Chapter 705 Shibazhi’s escape plan

Since the Fujian government is willing to take the initiative to solve the logistics and transportation problems that Haihan is unable to handle, then Haihan really has no other worries. What remains to be discussed is how the two sides can coordinate their actions and implement orders and prohibitions.

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This kind of cross-camp command system is undoubtedly a problem in large-scale operations, and the battlefield is an endless sea. The communication methods between the various units often can only rely on semaphores and fireworks, and the communication efficiency on the battlefield is also very difficult.

will be affected by this. During the two operations in the waters of Nanri Island last year, the Haihan Navy and the Fujian Navy operated separately most of the time. A very important reason is that the differences in the command systems between the two sides cannot be used in a short time.

get integrated.

However, in the more than half a year after the Battle of Nanri Island, the Fujian Navy had many opportunities to train together with the militia navy stationed on Kinmen Island. In addition, there were many generals in the Fujian Ming Army who had received Haihan training.

Short-term military training, joint training progress is not slow. Today, several Haihan-made warships that arrived at Kinmen Island several months in advance to train with Haihan Navy have basically been able to keep up with Haihan's pace.

But this is just one of the troops of the Fujian government participating in the war. There will be more than 300 ships that will be dispatched to participate in the war. Only 23 out of 10 have conducted joint training with the Haihan Navy in advance. Of course.

, the Fujian Navy does not have so many warships available. More than half of them are civilian ships temporarily recruited from Zhangquan and Quanzhou to serve as tools for transporting soldiers and supplies during wartime. These temporarily recruited ships have not been specially trained before.

Due to the lack of training, all the Fujian Navy can do is to send some sailors to serve as pilots and commanders on these ships.

If a large-scale melee breaks out at sea, these ships may not be able to play their due role as directed. Instead, they may easily hinder their own people due to poor communication. Therefore, before the war begins, both sides must first

Agree on some methods for wartime communication, identification, and handling of emergencies.

On April 17, the participating troops of the Fujian Ming Army had basically completed their assembly. Both the land and water armies had made preparations for the war in the center and left. The various combat materials mobilized by the Fujian government for this purpose were also flowing steadily.

They were constantly sent to the Zhongzuo Institute and the two military bases on Kinmen Island.

The recent large-scale mobilization of personnel and materials in Zhangzhou and Quanzhou has not been concealed, and such a big move cannot be hidden from Penghu across the strait. In fact, on the day the Haihan army entered Fujian, news had already spread back to Penghu.

The arrival of the large force of the Haihan Militia was definitely bad news for Shibazhi. Although Zheng Zhilong and others had some expectations that the situation would deteriorate to this extent, they were still worried.

There was a trace of luck, thinking that Haihan might not move so quickly. When the day really came, Shibazhi was still in an uncontrollable panic.

On the night when the news spread, three ships disappeared from Magong Port for no reason. Although these people did not leave a word before leaving, those who stayed spread the rumors that the people who left were to escape the Haihan people's imminent attack.

attack. The leaders of Shibazhi did not control such rumors in time. However, after one night, Magong Harbor lost a few boats again, and this time the guy who sneaked away not only took away the boats, but also attacked them.

In Zheng Zhibao's name, he took away three thousand kilograms of grain from the island's granary.

After Zheng Zhilong learned about it, he was naturally furious. While sending a boat to hunt down the escaped subordinates, he called Zheng Zhibao to the study and gave him a severe scolding. After training his brother, Zheng Zhilong did not forget to make up for it and ordered all ports and terminals in Penghu to carry out inspections.

Control, no one is allowed to sail on a sea-going ship of more than 100 materials without Zheng Zhilong's warrant.

Zheng Zhilong's current situation is indeed very difficult. Although he has agreed with various big bosses to evacuate overseas, the retreat plan has never been fully finalized. There is no doubt that if the other side knows that Shiba Zhi has chosen to evacuate, it is very likely that he will evacuate.

To, take advantage of the retreat of Shibazhi to launch an attack. Shibazhi has tens of thousands of subordinates in Penghu, and there are about 30,000 people including their families. It is not possible to evacuate them all overnight. Those who stay behind will

It is very likely that we will be blocked in Penghu by the army from the other side.

In order to be able to make a retreat plan as soon as possible, Zheng Zhilong had to stand up first and draw a thousand people from his direct subordinates to take charge of the rear. The leaders of other families drew lots to draw four families to collect another thousand.

