1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 249 The episode caused by the test gun
After adjustments are made at the squad level, the battalion and company levels will also make corresponding changes. For example, the company level will increase the number of firepower platoons and consist of pure musketeers, while the battalion level is currently the highest level of combat Units, it is likely that an artillery company will be added as heavy fire support, and direct support teams such as engineering companies and health companies will also be deployed.After this kind of disguised expansion, the existing establishment has not changed much, but the size of the troops that can be directly commanded by the crossing officers can be increased by at least one-third, which can effectively alleviate the current shortage of officers.

Of course, there is another reason for doing this that is not humane, that is, before the Military and Police Department, the ranks of all the officers of the crossing were all up to lieutenant, and only Tao Donglai and Yan Chujie were able to meet the needs of management and command. level military rank.If the current organization plan continues to expand, then a second battalion will have to be established, and the general officer will be promoted from the company platoon level to the battalion level, and the general rank will be raised from the lieutenant level to the school level. It's also a bit difficult to face.

Although the original arrangement was indeed a little thoughtless, it is also a process that the army must go through to grow. After all, even the people in the military and police department, most of them have not been officers before crossing. It is really not reassuring to let these people directly serve as commanders at the battalion and company level.

After the simple military parade, Tao Donglai and Yan Chujie, as the first and second in command of the military and police department, delivered speeches respectively, to the effect of reminding these militia soldiers, where did their lives come from today, and they have to defend with their lives. Who is the object.Both of them had engaged in political work during their time in the army, and their speeches were full of emotion and very provocative.

These militia soldiers are basically from poor backgrounds. The reason most of them came to Shengli Port is to ask for a bite to eat, but their living standards are indeed far better than before. , have food to eat, have clothes to wear, and have books to read", all of which have now been realized.Moreover, after several years of military service, they will automatically obtain the corresponding labor grade, get jobs assigned by the Executive Committee, and even apply for contracting a piece of land to grow their own food.These treatments were something they had never thought of in the past. After several months of military training, the soldiers gradually understood a truth. object.If there is no executive committee, they will immediately return to the poor state of eating the last meal without the next meal.

Of course, there are still many people who join the army with the idea of ​​"serving as a soldier and giving money to work for their lives". Bandits are not pirates, and being a militiaman can get a high salary, and it seems that there is no fear of life.

However, the Military and Police Department has no intention of letting this army, which has invested a lot of manpower, material and financial resources, stay idle. In fact, the Military and Police Department’s Staff Office has already begun to formulate a small-scale military operation plan for next year, and the target is tentatively set at the Pearl River Estuary. Wanshan Islands chose a place to establish a sea base.The role of this sea base is similar to that of Fushuizhou Island. It can serve as a shipping transfer station, and at the same time, it can provide a certain amount of military support to the Guangzhou Office and monitor the waters of the Pearl River Estuary.

According to the information sent back by the Guangzhou Office, there is still a small group of pirates near the Wanshan Islands, and there may be military conflicts at that time.The staff office is also weighing whether it is necessary to act first and remove other sea forces that may get in the way in advance.But no matter whether it will use force or not, the Military and Police Department regards this as a great opportunity for the militia to conduct live ammunition drills, and because the island station is mainly for military purposes, the Military and Police Department also regards it as an opportunity to form a navy. This is an opportunity-of course, it depends on whether the No. [-] test ship of the Ministry of Shipping can be launched and complete the basic trial tasks before the end of the year, because the Ministry of Military and Police has assigned this ship to the Navy's flag in advance and is preparing to use it as an armed force. used by patrol boats.

After the military parade, everyone hurried to the artillery range to watch the live ammunition shooting of the first batch of naturalized artillerymen. This was also their graduation ceremony.As travelers who came from 400 years later, most of the people in the Military and Police Department are devout believers in bombing, and they highly admire the power of artillery in modern warfare.Especially in this era when there is no need to worry about air strikes at all, artillery is the king of war, whether on land or sea.It is precisely based on this consideration that the military and police department attaches more importance to the artillery force than the navy. Even if the existing militia has only one battalion, it does not hesitate to transfer a large number of personnel from it for artillery training. After elimination and selection, the naturalized civilian artillery of more than [-] people was finally left.

The military and police department will definitely not be satisfied with the scale of this artillery force, but the completion of this batch of artillery forces at least means that the future artillery force has taken the first step of success. It seems that the appearance of the most powerful army in the world in the South China Sea A matter of time.

Unlike the previous musketeers with uneven physical fitness, this small artillery unit is almost all strong men with thick arms and round waists, and their bodies are relatively strong.This is also determined by the actual combat mission of the artillery. The heavy gun body can only be adjusted by manpower on the battlefield, and the constant loading and clearing during the battle can also be regarded as heavy physical work, and the physical strength is not good enough. If a person shoots twelve rounds in a hurry, he will be exhausted directly.Those students who are not good enough in physical fitness are gradually eliminated during the training process due to physical reasons. Only a very small number of students who have shown that their minds are superior to ordinary people in the process are absorbed into various companies of the militia, as the future grassroots officers to train.

