Chapter 2043
Whether it was to stabilize military morale or his true thoughts, Tao Donglai finally expressed his attitude and would continue to trust and support the intelligence agency. But everyone involved in the investigation knew very well that the "monsters" Tao Donglai called were not simple characters, and it was already difficult to deal with them just by relying on the methods commonly used in the past.
Even if it is confirmed in advance that a group of arms will be smuggled out of Cebu by maritime merchants in the near future, and even if the Haihan Navy is far stronger than its opponents, it will still be difficult to intercept it at sea. The Ministry of National Defense and Military Intelligence The bureau cannot even formulate a foolproof strategy. Although Yan Chujie did not admit it, if the military's action plan was to be effective, it still had to rely on luck to be on Haihan's side.
What Haihan can do now is to ask the Manila garrison to send a few more ships to monitor the key waterways. The response of the Manila authorities was not slow. On the day of the joint meeting in Sanya, six warships of various sizes had already left Manila Bay and headed for the waters near Verde Island to conduct control.
These warships all belong to the newly established Manila Fleet last year. The personnel and ships are mainly drawn from the naval forces that were originally stationed in the South China Sea and participated in the Battle of Manila last year. Although it is said to be a new organization, its combat effectiveness is actually no better than the current one. Some combat troops are much different. The fleet is also familiar with general maritime patrol tasks, and there is no problem in performing such tasks of monitoring waterways.
The cargo ship that returned to Manila to report the news had once again carried the original team to Cebu. They had to get Jose and several other Hispanic intelligence agents out of Cebu before their identities were exposed. Although the intelligence agencies used carefully prepared false evidence and a series of methods to temporarily deceive the Spanish, making them mistakenly believe that their overseas military assistance has achieved excellent results, the situation in Hainan Island and other places is likely to happen in the near future. After it was sent back to Cebu, the Spaniards would definitely realize that the information they had received before was forged, and the identities of Jose and others who came to Cebu with this information would definitely not be concealed.
Therefore, although Jose and other three Hispanic intelligence agents have successfully lurked in Cebu and have every opportunity to take further measures, considering security issues, they can only give up the plan of letting them stay there permanently and wait until they are exposed. Withdrew to Manila.
The person responsible for commanding this surveillance operation is Major Jiao Fei of the Manila Fleet, who is currently serving as the temporary fleet commander. Jiao Fei was one of the direct beneficiaries of last year's Battle of Manila. Not long after the war ended, he was promoted from captain to major because of his outstanding performance in the battle, and was promoted from captain of the Majesty-class battleship "Mighty" to the newly established Manila Fleet Commander - This is also one of the few fleet commanders in the Navy currently served by naturalized officers.
Jiao Fei was able to win this honor. In addition to having served in the Ming Navy in his early years and having relatively rich sailing experience, there is actually another reason that the official will not mention, which is that among the time-travelers, he is qualified to serve as a senior naval officer. There are really not many candidates for generals. After counting, in fact, only a few people from the North American Gang at that time knew military affairs and had a relatively solid foundation of navigation skills. The others were just talking about keyboards and talking about naval battles. Really I feel dizzy when I go to sea. The theoretical knowledge in my head may be enough to command a ship, but it is completely insufficient to command a fleet to carry out large-scale cross-regional combat operations.
Among the original members of the North American Gang, only Tom Wang and Diwen Shi served as generals in the Navy, Roger and Morgan served in the Army, and Johnson and Qiao Zhiya had already retired and changed careers. And time travelers like Sun Changmi, Yue Zhiyun, and Xie Chun who knew navigation skills did not choose to serve in the military for various reasons. Therefore, as Haihan's foreign expansion accelerated, the Navy had to use a large number of naturalized officers in the positions of commanders at all levels. Naval officers like Wu Sen, Xie Li, and Jiao Fei also began to step up step by step. historical stage.
