Ruan Jinggui did not immediately go back to the house to rest when he returned to his residence, but went to the study to take the list of supplies and supplies handed over to him by Mu Xiabai and read it seven or eight times again and again to confirm its contents. Early the next morning, Ruan Jinggui went out and began to gather all kinds of supplies on the list for the fleet.

There weren't many rare or particularly valuable items on this list, and most of them were ordinary supplies, such as food, medicine, ropes, sails, spare ship materials, and other items that might be used on a voyage, and the quantities required were not too many. Nguyen Ching Gui believes that the list of supplies issued by the military is not really about how many things are planned to be supplied here, but to take this opportunity to test the supply capacity of Da Nang and see what supplies may be in short supply.

Ruan Jinggui's expectation was very close to the truth, in order to prevent the inconvenience of supplies on the way, this fleet had already brought sufficient supplies when it set off from Sanya, and at most it could find a place to replenish food and fresh water on the way. However, considering that the Annam militia army will be mobilized to the south in the future, Da Nang is probably the last large-scale supply point on the southward voyage, and the military must first verify the supply capacity of this place.

Of course, the difficulty of preparing these supplies in Sanya is completely different from that of raising them in Da Nang. Especially for marine materials, Sanya can provide all kinds of spare parts produced by the original factory, and in Da Nang, it has to be made according to the drawings, one or two pieces are fine, but there are still many things that can not be made in large quantities in a while under local conditions.

In addition to preparing supplies, Nguyen Ching Gui did not forget the order given to him by the Ministry of Security yesterday to recruit a crew of sailors who were trustworthy and familiar with the sea conditions of the South China Sea. Before the development of Da Nang last year, the Annam Imperial Court forcibly requisitioned 3,000 people from nearby and stuffed them into the Haihan as war compensation. After the destruction of Hoi An Fortress the year before last, a large number of sailors and crew fled the area, and not many people stayed to continue living in the vicinity, only 23 out of 10 people had the experience of going to the South Seas, and even fewer of them were old fur seals who were familiar with the sea conditions of the South Seas.

Yesterday, Ruan Jinggui gritted his teeth and said that dozens of people could be found, which was actually a bit exaggerated, and the Ministry of Security asked for trustworthy and relocated his family, so the scope of options was narrowed down a lot. Ruan Jinggui ran up and down for a day, met with no less than 100 people, and finally only determined seven candidates.

By the time the fleet left port on December 18, the preparations for various supplies had finally been reluctantly completed under the supervision of Nguyen Ching Gui, but only thirteen qualified sailors were found. However, Wang Tom did not reprimand him for this, but handed him a new supply list before leaving, and asked him to prepare carefully in Da Nang. After Wang Tom and the others boarded the ship, Ruan Jinggui cautiously opened the list and looked at the contents, which was basically the same as the materials he had prepared in the past two days, but the quantity had increased significantly. Ruan Jinggui didn't dare to slack off, so he hurriedly took this list and went to the workshops and farms in Da Nang to urge his life.

After leaving Da Nang, the fleet headed south along the coastline, covering about 300 nautical miles for three days, arriving at Cam Ranh Bay, the second stop of the trip.

Cam Ranh Bay is located in the southeast of the Indochina Peninsula, and the harbor is embraced by the two peninsulas of Chongkong Mountain and Phoenix Mountain, forming two inner and outer bays in the shape of a gourd, which go deep into the inland for more than ten kilometers. It happened to be located on an important shipping route from the South Sea to the Far East, and was also recognized as a strategic point on the Indochina Peninsula in later generations.

