On the whole, the first day of the landing convoy's arrival in Halong Bay went well: by the evening, the engineering personnel who had come ashore had set up temporary camps at the landing site.

The makeshift camp consists of a small patch of tents. In just one day, the engineers first dug a temporary ditch in the camp and then raised the foundation as much as possible. All that's left is prayer, and no one knows if the camp will be ruined by storms or heavy rain at night.

On the periphery of the small camp is the last important material to be brought ashore in the setting sun: barbed wire.

In the seventeenth century, barbed wire was a well-deserved defensive artifact. The natives, including the Western colonizers, had no way to deal with the barbed wire. The only drawback to this good stuff is that it is expensive to build, and it is difficult to transport and set up.

Fortunately, this landing operation was very important, and the person in charge had also deduced in advance the impact of the rainy season in Annam on the landing, so in the first batch of space, a lot of temporary equipment such as barbed wire tents were loaded first.

In just one day, in the fluctuating tropical rain, relying on small boats to carry back and forth, the energetic builders finally built a small temporary camp before nightfall.

Next came the evacuation: all the tool supplies were left, and the personnel withdrew to the fleet empty-handed for the night.

Then Wu Sanye won the jackpot: he and his men, as well as another squad under his command temporarily, were ordered to keep vigil in the camp...... The long night is coming, and from now on the watch will not rest until death.

Standing on the shore, with the last rays of the sunset, the third master pointed to the rowed boat and jumped to his feet and scolded: The rats who dare not share the suffering!

The pioneer colleagues on the dinghy laughed while paddling, and they all raised their contemptuous middle fingers that they had learned from the big guys...... Everyone knows that it is safest and most comfortable to go back to the cabin for the night at night, so the ghost is willing to stay on the shore to soak in the rain and feed the mosquitoes.

The third master seemed unhappy, but a military order was a military order, and he had no way to disobey it. So when it was completely dark, he commanded the brothers who had stayed behind to start the vigil.

Step 1...... Naturally, it's time to eat, how can you skip eating after a busy day.

Although kerosene is a hot commodity in the trade market and is always out of stock, the southbound fleet is not out of stock. It's a simple truth: if you want to get it, you have to invest first. Now, all the materials that can be provided by the crossing forces will be given priority to the southbound fleet.

Soon, the tent was lit with kerosene fires, and iron pots were placed on the bottom of the cast-iron kerosene stove. Next, several large tinplate green military cans weighing one kilogram were opened, and pork egg rolls from Taiwan and duck legs from the countryside of England and Germany were boiled into the pot in one go.

The gurgling soup, the faces of the Ming warriors against the backdrop of the fire of industrial civilization, and the sound of the rain outside the tent constitute a bizarre, intertwined picture of time and space.

After eating this calorie-rich dinner, the third master first ordered the empty canned food boxes and other things to be hung on the barbed wire fence - although the sound of the rushing rain will affect the hearing, but this kind of defensive trick passed down from the "top", the third master as an old driver will definitely do it.

Then began to arrange for people to be on duty at night.

The lurking post is the hardest, and needs to be ambushed and observed in the rain. The Wandering Sentinel is no better, requiring rain patrols on slippery and muddy ground. The fixed post is a little better and can be used in the tent to standby.

After the circle was arranged, the third master ordered the whole camp to turn off the fire and enter silent mode.

At the same time, he turned his head to look in the direction of the coast. The fleets of the open sea have long since disappeared into the rain and night, and only the sound of the tide crashing on the shore still comes to my ears from time to time.

The third master knew that the fleet had also entered a state of light control.

Before joining a certain force, Wu Sanye, who was born as a pure man in the rivers and lakes, could not have imagined that there were so many meticulous and stoic rules in an army. This is completely different from the Ming Dynasty's ranks. Don't think that the third master doesn't know what virtue is in the Ming army, there are many deserters under his command.

Now, the third master standing on the coast of Annam has long understood what the so-called "strong army" should look like: strict military law, sharp equipment, rich military salaries, and sufficient grain and grass.

.....................................................

The long night was finally over.

There is no scary rainy night raid plot happening. The force that can make such a tactical maneuver was the core power of the core in the seventeenth century, and no matter what the force would take seriously, no one would put the core power in their hands on the shores where birds don't.

The only one who is unhappy is Wu Sanye.

As a temporary commander, the third master didn't close his eyes all night. Not only did he have to brave the rain and muddy cement to patrol and inspect everywhere, but he also had to arrange for a change of guard at the sentry post. Every hour, I had to go to the tent to talk to the fleet and report on the situation.

The huge command pressure made the third master nervous, and he had to sneak into the tent to smoke a cigarette to stimulate his spirits until the moment when the morning sun rose.

On the second day of landing, after feeling that one foot had been firmly planted on the shore, the Trailblazer's movements became more and more intense.

