At the end of June 1631, more than half a month after the southbound fleet arrived in Qiongzhou, the Qiongzhou Strait was "blockaded" for the first time in history.

The so-called all-territory blockade is simple: there are patrols day and night. In the movie, the big guy is ruthless, and "a fly can't fly" is usually the case.

It would be easy for a skilled traverser to blockade the Qiongzhou Strait. Because Qiongzhou is the closest county to Xuwen County across the strait, there is only a 20-kilometer sea route.

That is, it is only necessary to arrange one or two patrol ships with night vision devices at night to cut off the strait.

Although night sailing was not popular in those days, and the indigenous ships did not rush at night, it was a gesture - the blockade of the strait represented the crossing forces to project their will, force, political influence, and ability to defend trade routes into this area.

In other words: Lao Tzu is coming.

In the early morning, the slender Taijiang-class 150-ton light patrol ship, which was born from the early schooners, opened three parallel lines in the strait separated by 5 kilometers. The white spinnaker turns nimbly to eat the wind, and the ship gallops like an arrow on the ocean.

From the end of June, any ship that appears in the strait, whether it is a fishing boat sailing along the coastal shore or a heavy merchant ship, whether it is a seemingly innocuous pirate ship or an arrogant armed European merchant ship, will be intercepted and inspected by patrol ships.

This process is bound to be uneventful.

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In the Middle Ages, communication was backward, and the speed of information transmission was extremely slow. When Baisha New Port was in full swing to build infrastructure and let go of vicious dogs, most of the ships around Qiongzhou naturally didn't know the news, let alone those colonial ships that went to East Asia.

Therefore, the natives who encountered the dragnet patrol for the first time were immediately subjected to heavy punishment: those who did not obey the order were treated with artillery fire as soon as possible.

What do you mean by that? Fire first, then fire, and then ask the other party for their identity.

You must know that this round of dragnet patrols is not going to the countryside to send warmth to poor households. To a certain extent, the crossing forces have to rely on artillery fire to declare sovereignty, so they will fire artillery if they disobey at all...... In order to increase the speed of the spread of prestige.

In the process, the fishermen who were going out to sea to fish did not suffer much damage. After all, most of the people who drive a broken boat and have fish in the cabin are honest people. Seeing the strange ship rushing over, and then looking at the cannon muzzle shining with blue light and the government's flag, he didn't resist.

Genuine pirates suffered the most in this sudden blow.

The pirates, who had been nervous when they went to sea, saw the ships rushing in the distance, and then looked at the flags of the government above, most of them wanted to resist, and no matter how bad they were, they had to make a running posture.

Because they know very well that if they are really stopped and inspected by the government, the empty fish cabin will instantly reveal their attributes.

Then the pirate ship was washed by artillery fire...... Deck up.

The dead were thrown into the sea to feed the fish, and those who survived were put in the bilge. When they came out of the bilge again, they were greeted by their relatives in big caps and the hospitable labor camp.

Also beaten were European boats.

Some ships that often mingle in East Asia, after seeing the familiar Cao character recognizing the flag, will lower their sails and contact visitors. The other part does not know the depth, and will assume a defensive posture.

This is a normal reaction. After all, the colonists came all the way, and they encountered too many ghosts, snakes, and gods along the way, and the devil knew what force these clippers belonged to.

The next moment, seeing the gun ports that also pushed out of the portholes, the patrol ship, whose tonnage was much smaller than that of an armed merchant ship, circled the ship and left. However, the colonists on the armed merchant ship had just breathed a sigh of relief on their front feet, and on their back feet, striking white sails and faint black smoke appeared on the horizon.

The "Ariko-class" destroyer, with a draft of 400 tons, is a sail gunboat designed for naval warfare. This class of gunboats is equipped with ten 8-12-pound mechanically forged Napoleonic guns, and its combat effectiveness is completely explosive to European-style merchant ships that mainly transport goods.

Then came the regular naval battle.

However, battles usually end within a short period of time. The side with advanced sighting equipment and long-range fast guns will soon let the opponent know that it is powerful. Most captains would order the white flag to be raised immediately after a third of the sailors' deaths - it was desperate that the guns on merchant ships could not do any harm to their opponents.

After the white flag is raised, the merchant ship will be escorted to Baisha Port for processing. This can refer to a series of programs after the chengguan pulled the hawker's tricycle back.

The lessons of blood and fire are undoubtedly the most impressive. In just half a month, the surrounding sea area centered on Qiongzhou was as if it had been blown by a typhoon. Now anyone who eats at sea, no matter what the force, knows that a strong dragon has come to Qiongzhou and has drawn the rules.

Since the thick legs have drawn the rules, the thin arms have to obey them—the unlucky ones who don't follow have gone to the sea to feed the fish, and the lucky ones have entered the labor camp.

So, the surrounding fishermen honestly went to Shenying Port, registered and reported, and prepared to participate in the "fishing cooperative" of Rauschzi. Lazy people listen to books

Naturally, the surrounding pirates began to disappear. Some temporarily stopped and watched the direction of the wind, and some ran away to continue trading in other places.

