Chapter 700 Joint Action

Haihan's military did not mind that the Allies sent a military observation group composed of senior officers to observe the militia during the war. In fact, this practice was first initiated by Haihan. Of course, it was first used to promote its own products.

The main purpose of weapons is to promote force by the way. As the exchanges with the Fujian military become increasingly close, the two sides have more and more opportunities to cooperate in combat operations. The Haihan militia really needs the Ming army to be better on the battlefield.

Therefore, it is even more necessary to enhance mutual understanding through the form of military observation groups.

Arriving at the Kinmen Island base with the troops transferred from Hainan Island was the military observation group of the Ming Army, a total of twenty-five people. All of these Ming Army officers had received training at the Victory Port Military Academy, and they can be regarded as

There was a group of people in the Fujian Ming Army who had a relatively deep understanding of the Haihan military system. Among them, there were ten people named Xu, and the rest were all people from Xu Xinsu's camp. It can be said that they were completely the elite of Xu Xinsu's private army.

Xu Xinsu's fourth son Xu Yuzhuo and his nephew Xu Jiaqi are among them, which shows how seriously Xu Xinsu attaches importance to this matter.

On the afternoon of February 7, the first joint combat preparatory meeting between the Fujian Ming Army and the Haihan Militia was held at the Haihan Camp on Kinmen Island.

"The purpose of gathering everyone here for a meeting today should be very clear to everyone here. We will launch an operation against the Penghu Islands by the middle of the year at the latest. The content of today's meeting is to make specific arrangements for the first phase of the operation.

." Qian Tiandun personally attended and presided over the meeting. Behind him was a huge map of the Taiwan Strait, which accurately marked the locations of Kinmen Island and the Penghu Islands.

Qian Tiandun continued: "According to what we know now, the forces under the Shibazhi have basically been driven out of the Fujian coast, and their scope of activities has been compressed to the waters around the Penghu Islands, but the Shibazhi probably will not

They just sit back and wait for death, so we need to know how they react now and what measures they have taken to confront us."

Xu Yuzhuo responded: "General Qian, starting from the second half of last year, in accordance with your request, we have tightened the sales of grain, medicine, pig iron and other industries in the coastal states and counties in the province, and strive to prevent these things from flowing in through trade again.

into the hands of Shibazhi. But Shibazhi is still trying to purchase the supplies they need from Jiangsu and Zhejiang. Our province’s navy has limited ships and it is difficult to block the waterway between Penghu and Jiangsu and Zhejiang. There is no more effective method at the moment.

way."

Qian Tiandun said: "As long as there is money in Shibazhi's hands, there will always be people willing to sell things to them. Even if they can ban Fujian, they can't ban it outside Fujian. But if we block the channels in Fujian, we can

Increase the cost and time for them to purchase supplies from Daming. Shibazhi now has no stable income and has to feed tens of thousands of mouths. If we were in Zheng Zhilong's position, the pressure would be very great. What's more, they buy from Jiangsu and Zhejiang

The channels for supplies should not be so stable. If we get the exact information, the ship transporting them may be intercepted at sea at any time."

Xu Yuzhuo nodded in agreement: "General Qian is absolutely right. Just letting Shibazhi know that we can cut off their path at any time is enough to make these thieves worry all day long."

Qian Tiandun continued: "Although we can't control how the merchants in Jiangsu and Zhejiang do business, it shouldn't be too difficult to find out what they bought, right?"

Xu Yuzhuo said: "After you proposed this plan two months ago, your Excellency also expected that Shibazhi would bypass Fujian to purchase supplies from other places, so he had already sent people to lurk in several major prefecture and county ports in Jiangsu and Zhejiang.

There has been some news recently."

As Xu Yuzhuo spoke, he took out the prepared information and introduced to the people present: "This is the list of materials purchased by Shibazhi in Ningbo last month. There are 2,600 tons of rice and four types of cloth, totaling three

One hundred and eighty horses, 7,200 kilograms of pig iron, and a total of 51,400 kilograms of medicinal materials. In addition, seven bird boats, two lucky boats, and several live poultry and livestock were purchased. According to the news, ten

The people of Bazhi are very generous in the local market. As long as it is the items they need, most of them will just buy it and take it away without bargaining. We also have six or seven reports like this, purchased by Bazhi

The content is roughly the same, just the location is different.”

