Zhao Cheng was not surprised to find information about Haihan goods here, glassware, rum, soap and other goods appeared in the goods listed for sale, but the types of Haihan goods seen here are significantly less than those of Fuguang, and the supply quantity is not much, and the price is also high. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

For example, there are many kinds of Haihan glass stationery on the market in Guangdong, but there are only the most basic styles here, and the price is more than double that of Guangdong. The price of the glass mirror is even more outrageous, the price of a five-inch round mirror is a full hundred taels of silver higher than the FOB price of Shengli Harbor, and the degree of profiteering is comparable to the situation when Haihan first began to put the glass mirror on the market, but the quantity of this batch of goods is too small, and the total price is less than three thousand taels of silver.

But for the smugglers who come here to purchase goods, the price is not the primary factor they consider, whether the thing is good or not is the last word, the supply here is not stable, most of the Haihan goods are here and there, so as long as someone thinks that they can sell this batch of goods, they will not hesitate to eat it in this market. The two observed on the side for a while, and sure enough, several people saw the information of Haihan's goods and immediately copied it and went through the formalities. After a while, a person came out of the courtyard inside, and picked up the several wooden plaques with Haihan's cargo information one by one, Xu Ke stepped forward and asked, saying that these batches of goods had been sold.

"This money should be in our Haihan's pocket!" Zhao Cheng clenched his fists and thought to himself: "Haihan has never entered Zhejiang, but he has fattened these smuggling merchants, which is really a pity! If it can be operated by the Ministry of Commerce, the annual turnover will not exceed one million, and the navy will probably be able to benefit from building a few more warships to launch." ”

On the one hand, the two provinces control the market by controlling large agents such as Li Jifeng and Xu Xinsu, and on the other hand, the strong maritime armed forces ensure the voice and control of Haihan in the maritime trade. This set of operation methods has been proven feasible and stable in Fuzhou and Guangzhou provinces, and the annual trade benefits brought to Haihan are also very considerable, and it will probably continue to be promoted and used here after Haihan enters Zhejiang in the future.

The two of them stayed in the exchange for more than an hour, and saw the content and method of trading here almost the same, before they came out and found another place to eat. In order to facilitate conversation, Xu Ke specially asked for a private room, the little two handed over the menu, Zhao Cheng flipped through it at will, and found that the menu was actually similar to that of Sanya, drawing the appearance of the dishes with colored ink, supplemented by a simple text introduction, and he suspected that the person in charge of this place was following the practice of Haihan.

In the past few years, the Ming merchants who have been to Sanya, not 10,000, but also thousands, many of them from other regions outside Fuguang, and there are also many people who have seen the various business skills in the area under the rule of Haihan, and some of the content that is easy to imitate is copied back. It's not too difficult to implement a small technique like this for drawing illustrations on the menu, it's just that it costs a little more money to hire an artist.

The price of the dishes in this restaurant is not cheaper than that of the Haisha Gang, but the finished product delivered is slightly better, although it is not "value for money", but at least the cost performance is better than the day before.

After the two finished eating, they walked around the dock again, but they still didn't meet the heads of the Sanlin Gang. There was neither a fortified city nor a shore fort in this place, and the only defense facility was a camp in the eastern mountain pass, but the stone wall that was only a little more than a foot above Zhao Cheng did not have much defensive power, and the army's 12-pounder cannon was enough to destroy it, and it was only better than nothing. As for the individual equipment of the pirates observed, it is still dominated by cold weapons such as guns, spears, knives and bows, and it is also difficult to cause any trouble for the coalition forces.

What Zhao Cheng really worried about was that the pirate dens at the north and south ends of Liuheng Island had large areas of mountainous and hilly terrain, and although the altitude of the high place was only one or two hundred meters, this complex terrain was bound to bring a lot of trouble to the post-war cleanup. The coalition forces have limited troops, and they don't want to waste too much time on Liuheng Island, after all, this place is only the southern gateway to the entire Zhoushan Islands, and there are still a lot of islands waiting for the coalition forces to occupy. If it drags on Liuheng Island for too long, first, it will affect the implementation of the original battle plan, second, it will give the local pirates more breathing time to organize a resistance, and third, it may leave space and time for the Ningbo government to intervene in this matter.

