Chapter 1080 is going well
"This is Laoye Mountain, the main peak on Zhifu Island." Hao Wanqing was originally from Shandong. He was the only landowner in the command team heading north this time, so he could only take on the temporary role of tour guide. Fortunately, he had traveled here before traveling through time, so he was not particularly unfamiliar with the situation on Zhifu Island.
"The last time I came to this place was three years before time travel...well, it's been ten years now! There is an idiom that says things have changed and people have changed, but the current situation is exactly the other way around!" Hao Wanqing revisited his old place before I really felt the difference in time and space, and I couldn't help but feel a little sad. There are not many buildings on Zhifu Island today, and they are far less prosperous than the scenes he saw before crossing over. The people who originally lived near Zhifu Island had already escaped completely during the wars in the previous two years. . At present, the houses, temples and other buildings discovered by the Haihan Army on the island are all abandoned and empty houses. It is not known where the owners of these houses have fled and whether they will return here.
The northern foot of Laoye Mountain is a cliff connected to the north shore of Zhifu Island. The terrain is extremely steep. The highest point of Laoye Mountain is nearly 300 meters above sea level. When the weather is fine, you can overlook the sea within about 20 nautical miles. However, this commanding height actually has a limited effect on the Haihan garrison. First, there is nothing powerful nearby. Secondly, the north coast of Zhifu Island is rugged, making it difficult to dock ships. Even if a small boat approaches the coast, it cannot overcome the cliffs tens of meters high to send a large number of people to the island to fight.
Another very frustrating reason is that this commanding height is located on the northwest side of Zhifu Island, more than ten miles away from the center of Zhifu Bay. The observation effect is actually far inferior to those at lower altitudes but relatively close to the observation points on the east side of the island. . So apart from climbing up to see the scenery, this place actually doesn't have much practical use.
Qian Tiandun was the one who climbed up the mountain with Hao Wanqing. However, they came to climb the mountain as soon as they arrived at Zhifu Island. They were not idle. Wang Tom, Harugong, Chen Yixin and Sun Changmi were at Zhifu Bay directing and dispatching at this time. Supplies and personnel were landed, and we were extremely busy. They came to Laoye Mountain. Hao Wanqing wanted to verify the geographical information, while Qian Tiandun brought a radio up for testing to see if there was a difference in signal strength between the highest point on the island and several other alternative locations. In the end, it was necessary to Identify a location as soon as possible for the radio antenna.
Qian Tiandun said with a smile: "Don't sigh here, hurry up and do what you have to do. When you are done, you have to go down the mountain before noon, otherwise all the things arranged later will be backlogged!"
There are only six time travelers in this operation headquarters. Each one has many tasks and does not have time to travel around. Fortunately, the preparations beforehand were sufficient. From the time we entered Shandong to the time we landed, we encountered no resistance from the local area. Compared with the previous operations in the Fujian Strait and Zhoushan, Zhejiang, where we went to war to expel the original owner, , this trip to the north can be considered a smooth sailing.
As for Gao Qiaonan's previous incident of capturing a group of Ming soldiers in Yantai Mountain, this was completely irrelevant to Qian Tiandun and others. Although Haihan did not want to offend the Shandong government, but comparing the two sides, it was more important to successfully settle on Zhifu Island. If the Ming army stationed locally is not so willing to cooperate, Haihan will have to use force at all costs. The total number of navy and land forces of the northern fleet is more than 3,000, and they have been transferred here all the way, and it is not just for show. This force will not be at a disadvantage when facing any garrison in the coastal areas of the Jiaodong Peninsula. As long as it establishes a firm foothold on Zhifu Island and builds a defense line, it will not be a problem even if ten times the Ming army attacks.
Due to the lack of dock facilities on the coast of Zhifu Bay, large ships with deep drafts still cannot fully dock. At this time, it is necessary to use small boats to set up a springboard to act as a pontoon. The Shipping Department has become very proficient in the application of this kind of temporary trestle. The springboard and the lifeboat on the large ship have locks that can be easily connected. It is very convenient to build a floating trestle that is two meters wide and ten meters long, and has a strong load-bearing capacity. Even if you unload heavy equipment such as artillery, there is no pressure. It's just that when the large force arrived at Zhifu Bay yesterday, it was too late. They could only arrange for some small boats to dock and unload cargo and people, but they didn't have time to organize and build a floating trestle.
