Chapter 22 Meeting (2)
The sky is getting dark, and according to the requirements of the Executive Committee, those who were active outside have basically returned to Base No. 1 or on the ship. Some restless young people set up a small stove at the entrance of the base. While grilling the few pots of seafood and shellfish left by the chefs in today's cooking class, they loudly talked about the battle that took place this afternoon. Although there were only a dozen or so people who actually witnessed the battle, the hot-tongued military strategists in the camp seemed to have been there and analyzed the gains and losses of the two armies in a serious manner.
The meeting in the prefabricated room is still going on, and finally there is a situation report from the Military and Police Department, which is undoubtedly what all the participants are most concerned about. As the first battle after coming to this time and space, the military and police department's performance today can be said to be excellent. They responded quickly and commanded well, and also achieved excellent results in the subsequent counterattack. Although one person was unfortunately injured in the process, overall there was no obvious fault in the response of the Military and Police Department, and the results were very impressive - before the Military and Police Department reported the situation, several departments had already started fighting for this battle of harvest.
However, Yan Chujie only briefly touched on the battle process in his speech. In his opinion, there was nothing worth writing about in this one-sided battle. However, the cross-interrogation of dozens of prisoners afterwards yielded a lot of valuable insights. intelligence.
"First of all, it is about the maritime power of the Yacheng garrison. This is also the most likely military force to threaten our security at present. According to the prisoners' confessions, there are a total of seventeen large and small ships in Yacheng Water Village. According to the hull tonnage and The different purposes are divided into Fu boats, grass boats, Haicang boats, Cangshan boats, net shuttle boats, Eagle boats, etc. However, several of the large boats were transferred to Qiongzhou some time ago, and currently only Shuizhai is left. Two Haicang ships were used as facades - including the Haicang ship captured today. It is also worth noting that the weapons of these Ming soldiers were seriously lacking in maintenance, especially the muskets, which looked rusty to me. It’s almost like an unearthed cultural relic. I’m afraid it will be difficult to use in actual combat.”
"...As for the military strength of Yazhou Water Village, there is one staff general, one sub-command officer, two sentry officers, three hundred officers and men, and three hundred helmsmen. According to the account of the captured officer Luo Shengdong, The actual strength of the water village may be slightly lower than this number, but the difference is not very big..."
"Wait a minute." Tao Donglai interrupted Yan Chujie and asked: "In the late Ming Dynasty, wasn't there a common phenomenon of empty pay in the army? Is this officer's confession unreliable?"
Yan Chujie had actually thought about this issue during the interrogation, but Ning Qi believed that the prisoners' confessions were more credible because the navy was no more professional than the army, and could hardly replicate the army's situation where the camp was usually empty and the superiors The method of temporarily arresting a group of peasant soldiers during the inspection - not to mention peasants, even ordinary fishermen and sailors cannot operate warships. If they cheat, the secret will be exposed easily.
Of course, another reason is that this officer's self-confidence has obviously suffered a serious blow and his mental state is extremely disturbed. Both Yan Chujie and Ning Qi believe that it is impossible for this prisoner who has not received professional anti-interrogation training to make up lies in this mental state. of. After listening to the explanation, Tao Donglai also expressed his acceptance and asked Yan Chujie to continue.
"After the interrogation, our Military and Police Department, together with the Shipping Department, conducted a comprehensive assessment of the Yazhou Water Village's military strength." Yan Chujie lowered his head and glanced at the records he had made, and continued: "We believe that we can do this without taking the initiative to launch an attack. Next, Yazhou Water Village's current threat to us is extremely limited. Our advantages in military command system and ordnance technology cannot be compensated by the small numerical gap between the two sides. Moreover, the scheduled trip of this team is only half a month. After being captured by us, there will be no more warships coming from Yazhou in the short term.”
"So what is the military strength of Yazhou City?" Tao Donglai asked noncommittally.
"The garrison establishment in Yazhou City is a thousand-household unit, and the number of people in the garrison should be about 1,700. However, these garrisons belong to the military garrison system. A considerable part of the soldiers come from local military households in Yazhou. They are usually responsible for farming and handover. Food, organized to guard Yazhou City during the war." Yan Chujie paused before continuing: "These are what we used to call peasant soldiers. Most of the prisoners thought that the combat effectiveness of these guardsmen who guarded the city was even better than theirs. Under the circumstances, the fighting will and fighting skills are quite lacking, and the number of people is much smaller than the establishment. It is estimated that we can only gather a thousand people, thank God.”
"The real five scum of the war..." Tao Donglai couldn't help but sigh: "No wonder Hainan has been plundered by pirates many times in history. It's crazy to rely on such soldiers to defend the territory."
"At least the threat to us is reduced, which is not a bad thing. But we cannot take it lightly because we have another opponent that has not appeared."
"Pirates?"
"That's right." Yan Chujie nodded and said: "When I led the team to Yulinjiao for reconnaissance in the morning, I found that there were still stone houses on the mountain. I asked the fishermen. That was a stronghold built by pirates in the past. It is said that the Luhuitou Peninsula There are even larger pirate nests on the planet. We don’t know when they will come here and how big they will be. The only thing that is certain is that they will definitely appear in front of us in the near future.”
