Chapter 927 – Touring the Island

The Haitian's circumnavigation of Nan'ao Island set off a wave of pandemonium. Black smoke billowed from the beacon towers one after another, the alarm leaping from station to station until it spread to nearby islands and even the coastal watchtowers near the mouth of the Han River.

Guard posts and fortresses slammed their gates shut. Soldiers and militia clambered onto the ramparts, clutching their weapons as they stared fearfully out to sea. The alarm for a "Hair-bandit" incursion had been sounded across the entire region.

These "Hair-bandits"—the name that had recently exploded across Guangdong—inspired a peculiar dread among officials, gentry, and commoners alike. Ever since whispers of the Guangdong army's catastrophic defeat in Qiongzhou had trickled out—nearly the entire force wiped out—the terror of the Hair-bandits had eclipsed that of any pirates who had plagued the coast for the past decade. Tales of their exploits in the Pearl River estuary had taken on an almost mythic horror.

Now, with an Australian vessel flying their infamous flag appearing off the coast, the psychological shock was immense.

Though there was only one ship, and though it displaced less than two hundred tons, every walled town and village in the vicinity prepared for siege.

Yet not a single government warship ventured out to meet or intercept them. Deputy Commander Chen Ting knew all too well what the Hair-bandit navy was capable of—Tang Yunwen's second defeat at Haikou and Xu Tingfa's disaster on the Pearl River were vivid in his memory. He had no intention of taking that risk.

After He Rubin's defeat in Qiongzhou, despite Guangdong officialdom's best efforts to shield him, the court had still stripped him of his office and military command. He was now living in idle disgrace, a "useless general." Other surviving commanders had received punishments of varying severity. Tang Yunwen, though lightly punished and still nominally the Qiongzhou Regional Vice Commander, reportedly never set foot outside Haikou Fort anymore, his orders carrying no weight beyond its walls.

Chen Ting had already struck a secret non-aggression pact with the pirate lord Liu Xiang. Despite their proximity, they left each other alone. Recent intelligence indicated that Liu Xiang's main force had sailed north to Fujian to contest supremacy with Zheng Zhilong, leaving the waters around Nan'ao relatively quiet. Under such circumstances, Chen Ting was even less inclined to provoke hostilities—especially when he had no chance of winning.

Watching the columns of black smoke rise near and far filled Qian Shuixie with a peculiar satisfaction. Being feared had its own appeal. Unfortunately, this voyage's purpose was not Nan'ao Island, and destroying Chen Ting here would serve no purpose for the Senate. In a certain sense, government troops made more benign partners—they currently posed no opposition to the Senate, lacked initiative, and wouldn't waste energy making themselves its enemy. Leaving Chen Ting's forces intact served as a useful chess piece to keep the Liu Xiang and Zheng Zhilong factions in check.

"I wonder where Liu Xiang is hiding," Qian Shuixie mused with some regret. Though he knew the Haitian alone couldn't deliver a fatal blow to Liu Xiang's flotilla, part of him yearned for a sea battle—a chance for the boys to get blood on their hands. The Sanya Detachment had yet to conduct any proper combat operations. Most of their actions had been punitive expeditions into the Li regions against "unfriendly" villages, little more than ambushes and long-range sniping. In Qian Shuixie's view, such low-intensity skirmishes couldn't properly temper the unit.

Li Ziping observed the boats and people fleeing in every direction they passed and concluded the Ming forces had no intention of engaging. He immediately ordered Ren Fu to sail into a bay and drop anchor, then lower boats to send the Special Reconnaissance and survey teams ashore.

Ren Fu chose a bay called Yandun Bay on the island's southern shore, roughly five or six kilometers from the Ming garrison to the north. A village sat by the bay; the moment the Haitian approached, its inhabitants fled, helping along the elderly and young. Li Ziping paid them no mind—this expedition was not about winning hearts.

The operation was audacious. The entire landing party numbered only twenty, while the Ming troops and militia who could mobilize at a moment's notice numbered in the thousands. If surrounded, they would have to rely on firepower to force a breakout, likely suffering casualties. But Qian Shuixie judged this possibility extremely low—intelligence suggested Chen Ting had no desire for armed conflict with the Australians.

"Maintain radio contact at all times," Li Ziping instructed. He turned to Liu Zheng. "Old Liu, take your team and scout along the shore. The interior is a job for the scouts..."

"I'm a seasoned trekker—don't you trust my combat ability?" Liu Zheng protested. He was fully armed, instruments and gear strapped to his back. He patted the Glock 17 holstered under his armpit. "Don't worry. My people and I might not be much good at shooting, but we can walk, climb, and swim as well as any scout. Even if we can't help, we won't be a burden to Qian Shuixie."

In the end, they set off together. Both parties agreed that, barring accidents, they would rendezvous at Qianjiang Bay at ten o'clock the following morning. The Haitian couldn't afford to remain anchored along the coast after dark.

