Great time travel

Chapter 30, The Bustling Oriental Ocean

Late December [-], Hainan Island, Ya County (Sanya), Sanya Port
At this moment, the sea level outside Sanya Port is covered with forests of masts and ships covering the sea, but the buildings on the shore are empty and silent.

When the calendar turned to the end of [-] in the Gregorian calendar, six years had passed since Hainan Island fell to the Japanese army.However, what is quite special is that the behind-the-scenes driving force behind the launch of the Hainan Island attack was not the aggressive Japanese army, but the seemingly rational Japanese navy.

——In the early days of the war, the iron ore supply of the Empire of Japan basically came from North Korea and Northeast China, but these two places were controlled by the army, which means that the iron ore was pinched in the hands of the army.At that time, Japan's army and navy were enemies of life and death. The factory workshops that also produced military supplies would never produce simultaneously for the navy and the army in the same workshop. Instead, they would cover two workshops and hang "Minister of the Army Designated Production Site" on one door. , and the other door hangs the sign of "Minister of the Navy Designated Production Site" for production.If the Japanese navy wants steel, it can only look at the army's eyes.

This kind of iron ore distribution can be coordinated through the civilian cabinet in peacetime, and the navy can barely tolerate it.During the war, the Ministry of the Army dominated the iron mines and refused to share the profits with the navy.And the navy is a big eater of iron. The amount of steel used by any warship can match a tank brigade of the army.As a result, even several half-built battleships began to run out of materials and were in frequent emergency situations, and they almost stopped working.

Therefore, two years after the full-scale outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War, the Japanese Navy was thinking about doing it by itself, having enough food and clothing, and finding a way to find iron from China.Then a group of naval staff officers from the military command looked at the map and found that Hainan Island has both rice and iron mines, and it is still an island, which seems very suitable for taking it as a source of resources, so they put forward an ambitious slogan , to turn Hainan Island into a "Navy Manchukuo"!
Next, in February 1939, the Imperial Japanese Navy launched a large-scale attack on Hainan Island: at that time, because Guangzhou fell and the logistics supply line was cut off, the Kuomintang regular army on the island had basically withdrawn, and the Nationalist government’s navy had already After sinking and sinking on the Yangtze River and the Pearl River, there are only a few security regiments and the Qiongya Red Army guerrillas in the Wuzhishan base in Hainan Island (the famous Red Detachment of Women is here).

Facing the large ships and cannons of the United Fleet, such a weak anti-Japanese force on the island could not resist the footsteps of the Japanese army.In a short period of time, except for Baisha County, which is located inland and far away from the coast, all important harbors and towns on Hainan Island were occupied by the Japanese army, and the flag of the sun was planted.Blockhouses, piers, and ports were also quickly built by the Japanese army.They widened roads and erected iron bridges to speed up the plundering of Hainan Island's natural resources.

After occupying Hainan Island, the situation is similar to that in Manchuria and North China. The Japanese did not do anything good on this tropical island at the southernmost tip of China. The Tiandu Iron Mine and the Yinggehai Salt Field wantonly plundered the rich local natural resources.Among them, the Tiandu Iron Mine can be directly connected to the port area, but the Shilu Iron Mine is not close to the sea or the river, so it is very difficult to transport the ore.

For this purpose, the Japanese army built a railway from Shilu to Basuo Port, and then transported ore to the sea from Basuo Port.In order to lay the 55-kilometer railway line, the Japanese army conscripted tens of thousands of laborers from China, North Korea and Taiwan, and it took five months to complete the project.Then, Hachisuo Port was originally a small fishing village without modern port facilities at all.In order to accommodate ore ships over 14 tons to load and unload goods in the port, it must be expanded into an artificial port.The entire development of Shilu includes mines, railways, ports and power plants, employing as many as [-] workers, and tens of thousands of workers were killed or injured.

After the completion of the two major mining areas, the misfortune of the workers did not end. They were forced into the mines as hard labor. It was stipulated that each person had to pick eight tons of ore a day. They were not given food and were beaten severely if they could not complete the task.The laborers ate sweet potato, corn, and pumpkin soup in insufficient quantities; lived in simple thatched huts; slept in two-story bunks made of bamboo frames; and wore broken sacks or cement paper bags.Many Chinese laborers were exhausted or tortured to death.

