Dongshan Island, a vital military hub, is an absolute frontline!

Back in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, Zheng Chenggong trained his troops there before recovering Taiwan.

During the Kangxi Era, Shi Lang led the navy to recover Taiwan, also departing from Dongshan Island.

Without coming to Dongshan, you cannot truly understand its significance. Together with Xiamen, Jinmen, and Haitan, it is known as one of the "Four Great Islands" of the Jianfu Coast, covering an area of 194 square kilometers, slightly larger than Jinmen and Xiamen Island, located at the southernmost tip of the west of the Taiwan Strait, opposite Penghu at 98 nautical miles, and Kaohsiung at 166 nautical miles.

In the north-south direction, Dongshan Island and its waters are at the intersections of Jianfu and East Guang, East Sea, and South Sea. The terrain and features of the coast closely resemble Taiwan's west coast, with a relatively straight coastline and gentle beaches, making it very suitable for landing. Many small fishing boats use the high tide to rush directly onto the beach, and then the fishermen drag the boats ashore.

If it were merely routine military exercises, coming here in late August isn't the best timing; conducting exercises in June or July might be better.

Because during June and July the northeast monsoon affects the Taiwan Strait, using the words of old shipmen, tossing a piece of wood from Dongshan would drift all the way to Penghu.

If it were a warship, it could reach Penghu in three to four hours!

Not far from the beach parking amphibious tanks, there is another beach surrounded like a park. Outside the wall is a sign indicating: Nationalist Party Army Landing and Retreat Site at Dongshan Defense Battle, recording a glorious history of Dongshan:

At dawn on July 16, 1953, the Nationalist Party army assembled over ten thousand troops from Jinmen Island, attacking Dongshan Island using paratroopers with air and navy support for the first time.

Although the Liberation Army stationed on the island were few in number, they tenaciously defended and, with rapidly arriving reinforcements, killed over 3,300 officers and soldiers of the Nationalist Party army, shooting down two aircraft—this is the renowned Dongshan Defense Battle!

In short, Dongshan Island has consistently been a frontline in defense against Taiwan, and the island has established a "frontline readiness supplies warehouse". However, Dongshan Island has transformed from the Nationalist Party's springboard against the mainland into a forefront for achieving national reunification.

Due to the gathering of large forces, the prices of daily necessities on the island have slightly increased.

The Binjiang Civilian Transport Team has brought many people, previously not much in terms of supplies, and even if they had, the weather is so hot it would be difficult to preserve.

Yang Jianbo is not busy today and accompanies Li Mingsheng on the island to purchase goods.

The market is quite far from the beach where the exercise is held, so Han Yu arranged for them to borrow three trucks from the 402nd Military. Once they completed purchasing materials and returned to the beach, Ma Jintao and Xiao Yu, with the help of Bin Xun crew members, had set up a fifty-meter-long floating bridge using six power boats.

The military trucks loaded with supplies could drive to the end of the floating bridge and directly load newly purchased pork, fruits, and vegetables onto fishing boats with shallow drafts without needing the power boats to transport them back and forth.

While they were busy bustling around, an Army Major General and an Army Colonel accompanied an Army Vice Admiral overseeing the beach.

"Which unit set up the floating bridge on the beach?"

"It might be the Navy, I'll call to check."

"What do you mean Navy? It is obviously the Army!"

The Vice Admiral handed the binoculars over to the Major General.

The Major General raised the binoculars, adjusted the focus, and carefully observed for a while before laughing and saying, "Chief of Staff, I know which unit set it up."

"Which unit?"

"Linghai Reserve Camp, and all those loading supplies onto fishing boats are Reserve Soldiers under 'one-shot drunk'."

The Vice Admiral, with a strong impression of Han Yu, couldn't help but ask jokingly, "One-shot drunk is here too?"

The Major General smiled and explained, "Chief of Staff, he's now quite celebrated, having been seconded to the Observation Team, transforming into an Observer."

"He hasn't even served in the military, what can he observe?"

"Observing the Civilian Militia Reserve Force participating in the exercises."

"The superiors really know how to utilize talent, assigning him to observe the Civilian Militia Reserve Force was truly the right choice."

"Indeed, reserve forces construction differs from active forces, requiring a practical approach. He's a regional cadre, knows a bit about military, and is more familiar with maritime shipping. For the Navy to construct effective reserve forces, they genuinely need comrades like him."

Who would've thought a fine young man would be poached by the Navy?

The Vice Admiral, feeling a bit downcast, contemplated the beach and said, "Reserve forces differ from active forces, as long as reserve forces are established within our defense zone, whether Navy or Army, they fall under our Nanjing Military Region."

...

Meanwhile, the East Sea Fleet Commander also noticed a floating bridge emerging on the shore.

What surprised the Fleet Commander even more was the incredible speed of "crossing the river and dismantling the bridge"; less than half an hour after three truckloads of supplies were loaded onto the ship, a group composed of Navy and Army Reserve Soldiers, forming the "Boat Bridge troops," used simple tools to dismantle the bridge.

