1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 2029
To maintain a well-organized musket force, not only does it require a large amount of military expenditure, but also a stable supply of weapons and ammunition. Even Haihan does not have the ability to expand the army on a large scale at this stage.The Qing army obviously lacks the corresponding strength in this regard. Their weapons, ammunition and training must be provided by external aid, so the musketeer team stationed here is not too large. Sun Bing has been monitoring for more than half a month. It is confirmed that the establishment of this musketeer team is roughly equivalent to a reinforced platoon in the Haihan Army, with less than a hundred combatants.

However, despite the shortage of weapons, the Qing army is obviously already preparing for the expansion of the army. Another group of soldiers who did not have muskets began to train with the musketeers. Sun Bing thought that maybe after the next batch of muskets arrived here, The Qing army will probably expand the establishment of this musket force.

In fact, there were musketeers in the Qing army. Among the Ming troops who defected from Denglai, Jinzhou and other places to join the enemy, many were musketeers, and were later incorporated into the Han army banner by Huang Taiji.However, the weapons used by these Musketeers inherited from Ming Dynasty are relatively old, and their performance is far from enough to fight against the Haihan Army.The hundreds of artillery pieces accumulated by the Qing army have been exhausted in the Jinzhou tug-of-war in the last two or three years, but the technical threshold for manufacturing large-caliber artillery is difficult for the Qing army to overcome, otherwise There is no need to focus on the Musketeers.

But Huang Taiji didn't want to pin all his hopes on the people like the Han Army Banner, he still needed to train a Jurchen firearms unit, so when foreign military aid appeared, he selected a group of young soldiers from various ministries , handed over to foreign instructors for training.Of course, these soldiers were all Jurchen ethnicity, and none of them were Han Chinese.

Moreover, Huang Taiji also put forward a very specific request, that is, to form a preliminary combat power this winter, and the training should be aimed at actual combat, not just to practice a style.When necessary, they can directly participate in the combat operations of the frontline troops, such as the patrols that ambushed the Haihan Army in the confrontation area between the two armies.

As Sun Bing found the Musketeers, Wang Tom also considered the possibility of fighting with the enemy. His purpose of replenishing troops for this reconnaissance operation was actually to prepare for emergencies, in case the Musketeers The commander of the team is hot-headed and wants to engage in field marches and training near the coast. The front-line commander Sun Bing can immediately gather his manpower to destroy the musketeer team at the right time, and then withdraw from the sea that area.

In addition, Wang Tom also gave Sun Bing a new secret mission, which was to wait for an opportunity to capture alive the foreign instructor who trained the Qing army.For the Haihan army, the musketeers of the Qing army were not enough to pose a real threat to themselves, and trying to cut off the Qing army's access to military assistance from the source was the best solution to this matter.

"Catch it alive? I'm afraid it won't be that easy!" Sun Bing looked through the binoculars at the Qing army musketeers who were training at the foot of the hill, and couldn't help showing a wry smile.

Although this place was regarded as the Qing army's control area, the Qing army was not careless about the safety of important people, and still arranged relatively complete security measures.Not far from the foreign instructor was his mount, and there were about seven or eight strong and fit Bajala warriors around him, all equipped with horses, apparently specially here to protect him.

If something happened, these Bajala fighters should immediately escort the foreign instructor out of here and return to the Qing army camp.Although the weapons of the Marine Corps have a certain range advantage, considering the distance up and down the hillside, Sun Bing is not sure that he can keep the foreign instructor behind with the rifle in his hand, and he may not even be able to kill the opponent. success.

And once there was a firefight here, the Qing army camp that was close at hand would react immediately, and the marines hiding in the mountains and forests would definitely be in a hard fight. In Sun Bing's view, there was no need to take this risk.Of course, if the higher-ups were determined to fight a big battle near Jinshitan, Sun Bing would be happy to see it succeed. After all, only military merit can be obtained in war, and military merit can only be promoted quickly.