However, with the outbreak of the Pacific War, the situation on Hainan Island has undergone new changes. Groups of American and British prisoners of war were successively pulled over from the Philippines, Malaya and Australia and thrown into the mines, while the original Chinese laborers were successively sent to mines. Going to Australia seems to be exchanging jobs with each other.

At the same time, as the higher-quality Australian iron mines and the South Pacific nickel mines were successively controlled by the Japanese army, the importance of the two iron mines on Hainan Island and the Yinggehai Salt Field in the eyes of the Tokyo wartime base camp has greatly declined.Faced with the harassment of the Qiongya anti-Japanese guerrillas, the reaction of the Japanese guarding the island became more and more slow. At first, they organized from time to time to go to the countryside to suppress and suppress them. Later, they only guarded a few coastal counties and abandoned the vast rural areas and land transportation. Wire.

Later, the Japanese "Hainan Garrison Mansion" moved from Haikou to Yaxian County, continued to shrink its troops, and left several towns such as Haikou to the management of the puppet army. He didn't care, just sticking to the two iron mines.

Last year, in order to further mobilize troops from Hainan Island and reduce unnecessary consumption, the Japanese "Hainan Garrison Office" even used the Shilu Iron Mine and Basuo Port, which had been built with a lot of manpower and material resources, as well as Yingying in the south. The Gehai Salt Fields have also been abandoned one after another—because the Shilu Iron Mine is deep inland, and along the railway line of the mine, the Red Army’s anti-Japanese guerrillas frequently carried out sabotage and harassment activities, such as scraping the railway tracks, cutting wires, and laying ambushes. The Japanese continue to cause various human and material losses to the Japanese.Compared with iron mines with higher quality and better public security environment in Western Australia (surrounded by no-man's land), continuing to maintain mining production in Shilu, Hainan Island is not worth the candle.

The Tiandu Iron Mine in Sanya is close to the coast, and the ore can be directly transported to the port. The transportation and mining costs are relatively low, and it is relatively easy to defend against the harassment and destruction of the guerrillas. Therefore, relying on the free labor of a large number of American and British prisoners of war. It continued to operate at the end of five years.

In short, with the tenacious fighting of the guerrillas and the retreat of the Japanese army, on the eve of the Tokyo nuclear explosion in October this year, except for the southernmost Yaxian and the northernmost Haikou, more than 80% of the entire Hainan Island has been taken over by Commander Feng Baiju. It was controlled by the Qiongya anti-Japanese democratic government led by Communist Party members.

As for the remaining "party-state forces behind enemy lines" on Hainan Island, that is, the remnants of the security regiments at the beginning and some "airborne special commissioners" who smuggled in later, they were already killed by the Qiongya column after the KMT and the Communist Party broke their faces for the second time. After repeated fierce battles, it was completely wiped out.

When the news of Tokyo nuclear explosion and Generalissimo Jiang's "returning the capital to Nanjing" came, Commander Feng Baiju took advantage of the fact that the puppet army on Hainan Island was confused, morale was low, and people were panicking, while the government's "surrendered" reinforcements had not yet arrived. Concentrate all forces to launch a counterattack against Haikou, recovering the largest city on Hainan Island in one fell swoop.The last remaining puppet army on the island either surrendered or fled to Hong Kong and Guangzhou on fishing boats.

So far, the Qiongya Red Army led by Commander Feng Baiju has fought arduously for more than ten years since it raised the red flag in 1927. It is hard to face the difficulties of being surrounded by powerful enemies, fighting on isolated islands, surrounded by seas, far away from the center, difficult for foreign aid, and outdated weapons. Under the predicament, it has withstood the encirclement and suppression of various reactionary enemies successively, and successfully established such a large-scale red base in the southernmost tip of China.

By the end of 1945, the entire Qiongya Red Base had grown from a mere three hundred troops at the beginning of the Anti-Japanese War to an area spanning more than ten counties, with a population of 200 million, more than 5000 armed militiamen, and more than [-] full-time regular Red Army soldiers. Considerable scale, among the Red Army guerrillas behind enemy lines in the southern provinces of China, it is second to none.Except for the southernmost coastal area of ​​Yaxian, almost the entire Hainan Island has been recovered by the red armed forces.

