1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 1021 Advance Team ([-])
After Morgan finished his dinner and checked that the agreed time had come, he asked the guards to fetch the radio, and he personally operated it to send a telegram to the Penghu base to inform them of the current situation.Although there was nothing wrong with today's landing, there was still a large amount of supplies that hadn't been unloaded to the shore due to time constraints. Morgan estimated that it would take at least one day to unload and set up the temporary camp.

One of the tasks of the advance team is to establish a forward base here to serve the incoming large troops, which means that Morgan must also command his men to complete some infrastructure facilities.For example, delineate material storage areas and personnel living areas, build fortifications around the camp, dig drainage facilities and storage pools, build public health facilities, and so on.Although these facilities are not big projects, they require a lot of manpower to implement them.Fortunately, Morgan's two platoons are not rookies, and Liu Shanxia sent a few foremen under him to help dispatch and command, so there shouldn't be too many technical problems in completing these tasks.

The biggest problem Morgan is facing now is actually the weather. Although the main reason for coming to Miaoli in a hurry is to take advantage of the better navigation conditions of Longxi in the past two months to transport things and people into the mountains, but the rainy season is closed. The rain that doesn't come down is really annoying.Judging from the situation seen today, the river banks near the estuary are all muddy. If some infrastructure projects are to be started under such weather conditions, the progress will inevitably be delayed.In the telegram, Morgan also asked Penghu to send a group of migrant workers over as soon as possible to make up for the negative impact caused by the weather by increasing the labor force.

Morgan called his two platoon leaders and several foremen to the headquarters tent and assigned tasks to them one by one.This kind of work of coordinating and directing multiple departments to operate together is not what Morgan is good at. He prefers to carry out tasks such as latent assassinations alone in the wild with his precious M200 gun. That kind of unrestricted freedom is Morgan. The most enjoyable time.But unfortunately, he was confined to Sanya most of the time after crossing, and in recent years, the opportunities to go out to perform missions have become less and less, so this time when he heard that he had the opportunity to leave Hainan Island, Morgan also reported immediately. Ming wants to come out and lead troops.

Leading troops to fight is of course not an easy task, not to mention the need to coordinate and command other non-military departments in this mission. Although Morgan's military rank is not low, but before that, he had only commanded company-level troops on the battlefield at most. , and did not really command large-scale tasks independently.This time Haihan is expected to deploy more than 500 people in the Miaoli area, and it needs to go deep into the inland area to establish a long-term stronghold. Such a task is actually quite a test for him.

But Morgan also knows that he doesn't have many opportunities to perform in the military now. If he doesn't make some achievements, he will be able to get fewer and fewer tasks to lead troops in the Ministry of Defense in the future, and he is unwilling to retire early in Sanya. Therefore, special attention is paid to this task.After the assignment, Morgan began to study the map again, considering the plan of action for entering the inland mountains.

From the current temporary camp along the Houlong River to the east for about ten kilometers inland, this small river will turn south at a right angle, and inside this right angle is a triangular alluvial plain with an area of ​​about ten square kilometers.On the west side of this alluvial plain is a hilly area called Maoli Mountain, which is also the seat of the Maoli Society of the Dajia people.According to the current information, the population of this community is about 800 people, and a small amount of fields have been reclaimed on the plains. It is the tribe closest to the sea in Miaoli.In fact, the place name of Miaoli is very likely to come from the name of the tribe of Maolishe.

According to Yu Yao, the last time he led a team into Houlongxi to survey the terrain, the natives of Maolishe showed obvious hostility towards their arrival, and there was even a brief confrontation between the two sides in the forest, but In the end, no direct armed conflict occurred.Morgan is not optimistic about how the natives of Maolishe will treat the "invaders" like Haihan. He believes that the other party is unlikely to change their attitude and welcome him.In fact, even the area where the current camp is located is the scope of activities of the Maolishe people. The wharf trestle bridge that was destroyed by humans is likely to be a masterpiece of these native people.

