Chapter 513 The action begins

October 3, 1630, the twenty-seventh day of August in the third year of Chongzhen in the Ming Dynasty, off the coast to the west of Danzhou.

An unbelievably huge fleet slowly appeared on the sea, heading east towards Danzhou Bay. This fleet was actually composed of four smaller fleets, each of which consisted of ten ships.

It consists of ships on the left and right, each carrying 80 to 200 armed personnel. Coupled with the logistics ships transporting materials and supplies, as well as the armed ships patrolling and escorting the outside, the size of the entire fleet is actually

There are as many as more than seventy ships, and this is only the troop transport fleet from Annanjiba Island, and does not include the naval fleet that previously annihilated the Daming Navy in the waters of the Beibu Gulf.

In order to achieve the wave of lightning attacks designed by the Military Commission, nearly 5,000 armed personnel departing from Annan were also transported to Danzhou at one time to carry out landing operations. This placed extremely high demands on the ship deployment and coordination capabilities of the shipping department.

For this reason, almost all the personnel of the entire shipping department came out. Yue Zhiyun and Sun Changmi both joined the fleet as front-line commanders. Even many craftsmen from the Victory Port Shipyard were sent to the ship in advance.

Changhua and Danzhou areas are preparing to carry out emergency repairs on ships that may have problems.

In order to allow this huge fleet to arrive in Danzhou without anyone noticing, the militia army implemented a sea ban on the northern coast of Annan five days in advance, and the reason for the ban was also very sufficient: the militia planned to conduct a sea ban on the northern coast of Annan in the near future.

To combat the raging pirates in the Beibu Gulf, in order to avoid harming the fish and accidentally injuring innocent people, all ships heading to Qiongzhou Island and Daming were prohibited from leaving the port within twenty days. This order is not too difficult to implement, after all, there are several ships in northern Annan

The major ports are under the control of the militia, and the laws issued by the militia are basically golden rules. No one dares to challenge the authority of the militia in this area.

The shielding of the waters near Danzhou is relatively troublesome. On the one hand, spies from the Ministry of Security began to spread rumors in the Danzhou market, saying that the most recent main activity area of ​​​​Annan pirates is outside Danzhou Bay, scaring the timid.

The shipowners did not dare to sail out to sea at this time. Various maritime merchants who were closely related to Haihan also received secret notices from Haihan, asking them not to send ships in and out of Danzhou Bay in the near future.

On the other hand, several lucky ships disguised as pirate ships in the early stage have also gone south from Leizhou Peninsula and cruised outside Danzhou Bay. If there are really those who are not afraid of death and dare to rush outside, then they will be located at Baimajing Port at the entrance of Danzhou Bay.

The early warning point will transmit the news to the "pirate ships" offshore as soon as possible to let them solve these potential risks. Starting from October 2, six warships transferred back from Wanshan Port and Hong Kong

The ship and two supply ships sailed into the Qiongzhou Strait and began to monitor and blockade the sea outside Qiongzhou Fucheng.

At the same time as the "Prairie Fire Plan" was launched, the office in Guangzhou was not idle either. Piracy activities have been rampant in the Qiongzhou Strait recently, and relevant news has already spread to Guangzhou, but the impact here is far less direct than that in Qiongzhou.

Therefore, both the government and the public pay very little attention to this matter. One of the current tasks of the Office in Guangzhou is to guide the public opinion in Guangzhou before taking action and make it develop in a direction that is beneficial to Haihan.

However, rumors about this group of pirates have become more and more popular in the market recently. There are rumors that this group of pirates are the remnants of the former Annan Dynasty, combined with some pirates from the coast of Guangxi and Guangdong in the Ming Dynasty, and a small number of Japanese pirates. The number of pirates is far more than those who appeared in Qiongzhou.

The nearby point is ten times that. The purpose of this group of pirates in harassing Qiongzhou Island is not simply to rob homes and plunder money, but has already set its sights on the land of Qiongzhou Island and is preparing to seize it as a new land.

the foundation of the country.

When this idea first appeared, it was naturally scorned by the people - it was enough to plunder places, but when it came to attacking cities and plundering territories, or even establishing a country, no one believed that a group of pirates could be so capable. The people in Fujian

"Eighteen Zhi" is so powerful, with tens of thousands of soldiers and thousands of warships under his command, wouldn't Zheng Zhilong still have to stay on Dayuan Island and be a pirate? Of course, people who hold this opinion don't know that if it weren't for Haihan

In recent years, it has been providing military assistance to the Fujian Navy. According to the original historical trajectory, Zheng Zhilong had already destroyed the Fujian Navy, and then transformed into an official army of the Ming Dynasty. From then on, he controlled the southeastern coast for several years.

