Chapter 1020 Advance Team (1)

For travelers like Haihan, whether it is the extremely harsh natural environment or the uncivilized indigenous tribes who are unwilling to obey, these external resistances are not their main opponents. There is only one biggest enemy for the rulers of Haihan, that

It's time. No matter how many black technologies that transcend the times that the time travelers have in their hands, they still can't fight against the rapid passage of time.

If the time travelers want to establish an industrial civilization and a relatively stable political system in the East during their lifetime, they must seize every minute and every second to promote the rapid development of the historical process, whether it is drilling for oil or the subsequent birth of the internal combustion engine.

Travelers are trying to realize these historical moments two centuries in advance, and compress the originally long development process during this period into the shortest possible time.

Even though the task of extracting oil in Miaoli faces many objective difficulties, since the executive committee has made up its mind to promote the implementation of this project at any cost, it means that project leader Bai Kesi can mobilize all available resources during this period.

resources to clear all obstacles on the way forward.

On April 15, the day after the fleet arrived at Magong Port, Bai Kesi inspected the Penghu Shipyard located in the military port. This shipyard currently does not have the ability to build large warships, and its main function is only to serve the military stationed in Penghu.

The ships provide daily maintenance, and by the way, some fishing boats and cargo ships with low technical content are built. On the one hand, they can earn some income to subsidize daily expenses. On the other hand, it can also prevent the shipwrights from abandoning their shipbuilding skills. Starting from last year

Since the beginning of the past six months, the shipbuilding tasks here have changed, with inland river flat-bottomed barges being the main focus, and orders for twenty or thirty ships have been received. Although the shipwrights do not know the use of building so many barges, it is obvious that these ships will definitely not be used.

Will be used locally in Penghu.

The Ship Management Office under the Maritime Transport Department of the Ministry of Transport also regularly sends senior technicians from Sanya to provide short-term technical training to the craftsmen. At the end of last year, Sanya shipped four marine steam engines to Penghu, and there were specialized technicians accompanying them.

He went to the Penghu Shipyard to teach craftsmen how to install and debug. During the same period, cargo ships traveling to and from Magong Port successively brought in a lot of clean coal produced in Annan, and so far thousands of tons of it have been stockpiled near the port.

Bai Kesi checked the four traction barges that had been equipped with steam engines. The craftsmanship level has basically reached 70 to 80% of that of the Sanya Shipyard. Daily use should not be a big problem. However, considering that the location of use is not in Penghu, it probably has to be in Houlong, Miaoli.

A technical service station responsible for maintenance needs to be set up near the mouth of the river. Fortunately, this time Baikes’ team also specially transferred several skilled technicians from the Sanya Shipyard and the Ministry of Industry, so there is no need to worry about the personnel at the Penghu Shipyard.

Insufficient reserves.

In the afternoon of the same day, Baikes and Morgan reviewed the Penghu garrison that was about to go to the Miaoli area with the oil exploration team to perform tasks. Although with the border of the Haihan controlled area moving north to Zhejiang, the size of the troops stationed in Penghu is no longer large, but

Yu Yao still cobbled together a strengthened company for Baikes to dispatch. As a result, the army that was about to go to Miaoli already had three companies, plus the navy that would be stationed on the coast of Miaoli and the staff of the exploration team.

The militiamen and the armed forces under Bai Kes are enough to launch a small-scale war.

In addition, Yu Yao also selected about 500 workers in advance from the immigration camp on Baisha Island, who will also set off with the exploration team. Most of these workers are war refugees from the Jiaodong Peninsula and the Central Plains in the north, and they are basically farmers.

Origin. Of course, there are occasionally some refugees who have a better background and have a good cultural foundation, but they have been selected early and put to other uses.

These refugees can work as long as they have food and shelter, and can be said to be very cheap labor. After they assist the exploration team in Miaoli to complete the initial infrastructure project, the civil affairs department will conduct on-site resettlement to allow these refugees to take root in the local area.

If everything goes well, Miaoli will have a permanent population of about three to four thousand in two or three years, and some of these new immigrants will become the first batch of oil workers in Haihan.

