1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 540 Continue South
After Ruan Jinggui returned to his residence, he didn't immediately go back to the room to rest. He went to the study and took the list of supplies that Mu Xiabo gave him, and read it seven or eight times to confirm the contents.In the early morning of the next day, Ruan Jinggui went out and began to collect various supplies listed on the list for the fleet.

There are not many rare or particularly valuable items on this list. Most of them are ordinary supplies, such as food, medicine, ropes, sails, spare ship materials, and other items that may be used when going to sea. The required quantity is not counted. too much.Ruan Jinggui believes that the list of supplies issued by the military is not really intended to supply much here, but to take this opportunity to verify the supply capacity of Da Nang and see which supplies may be in short supply.

Ruan Jinggui's predictions are very close to the truth. In order to prevent the inconvenience of supplies on the way, the fleet has already brought sufficient supplies when they set off from Sanya. At most, they can find a place to replenish food and fresh water on the way. .However, considering that the Annan Militia Army will be mobilized to go south in the future, Da Nang is probably the last large-scale supply point on the southward voyage. The military must first verify the supply capacity of this place.

Of course, the difficulty of preparing these materials in Sanya is completely different from that in Da Nang.Especially for marine supplies, Sanya can provide all kinds of spare parts produced by the original factory, but in Da Nang, we have to make them according to the drawings. It can be produced in large quantities in a short period of time.

In addition to preparing supplies, Ruan Jinggui did not forget the order given to him by the Ministry of Security yesterday to recruit trustworthy sailors and crew members who are familiar with the conditions of the South China Sea. This matter could not be completed without people familiar with the local conditions.Before the development of Da Nang last year, the Annan court forcibly confiscated 3000 people from the vicinity and gave them to Haihan as war rewards. There were indeed many sailors among them, but not many had been to Nanyang.After the destruction of Hui'an city the year before last, a large number of sailors and crew members fled this area, and not many people stayed and continued to live nearby. Only two or three out of ten people had the experience of going to Nanyang, and among them, the veterans who were familiar with the sea conditions in Nanyang Even fewer fur seals.

Yesterday, Ruan Jinggui gritted his teeth and said that he could find dozens of people, which was actually a bit exaggerated. In addition, the Ministry of Security also asked that they could relocate their families if they were trustworthy, so the range of options was narrowed down a lot.Ruan Jinggui ran up and down for a whole day, met more than a hundred people, and finally only confirmed seven candidates.

Before the fleet left the port on December 12, all material preparations were finally completed under the supervision of Ruan Jinggui, but only 18 qualified sailors were recruited.However, Tom Wang did not reprimand him for this, but just handed him a new supply list before leaving, and asked him to prepare carefully in Da Nang.After Wang Tom and others boarded the ship, Ruan Jinggui carefully opened the list and looked at the contents. It was basically the same as the supplies he had prepared in the past two days, but the quantity increased significantly.Ruan Jinggui didn't dare to neglect, so he quickly took this list and went to the workshop farms in Da Nang to urge his orders.

After the fleet left Da Nang, it went south along the coastline, and it took three days to travel about 300 nautical miles and arrived at Cam Ranh Bay, the second stop of the trip.

Cam Ranh Bay is located in the southeastern part of the Indochina Peninsula. The harbor is surrounded by two peninsulas, Chongkong Mountain and Fenghuang Mountain, forming two gourd-shaped inner and outer bays, which go deep into the inland for more than ten kilometers.It happens to be located on an important route from Nanyang to the Far East, and it is also recognized as a strategic location in the Indochina Peninsula in later generations.

On the deck of the "Lightning", Tom Wang is introducing the situation of Cam Ranh Bay to the representatives of various departments in this operation: "...the width of the outer port of Cam Ranh Bay is about 4000 meters, and the water depth is about 30 meters. The width is about 1300 meters, and the average water depth is more than 10 meters. In addition, the area of ​​the inner harbor exceeds 60 square kilometers. With the size of our current naval fleet, even if ten fleets are stationed here, it will not feel crowded.”

