1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 2188
Hui national salt merchants want to overwhelm their opponents in combat with their own strength, and forming a musket team is probably the most direct and effective means.But before getting the assistance of Haihan, they could only grope in the dark with extremely limited information, trying to form a combat unit equipped with muskets from scratch.With the military knowledge and personnel reserves they have, the difficulty of doing so can be imagined.

The opponent's situation is obviously better than them, and the Japanese Hirado domain provides them with muskets and related tactics from Spain, which is enough to give them the upper hand in this battle.

There must also be knowledgeable people in the hands of Hui-based salt merchants. They know the problem, but they have not been able to find an effective solution until Haihan took action in Yangzhou last year.In line with the principle of one thing down, one thing, looking to the Haihan people to learn their skills has become a life-saving straw in the eyes of some Hui-born salt merchants.

Dai Chengrong is one of them.He had discussed with Dai Yingfan, the third uncle in charge of the defense of the Dai family militia, whether it was possible to learn the tactics of the Haihans through some channel.However, because the conditions were not mature at that time, and the internal opinions of the Hui-based salt merchants were not unified, they did not decide to seek the support of Haihan, so such a plan could only be left to nothing.

After a long wait, Dai Chengrong finally got the opportunity he expected. After discussing the matter, the seven clan heads finally decided to seek cooperation and assistance from Haihan, including learning military skills from Haihan.

Originally, his third uncle Dai Yingfan should have been selected to "study abroad" in Zhoushan, but because the environment for Hui-based salt merchants has become more and more tight recently, Dai Yingda believes that the local area is facing greater risks, and Dai Yingfan still needs to stay in Yangzhou to take command, so temporarily Replaced the candidate with Dai Chengrong.

Young, professional, and a core member of the next generation of the family, these labels on Dai Chengrong immediately made him the object of high hopes for the seven surnames.Whether Hui-Jiang salt merchants can build a private armed force with strong combat capability through Haihan's assistance will largely depend on the learning results of Dai Chengrong's group after they went to Zhoushan.

Before leaving for Zhoushan, Dai Chengrong also hopes to get more information from Yuantao, especially about the training content he will receive in Zhoushan.If he can do some targeted preparation before that, he thinks he may be able to get better results in just two or three months of training.

"Yesterday, I heard the manager of Yuan mentioned that the training period is about [-] days. Can you tell me what kind of content will be trained during this period?"

Yuan Tao heard Dai Chengrong's question, smiled and replied: "Actually, it's all relatively simple content, mainly the queue, physical fitness, tactics, shooting, marching and other major items. Divide it into several small items. For students with a certain foundation like Little Young Master, it shouldn’t be too difficult to learn, but you will definitely be tossed during training, so it’s best to be prepared to endure hardships.”

Seeing that Yuantao did not shy away from talking about this topic, Dai Chengrong continued to ask about the details of these training programs.

In fact, what the Haihan military prepared for them was basically the training subjects for the first three months of recruits enlisting in the army, which was not a military secret. Yuan Tao chose what he could talk about and gave Dai Chengrong a brief explanation.

The training methods of the Haihan Army are basically copied from the advanced methods brought by Chuanzhong from centuries later. Naturally, they are far ahead of this era. The training methods of the Ming Army learned from Dai Chengrong from the guard instructor are still relatively large. the difference.Just listening to Yuantao's brief description, Dai Chengrong felt that there were many new things that he had never touched before.

However, although Haihan will provide Dai Chengrong's group with training content that is almost the same as that of new recruits, the training intensity and corresponding standards will not be completely in accordance with the requirements of the army. standard.Moreover, the training intensity of the Haihan Army is far higher than that of the army of the same era. If it is true to the standards of the army, I am afraid that most of the people sent from Yangzhou will be overwhelmed.

Of course, if there are individual outstanding talents among this group of people, the Haihan military will definitely take some special measures to provide individual training.Dai Yingda's previous worries were not entirely unfounded. The Haihan military would not miss the opportunity to attract talents, even if they came from the salt merchant family.

The two talked speculatively and unknowingly chatted for more than an hour, until someone came to report that Dai Yingfan, who had just returned from Yangzhou City, came to see Yuan Tao, and finally stopped talking.

