open sea

Chapter 411 Mercenaries
Deng Zilong blocked the west port of Guam after losing a large number of warships with only two thousand ships, Jiazi and Jiaxu.

Next, he was not in a hurry to attack. There were too many enemy troops in the simple but huge port. There were three barracks they could see alone. Not to mention a dozen shore artillery, it would not be beneficial to forcefully attack the past.

The key is that Deng Zilong has few soldiers. He only has nine ships and eight or nine hundred banner troops.

Among the nine ships, there is another ship that belongs to Zheng Cong, deputy Qianhu. The beams and pillars under the deck were discounted.

His strategy is to do what a vanguard officer should do, not to take credit for the Chinese army, but to do enough to fortify the wall and clear the country.

Except for another Jiashen warship and an iron-clad warship with [-] damaged shark ships swimming around the periphery of the port, the remaining four warships sailed in two teams from the port to the northeast and southwest to circle the island, searching for enemy troops on the shore. The deployment of... Guam is too small, and most of it can be seen by walking around the coast.

On the deck, Deng Zilong's official boots walked slowly with heavy footsteps. Beside him, a row of distressed New Spanish sailors were kneeling, and the bannermen who were experienced in Yi language were asking them about the situation.

After being sunk and smashed, these unlucky warships dragged the broken wooden barrels and floated until the end of the battle. The Ming army cleaned up the battlefield and were salvaged along with those wooden barrels and wooden boxes. Obviously, they already knew what would happen to them. .

"General, I've said it all." The subordinate who grew up in Haojing and was recruited as a banner soldier with double pay due to his proficiency in multiple languages ​​walked up to Deng Zilong and said, "There are three tall and deep-eyed people who claim to be hired by Xiyi For the people of Aleman, Xiyi will give them three coins a month."

Deng Zilong took the Ducat from his subordinates, weighed it twice and said: "I saw it in Xiangshan, it was worth a penny, and the military salary is not high. Are you willing to come here to fight for your life?"

Three qianjin in January is equivalent to two, two or four qianyin, which is definitely not low, but the mercenaries prepare their own armor, and Deng Zilong felt that the price is not too high including the excellent armor of the three Almans.

Of course, the three of them have nothing now.

"The three of them have different salaries. The one in the middle is a nobleman. Xiyi gives him eight in one month."

Deng Zilong nodded slowly. He had already learned about the status of Westerners, and he still found it easier to accept.

The people of the Ming Dynasty were promoted because you passed the imperial examination or joined the army, had meritorious service in governance or had military exploits, so you were promoted and received higher salaries and military salaries than others; military pay.

In Spain, the price difference brought by status is two to three times, which is the salary of mercenaries; if it is a noble who directly serves in the infantry, the salary is more than three times that of others.

"What about the military strength?"

"There are more than 800 people like them on the island, more than [-] Xiyi troops, and three American regiments, but now there are only two." Banner Army explained to Deng Zilong: "General Manager Lin is on the island. The fighting was fierce, and one of the enemy's garrison regiments was disbanded, and the morale was low, and the rest were transferred to the east island to rest."

"By the way, there is another island more than a hundred miles to the northeast, and there are many small islands to the north, but there are more than [-] troops stationed on the island less than [-] miles away. This is about all the troops of Xiyi on the island. .”

Deng Zilong blinked, and was stunned for a moment before he came back to his senses. The Banner Army thought that Deng Zilong didn't understand how many troops a legion had, and explained: "Xiyi sent four legions to Guam, with 1 troops. Nine thousand three hundred."

"I know." Deng Zilong paused, and muttered to himself: "Two thousand seven... Now Xiangyong is so good at fighting?"

Others only knew that the Nanyang Army had sent warships to Guam earlier, but they didn't know how many they had sent. Deng Zilong knew it very well, and Lin Manjue was alone.

The deputy general Zeng Xishun did not participate in the battle, and the number of Ming troops who actually landed on the island was less than [-]. This is still the case that there were no casualties in the early sea ship battles.

When he met the fugitives on the ship at sea, Deng Zilong didn't expect much from them, so he didn't ask for any gains. Now it seems that these people have been out of Luzon for five months, and they are already old soldiers.

In Deng Zilong's eyes, if he can skillfully apply the skills of the club, he can fight calmly in front of the battle, he can obey the commander's orders, attack when he should attack, and retreat when he should retreat, and he is already an old soldier if he doesn't demand to kill the enemy.

Lin Manjue's subordinates are not such capable men, but their leader has sufficient prestige in his five-year career in suppressing bandits. Based on his personal ability, this total force already has such combat power when it arrives in Guam.

Now only a hundred people from Xiangyong who participated in the war survived, but each of these hundred people had more than a dozen dried ears plugged into their waist ear pouches. In terms of killing the enemy, it is rare for the whole of Nanyang, except for Chen Mu's headquarters, to reach this number.

Especially the situation they faced, Deng Zilong looked at the port, and his thoughts drifted far away behind him.

He thought, should I fool Chen Chaojue and eat up the centurion himself; or should I bypass Chen Lin and go straight to Chen Mu, and use their merits to draw this group of people into his own hands?

The methods are different, but the purpose is the same, he wants this to be the total.

The so-called rare goods can be lived in, that is, others don't know the value but they discovered it earlier-in the eyes of everyone, Lin Manjue's department is still a small general, or even a general with less than half of its strength.

But let Deng Zilong see, this is not a general, but an officer centurion.

To put it bluntly, with their record, it is more than enough to be a guard, for example, Guam Guard?

Deng Zilong shook his head, it's better to find a way to get his subordinates to be generals.

"Is the Chinese army coming soon?"

The subordinate's cronies cupped their hands and said, "If it's quick, it will be here in another hour, general, these prisoners?"

"Go ahead and ask to see who knows their full strength, including those who are preparing to be transported to Guam at sea. Ask them all. If you can't find anything, give them food."

"Breakout meal?"

"No, it's just a full meal. Deng's life and death don't count. We have to wait for Chen Shuai to deal with it later. By the way, ask those three, who are from Alman, with one tael of silver per month, would you like to help Deng?" Fighting will always be useful in the future, so forget it if you don’t want to.” Deng Zilong looked westward and said, “Chen Shuai is here, they probably won’t survive.”

Chen Lin hates foreigners even more than Chen Mu. He has been fighting rebels and Japanese pirates all his life. He is probably annoyed by all the people floating in the sea except the Ming army. In fact, if you hand them over to Chen Lin, the chances of surviving are worse than those tied to big rocks. The sea is still low.

Looking at the captives on the deck with pity, Deng Zilong took a rough look at the east of Guam, and then took a closer look at the island through the binoculars, and the corners of his mouth curled up.

"Hey, the island is smoking again. It's quite far away. Lin Manjue's march is extraordinary!"

Just one day after the three black smokes in the southwest of Guam were extinguished, another black smoke rose from the northeast of the island, thicker and thicker. It was obvious that Mr. Lin, who was full of wine and food, led his troops into action again.

Deng Zilong reckoned that if Lin Manjue had given Lin Manjue two teams of [-] people to explore the island at that time, Guam might have already planted flags everywhere by now.

(End of this chapter)