1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 365 Visiting the Showroom

The live ammunition training of the Haihan Militia is relatively frequent, especially for the artillery that is severely understaffed. The Military Commission has been sparing no effort in investing resources, and even tried to contact the Portuguese to hire instructors.As one of the most technical arms at present, the artillery training courses are also the most complicated, and the training period is the longest in the army.In order to shorten the training period, the most effective way is to arrange a lot of live ammunition training for the students, so that they can master the correct posture of gun handling during live ammunition shooting.

When Enrique lived in Victory Port, he could hear the roar of artillery from the artillery range opposite the harbor every now and then.At first, Enrique was as scared as other people who just came here, but later he realized that it was the Haihan militia who regularly conduct live ammunition shooting training twice a week.The local people have long been used to such a situation, and they will inadvertently show a little sense of superiority when they see a frightened outsider—have you ever seen it?We are an advanced port protected by artillery!

Enrique had long wanted to go to the militia stationed on the east side of the harbor to find out what it was like to see the level of the army that beat the shit out of the South Vietnamese army on the Annan battlefield.However, his scope of action in Victory Port was limited, and without the special approval of the Executive Committee, it was impossible to go to the strictly controlled military base.This time, he was able to visit the live ammunition training through the arms trade negotiations, and Enrique finally fulfilled a wish.

After setting foot on the land of the barracks, Enrique, like Li Nai who visited here for the first time, noticed a considerable number of children near the pier learning to march in line.These children were all wearing the same gray military uniforms as the Haihan Militia, and they stood in teams one by one according to the organization of the squad. They were simply a miniature version of the Haihan Militia Army.

"This is the boy scouts we recruit, most of them are homeless orphans. We recruit them here for military training, and at the same time give them the opportunity to receive cultural education, which is for charity purposes " Yan Chujie explained to Enrique in a timely manner.

"This is really a commendable act of kindness. May the Lord bless these lovely children." Enrique squeezed out a smile and responded somewhat reluctantly.

Enrique would not believe the reason Yan Chujie said. If it was for the sake of these children, why not let them study in Shengligang Primary School?Or send them to work in workshops, at least they can learn a craft to make a living.Let these children without parents grow up in military camps, will they go to other places for employment after they grow up?
Enrique also noticed that the barracks of the Haihan militia also adhered to the simple and clear architectural style of Haihan. The barracks were all oriented east-west. According to Yan Chujie, this would better allow the indoor lighting conditions.Although these barracks are all made of bamboo and wood, Enrique also noticed that the windows of the barracks are all made of glass. In his opinion, the hardware standard is a luxury.

Yan Chujie led Enrique to check a few barracks at random. The cleanliness of the interior gave Enrique a new assessment of the discipline of this army.Although he is not a soldier, he has also come into contact with many professional soldiers before, and knows that the level of internal affairs can reflect the combat effectiveness of this army to a certain extent-if even the barracks where the soldiers themselves live are messed up and smelly, then How can such a sloppy army be expected to strictly observe military discipline and execute military orders on the battlefield?It is obvious that the Haihan people's level of military management is no less than their ability to do business, and Enrique also understands why the Haihan people have the confidence to send troops across the sea to fight in different places.

"This is our honor room." Yan Chujie was not in a hurry to take Enrique to the shooting range, but took him to continue to visit the barracks facilities, among which the honor showroom with Haihan's characteristics was naturally indispensable.

Enrique noticed that this "honor showroom" is one of the few masonry buildings in the entire camp, which is enough to show how much the Haihan military attaches importance to this facility.After entering the door, there is a huge display board with gold letters on a red background. Although Enrique can speak relatively fluent Chinese and even some dialects in southern China, he is not very fluent in reading written words—in fact, he can’t even read the signboard. It is not clear in what order the words should be pronounced.

According to the rules of the Ming Dynasty, characters are generally written and read from top to bottom, from left to right, but Enrique has been in contact with the Haihan people many times, and he also knows that the rules of the Haihan people are somewhat different. To the right, write horizontally.Yan Chujie also seemed to know that Enrique was not very comfortable with this aspect, so he explained to him: "The above content is about the time, place and reason for the formation of our Haihan militia, as well as the main battles we have participated in since we formed the army. And the record. Who, come and read the content on the board to Mr. Enrique."

The educational level of most of the naturalized militiamen in the Haihan militia is very worrying. Although the militia also has internal literacy classes, there are not many people who can read hundreds of words. It is also used as one of the consideration criteria for officer promotion.At the same time, in order to improve the cultural level of the troops, the Military Commission also specially recruited some young down-and-out literati to join the army as civilians in the army.There are a lot of text and picture materials in this honor showroom, so literate soldiers are specially equipped here to serve as explanations.

"My lord, I am Lu Ting, a subordinate of the Propaganda Department of the First Battalion Headquarters of Shengli Port." The showroom staff who followed immediately stepped forward and reported their identities.

