“...... The year before last, the official went to Nanjing Prefecture on a business trip, and in his spare time he drank with a few Zhejiang colleagues, only to realize that their coastal defense was simply useless, and it was still inferior to Fujian six or seven years ago. "During the fleet's journey to the north, Xu Yuzhuo also took the time to share some of his past observations with Qian Tiandun and Shi Diwen.www.biquge.info

Chang Guowei's strength on paper looks strong, but the actual number of troops is far from the number on the books. This kind of thing is not only in the distant island of Qiongzhou, but also in the famous rich Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions, Chang Guowei has nearly 5,000 registered officers and soldiers, but the actual strength is only about half, and there are many of them who are old, weak, sick and disabled. In such an environment, the offshore islands are occupied by lawless criminals, and the government often turns a blind eye to the fact that the troops responsible for defending the maritime frontier are poorly trained and their armaments are lax.

However, merely eating empty salaries and drinking the blood of soldiers can no longer satisfy the needs of some people in Zhejiang's officialdom for accumulating money, and colluding with nearby pirates to engage in smuggling has become another important way to make money. Of course, after the establishment of this relationship, in order to facilitate operation, the government's supervision of coastal defense has gradually become useless.

Of course, these inactions and chaos of the Zhejiang government are a good thing for the coalition fleet fighting in other places. The fleet did not need to worry about colliding with the fleet of the Zhejiang Navy Division going out to sea to patrol, because the local garrison would not have such an arrangement to patrol the coastal defense. According to the information that Xu Yuzhuo had, the naval division stationed in Changguowei had almost completely abandoned the maritime defense area, and the frequency of patrolling at sea had probably dropped to the level of once a year. I think that although the sailors led by Xu Xinsu were passive for a long time and were suppressed by Shibazhi, at least there were contacts on the scene, and they did not completely give up the control of the defense of the maritime frontier.

Xu Yuzhuo continued: "Although this Changguo Wei is known as one of the four famous guards of the Ming Sea, the scope it really guards is only half of the Ningbo Mansion in Sanmen Bay, as well as the area of Xiangshan Port Bay. In the sea area east of Xiangshan, the government is ignorant of it. If a civilian ship is robbed by pirates and sued to the government, there is often no follow-up at all. If you want to do a good job in maritime trade, you can only pay tribute to the local pirates to buy peace. General Qian and General Shi, you Haihan have always said that the cost of transporting immigrants from the north is too high, and if this boat passes through Ningbo, you have to pay a hundred taels of silver for a toll, and ten ships will have to pay a thousand taels, and the big ship will have to pay more, and the owner of the ship will definitely not bear this expense by himself, so it will naturally be passed on to you, and the cost will definitely remain high. ”

Qian Tiandun and Shi Diwen are not unaware of the fame in the middle, at present, the transportation of immigrants from the north completely depends on the transportation capacity of Daming maritime merchants, and these additional expenditures on the way alone account for two to three percent of the entire freight. One ship or two ships are fine, but over the years, the additional expenses for the Haihan immigration department have increased to thousands of taels of silver every month, and with the increase in capacity, it has shown a trend of increasing month by month, and the immigration department is naturally full of complaints. And this kind of complaint was reflected in the Executive Committee, and in the end it became the task to fall on the military.

Qian Tiandun is in a high position, of course, he will not complain about these things in front of the allied generals, but he still has to show Haihan's attitude towards this: "We Haihan have always attached great importance to the safety of navigation, whether it is in Liangguang or Fujian, ensuring the safety of maritime trade routes is part of the responsibility of the Haihan militia. The main problem in Zhejiang is not freight, but the inability to ensure the safety of the route, and we came to Zhejiang this time to solve this problem once and for all. We can't control and don't want to care about the way the Ming army on this side of Zhejiang, but we will deal with it in our own way. ”

Xu Yu clumsilyly said that your so-called "way" is to solve it directly. Although the two sides formulated a general plan of action before departing from Fujian, the content mainly focused on logistics rather than specific tactics. For the Fujian Navy Division and the Haihan People's League, the coastal waters of Zhejiang are almost all unknown areas with unknown conditions, and the plan can never catch up with the changes. This way from Wenzhou to Taizhou has already encountered three groups of pirates, in fact, they are not in the coalition army's battle plan, but relying on the super strength of the coalition army to directly crush it, it did not cause any trouble.

