Chapter 1230: Overstretched
Han Zhengshan watched and quickly discovered another benefit of this weird shooting posture, which was full concealment. With such a posture lying on the ground, it is difficult to observe its existence from a hundred feet away. If it is placed in a wild environment and chooses a sheltered position to lurk, as long as it takes the initiative not to shoot and expose its position, it is almost equivalent to being invisible.
Han Zhengshan immediately told Marcus his thoughts. After hearing this, Marcus smiled and said: "You said this, they have been prepared for it. When they go on a mission, they will wear a jumper that looks like a mess of grass. Outside, if you lie down in the grass, you won’t be able to see anyone at all, and your face and exposed skin will be covered in paint, so you won’t be able to see anyone.”
Although he has never seen the scene described by Marcus, Han Zhengshan is convinced of it. Since the Haihan people can invent a unit such as snipers, how can they not have supporting tactics? As long as the Haihan people put some effort into studying this art of camouflage and lurking, it would not be difficult for them at all.
After the two groups finished shooting for ten minutes, they rested for a while, and then the two members of the group exchanged tasks and continued shooting. Probably because their hands were warm, the hit rate of both groups was further improved this time, with only one shot each missing the target. Han Zhengshan was fascinated by what he saw, but Marcus urged him twice before he reluctantly returned to continue his training.
Han Zhengshan could no longer find a suitable adjective to evaluate Haihan's military strength. "Invincible" sounded a bit exaggerated, but it seemed that this was the only word that could describe the image of Haihanjun in his mind. Although elite snipers are extremely rare in the Haihan Army, their power is extremely amazing. Han Zhengshan even believed that their role may be greater than that of artillery, because although artillery is powerful, its accuracy is far inferior to that of sniper rifles. , if you want to accurately kill enemy commanders on the battlefield, the sniper soldiers you just saw are obviously more suitable.
Of course, Han Zhengshan knew very well that he was just a layman when it came to how to allocate arms and command operations, and the black officer Marcus who was responsible for training him was much more professional than him. So he didn't make any rash comments and went to practice his own game honestly.
At the same time, Han Zhengshan's immediate boss Tan Juren was having a headache about how to allocate labor. When he went south, he originally thought that the immigrants he brought could effectively alleviate the local labor shortage. But after coming here to see it on the spot, he found that the actual labor gap far exceeded his expectations.
There are also many infrastructure projects in Xingdao that have been slow or even stalled due to lack of manpower. For example, the immigration village that has not yet been able to accommodate all immigrants is one example. Currently, nearly two hundred immigrants are temporarily living in tents due to lack of housing. Building accommodation for them is of course one of the first issues that Tan Ju must solve after taking office.
In addition, Tan Juren also had agricultural development plans that he wanted to implement as soon as possible. To this end, he specially applied for two technicians from the Ministry of Agriculture to bring them over. The purpose was to organize the people to cultivate a plantation as soon as possible and plant cash crops one day earlier. Let local people reap the benefits one day earlier. Although the real profit period of cash crops may not begin until several years later, many successful experiences show that this is still one of the most worthwhile projects in the colony. Investing a lot of labor in this field to speed up development is a very cost-effective option in Tan Juren's opinion.
However, these two most basic infrastructure projects have been stuck in the labor allocation process. The reason is that Roger hopes to concentrate human resources on port projects and complete the construction of docks and defenses as soon as possible so that more people can be stationed locally. warships, and allow the port area to obtain reliable shore defense firepower.
Is military defense important? Of course it is important, and Tan Juren has no doubt about this, especially after Roger has explained the current surrounding situation and potential risks to him, it is only reasonable that the necessary preparation measures must be implemented first.
But this does not mean that other infrastructure and development projects are not important. For Tan Juren, these tasks are his political achievements and a means for him to prove his worth, just like the record of leading troops in combat means the same to Roger. . If all the manpower is handed over to Roger, how will he write his work report? Just by bragging that you have done a good job in supporting the army?