Most of these naval officers are immigrants from Ming Dynasty and Annan. They have more or less military experience before joining Haihan, so after receiving military training, they can quickly master Haihan-style combat methods. The Haihan Navy has strong ships and powerful artillery that are almost invincible on the seas of this era. It has almost never been defeated since its formation. Therefore, these naturalized naval officers are also quite proud and never fear any opponent.
Jiao Fei commanded the battleship Valiant in last year's Battle of Manila and achieved a record of sinking two Spanish warships and damaging five Spanish warships. However, because the target was too large, the Valiant also became the target of enemy fire. The hull inevitably suffered some damage, and after the battle, it was left in Manila to begin a long maintenance period.
After the Battle of Manila, most of the main battleships of the Majestic class were transferred north to participate in the Korean War. However, the battleship Majesty was left in Manila for repairs due to battle damage, thus missing this opportunity to continue participating in the war. But it was a blessing in disguise, and Jiao Fei, who was forced to stay in Manila, entered the list of candidate commanders of the new fleet.
So when the Ministry of National Defense ordered the formation of the Manila Fleet, Jiao Fei was selected as the commander of the new fleet, and the Weiyong, which had not yet been repaired, was designated as the flagship of the new fleet - of course, the premise was that its repairs must be completed as soon as possible. In this way, the Navy can legitimately announce the establishment of the Manila Fleet.
However, the newly established Manila Shipyard after the war was seriously short of technical personnel, as well as various tools and materials needed to repair warships. In addition to the Valiant, there were also more than ten other naval warships that had to queue up here to wait for repairs. . In order to repair his ship as soon as possible, Jiao Fei simply lived in the shipyard for several months and just watched the shipwrights repair the Weiyong bit by bit.
This trip south to monitor the waterway between Luzon and Mindoro is not the first combat operation of the Manila fleet. In fact, since the second half of last year, the fleet has left Manila Bay several times and headed south to familiarize itself with the situation in the surrounding waters. , exploring the areas of southern Luzon still under the control of Spanish colonial authorities.
Although the Spanish lost Manila during the war and moved their seat to Cebu in the south, there are still some Spanish immigrant settlements on the southern coastline of Luzon. Although the people in these places received news of Manila's defeat one after another, not everyone was willing to give up their properties and move to the south with the colonial authorities. There are still many people who choose to stay in the local area and live their lives as they wish. The arrival of the Haihan people is nothing more than a change of rulers, as long as the houses and fields remain their own.
Of course, some of them will act as spies for the colonial authorities. If Haihan tries to recruit these Spanish immigrants, then these spies will also become the people under Haihan's rule. Maybe they will have the opportunity to join Haihan in the future. Nationality, then these people will be able to play a greater role.
However, Haihan was not unwary about this and was not eager to absorb the Hispanic immigrants in these settlements. It will take a long time to digest the Hispanic people in the Manila area. There is no need to rush to increase the proportion of Hispanic people in the areas under control. After all, these people are from the hostile camp and can be regarded as a security risk to a certain extent.
On the coasts on the north and south sides of the strait to be monitored this time, there is a Spanish settlement across the sea. To the south is Puerto Galera, a natural bay where about a hundred Spanish immigrants and more than a thousand Filipino natives settled. Batangas in the north is more famous. Nearly a thousand Spanish immigrants settled here before the Battle of Manila. However, after the war, a large number of people fled to Cebu. Today, the remaining population has been compared with Puerto Galera. Not much different. In previous reconnaissance operations, the navy had visited these two settlements to confirm that there were no Spanish armed personnel activities there. However, the nature of this operation was different. Considering that ships departing from Cebu might supply supplies at these two places, Jiao Fei ordered two ships to be separated and go to these two places to check whether there was anything suspicious. Cargo ship docked.
Like Yan Chujie who is far away in Sanya, Jiao Fei is not sure whether he can block the target here. After confirming that he would be retained in Manila to serve, Jiao Fei spent a lot of time familiarizing himself with the charts of the Philippine Islands. For him, the entire Philippine Islands will be the scope of activities of the Manila Fleet in the future, and as a commander, he must be familiar with the environment in these areas.