However, although the situation of the Qiongya column is so gratifying, Feng Baiju has no plans to gnaw at Yaxian County, the last hard bone on Hainan Island.After all, the weaponry and combat effectiveness of the authentic Japanese army in Yaxian are not comparable to those of the puppet army in Haikou.

Moreover, after the Japanese army invaded and occupied Yaxian County, they have been building large-scale construction projects. They established the Fourth South China Naval Base in Sanya Port, and established the No.13 South China Air Base in Huangliu, west of Yaxian County. The entire Yaxian County was built into the Japanese Navy. The military fortress has a fleet of destroyers and a fleet of torpedo boats permanently stationed, plus more than 50 combat aircraft, as well as nearly a hundred transport ships, supply ships and other small ships.For the Qiongya column, which is extremely short of heavy artillery and technical weapons, and has extremely weak firepower, it is basically an impossible task to conquer such a fortified port with complete sea, land and air forces from land.In fact, if it weren’t for the fact that the Japanese Marine Corps in Sanya Port had an extremely negative combat attitude in recent years, basically no longer sent out to sweep the countryside, but just sat guarding the county town, Tiandu Iron Mine and port fortress, the Qiongya Column would have to fight across the island. It won't be as easy as it is now.

At the same time, it is necessary to prevent the Kuomintang troops from crossing the sea from the north to invade: the puppet troops in Guangzhou, Qinzhou and Leizhou Peninsula have now "changed their skins" one after another.Although those "national officials" who came by airborne are now busy "accepting enemy property", no one can say for sure when the Generalissimo Jiang, who was just kicked out of Nanjing again, will think of Hainan Island This group of red heads, and then ordered people to organize a new campaign.

Therefore, even after recovering Haikou, Commander Feng Baiju was not overwhelmed by the joy of victory and recklessly pushed the newly assembled team head-on against the strong Japanese fortress, but prepared to fight against the Sanya Port. The Japanese navy, a bad neighbor, is psychologically prepared to continue the long-term confrontation.

However, in the last few days of the Gregorian calendar this year, Commander Feng Baiju discovered that he had suddenly received a gift package from heaven.

"...What did you say? All the Japanese devils in Yaxian County are gone? Even the devil navy in Sanya Bay is retreating? Are you sure you read it right?"

With an expression of disbelief, Feng Baiju, who had just triumphantly returned to the base from Haikou, asked the scout who came to report the situation.

After getting the affirmative answer from the other party, and being informed that the frontline reconnaissance sentries had taken over the county seat of Ya County, and seized a large amount of equipment and materials and many intact factories and workshops, Feng Baiju couldn't hold back any longer, and hastily pulled a company plus The security squad rushed over to Sanya.

——Although what the Japanese army has done since they invaded Hainan Island can be described as extremely cruel and tyrannical, and the people of all ethnic groups on Hainan Island have shed blood and tears.But it also has to be admitted that it was the invasion and development of the Japanese that gave Hainan Island, which had been lagging behind for a long time, a little bit of industrial foundation.

Today, the arsenal of the anti-Japanese government on Hainan Island relies on the industrial equipment that the Japanese army did not have time to destroy after abandoning the Shilu Iron Mine and Basuo Port, and a few defected Taiwanese engineers. .In this way, the traffic officers of the New Fourth Army who came from crossing the sea were still envious: there is a power grid and a railway in the factory area of ​​the Qiongya Column Arsenal!How many bases in the country can do it?

Therefore, when he heard that there was another opportunity to "pick up foreign land" in Ya County, Feng Baiju couldn't help jumping three feet high, running as if he had grown wings. I was in the same mood, lest the guerrillas who went to receive them would not know the severity and break things.

I hurried all the way to Ya County to see that the Japanese army stationed in the county had disappeared without a trace, and even the shops and Japanese schools opened by Japanese expatriates had all been emptied.The local pseudo-policemen either disarmed honestly and waited for disposal, or took off their uniforms and hid at home.Only a few toothless old men from the local maintenance committee stood tremblingly at the gate of the city, "warmly welcoming" the head of the Qiongya column into the city...

However, Commander Feng Baiju just walked into the puppet county government in Ya County, and before he had time to count the spoils seized by the guerrillas, he received another great news: the Japanese devils in the Sanya military port were also gone!And all kinds of materials and equipment left behind piled up like a mountain!Therefore, Feng Baiju only had time to instruct the guerrillas to strictly prohibit destroying anything they don't understand. In Haikou before, some clumsy soldiers smashed the seized remote radio stations and spare electronic components, which made several intellectuals in the base feel distressed. After a long time, I hurriedly set off again to Sanya.

