Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1591 First Mixed Battalion ([-])

It was already the end of September when Lu Xiaofeng arrived at the capital Dongfang Port.

After resting and having fun at home for a while, on October 10, he finally received the exact news. In late October, he followed a delegation from the Joint Chiefs of Staff to the Far East.It is said that there are dozens of people in this investigation group, most of them are from the navy and army, and there are also representatives of several government civil servants. The purpose of going to the Far East is to carefully evaluate the situation in mainland China so that the members of the Executive Committee can make decisions in the future. A detailed reference is provided when.

Lu Xiaofeng vaguely heard that if the report sent back by the inspection team finally pointed out that the situation in China was irreversible, then maybe the mainland would consider agreeing to the request of the military department and send the Army's First Mixed Battalion to the Far East to wait for the opportunity to take action .Many of the people who said this were officers in the No. [-] Mixed Battalion. After all, the recruiting place of this battalion came from Dongfang County, the capital, where the number of second-generation soldiers was the largest, and naturally there were quite a few of them joining the army.They all said that, Lu Xiaofeng naturally had no reason not to believe it, and at the same time, he was more curious about the Far East San Francisco where he was about to work. Has the situation there really changed significantly?

However, two acquainted childhood playmates also told Lu Xiaofeng that recently someone from above suggested that a mixed battalion be sent to Europe to help the Dutch defend important cities such as Amsterdam or The Hague.Of course, defending the city is definitely not the main purpose of the people on the east coast. What they want to do more is to protect the personal safety of Dewitt, the chairman of the third-level parliament. You must know that it is very in the interests of the east coast that this man continues to be in power.

Of course, once the war between the United Provinces and France breaks out, the biggest enemy of the United Provinces will automatically turn into the giant of France—there is already a sign of this—at that time, Oran, who has always advocated that France is the greatest enemy The ruling faction is likely to gain power, and the Orange family, which has held military power in history and saved the Netherlands many times, is also very likely to become the ruling party of the Netherlands (this position has been abolished for many years). Not a good thing.

Therefore, although it seems that the decline of the Republicans and Speaker DeWitt is inevitable, the extent of the decline is a very delicate matter.What's more, Speaker DeWitt has been in charge of the three-level parliament for many years. He has a long history of prestige and has a lot of connections. With him, the republican faction will not be scattered.That's why the people on the east coast want to send people to the United Provinces to protect the safety of Speaker De Witt and his family. They are counting on him to continue to contain the Orange faction in The Hague.

It's just that the idea of ​​the people on the east coast may seem quite difficult at present.First of all, regardless of what the republicans think, just saying that sending a full-staffed mixed battalion to Europe as cannon fodder - don't doubt, many people in China think so - will cause huge criticism; moreover, the Dutch I may not be happy either!There are only more than 1000 people in a mixed battalion. Are you kidding me?If you send all eight mixed battalions to the United Provinces after they are fully staffed, the Dutch will definitely welcome you with their hands up, but if you only have one battalion, are you kidding me?

So, this thing sounds like a fantasy.Lu Xiaofeng thought to himself, the more than 1000 children from the capital of the First Mixed Battalion are going to be stationed in the Far East for a few years. I hope they can show their talents there, and don’t let some people from other counties look down upon them——Family conditions The No. [-] Mixed Battalion, composed of relatively well-to-do children from the capital, has always been the envy and hatred of other battalions, so there are many corresponding strange words, such as they are not brave enough to fight bayonets and so on.

Lu Xiaofeng is also a child of the capital, and many of his friends and playmates serve in the No. [-] Mixed Battalion, so he naturally scoffs at this.He most often refuted what others said. During the East-Portuguese War, the No. [-] Mixed Battalion and the Dongfang County Security Regiment carried out consecutive night-time hand-to-hand assaults. Although their own casualties were not small, they directly broke the courage of the enemy. At this point, he thinks that there is nothing wrong with the No. [-] Mixed Battalion being the strongest army on the east bank.

