However, only some of the more than 100 captives made it to Sanya alive, because almost half of them were injured in this battle, and the medical supplies on Wanshan Island were all supplied from outside the island, so it was certainly impossible to waste too much on these pirates, at most it was just to help them stop the bleeding.

Thankfully, the casualties on the Haihan side in this battle were in the single digits, and they maintained an overwhelming advantage as always. Before the war, the sea engagement, which worried the military top brass the most, was that there were no casualties, and the warships were basically not seriously damaged.

As for the materials captured in this battle, it is even more lackluster. A pile of cold weapons seized from the captives, a few hundred taels of silver, a few small earthen cannons that could only be taken back to the furnace, and a dozen Type 27 arquebuses that the pirates did not know where they had bought. These things were better than nothing in the eyes of the officers - the hundreds of shells fired in battle alone were worth much more than these rags.

There were more than a dozen pirate ships, large and small, but most of these ships were captured because their hulls were damaged and they could not escape in time. Some of the ships were devastated by cannonballs, some had their masts broken by cannonballs, and some were seriously injured when trying to stop the Haihan warship. In short, these pirate ships that were towed back to the port basically needed to be overhauled before they could be restored, and there was no dock in Wanshan Harbor that could provide the ships needed for overhaul, and the few part-time carpenters and repairmen could only do some small tinkering work, such as changing masts and repairing keels, and they couldn't do it. The Wanshan Port Management Committee wants to turn the captured pirate ship into a usable asset, and it is not something that can be achieved in a short time.

"It's useless for you to talk to me about repairing ships! The Shengli Port Shipyard is not a unit under the Central Military Commission, and it's useless for our military to talk about transferring people. Chen Yixin waved his hand and refused to fight fiercely: "Besides, the Shengli Port Shipyard is now saturated with production tasks, and it is working overtime to build warships, how can we still spare manpower to transfer to us to do things." ”

Li Dou did not relent: "This is not just my business, think about it, after these ships are repaired, the executive committee will not be interested in taking them back to Sanya, and in the end they will definitely be allocated to our side for use, whether it is used for fishing, transporting goods, transporting immigrants, or even you use it as a patrol boat, in short, it can come in handy, and the repair period has been delayed for a long time, and it is actually our own ...... that suffers."

"Okay, okay, don't talk about it, you go with me to see Tom Wang now, and I want to ask the executive committee for assistance, so it's more appropriate for him to come forward." Chen Yixin could only admit defeat in the face of fierce reluctance.

Although Tom Wang is not a member of the executive committee of the executive committee, he is now the commander-in-chief of the navy and the third-in-command of the military commission, and his speech is much more weighty than that of middle-level managers such as Chen Yixin and Lidou. Moreover, before the end of this military operation, Wang Tom, as the supreme commander of the theater, has the final decision on all matters in Wanshan Port, and if Wang Tom comes forward to make a request to the Executive Committee for the same thing, the effect will definitely be different. Chen Yixin knew that people were light-hearted, but his words did move him, if Wanshan Port can have more than a dozen ships available, then the business that can be engaged in in the future will also increase a lot compared with now, regardless of economic benefits, at least the living environment on the island can be improved and strengthened.

However, when they found Tom Wang and reported the matter, Tom Wang's attitude was not very optimistic: "I can report this matter to the Executive Committee, but you should not have too much hope for it." First, the Shengli Port Shipyard is indeed too busy now, and may not be able to spare manpower to support Wanshan Port. Second, although we won the battle this time, the cost was not small, and the seized things were not worth a few dollars, and if the headquarters were to be responsible for the repair of these ships, I was afraid that we would be stuck with the Executive Committee. Third, Wanshan Port is too small, and it is not easy to build a dock in the harbor, so it is not realistic to carry out ship overhaul in this place. ”

Wang Tom's answer was undoubtedly a basin of cold water on the two hairy boys, although they had many ideas about how to build and improve Wanshan Port, but the reality may not develop according to their intentions. Especially in terms of material and personnel input, the disadvantage of Wanshan Port is actually obvious - the place is too small, and many projects cannot be arranged here at all.

Of course, Wanshan Port was not positioned as a large base when it was planned, and to put it bluntly, the choice of this port is only a transitional choice of last resort at this stage -- if the strength is sufficient, then the military will definitely choose the Hong Kong Island area, which has better development prospects. In the future, with the gradual increase of the military strength of the Haihan Army, the Pearl River Estuary stronghold will sooner or later change its position, and now investing too many resources on Dawanshan Island is not a very cost-effective deal for the Executive Committee.

On the day of the battle, the foreign merchant ships that happened to be in Wanshan Harbor basically did not suffer much damage in the course of the battle, only one ship was torn out of the side of the ship by the cannonball because the docking position was not very good, but the difficulty of maintenance was not great, and the local carpenter was enough to do it.

"Shopkeeper Gu, we will bear all the repair costs of your ship, but I am really sorry to delay you for another two days. "Dealing with these businesses should have been the business of the Ministry of Commerce, but because of the limited staffing of Wanshan Island, this matter has always been done by Li Dou part-time.

