Dragon Sea Empire

The spring season in Liaodong is also a suitable season for large armies to fight. The Chinese army assembled the main forces of the first and fifth divisions near Uiju on the banks of the Yalu River in northern North Korea, and prepared to cross the river to launch a direct attack on Hetuala, the state of Houjin. At the same time, southern Liaoning The second division, the main force of the sixth division, the main force of the cavalry brigade, and most of the artillery brigade were assembled to prepare to go north to Liaoyang and Shenyang.

In May of the first year of Tianqi (1621), Yin Feng left Lushun Port southward and returned to Taiwan on the armed merchant ship Xinxing, escorted by more than ten warships.

On the pier, he said to Zeng Shan, Zeng Rui, Zhao Tie, Yan Siqi and others who came to see him off: "I don't want to be Zhuge Liang, and I have to do everything by myself, making you shy in doing things. Zeng Lao Liu, you are in charge of all the government affairs of Liaodong." "Brother Zhao, your current position as chief commander of the Liaodong March has military powers, and the overall situation of Liaodong depends on the actions of the two of you."

Yin Feng was telling the truth. In the battle of Sansilipu last time, the generals, because he personally supervised the battle, although the marching formation was quite satisfactory, but for his safety, a large number of troops gathered at Sansilipu and dared not go forward to pursue them. The opportunity was delayed, and Amin escaped. The Chinese army is fighting more and more battles. It is time for those senior generals to exercise their ability to stand alone.

When Yin Feng returned to Taiwan Port, he also brought back a group of Liaodong refugees to enrich the labor force in factories and farms around Taiwan Port City. Among those who went south with the ship, there were also a group of people who went to the Chinese Military Academy in Taiwan for short-term training. Middle and lower-level officers; there are more than 80 people in this group, most of whom were selected from the newly recruited soldiers of the Chinese Army in Liaodong the previous year, and Zhang Pan is one of the few former members of the defeated Ming army.

He performed well in the infantry confrontation exercise of the new barracks, and was dragged into the battalion directly under the Fifth Division by Yan Siqiqiang as a post commander. You must enter the military academy to study and train before you can be officially appointed and take up a military position. Therefore, Zhang Pan reluctantly boarded the ship and went south to Taiwan.

Yin Feng took them on board himself, and he recognized Zhang Pan: this Ming soldier who was going to join the Chinese Army at the Battle of Sanshilipu, Zhang Pan saw Yin Feng and rushed over desperately, but was killed by Yin Feng's Two personal guards stood outside the circle of people.

"Master President, I have something to ask, let me go,"

The orderly boarding team at the pier stopped suddenly, and there was a commotion among the crowd.

The instructor who led the team blushed, rushed over and held Zhang Pan tightly: "Damn, you are so ignorant, going to a military academy for training is a great thing, no matter how many people look forward to it, What's wrong with you boy?" The instructor who broke his left arm is a veteran of the guards, one of Yin Feng's first subordinates. He felt that Zhang Pan was making such a disturbance because he was embarrassing himself in front of his own ship owner, the king, and he became furious and shouted. The back of the Japanese sword in his hand was about to hit Zhang Pan's back.

"Boss Jiang, stop," Yin Feng stopped the instructor surnamed Jiang, walked over from the guards, and said sharply, "What's the matter, what's the matter with this military cadet?"

Instructor Jiang hurriedly stood at attention and saluted, and Zhang Pan followed suit. Instructor Jiang glared at Zhang Pan and said angrily, "This guy has been clamoring to stay and fight, and he doesn't want to go to the Chinese Military Academy in Taiwan. I've locked him up for a day. Confinement, who knows that he will make trouble before boarding the ship..."

Yin Feng waved his hand, turned to Zhang Pan, and asked sternly: "Zhang Pan, although I approved you to join the Chinese Army, I cannot violate the military discipline of the Chinese Army. Soldiers take obedience to orders as their top priority. Behavior has violated military discipline, why don't you want to go to military academy for training,"

Zhang Pan opened his mouth, his eyes were red, he lowered his head to hold back his tears, raised his head and said loudly: "The Liaodong War is coming soon, Zhang and his brothers are willing to fight to the death with the northern captives, and fight back to their hometown to avenge their revenge. More than a dozen members of the family died at the hands of the Tartars, and Zhang and the Tartars were utterly irreconcilable. At this juncture, I cannot leave Liaodong. Your Majesty, the President, please let me stay and fight against the Tartars."

