Chapter 556 Constant blows

However, even if the Guangdong Navy has such a large warship, it cannot be dispatched at any time. A warship of this tonnage has hundreds of sailors on board, and the basic consumption for a day's dispatch is hundreds of taels of silver. If

Whether it is a drill or a battle, the consumption of firearms and ammunition on board and additional combat pay must be added. For the Navy, which has not purchased a new ship in the past ten or twenty years, this is undoubtedly an expense that cannot be ignored.

Therefore, the few large ships of the Guangdong Navy are basically docked at Shuizhai Pier for long periods of time as decorations. The upper limit is ten or eight days a year.

The Haihan people obviously have no economic scruples. Their base camp is far away from the southern end of Qiongzhou Island, but they send such large warships to Wanshan Port at the Pearl River Estuary. This is almost equivalent to the Guangdong Navy's deployment at the Pearl River Estuary.

The voyage between the garrison and Quanzhou, Fujian is over. And with the scale of Wanshan Port, this large warship is obviously not intended to be stationed here for a long time, but will temporarily dock at this small port to perform some kind of mission, like this

This kind of long-distance mobilization of maritime forces is definitely not carried out by the Ming Dynasty Navy in peacetime. This trip to the sea is like throwing money into the sea!

Regarding the behavior of the Haihan people, the two Ming Dynasty candidate officials could only give comments like "rich and willful". Although Wanshan Port is a territory of the Ming Dynasty, it seems that the right to speak in this place is not in the hands of the Ming Dynasty.

.

Compared with Lijiazhuang Wharf, the procedures required for landing at Wanshan Port are more stringent. After all, this place is a paramilitary base, and civilian and commercial uses are only ancillary functions. However, the officials have already had an experience at Lijiazhuang, so at this time

They didn’t feel particularly disgusted anymore. After they boarded the pier, they were also received by local managers Chen Yixin and Li Dou.

Because of the commercial functions of Wanshan Port, Li Dou still lives here most of the time. After Chen Yixin was successfully promoted with the establishment of the Guangdong Military Region, he traveled back and forth between Wanshan Port and Zhennang Port at the southern end of Hong Kong Island.

.This time, he hurried back from Zhennangang in advance only after receiving the notice from the General Office of the People's Republic of China.

The military attaches great importance to this group of candidate officials. On the one hand, it must give them a certain degree of deterrence in various ways at the beginning of the contact between the two parties. On the other hand, it must ensure the safety of these people on the way and make them safe.

They felt that they had gained Haihan's attention, so as to lay a good foundation for subsequent bribery, wooing, taming and other methods.

However, Chen Yixin personally has no interest in having too much contact with these candidate officials, and their destination is not in Chen Yixin's jurisdiction. Chen Yixin has no need to care about the future fate of these people. The reception banquet in the evening is just a formality.

, after a round of toasts, Chen Yixin left in the name of official business, leaving Li Dou to accompany him.

"This young officer Haihan is so impressive!" After the banquet, when he returned to the residence arranged by Haihan, Li Jin couldn't help complaining: "Brother Yan, have you noticed the look in his eyes? He is simply arrogant and talkative.

At that time, he didn’t take us, the imperial officials, into consideration at all!”

Yan Mingjun said: "They do have the capital to be tough. Brother Li, look at the forts inside and outside the port, the warships, and the soldiers of the Haihan Militia we saw when we landed ashore. I can honestly say,

They are indeed much more presentable than the Ming Dynasty's officers and soldiers. They need money and people, and with these things to rely on, they can naturally speak forcefully."

Li Jin also knew that what Yan Mingjun said was indeed true, and sighed: "This is still like this in a place four or five hundred miles away from Qiongzhou. I wonder how rampant the Haihan people will be on Qiongzhou Island!"

The closer the two of them got to Qiongzhou Island, the more uneasy they became. Their expectations for a new position and new environment before departure were gradually erased by the ruthless reality on the way. They knew that the Haihan they were now in contact with was very dangerous.

It may be just a glimpse of the leopard, but just the half-claw that Haihan exposed intentionally or unintentionally has already made them feel the numerous disadvantages and shortcomings of their own side. And an organization with such a powerful force as Haihan is really willing to

Will the control of Qiongzhou Island be returned to the Ming Dynasty? Neither Yan Mingjun nor Li Jin are too optimistic about this anymore.

