open sea

Chapter 755 Three Temples
On March [-]th, the birthday of the God of Wealth, Deng Zilong, who escorted the first batch of convoys to land in Asia, completed his return voyage.

Returning to Acapulco, Deng Zilong boarded the main battleship Nantang named after Qi Jiguang as the admiral of the fleet, and commanded the fleet to set off to the south.

As the fleet left the harbour, the mountains to the east were thundering, and there was going to be a heavy rain on the other side.

The huge mountains not only separate the coast from the plateau, but also divide the east and west sides into different climate zones. Shanxi is dry and hot, and Shandong is cool and rainy. Geographically, it is determined that there are only a few canyons to attack Mexico City from the coast.

Ma Gui has always had certain doubts about this mountain range. He thinks that this huge mountain range should be connected with the mountains seen in the Heishui Mohe Islands in the north, so he always feels that Chen Mu's men have drawn the map skewed.

Chen Mu felt that his fleet had brought in too much luggage, and Ma Gui had time to think about these issues even if he was full.

Through the investigation of Lin Manjue's scouts, the Dongyang Military Mansion has a better understanding of the road leading to Mexico City in the east. It is roughly flat along the official road to the east, and it will pass through two small rivers and a canyon that passes through the mountains hundreds of miles away. These places One is easier to hold than the other.

During this hundred-mile journey, the terrain gradually rises, and after crossing the canyon, there is a plateau to the east, and there are mountains one step at a time. There are only a few villages near the road.

And there is another road from the north to the east of the port, which is the road Shao Tingda returned to after the white horse victory, and it is also full of dangers.

That is to say, Shao Tingda launched an attack when neither the enemy nor the enemy expected them to attack. If Bernal was a fool and defended and ambushed along the line, their battle would be ugly.

In any case, Shao Tingda and Fu Yuan landed without authorization and won the rewards that the soldiers deserved. They got even more in Silver City themselves.

In addition, those who should be punished should also be punished. Now the two lead their troops, one north and one south, to find dangerous places to garrison, and repair the pass according to the map given by the Port Army Bureau.

Chen Mu found that the generals who graduated from the lecture hall in the army were very interesting, perhaps because the excavation of trenches in the soil work was divided into three sections in the lecture textbook he edited. The foxholes were expanded into half-length trenches, then expanded into vertical trenches, and finally joined together to form trenches.

As a result, the fortification drawings given by the Army Bureau to the engineers of the frontline troops all take into account the situation of war encountered during the construction process, and let them come up with a kind of temporary fortification.

First, the trenches were dug. After the trenches were dug, a few sections of cut logs were placed on the front frame, and then another layer was built on the trenches. A layer of bunkers was piled up with earth and rocks on the outer edge, and a rainproof shed was built on top to form a two-story structure.

The banner troops in the lower trenches fired from the gaps in the logs, and the upper banner troops observed and fired from behind the bunkers. With the help of wood, earth, stone and a small amount of cement carried by soldiers, the simple fortifications could be repaired soon.

Several sections of such discontinuous trench barriers constitute an important fortification. After repairing, depending on the battle situation and time, further erection of horses, trenches or reinforced structures on the periphery to increase defensive capabilities.

Yang Ting of the Military Weapons Bureau admired this set of things very much. The Banner Army also built two barrier walls and trenches at places where it was easy to land on the port beach. When he led Chen Mu to urge the Banner Army to dig, he introduced it like this: If it is built during a battle, the banner troops in front will defend it, and the banner troops behind will be able to repair it."

"When the enemy broke through, our troops had just dug the pits, and the flag army relied on the pits to fight against them; when we dug the trenches, we fought against the trenches; after we dug the barrier walls, we relied on the barrier walls to fight against the trenches, and we had an initial defense. We can build a fortress in the rear.”

Chen Mu really wanted to call this the Shanzhai spirit, but it was inappropriate, but the people of the Ming Dynasty did have a strong spirit of this kind. When they found something useful, they could apply this method to all the things that could be used. superior.

