1635 Han style rises again

Chapter 974: Army Cadet Soldiers' Drills
January 1681, 1, Shanyang County (now Mount Isa, Australia)

In the northeastern region of Hanzhou, the most high-quality pastures are basically located on the slopes and valleys on both sides of Dadong Mountain (Great Dividing Range), that is, in Guangling Prefecture, Yunyang Prefecture, Xiangjiang Prefecture and other areas. Of course, there are some better pastures Distributed in the plains between the north of the Ya'an Highland (now Buckley Platform) and Jingkou Bay (now Carpentaria Bay) in the north.

The precipitation in these places is much higher than that in the northwest region, so the aquatic plants in these areas are very lush, which is especially suitable for the development of large pastures.

In contrast, in Shanyang County, because the Dadong Mountain and Ya'an Highland block the humid air, the precipitation in this vast area is much less. Therefore, although there are many pastures in this area, these pastures Most of them are built along rivers or lakes.

Just like the ranch in Anshun Town (now the small town of Mornington, ten kilometers south of Mount Isa), this is basically the case.Anshun Town, with a population of more than [-] people, was built along the Anxi River (now the Leichhardt River). Most of the pastures in the town are located on the banks of the Anxi River where aquatic plants are relatively rich.

The entire area under the jurisdiction of Shanyang County is extremely vast, covering an area of ​​more than [-] square kilometers, but the population is only a pitiful [-] people. It is a county system that was established only last year.

Twenty-six years ago, an inland exploration team discovered an indigenous "tribal kingdom" in Shanyangbao. Their leader was a pirate who fled to the inland after failing to attack Jianye City.Although this so-called native kingdom had a population of nearly 26 people, when faced with an armed exploration team of more than [-] people, it surrendered "the whole country" very simply.

After surrendering, the native "king" presented their most important discovery to the exploration team - a super silver mine (Cannington Silver Mine) comparable to the Potosi Silver Mine in the Spanish American Territory.The abundance of reserves, high quality and low mining cost of this mine amazed the mining experts after the inspection.In addition, this silver mine is also accompanied by a large number of lead, zinc, copper and other metallogenic belts, which has extremely high economic value.

However, this super silver mine is located inland, and even if a large amount of it is mined, it is impossible to transport it out. Therefore, the Qi cabinet government completely sealed off this place named Shanyang Fort, and stationed A cavalry company was stationed here.

Until the eighth year of Hanxing (1678), the railway from Guangling (now Townsville, Australia) to Jincheng (now Chartersburg, Australia) extended westward to Lianshanbao (now Huendon, Australia), Santaibao (now the small town of Julia Creek, Australia), only more than 250 kilometers away from Shanyang Fort, and the traffic has been greatly improved. The mining department then "recruited" a large number of Nanyang laborers to develop this super silver mine, and at the same time moved several Thousands of immigrants settled in Shanyangbao and its surrounding areas.

If in Qin State, the distance of tens of kilometers is almost equivalent to the distance from one county to another, but in the mainland of Qi, especially in the inland area of ​​Hanzhou, tens of kilometers is nothing at all. The places where ranchers live may even be hundreds of kilometers apart.

Gein, there are no large carnivorous animals in the inland areas of Hanzhou, so in the inland pastures of Hanzhou, the cattle are basically raised in open-air fences, basically no one cares about them, and the cattle will return to the pasture by themselves at night shed.If you are herding sheep, you only need to raise a few shepherd dogs, and you can guard and live a large flock of sheep (but be wary of thylacine attacks).

Ai Cheng rode on the horse, looking at the dozens of cows and hundreds of sheep scattered in front of him, all marked with various colors with dyes, and there was not even a shepherd to take care of them, he couldn't help but secretly cursed in his heart.

Damn it!The cattle and sheep that the Qi people graze in the wild are not cared about. If I leave Daqin alone, I am afraid that they would have been stolen by someone!

