Chapter 2043

Whether it was to stabilize the morale of the military or because of his true thoughts, Tao Donglai finally expressed his attitude and would continue to trust and support the intelligence agency. But everyone involved in the investigation knew very well that the "monster" Tao Donglai mentioned was not what he meant.

It is already difficult to deal with simple characters by just relying on the methods that are commonly used in the past.

Even if it is confirmed in advance that a batch of arms will be smuggled out of Cebu by maritime merchants in the near future, and even if the Haihan Navy is far stronger than its opponents, it will still be difficult to intercept it at sea. The Ministry of National Defense and Military Intelligence

The bureau could not even formulate a foolproof plan. Although Yan Chujie did not admit it, if the military's action plan was to be effective, it still had to rely on luck to be on Haihan's side to a large extent.

Things are planned by people, and things are accomplished by heaven. All Haihan can do now is to ask the Manila garrison to send a few more ships to monitor the key waterways. And the response of the Manila authorities was not slow. On the day of the joint meeting in Sanya, in fact,

Six warships, large and small, have already left Manila Bay and headed for the waters near Verde Island to establish control.

These warships all belong to the newly established Manila Fleet last year. The personnel and ships are mainly drawn from the naval forces that were originally stationed in the South China Sea and participated in the Battle of Manila last year. Although it is said to be a new organization, its combat effectiveness is actually no better than the current one.

Some combat units are much different. The fleet is also familiar with general maritime patrol tasks, and there is no problem in performing such tasks of monitoring waterways.

And the cargo ship that returned to Manila to report the news has once again carried the original team to Cebu. They must rush to get Jose and other Hispanic intelligence agents out of Cebu before their identities are exposed. Although the intelligence department used

Carefully prepared false evidence and a series of means temporarily deceived the Spaniards, making them mistakenly believe that overseas military assistance has achieved excellent results, but the situation happening in Hainan Island and other places is likely to be reported back to Suzhou soon.

By then, the Spaniards will surely realize that the information they received previously was forged, and the identities of Jose and others who came to Cebu with this information will definitely not be concealed.

Therefore, although Jose and other three Hispanic intelligence agents have successfully lurked in Cebu and have every opportunity to take further measures, considering the security issue, they can only give up the plan of letting them stay there permanently and take advantage of the opportunity before they are exposed.

Withdrew to Manila.

The person responsible for commanding this surveillance operation is Major Jiao Fei of the Manila Fleet, who is currently serving as the temporary fleet commander. Jiao Fei was one of the direct beneficiaries of the Battle of Manila last year. Not long after the war ended, he was awarded the title of

He was promoted from a naval captain to a major, and from the captain of the Majesty-class battleship "Mighty" to the commander of the newly established Manila Fleet - this is currently one of the few fleet commanders in the navy who is a naturalized officer.

Jiao Fei was able to win this honor because he had served in the Ming Dynasty Navy in his early years and had relatively rich sailing experience. In fact, there was another reason that the official would not mention, which was that among the time-travelers, he was qualified to serve as a senior naval officer.

There are really not many candidates for generals. After counting, in fact, there are only a few people in the North American gang who know military affairs and have a relatively solid foundation of navigation skills. The others are at most just talking about keyboards. When it comes to naval battles, they are very clear-cut.

When you go to sea, you feel dizzy. The theoretical knowledge in your head may be enough to command a ship, but it is completely insufficient to command a fleet to carry out large-scale cross-regional combat operations.

Among the original members of the North American Gang, only Wang Tom and Shi Diwen served as generals in the navy, Roger and Morgan served in the army, Johnson and Qiao Zhiya had already retired and changed careers. And similar to Sun Changmi, Yue Zhiyun

, time travelers like Xie Chun who knew navigation skills did not choose to serve in the military for various reasons. Therefore, as Haihan's foreign expansion accelerated, the Navy had to use a large number of naturalized personnel in the positions of commanders at all levels.

Naval officers like Wu Sen, Xie Li and Jiao Fei also began to step onto the stage of history step by step.

