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Chapter 542 Mercenaries

"Shopkeeper Qi, aren't these craftsmen from the shipyard? They don't look like the navy to me either!"

It's a coincidence that shopkeeper Zhang from Wangfan Building happened to be lying next to the second shopkeeper from Guanhai Building. Seeing so many soldiers coming out, he felt a little more at ease and dared to raise his head to look around, and then asked It's coming.

"...You ask me who I'm asking? If they hadn't come out of the shipyard, I would have thought there was another Japanese pirate attack!" Shopkeeper Qi is much more courageous than Shopkeeper Zhang. Ever since the Xifan people appeared with cannons, I know that there is a high probability that I will not die today.

He didn't dare to say that other things were familiar. He had not only heard about the artillery in the shipyard, but also seen it. In the early years when the Guanhai Building was first built, there were not so many factories in the shipyard, and you could see the scene on the riverside from the roof of the restaurant.

The navy and shipwrights often push the artillery on the riverside tidal flats for trial launches. The ping-ping-pong-pong-pong-pong-pong-pong-pong-pong-pong-pong-pong-pong-pong-pong-pong-pong-pong-pong-pong-pong-pong-pong-pong attack can blow apart a pile of rocks a hundred paces away, and can directly penetrate a wooden board more than a foot thick. .

No matter how many there are, the mob on the street will die in vain no matter how many are present. The physical body cannot be harder than stone and wood. It's such a simple truth. But he really didn't know the origins of the beggar soldiers who came out with the artillery. He had neither heard of nor seen them.

"Commander Wu, is it too cruel to use Fan soldiers to deal with the people of Ming Dynasty? My patrol guards can go ashore and fight, and they will definitely not be weaker than Fan soldiers."

Not to mention that the second shopkeeper of Guanhailou didn't know the origin of the beggar soldiers, even Shen Yourong, the naval patrol commander, didn't know either. At this time, he was standing on a naval battleship by the river, listening to the report of the lookout on the mast, and making his own suggestions to the naval staff on the side.

Patrol Guard is the third branch of the Navy after Sea War Guards and Land War Guards. It has only one mission. It patrols several ports that can dock large ships from the Yangtze River Estuary to the Pearl River Estuary, and randomly inspects all passing ships. The ships inspected by the customs will be detained and the people on board will be arrested.

In fact, patrol defense is just a rhetoric for the emperor and Yuan Keli to expand the navy's establishment. In fact, it divides the navy's sea defense into two parts: offshore and offshore. Patrol defense is the offshore defense navy, specializing in port and offshore security, as well as cooperating with customs in anti-smuggling operations.

The Marine Guards have become a pure ocean warfare navy. They go out for training for a month or two and disappear without a trace for a month or two. They basically no longer participate in port defense and anti-smuggling tasks.

In addition, the Patrol Guard is also the reserve force of the Sea Guard. After recruits join the Navy, they usually have to serve in the Patrol Guard for one or two years. After they become familiar with ship operations and life at sea, those with outstanding results are selected to serve in the Sea Guard.

A month ago, Shen Yourong received a secret order from the Naval Staff, asking him to secretly dispatch seven patrol ships to arrive in Hangzhou Bay on the designated date, and join more than a dozen fast ships stationed at the Songjiang Shipyard to blockade Hangzhou Bay and the Yangtze River Estuary.

Strictly inspect ships going to sea from Ningbo Prefecture, Shaoxing Prefecture, Jiaxing Prefecture, Songjiang Prefecture, Suzhou Prefecture, and Changzhou Prefecture. They will be detained regardless of whether they have been inspected by customs and escorted to the Huangpu River for screening by the General Staff.

There is no need to explain why the Naval Staff did not say anything. In the navy, as long as the order is issued by the staff and signed by the governor, it cannot be questioned. Whether you agree or disagree, it must be implemented meticulously. If it is reasonable, you can send a separate post to ask afterwards.

Shen Yourong didn't think much about it at first, thinking it was another large-scale anti-smuggling operation launched by the navy in cooperation with the customs. He immediately mobilized elite soldiers and generals from the patrol guards and rushed to Hangzhou Bay day and night in the name of patrolling the sea. For this kind of task, he is still happy to perform it. The more smuggling along the coast, the less customs revenue will be, and the less customs revenue will be, and the military expenditures received by the navy and army will also be reduced. The implementation of the New Deal also relies on customs funding, so carelessness is not an option.

But when he arrived at Hangzhou Bay with his fleet, he discovered that there were not only patrol guards gathered here, but also twelve armed cargo ships belonging to the Maritime Yamen, and six main battleships of the Marine Guards.

Such a large-scale gathering of ships is rare in the navy, or almost never happened. The only conclusion that can be drawn is to launch a large-scale landing operation or related exercises somewhere.

But this explanation made Shen Yourong deny it first. Exercises of this scale must be kept secret from the outside world, and this is the most prosperous area along the coast. There is no way to keep it secret, let alone launch it. It cannot be directed at a certain guard station or Let's launch a landing operation at the port. That will frighten the local officials and people.

Landing operations were even more impossible. All the ships coming were ships from the Marine Guards and the Maritime Yamen, but no Marine Guards could be seen. We have all landed for combat, so we cannot rely on sailors and gunners to charge, let alone transport the naval guns to the shore. Bare ships are useless.

If you don't understand, you can't ask, so you can only stare, and then strange things happen one after another. First, the ships from the Shipping Yamen received orders and were divided into several batches to dock at different ports.

Then it was the turn of the patrol guards again, and they were ordered to escort a fleet from the Shipping Yamen to the Songjiang Shipyard. There was a time limit, it could not be early or late, and it had to be at 17 o'clock in the evening on the ninth day of August.

When the two fleets converged at the mouth of the Yangtze River, Shen Yourong was surprised to find that the ship of the Maritime Yamen was carrying a large number of fully armed soldiers, but they were not Marine Guards or even the Army, but Portuguese from Haojing'ao, as well as a large number of unidentified soldiers. of Nanfan people.

Why do you know he is a Portuguese from Hao Jingao? Because Shen Yourong knows him. These guys are also the focus of the patrol's daily work. If they don't pay attention, they will carry a large amount of goods in and out of the port. The two sides are fighting for wits and courage every day, and most of them are half-familiar faces.

After a brief inquiry, I learned from several Portuguese sailors that they were hired by the navy to counter the rebellion. I don't know exactly who I want to level with, and I don't know how to level it. Anyway, I just operate the artillery and let whoever hits them hit them. No matter you win or lose, you can get a certain amount of cocoa powder quota from the customs when you return to Haojingao.

Although this magical drink with a unique fragrance has only been around for a short time, its fame has spread far and wide to the South and even the West along with the voyages of Portuguese ships. It is said that even Europe knows about it and is loved by nobles. The demand is increasing day by day. , the price exceeds that of the finest tea.

As for the Nanfan people who were black and poorly equipped, the Portuguese sailors also gave the origin. The Annan people were not ordinary Annan people. They were the regular army of the Ruan family and the forbidden army guarding Hue City, a total of three thousand.

But they did not get a quota of cocoa powder, and the reward for traveling thousands of miles to fight was armor, the iron tubes they wore on their heads and bodies. With these armors, they would not be afraid of the opponent's bows, arrows and firecrackers when fighting against the Li army in the north.

(End of this chapter)