Chapter 150: The Flag Raising

“We’ll properly ‘purify’ them once we get to Hong Kong Island.” The formation also carried specialists who had previously worked at the Guangzhou purification camp. The task force planned to open a new camp on Hong Kong Island to process prisoners.

“They might try to escape.”

“I doubt it. Not after seeing a machine gun in action.”

The fleet passed smoothly through the Ma Wan Channel and rounded the southwestern tip of Tsing Yi Island. This was now Victoria Harbour. Without his binoculars, Chen Haiyang could see a peninsula jutting out from the mainland—the location of the former Stonecutters Island naval base in the old timeline.

“What a magnificent natural harbor!” Chen Haiyang couldn’t help but exclaim. The geographical conditions of Victoria Harbour were truly superior, perfectly suited for a first-rate naval and commercial port. Potential harbor sites were everywhere.

For now, the area was desolate, with few signs of permanent residents. According to intelligence from the Guangzhou Station, only a handful of small villages existed on Hong Kong Island and the surrounding outlying islands.

However, across from Hong Kong Island lay Xin’an and Dongguan counties, both part of Guangdong’s breadbasket, producing large quantities of rice, tea, indigo, and tobacco, as well as sea salt. Economically, it was a very prosperous region. Occupying Hong Kong was like giving the Aussie Song regime a straw to suck resources from the wealthiest part of Southern China. A massive flow of goods could be transported from here.

The Ming government was also aware of Hong Kong’s importance. Besides the Tuen Mun garrison guarding the Pearl River Estuary, Xin’an County, which administered the Hong Kong area, had its county seat in what was originally the Dongguan Garrison under the Guangzhou Guard. In the first year of the Wanli era, to strengthen coastal defense and protect Guangzhou, this area was carved out of Dongguan to form the new Xin’an County.

At its peak, the Nantou garrison stationed over 2,000 Ming soldiers and more than a hundred warships. The city was a crucial hub for river and sea transport and a major military stronghold for coastal defense.

Even now, it maintained a force of seven to eight hundred soldiers and over fifty warships. This Nantou garrison was located in what is now Shenzhen’s Nantou district; there was even a tourist spot there—Chen Haiyang had visited the old city of Xin’an in the past. The two locations were not far apart. If the Ming army wanted to intervene, they could reach Hong Kong Island in a single day.

The analysts at the Foreign Intelligence Bureau and the General Staff speculated that the Guangdong Ming army, fresh from its recent defeat, was unlikely to rashly launch an attack on Aussie Song forces. Even if they wanted to, they couldn’t assemble a sufficiently threatening force. The task force was more than capable of repelling any Ming attack.

Chen Haiyang ordered the fleet to sail towards Wan Chai, preparing to land near the old Hong Kong-Macau Ferry Terminal to establish their first base. Although Hong Kong Island was the 17th largest island in China by area, its terrain was predominantly mountainous. The limited plains were concentrated in the northern part of the island, facing Victoria Harbour. Therefore, this was the chosen location for constructing the base and settlement area.

After landing at Wan Chai, the task force held a brief flag-raising ceremony to mark the occupation.

“Raise the flag! Salute!” came the cry from the honor guard. A bugler sounded the call. A flag ascended a hastily erected bamboo pole. The marines and sailors, lined up on the beach, saluted in unison and then sang “Ode to the Motherland.” The first territory occupied by the transmigrators outside of Hainan Island was officially claimed.

Despite having landed on Hong Kong Island, Chen Haiyang decided not to establish substantive control over the entire area for the time being—his forces were not yet sufficient to be spread out. He decided to keep the main force concentrated near the anchorage. In the old timeline, this place was called Central. Chen Haiyang simply named the harbor and the fortress under construction “Base 852.” As for its future name, that was a matter for the Senate to consider.

To keep track of the surrounding situation, Chen Haiyang dispatched a small detachment with a radio by boat to Lei Yue Mun, a strategic chokepoint to the east of the island, to establish an observation post. Another squad was sent to Kap Shui Mun to set up a western observation post. These two posts would allow them to monitor ship movements in the eastern and western channels of the island.

The day after the landing, the armed survey team led by Huang Zhua’zi set off for Victoria Peak. They were to conduct a general survey of Hong Kong Island’s topography and landforms, and also establish an observation post at the summit.

Finally, the patrol boat squadron would form a maritime patrol line to provide early warning around the base. They would also clear out small bands of local pirates. Lantau Island had historically been a traditional anchorage for pirates in the Pearl River Estuary, with gatherings sometimes numbering over 300 vessels. Although the task force had not observed many ships while passing north of Lantau, there was no doubt that this was a region of rampant pirate activity. The task force had to be prepared for conflict with local pirates at all times.

