Chapter 540 Continue south
When Ruan Jinggui returned to his residence, he did not go back to the house to rest immediately. He went to the study to take the supply list that Mu Xiabai gave him and read it over and over again seven or eight times to confirm the contents. Early the next morning, Ruan Jinggui went out and began to collect various supplies listed on the list for the fleet.
There are not many rare or particularly valuable items on this list. Most of them are ordinary supplies, such as food, medicine, ropes, sails, spare ship materials and other items that may be used when going to sea. The required quantity does not count. too much. Ruan Jinggui believes that the supply list issued by the military is not really intended to supply many things here, but to use this opportunity to verify the supply capacity of Da Nang to see what supplies may be in short supply.
Ruan Jinggui's expectation was very close to the truth. In order to prevent the inconvenience of replenishment on the way, the fleet had already brought sufficient supplies when it set off from Sanya. At most, it could find a place to replenish food and fresh water on the way. . However, considering that the Annan Militia Army will be mobilized to go south in the future, Da Nang is probably the last large-scale supply point on the southward voyage. The military must first verify the supply capacity of this place.
Of course, the difficulty of preparing these supplies in Sanya is completely different from that of raising these supplies in Da Nang. Especially for marine supplies, Sanya can provide various spare parts produced by the original factory, but in Da Nang, they have to be made according to the drawings. One or two pieces is fine, but there are still many things that are not suitable for local conditions. It can be produced in large quantities in a short time.
While preparing supplies, Ruan Jinggui did not forget the separate order given to him by the Ministry of Security yesterday to recruit local sailors who were trustworthy and familiar with the sea conditions in the South China Sea. This task would not have been completed if he were not familiar with the local people's conditions. Before the development of Da Nang last year, the Annan court forcibly requisitioned 3,000 people from nearby areas and gave them to Hai Han as war rewards. There were indeed many sailors among them, but not many of them had been to Nanyang. After the city of Hoi An was destroyed the year before last, a large number of sailors and crew members fled the area. Not many people stayed to continue living nearby. Only 23 out of 10 people had ever sailed to the South Seas. Among them, the old people who were familiar with the sea conditions in the South Seas Fur seals are even rarer.
Yesterday, Ruan Jinggui gritted his teeth and said that he could find dozens of people. In fact, it was a bit exaggerated. In addition, the Ministry of Security also required that if they were trustworthy, they could move the whole family, which narrowed the scope of options a lot. Ruan Jinggui spent a whole day running around and interviewed no less than a hundred people, but in the end only seven candidates were identified.
Before the fleet left port on December 18, various material preparations were finally completed under the supervision of Ruan Jinggui, but only thirteen qualified sailors were found. However, Tom Wang did not reprimand him for this. He just handed him a new supply list before leaving and asked him to prepare carefully in Da Nang. After Wang Tom and others boarded the ship, Ruan Jinggui carefully opened the list and looked at the contents. It was basically the same as the supplies he had prepared in the past two days, but the quantity was significantly increased. Ruan Jinggui did not dare to neglect, so he quickly took this list and went to the workshops and farms in Da Nang to urge his orders.
After the fleet left Da Nang, it went south along the coastline. It took three days to travel about 300 nautical miles and arrived at Cam Ranh Bay, the second stop of the trip.
Cam Ranh Bay is located in the southeastern part of Indochina Peninsula. The bay is embraced by two peninsulas, Chongkong Mountain and Fenghuang Mountain, forming two gourd-shaped inner and outer bays, which go more than ten kilometers inland. This place is located on the important shipping route from the Nanyang to the Far East. It is also recognized as a strategic location on the Indochina Peninsula in later generations.
On the deck of the "Lightning", Wang Tom was introducing the situation of Cam Ranh Bay to representatives of various departments in this operation: "...the width of the outer harbor of Cam Ranh Bay is about 4,000 meters, and the water depth is about 30 meters. The width is about 1,300 meters, and the average water depth is more than 10 meters. In addition, the inner harbor area exceeds 60 square kilometers. With the scale of our current naval fleet, even if ten fleets are stationed here, it will not feel crowded. "
Wang Tom got excited, raised his hand and pointed to the coast ahead: "Of course, this bay is very large, and it is inevitably a waste if it is only used as a military base. The harbor here can be fully utilized, and part of it is used as a military base." The commercial port, and the southern part of the inner harbor also has good development conditions, which can be used to build a large salt farm. If fully developed, the scale will not be much smaller than the Yinggehai Salt Farm.”
