Chapter 41 Cleaning the battlefield
"Hurry up, hurry up, it's still a step too late!" Yan Chujie looked at his subordinates who were boarding the ship and complained with a frown.
Yan Chujie and Tao Donglai led the "quick reaction force" to rush back from the No. 2 base as quickly as possible, but they did not expect that the traversers who stayed here would move faster. When they arrived at the dock, the only thing waiting for them was The battlefield has been cleared. Yan Chujie suddenly thought of what happened after the last battle when Tao Donglai and his men came for reinforcements. His mood at that time was probably similar to that of himself now!
Two iron-hulled fishing boats are currently in the harbor to fish out the pirates who were lucky enough to survive in the sea one by one. The task of the reinforcements is to go to the location of the stranded ship to see if they can survive when it gets completely dark. How many people have been caught before? The ten Ming army sailors who had been temporarily locked into the cabin of the barge before the battle came in handy again at this time. They drove the reinforcements on their familiar Haicang ship to the sandbank on the east side of the harbor to wipe out the few surviving pirates.
As expected, only the empty ship was left on the sandbar. The pirates on the ship should have taken advantage of the gap after the grounding to escape further. But there is nothing to worry about. This small sandbank is adjacent to a series of mountains. Even if the pirates want to escape, they have to climb over the mountains first. But without the boat, where could they escape to?
Obviously the ship couldn't just be left on the beach, so Tao Donglai mobilized an iron-hulled fishing boat to come over and use a cable to tow the stranded sailboat directly back to the dock. As for the pirates who escaped, they can wait until dawn tomorrow and then slowly pursue them.
Among the four smaller sailboats, the two that were damaged had already sunk due to water intrusion. The remaining two were also seriously damaged and could only be towed back to the dock by other boats and wait until tomorrow. See if there is any restoration value. Fortunately, apart from a few shipboards being broken by rifle bullets in the initial attack, the two large ships were basically intact. The further growth of the Shipping Department seemed to be a certainty.
An hour later, it was completely dark. Considering safety issues, Yan Chujie ordered all personnel to stop the sea search and return to Victory Port. As for whether there are any unlucky ghosts floating on the sea who haven't been discovered at this time, it doesn't matter so much.
After returning to the dock, the Military and Police Department immediately conducted a preliminary inventory of the captured persons and found that a total of 77 pirates had been captured, five of whom were seriously injured and would not survive until dawn. In addition, a total of eighteen corpses of pirates who were killed or drowned were transported back. As for how many pirates were involved this time, further information will have to wait until a surprise trial.
The only injury suffered by all parties involved in the journey was reporter Luo Wudan. She was too excited during the battle, so she lost her footing and hit her head on the side of the ship. Luo Wudan, who originally had plans for a follow-up interview, ran away as soon as she got off the boat. It is said that Morgan suggested that she go to the infirmary immediately to take some medicine to remove blood stasis and reduce swelling, so as to avoid leaving bruises on the injured area in the future.
"Thank you for your hard work!" At this time, Tao Donglai finally had the opportunity to express condolences to the time-travelers who went out to sea for a fierce battle today: "I know that you have not had time to have dinner, so I won't say more. Master Fan has already prepared it. Paella, let’s eat first and take time to rest, because we don’t know yet whether there will be a second battle.”
As for Wang Tom, Sun Changmi, Yue Zhiyun, Gu Kai and others who cannot leave for the time being, they must summarize the current situation together and then seize the time to formulate the next response plan.
"The Military and Police Department should arrange manpower to start sudden interrogations first. We must first know whether the enemy is acting in a single attack or is hiding some back-up tactics." Tao Donglai entered the conference room and started talking before he even sat down.
Yan Chujie nodded and said: "We have already arranged the manpower to do it. But this time there are twice as many prisoners as last time, and it is night again, so the trial may be slower."
Tom Wang interjected: "I think this pirate attack was not an accident, it was a premeditated attack."
"Tell me what you think." Tao Donglai was very interested in Wang Tom's opinion. When Wang Tom reminded him that there might be spies sneaking into the construction site, Tao Donglai thought it was very likely, and specifically told Ning Qi that tonight It is necessary to control the migrant workers on the construction site.
"Both Mr. Tao and Mr. Yan have been soldiers, so I'll put it bluntly." Wang Tom sorted out his thoughts, and then began to analyze: "As a military operation of a surprise nature, we all know that morning and night are the most effective Good timing. I have to say that the timing chosen by the other party was actually pretty good. They waited for our patrol to end and all the ships to return to the port before launching the attack. If we hadn't already set up a sentry post at Yulin Point, we would have seen it all at once. When six boats rush to the pier, I’m afraid it will be a bit confusing.”
"It is unlikely that these pirates from afar will attack directly as soon as they arrive here, which means that they may have been lurking somewhere outside the bay for a whole day or longer. And I think the reason why they are here They launched the attack in the evening instead of in the morning because they wanted to delay our rescue so that they could have an extra night to loot supplies.”
