Chapter 181 Rabaul's Imperial Envoy (I)

The boat-shaped fuselage of a four-engine "Huang Crane" large water machine slowly leaned against the small dock on the west side of Labaoerping South Port, and the machine door that also acted as a springboard opened downwards. A strong man with a facial muscle seemed to be made of metal jumped onto the dock on the door.

A group of officers who had been waiting on the dock - or General Gu Yingyang, the commander of the Southeast Front, surrounded by a group of staff wearing golden ears, immediately rushed forward.

"Commander Gu, are you safe?"

The visitor was wearing a pure black attendant uniform with gold edges and gold ears, and carried the rank of colonel of the Imperial Guards on his shoulders. He was about forty years old, but he greeted a general who was nearly fifty in an equal tone without any scruples.

"Welcome, Staff Wu, thank you all the way."

Gu Yingyang reached out his hand enthusiastically, but his expression did not contain any unnaturalness.

The visitor smiled and said, "When sitting on the plane and watching the scenery, how can you compare to Commander Gu's hard work. The emperor said that not everyone can take charge of the southeast, but it's a blessing that Wu Linghou takes care of it."

After hearing this, Gu Yingyang immediately turned to the imperial capital, bowed his head and said, "The emperor's kindness is so great, I dare not devote myself to his whole life."

Now he introduced to the staff behind him: "This is Colonel Wu Haisong, the imperial attendant sent by the emperor to understand the situation of the war. In the words of the previous dynasty, it was the imperial envoy."

Wu Haisong waved his hands repeatedly after hearing this: "Don't dare, it's just a errand for the emperor, just a thousand miles away from the wind."

So they complimented and gave in. At the end, the two of them rode on a one-ton truck with a canopy, and the members of the escort also rode in a two-and-a-half-ton truck and drove inland in smoke and dust.

Rabaul is located on the northeastern Bay of Pingnan Bay (Simpson Bay in another time and space), and the port city faces the Bismarck Sea three times. It reaches 448 nautical miles to Laicheng Harbor in New Guinea in the west, and 945 nautical miles to Port Molbiz in Papua in the southwest. It reaches 319 nautical miles to Port Kieta on Bougainville Island in the southeast and 1844 nautical miles to Port Sydney Harbor in New Zealand in the south. It is the most important strategic base of the East Asian coalition forces in the South China Ocean, and the Southeast Front Command is located here.

The so-called Outer Southeast Ocean is a unilateral name for the East Asian Alliance, which generally refers to the island of New Guinea (Irian Island) and the Melanesian islands and the sea areas between them - including the Bismarck Sea, the Solomon Sea and the Coral Sea. The Allies usually call this area the Southwest Pacific.

Before the outbreak of the European War, the region was divided by Britain (including the Dominion of Australia), Germany and France. Among them, Germany occupied the "Emperor William's territory" located in the northeast of New Guinea, the Bismarck Islands at the front end of the Melanesian island chain, the Bouca Islands in the north of the Solomon Islands, Bougainville Island, and the western part of New Guinea Islands (i.e. West Irian) which originally belonged to the Netherlands; Britain occupied most of the Solomon Islands and jointly managed the New Hebrides Islands south of the Solomon Islands (another time and space land Vanuatu); France occupied the southwest of the New Hebrides Islands alone, forming New Caledonia at the end of the Melanesian island chain; Australia obtained the management rights of British New Guinea in the southeast of New Guinea from its motherland since 1901, and renamed it to the Papua Territory in 1906.

After the outbreak of the Sino-European War in 1914, the Chinese army and navy seized German New Guinea, Bismarck Islands and West Irian with lightning speed. The British and Australian troops in the region had only time to occupy Bougainville and Bouca Islands. The Chinese army also seized the German Northern Mariana, Carolin, and Marshall Islands in the Western Pacific. Only German Western Samoa, which penetrated deep into the South Pacific, was far behind and occupied by Britain and Australia first.

At the end of 1914, the East Asian Alliance led by China opened war against the United States and the Allied Powers at the same time, and the South China Sea was divided into the Southeast War Zone. General Gu Yingyang, commander of the Southeast Front, ruled all army and naval forces in the war zone to fight against the Commonwealth Army and the French Army.

The army forces in the theater include the Ninth Army and the West Irian Group. According to the pre-war plan, the former should be based on four light infantry divisions. The latter should be based on one light infantry division, with a total of about 80,000 troops in five divisions. However, since the war started, the above deployments are still on paper, with only three severely short of divisions in place, and the real strength is less than one and a half divisions in normal organization. All the troops scheduled to be supplemented were detained by the base camp for various reasons.

The naval forces in the theater were Lieutenant General Matsumura Ryutsu's southeastern front fleet (the Third Fleet and the Sixth Air Force) and were composed of 4 old-style mount patrols, 8 old-style light patrols, 22 destroyers and 30 aircraft. Their strength should be enough to suppress the Australian and New Zealand navies. However, similar to the situation in the army, since the establishment of the front fleet on January 11 of that year, in addition to carrying out daily escort and transportation tasks for the war zone, the main force was transferred to support the Dutch East India strategy, and was pulled to protect the traffic line between the local Marshall and the Gilbert Islands from time to time. From time to time, it had to carry out the task of searching for enemy troops to break the ships. Almost no day could be used by Gu Yingyang as he pleased.

Because of this, when other battle zones were getting good news, this hot and tide wetland was relatively quiet and quiet. As the commander of the war zone, Gu Yingyang felt depressed. It is conceivable.

At this moment, facing Wu Haisong, who is also a member of the Future People Group, Gu Yingyang felt mixed feelings in his heart and unconsciously lowered his voice: "I really didn't expect that I would send you here."

Wu Haisong responded with a smile: "Commander Gu, how about talking about business first?"

Gu Yingyang sneered: "Okay, business is business, I want to mention two points: First, when will the five divisions that I promised to give me be spit out? Second, when will the Southeast fleet be under my jurisdiction? Apart from that, there is nothing to say."

Wu Haisong shrugged: "Commander Gu, please be careful not to be irritated. According to the deployment of the base camp, the first priority is to open up the connection between Germany, Austria and the earth. We must concentrate limited resources as much as possible to invest in the main battlefield. Other fronts are mainly defense, or feint attacks and restraints, and save as much force as possible."

"Well, save as much as possible. I have worked hard for this half-term front army, and I must have done it." Gu Yingyang said self-deprecatingly, and after saying that, he snorted from his nose, his dissatisfaction being expressed in words.

Wu Haisong smiled and said, "Commander Gu, you can't say that. The base camp has its own reasons for setting up the Southeast Front Army. How many troops are placed must be evaluated according to the specific situation. If the British had not had the vote in Kiel, the Southeast might not have been like this."

Gu Yingyang didn't like his tricks and said coldly: "The British have a good relationship with some people in the base camp."
Chapter completed!