It is only about 300 nautical miles away from the Abuna Islands in a straight line, and it can be reached in two to three days at the speed of a Haehan sailing ship, which is about a third shorter than the distance from Ambuna Island to Belitung Island. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info Haihan wants to control the overall situation of the Strait of Malacca, and it is undoubtedly an excellent choice to settle in this place.

Of course, no matter how good the choice is, there must be enough resources to implement it, and in the first two years, Haihan's ability was only enough to extend his tentacles to the line of Ambuna Island, and he was not able to build a new colony on the Strait of Malacca. However, at present, Haihan has achieved a phased victory along the coast of Daming, and he can finally put his energy back to the south.

On December 6, 1633, on the sixth day of the winter month of the sixth year of Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty, Yan Chujie planted the red and blue flag symbolizing the Haihan regime on the coast of Singapore Island, and named the island Star Island on behalf of the Executive Committee.

At the beginning of the year, Haihan sent troops to capture two fortresses set up by the Spaniards in Taipei, and then sent troops from Fujian to Jiangsu and Zhejiang to attack the Zhoushan Islands outside Hangzhou Bay. At the beginning of September, Wang Tom led a team to Miyako Island and exterminated the remnants of the Eighteen Shiba, who had been worrying the Executive Committee. Then Yan Chujie led the team to the south for military exercises, which took more than two months to make a big circle in the South China Sea, and finally came to Xingdao at the entrance of the Strait of Malacca to plant the flag. It took Haihan a year to clear the obstacles in the road of expansion, and extended the actual control area to the north and south for about 400 nautical miles.

In February, the peasant army invaded Hebei and captured Zhaozhou, Xishan, Shunde, Zhending, and other cities, and defeated the regular army led by Zuo Liangyu at Xingtai. In the same month, Kong Youde and Geng Jingzhong abandoned Dengzhou City and fled from the sea, and the war in Shandong finally came to an end, but these two rebel generals went to surrender the wild boar skin outside the pass with artillery technology, leaving a very serious aftermath for the Ming Dynasty.

In July, the Jin soldiers conquered Lushun, an important town in eastern Liaodong, and the officers such as Huang Long and Li Weiluan, the chief military officer, and the guerrilla Li Weiluan and other officers died in battle, and the generals who led this Houjin army included Kong Youde, who defected from the war in Shandong.

At the same time when the Haihan fleet was cruising the South China Sea to expand its territory, the Central Plains peasant army attacked Huguang and Sichuan all the way south under the encirclement and interception of the official army, and almost all the hinterland of the Ming Dynasty fell into the flames of civil strife. Throughout the year, the Ming Dynasty has been in the midst of internal and external troubles, the territory of Liaodong has been clean, the momentum of the Jin army entering the customs is aggressive, and the rebellion of the peasant army in the country has not been completely resolved, and the entire empire seems to have been crumbling. At the same time, in order to escape the war, the upper echelons of society who had money and access began to pour in large numbers to the relatively stable Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and even southward to Fuguang, bringing false prosperity to these coastal areas.

The rapid expansion of the new regimes and the twilight of the old empires are unfolding in the Far East. So far, except for Fuguang and Guangzhou, Haihan has not exerted much influence on the internal and external crises faced by the Ming Dynasty, and is basically still in the position of a bystander. For Haihan, it was far more important to occupy the sea choke point in the Far East as soon as possible than to interfere with the Ming Dynasty. The chaos of the Ming Dynasty just happened to allow more wealth and immigrants to join in and pour into Haihan's rule, which was not a bad thing for Haihan.

In 1633, more than 70,000 naturalized people were registered with the Ministry of Civil Affairs of Haihan, an increase of 40% over the previous year, and the proportion of naturalized people in the population of Hainan Island, the main base of Haihan, also increased from 30% to 50%. However, relatively speaking, the places with a higher proportion of naturalized people are often newly opened colonies, because most of the people sent to these places to engage in development have already obtained the status of naturalized citizens, and the rest are mostly in the investigation period, and in order to stimulate the enthusiasm of population migration, the expatriate stationing can effectively shorten the naturalization inspection time of new immigrants and obtain naturalized citizenship faster.

