Chapter 486 The battleship is launched

Although Sha Xi has been away from the center of power for a long time, he still has some reliable information channels and is aware of the trends of the Executive Committee in terms of personnel appointments and removals. He wants to stay after the administrative level of the General Office is upgraded.

If you are engaged in civil affairs work here, you must seize every opportunity to show your abilities and gain more support from the executive committee.

It was under Sha Xi's command that the order of the Lijiazhuang immigration camp was not greatly affected by the thousands of victims who came here in a short period of time. They also took advantage of this opportunity to quickly recruit more than a thousand people who voluntarily went to Qiongzhou Island to work.

of new immigrants.

People who choose to immigrate to Qiongzhou will naturally receive far better treatment than those who are unwilling to leave their homes and have to live outside Lijiazhuang. The new immigrants not only receive sufficient food supplies every day, but also enjoy excellent accommodation.

The medical and medical conditions are also much better than the outside world. Sha Xi also organized a number of immigration cadres who can talk about returning home, and go to the disaster victims gathering area outside Lijiazhuang every day to preach Haihan's immigration policy, attracting more people to join the ranks of immigrants.

A considerable number of these grassroots naturalized cadres come from the mainland. They preach as people who have experienced it, and their influence is considerable. Some people who did not have any land or real estate in the first place and who lost all their property in this storm,

After hearing about the various benefits of Sanya, I will inevitably be tempted to sign up.

But for Sha Xi, the current speed of absorbing immigrants has not met his ideal requirements. Two months ago, he had already reported to the executive committee, requesting further reconstruction and expansion of the Lijiazhuang immigration camp, in order to increase the number of immigrants.

Prepare for the introduction of immigrants from the mainland on a large scale.

As Haihan's control area on Qiongzhou Island expands larger and larger, the demand gap for the labor force is no longer the same as the 1,800 people in the early days of time travel. Only the rebuilt Changhua-Shilu Coal and Iron Composite Industrial Base,

The labor force required in the future will inevitably exceed 10,000. The super-large collective farm projects planned by the Executive Committee in the coastal areas of Qiongnan and Qiongxi are also labor-intensive industries and require the participation of a large number of labor forces before they can be implemented. According to the Executive Committee

It is estimated that the current population of 200,000 on the island alone will be enough to develop the Qiongnan and Qiongxi coastlines. To complete the layout of the entire island, the population will have to be at least doubled.

.

Such a large gap mainly depends on the introduction of immigrants from the outside world. In the past, Annan, a large immigrant family, was used as support. However, with the end of the civil war in Annan, the number of immigrants introduced from Annan has also shown a downward trend month by month. Since last year,

During the war, the number of 3,000 people per month has gradually dropped to the current level of only 700 or 800 people per month. Under the current situation, this scale of immigration import has been difficult to keep up with the speed of development.

Although the scale of immigrants from the mainland of the Ming Dynasty is not as high as that of Annan during its peak period, it is better because of its deep potential and relatively stable transport volume. The number of new immigrants sent from Panyu to Sanya every month basically remains at more than a thousand people. According to Sha Xi,

The mainland, as a source of immigrants, actually has considerable potential for further exploration. If we think of some methods, we can definitely speed up the pace of immigration introduction. Of course, to achieve this goal, we must first let the social order under the Ming Dynasty be lost.

It is necessary to ensure that people have the idea of ​​​​leaving the area. This is precisely in conflict with the current foreign policy of the Executive Committee that seeks stability.

The Executive Committee believes that under the current situation, maintaining the stability of the sales market in Ming Dynasty will be more conducive to the development of Haihan. At this time, if chaos is created in the south to take advantage of Ming Dynasty, it is inevitable that one thousand enemies will be killed and eight hundred others will be injured.

suspicion. Therefore, in the orders issued by the Guangzhou Liaison Office, it has always been emphasized that the purpose of increasing the scale of immigration is not to disrupt the social order of Guangdong - at least not to take the initiative.