There was no talk all night, and the next morning, after everyone had breakfast, they came to the pier to board the ship again. At this time, Chen Yixin appeared on the pier and announced new escort measures to the officials: "After setting off from Wanshan Port, I

The two "exploration-class" armed merchant ships dispatched by the party will join the escort team and escort you all directly to Qiongzhou Fucheng. I wish you all a safe journey!"

Li Jin murmured in a low voice: "Is this still a merchant ship? According to Ming Dynasty law, a merchant ship cannot exceed 400 materials, but this ship can probably have 800 materials!"

Of course, he also knew very well that even if the existence of Haihan, an armed ship, violated the laws of the Ming Dynasty, no one would dare to bring bad luck to Haihan. This kind of warship is an unsolvable existence in the waters near Guangdong.

No Ming officials really stood up to question this.

The two "exploration-class" warships that joined Lijiazhuang were the first to turn around and leave the port, and then the fleet carrying the alternate officers sailed out of the port in sequence. Finally, the two largest "exploration-class" warships slowly arrived in Wanshan Port.

Slowly turned around and sailed out, falling at the end of the entire fleet.

According to the route set by the Haihan Shipping Department, the fleet will not sail directly from Wanshan Port to Hainan Island, but will travel southwest along the Guangdong coastline, and then turn south after reaching the waters of Leizhou Peninsula and pass through the Qiongzhou Strait.

Go to Haikou Port to dock. This voyage is about one-third longer than the direct route, and we will dock at night to rest every day before setting off at dawn. In this way, the entire voyage from Wanshan Port to Hainan Island

The time required has at least doubled from about four days.

However, the stopping points along the way after leaving Wanshan Port do not have as complete conditions as Lijiazhuang and Wanshan Island. Most of the ports stopped in the next few days are fishing port towns, with no decent catering and accommodation services at all.

The gang officials did not stay on shore for the night. Only by comparison at this time did everyone realize how considerate the food and accommodation services provided by Haihan were.

However, although this part of the service is no longer available, the militia group escorting the fleet has not relaxed its due guard at all. A platoon of soldiers will be stationed on the shore every night to be responsible for guarding the area around the docking point. Of course, in addition to guarding the safety of the fleet

In addition, the military is also wary of unidentified people sneaking into the fleet from these places and sneaking to Qiongzhou Fucheng.

After seven or eight days at sea, the fleet finally sailed into the Qiongzhou Strait. The weather had been fine these days, and the officials knew they were about to reach their destination. Their mood finally became more relaxed, and they took their families to the deck to get some fresh air.

Let the wind blow.

Not long after the fleet sailed past Luodousha Island at the southeastern tip of the Leizhou Peninsula, the officials, who thought the rest of the journey would be boring, once again witnessed an unforgettable sight in their lives - two huge sailing ships spitting gray smoke from the sterns.

The two ships galloped on the sea at extremely fast speeds. After making an arc on the sea, the two ships approached the fleet from one left and one right. The red and blue flags on the top of the mast showed their identities.

The same is the Haihan Militia.

The two warships that joined the fleet at Wanshan Port were probably half the size of these two new large ships. The larger number of gun windows on the sides of these two large ships also reminded

Viewers looking at them should not lose sight of the true identities of these two ships.

However, these two large ships had no intention of joining the fleet. Instead, they overtook the sea on both sides of the fleet at full speed and then headed southwest. Compared with the astonishing speed of the two ships, Yan Mingjun and Li Jin

I felt that the boat I was on was almost as slow as a turtle.

"This...is this also a Haihan warship?" Li Jin looked at Yan Mingjun in horror and asked.

Yan Mingjun didn't know how to answer. There was no one from Haihan on the ship, and there was no one who could provide the correct answer. But judging from the appearance of the two ships and the flags flying on them,

, but they are exactly the same as the escorted Haihan armed ships, but I don’t know what the large amount of smoke coming from the stern of the ship means. It doesn’t look like there is a fire on the ship, and ordinary boiling water for cooking is obviously not possible.

It is difficult to generate so much smoke and dust.