For example, the vast majority of the thousands of people who will move in in the next six months will come to settle down as naturalized people.

"We will build a military base and a trading port here, and in a few years it will become a regional trade center, which will to some extent replace the functions and status of Batavia. Yan Chujie unabashedly promoted Haihan's ambitions to his allies: "The Dutch will not make concessions in the negotiations, which will not affect the development of the situation, and even if they hold the stronghold of Batavia in the future, they will only slowly decline." ”

"What about Johor?Speaking of which, this is also the territory of Johor, will Haihan use force to solve this matter?" Zheng Zheng asked with concern.

Johor is located at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, separated from Sing Dao by a strait more than 1,000 meters wide. In the past, the stronghold established by the Johor State on Sing Dao was completely destroyed by the Portuguese, but this did not mean that they had completely abandoned their claim to this land. If Haihan came here to establish a stronghold, it is really difficult to predict what kind of attitude the Johor parliament will have. If we only look at the relationship between countries, it is very likely that Johor has a hostile attitude towards Haihan, after all, Portugal has an alliance with Haihan, and in Johor's eyes, these two groups are of course the same thing.

"If they are honest, they can say anything, and if there are differences, they can be resolved through negotiations, but if they try to resolve territorial disputes by force, then we don't mind giving them a good lesson." Yan Chujie's answer was ambiguous and very official.

However, Zheng Zheng has been dealing with Haihan for several years, and he has long understood the ability of these high-ranking Haihan officials to play haha. From Yan Chujie's answer, he can be sure of at least two things, first, the Haihan people have not greeted Johor before this move, and second, the Haihan people will not hesitate to start a war in order to occupy this place.

Haihan's combat power will be above that of Johor, Zheng Zheng is sure of this, after all, Johor can't even beat the Portuguese, and the Portuguese are Haihan's defeated generals, the gap in strength between the two sides is still obvious, so it's no wonder that Yan Chujie has such confidence. However, from Annan's standpoint, Zheng Zheng really hopes that Johor can do something, after all, the dead friends are not dead and poor, and the strength of the surrounding countries is weakened by the war, which is obviously good for Annan.

Since Yan Chujie said that Haihan wanted to build a regional trade center here, Annan and Champa naturally could not miss this good opportunity to make a fortune, and Zheng Zheng and Fan Ji expressed their intention to participate on behalf of their respective countries. The strategic significance of a place like Sing Dao can be seen at a glance on the nautical chart provided by Haihan, and there is no need to explain too much at all, and Annan and Champa themselves certainly cannot afford to cross the sea to expand their territory here, but it is also good to be able to follow Haihan to come over and make some benefits.

Of course, the expedition in Sing Tao is not just a flag planting event, but also a preliminary topographic survey of the port to prepare for the next infrastructure project. The military will station a force here to declare the Haihan occupation of the area to the surrounding countries.

On the third day of the fleet's arrival, a Portuguese fleet spotted smoke rising from the shore as it passed through nearby waters and leaned over to check on the situation. For the Portuguese, in order to ensure the safety of this shipping lane, it was necessary to uproot the armed strongholds and population settlements along the strait one by one, but what they did not expect was that this time it was not the Johoreans who did not know whether they were alive or dead, but a large Haihan fleet.

In order to avoid suspicion, the Portuguese merchant ship did not get too close to the coast, and after watching from a distance for a while, it turned around and left. But it is conceivable that the Portuguese should have a very complicated mood at this time, they want to monopolize the Strait of Malacca, eager to exclude all competitors from this area, but the strength of Haihan is there, it is clear that they are not the object they can drive away, fortunately Haihan is at least an ally, and their entry into this area is not too big a direct threat to Malacca City.

As for whether Haihan's fleet happened to pass by here, the Portuguese probably wouldn't have much hope for it. Because in the past two years, they have never seen Haihan warships set foot in this place, and according to past experience, as long as Haihan warships appear, most of this area will be included in Haihan's rule.