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However, someone soon got first-hand information from the Guangdong Office, and it quickly spread in Guangzhou: this group of pirates is not just a mob, there are a large number of former Annan Army personnel, and they also learned from the red-haired and Buddhist monks.

The robots purchased a large number of matchlock guns and artillery, and their level of armament was no less than that of the regular Ming army. The Haihan Militia and Annan officials had been encircling and suppressing this group of people for a long time, but still no obvious progress had been made.

, The fighting only made this group of people more courageous. The rumors of attacking Qiongzhou Island were not false news, but factual.

Folk rumors may not be a pity, but if they come from the mouths of Haihan people, it will be different. After all, the Haihan people fought bandits and pirates on the coast of Guangdong in the past two years.

It is already a consensus among the people that it is higher than the Ming Dynasty's official army. But if the Haihan people have pirates who are helpless, then I am afraid they really cannot be underestimated.

Haihan's representative in Guangzhou, Boss Malikoma, did not sit idly by and contacted more than 20 big figures in Guangzhou's business district and jointly submitted a letter to the Governor's Mansion, requesting Guangzhou to send troops to the Qiongzhou Strait to exterminate this group of very dangerous pirates.

Malico even generously said that Haihan could send out a militia group at his own expense to cooperate with official actions.

Of course, the result of the petition did not go beyond the expectations of the Executive Committee. Wang Zunde, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, who was also facing tight financial problems, did not regard the pirates appearing in the Qiongzhou Strait as a serious problem. In his opinion, the reason why the Haihan people were so concerned about this matter

They are particularly interested in this, and they probably just want to use this to further expand the scale of the militia under their name, but this is not the development trend that Mr. Wang wants to see.

As for the folk rumors that this group of pirates was going to capture Qiongzhou Island, Wang Zunde didn't believe it. Could it be that all the eleven guards on Qiongzhou Island, with a total of more than 10,000 officers and soldiers, were dead, how could they be taken over so easily by a group of pirates? Retreat.

Wan Bu said, the Haihan people's operations are all on Qiongzhou Island. If pirates come to the island, the Haihan people can't fight with them? Even if the government doesn't send troops by then, I'm afraid the Haihan executive committee won't be able to sit still.

Naturally, militia groups will be sent to suppress the bandits. Regardless of the casualties on both sides, it will ultimately be a good thing for the government.

Sure enough, as the pirates' attacks near Qiongzhou became more frequent, the Haihan people finally couldn't sit still. A few days ago, Malico held a banquet at the Chinese Embassy in Guangzhou and invited the gentry and wealthy businessmen near Guangzhou. He claimed that he would ask for help for the country and sent his own soldiers.

Armed to destroy the current wave of unscrupulous pirates. All personnel, weapons and consumption will be borne by Haihan himself. The only thing he hopes for the cooperation of the Guangdong business community is not to send ships to Qiongzhou Island in the near future to avoid being trapped in the battlefield.

After the Haihan militia eliminated this group of pirates, the shipping route between the two places would be gradually restored.

Malico's words in front of the public often have the meaning of "the government has become a tortoise, but Haihan will never bow down." And Haihan's "high integrity" has also been praised by the Guangzhou business community.

Strong support. Although Malik said that all combat expenses will be borne by Haihan himself, many merchants with vital interests in Qiongzhou Island still donated enthusiastically. In just three days, 80,000 taels of silver were raised, which was handed over by Li Jifeng, the head of the Guangzhou Chamber of Commerce.

Give it to the Garrison Office in Guangdong Province as military expenses for the Haihan Militia’s troop dispatch.

This news made the Ming garrison generals in Guangzhou feel very sad. If they had known this, they should have taken the initiative to ask for orders and get these tens of thousands of taels of silver in their hands first. However, at this time, Wang Zunde, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, had already expressed his position that he would not do so for the time being.

They sent troops to suppress the bandits, so the officers and soldiers could only watch helplessly as the Haihan people played such a trick of voluntary donation.

The businessmen who donated money to Haihan were not cooperating with the show. Most of them did not know the truth. They simply believed that the Haihan people were really going to fight pirates when they prepared to go to war this time. Only a few people, such as the Li family, followed.

Only those who have close relations with Haihan know a little bit about the inside story. Haihan's operation this time has a grand plan, and it is far from being over after this group of pirates are defeated.

