The wind blows from the South Sea

Chapter 65 The Qiao family can’t sit still

In the Qiao family mansion

"After leaving Surabaya City, did you take people to the Landa Mountain Mine again?"

Qiao Yunnan received the report from his subordinates and waved people away, with an irritated look on his face.

Regarding the causes and consequences of the rise of the Nanyang Chamber of Commerce in Surabaya City, he listed all the various actions in detail in his letters, including the construction of a dock fortress at the seaport and the Landa Mountain Mine. More than 10 letters were sent to Batavia.

What is envisaged is that Lord Link von Biedrins, the official municipal council speaker, will take charge of the overall situation and restore peace to Surabaya City.

The rapid development of the Nanyang Chamber of Commerce has made the Qiao family feel a profound crisis, and has threatened the status of the largest family in Surabaya City.

As far as Qiao Yunnan knows;

The Nanyang Chamber of Commerce controls more than 1400 direct and indirect armed forces. It employs manpower in various Nanyang daily necessities stores, two wood processing plants, gambling stalls, three brick kilns and an expanding mule and horse caravan. There are also more than people.

In addition to the dozens of plantations and hundreds of thousands of acres of land in Surabaya City, Yanwang City, Bromo Town, Tianjia Town and other places, there are about 3 to 4 people in total.

In just over 4 months

Nanyang Company has developed into a behemoth that cannot be underestimated. Its strength is not inferior to that of the Qiao family, or even greater.

How could Qiao Yunnan be reconciled to this?

Every day, it seems that Nanyang Company is making great strides in development. The entire Chinatown is helpless. Both the Hu family and the Lin family seem to have given up the idea of ​​competing with Nanyang Company.

Last week, I heard that McGeely & Co. had shipped another captain of pirates. A fire broke out between two groups of people on the shore, and some people were killed.

They are indeed a group of traitors, and their fierce nature has not changed.

When Qiao Yunnan heard the news, he couldn't help but spit out blood.

The fifty or so people who came earlier were already very difficult to deal with, and here are more than 200 people...

The key is that there has never been any response from Lord Link. He just brought some unclear messages, such as being patient and taking a long-term view. What's the point?

Qiao Yunnan really couldn't figure it out. With things like this happening in Surabaya City now, how could Lord Link sit still in Batavia?

On the surface

The Qiao family is the city boss behind Surabaya City. It shoulders important responsibilities in various aspects such as business environment, taxation and social security, and plays the role of tax collector.

That is to collect all the taxes that should be collected and deliver them to the Dutch colonists.

However, Qiao Yunnan was not the Kapitan Lord recognized by the Dutch Governor's Palace. His only official status was that he was one of the official members of the Surabaya City Council, responsible for taxation, public security and other matters.

Broadly speaking

Mr. Qiao Yunnan has the authority to control everything that happens in Surabaya City, from riots, murders, robberies to trivial neighborhood disputes.

In addition, Mr. Qiao Yunnan can have a say in matters such as municipal construction, tax assessment, construction violations, land allocation, etc., and even direct their direction, and can dominate Surabaya City.

Only Qiao Yunnan understood that his role was nothing more than an agent placed on the surface by the white Dutch colonists.

The person who restricts the agent is Master Link, because he is a pure Dutch white descendant and can naturally integrate into the upper-class white society in Batavia and gain unreserved trust.

Seeing that the situation in Surabaya City was getting out of control, Qiao Yunnan stood up and walked to the study after sighing. He wanted to report the latest situation here.

As for what Lord Link or the Governor's Mansion should do, that was beyond his control.

Landashan Mine

A month and a half later, a lot of changes have taken place here.

The several stone houses that originally entered the valley entrance have been blocked behind by a tall stone wall. This wall is about 130 meters long and stretches between the valley entrance and the river.

One side is connected to the steep mountain wall, and the other side rises from the river bed, where the rushing river water flows down.

The city wall is red in color as a whole and is mostly made of large pieces of ore discarded from the mines. A 6-meter-wide rammed earth was built behind it, and the other side was built with bricks and stones.

A gate is opened on the city wall for passage.

The city gate is made of heavy wood. These are sawn thick boards transported from Surabaya City. After being assembled and spliced, they are reinforced with palm-wide iron bars and iron nails.

Several wooden pavilions were also built on the city gate for sentries to avoid the rain.

On the top of the city, a conspicuous Taigeuk flag of Nanyang Company flutters in the wind, clearly defining whose territory this place belongs to?

After Feng Guohui arrived with his troops, the city gate was immediately opened, and the musketeers on duty on the city top saluted in unison.

This new city wall has just been built, and the newcomers training here have put in a lot of work. They train half a day and work half a day.

Coupled with the ready-made large rock materials, the Landa Mountain City Gate building was built, surrounding the entire valley.

As soon as they entered the valley, they heard bursts of gunfire.

The original abandoned mine has been leveled out to a large area of ​​flat land, with neat squares outlined with lime lines.

More than 800 officers and soldiers in training lined up in teams of people, each practicing different tactics. Some were practicing fighting, some were practicing spear stabbing, and some were practicing live ammunition shooting.

The training ground was a bustling scene. Feng Guohui led his troops to the training ground without hesitation, which attracted cheers from the officers and soldiers.

