Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 698 Daishan Island

After entering the summer, the waters near Daishan Island gradually become dangerous.First of all, the wind direction that dominated the sea changed from a bitter northeast wind to a howling southeast wind, and then the waves on the sea surface gradually increased. This season, it is no longer suitable for men who live on the sea to go out, because the typhoon season is coming. .

Especially today, the sky on the sea is gloomy and the wind and waves are very strong, which seems to indicate that a storm is about to cover the sea.In the wooden pier by the sea, four large ships dropped their sails and docked at the trestle with double anchors. There were also many cables on the ship tied to the wooden piles of the pier, which made the hull more stable in the sea.

These are two escort gunboats and two fast cruisers led by Captain Liu Haiyang. They are here waiting for the return of several gunboats heading to the middle reaches of the Yangtze River.Today's Daishan Island has almost become a base for people from the east coast to operate in the southern waters. Not only are some wooden houses built on the island, but even several brick and stone warehouses have been built to store a large amount of weapons, ammunition and valuable supplies. Taste.As for the coal brought from Heishui Port, they can only be stored in the open air, and they are not afraid of getting wet anyway.

There are still a few guards on the island, the number is about 500, and they are the former Rugao County Lianzong Sun Shouzheng's department transferred from Jeju Island.At this time, they had changed into the military uniforms of the people on the east coast, and carried standard spears and a few muskets. After a year of training, the department was quite in shape, and it was no problem to guard such a small island. .

It is worth mentioning that since the people from the east bank suddenly occupied this place and expelled some Ming fishermen who strayed into this island, Zhang Mingzhen, Zhang Huangyan and others on the main island of Zhoushan, which is not far from this island, even sent people here. After asking, after learning that this is a well-known yellow-clothed thief in Shandong and Beizhili, how wonderful and wonderful the expressions of these people are.

After experiencing a series of setbacks against the Qing army, the Lu Wang regime on the island, which is currently in a predicament, can be described as internal and external coercion.Although they have a lot of ships and manpower, the lack of various supplies makes them unable to be self-sufficient at all.Therefore, it became their inevitable choice to go ashore to fight the autumn wind from time to time, but the crude equipment and weak combat power made it impossible for them to fight against the Qing army.Even though those Qing troops were only the Ming troops who had surrendered, they were confined to a corner of Zhoushan and faced the same predicament as the Shun army, that is, they were short of pay and equipment, and it was not easy to replenish the source of troops. Naturally, their combat effectiveness was deteriorating.

Why did the Qing army become stronger and stronger?Can't even beat you at the beginning, but will gradually surpass you after a long-term seesaw?That's because the supply of both personnel and materials is in place!Although the combat level of the green battalion of the Qing army is much better than that of the Ming army, the bigger reason is that your own level has declined too fast, and you have gradually been compared to the past by the Qing army.In this regard, the fast-injecting Shunjun is the best example.

The same is true for the Ming troops in Zhoushan.Maybe at the beginning, you can compare with the Qingzhe Green Camp on the other side, but the long-term confrontation is about comprehensive strength. To put it bluntly, it is the consumption of money, food, ordnance, and personnel. In this regard, only Zhang Huangyan and others in Zhoushan can compare anyway. Those who did not go to the green camp under the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang established by the Qing court.

As the naval commander in charge of the Blackwater area, Liu Haiyang is a special figure outside the system of the Blackwater Pioneering Team.Even Shao Shude, who is the captain of the pioneering team, has to discuss some matters with him. In other words, Liu Haiyang has a lot of autonomy.Therefore, when Er Zhang in Zhoushan sent someone to contact him, he sent a batch of rice, spears, bows, gunpowder, and armor on his own initiative. First, he maintained a good relationship with them. Aiding various anti-Qing forces is also the basic policy of the Blackwater Pioneering Team. Anyway, some supplies are worthless, and many of them are self-produced by the two ordnance bases in Jeju and Yantai. It is not a big burden to give them away.

Moreover, the things that were given to the remnants of King Lu in Zhoushan were only small things, and the things that were to be "gifted" to another southern force would be the big things.And the representative sent by this force is also an old acquaintance of the people from the East Bank. He is Zheng Hongkui, who Marshal Mo had met when he was in Zhenjiang, and the force he represents is naturally the Zheng Sen and Zheng family who have already raised troops to fight against the Qing Dynasty.

Zheng Zhilong, the original head of the Zheng family, surrendered when the Qing army invaded Fujian.This man was originally an opportunist and a warlord. When Emperor Longwu asked him to send troops to Jiangxi to resist the Qing army, he pushed back and refused to waste his own capital.After the Qing army rushed to Fujian like a broken bamboo, Zheng Zhilong, an old speculator who had been speculating for half his life, decisively surrendered to the Qing Dynasty according to his own judgment, and did not want to die with the Ming Dynasty.

And his surrender was indeed relatively smooth at the beginning, but later there were some small deviations, that is, his son Zheng Sen opposed it.Coupled with the fact that Zheng Sen's mother, Tian Chuan, was humiliated and killed by the murdered Qing army, this completely cut off any possibility of surrender between Zheng Sen and the Qing army. In addition, some people in the Zheng's group were unwilling to surrender. Therefore, Zheng Sen simply pulled some of his father's old subordinates to raise the banner of anti-Qing.This put Zheng Zhilong into an extremely embarrassing situation, and his value in the eyes of the Qing court was also greatly reduced, and his situation suddenly became delicate.The reason why he is not dead at present is only because the Qing court still has a slight desire to rely on him to surrender and disintegrate the Zheng Group.

