Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 407 Prelude ([-])

Pei Qin picked up the towel wrapped around his neck and wiped his sweat.Today is the end of July (lunar calendar), which is the hottest time of the year.Even in the Little Ice Age when the temperature was relatively low, the temperature at noon was [-] to [-] degrees. Therefore, after working in the fields for half a day, he unconsciously wiped his sweat.

Gao Cuihuan held a rake and kept rummaging in the field.From time to time, a piece of sweet potato would come out, and he would pick it up and throw it into the wooden box next to it.With the arrival of the grain harvest season, all the staff of Yantai Fort have devoted themselves to intense grain harvesting work, not only their troops who have just been transferred from Sakhalin Island, but also the Eight Banners New Army, which is the main force, also came here in turn Work hard to ensure that the grain of the [-] mu of land is harvested as quickly as possible.Because, the enemy will not come to trouble you after you have harvested the food.

According to the latest information obtained, more than [-] Qing troops (including those who surrendered to the Ming army, Baoyi, follow-up, and Han army flags) who went south had already occupied Dezhou, Jinan, Linqing and other areas, and even Qingzhou fell without a fight.The shameful Zhao Yingyuan and others were unwilling to take refuge with the people from the east bank, but they gave up in front of tens of thousands of Qing troops, and were easily appeased by the people sent by Wang Aoyong.Since Qingzhou was flat, Laizhou was exposed to the Qing court.According to unreliable news, the local gentry in Laizhou will soon surrender to the Qing court after hearing that the Qing court offered them preferential conditions such as allowing everyone to stay in their original positions, not shaving their hair and changing clothes, and exempting them from collecting money and food.In this way, the only area in Shandong that has not surrendered is Dengzhou, which is located in the Jiaodong area.

The situation in Dengzhou has also undergone earth-shaking changes during this month.First of all, in June, Zeng Hualong, the governor of Denglai, took a rare hard look, and sent Dengzhou general Teng Yinyu to lead hundreds of troops to "defeat" the "more than [-]" local bandits who had been rampant for a while, and rescued Jiaozhou.Zhang Haoxian, one of the leaders of the local bandits, surrendered to Neiying, captured and killed the other two leaders, Zhang Daya and Zhang Qianchu, and most of the bandits he had engulfed collapsed.However, just when the Dengzhou squire had a certain amount of confidence in Zeng Futai, the Master Zeng fled to the south of Hainan with the magistrate of Jiaozhou in silence, leaving a group of officials and generals in Dengzhou staring at him. Eye.

Without the Ming Dynasty, there will be the Qing Dynasty.Therefore, after Zeng Hualong fled south and got the news that the Qing army was approaching, the squires in Dengzhou were slightly depressed at first, and then became a little excited.Although the loss of the Ming Dynasty made everyone sad for a few days, but the way the Qing Dynasty acted was quite new-style, unlike the rebellious hypocrisy, it is really unreasonable to ask the gentry's fields to be muddy legs!Moreover, in May, the regent of the Qing Dynasty had already ordered to stop forcing Han people to shave their hair. Now the governors of Shandong, Wang Aoyong and Fang Dayou, have repeatedly emphasized that Han officials hold their original positions, and even allow them to wear the original Ming Dynasty official uniforms, as long as they serve the Qing Dynasty. Just do things.

Daming's new governor of Shandong has been lingering on the Huai River, not daring to come to Shandong.Since Daming does not come, then everyone is from the Qing Dynasty.From the looks of it now, it should be business as usual. They should not have suffered any losses during this dynasty change, and they can even take this opportunity to occupy some fields and increase their own wealth, which is really wonderful.Of course, they hoped that the new Qing court would be able to expel the shadow of pirates on the east coast that had been hanging over their heads for more than a year, and restore the world to a "bright world."

However, no matter how the situation in Shandong changes, the people on the east bank are too lazy to manage it. At this stage, their only task is to collect food, train soldiers, and take in refugees, and then observe the situation in Shandong in order to make a good plan for the next step.

After raking the ground for a while, Gao Cuihuan threw the rake on the ground and yelled: "I'm exhausted. After so many years of fighting and killing, I can't do this farming work at all. After doing it for a while, I feel tired. Why don't you go and practice the big formation with those black soldiers. Hey, old Pei, don't tell me, although those black soldiers look stupid, this big formation is very well arranged. I have seen it too The elite old battalion of Ruhou (Liu Zongmin), Bohou (Li Guo), and Cihou (Liu Fangliang) may not be defeated in the battle against the black soldiers, but it will take some effort to win. Boom, the large group of cavalry must rush forward, otherwise it will be difficult to win."

Pei Qin took out the cowhide water bag from his waist, shook it, and then took two gulps of cool water.Wiping his mouth, he looked at the officers and soldiers of the Eight Banners new army in full armor weighing more than 30 kilograms, shook his head, and said, "You have cannons, but others don't have cannons? I think the artillerymen of the East Coast Army are very elite. , then what kind of 12-pound iron cannons are dragged away by a few horses, and the cannons fired in the front and back are farther than the red cannons. How can the gunners of the old camp beat the artillery on the east coast and not be blasted by them? That's not bad. As for the cavalry, look at those black feudal soldiers, wearing iron armor, even their faces are covered by helmets, not to mention the soft riding bows, even the step bows, I'm afraid they can't penetrate It's not that you haven't worn that iron armor, which can't be pierced by muskets more than 80 paces away. It's better than wearing our original two-layer iron armor. Otherwise, you think Guo Shuai...well, why does Guo Sheng love this iron armor so much? ?”

