the move that is most likely to reveal military intentions.
If we only rely on Haihan's fleet stationed in Sanya Naval Port, we may be able to complete the raid on Manila, but it may not be able to achieve the results expected by the Executive Committee. After all, this fleet only has a dozen combat ships. This force is not enough to destroy the city of Manila, which has been operated by the Spanish for more than 60 years, or to seize actual control of the local area and expel the Spanish from the local area. . If the purpose was just to send a small fleet to Manila Bay to show off its strength, Li Nai believed that Haihan would not have to endure it for such a long time.
The straight-line distance from Manila to Sanya is more than 700 nautical miles, and the straight-line distance from the Pearl River Estuary is also more than 600 nautical miles. However, due to objective reasons such as ocean currents, wind direction, and sea conditions, the actual distance will be one-third to one-quarter longer than the theoretical distance. No wait. If it is the Fuchuan or Guangzhou Shipyard of Daming Shipping, it will take at least ten days to get from Sanya to Manila, and it will also take seven or eight days to reach the destination from the Pearl River Estuary.
Although Li Nai has not personally been to Manila, Furifeng has many sailors who have been to the area ruled by the Spanish, so he generally knows the situation there. The Spanish have gained dominance in the area since 1571 and built a stronghold in Manila. After more than 60 years of operation, they have built the area into the most important Spanish colony in the Far East and actually controlled the majority of the Philippine Islands through Manila. Some areas.
What the Spanish colonists practiced locally was a special form of trade named Manila-Acapulco trade by Haihan, that is, the trans-oceanic trade between Spain's American colony of Mexico and the Philippine Islands in the Far East, also known as It was the galleon trade. The Spanish galleon fleet sets sail north from Manila every June on the southwest monsoon, sails eastward along the "Black Tide" in the Pacific, and finally arrives at the port of Acapulco in the Americas. It takes about half a year, and the return journey follows the ocean current. , which lasted about three months. Some of the ships in the Spanish fleet that attacked Sanya last year were these large sailing ships that ply the Pacific Ocean every year.
These large sailing ships with a carrying capacity of about 400 tons transport silk, lacquerware, porcelain, cotton, ivory, carpets and other goods produced in China, India, Persia, Japan and other countries in the Far East to Acapulco. In addition to being sold locally in the Americas, , some high-end goods will be shipped back to Spain as offerings to the royal family, nobles and other upper-class people in society. The fleet sailing from the Americas to the Philippine Islands would be loaded with local products such as silver coins, copper, and cocoa. The ownership of the galleons fleet is directly in the hands of the Spanish royal family, and it is operated exclusively, which means that most of the revenue generated by this route will go directly into the pockets of the royal family, while private merchant ships will not even enter the game. No qualifications.
It is worth mentioning that in the original historical process, crops such as corn, tobacco, peanuts, and tomatoes were introduced to China through this ocean route. However, in this time and space, Haihan has replaced this part of the large sailing fleet. Function, the crop seeds they brought were all improved varieties cultivated through advanced agricultural technology. They were far more productive than the native crops of this era, and were more suitable as cash crops for large-scale planting. Of course, these benefits can only be enjoyed in Haihan. The Spaniards are not so lucky, and Haihan will never sell these advanced agricultural technology crystals to his competitors.
The Spanish implemented a typical colonial model in Manila, strictly controlling the local cultural and educational system, using Catholicism as the only religion, and levying a tithe on all people. The local population size of the Han people is actually quite large. Thousands of Han people have settled in Manila as early as the early 17th century. However, the Han people, whose permanent population is several times that of the Spaniards, do not have a high social status in the local area. Except for a few Except for the Han people who worked for the Spaniards, the vast majority of Han residents played a role at the bottom of society in the local area and only contributed taxes to the Spaniards.
After Haihan took root in Sanya and founded the country, he recruited a large number of immigrants with extremely favorable conditions. This directly led to a great decrease in the number of Han people from the Ming Dynasty to Manila. Most of the Han immigrants from the Ming Dynasty chose to live in the same country with the same roots and ancestry, and the living conditions were better. Well, Haihan Country, whose environment is easier to adapt to, is the target. However, Manila, which was once prosperous in the past, was listed as unpopular by Haihan. The immigrants were worried that they would be targeted in the future, so they gave up going south to Luzon Island. The Spaniard's plan to work hard.
This had a very direct impact on the development of Manila. After all, the local indigenous people were lazy and disgusting, so a considerable part of the urban construction work was completed by Han immigrants. However, once the source of labor was interrupted, the impact soon became apparent. Industries such as plantations could only recruit a large number of indigenous people, and the quality of the local indigenous people was much worse than that of the hard-working and hard-working Han people. As far as Li Nai knows, Spain sent a fleet to attack Sanya last year, partly to damage Haihan's reputation and make Han immigrants abandon Haihan as a destination.
