If there is a way in which Lingao County is most widely known in this time and space, it is the place "Lingao Jiao".

On the evening of April 16, 1950, more than 18,700 men of the 118th and 119th Divisions of the 40th Army of the 15th Corps of the Fourth Field Army, under the leadership of Han Xianchu, deputy commander of the Corps and commander of the 40th Army, and Xie Fang, deputy commander of the 40th Army, set sail from Dengloujiao in Xuwen County on the Leizhou Peninsula and crossed the Qiongzhou Strait. At about 3 o'clock in the morning of the next day, he landed in Lingaojiao Harbor, opening the prelude to the battle of Hainan Island.

In Lingaojiao, another time and space, this magnificent scene has not yet happened, but it has always been the important place of Hainan Island. Yu Eshui specially pointed out at the intelligence briefing before the departure that there was a beacon tower in Lingaojiao from the Yuan Dynasty. The Ming Dynasty set up a Bopu Inspection Division here, "the matter of the Admiral's cross-examination". During the Zhengde period, there were 30 archers and 3 patrol ships. By the end of Wanli, there were still twelve archers here, and it was estimated that there was a small boat at most. However, this area has always been a haven for Lingao fishermen, and you may encounter local fishing boats.

Bei Wei carefully searched the terrain in front of him at the bow of the ship. Three months before the arrival of D-Day, some members of the military group had made a staff trip to Hainan in the 21st century. The topography of the landing site in Jihuazhong: Lingaojiao-Bopu Port and the alternate Mayuan Bay, Hongpai Bay, Houshui Bay and other places were investigated.

As the leader of the landing reconnaissance team, Bei Wei not only inspected the terrain in detail at that time, but also revisited the local terrain and landforms many times afterwards according to the data, so as to be foolproof in his heart.

In the east, everything on the shore is very clear in the telescope. At this time, the motorboat had entered an open bay, according to the chart, this should be Longhao Bay southwest of Lingaojiao, because the wind and waves are small, fish will often migrate here to inhabit, is one of the important fishing grounds of Lingao.

Bei Wei searched through the binoculars, and soon saw the familiar triangular headland that stretched from northwest to southeast, about a kilometer long—yes, this is Lingaojiao.

Lingao Jiao forms a natural breakwater here, 1.5 kilometers long and 500 meters wide. In the middle of the embankment is the sand washed by the sea, which is crystal white, forming a sand embankment road. The 21st-century headland has stone bunkers, watchtowers, and a lighthouse built by the Qing Dynasty Customs in the 19th year of Guangxu (1893). Although there is nothing on the embankment of this plane, the difference in the entire landscape is very small.

"Slow down and keep an eye underwater." Bei Wei reminded. In addition to this part of the embankment exposed on the water, there is also a considerable part of the submerged part of the water, although the draft of the motorboat is almost negligible, but in case it is rubbed by the reef, the loss is not small.

The water is crystal clear, and the fine white sand between the underwater reefs is almost discernible. The dinghy crossed Lingao Jiao and entered Changgong Bay, and even without binoculars, the people on the boat could see the Bopu Corner stretching to the southeast corner. The whole Changgong Bay is surrounded by two corners, and the bottom of the bay, which is about two kilometers wide, is as calm as a seat, and the sand is clear and the water is quiet, and only the subtle white waves roll on the shore.

"I really want to swim here." It was said.

"Build a high-level sanatorium here in the future!"

Everyone laughed, and it felt a little ridiculous to say it now, like a group of poor people saying what would happen when they got rich.

Bei Wei was careful not to go too deep into the bay if he wanted to shoot an arrow.

"Captain, what kind of mountain is this?" Li Jun pointed to a round oval-shaped behemoth emerging from the green trees on the corner of Bopu in the distance.

"It's not a mountain, it's a beacon."

"The beacon tower is so big?!" The people on the motorboat were all surprised--the beacon towers in their impressions were all earthen platforms eroded by wind and sand on the Silk Road in the Western Regions. And this platform is still 16 meters tall even after 400 years. At this time, Beiwei visually measured its height at least 20 meters or more, with a slope of 45 degrees, which at first glance looked like a small hill common in hilly areas. The whole body of the platform is made of stone blocks, and the interior is made of rammed earth. It is not at all the same thing as the 21st century, which is badly collapsed and peeled and overgrown with trees and weeds.

"Everyone pay attention to safety, there are Ming troops stationed here, pull off the mask!"

With the order, all the personnel pulled down the masks from their riot helmets. The motorboat quickly spared the corner of Bopu and entered the southeast sea.

"Bopu Port!"

This place is the estuary of the Wenlan River, the largest river in Lingao County. This large river, which is less than 90 kilometers long, forms an open harbor here, with the mouth of the bay facing north. In the distance, a shadowy black island is the eastern edge of Red Rock Island, Bopu Harbor.

"Slow down! Enter the harbor. Alert! ”

The beach on the opposite side of Redstone Island is muddy and sandy, overgrown with large areas of lush mangrove forests, with very abrupt traces of burning and felling visible in some places, and behind the mangroves, there are undulating terraces, not high, with uneven tops. On the other side of these mangroves, the southern part of the harbour is a very different environment, overgrown with wild grass. It seems that there are also ruins of houses.

The withered seagrass and uprooted trees scattered along the shore are evidence of the typhoon's recent arrival – one of the main reasons for the landfall is to avoid the typhoons and storm surges that come around August 15 every year.