The expedition team of fewer than twenty landed on the island. The fishing village stood empty. Based on their map, Liu Zheng identified it as Aoqian Village.

"If Zhao Yingong and his crowd were here, they'd be staging another ceremony to honor dead emperors," Liu Zheng said with a laugh. "The Southern Song court-in-exile once stayed here."

"Is that true?" Qian Shuixie's interest was piqued.

"Indeed. I saw it in the Grand Library's background materials while preparing for this survey," Liu Zheng said with evident relish.

In May 1276, pressed hard by Yuan forces, Lu Xiufu and Zhang Shizhong had escorted the Song child emperor in retreat through Nan'ao, stopping at Aoqian Village. Legend held that three "Song Wells"—Dragon Well, Tiger Well, and Horse Well—were dug here to supply drinking water for the emperor, his ministers, and his soldiers.

Sure enough, they discovered a well with stone-slab railings on the beach outside the village, very close to the water. Liu Zheng tasted the water—fresh. This was almost certainly the legendary Song Well. Near the village, they also found the foundations of larger structures, likely the temporary residence of the "Maritime Traveling Court." Rumors spoke of gold and silver treasures left by the Southern Song near Aoqian Village, but Liu Zheng dismissed these as nonsense.

Finding nothing remarkable in the village, the reconnaissance party soon departed, marching toward the island's northeast. The western half of Nan'ao was mountainous—even in the twenty-first century, it would remain a forest park. Population and settlements concentrated in the east, and the Deputy Commander's headquarters lay in the northeast.

The team operated on the island for a full twenty-four hours. They traversed nearly the entire eastern portion. The garrisons and militias in villages and fortresses remained behind locked gates; not a single soul emerged to fight. An unprecedented stillness blanketed Nan'ao Island; activity had ground to a halt.

Qian Shuixie encountered no one in the villages except a handful of elderly people—virtually everyone had retreated into the fortresses. Militia and soldiers slept with weapons in hand, maintaining round-the-clock vigilance, their eyes fixed on the wilderness, towns, and fields beyond their walls. Most had never even seen what the legendary Hair-bandits looked like. In many cases, even when camouflage-clad scouts passed right under their noses, they remained invisible.

Nan'ao Island sat in the waters of eastern Guangdong, at the convergence of the three major ports of Kaohsiung, Xiamen, and Hong Kong, straddling the main international shipping lanes of the Western Pacific. The Senate's keen interest in it and its inclusion in the "Chain of Pearls" came as no surprise. Locations like Yandun Bay, Changshan Bay, and Zhuqidu possessed conditions suitable for deep-water ports and ten-thousand-ton wharves, making the island an ideal maritime relay station.

Its wind resources were exceptionally abundant, with an annual average wind speed of 8.54 meters per second and over seven thousand hours of effective wind. Total installed wind power capacity could reach two hundred thousand kilowatts. In the old timeline, the island held the title of Asia's largest island wind farm. Though the transmigrators couldn't yet harness wind power for electricity, wind remained an excellent resource to exploit.

The scouts advanced to the vicinity of the Deputy Commander's headquarters. After conducting on-site mapping and photography of the encampment and harbor, Qian Shuixie estimated the garrison at roughly three thousand men, with forty to fifty war junks in the harbor and on the beach. Cannon emplacements and sturdy walled encampments lined the shore. This was clearly the principal support point for government naval defense in the entire Chaoshan region. If they chose to fight actively, they could pose a threat to the coming Operation Engine.

Yet Qian Shuixie believed they would prove no real obstacle—the enemy clearly lacked fighting spirit and sought only self-preservation. This land reconnaissance had turned into little more than a hiking tour of Nan'ao Island. The Special Reconnaissance Team never even had occasion to switch off their weapons' safeties from start to finish. Qian Shuixie found the passivity of the island's military and civilians rather baffling—then again, his team had done nothing to provoke them. They hadn't burned houses, snatched chickens or ducks, or molested women. The soldiers and militia had merely watched them tour the island, tracking their movements with smoke signals, yet no one ever emerged to engage.

After completing their predetermined reconnaissance route, they arrived early at Qianjiang Bay the following day and successfully rendezvoused with the Haitian. The vessel then conducted reconnaissance of the bays in the Shanwei and Chaoshan regions. During this time, they clashed with local half-fishermen, half-bandit inhabitants—their isolation meant they had never heard of the Australians' prowess, and they served as target practice for the Haitian.

The ship then set her helm toward Kaohsiung. From here, the sea voyage was only 160 nautical miles. At the Haitian's average speed of around seven knots, they arrived twenty-four hours later at "Dagou"—the waters of Kaohsiung.

Before the Ming Dynasty, Kaohsiung had still been a lagoon, inhabited by the Makatao people, a branch of the so-called Pingpu tribes. These "tribes" belonged to the Austronesian language family, with very low economic and cultural development and small populations. They were frequently harassed by Chinese pirates and Japanese wokou.