Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 196 The Predicament of the Fort in the River ([-])

After two days of rest in Hezhong Fort, the "grain collection team" led by Xie Hansan set off again.

This time their target was the Hottentots who lived a half-nomadic, half-gathering life on the south bank of the Beg River.To tell the truth, the life of these Hottentots is not rich, and some tribes can even be called poor.But who makes it very difficult for the people on the east coast now, the food can only last for more than a month, in this case, no matter how polite, honest and shameful, they can only grab it.

On November 11, this food requisition team equipped with four cannons and more than 6 rifles led a surprise attack on a Hottentot tribe with the last hundred or so Khoisan slaves.Under the attack of shotguns fired by cannons, the group of Hottentots quickly retreated, and the food requisition team did not pursue them. They took over the tribe's camp, and then seized more than 100 animal skins and more than 1000 heads Cattle and sheep.

Ten days later, on the evening of November 11, the food requisition team again captured a Hottentot tribe who was migrating. They took most of the tribe's property as their own, including more than 16 cattle and sheep and a small amount of grain.

On November 11, the grain expropriation team, whose morale was high because of consecutive successes, carried out the largest attack in history.This time, in addition to one hundred army riflemen, two platoons (30 people) of local militia and two hundred spearmen were dispatched.It is worth mentioning that Khoisan slaves accounted for only half of the two hundred spearmen, and the remaining half were recruited from the new oriental immigrants.These oriental immigrants are the foundation for the development of the East Coast people in South Africa in the future, so Mo Ming specially opened the arsenal and distributed each of them a breastplate as a protection.

This kind of differential treatment also made the Khoisan slaves extremely jealous.It's not that the Khoisan people didn't shyly ask the officers to be equipped with the same armor, but they soon became honest and responsible under the officers' batons.

"Reiterate the discipline again!" Anda Fifteen hovered expressionlessly in front of the two hundred spearmen who were lined up in four rows, and said: "Listen to the drums and march forward, and the pace must be orderly and not chaotic! Listen to the officer's orders when fighting , the action must be consistent, keep the queue neat, do not rush forward, do not delay behind, and those who violate the order will be executed on the spot! Of course, the most important thing is that no one is allowed to run away, and those who disobey the order will be beheaded!"

Zhang Daniu, who had just trained for less than 20 days, could not help but twitch his calves when he heard Anda Shiwu uttering the word "cut" one after another.My mother, I have never beaten anyone since I was a child, except for fighting with neighbors and children. Now this official is actually asking me to kill people. How...how did this happen?He glanced out of the corner of his eye, and found that Zhang Defa on his right was slightly trembling with his left hand holding the spear shaft, obviously he was also very scared.

The two of them were relatively unlucky.Although Zhang Daniu is a child of a poor family, he looks big and thick, not to mention Mr. Zhang next to him. He usually does farm work and can keep up with nutrition. He looks strong and strong.And he's not very old, just in his early thirties.As a result, the two unlucky people were immediately spotted by the director of the militia in the Fort in the River, and they were conscripted as "glorious" spearmen.

Both of their mud legs have been conscripted, and there is no reason for those former thieves who are powerful at a glance to be missed by the militia director.Even, one or two of them were promoted to be the little head in the spear's hand - the platoon leader.Coincidentally, one of them named Sun Shengjun was the platoon leader of Zhang Daniu's platoon, and he was in charge of nineteen of them.

This Sun Shengjun is very young, in his early twenties, but he is very mature in his work.He did everything ordered by the superior in an orderly manner, and he didn't always forget about it like those stupid mud legs, so he was quickly appreciated by the Sergeant Sergeant of the Anda [-]th Army, who was acting as the temporary commander of the Spear Battalion, and was promoted to the rank of platoon commander. long.Moreover, according to some widely circulated gossip that Zhang Daniu inquired about, this Sun Shengjun is said to be from the same town as Zhang Zexian's adopted son, Zhang (grandson), and he is highly valued on weekdays.If he hadn't had bad luck this time, he wouldn't have been trafficked to this strange place, and he might still be popular and hot in a certain place in Daming.

"Brothers, we are all poor people who have run into bad luck." After Anda Shiwu spoke, the platoon leaders began to mobilize their soldiers one after another, and Sun Shengjun also spoke "New Mandarin" with a strong Shaanxi accent ( (that is, the Mandarin spoken by the people across the world) started the pre-war mobilization: "But since we have arrived at this place, then motherfuckers can stay at ease and don't think about it. Not much, but just a little good. What? By the way, there are fewer people and more land! The Shangguan also said that after this battle, everyone will be the so-called "self...free people" - anyway, it means their own people. Since everyone If they are their own people, the land must be given to the big guys to plant. First, each person will get ten acres, and if they make meritorious service and receive rewards later, then the goddamn rewards will continue! No land? Then go grab it! Those Kunlun slaves are snatching it! If we can't beat those Kunlun slaves, we'll just die!"