Wang Tom was excited, raised his finger to the coast ahead and said: "Of course, this bay has a large area, and it is unavoidable to be wasteful if it is only used as a military base. The harbor here can be fully utilized, and part of it is used for The commercial port, and the southern part of the inner port also has good development conditions, which can be used to build large-scale salt farms. If fully developed, the scale will not be much smaller than that of Yinggehai Salt Farm.”

Although the geographical conditions and location of Cam Ranh Bay are very superior, but the South Vietnamese court has been stuck in the quagmire of the war on the front line of the Hengshan River, and did not have enough ability to fully develop this place. To the north, there is no time to take care of this bay in the south.It was not until after the Annan Civil War that the Annan court handed over the right to use Cam Ranh Bay to Haihan at the request of the Haihan Executive Committee that large-scale development and construction began here.

However, because the engineering and construction personnel of Haihan were almost concentrated on the rail transit project in Shilu, Changhua, the development process of the four southern ports in Annan stagnated, and the development of Cam Ranh Bay has been delayed until the "Liaoyuan Project "Before the implementation began, the infrastructure project was barely started.

Since the construction here has just started, the militia has not stationed an organized fleet here, let alone any maritime armed forces to defend the port. Therefore, when the reconnaissance fleet sails into Cam Ranh Bay, in addition to attracting fishing boats on the sea, Other than a little panic, it didn't cause much disturbance.

After the fleet sailed into the inner bay, the local port staff came out to navigate with small fishing boats, leading the fleet to a temporary dock on the west bank of the harbor.Due to the very limited conditions here, no traveler has been assigned here to preside over the work for the time being. Ruan Jinggui was in charge here before. After Ruan Jinggui returned to Da Nang, the highest authority here is the Port District Provisional Management Committee. The company commander of the militia is in charge.

This company commander named Ruan Fu is an out-and-out Annan, but the accurate statement is that Annan is a naturalized citizen who joined the Heitugang special warfare company led by Qian Tiandun himself during the early days of Heitugang. , In the Annan militia army, it can be regarded as a veteran-level task.Nguyen Phu participated in almost all the battles of the Annan Militia Army, even including the "Operation Liaoyuan" launched in northern Hainan Island in October.After withdrawing from Hainan Island, he was dispatched to Cam Ranh Bay in the south by the Annan Military Region, where he was responsible for maintaining local security and assisting Ruan Jinggui in implementing the Cam Ranh Bay port project.

Although Ruan Phu has the same surname as Ruan Jinggui, they have nothing to do with each other.Ruan Jinggui was born in a famous family, and he changed his family to become a leading party during the Battle of Hue, while Ruan Phu was just one of the many war refugees who were taken away from the coast of the Annan Civil War by the advance team of the Black Earth Port.But by chance, the two surnamed Ruan got together in Jinlan Bay and became colleagues.

Although Ruan Phu is not very familiar with the senior officials from the Sanya base camp, Mu Xiabo who came with him can be regarded as his immediate boss, and half of the ships in this fleet are warships of the militia navy. The portion is not light.When Wang Tom and others got down to the shore, Ruan Phu immediately stepped forward and stood at attention to salute: "Ruan Phu, the commander of the first battalion and second company of the Annant Corps, reports to the chief!"

Wang Tom also continued the previous practice and asked Ruan Phu to explain the local situation.Regarding the situation of Cam Ranh Bay, Wang Tom and others had already asked Ruan Jinggui to understand it in Da Nang, and now it is a comparison to verify whether there is any inaccuracy in what Ruan Jinggui said.

According to Ruan Phu, the current population of Cam Ranh Bay is just over [-] people, and almost half of them have been naturalized.At present, the construction of the port has just broken ground and is still in the stage of leveling the foundation. Even the first phase of the project may have to wait four to five months before it may be completed. As for the construction plan of the entire port area divided into seven stages, At least four or five years of continuous construction is required.

