Chapter 694 - Raising the Flag
"We'll wait until we reach Hong Kong Island to properly process them." The fleet had brought along professionals who previously worked in the Guangzhou purification camps. The Task Force planned to establish a new purification camp on Hong Kong Island for captive processing.
"They'll take the opportunity to escape."
"I think not—not anyone who's witnessed the 'typewriter' in action."
The fleet passed smoothly through Ma Wan Channel, rounding the southwest corner of Tsing Yi Island and entering Victoria Harbour. Even without binoculars, Chen Haiyang could see a peninsula jutting from the mainland—the site of the former timeline's Stonecutters Island Naval Base.
"A truly natural harbor!" Chen Haiyang exclaimed involuntarily. Victoria Harbour's geographical conditions were indeed superb—perfectly suited as a first-class naval and commercial port. Suitable locations for harbor development were everywhere.
For now, the area lay barren, with few traces of permanent inhabitants. According to intelligence from the Guangzhou Station, only a scattering of villages existed on Hong Kong Island and the surrounding outlying islands.
But directly opposite Hong Kong Island lay Xin'an and Dongguan counties—lands of fish and rice, producing vast quantities of grain, tea, indigo, tobacco, and sea salt. Economically, this was an extremely wealthy region. Occupying Hong Kong was tantamount to the Australian-Song regime inserting a straw into South China's richest territory. Massive quantities of goods could flow continuously outward from here.
The Ming government recognized Hong Kong's importance. Beyond the Tuen Mun Inspection Station guarding the Pearl River Estuary, Xin'an County—responsible for governing the Hong Kong region—had its seat at the Dongguan Defense Battalion Walled City, originally under the Guangzhou Guard. In the first year of the Wanli reign, this area had been separated from Dongguan to establish Xin'an County, consolidating maritime defense and protecting Guangzhou.
At its peak, Nantou Fortress had garrisoned two thousand Ming troops and over a hundred warships. The city stood as a key junction for river and sea traffic—a military stronghold for maritime defense.
Even now, it maintained a garrison of seven or eight hundred troops and over fifty warships. Nantou Fortress corresponded to present-day Nantou District in Shenzhen; there was even a tourist spot there—Chen Haiyang had visited the Ancient City of Xin'an in his past life. The two locations lay close together; if the Ming army wished to intervene, they could reach Hong Kong Island the same day.
The External Intelligence Bureau and the Naval Command staff team estimated that the Guangdong Ming army, freshly defeated, would be unlikely to rashly attack the Australian-Song forces. Even if they wished to attack, they couldn't assemble enough troops to pose a genuine threat. The Task Force possessed sufficient strength to repel any Ming assault.
Chen Haiyang ordered the fleet toward Wan Chai, preparing to land near the site of the old timeline's Hong Kong-Macau Ferry Terminal and establish the first base. Although Hong Kong Island ranked as China's seventeenth largest island by area, its terrain was dominated by mountains. The limited plains concentrated mainly in the northern part of the island facing Victoria Harbour. This area was therefore chosen as the primary location for constructing the base and settlement.
After the Task Force landed at Wan Chai, a brief occupation and flag-raising ceremony was held.
"Raise the flag! Salute!" At the ceremonial guard's shout, the bugler sounded his horn. A flag rose on a hastily procured bamboo pole. Marines and sailors lined up on the beach saluted in unison, then sang "Ode to the Motherland" together. With that, the transmigrators declared complete their occupation of the first territory beyond Hainan Island.
Though they had landed on Hong Kong Island, Chen Haiyang decided against exercising substantive control over the entire island for the time being—his troop strength couldn't support scattered deployments. He therefore ordered the main force to concentrate temporarily where the ships were anchored. In the old timeline, this place was called Central. Chen Haiyang simply named the harbor and its nascent fortress "Base 852." As for its ultimate designation, that could be left to the Yuan Laoyuan's deliberations.
To monitor surrounding activity, Chen Haiyang dispatched a small detachment equipped with radios by boat to Lei Yue Mun, establishing an observation post on this key eastern channel off Hong Kong Island. Another small team was sent to Kap Shui Mun for a western observation post. Together, these two positions could monitor ship movements in both waterways flanking the island.
The armed survey team commanded by Yellow Claws set out for Victoria Peak the day after landing. They would conduct a preliminary survey of Hong Kong Island's general topography and terrain while simultaneously establishing an observation post atop the Peak.
Finally, the patrol boat squadron would form a maritime patrol line to ensure early warning around the entire base. Concurrently, they would clear out small groups of pirates operating locally—Lantau Island had historically served as a traditional anchorage for Pearl River Estuary pirates, where assembled pirate bands sometimes numbered over three hundred ships. Though the Task Force had observed few vessels while passing north of Lantau, this undeniably remained the area with the most rampant pirate activity. The Task Force had to be prepared for conflict with local pirates at any moment.
The Task Force's landing and fortification on Hong Kong Island was quickly discovered by Ming troops stationed at Tuen Mun and Nantou. Dispatch reports were transmitted to Zhaoqing and Guangzhou.
