Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 653 New Qingdao, New Life ([-])

The soldiers who were eating immediately got up and stood at attention when they saw the officer coming.The two of Pei Qin smiled and signaled everyone to continue eating, and then walked along a small road and chatted.

"When I left Yantai, I counted 2503 brothers, including 3718 at home." Wang Jiazhong took the lead to break the silence. "After the quarantine period ended a few days ago, I checked the statistics. Only 1888 brothers were still there. There are only 2720 people, and many died on the road. Of course, some people stayed in Australia, Xinhua Island and South Africa. In two days, I will go to Beijing to take up the post of Naluoshizi's consultant. The remaining people are less than two Thousands of brothers... You have to help me look after them. We all fought life and death together in Shandong, and now it is really not easy to come here across the ocean. They are all familiar faces, and I will suffer if any one is lost. No."

Pei Qin was also a little silent when he heard the words.This Gansu man from Shunjun patted Wang Jiazhong, the former Shandong horse bandit, on the shoulder, and said, "Isn't it just to go to the place where the tower is pulled? I heard that the Spaniards there have no more than four thousand troops." However, our army has more than [-] defenders, with sufficient supplies and high morale. Originally, the army planned to mobilize [-] soldiers to support the past and launch a general offensive after the summer wheat harvest. Now that our army has arrived, A counterattack can be launched almost immediately. This battle is easy to fight, and there will be no casualties, so don't worry."

Of the [-] soldiers who set off from the Far East, after traveling across the sea to the mainland, there are now only more than [-] left.Although these people were not familiar with firearms and the way of modern warfare, they had fought against the Qing army many times in Shandong, and their combat experience was not bad.After coming to the mainland this time, according to the intention of the Ministry of War, it was necessary to train for two or three months first, and some of the more elite troops should be weaponized before being pulled to Santa Fe to participate in the counterattack against the Spanish army.

However, the Joint Chiefs of Staff rejected the opinion of the Ministry of War after research. They decided to immediately send the 500 people to the Santa Fe battlefield, under the command of Jiang Zhiqing, and launch a large-scale counterattack against the Spaniards in front of them as soon as possible to completely defeat this group. Spaniards, end the face-to-face combat - everyone is tired of endless fighting.

According to the order of his superiors, Pei Qin was appointed as the commander of this newly formed army. He will personally lead the army to arrive in Buenos Aires before January 1. Arrive at Santa Fe City by boat, and then obey Captain Jiang Zhiqing's command.Today is already January 20, which means that Pei Qin will settle the families of the officers and soldiers in the next two days, and then lead his troops to board the ship and head to the port of Buenos Aires.

At the end of the path is a large desolate meadow, occasionally dotted with small clumps of woods, and occasionally some puddles and small streams can be seen, and some animals such as otters and foxes inhabit among the streams and woods.

There were two tall Andalusian horses tied to the side of the road. After obtaining the consent of the person guarding the horses, the two turned over and rode on the horses, and began to ride slowly on the grassland.To the north of Qingdao Port is an inland wilderness completely inaccessible, but a few kilometers to the west there is a planned small town, and the two quickly arrived here on horseback.

"This is the land assigned to us by Shangfeng." Wang Jiazhong pointed to a tall flagpole erected on the horizon in front of him and said, "Minister Liao of the Ministry of War mentioned it when he met me before, saying that there is It's a good place, let's go and have a look."

Pei Qin nodded, and rode to the front together with Wang Jiazhong.The flagpole was planted on a small soil pocket, and the surrounding grass seemed to have been roughly cleared, and there were geometric patterns drawn with lime powder everywhere.The two thought for a while, and immediately understood that the ground marked with lime powder should be the location of the local castle, government offices, warehouses, shops, etc. in the future.

The sound of waves could be faintly heard not far ahead, so this place should not be far from the sea.There are also several criss-crossing rivers in the north of the castle, one of which is even very wide (the St. Lucia River), and the white-capped river rushes into the bay.The woods on both sides of the river are quite dense, and from time to time some animals seem to be full of life.

"It's here." Wang Jiazhong did not dismount, but controlled the horse under his crotch to pace slowly on the spot, and said: "There is a castle to be built here, it is said that the name is Guiyi Castle, to commemorate the tens of thousands of us. Come back and help the native land."

"Haha, what a Fort of Guiyi." Pei Qin laughed twice, then rode his horse and rushed to the bank of the river, observed it carefully, and then turned back.Then he got off his horse again, climbed up a small dirt bag with a flagpole, looked at the bay in the distance and the quietly flowing St. Lucia River, and even bent over to the ground to grab a handful of dirt Spread it in the palm of your hand and look carefully.