Of course, this goal was not achieved in the end, and it shot itself in the foot. After the Spanish fleet returned in defeat, the news spread simultaneously in Haihan, Guangdong and Guangxi, and even parts of the Philippine Islands. Not only did Spain This operation did not attract more Han immigrants, but instead became a propaganda material for Haihan to recruit immigrants. However, cutting off the source of Han immigrants in Manila is still unlikely to make the Spaniards completely surrender, because they can also try to transport some immigrants from the Americas and purchase black slaves from Africa and the Middle East to supplement the local labor force. Although these people may not be as useful as the Han people, the advantage is that the cost is low, and the Spaniards do not feel any pain when they squeeze them. Therefore, if Haihan wants to completely defeat this competitor, current commercial and political methods alone are still not enough. In the end, military operations will have to be used to solve the problem.
Considering the distance from Hainan Island to Manila Bay, and the fact that there are almost no large islands in the middle that can be used as supply stops, it will be very difficult to supply materials during the operation. If the operation lasts too long, it will not be able to survive in the first place. The people who lived there were probably not Spaniards, but the Haihan fleet on an expedition to the local area. Therefore, Li Nai has always believed that Haihan's revenge against Spain must be inactive. If he moves, it will be thunderous, leaving no chance for the opponent to stand up.
But Li Nai's confidence in Haihan was not affected at all by this judgment. In his mind, Haihan's army was invincible. Even if the goal of attacking Manila seemed to be very difficult, he would still believe it unconditionally. The Haihan Army will eventually kill its opponents as always. Under this premise, Li Nai believes that the primary issue he needs to consider now is not to worry about Haihan's Ministry of National Defense and how to formulate a combat plan to attack Manila, but to think carefully about how to use this opportunity to attack Manila for Furifeng. Make a war fortune.
Since the cooperation between Haihan and Furifeng, Furifeng has joined almost every foreign war. Most of the time, it only provides Haihan with material procurement and transportation support, but there are also a few times where there is deeper cooperation. , such as the intelligence personnel who used their merchant ships to transport Haihan to Manila.
One thing is certain, that is, in these past cooperation projects, Fulifeng has more or less earned considerable benefits. Even in the Liaodong Campaign in the far northeast, Furifeng was responsible for the supply of medical supplies, clothing, shoes, quilts, bags and other materials. It can be said that it indirectly contributed to Haihan's victory in Liaodong.
Although it is unclear whether the cotton yarn and medicinal materials sold to Haihan this time will be used in the war against Spain, Li Nai does not want to stop there. He hopes that Furifeng can obtain it from this war. to more benefits. For example, after the war, he intervened in the local reconstruction work, or by providing maritime transportation capacity to assist the war, allowing Haihan to approve Freifon's future trading privileges in the Philippine Islands.
However, these thoughts could only remain in Li Nai's mind for the time being. He knew that if he went directly to Sanya to ask the people at the Ministry of National Defense, he would only be in trouble. At least we have to wait until Haihan's public opinion offensive has reached a certain level and his war intentions are more obvious, so that it won't be too abrupt to make these demands to Haihan's senior officials.
"All we have to do is keep an eye on the newspaper!" Li Nai thought. But then he had to return to Guangzhou to resume his duties. There was no way to wait for the first-hand news in Sanya. Li Nai decided to say hello to Furifeng's manager in Sanya and ask him to report it in every issue of Haihan Times in the future. Purchase it immediately after publication, and then send the news related to Manila and the Spanish back to Guangzhou by telegraph, so as not to miss the opportunity to intervene.
Almost at the same time, Ning Qi convened a meeting with the editors-in-chief of several major local newspapers in Sanya and assigned them recent publicity tasks. One of them was to ask them to cooperate with the Haihan Times on reports about the Spanish. to act in unison and follow the instructions of the propaganda department. Of course, at the end, Ning Qi did not forget to emphasize confidentiality rules and required that the contents of the meeting should not be leaked.
This is not the first time that the editors-in-chief have received similar political tasks. They all nodded in agreement, but their hearts were already bright. They knew that since Haihan’s senior management was interested in the Spaniards, they were afraid that in the next few months... A big move was made. Relying on newspapers to build momentum and incite national sentiment is a simple and effective method that has always been tried and true. However, this method also has an obvious drawback, that is, it is easy for opponents to detect Haihan's intentions.
If the Spaniard's sense of smell is sensitive enough, it will not be difficult to smell hostility from Heihan in the subsequent follow-up reports. If they move quickly enough, they might be able to make some preparations in Manila before Haihan launches his attack. Of course, the personnel sent by Haihan to lurk in Manila will not be idle. In addition to providing local defense intelligence and geographical environment information to Haihan, they may also be responsible for trying to disrupt the security in the city when the war starts and achieve cooperation between inside and outside. Task.
At the end of October, Li Nai set off from Haikou and returned to Guangzhou. When the ship left the port, he happened to see the fleet stationed west of Haikou City practicing at sea. Seeing the Haihan fleet cutting through the waves in a neat formation, Li Nai became a little more confident about the future war.
(End of chapter)