The sky is about to break, and the night is still thick. The light of oil lamps and torches in the shops and houses along the street is faintly projected on the gravel road. There are still lights in hotels, small restaurants and brothels, and bursts of noise can be heard from time to time. I missed the wind The merchants, stewards and sailors on the ships who were believed to be resting here for the winter and waiting for the monsoon were trapped in this remote place "at the ends of the earth", with nothing to do all day long but to spend their energy and time on wine and women.
Hu Xun was wearing a long robe and a cloak. Regardless of the early morning chill, he walked proudly in the middle of the only street in Anyu City, followed by a strange procession. A handsome boy servant was holding a man wearing only a brocade cotton cover. Next to the teapot is a man who looks like a master in a long gown and a beard. Behind him, there is a servant holding a chair. Another one is holding a piece of bamboo - this is a torture tool. Then there is a group of men holding sticks, swords and guns. Already.
Hu Xun was performing his duties as the local security guard - patrolling the night and interrogating any suspicious persons. Although An Amusement City is not big, the security problem is very prominent. Large groups of people who make a living at sea often gather here, away from the fatigue of the sea. Boring life, once you relax on land, theft, quarrels, fights and even hand-to-hand encounters are common things. At its peak, several people would die in fights every day.
Hu Xun did not report the matter of the dead person to the county - he was just asking for trouble, and the county could not solve it. This place is surrounded by barren mountains and ridges outside the city, and it is the territory of the Li people dozens of miles away from the city. Where to find the murderer?
But as a leading figure on the ground, basic order must be guaranteed. Hu Xun personally leads people to patrol the streets every night. If he sees anyone who is drunk and noisy or carrying a knife or stick, he will detain them first. By the way. There are also some expenses - the captain has to spend money to release the people with insurance. If they are paupers without insurance, it doesn't matter, just wait until the next wave of sea ships arrive and then sell the people - there are many people on the ship who died, and they died on a single voyage. Losing a third of the people is nothing, the manager is happy to prepare more people.
Today's Anyu Market is very quiet, but quiet does not mean peace. As the last stop before sailing to Nanyang, Anyu City is also very popular in the eyes of some people. The most important thing for Hu Xun to prevent theft on weekdays It is to check for suspicious persons - pirates will probably send spies in to look for opportunities to "open the door".
Especially at dawn, when the sky is dark and the night watchers are sleepy, they are most vulnerable to sneak attacks. So every time at this time, Hu Xun always goes out to patrol the night in person.
Walking from the end of the street to the street, he boarded the west gate tower facing the bay. Several villagers stood sleepy-eyed, watching the surface of the Dadonghai Sea. Several lanterns were swaying in the sea breeze. Hu Xun held on to the wooden board. Looking out from the village wall, the lights on the pier under the wall are on, and the wind lanterns on each ship are also on. The ships are rising and falling with the sea water, and the only sounds that can be heard are the sound of the sea water hitting the rocks and the waves of the ships.
A few lights can be seen on the opposite side of the bay, which was built by the Lingao merchants who came here last year. Although the two parties interacted with each other by buying and selling goods, greeted each other with smiles, and got along well, secretly he was very wary, fearing that the other party would not There is an intention.
However, for many days, there have never been more than thirty people in the village. They go out early and come back late every day, either growing vegetables, raising chickens, fishing, or going to collect coconuts and cut trees. Their activities have brought vitality to Anyu Market.
, many poor villagers in Anyu Market are employed by them to cut trees and collect coconuts, sell their labor, and get paid on a daily basis. From time to time, the opposite village also comes to Anyu Market to purchase items and hire craftsmen.
However, Hu Xun is certain of one thing. Shopkeeper Wang was lying when he said that they were merchants specializing in Southeast Asian trade. Almost every week, ships moored to the trestle in front of "Lingao Village" to carry away coconuts and logs.
and other local products, shipped in boxes of the same size.
Hu Xun had never been to Nanyang, but he had seen countless merchants passing by, and he knew a little about the situation in Nanyang. Logs and coconuts there were even less valuable, so it was obviously not possible to pack them and transport them to Nanyang.
He was almost certain that this group of people was engaged in illegal business. As for what it was, he didn't care - as long as everyone lives in peace, what are you doing meddling in other people's business?
"What's wrong?" Hu Xun asked the leader on the gate.
"Nothing unusual, everything is fine."
The sea breeze at night was a bit bit bit harsh, and Hu Xun couldn't help but tuck his cloak. The moon was about to set, and sea fires appeared and disappeared on the sea, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
"Tell everyone to be careful and don't doze off again!" Hu Xun said as he came down from the gate and went to hug his little wife to sleep.
