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After sailing on the sea for two days, the "Haitian" arrived in the waters near Nan'ao Island. [Read the full text] The Haitian was covered with white sails, like a seagull, gliding gracefully across the sea. Splashing waves,
The weather here has been sunny recently, and the sea is as clear as water. A few fluffy white clouds floated slowly in the distant sky. The setting sun in May casts its gorgeous afterglow onto the open and wide sea without any obstruction. On the sea surface, green islands emerge. Green waves hit one after another, hitting the red coast tirelessly, making a terrible sound like heavy thunder. This is Nan'ao Island. It is located at the junction of Fujian, Guangdong and Taiwan provinces, 118 nautical miles from Shantou, 160 nautical miles from Kaohsiung to the east, 97 nautical miles from Xiamen to the north, and 180 nautical miles from Hong Kong to the southwest. The geographical location is very advantageous. Since ancient times, Nan'ao has been a necessary stopover and transit station for trade along the southeastern coast. As early as the Ming Dynasty, Nan'ao had been known as the "Maritime Mutual Trade".
Not only are there traces of the small imperial court of the Southern Song Dynasty here, but there is also the so-called "gold hiding place" of the Japanese pirates.
The Haitian No. came here, of course, not to dig for hidden gold. "Haitian" is a naval reconnaissance and mapping ship responsible for collecting coastal sea conditions and landforms. A series of intelligence work such as measuring the water depth of the harbor. When conducting long-distance operations, it also serves as a pilot ship.
The Navy is a money-burning service. Haitianhao is a vivid example. During last year's Battle of the Pearl River Estuary, Haitian was still a 100-ton Guangzhou ship. Now, the old "Haitian" has become the new "Haitian". The former Navy's "Zhenhai" two-masted gunboat. Zhenhai is the first European-style ketch built according to drawings by Chuanchuang. It is based on the famous "America" in history: it has a displacement of 170 tons, a total length of 30 meters, a width of 7 meters, and a draft of 3 meters.
The sailing performance of this ship is excellent, and it can sail quickly even in headwinds. However, there are also certain requirements for the crew's operational skills. It can reach a high speed of 18 knots when sailing in strong tailwinds, but it will capsize if you are not careful.
Since its launch in 1629, the Zhenhai has participated in almost all military operations of the Senate, and has also performed a large number of escort, patrol and even cargo transportation tasks. After the second anti-encirclement and suppression campaign, Zhenhai did not participate in the Pearl River Estuary Operation and served as a stage of Lingao-Sanya cruise transportation mission.
Shortly after the first shipbuilding maintenance plan began, Zhenhai entered the dock at Bobu Shipyard for repairs and modifications. In addition to cleaning and maintenance of the hull, modifications were carried out to replace the hard sails with soft sails, clad the bottom with copper, install a steam power system and install a radio station.
The Navy was quite satisfied with the use of Zhenhai, but believed that as an ocean-going warship, its tonnage was too small and its firepower was insufficient. Therefore, it finally decided to rename Zhenhai to Haitian. The old Haitian, which replaced the old Guangzhou ship type, became the new reconnaissance and exploration ship.
The new Haitian has removed most of the ship's weapons and equipment to reduce weight. All 6 mortars and 2 70mm rifled guns were dismantled. The early manufactured 70ma rifled guns had some defects in performance and production process. They were not put into large-scale production at that time. Only a few experimental ones were manufactured and installed on naval ships. On board, naval ships are widely equipped with various smoothbore guns. Lin Shenhe has already made a report on developing and manufacturing a new generation of artillery to replace these early artillery. This special caliber artillery has been included in the list of elimination.
After dismantling all the artillery, the new "Haitian" reinstalled a 48-pound smoothbore cannon and a 4tǐng "typewriter" as self-defense firepower. These weapons are enough to deal with sporadic pirate harassment.
The mission of the Haitian is "reconnaissance". There is no need to bombard the shore or participate in naval battles. Speed is the weapon and shield of the Haitian. The Haitian is not only superior to traditional sails in this time and space when using sails, it is also equipped with a steam engine-propeller power, and can escape at full power when necessary.
The advantage of this kind of ship is that it requires very few sailors, with a minimum of 9 people required to operate it. With the support of additional steam engine power, the number of required sailing personnel can be kept at a low level, freeing up enough sailing personnel. The space is used to arrange more comfortable living spaces. In order to ensure that the veterans who perform reconnaissance and technical support work can live relatively happily at sea, the living facilities have also been modified to ensure the quality of life of the veterans at sea to the greatest extent.
In order to facilitate landing and exploration in inland waters, the Haitian is also equipped with a small boat rack to carry rowing boats and small launch boats.
The first mission of the Haitian after completing the modification work is to set sail from Hong Kong to explore the coastal hydrological conditions and maritime safety conditions from Hong Kong to the coast of Shandong.
