Siheyuan: I eat melons while doing scientific research

Chapter 1153 Cargo Route Security Mission
The formation commander stood on the destroyer, looking at his comrades who were still busy, then looked at the sky and the sea, somewhat puzzled.

"It's been a day or two, why is there no movement anywhere? It's strange."

It’s not that he was eager for something to happen, but according to the scientific expedition plan, something should happen at this location.

Although we won't take the initiative to cause trouble, we are not afraid of it and we have done sufficient preparation.

The staff officer next to him laughed and said, "Maybe they haven't come over yet. It's impossible for them to just take a look at it after being in the sky for several hours."

The formation commander was very happy with this: "Hey, what you said makes sense."

He was happy not because there was no trouble, but because of the sentence "just take a look every few hours".

Although this "seeing once every few hours" is subject to many restrictions, at least one can see. There is a fundamental difference between a blind person and a nearsighted person.

He looked towards Koh Kong Island. His comrades were even beginning to build a semi-permanent barracks. The reason why it was called semi-permanent was that there might not be people inside at all times. This depended on the next decision.

At this time, the sounds of "Bang!" and "Bang!" were heard on the island. The comrades were using individual bunker blasters to blow up the pits.

Don't get me wrong, this is not a single-soldier bunker, but a quick excavation of the barracks foundation. It's not easy to transport construction machinery, but this thing is small in size, so we can have as many as you want.

They are arranged at a certain distance, and after blasting, they just need to clean up the sand and soil. Generally speaking, it is much faster than excavation with all manpower. Our workers are still very good at using the existing equipment.

"No matter what, keep a close eye on the sky and the sea."

For the formation commander, there were many things he had to consider. No matter what, he still felt a little strange that the thing with the highest probability of happening in the plan had not happened yet.

What was expected to happen did not happen here, but that does not mean it did not happen in all regions.

In the northern part of the eastern waters, which is close to the Hunhai Sea, it is located in a sea area about 400 kilometers east of Handong and Songjiang. Several of our ships are operating here.

On the surface, this place looks like an endless sea, but beneath the water, there are hidden dangers.

The murderous intention was nothing else but a large piece of stone.

This is an extension of the continental shelf in our eastern waters. There are many reefs hidden beneath the sea surface. Even the tallest one is several meters below the water surface.

These reefs seem harmless to humans and animals on the surface, but they are silent killers to ships. The larger the ship, the more afraid it is of them because large ships have a deep draft.

Just a few months ago, our first 10,000-ton cargo ship ran aground and sank in this place, and this voyage is its first voyage.

The destination of this voyage was a port on the Wo Island. The purpose of this voyage was to open up a new cargo route between the two countries. Yes, at that time there was a cargo route between the two countries, and they were doing business.

This 10,000-ton ship hit a deeper reef near the shallowest reef and eventually sank. This incident caused an uproar in Northeast Asia at the time, and was even described by the Japanese media as being sunk by a torpedo from a submarine in the South Peninsula.

However, we still respect objective facts and will not be easily provoked. Through careful investigation, we found evidence such as hull paint on a nearby underwater reef. We finally concluded that the ship sank after running aground on a reef, and not under a torpedo attack as the Japanese said.

In the end, we gave up on the ship and did not salvage it. First, our salvage technology was limited at that time. This was in stark contrast to the mysterious and silent passenger ship "Dead Moon" of the Southern Peninsula that sank with a ship full of students decades later and had to be salvaged by us. Of course, the incomprehensible operations of the Southern Peninsula in the "Dead Moon" incident are another story.

Secondly, there is a reason that most people find very unexpected - the ship was insured by an international shipping insurance company, and the company paid a large insurance premium, which was much higher than the cost of the ship, so there was no need to salvage it. We often say "fight but not break", and we have already put it into practice to the fullest.

Of course, although the boat is no longer needed, other things still need to be done. The first thing is to mark these dangerous reefs.

As a responsible big country, this is what we should do. As for who claimed what in 52, we didn't care at all. Who cares if a madman says something crazy? Even his father, the American people, don't care. At about the same time as the scientific expedition to Koh Kong Island was launched, half a year after we found out the cause of the -ton cargo ship accident, we finally made preparations in terms of materials, ships, personnel, ocean hydrology, etc., and officially launched the operation in order to eliminate the threat of this reef to passing ships.

It sounds complicated, but the method is actually very simple. It has long been a common practice in route construction - building a lighthouse.

