open sea

Chapter 634
The summer solstice of the fifth year of Wanli, Dagukou, Tianjin.

Every ten steps behind the female wall of the Baihusuo Walled City, there are several flag soldiers standing guard. The muzzle of the cold General Zhenshuo is set up to face the sea, and the high-hanging banner is waving in the wind.

Since the Beiyang Military Mansion was established in Tianjin, the originally lazy Banner Army at Dagukou met a restless Beiyang important minister, who ran around with cavalry all day long, making it impossible for anyone to be lazy.

The Beiyang army resting on the beach outside Baihusuo is all majestic, and their armed forces make all the fortresses envious. Some cavalry armors are painted with red and black paint, with braids hanging on their chests and shoulders, reflecting the sunlight. Hui; more people only wear plain armor, so bright that it can reflect the figure on the breastplate. Under the armor, the collar of the dark blue standard recruit uniform stands up, and there is a symmetrical square pattern marking the rank number and job name.

Beiyang infantry and artillery are simple in terms of armaments in the army, but even so, they are all top-grade. Whether it is properly cut military uniforms or finely forged armor, they are all enviable.

The cavalry has obviously entered another level in terms of armament. The armor and weapons are more exquisite, and there are more decorations on the men and horses. Compared with the infantry helmet, the brim of the hat is smaller and shorter, and the neck guard lock curtain is covered with colored wolf hair and yak hair. The biggest difference is that the cavalry cadet uniform is red.

For a long time, people believed that "martial affairs are still powerful". Therefore, the color of military uniforms is pure red, with purple, blue, yellow, and white as colors, in order to intimidate the enemy and show the purpose of majesty.

However, the color of the uniform is easy to identify, especially in the infantry, the uniforms of various colors can be more easily recognized by the generals, so as to achieve the purpose of commanding, so by this time there are very few pure red military uniforms.

Even the military uniforms of the Beiyang cavalry were dark blue at the beginning, but just in time for the quilt factory to run out of blue dye, they made a batch of red military mansions. Later, Chen Mu found that the red color looked better, and it was more suitable for the majestic appearance of the cavalry when they galloped , He simply ordered all the cavalry who completed the first phase of military training in September to change their outfits, and regarded this as a ceremony to enhance the sense of honor of recruiting soldiers.

In this way, the sense of honor of the cavalry is indeed gained, and the envy of the rest of the arms also follows. Regardless of the first or second phase, the recruitment is for this money. Others are a bit taller, and the cavalry looks better than the artillery after all. Who wouldn't be envious of that?
It's a pity that it's useless to be envious. Bird gunners are promoted to various arms based on their grades. Only those who are the best in spear skills, gun skills, and battle formation can be promoted to cavalry subjects. Artillery is also based on subjects such as geometry, arithmetic, and eyesight. Grade selected.

To put it simply, as long as you are good enough, you can have a chance to become a cavalry, but artillery is different. Artillery depends on talent. Some recruits have very good grades, even if they are killed, they will not count as ballistics, so they cannot become artillery. .

Several bannermen from the Hundred Households of Dagukou stood on the city wall beside the cannon of General Zhenshuo and watched the cavalry resting in the distance whispering to each other. When they were spotted by the patrolling banner officers in the distance, they walked over with a sullen face and restrained them in a low voice: "Stand up straight. Don't listen, Chen Shuai of the military mansion is over there, don't embarrass us in this area!"

Seeing the officers coming, the Banner Army stood up quickly, whispered boldly to the General Banner, and said: "Look at the big cockscombs inside, aren't they the new army, well, let them show their strength. "

The big cockscomb refers to the large clusters of red tassels on the helmets of the Beiyang cavalry. It rises two inches from the top of the helmet and falls back to the shoulder blades. It looks very majestic, but the banner army, especially the banner army outside Guangdong, Looking at this attire must make me feel uncomfortable.

In the past, recruiters were treated better than the Banner Army, they were all soldiers, and the Banner Army was still a world soldier, but in terms of treatment, a few buckets of rice a month was much less than the monthly salary calculated in stone. Recruitment used to be even higher.

"Hundred households have heard that the Beiyang cavalry, who don't know how to calculate their salaries, have gone to sea, and they can take care of their food and housing. Many people can get three taels of silver a month!"

Most of the soldiers in these days have money by killing people, and if no one kills, the military salary is only enough to manage half of their life. It’s not like the Beiyang Army, which only pays so much for training soldiers and not fighting. Calculated at 40 taels a year, the general flag’s salary That's all.

"Give me the money, not to mention putting your hair in the tower, you can just pull out the bird feathers and put it in the tower!"

The young Chief Banner expressionlessly raised his feet and lightly kicked his unrestrained subordinates, and told them to stand guard with righteous words. Don't think about what they have, and walk a few steps before thinking about how much property they have in their hands. Seeing that Chen Shuai is also very kind, can you ask someone to get a quota for this year's lecture hall.

The general banner of his family's three lifetimes, the highest generation was lucky enough to achieve a hundred households, and in his generation, if he can become a hundred households, he will be honored to his ancestors.

But having said that, who doesn't want to be a thousand households and conductors?This Tianjin has been in peace for a long time. It is impossible to get promoted without thinking about making money, but the same is to send money to thousands of households. In two years, you can be promoted to a hundred households, but you can say that you are sent to teach martial arts. Tang, come out in two years, but there will be more than a hundred households.

In the past ten months, several of Beiyang's students who came out of the Xuanfu Lecture Hall have risen from a hundred households to a thousand households.

Just as he was thinking about it, the flag army on the upper floor of Baihuwang blew buffalo horns, looked up, and saw several lucky boats on the sea slowly coming along the coast, in different shapes and sizes, they all looked like warships.

"Go quickly, no, follow me to report to Chen Shuai that Fu Chuan is here!"

Did he know that the oriental commander-in-chief ran to Dagukou after seeing the sky recently, but he was waiting for the Beijing transport from overseas airlines.

There was no need for others to remind him, Chen Mu had already seen the lucky boat coming from the sea, he put down the binoculars and frowned and handed it to Zhao Shizhen, saying: "Look, is that the road-finding boat that sailed from Nanjing to Spain with Tang Juan?" .”

There are a total of six big and small Fuchuan, and the carrying capacity is no more than ten thousand stones. With this size, one can tell that they are not Jingyun ships sent by Nanyang. I don't know where the boat came from, and Chen Mu's heart itch.

"There is one ship that recognizes the way to Spain, and it came back, and there are two more that seem to be the boats that went to find Magui with Mr. Chen last year." Zhao Shizhen looked at the sea with all his eyes, and said slowly: "The remaining three ships, like It’s a cargo ship from Nanyang.”

"Chen Ju's boat?"

Chen Mu tapped on his temples, and he remembered that Chen Ju had taken a dangerous journey when returning from Majia Port in North America, and a ship turned around and went south and returned north of the equator, traveling for several months.

Although there were charts of the sailing ships sent by the Spaniards in the past on that route, it was the first voyage after all, so it might not be much safer. Chen Mu was even more worried about whether there would be a shortage of sailors on their ship.

"The cargo ship from Nanyang, the Jingyun ship must have arrived. I will pick you up. You stay in the port for a few days and wait for the Jingyun ship."

Chen Mu took a picture with both hands while talking: "Look at what Nanyang can give us this year!"

　Good morning!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)