Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 971 A bold idea ([-])

With a long whistle of "Woo", the inland shallow water gunship "Amur River" slowly drove into the Chongmingsha Wharf, and then lowered its anchor.A group of dock laborers who were captured by the Qing army on the shore slowly walked over in shackles. Under the supervision of the supervisor, they laboriously unloaded some supplies from the gunboat-the supplies were mainly gunpowder, wrought iron shells, and a batch of repairs. Completed armor, knives and guns, there is currently a small military supply depot on Chongming Sands, and these items will be temporarily stored here for easy access.

It is said that it has been five months since Liu Haiyang ordered the end of the Battle of the Yangtze River in September last year (1652).In the past five months, most of the soldiers and horses under Zhang Mingzhen and Zheng's troops have been withdrawn, leaving only a small number of people stationed on the front line of Chongmingsha (mainly the navy), guarding together with the people on the east bank. This bridgehead position at the mouth of the Yangtze River.

The soldiers and horses under Liu Guochang of Dashun lived under the eaves of the people on the east bank, so naturally there was no saying whether they would withdraw or not. They have now returned to Yin County to garrison.However, when the people from the east bank attacked Chizhou Prefecture and Ningguo Prefecture last year, they sent several naval gunboats upstream, carrying more than a thousand Liu Guochang elite soldiers to the Shunjun site in Hubei, and ordered them to return to support Hubei. At the same time as the war, another [-] or [-] soldiers were brought in from the Shun army——Dashun really used the people from the east bank as a talent training base.

In addition, Hao Shangjiu, the Xintai Marquis of the Nanming Dynasty, was not in a hurry to withdraw. After they annexed some anti-Qing rebel forces in Ningguo Mansion, their number has increased to more than 4000 (among them, only those who followed Hao Shangjiu from Chaozhou to the north at first) accounted for [-]%), but the combat effectiveness has declined.Fortunately, there hasn't been any big wars recently, so they were able to garrison in Chongmingsha, suppress the local area, and train soldiers at the same time, striving to improve their combat effectiveness.

Therefore, with the main forces of the army and navy on the east coast already withdrawn, the defense of Chongmingsha is now entirely supported by Hao Shangjiu. When the attack comes, they must ensure that they can persist for 15-30 days, and wait until the east coast army comes to rescue.

Oh, by the way, apart from Hao Shangjiu's 340-odd troops on the island, there are also hundreds of troops commanded by two generals from "My Great Qing", namely the 270 troops led by Qianhu Changchun, the former Chongming guard. Yu Renhe led more than [-] soldiers led by General Hua Bende.The two surrendered before the Allied forces came last year, and their attitude was better later, so they were exempted from reporting to the hard labor camp. In order to disgust the Qing court), acted as a security force.

After the battle, Shao Shude, Liu Haiyang, Wei Boqiu and others had some exchanges on the fate of the Tianyou Army and the Tianzhu Army. Finally, considering that Wei Boqiu, the Japanese company under the name of Wei Boqiu's Deputy Commander Wei, operated the Ezo land, he had to have some weapons on hand. Therefore, he handed over this 600-strong surrendered army to him, and he took it to the north to guard the safety of Kushiro Port, Akkeshi Port and other places-although their combat effectiveness is very suspicious, they are at least stronger than mud legs Some.

A few days ago, Lieutenant Junior, the first-class staff officer, accompanied by Ricardo, the backbone of the former Mei Agency and the current Second Lieutenant of the Gendarmerie, arrived in Chongmingsha on a naval gunboat, and read out the Heishui Security Command to Changchun and Hua Bende. According to the transfer order, today they will take several small boats, under the escort of naval gunboats, leave Chongmingsha to Dinghai Port, where they will change their military uniforms and weapons, and then take a large ship to transfer to Kushiro Port via Jiaozhou Fort.

Chang Chun and Hua Bende are surrendered generals, and the soldiers under them are also surrendered soldiers. In addition to the glorious record of killing, wounding and capturing more than 1.6 Qing soldiers across the Yangtze River for half a year last year, these two people are not happy at all. With half a thought of resistance, he obediently accepted the transfer order from the security headquarters, and then went to a place they knew nothing about as a soldier.

To be honest, Changchun and Hua Bende may not understand the situation, but Junior and Ricardo are a little surprised by their "treatment": because these two troops—oh, yes, in the future They will be merged into one, the designation was won by Deputy Commander Wei himself, and it will be called the First Independent Garrison Brigade. Captain Chang Chun and Deputy Captain Hua Bende will not only change into the khaki military uniforms of the east coast at Dinghai Port At the same time, they will also throw away these rotten weapons in their hands, and uniformly replace them with three-meter spears and armors (a small number of people will also be equipped with muskets); The spearman is paid two yuan and five cents a month, and the musketeer is paid three yuan a month, including food and lodging.

