New Shun 1730

This time, Zhao Liben really found a little taste of his hometown, especially the straight canal that looked like the salt transport river in his hometown.

The place he was going to was called Niganbo. It was definitely not called Niganbo in the past. If it was transliterated, it was generally called Negombo in later generations.

But there is a lagoon here, with the ebb and flow of the tide. Although it will take a long time to become an inland lagoon like West Lake that is completely isolated from the sea, the scene of the dried mud and sand is still very suitable for the name of Niganbo.

Zhao Liben is just an ordinary civilian who has some experience and goes out to see.

He will not explore the history and games, but instinctively feel that the scenery here is somewhat similar to his hometown.

Naturally, he will not know that this canal built by the Dutch, which is more than 200 miles long and 20 to 30 feet wide, is the greatest legacy left by the Dutch to Dashun.

Not only this canal built from Gaolangbu to the northern cinnamon producing area can transport supplies.

It was because of this canal that the Trojan Horse plan of Nanyang migration was successful, and this canal made great contributions to the Dashun's conquest of Ceylon by the Chinese.

To be more sinister, the plan for the migration included the legalist method of "the Dutch oppressed the Chinese during the infrastructure construction, and the Dutch were responsible for the bad reputation. After the infrastructure construction, Dashun came to rescue these Chinese."

The interweaving of the stormy rainy season and the dry season in the Indian Ocean, as well as the division of the cinnamon producing area and the coastal ports, made this canal very important.

Now that the canal has been repaired, this canal that has introduced fresh water has also assumed a certain irrigation function, and the villages of the Chinese in Ceylon have been spread all the way along the canal, running through the north-south traffic of the Dashun ruling area.

As long as the Chinese who repaired the canal have not died out, Dashun will always be the king's army here in the southwest of Ceylon.

Zhao Liben didn't know all this, but he felt the familiar canal style and the familiar canal people's buildings along the canal.

This place is different from Gaolangbu. Gaolangbu's style is too European after all, while this place is completely Chinese.

There are small black-sailed boats on the canal, because big ships can't go there because it's too narrow, which makes the canal even more interesting.

He just needs to walk along the canal to get to Niganbo. Not far away, he saw a small town.

There is no need to ask where the military camp is, because there are rumbling gunshots coming from a hill not far away, and the local residents are already accustomed to it.

The commercial area of ​​the city is distributed along the canal. Very close to the military camp is the largest fish market in Ceylon. You can smell the strong fishy smell from a long distance.

Some fishermen are loading baskets of fish into trucks, which should be transported to the military camp. The fishermen are not Chinese, but the fish transporters are Chinese. Zhao Liben went over to say hello, handed over a cigarette skillfully, and asked how to find someone in the military camp.

The fish carrier was easy to talk to. He said that the taverns on the commercial street next to the fish market were the easiest place to find soldiers. You can't enter the barracks. If you want to find someone, just wait in the taverns on the commercial street and ask when there are many people.

After thanking him, he followed the instructions and went to a tavern area near the canal.

Soldiers' salaries are paid monthly, so these commercial streets will naturally become prosperous. There are a lot of Chinese here. I just found a larger tavern, ordered some food and drinks, and asked the people in the tavern.

The owner of the tavern said, "It's easy to find out about people. Wait for the rest time in the barracks, and a large group of people will come here to drink. When the time comes, you can buy some cooked food such as pork head and cooked beef, and serve a plate to ask around."

"Soldiers love to eat meat, but they rarely eat meat in the barracks. They either eat fish, seaweed, or coconut tofu. As for wine... wine is cheap here, and if you offer them wine, they probably won't be very enthusiastic."

Not knowing whether the words of the tavern owner were true or false, Zhao Liben decided to follow this advice.

In the evening, a group of people really came, shouting and yelling, and they were all Chinese. Whether they were government soldiers or soldiers who received salaries, the local Sinhalese and Tamil people had no obligation to serve in the military, nor did they have the right to serve in the military.

When Zhao Liben saw these soldiers, he couldn't help but praise them. They were all strong men, with big arms and waists, tall and broad shoulders, and they were really tough.

This is the camp of Dashun's elite garrison in Ceylon, and several strictly trained combat engineer battalions are all here.

The place where Zhao Liben heard the sound of gunfire was originally a Dutch artillery fort. After Dashun besieged it, this artillery fortress became the place where Dashun trained combat engineers.

It happened that there was a canal here and it was close to Ceylon's largest fish market, which was convenient for supply. In addition to eating rice, to maintain this high-intensity training, oil and protein are necessary. Here, Liu Yu's style of training in Weihai is still continued, eating fish, tofu and vegetable oil.

Dashun was still paying more attention to the several battles between Britain and France in India. However, Du Feng made wrong judgments several times.

After all, Liu Yu's siege method was learned from France.

According to Du Feng's inference, it would be easy for the French to attack the British castle?

However, in practice, it was very different.

