26 November 2758 (1917), Sumatra, Port of Lampung.

Lampung Port, also known as "Bandar Lampung" or "Tanjong Garan", is located at the southern tip of Sumatra Island, bordering the Indian Ocean to the west, the Java Sea to the east, and the island of Java across the Sunda Strait to the southeast. On the afternoon of November 24, the military boots of the People's Liberation Army set foot on the city.

In this era, it was not very developed, the port city was not large, the whole city was less than 3,000 people, and the Dutch had only one company of garrisons here. When the PLA landed, the Changbai heavy cruiser fired only a few shots at the shore with its 210-mm guns, and the Dutch hoisted the white flag and surrendered.

The former Lampung Port City Hall building is now the headquarters of the 2nd Regiment of the 121st Division. The original town hall had been turned into a command center by this time, filled with radios, telephones, and various communication equipment, as well as high-end equipment such as military computers, and various antennas were set up in the courtyard and on the roof of the building.

At this time, it was busy, and the staff officers and communications non-commissioned officers of the regimental headquarters were processing the information gathered from all sides and responding in a timely manner.

"105 mm grenades are only 5 bases, which is simply not enough, at least 15 bases. Otherwise we can't move on to the next step......"

"Hurry up and unload, yes, it's the 1006 fleet, hurry up. You have to move quickly, the 1102 fleet will arrive at 3 o'clock this afternoon, and you will try your best to vacate the docks. What? The port equipment is not enough, and we know, we will send a company to help......"

"The engineering corps is understaffed, so please recruit local citizens to help. Whether it is the Chinese or the Dutch, they are all recruited first, and now they are in military control!"

"I am the regimental headquarters, please speak of the third battalion...... Understand that the road to the Lampung settlement has been cleared. Congratulations, I will report to the chief immediately......"

"When will the civil affairs officials of the new management committee arrive? We're busy here...... yes, tell them to hurry up......"

"Armed police, we need armed police...... What, for the time being, there are no armed police, only hyenas and vultures...... Well, hyenas and vultures are fine, send them quickly......"

The whole hall was filled with the sound of the telegraph, the sound of radio calls, and the sound of arguments, and it was as lively as a bazaar.

In the middle of the town hall is a local large-scale sand table, around which several newly assigned young staff officers are busy, comparing the latest information in their hands while planting various symbols and various colored flags on the sand table.

The regiment commander, Colonel Hong Shilou, was also standing next to the sand table at this time, and while comparing the information in his hand, he patiently instructed these rookies who had only finished the company this year and implemented the work at the regiment headquarters. In fact, Colonel Hong Shilou is only 31 years old this year, and he is not much older than these new tenders. But his qualifications are very old, and he is also quite famous in the army, especially in the army.

Hongshilou is a native of Yilong County, Nanchong City, Sichuan Province, and was born in a tenant farming family. When I was a child, I went to the private school of the local landlord's family, and also participated in the county examination and the government examination, but when I was about to take the college examination, I happened to meet the cancellation of the imperial examination in the Qing Dynasty, so Hong went to Sparta. Subsequently, he successively entered the Nanchong County Higher Primary School and the Shunqing Mansion (now Nanchong City) Middle School to study.

In October 1906, Xingke Group recruited students from the whole society, so Hong was admitted to Xingke Security School (the predecessor of Southwest Military University), which can be regarded as the first batch of indigenous officers of Wenzong. During his internship, he participated in many battles in Sichuan, Yunnan-Guizhou, and Liangguang, and his performance was extremely good. And in the Liangguang Campaign, he made a very amazing feat, he stood up when all the official officers of the company were killed and wounded, and the company lost its ability to command, with the remaining multi-platoon soldiers, robbed three passes by day, and captured Bazhai at night, broke through the defense line of the new army of the Qing court in one go, and captured more than 800 new army Niu Fork figures, even Wen Desi knew about it, and exclaimed a miracle.

Because of his excellent performance, he was directly awarded the rank of lieutenant upon graduation and directly served as acting company commander, and was promoted to captain as a full company commander in less than 4 months. Then he participated in the Suwanlu Campaign and made great contributions in the battle to capture Hanzhuang. After the surrender of the Beiyang government, he participated in the liberation of the Northeast, and it can be said that he was full of battles in the Liberation War. During the Sino-Japanese War, he participated in the campaign to liberate Taiwan, and made many military exploits.