"Of course, there is a necessary premise for my speculation, that is, the other party has already sent spies, knows that our main force is not in the port, and has a rough grasp of the time and scope of our maritime patrols."
After listening, Tao Donglai nodded and said: "If there are really spies, they will definitely not be able to escape. The migrant workers at both bases have been controlled, and the only thing left is to spend time to identify them slowly."
In fact, while they were meeting, the work of identifying outsiders at Base No. 1 had already begun, and Gu Kai volunteered to take on the job. It is true that Gu Kai is not good at going to the battlefield, but when it comes to criminal investigations and identifying the authenticity of confessions, Gu Kai can be regarded as a fighter among experts. After working as a lawyer for several years, Gu Kai has seen countless scumbags. Whether he is lying or not, Gu Kai can basically judge the accurate result from the details of the other party's eyes, demeanor, and movements.
There are not many outsiders staying in Base No. 1 at present, only a dozen or so people at full capacity. After receiving the alarm from the Yulinjiao outpost in the afternoon, these local Ming people were already controlled by the crossing troops together with the ten Ming army sailors. After the battle, they were just released from the barge cabin, shrinking under the bayonets. They were forced to stand in a row.
Gu Kai did not intend to spend time interrogating these Ming people one by one and comparing their confessions repeatedly to find out the pirates who might be hiding among them. He had already thought of a more convenient way. Foreman Yu Dashan is the first indigenous "cadre" appointed by the Time Travelers in this time and space. He and Yu Xiaobao, his father and son, can be regarded as the first batch of local leaders from Conglong. The locals who usually come to work at Base No. He is in charge. If you want to know the specific situation of this group of workers, it is obviously faster to ask Yu Dashan.
Gu Kai raised his hand and pointed at Dashan, asking him to call him out alone. At this time, Yu Dashan already knew what happened outside. He was afraid that the short-haired man was going to operate on him. He was trembling and couldn't move, and kept mumbling. It's called "unjust".
Gu Kai laughed and scolded: "You're so scared! I'm asking you to come out to identify someone, not to kill your head!"
After saying that, he directly pulled Yu Dashan out and asked him to face the row of Ming people: "There may be pirate spies among these people. Yu Dashan, take a good look and identify the acquaintances in your village first." . Remember, it’s the people who have always lived in your village.”
When Yu Dashan heard that he just recognized the person, he relaxed a little and quickly identified several villagers from the same village he was familiar with from the queue. These people were basically introduced by him to work here. If anything happens, he will have to take responsibility.
After this identification process, there were only three people left in the team. At this time, some of the villagers who had just been identified raised their hands one after another and identified two of them as their relatives, so only one person remained.
"It seems no one here knows you!" Gu Kai showed a proud smile on his face.
"Master, I'm not a bad person!" The man turned pale with fright, and waved his hands repeatedly to defend himself: "I'm from Fenghuang Town, but people here don't recognize me. I've been working here for several days, and I've never Never made any trouble!”
"It's easy to know whether you are a good person or not." Gu Kai turned to the armed man who was holding him and said: "Take him to the place where pirates are imprisoned, put on a show to make him shine, and then imprison him with the pirates at night. Come together!”
"Don't! Please spare my life, sir!" The man immediately knelt down and begged for mercy as his legs weakened: "The little one did it... The little one is a spy..."
This guy reacted very quickly. If he was really taken to perform a show in front of his fellow pirates, then his fellow pirates would definitely think that this defeat was betrayed by him. In this case, they would be imprisoned together. That would be fine. It’s a rhythm that can’t survive the night.
"Then let's talk about it!" Gu Kai knelt down and stared at the frightened spy with mocking eyes: "Do you have any hidden accomplices? How do you communicate with each other?"
Ten minutes later, Gu Kai placed a calf-thick bamboo tube on the table in front of Tao Donglai: "We caught the spy."
Tao Donglai, who was not sure why, picked up the bamboo tube and opened the seal on it. He saw a pigeon curled up in the bamboo tube. He couldn't help but said in shock: "Pigeon? Pirates are so advanced?"
"These guys have been in Luhuitoujiao for almost ten days. The spy sneaked into our construction site four days ago. He brought three homing pigeons and released one every three days. According to his account, there is also an accomplice who was there on the second day. Hiding at the construction site of the No. 1 base, I just contacted Ning Qi and told him the physical characteristics of the spy." Gu Kai proudly showed off his achievements.
"Are there any of their accomplices outside the harbor?" What Tao Donglai was worried about now was not whether there were any spies, but whether the other party had any cards they had not yet played.
"According to the spies, there are no more."
"Where is the lair of this gang?"
"It is said to be Kuangzhou Island, but I don't know exactly where this place is, and the spy couldn't tell me anything." Gu Kai shrugged.
"I know Naozhou Island, it's in Zhanjiang." Tao Donglai thought for a while and added: "It should be called Leizhou now."
(End of chapter)