Six power boats ran at full throttle, pulling the long, wide bridge panels from the shore into the sea, heading straight towards the logistics support fleet's anchorage.

"Old Yu, are those bridge panels hollow?"

"They should be; otherwise, they couldn't possibly float on the surface."

"Interesting, but too short."

Vice Commander Yu of the East Sea Base didn't expect that that junior's subordinates would play like this just to save effort, nor did he expect that the junior would actually bring bridge equipment here. He reported with a smile, "Those bridge equipment probably came from the Linghai Reserve Camp of the Jiangnan Province Military District. For a professional flood rescue reserve camp to have the equipment to set up a fifty-meter floating bridge is already quite impressive."

In comparison, Captain Fang was more interested in Han Yu and his troops.

He had done some homework these days and added, "To be precise, those equipment came from the Water Rescue Team of the Linghai Reserve Camp. Setting up floating bridges is just their sideline; their main business is water rescue. Those power boats were all designed and built by themselves, mainly used for water rescue and floating bridge setup."

"Salted Fish's old troop?"

"Yes."

"Old Feng is impressive, even after transitioning to the local area, he can still train such capable cadres." Commander Wang thought for a moment, then turned and said, "Later, ask that Salted Fish if they can set up a five-hundred-meter-long floating bridge on the sea, and the bridge should be able to pass tanks and other heavy equipment."

"Yes!"

...

Han Yu had no idea that the floating bridge set up by Ma Jintao and Xiao Yu had caught the attention of the commanders of the Nanjing Military Region and the East Sea Fleet. He was currently with colleagues from the Observation Team on a landing ship, watching from afar as a cargo ship loaded materials onto the landing craft.

The landing craft had very small tonnage and could only transport a little material at a time.

The cargo ship had cranes, but loading materials onto the landing craft was not very efficient.

After watching for a while, it was really not worth watching.

Han Yu started chatting with Adviser Wu, who was observing together.

"Adviser Wu, how many operational units does the East Sea Fleet have?"

"Not counting the base?"

"Of course, not counting the base."

Adviser Wu touched his nose and recounted as if counting treasures: "Currently, we have a destroyer and frigate composite detachment, a frigate detachment, a submarine detachment, a landing ship detachment, and a speedboat detachment composed of missile boats, minesweepers, anti-submarine boats, and torpedo boats."

Han Yu curiously asked, "How's the combat strength?"

"How can I put this, in the past two years, we have cooperated with brother units and completed several combat plans for 'blockade', 'attack', and 'assault' against Taiwan. In particular, the 'blockade' has been practiced many times. As for the combat plan against US aircraft carriers, we will have to wait until next year when the imported modern-class missile destroyers and two second-generation nuclear submarines from Russia are in service, and with the cooperation of the Air Force's Su Liangguai, practical exercises should be possible."

"Doesn't your fleet have fighter jets?"

"Yes, our fleet has three aviation divisions: one bomber division, one fighter division, and a newly established 'Flying Leopard' fighter-bomber division. Additionally, there is a training regiment and a shipborne helicopter brigade."

Adviser Wu paused for a moment and sighed softly, "But our naval air force's main combat aircraft are the J-7, Hong Six, Water Bomber Five, and the 'Flying Leopard' fighter-bomber that just entered service last year. Relatively outdated, not as advanced as the Su Liangguai, not very useful against US aircraft carriers."

Han Yu asked with a wry smile, "Don't you have anything noteworthy?"

"The minesweeper regiment has a strong combat capability. After the self-defense counterattack against Vietnam, we went to Beibu Bay for mine clearance, equipped with our navy's best minesweeping equipment, and our sea mine clearance level is among the best in the world. Also, our fleet is located at the Taiwan Strait frontline, with a tradition of using small boats to attack large ships, always emphasizing the wartime attack capability and survivability of speedboats, this aspect of training is always at the forefront of the navy."

"Can they fight an aircraft carrier?"

Are you just opening a can of worms?

Adviser Wu was stumped by the question, remained silent for quite a while, and then whispered, "The Central Military Commission requires the Nanjing Military Region Air Force and our fleet to prepare for defense against hostile forces intervening with Taiwan. This obviously expands our fleet's defense range, and we can say that we are transitioning from passive defense to proactive offensive defense.

If the US aircraft carrier dares to approach the waters around Taiwan, given the fleet strength we are forming, there is a fifty percent chance of sinking a carrier protected by the Aegis system. The other fifty percent depends on the Second Artillery's short- and medium-range missiles."

About to form, possibility, should, hope for...

Han Yu was left speechless by these keywords and after being stunned for a while, he said with a wry smile, "Adviser Wu, you're an operations staff member of the Fleet Command, how can you talk like me with maybes and possibilities!"

"Brother, we can't work without resources. Don't say I'm just a 1.3-yuan adviser, even the Chief of Staff is no use."

"If you decide to build an aircraft carrier, I... I..."

"What are you planning to do?"

"I'll donate fifty yuan!"

"What good is fifty yuan, you're working at Customs, where the salary is high, you should at least donate a thousand."

"I can't, I have a mortgage to pay, I only have fifty to spare, so I can only donate fifty."

"..."