After graduating in June 1914, he was awarded the rank of major and was subsequently sent to the European theater as a military observer. He spent more than half a year in Germany and more than half a year in France, and only after fully understanding the military situation in Europe did he return to China in April last year to rotate back to serve as battalion commander. At the beginning of this year, under the special cultivation of Wen Desi and the strong recommendation of his old superior, Cai Yi, he hung a temporary colonel epaulette with the official rank of lieutenant colonel, and served as the deputy commander of the 2nd Regiment of the 121st Division, and acted as the head of the regiment. Such a painful official rank is obviously set to promote him, and it is estimated that when this war is over, the two "acting" and "temporary" can be erased.

At this time, a communications non-commissioned officer came over and reported: "Regiment commander, the third battalion reports." They have already opened up the truth of the Lampung settlement and joined forces with the armed self-police force in the settlement. At present, the passage between the port and the settlement area has been cleared, and there are no bandits within five kilometers of the surrounding area, and they have set up warning areas and warning points on both sides of the road. The armed self-police unit in the settlement has drawn two main battalions to cooperate with our troops, and is currently on the way to ......"

"Well, the third battalion did a great job. Hong Shilou said happily: "With the help of the local Chinese, we are much easier." When they arrive, let them take over the security and part of the city's defenses, and we can free up our hands for the next step......"

At this time, a staff officer ran in from outside the door and reported to him: "Report to the regiment commander, Li Zongren, the commander of the 11th Company, that they have received a call for help from a Dutchman. The Dutchman begged us to come to the rescue of one of their estates outside the city......"

"What, the Dutch are asking us for help?" Hong Shilou froze for a moment, then rolled his eyes and said, "Okay, you bring that Dutchman here, and we will ask about the situation......

After a while, the staff officer returned with Li Zongren, the commander of the 11th Company, and a young Dutch boy.

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The original mayor's office has now naturally become the head of Hongshilou's office.

Hong Shilou now asked an interpreter to receive the Dutch boy, so he pulled Li Zongren over and asked, "Delin, tell me what's going on first?"

"Hey, Captain...... Just now when we were on duty at the city gate, this man rushed from outside the city, told him to stop and listened, and was almost shot by my men. Li Zongren began to speak: "...... After we subdued him, this guy actually begged us to save his mother and sister with a handful of snot and tears......"

"According to him, they are now trapped in the Gothabmi Manor in the north, and there are still more than 400 people, and the indigenous bandits have fought several times without defeat, but they are now running out of ammunition and food, and many adult men are injured, and the form is very critical......"

Hong Shilou said with some curiosity: "Oh, so they are trapped, why did he come to ask us for help?

After years of persistent image management, at present, in the minds of the Chinese, the PLA is already a real image of soldiers, if it is in China now, "there are difficulties to find the PLA" is certainly right, but that is only in China. Although Commander Hong is also deeply proud of the image of his army, he is not arrogant enough to think that people all over the world trust the PLA as much as the Chinese people. Not to mention the Dutch who usually think they are cold and noble.

"I heard him say that there were too many bandits, and the Dutch army couldn't control it at all, so they asked for help from the port of Lampung many times, but the mayor here said that they couldn't draw people out, so they could continue to hold on......" Li Zongren pursed his lips and said with a disdainful face: "Now it is estimated that it will not be able to hold on, so you can only count on us." ”

"Hehe, it seems that he is in a hurry to go to the doctor...... Hong Shilou smiled, and shouted to the translator: "Xiao Wang, let that kid come over, I'll ask him ......"

The translator named Xiao Wang was not from the army, he was a special agent officer temporarily recruited from Shanghai Foreign Language College, and he was sent to the regiment as a translator with the rank of temporary second lieutenant. There is no way, there are really not many people in the army who understand Dutch, a small language, so they can only be temporarily recruited from the people. He brought the Dutch boy over and introduced him in Dutch: "This is our regiment commander, Colonel Hong......"

The Dutchman was about fifteen or sixteen years old, almost an overdue teenager. He looked good, but he looked very wolfish, with dirt and mud all over his face and clothes, a bruise on his leg, a shoe that had fallen off, and a few tears in his clothes, probably scratched by branches and stones.

