However, what Yan Mingjun also didn't know was that Liu Qian did not specially invite Haihan to send warships to escort them for the sake of their safety, but at Haihan's request, he provided such an opportunity for the Haihan militia to show their strength at sea. Of course, there are no so-called pirates on the route from Guangzhou to Hainan Island, and the fleet has no safety risks in this regard even if it does not need to be escorted. And the Haihan military wanted to take this opportunity to escort the escort and carry out a close military deterrence against these alternate officials, so that they could be honest and cooperate with Haihan's arrangement after arriving in Qiongzhou.

But Liu Qian also did not lie about one thing, the Daming Sailor stationed at the mouth of the Pearl River did not dare or was unwilling to take on this escort work. Haihan had already entrusted Chen Lin, a timber merchant, to bring a message to the sailors, asking them to be "conscious" and find a way to push off the possible escort mission. Sure enough, when the sailor received the order, he shirked the order from his superiors in the name that the ships were all under maintenance in the dock, and Liu Qian naturally recommended the Haihan militia to take over this task. In view of the excellent performance of the Haihan militia in the early stage of quelling the banditry in Qiongbei, Liu Qian's recommendation did not encounter much resistance -- the key is that the Haihan side acted voluntarily, and there was no need for officials to give money, which saved a lot of money than the government itself organizing armed forces to go to sea.

Yan Mingjun, as a civil official, didn't feel too deeply about this, but Li Jin, as a military attaché, felt a little difficult to accept such an arrangement from his superiors. Although Yan Mingjun explained this arrangement, Li Jin still responded with some unconvincing: "Today I want to see how powerful this Haihan militia that has been blown into the sky is!"

Yan Mingjun didn't argue with him, just laughed and didn't say anything. He has never seen the real body of the Haihan militia, but it is said that he has had one or two contacts with the armed escort team of the "Golden Shield Escort" trained by the Haihan people. Although it is only two knives trained by Haihan, in Yan Mingjun's opinion, those armed dart masters are better than the local Daming Guard's army in terms of discipline and equipment.

The dart masters of the "Golden Shield Escort" are all dressed in Haihan-style shirts, and the weapons used are also authentic "Haihan guns", after adding bayonets to the guns, they can attack from a distance and defend at close range, at least they still look very bluffing. Yan Mingjun felt that the only thing they were inferior to the Wei Suojun was that they were not equipped with armor, not even cotton armor, just a cloth coat. If this is a real need to fight, the chance of injury will undoubtedly be much greater than that of the Ming army.

However, the record of the "Golden Shield Escort" is obviously much better than that of the Guards, and since its establishment, the escort mission they have taken over has not had such a serious accident as being robbed of goods. On the contrary, the heroes from all walks of life who tried to go to rob were defeated and planted many people under their guns. Slowly, on the several fixed freight lines of the "Golden Shield Escort", there was gradually no trace of bandits and bandits, and this was the result that the guard army in charge of local security had not been able to achieve.

It is rumored that the Zhonghai Han militia are all fierce men who can fight ten at a time on the battlefield, and Yan Mingjun is indeed very curious about what the real militia army looks like. Seeing the group of armed men escorting Mariko on the dock before, Yan Mingjun thought that they were members of the Haihan militia group, but later took the time to ask Liu Qian, but heard that those were just the bodyguards of the Haihan in the Guangzhou Office, and they were not the regular army of the Haihan militia.

At noon, the men took out the meal they had prepared the night before, went to the stern galley to warm it up, and then brought it to the deck for the two of them, who were still talking. After lunch, the two went back to their cabins to rest. Yan Mingjun felt a little sleepy, so he went to bed with his clothes and took a nap, and slept until the noise on the deck woke him up.

Yan Mingjun couldn't really hear it on the bed, so he got up and went outside to take a look. When he walked to the deck, he found that Li Jin was already standing on the side of the ship, and he was the one who was shouting excitedly.

Yan Mingjun walked over and asked, "Why is Brother Li so excited?"

"Brother Yan, look at the river in front of you!The warship of the Haihan people!" Li Jin leaned out of the side of the boat almost half of his body, and only retracted when he heard Yan Mingjun's greeting, stretched out his hand and pointed to the riverbank in front of him and said, "This boat is much more powerful than the sailor's boat!"