The task force’s landing and construction of a fort on Hong Kong Island were quickly discovered by the Ming garrisons at Tuen Mun and Nantou. Dispatches were sent to Zhaoqing and Guangzhou.

However, the Ming army was in no position to offer a substantive response. Morale among the officials and the military was at rock bottom. Although the dispatches reported that only a thousand or so “Kun thieves” with forty to fifty ships had landed on Hong Kong Island, the Guangdong naval officers and soldiers, having heard of their incredibly powerful firearms, had no desire to fight them. A naval vessel sent from Tuen Mun only went as far as the Sulphur Channel before turning back. The two sides fell into a silent standoff. The Ming forces at Nantou showed no signs of mobilizing in large numbers. Sentries only observed a few Ming scouts reaching the Sha Tau Kok area on the opposite side of the bay.

A brief interrogation of the captured pirates revealed they were fishermen from nearby islands. Forced into desperation by debts owed to fish brokers, they had decided to try their luck at sea.

The sunken ship had belonged to their leader, Zhao Yakin. The other two captured vessels were coastal cargo boats they had seized over the past month. Before their capture, they had succeeded several times, with each man receiving about ten taels of silver.

The crews and owners of the cargo ships were still being held captive—they were told they had to fight during battles, or they would be beheaded. Seven or eight other pirates were people who had been on shore when the pirate ships landed and were kidnapped before they could escape. Those who could afford a ransom were released; those who couldn’t were forced to remain on the ships as pirates.

Chen Haiyang ordered the immediate release of the captured men and ships, supplementing their supplies with some of the confiscated grain and money so they could return home safely. The twenty-odd captives left, thanking him profusely. Only those identified as pirates remained. Zhao Yakin had already been killed by machine-gun fire during the battle.

No valuable loot was found on the ships, mainly daily necessities like grain and salted fish. According to the second-in-command, Liang Sanshi, any loot of value was stored in their village on shore.

“It was the fish broker’s interest rates that were too high, charging thirty or forty percent. I paid for years and still couldn’t clear the debt, that’s why I took this risk. Please spare my life, sir!” several ragged men begged on the beach.

“Pirates or bandits, they always say they were forced into it. In reality, most are just lazy and greedy!” The Cantonese translator was a scholar who had recently graduated from the purification camp. He said indignantly to Chen Haiyang, “I urge you to be cautious, Chief!”

Seeing the translator’s unfriendly tone, the captured pirates prostrated themselves, begging for mercy. The fame of the “Kun thieves” had now spread to the Pearl River Estuary. They knew from their captors’ haircuts that they had fallen into the hands of the notoriously “cruel” Kun.

Chen Haiyang knew a little about the severe exploitation by the fish brokers. When he was in the fleet, although the practice of “recalling past bitterness and thinking of present happiness” was no longer in vogue, visits to revolutionary education bases that involved militias often brought up terms like “fish brokers” and “fishery tyrants.”

Fish brokers used their control over capital and markets to buy fish at low prices and sell daily necessities and grain at high prices, reaping huge profits. By extending high-interest loans to fishermen, they easily trapped them. Fishermen often needed large, one-time investments for their operations, making them more dependent on loans than farmers and thus more susceptible to falling into these debt traps.

However, Chen Haiyang’s mission was not to crack down on fishery tyrants. He decided to leave the matter to the civil affairs commissioner who had accompanied the expedition.

“Let them work hard in the purification camp for now, and have someone interrogate them thoroughly,” Chen Haiyang said.

Many local-speaking messengers were dispatched from the accompanying civil affairs team. Escorted by armed soldiers, they went to every village on Hong Kong Island to deliver a message: they were to send representatives to Base 852 immediately for a meeting to select liaisons.

Although the task force’s strength was limited and they couldn’t yet effectively intervene in the local civil administration, it was necessary to quickly establish a system for requisitioning personnel and supplies on the spot.

“To move freely in and out of the Pearl River Estuary, we must firmly control the Lantau Channel,” Chen Haiyang explained the upcoming battle plan to his subordinates in the temporary command post set up in a large tent. “On the northern part of Lantau Island, there is a village called Tung Chung. It’s a major pirate anchorage in the estuary. We must destroy the pirate base at Tung Chung.”

Wen Desi said, “We haven’t even started fighting the Ming army, and now we’re going to have a major clash with pirates. Won’t we be caught between two enemies?”

“The Ming army is unlikely to actively engage us. On the other hand, the pirates, who will jump at any opportunity for profit, are a huge hidden danger. Many more ships will be traveling between Hong Kong Island and Lingao in the future. Their harassment will be a major headache for the navy.”

“But that would mean increasing our land forces. We’d need to garrison Tung Chung after capturing it!”

“It’s fine if we don’t occupy Tung Chung for now. As long as we can destroy any pirate fleet that gathers there at will, they naturally won’t dare to show their faces in the area.”