Ai Cheng is the grandson of Ai Nengqi, King Dingbei of Daxi Kingdom, and the second son of Ai Chengye, Marquis of Pingyuan, Daqin.Two years ago, I came to Hanzhou with the first batch of 32 Daqin students.Different from those students selected from the Imperial College who all chose to study in several colleges in Qi State to study politics, finance and taxation, machinery, transportation, economics and other majors, Ai Cheng and the other dozens of Great Qin meritorious children directly Enter the Qi State Army Academy to learn the way of war and the art of killing.

The strength of the Qi State is not only reflected in their strong ships and guns at sea, but also their prestige in land warfare is well known to the world.

Not to mention that the Qi State has severely injured the Qing captives on the mainland several times, and saved the crisis in China. It is because they can travel thousands of miles away and beat Dongying Japan, a country with a population of 2000 million, to the point of losing their troops and losing ground, and finally forced the Tokugawa shogunate to cede land and pay compensation , and opened the door of the country to Qi.

What is even more frightening is that a few years ago, Qi State assembled tens of thousands of navy and army to go on an expedition to India to launch a military strike against that Mughal Empire.It is said that this country has a population of hundreds of millions, an army size of one million, and a level of wealth far greater than my Great Qin.As a result, under Qi's military attack, it was simply vulnerable. Not only did tens of thousands of soldiers die, but even the emperor of the empire died in the battle.

This achievement really shocked the emperor and ministers of the Qin Dynasty.While being vigilant, many insightful people can't help but speculate secretly, if the Qi State came to attack our Great Qin, would the hundreds of thousands of imperial troops be able to resist it?

You must know that the army of Beiming Remnants was trained by Qi State alone. From the organizational model to the equipment of all personnel, it is almost a simplified version of the Qi army.But it was such an army that caused the Qin army to suffer a lot in North Korea. It had several times the numerical advantage, but it was always helpless against the Ming army. Finally, under the mediation of Qi State, it had to strike peace with Beiming Give it a place in North Korea.

The imperial court imitated the Qi State Army two years ago and established our Great Qin New Army. In addition to hiring dozens of Qi State military instructors to provide guidance and assistance, the corresponding military students were sent to Qi State to learn and master specific and practical military skills. It has become the most urgent choice of the court.

Including Ai Cheng, there are a total of [-] Daqin students who are studying at Jianye Army Academy and Daxing Army Academy respectively.The subjects chosen are mainly three majors: walking, riding, and logistics.

Originally, some Qin State students wanted to major in artillery, engineering, and topographical surveying and mapping. However, after a simple entrance test, all of them were judged to be unable to carry out normal teaching because they did not have the necessary basic knowledge of mathematics.

Unless, these Qin State students who have a little knowledge of "literature and ink" agree to extend their study time and receive systematic training in mathematics expertise.You must know that the majors of artillery, surveying and mapping, and military engineering are proper high-tech arms in the Qi army, and they require a lot of calculation work.It's not like those primitive artillerymen, relying on feeling, stuffing a shell, igniting the fuze, and then flying out with a "boom".As for whether it can hit the target, it can only rely on the individual to deceive, or the blessing of the gods and Buddhas in the sky.

More than 20 days ago, the Daxing Army School organized the third-year students to conduct a long-distance training exercise in order to enable the students to master and understand combat skills in various environments.

A group of more than [-] cadets took the train from Daxing to the north. After arriving in Guangling, they transferred to Jincheng, and then conducted an infantry confrontation drill on the plain there.The gendarmes and rotating township soldiers stationed at the gold mines in the area acted as the cavalry corps in the illusion, and carried out simulated attacks on the temporary defensive positions they established.

On the uncovered grassland, this group of student soldiers fought the incoming "enemy army" for three days by digging pits and trenches for horse traps, and using accompanying vehicles to set up refusal horses.In the end, the "enemy army" was repelled with sharp artillery, but the trainee soldiers who had just entered the "battlefield" paid more than half of the "casualties".