But the Ming army was powerless to mount a substantive response. Morale in official circles and the military had hit rock bottom. Though dispatch reports indicated that the bald bandits landing on Hong Kong Island numbered only about a thousand with forty or fifty ships, the officers and soldiers of the Guangdong Navy—having heard of their fearsome firearms—had no desire to fight them. Navy war junks sent from Tuen Mun made only a symbolic appearance at the Sulphur Channel before retreating. Both sides fell into a silent stalemate. As for the Ming troops in Nantou, there was no sign of large-scale movement. Sentries observed only small numbers of Ming scouts arriving in the Sha Tau Kok area across the bay.
Brief interrogation of the captured pirates revealed they were actually fishermen from nearby islands. Crushed by debts owed to the fish markets—the yulan—and pushed beyond endurance, they had finally decided to pull a job at sea.
The sunken boat had belonged to the gang's boss, a fisherman named Zhao Yajin. The other two captured vessels were coastal cargo ships they had robbed over the past month. Before being caught, they had succeeded several times, each man's share amounting to about ten taels of silver.
The cargo vessels' crew and owners remained detained aboard—reportedly forced to participate during combat on pain of beheading. Seven or eight pirates had also been kidnapped from shore when the pirate ship docked; those unable to escape in time were kept aboard. Those with ransom money were released; those without were pressed into piracy.
Chen Haiyang immediately ordered the captured hostages and their ships released on the spot. He even replenished them with some confiscated grain and money so they could return home safely. The twenty-odd former captives departed with profuse thanks. Those remaining were the screened pirates. Zhao Yajin had already been killed by "typewriter" fire during the battle.
No valuable spoils were found on the ships—mostly daily necessities like grain and salted fish. According to the captured second-in-command Liang Sanshi, any valuable loot was cached in the villages on shore.
"The interest at the fish market is truly too heavy—thirty or forty percent! This lowly one couldn't pay it off after years of repayment. That's why I took this desperate risk. I beg the Vice-Commander to spare my life!" Several ragged men pleaded bitterly on the beach.
"Whether becoming pirates or bandits, they always claim they were forced," the Cantonese translator—a scholar of tongsheng rank recently out of a purification camp—said indignantly to Chen Haiyang. "In reality, most are lazy and seek to gain without labor! Chief, please be aware!"
Seeing the interpreter speaking so harshly, the captured pirates kowtowed repeatedly, begging piteously. The reputation of the bald bandits had spread throughout the Pearl River Estuary region. One glance at their hair told them they had fallen into bald bandit hands—and their "cruelty" was notorious.
Chen Haiyang knew something of the heavy exploitation practiced by fish markets. Back in the fleet, although "recalling bitterness and savoring sweetness" had fallen out of fashion, whenever they visited revolutionary tradition education bases, anything involving militia invariably touched upon terms like "fish markets" and "fishing despots."
Fish market owners leveraged their capital and market dominance to buy catches at low prices and sell daily necessities and grain at inflated rates, profiting enormously. They also used high-interest loans to easily control fishermen. Fishermen often required large one-time capital investments for boats and equipment, creating a much higher demand for loans than farmers—making them easier prey for such usury traps.
However, Chen Haiyang's mission wasn't to strike down fishing despots. He decided to hand this matter to the Civil Affairs Commissioner accompanying the team.
"Let them work in the purification camp first. Have someone interrogate them properly later," he said.
Many messengers capable of speaking the local dialect were dispatched from the accompanying Civil Affairs team. Escorted by armed soldiers, they traveled to villages across Hong Kong Island delivering messages—demanding representatives be sent immediately to Base 852 for a meeting to select liaison officers.
Though limited in strength and unable to forcefully intervene in the local civil administration system yet, the Task Force needed to establish a system for local requisition of personnel and materials as quickly as possible.
"To enter and exit the Pearl River Estuary freely, we must firmly control the Lantau Channel." In the temporary headquarters set up inside a large tent, Chen Haiyang outlined the upcoming battle plan to his subordinates. "On the north side of Lantau Island lies a village called Tung Chung. It's the main anchorage for pirates in the Pearl River Estuary. We must destroy the pirate base at Tung Chung."
Wen Desi frowned. "We haven't even started fighting the Ming army yet, and we're launching a major operation against pirates? Won't we face enemies on both sides?"
"The Ming army may not actively fight us, but pirates who jump at any profit represent a major hidden danger. In the future, many ships will travel between Hong Kong Island and Lingao. Their harassment would be a major headache for the Navy."
"Then we'll need to increase land forces. Occupying Tung Chung requires sending troops to garrison it!"
"We don't necessarily need to occupy Tung Chung for now. As long as we can destroy pirate fleets assembling there at any time, pirates will naturally dare not show their faces."
Note: Lantau Island is the site of Hong Kong Disneyland. The Ma Wan mentioned in the text is now connected by the famous nearby Tsing Ma Bridge. Lantau was always a Chinese pirate anchorage during the Ming and Qing dynasties. East India Company business records mention it often; in the early nineteenth century, Russian envoys passing through observed over three hundred Chinese pirate ships anchored there.