Although the coalition forces had already considered the situation of encountering the intervention of the local government here before they set off, in principle, they would still try their best to avoid conflicts with the authorities, after all, Haihan wanted to spread out a trade network in Zhejiang, and he still had to deal with the government, and he didn't need to press people to the ground and beat them up if they could achieve the effect of scaring people. Therefore, the plan of the coalition forces is to eliminate all kinds of civilian armed forces in the waters of the Zhoushan Islands as quickly as possible, and to deter the Ningbo government by force, so that it will not dare to intervene easily.

In the afternoon of the same day, Xu Ke and his entourage left the Shuangyu Waterway and continued to detour north along the coastline of Liuheng Island. After rounding the northernmost headland of Dong Lang Tsui, the sailing ship turned southeast to reconnoiter the coastline northeast of Rokkoko Island, which had not yet been visited. The coastal terrain here is relatively flat, mostly tidal flats, and there are no good port conditions, only a few fishing boats operate here.

However, when the boat approached the waterway formed between the eastern end of Rokhyung Island and the neighboring Wonsan Island, they found that there were multiple piers built on the shores on both sides. This sea area is sheltered by islands and reefs such as Liangtan Island and Yuanshan Island, but it forms a large haven. If you hadn't gone around Liuheng Island like this, it would have been easy to ignore this place.

Xu Ke sighed: "There are too many corners like this in the Zhoushan Islands, and it is indeed too difficult to find out one by one." ”

Zhao Cheng also agreed: "The coalition fleet has only about 100 combat ships, and it is indeed not easy to clear such a large sea area. However, the leaders have their hands and eyes in the sky, and there will definitely be a way to solve it. ”

Xu Ke saw that his face was very determined, and couldn't help but ask: "Why do you trust Haihan's boss so much? I always feel that Haihan people are like omnipotent gods and Buddhas in your minds." ”

Zhao Chengzheng said: "That's right, in our hearts, the leaders are really like gods and Buddhas. Boss Xu, if you have a chance in the future, you can go to Qiongzhou Island to see the situation there. When you learn about what the chiefs are doing on the ground, you'll feel the same way we do. ”

Of course, the Haihan group of traversers are not gods and Buddhas with great powers, but they have used the knowledge and technology that have surpassed this era for hundreds of years to achieve achievements in a short period of time that may have taken dozens to hundreds of years in the original historical process, and these incredible measures are naturally easy to be regarded as "miracles" in the eyes of ordinary people in this era. In addition, Haihan has special brainwashing and propaganda methods in this field, and after a long time, it has formed a high-ranking and sacred image among the naturalized people. Mo said that there are many fanatical believers who worship the chiefs as saints, and are willing to sacrifice their lives for Haihan and the chiefs.

Xu Ke has never been to the area controlled by the Haihan, so it is naturally difficult to experience such an ideological atmosphere, but he has seen these former Ming people and now the naturalized people of the Haihan Dynasty so highly respected the Haihan people, and even the imperial court military attache like Xu Yuzhuo is also the head of the Haihan horse, and completely obeys the arrangement of the Haihan people in the battle plan, and he really wants to find an opportunity to go to Sanya, which is rumored to be the first port in the South China Sea, to find out after the matter in Zhejiang is over, to see if the Haihan people are really magical to do anything, and to see those legendary big iron ships, whether the iron car really exists.

After completing the reconnaissance mission around Liuheng Island, the boat taken by Xu Ke and his party headed south overnight and returned to Shipu Port. That night, Xu Ke and Zhao Cheng, who were tired from the journey, reported the harvest of the trip to the headquarters. The information they collected on the ground was a detail that was difficult to reflect on the battle map, and even Ma Ling's previous confession was much unmentioned. Of course, Ma Ling may not have deliberately concealed it, if Xu Ke and Zhao Cheng did not intend to investigate many things, it would be difficult for ordinary people to detect all kinds of hidden secrets in the middle. For example, if it weren't for someone like Zhao Cheng who knew how to go to the exchange institutions in the area controlled by the Sanlin Gang, Xu Ke would probably not be able to understand the real role that this structure could play in bulk trade, except for being surprised.

