Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 2095 Signal
Schneider seemed to realize something, "The whole army stops advancing, stops advancing!" The signalman immediately hung up the stop flag, and the tugboat immediately hung up the cable behind to carry out the escape work.

The Guijiang River was only a few hundred meters away from the city wall of Wuzhou, and was within the range of the Hongyi cannon. The Ming army on the city immediately seized this opportunity and opened fire on the stranded gunboat.The iron bullets roared and flew across the river, splashing water on the river.The situation was critical for a while.Schneider immediately ordered the 130mm cannon on the Pearl River to fire and bombard, suppressing the firepower of the Ming army.After knocking down several enemy towers on the city wall, the enemy's firepower was finally suppressed.

The 621 paddle steamer carefully towed away the stranded gunboat.The gunboat that had already entered the Guijiang River also retreated to avoid running aground again.

It was obviously impossible to enter the Guijiang River again. The army behind hadn't arrived, so even if they rushed in against the artillery fire on the city wall, it would be meaningless to confront the Ming army.Schneider ordered the fleet to withdraw from the Guijiang River and wait for the main force of the army to arrive.

At this time, the ministries of the First Mixed Brigade participating in the Wuzhou Campaign had arrived at the border of Wuzhou by transport ship one after another, and landed on Changzhou Island in the southwest of Wuzhou City.shelling

Zhu Mingxia sent two companies to sweep the villages on Changzhou Island along the river banks in the south and north of the island.Zhu Mingxia planned to set up a logistics warehouse on the island, and at the same time build outposts and artillery towers to guard against the Ming army who might come to aid from the west of Guangxi, and to monitor the Xunjiang River.

Among the three major water systems of the Pearl River, the Xijiang water system has the largest drainage area and the most tributaries. Most of the rivers in Guangxi are tributaries or main streams of the Xijiang water system. Therefore, controlling the Xijiang water system is equivalent to controlling Guangxi.Of course, to control the huge Xijiang water system, the scale of the West Detachment of the Pearl River Task Force is far from enough. At present, it can only be satisfied with controlling Wuzhou, a key location for water surface traffic.

Originally, Schneider still planned to take Wuzhou down with "one cannon, one charge" - he had fought many such siege battles along the way - looking at the current situation, the Ming army is also suffering a long way. Wisdom, never come out and "wild land wave battle" with them, let alone a "water battle" where eggs hit rocks.

In this way, the battle has entered the boring old routine of "building fortifications", "placing artillery positions", and "fire attack". One of the main tasks of the navy under the city of Wuzhou is to provide fire support.

Throughout the day, the First Brigade and the West Detachment were busy building fortifications under the city of Wuzhou, collecting supplies, and preparing for the siege.The navy towed six artillery boats to the city of Wuzhou one by one. The 6mm mortars on them had played a great role in the battle of the Pearl River Estuary. Although the blasting shells fired by the 280mm mortar are only loaded with high-density black powder, their destructive power is enough to destroy most of the fortifications in this time and space—even if they are not blown up, the violent explosion and a large number of explosion fragments can make the defenders Shaken and fled.

At the same time, the Ming army was also busy on the city wall. Scouts from the first brigade infiltrated into the mountains around Wuzhou, observed the city with binoculars on the mountain, and noticed that the busyness of the Ming army was not to strengthen the defense, but more like carrying something.A large number of straw bags were transported to the gate of the city, as if to block the gate.

In this way, the two sides have been busy all day. At night, both the Fubo army and the Ming army lit a large pile of bonfires to prevent the enemy from launching a night attack.

In the middle of the night, Second Lieutenant Cao Dachuan, the captain of boat No. 42, was woken up by his sailors, and said sleepily, "What happened?" It’s bright and dark, it’s kind of weird.” Cao Dachuan thought it was a big deal, but when he was woken up, he lost his temper, and was about to reprimand those sailors, thinking that those sailors were just recruits who had not been added to his team for a long time. Then put down his temper.

"It's just a light, what's all the fuss about?"

"That light flickered on and off, as if signaling a light."

"Rules?" Out of caution, Cao Dachuan got up, put on his military uniform, and went up to the deck from the bottom cabin.Under the instructions of the sentinel, he really saw flickering light spots on the city wall.

After seeing it, Cao Dachuan immediately understood what the flickering light was all about, flickering, flickering, flickering, flickering... Isn't this just a light signal?

The navy sails at sea, and the communication between ships depends on semaphore during the day, and light signals at night and in bad weather.As a naval officer, this is basic common sense.

He had been trained in this communication system during the training of the officer teaching team. Whether it was hand flags or light signals, it used the telegraph code system.

But this system is relatively professional after all. For most naval soldiers who are basically illiterate and can only barely obtain a Type C diploma by entering the army, this system can only be regarded as "common sense". To master it, you still need to receive special signal training. of.