However, after the first springboard was set up today, the first person to unload the ship was not weapons and equipment or other combat supplies, but the horse transport ship that had not had time to dock because of darkness last night. Harugong felt distressed when these carefully raised war horses stayed at sea for one more night, so he immediately made arrangements for the war horses to land first after dawn. Fortunately, these war horses rested for a few days at the Zhoushan Islands, and their condition at this time was slightly better than when they first arrived in Zhoushan.
Judging from Harugong's experience, these war horses only need to rest for two or three days and replenish some more refined materials to restore their physical strength to a better state. Not only will they go into battle, but they will at least go out to perform some reconnaissance missions. question. Of course, in addition to getting the horses ashore as soon as possible, the immediate priority is to organize people to build stables.
Regarding this matter, Harugong did not plan to borrow anyone from Qian Tiandun or Wang Tom. He planned to leave it to his own men to complete it. This is not because Harugong knew that the army was busy unloading living and combat supplies and building barracks and other infrastructure, but that the stable's size, space, lighting, ventilation, cleaning, etc. all have special requirements for laymen to come. I'm really worried about getting him. The soldiers in the cavalry battalion are all his own soldiers who are trained by him hand by hand. Not only can they raise and train horses, but they also do menial work such as building stables by themselves. They are all all-rounders.
Yesterday, the troops who landed early had already built several open-air horse pens on the shore using trees as thick as a bowl in accordance with Harugong's request, for the cavalry battalion to temporarily keep their horses. Today, after the cavalry gathered their war horses and pack horses into the horse pen according to their organization, they each received tools such as axes, planers, chisels, and saws. They acted as temporary carpenters and began to build a semi-permanent stable at the place selected by Harugong.
Almost all the troops selected by the Ministry of National Defense to go north this time have received short-term engineering and construction training before departure. This way, the Ministry of Construction does not need to recruit a large number of craftsmen to go north with the troops. It only needs to provide a small number of technicians to act as foremen and direct the soldiers to go north. Just complete the infrastructure project. There are quite a lot of infrastructure facilities required to station thousands of people here, so even the navy and special operations battalions must allocate some of their manpower to temporarily join the labor force to participate in the construction of camps and docks.
The Ministry of National Defense has jointly planned the initial construction of Zhifu Island with the Ministry of Construction. The dock area is mainly concentrated in the northern part of Zhifu Bay and the southeast coast of Zhifu Island. Close to the dock area is a large-scale military camp. The design of the garrison was not based on the size of the troops heading north this time, but directly planned a camp that could accommodate 20,000 people. Of course, this camp is not just for military use. Part of it is built on the mountain and will be used to absorb and resettle immigrants in the future.
Haihan spent so much effort to establish a stronghold on the Jiaodong Peninsula, part of which was to absorb refugees from Dengzhou Prefecture, an area where social order had not been fully restored after the war. If Haihan does it himself, he can save a lot of money than before by leaving this task to a middleman. Moreover, with Haihan's own ability, he should be able to absorb immigrants faster than those half-hearted sea merchants. Much faster. In fact, when Wang Tom set off from Sanya, he brought a large number of printed notices and leaflets. The content was roughly to inform the public that if they need food relief or other daily necessities, they can go to Zhifu Island in Dengzhou Prefecture to the south. The good father-in-law came to collect it. Once the Haihan Army has established a foothold here, the cavalry battalion will take these materials to nearby villages and towns to distribute and post them. Whether they are looking for cheap opportunities or those who really want to make a living, Haihan will have corresponding strategies to deal with them. In short, we should try to spread the news first, which should attract many poor people who lost their means of production after the war and can no longer support their families through work. Once word-of-mouth and scale effects are established, long-term absorption of immigrants from North China will be just around the corner.
However, it is obviously impossible to complete such a large camp area in a short period of time, so the initial stage is still to focus on building barracks to solve the accommodation problem of the troops heading north as soon as possible. The temperature in this season is not bad, and it doesn't matter if you live in a tent, but if there is no place with heating facilities in three or four months, the winter on Zhifu Island will definitely be the biggest nightmare in the life of soldiers from the south. The immigrants recruited can also be transported to the south by ship, but the troops stationed here cannot be withdrawn at will. The needs of the army must first be met.
