Chapter 3607
One of the important reasons why Li Dou chose to participate in the time-travel operation was that he was very interested in history. The place of Manokwari also experienced the baptism of war in the time and space before the time travel, and has a quite famous story.
At the end of World War II, this was one of the important defense locations of the Japanese army in the Pacific. At that time, the 20,000 Japanese troops stationed in Manokwari were blocked from the outside world by the Allied forces. In order to preserve their strength, Commander Toshima Fusutaro ordered his 12,000 men to march 170 kilometers south of Manokwari. kilometers away from Idre in order to obtain supplies from the local area.
However, the Japanese army did not survey the marching route in advance at that time, and relied only on a rough map with a scale of one millionth. It seemed that the distance between the two places on the map was only 170 kilometers, but due to the complex geographical environment nearby, the actual marching distance later exceeded 500 kilometers.
The Japanese commander Lieutenant General Fujitsuka believed that it would take three to seven days of march to reach the destination, so the rations issued to the soldiers were also capped at ten days.
However, the outer areas of Manokwari are all mountainous and dense forests, with hot and humid swamps full of poisonous insects. People marching in this environment are not only difficult to distinguish the direction, but also will be constantly attacked by diseases such as malaria, enteritis, and dengue fever.
Once fever and diarrhea begin, it means that the ability to march is weakened, followed by a rapid deterioration of the condition. If the treatment methods and nutrition cannot keep up, he may die on the march in just a few days.
The marching route that was originally thought to take three to seven days to reach the destination actually took two months to complete. Tens of thousands of people died during the march, and only a few Japanese soldiers were able to complete the transfer mission alive. to a thousand people.
Li Zhencheng had never heard his father tell the story of Manokwari, and he had no idea that the surrounding environment of this hidden harbor was so dangerous. After landing, he found that most of the surviving Spaniards had fled into the nearby mountains and forests separately, so he was about to order an organized attack. Mountain pursuit and suppression.
At this time, the staff officer sent by the Luzon Combat Command reminded him that he should first report the battle situation to Manila and ask for instructions on the next step, rather than rashly commanding the troops to enter the unfamiliar environment inland.
This comes from the experience accumulated by the Luzon Army from long-term operations in this area. The complex environment of these tropical islands often lurks unimaginable dangers for foreign armies. Even the Luzon Army does not dare to penetrate into the mountains and forests of unfamiliar areas at will.
The Luzon Army's progress in clearing out the Spanish colonial armed forces on various islands has been so slow, largely due to the complex geographical environment. It can only operate near the coast of most islands and cannot penetrate into the inland areas of the islands.
Although Li Zhencheng was somewhat dissatisfied with the caution of the combat staff, he still followed the agreement with the combat headquarters and sent a telegram to report on the progress of the operation.
Xiao Liang, who was in command in Manila, was shocked when he saw the telegram sent by Li Zhencheng. He originally just wanted the Taiwan fleet to operate in a relatively safe area, but he did not expect that Li Zhencheng led the fleet all the way east and actually found the Spaniards. A secret port built on the island of Papua.
As for Li Zhencheng's plan to lead his army into the interior to continue to wipe out the Spaniards, Xiao Liang vetoed it without hesitation.
He knows much better than Li Zhencheng about the dangerous environment of tropical islands, and he will definitely not let reinforcements from Taiwan go deep into it.
Soon Li Zhencheng received a call back from Manila. Xiao Liang asked him to give up the pursuit inland and seize the time to clean up the seized documents and confirm whether there were other undiscovered Spanish strongholds and fleets in the local area. It would be best to discover them. The deployment and dispatching arrangements of the Spanish troops in the South Pacific.
For this round of fighting between the two countries, it is obviously more important to understand the opponent's combat deployment in a timely manner than to enter the mountains and forests to chase down the defeated generals. Although Li Zhencheng was a little helpless after receiving the call back, he had no choice but to follow the military orders even if he was unwilling to do so.
The troops searched and inventoried the buildings at the port, but the items seized did not satisfy Li Zhencheng.
The Spaniards who fled into the mountains and forests almost emptied the arsenal and granaries in a very short period of time, leaving behind several large boxes of silver coins. After all, it makes no sense for them to flee carrying heavy silver coins. Weapons and rations are the necessities for them to survive in the mountains and forests.
The local administrator's official residence was burned to the ground by the Spaniards before the Haihan Army landed, and probably a lot of documents and materials that were inconvenient to take away were also burned.
There were only a few Spaniards who didn't have time to escape. They were basically the elderly, weak, women, children, the sick, and the sick, as well as a few missionaries who volunteered to stay and take care of these people.
After interrogating these prisoners, it was learned that the port had been built for three years and mainly served Spanish ships traveling between the South Pacific islands and the American continent. The original local resident population was about five hundred. But because of the fleet that arrived here recently, the actual number of people who fled into the mountains and forests was far greater than the permanent population.
What makes this place different from other colonial settlements is that it has been completely controlled by the military from the beginning of its construction and has been kept secret from the outside world. Only a few navigators know the specific location of this place. It seems that it is It is used as a military base.
The many large sailing ships that were previously destroyed by the Taiwanese fleet in the port were a fleet that had just arrived from South America to help in the battle. Unexpectedly, he died before he left the army. Before he even entered the battlefield, he was attacked by the Taiwan fleet.
As for whether there were other colonial settlements or similar secret ports in the nearby area, the prisoners were very consistent, saying that this was the only settlement within a thousand miles.
Although destroying this secret port was definitely a great achievement, Li Zhencheng couldn't help but feel a little disappointed with the result.
There were not even any officers among the prisoners, and no military-related documents were captured. This made it impossible to obtain intelligence to deduce the Spanish's combat deployment. At most, the other party lost an important supply point.
Although this is definitely a serious blow to Spain, the loss of Manokwari may not prevent Spain from continuing to mobilize troops across the ocean from the Americas.
In order to prevent the fleeing Spaniards from re-operating the port after returning here, Li Zhencheng ordered all the buildings here to be completely burned, and then loaded all the prisoners on ships and embarked on the return journey the next day.
A total of 19 Spanish ships, large and small, were destroyed in this battle. The number of enemy soldiers killed cannot be accurately counted because some of the ships were sunk. It can only be roughly estimated to be about 300 people.
Due to the sudden incident, most of the crew members were still ashore when the war started and had no time to board the ship to organize a counterattack. Seeing the ferocity of Haihan's offensive, most of these people chose to flee into the mountains and forests to avoid the battle. However, although they avoided the Haihan Army's offensive, how many of them could survive in the dangerous wild environment still had to depend on personal luck.