Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 1647 Water Transport Advantage
When immersed in the joy of Zhang's small walnut cake shop, Director Hong had almost forgotten about it—he had a lot to do every day.Confidential correspondents deliver confidential briefcases to the veterans every day. Others are "suitcases" and he is a "packing box".

Right now, the work of the entire Joint Logistics Headquarters is very heavy.At night, Hong Huangnan's desk was still full of various documents and albums.After signing a dozen documents, he yawned and told the orderly to light the wick under the penguin chicken—in it was his carefully prepared supper: he never gave this kind of food to others, Not to mention the maids trained by the general office who look like donkeys but not donkeys.

"Guangzhou is worthy of being the capital of my big food province. The ingredients are abundant." Hong Huangnan once again looked at the small flames under the five-gengar chicken, stood up and stretched his waist, "How is the map drawing?"

"Chief, the map of Guangzhou and most of the counties under the jurisdiction of Guangzhou Prefecture has been completed." The secretary who was busy beside him reported.

"Go and have a look." Hong Huangnan said.He is very anxious about this.

He left the office with the guards and walked down the corridor to a room.This room does not have any partitions, it is a large empty room with a full floor height.

The room had tier upon tier of shelves along the walls, piled high with slender cowhide buckets and thick loose-leaf booklets.In the middle are seven or eight large tables.

On the table are maps pressed with glass plates. These maps include maps of the entire province of Guangdong and maps of various counties in Guangdong—all large-scale maps without exception.Many naturalized people are busy around the table.Dozens of kerosene lamps brightly illuminate the room.

What is going on here is the "correction" of the map.The naturalized people who work here can be called "elites", and they are all specially trained "specialists" in surveying and mapping.For more than three years, I worked and studied while working, basically practicing surveying and mapping.

Because the large-scale map involves confidentiality, despite the efforts of the executive committee before D-Day, they could not obtain a large-scale map of military grade, so they had to settle for the next best thing to collect a slightly inferior map.Fortunately, through the North American sub-helm, I got some large-scale sub-county maps of China's coastal areas and major areas surveyed and mapped by the US military in the 40s.

These large-scale maps collected through various channels can be regarded as the most valuable property of the Senate and an important guarantee for the combat effectiveness of the Fubo Army.Whether it was the bandit suppression in Lingao or the security battle in Qiongzhou after the Spring Awakening campaign, it can be said that it relied on these maps to ensure that the Fubo army, which was completely outsiders, would not be confused in the wild and could act according to the battle plan.

Of course, there are still differences between the maps of the 20th century and the real geographical environment of the 17th century. On Hainan Island, such errors are still within a tolerable range: it is nothing more than that the settlements and roads do not match, and the errors in topography are not large.

But in the Pearl River Delta, the situation is not like this.The Pearl River Delta was originally a shallow bay with many islands, a delta formed by the erosion and deposition of the Xijiang, Beijiang and Dongjiang rivers from different directions.After the west, north, and east river systems entered this area, they diverged and radiated, forming a cobweb-like stream.Low-lying areas are dotted with lakes and swamps.In an area of ​​less than [-] square kilometers, there are [-] river branches intertwined and integrated.Some of these river branches are naturally formed, and some are artificially excavated.The extensive rice planting and foundation pond farming in the delta have made this plain, which was originally criss-crossed by rivers, even more fragmented.So that for travelers, villages are more like islands.Many places are impassable by land.

Hundreds of years of river erosion, soil erosion and siltation, field transformation...these natural and artificial factors add up to make the gap between the two ridiculously large.

This situation was actually reflected in the Battle of the Pearl River Estuary.After the troops dispersed, they began to find that the map became unreliable. At that time, the main method adopted was to use the leading party among the naturalized people.At that time, because the combat area of ​​the troops was not large, and the main purpose of the combat was looting, the practice of using guides was acceptable.But it is far from enough for total conquest.

After the Battle of the Pearl River Estuary, under the command of Lin Baiguang, the Foreign Intelligence Bureau officially took over the intelligence work of the Guangzhou station.The main job is to collect information on Guangdong's geography, products, resources and people's sentiments.From this activity, a large amount of geographical intelligence has been accumulated.The current map correction work is also based on this information.

"Chief..." A naturalized officer of the general staff in civilian clothes saw him coming in and came over to salute.

"How's the progress?" Hong Huangnan asked with concern.

"The correction work of 45 states and counties has been completed." The military officer reported, "The correction work in the mountainous and inland counties is not large, mainly the counties in the delta zone, which need a lot of corrections, and there are almost no canals and roads. allow."