As a result, the situation of the Sanya Fortress, as the scouts said, had been completely abandoned by the Japanese army.All the Japanese troops stationed there and the Japanese accompanying them had boarded the ship and left, and the locals were sent home.Only more than 1000 Taiwanese soldiers, translators, laborers, traders, prostitutes, and engineers who were unwilling to evacuate, as well as the "Gaosha Volunteer Team" composed of [-] Taiwanese aborigines, were still waiting in the fortress of the military port to be surrendered. and placement.

Feng Baiju was very moved when he saw that the fortress, which was once regarded as an impregnable wall by the guerrillas, was now marked with a red flag without firing a single shot.

Next, in the headquarters building of the Sanya Police Mansion, Feng Baiju met a trembling Hong Kong maid who spoke Cantonese that was not easy to understand (the difference between Cantonese and Hainan dialect is not small), and presented Wrote a "Letter from the Japanese Taijun to the Chinese Red Army".

Feng Baiju reached out to take the letter paper for a look, and found that the letter was very elegant, and the edges were decorated with gold-painted patterns, and in the middle was written with a brush:
"...Since the 14th year of Showa, I have occupied the expensive land for mining for six years. I have caused you a lot of trouble. Please forgive me. Now I am about to leave, and it is expected that I will not come to the expensive land again in this life. In the future, we will be separated, and we will say goodbye forever. The past All grievances and grievances, please smile away!

Another: There are still some Taiwanese who are unwilling to evacuate and hope to return home. In addition, there are some Miying prisoners of war in the mining area. I hope you can settle them properly.

——Rear Admiral Shen Shigetoku, Chief of Staff of the Combined Fleet"

Looking at the understated words in this letter, Commander Feng Baiju couldn't help but have the urge to tear the letter up: "... Trouble?! Eight years of resistance, so many blood debts, you guys In the eyes of the devil, it’s just a little trouble! OOXX (various swear words)”

But after thinking about it carefully, he still put the letter away again, and was going to take it back for everyone to have a look at.

After a while, the takeover and confiscation situation reported by the various troops quickly dilutes the resentment accumulated in Commander Feng Baiju's heart-this time the harvest of "picking up the ocean" is really too rich!Before the Japanese evacuated, except for burning the confidential documents, they almost left the entire military port and its associated industrial facilities intact: docks, power plants, water plants, hospitals, ship repair yards, oil depots, coal mines, etc. Warehouses, anti-aircraft artillery positions, barracks, office buildings, radio stations and other base facilities are all intact.Even the several heavy artillery on the coastal defense fortress were safe and undamaged.The troops seized five trucks, three tractors, and four small locomotives that pulled ore from Tiandu to the wharf in various places in the port area base.On the trestle were several gunboats, torpedo boats, and a long line of fiberboard motor sailboats, as well as more hand-pulled sampans.

Then, the situation of various warehouses is also very gratifying: only the oil depot in the entire Sanya military port has been basically emptied.There are also very few rice, salted fish and canned food in the food depot, but the coal warehouse is almost full. There are also a lot of firearms and ammunition in stock in the arsenal. There are more than [-] rifles and nearly [-] machine guns in the confiscated rifles alone. .In addition, there are some miscellaneous sporadic materials, mainly labor tools and construction materials such as reinforced concrete.

Next, there were actually a lot of good things hidden in those Taiwanese who surrendered. Before the Japanese retreated, it seemed that it was a very rare human touch. They sent them yesterday evening in the form of oceans and real objects. A large severance package was paid.Regarding whether to confiscate the personal belongings, canned food, candy, clothes and other items of these Taiwanese, the guerrillas erupted into a fierce debate. not too good.In the end, Feng Baiju made a final decision: the captive policy must be strictly observed, and their personal property must be protected!