"The wharf needs to be repaired, and other things must not be left behind!" Tan Juren's attitude was very determined. He knew that if he continued to make concessions, Roger would undoubtedly take away all the local labor force - and maybe even select a group of people from them. Receive militia training.
Roger sighed and said: "Time waits for no one! If a war really breaks out in the future, what we do now may determine the direction of the war. You have to put the overall situation first!"
"Stabilizing people's hearts is also the overall situation!" Tan Juren is a little dissatisfied with Roger using the "big picture" to pressure him. He thinks that he has been more cooperative with Roger's arrangements in the past few days since arriving at Xingdao, and the work handover between the two parties is also going on a step-by-step basis. The process was in progress, but Luo Jie wanted to force himself on the issue of labor distribution, but Tan Juren refused to give in easily.
Roger also had a headache when he saw that he refused to give in. He knew very well the purpose of the executive committee in sending Tan Juren. In addition to strengthening civil affairs and economic affairs such as infrastructure development, it actually had the purpose of decentralization and checks and balances. The other party is not his subordinate, but an administrative official at the same level. Except during wartime, he has no power to force the other party to obey his arrangements in local affairs. Judging from his reaction, Tan Juren is obviously not the kind of person who just lives his life. Of course, if he is the kind of person who is relatively weak-tempered and just wants to be a local emperor, he probably will not apply to come to a remote place like Xingdao. After all, The difficulty level of this place is probably comparable to that of Sanya in the early days of traveling.
The two discussed for a long time, and finally agreed on the proportion of the labor force: the military would take 60% of it, while the remaining 40% would be left to Tan Juren for distribution. Although both of them are still a little unwilling, it seems that they can't find a better distribution plan for Xingdao's current situation.
A good woman cannot make a meal without straw. Although Tan Juren also had some plans for developing Star Island, he did not have enough manpower available, and most of these plans could not be implemented at all. For a moment, he even wanted to call back all his subordinates who were undergoing training and handover work, and ask them to pick up poles and hoes to work.
Of course, even with so many people, the number of labor force Tan Juren can command is still far from enough. And no matter how high his status is, he cannot be used as a hundred people by one person. If he wants to make all plans It is definitely unrealistic to implement them at the same time.
"Let's solve life problems first!" Tan Juren had no choice but to make a choice. People's survival requirements are nothing more than food, clothing, housing and transportation. Needless to say, transportation. People on Star Island basically travel on two legs. The limited oxcarts and carriages are generally only used to haul goods. Although it is more difficult, the original island The scope of activities of the people in the city is relatively limited, and there are no errands that require long distances. As for clothing, even extremely poor new immigrants can enjoy work clothes issued by the Ministry of Civil Affairs, and immigrants will never be reduced to half-clothed. Eating is not a problem. Although the local food production is not yet self-sufficient, the regular arrival of supply ships will keep Xingdao's food reserves above two months' consumption.
The only problem that has not been properly solved is housing. Due to the lack of labor on the island, not enough resettlement houses were built before the arrival of this group of immigrants. Tan Juren decided to concentrate his limited manpower to solve this problem as soon as possible.
There are two types of immigrant residences in Xingdao. One is a residence built with bamboo and wood structure and adobe walls, and the other is a Chinese-style courtyard built with traditional masonry structure. However, due to the limited production capacity of local brick kilns, only a few people can live in the latter type of house through lottery.
Tan Juren wants to solve the housing problem of immigrants in a short time. It is obviously not practical to expand brick kilns to increase production capacity, because the labor required for brick kiln production is not much less than building a house. Therefore, he can only choose a relatively simple adobe house to solve the current housing problem.
Tan Juren finally got about 300 migrant workers, and the number of houses he needed to complete was more than 40. This was not an easy job. Fortunately, there are several experienced foremen among these people, who can assist him in directing the construction site.
These migrant workers were divided into two groups by Tan Juren. One group was responsible for leveling the foundation outside the existing immigrant village, and the other group was responsible for preparing the raw materials needed for various building materials. Tan Juren had done similar work in the early days of time travel. Although several years had passed, it was quite smooth when he started it again. He even unconsciously thought of the difficult years seven or eight years ago.
