Chen Haiyang established three outposts on Lantau Island. One outpost was built on the southern coast of Lantau Island, directly controlling the three gates - the fleet will use it as an anchorage to attack the Pearl River.
The second outpost is located at Kwai Shui Mun in the northeast of Lantau Island. It is across the sea from Ma Wan Island. It is the western outlet of Victoria Bay and an important channel from the South China Sea to the Pearl River Estuary. After the task force landed on Hong Kong Island
Soon, an observation post was secretly stationed here. Now Chen Haiyang has officially organized it into an outpost to monitor this important location at all times.
The last one was built on Tai O Island.
Tai O Island is the earliest developed village on Lantau Island. It is not only the main population gathering area of Lantau Island, but also has salt fields. It was once the main salt supplier to Hong Kong. Historically, it was famous for its salt production and smuggling of salt.
This island is very close to the main island of Lantau Island, so close that the strait between the two sides can be crossed by crossing the water. The maritime geographical location here is very advantageous. The Portuguese once attempted to establish a colony on Tai O Island as a way to trade with China.
Port. But with their defeat in the Battle of Tuen Mun, this attempt completely went bankrupt.
Now, the Australians are here.
Shi Zhiqi took the sailors to Tai O Island on a large boat. Most of the villagers in Tai O are from the Dan family, and the Dan family are all fishermen and sailors. During the peaceful days of being pirates, there are many people who do some piracy -
Some of the pirates who were killed and captured were also local villagers. When they heard that the thieves who had destroyed Zheng Bao's gang were coming, they were all frightened, but no one dared to resist. After some urgent consultations, it was recommended.
Several elders from the village went to greet him.
"The houses here are a bit like the houses of ethnic minorities." Shi Zhiqi commented while looking at the "ganlan" style stilts built in the village on the seaside, half on water and half on land.
Lok Lam said: "This is a shack. It is the characteristic of this place. Tai O Island is called the Venice of Hong Kong. It is a must-visit place when visiting Lantau Island. The seafood is great."
The topic of seafood does not arouse the interest of any elders. Eating seafood has become a normal life among the elders.
The sailors brought envoys from the village. The Dan family were different from the local Cantonese people in terms of dress and dialect. Of course Shi Zhiqi could not understand their words, but there were not too few Dan family members in the navy of the Lingao regime. Both parties
We can communicate quickly.
The messenger presented a gift: fifty taels of silver and some sporadic gold and silver, as a sign of obedience. Shi Zhiqi said some polite words and ordered the people to accept it. He said that it would not disturb the local villages. As long as they behaved honestly
Their safety can be protected by following the instructions of the Australian and Song regime.
The residents of Lantau Island, whether they are Cantonese, Hoklo, Hakka or Danjia, are mostly fishermen, boatmen and sailors. Chen Haiyang knows: According to the research of historians, they have been living a semi-pirate life in these waters since the 10th century.
The days of semi-fishermen. Generally speaking, pirates are also very good sailors. Although the residents here have the problem of "collaborating with bandits", they are an excellent source of naval personnel. What's more, he doesn't have enough strength to spend time at the moment.
"Civil reform" was carried out here. Therefore, his guiding policy on local civil issues was tolerant and did not take harsh measures against the villagers of Lantau Island and nearby islands to avoid excessive hostility. He only asked each village to disperse those who fled.
Hand over the pirates. Of course, they will definitely not hand over their relatives and fellow citizens, but they will not be polite to foreign pirates.
Under Shi Zhiqi's order, the villages on Tai O Island appointed liaison officers to go to Hong Kong Island for meetings every ten days as stipulated. At the same time, there are so-called "reasonable burdens". This reasonable burden includes the supply of fish, shrimp and seafood
, also includes the free requisition of manpower and ships. This policy has also spread to every village on Lantau Island.
The outpost built on Tai O Island was built at a place called "Fan Guitang" by the villagers. This was originally the place where the Portuguese built a fortress and prepared to open up a commercial port. You can still see many things in the same place more than a hundred years ago.
The remaining traces of the Portuguese: stones and rubble used to build fortresses and buildings, rusted iron tools that were in disfigured shape, and even a few shipwrecks left among the rocks.
A few days later, Wen Desi, Chen Haiyang and others led a special force of military and civilian cadres to place an incense table on the beach in Tung Chung, and held a grand ceremony facing the sea to worship Song Duanzong. In the final storm of the Song Dynasty,
, the small court of the Southern Song Dynasty visited Lantau Island twice and stayed briefly in Tung Chung. It is said that Tuanzong also died somewhere on the north shore of Lantau Island. Since the Lingao regime claimed to be descendants of Yashan, this move helped to show its
"legitimacy".
A company of army infantry formed a square formation, and 12 secret service boats lined up in the harbor. The elders were respectful one by one. Although they did not kneel three times and kowtow nine times, they bowed three times to ninety degrees. Then Wen Desi read out the memorial rite.
