Chapter 2984
What does a copper mine with huge reserves mean to Haihan? Even Yu Tiezhu, who has never been engaged in industrial production, knows that copper is an extremely important strategic material for Haihan's army.
From the bronze cannons used in the early days to the current ammunition made of brass, the weapons and equipment of the Haihan Army in the past dynasties required a large amount of copper to be prepared. On the navy's most advanced steam warships, a large number of parts such as propellers, bushings, pump valves, pipe fittings, etc. must be made of copper.
I remember that when the Haihan Army entered the Shandong Peninsula, they did not choose Qingdao, which had better port conditions, as their foothold. Instead, they went to Fushan County, which was poor and unrest. One of the reasons was to develop the local copper mines in Fushan.
Twenty years later, Fushan Copper Mine is still the most important copper producing area under Haihan rule. Every year, a large amount of copper is shipped across the sea from Shandong to Sanya for processing.
Compared with the distant Dengzhou, Cebu Island is undoubtedly much closer to Sanya. If there is a large-scale copper mine here, it will indeed be of great development value. It can save a lot of money in annual shipping costs alone. Money.
If a war was to be launched for this purpose, in Yu Tiezhu's opinion, the reasons were sufficient. How could such a precious resource fall into the hands of an opponent?
The location of this copper mine seemed to be not far from Cebu Port. Yu Tiezhu originally planned to wait for daybreak before sending troops to conduct reconnaissance in the area. But the prisoner then revealed more information. The straight-line distance between that place and Cebu was only more than 40 miles, but the middle was all mountainous and dense forests, with no existing roads at all.
Even if you don't get lost, it will take at least two to three days to reach your destination. The correct way to get to this place is to start from a small fishing village called Toledo on the west coast of Cebu Island and travel about twenty miles inland. The terrain there is much flatter and it only takes half a day to reach it.
Cebu Port is located in the middle of the east coast of Cebu Island, which means that you have to bypass the long and narrow Cebu Island from the sea to get to the fishing village of Toledo on the west coast. This route takes even longer, but is relatively easy.
At present, the goal of the Fourth Army Division is still to clear out the remaining enemies in Cebu City. The task of going to Toledo to find out the situation can only be left to the navy.
That afternoon, Yu Tiezhu received a call back from Sanya, which basically confirmed his previous speculation.
“The Ministry of Industry said that Cebu Island is expected to become the most important copper producing area in the South China Sea in the next ten years, so it is necessary to clean up this area to ensure that subsequent development can be carried out safely... Look, what am I saying? Even mining Even if Si has never been to Cebu Island, he still knows that there are big mines here!”
Yu Tiezhu handed the telegram to Jiao Fei, proudly showing off his previous judgment.
Jiao Fei responded: "That place is also twenty miles away from the west coast. A freight railway must be built first before large-scale mining can be carried out... This is a bit like the development of the Shilu Iron Mine in Hainan Island in the early years."
When it comes to the Shilu Iron Mine, Yu Tiezhu has a say: "The environment in the early days of the Shilu Iron Mine was really difficult, and we could only send prisoners and prisoners of war to work as miners. Later, there were riots, and I was transferred to participate in the peace work. To develop such a large mine is indeed not something that can be accomplished overnight. It is estimated that it will take several years just to build roads and ports.”
Although Sanya's call back solved their doubts, there is still no clear answer as to whether the existence of this mine was one of the reasons for the launch of this operation. But this is no longer important. The existence of the copper mine was confirmed, which provided a new impetus for the Haihan Army in action, allowing them to step up their efforts to eliminate the remaining enemies.
Entering the fourth day of the attack on Cebu, the Haihan Army's scope of operations has expanded from Cebu Port to some surrounding coastal villages and towns.
Most of the people living in these places are not Spanish immigrants. The will of resistance of these people is obviously not as strong as that of residents in Cebu City. Most of their reactions to the arrival of the Haihan Army were fear and obedience, but not many people chose to flee their homes. .
This is of course also related to the strength of the Haihan Army's local operations. If the city of Cebu had not been captured, leaving the locals with no hope of making a comeback, these people might not have behaved so honestly.
Tracking the remaining militants who fled into the mountains and forests was not so smooth. Close to Cebu City is the mountain forest that runs north to south throughout the entire Cebu Island and covers an area of thousands of square kilometers. If you want to carry out clearing operations in such a strange environment, you will face great difficulties whether it is commanding operations or supplying materials.
But if the Haihan Army did not completely clear the island, relying on the colonial authorities to build a large number of temporary residences and material warehouses in the mountains and forests in the past few years, these resisters could still deal with the Haihan Army on Cebu Island for a long time. long time.
Yu Tiezhu certainly didn't want to let go of the Spaniards on the island. The biggest casualties in this operation were the troops of the Fourth Lu Division. The current combat attrition had almost reached the strength of two companies, which really made him feel sad. He suffered such a big setback here. If he didn't settle the account clearly, he would not have the shame to go back to Manila to report to Qiu Yuan and Xiao Liang.
Yu Tiezhu has led soldiers for more than 20 years. Although the situation in front of him is a bit difficult, it can't stop him. The top priority is to cut off the contact between the resisters hiding in the mountains and the forest and the outside world. At the same time, more information will be obtained through the confessions of prisoners of war to decide the next target.
Even if the Spaniards built temporary residences in the mountains and forests in advance and stored survival supplies, that was not their way of life after all. As long as the limelight passes, they will still take the initiative to go out of the mountains and forests to collect information and obtain supplies. Cutting off their connection with the outside world can speed up this process.
Yu Tiezhu ordered a restricted area to be designated on the edge of the city near the mountains and forests, and organized the people to build several miles of fences and a large number of guard towers to isolate all passages between the city and the mountains and forests.
Of course, rather than preventing the Spaniards in the mountains from returning to the city, this measure is more appropriately called fishing bait. If the Spaniards are not willing to have Cebu taken away from them, they will naturally show up soon.
After a day's rest, Zheng Agui's team began to perform combat missions again. Although two people were reduced, there was no way to replenish the manpower now, so he and his men were assigned to an outpost under construction in the west of the city. They were mixed into a platoon with several other teams in the Bangui Battalion that had also experienced attrition, and were on duty together. here.
In addition to the Haihan Army, there are about two hundred local people here. Under their supervision, a two-mile-long fence and two three-foot-high guard towers will be built.
After arriving at the camp, Zheng Agui relayed to his men the order he received at the company headquarters: "If anyone tries to escape, fire directly without warning! These people can die, but you cannot let them escape from under your nose!" ”
(End of chapter)