Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 702 Aftermath
Chen Haiyang established three outposts on Lantau Island.An outpost was built on the southern coast of Lantau Island, directly controlling Sanmen-the fleet will use this as an anchorage to attack the Pearl River.

The second outpost is located at Keshui Mun in the northeast of Lantau Island.It faces Ma Wan Island across the sea, and is the west exit of Victoria Bay, an important passage from the South China Sea to the Pearl River Estuary.Soon after the task force landed on Hong Kong Island, it secretly stationed an observation post here.Now Chen Haiyang has formally organized it into an outpost, monitoring this important place at all times.

The last one was built on Tai O Island.

Tai O Island is the earliest village developed on Lantau Island.Not only is it the main population gathering area of ​​Lantau Island, but also the local salt fields, which were once the main salt supplier of Hong Kong.Historically, it was famous for salt making and smuggling salt.

This island is very close to the main island of Lantau Island, so close that the strait that separates the two sides can be passed only by crossing the water.The sea location here is very advantageous.The Portuguese once attempted to establish a colony on Tai O Island as a port for trade with China.But with their defeat in the Tuen Mun naval battle, this attempt was completely bankrupt.

Now, the Australians are here.

Shi Zhiqi took the sailors to Tai O Island in a big boat.Most of the villagers in Tai O were from the Dan family, who were all fishermen and sailors. There were quite a few people who were pirates and did some piracy on a daily basis—there were also some local villagers among the pirates who were killed and captured.When they heard that the gangsters who had wiped out Zheng Bao's gang were coming, everyone was terrified, but no one dared to resist. After some urgent discussions, they recommended a few elders from the village to welcome them.

"The houses here are a bit like the houses of ethnic minorities." Shi Zhiqi commented looking at the "dry rail" style shacks built in the village on the seaside.

Le Lin said: "This is a stilt house. It is the specialty of this place. Tai O Island is called the Venice of Hong Kong. It is a must-see place when you come to Lantau Island. The seafood is great."

The topic of seafood does not attract the interest of any elders, and eating seafood has become a normal life among elders.

The sailors brought the messengers from the village.The Dan family is quite different from the local Cantonese in terms of clothing and dialect.Of course Shi Zhiqi couldn't understand what they said, but there were not too many Dan family members in the Lingao regime's navy, and the two sides could communicate quickly.

The envoy offered gifts: 50 taels of silver and some scattered gold and silver, as a sign of obedience.Shi Zhiqi said some polite words and ordered them to accept them.Said that there will be no disturbance to the local village.As long as they obey the orders of the Australia-Song regime honestly, their safety can be protected.

Residents on Lantau Island, whether they are Cantonese, Fuklo, Hakka or Danjia, are mostly fishermen, boatmen and sailors.Chen Haiyang knows: According to historians' research, they have been living half pirates and half fishermen in this sea area since the 10th century.Generally speaking, pirates are also good sailors, and the residents here, despite their "banditry" problems, are an excellent source of naval personnel.What's more, right now he doesn't have enough strength to carry out "civil reform" here.Therefore, his guiding policy on local civil issues is lenient, and he did not take severe measures against the villagers on Lantau Island and nearby islands.to avoid excessive hostility.Just ask the villages to hand over the escaped pirates.Of course, they will definitely not hand over their relatives and fellow countrymen, but they will not be polite to foreign pirates.

Under Shi Zhiqi's order, the village on Tai O Island appointed a liaison officer, who went to Hong Kong Island for a meeting every ten days as required.There is also the so-called "reasonable burden".This reasonable burden includes the supply of fish, shrimp and seafood, as well as the free requisition of manpower and ships.This policy has also spread to various villages on Lantau Island.

The outpost built on Tai O Island was built at a place called "Fanguitang" by the villagers.This place was originally the place where the Portuguese built forts and prepared to open up commercial ports.Many traces left by the Portuguese more than 100 years ago can still be seen on the spot: stones and rubble for building fortresses and buildings, rusted and deformed ironware.There are even a few shipwrecks left between the reefs.

A few days later, Wen Desi, Chen Haiyang and others led the military and civil affairs cadres of the task force to set up incense cases on the beach of Tung Chung, and held a grand ceremony facing the sea to worship Song Duanzong.In the last wind and rain of the Song Dynasty, the small imperial court of the Southern Song Dynasty visited Lantau Island twice and stayed in Tung Chung for a short time.And Duanzong is said to have died somewhere on the north shore of Lantau Island.Since the Lingao regime claimed to be a descendant of Yashan, this move helped to show its "orthodoxy."

Army infantry formed a square formation.12 spy boats lined up in the harbor.The elders were respectful one by one. Although they didn't kneel three times and kowtow nine times, they all bowed three times at ninety degrees.Then Wen Desi read out the sacrificial oration.This sacrificial oration is claimed to be written by a talented student with a bachelor's degree in Chinese and a master's degree in history from a certain university in the Senate. It is not only a parallel essay, but also contains many rare words that need to be translated from the Kangxi Dictionary. It counts as a gift.

After the ceremony, the entire army fired three shots, and then the spy boats in the bay fired three shots.For a while, thick smoke billowed, and the momentum was astonishing.