This kind of treatment is beyond the reach of most servant troops.Let’s say that the ten divisions under the control of the East Coast people have more than 3 servants. The best-paid troops under Chen Zhilong, Du Chong, and Dong Xueli generally only pay 1.5-2 taels of silver per month (the standard of the frontier army in the late Ming Dynasty) , The monthly salary of the small number of horse soldiers is only 6 taels of silver (but you have to be responsible for the fodder money), and this money does not include food expenses, clothing expenses and other miscellaneous expenses. fold.

Fortunately, these officers and soldiers of the servant army can purchase a certain amount of food (including rice noodles, salt oil, soy sauce, meat, tobacco, alcohol, etc.) Sun Chunyang's South Store at the army station sells it on his behalf, which is also a means for the people on the east bank to indirectly influence the servant army), which is a great help to many soldiers with family burdens; However, with the cloth, fish and miscellaneous grains rewarded by the people on the east coast during festivals, the life of the soldiers of the servant army is obviously better than that of the local people.

But their treatment is not enough compared to the stand-up team. The monthly salary of an ordinary infantryman is 2.5 yuan, which is a real deal, without any discount.All kinds of benefits and bonuses are even more than those of the servant army soldiers. After all, it is their own division commander who pays the servant army, and the military salary is also raised in the station (the station is generally a county), and the money is given to the volunteers. The other is the Blackwater Security Command, and the financial capabilities of the two are different.

It is really not easy for more than 610 people in the First Independent Garrison Brigade to get this treatment (the Japanese company will subsidize about one-third of the military salary), which shows the superb skills of Deputy Commander Wei.Although Li Kaduo is Wei Boqiu's student and confidant, but to be honest, he is not very clear why the teacher is so good to these "bad troops" whose military skills are in a mess in his opinion. Could it be that he is blind and can't see what else they have? Other special skills?

Of course, these people don’t have any special skills. They are actually very bad troops—they all belong to the second and third tiers in the green camp of the Qing army—but Deputy Commander Wei Boqiu is almost crazy about mastering an armed force, so this time He had the cheek to ask Shao Shude to hand over this army to him as commander.Perhaps it was because Shao Shude didn't care much about such a security force, or maybe he had a good impression of Wei Boqiu, so he finally agreed to reorganize this force and hand it over to Wei Boqiu for use—mainly for the maintenance of the Japanese company's pioneering areas. Safety, to put it more bluntly, is to guard against the Matsumae family.

Naturally, their meager fighting power couldn't match up with the Matsumae family who overcame obstacles and exploited the Ezo land, so improving their fighting power and morale became a top priority.For this reason, Wei Boqiu did not hesitate to order the Japanese company to pay a considerable part of their military salary in order to obtain an official designation. People, in short, use all means to improve their combat effectiveness, because maybe Deputy Commander Wei will use them soon.

As for where Deputy Commander Wei will use them, if this is said, it will be enough to startle many people: the place where Deputy Commander Wei made up his mind is not elsewhere, but Japan!Yes, it is Japan. Based on the knowledge he has acquired and the intelligence and rumors he has collected over the past few years, Deputy Commander Wei has now determined that the defense forces in some coastal areas of Japan are extremely weak, which is suitable for the people on the east coast to launch a swift and swift raid.

For example, Deputy Commander Wei found out that Tanegashima off the coast of Japan is extremely easy to capture.There are less than 500 Japanese residents on this small island, which is divided into two counties, Kumamo and Yumo (the Yumo County is smaller, with only about 500 people), and the handicraft industry is extremely developed - most of the local people are like rural areas in England , engaged in handicraft manufacturing in addition to farming, so the industrial base is very good.In addition to these semi-agricultural and semi-industrial amateur craftsmen, there are about 1000-[-] professional craftsmen on the island, mainly engaged in matchlock gun manufacturing and related industries, which can be regarded as high-tech in this era. "heavy industry" because they inevitably involve metal smelting, casting, forging, processing, heat treatment and other processes in the manufacturing process, using many machines or tools, processing many parts, technology, organization and The discipline requirements are quite high, and this is what makes Wei Boqiu extremely coveted.

As a person who secretly determined to develop the industry in the Far East, Wei Boqiu dreamed of having a group of skilled workers, and he had been coveting the Japanese arquebus manufacturers on Tanegashima for a long time, and he did not intend to capture them. Instead of making guns, I want to transform these craftsmen who are very familiar with machining and manufacturing into industrial workers in other industries-it doesn't take much trouble at all-this is a huge fortune for the Heishui area whose industrial base is poor and white. Huge wealth, if you rely on yourself to cultivate, it is impossible for more than ten years, so it is better to just grab it.

It's just such an action that may damage the diplomatic relations between the two countries. It is still very difficult to convince Shao Shude, and this is the main reason why Deputy Commander Wei wants to control a force that he can command-of course, If he wants to go to Japan to rob people, relying on Changchun and Hua Bende's crooked melons and cracked dates will definitely not work in a short time. He still needs to find a way to persuade Shao Shude, otherwise he will have to give up.

(End of this chapter)