But this was not the focus of their attention. The terrifying size and ultra-high speed of this big ship were the real reason for their shock. There were long-standing rumors among the people that there was a 10,000-pound iron ship made by the Haihan people in Victory Port, and the Haihan people

The reputation of being good at shipbuilding and navigation has long been widely spread, but rumors are just rumors, and there is still a gap between the feelings after seeing the reality with one's own eyes. Such a huge warship can be traced back to the time when the eunuch Sanbao went to Nanyang.

However, the existence of such giant warships has long disappeared in the Ming Dynasty. Unexpectedly, the Haihan people who have been entrenched on Qiongzhou Island quietly built such a huge warship.

When the two of them looked at each other, they both saw deep disappointment on each other's faces. In their hearts, although the Ming Dynasty has suffered some stumblings in recent years, with constant internal and external troubles, it is still an invincible existence after all. Even those outside the Northern Pass must submit to the Ming Dynasty every year.

The people of the Ming Dynasty still believed that the Boar Skins who launched the attack were just a bunch of barbarians with only force. And around the Ming Dynasty, there was no civilized force that surpassed the Ming Dynasty, even if the trend in the past few years was not very good.

If you wish, you will still be the heavenly kingdom.

However, after coming into contact with the sudden rise of Haihan, some of their inherent concepts are constantly being broken and refreshed. This group of overseas visitors entrenched at the southern end of Qiongzhou Island can not only make the sea trade business prosperous

Starting from the beginning, the local government and almost all the big businessmen along the Guangdong coast were sent to serve for a period of time, and they also formed their own so-called militia army, whose combat capabilities were even more powerful than the official army. And the Haihan warships seen in the past few days,

It also proves that their strength at sea is equally terrifying. At least the large warships seen today cannot be built by the current Ming Dynasty.

However, the encounter with two "Dignity-class" flagships in the Qiongzhou Strait was not an intentional arrangement by the military, but a real coincidence. It happened that Wang Tom led the team to practice a two-ship attack formation in the nearby waters these two days.

I met this fleet coming south from Leizhou Peninsula. Of course, Wang Tom would not waste his limited resources to escort this fleet to Haikou Port, so he just walked around for a while and left after the demonstration. Personnel and time

It is a small thing to pay for it, but the life of the boiler is a big deal for the "Dignity-class" warship. Every training to use steam power propulsion has a strict time schedule, and it is not suitable for executing such temporary arrangements outside of formal arrangements.

Task.

But even such a startling glimpse was enough to shock the Ming Dynasty officials on the ship. Even people who didn’t know anything about surface warfare knew that this maritime combat ship had great advantages, not to mention the large amount of equipment.

Artillery, large warships with such fast speed? No wonder the Haihan Militia can do what the Ming Dynasty Navy cannot do, and they also took the initiative to ask the Guangdong government for the cruise escort mission in the Qiongzhou Strait. They really have this confidence

, no matter how hard you look at it, you have to accept it.

With very complicated emotions, the fleet finally arrived at Haikou Port more than three hours later. The pier did not have the noisy gongs and drums and crowds of people they had expected before setting off, and the people turned out to welcome the people appointed by the imperial court.

The grand occasion of the newly appointed official only included a few carriages, a few groups of militia soldiers who surrounded the dock tightly, and a few Haihan people. The scene was exactly the same as when the fleet docked at Lijiazhuang and Wanshan Island.

But this time the Haihan people's inspection methods were obviously more rigorous than those at the previous two stops. A dozen Haihan militiamen boarded each ship and checked the identities of all the people on board. Although the attitude was not rough, but

Officials also felt that these people did not seem to take their identities seriously.

Finally, someone couldn't bear this attitude and broke out. On another boat docked next to Yan Mingjun's boat, a chubby official shouted: "I am an official of the imperial court. You can't be so rude to me."

!Tell those in charge to get over here!"

This clamor obviously attracted the attention of the Haihan people on the dock. Yan Mingjun saw someone raising his hand to signal, and immediately someone who looked like an officer ran and boarded the ship.

"What's your problem?" The officer obviously had no intention of giving any face to the aggrieved official, so he asked coldly after getting on the boat.

"I am the new magistrate of Lingao County. What qualifications do you have to inspect my luggage?" the fat official shouted angrily.

"This is Haikou Port, not Lingao County." The officer said solemnly: "Also, you are an official of the Ming Dynasty, but I am not a soldier of the Ming Dynasty!"
Chapter completed!