August 18, 1630, Qiongzhou Strait.

Standing on the bow deck, Tom Wang looked out at the sea ahead with his binoculars, and after a moment asked, "What is the current speed?"

"Report chief, it's five knots now. Soon someone was there to answer.

Tom Wang frowned, this speed really made him feel a little uncomfortable as he was used to the new sailboat. Departing from the coast near the capital city of Qiongzhou, we crossed the Qiongzhou Strait to a bay in the southwest corner of the Leizhou Peninsula. If you take a Haihan-style sailboat, you can reach your destination in about four hours, but on this Chinese-style sailboat, you have been sailing for nearly six hours and have not yet reached the place.

Tom Wang looked back in the direction of the stern of the boat, and the other three boats in the same boat were following behind, carrying militiamen from two companies of the Annan militia army, as well as the "results" obtained by this fleet disguised as pirates on the coast of Qiongzhou Island in the past half a month.

Of course, it is a bit of an exaggeration to say that it is a matter of exaggeration, Wang Tom has been busy with this team for so many days, and he has grabbed thousands of catties of food and a small amount of gold and silver, the value of which is far less than the military expenses of these people. These harvests are basically from fishing villages and farmers near the coastline, and those merchant ships that have been sacked at sea are all arranged in advance, so no matter how the sailors of Qiongzhou Fucheng patrol the coastal waters, there will always be ships that encounter pirates in the nearby waters.

The militia's offensive on land is basically to choose random targets, as long as there is no resistance, they will not take the initiative to kill-this is also the bottom line that Wang Tom can do, after all, if there is no looting at all, then this role-playing trick will be difficult to bluff people. And there are indeed few villages on the northern coastline of Qiongzhou Island that have no resistance to the island, and as soon as these hundreds of soldiers with bright knives and guns come ashore, very few of them can still have the courage to resist when facing them.

However, Huangjiazhuang, which was breached by the militia army yesterday, is a small exception, because this place is not a random choice to intimidate the population, but a specially designated target by the Ministry of Security. Since the emergence of Haihan in Qiongzhou, the Huang family father and son have been the main advocates of anti-Haihan activities near the capital city of Qiongzhou, and they have also been the focus of the Ministry of Security for a long time.

The people who held this attitude were mainly the big landlords in Qiongzhou, and these people basically relied on land rents to make money, and they had little to do with the trade methods promoted by the Haihan, and they could not get much profit from it. Of course, if this is the case, the relationship between the two sides will not develop into mutual hostility, and the most fundamental reason is that the land policy implemented by the Haihan Executive Committee in the southern region has made the big landowners in the north smell a trace of danger.

In his own area, the Haihan Dynasty has been implementing the system of public ownership of land, and all land must be taken under public ownership, regardless of whose land originally belonged to him. If you can't get a clear certificate, then there is no way, and the land will be forcibly expropriated by the executive committee. If a tough confrontation is attempted, then what awaits these people will be the muskets and bayonets of the Haihan militia. In the process of land expropriation, the landlords who were suppressed by the militia were not one or two households, and although the south had long since become the world of the Haihan, these things inevitably spread to the north through various channels.

This practice of the Haihan people naturally attracted the attention of the northern landlords, who did not realize that this method of the Haihan was to completely change the social structure and labor relations, but simply regarded it as a means for the Haihan to bully the weak and shamelessly annex the land.

If it is just a small landlord in the countryside with more than 100 acres of land under his name, then it is not a big deal, calculate the price according to the land deed, sell the land to the Haihan people, and take the money to Guangzhou to become a public apartment. But big landowners like the Huang family often have a large amount of land in their names without legal procedures. Basically, these lands were accumulated by landlords or by annexing the land of ordinary peasants, and since they were not registered with the government, they did not have to pay due taxes to the government for the cultivation of agricultural products.

To put it bluntly, this is actually a means of tax evasion, if the Haihan people want to come to expropriate land, these legal borderless land can only be taken away by the Haihan people in vain, and the landlords can not get any compensation, and this kind of loss is by no means a small amount for the landlords.