Du Feng also sent people to check it out, thinking that there was something special about the British castle. In the end, he concluded that it was not a problem with the castle, but a problem with the French army stationed in India.

Many times, the British turned the tables because they could not conquer the castle.

Therefore, Dashun added some combat engineer battalions in Ceylon. In fact, in terms of positioning, at least 80% of their bloodline is grenadiers. However, in view of the special situation in India, the grenadiers did not specifically become an elite unit in line battles. Instead, they strengthened towards the grenadier's old profession - throwing grenades, fighting for bastion trenches, and cruel anti-artillery slopes. Trench hand-to-hand combat - it's just that Dashun has strengthened the skill of digging holes, weakening the musket firing rate and reloading training of some European grenadiers.

Another thing is that Dashun has professional skirmishers who use rifled rifles and Mini bullets, and there is no need to strengthen the grenadier's musket training.

In view of this idea of ​​​​building an army, and also adhering to the strategic judgment that Dashun's delivery capability in World War I could only fight a small-scale war of three to five thousand people, most of Dashun's elite units of combat engineers in Nanyang were miners.

In addition, the strong men from Yanyun or Laoshan in Shandong, Henan and Laoshan are not well adapted to the environment and climate of Nanyang, so most of the soldiers are selected from various mining areas in Nanyang.

Bangka tin mine, Ceylon gem mine, Borneo gold mine, Java copper mine sulfur mine, Keelung coal mine, etc.

This caused Zhao Liben to encounter a rather embarrassing situation, language problem.

He is from Huainan and fled to Guandong, so he came into contact with northern Mandarin.

The dialects spoken in various mining areas in Nanyang are either Fujian or Cantonese. Even if there is Mandarin, it sounds confusing.

After listening for a long time, I finally heard a familiar pronunciation, so I hurriedly followed the tavern owner's instructions, packed some cooked food, and went over.

After telling her name and asking, she actually recognized it.

I cut another two kilograms of cooked beef and a pile of fennel beans. As expected, the other party became enthusiastic, and one of them ran out to call for help.

Not long after, the two brothers finally met each other after many years of separation.

Zhao Liben held it in for a long time before he finally said something.

"San'er, you're getting stronger!"

His younger brother huffed his nose and held back his tears for a long time before calling out brother.

"Are you married yet?"

"Are your second brother and sister-in-law okay?"

The two people asked the question almost at the same time, and then neither of them answered, just giggling.

It took a long time before the two of them sat down, and each of them drank a bowl of wine. Finally, their tongues became able to speak normally, but they didn't know where to start.

"Do you have to go back to the military camp at night?" Zhao Liben thought for a while and finally thought of something he should ask at this time.

"Yes, you have to go back to the military camp at night. You should be able to have a holiday the day after tomorrow. Recently, we have a group of grenade-throwing hand cannons here, and they will take the assessment the day after tomorrow. Generally, you have a holiday after the assessment. I have been practicing fiercely recently."

Zhao Liben didn't know what a grenade-throwing hand cannon was, nor did he know that this weird thing looked like a hand cannon from the Hussite War, but it was an auxiliary device for throwing grenades. In this era, countries The Grenadier had a brief renaissance.

But then it was replaced by the new mobilization system of explosive grenades, comprehensive mobilization organization skills, encircling fortresses without attacking, and combat forces. It wasn't until the resurgence of trench warfare that alienated versions of these things, such as grenades and mortars, appeared again.

However, on the Dashun side, it was promoted among combat engineers in order to increase the range. It's just that this thing is not suitable for large-scale battles on the European battlefield. It is a smooth-bore thing that places too high demands on the user. It is not suitable for battles, but is only suitable for trenches and fortresses.

Dashun would not choose to let these combat engineers trained with a lot of money go to fight against the front lines. In field battles, they basically stood aside and relied on naval maneuvers to sneak in and quickly seize the fortress.

Zhao Liben didn't care at all what a hand cannon was, and didn't even think about it in his mind.

Then he asked: "I heard that after you retreat, you are going to the Southern Ocean to farm? How is that place? If it works, then when I go back, your second brother and I will go there first. At first I was thinking about going to Guandong. But after you have been a soldier for so many years, you need this three hundred acres. It is also a family fortune. Is it safe to go to this place in the Southern Ocean? "

The younger brother nodded and said: "It's reliable. There are officials in our camp who have been there and told us specifically. If you want to go, it's really good. The land is cheap there, but you can't hire people to work. There is plenty of land, so you can work there. No landlord. It's just a good time for you to go. , If I serve for another two years, I can let my family start farming there. The officer said, he is not afraid that we will become deserters and run away. If we want to go there, ordinary ships cannot go there, so if we serve for another two years, the court will We’re going to start settling our families there.”

"It's said that it's a specially allocated fund, a specially built ship, and it's given away to people every year. It seems that it's not too expensive to buy a ticket yourself, right? Two or three years of military pay for one person?"