Lu Ting's native place is in Yacheng, and he also studied for several years before joining the army, but he didn't get any honors, he was just a child.He is already in his twenties, and he knows that his talent for studying is limited, and his family doesn't have any spare money for him to apply for the exam again. I am afraid that it is difficult to have a bright future on the road of imperial examinations. Recruiting staff, and the treatment is excellent, so I decided to come and try my luck.Then after I came here, I found out that although the rumors were true, the salary of this part-time job is actually divided into three, six, and nine grades.

The remuneration of migrant workers without naturalized native place in Shengli Port is not high, and there is no big advantage over Yacheng, but the living facilities here are complete, and the cost of living is slightly lower than Yacheng.If you want to get a high salary under the rule of the Haihan people, you must first obtain the status of a naturalized citizen. However, the domicile of a naturalized citizen is not obtained immediately after application, and you have to go through a period of inspection in the local area. Lu Ting thinks This is really a lot of work, so I chose another way to get the domicile of naturalized people faster, which is to enlist in the army.

According to the military's recruitment announcement, as long as all the conditions meet the requirements, they will immediately obtain the domicile of naturalized citizens after enlisting in the army, and they can also bring their immediate family members together to obtain the status of naturalized citizens, which would have to wait a month or two.Quite a few young people of the nearby Li and Miao ethnic groups obtained the status of naturalized people through such means, and thus walked out of the mountains.Although Lu Ting is a scholar, his family is relatively poor, and he does a lot of farm work on weekdays. His health is not weak, and he passed the military medical examination and political examination smoothly, and became a militia soldier.

When Lu Ting joined the army, he specifically declared his cultural expertise—this was clearly written in the recruitment announcement. Anyone who had reached a certain level of literacy could be specially recruited into the army and given a civilian position.After joining the army, he was assigned to the Propaganda Department of the Battalion Headquarters as he wished. He usually did some things like writing slogans and materials, and occasionally gave lectures in literacy classes to help ordinary soldiers with literacy education.After the honor showroom was built last month, he was transferred here to serve as a lecturer, responsible for explaining the war history of the Haihan militia to recruits and visitors.

Yan Chujie didn't specifically correct his problem with addressing, but just nodded and said, "Tell Mr. Enrique about the situation of our militia."

"Honorable duty!" Lu Ting cleared his throat, stood in front of the exhibition board, and began to explain to Enrique in a substandard Haihan mandarin: "Our Haihan militia was formed in the seventh year of the Great Ming Dynasty. The People's Armed Forces under the direct leadership of the Han Executive Committee and the Haihan Military Committee are now mainly stationed in the Shengli Port Military Region..."

Enrique was not very interested in Yan Chujie taking him to see this kind of exhibition hall at first, but when he understood the nature of this exhibition hall, he quickly changed his mind.The Haihan Militia is a very mysterious armed organization for both Ming and Portuguese. Apart from knowing that this army has very powerful weapons and combat effectiveness, the outside world knows almost nothing about its internal conditions. , Organization, training methods, equipment level, combat experience... These are all things Enrique is very interested in knowing, and all these seem to be able to find the answer in the honor showroom.

"Since its establishment, our militia army has participated in more than [-] large and small military operations. It has participated in many battles in Shengli Port, Annan, Guangdong and other places. It has wiped out thousands of enemies and taken tens of thousands of prisoners. It has won many times with less The results of the battle..."

This is not the first time that Lu Ting has given this kind of explanation. Almost every batch of recruits has to come here to visit and study.What Lu Ting has to do is to memorize all the promotional materials written by the top military leaders himself, and be able to fluently describe to the visitors the glorious image of "our army" being invincible.

Enrique saw that in addition to the text, the promotional materials posted on the wall also had a large number of hand-painted drawings, most of which were battle scenes on the battlefield.Although this army has been formed for less than two years, if you just read the promotional materials here, you might think that this is a veteran army with many battles.

Enrique was very interested in the Haihan militia's two attacks in Annan, one north and one south, and the Lijiazhuang battle. When he explained the relevant parts, he raised many questions. Yan Chujie had to stand up and defend Lu Ting: "Enrique Mr. Ke, some of the questions you raised involve military secrets of our army, and I can only say that I have no comment on this."

"Mr. Yan, I think you have misunderstood my intention." Of course, Enrique was well aware of the differences between the two sides, and immediately explained: "I just want to know the details of the battle process to confirm that Haihan weapons Reliability on the battlefield means nothing else."

"About the weapon, you can see the real thing later, so you don't need to get entangled here." Yan Chujie smiled, and didn't continue to argue about this matter.

Enrique is not interested in the final part of the awards for meritorious service, because in his opinion, although the Haihan people do have their strengths, the executive committee is only a grassroots team after all, that is, the Portuguese council in Macau. For a level institution, the awards it confers do not have much authority at all.However, it seems that the soldiers of the militia are very enthusiastic about this, because he can feel that several accompanying military personnel, including the commentator himself, are red-eyed at the displayed military medal, obviously very eager to get such a reward.

