FEATURE:Penghu troops prepare for strike

By David Lague and Yimou Lee / Reuters Add TT as Preferred Source In the pre-dawn darkness on an island in the Taiwan Strait, Taiwanese troops earlier this month pulled long, gleaming 105mm shells from their green plastic canisters. After all the ammunition had been checked and safely loaded through hatches on four tanks, troops waited silently for the order to fire.The soldiers are among the thousands of troops who form a garrison in Penghu County and they were training for war with China.A popular tourist destination known for its pristine beaches and coral reefs, the strategically crucial cluster of 90 islands and islets about 50km off the southwest coast of Taiwan proper would be hit in the first wave of an attempted Chinese invasion, senior Taiwanese security officials and military ex