Late Ming sea owl

Chapter 294: Fighting on Two Fronts

Three days later, Joseph's lucky ship slowly sailed out of Keelung Port, accompanied by the Bowang, Xuanzang and Faxian.

According to Lin Hai's request, the merchant ships of Huiyou Company were uniformly transferred to the Ministry of Transport, including the original old lock fleet of the Navy Ministry. The Xuanzang and Faxian were both old lock ships equipped with steering wheels and Western-style rudders.

However, there was some controversy about the ownership of the Bowang. Because the ship was converted into a western-style full-sail ship by Lin Hai last year, the Navy Department believed that it was no longer an old lock ship.

Moreover, according to the Navy Department's warship classification, the Bo Wang fully met the two basic elements of a cruiser, namely full sail equipment and more than 20 guns, so they insisted that the ship should remain in the Navy Department.

The reason why the Navy Department insisted on this was mainly because before the Changping and Champion were launched, the firepower of the Bowang was second only to the Dingyuan among the company's ships, and it could fully participate in the main decisive battle of the cruiser when necessary.

However, the Ministry of Transport did need an armed merchant ship with sufficient self-defense capabilities to ensure the safety of the company's diplomatic activities. Goa and Surat were far away in the Indian Ocean, and there were many forces along the way that the company had never dealt with. Even the face of Li Guozhu, the old ship owner's own son, could not help.

In the end, Lin Hai drew a line. For large ships with a displacement of more than 500 tons, those without double hulls were merchant ships, otherwise they were warships, so the ship finally belonged to the Ministry of Transport.

At the same time, he also urged the Ministry of the Navy and the Ministry of Transport to jointly draft two systems, respectively stipulating the principles for the requisition of merchant ships in wartime and the relevant regulations for warships participating in diplomatic activities, and submit them to the board of directors for approval and implementation.

These two systems are very necessary. It goes without saying that the army requisitions merchant ships during wartime, and it is also a common practice in later generations to use warships to carry out diplomatic missions. In this way, the centralized management of ships has clear responsibilities, and it does not affect the Navy and the Ministry of Transportation from using each other's ships when necessary.

As early as the day before Li Guozhu set off, Miguel and O'Zoji had already gone south to Manila, and Xu Xinlan also rushed back to Tamsui from Guangdong.

At that time, the Guangdong General's base was not in Guangzhou, nor in Zhaoqing, where the Governor-General of Guangdong and Guangxi and Governor of Guangdong was located, but in Chaozhou, which is adjacent to southern Fujian, so it was actually very close to meet He Rubin from Tamsui.

Hearing that Lin Hai was not in Wanhua, Master Xu came directly to Keelung from the mouth of the Tamsui River. Lin Hai was inspecting the Navy Department at the time, and finally met him in the Navy Department's headquarters building.

"What did Marshal He say?" Lin Hai asked straight to the point.

"He said that there is no problem in handling the official positions, but it is more difficult to appoint officials in the garrison system than in the camp. We have also designated a thousand households in Yazhou as the seal holder, so it will take some effort. It will take at least four to five months." Xu Xinlan said, "Marshal He said that Guangdong is under great pressure now and hopes that we can send troops first."

Lin Hai laughed when he heard this and said, "It seems that Li Kuiqi has caused great harm to Guangdong."

Xu Xinlan nodded and said, "Who says it's not true? In the past few years, Zheng Zhilong and Li Kuiqi have been causing trouble in Guangdong one after another, just after Marshal He took office. I heard that there are quite a few officials in the court who have impeached him."

"It seems that we really have to give Li Kuiqi a ruthless blow. If we can't completely wipe him out, we have to at least cripple him..." Lin Hai pondered, "Otherwise, if Marshal He is impeached, it will not be a good thing for the company."

"What the general manager said is absolutely right." Xu Xinlan was Lin Hai's staff in Zhoushan at the time, and knew that He Rubin had taken good care of Lin Hai in the past. Moreover, He Ying was still working in the company, so this relationship could be said to be quite special. Lin Hai then called Shibi and Zheng Tingqiu, and ordered the Navy Department to gather all the sailors who could fight and be ready to go to Guangdong to fight at any time.

He took Xu Xinlan back to Danshui and personally deployed the immigration recruitment work in Zhangzhou and Quanzhou. When the Ministry of Transportation was established, Xu Xinlan was promoted from the director of the Household Registration Bureau to the director of the Immigration Department. When Xu Yilong was away, he was the top person in charge of immigration work.

However, he will not be able to serve as the director for long. After he is appointed as the commander of Yazhou, he will go to Guangdong with Yang Ce, so Lin Hai has to choose another person.

At this time, news came from Fujian that the new governor Xiong Wencan had arrived. As for the former Fujian governor Zhu Yifeng, he ultimately could not escape his fate in history and was driven out of office by the remnants of the eunuch party.

Fortunately, Zhu Yifeng has already arranged the personnel arrangements for the Penghu garrison, and the plan to reduce the garrison has been reported to the Ministry of War. Although the result has not yet come out, who can refuse something that saves money for the court?

After receiving the news, Lin Hai immediately took time out to go to Fuzhou. With the introduction of Chi Xianfang, he paid a visit to the new governor of Fujian. This kind of thing must be done sooner rather than later.

The gift Lin Hai sent was very substantial, far exceeding the standard of the governor's visit when he took office. Xiong Wencan was not particular either, and he accepted the gift without hesitation on their first meeting, without any hesitation.

Lao Xiong was from Luzhou, Sichuan. He was a third-class Jinshi in the 35th year of Wanli, and the governor of Shandong in the 7th year of Tianqi. He was transferred to Fujian at the end of the year. However, after a few days, Zhu Yifeng was dismissed and Lao Xiong was directly promoted to the governor of Fujian.

So he actually had little experience in the Fujian officialdom, and was not familiar with Chi Xianfang. He only met Lin Hai to give him face as a famous scholar in Fujian. Even so, Xiong Wencan did not hesitate to accept the extraordinary gifts, and did not ask Lin Hai unless he asked for anything. This shows that the historical records are correct, and this person was a greedy guy.

After confirming this, Lin Hai knew that future immigration to Fujian would not be a problem. Not to mention the two prefectures of Zhangzhou and Quanzhou that Xu Yilong had already opened up, other coastal prefectures could also recruit people at will.

But there is no need to rush this matter. The first gift is just a greeting. It is not good to make demands right away. We should start recruiting immigrants from Zhangzhou and Quanzhou. After a while, we can invest some money in Xiong Wencan. Then it will be smoother to propose the recruitment of immigrants.

Lin Hai returned from Fuzhou and was preparing to send troops to Guangdong. At this time, Jeju Island sent another person to say that Liu Xiaoli had received news that many people in the Joseon court had petitioned for the execution of Inseong Prince Li Gong, and it seemed that the Joseon king wanted to put his uncle to death.

Since the company has no intelligence on the Joseon court, it is difficult to say whether this news was made up by Liu Xiaoli.

After hesitating for a moment, Lin Hai finally issued the highest instructions to Jeju - immediately capture Jindo and rescue Inseong Prince Li Gong!
This opportunity really cannot be missed. Lin Hai feels that Yuan Jin and his team should have more than 70% chance of defending Jeju Island, so he might as well take a gamble.

At the same time, Guangdong was not in a position to keep He Rubin waiting for too long. Lin Hai picked a good day and personally led all the warships of the Navy Department to sail out of Keelung Port.

(End of this chapter)