"So this is the current naval force of South Vietnam?" Qiao Zhiya put down his binoculars and muttered to himself in disbelief.

There were a few small boats floating in the sea about three nautical miles away, and if it weren't for the fact that the South Vietnamese flag was flying on them with the help of telescopes, it would have been hard for Qiao Zhiya to believe that these dilapidated fishing boats were actually piloted by the regular South Vietnamese army. He also participated in the fight for the river a year ago when the Hai Han militia was in charge of the war, and although the surface forces of South Vietnam were weak, there were still some ships with a displacement of more than 50 tons. Over the past year, the decline in the military strength of South Vietnam has been so great that it can be reflected in the ships used, and to count on these small boats to stop the offensive launched by the Hai Han militia from the sea is basically tantamount to using the mantis arm as a car.

Probably knowing that their strength was too different from their opponents, these South Vietnamese small ships did not dare to get too close to Haihan's fleet, but only watched and watched from afar on the periphery. And Qiao Zhiya has little interest in commanding the fleet to exterminate these poor small ships, the ammunition required to sink these small ships must be more valuable than the targets themselves, and the use of large ships against them is really worth the loss.

"Dong Hai and Hoi An, two of South Vietnam's largest shipbuilding bases, were destroyed by us last year. At that time, the port of Hoi An could carry more than 10 people, and almost all of them were towed back to Sanya. The fishing boats and small cargo ships used in the Iron Furnace Harbor and the Yingge Sea Salt Farm are basically the troops that were towed back from Hoi An at that time. Wang Tom said ostentatiously: "Pressed by us, South Vietnam does not have the luxury of restoring the shipbuilding industry to the previous level." ”

"Even if it recovers to the previous level, it's useless!" Qiao Zhiya raised his hand and pointed to his own warships around him: "Although our lineup is not strong, it is more than enough to beat them!"

Qiao Zhiya's statement is not an exaggeration, although the fleet sent to blockade the waters near Hue Province only accounts for half of the lineup, but looking at the entire Indochina Peninsula, there is no sea force comparable to these warships.

On January 24, the Haihan flotilla, which had been doing nothing offshore, finally used force when it intercepted a South Vietnamese sea vessel. Instead of stopping and surrendering after the warning shelling, the ship tried to flee and was caught up in two "Exploration-class" warships from behind. The second round of shelling hit the ship's rudder, forcing it to slowly stop. However, in the face of the flanking attack of the two Haihan warships, the crew of this ship even tried to use bows and arrows and arquebuses to carry out a dying struggle. This action made Qiao Zhiya, who personally commanded the pursuit on the warship, furious, and ordered the warship to open fire again. So after two more rounds of shelling on the side of the ship at a distance of only a dozen meters, the restless opponent finally gave up resistance completely. Qiao Zhiya took out his special HK416 automatic rifle and put it on his body, and was about to go up to the ship to see the situation in person, but was blocked by a person.

"Why are you stopping me?" Qiao Zhiya didn't pay much attention to Xie Li, the first mate of the militia on the ship, and waved his hand to signal him to get out of the way while asking.

"Captain Joe, in accordance with the Regulations of Maritime Operations, you may not leave the command ship during the operation unless it is in danger of sinking. Xie Li stood still and didn't even move, without the slightest intention of getting out of the way.

Qiao Zhiya couldn't help but laugh a little, there was indeed such a clause in the "Regulations on Maritime Operations" formulated by the Military Commission, but he never thought that he would be blocked by naturalized civilian officers on this ground. According to the combat regulations formulated by the Central Military Commission, all Haihan officers are not allowed to take the lead in boarding enemy ships to carry out search or combat missions when the enemy's situation is unknown, and when this happens, naturalized officers have the obligation to come forward to stop and stop them.

This is not only for the sake of the safety of the traverser, but also for the sake of the entire naval combat system. At present, most of the captains in the navy fleet are naturalized civilian officers, and only a few senior command positions are held by traversers, which is a heavily scarce resource. This is also an important reason why Wang Tom sent a report to the Executive Committee to ask for someone, and the Executive Committee finally agreed to transfer Qiao Zhiya to serve in the Navy.

If something happens to these senior officers in the course of their missions, it is not only a matter of their personal safety, but also the entire combat system will be affected by this, such as the radio stations needed to maintain contact at sea, some high-level navigation tools, charts with a high level of secrecy, and the operational plans and arrangements of the Military Commission, etc., all of which can only be mastered by the officers who cross the plane, and once there is a loss of personnel, it will inevitably affect the implementation of the combat mission, so it will be listed in the "Regulations on Maritime Operations" There are provisions restricting certain risk-taking actions by senior officers.

"Actually, it's not dangerous anymore, you look at the boat on the other side. Qiao Zhiya pointed to the South Vietnamese sailing ship, which had been beaten to pieces, and justified his actions: "You said that this ship is broken like this, what other risks can there be?"

"Captain Qiao, the lowly duty is only to act in accordance with the Maritime Combat Regulations, and if you insist on acting, then the lowly duty can only report your action to Major Wang later. Xie Li replied without humility or arrogance.

