This was Li Xiucheng's first visit to Haimen Port. He had already seen the prosperous city under Huai Haijun's rule.
When I first went to Gaoyou, I saw the bustling canal market in the eastern suburbs of Yangzhou on the ship.
He had never thought that a market could be built like that. It was all independent areas surrounded by two-story buildings.
It's bustling without feeling cluttered.
The city of Gaoyou is also breathtaking, with walled communities filled with people, and factories all around the city.
The military academy is located in Xiejia Town in the southeast of Gaoyou. It was originally far away from Gaoyou City. Now with the increase in urban population, it has been connected to the new city.
As for the original Gaoyou City, it was like a large courtyard surrounded by city walls. It had already been submerged by the buildings outside the city.
And this Haimen Port gave him a very open feeling.
Everything here revolves around the port.
In fact, Haimen is not a very good deep-water port. In later generations, due to the sedimentation of the Yangtze River Estuary, it could not accommodate giant ships of tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of tons. However, in this era, most merchant ships are still several thousand tons.
It's enough here.
After the Huaihai Navy unified the whole country, this place will definitely decline, but at least for now, Haimen Port is still the most prosperous port under the rule of the Huaihai Navy.
After arriving at Haimen, they were about to board the ship. Only then did Li Xiucheng and the others be told that their team was going to attack Fujian with the president.
Sure enough, the Huaihai Navy will begin to rebel against the Qing Dynasty.
Li Xiucheng felt a little excited in his heart. Fighting against the Qing Dynasty had always been the obsession in the hearts of these Taiping Army generals.
In the past few years, the two sides had fought to the death with the Qing army, and the two sides had already forged a bloody feud.
Now that he has entered the Huaihai Navy, Li Xiucheng certainly hopes that he is still on the road of anti-Qing, which makes him feel that he has not betrayed his companions who died tragically at the hands of the Manchus.
Li Xiucheng just changed his identity and continued to fight against the Qing Dynasty, and on a more correct path than before.
On the pier, Li Xiucheng looked at the connected sails and chimneys. Compared with the inland river ships of several hundred tons, this kind of warship of several thousand tons gave him a greater shock.
Huai Haijun's power was revealed in front of him layer by layer.
Each time it brought him a shock to his mind and a shock to his strength.
"How many secrets does this Huaihai Navy hide?"
If there were such warships, my old brothers would just have to fight from Guangxi to Guangdong, and then take the warships all the way to Tianjin, wouldn't they be able to directly destroy the Manchu Qing Dynasty?
After all the supplies and war horses were on board, the order from the superior came down.
"Soldiers start boarding!"
"Be the first in line to board the ship, and board the ship one by one in order!"
Li Xiucheng shouted the orders issued by his superiors to his subordinates.
Because the distance was not very far and the space on the ship was limited, the soldiers almost always squatted next to each other in the cabin.
This was not Li Xiucheng's first time on a boat, but this was his first time sailing on the sea on such a large ship.
Each soldier held an oiled paper bag in his hand to prevent them from vomiting all over the cabin.
Li Xiucheng also couldn't bear the bumps of a sea ship. Not many people could hold back from vomiting the first time they took a sea ship. This was not the kind of cruise ship of hundreds of thousands of tons in later generations, and the bumps were tight.
I don't know how long it took for the ship to stop, and an order came from the regiment headquarters so that the soldiers could rest on the deck.
It turned out that the fleet had arrived at the Nanyang Naval Base in Zhoushan.
This place used to be a place where pirates were rampant. But since it was occupied by the Huaihai Navy as a naval base, the pirates here have been eliminated.
Most of them surrendered to the Huai Navy and became sailors or fishermen of the Huai Navy fleet.
There are also some people who love the profession of piracy too deeply. These people are integrated with the sea forever.
The island where the Huai Naval Base is located is Zhoushan Island, which is the largest island in the Zhoushan Islands. It was originally under the jurisdiction of the imperial court.
After the Huaihai Navy came over from the imperial court to be used as a military port, all the people here were replaced by people from the Huaihai Navy.