However, the negative response of running away is not the way to go, because the main contradiction is not only unsolvable, but increasingly serious: after the blockade of the Qiongzhou Strait, ships with white sails began to expand their patrol range to include the entire Hainan Island.

In fact, since the Ming Dynasty, and even earlier in the Song Dynasty, the entire territory of Hainan has been within the scope of official ship patrols. It's just that the financial collapse of the imperial court at the end of the Ming Dynasty, and the so-called regular inspection before has become a false story.

Now the pick-up man is here.

Including Sanya, a place that belonged to the Ming Dynasty where birds don't, began to have clipper patrols. With the official documents from the government, the officials and gentry in these remote places once doubted their lives: the sun has come out of the west, and now as long as they report the bandits, within two days, they will be killed by fast boats, not only on the ocean, but also on the shore with strange muskets, and arrest thieves all over the world.

However, these clippers also took out silver cakes with a lot of money when they were replenishing, which made the natives become eager overnight, and everyone competed to be ghosts, and it was no longer the embarrassing scene of all running away when they saw the strange ships before.

With such a large blockade pattern, the sea route from South Asia to Daming was completely blocked: not to mention the Qiongzhou Strait, the straight shipping route from Sanya to Hue, Vietnam, was also blocked, and the board could not go to the sea...... Unless you go to the relevant departments to stamp and apply for a certificate.

Now the pirates have completely withered. You can't pretend to be a fisherman...... will be dragged to partner with others to buy a big boat to fish, and from then on embark on the road of no return to work to get rich.

Some of them resigned themselves to their fate, and the remaining ones with the hardest heads had to go south to the Gulf of Tonkin like their predecessors. What they don't know is that it won't be long before they will meet that terrible Cao Zi Recognition Flag again.

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Just half a month after the strait was pulled into the net, after receiving a telegram from the Sha Shao duo who were optimistic about the form, the cabinet sent a large number of personnel and materials to Qiongzhou.

As the most important southward plan in 1631 and even in the next few years, the crossing forces must have invested a lot of resources to ensure the smooth progress of the plan. Therefore, as soon as the Qiongzhou side settled down, Guangzhou sent follow-up support non-stop.

The amount of follow-up support is huge. First of all, the Taijiang-class frigates, which numbered twelve, followed by two newly formed Youguang-class destroyers.

After the warships, there is a fleet of 800-ton transport ships with twelve ships.

The transport fleet came to Qiongzhou this time and loaded a large number of engineering materials, including expensive construction materials such as cement and steel bars. In addition, a large number of daily necessities and even barbed wire and other miscellaneous goods were also carried.

Finally, people.

Along with a large number of materials, there are also a large number of construction machinery personnel. These talents are far more precious assets than materials at the moment, and many of them have been cultivated little by little by working hard to squeeze time as night school teachers, which can be said to be very important, and they are worth more than the same weight of silver.

Finally, there is the most precious possession of the Crossing Forces: the Traveler itself.

This plane has the highest value, and it must be a traverser without asking. Considering it in equal weight gold seems a bit humiliating to the word time-traveler: the inheritance of human knowledge since the Industrial Revolution far exceeds the value of those golds.

Not only did the ship come with supplies and technicians, but also as many as 5 people traveled. These latecomers will work with Shao Qiangsha Zhengming to form a military and political group that will go south, scatter and distribute points, and attack the Nanyang countries.

The first phase of the mission in Qiongzhou is now completed. As for the follow-up work, since there are already reinforcements, Shao Qiang will also hand it over to others.

Next, Qiongzhou will have to walk on two legs. On the one hand, it is necessary to develop the local economy, and on the other hand, it is necessary to do a good job in infrastructure construction and do a good job in the work of the base for advancing southward.

What is your job? As far as the current situation is concerned, go to Vietnam...... Somewhere in Annam, to occupy and build a bridgehead, this is it.

Is there an exact destination? This was already determined at the time of the formation of the southbound fleet: the port of Annam Hongji.

Located in the northeast of Vietnam, on the northwest side of the Beibu Gulf, Hongji Port was an important coal export port in northern Vietnam in later generations.

The Hongji coalfield near the port was first developed by the French to produce high-quality thermal coal.

With more than 2 billion tons of thermal coal reserves around Hongji Port, the thin topsoil is conducive to open-pit mining, and it is the largest coal mine in Vietnam and the Indochina Peninsula, and one of the largest coalfields in Southeast Asia.

And Hongji Port ...... In those days, there was no Hongji Port, only the original Halong Bay. Ha Long Bay is located in the middle of Beibu Gulf, only 350 kilometers away from Haikou in a straight line.

In other words, even at the current standard speed of 5 knots for crossing mixed fleets, the voyage from Pasir Sal New Harbour to Halong Bay will not exceed 30 hours.

If the fleet is full of warships, then the speed is out of the spectrum, and in the case of a tailwind, it is entirely possible to start and set the sun and the sunset.

So Shao Qiang and they set off.