After Houlongxi diverted to the south, it took a journey of more than ten kilometers before turning [-] degrees to the east again and entering the mountainous area.The inner side of this ninety-degree angle is also an alluvial plain, and on the east side is the central mountain range of Taiwan Island.These two small alluvial plains are actually valley plains that Houlongxi spent tens of millions of years scouring from the central mountain range, and they are also the location of the few arable lands of local indigenous tribes.However, if Haihan wants to ensure the safety of the Houlongxi River Basin, the control of these two plains must be in his own hands. However, it is unlikely that the local aborigines will obediently hand over the land to Haihan. In the future, there will inevitably be some troubles.

According to the map provided by Yu Yao, Morgan once again measured the length of the waterway, which was a full 27 kilometers. This voyage is not long, but it gave Morgan a little headache in the current environment.Judging from the horsepower of the steam riverboat and the condition of the waterway, dragging the barge up the current with a speed of about four knots is considered astonishing. This means that the entire voyage may take seven or eight hours. If after entering the mountainous area, If the waterway conditions can still maintain the navigability until the final destination is out of the sulfur pit, then at least one hour of voyage will be added.

Of course, the length of the waterway is not a problem, it is nothing more than consuming a little more coal on the way, and that is not a problem that Morgan needs to consider.But how to ensure the safety of passage in this channel is a more delicate matter.

Morgan has two choices at the moment. One is to deploy more armed strongholds along the waterway to ensure the safety of the entire waterway in the form of segmental responsibility, but how many strongholds are enough for a [-]-kilometer long waterway?Ten or eight?The command and supply problems brought about by such scattered strongholds are very likely to become another kind of trouble that is difficult to solve.

Another way is to equip each fleet with armed guards that go back and forth between the seaside and the sulfonic pit, but how many armed guards does a fleet need to be equipped to ensure safety? How to ensure timely rescue and reinforcement?

These two methods have obvious loopholes, so Morgan intends to use them together. On the one hand, he will build strongholds on the way to station troops, and on the other hand, he will also send a certain number of armed personnel to accompany the ship.

The choice of the base in the middle of the voyage is undoubtedly the two river bends where the current bends at [-] degrees.In the entire voyage, these two places have the slowest water flow, and they must be the most dangerous places. Controlling these two places is almost equivalent to avoiding half of the risk.And if a stronghold with complete defense facilities is built, with the absolute advantage of the Haihan Army in terms of combat effectiveness, there is actually no need to station large troops, and one or two platoons are enough to control the situation.

Of course, the most thorough solution is undoubtedly to completely drive potential hidden dangers out of this area, but this kind of action involves entering mountainous areas to fight, and the Haihan army, which is not yet familiar with the local geographical conditions, has to complete this task Obviously there are still certain difficulties and risks.For the time being, Morgan doesn't want to devote all his limited troops to the military confrontation with the indigenous tribes. After all, opening up the waterway of Houlongxi is his top priority right now, and he doesn't need to take the initiative to fight the indigenous tribes if it is not necessary.

In the middle of the night, the rain became heavier. Morgan was worried about the soldiers on duty outside, so he put on his raincoat and led the guards out for a round of inspection. After confirming that there was no problem, he returned to the tent to rest.

Early the next morning, the various departments of the advance team began to carry out construction separately in accordance with Morgan's instructions.However, due to the constant rainfall, the progress of infrastructure projects involving excavation has been slow.Morgan even had to order a tent to be built above the designated reservoir area before excavation, otherwise the soil pit would be soaked in water as deep as it was dug, and the construction purpose would not be achieved at all.However, those who dig trenches outside the camp do not have such conditions. They can only insist on digging in the open air. Maybe they have to wait until the next batch of laborers arrive, and rely on manpower to overcome the impact of weather.

