Late Ming sea owl

Chapter 298: A sudden turn of events? The West Bac Lieu Strait
The first combat meeting was drawing to a close, and Lin Hai's subsequent remarks undoubtedly gave Li Zhongguo peace of mind.

This means that no matter how difficult it is to attack the Pearl River Estuary in winter, Huiyou Company must go and fight Li Kuiqi, and will never delay until summer and wait for the monsoon to open the door to the Great Western Passage.

For Li Zhongguo, waiting another half a year was absolutely unacceptable. The thousand remaining troops under his command were almost out of food and there was no way they could hold out until that time.

More than two months ago, when they were driven out of the Pearl River Estuary by Li Kuiqi, they actually had two escape directions:

One is to flee westward like Shibi and his companions did, crossing the Qiongzhou Strait and entering the Beibu Gulf, which is equivalent to giving up the Pearl River Estuary and opening up a new world in unfamiliar waters;

The second option is to run to the northeastern direction to the border between Fujian and Guangdong, which is equivalent to the sphere of influence close to Lin Hai, hoping to seek the latter's help to regain the Pearl River Estuary.

Most of the leaders under Li Zhongguo agreed with the first route, because pirates are naturally averse to cooperating with the government. Who knows whether they will pay attention to you or even stab you in the back.

But Jiang Junshi insisted on taking the second path, and he gave two reasons:

First, run towards Fujian. Li Kuiqi didn't dare to chase too far, after all, he was scared away from Fujian by Lin Hai. Moreover, the wind direction on this route was unfavorable, and most of Li Kuiqi's fleet was purely sail-powered, so it would be difficult to chase even if he wanted to.

Second, Military Advisor Jiang believed that Lin Hai would never allow the mouth of the Pearl River to fall into the hands of hostile forces because Lin Hai had sent people to give gifts to Li Zhongguo in the past two years.

At the beginning of the sixth year of Tianqi, Shibi and Miguel came to Haojing to buy a boat. At that time, they paid the water price to Li Zhongguo according to Lin Hai's instructions. This certainly did not mean anything, after all, it was the rule of the underworld.

But at the end of that year, Lin Hai defeated Zheng Zhilong in the Battle of Dongshan, shocking the entire southeast coast. But after the New Year, Lin Hai sent someone to the mouth of the Pearl River to give Li Zhongguo a New Year gift.

At this time, Lin Hai was already an official, and his strength was far superior to that of Li Zhongguo. There must be only one reason why he did this, that is, he attached great importance to the Pearl River Estuary and believed that it was important to have good relations with the local tyrants.

If that was the case, how could Lin Hai tolerate Li Kuiqi occupying the Pearl River Estuary?

Military Advisor Jiang is indeed worthy of the title of military advisor. Although his judgment is a bit arbitrary, it accurately hits the nail on the head.

Linhai could allow Li Kuiqi to exist in the Guangdong waters, and he even wanted to keep the enemy for himself, but he couldn't do that in the Pearl River Estuary, because this was the gateway to Haojing, Guangzhou and Foshan, and the merchant ships of Huiyou Company would often operate here in the future.

As for why he did not wait until summer to go to war with Li Kuiqi, one reason was because he had promised He Rubin, and the other was that he wanted to fight Li Kuiqi as soon as possible to demonstrate his military power to the Portuguese in Macau and hope to influence the Vice-King of Goa's decision on the alliance.

In fact, there is a third point. Lin Hai was originally going to go on a diplomatic mission to Guangnan Kingdom, and he took the opportunity to deal with Li Kuiqi at the mouth of the Pearl River. That was just a matter of catching rabbits while killing grass.

Li Zhongguo was of course not aware of Lin Hai's considerations. He had to make a decision in a short period of time, and he finally chose to support Jiang Junshi. The reason was very simple. He was unwilling to give up the Pearl River Estuary where he had lived for most of his life, and he had to take a gamble even if it meant cooperating with the government!
Because he had to cooperate with the government and had come to Lin Hai's sphere of influence, Li Zhongguo naturally did not dare to go ashore to plunder during this period. He could only rely on robbing passing merchant ships, and after two months of hardship with the accumulated gold and silver, he was on the verge of not being able to make ends meet, and his subordinates were also complaining.

