1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 2189
This person who has served as a soldier and eaten military rations certainly has a different understanding of fortifications than ordinary people. Dai Yingfan wholeheartedly wants to transform Daijiazhuang into an armed fort like Sanya Victory Fort, so as to resist possible attacks from the opponent. Naturally, it is difficult to obtain the approval of the salt merchants' group.

Whether it is in terms of public image or engineering consumption, it is obviously a very low cost solution for salt merchants to transform their own manor into a large-scale fortress for the purpose of stationing troops and fighting wars, not to mention that they have to spend a long time Live in it.The salt merchants have lived a pampered life for a long time, how can they stand the military control in this fortress.

What Huizhou salt merchants need is a solution to their competitors, rather than blindly retreating at home and passively defending.If such a fortress was really built on the banks of the canal, wouldn't it be showing weakness to the opponent in disguise?This is not within the acceptable range of salt merchants.

Moreover, the local government in Yangzhou would probably not turn a blind eye to such a large-scale project, and if they seized the opportunity, they would charge Dai Jiazhuang with crimes such as "possessing ordnance privately" and "secretly stockpiling private soldiers".At that time, even if Dai Yingfan still has hundreds of military posts on him, it will be difficult to justify the unconventional measures they took in Daijiazhuang.

So although Dai Yingfan tried his best to implement his plan, due to various objective reasons, the outer defense line of Daijiazhuang was stopped after only two watchtowers were built.He could only settle for the next best thing and build some carefully camouflaged fortifications on the outskirts of the village. Although the protection ability would be greatly reduced compared to his original plan, it was still better than nothing.

Yuan Tao was also a person who served in the army, so he could understand Dai Yingfan's psychology better. He thought that if he was in Dai Yingfan's position, he might have similar thoughts.After all, they had no way to quickly increase the combat effectiveness of their militias in a short period of time. If they wanted to protect themselves, they could only work on defense.

Yuan Tao looked up at the shooting position on the wall again, and couldn't help but praise: "Actually, Boss Dai designed this mechanism very thoughtfully. If there are similar mechanism houses around Dai's Village, then I don't think there is any need to worry about it." The family will attack the door. If they do come, they can try to keep them all here."

Dai Yingfan said: "Treasurer Yuan is overrated, but things may not be as optimistic as you think..."

Due to repeated battles and defeats in the past year, the morale of the militia under the Hui nationality salt merchants has long been low, and they don't even have the courage to fight their opponents.If not, Dai Yingfan might not have to adopt such a conservative strategy.If the opponent really came to the door one day, it would be considered good if he could defend the village and repel him. As for the strategy Yuan Tao mentioned, Dai Yingfan believed that it would be difficult to achieve the desired effect with the current level of preparations. This relatively weak line of defense may be breached by the opponent.

After listening to Dai Yingfan's explanation, Yuan Tao couldn't help feeling a little sad. A clever woman can't cook without rice. No matter how powerful the commander is, he can't win the battle if he has no one under his command.Dai Yingfan had to take care of the young and old in Daijiazhuang, so he definitely didn't dare to take too aggressive measures, so he could only reluctantly maintain the status quo and make plans after Haihan intervened.

Dai Yingfan went on to say: "The underlings have some skills and are willing to sacrifice their lives for the family. This time, they are basically picked out and prepared to be sent to Zhoushan for training. The next period of defense really depends on the care of Shopkeeper Yuan. !"

Whether Dai Yingfan's words are true or not, Yuan Tao has no way of verifying it at the moment, but he feels that the Dai family should not put all their treasures on Jin Dun's head. In the hands of outsiders.But what kind of backhand did the Dai family have left, and it was inconvenient for him to break the casserole and ask the end.

For the rest of the morning, Dai Yingfan took Yuan Tao to check around Zhuangzi.After looking at a few places, Yuan Tao realized that this Daijiazhuang was not as undefended as it appeared on the surface. In fact, there were defensive points disguised as ordinary houses near every intersection that entered and exited the Zhuangzi.

Moreover, according to Dai Yingda, they set up several early warning posts in the farmhouses near the village and on the other side of the canal, so that if the opponent launches a crossing operation from Yangzhou City, there is a high chance that they will be observed by these early warning posts. Send a warning message from Daijiazhuang.