On the deck of the "Lightning", Tom Wang was briefing the representatives of various departments on the situation in Cam Ranh Bay: "...... The width of the outer harbor of Cam Ranh Bay is about 4,000 meters, and the water depth is about 30 meters, and the width of the inner harbor is about 1,300 meters, and the average water depth is more than 10 meters. In addition, the inner harbor has an area of more than 60 square kilometers, and with the size of our current naval fleet, even ten fleets will not feel crowded here. ”

Wang Tom said excitedly, raised his hand to the shore in front of him and said: "Of course, the area of this bay is very large, and it is inevitable that it will be a bit wasteful just to use it as a military base. The harbor here can be fully utilized, part of it is used as a commercial port, and the southern area of the inner harbor also has good development conditions, which can be used to build a large salt farm, and if fully developed, the scale will not be much smaller than the Yinggehai salt field. ”

Although the geographical conditions and location of Cam Ranh Bay are very superior, the small court of South Vietnam has been stuck in the quagmire of war on the front line of the Hengshan River, and does not have enough ability to fully develop this place. It was not until after the end of the Annam Civil War that the Annam Imperial Court, at the request of the Haihan Executive Committee, handed over the right to use Cam Ranh Bay to the Haihan, and the large-scale development and construction of this place officially began.

However, due to the fact that almost all the construction personnel of Haihan were concentrated on the rail transit project in Changhua Shilu the year before, the development process of the four ports in the south of Annan was stagnant, and the development of Cam Ranh Bay was delayed until the implementation of the "Liaoyuan Plan", and the infrastructure project was reluctantly started.

Since the construction has only just begun here, and the militia group has not been stationed here as a formed fleet, let alone any armed forces at sea to defend the port, the reconnaissance fleet did not cause much stir up trouble when it sailed into Cam Ranh Bay, except for a small panic caused by the fishing boats on the sea.

After the fleet sailed into the inner bay, local port crews came out in small fishing boats to guide the fleet to a temporary wharf on the west shore of the bay. Due to the very limited conditions here, there is no time-traveling person assigned here to preside over the work, and before Nguyen Jinggui was in charge here, after Nguyen Jinggui returned to Da Nang, the highest authority here was the Provisional Management Committee of the Port District, which was in charge of a militia company commander.

This company commander named Nguyen Phu is an authentic Annanite, but now it is accurate to say that he is a naturalized citizen of Annam descent who joined the Heitu Port Special Operations Company led by Qian Tiandun himself when he was founded in Heitu Port, and he can be regarded as a veteran-level task in the Annan militia army. Nguyen Phu participated in almost all of the battles of the Annam militia army, including the "Liaoyuan Rebellion" launched in northern Hainan Island in October. After being withdrawn from Hainan Island, he was transferred by the Annam Military Region to Cam Ranh Bay in the south, where he was responsible for maintaining local law and order and assisting Nguyen Ching Gui in the implementation of the port project in Cam Ranh Bay.

Although Ruan Fu's surname is the same as Ruan Jinggui, the two have nothing to do with each other. Nguyen Ching Gui was born into a famous family, and only changed his court to become a leading party during the Hue Campaign, while Nguyen Phu was only one of the many war refugees taken by the advance team of Black Tu Port from the coast of the Annam Civil War belligerent zone, and he was born as a civilian. However, by chance, these two people surnamed Ruan got together in Cam Ranh Bay and became colleague partners.

Although Ruan Phu is not very familiar with these high-ranking officials from the Sanya base camp, Mu Shabai, who came with him, can be regarded as his top boss, and half of the ships in this fleet are warships of the militia navy, so it can be seen at a glance that its weight is not light. When Wang Tom and the others went down to the shore, Ruan Phu immediately stepped forward and saluted: "Nguyen Phu, the commander of the second company of the first battalion of the Annan Special Operations Regiment, reports to the chief!"

Tom Wang also continued his previous practice and asked Nguyen Phu to explain the local situation. Regarding the situation in Cam Ranh Bay, Wang Tom and others have already asked Nguyen Jinggui to understand it in Da Nang, and now it is time to conduct a comparison to verify whether what Ruan Jinggui said is ominous and untrue.

According to Nguyen Phu, Cam Ranh Bay's current population is just over 1,000 people, of which almost half have been naturalized. At present, the port project has only just broken ground, and is still in the stage of leveling the foundation, even the first phase of the project will probably have to wait until four or five months before it can be completed, as for the construction plan of the entire port area divided into seven stages, it will take at least four or five years of continuous construction.

