Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 2151 Patrol
On May 1635, 5, the sky had just brightened. In the morning mist, the integrated squadron of the Wuzhou National Army Brigade left Wuzhou in six large boats and began its first patrol along the river.

According to the radio report, the supply fleet departing from Zhaoqing has already departed from Zhaoqing this morning and is expected to arrive at Xintan in the evening.

The mission of the integrated squadron is to arrive at Xintan before this evening to pick up the supply fleet.Hand over with the Zhaoqing National Army Brigade in charge of escorting, and then escort the fleet to Wuzhou safely.

The commander of the mission was Zhu Si—he told Qian Duo that this was the first mission of the integrated squadron, and it would be more appropriate for him to personally command it to be on the safe side.Qian Duo agreed.

The task is not complicated, which is why Qian Duo assured Zhu Si to lead the team.To be honest, Qian Duo trusted Li Dong more than Zhu Si.Although Zhu Si's service was longer than Li Dong's, and he served in the most rigorously trained garrison battalion, the garrison battalion had very little experience in field combat, and had been performing urban security work year after year.

Qian Duo's opinion is: Zhu Si's formation is impeccable, he recites the rules and infantry manuals thoroughly, and although shooting and stabbing are not particularly good, they are at least good.All in all, he was a very good soldier.

But he has a big shortcoming: lack of actual combat command experience.He also didn't have the qualifications to be an officer, so he was directly promoted to the captain who commanded the three companies-whether he could be competent for the command is still unknown.

Although Li Dong had never been an officer, he had been a soldier in the field army for two years, and he had been a corporal.I have led teams to perform security warfare missions many times, and many times I am also a command. I have relatively rich experience in this type of security warfare.So originally he was supposed to hand over the integrated squadron to Li Dong to command.

Now that Zhu Si proposed it on his own initiative, it's okay to use it as an exercise.After all, the experience accumulated in one actual combat is more effective than how many exercises on the training ground.

So the captain Zhu Si went directly to the front-line command post.The squadron leader of the integrated squadron is still Li Dong.Qian Duo hopes that they can complement each other.

The six large boats sailed along the center line of the channel in a column formation. Zhu Si and the naval commander in charge of commanding the fleet agreed that the odd-numbered boats would be on the left side, and Zhu Si would command them; Winter command.In this way, it is convenient to command in case it is necessary to deploy troops or shoot on both sides of the strait at the same time.

Because of the slow-speed inshore patrol to be carried out, these large boats have been temporarily modified.The best of them are No. 1 and No. 2 boats serving as flagships, which were refitted in the Hong Kong shipyard.Additional protective iron plates are installed on both sides, and a fixed gun mount is installed at the stern to install a 12-pound mountain howitzer-its double-wheeled gun mount is also carried with the ship and can be used ashore when necessary.

Several other ships were temporarily refitted in Sanshui because they had not had time to return to Hong Kong for refitting.There are no large-scale iron plates in Guangdong, and there are no riveting workers, so only bamboo barriers were erected on both sides of the ship's side-similar to the bamboo shields used in Japan, and yellow mud was applied on the outside to prevent fire.There is also no cannon or typewriter configuration on the weapon.It relies on the projected firepower of the infantry itself.

Because only one-third of the integrated squadron is temporarily transferred from the backbone squadron, it means that there are only 5 Nanyang rifles on each ship.In this way, the long-range projectile firepower of the fleet was very small. In order to make up for the lack of firearms, Qian Duo and Zhu Si recruited Ming army Jiangding who could use firearms from various squadrons, and equipped the ships with some of the captured firearms that remained in Wuzhou.These firearms were mainly turtledove blunderbusses and some Francophones seized in Wuzhou. Each ship was equipped with [-] or [-] firearms. Zhu Si's plan was that although these weapons were not accurate and had a slow rate of fire, they were not weak.Can effectively hit the enemy in close combat.

These firearms are erected on the nozzle of the barrier, densely packed like hedgehogs.

The steam engine roared and spewed black smoke and white mist.The soldiers of the National Army crowded on the deck with their spears, and those who were not on duty sat on their backpacks-there were backpacks, wooden barrels and wooden boxes for supplies all over the floor.The soldiers on duty stepped on the wooden box and poked their heads out from the barrier, looking around boredly.Behind each boat was dragging a small boat full of dry firewood.

Guangdong is not short of coal, but most coal mines were not mined in the 17th century.On the way from Guangzhou to Wuzhou, there is no place where coal can be "delivered on site", except in important nodes such as Sanshui and Zhaoqing, where the Joint Logistics Headquarters uses coal ships to stockpile some thermal coal for supply. , Steam ships on the Xijiang route can only use firewood as fuel in many cases.

Of course, the sources of firewood are very extensive, and it is not difficult to collect them in a place with lush vegetation in Guangdong.The disadvantage is that the calorific value is too low. The calorific value of hardwood is less than half of that of standard coal, and it is even lower in actual use.This makes the steam ships on the Xijiang need additional fuel.