The signal soldier is not a job that ordinary C-diploma holders can do. It can be regarded as a "technical branch" in the navy.Other than himself, there are only signal soldiers on his small gunboat who understand light signals.

It is impossible for anyone in the Ming army to know Morse code, and the only ones who can use lights to send out such signals can only be their own people.

Someone in town is signaling us!
This is not surprising to him. It is common for the chief to arrange eyeliner or support in the enemy's city. He has seen many incidents of local "leading the way party" along the way. It is not enough for Wuzhou to have such an internal response. strange.These matters do not belong to the scope of their own jurisdiction, so naturally someone will take care of them.

"It doesn't matter, it must be one of our own..." Cao Dachuan was just halfway through speaking when he suddenly discovered that the other party was using a plain code!

Twinkle is w, Shiny is o, Mienmi is s, Shiny is h...

Together it is: woshigulangqinghuihua.

This is obviously pinyin, and what the other person wants to say is obviously: "I am a lone wolf, please answer!"

What does Lone Wolf mean? He didn't understand, but the four words "important situation" popped into his mind in an instant.

Cao Dachuan has been trained to know that the signals sent by such secret personnel are encrypted, and only those who have the corresponding codebook can decode them.The signals transmitted between naval ships are not encrypted, but only naval signalers and officers can understand them.

Now this clear signal shows that the sender does not have a clear recipient, but is sent to the entire Fubo Army.The sender can only hope that someone will see and understand the signal.

This is no small matter. Is this signal true or false? Why is it sent on the city wall in the middle of the night?What is the purpose?These are all problems.But Cao Dachuan knew that this was not something he should consider.

He ordered his subordinates to signal the Pearl River, and he was about to report important matters to his superiors.The light signal was answered, and Cao Dachuan's request was approved, so Cao Dachuan carried a kerosene lamp and went straight to the Pearl River in a boat rowed by a sailor.

He reported the incident to the officer on duty at the headquarters on the Pearl River, and the officer on duty felt that the matter was serious, so he immediately reported the situation to Schneider.

"Is there such a thing?" Schneider, who was woken up, looked confused. "I don't understand this, why don't you report it to the intelligence department of the brigade staff and see what they say."

So the news spread to the headquarters of the First Brigade on Cheung Chau Island.The staff officer on duty quickly woke up the No. [-] figure who was sleeping on the Pearl River: Naval Intelligence Staff Officer, Veteran Permission.

Xu Xu arrived in Wuzhou in the evening. After sitting on the boat for several days, he was so tired that he didn't even eat any food, so he went straight to sleep in the vacated cabin.Xu Xu was naturally annoyed when he was woken up suddenly, but the news he heard turned his anger into a smile. He didn't care about changing into a neat navy uniform, and ran to the ship building in his shorts.

The purpose of this trip is to be assigned by Jiang Shan to go to Wuzhou, abbot Guangxi's intelligence work, and prepare for the next attack on Guangxi.The Foreign Intelligence Agency does not have many networks in Guangxi, and only has intelligence personnel in a few key cities. Because of the distance, these intelligence personnel are not closely connected. Most of them are in a semi-hibernation state. They must be "activated" as soon as possible. ” is the primary purpose of the license.

He knew that there were intelligence personnel in Wuzhou City, but he didn't have much expectation of what role they could play. First, the intelligence personnel here belonged to "long-term lurking", mainly collecting daily political and economic intelligence, not expanding intelligence. Internet-based, unlike Zhaoqing, where a secret organization with dozens or even hundreds of people can cooperate to "open the city gate".And once the city gate is closed, the intelligence agents will be completely useless.And the instructions given to them by the Intelligence Bureau also asked them to "lurk down and save themselves."

At this time, the intelligence agents in the city suddenly sent a signal, which was obviously an important information transmission.Otherwise they wouldn't take such a risk.

So Lian gave an order and replied with a light signal: "I am the center, received!"

The opposite party obviously received the signal, but they replied with a sentence: "There are spies and ambushes in the city!"

This is a bit mindless, and the side immediately sent a signal to ask: "The specific situation."

After Luo Yangming stayed in the tower of Nanxun Gate for half a night, he used the closing and opening of the lampshade to send a signal in Morse code, and finally got a response.Luo Yangming originally had only a half-dozen confidence in this method of transmitting information. To a large extent, he was taking risks.Because he has no channel to pass on the urgent information he has.

Familiar with the telegraph code needs to memorize the code of 26 letters and ten numbers, and at the same time master the spelling of pinyin proficiently, and be able to translate the code accurately.For most of the naturalized civilian soldiers who were illiterate or semi-literate, this was undoubtedly a fantasy—only the communication soldiers could master this technology.
-
Volume 300 - Guangzhou Raiders [-] chapters will be updated tomorrow

(End of this chapter)