After sailing in the sea for two days, the "Haitian" came to the waters near Nanao Island. The Haitian is full of white sails, like a seagull all the time, gliding gracefully across the sea. Splash of waves,

The weather has been sunny lately, and the sea is clear. A few light white clouds floated slowly in the distant sky. The sunset in May casts the brilliant afterglow unobstructed on the empty and wide sea. On the surface of the sea, islands of green sè emerge. The turquoise waves are one after another, never tired of slapping against the red shore, making a terrible sound like heavy thunder, and this is Nanao Island. It is located at the junction of Fujian, Guangdong and Taiwan provinces, 118 nautical miles from Shantou, 160 nautical miles from Kaohsiung in the east, 97 nautical miles from Xiamen in the north, and 180 nautical miles from Hong Kong in the southwest. Since ancient times, Nanao is a must berthing point and transit station for trade along the southeast coast, and has been known as the "maritime market" as early as the Ming Dynasty.

There are not only the footprints of the small court of the Southern Song Dynasty, but also the so-called "gold land" of the Japanese invaders.

The Haitian did not come here to dig up the gold. A reconnaissance and mapping ship of the "Haitian" Navy is responsible for collecting coastal sea conditions and landforms. A series of intelligence work such as measuring the water depth of the harbor. When conducting long-distance operations, it also acts as a pilot ship.

The Navy is a money-burning service. The Haitian is a vivid example of this. At the time of last year's Battle of the Pearl River Estuary, Haitian was still a 100-ton ship. Now, the old "Haitian" has become the new "Haitian", the former navy's "Zhenhai" brig gunship. The Zhenhai was the first European-style brig built according to the drawings. Its blueprint is the famous "Americas" in history: with a displacement of 170 tons, a total length of 30 meters, a width of 7 meters, and a draft of 3 meters.

The ship's sailing ability is excellent, and it can sail quickly even in headwinds. However, there are also certain requirements for the crew's operational skills. It can reach speeds of up to 18 knots when sailing in tailwind and high winds, but can capsize if it is not careful.

Since its launch in 1629, the Zhenhai has participated in almost all the military operations of the Senate, and has also served as a large number of escorts, patrols, and even cargo carriers. After the end of the second anti-encirclement and suppression battle, Zhenhai did not participate in the Pearl River Estuary operation and served as a cruise and transportation mission from Lingao to Sanya for a period.

Shortly after the start of the first shipbuilding rearmament, the Jinhae entered the dockyard at Bopu Shipyard for repairs and renovations. In addition to the cleaning and maintenance of the hull, the modification of hard sails to soft sails, copper skin on the bottom of the ship, installation of a steam power system and installation of a radio station was carried out.

The navy was quite satisfied with the use of Zhenhai, but thought that its tonnage as an ocean-going warship was too small and its firepower was insufficient, so it finally decided to change the name of Zhenhai to Haitian and replace the old Haitian of the old Canton type as a new reconnaissance and exploration ship.

The New Haitian dismantled most of the ship's armament to reduce weight. 6 mortars and 2 70mm rifled guns were all dismantled, and the early 70ma rifled guns were not put into large-scale production at that time, and only a few shiyanxìng were manufactured and installed on naval ships, and naval ships were widely equipped with various smoothbore guns. Lin Shenhe has already made reports of developing and manufacturing a new generation of artillery to replace these early artillery. Artillery of this special caliber has already been included in the list of obsolescence.

After removing all the artillery, the new Haitian was reinstalled with a 48-pounder smoothbore cannon and a 4tǐng "typewriter" for self-defense firepower. These weapons are enough to deal with the sporadic pirate sāo harassment.

The mission of the Haitian is "reconnaissance", and there is no need to bombard the other side or participate in naval battles, and speed is the weapon and shield of the Haitian. Not only is the Haitian superior to the traditional sails of the plane, but it is also equipped with a steam engine-propeller power that allows it to escape at full power if necessary.

The advantage of this type of ship is that it requires very few sailors, and it can be operated by as little as 9 people, plus the support of additional steam engine power, so that the required seafaring personnel can be kept to a low number, and enough space is freed up for a more comfortable living space, in order to ensure that the veterans who perform reconnaissance and jishu support work can live relatively happily at sea, the living facilities have also been renovated to ensure the quality of life of the veterans at sea to the greatest extent.

In order to facilitate landing and exploration in inland waters, the Haitian was also equipped with a dinghy pylon, carrying rowing boats and small hair boats.

The first mission of the Haitian after completing the refit was to set sail from Hong Kong to survey the coastal hydrology and safety of the sea from Hong Kong to the coast of Shandong.

