Luo Shengdong had dealt with the Haihan people for much longer than these three South Vietnamese ministers, and the information he knew was naturally much more comprehensive than theirs. If the Haihan people were still wearing the sheepskin of armed merchants at the beginning, then after they gradually took control of Sanya and Yazhou, they have slowly torn off this layer of camouflage and revealed their sharp minions.

The Haihan Executive Committee's control of the local area was different from that of ordinary Ming landlords, and Luo Shengdong did not fully understand the policies of the Executive Committee, but he could feel that the control of the Executive Committee was much stronger than that of the Ming Dynasty, which he was loyal to. Luo Shengdong had personally transported a shipload of immigrants for Haihan, and he had also seen the panic, confusion, doubt, helplessness and so on that these people had just expressed when they arrived at Shengli Port, but only a few months later, these immigrants who chose to come to Shengli Port just to survive were like being reborn, and they had a different temperament from the people of the Ming Dynasty. Luo Shengdong didn't know how to describe these temperaments specifically, but he could feel that these people would probably no longer regard the emperor in the Ming Dynasty and the Forbidden City as the only authority and belief in their hearts from now on—just like his own current state of mind.

In this social system, dominated by the Haihan people and composed of naturalized people, most of the production activities were concentrated, and the common people did not have the right to private land, but they were not as miserable as the bankrupt peasants under the Ming Dynasty, and the naturalized people did not need to worry about their livelihoods at all. Under the governance of the Executive Committee, there were almost no idlers in Sanya, everyone would be assigned positions and jobs, and everything the public did was to continuously strengthen the strength of the Haihan collective. Luo Shengdong heard Tao Dong say, this is called "thinking in one place, working in one place", the reason sounds very simple, but this kind of scene seems to be only possible under the rule of the executive committee.

This peculiar social system is being carried out outward with the gradual expansion of the Haihan's governance area, and although there have been some voices of opposition among the people in the process, these individual dissidents have not made any waves at all under the suppression of powerful institutions -- even the Yazhou government has openly sided with the Haihan, and it can be said that there is no strength in the entire Qiongnan region that can compete with the Haihan at present.

If Haihan really wanted to establish local power, at least in the Qiongnan region, there was no longer pressure from the outside world. It is even very likely that it will be embraced and supported by tens of thousands of naturalized people in this region. A considerable number of these people have become die-hard loyalists of the Executive Committee, especially those Li Miao Shanmin and Annam immigrants who have a weak sense of identification with the Ming Dynasty, for whom the Executive Committee is at least the supreme authority, although there is no independent national name, but the Executive Committee is a de facto state within a country.

Since its establishment, the Haihan militia has waged many wars and has remained invincible, and almost all naturalized people have enjoyed the war dividends brought by victory in various ways. This led to a greater uptake of the ruling power of the Executive Committee. Now, every time the military declares that it is going to go to war with the outside world, the people not only do not fear war. On the contrary, they will actively participate in various preparations for war, prepare for the militia to go on the expedition, and hope that the victory of their soldiers on the battlefield can bring more war dividends.

Luo Shengdong believes that the Executive Committee's refusal to stand on its own and show its banner should just be waiting for the most suitable time. Before this time comes, the executive committee will probably continue to show itself as an armed merchant group, and Wu Sen believes that Haihan will choose to establish a country in the future, this speculation is simply a sure thing that will happen in Luo Shengdong's opinion, and he will take advantage of the situation to show off his knowledge again.

"Do you know why the Executive Committee doesn't set up its own national name?" Luo Shengdong asked, looking around at the three of them.

Both Wu Sen and Ruan Wenwen quickly shook their heads, indicating that they didn't know. Only Ruan Jinggui still has a better understanding of this, and he twisted his chin and replied: "In my humble opinion, the Executive Committee is unwilling to stand on its own at this time, and it should be related to Daming!"

"How do you say this?" Wu Sen asked puzzledly: "The Ming army can't even defeat me in Annan, how can it be the opponent of this Haihan militia?"

