Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 288 War Machine ([-])

The Fort in the River these days has been shrouded in a tense atmosphere.After the red and green flags moved eastward, intermittent news of the battle with the barbarians came back, and it was at this time that they learned that the said to be very powerful barbarian tribe in the east was called the Kama tribe.However, whether it is the Kama tribe or the Maca tribe, they are just a barbarian tribe to the people on the east coast, and they are still preparing for the war according to their own rhythm.

Since the 2th company of the army was mobilized in mid-February, it has been conducting arduous training near the Fort in the River.After the end of the war, this reserve force, which performed unsatisfactorily in the last eastward operation, under the leadership of the company commander Xiao Baitu, regularly carried out a lot of physical fitness, formation and shooting training, and continued Arrived this year.After this purge, the mental outlook and technical and tactical level of the 104th company have been greatly improved. Although it is not as good as the main standing company now, it is not the same as it was back then.

The 104th company is training, and the other two local troops in South Africa, the South African Cavalry Company and the South African Field Artillery Company, naturally cannot be left behind.The company commander of the South African cavalry company is the veteran cavalry officer Leonid. This once rebellious Cossack cavalry seems to have been smoothed after many years in the East Bank army. Now he is a full-faced A middle-aged officer with a weathered look.Li Xiaowei, the woman he had pursued back then, changed N boyfriends and finally married a time-traveling member under the persuasion of the executive committee intentionally or unintentionally. Disappointed, Leonid finally met with his old superior Xu Under Yu's introduction, he married a young lady from the Rodriguez family.

After getting married, Leonid devoted all his attention to army training. When he was in China, the cavalry unit under his command was always the first in every confrontation training, which Xu Yu admired very much.After the knife incident in the Executive Committee building a few years ago, Leonid, who was dispatched to South Africa, continued to take charge of the newly formed South African Cavalry Company under the care of his comrade Mo Ming from the National Power Alliance.Under the training of Leonid, the South African Cavalry Company, a cavalry unit with Shaanxi bandits as the backbone, has now become one of the most important armed forces in the River Fort area, whether it is tracking, hunting down barbarian tribes, or investigating The South African cavalry company has shown above-level quality in enemy intelligence, or in the impact of the enemy's formation that is about to collapse.At the end of February, the South African cavalry company, which has expanded to 110 cavalry, went to the east under the order of Liu Ang, who stayed behind, to attack and kill the scouts of the Kama tribe, and practiced with battle.

The South African Field Artillery Company is also a technical service that has been focused on construction in the River Fort area recently.At present, there are two six-pound guns, two eight-pound guns and one twelve-pounder gun. There are 45 official artillerymen, all of whom are experienced gunners who have undergone years of rigorous training.Originally, according to the military system on the east coast, each field artillery company had only four cannons, but because the South African field artillery company was a local army, the military system was not perfect, so Mo Ming asked for one from the mainland for the South African artillery company. A precious [-]-pounder Army artillery, used as the treasure of the South African Field Artillery Company.

The South African Field Artillery Company with five guns is currently conducting various trainings in the shooting range in the eastern suburbs of the city.Training with them, there is also a South African engineering battalion and supply battalion composed of some militiamen and Eight Banners.It is worth mentioning that these two units are temporary units without military registration and even uniform uniforms.Unlike the South African Cavalry Company and Field Artillery Company, although these two units are local units, the soldiers are all full-time professional soldiers, and their wages are paid by the local finance of Hezhongbao.And these two so-called engineering battalions and supply battalions, to put it bluntly, are actually just local militia armed forces. Because of the temporary formation of the war, they will be revoked after the war. The wages are naturally very low compared to the regular army.The South African Garrison Command prepared them with tools (engineer shovels, shovels, picks, etc.), a small amount of weapons, rations and pickles, and they came to report for training to provide logistical support for the frontline soldiers.

During the training period, each soldier's salary is only 1-2 yuan per month, and the salary for officers and non-commissioned officers is slightly higher.Except for a small number of leading officers and non-commissioned officers in these two units who were composed of the River Fort militia, most of the soldiers were native South African freemen from the Eight Banners.These freedmen failed to join the warrior class for one reason or another, so their daily life was very unsatisfactory and life was very tight.With the advent of the Great War, Mo Ming made a big move and selected more than 300 strong and strong people from these people to be incorporated into the newly established South African Engineering Battalion, and then selected more than 600 people to be incorporated into the team responsible for the war The South African supply battalion for logistics transportation.

With the firepower output density of the East Coast Army far exceeding that of contemporary Europe, the corresponding pressure on logistics is also increasing.Moreover, with the large-scale installation of artillery, the requirements for road traffic are getting higher and higher.Therefore, it is imperative to form specialized engineering units and supply units, and this is why the Ministry of the Army insisted on retaining the engineering units and supply units during the previous major disarmament.

