Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 694 Raising the Flag
"Wait until Hong Kong Island to purify them." The formation also brought professionals who had previously worked in the Guangzhou purification camp.The task force is preparing to open a new decontamination camp on Hong Kong Island to process the prisoners.

"They'll take the opportunity to escape."

"I don't think so, not anyone who saw the typewriter shot.

The fleet passed the Ma Wan Strait smoothly and rounded the southwest corner of Tsing Yi Island.This is already Victoria Bay, and Chen Haiyang can see a peninsula protruding from the direction of the mainland without a telescope—this is the location of the Stonecutters Island Naval Base in the old time and space.

"This is really a good natural port!" Chen Haiyang couldn't help admiring. The geographical conditions of Victoria Bay are indeed so superior that it can be used as a first-class military port and commercial port.Portals are everywhere.

Now it is a barren place, with few traces of the permanent residents.According to the information provided by the Guangzhou Station, there are only a small number of villages on Hong Kong Island and the surrounding outlying islands.

But on the opposite side of Hong Kong Island, there are Xin'an and Dongguan counties, both of which are lands of fish and rice in Guangdong, producing large quantities of rice, tea, indigo, tobacco, and sea salt.Economically speaking, it is quite a wealthy area.Occupying Hong Kong is tantamount to the Australia-Song regime gaining a straw inserted into the most affluent area in southern China.A large amount of materials can be continuously shipped out from here.

The Ming government was also aware of the importance of Hong Kong. In addition to the Tuen Mun inspection guarding the Pearl River Estuary, Xin'an County, which was in charge of Hong Kong, was the county seat of Dongguan, which was under the jurisdiction of the former Guangzhou Guard. .In the first year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty, in order to consolidate coastal defense and defend Guangzhou, Xin'an County was separated from Dongguan.

Nantouzhai here had 2000 Ming soldiers and more than 100 warships stationed in its heyday.The city is an important point of river and sea transportation and an important military center for coastal defense.

Even now, it still maintains a garrison of 800 people and more than 50 warships.This Nantou Village is now the Nantou District of Shenzhen, and there is also a local scenic spot-Chen Haiyang visited the old city of Xin'an in the past.The distance between the two places is not far. If the Ming army wanted to intervene, they would arrive at Hong Kong Island on the same day.

The staff of the Foreign Intelligence Service and the Military Command speculated that it was unlikely that the Ming army in Guangdong would rashly launch an attack on the Australian and Song troops after the new defeat.Even if they wanted to attack, they couldn't muster enough threatening troops.With the strength of the task force, it is fully capable of repelling the Ming army.

Chen Haiyang ordered the fleet to sail to Wan Chai, preparing to land near the Hong Kong-Macau Ferry Terminal in the old time and space, and establish the first base.Although Hong Kong Island is China's 17th largest island in terms of area, its terrain is dominated by mountains, and the limited plains are mainly concentrated in the northern part of the island facing Victoria Bay.Therefore, the main location for building bases and immigration areas was also chosen here.

After the task force landed in Wan Chai, a brief occupation flag-raising ceremony was carried out.

"Raise the flag! Salute!" With the shout of the guard of honor.The trumpeters blew their bugles.A banner was hoisted on a moso bamboo pole that was summoned temporarily.The sailors and sailors lined up on the beach saluted at the same time, and then sang "Ode to the Motherland" together.The first territory occupied by the traversers outside Hainan Island was declared complete.

Although he has already landed on Hong Kong Island, Chen Haiyang decided not to exercise substantial control over the entire Hong Kong Island area for the time being—his troops could not be dispersed in many places, so he decided to gather the main force at the place where the ships were berthed for the time being.This place was called Central in the old time and space, and Chen Haiyang simply called the harbor here and the fortress under construction "852 Base".As for what it will be called in the future, let the people in the Senate think about it.

In order to grasp the surrounding dynamics, Chen Haiyang sent a small team to Lei Yue Mun with a radio to set up an observation post on the main road east of Hong Kong Island, and another team to Kap Shui Mun to set up a western observation post.These two observation posts can roughly grasp the movement of ships in the east and west waterways of Hong Kong Island.

The armed survey team commanded by Yellow Claw marched towards Victoria Mountain the next day after landing.They will conduct a survey of the general topography of Hong Kong Island.At the same time, an observation post was set up on the top of Victoria Peak.

Finally, the squadron of patrol boats will provide early warning around the entire base in the formed maritime patrol line.At the same time, eliminate small bands of local pirates—Lantau Island has historically been a traditional anchorage for pirates in the Pearl River Estuary, and there are sometimes as many as 300 or more pirates assembled locally.Although the task force did not observe many ships while passing north of Lantau Island, there is no doubt that this area is the area where piracy is most rampant.Task forces must be ready to engage in vocal conflict with local pirates at any time.

The move of the task force to land and build a stronghold on Hong Kong Island was quickly discovered by the Ming troops stationed in Tuen Mun and Nantou.Tang newspaper passed to Zhaoqing and Guangzhou.

