Chapter 3024
Lopez is not the kind of loser who has never seen the world. Before he came to Malacca to take up his post, he had served in the military for many years and had some practical experience. He would not be fooled by Tan Tianlei so easily.
However, Tan Tianlei was prepared for this. Hearing Lopez's question, he smiled and responded: "General Lopez, I did not say that this is the base camp of the pirate gang. As you can already see, this is just a small place. A temporary camp, but the pirate gang is much more than this.”
"According to the intelligence we have, there may be hundreds of pirates hiding on this island. We have already started a manhunt on the island, and I believe we will get something soon."
"As for the pirate ship you are concerned about, unfortunately we did not find the main force of pirates here. When our army launched the landing offensive, an unidentified sailboat tried to escape from here, but it was sunk by us at sea."
"There should be survivors, right?" Lopez immediately asked.
There were only a few dead bodies executed by musketry in this temporary camp, and there were no prisoners. These corpses cannot speak and cannot prove whether what Tan Tianlei said is true.
But if a sailboat is sunk at sea, it is very likely that someone on board will jump into the water to escape, and then be captured by the Haihan army. If there are any survivors, it may be able to reveal the origins of this mysterious group of pirates.
Tan Tianlei's response once again disappointed him: "The shells concentrated gunpowder and other things on the ship, and a violent explosion occurred. We carefully searched the waters of the sunken ship, but did not find any living people there."
There are no survivors, which means the truth is still unknown. And the actions of the Haihan people will probably not stop here.
Lopez keenly noticed that Tan Tianlei claimed that Haihan's army would continue to hunt down pirates hiding in the mountains and forests of the island, which meant that Haihan would station troops here.
There is no need to ask Tan Tianlei what it means for a certain area to be garrisoned by Haihan. Lopez can think of the answer himself. He doesn't think it will do Portugal any good if Heihan extends his tentacles here.
Tan Tianlei continued: "We believe that this is just one of the strongholds of this group of pirates, not their real base camp, so our army will continue to march north to search for traces of pirates."
Continue north? A map of the Strait of Malacca immediately came to Lopez's mind.
The three to four hundred miles north from Penang Island should be the territory of Kedah, but this small and weak country should not dare to resist the military operation led by Haihan. For example, at the moment, Lopez has not seen any warships from Kedah appearing in the nearby waters.
However, in front of Tan Tianlei, he still wanted to question this: "Have you communicated with Kedah about your country's actions and plans to station troops?"
Tan Tianlei smiled and said: "General Lopez, you seem to have overlooked one thing. The actions we have taken are to eliminate hidden dangers that affect regional security. This will also be of great benefit to Kedah. If Kedah follows The pirate gangs have no common interests, so they will definitely not oppose us. Regarding the diplomatic details, we can communicate with Kedah after the dust has settled. I think they will definitely understand."
Lopez was speechless for a moment and was choked by Tan Tianlei's words.
This means that if Kedah protests against Haihan's actions or adopts more radical methods to fight, it means that Kedah and the pirates are in the same group. By then, it is likely that these pirates will not be the only ones who will be unlucky. Haihan may also beat up Kedah - or maybe this is the situation Haihan wanted to create.
If Kedah is smart enough, it will of course pretend to be deaf to this and pretend that nothing happened. Regardless of whether Haihan is here to fight pirates or to garrison troops on Penang Island, he should remain silent, lest he be hurt.
"General Lopez, I suggest that you temporarily rest on this island for a few days. When our actions have further results, we will ask you to go check it out together."
Tan Tianlei's suggestion didn't sit well with Lopez. He chased him all the way from Malacca City, not intending to go on vacation. He was very dissatisfied that Haihan was on guard against him and did not allow him to come into contact with the real battle conditions on the front line.
But is it useful to protest to Tan Tianlei? Of course Lopez also knew that the key still depended on Roger's attitude, and Tan Tianlei was just running errands and delivering messages in the middle.
But Roger has been avoiding it, and Lopez has nowhere to vent his anger. He has no idea where Haihan's next target is. After tonight, he may not even be able to find the whereabouts of the main force of Haihan's fleet.
While Lopez was depressed in Penang, the Haihan fleet was rushing to its next target at starry night, Langkawi Island, two hundred miles north of Penang.
Compared with the uninhabited Penang Island, Langkawi Island with its natural harbor will certainly no longer be an uninhabited island.
As early as the Yuan Dynasty, the navigator Wang Dayuan visited Langkawi Island and mentioned this island, which was called "Dragon Tooth Bodhi" at that time, in his "Daoyi Zhilue".
In the Ming Dynasty, when Zheng He sailed to the Western Ocean, he also included Langkawi Island in his navigation charts.
According to written records hundreds of years ago, there were already a large number of settlers on Langkawi Island. At that time, the islanders had not yet mastered the cultivation technology of food crops such as rice, and could only grow potatoes as their staple food. . To this day, the island's population remains at two to three thousand, which is not a large number, but it cannot be ignored. In recent years, Kedah has even established an official agency on the island to conduct daily management and collect taxes.
In such an environment, it would be inappropriate to temporarily dispatch a few troops to fight before arriving in Penang Island, as simple and crude as the previous landing on Penang Island, and some adjustments must be made.
The operational plan to attack Langkawi Island had been formulated long before the troops set off. The bay located on the south side of the island is the first target of the Haihan Army. Of course, this bay is also the most densely populated area on the island.
According to the intelligence obtained by the Military Intelligence Bureau, most of the residents on the island are farmers and fishermen. There are no troops stationed on the island, so it is unlikely to encounter fierce resistance. But to control the situation on the island as soon as possible, some careful deployment is still needed.
The operation time is set at dawn. The chaos caused by the landing at this time should be minimal, which will help the Haihan Army control the situation as soon as possible. However, the troops participating in the operation, as well as the generals commanding the operation on the flagship, could no longer get enough sleep time, and had to enter combat mode from midnight.
(End of chapter)