Of course, this job is not easy. The Philippine Archipelago consists of more than 7,000 islands. It can be said to be the most complex sea area within the scope of Haihan Navy's activities. It would take ten or eight years to thoroughly understand the geographical and sea conditions of this place. Years of work will definitely not work.
While taking the order to set off, Jiao Fei was already studying the route that the target might choose. Starting from Cebu heading north to the mainland, there are theoretically many routes to choose from. If you exclude those routes that are risky and require detours, there are at least four or five remaining options. Of course, the route he is responsible for is the one the other party is most likely to choose, but it cannot be ruled out that the other party will choose an unpopular route to avoid Haihan's monitoring for the sake of safety.
Go north from Cebu directly through the strait between Leyte Island and Masbate Island, then pass through the San Bernardino Strait between Samar Island and Luzon Island, and then enter the Pacific Ocean east of Luzon Island. . If you are an old seal who is familiar with this sea area, you can completely lead the ship to sail north along the east coast of Luzon Island, and then reach the southern tip of Taiwan Island through the Bashi Strait. After that, you can continue to go north along the east coast of Taiwan Island to the north. destination. This route is completely outside Haihan's supervision, and it is difficult for the navy to divide its troops to control it so far away.
In addition, the opponent can also choose to go north along the west coast of Mindoro Island, so that they do not have to pass through the narrow channel guarded by Jiao Fei. Although this route will take an extra mile due to the detour, it can greatly reduce the chance of being exposed.
Today is already the second day since Jiao Fei's fleet arrived in the predetermined sea area. So far, they have not found even a single sail. Such calm is not good news for Jiao Fei. According to the information sent back by Cebu, the local shipment of the batch of arms should be in the past few days. If the other party chooses to go north through this channel, then it will Results will be available within five or six days.
There are special lookouts on the mast of the Valiant with telescopes on duty. Under the current weather conditions, the visibility range can completely cover the entire strait channel. As long as a ship passes here during the day, it will definitely not be able to escape the surveillance of the Valiant. . Several other ships spread out and cruised in the waters near the coast to make up for the control range of the Valiant.
Jiao Fei stood on the bow of the ship and observed with a telescope for a while. There was indeed no suspicious target on the calm sea, which made him slightly disappointed. The Hispanic settlements on both sides of the strait have received warnings from the Navy that no ships will be allowed to go to sea this month, even for fishing near the coast, so not even a sampan can be seen in this place.
"I have a bad premonition that our mission will be in vain and we won't be able to wait for our target to appear." Jiao Fei handed the telescope to his adjutant and said with some half-heartedness: "Just wait and wait, I don't know if there will be anything." The rabbit bumped into me!”
The adjutant responded: "Sir, all good things come hard. Since the Military Intelligence Bureau believes that the other party will appear here, then we will just wait. If the other party does not come here, we will just go out for training."
Jiao Fei nodded and said: "What you said makes sense. Give me the order to assemble the team and practice facing the enemy at sea!"
Since there are no other arrangements at the moment, Jiao Fei plans to use troop training to pass the long waiting time without affecting the mission.
After another three days of waiting, the lookout post of the Valiant finally made the first discovery in this mission. Hearing the whistle that signaled something was happening on the deck, Jiao Fei immediately put down the chart in his hand and ran up to the deck to ask what he had found. Under the guidance of his subordinates, Jiao Fei quickly saw the silhouette of a sail on the sea in the distance through his telescope.
"It's coming!" This discovery made Jiao Fei suddenly excited and ordered a signal to be sent out to put all ships into combat readiness. The Valiant remained stationary in the center, and the two clippers near the coast slowly moved forward, giving the entire formation a pocket shape.
However, as the ship in his field of vision got closer and closer, Jiao Fei discovered that something was wrong. The target in the intelligence was clearly a lucky ship, but the ship that appeared now was not a lucky ship. It clearly looked like a Spanish ship. sailboat. But it doesn't matter. As long as you arrive at this place, no matter whether you are a Galen ship or a Fu ship, you have to stop the ship for inspection.
(End of chapter)