Chapter 986 - Cam Ranh Bay

Even from the ships, one could see the series of fortresses the Nguyen had built along the coastline. Particularly at strategic sea-land junctions and locations suitable for ship anchorage, Nguyen-built fortresses were everywhere. Many were European-style, and though they showed obvious "knockoff" characteristics in both scale and materials, there was no denying that the Nguyen's "Westernization" in military thought and technology was far more aggressive than the Great Ming's.

In this Vietnamese North-South war, not only did European colonizers active in Southeast Asia participate, but Chinese pirates were also involved, providing naval power for both Nguyen and Trinh in their fighting—quite enjoying themselves. Both sides lavished various "official positions," "noble titles," and "imperial mandates" on the pirates without stint. After all, what it cost was just a piece of paper plus a wooden official seal, along with an ill-fitting official's robe. This was enough to attract countless people and ships to fight for their side—why not? As for compensation, it was freedom to plunder the enemy side's territory.

Ping Qiusheng suddenly remembered something. "Runner! Order Wang You to report to the sterncastle immediately!"

Wang You, who had come over during the Pearl River Estuary Campaign, had originally been studying logistics at the Joint Logistics Training Class at Ma'ao Base. He had previously been the old camp steward for the pirate group, responsible for logistics—a professional match. This time going to Southeast Asia, when selecting naturalized citizens familiar with the Southeast Asian environment from throughout the military system, Wang You had been temporarily borrowed.

"You went there with Zheng Bao before," Ping Qiusheng asked him abruptly.

"Yes!" Wang You's attention stance wasn't quite standard. Though he had mingled among pirates, he was essentially a clerk-type assistant, and being older, the results of his "standardization" training were far inferior to his peers. The naval uniform on him had a certain air of those Meiji Restoration-era Japanese samurai just starting to wear Western clothes.

Wang You looked at the familiar coastline and roughly described the "combat" operations he had conducted with Zheng Bao's fleet in this area—so-called combat meant burning, killing, and plundering. At first, this was quite good business. The Nguyen had no defenses along this coastline, and the fleet easily captured many ships and plundered large quantities of goods. Except for the portion handed over to the Trinh, the rest all belonged to the fleet.

But gradually this coastline became harder to crack. Artillery batteries and signal towers became more and more numerous. Not only did they often have to land under cannon fire, but sometimes they encountered Nguyen fleet interceptions, leading to pitched battles with heavy losses of men and ships on both sides.

It was precisely because this business had become increasingly dangerous that Zheng Bao had developed thoughts of returning to Guangdong.

"How many Ming pirates are still fighting for the Trinh and Nguyen now?"

"Report! I don't know the exact numbers. When Zheng Bao was recruiting sailors and ships in Jiangping last year, there were still over thirty bands fighting for the Trinh. All had been given official titles and noble ranks."

These pirate bands and their numbers of people and ships changed frequently. Whether under the Trinh or the Nguyen, Chinese pirates belonged to "volunteer armies"—neither inspected nor paid. They were only given nominal authorization to harass the opposing side. Except for a few large-scale campaigns, they were rarely assembled for unified command. As for coming and going, it was completely free—stay or leave as you pleased. So when the summer typhoon season arrived, these pirates basically all retreated back to the Chinese coast.

As for Chinese pirates fighting for the Nguyen, there were far fewer—relatively speaking, the Nguyen were farther away, making it harder to replenish personnel and ships. But over time, he had heard of and encountered over a dozen bands at sea. However, he also noted that quite a few pirates had been granted titles by both sides simultaneously, frequently switching allegiances to profit from the chaotic situation.

Of course, quite a few in this gold-digging also met untimely deaths. Wang You knew several former stewards under Zhu Cailao who had fallen in battle here. So when the ship reached this point, he couldn't help feeling a sense of the fox mourning the hare's death.

Quark frequently passed through this area and had heard quite a bit about the war. He pointed to several buildings deep on the coastline. "There are the Annamese granaries. I hear there are many more further inland, with the largest at Hue's east gate. God be praised, these savages have been slaughtering each other for years, with Portuguese participating too. They've stockpiled a lot of grain, but I estimate at this rate of killing, soon no one will be left to eat it."

"Are the firearms they use provided by the Portuguese?" Ping Qiusheng asked. He saw large numbers of artillery batteries and gun emplacements, all presumably equipped with cannons. The total numbers were quite staggering.

"The Portuguese have had a foundry in Hue for a long time, casting cannons and cannonballs. They can also produce arquebuses. They make a lot of money!" Quark said enviously. As a merchant, he was quite well-informed about such matters. He had always been jealous of this—what in the world was more valuable than arms? When Li Luoyou had wanted to partner with him to establish a cannon foundry, he had been very enthusiastic.