Qian Tiandun nodded and said, "How is the situation on Dajuan Island?"

"The red-haired people have probably received the results of the Sanya negotiations and expelled Shibazhi's envoys in Damuan Port. Judging from what they have learned, the red-haired people seem to have no intention of continuing to intervene." Xu Yuzhuo responded.

"They are smart!" Qian Tiandun was even a little disappointed when he heard the news. He was not worried about the Dutch continuing to provide military assistance to Shibazhi. The reason why he paid attention to this aspect of intelligence was mainly because he hoped to catch the Dutch.

This way, they can have a high-sounding reason to cause trouble with the Dutch in the future. But the Dutch probably don’t want to give Haihan a reason to go to war for the sake of Shibazhi. After all, the Haihan people are negotiating.

The prospect of war described in the book is too terrible, and the Dutch do not want a situation where all the forces in the South China Sea region unite to expel themselves.

Without the Dutch as backup, the supply of weapons and equipment to the Shibazhi was basically cut off. For the Ming Army and the Haihan Militia, it could reduce some troubles and risks during the battle. Moreover, the Dutch no longer participated in the war, and the Shibazhi

Bazhi's armed forces at sea really have no advantage at all. Although Bazhi's ships are probably several times more numerous than the coalition forces here, the gap in combat effectiveness between warships, merchant ships, and civilian ships is still very large.

cannot be made up by simply relying on numerical superiority. This has been fully proved in the two Nanri Island naval battles.

Qian Tiandun quickly adjusted his mood and returned to the topic: "Next month, our warships will arrive for local garrison one after another. We hope that the Fujian Navy can also mobilize some elite soldiers and generals, and then form a mixed fleet with our warships.

The cruise training in the waters east of Kinmen Island is not only to practice maritime tactics, but also to isolate Shibazhi from prying into the waters near Zhangquan and further reduce their activity space."

Xu Yuzhuo agreed without any hesitation. He himself served as a staff general in the Fujian Navy. He received naval training in Sanya, visited the warship slipway of the Victory Port Shipyard, and personally participated in the two warships led by Haihan.

During the Second Nanri Island Naval Battle, he had a deep understanding of the strength of the Haihan Navy.

Although in the first two naval battles, the Haihan Navy also brought the Fujian Navy to play with them, they almost all fought on their own, and there was not much coordination. The Fujian Navy even had to act as a decoy on the battlefield.

Characters, showing weakness to attract the enemy's attention, this is not a job that a naval officer like Xu Yuzhuo is willing to do.

With the gradual liberalization of Haihan military purchases, the Fujian Navy finally has the opportunity to start equipping combat ships with the same specifications as the Haihan Navy. This means that they can finally form a mixed fleet with the Haihan Navy without worrying about ship navigation.

The performance gap held back the opponent. In the previous naval battle of Nanri Island, only two "Exploration-class" warships belonging to the Fujian Navy enjoyed such treatment. However, after more than half a year, the new warships of the Fujian Navy

The number of ships has increased from two to six, and they are fully qualified to be incorporated into Haihan's fleet to undertake a certain degree of combat missions.

Only officers with personal experience like Xu Yuzhuo understand that if you want to learn true skills from the Haihan people, you must live, eat, and train with them. A mixed group like what Qian Tiandun said

Cruising is exactly the opportunity that the Fujian Navy currently needs.

As for how much money such a cruise would cost, Xu Yuzhuo was not worried. After all, his old man Xu Xinsu had already said that as long as the Shibazhi could be wiped out within the year, even if it costs gold and silver, he would still have to spend the money.

After all, for the maritime interest groups, the control of Fujian waters is far more than the current military expenditure paid to Haihan. The money spent now will be used after the Shibazhi is destroyed and the control of the sea is recovered.

You can get it back soon through other means.

Of course, the future control of the sea in Fujian waters will not be exclusive to the Fujian navy. According to the cooperation agreement reached by the two sides during the Haihan mission’s visit to Fujian last year, Haihan ships will have the right to freely navigate and trade in Fujian waters in the future. This

Free authority was not only given to civilian ships, but also to the Haihan Navy. This almost tacitly acknowledged that the Haihan people had the highest control over Fujian waters, because the strength of the Fujian Navy was not enough to be on an equal footing with the Haihan Navy. But at the same time, the Haihan people

One party also promised not to interfere with the Fujian government's management of maritime trade, so that most of the oil and water in maritime trade still remained in the hands of the Fujian government or interest groups like Xu Xinsu.