In the two days following the landing, in addition to three trestle bridges for ships to dock near the coast, the military also built ten assembled boat-shaped houses on the shore and the most basic outer fortifications. When completed, this temporary military base will be able to accommodate 200 to 300 soldiers for a long time, and a coastal defense battery facing the sea will be built near the barracks.

The only thing that makes Yan Chujie feel that there is no natural harbor in the real sense here, so in the follow-up port construction and defense deployment, Haihan must pay more energy and investment. The tentatively selected camp is located on the opposite coast of Sentosa Island, which is one of Singapore's major container terminals in another time and space, and the terrain is just right. Although it is not as good as natural harbors such as Cam Ranh Bay in Annan and Kaohsiung Port in Tainan, it is certainly much better than the islands of Ambuna and Belitung, at least the port conditions here are no problem to berth cargo ships of 10,000 tons or even larger, and the future development potential is also large enough.

The real problem that made Yan Chujie feel a headache was not the future development and construction of Star Island, in this regard, Haihan had too much theoretical accumulation and practical experience for reference, as long as there was enough manpower and capital investment, it was only time to build a new colony, but who should hand over the command of the garrison here, which made him feel quite embarrassed.

Given the geographical location and strategic significance of Sing Dao, it will definitely be the command center of the military in the South China Sea for some time to come, and the commander here will undoubtedly be the control of the armed forces in the South China Sea.

Both of them had military experience before participating in the crossing, and their professional quality was comparable, and they both participated in large and small military operations after the crossing, and were stationed overseas for a long time, and their ability to lead troops in training and command operations is also obvious to all. Yan Chujie personally wants Mu Xiabai to be a little more, after all, Mu Xiabai is seven or eight years older than Roger, and he is more stable in handling things, and he has always led troops in the South China Sea region, and it is reasonable to rise one more level. After Roger left Hainan Island, his service experience in the South China Sea was basically limited to Ambuna Island, which was relatively insufficient.

However, Roger has an advantage that no one in the military can catch up with, that is, he was stationed at Changi Naval Base in Singapore for a short period of half a year with the U.S. Navy's Seventh Fleet during his pre-crossing service experience.

Of course, whether this can be regarded as an advantage depends on how to say it, after all, Changi Naval Base is a product of a few hundred years in another time and space, Singapore at that time is not really comparable to the deserted Star Island now, and Changi Naval Base is a land reclamation at the eastern end of Star Island, and the current Haihan does not have the engineering ability to copy a naval base for Roger to use.

But Roger's brief service in the area did help him adapt more quickly to the geography and climate as a commander, and he was more familiar with the sea conditions than Mushaber, who had sailed through the Straits of Malacca and made a brief stop here in Singapore. For the future garrison with the navy as the main body, a commander who is familiar with the sea conditions and experienced in navigation is obviously more suitable.

In fact, the Military Commission had already discussed who should be appointed as the commander here, but it did not come to a conclusion that the majority agreed. Both candidates have their own strengths, and it's hard to simply say which one is better than the other. Yan Chujie went south to transfer them together this time, and he also wanted to see the performance of the two of them in combination with the actions of this time, as well as what the two planned for the future.

Taking advantage of the time spent in Xingdao, Yan Chujie found a night, called the two to his tent, dismissed the guards, and then confessed the opinion of the military commissar to them.

"The criteria for employing personnel of the Military Commission are unified, and whoever has the greatest advantage and who is more suitable for this place will stay here as a commander. Note that the advantages I am talking about are not only the accumulated military exploits in the past, but also the quality of the person himself. Yan Chujie emphasized: "I hope you can talk about your advantages from an objective point of view, so that the Central Military Commission can have some reference." ”

"Respect the old and love the young, Lao Mu will say it first. Roger spoke first, but took the initiative to give the opportunity to speak first. Of course, in a one-on-one debate, it is not necessarily a good thing to speak first, and it is very likely that the opponent will catch the handle in the words and fight back. (To be continued.) )