The Imperial Age with the Resurgence of Han Style

Chapter 29 Qi’s Minions

January 1723, 1, Jinmen (now Karachi, Pakistan).

Originally a small fishing village on the coast of the Indian Ocean, Jinmen became the main anchorage for Qi's Indian fleet after it was completely ceded to Qi more than 60 years ago.After decades of development, it has become the most important trade entry and exit port in northwest India.The grain, rice, cotton and other agricultural products produced in the inland areas such as Baluzhi, Punjab, and Sindh are continuously transported to Tianjin Port through the Indus River shipping, and then transferred to the mainland of Hanzhou, as well as Persia and Arabia. , East Africa and other places.

Jinmen is not only the headquarters of the Indian Fleet of the Qi Navy, but also the government headquarters of the Xizhou Governor-General (the jurisdiction covers the vast plain area between the Hubu River and the Indus River). Therefore, nearly [-] people gather in the entire city. Less than [-]% of the remaining population is Qi and Qi-Indian mixed race, and most of them are local Sindhis, Rajputs, and Baluchis.

Carrying a heavy luggage, Li Yanliang got off the boat with several companions, then got on a military carriage and drove towards the Xizhou garrison headquarters in the city.Through the car window, he subconsciously looked in the direction of the dock berth.

The Persian mission, which consisted of nearly a hundred people, was led by the port staff and went to the VIP room to rest, waiting for someone from the Governor-General of Xizhou to greet them.In the team, more than a dozen Persian women wearing traditional Persian costumes and veils stood out.

As the princess of the Safavid dynasty and the daughter of the new Shah Abbas III, Nasheed Mirza will eventually be sent to the mainland of Hanzhou to marry into our Daqi royal family, thus deepening the deep "deep relationship" between the two countries. "Friendship", and hoped to gain strong support from the Qi government to help Abbas III, who was in danger, to revive the Safavid Empire.

The so-called Iraqi people are on the water side.

Li Yanliang sighed slightly, leaning his head gently against the wall of the carriage, closing his eyes and saying nothing.

"Why, after more than 20 days on the boat, all the energy and energy are exhausted?" A fellow captain Renyong (lieutenant) touched Li Yanliang with his arm and asked with a smile.

"Well, I feel like I'm still floating." Li Yanliang continued to close his eyes and replied in a muffled voice.

"Have a good rest tonight. When you meet with the commander of the Xizhou garrison tomorrow, don't be so listless. Otherwise, you will leave a bad impression and delay your future."

"Now that we are deployed to the garrison, what good future can we have?" Li Yanliang shook his head and said: "Except for the officers and artillery troops, the entire garrison is our Qi soldiers, and the soldiers under my command are all Indian natives. Is it possible that we still expect to lead the garrison?" Do you want these people to make great achievements?"

"You can't say that." Chu Zewu said: "With a low-ranking military rank like ours, in the mobile army, the most we can do is a platoon leader or a tactical staff officer. But we have to station troops in overseas territories. In the middle, at least you can lead a company, or even a battalion, and you have some experience of serving as a chief officer. Isn't that the best springboard for promotion in the future!"

"Really?" Li Yanliang had a somewhat suspicious look on his face.

After withdrawing from Isfahan to Bushehr Port, in view of his outstanding performance over the past year, Li Yanliang was promoted to the temporary rank of Renyong Colonel. After being submitted to the local army headquarters for review, he will be officially awarded this rank.

I thought that after I was promoted to military rank, I would be appointed as the company's tactical staff officer or the company's auxiliary officer. After a few more years of experience, I would be promoted step by step to the rank of Yuwu Colonel (Captain) and become the commander of the first company. official.

However, he never expected that the superior officers would dispatch him to the Xizhou garrison along with several officers, saying that they wanted to consolidate and strengthen the training intensity and combat capabilities of the local garrison.

But the problem is that the northwest of Xizhou is the Karat Khanate, a vassal state of Qi, and the Sindh area to the east is the territory of the Nawab Kingdom, which the Mughal Empire has always regarded as a local rebellion. There is a small distance to the southeast. The Gujrat territory is also the Governor-General of Mozhou. To the west, oh, that is the ocean.It can be said that there is no risk of invasion by powerful enemies in the entire Xizhou territory.

If you work in a local garrison like this, you probably won't have any chance of making any achievements. How can you get awards and promotions from the top?
"When we left Persia, the Shah of their empire had officially made a request to us, Qi, to borrow troops." Chu Zewu looked at Li Yanliang, who looked depressed, smiled slightly, patted him on the shoulder, and said, "I think, Our Majesty the Emperor and the cabinet government will definitely respond to the request of the Persians, mobilize troops to help them expel the Afghans, and restore the ruling order of the Safavid dynasty."

"Well, so the commander sent us to Xizhou." Li Yanliang said with self-mockery.

"Do you think the war against Persia is limited to Persia?"

"Otherwise?...Huh?" Li Yan's conscience moved, "You mean, Afghanistan..."

"That's right!" Chu Zewu nodded and said: "Our Qi army will land from Bandar Abbas Port or Bushehr Port and march straight to Isfahan. With our combat power, the Afghans will definitely be expelled Isfahan. Where do you think they will flee to when the time comes?... They will definitely flee to Kandahar! By then, our Xizhou garrison will join forces with the Karat Khanate, cross the vast Gobi and desert, and directly The home base of the Afghans has cut off their escape route, and is attacking our main army from both front and back. This group of tribal rebels should be completely wiped out. Maybe, through this war, our Qi country's influence can be extended to Afghanistan." Li Yanliang thought for a while and couldn't help but nodded slightly. As Chu Zewu said, if we want to completely deal with the Afghans, we must not only defeat them on the frontal battlefield and recapture Isfahan, but we must also dig deep into the ground to capture Kandahar and directly destroy them. their escape route.