The reason why Li Zhongguo knelt down and kowtowed without saying a word after seeing Lin Hai was precisely because he had no way out.

So when Lin Hai expressed his determination to fight Li Kuiqi immediately no matter how difficult it was, Li Zhongguo was almost crying. He immediately stood up and clasped his fists and said, "General Lin! As long as you are willing to help me this time, I will sell my life to you from now on. I will go through fire and water to fight you, but I will never refuse any order!"

"Okay, okay. After this battle, the relationship between our two families will be further enhanced. As the saying goes, we share happiness and difficulties. When I need help from Mr. Li, I will definitely not be polite. When there is benefit, I will naturally not forget you..."

Lin Hai said, "Okay, the first combat meeting ends here. The Pearl River Estuary is vast, and the entrance is dotted with islands. No one dares to say that he can control all the waterways. Master Li, you must have many people who are proficient in hydrology and geography. Please pick out more than ten people, and we will discuss it again tomorrow."

Li Zhongguo nodded and said, "Okay, I'll go pick someone right away."

Just as he was about to leave, he suddenly heard Lin Hai say, "Wait! There is one more thing. If you want to follow me into the army, you must abide by my military law. What we are discussing today is all military secrets. Except for those of us present, no one is allowed to spread it. Anyone who disobeys my order will be executed without mercy!"

Li Zhongguo and Military Advisor Jiang were startled when they heard this. They imitated the martial artists on the stage and bowed their heads, saying, "We will obey your orders!"

"It has been two months since you came here from the mouth of the Pearl River. During this period, it is possible that someone has been secretly communicating with Li Kuiqi. Therefore, this is a matter of military secrets. Except for those of us present today and the upcoming Guangdong Marshal He, no one else is allowed to know about it!"

Lin Hai then said to Shibi and the others, "The same goes for you. During this operation, we will not allow anyone else in our club to know about the military secrets. If anyone is found to have leaked the information, I will kill them without mercy!"

Shibi and the others were already used to military law, and they all said solemnly, "Yes! General." Lin Hai then said to Li Zhongguo and Military Advisor Jiang, "How about this, to be on the safe side, we won't hold a meeting tomorrow. Let the people you selected come one by one and tell us about the waterways they know. If we don't hold a meeting, there's no need to limit the number of people. Anyone who is familiar with a certain waterway can come and talk about it. Anyway, it will probably take another three to five days for Marshal He to come, so we're not in a hurry to make a plan."

Li and Jiang nodded in agreement. Lin Hai then said to the staff officers of the Navy Department, "You guys will be responsible for the coordination. You must ask about each waterway in detail, including the width of the channel, water depth, ocean currents, reefs, whirlpools, etc. Even if they are obviously not useful, do not let them go easily. In this way, no one except those of us present can guess the final route of advance."

All the staff officers agreed in unison. Lin Hai thought it would be a good opportunity to systematically explore the hydrological system outside the Pearl River Estuary, which would lay a solid foundation for future surveying and mapping work in the Pearl River Estuary.

Ocean mapping is not a simple task, because hydrology is dynamically changing. Wind direction, tides and the flow of the Pearl River will all affect the water flow. It will take several years to figure out the periodic changes of a certain waterway.

If we want to fully understand the hydrology outside the Pearl River Estuary, unless we invest a huge amount of manpower to carry out the work in parallel over a long period of time, it would probably take hundreds of years with only three or five surveying ships.

Fortunately, our ancestors have accumulated thousands of years of experience here. For the people who have lived here for generations and make a living from water, their ancestors have already walked along every waterway and passed on their experience to future generations.

If all these experiences can be summarized, their effectiveness will be enough to equal the decades of surveying and mapping work of professionals. Of course, the accuracy is definitely not that reliable, and it can only be used as a reference, or a basis.