Dai Yingfan's appearance is quite different from Dai Yingda, who is kind-hearted. He is black and strong, with thick eyebrows and curly beard, and his face has a three-point fierceness.However, after seeing Yuan Tao, he was very polite, and he took the initiative to greet him across the distance: "Dai is disturbing the shopkeeper Yuan!"

Yuan Tao cupped his hands and said accordingly: "You're welcome, I'm talking with the young master about the defense of the Dai family village. Boss Dai came just right, and there are many questions that need to be asked!"

"Dai Mou can't afford to ask for advice, but the shopkeeper Yuan should give more pointers!" Dai Yingfan's attitude was very modest, which was in obvious contrast to his appearance.

Yuan Tao brought Jin Shield's people to Daijiazhuang. One of his tasks was to assist the Yanshang family to strengthen their defenses, and even temporarily take over the command of the escort team to a certain extent.Dai Yingfan is the one who is in charge of the defense command of Dai Jiazhuang. Now that the people are finally back, Yuan Tao can also start his business.

Dai Chengrong knew that the two were going to discuss business affairs, so he voluntarily retire.Dai Yingfan also seemed to take it for granted and did not try to keep him.Yuan Tao thought that this price was not a small rule. Dai Chengrong was clearly the one who would take over the Dai family's private armed forces from Dai Yingfan in the future, but now he still had to take the initiative to avoid this defense handover.

Of course, Daijiazhuang's defense measures were not limited to the two watchtowers that Yuan Tao saw when he arrived here yesterday. In fact, before the building of the watchtowers, Daijiazhuang had already implemented some defense measures for many years.

"Since the Wanli period, Daijiazhuang has formed its own militia group, which is responsible for guarding the safety of the Dai family. However, in order to avoid trouble with the government, the size of the militia group has always been maintained at about [-] people. Later, the salt industry operated Now that the situation is getting better, you can donate money to the government, which is a bit more relaxed."

"But looking back on it later, it wasn't necessarily a good thing. Following the example of the family, he soon formed his own militia. Since then, the competition in business has continued beyond the shopping malls, almost Every year, several lives are tossed. In recent years, everyone has bought muskets, and they will be ruthless when they fight!"

"Last year, my opponent bought a batch of muskets from outside, and invited a special person to train. At that time, I expected that things were not going well, but the countermeasures I could take were really limited, and I was still losing in the battle. To be honest, if It wasn't that your country sent people to Yangzhou to start the operation and destroyed the opponent's musket team. I'm afraid we can only call on all the available people to fight with the opponent."

Dai Yingfan took Yuantao around the village, and as he walked, he roughly described the situation of Daijiazhuang to him.Dai Yingfan's tone was calm, but Yuan Tao could imagine that after so many years of fighting, the two camps must have long since become feuds. This kind of fight is not entirely driven by interests, but also caused by unresolved hatred.Even if Haihan didn't intervene, the two sides would definitely continue to fight until one of them was forced to withdraw from the place.

In order to survive, one side chose to join forces with Hirado Domain, while the other side was forced to find Haihan for cooperation.Originally a social contradiction within Daming, it gradually evolved into a wrestling field of external forces in Daming. This is probably a situation that Yangzhou salt merchants did not expect.

However, Haihan has already dispatched troops to destroy the overseas strong aid of Shanshan and Shaanxi salt merchants. It is difficult to get ammunition from overseas again in the short term. After Huihan salt merchants receive assistance from Haihan, it will take at most a few months. It can greatly enhance the combat effectiveness of the armed organizations under his command.At that time, one trades off and one trades off, and even if Haihan doesn't do it himself, there is a high probability that Hui-based salt merchants will be able to gain the upper hand in the competition in the salt industry.

Yuan Tao has no intention of participating in the bloody competition of the salt merchant group, but he must protect the safety of this group of people before the Hui national salt merchants can improve their self-protection ability, so that they cannot be given to them by the ruthless means of their opponents. kill.The information that Dai Yingfan can provide now is also very important to Yuan Tao.

"I heard that the shopkeeper Yuan specially asked about the fortifications outside Daijiazhuang yesterday. In fact, in addition to these two watchtowers, we also deployed other means."