The shopkeeper surnamed Gu hurriedly bowed his hand and said, "It's only two days, so why delay." If it weren't for the desperate fighting of the brothers of the militia group, the villain might not even be able to keep the ship and the goods, and it would be too late to be grateful, how could this account be counted on your head. Director Li, the villain has prepared two hundred taels of silver here, and the brothers of the Labor Militia must not refuse!"

Li Dou appeased the merchants from all walks of life one by one, and he didn't hear much complaint, but he received more than 1,000 taels of silver in various names of condolence money, and he could barely subsidize the expenses of this operation.

The perception of the foreign merchants on this battle was relatively consistent -- the Haihan militia was not only able to fight on land, but also on the sea, and Liu Xiang was regarded as the most powerful pirate leader along the coast of Guangdong, but his fleet obviously suffered a great loss in the attack on Wanshan Port. The merchants didn't know that Tom Wang chased Liu Xiang all the way, but the scene of the pirate fleet being attacked in the port area and being beaten to the point of fleeing was witnessed by everyone's own experience, and they couldn't fake it at all. The return of the Haihan fleet unscathed, the chains of the captives, and the wounded and captured pirate ships docked at the docks proved that it was a battle with a clear outcome.

These merchants did not understand how powerful Haihan's weapons were, how advanced their tactics were, and how high their soldiers were, but the contrast in strength between the two sides was obvious - dozens of ships came from the pirates, while there were only a dozen ships on Haihan's side, but in this case, Haihan still won more with less and the opponent had no power to fight back, and the difference in strength between the two sides can be seen.

Although the Haihan will not take the results of the battle to report to the Guangzhou government, this battle will still soon spread among the people through various channels, and I don't know that in the future, all kinds of magical rumors about the Haihan militia will become the main topic of conversation among the people of Guangzhou.

The Portuguese Council of Macau received a report of the battle the next day, when a merchant ship docked in the port of Wanshan returned to Canton from the South Seas and left the port to unload its cargo in Macao, and the sailors and crew of the ship recounted what they had seen the previous day. This news shocked the Portuguese Council, but also somewhat glad that if no peace had been reached with the Haihan people two months ago, then the Portuguese ships near Macao would inevitably have to fight with the Haihan militia, and what the outcome would be, Liu Xiang had already made the best example for the Council.

Naturally, the Executive Committee received the battle report from the Wanshan Port Tongguò Radio at the first time, and although it was expected to achieve such a result, it still made the Executive Committee members feel very happy. Because this is after all, it is a manifestation of its own strength, recalling that when the establishment of the Wanshan Port stronghold was discussed in the first half of the year, everyone was still full of doubts about the strength of their own surface armed forces, worried that this stronghold would be attacked by pirates in nearby waters. However, half a year later, the militia navy defeated the attack of Liu Xiang's pirate gang near Wanshan Port, which has fully proved that the huge investment spent by the executive committee in Wanshan Port and the navy was not in vain, and the effect was quite ideal.

Although Liu Xiang's pirate gang suffered heavy losses in this battle, and it was certain that they would not be able to attack again for a period of time, the Executive Committee still did not leave much time for the conscripted troops to recuperate slowly, and called back to Wang Tom to lead his troops back to Shengli Port by the 25th of this month after arranging the local defense.

The reason why the Executive Committee was so anxious to recall the troops going out was that there were people who were more eager to look forward to the emergence of the militia navy than the Executive Committee. Just two days before the Battle of Wanshan Port began, an envoy from Thang Long Province arrived at Victory Port and made it clear to the Executive Committee that the North Vietnamese Dynasty wanted the Hai Han militia to send troops to help in the war.

The North Vietnamese army had already fought the line of the Dang Giang three months earlier, and had established a large battalion north of the Truong River, gradually moving its forces south. Three months later, however, the North Vietnamese army had made very limited progress on the battlefield, and now it had only advanced more than 50 miles to the south, and a new standoff had formed between the two sides across the river near Dong Hai.

This is not entirely because of the limited combat effectiveness of the North Vietnamese army, in fact, the current North Vietnamese army is more and more equipped with Haihan muskets and artillery, and its combat effectiveness is in a steady rising stage, and the reason why the speed of advance has slowed down is mainly because of the contradiction between the upper limit of transportation capacity and the demand for supplies.

At present, the transportation of military supplies for North Vietnam is mainly carried out by sea, from the Red River Delta in the north, to the port of Vinh An in the south, which is controlled by the sea and Han, and from which it is transshipped to the front line 40 nautical miles away. The voyage from the Red River Delta to Vinh An Port was almost entirely handled by Haihan cargo ships, while the few North Vietnamese ships mainly undertook the transportation of the latter one-fifth of the distance. As a result, the daily needs of tens of thousands of people on the front line still put the North Vietnamese transport fleet under great pressure, and when the sea conditions were bad, it would even cause a shortage of supplies on the front line in the short term.