However, the pirate gangs in Wenzhou and Taizhou are basically "wild", while the situation in Ningbo is somewhat different, and the pirate gangs are more or less entangled with the interests of the government, and moving them is equivalent to touching the interests of some powerful figures, and may attract some local resistance or even tough measures.

"General Qian, tomorrow there will be eyes and ears lurking in Xiangshan County to meet with us, you might as well listen to the local news first, and then consider how to do it. Xu Yu didn't break it, he knew that Haihan's soldiers were fanatical warfighters, and he probably wouldn't consider other ways to deal with things that could be solved by combat. However, the purpose of the Ming army's participation in this operation was to train troops and protect the interests of the Xu clan in the Zhejiang sea in advance in advance, and they did not come to work against the Zhejiang government. The Haihan people have no scruples, but Xu Yu is clumsy, and he does not want the Haihan people to directly tear their faces or even have a military conflict between them and the Zhejiang government.

Qian Tiandun didn't know Xu Yuchou's thoughts, but he also planned to contact the hidden pile sent by the Xu family to Zhejiang first, and learn more about the local situation before making a decision. Although he had 100 percent confidence in his own military strength, and he could be sure that the combat capability of this fleet far exceeded that of the Zhejiang Navy Division and the pirate gangs off the coast of Ningbo, if he could be more prepared, more grasped, and more definite, Qian Tiandun would not mind spending a little more time on intelligence gathering before the operation.

Xu Ke has been in a state of restlessness since he sent off the secret envoy from Fujian a few days ago. If the Haihan people go north, it is highly likely that they will have an armed conflict with the pirate gangs in the waters near Ningbo, and it is very likely that they will also have confrontation with the local government. At that time, it will be difficult for a leading party like Xu Ke to continue to lurk.

Xu Ke did not have a very intuitive understanding of the strength of the Haihan people, everything came from hearsay, so he did not have great confidence in Haihan's plans. If the Haihan people can settle the local armed forces, then Taxuke will probably be able to restore his family name and return to his hometown. But if the Haihan people folded in Ningbo, it would be impossible to figure out that part of the responsibility would be attributed to him, after all, almost half of the various information and intelligence provided to Fujian was sent from him.

On this day, Xu Ke finally waited for new news, and the fleet of the Haihan people was already on the way north, and it would arrive in Ningbo in a few days. Xu Yuzhuo, the fourth son of Xu Xinsu, the patriarch of the Xu clan and a senior general of the Fujian Navy, was also in the fleet, and ordered him to rush to meet somewhere at sea on the appointed date.

The appearance of Xu Yuzhuo can show how resolute Fujian's attitude is, but what Xu Ke did not know was that this time he went north with Haihan not only Xu Yuzhuo, a representative, but even more than 1,000 officers and soldiers of the Fujian Navy Division who were still in the establishment. This operation was not a unilateral act of Haihan, but a coalition fleet composed of Haihan and Fujian Ming troops. Xu Xinsu's determination to intervene in Zhejiang's coastal defense was far greater than he imagined.

Xu Ke arranged all the affairs of the family two days in advance, and only said that he was going to take the fleet out to sea to fish, but did not confide the truth to his family. After going to sea with the fleet, Xu Ke did not direct the fleet to Zhoushan, where there were many fish, as usual, but chose to go south along the coast. When he arrived at Nantian Island near Sanmen Bay, Xu Ke arranged for his fishing boats to operate in the eastern waters, while the boat he took turned southeast and sailed towards the Yushan Islands.

The Yushan Islands are about 30 nautical miles southeast of Changguo Wei Shipu, and are the southeasternmost islands under the rule of Xiangshan, which are divided into three archipelagos: Nanyushan, Beiyushan and Wuhujiao, and are composed of 13 islands and 41 reefs. There are fresh water resources on Beiyushan Island, but because of the restless sea, the distance between this place and the mainland is a little farther, and life is not very convenient, so except for fishermen who come here to avoid the wind and waves, there is basically no human track.

In the secret report written back to Fujian, Xu Ke suggested that when the Haihan fleet went north, it could consider setting up a supply point on Beiyushan Island, which was outside the control of Shipu, in order to avoid the local Ming army. After the allied fleet left the waters of Taizhou in the north, Qian Tiandun and Xu Yuzhuo discussed and used this place as a meeting place with Xiangshan.