"The land is good!" After a long time, Pei Qin said succinctly: "There are a lot of puddles and creeks here, let's work harder to build a reservoir like Potang Reservoir, and dig seventeen or eight ditches. It can irrigate tens of thousands or even more than [-] mu of fertile land. This land is really better than the crop land that my Lao Pei saw when he was in his hometown in Gansu. Little is left. This is indeed a good place!"

In fact, what Pei Qin said is right. This land is the small town of Santiago Vazquez in Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay.The Government Council established Guiyi Fort here because of its unique agricultural resources.The plains formed by the impact of the St. Lucia River are relatively fertile, with an annual rainfall of more than 800 millimeters. The nearby rivers are criss-cross, and a little improvement can be a good irrigation canal, which has great potential for agricultural development.

In the planning of the Executive Committee, Qingdao Port will be the trade center, financial center and shipping center of the East China Republic in the future.In such a large regional core city, the number of people working in various industries and even foreign merchants will be huge, so it will inevitably need some purely agricultural towns to provide it with food, vegetables, meat, poultry eggs, etc. kinds of food, and Guiyibao is one of them.

Another town that performs the same functions as Guiyibao is Toledo Town, a few kilometers north of Qingdao Port. Of course, this town is now named Xinxiangbao—meaning new hometown.The agricultural conditions of Xinxiangbao are also quite good. There are flat wilderness everywhere nearby, surrounded by the Xinxiang River (Toledo River), and on the north bank of the lower reaches of the river is the newly built Corps II, which was built less than a year ago. Fort - At present, there are thousands of students studying and training in it.When there are enough manpower in the future, it is also possible to organize manpower to dredge and widen the river so that the two towns of the Second Fort of the Corps and the Fort of Xinxiang can be connected by water.

A total of more than 1500 family members of the orphans of the Shun Army and the officers and soldiers of the Wang Jiazhong Department will be resettled in Xinxiangbao, where they will open up wasteland and cultivate land, and at the same time build castles and houses.And after the battle in La Plata is over, the more than 1000 soldiers of the Royal Department will also end their military career, temporarily retire and return to Xinxiangbao to settle down.

As for the [-] officers and soldiers of Pei Qin's direct lineage, who were basically bachelors, they were designated to settle in Guiyi Fort.It faces the open sea and is the estuary of the St. Lucia River, so its geographical location is relatively important.After investigating here, the Ministry of the Navy decided to build a large lighthouse and a small fort on Isla del Tigre (Isla del Tigre) near the estuary, and deploy about a dozen artillery pieces to guard against possible enemy situations.

After the lighthouse and fort were built, the infantry and artillery stationed there would of course be selected from the former volunteer officers and soldiers of Fort Guiyi.Moreover, it is located at an important point, which is the flank of Qingdao Port. After these ex-soldiers collectively retired, they settled down to reclaim wasteland, just like the production and construction corps of later generations. It is also very good in terms of safety.

They lived and fought together for a long time, and lived together after retiring. The system and organization have not been broken. Coupled with the strict militia training system implemented by the East Bank throughout the country, the combat effectiveness of these people may not degrade much after retiring. .Therefore, with them here, the left wing of Qingdao Port will be safe. If the enemy wants to find a way from here, they will be doomed to be broken.

According to the plan of the Government Affairs Council, in the middle of this year, about [-] Serbian and Romanian female slaves will be sent here first, so that the officers and soldiers of the planned "production and construction corps" can take root and reproduce.Daughters-in-law can be assigned very quickly in the first year. This kind of generous treatment shows how much the Executive Committee and the Government Affairs Council attach importance to them.Of course, on the other hand, we can also see how much the Executive Committee attaches importance to Qingdao Port.

Pei Qin and Wang Jiazhong wandered around casually for a while, and then both galloped back to Qingdao Port.After handing over the horses and returning to the construction site of the Expo Hall, the officers and soldiers had already finished their lunch. From a distance, these guys were sitting together in groups of three or four, laughing and laughing idly.Wang Jiazhong looked at them with a smile, and at this moment he had almost let them go.Seeing this, Pei Qin sighed, then quickly summoned several mid- and lower-level officers over, and ordered them to go down to form a team immediately.Sitting on the ground laughing and making noise in broad daylight, how decent is this? Is this fucking army an army?

There are about two or three days before boarding the ship to Buenos Aires, and these two or three days can't let everyone be idle. I have to find something to do for the gang under my command, otherwise, wouldn't it be military discipline? Be distracted.After much deliberation, Pei Qin decided to let these more than 3000 strong young men be divided into groups to immediately load the construction waste (broken bricks, broken stones, stones, earthwork, etc.) all over the ground into a horse-drawn cart, and then pull them to the seaside for reclamation. The pier trestle can be regarded as a contribution to the construction of Qingdao Port.

(End of this chapter)