Sure enough, the wisdom of the masses is endless. The next day, the Navy staff had just contacted eight of Li Zhongguo's men, and another passage for ocean-going ships to enter the Pearl River Estuary appeared - the Xiboliao Strait!

The West Pok Liou Channel is located on the west side of Lamma Island, southwest of Hong Kong Island. The pirates who claimed to have traveled through this waterway were from the same hometown as Liu Xiang, both of whom were fishermen on Lamma Island.

These two guys invested in Li Zhongguo together, but now one of them has set up his own business and is the boss, while the other is still working under Li Zhongguo. However, whether it is Liu Xiang or Li Zhongguo, they are now working for Lin Hai as black gloves, so these two guys have ended up in the same place.

The West Pok Liou Channel connects to the first half of the Danggan Waterway in the south and the western entrance of Victoria Harbour in the north. In fact, it can be said to be located between Lantau Island and Hong Kong Island. In later generations, it was also a main channel for entering Victoria Harbour. The water depth is more than 8 meters, and -ton cargo ships can pass through unimpeded.

Of course, if Lin Hai wanted to enter the Sai Pok Liou Channel from the Danggan Waterway, it was definitely not to go to Victoria Harbour, but to go around to the North Channel of Lantau Island, which leads to the hinterland of the Pearl River Estuary and is also the direction to Li Kuiqi's lair, Fanguitang.

Compared with the waterway proposed by Military Advisor Jiang, this one is equivalent to skipping the two sections of Lantau Channel and Victoria Harbour, and directly inserting into the last dangerous pass in the northeast of Lantau Island - Kap Shui Mun!

In this way, the feasibility of allowing Li Zhongguo's troops to force their way through the pass was greatly increased. At least Lin Hai did not have to worry about encountering Li Kuiqi's reinforcements in Victoria Harbor. Although the Xiboliu Strait and the Dangan Waterway were not very spacious, they were enough for artillery battles at a distance. Frigates and communication ships could completely use the kite-flying tactics here.

Compared to taking the Dahao Waterway as Zheng Tingqiu mentioned, forcing through Jishuimen is undoubtedly more advantageous. After all, it is farther away from Fanguitang, and it will take time for Li Kuiqi to send reinforcements.

All in all, this seems to be the most feasible route at the moment!

After listening to the report from the General Staff that night, Lin Hai immediately asked, "Is this strait really suitable for large ships? Also, is it safe enough to sail against the wind? Has that person ever sailed there himself?"

A staff officer replied: "He said he had been there many times, with both favorable and unfavorable winds, and that a large ship of 1,000 tons could easily go against the wind."

Another staff officer added: "He also said that he followed a smuggler along this waterway in his early years, and no one else under Li Zhongguo knew about it except him."

"Got it. Let's continue to connect with others tomorrow!" Lin Hai did not express a biased opinion, but he believed that if there was no better plan of advance, this water route was worth a try.

If what this person said was true, it meant that Li Kuiqi probably didn't know this waterway either.

Then there is a possibility that he would not set up defenses at Kap Shui Mun at all, but would deploy the garrison of this road at the more forward Lei Yue Mun or even the Lan Tong Channel. The purpose was naturally to allow the reinforcements to fight with the Huiyou Company in Victoria Harbour.

If this is true, the Navy Department’s fleet might even be able to reach Li Kuiqi’s lair, Fanguitang, without any effort and without anyone noticing!
But since that person claimed that no one knew about this waterway except him, it is hard to say whether it is reliable or not.

After all, this is not like the Dahao Waterway mentioned by Zheng Tingqiu. In this era, pirates at the mouth of the Pearl River are basically known to everyone, so it must be reliable. It is also not like the Victoria Harbor route mentioned by Jiang Junshi. Li Zhongguo's fleet has passed through it many times in this time and space, so it should not be false. Lin Hai has also passed through it in the future.

In short, the West Bac Lieu Strait looks like a very tempting waterway. But for the fleet of Huiyou Company, whether it can sail against the wind is still unknown...

(End of this chapter)