Qiao Zhiya had to be impressed by the first mate on his ship, when he set off, he only knew that this Xie Li was a Ming soldier from Yazhou Shuizhai, and it was recommended to Wang Tom by Luo Shengdong, it is said that he has some real skills, but his personality is too upright, and he has offended many people in the army. Now it seems that it is not clear whether there is a real ability, but this upright character seems to be true. Qiao Zhiya has also participated in several military operations since he crossed over, and he has never seen a naturalized civilian officer who is so stubborn and dares to defy his superiors.

Of course, Qiao Zhiya is not worried about what trouble he will bring to himself after he makes a small report to Wang Tom, but if this kind of thing can be avoided, it is better to avoid it as much as possible. Before leaving, Wang Tom specially reminded him that as a senior cadre parachuted, his words and deeds will be magnified and observed, and the naturalized civilian soldiers under his command will naturally not say anything, but it cannot be ignored that there are still many people in the group who have been wearing colored glasses to look at their members from overseas, once they make mistakes, they may be magnified as black spots, even if the executive committee can do not listen to and believe partially, but it will inevitably affect his personal image, and even the reputation of the North American Gang.

Considering these problems, Qiao Zhiya could only shrug his shoulders helplessly and said, "Okay, you have a point." I'm here and I'm not going anywhere. ”

In fact, if you follow the rules of the combat regulations, it is indeed not Qiao Zhiya's turn to come forward. Each ship was equipped with a certain number of armed infantry, with the "Explorer" having two squads, and the larger "Expedition" having a reinforced platoon. The main task of these infantry was to board captured enemy ships in naval battles to carry out control, or to carry out small-scale landing missions on the coast, islands, etc. If we look at the classification of the military branches in later generations, these infantry can barely be classified into the ranks of the "Marine Corps" -- this is one of the ideas of Wang Tom for the structure of the naval services.

Soon the sailors threw out the iron hooks attached to the cables, hooked the side of the enemy ship, and slowly closed the distance between the two ships. Once close enough, the sailors laid the reverse planks with fixtures on the sides of the two ships, creating a passage to each other's decks. Despite the fact that the passage was only two feet wide and would be constantly bumped and undulated by the waves, the specially trained infantrymen had already jumped one by one on the deck of the enemy ship with great rapidity.

The deck was littered with shell-shattered planks, and a few visible blood stains on the deck indicated that someone had been injured in the shelling, but the empty deck indicated that most of the wounded had returned to the cabin and hid - which meant that the other side had not really given up on resistance completely.

To deal with this situation, the navy has a corresponding plan, and it will no longer be injured by the enemy hiding in the cabin because of insufficient defense, as it used to catch pirates near Wanshan Port. The militiamen of the two squads quickly lined up a firing formation on the deck and fired two rounds at the closed hatch, which immediately smashed the two wooden hatches. Then the officer ordered the bayonet to be loaded, and two strong soldiers stepped forward with a special stake for the door, and the hundred-pound iron stake slammed it through, and the split hatch was smashed open at once. The militiamen with rifles rushed in, and when they saw the guy trying to resist, they stabbed them with bayonets.

The feeble resistance in the cabin was quickly suppressed by the armed militia, and the surviving captives, under the command of the militia, carried the bodies in the cabin to the deck one by one. At the time of the previous shelling, two of the ship's crew were killed on the spot, and several others were wounded, and then they hid in the main cabin and were wounded by the muskets outside, and then the militia rushed in and stabbed a few more, and the final result was that ten of the twenty-seven people on board were killed, and six others of varying severity were killed, and only eleven survived intact.

Like the previous captured South Vietnamese merchant ships, the militiamen also found seven boxes of more than 13,000 taels of silver on this ship, and a smaller box containing more than 40 gold bars two fingers wide and one finger thick. However, the militia soon discovered something unusual—several of the captives were distinctly more pretty, not like ordinary sailors.

The militia who boarded the ship quickly fed back this information to his own warship, Qiao Zhiya really wanted to go over and interrogate these prisoners in person, but seeing that Xie Li had been staring at him, he had to temporarily dispel this unrealistic idea, and asked the militia who returned to the ship to report the news: "Then can this ship be taken away?"

"The tail rudder has been shattered to pieces by our shells, and the water in the lower compartment is relatively strict, and if you want to take this ship away, it is estimated that it will take one to two days to repair it. ”

"Then we transferred the supplies and prisoners to our ship, and scuttled the ship as we evacuated. Qiao Zhiya did not hesitate and immediately gave the order. Although there is no need to worry about encountering any opponents in this sea area, it is really not worth delaying for a day or two for such a broken ship, and Qiao Zhiya does not have such a good patience to wait. Of course, the most important thing is that Qiao Zhiya wants to try this group of prisoners as much as possible, and the other party's behavior is really a little suspicious.

The militiamen and sailors spent an hour cleaning up the enemy ship, transferring supplies and personnel on board, then scuttling through the bottom of the ship and letting it sink slowly, leaving the body of the crew and three seriously wounded to be buried on board. After completing these things, the two Haihan warships slowly turned around and headed south to return to the station.

