Chapter 259 North Vietnam Military Intelligence Report
These voices of dissatisfaction and doubts coming from the grassroots made the Executive Committee realize that the current crossing group is not monolithic, and some members still have big differences with the Executive Committee in their ideas. The main reason for this ideological divergence is the different personal pursuits of the members. The people in the executive committee want to dominate the world and leave a name for the ages, but there are many people among the members who are content with a small amount of money. They think that since they have already Now that you have a firm foothold, it’s time to start thinking about enjoying life. In this case, if the executive committee wants to increase collective cohesion, it must firmly control the public opinion position in its own hands.
Now that the propaganda department is handed over to the Ministry of Information Industry, the results are obviously not satisfactory to the Executive Committee. Meng He, the director of the Ministry of Information Industry, is a homebody with weak political sensitivity. He does not pay enough attention to public opinion work and does a good job in guiding it. It seems that the executive committee must take back the supervisory power and turn the propaganda department into one. Only agencies directly under the Executive Committee will do.
After a brief break after lunch, the year-end summary report will continue. The heads of various departments took the stage one after another and made work reports on the department's status in the past half year since the time travel.
After the department head's report is over, the head of each overseas unit will take the stage to make a report. Although currently only the Black Tu Port is relatively large among the three overseas units, the Yaya Office and the Guangdong Office are no less important than the Black Tu Port. In particular, the Guangdong Office in Guangzhou has begun to catch up from behind and has become the main channel for the purchase and sale of materials for the Cross-Trade Group.
Schneider, like Tao Donglai, also stepped onto the podium twice in one day, once on behalf of the Ministry of Finance and once on behalf of the Guangdong Office. Schneider pointed out in the "Report on the Work of the General Office of the People's Republic of China" that although the immigrants currently sent to Port Victory by the General Office of the People's Republic of China only account for 5%-8% of the total inflow of immigrants, the literacy rate among these people is as high as 57%. Far exceeding the current average literacy rate of naturalized citizens. The mainland merchants introduced by the Guangdong Guangdong Office have accounted for 85% of the total number of foreign merchants in Victory Port, and the goods sold to the mainland account for more than 70% of the total exports of Chuan Chuan Group. Various data are enough to illustrate The Guangdong Guangdong Office plays an indispensable and important role in the rapid development of Chuanchuan Group.
Compared with such an important role, the current staffing of the General Office is still insufficient, especially the number of business personnel is pitifully small. This shortcoming has been particularly prominent in the recent influx of businessmen visiting. Basically, only Schneider and He Xi can take on the task of business negotiations in the Guangdong Office, while other personnel contact, goods inventory, material transportation, etc. There is a lack of sufficient manpower for all tasks. Although the Executive Committee specially sent a second-tier team to enrich the staffing of the Guangdong Office, it is inconvenient for members to do some menial labor or errands. The new overseas unit system has extremely strict requirements for external personnel. If you want to hire people from Guangzhou, you also face policy restrictions.
In order to prevent the outside world from getting too much internal information of the group and ensure the safety of the Guangdong Office and the air routes between the two places, the Executive Committee stipulates that external personnel in the overseas units can only engage in peripheral work and are not allowed to come into contact with financial delivery, human resources Information on arrangements, shipping transactions, etc. This is not an unfounded concern of the Executive Committee. The merchant ships currently traveling between the two places carry goods of very high value, and some cargo ships also carry illegal salt, arms and other supplies. If the news leaks out and the local government catches them, That's quite troublesome. Moreover, there are pirate gangs in the waters of the Pearl River Estuary, and they have to be careful when they obtain some important information and send ships to rob merchant ships traveling between the two places at sea.
This kind of strict personnel control must continue at least until there are regular escorts by armed sailing ships between the two places, or until the crossing group cleans up the waters of the Pearl River Estuary to ensure that there will be no pirate forces in the vicinity. In short, no matter which one it is, it seems that it is almost impossible to realize it in the short term. Therefore, the only way to solve the staffing problem of the Guangzhou Guangdong Office is to rely on the base camp to continue to replenish manpower.
