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Chapter 1265 Aboriginal Mercenaries

The idea of ​​recruiting soldiers as servants in the Indian peninsula has been around for a long time, but it has only recently been able to try it out.

The East India dispatched 300 men. After they entered Calcutta, the East India Company recruited a hundred natives from nearby villages and some plains upstream and brought them back.

These dark-skinned natives were asked to stand in five rows, with uneven heights. Few of them were physically strong, and they were a bit hunchbacked even standing.

Qin Zuoming, who came out of the Army Lecture Hall, looked so weak that he shook his head repeatedly.

To deal with such natives, even if they don't use muskets, Qin Zuoming believes that his soldiers can really fight ten against one.

"Although we want to recruit servants to serve as cannon fodder, we are not such weak guys. Some of them are malnourished. It is really hard to believe that they are qualified for the sacred profession of soldiers." Qin Zuoming said to the recruited group of natives The people of the East India Company expressed their displeasure.

Even the servant army can't hold back.

The group of people in front of them is probably not much better than the refugees.

"These are people who are regarded as the lowest caste by the local princes. They have almost no status in Bengal. Most of them don't even have their own fields, and they are poor. As long as they are rewarded with a bite of food and a little military salary, they will They will work hard for us."

"Here we can provide them with food, they have money, and they don't have to be trampled by high-ranking castes. If we can open up insignificant positions such as team leaders as a channel for promotion, they will definitely work for us. They They are full of hatred for insulting their nobles, and this kind of hatred may be more useful than boosting morale when driving them to attack the native princes."

"Moreover, the educated people in the Indian Peninsula are almost all concentrated among the high-level castes and outsiders. This group of people is illiterate, and has no culture and aspirations. Isn't it much easier to manipulate them than others? Teach them to learn discipline, Using muskets does not require them to be literate, and we are not training them to become mid- to high-level officers. They have already reached their peak when they can become low-level officers. As for their physique, as long as they are fed and trained, it is easy to improve. "

The Briton Francis lobbied Qin Zuoming to use such a group of cheap soldiers as a servant army.

In his siege network plan, in addition to building bastions, he also trained local troops to protect the interests of the East India Company, so that the East India Company could have enough troops to open up the market.

Although the West Cochin Province is also in the Indian Ocean, the West Cochin Province still has a lot of local tribes and state-state relations to deal with, and there is not much spare power to send troops to reinforce the East India Company at all times. To expand the empire, you need an army stationed in the Indian peninsula.

The natives of lower castes are regarded by him as a good source of soldiers. Such a source of soldiers has almost nothing and a life, and the East India Company can give them everything they want, food, money, and status. Returning to live in the dirty corners of the Mughal Empire, the loyalty may be higher than that of ordinary civilians.

The most important thing is of course that the cost of a dispatched soldier can hire several or even a dozen native soldiers, which is much lower than the cost of hiring Japanese samurai.Japanese warriors are at least professional soldiers.

Qin Zuoming rubbed his chin, and then looked at the first batch of recruited natives, who were good and bad, and couldn't help but be pleasing to the eye.

Francis Day has a point in saying that these people were not recruited to train them as mid-to-high-ranking officers, nor did they train them to be standing imperial soldiers.Their role is to assist in combat and act as cannon fodder when necessary, and they don't need to be as strict as imperial soldiers.Using muskets, a weapon that relies on mechanical power, does not require them to have a good physique.

"I will temporarily accept these 100 people as the first batch of mercenaries for training. I will first train them in terms of physical fitness and discipline. The training time should not be less than 4 hours a day. During the break, you can send them to help you build Castle." Qin Zuoming said.

The one hundred conscripted natives looked at the artillery officer of the Kyushu Army with curious and awe-inspiring eyes.They heard that they were in charge of the food here, and there was still money to get. They were at the bottom, so they were tricked by the East India Company to become soldiers, even though they didn't even know what they would do in the future.

Qin Zuoming was wearing white gloves, with one hand resting on the command saber at his waist, looking straight and capable.

"Since you have chosen to serve as soldiers, you must be mentally prepared for rigorous training." Qin Zuoming Zhujian said sharply.

However, the native soldiers in front of him looked at each other, as if they didn't understand what Qin Zuoming was talking about, and were at a loss.

"Your East India Company sent us an interpreter..." Qin Zuoming managed to put on a majestic appearance, trying to establish his majesty in front of the native recruits, but found that the language was barrier...

It wasn't until the East India Company sent a translator to serve Qin Zuoming that the training for the native soldiers could barely begin.

In addition to receiving training every day, they also help build the bastion.

But they know that they can eat enough every day, have military pay at the end of the month, and hope to be promoted to junior officers, so they are very motivated.

At least no one here will care about their caste, but use the results during training for assessment. Chief Qin Zuoming sometimes holds a rice bowl and queues up with the soldiers to eat.

In the eyes of these natives oppressed by the nobles, this is an unimaginable scene.

They were the first indigenous soldiers to be hired and trained.Although the salary and treatment they receive are far lower than those of dispatched army soldiers, compared to their previous lives, they are already satisfied.

"When the bastion is built and the native soldiers are trained, we can use the Calcutta Fort as a base to attack the Governor of Bangladesh. As long as the princes in Bangladesh surrender to us, we can trade freely here and exempt from tariffs." Francie Si Ri supervised the hired villagers and indigenous soldiers to build the bastion according to the drawings, and he was full of confidence in his plan.

"I hope that the Governor of Bangladesh will not discover our intention before our deployment is completed. If we were surrounded by tens of thousands of troops when the bastion was just being built, we would have no choice but to flee." Chen Bangyan from the Nanyang Fleet said.

At this time, in order to block the Mughal Empire, the Kyushu Army had organized the East India Company, the East India Expeditionary Force, and the Indian Ocean Squadron.The temporarily formed Indian Ocean Squadron comes from the Nanyang Fleet. The current leader is Chen Bangyan, and there are only a few gunboats.Their purpose is not to occupy more territories, but to gradually open up the market here in the future to obtain trade privileges.

(End of this chapter)