Chapter 1646 - Water Transport Advantage
While the Zhang family's small walnut cookie shop was immersed in joy, Director Hong had almost forgotten about this matter—he managed ten thousand machines a day. For the confidential document boxes delivered to every Senator by confidential couriers each day, others had "suitcases"; he had "packing crates."
Currently, the work of the entire Joint Logistics Headquarters was extremely heavy. At nightfall, Hong Huangnan's desk was still piled with various documents and atlases. After signing a dozen documents, he yawned and told the orderly to light the lampwick under the Five-Watch Chicken—inside was his meticulously prepared midnight snack. For eating, he never used other people's hands, let alone those neither-donkey-nor-horse maids trained by the General Office.
"Guangzhou is worthy of being the capital of my Big Eating Province. Ingredients are just rich." Hong Huangnan looked at the faint small flame under the Five-Watch Chicken again, got up, and stretched his waist. "How is the map mapping going?"
"Chief, maps of Guangzhou and most counties under Guangzhou Prefecture have been completed." The secretary busy beside him reported.
"Go take a look." Hong Huangnan said. He was very anxious about this matter.
He left the office with guards, passed through the corridor to a room. This room had no partitions—a spacious large room of full floor height.
Along the walls were layers of shelves, piled with slender cowhide buckets and thick loose-leaf books. In the middle were seven or eight large tables.
On the tables were maps pressed under glass plates. These maps included both the map of the whole Guangdong province and maps of various counties—without exception all large-scale maps. Many naturalized citizens were busy around the tables. Dozens of kerosene lamps illuminated the room brightly.
What was going on here was map "correction" work. Naturalized citizens working here could be called "elites." They were all "special talents" specially trained in surveying and mapping. Working while learning for over three years, they had basically mastered surveying and drawing.
Because large-scale maps involved secrets, although the Executive Committee made many efforts before D-Day, they didn't obtain military-grade large-scale maps. They could only settle for the second best and collect slightly inferior maps. Fortunately, through the North American Branch, they obtained some US military large-scale county maps of China's coastal and main areas surveyed in the 1940s.
These large-scale maps collected through various channels could be called the Senate's most precious property, and also an important guarantee for the Fubo Army's combat power. Whether suppressing bandits in Lingao or later public security warfare in Qiongzhou after the Spring Awakening Campaign, it could be said that relying on these maps ensured the Fubo Army—completely outsiders—wouldn't lose direction in the wild and could act according to combat plans.
Of course, there were differences between 20th-century maps and the real geographical environment of the 17th century. Such errors were still within tolerable range on Hainan Island—nothing more than residential points and roads not matching, while errors in topography and landforms weren't big.
However, moving to the Pearl River Delta, the situation wasn't like this.
The Pearl River Delta was originally a shallow bay with many islands—a delta formed by scouring and silting of the West River, North River, and East River from different directions. After the West, North, and East River water systems entered this area, they diverged and radiated, forming river creeks dense like spider webs. Low-lying areas formed scatterings of lakes and marshes. Within an area of less than ten thousand square kilometers, there were ten thousand crisscrossing river branches. Among these river branches, some were naturally formed, some artificially excavated. And extensive rice planting and dike-pond farming on the delta made this plain, originally crisscrossed with river courses, even more fragmented—so much so that for travelers, villages were more like islands. In many places, land routes were blocked.
Several hundred years of river scouring, soil loss and silting, field transformation... these natural and artificial factors added together made the gap between the two outrageously big.
This situation was actually reflected in the Pearl River Estuary Intrusion Campaign. After troops dispersed, they began to find maps becoming unreliable. The main method adopted at that time was using the "Guide Party" among naturalized citizens. At that time, because the troop operation area wasn't big and the combat purpose was mainly raiding, the practice of using guides could still make do. But for comprehensive conquest, it was far from enough.
After the Pearl River Estuary Campaign ended, the Foreign Intelligence Bureau, under Lin Baiguang's command, officially took over Guangzhou Station's intelligence work. The main work was collecting intelligence on Guangdong's geography, products, resources, and popular sentiments. From this activity, a large amount of geographical intelligence was accumulated. The map correction work being done now was exactly based on this intelligence.
"Chief..." A naturalized officer of the General Staff Department wearing civilian clothes saw him come in and came over to salute.
"How is the progress?" Hong Huangnan asked with concern.
"Correction work for forty-five departments and counties has been completed." The officer reported. "Correction workload for mountainous and inland counties isn't big. Mainly counties in the delta zone need large amounts of correction. River canals and roads are almost all inaccurate."
Speaking of this, a confused expression appeared on the officer's face—because it was the first time he saw such big errors in Senators' maps. Under the atmosphere of "The Senate knows all, is always correct," there was actually something with such big errors. No wonder he was confused.