Schneider also gave some advice to the Military and Police Department and briefly mentioned the necessity of setting up an island stronghold at the Pearl River Estuary to control the waters of the Pearl River Estuary. As the intelligence outpost of the Crossing Group, the Guangdong Guangdong Office has collected a lot of information about pirate gangs in the Pearl River Estuary waters through various channels and provided it to the Military and Police Department as a reference for future actions. Yu Yao and Xiao Liang from the Guangdong Office in Guangdong Province have taken boats several times in the past two months to investigate the situation of the Wanshan Islands, especially Dawanshan Island and Baili Island, which are the main choices. I visited the island several times for on-the-spot investigation.
The work report part of Black Earth Port is a bit special, divided into two parts: civil affairs and military. As the largest overseas agency of the Crossing Group, Black Earth Port not only provides the base camp with a steady supply of energy, but also transports back a large number of North Vietnamese immigrants to enrich the base camp's working population. The various trade agreements reached with the North Vietnamese regime also benefited from the hard work of the Black Earth Port Management Committee in the early stages. At the same time, Black Earth Port is also the place with the highest level of autonomy among overseas agencies. The local area can not only organize immigration and carry out foreign trade, but even the establishment of localized military and police agencies has been approved by the Executive Committee. The Tushan Peninsula stronghold established in the Beibu Gulf is currently assigned to the Black Earth Port Management Committee for daily management and operations.
The first person to take the stage to make a report was Gu Kai, the top leader of the Black Tu Port Management Committee. After these few months of living abroad, Gu Kai's bookishness is obviously much less than before, and his temperament has become somewhat leadership-like. However, he did not plan to end his overseas mission just because he had the opportunity to return to Sanya to report on his duties. He still planned to work there for a full year according to the original plan before making any plans. In addition, it is said that when Gu Kai returns to Heitu Port this time, he will bring his foreign girl fiancée Risa with him - this news will probably make the executive committee happier than bringing back several cargoes of coal from Heitu Port.
Gu Kai pointed out in the report that the current resident population of Heitu Port has reached about 3,500, of which more than 90% are naturalized residents, and the rest are immigrants who are still in the inspection period and a small number of prisoners. Among the local naturalized people, there are more than 2,000 workers engaged in coal mining or coal-related industries. In addition, they are also engaged in growing agricultural products, fishing, shipbuilding, and developing maritime trade with North Vietnam and Lianzhou Prefecture. An industry that the Management Committee is currently vigorously developing.
Since the local industry is relatively single and the residential population is relatively concentrated, the difficulty of civil administration is much less than that in Sanya. Moreover, the source of the local naturalized people is basically war refugees from the North Vietnam region, and their poverty level exceeds that of the immigrants collected by the base camp from Hainan and the mainland. Therefore, the local naturalized people are less dependent on and supportive of the Management Committee. It is quite high, and the civil affairs measures promulgated by the management committee are relatively difficult to implement locally.
Of course, this is partly due to the fact that the Executive Committee has provided very comprehensive support to Black Earth Port from the very beginning. Not only has it ensured the needs of Black Earth Port as much as possible in terms of materials, but also almost all of the staffing has been adopted. We have recruited elite soldiers and generals from various departments. In addition to Gu Kai, who represents the executive committee and oversees the local area, Zhou Hengxing, the civil affairs officer, Xie Chun, the shipping officer, Tian Yeyou, the mining officer, and Qian Tiandun, the military officer, all have outstanding abilities. It can be said that there are no obvious shortcomings in the configuration.
The current actual output of Heitugang Coal Mine has exceeded the annual target of 1,000 tons per month, which is considered a good result under the current almost entirely manual coal mining conditions. In addition to being transported back to Victory Port in large quantities by cargo ships to meet the production needs of the base camp, the coal produced in Heitu Port has even begun to occupy the market in Hainan Island. The coal currently sold in the Yazhou market is "Haihan" shipped from Heitu Port. "Clean coal" has occupied the main body. This kind of coal burns with strong fire and low smoke, and its quality is much better than the lignite produced in Danzhou in the north. However, the price is 20% lower than Danzhou coal. People will naturally choose this cheap and high-quality competitor. - This also led to the closure of small coal mines in Danzhou in the north, and some laborers began to move south to work in the Shengli Port area to make a living.