Both the 6-pound gun and the 12-pound gun were shooting targets with live ammunition, and the performance of the gunners was basically qualified. After all, they had received intensive training for several months, and each of these gunners had fired more than one hundred live ammunition. In fact, several tons of black powder were consumed just to train them, and the investment was not insignificant.

According to the plan of the Military and Police Department, these gunners will be equipped with eight 6-pound guns, or a combination of 12-pound guns and 6-pound guns. After being equipped with engineers, communications and supply troops, they will form an army artillery company.However, in view of the current shortage of gunners, these people may be directly assigned to serve in the coastal defense battery of the port, and after the No. [-] test ship is launched, some of them will be transferred to the ship to serve as naval gunners.As for when the next batch of artillerymen will be able to graduate and join the army, Gu Wei estimates that it will be at the end of the year at the earliest.

After completing the scheduled target shooting drill, the military industry department stepped in and pulled out two 24-pound long-barreled artillery for test firing.This gun is not designed for the current army, but a large-caliber coastal defense gun that will be equipped with coastal defense artillery fortifications. It weighs more than three 3-pound guns combined, and the weight of the gun body alone exceeds one ton. , the body-to-weight ratio reached twenty times.For this reason, the military industry department also designed a special mechanical gun mount, and adopted the newly developed braking device on the gun mount to ensure the convenience of the operation of this large-caliber artillery.According to the calculations of the military industry department, when fired at a firing angle of 12°, this kind of artillery can easily hit targets at a distance of 5 meters, and it can also maintain high accuracy. It can even hit targets 1500 meters away - at this shooting distance, contemporary artillery has no accuracy at all.

However, the farthest target position of the artillery range has not reached 1000 meters, and if it is farther away, it can only be hit on the mountain, or it can only be hit on the sea.In view of this situation, the target position was finally set at a distance of 750 meters, which is far beyond the firing range of contemporary naval guns. It can be said that it is almost impossible for shore defense guns at this distance to suffer from Artillery strikes at sea.

The results of the gun test surprised everyone. Although it was the first time for the naturalized civilian artillery to operate this kind of large-caliber artillery, they achieved an effective target hit on the fifth round, and the ninth and third rounds. Ten rounds even hit consecutively.Considering that in the future, at least [-] such artillery pieces will be deployed in the coastal fortifications of Yulinjiao, this kind of hit rate is almost invincible-only one or two salvos at this distance are enough to sink or destroy the enemy. Paralyzed a sea target.

Tao Donglai made a decision on the spot after watching the test firing, and agreed to use this long-barreled 24-pound gun as the main firepower configuration for coastal fortifications.It is not impossible to manufacture larger caliber artillery now, but the military industry department believes that it is meaningless to further enlarge the existing artillery models. After all, the several types of artillery currently equipped are difficult to rival at the same time. The goal of upgrading the technology tree It should be turned to improving the barrel material, processing technology, and speeding up the development of breech-loading guns. The existing cast iron guns can be sold to "backward areas" after appropriately reducing their performance, just like Fujian and North Vietnam. as done.

When the members of the military and police department were happily watching the artillery test firing on the east bank of Victory Port, in the conference room in the No. [-] base, the merchants were pale with fright and trembling, and the sound of artillery from time to time made their hearts tremble. .

Although there is a bay between the two places, the straight-line distance is only three or four miles away, and there is no slope between the two places. The roar of artillery fire came from afar, making it impossible for merchants to concentrate Come to the auction in front of you.

Ning Qi was also full of anger at the moment, the military and police department didn't come early or late, but chose to test the cannon when the auction was open, was it out of his wits or was he deliberately trying to scare these Ming merchants?Although Ning Qi gave a special explanation for this, stating that this is the daily military training of the local militia across the bay, the merchants are obviously not very satisfied with this explanation—do you think we have never seen the world?Does it take so long for a militia military training to fire cannons?It has been more than half an hour before and after, and at least sixty or seventy artillery pieces have been fired. Your militia is more fierce than the artillery fire of the government army. Is it plausible?
Some even secretly guessed in their hearts whether it was the Ming army or the South China Sea pirates who came to the door, but no matter which one it was, it seemed impossible that there would be such intensive artillery fire.

Seeing that these people were not focused on the auction, Ning Qi simply said: "How about this, everyone should rest for a while, and the auction will resume after half an hour. Everyone can go out and walk around. If you don’t believe me, seeing is believing.”

Everyone rushed out of the meeting room as if they had received a pardon.If you run fast, you have already figured it out in your mind. If there is already a fight outside, you have to go to the port and board the ship. If you are lucky, you may be able to get out.Only Li Nai sat motionless in his seat, continuing to drink tea calmly.

Seeing this, Ning Qi smiled and said, "It's still Mr. Li who can hold his breath."