A total of 2,000 people stayed on the main island of Penghu as the last batch of evacuees. At the same time, Zheng Zhilong also specially sent several speedboats to the waters near Zhangquan to monitor the movements of the coalition forces.

Naturally, the coalition forces on the other side of the strait were not idle either. They stepped up their patrols in the strait. The two sides fought several times at sea in just a few days in mid-April. However, the Shibazhi side obviously suffered more.

, because almost all the ships sent by the coalition forces to cruise are equipped with artillery produced in Haihan, and Shibazhi's reconnaissance ships are basically not equipped with any heavy weapons in order to be light and fast. Once the two sides get close to a certain distance, the coalition forces'

Artillery will make Shibazhi's ships feel like they can only be beaten without being able to fight back.

By the end of April, Shibazhi's ships no longer dared to approach the waters near Kinmen Island for close reconnaissance during the day, and could only choose to sail from a relatively distant place after dark for observation. Naturally, the effect of such reconnaissance was not good.

Where to go, we can only roughly judge the size of the coalition's fleet. The report obtained by Zheng Zhilong is only a relatively vague number of three hundred to five hundred ships.

Although Shibazhi has far more than three to five hundred ships on hand, Zheng Zhilong also understands that his own ships are not on the same level of strength as those of his opponents. The lessons of Nanri Island have fully demonstrated the strength gap between the two sides.

Zheng Zhilong also has no intention of using his own ships and son to improve his opponent's record in vain.

At the end of April, two fleets that went to Ryukyu and Zhejiang to inspect the environment also returned to Penghu. The news from Zhejiang made the leaders of Shibazhi feel cold. Taizhou Prefecture and Ningbo Prefecture, which have many coastal islands,

They have strengthened the defense of offshore areas and even asked the residents of the island to temporarily move back to the mainland to avoid the limelight. The Zhejiang side’s response was so great, it is said that it came from the information provided to it by the Fujian government.

Shibazhi will attack Songmenwei, Changguowei, Guanhaiwei and other places in the two provinces between April and May.

At that time, Zheng Zhilong threw the Haihan-made Chongzhen First Year Limited Edition multicolored glass inkstone worth hundreds of taels of silver in his study, and cursed Haihan for being ruthless and ruthless. As the person involved, of course he knew very well that Shibazhi had not made any big moves in the near future.

Although the plan to attack the coast of Zhejiang sent a fleet to Zhejiang to survey, the purpose was only to capture one or two uninhabited islands in the coastal waters of Zhejiang for future trade transit. However, this false news was created by the Haihan people

, but it made the Zhejiang government nervous and stepped up its defense deployment in coastal areas, making it difficult for Shibazhi to successfully establish a foothold along the coast of Zhejiang - at least it was impossible in the past two months.

Of course, Shibazhi can also choose to attack by force, but the problem is that it can no longer afford to lose. Once the war goes unfavorably, there will be no place to retreat. Zheng Zhilong did not dare to take this risk, so he could only focus on Ryukyu, which is basically

Shibazhi's last glimmer of hope.

The Ryukyu Islands are located between Taiwan Island and Japan. There are more than 100 large and small islands. In the late Yuan Dynasty, they were divided into three independent regimes: Zhongshan, Shannan, and Shanbei. Among them, Zhongshan State was the most powerful.

In the fifth year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty, that is, in 1372 AD, the Ming Dynasty sent envoy Yang Zai to the three Ryukyu kingdoms and ennobled the kings of the three kingdoms respectively. The three small countries also made it clear that they would pay tribute to the Ming Dynasty and became vassal states of the Ming Dynasty.

In 1429, the Zhongshan Kingdom raised troops and destroyed the other two countries, established Shuri Castle as its capital, and unified the entire Ryukyu Kingdom.

However, due to the weakness of the Ryukyu Kingdom itself, it was still invaded by external forces many times after that. In the early 17th century, the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan asked the Satsuma clan to lead an army to invade Korea. The Shimazu clan, the lord of the Satsuma clan, extorted military expenses from Ryukyu and was attacked.

After refusing, the Shimazu clan sent General Kugasama Hisaka and his troops to invade Ryukyu, captured the Ryukyu King Shoning, and forced him to agree to the condition of delivering 8,000 koku of grain to Satsuma Domain every year. From then on, Ryukyu also began to send food to Satsuma Domain and Jiang Jiang in Japan.

The shogunate paid tribute and became a state of "one country, two belongings".

For Shibazhi, the defensive power of the Ryukyu Kingdom is inferior to that of the Fujian Navy, which was passively beaten a few years ago. It is not impossible to directly attack Ryukyu Island. It is just that Ryukyu Island is too far away from Penghu.