"Company commander, we've been here for almost a month. We're starving and freezing every day. When can we deal with these guys?"

Some subordinates who couldn't hold back asked Sun Bing this question. In fact, questions like this have become more and more frequent in recent days. It can be seen that more and more people are impatient with this silent surveillance operation. up.This is of course a reasonable situation. After all, it is really uncomfortable to stay in such a freezing environment. The staff on duty swallow dry food and snow water every day, and they can only return to the beach after nightfall. base to have a hot meal.

After the recent heavy snowfall, non-combat attrition due to frostbite has begun to appear in the team, and everyone's patience is also being worn out little by little.If it continues to drag on, it will become more and more difficult for Sun Bing to appease the soldiers' emotions, which will definitely affect the execution of the mission in the end.

Sun Bing pointed at the group of people at the foot of the hill, and replied in a low voice, "Whenever they move out, we will do it!"

Sun Bing's judgment of the situation was relatively accurate, that is, the reason why the musketeers belonging to the Qing army insisted on winter training was not because of diligence, but because they were preparing for the next secret operation.

Only a few hundred meters away from the hiding place of Sun Bing and others, at the foot of the hillside, the Hispanic officer Bayano is coldly observing the training of these Qing soldiers under him. To be honest, he is not very satisfied with these soldiers. Kong has bravery and a strong body, but his brain is very difficult to use.A simple queue training has been practiced for several months but still can't master it. There are even many people who can't even tell the left and right, which leads to the ridiculous situation of turning in the wrong direction from time to time during the training.

A stupid guy like this, if he was in the Spanish army, he must have been whipped a long time ago. If he still can't change, he can only be a groom or a porter in charge of logistics, but the Qing army's selection of outstanding soldiers seems to be somewhat It's different, they put more emphasis on martial prowess, and the ability to use their brains is secondary.Bayano also wanted to let the generals of the Qing army find some smarter Han soldiers to receive training, but the other party rejected this proposal and asked him to train these "Warriors of the Qing Dynasty" well.

If it weren't for the generous treatment provided by the other party, Bayano would have kicked all these unqualified soldiers out of the team, but he later heard that many people in the musketeer team had noble backgrounds, so he understood Why did the generals of the Qing army refuse to change candidates.This method of drawing people with special backgrounds into a certain army to make military exploits is actually no different from what he saw and heard in the Spanish army.

Bayano served in the army in his early years, and participated in more than ten battles, large and small, on the European battlefield.Later, because he couldn't bear the blind command and ridiculous behavior of those noble officers in the army, he applied for retirement when he was injured in a battle and needed to recuperate.He had heard that Spain had a lot of lucrative jobs in the far eastern colonies, especially for veterans like him, as long as they wanted to go, there would definitely be jobs with good pay.So Bayano drifted halfway around the world with the caravan's sailboat, and went to the Philippines several times.

However, after Bayano arrived in the Philippines, he quickly discovered that the situation here is actually no different from that in China. The power is still in the hands of a few upper-class people, and there are quite a few immigrants like him who came to the East to make money after hearing the rumors. If you don't have a certain family background or identity background, you can only start from the bottom of society.

Fortunately, Bayano has experience in the army, and was a small officer. This experience allowed him to get a job in the colony-becoming a member of the Philippine Governor's personal guard.Although the remuneration of this errand was not as good as he had expected before leaving Spain, it was not bad for the colony.

But the good times didn't last long. Under the years of pressure from Haihan, a strong opponent, the trade scale of the Philippine colony showed a trend of shrinking year by year, and the results of previous confrontations continued to dampen the strength of the colony.When the Haihan army broke through the city of Manila, Bayano withdrew to Cebu with Governor Aragones. Not long after, he was assigned a new job—to perform military assistance overseas on behalf of the colonial authorities. Task.

At that time, Bayano was far from the only one who received this mission, but the destination that Bayano drew in the next mission draw was said to be the farthest place from the Philippines, thousands of miles away.He was told that the partner was a rising power in the north, and it was said that they were at war with Haihan and Ming at the same time, which sounds very powerful.