Most of these naval officers are immigrants from Ming Dynasty and Annan. They have more or less military experience before joining Haihan. Therefore, after receiving military training, they can quickly master Haihan-style combat methods. Haihan Navy

Possessing strong ships and powerful guns that were almost invincible on the seas of this era, they had almost never been defeated since the formation of the army. Therefore, these naturalized naval officers were also quite proud and never feared any opponent.

Jiao Fei commanded the battleship Valiant in last year's Battle of Manila and achieved a record of sinking two Spanish warships and damaging five Spanish warships. However, because the target was too large, the Valiant also became the target of enemy fire.

The hull inevitably suffered some damage, and after the battle, it was left in Manila to begin a long maintenance period.

After the Battle of Manila, most of the main battleships of the Majestic class were transferred to the north to participate in the Korean War. However, the battleship Majestic was left in Manila for repairs due to battle damage, thus missing this opportunity to continue participating in the war. But it was a blessing in disguise.

, Jiao Fei, who was forced to stay in Manila, therefore entered the list of candidate commanders of the new fleet.

So when the Ministry of National Defense ordered the formation of the Manila Fleet, Jiao Fei was selected as the commander of the new fleet, and the Weiyong, which had not yet been repaired, was designated as the flagship of the new fleet - of course, the premise was that its repairs must be completed as soon as possible.

In this way, the Navy can legitimately announce the establishment of the Manila Fleet.

However, the newly established Manila Shipyard after the war was seriously short of technical personnel, as well as various tools and materials needed to repair warships. In addition to the Valiant, there are also more than ten other naval warships that have to queue up here to wait for repairs.

In order to repair his ship as soon as possible, Jiao Fei stayed in the shipyard for several months and watched the shipwrights repair the Weiyong bit by bit.

This trip south to monitor the waterway between Luzon and Mindoro is not the first combat operation of the Manila fleet. In fact, since the second half of last year, the fleet has left Manila Bay several times and headed south to familiarize itself with the situation in the surrounding waters.

, to explore the area of ​​southern Luzon still under the control of the Spanish colonial authorities.

Although the Spanish lost Manila during the war and moved their seat to Cebu in the south, there are actually still some Spanish immigrant settlements on the southern coastline of Luzon Island. Although the people in these places were gradually brought to Manila

Despite the news of the defeat, not everyone is willing to give up their property and move to the south with the colonial authorities. Many people still choose to stay there and live their lives as they want. The arrival of the Haihan people is nothing more than a change of rulers.

That's all, as long as the house and land are still yours.

Of course, some of them will act as spies for the colonial authorities. If Haihan tries to recruit these Spanish immigrants, then these spies will also become the people under Haihan's rule. Maybe they will have the opportunity to join Haihan in the future.

Nationality, then these people will be able to play a greater role.

However, Haihan was not unwary about this and was not in a hurry to absorb the Hispanic immigrants in these settlements. It would take a long time to digest the Hispanic people in Manila, so there was no need to rush to increase the number of Spanish immigrants in the areas under his control.

After all, these people are from the hostile camp and can be regarded as a security risk to a certain extent.

On the coasts of the north and south sides of the strait to be monitored this time, there is a Spanish settlement across the sea. To the south is Port of Galera. In this natural bay, there are about a hundred Spanish immigrants and a thousand

Many Filipino natives settled there. Batangas in the north is more famous. Nearly a thousand Spanish immigrants settled here before the Battle of Manila. However, after the war, a large number of people fled to Cebu. Today, there are still a large number of local residents.

It is almost the same as Puerto Galera.

In previous reconnaissance operations, the Navy has visited these two settlements to confirm that there are no Spanish armed personnel activities there. However, the nature of this operation is different, considering that ships departing from Cebu may arrive here.

Supply was carried out in two places, but Jiao Fei still ordered two ships to be separated and went to these two places to check whether any suspicious cargo ships were docked.

Like Yan Chujie who was far away in Sanya, Jiao Fei was not sure whether he could block his target here. After he was sure that he would be left to serve in Manila, Jiao Fei spent a lot of time familiarizing himself with the charts of the Philippine Islands.

For him, the entire Philippine Islands will be the scope of activities of the Manila Fleet in the future, and as a commander, he must be familiar with the environment in these areas.