Originally, there was no need to be so troublesome to meet Xu Ke, and sending a boat directly to Xiangshan County could have the same effect. However, Qian Tiandun and others considered that there was a certain risk of going to the local area in person, and if they let people pass the word in the center, they might not have enough communication effect, so Xu Yuzhuo ordered someone to go to Xiangshan in advance and informed Xu Ke to come here for a while.

Although he had been mentally prepared before coming here, when Xu Ke saw the Haihan warships cruising near the Yushan Islands, his heart was still quite strong. He has been in Zhejiang for several years, and he has long been accustomed to the outdated equipment of the sailors here, and the ships of the sailors are really old and small compared with the warships of the Haihan, and they have lost a lot just from the appearance.

As soon as the ship on which Xu Ke was riding sailed into the surveillance range of the coalition fleet, two ships immediately approached, and if it was an ordinary civilian ship, these two ships would drive it away from this sea area, so as not to expose the fleet hiding on Beiyushan Island. Xu Ke hurriedly unfurled a red and blue flag on the bow of the ship, a token sent by the messenger when he had come to inform him two days earlier.

When the allied sailing ship saw the token, it put down the dinghy and rowed over to pick up Xu Ke, one boat stayed in place to watch, and the other boat carried Xu Ke to Beiyushan Island.

Xu Ke's business is sea fishing, and he is also familiar with this sea area, he knows that there is a small haven in the north of Beiyushan Island, and a sailing ship the size of this Haihan warship can accommodate twenty or thirty ships. However, when he arrived in this area, he saw several larger sailing ships docked beyond the harbor, one of which was at least four or five times larger than the largest fortune ship he had ever seen in Zhejiang.

"The legendary treasure ship on which the Three Treasure Eunuchs sat in the West must be nothing more than that!" Xu Ke couldn't help but sigh.

Zheng He's time to the West can be regarded as the peak of the Ming Dynasty's shipbuilding industry, during his seven voyages to the West, the Ming Dynasty built nearly 4,000 large sea ships, the Ming Dynasty Navy had 3,800 ships, including more than 1,300 patrol ships, only in Nanjing's Xinjiangkou, there were 400 large capital ships. During that period, the strength of the Ming navy even exceeded the combined navy of European countries of the same era.

The Longjiang Shipyard in Nanjing and the Changle Shipyard in Fujian were the two main sites for the construction of Zheng He's treasure ship, and it is recorded in the History of the Ming Dynasty and the Biography of Zheng He: "The treasure ship No. 63 is 44 zhang long and 18 zhang wide. Converted to a length of about 138 meters and a width of 56 meters, it is much larger than the "Majesty-class" capital ships currently in service with the Haihan Navy.

However, such an advanced and developed shipbuilding industry was suppressed after Zheng He's death, a large number of valuable shipbuilding drawings were officially destroyed, and the tonnage of private shipbuilding was also strictly restricted by law. Two hundred years later, instead of making great progress, the Ming Dynasty's sea power was not greatly developed, but it was a big step backwards compared with the Yongle period, and the shipbuilding industry was even more regressive, so that the Haihan and other latecomers were able to easily obtain sea control in the south of the Ming Dynasty with naval arms, and controlled most of the maritime trade in the two provinces in a near-monopoly way.

Although the Haihan Navy's "Enterprise" was placed in Zheng He's fleet, it was larger than a medium-sized treasure ship, but in the era in which Xu Ke lived, the shipyards of the Ming Dynasty were no longer able to build a large warship of such tonnage as the "Enterprise". This is the sorrow of the Ming Dynasty, but it is also the luck of the traversers, otherwise they would not have had the opportunity to become the sea overlord of the southeast coast, and enter the completely unfamiliar sea area in such an arrogant way to carry out military operations.

With a full of amazement, Xu Ke entered the small safe harbor of Beiyushan Island, which was also full of ships, almost all of them logistics cargo ships carrying various supplies and troop carriers carrying the army. After landing on the shore, Xu Ke finally met the legendary Haihan people and his distant cousin Xu Yuzhuo, whom he had not seen for many years.

"Xiaomin Xu Ke, I've seen all the adults!" After seeing his family, Xu Ke immediately used his real surname, but he did not have any official position, and his attitude was still very humble.

Xu Yuzhuo greeted him very warmly: "Brother, you and I haven't seen each other for many years, but you still recognize my brother?"

This "brother" dispelled some uneasiness in Xu Ke's heart, and responded with a smile: "The fourth brother naturally recognizes it, I haven't seen him all these years, and the fourth brother has become a lot richer!"