In order to avoid such a situation, the landlords thought that the most effective way was to curb the expansion of the Haihan to the north, otherwise the overseas barbarians would sooner or later implement their terrible land policy throughout the island. And they did not sit still, and resisted Haihan's economy, culture, and system within the scope of their influence.

Although what the landlords did not hinder the overall situation, and could not stop Haihan's progress, it was really annoying to have such a group of flies flying around in front of them. Two months ago, when Haihan's naturalized employees were selling various daily necessities in Huangjiazhuang, they were arrested by the Huang family and his son, and they also lynched the employee, breaking the employee's leg. It's good to die, but this unlucky naturalized citizen is a spy sent by the Ministry of Security to collect intelligence around the city, so this beam is also settled.

Later, when the Ministry of Security planned the local targets that needed to be attacked in the operation, Huangjiazhuang was included in it as a target to kill chickens and monkeys. This is not a personal vendetta of the communiqué, but the Huang family father and son have united many Zhuangzi near the capital of Qiongzhou to jointly block the Haihan, and also contact the gentry of each county to jointly write a letter, asking the prefect to drive these alien races who do not obey the laws of the Ming Dynasty out of Qiongzhou Island.

After the Ministry of Security found out the situation of Huangjiazhuang, Wang Tom led the team to the nearby coast, landed at dawn, and directly attacked Huangjiazhuang.

Wang Tom also had to admit that the gang of people trained by Qian Tiandun was really useful, and the troops of more than 200 people controlled a village of 1,000 people, and it only took about half an hour to complete the combat mission, and captured the three fathers and sons of the Huang family who were at a loss without casualties.

Although the goal of the operation had already been set, Wang Tom was not interested in personally executing such a few helpless people, so this glorious task fell to Gao Qiao Nan, who was appointed by Qian Tiandun to serve as the operational commander.

As the officer who led the team this time, Gao Qiao himself knew that he was not only shouldering the front-line command, but more importantly, he was carrying the face of the Annan militia army, and after receiving this order from Qian Tiandun, he thought that this was a great compliment for him. For this reason, Takahashi Minami also took out his treasured katana and cut off the heads of three people one by one in front of hundreds of villagers.

Neither Takahashi Minami nor Tom Wang probably thought that this arrangement would be accidentally hit, but it would confirm their pirate identity. After they evacuated Huangjiazhuang, the government received a report that the pirates had landed and harassed, and the content was conclusive -- the one who cut off the heads of Huang's father and son was a fake widow, and hundreds of people witnessed this with their own eyes, and there was absolutely no water.

And the information about this incident quickly spread to the capital of Qiongzhou, so that some people who originally suspected that Haihan was making trouble had to abandon their previous speculation and began to inquire about the whereabouts of this group of pirates - no one can guarantee where they will land next time, and it is obviously unrealistic to hope for the protection of the government, so it is better to run away soon when they hear the news.

The fleet led by Tom Wang finally arrived at its destination in the evening of the same day, located in Liusha Village on the west coast of the Leizhou Peninsula. There is a natural bay for the fleet to enter and dock. More than 1,000 acres of land near Liusha Village were bought by the relevant departments in the name of a certain Ming businessman last year, although there was a plan to establish a military base here, but no one thought that it would be put into actual use after only half a year.

Before arriving at the port of quicksand, the black flags on several ships had been replaced, and all the weapons had been put away, and the current identity of this fleet was that of a caravan from Sanya to sell sugar. The fleet rested here for two or three days, and after completing the replenishment, it would set off again for the southern shore of the Qiongzhou Strait to continue the raid mission. Liusha Harbor is only about 30 nautical miles away from the northern coastline of Qiongzhou Island, and although the speed of these Chinese sailing ships is slow, they can reach their destination on the same day, and it is relatively convenient to carry out tasks.