From a military point of view, the private forces on Liuheng Island do not have much threat in terms of defensive strength, whether it is at sea or on land, the coalition forces can easily defeat the opponent with well-trained professional soldiers and excellent weapons and equipment, the only thing that worries the command is that the battlefield area is too large, and the coalition forces are difficult to rely on the surprise war to completely sweep the armed personnel on the island at one time, and once the time drags on, the situation is likely to produce unexpected variables, which will affect the follow-up battle plan.

But no matter what kind of difficulties there are, the attack on Liuheng Island is already ready to fly. Combat materials, personnel, and ships are all in place, and it is up to the coalition command to come up with a specific plan of action.

Ma Ling has been sitting on the crater of a volcano for the past two days, although he has temporarily received preferential treatment from the Haihan people through his statement, and has not been imprisoned on an uninhabited island in the harbor like the others in Shipu, but he also knows that the intelligence information he confided to the Haihan people has a great impact, and it is very likely that he will be implicated afterwards. On this day, the Haihan people put forward a new request to him, and in the next attack on Liuheng Island, he must also accompany the army to act as a guide, and to assist the coalition forces in identifying the bandit leaders on the island after the war. The only thing to be thankful for is that Ma Ling can not have to show up in public, but only point the direction and goals of the attackers in the fleet. Although Ma Ling was unwilling to be driven by the Haihan people, at this time, he was under the fence and it was important to save his life, so he could only reluctantly agree to come down first.

After the coalition fleet was stationed in Seokpo for a few days, the blockade measures gradually wore no effect, and the news slowly spread in the surrounding area. The sudden arrival of the Haihan people was indeed a big stimulus for the local people, and many people did not know what kind of armed force the Haihan was, so in the first few days, many people either left Shipu Port by boat after hearing the news, or fled by land into the mountains in the north, and the mood of the people left behind was also extremely unstable.

Fortunately, the Haihan militia also had a lot of experience in dealing with this kind of scene, and sent a few surrendered Ming army officers to various villages to appease the people, and used real money to hire people to work as people in the dock area outside the Shipu Guardhouse -- this combined fleet had more than 100 ships and more than 3,000 people, and the required logistics personnel were also quite large, and most of them had to be recruited from the local area.

The people saw that the Shipu Guard Station was still under the banner of the Ming Dynasty, but it was just a part of the people who colluded with pirates, and now they came out to work and had money to get, and gradually settled down. As for why the newly arrived Haihan fleet blocked the port, they also gave a very clear answer -- to prevent pirates from taking advantage of the situation and sneaking into Shipu City.

However, as the coalition command had guessed, there were also pirates in the port of Shipo, and a few days later, someone rowed out of the port at night and went to the north to report the news.

The first to get the news was not the Haisha Gang, which was closer to Shipu Port, but the Sanlin Gang, which was a little farther away. However, in addition to reporting the origin of this fleet, the spies who sent the letter did not have any clear information on its establishment, the size of the force, the number of ships, and the purpose of its visit, so the actual reference value was also very limited.

The three Lin brothers also attached great importance to the news after learning the news, and called the messenger to interrogate the details repeatedly, but except for the undoubted information that "the Haihan fleet took Shipu City in half a day", the other links were quite vague. The Lin brothers attached great importance to the sender's statement that there were "thousands of warships" in the Haihan fleet, because Lin Xing, the eldest of the three brothers, had indeed been to Sanya two years ago, and had seen the huge Haihan iron ships as huge as mountains in Shengli Harbor, as well as the rows of Haihan warships docked on the east bank of Shengli Harbor. Regarding the naval armed strength of the Haihan people, Lin Xing has a deeper understanding than others.

"The Haihan people have always occupied offshore islands and reefs as a way to expand their territory, and they have done so along the coasts of Fuguang and Guangzhou. If the Haihan fleet really went north to Zhejiang, it would inevitably choose a suitable place to settle down. Lin Xing analyzed the two younger brothers: "I just don't know if the place they chose is Shipu Port, or if they have other plans." ”

"Shipu Port is the location of the imperial court's guard, even if the Haihan people are bold enough to occupy it, if the imperial court wants to liquidate it in the future, they still can't stay, right?"

"If the Haihan people want to do it with peace of mind, the imperial court may not be able to do anything. Lin Xing shook his head and sighed: "The Haihan people are not the same way as you and me, they play a much bigger game." ”