Xinshun 1730

Chapter 1172 Preparation for War ([-])

This time, Zhao Liben really found a taste of his hometown, especially the straight canal, which looks like the salt river in his hometown.

The place he was going to was called Niganbo. It must not have been called Niganbo in the past. If it is transliterated, it is generally called Negombo in later generations.

But there is a lagoon here, with the ebb and flow of the tide. Although there is still a long time before it becomes an inland lagoon completely isolated from the sea like West Lake, the scene of the dry mud is still very suitable for the name of this dry mud lake.

Zhao Liben is just an ordinary civilian who has some experience and goes out to have a look.

He will not explore those history and games, but instinctively feel that the scenery here is somewhat similar to his hometown.

Naturally, they would not know that this 200-mile-long, [-]-[-]-foot-wide canal built by the Dutch is the greatest legacy left by the Dutch to Dashun.

It's not just this canal built from Gaolangbu to the cinnamon producing area in the north, which can transport supplies.

It is precisely because of this canal that the Trojan horse plan to emigrate to Nanyang succeeded, and this canal made great contributions to Dashun's capture of the Ceylon Chinese.

To put it sinfully, the plan at the time of the emigration included the legalist method of "the Dutch oppressed the Chinese for the infrastructure construction, and the Dutch were notorious for doing it. After the infrastructure construction, Dashun came to rescue these Chinese".

The alternation of stormy rainy and dry seasons in the Indian Ocean, as well as the division of cinnamon-growing areas and coastal ports, made the canal very important.

Now that the canal has been repaired, this canal that introduces fresh water also undertakes a certain irrigation function, and spreads the Ceylon Chinese villages along the canal, running through the north-south traffic of the Dashun ruled area.

As long as the Chinese who repaired the canal were still alive, Dashun would always be the master of the king among the Chinese in the southwest of Ceylon.

Zhao Liben didn't know all of this, but felt the familiar canal style and the architectural appearance of the familiar canal houses along the canal.

This place is different from places like Gaolangbu. After all, the style of Gaolangbu is still too European, but here is full of Chinese style.

There are small black-covered boats passing through the canal, because the big boats can't go, it's too narrow, and this taste is corrected.

He only needed to walk along the canal for the Niganbo he was going to, and not far away, he saw a small town.

There is no need to ask where the military camp is, because there are rumbling guns on a hill not far away, and the local residents are used to it.

The commercial area of ​​the city is distributed along the canal. The place very close to the military camp is the largest fish market in Ceylon, and you can smell the strong fishy smell here from a long distance.

Some fishermen were loading baskets of fish into cars, which should be transported to the military camp.The fisherman was not Chinese, but the fisherman was Chinese. Zhao Liben went over to say hello, handed him a cigarette skillfully, and asked how to find someone in the military camp.

The fish transporter was easy to talk to, so he said that the tavern on the commercial street next to the fish market was the easiest place to find soldiers.It is impossible to enter the barracks. If you want to find someone, you can wait in the tavern on the commercial street. When there are many people, you can ask.

After thanking him, he followed the guidance and went to a tavern area near the canal.

The military salary of the soldiers is paid monthly, so these commercial streets will naturally become prosperous.There are quite a lot of Chinese here, so I found a relatively large tavern, ordered some food and wine, and asked the people in the tavern again.

The owner of the tavern said: "It's easy to inquire about people. Waiting for the rest time in the military camp, a large group of people will come here to drink. At that time, you can buy some cooked food such as pork head meat and cooked beef. Please serve a plate. Just ask and ask."

"Soldiers like to eat meat. They seldom eat meat in the barracks. They eat fish, seaweed, and coconut curd. Wine...alcohol is cheap here. If you buy them wine, they probably won't be very enthusiastic."

I don't know if the tavern owner's words are true or not, but Zhao Liben decided to follow this suggestion.

In the evening, a group of people really came, shouting and drinking, and they were all Chinese.Regardless of whether they are government soldiers or paid soldiers, the local Sinhalese and Tamils ​​have neither the obligation nor the right to perform military service.

When Zhao Liben saw these soldiers, he couldn't help but praise them. They were all strong men, with big arms and round waists, tall and broad shoulders, really sturdy.

This is the camp of Dashun's elite garrison in Ceylon, and several well-trained combat engineer battalions are all here.

The place where Zhao Liben heard the sound of guns and cannons was originally a Dutch fort.After the siege of Dashun, this fortress became the place where Dashun trained combat engineers.

It just so happens that there are canals here, and it is also close to the largest fish market in Ceylon, which is more convenient for supplies.In addition to eating rice, to maintain this kind of high-intensity training, fat and protein are necessary. This place still continues Liu Yu's style when he was training in Weihai, eating fish, tofu and vegetable oil.

Dashun still pays more attention to the previous battles between Britain and France in India.However, Du Feng made a wrong judgment several times.

After all, Liu Yu's siege method was learned from France.

According to Du Feng's inference, wouldn't it be easy for the French to attack the British castle?

