In the past two years or so, Haihan's various measures in the field of culture and education have won the favor of Danzhou's cultural circles, and this good image has also spread through the mouths and brushes of the literati, imperceptibly affecting the local people and officialdom. Although the trade dumping practices of the Haihan people had caused widespread unemployment in some industries in Danzhou, the vast majority of these people had regained employment opportunities under the hands of the Haihan people and did not cause any trouble to the local government. There are even some people who believe that the daily necessities such as salt and coal on the market are of higher quality and cheaper than in the past, which is the actual benefit brought by the Haihan people.

Of course, compared with the benefits that ordinary people can get, the various "gifts" that Haihan privately sent to officials at all levels in Danzhou are also considerable, and the annual expenses in this regard alone are enough to support two companies of militia soldiers. And the return of these efforts is the unhindered movement of the Haihan people in Danzhou, as well as the results of intelligence collection in every detail. Even the imperial palace newspaper sent to the Danzhou Prefecture every month will be copied and sent back to Sanya in the shortest possible time.

The fleet of He Xi and Tom Wang docked at the village of Baimajing on the south side of the bay. The reason why this place is named Baima Well is that when a general of the Tang Dynasty passed by here, his mount White Horse dug out a spring here, so the locals built a well with this spring water, so it was named "White Horse Well".

There were already people from Haihan's office in Danzhou waiting on the wharf, and when they saw the two of them getting off the boat, they took the initiative to greet them. The person in charge of the Dan Office is named Zhang Xin, a 28-year-old single man, from Guangdong, whose occupation before the crossing is said to be working in a certain theatrical performance group. However, when I came here, because my own work was temporarily useless, I changed my career to become an administrator, and I have been the person in charge of the Danzhou office for almost two years.

However, Zhang Xin is not too familiar with these two today, when he was transferred to Danzhou, He Xi had already gone to the Guangzhou Office, and Wang Tom was very busy, and there was no chance to meet. Although we had met many times when we lived together in Victory Harbor in the early days of the crossing, this was the first time we had contact with each other in terms of formal contact at work.

"Director Zhang has been waiting for a long time!" Wang Tom took the initiative to say hello when he saw Zhang Xin. Although he is not very familiar with people, Zhang Xin's appearance makes him quite intimate - his dark complexion and thin figure are simply the standard for sailors and seafarers.

Of course, Zhang Xin is not a sailor, his complexion is only born dark, coupled with the sun exposure of living in the south for a long time, it has become even worse after coming to Danzhou - this place has about 2,500 hours of sunshine every year, and Zhang Xin can't go white even if he wants to.

After the three exchanged a few words, Zhang Xin arranged for them to take the prepared carriage to Danzhou. This place is still nearly twenty miles away from the location of Danzhou City, and it is really too far if you walk. During the journey in the car, Zhang Xin also briefly introduced the situation in Danzhou City by the way.

Danzhou City was built in the Tang Dynasty, but until the Ming Dynasty, it was only simply as a military fortress, and it was only in the sixth year of Hongwu that the city in the real sense of the word was built, and it is currently the political, military, commercial and cultural center of the entire Danzhou.

The circumference of Danzhou city is as long as 500 zhang, the city wall is two zhang and five feet high, the thickness is nearly two zhang, there are more than 800 moats built on the head of the city, there are four city gates such as Dehua Gate, Zhenhai Gate, Rouyuan Gate and Wuding Gate respectively on the east and west north and south sides, there are city towers on it, there are city defense facilities such as gate wall, floor shop, trench and suspension bridge below. The walls were surrounded by moats eight feet deep. During the Ming Longqing period, Danzhou City also built corner towers at the four corners of the city wall, which further strengthened the strength of the city defense. If the city defense facilities are only discussed, Danzhou City is obviously stronger than Yacheng in this regard.

In addition, the garrison of Danzhou has two thousand households, but because of the inherent drawbacks of the guard system. The actual strength of the army was far less than the 2,000 that it should have, and the number of the old, weak, sick and disabled was less than 1,500. According to Zhang Xin's estimation based on the information obtained from various channels, the real combat effectiveness of the part is probably only about 1,000 people, and the level of weapons and equipment is basically the same as that of Yacheng at the beginning, although there are many firearms, but they are basically old guys who are less powerful and in disrepair, and the actual combat effectiveness is quite limited.