Of course, this job is not easy. The Philippine Archipelago consists of more than 7,000 islands. It can be said to be the most complex sea area within the scope of Haihan Navy's activities. It would take ten or eight years to thoroughly understand the geographical and sea conditions of this place.

Years of work will definitely not work.

While taking the order to set off, Jiao Fei was already studying the routes that the target might choose. Starting from Cebu and heading north to the mainland, theoretically there are many routes to choose from. If you exclude those routes that are risky and need to be detoured,

, there are at least four or five choices left. Of course, the route he is responsible for is the most likely one the other party will choose, but it cannot be ruled out that the other party will choose an unpopular route to avoid Haihan's monitoring for the sake of safety.

.

Go north from Cebu directly through the strait between Leyte Island and Masbate Island, then pass through the San Bernardino Strait between Samar Island and Luzon Island, and then enter the Pacific Ocean east of Luzon Island.

.If you are an old seal who is familiar with this sea area, you can completely lead the ship to sail north along the east coast of Luzon Island, and then reach the southern tip of Taiwan Island through the Bashi Strait. After that, you can continue to go north along the east coast of Taiwan Island to the north.

The destination. This route is completely outside the supervision of Haihan, and it is difficult for the navy to divide its troops and go to such a distant place for control.

In addition, the opponent can also choose to go north along the west coast of Mindoro Island, so that they do not have to pass through the narrow channel guarded by Jiao Fei. Although this route will take an extra mile due to the detour, it can greatly reduce the cost of the voyage.

The probability of exposure.

Today is already the second day since Jiao Fei's fleet arrived in the predetermined sea area. So far, they have not found even a single sail. Such calm is not good news for Jiao Fei. According to the information sent back by Cebu

, the local shipment of that batch of arms should be in the past few days. If the other party chooses to go north through this channel, the results will be available within five or six days at most.

There are special lookouts on the mast of the Valiant with telescopes on duty. Under the current weather conditions, the visibility range can completely cover the entire strait channel. As long as a ship passes here during the day, it will definitely not be able to escape the surveillance of the Valiant.

.The other ships spread out and cruised in the waters near the coast to make up for the control range of the Valiant.

Jiao Fei stood on the bow of the ship and observed with a telescope for a while. There was indeed no suspicious target on the calm sea, which made him slightly disappointed. The Spanish settlements on both sides of the strait have received warnings from the Navy that there will be no more suspicious targets this month.

No boats are allowed to go out to sea, even just fishing near the coast, so not even a sampan can be seen in this place.

"I have a bad premonition that our mission will be in vain and we won't be able to wait for our target to appear." Jiao Fei handed the telescope to his adjutant and said with some disappointment: "Just wait and wait, I don't know if there will be anything."

The rabbit bumped into it by itself!"

The adjutant responded: "Sir, all good things come hard. Since the Military Intelligence Bureau believes that the other party will appear here, then we will just wait. If the other party does not come here, we will just go out for training."

Jiao Fei nodded and said: "What you said makes sense. Give me the order to assemble the team and practice facing the enemy at sea!"

Since there are no other arrangements at the moment, Jiao Fei plans to use troop training to pass the long waiting time without affecting the mission.

After another three days of waiting, the lookout post of the Valiant finally made the first discovery in this mission. When he heard the whistle indicating that something was happening on the deck, Jiao Fei immediately

Putting down the chart in his hand, he ran up to the deck to ask what he had found. Under the guidance of his subordinates, Jiao Fei quickly saw the shadow of a sail on the sea in the distance through his telescope.

"It's coming!" This discovery made Jiao Fei suddenly excited, and ordered to send out a signal to put all ships into combat readiness. The Weiyong remained stationary in the center, and the two speedboats near the coast slowly moved forward, allowing the entire formation to move forward.

The shape presents a pocket shape.

However, as the ship in his field of vision got closer and closer, Jiao Fei discovered that something was wrong. The target in the intelligence was clearly a lucky ship, but the ship that appeared now was not a lucky ship. It clearly looked like a Spanish ship.

Sailing ship. But that doesn't matter. As long as you get to this place, no matter whether you are a Galen ship or a lucky ship, you have to stop the ship for inspection.
Chapter completed!