"If you want to live, you have to be honest about the situation. Qiao Zhiya stared at the prisoners kneeling on the deck with their hands tied behind their backs, and threatened viciously with a straight face: "If you want to play tricks with me, I promise that he will not see the sun set today!"

After Qiao Zhiya's eyes patrolled around the captive, he picked the target: "Bring this guy to the front!"

The two militiamen stepped forward and pulled a young man up and dragged him to Qiao Zhiya, and as soon as the militia let go, this guy collapsed in front of Qiao Zhiya.

"If I'm not mistaken, this fabric on your body should be the flower satin from Guangzhou's 'Yongfeng Cloth Shop', this is not a fabric that ordinary sailors can afford!" Qiao Zhiya squatted down, gently twisted the clothes on the man's body with his hand, and said: "Sue me, who are you? Why are you on this ship?"

It's not that Qiao Zhiya is well-informed, but this "Yongfeng Cloth Shop" happens to be the first mainland cloth merchant to cooperate with Haihan, and is also one of the shareholders of "Qiong Lianfa", this kind of satin is sold very well in Shengli Port, many travelers have bought and ordered one or two sets of clothes, and Qiao Zhiya's wardrobe has a set of pajamas made of the same fabric.

After Qiao Zhiya finished speaking, he saw that the man didn't react at all, and patted his head and said, "You must not understand my words, who is that, come and translate!"

At that moment, a soldier from Annan stepped forward and translated these words in Annan's spoken language, and the man's face changed after hearing this, but he did not answer. Seeing this, Qiao Zhiya said: "Ask the others, if you are willing to stand up and testify his identity, you can live." ”

Sure enough, a few of the captives were a little nervous when they heard about this condition, but they seemed to be afraid, and no one stood up to pick this head. Qiao Zhiya was not a soft-hearted person, and when he saw that it didn't work, he immediately issued a new order: "Sue them, if you don't say it, you will wait to be thrown into the sea one by one!"

Qiao Zhiya waited for his subordinates to finish translating, then casually pointed to a wounded man and said, "Throw one down first!"

This unlucky guy only injured his arm, so he was able to follow the others out of the scuttled sailboat when he transferred just now, and he didn't follow him to become a funeral, but he didn't expect to come to this ship and not end his bad luck, and he was directly used by Qiao Zhiya as a tool to kill chickens and monkeys. Several militiamen came up and raised their hands and feet, carried this guy to the side of the boat, and threw him out with all his strength with a shout. I heard the man cry in the air, and he fell into the sea with a thud, his hands were tied behind his back, and he had external injuries on his body, so he would definitely die if he fell into the sea.

Qiao Zhiya didn't speak, just stared at these frightened captives, and after waiting for a full minute, Qiao Zhiya pointed to the next and said, "Keep throwing!"

The man he pointed at immediately shouted, and the militia in charge of the translation immediately reported: "Report to Captain Joe, he said he was willing to recruit!"

"Toast without eating and drinking!" Qiao Zhiya couldn't help but proudly show off a slang phrase that he had just learned.

The lucky person who picked up a life from the Ghost Gate Pass was like pouring beans from a bamboo tube, and explained everything Qiao Zhiya wanted to know. The young man who was seen by Qiao Zhiya was indeed not an ordinary person, he was the fifth son of Nguyen Thong, the powerful minister who actually held power in South Vietnam, Nguyen Zhu. The task of Nguyen Zhu to go to sea by boat this time was to go south to Batavia and ask for help from the local Dutch, in other words, to pay for the Dutch to intervene in the civil war in Annam.

After several encounters, the South Vietnamese side has fully realized the gap in combat effectiveness between its own army and the Hai Han militia. At this time, the Portuguese, the main foreign aid of South Vietnam, was also forced to give up under the pressure of Haihan, not only withdrew all mercenaries and military advisers, but also completely terminated the arms deal. South Vietnam gained a little respite from the Hai Han side in the second half of last year through peace talks, but the rulers also knew very well that this temporary peace would not have much effect on South Vietnam's prospects, and that the only way to maintain their rule was to get the Hai Han people to withdraw from Annam completely.

It is certainly impossible to achieve such an effect on its own, and the South Vietnamese rulers knew this very well. Apart from the betrayed Portuguese, what other forces in the region could compete with the Haihan? There were not many answers, one was the Ming in the north, and the Dutch in the south. It is definitely not practical to choose the Ming Dynasty, first of all, the Haihan people are now under the banner of the people of the Ming Dynasty, and they have a very good reputation in Liangguang, whether it is the government or the people, they all have a good impression of the Haihan people. If you send an envoy to ask the Ming official for help, the effect is worrying, and if you are not careful, I am afraid that it will have the opposite effect, but it will create more feelings of salvation for the Haihan people. In contrast, the court of South Vietnam decided to send an emissary to the Dutch in the south for help, and Nguyen Zhu was the one who took on this task.