After Wu Sen said this, he suddenly remembered the identity of Luo Shengdong next to him, and hurriedly confessed: "Brother Luo, there is no mockery in the next place. ”

"It doesn't matter. Luo Shengdong shook his head nonchalantly and said, "After all, this is also true." Mr. Nguyen, please continue. ”

"Although the development of Haihan is smooth. But where did the manpower and financial resources needed for its development come from? This did not fall from the sky, as far as I know, the largest object of trade and trade with Haihan at present is the Ming Dynasty, and among the immigrants who entered the rule of Haihan, the people of Daming also stood more than sixty percent. If you choose to establish a country on the territory of the Ming Dynasty, it is equivalent to an open declaration of war on the Ming Dynasty, whether you can fight it or not, but the trade and population import related to the Ming Dynasty will inevitably be greatly affected, and the disadvantages of establishing a country will soon be highlighted. Ruan Jinggui's analysis was reasonable and well-founded, and several people nodded their heads again and again.

"It's not all right, but it's pretty much the same. Mr. Nguyen really has real skills. It's no wonder that Mr. Shi, who is known for his shrewdness, picked you to work by his side. Luo Shengdong also agreed with Ruan Jinggui's speculation: "If Haihan establishes a national name, Qiongzhou Island will become a battlefield, although the Haihan militia is strong, but if the two countries go to war, then there will be a commercial and immigration channel, then the development of Haihan will inevitably stagnate, and this is the last thing the executive committee wants to face." ”

Ruan Jinggui said: "Then in General Luo's opinion, where will Haihan's future development go?"

Luo Shengdong shook his head and said: "The leaders of the executive committee have the ability to reach the sky, and they dare not guess their ideas at will. However, in the next shallow view, at least this Qiongzhou Island must be taken, so that it can rely on the sea route moat to fight against the Ming Dynasty, and then Xu Tu Dae. As for whether to go south or north first after that, I really can't guess below. ”

Among the four people present, except for Ruan Wenwen, whose mind is a little simpler, the other three are not fuel-efficient lamps. Luo Shengdong has been working with the Haihan people for almost two years, and his way of thinking has long been affected by it, and his ass is almost all sitting on the side of the Haihan, without the consciousness of the Ming military attaché. And Ruan Jinggui surrendered to Haihan early, thinking of doing something on Haihan's side, and using his future achievements after the founding of Haihan to wash away his infamy of "betraying the country". Wu Sen's situation was even simpler, he now wanted to regain his life, he had to think about how to give a satisfactory answer to Haihan's examiners, and he didn't want to be sent back to a forced labor camp or assigned to work as a sailor on a merchant ship.

In the afternoon of the same day, the warships turned to the north and rendezvoused with three other naval warships that had gone to sea for exercises in the waters of the East and West Maozhou Islands west of Sanya Harbor, and then conducted an offensive drill from sea to land around the West Maozhou Island. The content of the drill was that four ships lined up in a long snake formation and used the ship's gunwide guns to bombard the designated target area on the island. Then the boat was lowered, and the amphibious fighters were covered by naval guns to carry out landing operations and establish a beachhead.

Wu Sen had personally experienced the bombardment of Haihan warships in Donghai and Hoi An, and this time he was fortunate enough to stand in the perspective of the victor to observe this way of fighting, which also made him sigh at the magic of fate. Although he had known for a long time that the amphibious tactics of the Haihan militia were very sharp, after seeing the implementation process of this kind of operation with his own eyes, Wu Sen still couldn't help but sigh with emotion.

In addition to the need for strong firepower of shipborne artillery for support and cover, this kind of operation is required. The establishment of a beachhead is also a very important operational link. Last year, during the Vietnam Aid Operation, the Hai Han militia raided the South Vietnamese army's flank coast and established a beachhead. Wu Sen did not witness it with his own eyes, but after seeing this kind of small-scale landing operation exercise today, Wu Sen can already deduce the general situation of the landing battle at that time. The cold weapons of the South Vietnamese troops equipped on a large area were obviously unable to cope with the tactics of the Hai Han militia that relied on beachhead fortifications and long-range firepower to advance gradually, and failure was inevitable.