However, there is good news amidst the chaos. According to the results of hydrographic surveys, the water level on the river bank today has risen by about three inches compared to yesterday's arrival.Considering that the width of the river channel at this estuary is much greater than that of the upstream, the upstream water level should rise even more, which means that the upstream navigation capacity will increase with the increase of precipitation in the rainy season. the fact that it happened.

At noon, Morgan saw that the rain was decreasing, so he asked the mechanic in charge of operating the steam engine to start debugging the steam barge, and planned to lead the team to explore the road first.

After a simple lunch, Morgan took twenty soldiers from the temporary base on a steam barge and marched upstream along the Houlong River.After sailing for only about two kilometers, the river channel began to narrow rapidly, shrinking to about one-fifth of the mouth of the sea.

While observing the conditions on both sides of the river with a telescope, Morgan asked the soldiers to measure the water depth and flow velocity, and record them according to the voyage.Judging from the flat topography of the river banks on both sides, this Houlong River is obviously not as peaceful as it looks. There must have been many years when the river overflowed the riverbed and flooded the surrounding area. Named after a brook, but its current flow is clearly a serious river rather than a creek.

What relieved Morgan a little was that there were not too many shelters on the river banks on both sides. Even with the naked eye, he could get an excellent observation field of view, and he would not be easily ambushed.At that time, the killing distance of the rifles in the hands of the soldiers in charge of armed escort will have a sufficient advantage, and there is no need to fear the indigenous bamboo bows and spears.

Considering the time of the return trip, Morgan did not go too far this trip. He only went upstream for about two hours before turning back.During the period, the steam engine on the ship worked normally, and nothing went wrong.In order to prevent this unreliable steam engine from breaking down halfway, the barge is also equipped with single-masted sails and oars, poles and even ropes, at least not causing the ship to lose its forward momentum due to machine failure.Of course, if such an unfortunate accident really happened, the cargo barge towed by then would probably have to be unloaded to the river bank and parked, waiting for the next steamer to take it away.

The progress of the advance team’s work in the camp that day was not satisfactory. Except for the restoration of the trestle bridge and the excavation of the reservoir under the tent, the progress of other projects that needed to be carried out in the open air was slow. It was originally thought that the local area could be completed at least four years. To the construction of five simple board houses, only two were completed because of the rain.However, the tents in the barracks area have basically been set up, and the soldiers can finally go to land to spend the night tonight.

After dinner, Morgan continued to contact Penghu through the radio. After receiving his report from the previous day, the base has sent a fleet of [-] laborers to Miaoli this morning.If it goes well, maybe this fleet will arrive early tomorrow morning, so that Morgan can free up the few troops on hand and prepare to enter the inland to investigate the situation of the upstream waterway.

This news finally made Morgan feel a little relieved. If the delay due to the infrastructure construction of the temporary camp continues, the main force will arrive in a few days, and he still has no time to go upstream to obtain first-hand hydrographic and geographical data. It is bound to delay the time for the exploration team to enter the mountain.Morgan immediately ordered people to prepare operational supplies and planned to enter the inland the next day.

The next day, Morgan still set off with [-] soldiers, but today there was an extra barge towed behind. On the one hand, it was to test the conditions for towing the barge upstream, and on the other hand, it was also convenient for loading this group of people into the mountain. All kinds of materials needed, after all, they are going to the final destination to get out of the sulfur pit, and it is definitely impossible to go back and forth in the same day.Considering the itinerary and the time required for the investigation along the way, Morgan believes that this trip will take at least three days to complete the various investigation tasks.

Because a loading barge was dragged behind, today's sailing speed was even slower, and it took an extra [-] minutes to reach the turning point the day before, but the good news is that today's water level is still rising In the present study, it appears that direct access to mountains by water is indeed possible.

After sailing for more than three hours from the mouth of the sea, Morgan's team arrived at the first turning point in the upper reaches of Houlongxi.Considering that a stronghold might be established here, Morgan ordered to dock, and personally took a group of people ashore to walk overland to find a suitable place to stay.

(End of this chapter)