However, in practice, it is very different.

Du Feng also sent someone to look at it, thinking that there was something special about the British castle, and finally came to the conclusion that it was not a problem with the castle, but a problem with the French troops stationed in India.

Several times, it was because of the siege that the British could not go down, which caused the British to come back.

Therefore, Dashun has added some combat engineer battalions in Ceylon. In fact, at least [-]% of the bloodlines are grenadiers.It's just that in view of the special situation in India, the grenadiers did not become an elite force for line decisive battles, but strengthened towards the old line of the grenadiers-throwing grenades, fighting for bastion ditches, and cruel artillery slopes. It's just that Dashun has strengthened the skill of digging pits, weakening the fire rate and loading training of some European grenadiers.

Another one is that Dashun has professional skirmishers who use rifled Minie bullets, and there is no need to strengthen the musket training of grenadiers.

In view of this idea of ​​building an army, and adhering to the strategic judgment that Dashun’s delivery capability in World War I could only fight a small-scale war of 5000 people, most of Dashun’s elite combat engineers in Nanyang were miners.

In addition to the environment and climate in Nanyang, the strong men in Yanyun or Laoshan in Henan, Shandong are not very suitable, so most of the soldiers are selected from various mining areas in Nanyang.

Bangka Tin Mine, Ceylon Gem Mine, Borneo Gold Mine, Java Copper Sulfur Mine, Keelung Coal Mine, etc.

This made Zhao Liben encounter a rather embarrassing situation, the language problem.

He is from Huainan and fled to the Kanto, so he was still exposed to the range of northern mandarin.

The dialects of various mining areas in Nanyang are either Fujian or Cantonese. Even if there is Mandarin, it sounds confusing.

After listening for a long time, I finally heard a fairly familiar pronunciation, so I hurriedly followed the tavern owner's instructions, packed some cooked food, and moved over.

After saying the name and asking, he really recognized it.

Another two catties of cooked beef and a pile of fennel beans were cut, and in exchange for the enthusiasm of the other party, one of them ran out to call someone.

Not long after, the two brothers who had been separated for many years finally met.

Zhao Liben held back for a long time, and then he choked out a word.

"San'er, you've grown stronger!"

His younger brother shrugged his nose, held it back for a long time, held back his tears, and called brother.

"Are you married yet?"

"Second brother and sister-in-law, are you okay?"

The two asked questions almost at the same time, and neither of them answered, just giggling.

It took a long time for the two of them to sit down and drink a bowl of wine first. Finally, their tongues became able to speak normally, but they didn't know where to start.

"You have to go back to the barracks at night?" Zhao Liben thought about it, and finally thought of a question that should be asked at this time.

"Yes, you have to go back to the barracks at night. You should be able to have a holiday the day after tomorrow. Recently, a batch of hand cannons for throwing grenades came from our side, and they will be assessed the day after tomorrow. Generally, they will have a holiday after the assessment. The training has been fierce recently."

Zhao Liben didn't know what a grenade-throwing hand cannon was, and he didn't know that this kind of weird hand cannon, which looked like a hand cannon during the Hussite War, was a crap thing that assisted in throwing grenades. The Grenadier had a brief revival.

But then it was replaced by the new mobilization system of flowering grenades, comprehensive mobilization and organization techniques to encircle the bastions without attacking and battle forces.It wasn't until the resurgence of trench warfare that the alienated version of this thing, such as grenades and mortars, reappeared.

However, on Dashun's side, it was promoted among combat engineers in order to increase the range.It's just that this thing is not suitable for large-scale battles in the European battlefield. The smoothbore thing has too high requirements for users, and it is not suitable for battles, only suitable for trenches and fortresses.

Dashun would not choose to let these combat engineers trained with a lot of money to fight the front line.In field battles, they basically stood aside, relying on naval maneuvers to sneak in and quickly capture the fortress.

Zhao Liben didn't care about what a hand cannon was, and he didn't even think about it in his mind.

Instead, he asked: "I heard, what are you doing? After retiring, you will go to the Southern Ocean to grant land? How about that place? If it is true, then I will go back and go there with your second brother first. At first, I thought about going to Kanto. But you have been a soldier for so many years, and the three hundred acres must be designated, and this is also a family property. Brother, let’s go to another place. Is the Southern Ocean reliable?"

The younger brother nodded and said: "Reliable, some officials in our camp have been there and told us about it. If you want to go, it's really good. The land over there is cheap, but you can't hire people to work, and there are plenty of land. No landowner. It’s just right for you to go. I’ll be there for another two years, and then I can let my family grant land there first. The officer said, I’m not afraid that we will run away as deserters. If we want to go there, ordinary boats can’t go there. So in another two years, the imperial court will start to resettle the family there."

"It is said that it is a special allocation of funds, a specially built boat, and it is given away every year. It seems that it is not too expensive to buy a ticket by yourself, right? One person's military salary for two or three years?"

(End of this chapter)