Chapter 1469 Northern Route (2)

The goods that He Li's fleet needs to transport have actually arrived at the dock warehouse two days ago. However, due to limited manpower at the dock, the shipment tasks can only be carried out in batches, and the scheduled departure time can only be postponed by a few days.

Important supplies such as weapons and ammunition are naturally given priority for shipment, while private carrier fleets can only be placed last. However, this does not have a big impact on He Li, who has to follow the fleet anyway.

It doesn't matter if we set off to the north together, whether it's a few days earlier or a few days later. If we set off a few days later, we can learn more about the relevant situation and make better preparations.

Because these supplies also involve the military secrets of Haihan's garrison in Liaodong, all crew members must leave the ship during the loading of the goods, and civilians hired by the military will move the goods to the ship. In addition to knowing that he is going to

Except for the food and military uniforms that were transported to the north, no other information was known. The military did not even tell them the specific quantity of the goods, nor the ports they would stop on the way, only the final destination.

It will be the Liaodong Peninsula. This is also to prevent anyone from deriving Haihan's garrison strength in the Liaodong region based on the number of supplies Haihan shipped to the north.

To be honest, if another employer wanted to act in such a mysterious manner, He Li would have given up his job long ago. He didn't know what he was transporting, where he was going, and how he was going. If he followed the other party's ship out to sea, he would be

It is tantamount to handing over all your wealth and life to the other party. I am afraid that few shipowners would dare to take this kind of risky thing. But Haihan is different. Everyone knows that Haihan is almost invincible in the sea off the Ming Dynasty, and his wealth is far beyond compare.

It is beyond imagination that it is impossible to covet the carrier's wealth. Besides, there are many people who want to make a fortune following Haihan. If anyone has doubts about this, there will naturally be a large number of candidates who can take his place immediately.

Because of this, although He Li was full of curiosity about Haihan's arrangements, he did not have any worries. Moreover, He Xiao had also warned him before that he must not take the initiative to inquire about Haihan's military intelligence to avoid any untoward consequences.

Necessary misunderstanding. During these days when he arrived at Zhoushan Island, he really felt that Haihan attached great importance to military secrets. Zhoushan Dinghai Port has been divided into different docks according to different military and civilian uses. Ordinary people can even enter the military port.

If you don't go, let alone inquire about military secrets.

After taking a day to complete the loading, officials from the Ministry of Shipping called He Li and asked him to sign the cargo manifest. He Li looked at it and saw that it only contained the content of the goods and still did not indicate the specific quantity. He then asked cautiously.

One sentence: "If there is any discrepancy with the cargo on this ship, how can we check it?"

The official explained: "There will be people from the military boarding the ship to escort it. Even if there are any mistakes, it is not your responsibility. This is the rule. Don't worry about signing!"

After hearing this, He Li felt a little relieved. He picked up a pen and signed his name at the end of the page. When the ink dried, he pressed his thumb on the name with ink pad. This was regarded as taking over the cargo as the owner of the ship.

As introduced by officials, the Haihan military will send dedicated personnel to follow the ship for the entire journey of the goods that are escorted by the carrier. On the one hand, they will guard the goods to prevent accidents, and on the other hand, they will also act as armed escorts and pilots during the voyage.

If the quantity of goods on the ship is incorrect or damaged for no reason during the journey, the escort must bear the corresponding responsibility.

The reason for such a regulation is that there have been cases in the past where carriers secretly exchanged goods or even tampered with them. As a result, the military was not so confident about the integrity of civilian carriers. Coupled with other objective reasons, the military simply sent its own personnel.

Escort the shipment with the ship for peace of mind. Therefore, the carrier does not have to worry about what happens to the goods and needs to take responsibility for it. Both parties to the transaction can feel more at ease because of this small measure.

He Li's fleet has naturally been assigned a lot of escorts to board the ships. Smaller ships usually have two to three people per ship, and Dafu ships have three to five people per ship. These escorts are all on active duty.

Navy soldiers were fully armed and boarded the ship, and their image of loaded guns and live ammunition was quite intimidating. Fortunately, during the previous three days of training, these escorts had already met with the crew, and at this time it was not because of the weapons they carried.

Weapons caused panic among the crew.