However, this seemingly uncomplicated tactic is difficult to replicate, and without the fire support from the sea such as Haihan warships, the troops landing on the beachhead would easily be driven directly into the sea by the defenders because of the disadvantage of their troops. And the Haihan people, a warship equipped with heavy firepower, neither Daming nor Annan has the ability to make it, even if they have seen this kind of warfare. It's also hard to think of a defense that can restrain it.

"Wu Sen, what do you think of this kind of landing operation?" While watching the exercise, Wang Tom asked Wu Sen for his opinion, of course, this was also to examine Wu Sen's military attainment.

Wu Sen replied: "In my humble opinion, the militia group's tactics are indeed sharp, and if the defenders are not equipped with guns, it may be difficult to resist. It's just that this method of warfare requires a lot of ammunition, and it must be extremely expensive to fight!"

Tom Wang nodded and said, "It's really a lot of consumption. For today's exercise, we need to mobilize four warships to go to sea to coordinate, sailors and nearly 500 soldiers, and fire more than 200 shells and at least 2,000 bullets. The consumption of these materials, the cost of personnel, and the wear and tear of the guns and depreciation, there must be thousands of negotiable coupons. ”

Wu Sen was secretly speechless when he heard this. After he came out, he also learned about local income and prices, and roughly knew how much a few thousand yuan of negotiable bills was. A single exercise cost thousands, it seems that Luo Shengdong was really not joking when he said that the Haihan Navy was rich and capricious.

"But for us, how much money we spend is not the number one thing. Sure enough, Tom Wang's next words confirmed Wu Sen's feelings: "In addition to shipbuilding, most of our navy's military budget is used for daily training. As you have just seen, every exercise we will carry out as if it were a real battle. Only in this way can we ensure that our soldiers can fully exert their daily training level when they actually set foot on the battlefield. I think, as a military man, you should be able to understand what this means. ”

Of course, Vu Sen understood very well that a large part of the reason for the relatively low combat effectiveness of the South Vietnamese army was that due to the uneven military quality of the soldiers, there were a large number of peasant soldiers in the army who had no combat experience at all, and these people could not maintain the same level and pace of combat after they went to the battlefield, so it was very easy to be defeated when they encountered setbacks. Although the Hai Han militia has not had a large number of troops, it has maintained a frequency of foreign operations for half a year or even less than half a year since the beginning of last year, and it can be completely described as training these soldiers and grassroots officers in the form of "training in battle" to train these soldiers and grassroots officers, and their appearance and actual combat capability on the battlefield are far superior to those of the South Vietnamese army, which seems to have a huge number of troops but is like a scattered sand.

But the court of South Vietnam was powerless to follow the example of the Hai Han and change itself, because that brings us back to the previous topic - first you have to have enough military money to squander.

With the financial resources of the Haihan people, who are rich enough to rival the country, they have only raised such a militia army of about 3,000 people, and in the civil war in Annam, 10,000 people were often dispatched to fight, and the imperial court could not afford to raise such a large-scale elite army. Therefore, for South Vietnam, the Hai Han militia is "someone else's army", which can only be envied, but cannot be copied to its own army to emulate.

