Chapter 3562
The landing point chosen by the Luzon Expedition Fleet on the northern coast of the New World is a bay embraced by two peninsulas.
The area of the bay is not too large, far less than that of Manila Bay, where the capital of Luzon is located. Moreover, the coast in the bay is mostly tidal flats. The area suitable for building deep-water ports seems to be very limited, and the terrain and environment are not ideal.
But this is the colonial settlement selected by the Luzon authorities for the expedition fleet, because there is basically no natural bay with better conditions than here on the northern coast of the New World.
In another time and space, this bay was not discovered by the British until the 19th century and named after the famous scientist Darwin who was one of the first visitors.
However, the Luzon authorities had already decided on the name of this place. Before the fleet set off, they had marked this place on the map as "North Gate", which means the gateway to the north coast of the New World.
The New World covers thousands of miles, has a vast land area, and has a coastline that is tens of thousands of miles long. However, the number of locations that are truly suitable for building large port cities is actually extremely limited, and most of them are concentrated further away from the landing sites of the Haihan and Han fleets. of the east and south shores.
Taking into account the cost and timeliness of early development and construction, the two fleets could only choose two locations that were relatively close to their base camps and with decent conditions as their initial settlement locations.
The vanguard of the expedition fleet arrived here more than ten days ago, and they took no time to build a trestle and temporary berths here to prepare for the entry of large forces.
However, the labor force of the vanguard is only a few hundred people. In just ten days, it is basically the upper limit to build a temporary dock here, and there is no spare power to focus on other infrastructure projects.
Zheng Agui's company was assigned to a campsite about a mile away from the temporary dock. However, when they arrived with their tired bodies, they found that the so-called campsite was just a clearing cut out of the forest. The barracks do not have any infrastructure, and even the site has not been completely leveled. There are still many tree stumps and stones on the ground.
There were bundles of large canvas bags piled on the ground. Zheng Agui was no stranger to this. He knew that they were marching tents that had not yet been unpacked. It seems that the construction of this campsite has to be completed by his company.
Zheng Agui frowned but before speaking, several of his squad leaders took the lead in starting the complaint mode.
In their view, it was a bit unreasonable that they had been fighting on a tropical island for many days, but when they came here they didn't get a chance to rest and had to complete the construction of the camp themselves.
"Company Commander, do you need to report this to the headquarters? The work of setting up the camp should be completed by the vanguard!"
Before Zheng Agui could arrange the division of labor, the headquarters had already sent a combat staff officer, Spanish officer Juan.
Although Juan is of Spanish descent, his parents are just ordinary immigrants living in Manila. He was only five years old when the Haihan Army captured Manila, and his background is considered to be very clean. He belongs to the generation that grew up under the Haihan Double Color banner, and is now a serious Haihan citizen.
Moreover, he and Zheng Agui are old acquaintances. They had the experience of fighting side by side during the bloody battle with the Spaniards in the Philippine Islands two years ago.
The purpose of Juan's coming here is to appease the emotions of each company so that the work of setting up camp can proceed smoothly. Zheng Agui has been in the army for several years, and now he knows a lot about it and guesses Juan's intention.
After greeting the other party, he rushed to the front and complained: "Staff Hu, is it too careless for the headquarters to arrange this kind of camp for my company? Look, I still have many wounded soldiers here. , Do you want them to work with a cane? ”
Juan explained: "The troops who arrived here in advance only have a total of more than 200 and less than 300 engineering soldiers, and the construction period is only about ten days. How much work do you think they can do? It would be good if they can build a dock in a hurry. Where? There is still time for everyone to build all the camp and barracks!”
"What the headquarters means is that each company should overcome the difficulties and set up the tents by themselves first. When the barracks are built later, everyone will also contribute. We didn't bring many immigrants with us this time, so don't expect anyone. Come and do the work for you.”
Zheng Agui said: "I understand what you are saying, but now the soldiers are very angry, so we must take some practical measures to appease their emotions."
When Juan heard this, he understood that Zheng Agui was asking for a favor from him, but he was already prepared for this: "Captain Zheng, later ask your company's cooking team to go to the logistics office to pick up half a pig, five chickens and five ducks each. Just give the brothers a toothpaste at night.”
Zheng Agui said: "With meat but no wine, it's a bit boring."
Huan said: "Then add ten pounds of wine and two boxes of cigarettes, and don't talk about other conditions!"
Zheng Agui said: "In my company, there are more than 100 soldiers. Not everyone smokes, but everyone drinks wine. We need more to share!"
After some haggling, Huan finally agreed to give Zheng Agui's company's consolation gift plus five kilograms of wine, and finally settled the camp issue, and then hurried to the next company.
There are more than a dozen companies in this batch of troops arriving at Beimen Port. Zheng Agui is already relatively easy to deal with. He just asked for some more comfort items.
The expedition fleet in the Luzon Region does not have many immigrants, so the available labor force is very limited. Not only will the progress of the infrastructure project at Beimen Port be affected, but the labor intensity of the soldiers will also greatly increase.
In order to appease the soldiers' emotions, the only comfort that can be provided to them at present is food and drink. Fortunately, the fleet brought a large amount of livestock, tobacco, alcohol and other supplies when it set out, and now they can be used.
After Zheng Agui announced the command's comfort measures to his subordinates, the low morale finally recovered a little. However, some people still think that the headquarters is really stingy, especially when it comes to wine. More than 100 people are divided into fifteen kilograms of wine, which is only one tael per person on average, which is not enough to drink at all.
But Zheng Agui knew that the superiors were accommodating in this matter. Drinking in the army was a special case. This treatment was only given when the troops were in the rest period after the war.
But if too much wine is served, someone will inevitably get drunk and cause trouble after drinking. It will be a big trouble. Once trouble occurs, it will be a minor matter to take away the company commander's position. Have to be court-martialed.
When Zheng Agui asked Juan for these fifteen kilograms of wine to comfort his subordinates, he was already risking his own future. However, there were so few people who could understand his good intentions, which also made him quite disappointed.