Yan Mingjun looked in the direction pointed by Li Jin, and sure enough, he saw two Haihan sailing boats with red and blue flags docked on the bank of the river in front of him. Although he had never seen Haihan's sailing ships before, he had also heard that the sailing ships made by Haihan were more obviously different from the traditional style, and now he could immediately recognize them at first sight, their hulls were narrower and longer than those of Fuchuan Guangfu, and the side of the ship was also higher, and the sail style was more like that of the Saifan, and the neat and square gun windows on the side of the ship were also the same as the armed sailing ships of the West.

Yan Mingjun also saw the sailor's lucky ship on the Pearl River in his early years, and the size was actually not inferior to this Haihan warship, and in terms of the size of the ship, it might even fit more sailors. However, there was only one proper cannon on the ship, and the others were all Franc cannons, guns of various sizes, and a wide variety of firearms. However, there are five gun windows on the side of the Haihan warship, although you can't see the other side of the ship, but it must be a symmetrical design, and such a ship is equipped with ten guns, this kind of firepower is indeed very scary.

Li Jin suddenly turned around and said: "Brother Yan, you have seen more than me, according to your opinion, does the ship of the Haihan people really have so many cannons, or do they put on a show to scare people?"

Yan Mingjun sighed: "At the end of the first year of Chongzhen, the Haihan people and the big pirate Liu Xiang fought a fierce battle in Wanshan Port at the mouth of the Pearl River, and that battle directly expelled Liu Xiang from the waters of the Pearl River Estuary and retreated all the way to the place where the two provinces of Fuguang meet. According to the eyewitness accounts who witnessed the battle on Wanshan Island, the main warship of the Haihan people at that time should be the kind of ship you and I see today. At that time, Liu Xiang's number of ships was several times that of Haihan, but in the end he was defeated, so you can imagine how big the difference in strength between the two sides was. ”

Yan Mingjun did not answer Li Jin's question directly, but the examples he gave were enough to illustrate the huge advantages of Haihan warships in terms of performance and equipment - there was no need to pretend, this was a warship that had really won battles.

Li Jin's expression was obviously a little depressed, he shouldn't have heard of the achievements of the Haihan Sailor, he just wanted to use Yan Mingjun's mouth to deny his pessimistic view. However, it is obvious that Yan Mingjun's opinion is also in line with him, if you only look at the factor of the ship, the warships of the Haihan Mintuan are indeed superior to the Daming Naval Division. The only thing that cannot be determined is how many of these seemingly powerful armed gunboats are equipped with by the Haihan militia regiment -- five, ten, or even more staggering?

Soon the ship they were on sailed parallel to the Haihan warship on the shore, and the distance between the two sides was only seven or eight zhang, and the faces of the crew on the opposite deck could basically be seen. Yan Mingjun and Li Jin were shocked to find that the personnel on the Haihan warship were standing in a neat single row on the deck, facing their direction. Unarmed, they all kept their hands behind their backs and watched their convoy in silence.

"It's a bit imposing...... "No matter how uncomfortable Li Jin is in his heart, his eyes are still not blind, although there is still a distance in between, but he has indeed felt the kind of murderous aura emitted by these people on the opposite ship from the inside out, this is not the momentum that ordinary crew and sailors can have, only soldiers who have really seen blood and fire on the battlefield can have this kind of murderous aura.

After the fleet sailed past these two ships, Yan Mingjun came back to his senses from the shock just now: "This place is already Panyu County?"

"I have already entered Panyu County. Li Jin responded: "The pilot ship has passed the word, it is getting late today, so I am not in a hurry to hurry, rest here in Lijiazhuang for one night, and set off again tomorrow morning." ”

Yan Mingjun asked, "What about the warships of the Haihan people?"

"Naturally, the Haihan people will go with our fleet tomorrow. Li Jin replied, "Otherwise, they would not have docked on the shore just now, but should have joined our fleet." Haihan's ship has been parked here for a long time, and there is no intention of joining our fleet, and it seems that this itinerary has been decided early. ”

"It is said that the Haihan people have a method of transmitting messages for thousands of miles, and when we set off from the Pearl River Wharf, they probably already sent the message here. Knowing the approximate time of our arrival, it was natural to know that the fleet would not be on its way overnight. Yan Mingjun explained.

Li Jin was stunned and said, "If this is used on the battlefield, wouldn't it be a stunt that makes it difficult for the enemy to parry?"