The island mainly develops agriculture, fishing and canning industries.
Thanks to the Huaihai Navy's investment in a large number of new fishing boats and fishing tools, the fishing industry here has developed rapidly.
Originally, fishermen here still used relatively primitive fishing methods. The few fishing boats were too small and could only operate offshore.
After the Huaihai Navy moved in, many collective fishing teams were established, equipped with larger fishing boats, and even thousands of tons of whalers, which greatly increased the distance that fishermen can go to sea, and the fish catch they obtained naturally increased.
This is a famous fishing ground, and the large yellow croaker is even famous throughout the country.
The large-scale ice-making equipment using steam-powered compressors invented by Huai Haijun allowed these precious sea fish to be sold to surrounding big cities and became dishes on the tables of dignitaries.
The increase in fish catch has gradually reduced the price of canned fish, and more ordinary families can eat Shanghai canned fish. This has improved the diet structure of the people and enhanced their physical fitness. At the same time, it has also greatly increased the income of the fishing team.
Now there are basically no independent fishermen here, and most fishermen have consciously joined the Huaihai Navy's fishing team.
There are even many young people who have become members of the Navy.
Dong Shuheng took advantage of this rare opportunity to walk around the island and look at the construction results on the island.
He was very satisfied with the construction of the island. It is really not difficult to be an official in China. The people are hardworking and simple. As long as they are given a stable environment, they will build their home well.
No wonder the two most prosperous ages in history - the Han Dynasty and the Tang Dynasty - all successive emperors embraced the Taoist idea of governing by doing nothing.
On the other side of the dock area near the military port is the fishing port, and a small town is formed around the fishing port. This is the center of the island's residents.
There are many shops opened in the town, including taverns, shops selling fishing gear, and shops selling daily necessities.
After the Huaihai Navy settled in, several canned fish processing plants and ice-making plants were built, making the place more prosperous.
There are not so many scenic spots in Zhoushan now. Forts have been built on Panzhi Island and Dongba Island to the west of the port to protect the port. Some military port patrol boats are patrolling around.
Prevent anyone from peeking into the military port.
Not far to the west is the outlet of the Yongjiang River, where the Zhenhai Fort is located.
At this time, a team of several hundred people landed on a remote beach in a wooden boat.
The surrounding area has been controlled by operatives from the Intelligence Department.
Those intelligence officers dressed as government officials controlled all intersections within a few miles and did not allow ordinary people to enter.
With the control power of the local government, it would be impossible to detect it in a short period of time.
The special operations team members also changed into Qing army clothes after landing ashore.
When fighting on the inside, they can look like the Qing army at will. This can be regarded as an advantage of the Huai Navy.
In this way, a team to strengthen the defense of Zhenhai Fort rushed towards the direction of the fort.
The defenders of the fort were not stupid either. The sudden appearance of reinforcements also made them suspicious.
However, seeing that there were only a dozen soldiers coming up from the bottom of the mountain, the guard didn't pay attention. There were only a dozen people, so they wouldn't pose a threat to so many of them.
So these dozen people were taken directly to the fort for questioning.
"Whose subordinates are you, and who sent you to support?" A guerrilla general responsible for guarding the fort, named Fang Decheng, is only sixty years old. He is a veteran, tall and energetic. He is so old at such an age.
Sitting on a guerrilla shows that this person is not good at being an official.
"Reporting to the general, my subordinate is Commander-in-Chief Deng Zhiyong of Admiral Deng. He has come to strengthen the fort defense under the orders of Governor He and Admiral Deng."
Fang Decheng looked at the document handed over by Deng Zhiyong. It was indeed signed by the governor and the admiral's office.
I also saw that Mr. Deng Qian was also named Deng, and I thought he might be the nephew of the Admiral.
Lao Fang has been working in the officialdom for half his life, but has always been unsatisfied. Either he is on the wrong team, or he says the wrong things and makes his boss unhappy.
So it was left on this fort for more than ten years without anyone taking care of it.