In the case of intensive training in Hezhong Fort, the days passed day by day like this. On May 5, Mo Ming, the newly appointed Supreme Commander of the South African Theater, Captain of the South African Pioneering Team, and South African Security Commander, returned to Hezhong Harbor on a troop carrier.He came with the elite 5st Company of the Army, which was recently transferred to the South African Garrison, and an artillery company assigned to the Army Command (1st Company of Independent Field Artillery, four artillery pieces).As for the 1rd Company of the Army, it will arrive at Hezhong Port in mid-May.

The Army's 1st Infantry Company, with Chang Kaisheng as the company commander, is known as the first company of the entire army and has been stationed in the capital area for a long time.Well-equipped, well-trained, or a special Dalian team.The so-called Dalian team organization is a new organization currently being studied by the Ministry of the Army.Because many grassroots officers have reported that the current establishment of 16 people per platoon (1 platoon leader and 15 soldiers) seems to be a little weak in firepower in the platoon salvo, so the Ministry of the Army took the first company as a pilot and changed the number of people in each platoon to It became 1 people (21 platoon leader, 1 soldiers).Coupled with some expanded gunsmiths, cooks, military doctors, messengers, standard bearers and other personnel, the size of the Army's 20st Company has reached an unprecedented 1 people, far exceeding the size of an ordinary company of 240 people.

In addition to the large establishment, the 1st Company of the Army is also the first company in the army equipped with 32-C flintlock rifles.Different from the 32-B rifles that are currently installed on a large scale, the 32-C rifles are equipped with a fixed bayonet device at the original cleaning bar under the barrel, where a special steel bayonet can be fixed.As for the position of the cleaning rod, it was moved to the side of the barrel. After the 32-C type flintlock rifle is equipped with the newly finalized 41-year-old steel bayonet, the total length reaches a terrifying 1.75 meters, which means that soldiers can finally stop throwing away when fighting at close range. The rifle, the saber drawn from the waist, and the man fought.They can take the bayonet out of the sheath, fix it with the hollow handle of the bayonet with internal thread and the fixing device with thread and raised bayonet, and then they can fight the enemy.

In normal shooting, for the convenience of reloading, the bayonet is removed and placed in the scabbard at the waist. At this time, it can be used as a dagger.And when the officers ordered the bayonets to be used for hand-to-hand combat, the soldiers took out the bayonets and fixed them, so that the musketeers also had the ability to fight hand-to-hand.The installation of the bayonet still benefits from the increasing machining accuracy of the machine tools of the local first machinery factory. Most of the bayonet hollow handles and bayonets they process can match. Under the processing of skilled masters, the pass rate is even high. More than 75%.

After the 1st Company arrived at the Fort in the River, the 2nd Company, which was ready to go, immediately escorted a group of supply troops to the castle construction site in the upper reaches of the Berg River in small boats.In this area named Gouda, all the red and green flags, all the South African cavalry companies, and the Eight Banners artillery (four artillery) have been concentrated.At present, the barbarians only have scouts or small troops haunting this place, scouting for information while harassing the construction progress of the construction site.

But their efforts are doomed to be in vain.First of all, a moat has been dug on the Gundam Fort a few months ago, and the river water is drawn in from the Beg River next to it.Three barbed wire fences were erected on the inner side of the moat, and a large number of warriors of the Eight Banners were stationed in it.On the contrary, they were accidentally attacked and killed by the attacking South African cavalry company, and the loss was not small.

Inside the barbed wire is the city wall that is being built in full swing.Nearly 3000 people, men, women and children, participated in the red and green flags. At present, only a small part of the work has been roughly completed. It will take another year or so to complete the work.However, the barbarians on the opposite side obviously won't give them this time. Judging from the recent situation, maybe after the autumn harvest, the war will start completely.

The construction materials needed for the construction site of Gundam Fort and all kinds of materials needed for people's life are transported upstream from the downstream by small wooden boats. The more than 200-kilometer-long supply line, without good road facilities, even if it passes through flat prairie, it is too much to use a large freight wagon to transport it.Therefore, water transport is the best shortcut. Not only is the transport volume large, but the key point is that it is relatively safe. After all, there is a river blocking it, so it is not so easy for the enemy to attack the transport fleet on the east bank.

On May 5th, the 15nd company escorted the supply battalion and brought a large amount of supplies to the Gundam Fort construction site.At the same time, the autumn harvest operation in Hezhong Fort has been carried out for several days. More than a thousand people will continue to reinforce here to ensure the smooth completion of Gundam Fort.

(End of this chapter)