Chapter 3024

Lopez is not the kind of loser who has never seen the world. Before he came to Malacca to take up his post, he had served in the military for many years and had some practical experience. He would not be fooled by Tan Tianlei so easily.

However, Tan Tianlei was prepared for this. Hearing Lopez's question, he smiled and responded: "General Lopez, I did not say that this is the base camp of the pirate gang. As you can already see, this is just a small-scale

A temporary camp, but the pirate gang is much more than this small number of people."

"According to the intelligence we have, there may be hundreds of pirates hiding on this island. We have already started a manhunt on the island. I believe we will get something soon."

"As for the pirate ship you are concerned about, unfortunately we did not find the main force of pirates here. When our army launched the landing offensive, an unidentified sailboat tried to escape from here, but it was sunk by us at sea."

"There should be survivors, right?" Lopez immediately asked.

There were only a few corpses executed by muskets in this temporary camp, and there were no prisoners. These corpses could not speak, and they could not prove whether what Tan Tianlei said was true.

But if a sailboat is sunk at sea, it is very likely that someone on board will jump into the water to escape, and then be captured by the Haihan army. If there are survivors, it may be possible to reveal the origin of this mysterious pirate group.

Tan Tianlei's response once again disappointed him: "The shells concentrated gunpowder and other things on the ship, and a violent explosion occurred. We carefully searched the waters where the shipwreck was, but did not find any living people there."

There are no survivors, which means that the truth is still unknown. And the actions of the Haihan people will probably not stop there.

Lopez keenly noticed that Tan Tianlei claimed that Haihan's army would continue to hunt down pirates hiding in the mountains and forests of the island, which meant that Haihan would station troops here.

What does it mean for a certain area to be garrisoned by Haihan? There is no need to ask Tan Tianlei about this question. Lopez can think of the answer himself. If Haihan's tentacles are allowed to extend here, he thinks it will not be of any benefit to Portugal.

Tan Tianlei continued: "We believe that this is just one of the strongholds of this group of pirates, not their real base camp, so our army will continue to march north to search for traces of pirates."

Continuing north? A map of the Strait of Malacca immediately appeared in Lopez's mind.

The three to four hundred miles north from Penang Island should be the territory of Kedah, but this small and weak country should not dare to resist the military operations led by Haihan. For example, at the moment, Lopez has not seen any Kedah.

warships appeared in the waters near here.

However, in front of Tan Tianlei, he still wanted to question this: "Have you communicated with Kedah about your country's actions and plans to station troops?"

Tan Tianlei smiled and said: "General Lopez, you seem to have overlooked one thing. The actions we have taken are to eliminate hidden dangers that affect regional security. This will also be of great benefit to Kedah. If Kedah follows

The pirate gangs have no common interests, so they will definitely not oppose us. Regarding the diplomatic details, we can communicate with Kedah after the dust has settled, and I think they will definitely understand."

Lopez was speechless for a moment, choked by Tan Tianlei's words and speechless.

This means that if Kedah protests against Hai Han's actions or adopts more radical methods to fight, it means that Kedah and the pirates are in the same group.

By then, it is very likely that these pirates will not be the only ones who will be unlucky. Haihan may also beat up Kedah - or maybe this is the situation Haihan wanted to create.

If Kedah was smart enough, of course it would just pretend to be deaf and mute and pretend nothing happened. No matter whether Haihan came to fight pirates or to garrison troops in Penang, in short, he should not say anything to avoid disaster.

"General Lopez, I suggest you temporarily rest on this island for a few days. When our actions have further results, we will ask you to go check it out together."

Tan Tianlei's suggestion didn't sound good to Lopez. He chased him all the way from Malacca City, not intending to go on vacation. Haihan was on guard against him and didn't let him get in touch with the real battle situation on the front line, which made him very dissatisfied.

.

But is it useful to protest to Tan Tianlei? Of course Lopez also knows that the key depends on Roger's attitude, Tan Tianlei is just running errands in the middle to spread the word.

But Roger has been avoiding it, and Lopez has nowhere to vent his anger. He has no idea where Haihan's next target is. After tonight, he may not even be able to find the whereabouts of the main force of Haihan's fleet.

While Lopez was depressed in Penang, the Haihan fleet was rushing to its next target at starry night, Langkawi Island, two hundred miles north of Penang.

Compared with the uninhabited Penang Island, Langkawi Island with its natural harbor will certainly no longer be an uninhabited island.

As early as the Yuan Dynasty, the navigator Wang Dayuan visited Langkawi Island and mentioned this island, which was called "Dragon Tooth Bodhi" at that time, in his book "Daoyi Zhilue".

In the Ming Dynasty, when Zheng He sailed to the Western Ocean, he also included Langkawi Island in his navigation charts.

According to written records hundreds of years ago, there were already a large number of settlers on Langkawi Island. At that time, the islanders had not yet mastered the planting technology of food crops such as rice, and could only grow potatoes as their staple food.

.To this day, the population of the island remains at two to three thousand. Although it is not too large, it cannot be ignored. In recent years, the State of Kedah has even established an official agency on the island to carry out daily management and collect taxes.

In such an environment, it would be inappropriate to temporarily dispatch a few troops to fight as before when we landed on Penang Island, and some adjustments would have to be made.

The battle plan to attack Langkawi Island had been formulated long before the troops set off. The bay located on the south side of the island is the Haihan Army’s first target. Of course, this bay is also the most densely populated on the island.

area.

According to the intelligence obtained by the Military Intelligence Bureau, most of the residents on the island are farmers and fishermen, and there are no troops stationed there, so it is unlikely to encounter fierce resistance. However, some careful deployment is still needed to control the situation on the island as soon as possible.

The operation time was set at dawn. The chaos caused by the landing at this time should be minimal, which would help the Haihan Army control the situation as soon as possible. However, the troops participating in the operation, as well as the generals commanding the operation on the flagship, could no longer

To get enough sleep, you have to enter combat mode from midnight.
Chapter completed!