Therefore, the amount of work for the barracks built on Zhifu Island, whether for civilian or military purposes, will be greatly increased due to the need for insulation and heating. This is also a task that has never been attempted before for the soldiers heading north. After all, no matter in Guangdong, Fujian or Zhejiang, when Haihan built such a large stronghold in the past, he could either recruit a large number of migrant workers from the local area when he entered the station, or even bring the migrant workers with him, or else there were many ready-made products in the local area. Buildings can be used, such as the two strongholds in Taipei that were taken from the Spanish, as well as various pirate-run strongholds and ports on the Zhoushan Islands. But coming to Shandong this time is not so easy. For the first ten and a half days, the troops going north will have to do it first, acting as construction workers and migrant workers.
Chen Yixin hasn't been a part-time foreman for a long time. The last time he directed construction on a construction site probably dates back to his early years when he and Li Dou guarded Wanshan Island at the mouth of the Pearl River. At that time, they were the only two young men in charge of the island. They led a group of soldiers to build barracks, warehouses, docks, shore defenses and other facilities according to the drawings issued by the Ministry of Construction. They also learned a lot of basic knowledge in engineering construction. . However, after Chen Yixin was transferred from Wanshan Island to Hong Kong Island, and then transferred to Fujian to work with Qian Tiandun, he basically never managed any specific projects in this field.
Chen Yixin never imagined that a few years later, thousands of miles away from Wanshan Island in the north, he would return to his old job and be responsible for commanding troops to level foundations and build barracks. However, he had no complaints about this arrangement. Instead, he felt as if he had gone back to the days he spent on Wanshan Island a few years ago, thinking of the time he spent sweating with his comrades and subordinates. Unfortunately, his friend Li Dou had already left. As we embark on different development paths, we may only see each other less and less in the future. However, Chen Yixin only worked on the construction site for more than an hour before a soldier sent a notice from the headquarters, asking him to go to a meeting first.
The command headquarters has now been moved from the flagship to the shore and has requisitioned an abandoned residential compound. When Chen Yixin arrived, he saw that except Qian Tiandun and Hao Wanqing, who were going to climb Laoye Mountain, several others had already arrived.
"I'll make a long story short." When Wang Tom saw Chen Yixin arriving, he gestured for him to sit down and talked about business: "Gao Qiaonan just sent someone to deliver the news. This morning, Qishan Suocheng sent someone to Yantai Mountain Post to deliver the message. He was afraid that the matter would be exposed, so he also arrested the two people who gave the order."
"Let's talk about the important point. Did Qishansuo City notice something?" Harugong knew that such a trivial matter as catching two Ming soldiers was not worth summoning everyone for a meeting at this time. There must be other more serious matters. Things made Wang Tom make such an arrangement.
Wang Tom nodded and said: "Your guess is correct, but it's not just Qishan Institute who has discovered that something is wrong. Weihaiwei and Ninghaiwei are also looking for us at sea now."
"Is it because we were seen by a Ming army patrol boat when we passed Liugong Island?" Chen Yixin immediately reacted and asked.
"Yes, judging from the information obtained from Gao Qiaonan's interrogation, the Ming army's joint investigation report was first sent out by Weihaiwei yesterday morning." Wang Tom said solemnly: "Then they now contacted the coast west of Weihaiwei Guard, it is said that the news has been sent to Dengzhou City today.”
"So the Qishan Institute also got the news, and then ordered the Yantai Mountain Post to strengthen monitoring of Zhifu Bay?" Although Harugong did not experience it personally, he can roughly deduce what happened based on this information.
"Absolutely." Wang Tom nodded and confirmed Harugong's conjecture, and then said: "The Gaoqiao South side still controls Yantai Mountain steadily, but the messenger who sent the order disappeared for no reason. The city of Qishan is probably the most vulnerable. There will be a reaction by the afternoon, so he is now requesting instructions from Qishan. If Qishan takes further actions, how will he respond in Yantai Mountain? Can we take strong measures to fight it back directly? ”
(End of chapter)