The interior of the harbor is quite open, and there are large mangrove forests near the water, tidal flats, and all kinds of water birds rise and fall in the sky. The water quality is not clear, and the mud bottom is clearly visible. The shore is flat and slightly undulating. Surprisingly, there weren't any fishing boats in the binoculars - something was wrong......

"What a desolate place!" Some people have already sighed.

"This is what the Executive Committee said about the counties that have been developed? Aren't all immature forests in the areas where they are not developed? ”

Bei Wei glanced at the person who spoke unhappily - after being discharged from the army and being a mass for a long time, he had almost forgotten the basic military discipline.

Although this place is known as the key to entering and exiting Hainan, for a long time, pirates often regard it as a shortcut every time they go to Kouluo Qiongbei. Over time, except for a small number of fishermen who scattered here for fishing, it was still desolate until the Kangxi period. At that time, Lingao County ordered Fan Shu to inspect this place, and sighed and wrote a poem to describe the environment here:

Horses frequently travel along the seashore,

The smoke is deep in the old Guanjin;

The white waves are full of clear boundaries,

Yellow hat covers the head of the boiler people;

Three-foot low eaves anti-hurricane mother,

A punch of small stones to worship the dragon god

……

"Turn off the servos! Measure the depth of the water. ”

They have complete hydrological data on the Bopu Harbor, according to which the depth of the estuary varies from 2 to 10 meters, but it is now in the 17th century. 400 years of sediment siltation will have a large error in the river channel.

The motorboat began to row slowly, and Li Jun erected a steel riot shield of the armed police to cover the lead rope of the hydrological staff.

Bei Wei knew that the motorboat at this time had become a very haode target, unobstructed on the open water. He wasn't afraid of anyone shooting an arrow, anyway, that kind of rough iron arrow couldn't shoot through the stab-proof suit and helmet, but if the other party had a small cannon hidden in the grass on the shore, a shot of iron sand and lead from 50 meters away would definitely cause casualties.

The members of the military team were armed with guns and loaded bullets, monitoring every corner of the perimeter.

At this moment, on the beacon tower, a figure was also there observing the dinghy in the bay.

This man wore a bowl-top iron helmet with a thick layer of yellow rust, and wore moldy leather armor -- which was added by the imperial court in the tenth year of Jiajing when the Hainan guards were added. He was holding a waist knife of the same age, and the wooden sheath was rotten and scattered, barely wrapped with rattan.

Behind him was a soldier, also with a rusty iron helmet on his head, no armor, and wearing a tattered mandarin duck battle jacket that was indistinguishable from the inside and outside. He carried a pair of bows and arrows on his back, and he also had an old and virtuous waist knife in his waist.

Fu Baiwen is a native of Qiongshan County, he practiced martial arts when he was young, and he got the name of a martial artist, but he has never been able to enter the department again. Nearly forty years old, he mixed up with the post of inspection from the ninth grade, and took twelve archers to guard this "Qionghai Yaojin". Although this place is known as Guanjin, in fact, there are not many tourists, and the people who can be checked on weekdays are just some Tanjia fishermen and small merchants who come from Leizhou to sell sea. That is, there is no oil and water, and it is desolate and lonely. The most common ones are pirates.

Hainan because it is located in an important maritime communication artery, has always been a place where piracy is extremely rampant, the history of pirates has plundered Lingao many times, and even besieged the county seat, Shunzhi 11 years actually captured Lingaozhi County. The governments of the Ming and Qing dynasties did not have any countermeasures against this, nothing more than to build beacon towers and raise fire alarms whenever they saw any changes at sea.

The pirates docked here to get water, and everyone was safe. Once you go deep into the harbor and land the boat. The only thing Fu Inspector could do was to run to the beacon tower and light the pile of horse manure fire, and then lead the people to find a place to hide. A little beacon fire, along both sides of the Wenlan River directly to Gao County, dozens of miles can see fireworks, the people dodge, and the city gate is also closed.

Every year after the 15th day of the eighth lunar month, the typhoon gradually dies down, and the piracy of coastal raids is frequent. The fishing boats that usually take shelter and rest here have not come recently, and they can't be lazy either, and these archers who patrol and inspect naturally can't be lazy -- although the food and salary are small, they are still a piece of money.

As soon as the motorboat of the reconnaissance team entered Changgong Bay, the archers on the beacon tower saw it. Normally, he would not alarm the inspection master of such a small boat, but this small boat traveled so fast, he was very surprised, and when the boat entered the estuary, the people who came were all burly, wearing iron helmets and black armor, and holding black iron fire guns in their hands.

"Inspector Fu, who are these people," the archer asked softly behind him, "Do you want to go up and investigate?" ”

"I haven't seen it." Although Hainan is a county in the south, the common people have a lot of knowledge. Fu Baiwen has seen the Japanese people, the Buddha machine people, and the Hongmaoyi people, and now this ship and this person are not within the scope of his common sense. The only thing that can be seen is that this group of people is obviously not easy to mess with.

"Looks like you're measuring the depth of the water?"

Fu Baiwen nodded: As the dinghy moved, behind the black shield, someone was constantly retracting the rope. Measuring the depth of the water means that there is a big ship coming in.

"Ignition?"

He hesitated for a moment and immediately made up his mind: there were few people coming, but they were all armored, and they were already forbidden people, and they were by no means good citizens. Now that the day is about to dawn, the people will go out to make a living, and if the bandits take it captive, they will be greatly poisoned!

"Ignition!"