He learned from the experience and decided to change his bad habits.
Thinking of this, he quickly changed his face.
"Hahaha... It turns out it's Brother Deng. You've been negligent. I've been negligent. I'll make arrangements right now." Fang Decheng stood up from his seat and said with a smile.
However, his smile was a little stiff, after all, Fang Guobi was not familiar with this.
"Thank you!" Deng Zhiyong said in his heart, you are so old, I am your brother. Unable to see this scene, Deng Zhiyong moved the hand that was leaning on his lower back imperceptibly.
He had been observing Fang Decheng's reaction just now, and was ready to take out his gun and arrest the person if anything went wrong.
Maybe the documents obtained by the intelligence officers could be fake and authentic, but unexpectedly, they actually passed the test.
Deng Zhiyong didn't know that the documents they held in their hands were genuine.
The notes above are documents written by governors and admirals, and the seals are genuine.
With Fang Decheng's arrangement, people from the special operations brigade stepped onto the fort one after another.
This fort was built on Wulong Gang at the southern foot of Zhaobao Mountain. If it were to be attacked head-on, even if the special forces had superior skills and weapons, they would inevitably suffer heavy casualties.
What's more, Dong Shuheng hoped to minimize casualties, including the defenders on the fort, and not harm them as much as possible.
In fact, the defenders of the fort were all replaced later and were not as courageous as Dong Shuheng thought.
When the special operations team came up, they took out the pistol hidden under their clothes and pointed it at them.
When a team member broke a defender's braid with a pistol.
The defenders decisively gave in.
"Fang Guerrilla, I'm sorry, we are the subordinates of Lord Dong of the Huaihai Navy, and we were ordered to take over the fort, oh, no, we are taking over the entire Zhejiang."
"Sir Guerrilla, you seem to be a native of Zhejiang, so you don't need to worry about the safety of your family. I guarantee that you can return home and reunite with your family intact."
"Are you going to rebel?" Fang Decheng asked, his beard trembling.
"Oh, no, no, no, aren't we the officers and soldiers of the Liangjiang Governor's Mansion? How can we call it a rebellion? We, the Governor, just felt that He Guiqing was managing Zhejiang so that the people were in dire straits and bandits were incessant, so he placed Zhejiang under the control of the Liangjiang Governor's Mansion, and why?
Peace for the people of Zhejiang."
If a foreign devil stood in front of him and said these words, Fang Decheng would definitely continue to fight hard, but the other party was Huai Haijun.
Because of the good relationship between Zhejiang merchants and Huaihai Navy.
Zhejiang businessmen basically come from aristocratic families in Zhejiang.
In this era, most of the gentry and landowners along the coast were engaged in business. What they earned from doing business was foreigners' silver dollars, which was much faster than farming.
These Zhejiang gentry and businessmen controlled local public opinion.
Therefore, Huai Haijun's reputation among the people in Zhejiang is still very good.
That is the teacher of benevolence and righteousness. The key is that under the rule of Huai Haijun, there is no banditry, the people live and work in peace and contentment, the businessmen can make a lot of money with peace of mind, and the gentry and landlords do not have to worry about being betrayed by the mud-legged people one day.
Under such circumstances, Fang Guerrilla accepted his fate and ordered his men to lay down their weapons and surrender.
These soldiers guarding the fort are neither father nor mother. Otherwise, how could they be sent to guard the fort in this barren mountain?
They had to carry water from the mountain every day.
Even the monks had a better life than them. At least the monks had pilgrims worshiping them from time to time, while these Qing soldiers guarding the fort could only guard the cold cannons.
After Governor He took office, in order to please the court, he escorted all the collected tax money to Beijing. The soldiers under him had not received their pay for a long time, and they were already full of resentment.
Considering all the factors, how could the garrison of the fort not surrender?
After taking the fort, the instructor's regiment could go ashore. The army waited at the fort until dark before heading towards Ningbo Fucheng. A surprise attack on the city was not like a fort, so it was better to do it at night.
At night, the fat chickens all stay in their nests, catching one at a time.