Chapter 925 – The Haitian

After two days sailing at sea, the Haitian arrived in the waters near Nan'ao Island. With her white sails fully spread, she glided elegantly across the water like a seabird, waves splashing around her hull.

The weather had been clear here lately; the sea was a pristine blue. A few wisps of cloud drifted slowly across the distant horizon. The May sunset cast its brilliant glow unobstructed across the vast, open expanse. On the surface, green islands came into view. One emerald wave after another struck the bare shoreline with the terrible roar of rolling thunder.

This was Nan'ao Island. Located at the maritime junction of Fujian, Guangdong, and Taiwan provinces, it lay 11.8 nautical miles from Shantou, 160 nautical miles east to Kaohsiung, 97 nautical miles north to Xiamen, and 180 nautical miles southwest to Hong Kong—an excellent geographic position. Since ancient times, Nan'ao had been an essential waypoint and transit station for coastal trade in the southeast. As early as the Ming Dynasty, it had earned the title of "Maritime Market." Not only had the Southern Song court-in-exile left traces here, but this was also said to be where the Japanese pirates of old had buried their treasure.

The Haitian had come here, of course, not to dig for treasure. She was a naval reconnaissance and survey vessel, responsible for collecting coastal hydrological conditions and topography, measuring harbor depths, and carrying out a range of intelligence work. For long-distance operations, she also served as a pilot ship.

The Navy was a money-burning branch of the military. The Haitian was a living example. At the time of last year's Pearl River estuary battle, the Haitian had been a hundred-ton-class Cantonese vessel. Now, the old Haitian had become the new Haitian—formerly the Navy's twin-masted gunboat Zhenhai. The Zhenhai was the first European-style twin-masted fore-and-aft rigged ship the transmigrators had built according to blueprints. Its template was the historically famous America: 170 tons displacement, 30 meters overall length, 7 meters beam, 3 meters draft.

This vessel had excellent sailing performance; even in headwinds she could tack quickly. However, she did require a certain level of crew skill. In strong following winds, she could reach speeds of 18 knots—but a slight misstep could capsize her.

From her launch in 1629, the Zhenhai had participated in almost every military operation of the Senate; she'd also handled extensive escort, patrol, and even cargo-hauling duties. After the Second Counter-Encirclement Campaign ended, the Zhenhai didn't participate in the Pearl River estuary operations but spent a period on the Lingao–Sanya patrol and transport route.

Shortly after the First Shipbuilding and Outfitting Plan began, the Zhenhai entered drydock at the Bopu shipyard for repair and refit. Besides cleaning and maintaining the hull, the refit included converting hard sails to soft sails, sheathing the hull with copper, installing a steam propulsion system, and adding a radio station.

The Navy was quite satisfied with the Zhenhai's performance but considered her tonnage too small for a blue-water warship and her firepower inadequate. Thus the final decision was to rename her Haitian, replacing the old Cantonese-type Haitian as the new reconnaissance and survey vessel.

Most of the weapons were stripped from the new Haitian to reduce weight. Six 2-pounder mortars and two 70mm rifled guns were all removed—the early-production 70mm rifled guns had certain defects in performance and manufacturing process. At the time, they hadn't been mass-produced; only a few experimental units were installed on naval vessels. The guns widely equipped on Navy ships were still various smoothbore cannons. Lin Shenhe had already submitted proposals to develop and produce a new generation of artillery to replace these early guns. This special caliber had been placed on the phase-out list.

After removing all the artillery, the new Haitian was refitted with one 48-pounder smoothbore cannon and four "Typewriters" for self-defense. Against scattered pirate harassment, these weapons would suffice.

The Haitian's mission was "reconnaissance"—she didn't need to bombard shores or engage in naval battles. Speed was her weapon and shield. Not only was the Haitian superior to this timeline's traditional vessels under sail, but she also had a steam-screw propulsion system; when necessary, she could go full-throttle to escape.

Another advantage of this class of ship was that she required very few sailors—a minimum of just nine could operate her. Combined with the backup steam propulsion, the crew could be kept at lower numbers, freeing up enough space for more comfortable living quarters. To ensure that transmigrators on reconnaissance and technical support duties could live relatively pleasantly at sea, the living facilities had also been upgraded to maximize quality of life.

To facilitate landings and entry into inland waterways for surveying, the Haitian had also been fitted with davit racks for small boats, carrying rowboats and a small launch.

The newly refitted Haitian's first mission was to sail from Hong Kong and survey the coastal hydrological conditions and maritime security situation from Hong Kong all the way to the Shandong coast.

The new Haitian's captain was a transmigrator naval officer named Li Ziping. Like Chen Haiyang, Li Ziping was a former PLA veteran who'd transitioned to the Navy. He'd received formal military academy education and had extensive experience in navigation and weapons management. He'd even done a short training stint at the Kuznetsov Naval Academy, absorbing the spirit of the Red Navy.