The captain of the Xinhaitian is Li Ziping, a veteran naval officer. Li Ziping, like Chen Haiyang, is a retired naval officer who was a former PA. He received a formal military school education and has rich experience in navigation work and weapons management. He also received short-term training at the Kuznetsov Naval Academy and was influenced by the spirit of the Red Navy.
After D-Day, Li Ziping served as a fisherman in the navy for a period, driving 8154 fishing boats to patrol outside Bobu Port to protect the Senate.
After the Ministry of the Navy was established, he refused to be appointed to serve in the Navy. He served as a naval captain for a long time and practiced various sailboat maneuvering and sailing naval warfare tactics. After having a steam engine, he often visited the steam engine power workshop to master the special skills of steam engines and boilers. New equipment, hard training of new tactics", this is his mantra. Taking on the role of captain of the new "Haitian" this time is also his own request. He hopes to accumulate more intuitive feelings about future theaters through this voyage - although he knows This captain's appointment won't be long. When 1631 is officially launched and put into active service, he will go to receive the new warship.
Under the command of the captain, the Haitian set sail from Hong Kong and sailed north along the coastline. The focus of this trip is to explore the Pingtung and Kaohsiung areas of Taiwan. Later, we will also inspect the coastal areas of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shandong. Looking for a place to stay. Sheltered harbors and small islands have drawn accurate coastlines. Although they have detailed charts in their hands, the changes in the coastline have changed too much in hundreds of miles. They are very different from the charts and maps of old time and space. The distribution of reef sand is also different and must be corrected on the chart beforehand.
Another mission of the Haitian is to observe the safety of maritime navigation on the spot. Although **ō shipping ships had sailed between Zhejiang and Hong Kong several times before, no danger occurred. Except for a few attacks by small groups of pirates, neither Liu Xiang nor Zheng Zhilong had any danger. Launched an interception of freight shipping by **ō Shipping. It seems that the conclusion of the history research team of the Grand Library is accurate: these sea masters do not have the ability to organize a strict maritime blockade network, nor do they have such ambitions. Both Liu Xiang and Zheng Zhilong are concerned about monopolizing foreign trade. The ones who really frequently carry out robberies in coastal areas are small and medium-sized pirates.
This time, the Haitian sailed openly flying the morning star flag and the navy flag. The purpose was obvious. How strong was the awareness of sea power among the sea owners in China, and how strong was their ability to fulfill their wishes.
"Pay attention to the sea surface!" Li Ziping raised his telescope and observed the sea area around the island. Fishing sails are dotted on the sea. There are excellent fishing grounds near Nan'ao Island, and there are many fishing boats here. But he was more concerned about Liu Xiang's ship.
After Liu Xiang withdrew from the Pearl River Estuary, he never appeared nearby again. The General Staff and the Foreign Intelligence Office conducted a map deduction based on various intelligence materials and roughly determined that if Liu Laoxiang escaped from the Pearl River Estuary, the possible locations would be from west to east: the first is Daya Bay, and the second is Shanwei. One of the two peninsulas of the harbor, and finally one of the three harbors in Dongshan County. Among these three general locations, only Nan'ao Island in Shantou and Shanwei areas is the most ideal.
In this time and space, most of Shantou and Shanwei are still tidal flats. Local Hakka fishermen set up huge fishing arrays here. The Hakkas call them "Shantou", which is where the two place names come from.
If a large group of pirates with tens of thousands of people are looking for a place to hide, Nan'ao Island is perfect: the island is large enough to cover 130 square kilometers, and there is abundant fresh water and fuel on the island. In the old days, there were more than 70,000 permanent residents. As long as they could steadily import food, a group of tens of thousands of people could live on the island without much pressure. It has a harbor and a bay and is only 1 mile away from the mainland, so it is convenient to import supplies. Moreover, the land is a mountainous area with a radius of several hundred kilometers, and Chaoshan is a Hakka area. For Guangdong society, information is quite limited. Moreover, according to the research and judgment of the Great Library: Liu Laoxiang was probably a Hakka from the Chaoshan area. Then arriving at Nan'ao Island is like returning to your hometown. Not only is safety guaranteed, it is also very convenient to obtain personnel and material supplies.
However, the historical data group of the Great Library quickly rejected this possibility. Nan'ao Island in this time and space is the residence of Chen Ting, the deputy general of the Guangdong Association. Although the generals of the Ming army and the sea masters have colluded to some extent, he believes that Chen Ting Ting would not openly admit a gang of tens of thousands of pirates to live under his base. This is not consistent with officialdom habits, but also poses a great threat to him personally.
Special agents dispatched by the Foreign Intelligence Service and camouflaged navy reconnaissance ships conducted a series of reconnaissance operations along the coast. It was finally determined that the Sanwei-Chaozhou area was Liu Xiang's home base. But his big ships are basically not in this sea area. Obviously, his main strength lies elsewhere. The Intelligence Bureau determined that it was probably on the Fujian-Japan route. ! .
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