Quark explained eagerly. He was still hoping Ping Qiusheng would agree to give him those "Australian sea charts." Though the sea charts Liu San had shown Quark were controlled items, the Senate had already printed a batch of low-precision latitude-longitude charts as future gifts for trading partners with substantial commerce.

Ping Qiusheng looked at the distant buildings, thinking these grains should belong to the transmigrator group. If not for the North-South war, Vietnam's grain wouldn't be so tight. Though the local coastal defenses were quite organized, this fortification level was at best just somewhat better than the Ming's batteries at Humen. Types like Zheng Bao might find it tough, but for them it wasn't a problem. If the fleet had a company of marines plus a few Special Reconnaissance troops, followed by several H800 Harmony transports, snatching seventy or eighty thousand shi of grain would be no problem. But that wasn't possible this time—Operation Engine had already stretched Lingao's various resources to the limit, and many large-scale operations had been shelved until next year. The proposal to rob the monkeys' grain probably wouldn't pass the Senate anytime soon.

Ping Qiusheng noticed that a natural reef offshore separated the harbor. The mooring conditions inside were quite good. At this point, people on shore seemed to have also noticed the fleet's arrival and lit warning smoke, but no ships came out to investigate. Obviously the other side didn't actually have a standing navy ready to put to sea at any time. They just relied on coastal defense systems to prevent landing and harassment.

A bit further south was Da Nang, and the Han River estuary was already visible. This was the dividing line of Han cultural influence on the Indochinese Peninsula. In this timeline, Vietnam hadn't yet pushed its territory southward to the sea. In the Vietnamese court's view, everything south of the Han River was uncivilized territory—land for them to "civilize" and "conquer."

After two days of sailing, the fleet arrived in the waters off Nha Trang. Ping Qiusheng ordered the fleet to anchor here and dispatched small teams to land for fresh water, firewood, and food gathering. The landing party caused some small alarm among the local inhabitants.

Local villagers sent two elders with some food and water, inquiring about the landing party's intentions. Ping Qiusheng had learned a little Vietnamese, but when they tried to communicate, he discovered his "Vietnamese 300 Phrases" was completely useless. Southern Vietnam at the time didn't commonly use Chinese characters, and modern Vietnamese based on French alphabetic writing was also impossible for communication. Those strange pronunciations were obviously dialects from the Southeast Asian region.

The village's messengers could actually speak a tiny bit of Mandarin—of course with very strange pronunciation that only former pirates like Wang You who had been to this area before could understand. After trying, Elder Ping abandoned his attempt to handle it himself and switched to having the former pirate naturalized citizens who were familiar with the area translate. After much communication mixing gestures, local dialect, and Mandarin, both sides roughly understood each other.

Ping Qiusheng gave the villagers some commonly used trade gifts: glass beads and several machetes. He requested the village provide clean drinking water and food supplies. The fleet could pay with daily necessities they had brought. Ping Qiusheng also gave them a small glass mirror, and the villagers departed with endless thanks. That same day, they sent rice, chickens, ducks, and many fruits and vegetables.

Due to concerns about Nguyen army attacks, everyone only camped at a higher ground near the shore. Some people also stayed on the ships to stand guard. But obviously the Elder had overestimated the Nguyen's control. As a region newly taken from the Champa kingdom, they hadn't demonstrated particularly strong control. Their limited forces had obviously all been mobilized to the northern front. The local indigenous villagers were quite worldly—having experienced warfare, pirates, and European fleets, they knew these outsiders weren't people they could afford to provoke.

Understanding the disparity in their strength, they could only guard against or cooperate with the various maritime powers appearing in this area. Now that the Australians seemed quite polite, the villagers were willing to give them as much cooperation as possible.

During the days anchored at Nha Trang, Lin Dan and his former "colleagues" thoroughly enjoyed the beaches here. Nha Trang's scenery was breathtaking—the Americans had shown good taste in choosing this place as a base.

In Ping Qiusheng's mind, Nha Trang would be the transmigrators' forward base in Southeast Asia in the future, as well as a potential vacation destination for Elders.

The long-range survey team Elders who had come with the ship took small boats to conduct hydrographic surveys of Cam Ranh Bay south of Nha Trang. This natural harbor with excellent hydrographic conditions was a superb location for both a naval base and a commercial port. A future commercial and military outpost built around Cam Ranh Bay and Nha Trang should develop quite well.

South of Cam Ranh Bay was no longer Vietnamese territory but Champa's domain. While fighting off the northern offensive, the Nguyen dynasty continued to "expand territory" southward, continuously compressing the former Champa kingdom in this area, pushing Champa's remaining forces south of Cam Ranh Bay. Historically, Champa's territory had extended from Phan Rang all the way to Hue. But now Champa's influence was reduced to just the Phan Rang area, clinging to survival for a few more decades only because the Vietnamese North and South were busy fighting each other.

(End of Chapter)