Less than ten nautical miles away from here, Ruan Xiaowu, the captain of the "Yute 04" spy team, looked through his telescope at the long line of ships plowing through the waves behind him. There were as many as fifty ships.
In front of him was a fast sloop. The light hull tilted almost close to the water under the action of wind and waves. Ruan Xiaowu even thought that the ship was going to capsize a few times, but at every critical moment, the bow of the ship would always
Even the rotation makes people sweat all the time.
Those who drive this kind of sloop are all the most daring and skilled among the cadets and sailors. They control this fast and flexible boat to walk in front and on both sides of the fleet, always detecting abnormal situations.
Behind the clipper was a long formation of secret service boats composed of various types of ships. In addition to weapons and sailors, the cabins on board were filled with various supplies.
Then there is the spectacular five-masted sailing ship Sanya No. 1. Its five big masts are filled with huge sails, which is particularly conspicuous in the fleet. Together with other less spectacular sailing ships around it, it carries dozens of ships.
Thousands of laborers, soldiers, building materials, tools, vehicles and food.
But it is not the core yet. The real core lies behind: those boats that are mysterious and unusual among ordinary indigenous people and do not use sails or oars. The self-propelled barge Xunwhale, the flat-deck barge Big Whale, the Type 67 landing craft and two 8154 fishing boats.
The vast deck of the Swift Whale was filled with large, grotesque objects tightly wrapped in oilcloth. The landing headquarters was located on one of the fishing boats.
On the starboard side of all these ships was another formation, headed by the two ships Zhenhai and Fubo, with six three-masted sailing gunboats sailing in a column, with their gun doors closed tightly.
Ruan Xiaowu is proud of sailing in such a magnificent fleet - yes, there are many sea owners with more ships than Australian captains, but what do their ships count? Ragged and dirty
The deck, patchwork sails, and crude cannons were very few, and they were tied to the ship with ropes. When the cannons were fired, they would even jump up and roll in the air! Gunpowder was piled in a mess below the deck, and scrap copper was used as cannonballs.
The rotten iron was put in the basket, and there were even stones and broken porcelain pieces in it! This is what the naval cadets visited on the surrendered pirate ship, and every cadet showed a contemptuous smile - a group of
Country bumpkin.
On the flagship, the main leaders of the future Sanya Special Administrative Region were huddled in the command room converted from the original refrigeration cabin. The displacement of 8154 was not large, and the hull was very bumpy in the wind and waves. Zhuo Tianmin was so seasick that he simply lay down on the long
chair meeting
These few people crowded around a small table. In two hours it would be daylight and the landing operation would officially begin.
Although this is not a landing in front of the enemy, and there are no cannons, minefields and machine guns on the shore, it is still an arduous task to coordinate a team of this size to land on an unfamiliar coast. The fleet is fully loaded with various supplies, equipment and personnel, and the light
Getting them safely to land is a complicated and delicate task.
In order to prepare for this important landing, which required all-out efforts, detailed planning was carried out for almost a month. A joint team composed of the General Staff Headquarters and the Planning Academy, under the direct leadership of Wang Luobin, formulated detailed steps for the landing plan.
The problems they faced were extremely complex - there were many military precedents for this kind of landing, but the Crossing Group carried out the landing in the 17th century with extremely limited modern support capabilities. It was even more complicated than D-Day. D-Day
They only have 500 people, and now they want to land 3,000 people!
They had a lot of questions to solve. Where should they land? When should they land? How many people should be in the first group to land? How many laborers and soldiers? How many vehicles are needed to carry these people? How many days of dry food need to be prepared?
How can we support the mobile kitchen to fully supply hot food? How many people land by boat, how many people pass by the trestle, and how to organize them to go ashore in batches? A rope net ladder is needed to get from the ship to the trestle or the boat, and how many boats are needed
?How should these boats be transported?
These are just a few of the many questions that those who made the plan had to answer. There were many more questions. By the time their plan was finalized it had become a thick book, and every detail of the giant plan was
Detailed regulations have been made and corresponding plans have been formulated for problems that may be encountered.
"When making a plan, don't think about what to do if you win, first think about how to clean up the mess if you fail." Wang Luobin asked at the group meeting.
"Who can defeat us?" Those who participated in the formulation of the plan felt incredulous, "Is it the villagers from An Amusement City?"
"We must consider various possible situations," Wang Luobin said, "For example, the fleet encountered strong winds and half of the ship sank; or we were landing and Zheng Zhilong's fleet attacked... We must consider how to deal with it."
"It's so frustrating. I thought about this before I even started..."
“We must take the worst possibility into account in everything we do,” Dongmen Chuiyu expressed his support for Wang Gong’s view. “How to deal with emergencies is an important part of our plans. The more thoughtful everyone is, the more