The captain of the new Haitian was a veteran naval officer, Li Ziping. Like Chen Haiyang, Li Ziping is a former PA demobilized naval officer, who has received a regular military academy education and has rich experience in navigation work and weapons management and use, and has also received short-term training at the Kuznetsov Naval Academy, where he has been influenced by the spirit of the Red Navy.

Li Ziping became a fisherman for a period after D-Day, and the navy drove the 8154 fishing boat to patrol outside Bopu Harbor to defend the Senate.

After the establishment of the Admiralty, he refused to be appointed to serve in the navy, and served as a naval captain for a long time, and practiced all kinds of sailing ship maneuvering and sail naval combat tactics. This time as the captain of the new "Haitian" is also his own request, he hopes to accumulate more intuitive feelings of the future theater through this voyage, although he knows that the appointment of this captain will not be long, and when 1631 is officially launched and included in active service, he will go to receive the new warship.

The Haitian set sail from Hong Kong under the command of the captain and sailed north along the coastline. The focus of the trip was to explore Taiwan's Pingtung and Kaohsiung areas, and then to inspect the coastal areas of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shandong. Look for a place to stay. Sheltered harbors, small islands, and accurate coastlinesAlthough they have detailed charts in their hands, the changes in the coastline are too great in hundreds of miles, and there are great differences from the charts and maps of the old time and space, and the distribution of reefs and sand is also different, and must be corrected on the charts in advance.

Another mission of the Haitian is to observe the safety of sea navigation on the ground. Although the ships of **ō shipping had sailed between Zhejiang and Hong Kong several times before this, there was no danger, except for a few attacks by small groups of pirates, neither Liu Xiang nor Zheng Zhilong had launched an interception of **ō shipping's cargo voyages. It seems that the Great Library's Historical Research Group is accurate: these sea lords are not capable of organizing a tight naval blockade, and their ambition is not to do so. Whether it is Liu Xiang or Zheng Zhilong, they are concerned about monopolizing foreign trade. The really frequent robberies in the coastal areas are carried out by small and medium-sized groups of pirates.

The purpose of the Haitian to openly hoist the Morning Star Flag and the Navy Flag on this voyage is obvious, how strong is the sea lord's sense of sea power, and how strong is their ability to fulfill their wishes.

"Watch the sea!" Li Ziping raised his binoculars and observed the waters around the island. On the sea, there are scattered fishing sails, and there are excellent fishing grounds near Nanao Island, and there are many fishing boats that come here to fish. But he was more concerned about Liu Xiang's ships.

After Liu Xiang withdrew from the mouth of the Pearl River, he has not been seen in the vicinity again. On the basis of intelligence data from various quarters, the General Staff Department and the Foreign Intelligence Department conducted a map deduction and roughly determined that if Liu Laoxiang had left the mouth of the Pearl River, his possible location would be from west to east: the first was Daya Bay, the second was one of the two peninsulas in Shanwei Port, and Zuihou was one of the three harbors in Dongshan County. Among these three general locations, only Nanao Island in the Shantou and Shanwei areas is the most ideal.

In this time and space, most of Shantou City and Shanwei City are still a tidal flat, and the local Hakka fishermen set up a huge fishing míhún formation here, which is called "Shan" in Hakka, from which these two place names come from.

If a large group of bandits of tens of thousands of pirates is looking for a place to hide, Nanao Island is the perfect island: the island is large enough for the island to cover 130 square kilometres, and the island is rich in fresh water and fuel. In the old time, there were more than 70,000 permanent residents, and as long as they could steadily import food, a gang of tens of thousands of people would not have much pressure to live on the island. There are ports and bays, and it is only 1 mile away from the mainland, so it is convenient to import materials. Moreover, the land is a mountainous area with a radius of several hundred kilometers, and Chaoshan is a Hakka area, so the news is quite closed for Guangdong society. And according to the research and judgment of the big library: Liu Laoxiang is likely to be a Hakka from the Chaoshan area. Then arriving on Nanao Island is equivalent to returning to the old nest. Not only is safety guaranteed, but it is also very convenient to obtain personnel and material replenishment.

However, the historical data group of the Great Library quickly vetoed this possibility, Nanao Island was the residence of Chen Ting, the deputy commander of the Guangdong Auxiliary Guard, in this time and space, although the generals of the Ming army and the sea lords had more or less collusion, but he thought that Chen Ting would not openly contain tens of thousands of pirate gangs to live under his station. This is not in line with the habits of officialdom, but also a great threat to himself.

The spies dispatched by the Foreign Intelligence Bureau and the Navy's camouflaged reconnaissance ships carried out a series of reconnaissance operations along the coast. In the end, it was determined that the Chaozhou area was Liu Xiang's lair. But his big ships are basically not in this area. Obviously, his main force is elsewhere. The Intelligence Bureau judged that it was likely to be on the Fujian-Japan route.!...