"This iron armor is really good!" Gao Cuihuan also praised at this time.He is a first-class brave man, tall and strong, after wearing that pair of iron armor, he almost becomes a humanoid bulldozer, which is perfect for breaking the front and breaking the edge.

"It's not heavy. I can walk without panting after wearing it. If we had an army of iron men like thousands of children and eight hundred, I'm afraid we would have entered the capital long ago." Gao Cuihuan said again, "Old Pei, you It also makes sense. I don't think these black soldiers are like young children who have just entered the battle. They are all tall and big. Wearing this iron armor and holding this Zhangyu (3.5 meters standard infantry spear) long Spears, not afraid of cavalry rushing into the formation; coupled with artillery and musketeers, it is really difficult to crack. Tsk tsk, everyone says that the Tartars are powerful, I would like to see what the Tartars can do to break through this formation!"

"The Tartars probably won't be able to break through this formation." Pei Qin said bluntly, "To deal with such a tight formation, the Tartars can only use light cavalry to harass them, but their infantry bows are not as good as this firecracker. It's useless. Then you can only lure the army on the east bank to leave the city for an expedition, and then try to cut off its food roads, and wait for them to collapse without a fight. Or lie in ambush and launch a surprise attack during the march of the army on the east coast, so as to have a slight chance of winning .”

"It's not easy to launch a sneak attack!" Gao Cuihuan was a little disapproving, "Look at the security team that Mr. Mo has in hand, almost all of them are from Sakhalin Island fish skin tartars. Soybean can go out without eating or drinking for two days to investigate. Everyone also has unique skills such as throwing axes, magic arrows, and traps. I don’t know whether these scouts are comparable to those of the Tartars, but those scouts in our old camp Most of them are not as good. With such elite scouts, it is really not easy for the tartars to ambush, and it is hard to say who will find out first."

"It's just that there are fewer people." Pei Qin said with some regret, "There are only more than 1000 soldiers in the black army, and only about 200 musketeers. With the addition of more than [-] artillery troops, this out-of-city battle may be difficult. It’s not enough to see. You can defend the city, and at most you can fight against the city. It’s a pity that the training time for our standing team is still short, and the equipment is a bit messy. I’m afraid it’s not good to go into battle now. It's not a problem, but I'm afraid I'll suffer if I face the real Tartars."

Pei Qin was born as a cavalry soldier, and according to historical records, he was "good at riding and shooting".At present, there is a cavalry squadron in the No. 1 Brigade of the Stand Up Team, and he often goes to "business guidance". He has also watched the training of the East Coast Army and the Eight Banners New Army.In his opinion, the army of the people on the east coast is very elite, and according to their words, it is "very professional".Everyone knows what to do, especially the grassroots officers have strong tactical understanding and execution capabilities, and they are also very good at reading the battlefield situation to make reasonable judgments and responses.It seemed to be related to the often-opened military academy. He was thinking about when he would apply to attend classes to improve himself. He always felt that his original experience in fighting might be a little outdated.

With a whistle of "Hush", accompanied by a few commands, Pei Qin and Gao Cuihuan, who were chatting, immediately put away the broken corn cobs and raked sweet potatoes, then straightened their clothes and walked forward .There, more and more soldiers of the Standing Squad are already lining up. This afternoon, when all 1 squadrons of the 8st Squadron of the Standing Squad will confront each other in groups. As the deputy captain and the squadron leader, they must go to the scene of.

As the situation in Shandong became more and more clear, and the situation in Heishui, Dabo, and Yuanbo became more and more stable, Mo Ming, who felt that there was no need to spend the army there, began to train in the Heishui area. The several volunteer teams were gradually mobilized back, and the peak season of fishing season will be soon, and if they are not mobilized now, they may not be able to get a boat to transport them later.

The soldiers of these eight squadrons did not have any other equipment except that they each received a set of military uniforms and some spears. Because the people on the east bank had limited transport capacity, they transported mechanical equipment, machine parts, building materials, fishing nets, agricultural tools and If there are too many consumer goods, it will be impossible to transport too many weapons.Of course, there are also reasons why the people on the east coast still don't trust them very much. Some things, such as armor, cannot be distributed indiscriminately.Therefore, the weapons used by these people were either their own, or they were snatched from the original Ming army or the landlords and gentry, and of course some of them were some garbage found in the arsenals of the Weisuo prefectures and counties in the Dengzhou area. .All in all, their weapons are varied and of poor quality.

But no matter how rubbish a weapon is, it's better than a stick.And as these people can eat enough, their nutritional intake is relatively balanced, and they can receive their military pay on time, their morale is gradually recovering, and their training level is also increasing day by day.More than half of them are veterans with combat experience, and the rest are not very unfamiliar with combat. Therefore, the people on the east bank have reason to believe that through scientific and reasonable training, continuous ideological education and normal logistical support, these People can practice it.

(End of this chapter)