He knelt on one knee, his upper body straightened, and his thin and tall body had been tempered in the Chinese army, making him look very tall and straight.

Hurrah, behind him more than a dozen new cadets from the Liaodong military academy knelt down on one knee and said in unison, "We are willing to fight to the death with the Tartar soldiers."

Bloody man, the Liaodong people of this era could have been the biggest help for the Ming Dynasty to fight against the Manchu Eight Banners. Unfortunately, in the history of the original time and space, they were forced by the Ming Dynasty court to become subjects of the Later Jin Manchu Dynasty.

Yin Feng's face changed, and he sighed secretly, stepped forward to help Zhang Pan, and looked him up and down: "There are regulations in the Chinese Army, officers must enter the school to study and pass the examination before they can lead the army."

Zhang Pan lowered his head and said loudly: "Zhang Pan is willing to be an ordinary soldier, only wishing to fight the Tartar soldiers."

Yin Feng shook his head: "The decisive battle with the Houjin Eight Banners will take August at the earliest. Let me ask you, do you want to take revenge as an ordinary soldier, or do you want to bring your brothers to kill the enemy together?"

"You mean..." Zhang Pan's eyes lit up, and he looked up at Yin Feng.

Yin Feng said solemnly: "The short-term training at the military academy is only three months to half a year, it depends on your grades in the study assessment. If you can meet the assessment standards within two months, you will still have time to return to Liaodong. How about it? How do you plan, "

Zhang Pan puffed out his chest and said loudly, "Zhang Pan, the second lieutenant intern of the Fifth Division, obey the order."

Yin Feng nodded, and then said seriously: "In any case, you disturbed military discipline on the pier. This is an unforgivable crime. Instructor Jiang, after boarding the ship, the students will be confined until the fleet docks at Taiwan Port,"

Therefore, after going out to sea from Lushunkou, Zhang Pan has been in the bilge of Xinxing and the ballast iron as companions. His own vomit was lying on the bottom of the ship. When the fleet docked in Taiwan, he was released from the confinement room in the hold. He was already bearded, unkempt, smelly all over his body, and he had lost a lot of weight. However, his The spirit has been in a state of excitement, and I look forward to ending the training period earlier and returning to Liaodong to participate in the battle.

Mr. Zeng Qi is 70 years old, and he is still in good spirits, leading the personnel of Taiwan's civil service system to welcome Yin Feng at the pier. Mai Dahai, Mai De, Lin Xiao and members of the company's board of directors who stayed in Taiwan all came to welcome him.

It has been almost a year since Yin Feng left Taiwan this time, and his wife and children also came to welcome him.

On the wharf, there were also family members of the Chinese army, company employees, and wharf coolies gathered there. The big businessmen from Fujian and Zhejiang, and the directors stationed in Taiwan from major business gangs in the mainland all came to welcome them; The merchant house also sent people to greet Yin Feng, as well as black laborers, Malay sailors, Japanese laborers, Spanish prisoners of war, chiefs of indigenous villages in this island, indigenous chiefs in Luzon Island, and envoys from various small states in Southeast Asia to meet Yin Feng. The Jews residing in Taiwan and Hong Kong also sent representatives to welcome Yin Feng and his party. In addition to the common people who came to watch the fun, the company staff who came to receive the Liaodong laborers, and the guard team composed of military school students, the entire wharf was crowded with 6 to [-] people. The entire pier was crowded, the people fired firecrackers, shouted to pay tribute to Yin Feng, and the fleet and fort fired gun salutes for Yin Feng's return to Taiwan.

It was the first time in Zhang Pan's life that he saw so many people gathered together. His first impression of this scene was that it was chaotic and noisy. Enthusiastic and excited, the people of Taiwan expressed respect for Yin Feng, but they didn't respect him at all.

The number of foreign ships in Taiwan Port is much less than that of a few years ago. Due to the monopoly decree issued by Yin Feng on shipping in the East Asian waters, foreign ships must enter the port in Malacca, Banten, and Jakarta. In addition to trading in Taiwan Port, Western maritime powers, Arabia, and Indian merchant ships who want to buy Chinese goods have to use Chinese ships to transport them from the southeast coast, Taiwan, and Luzon to Malacca, Banten, and Jakarta for trading.