Such an agreement can be regarded as a win-win situation for both parties. The prerequisite for realizing this situation is to first remove the stumbling block of Shibazhi. When the interests of both parties are consistent, whether it is sending military observation

Whether it is a regiment or a joint operation, it seems very logical.

Five days after the meeting, Xu Yuzhuo returned to Kinmen Island with six Haihan-made warships belonging to the Fujian Navy. Although Qian Tiandun said at the meeting that the implementation would not begin until the navy ships arrived next month.

cruise mission, but at Xu Yuzhuo's strong request, these six ships were mixed with the two "exploration-class" and two "exploration-class" naval warships stationed locally in advance, and started the same process with naval personnel

Content daily training.

On March 3, the combined fleet, which performed its first patrol mission in the Fujian Strait, relied on accurate intelligence to successfully intercept a group of merchant ships heading from Zhejiang to Penghu about 40 nautical miles east of Nanri Island.

There are seven merchant ships in this group, all transporting various materials purchased by Shiba Zhi in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. The ship owners are all businessmen from Jiangsu and Zhejiang. In addition, there are two armed merchant ships belonging to Shiba Zhi as escorts.

This time, the people of Shibazhi had been targeted by spies sent by Fujian when they were purchasing in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. After spending a lot of time, they finally bribed the boss of one of the ships and learned their approximate voyage route and departure.

date. So the spies immediately sent the news back to Fujian, and after Xu Xinsu got the news, he quickly informed the Haihan people on Kinmen Island. Just as the combined fleet was mixed, Qian Tiandun handed over the task of intercepting the fleet.

got them.

The officer leading Haihan's team is Xie Li, a naturalized civilian officer. He is among the first batch of officers to be appointed as chief mate in the navy, and his seniority can be regarded as an old man. Now the time traveler commander of Haihan's fleets

He has not yet arrived in Fujian, but he is currently the top commander of the naval forces stationed in Fujian. He is also responsible for planning and commanding all overseas combat missions.

The leading officer of the Fujian Navy was Xu Yuzhuo himself. During his training at the Shengli Port Military Academy, he had a brief friendship with Xie Li as classmates. They could be considered brothers in the same discipline. It would be great to lead the team to fight together.

It reduces many unnecessary barriers.

This fleet, composed of twelve warships and five logistics supply ships, wandered in the waters east of Nanri Island for two days before waiting for the prey to appear. After showing the flag and conducting a warning bombardment,

Several Jiangsu and Zhejiang maritime merchant ships knowingly lowered their sails and slowed down, waiting for inspection. However, the two armed merchant ships of Shibazhi changed their course and planned to escape.

Although the two sides were separated by a distance when they encountered each other, the speed advantage of the ships of the combined fleet quickly made up for this distance. Half an hour later, they caught up with the two armed merchant ships and directly bombarded the two ships.

A close-range attack was carried out. Although the pirates on the armed merchant ships also tried to fight back with cannons, muskets, bows and arrows and other weapons, the range and accuracy of their equipment were too poor to pose any threat to the catching warships.

, on the contrary, a lot of people were killed by several rounds of grape bombs fired from the warships.

It only took the combined fleet more than two hours to capture the smuggling fleet. According to preliminary statistics of the results of the battle, the supplies that the fleet tried to transport to Penghu were mainly grain, and four of the rice alone were

As many as a thousand tons. In addition, what attracted the attention of the officers was the Ming Dynasty-style firearms purchased by Shibazhi from the Weisuo Army in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, including more than 170 bird blunderbuss, more than 30 Lumi blunderbuss, and ten

Seven Franco cannons and more than 40 barrels of gunpowder, as well as more than 80 sets of standard armor, and more than 500 swords and bows. With these weapons, it is possible to arm a small-scale elite force - of course.

This elite is only at the level of the Shibazhi and ordinary guard Ming troops, and there is still a certain gap between the equipment of the current Fujian Ming army.
Chapter completed!