Chapter 44 Negotiating Conditions (1)
On the other side outside the gate of Base No. 1 are piles of captured pirate weapons. There are quite a few knives and guns, seven fire blunderbuss, two three-eyed blunderbuss, and an earthen cannon on each of the other two large ships. The strength of the weapons is actually not very weak. It is a little stronger than the time travelers imagined. However, most of these weapons have not been used in this battle with a huge disparity in power. People from the military and police department have inspected these weapons and rated them as "too poor quality to be used." The only thing waiting for them is to be re-melted for iron-making.
Luo Shengdong noticed that there were several Guangzhou ships on the beach of Victory Port. The two larger ships were actually the same size as the Haicang ship he commanded. The hulls of the other two smaller Guangzhou ships seemed to be bitten by some monsters. After taking a sip, they were badly damaged, and one of them even tilted significantly because of too much water. Luo Shengdong is also a person who has been running at sea for a long time. From the damage on the ship's hull, it is not difficult for him to imagine the fierce battle when the pirates attacked yesterday. But looking at the orderly appearance at the port, it seemed that these shorthairs had already been defeated on the sea before they even finished landing.
Luo Shengdong suddenly felt happy. He had previously thought that it would be great if he could meet this group of pirates. He could probably cut off some of their heads and return to Yazhou to ask for credit. But judging from what we see now, this group of pirates is not weak. If your Haicang ship really encounters this pirate fleet at sea, it will most likely have no choice but to retreat.
"Put him on the boat first, and Mr. Tao will deal with his affairs later." Yan Chujie, who came to receive Luo Shengdong, said with red eyes and yawning.
Yan Chujie also stayed up all night last night and organized people to conduct sudden interrogations of the captured pirates overnight. Judging from the current situation and the pirates' confessions, the Chuangzhong side has basically controlled the situation. The initial target of this group of pirates who traveled south from Leizhou last night was not Victory Port, but the densely populated coastal area near Yazhou City.
However, when they passed through the waters around Sanya after heading south along the east coast of South Island, they accidentally discovered two catamaran sailing boats that were returning from patrol. The pirates had never seen such a strange ship type, so they carefully circumnavigated the entire bay, found a place to dock at Luhuitoujiao, and then sent several spies disguised as local fishermen to investigate the Victory Port area. What happened later was just as Wang Tom speculated. After the pirates determined that the defenses around the port were empty, they wanted to seize the opportunity to return to the port through the patrol sailing ships to launch a surprise attack.
Although the lurking pirate spies had figured out the patrol schedule of Chuan Chuan, they didn't know that there was a hidden early warning post on the mountain ridge of Yulinjiao, and it had communication technology that they could not imagine. The spies also saw the iron-hulled fishing boats docked on the shore, but they could not imagine the huge power of these strange ships without masts and sails in naval battles. The technological gap of nearly four hundred years made it almost impossible for these pirates who used to dominate the sea to effectively resist the Chuangzhong's offensive, and they were quickly and completely defeated in a one-sided situation.
The leader of this group of pirates was unfortunately hit by three bullets during the first encounter with the Travelers yesterday and died on the spot. The deputy leader is on another stranded ship and is still absconding with the others. According to the pirates' confessions, their total number is about 1,670. There should be about 40 people who escaped from the stranded ship. The "missing persons" who have not been found so far are estimated to have been in yesterday's naval battle. Feeding the fish.
This morning, Yan Chujie will lead the elite force of the Military and Police Department to pursue and suppress the pirates near the sandbank where they abandoned their ship yesterday. However, it is still difficult to say what the result will be. The sandbank is connected to several mountains with an altitude of about 300 meters. If the pirates choose to escape into the mountains, then the current limited manpower of the Military Police Department will definitely not be able to enter the mountains to encircle and suppress them.
However, the Military and Police Department did not believe that these escaped pirates could cause any trouble. The pirates admitted that the food reserves on the ship were already very low, and at most they could only sustain the crew for another four or five days. This was why their leader did not think so. The willingness to wait any longer was one of the reasons why I chose to launch the attack yesterday. To the west and north of that sandbank is the Tiandu River estuary, and to the south and east are continuous mountainous areas. There is no human habitation within dozens of miles around. It is difficult for people who have not received special wilderness survival training to survive in this environment for a long time. .
Luo Shengdong was once again imprisoned in the cabin of the barge. It was still the same place, and the smell was still familiar. Luo Shengdong even recalled the days when he was first captured. At that time, he thought that he would be dragged out and killed by the shorthairs for any reason. Unexpectedly, he survived well. However, the turn of fate has brought me back here again, and I don't know whether the result waiting for me will be a blessing or a curse.