Li Nai shook his head and said: "It's not that I can hold my breath, but I've gotten used to it after living in Shengli Port for many days. The artillerymen of the militia will practice every three days. It was a little frightening at first, but it's much more After this time, I feel very relieved.”

Ning Qi was stunned and said, "Uh? Why do you think so?"

"Imagine that the local militias are so powerful, how could any unscrupulous pirate dare to come here to cause trouble? The humble trading company invests and builds here to seek development, and it needs this sense of stability." Li Nai responded slowly: " With such powerful protection, I only need to get rich with peace of mind, wouldn't it be great?"

Ning Qi sighed: "Mr. Li is very enlightened! It would be great if other businessmen can also have your thoughts."

Li Nai smiled and said: "Mr. Ning, please rest assured that the merchants who dare to cross the sea to trade here are not timid people. After knowing the truth of the matter, they will naturally turn around. In my opinion, it will take less than half an hour. After a little more time, these people will come back."

The actual situation was better than Li Nai expected. Before half a stick of incense was available, some merchants came back angrily: "If you want to test the cannon, why not go to the inland no-man's land and try it in this port to scare people away?" It's disgusting to have fun!"

Later, another person turned back: "It's okay, it's just a test of the artillery. From now on, with such heavy artillery guards, this place will definitely be safe."

It turned out that after these people went out, they saw that the local people were calm and orderly outside, and there was no sign of foreign enemies attacking at all, so they knew that Ning Qi's previous explanation was true.There were also people who were more cautious, and even ran to the gate of the base to call the attendants who were waiting outside to ask.These entourages had already been in chaos once due to the roar of artillery fire, and now they all calmed down and told their masters not to panic-the local people said that if there were indeed foreign enemies attacking, there would naturally be sirens ringing through the port.

These merchants have already stayed in Shengli Port for one night, and of course they have heard the tweeter that reminded the people to go to work in the morning. The sound of that thing can indeed be heard clearly in the entire port, and the sound is even louder than the roar of artillery fire.With this reasonable explanation, the merchants were really relieved, and then returned to the meeting room one after another.

And just as Li Nai thought, after realizing the truth, these merchants have more confidence in the safety of Victory Port-even though the source of this confidence is that they have never seen the actual artillery and artillery That's all.But for them, it was the first time in their life experience to see a commercial port like Shengli Port protected by a coastal defense fort. Local militias organized by Han Chinese.

After experiencing this small episode, the merchants who relaxed their spirits started a new round of competition, and batches of goods went to their owners in the bidding.In the afternoon of the same day, Li Nai bought the only Haihan silver mirror with a size of two feet in this auction at the price of [-] yuan circulation coupons, and also set a record for the highest priced item in this auction.

And the precious commodity that has also attracted the attention of many merchants, the limited edition special commemorative set of glass stationery for Ding Mao, was not put up for auction in the end, but was sold to this time at a "low" price of [-] yuan a set. I went to various merchants in Shengli Port to thank everyone for their friendship that came all the way here.

This set of stationery is not only packed in a beautiful brocade box, but also comes with a certificate signed "Hainan Ministry of Commerce", and each set has a unique collection number to prove its value.Li Nai believes that this set of items can be hyped at least a thousand taels in the current Guangzhou market. If it can be shipped to the Jiangsu and Zhejiang areas, it is not uncommon for this item to sell for sky-high prices in terms of the rich businessmen and consumers there.

After the two-day auction ended, these merchants from Guangzhou sold a total of more than 8 yuan in goods at Shengli Port, and the total amount of purchased Haihan industrial products and a small amount of agricultural products exceeded [-] yuan. The trade surplus achieved by one side is astonishing.And the merchants don't feel sorry for the money they spent. They know very well that after the goods they purchased are shipped back to Guangzhou, the profits they will get will also be as much as tens of thousands of taels.

In order to thank the merchants for their "contributions" to local development, the executive committee also held another celebration banquet where all the merchants were invited.Just like what they had seen in the Guangzhou Office, the Haihan people's banquet was as luxurious as ever. More than [-]% of the utensils used on the table were glassware, and the indoor lighting was very bright and neither fire nor candle. The lamps and lanterns made the merchants feel very curious.

The executive committee regards every contact with the outside world as an opportunity to promote Haihan culture, which of course also includes values ​​and lifestyles.After staying in Victory Port for two days, even those who had doubts about the Haihan people at the beginning had to admit that these Haihan people with short hair and short clothes and a northern accent are indeed truly "civilized people". It is not only reflected in how they treat people, but also in various details of their life and work.Although the Haihan people chose such a remote place to settle down, their quality of life can be said to be higher than that of most Ming gentry—even the toilet paper for wiping their butt is better than their own.

The only thing they can't understand is why these rich and capable Haihan people don't want to find a way to build a better living environment for themselves, but all of them are crowded in a small fortress, living a life similar to a military camp. live in community.

(End of this chapter)