Chapter 387: Expanded Meeting

Nan'ao Island is the closest point in Guangdong to Taiwan, less than 180 nautical miles from Dayuan. Its location is critical — "a strategic chokepoint for Fujian and Guangdong, a narrow and treacherous pass, a mandatory route for foreign ocean-going ships, and contested ground that inland pirates must fight for."

Throughout the Ming dynasty, the master of the South Australia General Town Office was always a Deputy Regional Commander. By the Qing dynasty, as the maritime situation grew more complex and foreign powers greatly increased, the Nan'ao garrison was upgraded to a Regional Commander post.

By the late Qing, roughly 170 Regional and Deputy Regional Commanders across both dynasties had held command at Nan'ao, maintaining the southeastern coastal defense. This included the famously renowned National Lord, who in his early days had practiced martial drills with his personal troops right on the drill field inside the Regional Commander's Residence.

And in this plane of the Transmigrators, on November 1st, 1629, the South Australia General Town Office welcomed its newest master: the newly appointed Deputy Regional Commander Cao Chuan (fake).

After bidding farewell to the assembled civil and military officials of Guangzhou City, Zhang Dongdong took the four motor-sail warships detached from White Goose Pond and hurried to Nan'ao Island, located off the coast of Chaoshan.

Sitting in the slightly dilapidated Public Hall, gazing out at the ancient, verdant cypresses on the great Scout Field before the hall, then lowering his head to look at the battalion officers and Guard Post commanders kneeling across the floor, Zhang Dongdong reached up to stroke the beard he had painstakingly grown, and then began issuing orders.

First was the "assembly drill." Nan'ao Island held not only two battalions of recruited troops, but also a group of agricultural soldiers including the local Guard Post.

The Garrison Commander naturally would not stand on ceremony here: regardless of whatever crap serf-beggars they were, and regardless of those battalion troops whose payrolls were eaten by vacancies, all of them would board ships and go to Taiwan for assembly drill, to test the results of their usual training — once this lot left, properly trained regular soldiers would naturally arrive to take over the defense; two companies of firearm soldiers would be more than enough.

Of course, if the officers kneeling before the hall were unwilling to go to Taiwan for reorganization, the Garrison Commander would not make things difficult for them. Just like layoff arrangements in later generations, the officers could find their own connections to transfer to other defense zones; the Commander would absolutely not obstruct them.

After hearing the Commander's instructions, the officials kneeling in the hall could not help but look at each other, faces full of misery.

Yet the newly appointed Garrison Commander did not take these sorts seriously at all; he waved his hand and dismissed them. The path had been laid out — go back and think it over. If anyone dared stir up trouble, dismissal and arrest would follow immediately. The reason? Very simple: eating vacancies.

After spending five minutes dismissing the bunch of subordinates on the island, Zhang Dongdong then began discussing the matter of relocating the populace with Sha Zhengming and the others who had come with him.

Nan'ao Island held not only garrison troops, but also no fewer than six thousand fishermen and farmers. These people would also be moved away in succession. Whether they went to work as farm laborers in the great fields of Tainan, or fished from motor-sail fishing ships, the wealth they created would increase tenfold or a hundredfold, far beyond what huddling on this island could compare to.

Therefore, this policy of relocating the populace must also be enforced next.

Once the Ming soldiers and residents had all been relocated, Nan'ao Island would transform into a navy base. As for the island's original thin fields and the beacon towers scattered everywhere, these would all slowly fall into disuse.

There was a reason for doing this. Because in this plane, Nan'ao Island did not need to bear the military pressure from all surrounding parties as it had under the Ming and Qing courts. So for the Transmigrators, aside from Nan'ao Island being the government-mandated seat of the Regional Commander's Office, its remaining functions would gradually degrade, and eventually be abandoned entirely.

The current strategic situation was this: the Navy had already pacified the major pirate groups on the Guangdong seas and was currently redeploying forces, preparing to assemble a group of small escort ships suited for shallow-water terrain, after which they would drag-net the Guangdong coastal area several times to thoroughly eliminate scattered pirates.

In this process, Nan'ao Island would play the role of a supply base for the Yuedong bandit suppression campaign.

And after this, Nan'ao Island's strategic position would plummet sharply. Because once the pirates along the Guangdong coast were completely wiped out, the Navy's next target would become the Portuguese in Macau, and after that, the river bandits and lake bandits of inland Guangdong and Guangxi.

In short, completely unlike history, the entire battlefront in the future would gradually push continuously toward Southeast Asia and the Ming interior. In this process, Nan'ao Island, growing ever farther from the war zone, would also gradually become a "safe zone." Within two years, apart from the Regional Commander's Residence becoming a tourist attraction just as it did in later generations, the rest of Nan'ao Island would truly hold no value.

So Zhang Dongdong and the others, clear on the future planning, would not spend much effort on this island. After the soldiers and civilians all moved away in the future, they would at most repair the docks a bit, enough to sustain the intensity of the troops' bandit-suppression operations.

The several high officials sitting in the hall wearing official robes quickly finalized the future planning for Nan'ao Island.

After this came implementation.

Soon, twenty-four hours after the Garrison Commander took over the office, a team of New Lock Ships sailed over from the direction of Taiwan.

Apart from carrying some construction workers, materials, and tools, this fleet held one battalion of regular soldiers.

After the soldiers carrying firearms disembarked, under the leadership of their officers, they first surrounded the encampments of those two water army battalions. At this point, the troops who had still been hesitating were suddenly dumbfounded: so the Garrison Commander wasn't just running his mouth?

Thus, in a nearly semi-coerced state, the two battalions of garrison troops were herded into the ship cabins and directly dispatched to Taiwan.