"The last time I came to Danzhou, I came by land from the capital of Qiongzhou, if I remember correctly, there is a river outside Danzhou City?" After listening to Zhang Xin's introduction, He Xi also slowly checked these materials with his impression of Danzhou, and asked Zhang Xin to verify the vague part of his impression.

Zhang Xin nodded and said, "Because that river is facing the north gate of Danzhou City, it is called the North Gate River." Originally, the Beimen River was directly connected to Danzhou Bay, but in recent years, because the sediment accumulation of the river channel is relatively strict, the big ships have not been able to sail to the wharf outside Danzhou City, so you can only let you go ashore on the side of Baimajing and change to a carriage. ”

"That's a pity!" Tom Wang shrugged his shoulders helplessly when he heard the news: "It seems that our navy can't be the protagonist in Danzhou!"

"Is the Executive Committee really going to fight Danzhou?" This anniversary celebration coincided with the birthday of the Danzhou Governor, and it was a three-day event, so Zhang Xin was very reluctant to miss the time to return to Sanya, so he was also ignorant of the arrangements of the Executive Committee, and he was not particularly clear.

"It's probably within the year!" He Xi thought for a while and added: "Of course, if Danzhou can be taken peacefully, then it is best not to take military means." ”

"Take it peacefully?" Zhang Xin frowned and said: "If it takes another year or two to slowly turn upside down, it is not impossible, at least it can be gradually taken under our name like Yacheng." But this year...... It's a bit harder indeed. ”

"What is the attitude of the Danzhou officials towards us now? Is the position of the officials in charge of military and political affairs firm? Is there any possibility of rebellion?" He Xi asked three questions in one breath.

"The government doesn't have much wariness of us, but I think if we show our attitude, this place will not give up resistance and let us take it in as lightly as Yacheng. Zhang Xin expressed his opinion: "Several of the main officials on the Danzhou side are not natives of Hainan Island, and their hometowns are all on the mainland, so I am afraid it is not easy for them to change their positions." ”

"If the foundation is not here, it is really difficult. He Xi nodded, but his face did not show the slightest look of embarrassment.

Since the Executive Committee has decided to take Hainan Island, whether these places choose to resist or surrender will not make a particularly big difference to Haihan. The military even hopes that the local government of Daming can take some resistance measures in a bloody manner, so that the militia army can use actual combat to train soldiers for the first time in a long time, and at the same time show the importance of military strength internally. If every place can be peacefully co-opted, then how will the military still be mixed up in the Executive Committee in the future?

Of course, this kind of opinion is at most in the mind, no one will really say it, although the entire crossing group is only a small group, but it also needs to be correct. The purpose of seizing Hainan Island was to consolidate the dominance of the Haihan regime in the region, not to fight a war for the sake of fighting a war, and if anyone could not understand the priorities, the Executive Committee would probably not be happy to see such people in power in the military.

In addition to the big carriage of the three people, there were also seven or eight carriages mixed with people and goods, the convoy arrived outside the south gate of Danzhou, and when there was still a distance of more than ten meters from the Ming army guarding the gate in front, the coachman who drove the car shouted loudly: "Director Haihan Zhang's reward is here!" After that, he threw two ingots of broken silver to the Ming soldiers on the side of the road, and the Ming soldiers were silent, silently picked up the silver from the ground, and returned to the side of the road to continue to pretend to be blind.

He Xi is accustomed to this kind of scene, Mo said that in a remote place like Danzhou, even in Guangzhou, this trick is just as useful. The Guangzhou Office sometimes needs to carry some contraband in and out of Guangzhou, all of which are used in this way to open the way with silver. No one will have trouble with the money in vain, whether it is a soldier or an officer.

When Wang Tom rarely entered and exited Daming City, he felt a little novel when he saw this situation, and couldn't help but ask: "If I take a team of people and plan to snatch the city gate, won't I go in without effort?"