These defensive points in Dai's Manor will then be stationed by Jindun's troops, who will be on duty together with Dai Yingfan's men.However, Dai Yingfan's elite will leave here for Zhoushan, and after the Golden Shield enters, they will soon take over the command of these fortifications.

The two were busy until noon, and went straight to Dai Yingfan's house, and had a simple meal.Both of them have military experience, so they are more practical, and they don't care about red tape.After lunch in twos and twos, Dai Yingfan sent down an order to immediately gather people at the grain drying field south of Zhuangzi for Yuan Tao to review.

After a short rest, the two set off from Dai Yingfan's house and walked through the village to the meeting point.

When they arrived, more than [-] people, including Dai Chengrong, were already waiting on the grain drying ground, and some people came here sporadically.

Yuan Tao has rich experience, so he naturally knows how to judge a team's combat effectiveness.He didn't look at other things, but looked at the queue first. If this team couldn't even line up in an orderly manner, it would probably be difficult to follow orders when performing combat missions.And whether the discipline reflected in this is strict or not will also affect the actual combat effectiveness to a large extent.

But the situation of this team didn't look ideal. The queue was lined up, but the line was crooked, and people whispered to each other. It seemed that they didn't take this gathering seriously.Of course, it is more likely that they are also in this state at ordinary times. They are used to being undisciplined, so they don't feel too much tension.

If this is used as a criterion for judging, it is obvious that the strength of this team is indeed only at the level of ordinary militias, even compared to the militias in the Haihan countryside, there is still a big gap.As for the comparison with the Golden Shield, an armed organization that specializes in recruiting veterans, it is not at the same level at all.

As soon as Yuan Tao saw it, he already had a preliminary assessment of the team's situation in his heart, but he didn't show it, waiting for Dai Yingfan to complete the team.

Dai Yingfan was someone who had been in the army after all, so he couldn't help but blush when he saw such a situation.He rushed back from Yangzhou City in a hurry today, and he didn't have time to say hello to his subordinates in advance. As a result, these guys were so lazy after gathering, it was like embarrassing him in front of outsiders.

Dai Yingfan had to spend some more time organizing the team, and then explained to Yuan Tao: "These people are not all from Daijiazhuang, there are also people recommended by other families to be sent to Zhoushan for training, so the team is a bit chaotic, and Yuan Tao The shopkeeper laughed!"

Yuan Tao nodded calmly and said: "It's okay, the basic skills of queuing will definitely have time to practice when they arrive in Zhoushan, and they will improve quickly."

Yuan Tao said it easily, but he made up his mind in his heart. To point this out to Zhoushan in the subsequent report, it is necessary to strengthen the training intensity of this group of people.If you don't even master the basic skills of queuing, how can you practice the tactics of using muskets.

Dai Yingfan then asked the candidates who had already been selected to stand out and formed a separate team for Yuan Tao to have a look.Since the two sides did not reach an agreement on the specific number of people to be sent to Zhoushan for further study, only seventy or eighty people were selected here.Yuan Tao had already notified them, but Dai Yingfan obviously didn't have time to make up the number.

Yuan Tao took a general look, and found that the people Dai Yingfan had selected were indeed acceptable, at least in good physical condition, and they didn't look like people who were full of life and wealth, which made him feel a little relieved.

One of Haihan's concerns is that the Anhui salt merchants considered the distribution of interests of each family too much when selecting personnel, and placed some young masters who were not suitable for military training.

But Dai Yingfan didn't give a special introduction to the selected personnel, and it seemed that among these people, only Dai Chengrong was the real young master.However, Yuan Tao believed that if the salt merchants did not arrange special persons to join them, but only Dai Chengrong, who was to be appointed as the conductor, was the core figure, then Dai Yingda probably made such an unusual arrangement by relying on his prestige.

After looking at the candidates, Yuan Tao said to Dai Yingfan: "I have already discussed with the young master about the number of candidates. Boss Dai can discuss with the young master later, make up the number of candidates as soon as possible, and then organize the departure. The sooner the better, if it is delayed for a long time, I am afraid that the situation will change again."