It is far away, and the voyage is six or seven times that of Penghu and Zhangquan. It is still slightly more difficult to launch an attack directly there. Moreover, there is another concern that Shibazhi cannot ignore, that is, Ryukyu is also a part of the Japanese shogunate.

The troubled Ming Dynasty may not be in the mood to take into account the situation of overseas vassal states, but the Satsuma Domain of Japan will not just sit idly by and ignore the gains and losses of this place. After all, the food and property that are paid tribute to the Satsuma Domain every year are very important to the Shimadzu clan.

Words are a huge wealth.

If Shiba Shiba attacks the Ryukyu Kingdom head-on, the possibility of Satsuma Domain intervening in the war will be very high. Although Zheng Zhilong is not that afraid of Satsuma Domain, but in the situation of fleeing, it is better to avoid fighting as much as possible. After all, Shiba Shiba is not that afraid of Satsuma Domain.

Zhi's resources available for war are already very limited.

In addition, considering that after moving there, he would have to try to maintain trade relations with the Japanese shogunate in the future, it would not be a wise choice to have friction with the Satsuma Domain. Therefore, Zheng Zhilong’s inspection target was not the main island where the Ryukyu Dynasty was located, but the main island where the Ryukyu Dynasty was located.

Miyako Island is about 140 nautical miles southwest of Ryukyu Island.

Miyako Island is located in the southwest of the Ryukyu Islands, about 300 nautical miles away from Fujian. The island has a flat terrain. Together with the surrounding Irabu Island, Shimoji Island, Kurima Island, Ikema Island, and Ogami Island, the land area has exceeded 200 square meters.

kilometers, and more than half of the land on the main island can be developed as cultivated land. Its land area and land conditions far exceed that of the Penghu Islands, which have a total land area of ​​less than 100 square kilometers. In addition, there are many areas on the west side of the island

It is located in a natural harbor that can be developed. It is definitely a good place for Shibazhi who relies on the sea to live.

Of course, the most important point is that the Ryukyu Kingdom has extremely limited influence on the island. There are almost no decent armed forces stationed on the island. Probably the Ryukyu King never thought that anyone would risk offending the two great powers of Ming Dynasty and Japan.

risk, to seize such a place with no special products. If Shibazhi intends to occupy this place, he can just sail directly to the local area, and then show his force, and he can smoothly take over the local rule without basically fighting.

To get to Miyako Island from Penghu, you need to go around the northern part of Taiwan Island, and the voyage is nearly 400 nautical miles. Calculated based on the average speed of ships under Shiba Zhi, it will take about five or six days to reach the place. However, for Shiba Zhi,

If they want to target Miyakojima, they will have little time to act. This is not only because of the aggressive opponents on the other side of the strait, but also because Miyakojima has the rainy season from mid-May to mid-June every year.

, the sea conditions will also be relatively bad, which is not a suitable natural environment for large-scale migrating fleets.

After careful calculation, Zheng Zhilong set the date of departure on the beginning of summer in the lunar calendar, that is, May 5, 1632, in an effort to complete this large-scale escape before the rainy season.

Zheng Zhilong was not in a hurry to publicly announce the news, because he also knew that his men were mixed, and there would definitely be spies from the Fujian government on the island, and there was no guarantee that there would be people who were greedy for wealth, who would defect and report the news after hearing the news. So he made a plan

After that, he only informed a few family members and cronies of the big bosses, including Zheng Zhibao, Zheng Zhiwan, Zheng Zhifeng, Hong Xu, Gan Hui, Shi Daxuan, etc. Zheng Zhilong didn't even say a word about the leaders like Li Kuiqi, He Bin, Guo Huaiyi, etc.

None were revealed.

However, there is no airtight wall in the world. Although Zheng Zhilong tried to keep the secret until two or three days before departure before announcing it publicly, because the confidentiality system within Shibazhi was not strict, the relevant news spread within a few days. For

After the pirates, who were anxious about their future, learned that Zheng Zhilong had made up his mind to abandon Penghu without resistance, it became even more difficult for them to unite together.

On April 28, the pirate leaders He Bin and Guo Huaiyi defected with their troops and took away more than 60 ships and nearly a thousand people. They did not choose to go to Fujian to surrender, but went to Damuan Port and chose

They sought refuge with the Dutch. In their view, the city of Jelandja built by the Dutch in the Port of Damuan had begun to take shape and was far more reliable than running to a strange desert island thousands of miles away.
Chapter completed!