Looking at the gathering place for victims that stretched for several miles outside Lijiazhuang, Sha Xi could only sigh. If the executive committee allowed him, he could play some tricks to make the undecided victims outside the village vote for Haihan. For example, let the vigilante group

If you pretend to be bandits and bandits and cause trouble nearby, many people will definitely choose to apply for immigration to ensure their own safety. After all, everyone who comes here knows that the Haihan Militia is not easy to mess with, and there are dozens of people nearby.

Within the country, the only reliable armed force was the militia stationed in Lijiazhuang.

However, Sha Xi also knew that the methods he thought of were not correct, and it would be easy to lose control if he really played like this. To say the least, if he wanted to play like this, the military people would probably not cooperate, so these ideas were just

Keeping it in mind, it is safer to rely on disaster relief to continue to win over these victims.

While Sha Xi was busy working on immigration matters, the Provisional Management Committee of Hong Kong Island finally received a reply from the Ming Army in the north, to the effect that it would not agree to the three conditions previously proposed by Chen Yixin, but agreed that Haihan was willing to maintain peaceful coexistence.

manner.

You Yihan felt a little baffled when he received such a reply, so he called Chen Yixin and asked him about the secret. Although Chen Yixin was considered a professional in the military, he was not a diplomat. He rubbed his chin and thought for a long time.

Then he responded: "I think the Ming army is just protecting their own face and unwilling to openly agree to my three conditions."

"How can you see it?" You Yihan asked.

"They both agree with our conditions and want to maintain peace with us. To put it bluntly, they can't hide their face!" Chen Yixin analyzed: "After all, they are also dignified navy masters. They just agreed to conditions that cost them power and humiliated the country. If word spreads in the future,

Do you still want the general's black gauze hat?"

"It makes sense...but what if they make things difficult for our merchant ships?" You Yihan was still a little uneasy about the failure to reach a bilateral agreement in the end.

Chen Yixin said with a smile: "When I first proposed the conditions, I didn't think that they would definitely agree. The main thing was to let them know where our bottom line is. It's so clear that if they still want to challenge us, then I probably have no choice but to

Reluctantly, we led our men to capture the water stronghold directly. There were so many pirates anyway, so we could just frame them up at will. We could also play a live rescue, playing two roles ourselves, and then send a team of people to take down the pirates.

The pirates are driven away. In this way, the blame is thrown away and the reputation is gained."

"You have a lot of imagination!" You Yihan was also amused by Chen Yixin's bold idea.

"Brother You, don't forget, the north has just been hit by a disaster. Their current situation, let alone being against us, is probably a bit difficult to protect themselves." Chen Yixin said very firmly: "According to the situation we have.

, the navy's ships are already old, and they will probably be damaged in such a big typhoon. If they dare to provoke us at this juncture, it will be easier to clean them up. "

In fact, Chen Yixin's guess is indeed very close to the actual situation. During the typhoon a few days ago, due to insufficient preparation in advance, three ships of the Navy directly capsized, and several more ships were seriously damaged. Now the Navy can

The number of ships dispatched was less than half of normal conditions, and there was no ability to fight against the Haihan Navy.

After this not-so-serious natural disaster passed, the construction project of the new port quickly continued. Dozens of merchants who had previously designated sites here also sent craftsmen and building materials from all over Guangdong and began to build the new port.

Construction is underway in the planned business district. On this narrow plain near the sea, a small town composed of various commercial warehouses is rising almost at a speed visible to the naked eye. The construction progress even exceeds the initial development of Victory Port.

situation.

By the end of 1629, the new port had begun to take shape. In the first phase of the project, a deep-water dock for 3,000-ton ships had been built, and a camp had been built on Ap Leizhou Island, with two entire

The company's army and half the fleet's sailors have also begun construction of the island's coastal defense batteries. On the day the first phase of the project was completed, a total of twenty-seven commercial facilities built here were put into use at the same time.

Thanks to Haihan's prepared publicity, Guangdong's maritime business community has long been aware of the existence of this new port, and is also very aware of its function - this is the last supply station on the route from Guangdong to Manila after leaving the mainland.

After that, we will have to cross a voyage of six to seven hundred nautical miles before we can see the existence of large tracts of land again.