Although the geographical conditions and location of Cam Ranh Bay are very superior, the small imperial court of South Vietnam had been stuck in the quagmire of the war over the river and Hengshan line. It did not have enough ability to fully develop the place, and the only navy was filled in. When we got to the north, we had no time to pay attention to the bay in the south. It was not until the end of the Annan Civil War that the Annan court handed over the use rights of Cam Ranh Bay to Haihan at the request of the Haihan Executive Committee, and large-scale development and construction here officially began.
However, since most of Haihan's engineering and construction personnel were concentrated on the rail transit project in Shilu, Changzhou in the previous year, the development process of the four southern ports in Annan was stagnant. The development of Cam Ranh Bay has also been delayed until the "Prairie Fire Plan" “Before implementation began, infrastructure projects were reluctantly launched.
Since the construction here has just begun, the militiamen do not have an organized fleet stationed here, let alone any maritime armed forces to defend the port. Therefore, when the reconnaissance fleet sailed into Cam Ranh Bay, in addition to attracting fishing boats on the sea Apart from a small panic, it didn't cause much trouble.
After the fleet sailed into the inner bay, local port staff drove a small fishing boat out to navigate and guided the fleet to a temporary dock on the west coast of the harbor. Due to the very limited conditions here, no time travelers have been assigned to take charge of the work here. Previously, it was run by Ruan Chinggui. After Ruan Chinggui returned to Da Nang, the highest authority here was the Port Area Provisional Management Committee, which was headed by a group of people. The militia company commander is in charge.
This company commander named Ruan Fu is an authentic Annanite, but now it is more accurate to say that he is a naturalized citizen of Annan origin. During the founding period of Black Tu Port, he joined the Black Tu Port Special Battle Company led by Qian Tiandun himself. , it can also be regarded as a veteran-level mission in the Annan Militia Army. Nguyen Phu participated in almost all the battles of the Annam Militia Army, including the "Operation Prairie Fire" launched in northern Hainan Island in October. After withdrawing from Hainan Island, he was dispatched by the Annan Military Region to Cam Ranh Bay in the south, where he was responsible for maintaining local security and assisting Ruan Chenggui in implementing the Cam Ranh Bay port project.
Although Ruan Fu has the same surname as Ruan Jinggui, the two have no connection at all. Nguyen Thanh Kuei came from a distinguished family, and he changed his family to become a leader during the Battle of Hue, while Nguyen Phu was just one of the many war refugees taken away by the Black Tu Port advance team from the coast of the Annan civil war zone, and was born as a civilian. But by chance, the two Ruan people got together in Cam Ranh Bay and became colleagues.
Although Ruan Fu is not familiar with these senior officials from the Sanya base camp, Mu Xiabai, who came with him, can be regarded as his immediate boss, and half of the ships in this fleet are warships of the militia navy. It can be seen at a glance that they are The portion is not light. When Wang Tom and others got down to the shore, Ruan Fu immediately stepped forward and stood at attention and saluted a military salute: "Ruan Fu, commander of the second company of the first battalion of the Anant Regiment, reported to the chief!"
Wang Tom also continued his previous practice and asked Ruan Fu to explain the local situation. Regarding the situation of Cam Ranh Bay, Wang Tom and others had already consulted with Nguyen Thanh Kui in Da Nang, and now they were conducting a comparison to verify whether there was any inaccuracy or untrueness in what Nguyen Thanh Kui said. According to Ruan Phu, Cam Ranh Bay currently has a population of just over a thousand people, of whom almost half have been naturalized. The current port project has just started and is still in the stage of leveling the foundation. Even the first phase of the project will probably have to wait four to five months before it can be completed. As for the construction plan of the entire port area, which is divided into seven phases, It will take at least four to five years of continuous construction.
