Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 2328

"Hey, I don't know what these Indians think. These soups and waters are like rotten food, but they eat them with their hands. Are you tired?" On August 1697, 8, the commander of the Diu garrison In the ministry office, Lieutenant Colonel Yao Tong ate his lunch spoon by spoon.

The staple food for lunch was a plate of rice, which was covered with khaki indescribably sticky toppings. Yao Tong mixed it in distaste, and ate it slowly, already thinking of the Huai who served him. Master Yangcai.But this time when he was in the army, eating and sleeping with the soldiers was a rule he set himself, so naturally he couldn't make a fuss about it.

The Diu garrison is about to be restructured.In fact, the garrison and garrison of the whole country on the east coast and overseas colonies will be restructured, that is, they will be uniformly changed into a certain garrison regiment, with three infantry battalions and one artillery company under each regiment, and when it is full, there will be more than 2700 people. .There is no doubt that this kind of garrison regiment is not at the same level as a mixed regiment serving as a field force in terms of technical weapons or personnel size. It is not bad if the combined combat power is one-third of the field force. It's not as good.

However, the garrison regiment also has its own advantages, that is, most of the soldiers are locals (most of the officers are exchanged posts), and they are familiar with the local conditions in their hometown.And because the home is local, if there is an enemy invasion, their morale will be relatively high when they are guarding their hometown. In addition, the maintenance cost is also very low. Most of the expenses are provided by local finance, which is relatively cost-effective.

And since fiscal expenditures are tied to local finances, it is natural that the combat power of each garrison regiment is naturally different.First of all, in relatively affluent places like Sakhalin Island and Diu, the garrison regiment can not only be fully staffed, but also have a much stronger training intensity.But in relatively poor places like Rabaul and Djibouti, it is hard to say. First of all, the staff will definitely not be full, and it will not be possible in this life. Then, the training intensity is probably a little lower.No way, who made you have no money?Training is very expensive, and recruiting personnel also costs money. The subsidy given by the state alone is definitely not enough to maintain a full-staffed state of 2700 people. It would be good to have a thousand people.

The Diu Management Committee is backed by the Indian trade, and there is a large amount of sponsorship from the East African Transportation Company every year. The finances are at the level of local tyrants, and the defense team is naturally full of staff.And with money, this training naturally cannot be relaxed, especially Lieutenant Colonel Yao Tong is a relatively strict chief officer, so even in the hottest August, he would not allow the troops to drop out of training. Share joys and sorrows to set an example.

Commander Yao knew how quickly the troops would deteriorate if they were not strictly controlled in a wealthy place like Diu.Leaving aside, let’s just say that the 1500 Portuguese soldiers transferred from the Portuguese mainland a few years ago, after several years of defense in Goa, a happy place, are now all soldiers. Extortion and robbery are good players. Indian businessmen dare not speak out, but if they are asked to fight head-on with the mercenaries of the Dutch East India Company, they will hesitate a bit. Human mercenaries are not much better.

Lieutenant Colonel Yao Tong, who watched these things with a cold eye, was determined not to allow his subordinates to degenerate to this point.Therefore, he has been strictly training, never relaxing.He even felt that this was not safe, and he discussed with the New China Pioneering Team a while ago to transfer the Diu garrison to the central plateau of the island to fight the Melinas and let them see blood—no blood No matter how well trained the troops are, they are not reliable. After all, many problems cannot be solved by training alone.

The New China Pioneering Team was naturally very meticulous about this kind of good thing delivered to their door, and then they agreed wholeheartedly.They happily transferred the two county security regiments from the front line, and after repairs were completed, they were shipped to the island of Diu, and the two battalions of the Diu garrison regiment plus artillery companies were replaced to fight on the central plateau.

This "training" force of less than 2000 people fought on the central plateau for a whole year, and when it finally returned to Diu Island, it had lost one-third of its personnel, most of which were due to illness, but there were also a lot of combat casualties.Now Lieutenant Colonel Yao Tong's company has just returned from the Central Plateau battlefield. He has carefully seen it before, and the style and temperament are indeed different. There is a lot less impetuousness and more precipitation. From the looks of it, it is actually a low-intensity battlefield.

By the way, here is an additional mention of the battle on the Central Plateau of Xinhua Island.After years of squeeze-style military reclamation by the people on the east coast—that is, moving forward while emigrating to the old land to reclaim wasteland, slowly squeezing the enemy’s room for activity—the once powerful Melina power has declined greatly.In the repeated battles with the people on the east bank, they almost did not escape any advantage. They suffered heavy losses in personnel and property, and their territory was greatly reduced.Even after a big war last year, even the capital of these people (actually a small city) was occupied by people from the east coast, and the organized resistance basically completely collapsed.Today, there are almost only a few old and young people left with some people who are persisting in the final resistance of the hard force, and it should be completely destroyed within a year or two.