With the precedent of Wanshan Port, maritime merchants know how to use the location of this port to evade taxes and reduce transshipment costs. Moreover, most maritime merchants in Guangdong know that the areas under Haihan will not

The Ming government intervened, so some maritime merchants who originally docked at the northern port of Hong Kong Island also moved their docking place to the southern port controlled by Haihan. This also included the man who was between the Ming Navy and Haihan.

Chen Lin, who is the messenger. Although it sounds a bit abnormally prosperous, almost all the ports under the rule of Haihan developed along this path. The understanding of the Haihan Free Port has long been in the minds of maritime merchants.

It's ingrained in my heart.

At the end of 1629, three days before the New Year, the Haihan Navy's first true flagship "Majesty" held a grand induction ceremony at the Victory Port military dock. All executive members of the executive committee and representatives from various units

Almost all the leaders were present to watch this large warship, which had been the work of the entire crossing group, put into service.

This ship was actually in the construction plan of the shipping department before the crossing, and the relevant design plans were prepared early. However, due to limited shipbuilding technology in the early stages of the crossing, it could not be implemented immediately until the Port of Victory.

After the shipyard was expanded, the newly built large slipway could finally lay the keel for building this large ship.

The displacement of this three-masted sailing ship reaches 1,762 tons, with a total length of 50 meters, a deck of 12 meters at its widest point, and a main mast height of 55 meters. The ship is designed with three layers of artillery decks, with three types of 12-pound, 24-pound, and 48-pound guns installed.

There are a total of 52 caliber guns. The rated crew plus combatants total 388 people. The theoretical speed using only wind propulsion is 6-12 knots.

The biggest highlight of this ship is of course not just the huge hull and densely packed gun ports. The most important component is actually at the rear of the bilge, a steam power system with a design power of 800 horsepower. It uses steam and wind power at the same time.

With two sets of propulsion systems, the maximum speed can exceed 15 knots, which is absolutely unmatched in the current time and space.

Due to Haihan's huge advantage in artillery manufacturing technology, the artillery equipped by the "Majesty" greatly exceeded its contemporaneous opponents in terms of range and accuracy. Therefore, when the ship was built, it did not use the same methods as Western warships.

An extra-thick outer deck and iron shell are used to build the hull, but the limited load capacity is left more to the heavy steam propulsion system, as well as the coal and fresh water required to maintain its operation.

In order to give this main ship a stronger maritime cruising capability, the Navy also specially modified and customized two "Exploration-class" supply ships for it to load fuel, fresh water, ammunition and the necessary supplies for hundreds of people on board.

Living supplies. According to the Navy's estimates, this ship must be able to maintain a combat radius of at least 500 nautical miles at sea to be considered qualified. However, whether it can reach such a level in actual operations remains a big question mark. After all, steam battleships are

No one has played with this stuff before. Whether it is machine maintenance on the way or logistical supply implementation at sea, it still takes a lot of time to explore and practice.

The sister ship "Wei Feng", which is being built at the same time, has also entered the launching and outfitting stage. It is expected that the completion period will take about three months, and it should be officially listed in the first half of next year.

Tao Donglai stood on the rostrum, applauding and turning his head slightly to Yan Chujie next to him: "Can this ship really be included in the list now?"

Yan Chujie said calmly: "Get in line first, and other problems will be solved later."

After Tao Donglai heard this, the expression on his face did not change much. The ship was delivered much earlier than the expected construction period. Although Tao Donglai is not a professional in shipbuilding, he is also a military fan, and he is vaguely aware that

He felt that there seemed to be something fishy in it, but he had been busy with other matters and had no time to ask. Yan Chujie's words undoubtedly confirmed his speculation. The "Mighty" was probably not completed when it was put into the queue.

All the adjustment work. In other words, this ship can only be said to be forcibly commissioned now, but to form combat effectiveness, I am afraid there is still a lot of work to be done.

Tao Donglai knew that the current occasion was not suitable to continue to ask what happened, so he did not discuss this issue further. He knew Yan Chujie's character well and believed that Yan Chujie would not joke about such a big project, and he would definitely do so in the future.

Explain it to him yourself, just be patient and wait.
Chapter completed!