Tao Donglai went with several heads of the Shipping Department early this morning to inspect several sailboats seized yesterday. The condition of both large ships is very good. Apart from the overall disinfection of the cabin, there is basically no need for major repairs. According to the pirates' confessions, before heading south this time, they had done special bottom maintenance for these two large ships, which was a benefit to the Shipping Department.
However, the condition of the two small boats is very worrying. The ribs of one boat were pulled out with a large gash that is more than seven feet long and nearly two feet wide, while the tail of the other boat is seriously damaged and needs to be repaired ashore. . Sun Changmi's final judgment was that the damage to the ship's hull structure was so severe that it was difficult to completely repair it. Even if the stern was repaired in the future, the ship would not be able to withstand strong winds and waves due to insufficient structural strength, and would not be able to sail to the ocean again. Zhongqu can only be used in offshore and coastal areas. Sun Changmi's suggestion is to use this ship as a training ship for the Ministry of Shipping. It can also occasionally run short-distance transportation near the mouth of the Hotan Du River in the Victory Port Harbor.
However, this has relieved the pressure on the Ministry of Shipping to rush to launch shipbuilding projects. At present, the progress of preparing ship lumber alone is far from meeting the requirements of shipbuilding. To build a Fu ship with the same tonnage as the Haicang ship, it will take at least one to two months to prepare all the ship materials. It's easy to get into the water, maybe it won't be the end of the year. Now that these four Guangzhou ships have been obtained, they only need to be repaired. The materials required and the man-hours consumed are much less than those of shipbuilding. The speed of putting them into use will definitely be much faster than building new ships. After Tao Donglai discussed the matter with the Ministry of Shipping, he brought some fresh fruits to visit the war correspondent Luo Wudan who was injured in the line of duty. However, Tao Donglai, like Gu Kai, dismissed Luo Wudan's suggestion that she should take the lead in establishing an independent news agency. It's not that Tao Donglai has any discrimination against journalism and is unwilling to support this project. On the contrary, it is because he knows the role of news reports in guiding public opinion that he dare not easily agree to Luo Wudan's application.
Many of the men who participated in time travel came here for the life of three wives and four concubines in the future. Let Luo Wudan, a strong woman who can speak well, control the propaganda mouthpiece, and the "sex life" that everyone looks forward to in the future. Do you want more? To establish a news department in the future, Tao Donglai's preferred candidates are Ning Qi or Bai Kesi. In his opinion, these two people are qualified in terms of cultural level and ideological awareness, and their political stance is stable. They are much more reliable than the bold Luo Wudan.
After finishing these things, Tao Donglai returned to the headquarters office of Base No. 1. He sat down and took a sip of water when he suddenly remembered Luo Shengdong. After asking, he found out that people had been escorted from the upper reaches of Tiandu River early this morning. Immediately, he quickly asked someone to pick him up on the barge.
This was the first time Luo Shengdong entered the interior of Base No. 1, and he couldn't help but look around curiously along the way. Base No. 1 was built in accordance with the drawings jointly designed by the Ministry of Construction and the Ministry of Military and Police. It covers an area that is not too large. It only counts about 40 acres including the peripheral defenses. The interior is mainly divided into residential areas and offices. area and several parts of the material warehouse area. The functional divisions in the entire camp are clear, there are no redundant buildings, and even the drainage ditches on the ground are neatly dug. However, there are not many people living in the camp recently, and most people go out to do things early in the morning, so it seems very deserted.
The neat rows of prefabricated houses here made Luo Shengdong surprised and inexplicably despised: "These shorthairs are so powerful, but the houses they live in are so simple, and they don't even have a courtyard."
Tao Donglai saw Luo Shengdong being escorted in and pointed to the stool opposite him. Luo Shengdong understood and walked over to sit down.
"I heard that you caught the pirate spy last night?" Tao Donglai first asked with interest what happened last night.
"It's just a pirate, it's just a little effort for me." Luo Shengdong clasped his fists proudly, but his wrists were tied with straps, so his movements were a bit awkward.
"The fact that you suddenly proposed to negotiate with us must be related to the appearance of these pirates, right?" Tao Donglai continued to ask. Last night, he, Yan Chujie and others analyzed the situation and believed that Luo Shengdong's motivation for negotiating at this time should be affected by some external factors, such as the sudden attack of pirates. As for his true thoughts, several people couldn't figure it out after spending a long time together.
Luo Shengdong nodded and said: "That's right. I hope you can hand over these pirates to me."
"Huh? Leave it to you?" Tao Donglai hadn't thought about this sentence for a while: "We do plan to put all the captured pirates into labor camps. By then, they should also be your subordinates. The establishment of the labor camp may change in the future, just follow the commander’s arrangements.”
"No, I want their heads." Luo Shengdong said calmly: "I need to take these pirate heads back to Yazhou City to perform meritorious service and be rewarded."
(End of chapter)