At present, the biggest problem in this place is that the population is too small, and there are no large cities or population settlements in the surrounding areas, so the source of labor in the future may only depend on targeted transportation from the outside world. Neither the military nor the civil affairs departments can come up with a more effective solution to this problem for the time being. And the supplies that can be provided to the fleet, or the subsequent army, are mainly only seafood, timber, fresh water, and so on.

"Now this place can only be used as a safe haven. After learning about the local situation, Wang Tom determined the nature of the function here: "If the militia army is mobilized from the north to the south, it is estimated that it will be troublesome to stop the ship here." There is no way to use this as a real military base in the short term. ”

"But this is probably our last stop before we leave Indochina. "Further south, we have entered the territory of the Champa state, and although we have some trade and military cooperation with them, we have never allowed warships to enter their ports. ”

"Warships are not allowed to dock in the ports of the Champong State. Lin Nan shook his head and interjected: "According to the information we have, there are trading houses established by the Dutch in the main port of Champ, and our warships can easily reveal their identities, which will be very detrimental to what we have to do next." ”

"You have to go all the way south. Tom Wang's finger moved on the chart: "From here to Natuna Island, the voyage is about 500 nautical miles, and with the speed of our fleet, it will take about five to seven days to reach that place." ”

Although there were a few clippers in the reconnaissance fleet, in order to hide people's eyes, they also brought three traditional Chinese sailing boats, and the whole fleet was roughly based on the speed of these three ships at about four or five knots.

Of course, in terms of the speed of the two catamarans, it is really fatal to toss so slowly, so Wang Tom plans to divide the troops into two routes, and the two faster catamarans will go south at normal speed, as the vanguard to the waters of the Natuna Islands to investigate, and the follow-up fleet will arrive in the sea area about two days behind, and then meet for the next step.

Although there were no supplies to be provided in this part of Cam Ranh Bay, the fleet rested here for two days under the orders of King Tom before setting off again.

On 24 December, the flotilla left Cam Ranh Bay and continued southward. Just a few hours after leaving Cam Ranh Bay, the "Lightning" and "Speed" gradually broke away from the group's field of vision and headed south.

The crews on both ships, who were largely affiliated with the military and security ministries, rode the waves, and arrived in the waters of the Natuna Islands just 72 hours later. At this time, the large forces behind had just completed a little more than half of the voyage.

In the early morning of 28 December, the sailors in charge of the lookout spotted the appearance of islands about 10 nautical miles to the southwest. After comparing the charts, Tom determined that this was the northernmost island in the Natuna Islands, and that the island was only about 30 nautical miles away from the island. After making sure that there were no other ships in the nearby sea, the two sailing ships sailed to the island and anchored at the beach on the west shore of the island.

According to the satellite data map downloaded from the Ōsū library before departure, the island is a long, narrow wedge-shaped island running north-south, about 12 kilometers long from north to south, and about 2 to 5 kilometers wide from east to west. The island is wooded, and the advance team found no traces of human activity when they landed on the island, so it seems that this should be just an uninhabited island.

In consideration of the follow-up action, King Tom ordered a temporary camp to be stationed here and set up a forward camp on the island. In order to hide people's eyes, the fire was also canceled during the day, so as not to be seen by the ships passing by the nearby sea, and it was not until after night that a hot meal was cooked in a pit and a stove on the shore, and a tent cloth had to be carefully used to cover the outward facing sides, so as not to be discovered in the night. Thankfully, the advance team found a source of fresh water on this small island, although the amount of water produced is not large, but the water quality is acceptable, and it can be boiled and drunk after simple clarification, which is undoubtedly good news for the large troops that will arrive in this sea area to fight in the future.

Before dawn on the 29th, the "Lightning" sailed south to Natuna Island. There is no natural harbor on the island's coastline suitable for a large harbor, and according to information provided by the Ministry of Security, the largest pier on the island is located in the central part of the east coast of the island, which is only a bay sunken inward, and does not even have the conditions to shelter from the wind and waves. The Dutch did not seem to have intended much effort to run the island after taking over the island, and their garrison was mainly concentrated in this small port on the east coast of the island.