The subsequent work of relocating the civilians did not need to be so rash.

The General's Mansion first sent people to various fishing villages to select some individuals with prestige, then sent these propaganda teams to Taiwan. Once these people returned after a period of time, many others would follow them away... This was exactly how those labor contractors in later generations went back to hoodwink their fellow villagers, and ended up withholding wages to boot.

The last group to deal with was the local Guard Post Soldiers.

Ordinary Guard Post Soldiers had no right to choose whether to go elsewhere; the key issue lay with the officers who had already effectively degenerated into landlords.

Like the two battalions of Fujian and Guangdong troops, Nan'ao Island also had two Hundred-household Offices. And the greatest obstacle to relocating the Guard Post Soldiers was precisely the two Hundred-Household Officers, one east and one west: once the people left, who would farm the Hundred-Household masters' land? How would they exploit those beggars?

Seeing that the days of arbitrarily bullying their subordinates and living like local tyrants were about to vanish, the two Hundred-Household Officers, whose fundamental interests had been touched, naturally plucked up their courage to go before the Garrison Commander to weep, plead, present facts, and reason things out.

And then the landlord masters died.

What kind of crime was "clamoring in the White Tiger Hall"? Think back to Lin Chong, the arms instructor of the eight hundred thousand Imperial Guards, who merely stumbled into the White Tiger Hall for a moment and was framed and exiled to military service; think back to Dong, who in later generations had countless brothers, and merely got helped into Liu's apartment for a moment and was framed out of fifty million (dollars). And now these two gray-haired ants, possessing neither Instructor Lin's martial prowess nor Dong's vast funds, actually dared to wail loudly in a critical military headquarters — they could hardly blame the Regional Commander for enforcing military law.

And so the two fools were dragged outside the command gate and beheaded with one stroke of the blade.

With the obstacles removed, the relocation work proceeded smoothly. And after a flurry of activity, by the time Zhang Dongdong had initially brought the situation under control, half a month had passed, reaching mid-November.

As expected, the telegram sent from Dayuan Island contained the words instructing Zhang Dongdong to "seek an opportunity to report on his duties."

Since the work was already in order, Zhang Dongdong had no need to stay entrenched at the General Headquarters. Besides, people like Sha Zhengming all knew why the Cabinet was summoning Zhang Dongdong back at this time, so the moment the telegram was received, Zhang Dongdong boarded an escort ship and returned to Taiwan.

The motor sailboat took less than twenty hours to sail into Taijiang, and then Zhang Dongdong disembarked directly at the dedicated dock on Dayuan Island.

Since a portion of foreign Shang Halls still remained stationed on Dayuan Island, Zhang Dongdong entered the Imperial Palace in a disguise of a windbreaker, hood, and face mask.

Once inside, Zhang Dongdong soon met Prime Minister Xia Xianze in the largest office. After seeing him, Xia first arranged for him to rest and recuperate, and then after another day, a temporarily convened expanded Cabinet meeting was held in the Jianyuan Hall on the top floor.

This meeting involved many participating units; nearly all government departments had representatives attending. The agenda of this meeting was not complicated: should they or should they not rush to the Emperor's aid? If so, how should they rush to the Emperor's aid?

As early as over a month ago, on October 2nd, the Later Jin Eight Banners troops had breached the pass walls and begun charging into the Ming heartland.

There is no need to recount the series of defense plans presided over by Yuan Dudu after that; in short, on November 14th, over a month after breaching the pass walls — the very day Zhang Dongdong set out and arrived at Dayuan — the Later Jin Eight Banners' tens of thousands of troops once again "slipped past" Jizhou, the strategic choke point north of Beijing, completely unscathed, and headed straight for the Capital.

Note that at that time, Jizhou held Yuan Chonghuan, who had arrived ahead of time, and the twenty thousand "Guanning Iron Cavalry" under his command. And yet twenty thousand cavalry at a strategic choke point failed to detect tens of thousands of Later Jin troops, and even allowed the enemy to "slip past"... This could only mean Huang Taiji had opened a spatial gate; there is no other explanation.

After this, the Later Jin army, with the Guanning army all along the way seeming to both tail and escort them, drove straight in, rounding Tongzhou, and on November 16th, at the same time the Transmigrators were holding their meeting, arrived at the feet of Beijing.

By this point, no matter how foolish Chongzhen and the entire court of civil and military officials were, they knew that the reassuring battle reports someone had previously sent were all fake, just like his earlier boastful "Pacify Liao in Five Years" plan — all a joke. The vast sea of savages with pigtails at the feet of Beijing was the best proof.

And Chongzhen, having fully grasped the situation, issued an edict at this very moment, ordering all military garrisons to bring troops to the Emperor's aid — this naturally included a certain Deputy Regional Commander far off in the southern lands.

In fact, as early as the first day of this month, sensing the dire situation, the Capital had already imposed martial law. However, at that time the Emperor had not yet fully understood the situation, so the various governors, governor-generals, and border garrisons only received urgent military reports, without any mention of bringing troops to the capital.

However, once the Later Jin troops arrived outside the gates of Beijing, the court's edict to rush to the Emperor's aid was immediately dispatched. So at the same time the Transmigrators were holding their meeting, the eight-hundred-li express documents were already galloping along the roads.

This meant that it would not be long before Fujian Governor Xiong Wencan received the edict. And he would inevitably urgently summon his political ally Cao Chuan to discuss countermeasures.

Therefore, today's expanded Cabinet meeting was to decide on the Empire's strategy for the process of the Eight Banners breaching the pass, so that people like Zhang Dongdong could carry out the subsequent operations.