But he shouted in Mandarin Chinese: "Mr. Colonel, my name is Edwin, are you the Wang Shi on the radio? The "Voice of the South Seas" radio station said that you are righteous Wang Shi, is that so...... Although this Chinese is very unproficient and has a strange tone, at least it can be understood by the Chinese present.

"Voice of Nanyang" is a radio station with the Chinese in Southeast Asia as its main audience, and of course, from the perspective of Chinese, it is not wrong to say that the PLA is the "king of justice."

However, a Dutchman said this, which still made Hong Shilou embarrassed. Then he asked solemnly in as kind a tone as possible: "Well, that's right, our Chinese People's Liberation Army is indeed the king of justice!"

Edwin hurriedly took a few steps forward and said excitedly, "Mr. Colonel, please send someone to help us! The indigenous thugs have surrounded us for more than two weeks......

Hong Shilou thought about it and asked a series of questions: "Well, tell me about the situation over there." How many bandits are there, what weapons do you have, how many of you are there, what's the situation now, and how did you get out......

Edwin immediately stumbled into Mandarin, and where it was unclear in Chinese, he used Dutch to express it, and Wang translated it on the side. About half an hour later, Hong Shilou finally got a general idea of the situation over there.

Then, with tears in his voice, he pleaded: "Mr. Lieutenant Colonel, please help us...... There are already a lot of people dead, and a lot of people are injured, there is no medicine, and they are dying, woo woo...... You are righteous kings......"

"Uh, well, we'll do our best to organize the rescue. Hong Shilou looked down and said, "Mr. Edwin, we already know your request, now please go and rest first, we still need to report to our superiors...... Xiao Wang, you take him down to rest and freshen up first, and then let the food group get him something to eat. ”

"Edwin, you must be hungry, please come with me," Xiao Wang said with a smile......

"I ...... ......"Edwin wanted to say a few more words, but his stomach screamed. Only then did he remember that he had lost food while hiding from the mob and had not eaten for more than a day now. I didn't feel it because I was nervous just now, but now that I was mentioned, I suddenly felt hungry and thirsty, so I obediently followed Xiao Wang.

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Hong Shilou immediately ordered the communications detachment to report the situation to the division headquarters, and then said to a staff officer next to him: "What about Lieutenant Li of the naval liaison group......?

After a while, that Lieutenant Lee came. He gave a military salute to Hong Shilou: "Comrade Colonel, are you looking for me?"

"Yes, Comrade Lieutenant. There is something that needs your navy's help, you can come over for a while......" Hong Shilou walked to the side of the sand table, pointed to a location on the north side of Lampung Port and said, "...... Here, there is a Dutch settlement called Gotha Bumi Manor, and we have just received a call for help here, which is said to be besieged by indigenous mobs and the situation is very critical. I now need the Navy to send a reconnaissance plane here to conduct on-the-spot reconnaissance and find out the situation......"

Lieutenant Li took a closer look at the sand table, then took out a pamphlet and flipped through it: "Goda Bumi Manor, about 50 kilometers northwest of Lampung Port, has a permanent population of about 300 people, and its industry is mainly rubber and pepper cultivation...... and then he said: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, I will immediately contact my superiors and ask them to send reconnaissance planes. However, the number and items required by the army are somewhat different from those of our navy, and our pilots are not very familiar with the army's reconnaissance projects, so we need you to send a scout ......"

"No problem!" Hong Shilou immediately found an intelligence staff officer from the hall: "Okay, it's you, Staff Officer Wang." You should go to the navy right now and follow the navy reconnaissance plane to reconnoiter the local situation!"

Although the army also has army aviation, it has not yet been deployed to the regimental level. Besides, the planes and pilots of the Army Airlines are still wandering around the sea, and even if the superiors send the planes to their regiment, it will be a few days later. The army does not have reconnaissance planes at present, but the navy does, and the living can still suffocate urine to death? The relationship between China's army and navy is still relatively good, and there is no second place in the world for Japan's strange army-navy relationship.

After a while, Lieutenant Li of the Naval Liaison Group came over again: "Comrade Colonel, our light cruiser Yalu River is preparing a water reconnaissance plane, which can take off in ten minutes......"

This time, the ships that cooperated with the long-term operation of the 2nd Regiment of the 121st Division were the heavy cruiser Changbai, the light cruiser Yalujiang, and two Zhuhai-class destroyers.