Four Portuguese warships flying the flag of seven wounds cruised around the convoy of federal immigrants, and Macao vigilantly observed the situation in Xiangshan County.

Ignoring the pretentious Portuguese, he said goodbye to Zhang Pengfei on the frigate Yuexiu: "General Yaoyu, Lord Wang." Xiangshan Island is the lifeline of Guangzhou's 200,000 soldiers and civilians, and I will hand it over to the two of you, please be sure to keep it. ”

Zhang Pengfei: "I retreated from Liaodong to Dengzhou, then to Huai'an, then to Chongming and Zhoushan. I didn't expect to meet an old opponent again on this Nantian Island. Please rest assured that Zhang swears to live and die with Xiangshan. ”

Wang Huizhi grinned, "I have long wanted to fight with the Tartars with real knives and guns, Shang Kexi really dares to come to Xiangshan, I will send his soldiers into the sea to feed the fish and turtles." ”

Shou Xun shook hands with them in turn, "Please, two." ”

Wang Huizhi clenched his hands into fists. Zhang Pengfei slowly put down halfway through the salute, and with the encouragement of the orderly eyes, the heel of his boots touched, and he stood straight with a "snap". Very standard federal military salute.

The two disembarked and waved to the officers and soldiers who stayed on Xiangshan Island.

The fleet pulled anchor and set sail and left Xiangshan County. Under the watchful eye of the Portuguese warship, it sailed out of the Tanjiang estuary and headed southwest along the coastline of western Guangdong.

The Shang and Geng domains had 20,000 troops, and the Tatars gave them reinforcements such as Guo Hu, the general of Guangde in Jiangnan Province, and Gao Jinku, the deputy general of Ganzhou, and the total number of troops was as high as 30,000. Ke Shang Kexi wanted to encircle the city of Guangzhou on the one hand, and on the other hand, he wanted to defend Sanshui County against the Ming army that was constantly attacking to the southeast. Li Yuanyin, Ma Bao, Dong Fangce, Chen Qice and others in the siege relief army are all veteran generals for many years, and there are many elite soldiers under them.

The frontal of the two fronts and the supply line of the Bac Giang involved a lot of troops in the Second Domain. Hao Shangjiu, Wu Liuqi, and Su Li of Chaozhou in eastern Guangdong faced the threat of Zheng Chenggong and could not get out. Shang Kexi can be transferred to nothing more than the former Huizhou General Soldier Li Shilian's department. Speaking of which, with Li Shilian's official position as a sea patrol, Xiangshan Island is under his jurisdiction.

Wang Huizhi has more than 2,000 people, and Zhang Pengfei has 900 soldiers. The Ming army seized a large number of knives, guns, birds, guns and Francos in Foshan, Shunde and other places. There are still more than 30,000 stones of food left for the defenders, and there are people who eat food when the recruitment flag is erected in these years. As long as Zhang Pengfei and Wang Huizhi are determined, they should be sure to hold Xiangshan Island.

In exchange for the full cooperation of the pirates, Shou ordered to seal Phu Quoc Island in the Gulf of Siam to Wang Huizhi. In this immigration fleet, there are more than 2,000 pirate teams from Wang Huizhi's south. Most of the migrant ships had already departed, and the last wave of the fleet was led by Order. The northerly season is coming to an end, and this fleet will land directly on Houjiang.

According to the shipping schedule, these Cantonese immigrants were sent as far as the mainland, and Borneo had to wait until the northerly wind of 1650 to receive a large number of immigrants. This arrangement of the shipping schedule can save time, and the transport ship can go north immediately after the preparation of Houjiang and the mainland.

There are also a lot of migrants between Hainan Island and the mainland, and the order requires these ships to travel back and forth between the Qiongzhou Strait and the Beibu Gulf. In the order plan, 1650 and 1651 will be the key points in the rise of the federal national power and population, and the vast majority of merchant ships will be put into the Canton route.

The federal warships had their own tasks, and the four frigates and notification ships led by the orderly arrived in the Qiongzhou Strait and entered Dongshui Port.

