Chapter 1499 Bai Tu's Strategy
After finishing the rather heavy topic of casualties, Lin Youshu quickly adjusted himself and began to report on what he had gained.
There is no need to say much about the six speedboats, and the biggest gain of this wave, apart from the warships, is that they captured a large number of prisoners of war!
"The number of prisoners captured this time is 627!"
In their previous battle, they captured more than 300 prisoners of war. This time, the enemy fleet was three times larger than last time, but the increase in the number of prisoners of war was not that great.
The root cause, to put it bluntly, is that too many people died.
In the previous battle, they only bombarded the opponent's main flagship, and the other four ships were sunk by the three-bow crossbow during the maneuvering process.
In this attack mode, it takes time for a ship to sink. The soldiers of the Patton Navy on the opposite side had enough time to react. When they saw the situation was not good, they immediately jumped into the sea and basically saved their lives.
But in this battle, they directly launched air bombing!
The enemy didn't even know where they were before the bombing began.
Moreover, they bombed nine ships one after another! In this process, they didn't care about the life or death of the other side.
Many of the enemy soldiers on the opposite side probably don’t even know how they died.
During this period, many wounded soldiers jumped into the sea, some were seriously injured and drowned.
As for the remaining six enemy ships, influenced by tactics, both sides surrounded each other's ships and launched the most typical landing battle of this era.
Afterwards, in order to deprive the opponent of the power to resist and also to ensure the safety of their own landing personnel, a massacre was basically unavoidable.
In this situation, enemy soldiers who survived and became prisoners were considered lucky.
"Are there enough shackles?"
“Just enough.”
Obviously, even Bai Tu did not expect that they would encounter such a large force when they came out this time. After two rounds of confrontation, they captured nearly a thousand prisoners.
"Colonel, what should we do with these prisoners?"
To be honest, the number of prisoners on the island right now is indeed a bit too much.
Even in shackles, I didn't feel that safe.
"Separate them and send a batch to the central camp to distribute to various departments."
At this stage, the most labor-intensive and important project is actually the construction of various defense facilities at the beach camp.
But with everyone gathered there, the risk is indeed high.
The safest way is undoubtedly to break them up, and the central camp also needs manpower.
Bai Tu had considered the worst-case scenario and was prepared to retreat to the center of the island if he could not win at sea.
For this reason, internal construction naturally cannot be neglected.
During this process, the departments that need the most manpower are undoubtedly the island's Construction Engineering Department and the Agriculture Department.
There is no need to say much about the Construction Engineering Department. As for the Ministry of Agriculture, it is now the spring ploughing season. They have limited manpower and are very busy.
Now, when they heard that there were a group of prisoners of war who could be assigned to them as cheap labor...
At that moment, they were like sharks that smelled blood and came over following the scent.
During this period, a geological exploration team headed by Zhang Xuemei also got involved.
After completing the most basic exploration work, they will then need to conduct appropriate excavation to confirm the location of the mineral vein.
Now that there is plenty of ready-made cheap labor for them to use, it would be a good idea to make use of it.
Just like selling cabbages, hundreds of prisoners of war were divided up by them in the blink of an eye.
After seeing off the heads of various departments, briefly listening to Lin Youshu's follow-up report, and arranging all the things that needed to be arranged, Bai Tu's attention shifted to the six Patton clippers that they had successfully captured.
Leaving aside the fundamental issue of finance, the key to limiting a country's naval development lies in the number of ships.
You can't just expand the size of the navy to 10,000 people when you only have one warship, right? But when Bai Tu came to this question, it was the other way around.
After this battle, he now has warships but no people.
If this problem happened on a volcanic island, it wouldn't be a problem at all. He could staff up the team in a matter of seconds.
But now that I'm on the front line, it's really embarrassing.
Thinking of this, Bai Tu quickly wrote another report and had someone send it back, requesting for troop reinforcements.
In fact, in his previous report, he had already explained the situation of the Patton Empire and requested more support.
Calculating the time, if everything goes well, their reinforcements should have set out by now.
However, once a fleet of a certain size is formed, the mobility efficiency will not be very high.
Not to mention that long-distance fleets basically have to bring supply ships to carry supplies, so the mobility efficiency is even lower.
Bai Tu estimated that by the time the reinforcements arrived, it would be summer at the earliest.
And he obviously didn't plan to wait until summer!
Don't forget, he is the 'aggressive and ruthless' Bai Tu! Just like the earlier analysis and speculation, at this point in time, the enemy can send over, 100% of it is the North Sea Fleet.
Comparing with the information obtained from Charlie before, the North Sea Fleet of the Patton Empire has three large warships and thirty clipper ships.
In front, they fought with Charles' fleet, and they sank four speedboats and captured a large warship.
Now engaging a larger fleet, they sank nine clippers and captured six of the opposing fleet.
As a result, the North Sea Fleet on the other side has lost a large warship and 19 speedboats so far! In other words, the North Sea Fleet stationed in the North Sea on the other side now only has two large warships and 11 speedboats!
At this moment, their Great Zhou fleet has the upper hand in terms of size compared to the North Sea Fleet on the opposite side!
This was also the biggest reason why Bai Tu was willing to pay a certain price in casualties and was determined to destroy the opposing fleet.
Because his next step is to lead his fleet and attack directly at the opponent's doorstep!
If they don't fight now, do they have to wait for the reinforcements deployed in other sea areas to arrive before they fight?! He wants to seize this opportunity and completely destroy the North Sea Fleet on the opposite side, thereby weakening the threat of the entire Patton Empire to their Great Zhou Fleet on the front line! At the same time, this is undoubtedly a good opportunity to officially demonstrate his strength in front of the Patton Empire.
Simply put, it is to show off your muscles and let the other side think carefully!
By then, even if the other party still wants to take action, they will not act rashly like before.
In this way, they not only reduced the opponent's naval combat power, but also bought more time for their own troop mobilization and front-line development.
At times like this, speed is of the essence! After a simple three-day rest, when the wounds of the slightly injured soldiers had been treated, the fleet was immediately ordered to assemble and prepare to set off!
Before boarding the ship, he looked at Lin Youshu and Kara standing in front of him.
This time, Bai Tu did not choose his adjutant Lin Youshu, but looked directly at Kara.
"Kara, you come with me on this expedition!"
(End of this chapter)
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