As soon as the Central Plateau was won, the biggest bottleneck in the development of the New China Pioneering Team was broken.The altitude here is relatively high, the climate is relatively cooler, and there are relatively complete water conservancy and irrigation facilities built by the Melina people for thousands of years, so the potential for agricultural production is very large.On this land, the New China pioneering team no longer intends to plant cash crops like the surrounding coastlines, and plans to mainly focus on food planting, so as not to still go to India and South Africa to purchase food.To this end, they formed a huge state-owned agricultural development company, enclosing large tracts of fertile land to grow food to supply the whole island.Of course, no one cares about what you like to grow on the land bought by private individuals, as long as you think the pepper you grow on the plateau will still be competitive when it is transported to the seaside.As for grain, the national reserve grain depot has built a large number of barns in various places, so you don’t need to travel long distances, just sell it at the nearest one, it all depends on how you choose.

By the way, the New China Pioneering Team government has held two high-level meetings recently.The content of the discussion was to move the capital to the central plateau. On the one hand, it could manage the newly acquired land nearby, and on the other hand, it also took a fancy to the environment there.Who doesn't like the plateau flats with a cool climate?The humid and sultry coastal sandy land has already turned off people's appetite, so it is better to go to the mountains to enjoy the blessing.

Lieutenant Colonel Yao Tong recently heard rumors that he might go to the New China Pioneering Team for an exchange post—he is now the director of the Diu Management Committee, and he will naturally be the captain of the New China Pioneering Team—so he is more concerned about the news there , Both commercial trade and agricultural development have been studied in detail.However, he also knows that he is a warrior, and these local construction matters are still managed by the original local team.The executive committee used him mainly to let him eliminate the remnants of the Melinas on the central plateau as soon as possible, and at the same time focus on taking care of the French base in the Mascarene Islands.Once the two countries go to war, this must be one of the battlefields. Without a military officer in command, the executive committee is not at ease.

Of course, India may also be one of the battlefields in the future. After all, the French also have a solid colonial stronghold here, and they have been operating for many years, and their influence is not small.Lieutenant Colonel Yao Tong hoped that the best officials to succeed him in the future would be soldiers—well, even the bastards in the navy would recognize them with a pinched nose. People squander clean.

"Go to the military camp immediately after eating. I still have tasks in the afternoon, so I won't play with those bastards. Please help me keep an eye on it." After eating the last spoonful of rice in the bowl, Yao Tong wiped it with a towel Wiping his mouth, he instructed his adjutant.

He was going to meet the Rajput Bhaji in the afternoon.This bandit-turned-businessman—well, now a bandit again—has recently converted to Buddhism and is the largest of the many local forces controlled by the East Coasters in northwestern India, with 3500 men currently under his command. Nearly 2000 rods, more than 500 horses, and more than 40 artillery pieces have survived many times of encirclement and suppression by the government and army, and there is already a strong trend of separatism.

Budge is also quite interesting.Perhaps because of his background as a wine merchant, he is very talented in doing business.Last year alone, he sold more than 400 million meters of Indian cotton cloth to Diu. In addition, he also exported [-] tons of grain, a large amount of pepper, copra, palm oil, dried fruits, gemstones, silk and other commodities, which made the East African transportation company Earned a lot of money.Naturally, the Management Committee of Diu also obtained a large amount of tax from it, and all three parties obtained great benefits.

According to the opinion of the East African Transportation Company, the Diu Management Committee should give Baji more help. The reason is that Baji now occupies a large territory and is very obedient. He launched a "positive faith movement" on his own territory. Many Hindus and even Lulu converted to Buddhism—because he received a large amount of sponsorship from Guoxing Temple—and at the same time actively planted tobacco, pineapples, papayas, corn, sweet potatoes, cashews, peppers, The income from economic crops such as lemons is stored in the Agricultural Bank on the east coast of Diu Island.

In addition, he also showed certain talents in transit trade and entrepot trade.Because of the blockade policy of the East Coast Navy in the Gulf of Cambay and the Arabian Sea, a considerable part of the trade in northwest India needs to go to sea from the southern coastline.At this time, Baji played a role. His troops attacked caravans trying to trade from other ports, forcing most of them to take the route of Diu (and a small part of them went to the shallow island area), which guaranteed It is of great significance to the local economic development that the Diu Management Committee can continuously obtain stable income.

Such a "God of Wealth" who can bring a lot of income to the people on the east coast naturally has a reason to receive greater funding.In fact, there is no need for the East African Transportation Company to remind. Lieutenant Colonel Yao Tong recently planned to sell a batch of weapons to Budge at a cost price, and at the same time provide support in intelligence and tactics, allowing him to control a larger territory and population.Now the situation in India has become more and more obvious, that is, the world of great struggle has arrived.Whether it is the Dutch, the English, the French or the East Coasters, they are all trying to cultivate their own agents.Baji is so capable and obedient, so you might as well invest more.

And this is also his own good fortune, it depends on whether he can catch it!

(End of this chapter)