Most of the migrant fleets departing from the mouth of the Pearl River are not escorted by warships, and they will travel along the coastline of Guangdong and the Indochina Peninsula. The Ming troops on the Upper and Lower Sichuan Islands, Hailing Islands, Dianbaicheng, and Leizhou Peninsula in Guangdong will provide shelter for the fleet in case of emergency. There are many ports in Qiongzhou, and the coastal routes of Hainan Island are not very risky, and the migrant fleet can enter the port at any time to avoid danger. The only thing to worry about is the route from Hainan Island to Houjiang Province. The Federal Navy could not draw out the warships, and the last stretch of the Quang Nam offshore route, the transport ships had to rely on themselves.

Shou Zhi will not return to China this year and will stay in Qiongzhou Mansion.

Zeng Ying is old, and as an important minister of the imperial court, his job is more to use his prestige to withstand pressure from all sides and coordinate urgent matters that are difficult to handle. The daily military and political affairs of Haibei and Hainan are actually the responsibility of each yamen themselves.

Zhou Luqing, mayor of Yilan, Taipei Prefecture, was transferred to Hainan to take up the post of Guangdong Provincial Government Secretary to participate in politics, and was in charge of the official affairs of the Guangdong West Political Division. The sub-division of the western Guangdong government directly belongs to the superintendent yamen, and the position of the chief official is not high, but in fact it is the highest administrative organ of the three prefectures in western Guangdong.

In the last days of the Southern Ming Dynasty, when people were appointed as governors and Gongsheng soldiers were prepared, Zhou Luqing's status as a jinshi in Chongzhen was more than enough in terms of qualifications.

"How many immigrants will Hainan Island get this year?"

After summoning Zhou Luqing in order, the first question he asked was the population issue that he was most concerned about. There are 45,000 households in the three counties of Haikang, Xuwen and Suixi in Leizhou, Haibei Erfu, of which 11,000 are military households, and more than 250,000 are not registered populations such as Tan people and Shaomin. Lianzhou has 12,500 households and a population of more than 80,000.

Historically, the Leizhou Peninsula was a war zone where the Ming army and the Tatars had been tug-of-war for more than ten years. The local gentry of the peninsula, such as Xu Wen and the Luo clan, formed a fortified village.

Active at the junction of the two Guangzhou, the Ming army Shi Shangyi and Ye Biao in the mountainous areas of Gaozhou, Luoding, and Yulin went deep into the Leizhou Peninsula many times to collect grain, and the Ye Biao Department had many Guangxi wolf soldiers with strong combat effectiveness, and the local soldiers and civilians in Leizhou were difficult to resist. Relying on the Gulf of Tonkin the Pirate King's Han Division, he also fought several battles with the Tatars in Leizhou.

Not only did the Ming armies fight against the Tatars, but they themselves also fought among themselves for what little money they had left. Ye Biao indirectly killed Xiong Zhaozuo who was guarding Bobai County, and Xiong Zhaozuo's ally Zhou Jintang invited Li Dingguo to kill Ye Biao. Affected by frequent wars and the relocation of the border to the sea, by the tenth year of Shunzhi, the population of Leizhou was only 5,000 households in the mountainous areas not near the sea, and most of the cultivated land was deserted.

The orderly plan is to make good use of this part of the wasted resources in history.

"So far, we have evacuated most of the population in Qinzhou, Lianzhou, Leizhou, Suixi and Haikang counties, and only the tail work is left in Haibei Province."

"Are all our ships gone?"

"The 200 sea ships left by the consul in Qiongzhou have all gone south to Houjiang Province, and 40,000 people have been transported with the ships."

"Good."

The sea route between Qiongzhou and Houjiang is very close, the route is mature, and it will arrive in a week, and each ship can carry more people.

"How many ships are there in Qiongzhou?"

"In addition to the 50 ships that sailed to Borneo at the earliest, there are nearly 100 merchant ships that can go to sea."

"Today, we have to evacuate the population of Yulin Prefecture and Beiliujiang counties, and this boat is not enough."

"Yes, Archon. So we requisitioned Deng Yao of Fangcheng and Wang Zhihan of Yong'an Thousand Households. Li Mingzhong, the governor of Gaozhou, has also recently shown us a lot of goodwill, and he is willing to send ships to help us transport people. Archon, I mean, we might as well include Li Mingzhong in our system. ”

"Li Mingzhong only has 80 ships, for this capacity, is it appropriate for us to carry the burden of Gaozhou Mansion?"

The brand is the core resource, and the reputation of the order so far is quite good. However, Li Mingzhong's Gaozhou Mansion was too deep inland, and the order was not sure to hold the Gaozhou Mansion City. rashly accepting Li Mingzhong may damage his own signboard.

