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Chapter 1340: Bloody Battle of Panama City 4
But after listening to Settle's personal opinions, the difficulty of the challenge seemed to be reduced a lot. Originally, what he was most worried about was food. If he couldn't get the local people to resume production as soon as possible, or if there was a natural disaster, how to feed the people under his rule would become a big problem.

This place is more than 8000 kilometers away from Pearl Harbor, and Pearl Harbor is more than 8000 kilometers away from the mainland, with all that is ocean in between.

It is too costly to transport food for hundreds of thousands of people across such a distant ocean. The food can only be temporarily stored in Pearl Harbor and then sent to a certain city or region for emergency response at a critical moment. It cannot be relied upon 100%.

It was very difficult to make the people obedient when they were hungry. I thought about it all the way, and made assumptions about agriculture and animal husbandry in Ming Dynasty one by one, but I couldn't find a solution that would work immediately. But it was perfectly solved by a casual remark from Settle.

Whaling! No wonder I couldn't think of it after racking my brains. This kind of professional work that requires going out to sea is not something that people from inland areas, even those who grew up by the sea, understand.

But the navy is different. From the beginning, the reserve cadets have to adapt to the ocean voyage, and internship on the ocean-going whaling ship is the most basic. In order to process the whales, each naval base has a relevant workshop, and the finished products are sold to merchants after processing.

This income is counted as income outside of military expenditures and can be used by the Navy at its discretion. However, every payment must be recorded in the accounts, and the General Staff will send people to audit the accounts from time to time. If loopholes are found, the relevant person in charge and the person in charge of the base will be in trouble.

The army is not as flexible as the navy in this regard. Apart from military expenses, it is not allowed to have any additional income or commercial activities. Even if you open a piece of land in the barracks to grow some vegetables, you can only eat them and not sell them. The army doing business is the emperor's reverse scale. If you don't believe it, you can try it.

However, whale meat was rarely eaten along the coast of the Ming Dynasty and did not taste very good, so it was mostly used to make canned food. But now it has become a panacea for stabilizing the hearts of the people in the newly occupied areas.

The most important thing is to listen to Settle's words. Now whaling is no longer done with bows and crossbows. Instead, the deck guns have been converted into whaling guns that fire large steel forks.

Although I have not seen how it was modified or how effective it was in hunting whales, I must know the power of the Navy deck guns. Even though it is smaller than the Army field guns, only 75mm in caliber, it is still no problem against flesh. It is estimated that one shot would kill half of the whale, and the efficiency of whaling has been greatly improved.

A whale, depending on its species and size, can produce anywhere from a few thousand pounds to hundreds of thousands of pounds of meat. There's no need to calculate it so clearly, just a few tens of thousands of pounds in the middle would be enough to feed a city for a few days.

This is not the Ming Dynasty, where cities have populations of hundreds of thousands, even millions. According to various statistics collected by the General Staff and the Ministry of Rites from Europe, the population of the entire Viceroyalty of Peru is about 150 million.

Among them, the indigenous people accounted for 80%, European immigrants and Europeans born in the colonies accounted for only 10%, and African slaves accounted for almost 10%. These were all recorded because they were property and sources of taxation.

Various mixed-race populations have become the biggest uncertainty, but there won’t be too many of them, and the maximum floating number is within 20%.

Cities like Lima (3), Panama (1), and Cusco (1.5) are already the best in the Viceroyalty of Peru. If they were placed in the Ming Dynasty, they would not even be considered a county in terms of population size.

Having a large population has its advantages, such as abundant labor force and faster development; but having a large population also has its disadvantages. When natural disasters or man-made disasters occur, there is often not enough food, which will cause all kinds of riots and is difficult to manage.

At this time, the small population became an advantage. A city was divided into a medium-sized whale, and if each person had 2 kilograms of meat per day, there was still plenty of money... As long as there was something to feed the people under the rule, there was a way to make them obedient. No matter what gods or Buddhas, they could not be compared with hunger. Whoever could give people enough food was a demigod, and if he could also give people hope of having enough food and warm clothes in the next life, he was a true god. Believe in whatever you are told to believe, and don't believe in whatever you are not allowed to believe.

Are there people with strong beliefs, or people who had no shortage of food and drink, but whose lives became difficult after the Ming army occupied their territory? The answer is not only yes, but also quite a few.

But there is no need to worry about this group of people. Didn't Setel say that there was no need to be polite. If you find any signs, just take action. It is better to kill the innocent than to let them go. Moreover, the emperor even prepared the executioner, so there was no need for the Ming army to take action.

In the Panama Bay, the Ming Navy Expeditionary Fleet anchorage. In order to prevent nighttime surprise attacks, cargo ships carrying army soldiers were anchored far apart, and strict lighting control was implemented.

"Great Whale Palace, is there an order?"

But one ship seemed to have disobeyed the order, and a bright light flashed on the deck. Looking at the back of the army staff officer disappearing at the side of the ship, a head with a typical fringe hairstyle poked out from the front hatch and whispered to another figure standing by the door.

"Qingyu Palace, take a look for yourself. This is given by Shangguan, just enough for each person."

The shadow turned around and handed the latter a piece of paper and a cigar. The two glanced at the dark sea, turned around and went into the cabin, sat on the stairs and lit a lighter, lighting a cigarette while reading the documents by the light.

Mukuhara Taigei, deputy commander of the First Guard of the New Japanese Army; Kabayama Kiryu, trial centurion of the First Guard of the New Japanese Army.

The First Guard of the Japanese New Army should actually be called the First Guard of the Japanese Marine Corps. It was a new army that was jointly petitioned by many daimyos from Kyushu, Shikoku and Kansai in Japan and approved by the Tokugawa shogunate. It was stationed and trained in Settsu Province. It was completely modeled after the Ming Marine Corps and was led by naval officers.

Like all new things, the beginning is always difficult. From the proposal of Ming Dynasty to train new Japanese troops to the formal approval of the Tokugawa shogunate, more than 30 daimyo lords worked hard for more than five years before it was implemented. It can be said that it was not easy.

Why did these daimyo lords ask Ming officers to train the Japanese army? Were they bribed with money and beauty or coerced and induced to become traitors?

Even if there were traitors, there wouldn't be more than 30 of them all at once, and they were all feudal lords. This is totally inconsistent with basic logic. There are many theories as to why these feudal lords pushed the shogunate to establish a new army.

According to their own slogans, they wanted to promote military reform in Japan, gradually replacing the old army with a professional new army that was more powerful and better disciplined, and then follow the example of the Ming Dynasty and hand over military power to the imperial court, thus avoiding wars in various places.

This reason is indeed in line with the facts and is more in line with the needs of the Tokugawa shogunate. If hundreds of daimyos across Japan were to hand over their military power, the shogun would be able to wake up with a smile in his sleep.

(End of this chapter)