"They are all maps from several hundred years ago. Of course not accurate." Hong Huangnan spoke lies without changing face color. "Maps of the Pearl River Delta region must produce finished products as soon as possible. This is top priority among top priorities. Absolutely cannot delay!"
"Yes, Chief. We will definitely go all out!" The officer hurriedly performed a German-style attention with clicking heels and nodding.
"Must complete with guaranteed quality and quantity." Hong Huangnan instructed again. "Especially hydrological conditions and navigation capabilities of river courses everywhere in the Pearl River Delta—must be marked clearly. Any unclear points, feedback to the intelligence team immediately to communicate."
The reason Hong Huangnan paid such attention to this correction work was still considering logistics supply. The supply plan he drew up mainly relied on water transport.
Characteristics of the Guangdong Campaign's logistics supply were long battle lines and dispersed troops. The fragmented and watery landform of the Pearl River Delta made the combat mode of building roads while advancing—used in the past—difficult to be effective in the short term. Except along main postal roads, most townships in the Pearl River Delta had no regular land road connections, mostly utilizing field ridges and river ponds to trek. Circulation of general personnel and materials mainly relied on boats.
The reason Staff Officer Hong quietly gave up his plan of deploying Dongfeng Carriage Shops in Guangdong was largely also seeing this report of tragic road conditions.
Even if food and firewood mainly relied on local procurement, supply quantity of clothing/equipment and ammunition wasn't small. Especially since Fubo Army also had to carry heavy support weapons like artillery and typewriters, further aggravating the difficulty of marching and supply. Lack of good roads was a realistic difficulty.
Although the Foreign Intelligence Bureau estimated most areas of Guangdong should be settled by a decree, Ming troops in Guangdong still kept several thousand combat soldiers available. Nan'ao Vice General and Yao-Defense Assistant Regional Commander didn't participate in the Chengmai Campaign—combat power basically kept intact. If the person in charge of administration had a resolute attitude of resistance, it was also possible to mobilize ethnic minority local soldiers and drill troops of various local Guard Stations to fight. Intensity of combat couldn't be estimated too low.
This wasn't even the place General Staff worried most about. The warning of the biggest military threat existing in Guangdong Strategy didn't just come from the Great Library—more than one Cantonese Senator reminded General Staff: Guangdong's local-Hakka conflict was sharp. Once combat got involved in local-Hakka conflict, it would very likely fall into large-scale riots. Historically, mobilization power of these clans was very strong—easily mobilizing tens of thousands of people to participate in armed fighting. Opponents far harder to deal with than Ming troops.
Once encountering such large-scale armed disturbances, local procurement couldn't be executed. Must transfer supplies from security areas. Under the social geographical environment of this spacetime, the only way able to transport materials quickly, cheaply, and in large quantities was water transport.
From this point, Guangdong could be called blessed by nature. Provincial capital Guangzhou Prefecture was exactly located at the confluence of three main rivers in Guangdong Province: North River, East River, and West River. Water transport conditions were extremely superior. Utilizing the shipping capacity of these three rivers, Fubo Army could easily deliver troop supplies to key nodes: Along West River straight to Wuzhou—can blockade Ming troops advancing east from Guangxi direction. Along North River to Nanxiong Prefecture—can control the southward route of Dayuling Road. Along East River deep into Chaoshan area, straight to Languan—can control Yueqiling Road leading to Fujian direction.
And transporting troops and cadres to various places along rivers through water transport could expand controlled areas from lines to surfaces. Even if unable to achieve covering the whole province, it could quickly control areas along banks of the three rivers. Through tributaries of the three rivers, detachments using shallow-draft small boats could further penetrate into more remote areas, controlling more territory.
When Staff Officer Hong consulted Guangdong inland river shipping hydrological data compiled by the Great Library, he found with considerable gratification that river courses passable in the three river water systems were extremely numerous. If not caring too much about ship size, shallow-draft small steamers of a dozen tons could even navigate to quite remote places within the province.
"This is simply a ready-made railway network." Hong Huangnan sighed. "No wonder General Staff wants to hit Guangdong first. Seems it's not just the relationship of being closest to Hainan."
He leaned over to study carefully on a map of the whole Guangdong province in the office, smearing with colored pencils on the glass plate to draw various symbols like depots and supply lines, pondering how to open this supply system.
"Report!" Following the reporting sound, the secretary brought the latest delivered document. "This is the draft of several latest inland river vessels from Hong Kong Shipyard sent by Chief Shi. Please review."
"Put it on the table." Hong Huangnan drew and painted with red and blue pencils on Foshan Town at this moment.
This place was truly blessed by nature. Not only was it a necessary route for West River and North River boats going to Guangzhou, but it also had twelve river creeks connecting with various places in the Pearl River Delta. It could be called the commodity distribution center of the Pearl River Delta. No wonder it developed into one of the Four Great Towns under heaven.
(End of Chapter)