Although Zheng Sen raised troops to fight against the Qing Dynasty and gathered a considerable number of troops in a short period of time, in the final analysis, there are still many difficulties.The first is the lack of supplies. The places they occupy, such as Kinmen and Xiamen, are also overseas outlying islands. The land is narrow and poor, and it is simply not enough to support tens of thousands of long-term military operations.In addition, Zheng Sen himself is very respectful to the Ming Dynasty, and has repeatedly sent troops to support these pig teammates, which further aggravated the financial, material and personnel difficulties of his ministry.

At this time, Zheng Hongkui, who was also devastated by the lack of money, food and materials, remembered his fate on the Yangtze River, so he suggested to Zheng Sen that maybe he could try to beg for alms with the thief in yellow.Nowadays, it is rumored all over the world that the bandits in yellow and the remnants of the invading army in Huguang are in the same group, and they have repeatedly provided them with supplies and armaments, and it seems that they don't have too many sect opinions. Don't hesitate to help, so maybe their Zheng family can also ask for something back?

At this time, Zheng Sen was already overwhelmed by the material problem, so he agreed to Zheng Hongkui's suggestion and sent him to take some people to Yantai to make contact.However, when Zheng Hongkui's fleet arrived in Zhoushan, he heard that the bandits in yellow clothes had occupied Daishan Island, so he immediately changed his mind and decided to go to Daishan Island to have a look first, maybe he could gain something?

Zheng Hongkui arrived two days ago, and Liu Haiyang just returned from the mouth of the Yangtze River yesterday. After hearing the report from his subordinates, after thinking about it all night, he still decided to meet Zheng Hongkui today, so he invited people into him early in the morning. office.

The office is a brick and stone bungalow, with large clear glass inlaid in the windows.Zheng Hongkui, wearing a long gown, sat on a chair made of fish scale pine from Sakhalin Island, waiting boredly for Liu Haiyang's arrival.On the table was a plate of pine nuts, a large wine glass and a bottle of beer, which had just been brought in by a guard in a sky-blue uniform.

But Zheng Hongkui is not in the mood to eat now. He is still thinking about whether he can get some urgent supplies from Daishan Island on the spot. Yantai Port was smoother, and it would not be running around like a headless chicken.However, I just don't know if they are willing or not?After all, when I was on the river, I had only met that so-called "Marshal Mo" once...

Just when Zheng Hongkui was so entangled, Liu Haiyang, who was wearing a sky-blue naval officer's uniform (official captain, temporary major), walked in with a few entourages, and Zheng Hongkui immediately got up from his chair when he saw this.

"General Zheng, it's our first meeting. Let me meet you, my humble Liu Haiyang, who is currently serving in the navy." Liu Haiyang stretched out his right hand as soon as he entered the door, and said loudly.

"It's a pleasure to meet you..." Zheng Hongkui shook hands with Liu Haiyang very naturally, and he also knew that this was the etiquette of the thief in yellow.Of course he also knew that this so-called "Navy" was actually a navy, and this person who came here to meet him must not be some unknown person, maybe he was a general with real power in the navy.

Therefore, after arranging his words, Zheng Hongkui said with deep meaning: "I also learned some physiognomy skills in the past, and I have gained a lot from years of study. Now it seems that General Liu is a heroic, aggressive, and With extraordinary bearing, he should also be a well-known important minister and general in this east bank country."

"General Zheng is really good at talking." Liu Haiyang took off his military cap and put it on the table, smiled, and said, "I don't talk dark words, I already know the reason for General Zheng's visit. And to be honest, our current The armaments are indeed quite sufficient. If General Zheng wants it, it doesn’t matter if we help some. But there is only one thing, General Zheng must answer me honestly. So what if I donate military supplies such as arrows and gunpowder to General Zheng? If the answer does not satisfy me, I would also like to present General Zheng with a batch of spear armor, but this is only for this one time. "

"Master Liu, please speak directly." Zheng Hongkui couldn't help but sit upright at this time, and even forgot to imitate the tone of the East Coast people.How difficult it is for Zheng Shi now, how could he, as the core figure, not know.Not only is there a shortage of supplies and personnel, but at the moment when Japan's trade has not yet resumed, they even lack money!The thieves in yellow clothes or the ordnance on hand of the people on the east coast are supplies that the Zheng family urgently needs, and they are military supplies that cannot be bought even if they have money, which makes him not nervous.

"Okay, I'll say it." Liu Haiyang now feels like a venture capitalist interviewing investment targets. He cleared his throat and said, "General Zheng, why did your ministry resist the Qing? Mr. Omu Will it be cleared?"

"The anti-Qing thing was aroused by righteous indignation, and the second was that the Manchu and Qing courts did not allow me to go to sea to make profits, which cut off my way of making money." Zheng Hongkui looked at Liu Haiyang with a piercing look, and said, "Mr. , He has sworn in front of all the generals that he will never die with the Tartars, and there is no possibility of surrender!"

"That's good. After a while, General Zheng and my entourage can go to the warehouse to get three hundred muskets, six cannons, one thousand spears, fifty pairs of armor, one hundred barrels of gunpowder, and five thousand bundles of arrows." Liu Haiyang made the final decision.

These things are nothing compared to the huge inventory in the east coast armory - these warehouses are maintained by a row of brick and stone houses, which will be transformed into bastions in the future - and it is not worth it carry.Regardless of the location, there are nearly [-] muskets and more than ten cannons in the warehouse on Shandaishan Island at this moment. These things are enough to support several anti-Qing forces in the south for a long time.

Besides, judging from the current appearance of the Zheng Group, it doesn't look like they are very rich, so how about giving them some sweets in advance to support them in fighting against the Qing Dynasty.Sooner or later they will spend a lot of money to buy them after they rely on the weapons provided by the people from the upper east coast.Only Dashun has the honor of providing weapons for free, and everyone else has to pay for it!

(End of this chapter)