Dai Yingfan nodded and said: "Master Yuan is right, I will select some more people from these people later, make up enough people, and I can set off from Yangzhou the day after tomorrow at the latest. As for the remaining people, I will stay with Dai's family Zhuang cooperates with shopkeeper Yuan to deploy defenses."

Yuan Tao nodded, but he no longer expected too much from the people who stayed behind in Daijiazhuang.It may not be that these men cannot improve their military skills through training, but that is not within the scope of his mission.

The personnel training provided by Zhoushan is clearly priced, and the settlement is based on the number of people and the duration. If he trains personnel for salt merchants in Yangzhou, it will be a disguised demolition of Zhoushan, so even if these people have limited personal ability, Yuan Tao will not It is planned to conduct additional training for these personnel during the stay, at most it is to formulate some simple rules for them, so as to avoid unnecessary problems as much as possible.

Dai Yingfan probably also understood the mystery of this, so he never mentioned asking Yuan Tao to train these people for him from the beginning to the end.

Yuan Tao asked Dai Yingfan for a floor plan of Dai's Village, and then returned to the station, preparing to call up his subordinates, assign each team to be responsible for the garrison points, and take over the defense of Dai's Village first.

Now he doesn't know whether the nervousness of the Huizhou salt merchants is intentional or real. If it's the latter, it means that the armed men from the other side may attack the door at any time. This is no joke.If Daijiazhuang cannot be successfully protected, the reputation of Jindun in the world will also be greatly affected. Yuan Tao does not want to be the first big shopkeeper in Jindun's overseas branch to take the blame and resign.

Back at the station, Yuan Tao saw that the two signal soldiers who came to Yangzhou with the team this time were taking a ladder to the roof to set up the antenna of the radio station.Immediately call someone to help, lest anything happen to these two.

Communication soldiers who master the skills of sending and receiving radio reports are scarce resources in the army, and their value is even comparable to that of the radio station itself.These signal soldiers are qualified to receive a year-long professional training after passing through layers of selection, and then go through a one-year internship before they can officially take up their posts.Most of the signal soldiers sent overseas are veterans with more than three years of service.

It is said to be a communication soldier, but in fact this special unit is small in size and difficult to pass the training, so almost all of them are quickly promoted to lieutenant officers after taking up their posts. During combat missions, military revolvers are also issued to senior officers.

The two people who were sent to carry out missions with Jin Dun this time were both second lieutenants, and Yuan Tao was only a second lieutenant when he retired from the army. The yard set aside a room for them to work and live in.

Yuan Tao saw that the radio station was already being built, so he canceled the previous arrangement, first watched them set up the antenna, finished the machine debugging, and then sent a message to Zhoushan, telling them that they had settled down in Yangzhou.As for the more detailed content, Yuan Tao had to draft a manuscript first, to sort out what he saw and heard in Daijiazhuang, and then send it back to Zhoushan for the report.

Later, Yuan Tao gathered his leaders in the command post that was converted from a hall, described the general situation of Daijiazhuang to them, and assigned the garrison tasks to the leaders according to the floor plan provided by Dai Yingfan.

There were more than 100 people from Jindun who came this time, some people were left to guard the two boats at the pier, and more than 120 people including Yuan Tao were stationed in Daijiazhuang.On the defense map provided by Dai Yingfan, including the two watchtowers, there are a total of ten overt or hidden fortifications around the village. If the manpower of the Golden Shield is allocated, it can be about ten people for each defense point. as a motor force.

The combat method that the Haihan army is best at is not offensive, but defensive. Many of Jin Dun and other retired veterans are no strangers to relying on fortifications to conduct vigilance and combat. Now, according to the specific environment of Daijiazhuang, everyone proposes Lots of suggestions for improvement.

For example, add more shooting holes on the side of the camouflage fortification facing the village to take advantage of the firepower of the Golden Shield; make roadblocks such as Luzhai against horses in advance, so that the roads in and out of Daijiazhuang can be quickly blocked in case of emergency; Increase monitoring of the banks of nearby canals to gain more buffer time, etc.

(End of this chapter)