After spending half an hour visiting the honor showroom, Yan Chujie led him into another showroom, and this time Enrique never showed any impatience, because the exhibits in this place , is the Haihan weapon that he has always wanted to get in close contact with.

Here are the first batch of Type 6 matchlock guns, the first 24-pound cannon cast by the military industry department, and the latest Type [-] breech-loading flintlock guns, short-barreled shotguns, and [-]-pound long guns. New weapons such as coastal defense guns made Enrique's eyes dim, and he didn't know where to look first.

Although the weapons here have all been installed in the army, it is impossible for the naturalized civilian soldiers to grasp the detailed performance data of these weapons, so the explanation of these weapons can only be explained by Yan Chujie himself: "This is our victory in victory." I believe you should notice that it is the same as the arquebus guns exported to Annan by businessmen in your country in terms of appearance and use. But I want to point out that because of the use of the Gunpowder with more advanced technology, our rifle has a range of about three-tenths that of your country's matchlock gun, and the accuracy within the effective range has also been improved to a certain extent. In addition, our production standards are very uniform. All guns The parts and ammunition on the weapon can be interchanged, which greatly reduces the wear and tear of the weapon in battle."

Enrique pointed to the sample and asked, "Can I pick it up and have a look?"

"Of course." Yan Chujie made a gesture of letting go.

Enrique took the gun in his hand and found that the size and weight of the gun were indeed not much different from the matchlock guns sold to Annan by businessmen in his country.However, if what Yan Chujie said just now was not bragging, then the North Vietnamese army equipped with such weapons in large numbers does have a greater chance of defeating South Vietnam.

"This is the [-]th type front-loading flintlock gun that our army is currently using, but it is ready to be replaced and eliminated. The performance of this gun has surpassed the matchlock gun in all aspects, and the speed of loading and shooting has also been significantly improved. , this point has been fully proved on the battlefield, so I don’t need to say more.”

Enrique picked up the gun and couldn't help but sigh that the Haihan people's weapon manufacturing technology is indeed superior.Although the flintlock gun was invented in Europe as early as the last century, due to some ridiculous reasons, the flintlock gun did not gain rapid popularity in Europe.

After the Frenchman Mahan invented the percussive flintlock gun in the last century, he was highly valued by the king and was even appointed as a "court attendant" by Henry IV. However, Henry IV died in an assassination in 1610, and the flintlock gun The process of equipping the troops came to a halt.Many French generals opposed the use of flintlock guns in the army. The reason turned out to be that the sparks from flint were not enough to ignite black powder-yes, no one thought about how to solve this problem by improving the purity of gunpowder or other technical means. Instead, it directly rejected the prospect of this weapon, which directly led to the delay of the French army's large-scale equipment of flintlock guns for several decades.

Of course, the French were not the only ones who made flintlock guns at the same time. Craftsmen in Germany, Italy, and Spain successively made flintlock guns. However, due to their complex structure and high cost, this advanced weapon has always been used in European troops. failed to gain popularity.In the original history, it was not until the mid-17th century that the flintlock became the main individual weapon of European troops, and it continued until the mid-19th century.In this regard, the Ming Dynasty was indeed far behind the West. It was not until 1635 that Ming Dynasty firearms expert Bi Maokang produced the first self-igniting firecracker with flint.

What the European army could not achieve, the Haihan people have already achieved, and they are just a group of armed merchants entrenched on an island in the Far East!Such a fact makes Enrique, who claims to be a citizen of the Portuguese Empire, a little bit embarrassed. The most annoying thing is that the Haihan people are already planning to eliminate this advanced weapon and replace it with a new type of rifle that Enrique has never heard of.

"About the performance of this new rifle..." Yan Chujie looked at Enrique's longing eyes, smiled and said, "I'm sorry, this involves our military secrets, so I have no comment."

"God, at least tell me something, just say anything!" Enrique was very dissatisfied with Yan Chujie's tricks, and he could only use his eyes to examine this extraordinary-looking new rifle through the glass window. Guess in my heart how this rifle, which neither uses a match nor a gunpowder pot, can be fired.

"The only thing I can say is that the performance of this new rifle can completely beat all kinds of firearms known so far. In front of it, other firearms, including the [-]-type flintlock you just took, are all It's all scum!" Yan Chujie seemed not satisfied with this kind of showing off, and at the end he didn't forget to add a knife: "Of course this new type of weapon will not be included in the ammunition for sale."

With great difficulty, Enrique swallowed back the swear words that had come to his lips, and asked with a forced smile: "Does this mean that if we Portuguese want to buy, we can only buy the weapons that you eliminated?"

"Of course, isn't there something wrong with that?"

The smile on Yan Chujie's face made Enrique really want to punch him.

(End of this chapter)