Chapter 3562
Chapter 3562
Chapter 3562
The landing point chosen by the Luzon Expeditionary Fleet on the northern coast of the New World was a bay embraced by two peninsulas.
The area of the bay is not too large, far smaller than the Manila Bay where the capital of Luzon is located. Moreover, the coast in the bay is mostly mudflats. The area suitable for building a deep-water port seems to be very limited. The terrain and environment are not ideal.
But this is the colonial settlement chosen by the Luzon authorities for the expeditionary fleet, because there is basically no natural bay with better conditions than here in the northern coastal area of the New World.
In another time and space, this bay was not discovered until the 19th century by the British, who named it after the famous scientist Darwin, one of the first visitors.
However, the Luzon authorities had already decided on the name of this place. Before the fleet set off, this place was marked on the map as "North Gate", which means the gateway to the northern coast of the New World.
The New World covers thousands of miles, has a vast land area, and has a coastline of tens of thousands of miles. However, the number of places that are truly suitable for building large port cities is actually very limited, and most of them are concentrated on the east and south coasts, which are farther away from the landing sites of the two Hai Han fleets.
Taking into account the cost and time of early development and construction, the two fleets could only choose two locations that were relatively close to their bases and had acceptable conditions as their bases for the early stages of colonization.
The vanguard of the expeditionary fleet had arrived here more than ten days ago, and had taken the time to build a pier and temporary berths here in preparation for the arrival of the large force.
However, the vanguard team only has a few hundred workers. In just ten days, they can only build a temporary dock here, which is basically the limit. There is no spare energy to work on other infrastructure projects.
Zheng Agui's company was assigned to a campsite about a mile away from the temporary dock, but when they arrived with their tired bodies, they found that this so-called campsite was just a clearing in the woods. There were neither barracks nor any infrastructure. Even the site was not completely leveled, and there were still many tree stumps and stones on the ground.
There were bundles of canvas bags piled on the ground, which Zheng Agui was familiar with. He knew that they were unpacked marching tents. It seemed that the construction of this campsite had to be completed by his company.
Zheng Agui frowned and hadn't said anything yet, but several squad leaders under him started complaining.
In their opinion, they had been fighting for many consecutive days on the tropical island, but they did not get a chance to rest here and had to complete the construction of the camp by themselves. This was a bit unreasonable.
"Captain, should we report this to the headquarters? The work of setting up the camp should be completed by the vanguard!"
Before Zheng Agui had time to arrange the division of labor, the command center had already sent a combat staff officer, a Hispanic officer named Juan.
Although Juan was of Spanish descent, his parents were just ordinary immigrants living in Manila. He was only five years old when the Hai Han army captured Manila, so his background was very clean. He belonged to a generation that grew up under the dual colors of Hai Han, and now he was a full-fledged Hai Han citizen.
Moreover, he and Zheng Agui were old acquaintances. Two years ago, they had fought side by side in a bloody battle with the Spaniards in the Philippine Islands.
The purpose of Juan's coming here was to appease the emotions of the various companies so that the work of setting up camp could proceed smoothly. Zheng Agui had been in the army for several years and now knew more or less the ins and outs of it, and guessed Juan's purpose.
After greeting the other party, he rushed to complain: "Staff Officer Hu, isn't it too sloppy for the headquarters to arrange this kind of camp for my company? Look, I still have a lot of wounded soldiers here. Do I want them to work on crutches?"
Juan explained: "The troops that arrived here earlier only had more than 200 to 300 engineers in total, and the construction period was only ten days. How much work can they accomplish? It's good enough that they can build a dock in time, but they don't have time to build all the barracks for everyone!"
"The command center wants all companies to overcome difficulties and build their tents first. When we build the barracks later, everyone should contribute. We didn't bring many immigrants with us this time, so don't expect anyone to do these jobs for you."
Zheng Agui said: "I understand what you said, but the soldiers are very resentful now, so we have to take some practical measures to appease their emotions."
When Juan heard this, he realized that Zheng Agui was asking for a benefit from him, but he was prepared for this: "Captain Zheng, I will ask the kitchen staff of your company to go to the logistics department to get half a pig, five chickens and five ducks, so that they can have a feast for the brothers in the evening."
Zheng Agui said, "It's a bit lacking to have meat without wine."
Juan said, "Then add ten kilograms of wine and two boxes of cigarettes, and don't discuss other conditions!"
Zheng Agui said: "There are more than 100 soldiers in my company. Not all of them smoke, but everyone drinks. We need more to share!"
After some bargaining, Juan finally agreed to add five kilograms of wine to the comfort supplies for Zheng Agui's company. Only then did he finally settle the matter at the camp, and then hurried to the next company.
There were more than a dozen companies of troops that arrived at Beimen Port. Zheng Agui was relatively easy to deal with. He just asked for some more comfort supplies.
There are not many immigrants in the Luzon region's expeditionary fleet, so the available labor force is very limited. Not only will the progress of the infrastructure project in Beimen Port be affected, but the soldiers' labor intensity will also increase greatly.
In order to appease the soldiers, the only comfort they could provide was food and drink. Fortunately, the fleet had brought a large amount of livestock, tobacco, alcohol and other supplies when it set out, which were now put to good use.
After Zheng Agui announced the headquarters' consolation measures to his men, the low morale was finally restored a little. However, some people still thought that the headquarters was too stingy, especially with the wine. More than a hundred people were given 15 kilograms of wine, which averaged out to only one ounce per person, which was not enough to drink.
But Zheng Agui knew that this matter had been considered a concession from the higher-ups. Drinking in the military was a special case, and this treatment was only given to troops in the rest period after a war.
But if too much alcohol is distributed, some people will inevitably get drunk and cause trouble after drinking, which will be a big trouble. Once trouble occurs, losing the position of company commander will be the lightest punishment, and he may even be sent to a military court.
When Zheng Agui asked Juan for the 15 kilograms of wine to comfort his subordinates, he was already risking his own future. However, there were very few people who could understand his good intentions, which made him quite disappointed.