After D-Day, Li Ziping had spent a period as a "fisherman-navy," patrolling outside Bopu Harbor in the 8154 fishing vessel to protect the Senate. After the Naval Department was established, he declined an appointment to naval headquarters, instead serving long-term as a ship captain. He'd trained hard in all kinds of sailing maneuvers and naval warfare tactics. Once steam engines became available, he'd often visited the engine rooms to master the characteristics of steam engines and boilers. "Master new equipment, train hard in new tactics"—that was his motto.

Taking command of the new Haitian was his own request. He hoped this voyage would help him build intuitive familiarity with the future theater of operations—though he knew this captaincy wouldn't last long. Once the 1631 refit was officially launched and entered service, he'd go to take command of the new warship.

Under the captain's command, the Haitian set sail from Hong Kong and headed north along the coast. The focus of this voyage was surveying the Pingdong and Kaohsiung areas of Taiwan. After that, they would also examine the coastal areas of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shandong—looking for harbors and small islands suitable for anchoring and shelter, and drawing accurate coastlines. Although they had detailed charts, coastline changes over several centuries were enormous, with significant differences from the old timeline's maps and charts. Shoal and sandbar distributions also differed; corrections had to be made in advance.

Another task for the Haitian was to observe firsthand the security of ocean navigation. Although prior to this, Dabo Shipping vessels had already sailed between Zhejiang and Hong Kong several times without incident—aside from a few encounters with small pirate bands—neither Liu Xiang nor Zheng Zhilong had launched any interception of Dabo Shipping's cargo runs. The Grand Library's Historical Research Group's conclusions appeared accurate: these great sea lords didn't have the capacity to organize a tight maritime blockade—nor was that their ambition. Both Liu Xiang and Zheng Zhilong were focused on monopolizing foreign trade. The ones actually conducting frequent robberies along the coast were medium and small pirate bands.

On this voyage, the Haitian openly flew the Morning Star flag and the naval ensign, with an obvious purpose: to see just how strong the legendary sea lords' sense of maritime dominion really was, and how capable they were of enforcing it.

"Watch the sea carefully!" Li Ziping raised his binoculars to scan the waters around the island. On the surface, fishing sails were scattered here and there—Nan'ao Island was near excellent fishing grounds, and many boats came here to fish. But what concerned him more was Liu Xiang's vessels.

After Liu Xiang withdrew from the Pearl River estuary, he hadn't reappeared in the vicinity. Based on intelligence from various sources, the General Staff and the Foreign Intelligence Bureau had conducted map exercises and roughly determined: if Liu Xiang had left the Pearl River estuary, his likely positions, from west to east, were: first, Daya Bay; second, one of the two peninsulas of Shanwei Harbor; and finally, one of the three harbors in Dongshan County. Of these three general locations, only Nan'ao Island in the Shantou-Shanwei area was most ideal.

In this timeline, the cities of Shantou and Shanwei were mostly tidal flats. The local Hakka fishermen had set up huge fish-trapping maze-nets here—called "shan" in Hakka—hence the place names.

If a large pirate gang of more than ten thousand wanted a hiding place, Nan'ao Island was perfect: the island was big enough at 130 square kilometers, with abundant freshwater and fuel. In the old timeline, it had over 70,000 permanent residents. As long as grain supplies could be steadily imported, a gang of tens of thousands could live there without much pressure. It had harbors and bays, was only 12 nautical miles from the mainland, making supply delivery convenient. And the mainland behind it was hundreds of kilometers of mountainous terrain; Chaoshan was Hakka country, quite isolated from broader Guangdong society. Moreover, according to the Grand Library's analysis, Liu Xiang was very likely a Hakka from the Chaoshan region. Going to Nan'ao Island would be like returning to his home turf—not only safe but also convenient for recruiting manpower and obtaining supplies.

However, the Grand Library's Historical Research Group quickly ruled out this possibility. In this timeline, Nan'ao Island was the garrison post of Chen Ting, Deputy Commander of the Guangdong Coastal Defense. Though Ming generals often had dealings with the great sea lords, he believed Chen Ting wouldn't openly harbor a pirate gang of tens of thousands right under his nose at his own garrison. That would violate official protocol and pose a major threat to himself.

Agents dispatched by the Foreign Intelligence Bureau and disguised Navy reconnaissance vessels had successively conducted a series of reconnaissance operations along the coast. The final determination was that the Shanwei-Chaozhou area was Liu Xiang's lair. But his main fleet of large ships was basically absent from these waters. Clearly his main force was elsewhere. Intelligence assessed that it was most likely on the Fujian-Japan shipping lane.