I was in a daze all the way, and for the sake of an unrealistic relationship between my children, I failed to think deeply about this section.

"I don't know if the Indian natives in Xizhou will be able to fight after being trained?"

As early as the establishment of Indian trading companies, several Qi trading bases such as Surat, Anfeng (today's Cochin City in southwest India), and Ningyang (today's Pondicherry, India, also translated as local governance) employed Some local people were recruited to form a convoy to protect the safety of Qi merchants and goods.

As Indian trading companies grew, they began to recruit a small number of native personnel and some European and Indian mixed-race people to perform security work in fortresses and colonial cities.These European-Indian mixed-race children were basically born between the Portuguese and local Indians. The reason why they were favored by the trading companies was that they were "outsiders" like the Qi people and did not have much local religious beliefs, which made them easy to win over and manage.

In addition, trading companies also recruited sporadic high-caste Hindu people such as Rajputs and people from Qi to form escorts, but this was not maintained for a long time.

Until around 1670, Qi State gradually controlled the Kingdom of Cochin through years of infiltration and seized the military command of the kingdom. Indian trading companies began to focus on building and developing Indian local servant armies to provide the necessary supplies for Qi State's economic and colonial expansion. force support.

The first Qi-India War broke out in the seventh year of the Han Dynasty (1677). In the battle to conquer Surat, more than [-] Cochin local servant troops, led by a small number of Qi Army troops, played a vital role.

Subsequently, the Qi State also began to make every effort to form a servant army led by local indigenous people in the Mozhou Governorate ceded by the Mughal Empire (today's Katiawar Peninsula in Gujrat State, India), which was used to maintain local order in peacetime. During the war, he accompanied the Qi army on expeditions to various places, and crossed the ocean to explore Arabia and East Africa.

Throughout India, many local servant armed forces, including Indian trading companies and Bangladeshi trading companies, are divided into national and indigenous mercenary forces.However, compared with the huge population resources in India, the officers and soldiers from Qi State are always less than the local indigenous mercenaries.

The main reason why those Indian locals joined the Qi colonial servant army is that since the first Qi-India War, the Mughal Empire has shown an irresistible decline. The central authority no longer has power, and local governors and princes have begun to demarcate territories. To protect themselves, people’s livelihood and economy in various places have become increasingly difficult.India already has a market for hiring military labor. In some areas, high-caste Hindus or true believers have turned into professional mercenary groups in order to make a living.

Under the influence of the increasingly commercialized economy, they rely on selling their labor force to serve their employers to earn remuneration. These people themselves have no modern national concept and sense of identity.In the eyes of these Indian officers and soldiers who served, the people of Qi were not much different from the feudal lords at all levels in India during this period.As long as they do not violate the traditional village identity and religious beliefs and can receive satisfactory military pay, they are willing to be loyal to any employer that funds recruitment.Tribes suitable for recruitment, such as the Telugus in South India and the Rajputs in North India, were considered to be good sources of "quality" soldiers and were recruited in large numbers.

At present, the composition of Qi's armed forces in India is: a small number of Qi's regular army troops - three regiments of more than 5000 people, stationed in Bangladesh, the Kingdom of Cochin and Mozhou, and a large number of local indigenous servant troops - this part of the army The total number is about [-].

Before 1695, there was a rule in the military garrison in various places of Qi State that non-active soldiers of Qi State could not serve as officers.Therefore, among the large number of local servants, those serving in the army as officers are all Qi people.In this context, except for ordinary Qi soldiers or Qi-Indian mixed-race soldiers who were willing to stay in the servant army, the remaining indigenous soldiers formed the main source and main force of Qi's army fighting in India.

Later, in order to win over people's hearts, in 1695, the Qi State opened up the promotion channels for low-level officers, allowing non-Qi people to serve as officers with the rank of Xuanjie Xiaowei (Major) or below.However, in order to hold back the Indian local servants, all technical arms and artillery units in the army were personally controlled by Qi people.

As for the sources of the servant army, in addition to high-caste Hindu warriors or farmers, a large number of true believers and low-caste people were also recruited and absorbed into the army.Because compared to the former, soldiers with the latter two statuses are not afraid of going to sea to fight because of religious beliefs.

Although many soldiers stationed in the Qi army are from high castes, the Qi military will deliberately downplay caste consciousness in order to facilitate control. However, soldiers with the same religious beliefs will be divided into unified companies.

Although the Indian indigenous servant soldiers showed a certain degree of discipline and obedience, they were still discriminated against and treated unfairly by Qi officers in daily training and management, and their loyalty and combat effectiveness were doubted.However, in general, Indian soldiers can tolerate racial discrimination and prejudice from their superiors in Qi, fight hard and maintain the professional ethics of Indian mercenaries.

Although it is somewhat incredible, from the perspective of these indigenous Indian mercenaries who come from different regions and believe in different religions, as hired military labor, they cannot ruin their jobs because of some adverse factors that affect the reputation of their profession.

Moreover, joining the local servant army of Qi State and becoming a mercenary soldier, you can receive a large salary on time every month. After all, it is a very promising and secure career.

(End of this chapter)