"Archon, we can't ignore the strength of the Gaozhou Ming Army. For the sake of the security of Leilian Prefecture, I suggest that we come forward to integrate the local Ming army. ”

Gaozhou Prefecture includes Huazhou, Maoming, Xinyi, Shicheng (Lianjiang), Dianbai, and 4 counties in one state. The area is very large, and the population is on the same level as Lianzhou, with only 15,000 households. This is because Gaozhou Huayi is miscellaneous, there are more hidden households, and the actual population is more than the official control of the Ming Dynasty.

Gaozhou is located on the front line of the anti-Yao army, and the Ming army has strong combat effectiveness. The Ming Dynasty has always used wolf soldiers and deer soldiers to defend Yao, and there are as many as 2,400 wolf soldiers stationed in each county in Gaozhou alone, and there are also 300 deer soldiers. These young people were able to exert their greatest combat effectiveness in the mountainous areas of western Guangdong, supplemented by the naval division, and the Gaozhou Ming Army was a force to be reckoned with.

Gaozhou has a population of tens of thousands who can emigrate, and it is also the most important peripheral position in western Guangdong.

Shou Xiang thought twice, "Dafu, you wait for me to think about it." ”

It's one thing to do business with a warlord, it's another to establish military cooperation, and you need to sort out the order.

Li Mingzhong was born in Dongjiang Town, and when he was young, he fought the world in Liaodong with Mao Wenlong, and was an old acquaintance with Kong Youde, Shang Kexi, and Geng Zhongming. His current titles are Hai Kangbo, the governor of the Chinese army, the seal of General Ningwu, the governor of Gao Lei Qiongzhou, and the salary of the commander, contacting the righteous teachers, and acting cheaply.

Nanming was indiscriminately sealed the official title, and Li Mingzhong hung up the governor of Gao Lei Lianqiong, but he could only manage Gaozhou. Gaozhou Mansion is not only Li Mingzhong's family, Dianbai is controlled by Lu Zhan, and Xinyi County is controlled by Ye Biao and Shi Shangyi. Li Mingzhong really controlled the prefectures of Maoming County, Wuchuan County, Huazhou County, and Shicheng County.

Li Mingzhong's prestige in western Guangdong is relatively high, the wolf soldiers and the deer soldiers all obey his orders, and Deng Yao and Yang Yandi were Li Mingzhong's generals, and Li Mingzhong, the sailor of these two departments, can also be mobilized if necessary.

Most of the warlords are capricious, and working with them is a double-edged sword. Indeed, at this point now, most of the Southern Ming warlords under the Yongli Imperial Court insisted on resisting the Tartars to the end. Even when the mountains and rivers are exhausted, only a few people shave their hair and surrender. However, this does not mean that they are safe, and the warlords will not only fight the Tatars, but also cut and kill their allies and seize their territory. Gao Lei Lianqiong, the governor of Gao Lei Lianqiong, who once competed with Zeng Ying for control of Qiongzhou, died at the hands of Li Mingzhong. Li Mingzhong did not have a royal order, and he killed civilian governors without permission, and among the military generals of the Southern Ming Dynasty, he was certainly not a good stubble.

"Defu, what conditions did Li Mingzhong propose? Is it also a retreat for Borneo? ”

"Yes, Archon."

"The Kuching administrative area is big enough that he wants a plot of land, which is fine, but Maoming is really not in my plans."

"Consul, under our persuasion, Li Mingzhong focused his defense on the county seat of Wuchuan."

Wuchuan County and Ningchuan Shouyu Thousand Households in the same city, Jianjiang, Meijiang, Yuanhua River three rivers converge in the vicinity of Wuchuan City, Jianjiang River flows under the west city wall, Meijiang River, Yuanhua River flows under the east city wall, with one city to control the three rivers estuary, Wuchuan County is the top strategic place.

"You go and tell Li Mingzhong. Ask him to organize the immigrants from Maoming County to Borneo on his own, and I can provide artillery and ammunition to support him in fortifying Wuchuan County, on the condition that he sacrifice Huazhou and Shicheng. ”

Shou Xuan believed that Li Mingzhong only had more than 3,000 soldiers with combat effectiveness, and at most he could only hold Wuchuan County, and other places were beyond his ability. And vacating Huazhou, Shicheng and other places can be used to house the immigration brigade from Hezhou to the south.