People don't have much complaints about the arrangement of these labor tasks. Anyway, as long as they follow the instructions and complete the daily labor tasks, they will get the corresponding labor points. For tasks with high labor intensity or high technical content, the points obtained will naturally be higher. It will be a little more. Only if you accumulate enough labor points each month can you continue to enjoy the living conditions provided by Haihan officials. Otherwise, your national status may be revoked due to laziness.
As long as there are sufficient manpower and materials, it takes about three days to build a private house. Tan Juren directed the migrant workers to build five houses at the same time. According to rough calculation, the current housing demand can be completed within a month. Of course, the premise is that these migrant workers under him will not be taken away by Roger, otherwise there will definitely not be enough manpower.
Although manpower is scarce, Tan Juren cannot change the current situation of Xingdao on his own. He can only revise his original plan according to this situation, postpone what should be postponed, and make changes where necessary. When he made his work plan in Sanya, he did not expect to encounter such a difficult situation after going south.
Sanya has not had a labor shortage for a long time. No matter what project requires a large number of people, as long as the relevant documents are signed in the Victory Fort, manpower can be quickly deployed for implementation. As far as Tan Juren knows, there are more than 3,000 construction workers active in various construction sites in Sanya in various construction teams under the Ministry of Construction alone. It is basically unimaginable in Sanya to build several resettlement houses like this without enough manpower to carry out the construction.
For the current plan, Tan Juren can only hope that the follow-up immigrants arranged by his superiors will arrive as soon as possible. According to the information he received from the Executive Committee before departure, at least two groups of immigrants will be sent to Star Island to settle down during the year, but there is a high probability that they will have to wait until the second half of the year. Before that, he probably had to endure the current situation for a few months. In addition, he prayed that the war Roger mentioned would not come so soon, otherwise everyone on the island would have to be on standby under his wartime requisition order and serve as temporary Military officer.
But it seems that they are really afraid of what will happen. On April 20, the armed patrol team discovered the activities of an unidentified ship in a bay thirty miles north of Star Port. At that time, the ship was trying to dock towards the coast of Star Island, but After discovering the patrol team, they hurriedly changed direction and headed to the north shore of the Johor Strait.
"Ordinary fishing boats will not take the risk to land here. It is most likely a spy ship from Johor." After receiving the report, Roger did not dare to be careless and immediately notified Tan Juren to meet and inform him of the news. Although Tan Juren is only the chief executive and is not involved in the military, Xingdao is currently dominated by the two time travellers. When major local events occur, only the two of them discuss and make decisions.
Haihan's station on Star Island is concentrated near Star Port on the south side of the island. There are no residents in the north of the island, and its fishing boats will not go around the Johor Strait to the north, let alone turn around and leave when the patrol team sees it. The identity of this ship can immediately rule out its own ownership. To the north of the Strait of Johor is the Kingdom of Johor, which is currently eyeing Star Island, so Roger's speculation is reasonable and very likely to be fact.
"Don't we have ships patrolling the Straits of Johor? Is there any way to put an end to this kind of spying activity by the other side?" Tan Juren also agreed with Roger, but his thinking was a bit too simple.
Roger shook his head and said: "This is basically impossible. The east and west ends of the Johor Strait are a hundred miles long, and we can't have so many warships deployed there. In fact, the navy is currently in the Johor Strait The patrol frequency is only once a week, and the Army's patrol is once every three days, so it is impossible to completely prevent outside penetration from the north. This time it was just luck."
Tan Juren also knew that this was because the Xingdao garrison had limited troops and it was impossible to spread the defensive net too wide. The establishment of a battalion sounds like a lot of people, but the coastline of Xingdao is more than 100 kilometers long, and the area is 700 square kilometers. On average, there are less than two soldiers per square kilometer. It is only supported by the land and sea. The military's limited frequency of patrols would be too unreal to completely prevent outside penetration.
(End of chapter)