Walking to the watchtower in Zhuangkou, Dai Yingfan pointed to the houses on both sides of the watchtower and said, "Actually, these houses on the outermost periphery of Zhuangzi were built in the past year or two, and these houses are not all used for living. Yuan Boss, please come with me!"

Yuan Tao listened to him and thought that there should be some tricks in these houses, so he entered one of the courtyards with him.

From the outside, this courtyard seems to be no different from other houses in the village, but after entering the courtyard, Yuan Tao sees that it is truly unique.The side facing the outside looks like a house from the outside, but from the inside, there is a high wall disguised as a house, and there are even specially built stairs so that people inside can go up to a high place, and then remove the tiles disguised as a roof. You can attack the target outside from the inside from a commanding height.There are four or five shooting positions on this wall. If you really start a war with the outside, it is easy to make a sneak attack.

Judging from the reserved shooting positions, Yuan Tao judged that this should be a fortification specially designed for the use of muskets, but the muskets that Dai Chengrong brought to the arsenal to see earlier, he believed that those muskets with primitive craftsmanship should be used to achieve Accurate shooting is still quite difficult.

Of course, if this fortification was handed over to Yuan Tao's men to guard it, the effect would definitely be different.When the opponent is unprepared, it can achieve high-precision killing at a distance of at least 30 meters.

Then Dai Yingfan showed him the secret door in the courtyard. Through the secret door, he could immediately transfer to the adjacent courtyard, which provided a more flexible personnel transfer route for the defense in wartime.

If such a fortification is placed on a real battlefield, of course, it will not be of much use. If the army encounters such a situation, it will definitely open the way with artillery and knock down the wall with the mechanism before pushing it flat.However, considering the environment in which Daijiazhuang is located, the maximum number of battles that can occur is the scale of a hundred people. As long as this special fortification can cause casualties to the opponent, it has already achieved its goal.

"If the opponent attacks Daijiazhuang from the front, their attention will definitely be on the two watchtowers, and the attack launched in this hidden fortification will probably not be noticed immediately. Boss Dai, this design is intentional. !" After Yuan Tao looked up and down, he also praised the design of this camouflage fortification.

But Dai Yingfan did not appear happy because of Yuantao's praise, but said with a wry smile: "This is actually a last resort. Originally, I suggested to build a trench around Zhuangzi, and then add a retaining wall around the entire Zhuangzi. Complete the project in Zhuangkou and build a suspension bridge between the two watchtowers. This kind of defense line is relatively complete. But the owner thinks that the construction of large-scale construction will destroy the feng shui of Daijiazhuang, and it will make Daijiazhuang look like a fortress. The image of the home does not match, so the original design can only stay on paper.”

Yuan Tao was stunned. The scene described by Dai Yingfan was not a small project, let alone how much it would cost. With Daijiazhuang's local construction capabilities, and relying on migrant workers to carry it on his shoulders, to complete the defense project he said at least A year or two or even longer.After the completion, this Daijiazhuang will become a Daijiabao, which has completely become a defensive situation, which will indeed affect the public image of the Daijia.

But if it really wants to build what Dai Yingfan described, let alone the musket team of Shanshan and Shaanxi salt merchants, even if the local Ming army wants to pull over to attack this kind of fortress, it will not be easy to win.

Yuan Tao couldn't help but ask: "Boss Dai is so familiar with this fortification, I wonder if he served in the army before?"

Dai Yingfan replied: "Dai Mou spent a few years in the army in order to successfully get the position of Hundred Households in the early years."

Although the Dai family donated hundreds of official positions for Dai Yingfan, they were still strict at that time, and Dai Yingfan had to serve in the army to get this position.However, he was originally trained as a commander of his own militia group since he was a child, and he was also very interested in the military, so he simply went to the army for a few years and became a genuine Ming army officer.

Yuan Tao said with a smile: "Then I should call you Master Dai respectfully!"

Dai Yingfan waved his hand and said, "There is no need for shopkeeper Yuan. Now that Dai is no longer in the army, these [-] households are just empty jobs, and they can't be taken seriously!"

(End of this chapter)