In the early morning, the flotilla was the first to make a move: after the first transport boats departed, the two smallest frigates immediately departed and headed straight for the nearby island of Cat Ba in the sunset. happy

Cat Ba Island is not far from the mouth of Ha Long Bay and is the largest of the thousands of scattered islands in the vicinity. The entire island is 24 kilometers long and 18 kilometers wide, with a total area of 315 square kilometers.

In later generations, Cat Ba Island, with its natural white sandy beaches, was the pearl of North Vietnam and a holiday paradise. There are natural bathing beaches, various forest landscapes, a lot of precious wood, and the sea is rich in cuttlefish and fish.

However, in the 17th century, Cat Ba Island, like the coastal islands of the Ming Dynasty, was just a wild island.

After the departure of the second batch of dinghies, the large fleet also moved.

Yesterday, because it was a newcomer, it was not known whether it would be able to stand on the shore, so the fleet was anchored in the open sea. Today, considering that there is already a preliminary defense force on the shore, it is time for the fleet to move to Ha Long Bay.

Storms often occur off the coast of Annam during the rainy season, and it is the right choice for the fleet to anchor in Halong Bay to take shelter from the storm.

At this time, the effect of sending ships to reconnoiter in the early stage was reflected. Under the guidance of the pilot vessel, the fleet avoided various bright and dark reefs that blocked the road and sailed smoothly into Halong Bay.

While the flotilla was moving, the shore was already in full swing.

Today is not the same as yesterday. According to the plan, the engineers who came ashore today will not be evacuated in the evening, and will spend the night in the camp, so people are working hard to make themselves safer when the night comes.

Today's top priority is the trestle.

There must be a trestle first, even the most rudimentary one, which can only unload light supplies, after all, the efficiency of transporting supplies and personnel in small boats is too slow.

So a large number of construction workers gathered at a beach facing the inland sea of Halong Bay, and began to repair the trestle in the most primitive way: manually digging pits, burying bottom piles, and laying bridge slabs.

The good thing is that although the scheme is old-fashioned, the tools in the hands of the construction personnel are serious crude steel products, including measuring tools and even nails, which are all regular products produced by the kiln tool factory. In addition, the wooden piles and planks used to construct the trestle are also standard parts that have been treated in advance.

In this way, the construction progress of the trestle is fast. With the passing standard lowered, it took only one day for the base of the trestle to plunge into the sea. Depending on the situation, at most tomorrow, the dinghy will be able to come up and unload.

By evening, the work on the outskirts of the camp had come to an end.

Using a variety of sharp tools, the construction crew cleared the vegetation in the line of sight 200 meters outward, and now the camp has not only expanded the area, but also has a bare open space on the periphery, which does not affect the shooting boundary.

The last program of the day was the return of two frigates.

When the two frigates returned, they quickly brought their harvest ashore: a dozen captured fishermen from Cat Ba Island.

The arrival of new forces accelerated the construction of the camp. These local fishermen in Annam were extremely panicked at first due to the language barrier. Later, I found that the food on the construction site was good, and I could still receive Huang Cancan's Daming copper coins after work every day, so I gradually relaxed my heart and no longer considered running away.

In this way, two more days passed, and the pioneers who worked hard finally waited for the second fleet of the Qiongzhou side.

As mentioned earlier, Qiongzhou is only about a day's sea journey from Halong Bay. The reason why the reinforcement fleet came today is because it is to tow a special vessel: the floating dock.

Due to the low level of technology, today's floating docks are disposable. After being towed to the designated place, the pier can be put into use after a series of procedures such as beach fixation.

The arrival of the floating dock has greatly increased the speed of cargo loading: cargo ships can finally be loaded and unloaded directly at the shore without the need for small boats.

Next, a batch of simple hoisting transport vehicles was put ashore. Once the tools were in place, a large amount of building materials was disembarked through the floating docks.

Zheng Yangyang, the traverser in charge of infrastructure construction in the southbound military and political group, also went ashore in Halong Bay with the large army.

Zheng Yangyang is not yet 30 years old this year, and he is one of the youngest time travelers. Before the crossing, he had studied house design in the United States, and after the crossing, he designed the standardized wooden houses built in Taijiang in the early days.

In fact, Zheng Yangyang presided over the revision of the standard wooden house model that is now being built on a large scale at various construction sites in Fujian and Guangdong, as well as the industrial standards for wood production, processing, transportation, etc. involved behind it.

The main advantage of Zheng Yangyang's ability to go south to participate in the pioneering career this time is that he is young: several older bigwigs in the construction industry are unwilling to go to Nanyang to work under the scorching sun and mosquitoes.

And Zheng Yangyang's main task is, of course, to build a city...... There was a long list of place names waiting for him, the chief designer, to design the city or the castle.

So on the second day after Designer Zheng came to Halong Bay, he drew a circle on the map: "Dig a ditch first, and then build a circle of grass sheds, Hongji Fort, I'll see it!" ”