Speaking of this, the officer showed a puzzled look on his face, because it was the first time he saw such a big error in the senior's map.Under the atmosphere of "the Senate is omniscient and always right", there is such a big error, no wonder he is confused.

"The maps are all hundreds of years ago, so of course they are not accurate." Hong Huangnan did not change his face when he told the lie, "The map of the Pearl River Delta region should be produced as soon as possible. This is the most important thing. There must be no delay. !"

"Yes, Chief, we will do our best!" The officer quickly stood at attention in a German style nodding on his heels.

"It must be completed with quality and quantity." Hong Huangnan instructed again, "Especially, the hydrological conditions and navigation capabilities of the rivers in the Pearl River Delta must be clearly marked. If there is anything unclear, it must be reported to the intelligence team for communication. of."

The reason why Hong Huangnan paid so much attention to this revision work was because of logistical considerations.The supply plan he drew up relied largely on water transportation.

The logistics and supply characteristics of the Guangdong campaign were long and the troops were scattered.The broken and watery landform of the Pearl River Delta makes it difficult for them to use the combat mode of advancing while building roads in the short term. Except for the main post roads, most towns in the Pearl River Delta do not have regular land road connections. Trek across the ridges and river ponds.The circulation of general personnel and materials mainly relies on ships.

The reason why Staff Officer Hong quietly gave up his Dongfeng carriage shop's distribution plan in Guangdong was largely due to seeing this sad road situation report.

Even if the food and firewood mainly rely on on-site dispatch, the supply of equipment and ammunition is not small.In particular, the Fubo Army also carried heavy support weapons such as artillery and typewriters, which further aggravated the difficulty of marching and supplying.The lack of good roads is a real problem.

Although the Foreign Intelligence Agency estimates that most areas of Guangdong should be able to spread the war, the Ming army still has thousands of soldiers available in Guangdong: the deputy general of Nanao and the general of Fangyao did not participate in the battle of Chengmai, and their combat power remained basically intact. .If the ruler is determined to resist, it is possible to mobilize the ethnic minorities to fight against the soldiers of the local guards.The intensity of the battle cannot be underestimated.This is not what the General Staff is most worried about.The warning of the greatest military threat in the Guangdong Raiders came not only from the Great Library—more than one veteran from Guangdong reminded the general staff that the conflict between the natives and the guests in Guangdong is sharp, and once the conflict between the natives and the invaders is involved in the battle, it is likely to fall into a large-scale riot Among them, in history, these clans had a strong mobilization power, and they could easily mobilize tens of thousands of people to participate in the fighting. They were far more difficult opponents than the Ming army.

Once encountering such a large-scale armed riot, local dispatch cannot be carried out.Supplies must be dispatched from security areas.In the social and geographical environment of this time and space, only waterways can transport materials in large quantities quickly and cheaply.

From this point of view, Guangdong can be called unique.The provincial capital, Guangzhou, is located right at the confluence of the three main rivers in Guangdong Province, the North, East and West.The water transportation conditions are very superior. The Fubo army can easily deliver the supplies of soldiers to key nodes by using the shipping capacity of the three rivers: along the Xijiang River to Wuzhou, which can block the eastward advance of the Ming army in the direction of Guangxi; along the Beijiang River to Nanxiong State, can control the southward route of Dayuling Road; go deep into the Chaoshan area along the Dongjiang River, and reach Languan, and control the Yueqiling Road leading to Fujian.

And by transporting troops and cadres to various places along the river by water, it is possible to expand the control area from line to area.Even if it cannot cover the whole province, it can quickly control the areas along the Three Rivers.Through the tributaries of the Three Rivers, detachments using shallow draft boats can go further into more remote areas and control more areas.

When Staff Officer Hong consulted the hydrological data of inland river shipping in Guangdong compiled by the Great Library, he was quite pleased to find that there are so many rivers that can pass through the Sanjiang River System. Navigable to fairly remote parts of the province.

"This is simply a ready-made railway network." Hong Huangnan sighed, "No wonder the General Staff wants to fight Guangdong first. It seems that it is not only the closest relationship to Hainan."

He leaned over a map of Guangdong Province in his office and carefully studied it, using colored pencils to scribble and draw various diagrams such as military depots and supply lines on the glass plate, thinking about how to set up this supply system.

"Report!" Following the sound of the report, the secretary brought the latest documents, "This is the latest drawing of several types of inland watercraft from Hong Kong Shipyard sent by Chief Shi, please review."

"Let's put it on the table." Hong Huangnan is now drawing and painting with red and blue pencils in Foshan Town. The two rivers are connected with all parts of the Pearl River Delta.It can be called the commodity distribution center in the Pearl River Delta, so it is no wonder that it will develop into one of the four major towns in the world.

(End of this chapter)