In order to avoid the dangerous and time-wasting incident of stopping the ship halfway to collect fuel, most ships tow a non-powered fuel ship while sailing.Although Qian Duo felt that there was a great hidden danger in doing so, he could only make do with the fact that there was no local coal in Wuzhou to supply.

Guangdong in May, the early summer has come, the sun is shining hot, the soldiers can only hide under the canvas awning, the scorching sun, the hull vibrating due to the operation of the steam engine, the choking smoke... It took a while to set off It makes many people feel dizzy.

"Those who are suffering report, go to the side of the boat to vomit!", "Don't walk around casually!", "Pay attention to your surroundings!"... Li Dong and the non-commissioned officers walked back and forth among the crowds on the various boats, pressing down on them. The loud voice of the steam engine emphasized discipline, stopping from time to time to check the equipment of individual people, and pretending to encourage them.Although there are quite a few people here, there are not many people who have been to the war seriously, and many people still feel nervous.

Before departure, everyone in the integrated squadron received a standard machete and other miscellaneous gadgets. Obviously, this was not because the chief relied heavily on them, but because of the development of the situation, Bei Wei ordered to "strengthen the equipment of the national army as much as possible." .

With the attack of the South China Army, Ming's rule in Guangdong fell apart, and the Yao people who had been restless and secretly colluded with each other took advantage of the situation to launch riots and attacked the remaining Ming troops stationed everywhere.Due to the insufficient strength of the South China Army, apart from dispatching a small number of troops to take over the county seat, it failed to effectively establish rule in the mountainous area.The Yao people's riots are like a fire out of control, intensifying, developing faster and bigger than the same period in history.After tens of thousands of Yao people conquered Lianshan County, they attacked everywhere. The Ming army lost their command and had no fighting spirit. Almost all the mountainous areas in northwestern Guangdong were involved. It was taken over by the Yao people.In the center of the riots, many counties were taken over by the national army squadrons and then expelled or surrounded by the Yao people's armed forces, and the communication lines were cut off.And this storm is connected into a piece, which threatens the trend of Shaoguan, Zhaoqing and Wuzhou.

Strongmen from all walks of life also heard the wind and moved one after another, absorbing the collapsed Ming army defeated by the South China Army, and calling the wind and rain in areas that the Senate has not yet fully controlled.What worries Bei Wei the most is that, judging from the statements of captured prisoners and the actions of armed forces in various places, although the Yao people, remnants of the Ming army, bandits and other forces have not shown any signs of alliance for the time being, and they are still attacking and killing each other, but in terms of actions But there is already some cooperation.Especially when the Fubo Army launched a sweeping operation, all parties will take diversionary actions.The situation seems to have become complicated and dangerous overnight.

Li Dong didn't know the current situation - he only knew that "the situation was tense" during the meeting, and he knew very little about the specific situation.The obvious point is that these recruits will not be able to face the enemy head-on on the battlefield just because they have an extra machete.They may be used to obeying orders, and they have a little cohesion, but the consensus of the officers and non-commissioned officers is that they must keep an eye on this group of recruits at all times and let them form a dense queue.As long as the control of this mob is relaxed a little, they will desert and slip away to no one knows where.Not to mention that neither tactics nor weapon use have received good training. In the event of an enemy army, standard spears alone will not be able to do much.

Fortunately, the chief also knows their actual combat power, so the assigned operation this time is not too difficult-there is also the tool of the big boat: if you can't win, you can board the boat and run away.

The fleet sailed down the river, and soon passed Xilongzhou.Here is an observation post of the Fubo Army.The Inland River Fleet also deployed on-duty gunboats here, but further downstream, except for county towns and villages and towns that are important transportation nodes, the Fubo Army has no military presence on both sides of the strait.

Right now, not even a boat can be seen on the Xijiang River, and there are few people along the coast.Many small villages are deserted, and some have been turned into ruins. The larger villages and towns are guarded. Although it is spring, there are not many people working in the fields.Sometimes there is still black smoke floating in the air. I don't know if the flames of war or the police smoke is released.

The six boats sailed alone on this wide river, which really made Li Dong shudder.

"This is too desolate..." Lipton stood on the wooden box and muttered to himself.He was originally a soldier in Zhaoqing's guard, and he was very familiar with the Xijiang area.

"It's an old saying: I would rather be a dog of peace than a person in troubled times. Why do you care about this when you become a soldier?" Yang Erdong said after hearing his words.He was just below him by the gun port, and was in charge of a turtledove gun--loaded.The match was ablaze and hung from a hook on one side.

"I really don't want to go out to fight, but if I don't serve as a soldier, I have nothing to eat." Lipton was a little sad-he was not originally from a battalion, and he didn't need to participate in the selection and distribution of surrenders. Enlistment was voluntary.

Next update: Volume 356 - Guangzhou Governance Chapter [-]

(End of this chapter)