The biggest problem currently existing in this place is that the population is too small, and there are no large cities or population centers in the surrounding areas. Therefore, the source of future labor force may only rely on targeted transportation from the outside world. Neither the military nor the civil affairs department can come up with a more effective solution for the time being. The supplies that can be provided to the fleet or the subsequent army here are mainly limited items such as seafood, wood, fresh water, etc.
"Now this place can only be used as a safe haven." After understanding the local situation, Wang Tom determined the nature of the function here: "If the militia army is mobilized from the north to go south, it will probably be troublesome to even park ships here. In the short term There is no way to use this place as a real military base.”
"But this is probably our last stop before leaving Indochina." Mu Xiabai reminded: "Going further south, we will have entered the territory of the Champa State. Although we have some trade and military affairs with them, cooperated, but never allowed warships into their ports.”
"Warships cannot dock at the ports of the Champa Kingdom." Lin Nan shook his head and interrupted: "According to the information we have, the main port of Champa has a trading post established by the Dutch. Our warships will easily reveal their identity. This will be very detrimental to what we are going to do next.”
"We can only go all the way south." Wang Tom's finger moved on the chart: "From here to Natuna Island, the voyage is about 500 nautical miles. At the speed of our fleet, it takes about five It will take seven days to reach that place.”
Although there were several fast boats in the reconnaissance fleet, three traditional Chinese sailing boats were specially brought along in order to conceal their presence. The entire fleet was roughly based on the speed of these three ships, which was about four or five knots.
Of course, considering the speed of the two catamaran sailboats, it would be really fatal to do so slowly, so Wang Tom planned to divide his troops into two groups, with the two faster catamaran sailboats heading south at normal speed as the vanguard. Go to the waters of the Natuna Islands for inspection, and the subsequent fleet will arrive in the waters about two days later, and then they will meet again for the next step.
Although Cam Ranh Bay had little supplies to provide, the fleet rested here for two days under Wang Tom's order before setting off again.
On December 24, the fleet left Cam Ranh Bay and continued southward. Just a few hours after leaving Cam Ranh Bay, the "Lightning" and the "Quick" gradually fell out of the sight of the brigade and headed south.
The personnel aboard these two sailboats were basically affiliated with the military and the Ministry of Security. They braved the wind and waves all the way. After only 72 hours, the two sailboats had arrived in the waters of the Natuna Islands. At this time, the large force behind had just completed a little more than half of the voyage.
In the early morning of December 28, the sailors on the lookout discovered an island on the sea about ten nautical miles to the southwest. After comparing the charts, Wang Tom determined that this was the northernmost island of the Natuna Islands, and this island was only about 30 nautical miles away from the big island of Natuna. After confirming that there were no traces of other ships on the nearby sea, the two sailboats sailed to the island and anchored on the beach on the west coast of the island.
According to the satellite data map downloaded from the large database before departure, this small island is a wedge-shaped narrow island running north to south, about 12 kilometers long from north to south, and about 2 to 5 kilometers wide from east to west. The island is lushly forested, and the advance team found no traces of human activity when they landed on the island. It seems that this is just an uninhabited island.
Considering the follow-up actions, Wang Tom ordered to temporarily station here and establish an advance camp on the island. In order to hide their eyes from others, they also stopped making fires during the day to prevent the smoke from being seen by ships passing by the nearby sea. It was not until nightfall that they dug a pit and buried a stove on the shore to cook a hot meal. They also had to carefully cover the morning with a tent cloth. The outside areas were covered to prevent the fire from being seen in the night. Fortunately, the advance team found a fresh water source on this small island. Although the water output is not large, the water quality is acceptable. It can be boiled and drank after simple clarification. This will be useful for those who will arrive on this island later. This is undoubtedly good news for large forces operating in sea areas.
Before dawn on the 29th, the "Lightning" went out to sea and headed south to Natuna Island. There is no natural harbor suitable for building a large port on the coastline of the island. According to the information provided by the Ministry of Security, the largest pier on Natuna Island is located in the central area of the east coast of the island. There is only one inward It's just sunken into the bay, and it doesn't even have the conditions to escape the wind and waves. After the Dutch took over the island, it seemed that they had no intention of investing too much energy in running this place. Their armed forces stationed on the island were mainly concentrated in this small port on the east coast of the island.
(End of chapter)