After a while, the seizure report from Yaxian County was also sent over. Just like the situation in the Sanya Military Port, the food in Yaxian County was also relatively small, and it seemed that the Japanese had loaded as much as possible onto the ship.At present, more than 35 firearms of various types, [-] vehicles, [-] mortars, [-] mountain guns, and countless bullets and shells have been seized.There are still three old-fashioned biplanes and two jeeps parked at the airport on the west side of the county seat.The cannery, cement factory, textile factory, brick and tile factory, power station, waterworks, freezer, cement fish-drying platform, and paper mill opened by Japanese expatriates and military personnel are also intact, and there is even a long-term out of use. An experimental small ironworks.Although these miscellaneous types of industrial equipment are only the standard configuration of small remote towns in Western countries, in China, which is poor and weak, it can already be called an extremely advanced industrial center!

In China in this era, even in the coastal areas of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, which are known as the most developed, there is no guarantee that every county has a telephone pole!

Therefore, after receiving the enemy property left by the Japanese navy, the Qiongya Column is almost equivalent to obtaining a miniature super small Manchukuo!
"...Commander! Now that there are so many good things in the base area, we are even richer than the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army back then! But why did the little devil show so much kindness this time and leave so many things for us? You didn’t even destroy the heavy artillery on the fort when you left? Aren’t the little devils afraid that after we take over these heavy artillery, we will immediately load them with shells and attack their ships?”

The little soldier who came to report happily reported a series of data on the list, while asking in confusion.

"...Probably because they really don't plan to come back! Besides, seeing so many iron-clad ships, how dare we fire casually?"

Feng Baiju looked down at the Japanese fleet on the distant sea with a telescope, and sighed in a low voice, "...if we really want to fire a cannonball over there, I am afraid that before we have time to sink a ship, we will attract overwhelming artillery fire and leave it to us. All the good things captured have been smashed! Hurry up and pass the order! As long as the Japanese do not attempt to land again, all troops are not allowed to fire at sea, and anyone who violates the order will be punished by military law!"

——From the balcony on the top floor of the naval port command building where the two are at this time, overlooking the vast and vast sea in front of them, I saw a huge and jaw-dropping fleet, which was moored on the sunny sea in a grand manner, hanging The mast with the rising sun flag and signal flags of various colors extends continuously from a place hundreds of meters away from the coast, and the farthest point has exceeded the sea level of the visual limit, like a huge forest on the sea.

In the center of these ships, surrounded by stars as if surrounded by the moon, are four huge battleships with similar appearance, extremely mighty and domineering, each battleship has the same basic layout except for a slight difference in painting.The front of the bow is decorated with golden chrysanthemum patterns, the muzzle is covered with a golden chrysanthemum pattern cover, and the low and thick triple-mounted giant turret. The superstructure is ten stories high, and there are many secondary guns on both sides. momentum.

And the legendary achievements of these four Yamato-class battleships are indeed worthy of this kind of momentum... Even in a remote place like Hainan Island, Commander Feng Baiju has heard of the Yamato-class through the radio and the occasional Japanese and puppet newspapers captured Battleship, the name that made the Allies feel like a nightmare.

——When I learned through various indirect channels that the Japanese Yamato-class battleship had won a certain naval battle and sank a certain warship of the British and French, Feng Baiju just sighed or complained in his heart The Yankee navy is really unbeatable.But now that he has witnessed these four super giant ships like castles, no, they are towering like mountains, it is the first time for Feng Baiju to truly feel how terrifying and oppressive these four Yamato-class battleships are. All beings, how shocking it is... Even people can't help but have the urge to fall in love with it...

Around the Yamato-class battleship, there are more than a dozen aircraft carriers and heavy cruisers of the combined fleet of the Japanese Navy, in addition to a larger number of light cruisers, destroyers, submarines and various auxiliary ships floating on the water, plus as many as several Unclear merchant ships are arranged in layers and staggered, almost filling the entire sea surface in sight.The number of them is so large that I am afraid that it has exceeded the limit of imagination of the commanders and fighters of the Qiongya Column on the shore.

In short, when Feng Baiju saw this scene just now, he was really stunned, his mind went blank, and he only came back to his senses after a few minutes.

And all kinds of indescribable and complicated thoughts made him feel a lot of emotion. He thought a lot about the future in his heart, a lot...