Just like the Francois machine, it was originally a small cannon spliced ​​with wrought iron bars, but it was widely used by the Ming Dynasty people in various cannons, small cannons and even firecrackers, and it was used very well.

Zou Yuanbiao, who is not sure where the county magistrate is, is also making good progress.

Perhaps the local people personally felt the deterrent force of the Ming army driving the Western army away, or the leniency of the law. In addition, Chen Mu, who did not want to stay, respected their wishes and let them go. At least until now, the Ming army and the Western army The local people get along fairly well.

The local people are not opposed to learning Chinese, and those who can understand Spanish will not affect their normal communication. In order to calm people's hearts, the military mansion employs some aborigines at one-third of the military craftsman's salary regardless of digging.

Since the simple brick and tile kiln was repaired and fired, it was only ten days before the blue bricks came out of the kiln, and then a steady stream of bricks and tiles from the kiln were transported into the village by workers.

The Chengzhong Han School, Chengbei Daojun Temple, Chengnan Wenchang Temple, and Chenghuang Temple were built one by one. In the City God's Shrine, Shao Tingda's subordinate named Fan Keyin was the Master of the City God. .

In the Wenchang Temple, the Emperor Wenchang Zhang Yazi and the deaf and dumb are worshipped. In the Daojun Temple, Zhao Gongming, the true emperor of the Dragon and Tiger Profound Altar, and Zhaobao Nazhen are offered to attract wealth and profit. In addition to the pottery statue of the God of Wealth, the body is covered with mountain armor and the iron hat on the head. There is nothing wrong with carrying a four-foot blunderbuss on your shoulders and stuffing two finely carved pistols at your waist.

Chen Mu said that this is the sprout of magic realism in Ming Dynasty sculpture.

The market has also been planned, right at the entrance of the Daojun Temple, to win the prize. Although the tile-roofed houses and warehouses of the shops and warehouses are only reserved for construction, the construction of the road has not yet begun, but the road is being built very quickly.

Thanks to the large amount of overfired bricks and underfired bricks in the firing process of green bricks and the excess manpower at the port, two carriage tracks leading directly to the port were quickly built.

All of this was seen by Almansa, the former governor of New Spain, and Acosta, the monk. The monk had only admiration and doubts about it, but when he told the former governor about his doubts, the old governor could not give it to him. He provides any correct answer.

"They have high achievements in architecture, complex writing and a powerful empire, and have a strong military support. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I would hardly believe it-they are not just barbarians detached from barbarians. Maybe they weren't savages themselves."

"But if they weren't savages, without Jesus, who taught them the truth and kept them safe?"

"They will enshrine the dead soldiers on behalf of the emperor, just like the king canonize knights, and make statues of gods and enshrine them in temples in a grand manner."

"And Your Excellency Governor, don't you think that the idols in the pagan temple dedicated to 'Taoist'..." Acosta showed an indescribably complicated expression, raised a hand to gesture beside him, and said with difficulty : "Like someone we know?"

The old governor, Almansa, looked at Acosta, who was about to be tortured by religious thoughts and became a lunatic, and sighed for a long time, and said, "Monk, I am a devout believer."

"But I don't know what you're talking about. Are they barbarians? I saw with my own eyes that young general named Xi Bianjiao wiped out the army with [-] infantry and [-] cavalry without artillery or spears. Legion Herrera, annihilation."

"They have better weapons than us, more muskets than us, stronger armor than us, and if they are savages, what are we? Monkeys? I think what we have to think about now is not whether they are savages."

"You should make a report that elevates them as much as possible, because I have a hunch, whether they are savages or higher than us, in short, we are going to lose the New World, because it is better for higher people to lose land because of barbarism. Losing people sounds nicer."

Almansa pointed to a village not far away, and said, "The biggest problem now is that they don't seem to want to leave, they won't leave!"

(End of this chapter)