According to a survey conducted by the Black Soil Port Military District for the North Vietnamese army, the time required for ships to transport supplies back and forth increased by at least three hours for every ten miles of the front advancing southward. If the next battle goes smoothly and the battle line advances from Dong Hai to Quang Tri City, which is known as the "Hue Barrier" one hundred and sixty miles south of Dong Hai, then the time required to transport supplies will have to be increased by two whole days on the current basis, and then relying on the existing transportation capacity, it will definitely not be able to meet the combat needs of tens of thousands of people.

In the face of this fact, if the North Vietnamese court wanted to continue to advance south, it had to have more maritime capacity. The production capacity of the Black Soil Port Shipyard is limited, and it will not be able to meet the needs of the war for a while, and the only external force that the North Vietnamese court can rely on is the Haihan side.

Sanya did not hide the temporary armistice agreement between Hai Han and the South Vietnamese envoy Nguyen Ching Gui, and promised that if the South Vietnam refused to surrender, then the Hai Han would continue to send troops to assist the North Vietnamese in attacking South Vietnam, and the North Vietnamese also expressed their understanding at that time. At that time, the agreed armistice period was 30 days, but because of the situation on the Guangdong side later, the Executive Committee did not have time to pay attention to the war on the Annan side, and gave priority to the Guangdong battlefield.

However, after 30 days, the North Vietnamese did not see any move from the Haihan side, and after 60 days, there was still no movement on the Haihan side, and the North Vietnamese side was a little anxious -- what about military assistance?

In December, the Thang Long Mansion finally couldn't hold its breath anymore and sent Zheng Zheng, the eldest son of the King of Qingdu, as a messenger, and came straight to the door. Sending an important person of Zheng Zheng's level as an envoy, in addition to the fact that he himself has dealt with Haihan many times and is relatively familiar with the relationship, another reason is that this time the North Vietnamese court hopes to reach a package solution with Haihan and solve the South Vietnamese problem as much as possible.

In the past, every time the Haihan side sent troops to help the war, they basically negotiated the conditions separately before sending troops, and each time the two sides had to negotiate and bargain, not to mention the low efficiency, North Vietnam also carried an extremely heavy economic burden, so that for a period of time in the first half of the year, North Vietnam even refused the invitation of Haihan to jointly send troops, the reason was that they could no longer afford to pay the military expenses required by Haihan. 、

In view of these previous conditions, Thang Long hoped to reach an agreement with a longer period and a greater scope of cooperation, and to negotiate the terms of Haihan's assistance to North Vietnam in the great cause of reunification at one time. Although the Haihan people may offer a sky-high price for this, Thang Long thinks that it is better than being bled every two or three months.

After listening to the proposal proposed by Zheng Zheng on behalf of the North Vietnamese court, the executive committee members were also very surprised. Since the establishment of diplomatic relations with North Vietnam, Haihan has been gradually strengthening its influence in Annam through the export of economy, trade, chemistry and military, and at the same time has obtained a large amount of wealth and population from Annam, and it has continued at the current pace, and after 357 years, it is almost a sure thing that Annam will become a vassal of Haihan. The Executive Committee had long prepared a series of quid pro quo conditions for them to help North Vietnam unify the country, but none of them had ever conceived of taking out all of these conditions at once and making a deal with the North Vietnamese court.

In the past, the reason why the Executive Committee used to make quotations based on a single military operation or operational objective was that it was convenient to predict the trend of the war and calculate military expenditures. But if you want to calculate military spending with the goal of eliminating the South Vietnamese regime, this is more complicated. Even with all their might, it is difficult to guarantee that the South Vietnamese resistance will be completely wiped out within a month or two. If there is no way to plan an approximate period of engagement, it will be difficult to calculate a reasonable military budget, and it will be impossible to talk about a relatively reasonable price.

"Or just give them a lion to open their mouths, anyway, they have no other way out, but to recognize our account!" After sending Zheng Zheng to the guest house, Yue Zhiyun couldn't wait to propose Jianyi.

"I want money, I want people, I want land, I want power!" Yan Chujie put forward his opinion expressionlessly: "Since the Beiyue Imperial Court has asked for the door, I also agree with Xiao Yue's opinion, and seize this opportunity to make a good deal." Otherwise, after the reunification of Annam, it will not be so easy for us to take Thang Long Mansion again. "*** is definitely going to knock down, but which part to knock and how to control the strength is still worth studying. Tao Donglai reminded sideways: "Lao Yan's entry points are very good, and I would like to add that in addition to economic benefits and immigration, the conditions we put forward to North Vietnam must also consider how to strengthen our influence and control in the Indochina Peninsula." "I don't know much about other things, so I'll talk about the military aspect. The Indochina Peninsula is an important strategic node for us to lead to the South China Sea in the future, so several major port areas in the South Vietnamese region must be placed under our control. Whether it is land cession, concessions, or governance rights, in short, these places must be taken. Yan Chujie continued: "In addition, the second batch of officers and trainees sent by North Vietnam to Shengli Port for training have also graduated and returned to China last month, and the next batch is estimated to arrive soon. ”