Haihan did what he said and immediately purchased a large amount of various supplies and medicines in the Guangzhou market. As an example, he stopped all regular ships to the Sanya area. Wanshan Port and Hong Kong also began to enter a state of military control, and everything

It all seems to indicate that a war is coming.

Just after the Haihan Office in Guangzhou started taking action, a secret letter from Qiongzhou Island was also sent to the Jinyiwei Yamen in Guangzhou. This secret letter came from the Tianzi No. 1 spy of Jinyiwei stationed in Sanya. Through this secret channel, the Jinyiwei Yamen

In the past six months, a large amount of Haihan news has been continuously sent to the yamen in the mainland. Although there is not much valuable news, the senior officials of Jinyiwei believe that the chess piece laid out will come in handy sooner or later-for example, this time

Pirate storm.

The information sent by Tianzi No. 1 agent this time can be regarded as the most valuable information he sent back after settling in Sanya, because the content of this secret message is related to the current piracy scandal.

According to the information directly obtained by the spies from a senior figure in Haihan, this group of pirates' plan to attack Qiongzhou Island has already begun to be implemented, and the time to launch the offensive is very close. And the scale of their operation may be far larger than the officials imagined, and

They are not fighting for a city or a pond, but they are really planning to take over the entire Hainan Island and use it as a pirate nest. In order to protect their own interests, the Haihan people have all mobilized and are preparing to fight a big battle with the pirates.

However, in order to avoid suspicion, the Haihan people were unable to send troops in advance to assist the local government in defending the city. They could only wait until the pirates attacked before taking action.

At the same time, the spy also pointed out in the report that the officials in several cities and towns in the northern part of Qiongzhou Island were completely unaware of the seriousness of the situation and still thought that this was just a small-scale pirate attack. Such an attitude would probably result in big losses in the subsequent battles.

.According to the speculations of the Haihan people, there is a 90% chance that the pirates will use a sneak attack to seize the city. However, the local officials and defenders obviously lack corresponding vigilance and preparation for this. If there is a war, several cities in the north may be

It will be thrown away quickly.

And this secret report, which confirmed that "pirates are about to attack Qiongzhou Island", was of course written by Li Qingyang, the Jinyiwei spy who had defected to Haihan. For the Ming Dynasty officials, the news spread through his special channel was far more powerful than the private information.

The rumors are more credible. Moreover, the Ministry of Security has been planning for this for several months. There are almost no loopholes in the entire plan. The wording in the secret report has also been carefully considered to ensure that Jin Yiwei will be 100% hooked once they get it.

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After Guangzhou's Jinyiwei Yamen received this secret report, it really attracted enough attention. Qianhu, who was in Guangzhou, sent people 800 miles away to report to the Nanjing Zhenfu Division, and at the same time notified the Governor's Office of the relevant information. Until this time,

Only then did Wang Zunde realize that his previous judgment might be wrong. The situation on Qiongzhou Island was far more serious than he expected. However, the Governor's Office had just made a statement two days ago that it would not send troops. If it were to change its tune now, there would be no doubt that

He just picked up his hand and slapped himself in the mouth.

Just when Mr. Wang was still in a dilemma, Haihan had already started the first step of the plan - to capture Danzhou. Danzhou is an important town in the northwest of Qiongzhou Island, and it is also the shortest voyage from the Annan coast to Qiongzhou Island. In addition, there are natural

The harbor can accommodate a large number of ships to dock, and can provide a landing point for a large number of combatants coming from the sea when the offensive is launched. Therefore, when the military initially formulated the operational plan, they did not hesitate to use this place as the first point of attack.

The vanguard troops led by Mu Xiabai and Feng Annan had already sneaked into the areas west and south of Danzhou in batches on October 1. When Annan's fleet arrived at the sea off Danzhou on October 3, the troops led by the two men

At the same time, we started to cut off the main communication lines in Danzhou's east and southwest directions.

At about 10 a.m. on October 3, residents of the fishing village near Baimajing gathered at the seaside and watched in stunned silence as this huge fleet of ships, never seen before, filed into Danzhou Bay. They had been attacked by a group of people the night before.

Unidentified armed men were under house arrest. However, unlike the imagined pirates, these armed men did not kill or kill them, nor did they rob their property, wives and children. They just asked them not to come and go at will in the near future.

, anyone who leaves the village without authorization will be punished as a spy.

As long as they could live peacefully, no one would foolishly fight against these armed men equipped with swords and guns, so the villagers stayed in the village obediently and became spectators.
Chapter completed!