The sailors He Li brought to Zhoushan only knew they were going to the north after they arrived here. However, neither Haihan nor He Li told them the specific destination in advance. They had to wait until the fleet was on the road before announcing it to avoid anyone

After you retreat, spread the news.

These various confidentiality measures also made He Li truly realize that his errand was not just an ordinary delivery, but a link in Haihan's series of military operations in the north. Think about Haihan

The territory occupied by the Han in the north was all Ming territory, but now it is a group of merchants and sailors who are citizens of the Ming Dynasty running on the sea to transport supplies to the Han army. This is really a great irony. The most amazing thing is that there seems to be no

No one thinks there is anything wrong with doing this, and no one thinks it is necessary to report it to the official.

Of course, the people on these boats all know He Li's identity, and they don't really think that reporting the "illegal acts" of the Haihan people in Ningbo Prefecture will be of any use. They might as well go north with the boat.

For a route, the income for the same period of time can be three times that of a normal voyage. It is most practical to get the money. Under such conditions, who cares which country the destination of this errand belongs to.

After all the ships have loaded their cargo, the last batch to be shipped is fresh fruits and vegetables, live livestock and fresh water. Although these survival supplies can be replenished at the shore on the way, Haihan Shipping Department has a certain time limit for transportation tasks.

Requirements, so the scheduled route is from the sea off Zhoushan to Shandong. Unless there is bad weather or other emergencies on the way, it will not stop at the coast.

In the end, the actual departure time of the fleet was more than half a day earlier than the scheduled time notified in advance. He Li believed that this was probably one of Haihan's confidentiality measures, and it was kept secret so that the outside world could not know the exact itinerary of the fleet. Personally, he

I don’t have any opinions on this, I just secretly admire the care and meticulousness of Haihan people in doing things.

The fleet heading north is mainly cargo ships. In addition to more than 30 civilian carrier ships, there are also nine heavy-duty sailing ships from the military and two "Exploration" class warships responsible for escort missions.

However, in He Li's view, the two escorting warships seemed a bit redundant, because these heavy-loaded sailing ships belonging to the military were obviously equipped with several deck artillery. Regardless of tonnage or firepower, the Ming Dynasty's offshore waters were probably very

It is difficult for any warship to compete head-on with these so-called "cargo ships". If this was included in the establishment of the Ming Navy, it would be the main warship.

The fleet sailed out of Dinghai Port at an overall speed of about six knots, then turned north through Hangzhou Bay and entered the waters of the Yangtze River estuary at dawn the next day. At this time, the leader of the Haihan sailing ship headed towards He Li's fleet.

A signal was given, indicating that they should slow down and stop sailing. Although He Li did not know what he meant, he still ordered it to be carried out. The fleet anchored not far from the land and waited for about two hours. After waiting for about two hours, a fleet sailed out from the Yangtze River Estuary.

A fleet of seven ships joined in.

Only then did He Li realize that he had stopped specifically to wait for these sailing ships to join. He saw that the masts of these sailing ships were also hung with flags symbolizing their identity as private carriers, and he knew that their missions were probably the same as his own, and they were all for the same purpose.

Haihan was the Ming Dynasty merchant who ran errands. This fleet sailed from the Yangtze River. It must have come from one of the state capitals of Yangzhou, Zhenjiang, Changzhou, Suzhou, and Songjiang. Most of them purchased goods locally.

, make an appointment to meet directly on the way.

He Li couldn't help but have a question in his mind. How many maritime transport fleets like this were serving Haihan in the entire Ming Dynasty? This was still in the Jiangsu and Zhejiang areas where Haihan's influence was weak. If it was said to be with

What will it be like in the Fuguang area where Haihan is fighting fiercely? If Haihan can move his entire set of practices in the south to Jiangsu, Zhejiang and even the north, it shouldn't take too long to penetrate the coastal areas.

.After all, there are not many people in this world who can resist the temptation of money and the threat of force at the same time, and Haihan is the best at these two offensives.

A huge ocean-going fleet consisting of more than fifty ships has never been seen in He Li's life experience. However, according to the armed escorts accompanying the ship, this is just a monthly trip to and from Zhoushan Island.

