Chapter 926 – Nan'ao Island
The Foreign Intelligence Bureau judged that armed conflict between Liu Xiang and Zheng Zhilong was imminent—a full-scale war between them was only a matter of time.
The reason for this conclusion was that, according to the historical trajectory in the old timeline, both Zhu Cailao and Liu Xiang were crushed and destroyed after leaving their Guangdong home bases to confront Zheng Zhilong. There was also the matter of the blockade of Macao. These events clustering together indicated they were not coincidental.
Intelligence theorized that the real cause behind these events was the Thirty Years' War, which had led to declining demand in Europe. Europeans were spending their money on military expenses, resulting in overall reduced silver exports from West to East. Merchants had begun turning to Japanese silver as an import source.
Very likely, both Liu and Zhu had gone north to stake a claim in the China-Japan-Dutch trade, and Macao's fiscal importance to the Ming court had declined—in the late-Ming maritime merchant wars along the coast, the main theater had always been the Fujian coast, not the traditional foreign trade port of Guangzhou.
Not long before, the Ming court's order to close Macao had been officially transmitted to Guangdong. The Foreign Intelligence Bureau had kidnapped Gao Shunqin, removing a major obstacle to returning to Guangzhou, but the Macao blockade incident had still occurred according to its inertia. This indicated that history was still running along its normal trajectory in this respect. However, the transmigrators' involvement had made the situation more complicated, and Liu Xiang's position had become even more difficult.
The Liu Xiang group's decisive abandonment of their Pearl River estuary territory and march northward was clearly not solely out of fear of the Australians' naval power—it was more about competing for trade. Continuing to hold the Pearl River estuary, whose trade value had greatly declined, and fighting a head-on battle against the fierce "Hair-bandits" was obviously not in their commercial interest. After all, the China-Japan-Dutch trade in Fujian was the biggest prize.
After the Pearl River estuary campaign concluded, the Navy had established the Hong Kong Squadron on Hong Kong Island. Besides ensuring safe navigation in the Pearl River estuary waters, another important purpose was to use it as a base to suppress the Liu Xiang group's activities in Daya Bay and prevent them from moving south.
During the First Shipbuilding and Outfitting Plan, the Navy had conducted "Hong Kong Peripheral Consolidation Operations." Shi Zhiqi and Le Lin had carried out a series of small-scale operations around Hong Kong, clearing small pirate bands and suppressing local powerful clans. They had focused especially on the eastern part of Hong Kong Island, the west side of Victoria Harbor, and the Tseung Kwan O area. The line of actual control had been pushed north to the Sha Tin, Yuen Long, Mirs Bay, and Clear Water Bay line. At the same time, the maritime patrol zone had been expanded to Daya Bay, achieving initial control of surrounding salt fields and rice-producing areas.
During this consolidation operation, the Navy had dispatched two 8154-class cruisers, four Special Operations Boat squadrons, and a spar-torpedo boat flotilla to Hong Kong Island, prepared to engage in a decisive sea battle in Victoria Harbor or Daya Bay if Liu Xiang launched a major counterattack.
But Liu Xiang made no move—there wasn't even a single instance of direct contact with the Navy. Combined with intelligence that his main force wasn't in the Shanwei-Chaozhou area, this seemed to confirm the Intelligence Bureau's assessment.
"Fifty push-ups, everyone! Get moving!" A burly man in camouflage with an almost square torso bellowed. He wore a Lingao-made boonie hat; his thick neck made him look even more powerfully built. A dozen or so soldiers, also in camouflage with bowl-cut hair, were rapidly doing push-ups on the pitching deck.
"Move it! You're all moving like women!" The man roaring at the soldiers like a cannibal was Qian Shuixie, squad leader of the Special Reconnaissance Command's Sanya Detachment. The Sanya Detachment had been the first to conduct marine training and had the best results, so it had been selected to participate in Operation Engine. A portion of the detachment was first sent to join the Haitian's northern reconnaissance mission.
The Special Reconnaissance Team's main task was to escort the survey team for shore landings and surveying work. When necessary, they would also conduct some harassment, ambush, and assassination operations—armed reconnaissance to test the vigilance and combat capabilities of various hostile forces.
Li Ziping looked at the VZ68 submachine gun Qian Shuixie always kept on his shoulder and couldn't help sighing at how lavishly the Senate equipped the Special Reconnaissance Team. In terms of weapons, the Special Reconnaissance Team always had top-tier gear—all old-timeline products. The 20-round magazine SKS-D semi-automatic rifles previously used had been phased out after Landu's weapons arrived, as they were too long for reconnaissance operations. They'd been replaced with MGV-176 submachine guns chambered in .22 LR and MB77B1 assault rifles. Some soldiers were also equipped with bolt-action rifles with scopes for sniping. Even by old-timeline standards, they were armed to the teeth.