"Who says it's not?" Yan Mingjun continued: "The office they set up in Guangzhou, the turmoil that happened in Guangzhou can instantly let the Haihan base camp in Yazhou know and formulate countermeasures, and if something happened in Qiongzhou, it takes several days to take the sea route to know Guangzhou, and it is no wonder that after the Qiongzhou banditry this time, the Guangzhou side has not had time to react, and the Haihan people are already ready to send troops." ”

"Could it be that the Haihan people sent troops so quickly, could it be that they already knew about it and were prepared?" asked Li Jin.

"The Haihan people have known for a long time?" Brother Li, haven't you read the official document during that time?" Yan Mingjun shook his head and said: "A few months before the Qiongzhou Bandits, there were already various signs, civilian ships frequently had accidents in the Qiongzhou Strait, and there were many incidents of pirates coming ashore and looting villages along the coast of Qiongzhou. At that time, after the Qiongzhou Mansion reported these situations, the Governor probably had no good way, and finally let the Qiongzhou Mansion solve it on its own. As a result, I believe you also know, the Qiongzhou Navy Division was almost wiped out, and I don't know how it didn't happen. The sailors are gone, do the pirates have any scruples about attacking the Qiongzhou Mansion? It is not only the Haihan people who have known about it for a long time, but the local government and even the governor have all known about it, but they have not come up with a countermeasure in time, and they have been caught off guard by the pirates. ”

"I see, it seems that my news is indeed a little too closed. Li Jin shook his head helplessly.

He himself is a Ming soldier, so he naturally understands what the current situation of the Ming army is. In most places, the establishment of guard posts has become virtually non-existent, and there is no way to even make up the number of soldiers, so there is no need to talk about combat effectiveness. Although the naval division was an establishment of the regular army, its condition was not much better than that of the local garrison army. Although Li Jin is not a member of the sailor, he also knows that many of the warships of the sailor are still old antiques from the Wanli period, and in recent years, especially after the reign of Emperor Chongzhen, there has been no new ship launched by the Liangguang Navy.

"It is said that the Haihan people have a method of transmitting messages for thousands of miles, and when we set off from the Pearl River Wharf, they probably already sent the message here. Knowing the approximate time of our arrival, it was natural to know that the fleet would not be on its way overnight. Yan Mingjun explained.

Li Jin was stunned and said, "If this is used on the battlefield, wouldn't it be a stunt that makes it difficult for the enemy to parry?"

"Who says it's not?" Yan Mingjun continued: "The office they set up in Guangzhou, the turmoil that happened in Guangzhou can instantly let the Haihan base camp in Yazhou know and formulate countermeasures, and if something happened in Qiongzhou, it takes several days to take the sea route to know Guangzhou, and it is no wonder that after the Qiongzhou banditry this time, the Guangzhou side has not had time to react, and the Haihan people are already ready to send troops." ”

"Could it be that the Haihan people sent troops so quickly, could it be that they already knew about it and were prepared?" asked Li Jin.

"The Haihan people have known for a long time?" Brother Li, haven't you read the official document during that time?" Yan Mingjun shook his head and said: "A few months before the Qiongzhou Bandits, there were already various signs, civilian ships frequently had accidents in the Qiongzhou Strait, and there were many incidents of pirates coming ashore and looting villages along the coast of Qiongzhou. At that time, after the Qiongzhou Mansion reported these situations, the Governor probably had no good way, and finally let the Qiongzhou Mansion solve it on its own. As a result, I believe you also know, the Qiongzhou Navy Division was almost wiped out, and I don't know how it didn't happen. The sailors are gone, do the pirates have any scruples about attacking the Qiongzhou Mansion? It is not only the Haihan people who have known about it for a long time, but the local government and even the governor have all known about it, but they have not come up with a countermeasure in time, and they have been caught off guard by the pirates. ”

"I see, it seems that my news is indeed a little too closed. Li Jin shook his head helplessly.

He himself is a Ming soldier, so he naturally understands what the current situation of the Ming army is. In most places, the establishment of guard posts has become virtually non-existent, and there is no way to even make up the number of soldiers, so there is no need to talk about combat effectiveness. Although the naval division was an establishment of the regular army, its condition was not much better than that of the local garrison army. Although Li Jin is not a member of the sailor, he also knows that many of the warships of the sailor are still old antiques from the Wanli period, and in recent years, especially after the reign of Emperor Chongzhen, there has been no new ship launched by the Liangguang Navy.