Then, after two days of rest, all the staff continued to take the train and headed for the deep west inland.Five days ago, I arrived at Santaibao, the end of the railway.

Here, the Ministry of War and the local government prepared [-] carriages, [-] horses, [-] camels, and supplies for half a month for this group of cadet soldiers, thinking that the most difficult long-distance marching exercise will follow.

As the vanguard of the troops, Ai Cheng and several companions from the cavalry department arrived at the lush pasture by the Anxi River first.Since it was an actual combat exercise, these cavalry sentry scouts had to conduct a detailed and detailed investigation of the place to be on guard for the army.But running north along the river for several miles, there was not a single person except these hundreds of cattle and sheep.

"It's almost there." A student soldier from Weiguo reined in his horse, stopped his horse, and said with a smile, "Could it be possible that the enemy can sneak up to this point and catch us by surprise?"

Hearing this, Ai Cheng also reined in the reins, stopped by the river, looked around, nodded and said: "That's right, there are few mountains here, not even a few trees, so where can we hide our whereabouts?"

According to the instructions of the instructors in the military academy, the cavalry sentries of the troops need to patrol within [-] kilometers around the temporary camp to determine whether there are any enemies nearby, so as to avoid being attacked by the enemy when they are camping and resting.

But this is the inland hinterland of Qi State, and the surrounding native barbarians have been cleaned up over and over again, and all of them are sent to the nearby mines to work as coolies, so there is no threat.

Furthermore, the imaginary confrontation "enemy" might still be near Lu'anbao (now the town of Daly Waters in northern Australia), just like them, marching hard in the inland desert.That being the case, it's better to be lazy, hide a trick, and deal with it casually.

It's a drill, it's not really facing actual combat!
The next stage of their drill project is to compete with the cadets sent by the Jianye Army Academy for the control of Gangu Fort (now the small town of Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory of Australia), and to wipe out the enemy's vital forces on the battlefield as much as possible.

Ai Cheng and his group of students from the State of Qin had received special instructions from the instructors before they left. During the first actual combat exercise, master the corresponding military skills such as marching in the desert, camping, fighting on foot and cavalry, and seizing strategic points.

It should be known that for a long period of time in the future, the northwest and the north will be the two main battlefield directions of Qin State, and the combat method will also be dominated by traditional infantry and grassland cavalry confrontation-especially Qin State has not yet established a large army. The case of the cavalry corps.

Ai Cheng deeply believed in the assertion of the instructor of the Qi State, that the threat to the Central Plains Dynasty in the past mainly came from the north.As far as Daqin is concerned, the situation is even more dangerous. Facing two powerful enemies, the remnants of the Qing Dynasty in the north and the Khalkha Mongtars are linked together, eyeing the entire north. The newly-emerged Junggar Khanate has spread its power to the Western Regions. Threatening the Hexi Corridor, Qinghai, and Uzbek.

The Daqin military, however, lasted several years, and the overall size of the cavalry did not exceed [-]. Facing the military threat of the two major nomadic forces, it was always in a passive situation, and could only station on the Great Wall, the Hexi Corridor, and the Hehuang area. A large number of soldiers and horses, to deal with it.

Although, the Qin State military accepted the suggestion of the Qi State Military Staff Group again, and adopted small-scale and frequent trips to the Monan area to attack and kill the Qing captives, and carried out cannibalization attacks on the grassland tribes from time to time, with the low-intensity combat mode of continuous bloodletting, constantly Weaken the strength of the Qing and Mongolian Tatars.

However, Qin's military has not yet had much confidence in carrying out a plowing attack on the north and completely eliminating the border troubles in the north.In their view, the most important way to fight against the nomadic forces in the north is still to build a huge cavalry force, just like in the Han and Tang Dynasties, with hundreds of thousands of cavalry, they went straight to the depths of the grassland to attack the Huns and destroy the Turks. , to eliminate the threat of nomadic forces once and for all.