"Definitely?" Someone in the executive committee chewed on the meaning of Yan Chujie's words.
"Definitely! The fishermen said the same thing as the Yu family and his son. There are several pirates coming to Yulin every year, so as soon as they saw our ship sailing into the harbor, they fled by familiar routes." Yan Chujie was very happy. Definitely give the evidence you know. "Then what solution does the Military and Police Department have?" Some people have already started to become nervous because of this.
"Resolve? I'm afraid that at this stage we are not capable of taking the initiative to resolve external threats of force. But don't worry too much, we have already prepared a response plan." Yan Chujie responded confidently: "As long as everyone cooperates well As part of the work of the Military and Police Department, we will definitely defeat any enemy who dares to invade! ”
The Military and Police Department's response plan is mainly divided into three items: First, establish a reasonable patrol system and patrol scope. In view of the unlikely threat of force from land, the Military and Police Ministry recommended that the scope of maritime patrols be expanded from the existing Shengli Harbor to at least cover the bay between the southern tip of Luhuitou Peninsula and Hutou Ridge in the east. . At present, the Crossing Group has three sailboats, which can keep two on duty and one on standby. In addition, iron-shelled fishing boats can also be dispatched when necessary, so it is not too difficult to monitor the peripheral waters. After expanding the scope of maritime surveillance, we can gain at least an hour of warning time in the face of incoming threats from the sea, and this time is enough for the Military and Police Department to mobilize manpower to wait for work in Victory Port.
As for taking care of the manpower occupation here during the critical stage of the infrastructure project, the Military and Police Department believes that this is extremely necessary, and this view is also supported by the Ministry of Maritime Transport. They are holding back their efforts to train people among the traversers as soon as possible. Several sailing ship captains. Yan Chujie, of course, has his own little calculation about this - in the early stages of the Crossing Group, military control must be implemented, so the captains trained by the Shipping Department will definitely be placed under the command of the Military and Police Department during wartime. Maybe in the future, these personnel will be directly It's hard to say whether it will be included in the navy's establishment.
Second, establish a fixed observation post on the mountains of Yulinjiao as soon as possible. Yulinjiao has an excellent geographical location. According to the on-site inspection of the Military and Police Department, under good weather conditions, the visible range of the sea can reach about 20 kilometers. With fixed observation posts and mobile maritime patrol sailboats, the entire southern early warning mechanism can be described as Nothing is lost. The military and police department's establishment for this purpose is three people per shift, which changes every two days, and is equipped with binoculars, firearms and military radios.
Third, some simple defenses should be gradually built outside the Victory Port No. 1 Base, such as trenches, defensive walls of civil structures, wartime traffic lanes connecting the Victory Port No. 1 Base to the Victory Port Temporary Wharf, etc. The reason for this is to consider that if an extreme situation occurs and the incoming pirates are too powerful to resolve the battle on the sea, the traversers can also retreat to land for defense. The bastion-style bunker plus With sharp firearms, the Military and Police Department believes that relying on such a defense system can at least block the attack of thousands of pirates.
The first two points of the Military and Police Department's response plan were passed without any objection, but the third point caused quite a bit of controversy. The reason naturally lies in the allocation of human resources. How much labor will be needed to build defenses outside Base No. 1? Ning Qi, who was in charge of human resources, said harshly that it was a matter of life but not labor.
Yan Chujie was so angry that he gritted his teeth: "The arrests of dozens of people today are all due to the Military and Police Department. Just now Liu Shanxia said that the Ministry of Construction needs labor, and Sun Changmi said that the Ministry of Shipping needs sailors. They didn't say a word about labor and management. Now I want to The labor force repairs the fortifications, and you do this to me?”
"Lao Yan, things have priorities!" Ning Qi could only persuasion patiently: "You also listened to the situation reports from other departments just now. There are so many projects waiting to be started, so take it slow one step at a time!"
"The projects put forward by other departments are important, so are the construction of fortifications not important? I hope everyone here will understand one thing. When it comes to a critical moment, fortifications are our last resort to save our lives!"
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"Lao Yan, you don't need to say it. I think it is like this. The defenses must be repaired, but..." Tao Donglai changed his tone: "... The priority can be slightly lower. In addition, starting tomorrow, we will organize various departments after dinner. The young people will work voluntarily for another hour, and the content is to build the fortifications that Lao Yan just mentioned.”
Yan Chujie's face softened a little, but he refused to give in at all: "Just deal with me. If something happens, don't blame the military and police department!"
"Don't be angry, Old Yan. Isn't it just building a fortress? When our earth-cement workshop is put into operation later, we will build you a string of cement bunkers along the coastline and turn Victory Port into a South China Sea fortress. Then you can do whatever you want. !" Someone from the Ministry of Industry kindly comforted me.
Yan Chujie couldn't laugh or cry when he heard this, but he also knew that the biggest difficulty facing the time-travelers at present was the serious shortage of labor force, so he didn't insist too much on it.
(End of chapter)