Zhang Xin nodded and said: "Theoretically speaking, this is true, so when the time comes, your militia really wants to come to Danzhou, dress up in advance, and then try to control the journey from the sea to Danzhou City, so as not to let the defenders get a warning in advance." As long as you don't attract the attention of the defenders before entering the city, you can basically take the city gate safely. ”

"In this way, the artillery basically has nothing to play with. Tom Wang sighed gloatingly.

When Hue City was first attacked, a considerable part of the combat tasks of the frontal attack were undertaken by the artillery units, and the artillery commanders did absorb and summarize a set of tactics and skills for attacking the fortified city in the Hue Campaign. It's just that after the Battle of Hue, the artillery unit almost never participated in large-scale military operations again, and when Yan Chujie announced a few days ago that he was going to take Danzhou, a group of people in the army were elated as if they were celebrating a festival, which made Wang Tom look very red-eyed.

However, there is a fortified city in Danzhou, but the city defense is very loose, and with this sense of defense, Wang Tom feels that there is no pressure even if he commands the siege battle by himself. As long as a city gate can be taken down along the way, so that the follow-up militia army can have a path into the city, then even a blind man can easily win the battle.

He Xi said with a smile: "You don't have to rush to gloat, no matter how you fight, as long as you do it, then the credit for this siege war will really go to the army." ”

When Tom Wang heard this, a smile that was originally hanging on the corner of his mouth faded.

Like the army and navy of any country, the army and navy of the militia have had a natural competitive element since the day they separated. The competition for military talents, the military budget, and the qualifications for war are almost all in the competition between the two arms of the armed forces. And the biggest battle between the two sides for these limited resources is undoubtedly the actual combat record.

Since the establishment of the militia navy, although it has indeed had an excellent performance in actual combat, there are not many opportunities to actually participate in combat. The most recent actual battle has to be traced back to the battle against Liu Xiang's pirate group at the mouth of the Pearl River a year ago. Later, although it also participated in the campaign against Hue, the navy only undertook the task of sea escort and transportation, and even the last battle to destroy the South Vietnamese naval division was actually completed by the army artillery unit.

The military budget of the Navy is already surprisingly high, and if a unit with such a high cost does not have the opportunity to fight for a long time, it will certainly cause a lot of gossip. Originally, it was planned to build three steam warships, but after launching two of them, they were hastily stopped, and the keel of the third ship was temporarily canceled before it was laid, because in addition to the high cost of this kind of high-level warship and too troublesome maintenance, in fact, there is another reason that the navy does not have a foreseeable high-intensity naval battle to fight in the short term, and the existing fleet size is enough to maintain the dominance of Haihan on Hainan Island.

Originally, Wang Tom was also holding back his strength, and wanted to take advantage of the decision made by the executive committee this time to let the navy show a good hand, but after coming to Danzhou to see it, his heart was half dead -- this place is not a small bay, but the direction of the inland is mostly muddy and sandy flats, and the navy's warships will definitely not be able to dock, and there is no chance to get close to the battlefield at all. And such hydrological conditions are destined to have no Daming naval division stationed in Danzhou at all, so there will be no militia naval opponents.

But the army is different, whether it is a communication or a military visitor, the task of occupying Danzhou must be completed by them. And once the Danzhou government and the defenders took action to resist, then needless to say, the army side would definitely portray this battle as a fierce but successful victory. The military merit of capturing Danzhou will naturally be recorded on the head of the army, and the navy will also play the role of a troop carrier, at most it can put a sentry outside Danzhou Bay to block the sea passage in and out of Danzhou Bay.

Although the plan to seize Danzhou is still only on paper, Wang seems to have seen the proud faces of the army at the post-war award ceremony. The Navy plans to restart the construction of the "Majesty-class" steam-powered warships in the second half of the year, but I am afraid that when the time comes, it will be accused by some people of "spending ahead of time," and if we fail to do so, we will not be able to grab the Army's share of next year's military budget.

"This is half of the loss before the fight starts!" The more Tom Wang thought about it, the more frustrated he felt, such a great opportunity, but the navy could only play a supporting role, and the scene was almost robbed by the army.

"I think we should study the possibility of peacefully liberating Danzhou!" Wang Tom raised his head and said to the two of them with a solemn expression.