"Reporting to the regiment, all the officers and soldiers of the Second and Third Battalions of the Nanyang Company Fusiliary Guard Regiment are conducting drills. Please give your instructions."

"Well, go ahead." "As you command, sir."

The officer ran away to continue organizing training. Feng Guohui dismounted, threw the horse's reins to his subordinates, and signaled Chen Yong to lead the cavalry to rest.

Then, accompanied by Hu Laohu and other battalion commanders, he began to inspect the fiery training ground.

With the rapid expansion of the Nanyang Company's armed forces and the updating of weapons and equipment, Feng Guohui reorganized his troops and formed the Fusiliers Guard Regiment.

Feng Guohui personally served as the regiment commander, and his subordinates organized a regiment company, a cavalry company and 5 battalions, with each battalion having about 400 people.

Wu Siwen's unit stationed in Yanwang City was organized into the first battalion, and Wu Siwen was appointed as the battalion commander.

Hu Laohu's unit stationed in the old camp was organized into the second battalion. Hu Laohu was appointed as the commander of the second battalion and is currently training at Landa Mountain.

Mai Laowen's unit stationed in Landa Mountain was organized into the third battalion. Mai Laowen was appointed as the commander of the third battalion and is currently training in Landa Mountain.

He Qiang's unit stationed in Tianjia Town was organized into the fourth battalion, and He Qiang was appointed as the commander of the fourth battalion.

Lin Ada's headquarters stationed in Boluopo Town was organized into the fifth battalion. Lin Ada served as the commander of the fifth battalion and had 400 men under his command (most of whom were dispatched from Surabaya City).

In addition, Wang Erzhu served as the regimental company commander, and four others, including Fan Dali, Liu Fugui, Wang Guozhen, and Chen San, all held the position of guard platoon leader.

Chen Yong was appointed as the commander of the cavalry company and still had more than 50 cavalry under his command.

The previous titles of captain and squad leader were all abandoned and replaced with new job titles, re-systematizing the entire armed force of Nanyang Company.

Nowadays, not only in the Landoshan Mine, but also in Yanwang City, Bromo Town and Tianjia Town, the armed forces of Nanyang Company are undergoing comprehensive training.

Feng Guohui watched the live ammunition shooting for a while. After shooting, the soldiers reloaded skillfully. Most of them could complete 2 to 3 reloading actions within a minute.

This makes him quite satisfied, and the next step is to make the training more difficult.

"This time I have brought Chen Yong's cavalry. Starting tomorrow, each company of musketeers will conduct confrontation training with the cavalry.

Test the soldiers' ability to withstand stress in real battlefield environments.

Can you skillfully operate a firearm?

Can you face life and death without fear?

Whether you have enough physical memory, you will be able to make accurate reloading actions subconsciously.

Qualified soldiers can eat meat, but unqualified soldiers must double the punitive training until they are qualified.

Train more in peacetime and bleed less in wartime..."

Feng Guohui recruited a group of officers and issued a training mission to confront the cavalry tomorrow.

Taking the infantry company as a unit, those who perform well will be rewarded heavily, while those who perform poorly will be punished.

This put a sad look on the faces of the officers. Everyone knew that confrontation with cavalry was a difficult training event that tested the psychological endurance of the infantry.

More than 50 cavalrymen rode up side by side, charging directly at the infantry array with shining sabers in their hands. After entering a range of 50 meters, they quickly changed formations and then rushed through the gaps in the infantry array.

During this period

Faced with the pressure of cavalry charging, the infantry must calmly complete the firing, put down the gun, clean the gunpowder residue in the gun chamber, load gunpowder, load bullets, re-tamp the ammunition, raise the gun again to aim, and launch such a complete process.

Any panic or confusion in the steps of loading and shooting are disqualified.

on the battle field

Many soldiers faced huge life-and-death pressure, and their minds went blank. They either forgot to clean the gunpowder residue in the gun chamber, or reloaded the gunpowder, causing the chamber to explode, or broke the ejector rod. Various situations emerged in endlessly.

The joint training with the cavalry is the most difficult event that is closest to the battlefield conditions.

Of course

This is a joint training with your own cavalry. During the training, you can load gunpowder without loading warheads.

The reloadable action must be in place and cannot be omitted.

With this kind of training that is close to actual combat, even veterans who have experienced bloody battles cannot guarantee that they will not make mistakes.

Feng Guohui didn't care about the embarrassed looks on the officers' faces. As the superior, he just assigned tasks and made requirements.

The specific implementation measures are a matter for my subordinates.

Feng Guohui was still willing to invest in his soldiers. In the later stage of the training, the soldiers repeatedly simulated reloading training for two to three hundred times, and could fire three rounds of live ammunition.

After three months of closed training, the number of live ammunition firings can reach hundreds of rounds.

This kind of training intensity is comparable to that of the armies of major powers in the world today, or even worse.

After eating at the mine, Feng Guohui took several blacksmiths to the mine's waste slag pile to analyze the smelted waste and try to find out the real reason why the Huang family was unable to smelt high-quality steel.

The large areas of waste smelting slag here are piled up like hills, covered with holes and rust, and look particularly desolate.

(End of this chapter)