At present, the biggest problem in this place is that the population is too small, and there are no large cities or populated areas in the surrounding area. Therefore, the source of future labor force may only rely on targeted transportation from the outside world.Whether it is the military or the civil affairs department, there is no more effective solution for the time being.And the supplies that can be provided to the fleet or the follow-up army here are mainly seafood, wood, fresh water and other limited things.

"Now this place can only be used as a safe haven." After understanding the local situation, Wang Tom set the nature of the function here: "If the militia army is mobilized from the north to go south, it may be troublesome to stop the boat here. In the short term There is no way to use this place as a real military base."

"But this is probably the last stop before we leave the Indochina Peninsula." Mu Xiabo reminded: "Going further south, we have already entered the territory of the Champa Kingdom. Although we have some trade and military relations with them Cooperate, but never let warships into their ports."

"Warships cannot dock at the port of Champa." Lin Nan shook his head and interrupted: "According to the information we have, the main port of Champa has a trading post established by the Dutch, and our warships can easily reveal their identities. That's going to be bad for what we're going to do next."

"We can only go all the way south." Tom Wang moved his fingers on the chart: "From here to Natuna Island, the voyage is about 500 nautical miles. At the speed of our fleet, it will take about five It takes seven days to reach that place."

Although there were several fast boats in the scouting fleet, in order to deceive people, they also brought three traditional Chinese sailboats, and the entire fleet was roughly based on the speed of these three ships at about four or five knots.

Of course, in terms of the speed of the two catamarans, such a slow toss is really terrible, so Wang Tom plans to divide his troops into two groups, with two faster catamarans going south at normal speed as the vanguard Go to the sea area of ​​​​the Natuna Islands for investigation, and the follow-up fleet will arrive in the sea area with a delay of about two days, and then they will rendezvous for the next step.

Although there is no supply to provide in Cam Ranh Bay, the fleet still rested here for two days under Wang Tom's order, and then set off again.

On December 12, the fleet left Cam Ranh Bay and continued southward. Only a few hours after leaving Cam Ranh Bay, the "Lightning" and "Express" gradually left the brigade's sight and took the lead in heading south.

The personnel staying on the two sailboats basically belonged to the military and the Ministry of Security, and braved the wind and waves all the way. After only 72 hours, the two sailboats had arrived in the waters of the Natuna Islands.At this time, the large force behind had just completed a little more than half of the voyage.

In the early morning of December 12, the sailor in charge of the lookout discovered an island about ten nautical miles to the southwest.After comparing the charts, Wang Tom determined that this is the northernmost small island of the Natuna Islands, and this island is only about 28 nautical miles away from the big island of Natuna.After confirming that there were no traces of other ships on the nearby sea, the two sailboats sailed towards the small island and anchored at the beach on the west coast of the small island.

According to the satellite data map downloaded from the large database before departure, this small island is a wedge-shaped narrow island running from north to south, about 12 kilometers long from north to south, and about 2 to 5 kilometers wide from east to west.The forest on the island is lush, and the advance team found no traces of human activities when they landed on the island. It seems that this place should be just an uninhabited island.

Considering the follow-up actions, Wang Tom ordered to be stationed here temporarily and set up an advance camp on the island.In order to hide people's eyes and ears, the fire and cooking were canceled during the day, so as not to be seen by the ships passing by the nearby sea. It was not until nightfall that they dug a hole on the shore and buried a stove to cook a hot meal. The outside parties were covered to prevent the fire from being discovered in the night.Fortunately, the advance team found a fresh water source on this small island. Although the water output is not large, the water quality is acceptable. It can be boiled and drunk after simple clarification. This is undoubtedly good news for large forces fighting in sea areas.

Before dawn on the 29th, the "Lightning" sailed south to Natuna Island.There is no natural harbor suitable for building a large port on the coastline of this island. According to the information provided by the Ministry of Security, the largest pier on Natuna Island is located in the middle of the east coast of the island, and there is only an inward port. It's just recessed into the bay, and it doesn't even have the conditions to avoid the wind and waves.After the Dutch took over the island, they seemed to have no intention of investing too much energy in running the place, and their armed forces stationed on the island were mainly concentrated in this small port on the east coast of the island.

(End of this chapter)