Bayano knew that other people were sent to Daming and Haihan. This was obviously a very complicated plan, and his mission was to help this country called "Qing" train an elite army.For this reason, the colonial authorities also provided hundreds of muskets, several artillery pieces and a large amount of ammunition, which were transported to the Qing Dynasty together with him.

But in fact, it was not the sailing ships of the colonial authorities that performed the long-distance transportation task, but a certain Han Chinese sea merchant took on the task.According to Bayano's explanation, it is because the route between the Philippine Islands and Qing Dynasty is very dangerous, and it is possible to encounter Haihan's armed fleet at sea. Once the Spanish sailing ship is discovered, it may lead to death, so Only the cover of the Han maritime merchants is needed to pass through these dangerous areas.

Of course, there is another reason that cannot be ignored, that is, there was no direct contact between the colonial authorities and the Qing Dynasty. This so-called military aid cooperation was actually achieved through a middleman, and the middleman was a group of mysterious Han maritime merchants.

Whether it is the colonial authorities or Bayano, it is difficult to fully trust these Han maritime merchants, but after the defeat in Manila, there is not much room for choice and time left for the colonial authorities. If you do not find more overseas cooperation as soon as possible Partners to deal with Haihan together, maybe the days of the Philippine colony under the rule of the Kingdom of Spain will enter the countdown.So for the Spaniards, this cooperation opportunity is actually a life-saving straw. Although the hope is slim, they can only reach out and grab it first.

Bayano’s reason for distrusting middlemen is simpler and straightforward. He believes that neither the Han nor the Haihan can be trusted. Manila was conquered by the Haihan by force, but after the city was broken, there were not many Han people at that time. Choose to evacuate the local area together with the colonial authorities.In Bayano's view, this is a nest of snakes and rats, and it shows that the Han people and the colonial authorities are not of one mind.And these maritime merchants who acted as middlemen were not under the control of the colonial authorities, and their reliability was not even comparable to the Han people in Manila. It was too risky for the colonial authorities to entrust such important matters to them.

But an order is an order, and as a soldier, he can only obey the arrangement of his superiors, and escort this batch of arms to the far north with the Han sea merchants.

"Once the Haihan people discover your existence in the local area, they will try their best to kill you. As for the reason, you should think of it, so you have to hide it well, and don't let the Haihan people know your existence."

The Han merchant who was in charge of sending Bayano to his destination had said this to him on the way, and Bayano knew that this was true.His task is to bring advanced weapons and combat concepts to the partners, and the Haihan people will certainly not be happy to see their local opponents suddenly transform themselves and improve their combat effectiveness, and they will definitely kill all foreign military aid methods.

In order to avoid the activities of Haihan armed sailboats as much as possible, the merchant ship that Bayano took chose a very risky route, and did not sail close to the coastline of the mainland, but went northward from the waters east of Taiwan Island.During the more than one-month voyage, Bayano rarely saw the horizon within his field of vision, and was advancing on the endless sea almost every day.

The ship only made one stop at an uninhabited island on the way. After replenishing fresh water from a water source near the shore, it hurried on the road again, and did not deal with anyone during the entire voyage.Bayano learned during the voyage that several other colleagues who went to other places also had similar itineraries to minimize the possibility of exposure.However, the destinations of other colleagues are much closer than his, and Bayano is still somewhat uncomfortable thinking of this.

After completing a long voyage, the ship reached the coast of Liaodong at midnight one night, and then entered an inland river channel.According to the Han maritime merchants, any sailboat that appeared on this coastline would be attacked once it was discovered by the Haihan warship, so they had no choice but to enter this area at midnight.This actually aroused a little sympathy for Bayano. It seems that the partner in the north is much worse than the colonial authorities. At least the coast and port of the Philippines have not been blocked so badly by the Haihan warship.

(End of this chapter)