As a Navy man, Li Ziping was quite curious how the Special Reconnaissance Team would put their capabilities to use. He recalled that among his Navy comrades, Xu Ke—who had transferred to the Foreign Intelligence Bureau—had advocated that the Navy should have its own intelligence system and armed reconnaissance unit.
"Smoke signals on the island!" the lookout called out.
"Watch for enemy activity," Li Ziping said, raising his binoculars again.
The lookout didn't observe any hostile vessels on the water, but as they approached Nan'ao Island, more obvious smoke trails rose from the island. Clearly, the Ming garrison had noticed their arrival and was sounding a general alarm.
"Stand on alert." Li Ziping lowered his binoculars. "Helmsman, right rudder fourteen degrees, course two-two-nine."
"Right rudder fourteen degrees, course two-two-nine," the helmsman repeated in a sing-song voice.
The Haitian's bow slowly swung around. Sails billowed; the blue Morning Star flag fluttered in the sea wind. Under Li Ziping's command, the Haitian headed straight for Nan'ao Island. Li Ziping wanted to test how alert the Ming garrison was and how they would react. Additionally, the remote survey team's surveying personnel needed to conduct hydrological and geographic surveys around Nan'ao Island, particularly to correct the maps and charts.
"Beat to quarters!"
The beat-to-quarters signal immediately sounded on the Haitian, indicating battle was imminent.
"Navigator! You have the conn!" Li Ziping commanded. Ren Fu, ever since Zhu Cailao's complete defeat and destruction, had thrown in his lot with the Australians. After a period of education, he'd come around as a pragmatist and joined the Navy. He'd operated long in the Fujian-Guangdong waters and was far more familiar with the local terrain and conditions around Nan'ao Island than they were.
"Aye!" Ren Fu responded loudly.
Under Ren Fu's direction, the Haitian gradually approached Nan'ao Island. This move obviously triggered a higher level of alert on the island; more smoke trails rose from Nan'ao and nearby isles. The Ming garrison was likely using these signals to coordinate troop movements.
He commanded: "Report boiler pressure immediately!"
A messenger immediately opened the cover of the speaking tube and shouted the order down to the engine room.
"Pressure normal!"
"Prepare to increase pressure!" he ordered. The biggest drawback of steam propulsion was how slowly the power system responded. To be ready to flee at the first sign of trouble, they needed to start building boiler pressure now.
Under Ren Fu's direction, the Haitian began circumnavigating Nan'ao Island. The surveyors aboard observed the shape of the coastline, probed harbor depths and channels. Ren Fu was familiar with the coast, islands, and reefs of the area. Despite fairly rough seas, under his direction the Haitian smoothly completed one full circuit of the island.
Throughout the survey process, Li Ziping noticed some people on the shore poking their heads out to watch, but no organized armed forces appeared. More vessels gathered near the Haitian—some were certainly Ming navy ships. They were obviously wary.
Judging from their response, the Ming garrison was clearly highly vigilant toward them but obviously had no intention of making enemies of the transmigrators. They hadn't even mustered a single formed unit. Li Ziping estimated that even if he wanted to land right now, they'd probably just hole up in their forts and refuse to come out—after all, anyone could see that a single ship couldn't take the whole island.
"What's happening? Are we going to fight?" Someone emerged on deck—dressed in camouflage, wearing a steel helmet, with a pistol holster on his hip. It was Liu Zheng of the Remote Survey Team. He'd brought a surveying and mapping team aboard the Haitian for the northward voyage, carrying out survey work along the way.
"Not yet," Li Ziping said. "It looks like the Ming garrison has no intention of fighting us—they're just guarding against any designs we might have."
"If we could capture Nan'ao Island, it would make an excellent transit base," Li Ziping observed.
Liu Zheng was also quite interested in the game of soldiering. Early in the voyage he'd been seasick—he'd never been on such a small ship. Now that he'd adapted, he stayed on deck, enthusiastically observing the environment around Nan'ao Island, occasionally guiding the naturalized student surveyors in their work.
"The agricultural development on this island is quite good—the population can't be small." Liu Zheng said. "If we just took this island, I'd estimate we could gain over ten thousand people."
Besides serving as a transit station, the island alone had twenty to thirty thousand military and civilian residents—a population density much higher than Hainan Island's. It would be an excellent source of labor and military recruits. The local Hakka people were renowned for their hard work and endurance; historically, the Hakka water-braves of the Chaozhou-Shantou area were famous for their fierce fighting. As long as regional barriers could be effectively broken down, they'd be valuable human resources under Senate rule.
If only we could develop human resources in a rolling fashion, Li Ziping thought. If they had enough troops, they could directly occupy Nan'ao Island and destroy Chen Ting's forces. Then they could recruit enough soldiers from the island's population to roll on to the next island for development. In times of chaos, this was a method commonly used by warlords and petty kings: completely destroy towns and villages, forcing everyone to follow them. Before long, they'd snowball into a massive army through conscription.