The fleet between Haihan and the northern colony is normal. It is precisely because of such a large transportation volume that Haihan will recruit private carriers through the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Shipping, hoping to relieve some of the official transportation pressure.

When He Li first participated in the investment promotion meeting, he thought that the number of ships gathered under his name was already quite large. However, according to the expectations of the Haihan people, today's transportation scale would have to be expanded at least four to five times to be barely reasonable.

And the proportion of the cargo capacity of He Li's ships is really very small.

"We still have to try to buy a few big ships." He Li finally came to a conclusion silently. They were all going to Liaodong. It is true that the bigger the ship, the lower the freight cost, and the corresponding profits will be richer.

If you want to run on this route for a long time, replacing a larger ship is almost a necessary business measure. Although there is currently no condition to replace that kind of heavy-duty sailing ship, this matter must be put on the agenda.

However, He Li still hasn't thought of a feasible shortcut on how to save money and time to buy Haihan's big ship. He probably can only wait until he comes back from this trip to discuss it with He Xiao. He knows very well that he is doing this.

The field is far less flexible than his brother's, so he doesn't plan to waste any more time thinking about it. Now that there are several Haihan soldiers on the ship who are responsible for escorting the cargo, he has become interested in making friends, and takes the initiative to talk when he has nothing to do.

Occasionally, he would ask about things related to this route, but he would rarely mention the progress of Haihan's war in the north, because he knew that most of the information that Haihan's military was unwilling to provide proactively was at a level that needed to be kept confidential.

If you ask inappropriate questions, it will easily arouse the other party's vigilance and resentment.

It was He Li's first time sailing on a ship to the northern waters, so it was still somewhat fresh. The naval soldiers who were responsible for escorting the cargo had to serve as navigators at the same time, so they were all veterans of this route many times.

They did not deliberately hide anything from the various questions He Li asked. As long as they were not within the scope of the confidentiality regulations, they basically answered all the questions. After a few days, He Li actually took it out of their mouths.

Got a lot of useful information.

Haihan had been sneaking into the north for two years. Before that, He Li only knew that Haihan had found a foothold in Shandong, and based on this, he sent troops to Liaodong to drive away the Jin people. But Haihan

Southerners like him didn't know much about the business situation in the north. After listening to the stories of these navy soldiers, he learned that Haihan had already controlled a county in Dengzhou, Shandong, and had established a local circle.

Local autonomy is completely independent of the Ming Dynasty.

But then he thought about it, isn't this the case in Haihan in Zhejiang? This Zhoushan Island is also a county, wasn't it occupied under the eyes of the Ming Dynasty? The difference with Shandong is that Zhoushan is isolated in the sea, with no direct

It's just connected to the mainland. The adults in Hangzhou City thought about falling out, but before they could do anything, the adults who jumped the most were all missing inexplicably. Later, the Haihan Fleet sailed from Hangzhou Bay into Qiantang

The river was blocked directly outside the city of Hangzhou, forcing the Zhejiang government to submit and open the coastal states to trade with Haihan. In the past few years, Shandong was tortured by the rebels. The Haihan people were many times more powerful than the rebels, so the government naturally took advantage of them.

If we can't stop them, we probably have no choice but to turn a blind eye and ignore Haihan's various actions in the local area.

Although He Li has not yet arrived in Shandong, he has got most of his guesses about the local situation. After Haihan's successful experience in the south was moved to Shandong, the effect was also immediate, and a control area was quickly established there. Although to this day

, I dare not say that everything in the Shandong controlled area is under control, but at least it can maintain a relatively stable public security situation, and there is no need to worry that Daming will mobilize a large army to attack the area in a short time.

As expected, the fleet went northward without docking again after leaving the Yangtze River Estuary. After arriving at the Shandong Peninsula, it also bypassed the Jinghaiwei, Chengshanwei, and Weihaiwei defense areas at the eastern end of the peninsula. Of course, these belong to

The Coastal Guard Station in Dengzhou Prefecture has long known how powerful the Haihan fleet is. Even if they encounter it at sea, they will pretend to be transparent and will never cause trouble. This huge fleet sailed in without any hindrance.

Off the coast of Fushan County, we entered Zhifu Port and docked under the leadership of the guiding boat.
Chapter completed!