A moment later, in the conference room of the headquarters building of the Hainan Garrison Mansion in Sanya Port, Commander Feng Baiju pointed to the huge fleet moored outside the window, and said loudly to the frontline commanders and fighters who had convened a meeting, "...comrades, a modern and powerful You have all seen what the navy should look like today. Although we don’t have such a powerful navy now, even if the revolution wins, we probably won’t have the scale we see today for a long time to come. However, the long coastline and vast territorial waters of the motherland still need our protection. The warships of imperialist powers can no longer be allowed to run amok in our ports and coasts! Now, since we have liberated the entire Hainan Island, and We have received a small amount of inheritance from the Japanese Navy in Sanya, so we should make good use of them! Although there are only a few small gunboats left behind by the Japanese, we must get hold of them as soon as possible to resist imperialism and the Kuomintang The reactionaries may invade across the sea in the future..."

However, before Commander Feng Baiju, who was very excited, had finished speaking impassionedly to his comrades about the importance of building a navy and coastal defense, the platoon leader who was ordered to go to Tiandu Iron Mine to take over the prisoner-of-war camp hurried over and interrupted the meeting , told him a very bad news.

——In fact, the Tiandu Iron Mine itself is in good condition, the equipment in the mining area has not been damaged in any way, and the Japanese or puppet troops have not had any ambushes there. An Fen, did not cause any trouble because of the retreat of the Japanese army.

The only problem was that there were so many prisoners of war that the guerrilla fighters who took over had no idea what to do with them.

"... How much?! 5 people?!" Hearing this number, Feng Baiju felt almost dizzy. Will this little fortune be eaten alive?"

——Although he is in a remote place like Hainan Island, and the news is not well-informed, Feng Baiju also vaguely knows that the current anti-fascist alliance is close to breaking down, and the capitalist camp represented by the United States and Britain has a rather close relationship with himself, the Chinese Bolsheviks. subtle.Now that the Americans have openly supported Chairman Jiang, sent a large amount of aid to the Kuomintang reactionaries, and supported this bald butcher's "suppression of bandits", it is hard to say whether they will directly participate in the war and completely stand on the side of the party and the Red Army opposite.Therefore, before receiving clear instructions from the central government, these American and British prisoners of war on Hainan Island must never be released—besides, even if these foreigners are released, they have nowhere to go now but can only disrupt public order.

However, Feng Baiju really couldn't afford to keep them locked up in the prisoner-of-war camp: the population of the entire Hainan Island is just over 200 million, and the people have always been very poor. For off-duty cadres and soldiers, the financial situation of the anti-Japanese government is already tight.If these more than 5 foreign devils are to be locked up for nothing, the Qiongya Anti-Japanese Government must be eaten into bankruptcy.

Of course, these foreign devils don’t just eat but don’t cook, but the problem is that when the Japanese manage the Tiandu Iron Mine, they can ship the iron ore dug overseas, and then ship rice and miscellaneous grains from places such as Vietnam and Thailand. feed these prisoners of war.However, after the Qiongya Column, which was solitary behind the enemy, took over the Tiandu Iron Mine, the surrounding area was still temporarily blocked. What's the use of continuing to mine so much iron ore?Even if they want to smelt iron and make farm tools, there is not so much coal on the island!The coal that was seized has to be saved for power generation!Do you want to burn charcoal?

However, no matter how difficult it is, this big burden must be carried. We can't collectively execute these American and British prisoners of war and feed them to sharks, right?
After silently calculating the amount of food captured, Commander Feng Baiju sadly realized that this amount was not enough for [-] prisoners of war to feed for three days!
"...Commander, those foreign devils called out to us when they saw us, saying that the Japanese hadn't given them food since yesterday morning, and only distributed some biscuits and salted fish to them before they left. We ate it all up, and now everyone is clamoring for us to take care of the meal!"

The platoon leader who came to report the situation said with a bitter face, "...comrades have searched carefully over there, and there is nothing edible in the entire prisoner-of-war camp except for radishes and taro grown in a vegetable field. It was the escaped local overseers who moved out together with the villagers in the nearby cottage..."

"... Uh... Preferential treatment of prisoners is the discipline of the army. They can't just starve to death like this... Take out the little rice left in the devil's warehouse in the military port! Cook some rice porridge for these foreigners first! Remember to add more water and boil it thinner, so you don’t want to eat it up in a few meals..."

Feng Baiju stretched out his hand to rub his temples, and said distressedly, "...Then send a telegram to the Central Committee for instructions, and be sure to explain the difficulties we are facing..."