"We, the Haihan People's League, follow the route of elite soldiers, and the resources we invest in each soldier and officer are at least ten times that of the traditional army. Or even a hundred times more. It costs a lot of money to train them in normal times, but this consumption can be supplemented by the victories achieved by the Guò militia, and it can even be quite profitable. Wang Tom said proudly: "For example, the large warships we started to build in the second half of this year were financed by the guò booty. ”

Wang Tom didn't say it too explicitly, but Wu Sen also understood that the money was actually moved back from Hue. It is said that after conquering Hue, the Haihan took millions of taels of silver from the city, and most of this may eventually become the military expenses of the Haihan militia to further expand their military strength. For Wu Sen, of course. Thankfully, there is no need to face the guns of the Haihan militia on the battlefield in the future, and you can have more powerful weapons in your own camp. Wu Sen was naturally welcoming. Although it is not known how big the "large warship" Wang Tom is talking about, it is certain that after it is launched, the combat effectiveness of the Haihan Navy will rise to a new level.

"But if you need to fight with a big country in the future, with so few troops, I'm afraid you will still be overstretched!" Wu Sen couldn't help but raise his concern. No matter how powerful the Haihan militia is, there are still too few people after all, otherwise they would not have retreated soon after fighting Hoi An and Hue.

Wang Tom smiled: "Your worries are not unreasonable, but there is another characteristic of the elite soldier route we take, that is, every soldier is trained as an officer. In the event of a large-scale war. It will be easier to expand the size of the militia army, and ordinary soldiers can be promoted to squad leader, squad leader to platoon leader, and platoon commander to company commander. As long as the supply of troops is sufficient, 3,000 people can be expanded to ten times or even larger in a short period of time. ”

However, Wang Tom didn't finish his words, if it really came to that kind of Cheng Dù, the Executive Committee and its various units would probably have to smash the pot and sell iron. Combat attrition of tens of thousands of combat units. I'm afraid it's not something that the current Haihan can hold up.

But this kind of statement is enough for Wu Sen, a person who has just entered the militia system, to have enough shocking power. Wu Sen stayed on the ship for most of the day, and also carefully observed the appearance of these sailors, crews and soldiers on the ship, and indeed his elite Cheng dù far exceeded the sailors he had brought before, and if the navy needed to expand, most of the crew had the ability to take charge of themselves. And the first mate and second officer on the ship can basically be directly pulled out to command a ship alone. Of course, due to the limitation of shipbuilding speed, the expansion of the navy cannot be as easy as that of the army, and even if the army cannot build guns, it can still be armed with cold weapons first, but if the navy does not have combat ships. Then it really doesn't work at all.

The day's exercise lasted about two hours and did not end until about 5 p.m. The Navy's generous treatment of soldiers was again demonstrated after the exercise, when four warships docked on the shore of Ximaozhou Island, and then the soldiers and crew went down to the island for a traditional picnic of the Haihan militia.

Different from the marching picnic in the concept of Wu Sen and others, this kind of comforting picnic of the Haihan militia is actually more similar to the post-war relaxation activities, several small boats went out to catch hundreds of catties of fresh fish and other catches on the nearby sea, and then the cooks on the boat built a fire on the shore to cook the "Haihan seafood rice", which is very popular with the local people. Yes, that's right, this so-called "Haihan paella" is actually an improved variant of "Spanish paella", which is more suitable for the taste of Orientals, and all the warship chefs have also studied in the "New Oriental" cooking training course held by Haihan's chief chef Fan Wei last year, which can be said to be a famous teacher. As long as it is a large-scale maritime amphibious exercise, almost all outdoor dining activities like today will be arranged after the end, and the seafood rice is the most popular protagonist of this activity.

It was the first time Wu Sen had eaten such delicious food, and although he was reminded by Ruan Jinggui and Luo Shengdong, he almost bit his tongue off. I heard that there is no limit to the amount of food per person, Wu Sen ate three sea bowls in one go, and it really rose a lot. Even Wang Tom joked after seeing it: "Wu Sen, you are only afraid that you will eat my navy poorly, it seems that I have to reconsider whether to transfer you to the navy!"

Wu Sen touched his stomach and smiled shyly: "General Wang, don't be funny, although he has only been here for one day, he already knows the slogan of the Haihan Navy." ”

Wang Tomqi said: "What slogan?

Wu Sen cleared his throat and said seriously: "Being rich is capricious!"