"Actually, for the invasion of nomadic forces, it is not necessary to establish a huge cavalry army."

After camping on the banks of the Anxi River, Kong Dakui, the chief instructor and Lieutenant Zhaoxin (Colonel) who led the team, began to give lectures to the students, explaining how to suppress and combat nomadic raids.

"In the past, when the former Ming Dynasty dealt with the Qing captives in Liaodong, Sun Chengzong built a [-]-mile defense line in Ningjin and hundreds of fortress towers in Jiliao, so that the Qing captives could not make any progress for several years. This method Although it is relatively passive and conservative, it is also a good strategy. If the former Ming court at that time gave Sun Chengzong a few more years, maybe the fortress could be built all the way to Shenyang, compressing the space for activities of the Qing captives to the greatest extent, trapping and locking them to death .”

"In the northern part of the mainland, whether it is Monan or Mobei, there are only a few grasslands with rich water and grass. When the Qing Dynasty and the Mongolian Tatars are at a disadvantage in the war, they can ride their horses far away, but you can't move the grasslands, right? If so, the Qin State spent a large sum of money to build strong fortresses in the main pastures and water sources, garrison soldiers, supplemented by artillery and musket defenses, which will greatly suppress the living space of the Tartars."

"The Tsarist Russia to the north, for decades, expanded rapidly eastward from thousands of miles to the North Sea (now Lake Baikal), and even Heilongjiang and Ussuri River, conquering countless local Mongolians and other tribes, except Firearms have an advantage, and this method is used to build many forts near key waterways or on the side of the main grassland, with only a few hundred soldiers and people stationed, they can control the vast surrounding areas."

"After controlling the grassland, we can imitate the existing governance model of the Qing Dynasty, divide the grassland tribes into fixed areas, set up alliance flags, and require all tribes to stick to the boundaries and not move at will. In this way, the lives of the grassland tribes can be completely changed. State, grassland tribes that cannot live by water and grass, also have no possibility of gathering sand and forming a tower, and rising rapidly."

"On the other hand, we can make greater use of the Yellow Sect of Lamas that has sprung up on the grasslands. Encourage grassland tribes to build lama temples on the grasslands to unify the religious beliefs of the various tribes on the grasslands. At the same time, use the Yellow Sect to strictly control the population of the various tribes on the grasslands, so that they cannot accumulate manpower and fight against Central Plains Dynasty."

"Of course, we can also open up commercial routes on the grasslands, build cities, appoint native officials, and use the handicrafts, salt, and tea from the Central Plains to buy livestock and furs on the grasslands, encourage private trade, and use the economy to fetter and thoroughly control People's livelihood in the grasslands. Xu border land is cultivated by Chinese people and the inland clans who have been expelled from the Ding Shu border reclamation. In Jiabian City, Han and Hu intermarry, promote Chinese language, promote Buddhism, and jointly protect the tribes.

"Instructor, my Great Qin court has to face threats from both the north and the northwest at the same time. I can't raise enough money to build a few fortresses for a while, and go deep into the grassland step by step. How should I deal with the northern Tartars in other ways?" Ai Chengju hand asked.

"If you don't have money, you can only take risks." Kong Dakui pondered for a moment, and then said: "The northwestern Junggar Khanate and the Mobei and Monan Mongolia controlled by Qinglu are not monolithic, and there must be gaps to take advantage of. If you Qin If the country operates properly, instigate the two parties to fight, support the weak and resist the strong, and make them weaken each other, there may be a chance to destroy the two enemies one by one."

"Instructor, if the operation is not done properly, what will be the consequences?"

"If you don't operate properly, the two enemies may become one, and the power will multiply. Your Qin Kingdom will usher in an unprecedented enemy of life and death, and the disaster of Jinmeng will repeat itself!"

(End of this chapter)