The Battle of Lantau Island completely wiped out other pirate gangs' peeping eyes on the Pearl River Basin.Now that Liu Xiang avoided the Australians, and the lifeless Zheng Bao was completely destroyed, everyone has a better understanding of the strength of the thieves or the Australians.So the pirates in this area are almost extinct.

From a topographic point of view, Hong Kong Island, Lantau Island and the mainland are a nearly closed inland sea.Now this inland sea is completely under the control of the task force, and the Ming army navy in Tuen Mun and Xin'an Nantou has not made any moves to challenge the Australian sea power.Naval patrols at Nantouzhai were also cancelled.

Another result of the Battle of Lantau Island was that Chen Haiyang had to postpone entering the Pearl River Estuary to start a full-scale operation.He has too many victories to digest.The captured and seized ships filled Base 852, and he needed more food, craftsmen, and soldiers to cope.

So he asked for further reinforcements from Lingao, otherwise the strength of the task force would not be able to take into account the construction of Hong Kong Island and the Pearl River raid operation.Just 2000 captives and hundreds of immigrants from Lantau Island had to be guarded by at least one company.

The army volunteered and sent 2 infantry companies.Although the navy is not happy with the army's intervention, it is unlikely that Hong Kong Island will be dominated by the navy. The army's reinforcements can at least share their combat pressure.

With the arrival of the army, civil affairs and engineering personnel also came with the continuous arrival of special agent boats for transporting supplies.They built a pier and built a simple ship repair yard.Warehouses and barracks were built, steam engines were installed, and the decontamination camp was expanded with construction kits—the decontamination camp will hold 5000 people when completed.

Chen Haiyang ordered the sailors to step up repairs to the ships captured from the pirates—especially those small shallow-draft sampans and long dragons, which will be very useful in landing battles in inland waters.With such small boats, soldiers can be transported to land almost anywhere regardless of water depth.

The entire base on Hong Kong Island became in full swing, full of noisy construction sites and workers.On the bay near Hong Kong Island, steam-propelled Daihatsu patrol boats are patrolling brazenly, reminding who is the master of this sea area.

The strength of the ships in Chen Haiyang's hands has further increased.Four Type II single-masted patrol boats were assigned to him from Lingao.This is an improved iron-ribbed wooden-hull ship recently launched. The selection of the iron-ribbed wooden-hulled ship takes into account the current productivity and material supply capabilities of Lingao industry.The tonnage of each ship was expanded to 4 tons and equipped with 150 guns.Although this kind of ship is not suitable for entering the inland river with complicated navigation conditions like the Pearl River, it is an absolute weapon for controlling the waters of the Pearl River Estuary.It can effectively monitor various maritime gateways around Hong Kong Island.This allowed him to free up enough troops to enter the Pearl River for combat.

For the troops entering the Pearl River Estuary to fight, he designated 5 squadrons of 20 special agent boats and 1 squadron of single-masted patrol boats. 1 large boat squadron.In addition, there is also a temporary "small boat brigade" using captured pirate sampans and long dragons.After the large ships seized from the pirates were fumigated with drugs, a dozen ships in better condition were used.Chen Haiyang equipped it with sailors and sea soldiers, and slightly modified it.These ships will mainly serve as transport ships, used to load the materials and prisoners captured in the operation.

The survey ship sent by Chen Haiyang, escorted by patrol boats, came to the Pearl River Estuary to conduct actual surveys of water depth and topography. There is obviously a big difference between the channel map of the 21st century and the actual situation in the 17th century.Chen Haiyang doesn't want the ship to run aground before the battle begins-this will affect his reputation and that of the navy.

The 852 base is doing everything, of course it can't be hidden from the Ming army post along the coast.Although they did not make an actual response.But the alarm that the Kun thieves were about to start a large-scale invasion soon spread to Guangzhou and Zhaoqing.

Although Zhaoqing has fallen into a dull state of no war and no peace, in the governor's office in Guangzhou, the matter of paying Australians is in full swing.The leader of the negotiation was Li Fengjie, the governor of Guangdong.Soon after he received the news of the defeat, he quickly summoned his staff and his confidant officials to secretly discuss countermeasures.Everyone believed that the defeat of the Guangdong side must be separated as soon as possible.Of course it should be fast.

Li Fengjie's sedan chair was carried across the street, which was almost full of government offices.Originally, there were very few pedestrians on the road, and most of them were the clerks and servants of the government offices and servants of the officials.It is summer now, the afternoon is hot, and there are few pedestrians on the street.

　*Lantau Island is a modern name, which is used for the sake of readability.

　　** Exactly where the Portuguese occupied Tuen Mun Island is disputed.However, the Portuguese did build some buildings on Tai O Island.

　　*** Tung Chung has been an anchorage for pirates since the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Zhang Bao, a famous pirate in the Qing Dynasty, once had a fierce battle with the navy of the Qing army in Tung Chung, but the Qing army failed to capture Tung Chung.After Daoguang, in order to curb pirate activities, the Qing army built a fort here.This fort is now in a school in Tung Chung.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)