By the end of August, the unstrained local government began to send letters to the prefecture, asking the prefecture to send troops to quell the increasingly rampant piracy. And Fucheng can't find a better solution, unless it is to ask Guangzhou for help, but if you have to wait for Guangzhou to reply, and then transfer troops and arrange a battle plan, I am afraid that it will be at least two months before you can see the action. In the end, the government was ruthless and decided to try to solve it on its own first, and if it really didn't work, then ask Guangzhou for help.

Only an hour after the Lord Zhizhou and the commander agreed on the agreement, the news was transmitted from the study of the government to the Haihan office, and then a few minutes later, it arrived at the information center of Shengli Fort in Sanya with the radio waves. The telegram, marked as a top-secret express telegram, was delivered to the Executive Committee by the staff on a run. When the Governor of Qiongzhou was still drafting the relevant documents in the study, the Executive Committee had already held an emergency meeting to discuss the next countermeasures.

"This is the telegram we just received, and the Qiongzhou capital city has decided to send a local sailor to encircle and suppress our pirate fleet. Yan Chujie took out the telegram and handed it to the officials of various departments present to circulate it.

"Where is our fleet now? They all used old ships to go out this time, don't really be hit by the Daming Marine. Gu Kai asked with some concern.

Yan Chujie responded: "The fleet is now on the Leizhou Peninsula, you don't have to worry, and the movement over there in Fucheng will not affect our action plan for the time being, they will raise supplies and then transfer troops to set off, it is not something that can be completed in three or five days." When the Great Ming Sailor begins to move, it will be too late for our pirate fleet to react. What we need to decide now is how to deal with this attack of the Great Ming Water Division. ”

"Where is the target of their attack? Is the news that we went out on a walk earlier really take effect?" asked Ning Qi.

This question is answered by He Xi. Yan Chujie spread his hand and signaled to He Xi.

"From the very beginning of Operation Corsair, we started walking around the north claiming that this pirate nest was on Weizhou Island. If the Daming Sailor really intends to suppress the bandits, then their only target can only be the rumored Weizhou Island. He Xi explained: "As far as we know, there is no other statement on the Fucheng side for the time being, so we can make some arrangements in advance. Of course, what kind of effect you want to achieve depends on the purpose of your military's operation. ”

He Xi kicked the ball back to Yan Chujie, and Yan Chujie said in a deep voice: "Considering that in the future battle plan, our navy needs to block the Qiongzhou Strait and prevent the Ming Dynasty from sending reinforcements from the Leizhou Peninsula to Fucheng, then it is also necessary to solve the Daming Naval Division subordinate to Qiongzhou Mansion in advance." Originally, the battle plan we prepared was to send ships to attack the capital city of Qiongzhou, lure this naval division out, and kill them in the Qiongzhou Strait. But now that the situation has changed, I think it would be better to put this battlefield west of the Qiongzhou Strait, a little further from the coast. ”

"As far as we know, this naval division unit stationed near the capital city of Qiongzhou has achieved excellent equipment and neglected training, and now they are also learning from Luo Shengdong and using warships to run the business of smuggling at sea, their combat effectiveness should be quite limited, right?"

"That's right, as far as we know, there are no more than ten warships in this naval division that still retain basic combat capabilities, and the largest warship is about 400 Fu ships, which is far from the combat effectiveness of our militia navy. Yan Chujie paused here when he said this, and then changed his words and said: "However, because the opponent's strength is not strong, we plan to invest two main warships in service this year in this operation to practice the routine of using new warships." ”

Since the two hybrid warships "Majesty" and "Mighty Signal" entered the ranks, they have been in a state of training and running-in, and they have not been used in real combat missions. And the military top brass obviously does not want to see the two combat ships that have been built at a huge cost to serve as patrol ships and can be used on the battlefield as soon as possible, which is the scene that senior officers like to see. And this battle plan against the Daming Naval Division is obviously a very suitable opportunity -- the opponent's strength is weak, and it can be used to practice tactics, and there is no need to worry about any danger.