.This memorial text is said to be written by a talented student with a bachelor's degree in Chinese and a master's degree in history from a university in the Senate. It is not only a parallel prose, but also contains many rare words that need to be translated from the "Kangxi Dictionary". Wen Desi stumbled and struggled to read it.
It's a gift.
After the ceremony, the entire army fired three times, and then the spy boat in the bay fired three times. For a while, thick smoke billowed, and the sound was alarming.
The Battle of Lantau Island completely eliminated the desire of other pirate gangs to explore the Pearl River Basin. Since Liu Xiang avoided the Australians and Zheng Bao, who did not know whether to live or die, was completely destroyed, everyone had no idea about the strength of the Kun thieves or the Australians.
With further understanding, almost all pirates in this area disappeared.
From a topographic point of view, there is an almost closed inland sea between Hong Kong Island, Lantau Island and the mainland. Now this inland sea is completely controlled by the task force. The Ming Navy at the south end of Tuen Mun and Xin'an did not make any challenge to the Australians.
Following Hai Quan's move, the naval patrol in Nantou Village was also cancelled.
Another result of the Battle of Lantau Island was that Chen Haiyang had to postpone the time to enter the Pearl River Estuary to start a full-scale operation. He had too many fruits of victory to digest. Prisoners and captured ships filled the 852 Base, and he needed more food.
Craftsmen and soldiers came to deal with it.
So he asked for further reinforcements from Lingao, otherwise the task force would not be able to take care of both the construction of Hong Kong Island and the Pearl River harassment operation. Just 2,000 prisoners and several hundred immigrants from Lantau Island would have to be guarded by at least one company.
The Army volunteered and sent two infantry companies. Although the Navy was not happy with the Army's intervention, Hong Kong Island was unlikely to be dominated by the Navy. The Army's reinforcements could at least share their combat pressure.
With the arrival of the army, civil affairs and engineering personnel also continued to arrive along with the spy boats transporting supplies. They built a dock and a simple ship repair yard. They built warehouses and barracks, installed steam engines, and built buildings.
The kit expands the purification camp - when completed, the purification camp will be able to accommodate 5,000 people.
Chen Haiyang ordered the sailors to step up the renovation of the ships seized from the pirates - especially those small shallow-draft sampans and long dragons, which would be very useful in landing battles in inland waters. With such small boats, soldiers
They can be transported to almost any location for landing without regard to water depth.
The entire Hong Kong Island base became in full swing, with noisy construction sites and workers everywhere. In the bay near Hong Kong Island, steam-driven Daihatsu patrol boats were patrolling in a majestic manner, reminding who is the master of this sea area.
The ship power in Chen Haiyang's hands has further increased. Four II-type single-masted patrol boats were allocated to him from Lingao. This is a newly launched improved iron-ribbed wooden hull ship. The iron-ribbed wooden hull ship was chosen to take into account the current stage of emergency
High industrial productivity and material supply capabilities. The tonnage of each ship has been expanded to 150 tons and is equipped with 18 artillery pieces. Although this type of ship is not suitable for entering inland rivers with complex waterways such as the Pearl River for combat, it is used to control the Pearl River Estuary.
The sea area is an absolute weapon. It can effectively monitor various sea passes around Hong Kong Island. This allows him to free up enough troops to enter the Pearl River for combat.
The troops that entered the Pearl River Estuary were divided into 5 squadrons of 20 spy boats, 1 squadron of single-masted patrol boats, and 1 squadron of large boats. In addition, there were also temporary formations using captured pirate sampans, and long queues.
"Small Boat Brigade". The large ships captured from the pirates were fumigated with drugs and a dozen ships in better condition were used. Chen Haiyang equipped them with sailors and marines, and also slightly modified them. These ships will mainly serve as
Transport ships are used to carry supplies and prisoners captured in battles.
The survey ship sent by Chen Haiyang, escorted by patrol boats, came to the Pearl River Estuary in advance to conduct actual measurements of water depth and terrain. There is obviously a big difference between the waterway map of the 21st century and the actual situation of the 17th century. Chen Haiyang did not want to fight.
Ships ran aground before it even started - damaging his and the navy's reputation.
Of course, what the 852 base was doing could not be hidden from the Ming army posts along the coast. Although they did not make any actual response, the warning that the Kun bandits were about to start a large-scale invasion soon spread to Guangzhou and Zhaoqing.
Although Zhaoqing fell into a dull state of no war and no peace, at the governor's office in Guangzhou, the matter of sending money to the Australians was in full swing. The leader of the negotiation was Li Fengjie, the governor of Guangdong. After receiving the news of the defeat, he
Soon, he quickly summoned his staff and his closest officials to secretly discuss countermeasures. Everyone believed that the Guangdong side must clear up the relationship as soon as possible after this defeat. Of course, the report should be made quickly.
Li Fengjie's sedan chair was carried through the street, which was almost entirely filled with government offices. There were originally very few pedestrians on the road, and most of them were clerks, clerks, and servants of officials from various government offices. It is summer now, and it is hot in the afternoon.