Counting the local troops and migrant workers from Penghu, the team that is about to go to Miaoli already exceeds 1,500 people. For such a large team to open up a place to stay locally, there are also a lot of various materials required.

Most of the living supplies needed by the team were prepared in Fujian. In principle, they must be able to sustain the consumption of more than a thousand people for at least a month. More than 30 tons of rice alone were prepared. According to Yu Yao's statistics, the first batch of goods was shipped.

The daily supplies are probably at least 300 tons, which is similar to the amount of military supplies. The largest cargo is the working supplies of the oil exploration team, and there are quite a lot of heavy iron lumps. Among the fleets departing from Sanya, there are three

Two-thirds of the cargo ships are loaded with various tools and equipment required for production.

Yu Yao estimated that the size of the fleet heading to Miaoli would be double that of the fleet coming from Sanya. Therefore, allocating ships and personnel at Magong Port was also a quite time-consuming and laborious task. Due to Bai Kesi's

The team arrived in Penghu nearly ten days earlier than expected, so the completion of all preparations has not yet reached 100%. It is expected that it will take at least three or four days before departure.

The large force cannot leave for the time being, but at least a small team can be sent there in advance to plan the deployment of the forward base and prepare for follow-up. Morgan made this suggestion and was adopted by Bai Kesi. On the morning of the 16th,

The advance team led by Morgan set out from Penghu northward in two warships, carrying a cargo ship and a supply ship. The fleet also towed a steam inland river boat and two barges, intending to find

At the right time, go upstream along Houlong River and first determine the conditions of the channel.

The voyage from Magong Port in Penghu to the mouth of Houlong River in Miaoli is about one hundred nautical miles. Due to the tow of several flat-bottomed boats and the poor sea conditions, the fleet led by Morgan could only sail slowly at a low speed.

Marching, it took two days to reach the destination.

The estuary of Houlong River is about a kilometer wide, and ships with a draft of four to five meters can sail in smoothly, but they can only move in the waters of the estuary. It is said that after traveling about one kilometer upstream, the water depth decreases rapidly

It has been reduced to about two meters, and only inland river flat-bottomed boats can pass. Moreover, the river beaches in some places upstream are extremely shallow, and blasting may be needed to open up river channels to allow cargo barges to pass smoothly.

When Yu Yao led a team to conduct reconnaissance last time, he could only measure the approximate water depth, but he was not completely sure whether the barge could be navigable. Moreover, it is the rainy season recently, and the flow of Houlong River has also changed, so on-site survey is necessary.

. This is one of the reasons why Morgan insisted on sending a small team to explore the way first. Otherwise, when the fleet reaches the upper reaches and discovers that there is no way, it will miss a big deal.

Yu Yao provided Morgan with a map of the Houlong River Basin and the landing place he had chosen last time when he led his team. Morgan followed the map and found the anchorage on the south bank of the estuary without much effort.

When Yu Yao came here last time, he had a simple trestle built here to facilitate ships to dock. But what made Morgan's heart sink was that the trestle had suffered obvious damage, and at least two-thirds of the bridge deck was damaged.

It disappeared, and the pile standing in the water was twisted and twisted.

Morgan was not in a hurry to let the big ship dock. Instead, he put down the small boat and sent two squadrons of soldiers to land. First, to ensure the safety of the shore environment, and second, to confirm that the water depth at the docking place would allow the big ship to dock.

The first thing Morgan did after landing was to check the damage to the trestle. The subsequent arriving fleet will definitely need some port facilities to allow materials to be quickly unloaded onto the land. Although building a temporary trestle is not a big project, it can save money.

Otherwise, building one more trestle would cost a lot more manpower and materials. Of course, the more important point is that Morgan must personally confirm the cause of the damage to the trestle.

If it were only caused by natural causes, such as hurricanes or water impacts, it would be acceptable. However, the results of the inspection made Morgan unable to relax. There were obvious traces of cutting with metal tools on the wooden piles of the trestle. This was definitely

It is a man-made effect. It seems that after Yu Yao's team left here, some people used violent means to destroy the trestle. And according to Yu Yao's investigation, the only permanent residents nearby are foreigners.