Sun Shengjun took a breath after finishing his speech, then looked at everyone's expressions, and continued to encourage: "This is all good watering land, brothers! Think about it in our hometown, we want to get a piece of land to plant That is not easy. Besides, what if we have land in Daming now? In Shaanxi, how long has it been since it rained? There is nothing to grow in the land, and the big guys have nothing to eat, only wild vegetables , gnaw on the bark, and even the bark is gone in the end. Then there is only...cannibalism!" At the end, Sun Shengjun may have thought of the previous years of struggling to survive, and his expression was quite sad.

"Platoon leader, I'll do it with you! Damn, in our hometown in Anhui, we rented a few acres of land from the owner to plant, and we couldn't get a full belly all year round. At the end of last year, my mother-in-law and baby also starved to death, Lao Tzu His mother doesn't believe that this world is such a bastard! I want to earn land, I want to marry a wife and have a baby! I want... woo woo..." As he spoke, the man in his thirties suddenly burst into tears : "I just want to survive."

This man's words resonated with many people. These people are basically refugees struggling to survive in Daming. After hearing this, they couldn't help but become excited.Even Mr. Zhang Defa, who had relatively seen "the world", couldn't help being a little excited: "I want to revive the family business. I have a hundred acres of land. I want to revive the family business..."

Sun Shengjun saw that the soldiers' emotions had been mobilized. Having worked in the Peasant Army, he knew the truth of striking while the iron is hot. He had to take advantage of the hot blood of these recruits to fool them into rushing forward.Therefore, he immediately turned his head to look at the commander Anda Fifteen behind him.

Anda Fifteen nodded to him approvingly, seeming to appreciate his pre-war mobilization work.Then he saw that the other platoon leaders had almost mobilized. The mood of this group of recruits had obviously improved, and their desire to fight was much stronger than before.It seems that this Sun Shengjun is still a good man, at least he knows how to improve the morale of soldiers by mobilizing people's inner desires.I heard that he was an officer in the Peasant Rebel Army before and had war experience, so maybe he can be granted a military status after the inspection.

"Listen to the rhythm of the drummer and trumpeter, and get ready...forward!" The drummer played "Victory Belongs to the Army March", and the saber in Anda's hand suddenly swung down, and the spearman battalion began to slowly advance under his order .The position they were in was a gentle slope, and the spearmen had to carefully control their speed and pace when going downhill.Down the gentle slope was a Hottentot camp, a large camp, with hundreds of Hottentots shouting loudly in front of the camp, as if threatening the intruders.Behind them, more Hottentots, old and weak, women and children, were packing up their things and preparing to escape.

Xie Hansan led the army soldiers in a neat formation to follow about a hundred meters behind the spear formation, ready to attack at any time when the battle situation was unfavorable.However, the Hottentots' weapons and fighting will are weak, and generally speaking, they don't need to do anything.During the previous two expeditions against the Hottentot tribe, these Khoisan slave spearmen who had defected to them were often able to kill them inextricably.These Khoisan slaves were still able to fight when there were soldiers from the East Coast Army in the rear, and they no longer saw the way they fled when they heard the news before they took refuge.

This kind of thing made the army commander Xie Hansan very confused.He thought of those officers and soldiers of the Ming Dynasty who had defected to Jiannu. These men who feared the enemy like a tiger pulled a braid behind their heads, and seemed to radiate infinite fighting power, and could even easily defeat those former comrades.

With the battle ahead, Xie Hansan stopped thinking about it and watched the battle with wide-eyed eyes.The artillery on both sides had fired several rounds of shells at the crowded place of Hottentot before the two sides engaged in battle, killing many enemies and greatly shaking the opponent's will to fight.At this moment, as soon as the two sides engaged in battle, these red barbarians couldn't help but retreat steadily.Even with their family and property behind them, many people couldn't help but start to back away.

"It's very easy!" Lieutenant Lan Guo, the deputy of the company standing on Xie Hansan's right, said happily, "I don't think we need to take action."

"Yeah." Xie Hansan nodded noncommittally, and said, "It's good to let these recruits see blood, but the gold content of this battle is too low, and it won't have any training effect at all."

"If the enemy is too strong, their losses will be great."

"How can you become a talent without going through hard battles? You can train a strong army through training? This is impossible!" Xie Hansan snorted coldly, "An army can only become a truly strong army after going through the baptism of blood and fire. Sophisticated equipment and training are useless, that's a showy army. Well, the enemy has collapsed, and it's time to reap the results."

On that day, the army on the east bank killed more than 100 Hottentots and completely disintegrated their resistance, while their own casualties were only more than 20 people.The spearman battalion who fought for the first time had a good record, and the riflemen at the back didn't even need to intervene in the whole battle, pushing all the way until the resistance of the Hottentots was completely defeated.

In this battle, more than 5000 catties of grain and more than 600 cattle and sheep were seized, basically alleviating the food crisis in Hezhongbao.

(End of this chapter)