Taiwan Port is now the shipping center of China's coast. There are fewer foreign ships, but there are many people from Eastern and Western countries. Before joining the Chinese Army, Zhang Pan had never seen any foreigners in his life. Pan was quite surprised. Unexpectedly, just after getting off the ship in Taiwan Port, he saw hundreds of people of different races in black, white and yellow, especially those black people who were as black as ink. Zhang Pan was almost shocked when he saw it for the first time. .

Traditional Chinese literati always think that their country is the world. They never thought that the "world" would be so large and complex, far beyond their poor imagination. Zhang Pan was once a scholar, and traditional Confucianism was deeply rooted in his heart. I have never doubted that all the people in the world are barbarians except China, which is the center of humanities and ethics.

For those foreigners wandering around in the streets of Taiwan, Zhang Pan found it difficult to understand why they came here "without avoiding the dangers of rivers and seas, and without fear of the labor of trekking." He still stubbornly believed that the outside world was "barbarians."

Among the instructors who came to accept the cadets, there were several Dutchmen with eagle noses, cat eyes, and red beards. Zhang Pan was placed in the team of a red-haired instructor. He hesitated for a while when he wanted to switch to other student teams, and thought of Jun Ji and Yin Feng's words, so he could only suppress his dissatisfaction and bowed his head to obey the red-haired instructor's command.

From Taiwan Port to the Chinese Military Academy, it is necessary to pass through the entire city of Taiwan Port.

Now Taiwan Port has completed the surrounding 24-mile-long city wall construction. There are four fortresses in the east, west, north and south. All of them are polygonal fortress buildings. The streets are paved with stones and cement, drainage structures are dug along the roadside, and some trees are planted uniformly. The commercial area in the city has a concentration of markets, the east city with a concentration of restaurants and restaurants, the residential area with a concentration of people, and the area with many workshops. The factory area was originally divided very clearly.

Yin Feng likes the urban layout of the later generations with clear division of functional areas, but he did not expect that Taiwan and Hong Kong would rise almost overnight, and the development is too fast. It has become an old city in the south of the city. With the rapid influx of people from the mainland, Taiwan and Hong Kong have expanded in all directions in a short period of time. Yin Feng has no time to manage the city layout all day long, and his men are also inexperienced. The urban area of ​​Taiwan was spread out like a pancake in another time and space on the seaside plain called Tainan. Now, except for the inner city "old city", the urban area has an orderly chessboard structure, and the rest of the newly expanded site appears to be in a disorderly layout. However, the streets are basically paved with stones and cement, and the drainage system is basically built. In the city, there are big businessmen who are wealthy and powerful, and there are also beggars who live on the streets. Zhang Pan did not see the ideal in his mind. Instead of a city where everyone works and rests at sunset, everyone is morally high, and everything is well-organized, it is a city full of noise and chaos, a sea of ​​people, prosperous business, and people's desires. The security team of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, as the first public security department in China, has Maintaining law and order, the law and order situation here is basically good in Zhang Pan's view: there are no government servants who collect taxes indiscriminately, and there are no mine supervisors and tax envoys who robbed them, which is much better than the chaos in the Liaodong capital.

The 10 people living here have basically poured in over the past ten years, and this city appeared on a deserted beach in a miraculously short period of time.

Knowing these things, Zhang Pan felt more awe and suspicion than admiration for Yin Feng and his Chinese company in his heart. Although in order to avenge his family, he had already put aside the Confucian creed of "loyalty to the emperor" and joined the "Sea Bandit Army", but In his heart, he was counting on Yin Feng to be a benevolent emperor, so that his rebellion against the Ming Dynasty would be justified.

From Zhang Pan’s point of view, all the things Yin Feng did, such as expanding overseas territories, emphasizing business and weapons, using a lot of Western barbarians, introducing Western cults, teaching Western miscellaneous studies in schools, etc., are difficult to use. Zhang Pan's heart was very confused by the traditional framework of Mingjun and Holy Lord.

The short-term training courses in the military academy are mainly written classroom teaching, many of which are theoretical, including case studies, sand table deduction level project courses, for students like Zhang Pan who are well-educated and have practical experience, getting good grades is not a bad idea. not difficult.

A month later, he was given special approval for a day off because of his excellent grades.

The No. 17 short-term training class of the Infantry Division of the Chinese Military Academy came from all over the Chinese Army’s ruled areas. Zhang Panxin met Zheng Zhihu, a student from Quanzhou, Fujian. In the days to come, the two will become friends and enemies. This is Zhang Panxin. The disk is not yet predictable.