It is unlikely that the indigenous tribes, who harbor deep hostility, would have enough time to destroy this simple wooden trestle.

Morgan understood this behavior as a warning, meaning to tell outsiders not to come back here again, because you have been classified as persona non grata. But this childish behavior naturally cannot stop Haihan's determination to develop this place.

After Morgan determined the cause of the damage, he ordered the accompanying engineers and carpenters to repair the trestle as soon as possible.

Morgan's advance team only has two platoons of less than 100 army troops, more than 30 various logistics personnel, and more than ten technicians. The materials shipped with the fleet are basically living supplies and building materials needed to build camps.

.Since there was no usable trestle, Morgan's team had to spend more time unloading. In addition, it was raining heavily, making the river bank muddy. Morgan was dissatisfied with the efficiency but had no choice but to do so.

.

About an hour after Morgan landed, the headquarters tent was finally set up on the river bank. However, the sky was getting dark at this time, and it seemed that there was no way to complete the camp before dark. Most of the soldiers were still

We have to go back to the ship and make do with it for the night.

Considering that there might be indigenous activities nearby, Morgan carefully set up several hidden posts on the outside and used multiple sections of barbed wire to set up a circular defense line around the camp. If anyone wanted to touch the camp at night, they would most likely be inlaid with sharp edges.

A steel barbed wire fence blocks the outside.

Although they were in the wilderness and the conditions were relatively limited, the soldiers still ate hot food prepared by the cooking team at dark time. For ordinary soldiers, wartime food was much better than usual, at least every meal could be eaten

With a base of meat dishes and additional combat allowances, it is not particularly difficult during the mission. The most important thing is that the Haihan Army has always been invincible, and the soldiers will not have much trouble even during the combat mission.

Ideological pressure, so the atmosphere in the military will not be dull because of the armed conflicts that may be encountered in the future.

Morgan is one of the few singles among the Haihan travelers who has not yet established a new family. Several of his single partners who came here from North America all have their own families and children, but Morgan has never met the person he thinks he is.

A suitable candidate. Although his Chinese ability has been enough to communicate with people around him in the past few years, his personal aesthetic still prefers blond and blue-eyed Western girls, and he has always felt less interested in the charm of Eastern women. In Sanya

During this period, some people tried to match him, but in the end Morgan did not choose to start a family.

It is precisely because of this that Morgan devotes much more time and energy to his work than others. While he is a physician at Haihan First Hospital, he is also a lecturer at Sanya Medical College. He also has another identity, that of a military officer.

Fang's sniper instructor. In the past few years, he has trained more than a hundred snipers, most of whom are serving in various armies. Due to the special skills of snipers, they are commanding officers wherever they are.

As long as the officers' treasure is used properly, it is possible to use snipers to decapitate generals among thousands of troops.

Although it may be difficult for snipers to be put to serious use during the mission in Miaoli, this time Morgan still took the more than ten students he was leading when he set off from Sanya as an ultra-long-range practical training course for them. And national defense

The Ministry did not express any objection to this. After all, only Morgan is an expert in the training of a special type of sniper. His ideas are basically official opinions, and no one questions the training effect that such training can achieve.

Among the secret sentries Morgan sent out to lurk outside the camp, there were his students. As a qualified sniper, it is basic skills to act independently, stay stationed, and monitor targets. In the past, they were trained at the base in Sanya.

It is also rare to have the opportunity to come into contact with a natural environment like Miaoli. Morgan also wants to make full use of all training opportunities during the mission.

Although Morgan is a high-ranking official, in this environment, the dinner is not actually sumptuous. It only has two more chicken legs and a glass of red wine than ordinary soldiers. The output of this kind of red wine brewed in Sanya is very small, and almost all of it is served as food.

The special offerings have been digested internally and will not be sold on the market. Although drinking is prohibited in the army during wartime, those rules are set for ordinary soldiers, and high-ranking officials like Morgan are not restricted by them.
Chapter completed!