Chapter 3598
Compared with Shi Chengwu's smooth sailing in Nanjing, the Luzon Army, which was still fighting hard against Spain near the equator, was not so relaxed.
Half of the two months proposed by the Luzon authorities to resolve the fighting have passed, but there are still no signs of an end to the combat operations in the area between the Philippine Islands and the New World to the south.
There are thousands of large and small islands scattered within a radius of three to four thousand miles. This complex battlefield environment caused the armed forces of both warring parties to be dispersed. In addition, the Spanish were already prepared to fight with the sea. The Han fought guerrilla warfare, so there were basically no large-scale battles that could solve problems at once.
Although the two sides fought many times, it was difficult for the Haihan Army to eliminate the main Spanish force in one fell swoop. Or to be more precise, this time the Spaniards did not form a so-called main force at all. The armed colonists distributed on various islands were their main combat force.
This forced Haihan to spend a lot of time clearing each island one by one, and this method of combat required more manpower than a large-scale battle.
Although Haihan clearly has superior military strength, the Luzon region itself has limited military strength. The number of troops that can be mobilized to this area to participate in combat operations is only a few thousand, which is far from the strength required for a clearing operation.
But what was even more difficult was the supply fleet assembled for this operation, with dozens of cargo ships responsible for delivering supplies to various troops in the theater.
Compared with the size of the armed fleet, the number of ships in the supply fleet is indeed smaller. The target locations are not only very scattered but also change frequently, which often results in troops being unable to obtain supplies in time.
Due to the delay in the arrival of supplies, Zheng Agui's company had been staying in a bay at the western end of Timor Island for seven days.
Zheng Agui raised his telescope and looked at the sea. Just like the past seven days, he still didn't see any ships in his field of vision.
He sighed and put down the telescope, an action he had repeated almost every two hours in the past few days.
Only the battalion headquarters is equipped with radio stations that can communicate with the outside world through air. After his company was sent to this bay seven days ago, the ship it was on hurried to another island to perform its mission. Unexpectedly, no ship appeared after that.
Now Zheng Agui cannot communicate with the outside world and cannot leave the island for the time being. Moreover, his company is still guarding about a hundred prisoners of war.
These prisoners of war were exactly what Zheng Agui was here for. His company cleared out the Spanish colonial settlement built in the bay as quickly as possible, but after finishing, they were embarrassed to find that they could not leave either.
Although these settlers had several fishing boats, these crude production tools obviously did not have the quality to travel across the ocean. Zheng Agui did not want his men to risk their lives by taking this thing to fight at sea.
Moreover, when he came, he had already agreed with Xiao Zhengyang that a ship would come here to pick them up after the mission was over and take them to the next location. He did not dare to lead his troops around, lest he miss the troop ship that came to pick him up.
These conditions were nothing more than that. The problem that really troubled him now was that the Spaniards who settled here did not stock up on food. Zheng Agui's men plundered the entire village's food, which even amounted to less than a hundred kilograms.
According to the prisoners' account, just two days before Zheng Agui's troops came here, a Spanish fleet took away most of the village's grain reserves in the name of supplies. The officer leading the army asked them to obtain food by fishing and hunting for the time being, and after repelling the Haihan army, they would try to transport food to them.
There is no doubt that the settlers here have been treated as war casualties by the Spanish army. Even if the war ends, no one may come to save them with food. Everyone belonged to different camps, and Zheng Agui didn't have much sympathy for these people. However, he didn't intend to starve the prisoners of war to death here, so he still distributed food to them on time and rationed it, without deliberately deducting it.
Zheng Agui's company itself brought ten days of supplies, so in his opinion, it shouldn't be a big problem to last until they leave here.
But he didn't expect to wait for seven days. Seeing that the supplies and captured food were almost exhausted, Zheng Agui had no choice but to order the chief of staff to first reduce the prisoner's ration supply to one meal a day, as long as they could not starve to death for the time being.
In addition, several teams of people were sent to fish and hunt nearby and pick fruits to supplement their food.
Three days later, Zheng Agui's company also exhausted the food they brought and began to rely entirely on food obtained locally. As for the hundreds of prisoners, Zheng Agui no longer cares about their life or death.
If the supply ship hasn't arrived yet, there is no value in keeping these prisoners, and it will consume limited food.
At this time, Zheng Agui had already concluded that something bad might have happened to the outside world, which was why the supply ship was delayed in arriving for support.
Just when he was wondering whether he should give up these prisoners completely to reduce his burden, the long-lost supply ship finally arrived.
Seeing the red and blue flags appearing on the sea in the distance, Zheng Agui also danced excitedly with his soldiers, even happier than he had won the battle a few days ago.
The arrival of the supply ship brought food to Zheng Agui's company, but it also brought bad news.
Although the Spaniards had suffered heavy blows recently, they still took advantage of the opportunity to sneak attack a supply fleet on their way south in the Maluku Sea in the north at night.
Four cargo ships were sunk in the night, and several other ships managed to escape with injuries. Haihan lost at least more than a hundred sailors in this battle. This is also the direct reason why Zheng Agui's place has been unable to receive supplies.
Of course, the Spanish did not take much advantage, and paid the price of several large sailing ships being damaged and sunk, and hundreds of people killed in battle.
However, the Luzon Army's combat operations in this area were inevitably greatly affected by this. It is said that Manila was furious and had applied to the Executive Committee for reinforcements, planning to mobilize troops from Fujian and Taiwan to help maintain the maritime supply line south of the Philippine Islands.
The original deadline for the operation will be adjusted based on current progress and extended for at least two months in order to completely drive the Spaniards out of this area.
In addition to these bad news, Zheng Agui also heard good news worth celebrating. Many restrictions will be lifted on this autumn’s military recruitment campaign, and the authority for overseas regions to expand garrison personnel will be relaxed.
This also means that the Luzon Region can use this opportunity to explode its troops on a large scale to solve the old problem of insufficient troops. Active-duty officers like Zheng Agui are very likely to be direct beneficiaries, because the expansion of the military force means that officers will be promoted to higher positions and command more troops.