With a lighthouse, passing ships can use it to locate the dangerous area and avoid it. At the same time, the lighthouse can also serve as a navigation for passing ships. For the shipping industry, it can be said to benefit the present and future generations. If there is any difference, it is that with the advancement of technology, this lighthouse not only has lights, but also modern marine navigation equipment such as radio beacons.

The reason for starting work now has nothing to do with conspiracy theories or anything like that. There is only one reason - satellite remote sensing has confirmed that there are no clouds and the weather is fine near the sea area these days, which is conducive to work.

Near the invisible reef on the water surface, a destroyer and two escort boats were cruising around. Pirates have existed since ancient times. Even in the 21st century, international escorts are still needed to ensure the safety of passing ships near Africa.

Not to mention the turbulent Cold War era, the imperfect legal system, the complicated situation, and the many gray geopolitical relationships left over from S2 have made pirates quite common these days, and necessary escort is still necessary.

Corresponding to this are the planes patrolling in the sky. Pirates are rampant and we have to guard against them. In the 21st century, even nuclear submarines have undertaken anti-piracy patrol and escort missions. So it is not surprising to have a few aircraft participating in these days.

However, there was only a Tu-4T in the air, and no fighter jets came over. This place is about 400 kilometers away from Songjiang. For the fighter jets on combat duty over the coastal area, it only takes half an hour to step on the accelerator.

These are all supporting roles, and the protagonists of the lighthouse construction mission are actually a group of landing craft. Due to limited conditions, we do not have the various offshore engineering ships with full professional performance and different functions in the future. But it doesn’t matter. We can always find a way to use the existing conditions to complete the work. After all, route construction is urgent.

Several landing craft that had just been put into service, carrying materials, people and equipment, surrounded the reef that was shallowest from the sea surface. This reef was closest to the sea surface, had a large enough reef area, and the conditions for construction were most mature.

The comrades have been busy all night, but there is still a long way to go before the work is completed. This is a reef several meters underwater. Although the operating depth is still far from deep diving, let alone saturation diving operations, the construction difficulty is still very high, and completion is nowhere in sight.

A landing craft, under the guidance of divers, has unloaded the materials it was carrying and turned to the west. It is going back to reload.

Although this place looks small, the actual amount of work and the materials required are not comparable to those on Koh Kong Island. Compared with landing craft, frigates are several times larger in material transportation, but their actual efficiency is much lower.

The comrades were working hard when the Tu-4 in the sky suddenly started a call: "Attention, 80 kilometers north-east, an aerial target is approaching at a speed of 600 kilometers per hour."

The radar on the Tu-4 was not a dedicated early warning aircraft radar after all. Also, it was limited by the technical conditions of the modification at the time, and its recognition distance for targets of different sizes in the air was sometimes good and sometimes bad.

This formation also had a destroyer as its command ship. The commander on the command ship picked up the microphone and said, "The lighthouse construction formation understands."

After disconnecting the call with the Tu-4T, the formation commander picked up the microphone and said, "6307, advance 2 kilometers to the north-east and pay close attention to the north-east direction."

"6307 understands!" A guide boat began to move. As for the humble number of 2 kilometers, it was mainly because the range of the portable missiles on the guide boat was indeed limited, and it would be too far to go any further.

Don't look down on them. Nowadays, there are only a few models of anti-aircraft missiles on small boats in the world, even if the range is short.

At the same time, two Z-7 fighter jets patrolling on the sea east of Songjiang also turned their noses and flew towards the reef.

For maritime patrol missions, although the speed of the Z-7 is a little slower, it has a large fuel tank and a long hovering time, making it more effective than the modified Z-6.

In the sky northeast of the reef was a Citigroup patrol plane.

Compared with the waters of Koh Kong Island, this reef is closer to the South Peninsula and is more sensitive. After all, the North and South Peninsulas had a big fight just ten years ago. Therefore, the patrols of Citigroup aircraft are more frequent. Even the brain-opening incident did not affect the patrol frequency of Citigroup aircraft.

"Captain, we found an aerial target in the southwest, which should be a patrol plane of the Easterners. At the same time, there are an unknown number of sea targets on the sea in that direction."

The radar operator on the Citi patrol plane reported to the captain, but due to the presence of clutter on the sea surface, they were unable to distinguish the number of targets at sea. Being able to see them was already considered highly skilled.

(End of this chapter)