The output of asphalt, coal tar and other products, which are regarded as high value-added industrial products by Black Earth Port, is also rising steadily. According to the annual financial budget made by the Black Tu Port Management Committee, if the output of coal series products can be further increased by 30% in 1628, it is expected to shorten the loan repayment period of the original development funds to within Gu Kai's term. It will mean that the economic independence of Black Tu Port has taken the first real step, which is great good news for Black Tu Port and the entire Crossing Group. After Gu Kai finished his report, the next person to take the stage was Lieutenant Qian Tiandun, the military commander of Heitu Port. Because it was said that he had brought back the latest news about the civil war in Annan, everyone in the audience was cheered up again - the direction of the war situation in Annan will directly affect the cross-country group's future arms sales strategy and trade progress with Vietnam. This is Matters that concern the vital interests of all members. However, Qian Tiandun did not first mention the civil war in Annan, but introduced the current progress of military strength construction in Black Earth Port.
Currently, the Black Tu Port Management Committee has three companies of military strength under its jurisdiction. One of the companies is stationed on the Do Son Peninsula and serves as a military advisor to North Vietnam, specifically responsible for training North Vietnam's firearms troops. Another mixed company of security militia is stationed in the Black Tu Port area. In addition to undertaking local security and guard work, it is also responsible for the task of armed escort on ships between Black Tu Port and Victory Port. The third company is the mountain jungle special operations company advocated by Qian Tiandun. Of course, the nature of this company is still kept secret, and only a few people know the truth. However, this company has only been established for about two months and is still in a training state, so it is far from combat effectiveness.
Therefore, the actual combat strength stationed at Black Earth Port is actually only one mixed company, and at least one platoon of this company has been floating at sea for a long time. As a result, the Heitugang Military Region, which seems to have three companies and a strong combat capability, actually has less than one company of troops that can be directly commanded and mobilized. Not to mention defending against foreign enemies, even maintaining local security is inevitably a bit stretched.
However, after the popular militia training plan proposed by the Military and Police Ministry was approved by the Executive Committee recently, Black Earth Port has also adopted this militia training system for ordinary people. Due to the single industry in the local area, with only two or three work units, it was much easier to gather young and middle-aged people for militia training than at the base camp. Qian Tiandun successfully organized the preparations for the establishment of three companies in Heitu Port. militia. Of course, these reserve militiamen, like the base camp, can only use cold weapons mainly iron-tipped spears for the time being. In this way, the local security force finally has a basic guarantee. The only thing lacking is probably maritime power - after all, the local shipyard has just started production, and there is also a considerable shortage of sailors and crews who can control large ships. If you want to train them A waterborne force will still take some time.
As for the Tushan Peninsula, the management of the local garrison and the training tasks of the training camp are currently taken over by Feng Annan and Mu Xiabai who were transferred from the Cliff Garrison Office. Qian Tiandun will pass by Heitu Port about every seven to ten days. Once, I took a look at the local training situation - and by the way, I also took the special operations company I personally trained out for some training.
The training camp built by North Vietnam on the local coast has expanded a lot compared to two months ago. Currently, it has received more than 1,200 trainees. Among them, there are about 1,000 North Vietnamese soldiers receiving musketry training, and about 100 people. artillery trainees, leaving dozens of North Vietnamese officers receiving military theoretical training. Of course, for this reason, North Vietnam had to nearly double the original arms order and extend the lease period of the Black Earth Port from one year to three years. The Zheng family wanted to exchange for "free arms" from the Crossing Group by continuing to extend the lease period, but the Black Earth Port Management Committee did not agree to the other party's request - if they still can't survive the North Vietnamese people after three years, they will need to rely on leasing. In order to maintain the safety of Black Earth Port, there will be no need to talk about it then, everyone will just jump into the sea and die.