But the Ming army was already unable to make a substantive response.The morale of the officialdom and the army has been extremely low. Although according to the Tang newspaper, there are no more than a thousand thieves and only forty or fifty ships on Hong Kong Island, but the officers and soldiers of the Guangdong Navy, who have heard that their firearms are extremely powerful, do not want to fight with them. They go to war.The naval warships sent from Tuen Mun symbolically arrived at the Sulphur Strait, and then retreated.The two sides fell into a silent stalemate.As for the Ming army in Nantou, there was no sign of dispatching a large group of troops.It's just that the sentry observed that a small number of Ming army spies arrived in the Shatoujiao area across the bay.

A simple interrogation was conducted on the captured pirates, and it was known that they were fishermen from nearby islands.Because of the debt owed to the fishing gang, he was forced, and finally decided to make a vote at sea.

The ship that was sunk was the fishing boat of the gang's boss named Zhao Yajin, and the other two captured were offshore cargo ships that they had snatched one after another more than a month ago.Before they were caught, they had succeeded several times, and each of them got about ten taels of silver.

The crew and owner of the cargo ship were still detained on the ship-it is said that they must also participate in the battle during the battle, otherwise their heads will be cut off.Another seven or eight pirates were kidnapped by people who were on the shore when the pirate ship docked and could not escape.Those who had money were released and those who had no money were coerced into being pirates on board.

At present, Chen Haiyang took care to release the captured people and boats on the spot, and supplemented them with some grain and money seized so that they could return home safely.Twenty or so captives left with gratitude.All that remained were identified pirates.Zhao Yajin had already been killed by a typewriter bullet during the battle.

No valuable spoils were found from the ship, mainly daily necessities such as food and salted fish.According to the confession of the captured second leader, Liang Shishi, the trophies of any value were in the villages on the shore.

"It's because the interest on the fish pen is too heavy. I have to charge three or four cents of interest. The villain has not paid it back for several years, so I took the risk. Please spare my life!" A few ragged people said on the beach Begging.

"Whether you are a pirate or a bandit, you always say that you are forced to do so. In fact, most of you are idlers!" The Cantonese vernacular translator was a child-born scholar who had just come out of the purification camp. He angrily spoke to Chen Haiyang Said, "Also please pay attention to the chief!"

Seeing that the interpreter next to him spoke poorly, the captured pirates grabbed the ground with their heads and begged bitterly.The name of the Kun thief has now spread to the Pearl River Estuary.Just looking at their hair, you can tell that they have fallen into the hands of the thieves-and their "ruthlessness" is notorious.

The fish farm is extremely exploitative, and Chen Haiyang knows a little bit about it.When he was in the fleet, although he was no longer fond of "recalling bitterness and thinking about sweetness", when he visited the revolutionary traditional education base, most of the places involving militias would involve "fishing pens" and "fishing tyrants". such nouns.

Fisherman owners take advantage of capital and markets to buy fish at low prices and sell daily necessities and food at high prices, thereby making huge profits.And it is easy to control the fishermen by lending usury loans to the fishermen.Fishermen often have to invest a lot of money at one time in production and management, and their demand for loans is much higher than that of farmers, so they are more likely to fall into such usury traps.

However, Chen Haiyang's task was not to fight Yuba, he decided to hand over this matter to the Civil Affairs Commissioner who came with the team.

"Let them work hard in the decontamination camp first, and then let them have a good interrogation." Chen Haiyang said.

Many messengers who could speak the local dialect were sent from the civil affairs team accompanying the army. Under the escort of armed soldiers, they sent letters to various villages on the whole island of Hong Kong—they were asked to send people to the 852 base for a meeting immediately, and they were ready to send liaison officers .

Although the force is limited and the contingent is still unable to effectively interfere with the local civil affairs system, a system for organizing local recruitment of personnel and supplies still needs to be established as soon as possible.

"If we want to enter and exit the Pearl River Estuary as we like, we must firmly grasp the waterway of Lantau Island." In the temporary headquarters set up in a big tent, Chen Haiyang explained the upcoming battle plan to his subordinates, "The northern part of Lantau Island, There is a village called Tung Chung. It is the main anchorage for pirates at the mouth of the Pearl River. We must destroy the pirate base in Tung Chung."

Wen Desi said: "We haven't started a war with the Ming army. We will fight the pirates first. Will we be attacked on both sides?"

"The Ming army may not actively fight with us, but it is a big hidden danger for us to get pirates if it is beneficial. In the future, many ships will only travel between Hong Kong Island and Lingao. Their harassment will make the navy very difficult. Headache."

"In this way, we need to increase our land forces. We need to send troops to guard Tung Chung if we occupy Tung Chung!"

"It doesn't matter if we don't occupy Tung Chung first, as long as we can destroy the pirate fleet assembled there at any time, the pirates will naturally not dare to show their faces there."

　Lantau Island is where Hong Kong Disneyland is located.Ma Wan mentioned in the article is now connected by the famous Tsing Ma Bridge.

　　Lantau Island has been an anchorage for Chinese pirates during the Ming and Qing Dynasties.There are many mentions in the business documents of the East India Company. In the early 19th century, Russian envoys saw more than [-] Chinese pirate ships berthing here when they passed by the place.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)