The Military and Police Department believed that because the North Vietnamese army was equipped with slow-firing matchlock guns, even experienced hands who had been trained for several months could only fire two rounds per minute. In addition, the size of the North Vietnamese musketeers was not large. It is a bit risky to use a pure musketeer formation, so a certain number of spearmen must be deployed for combat. As a military consultant, the hot weapon tactics taught to North Vietnam by Feng Annan and others were not too secretive, but they could not be said to be advanced. They were basically copied from the Gustav phalanx of the same era.
The basic combat unit of this phalanx is the squadron, each consisting of 192 musketeers and 216 spearmen. The spearmen were arranged in 6 columns, located in the center of the formation, while the musketeers were divided into two parts and arranged on the left and right wings of the spearmen, also in a 6-column formation. In this way, each squadron has 68 people on the front, and the combat width is approximately close to 60 meters. Based on the number of musketeers trained in the training camp, they can probably equip five such rectangular combat phalanxes - which the North Vietnamese naturally called the "Hai Han phalanx".
On the front of the phalanx, the musketeers can exert all their firepower without hindrance and maintain continuous firepower with the reverse loading method of round fire. When the enemy rushed close, the spearmen moved forward or defended on the spot, while the musketeers moved back to regroup behind the spear phalanx. If flank or rear attacks are to be avoided, these five combat squadrons can also be deployed in a checkerboard format. The greater the number of operational squadrons, the more powerful the checkerboard arrangement becomes.
The Gustavus Phalanx would add 96 musketeers to each squadron to further increase the combat width. However, the "Hai Han Phalanx" took into account the limited number of North Vietnamese musketeers and did not adopt this strategy. Instead, the artillery As battlefield support firepower, it is deployed in the gaps between the square formations. Taking into account mobility, the battlefield support firepower selected by the Military and Police Department for the North Vietnamese firearms force was six-pound guns. Each square was equipped with three artillery pieces, which was enough to dispatch all the fifteen six-pound guns purchased by Zheng in two batches. use. As for the 12-pounder gun, because the gun body is relatively heavy and needs to be pulled by livestock, it is inconvenient to move on the battlefield. It can only be used in position battles or city battles. It is not suitable for field battles or encounter battles.
As for the North Vietnamese officers who received training from Hai Han, what they learned was the most basic phalanx of spears and infantry and artillery tactics. The Military and Police Department believes that after graduation, this group of trainees can allow North Vietnam to organize a decent phalanx of musketeers, coupled with engineering, baggage, logistics, reconnaissance and other companies, which will probably form a total force of about 3,000 people. The "elite" must be second to none in the entire Indo-China Peninsula. After several actual battles on the battlefield, this army, which had cost the Zheng family hundreds of thousands of taels of silver, was enough to become the Zheng family's magic weapon.
Of course, due to generational differences in weapons performance, it is far from enough for North Vietnam to rely on this force to deal with the crossing group. Regardless of the accuracy, range, and power of the firearms, or the training methods and combat methods of the troops, there is still a large gap in strength between this puppet army and the Haihan militia trained by Chuanzhong. The most important thing is that the North Vietnamese firearms troops are completely dependent on the supply of ammunition from the crossing group. As long as the North Vietnamese commanders are not crazy, they will definitely not order them to go against Haihan.
But things did not go so smoothly. The North Vietnamese army had suffered several defeats on the battlefield recently, and the battle line had gradually moved north from Hue, and now it was between Nan Quang Binh and Ha Tinh. In this era of cold weapons, once a certain party is defeated, it is difficult to effectively organize a defensive front during the retreat. It often takes hundreds or even hundreds of miles to retreat before the defeated troops can be gathered and reorganized. Therefore, North Vietnam The party was very worried about the situation of the civil war and sent envoys to the training camp on the Tushan Peninsula, hoping to get help from Haihan.
(End of chapter)