And considering that the task of going to the Far East for inspection cannot be completed in a day or two, before waiting for the return of the inspection team or sending back news, the Army's First Mixed Battalion cannot idle at home and eat military pay.Ever since, under the order of the Joint Staff Headquarters, all the more than 1000 officers and soldiers of the battalion, except for 110 cavalry companies, boarded the two troop carriers of the First Fleet, and then boarded the two newly launched "Star" ships. In mid-to-late December 1670, they arrived at Huaiyuan Harbor on Huaiyuan Island (Trinidad) together with several merchant ships under the escort of a light cruiser.

Major Lan Fei, the new battalion commander of the First Mixed Battalion, and Major Cai Anguo, the local supreme commander and commander of the Caribbean Fleet of the Navy’s First Fleet, are also old acquaintances. They had worked together to attack the French Caribbean colonies before, and the cooperation was pleasant. .I don't know who arranged it this time, and the two of them joined forces to fight here again, which is also fate.

"Commander Cai, what's going on with the attack on Tortuga Island this time? Is the support of the Caribbean Shipping Company in place?" Sitting in a cool building on stilts, Major Lan Fei asked while drinking juice.

This time the No. [-] Mixed Battalion flew to Huaiyuan Island, not for sightseeing.In fact, the mainland has entrusted the battalion with many important tasks, the first of which is to destroy the pirate den on Tortuga Island, because it seriously threatens the sea communication lines of the people on the east coast (several A merchant ship on the east coast disappeared in the Caribbean Sea, and the Admiralty highly suspected that it was related to the pirates in the Caribbean Sea), and had to get rid of it, not to mention that there was usually a lot of oil and water in such pirate dens, which should be enough to pay for the "East Coast Navy and Army" "Appearance fee" is more than enough.

However, to fight Tortuga Island, the cooperation of the navy is still indispensable.With the strength of only two "Star"-class light cruisers in the Caribbean Squadron of the First Fleet, it must be impossible to smooth the beard of "Pirate Island". Even with the addition of the two "Star"-class light cruisers that will be escorted, The four warships are still somewhat weak, and they still have to find foreign aid.

And this foreign aid has actually been found by the people on the east coast, and that is the Spaniard's Windward Fleet.

After many years of construction and replenishment, the Xiangfeng Fleet is no longer the weak fleet that only had a few small broken ships, and it was very difficult to fight against pirates. Still very limited.Moreover, the Spaniards did have the urge to solve this pirate island. After Gein was handed over to the Spanish Kingdom in Santo Domingo, the existence of the pirate base at this door has seriously threatened the Spanish rule here. So I had to make a big move to destroy it.

According to the agreement with the people on the east coast, this time the Spaniards' Windward Fleet will dispatch four professional warships "in the best condition", and together with the four warships on the east coast, they will secretly go to San Juan Port in Puerto Rico to assemble. Then wait until the three warships of Air Canada come to meet up and attack Tortuga Island together-considering the inconvenience of communication links, if the ships of Air Canada fail to meet up in time, then they will not come again. Instead, they escorted the ships carrying the army and went straight to Tortuga Island to fight the pirates.

"Air Canada has been focusing on the Free State for the past few years." Cai Anguo, who was smoking a cigarette and looking around on the chart, said without hesitation: "And these guys are very stingy. I’m running transportation all day long, even warships, so I may not be able to draw a few ships to come to support. Actually, according to me, it doesn’t matter if your broken ships come or not. Our seven or eight warships are enough Some pirates have been scared away, and the remaining few hardcore pirates may not be able to prevent us from landing. Therefore, Air Canada does not need to come to the battleship, but please send two transport ships to carry some Black Eight Banners soldiers for us to use, just like Same as last attack on French Santo Domingo."

"Free State? What are they doing there?" Major Lan Fei was a little dissatisfied when he heard that, he put the glass on the table heavily, stood up and took two steps, and asked.

Another task assigned to the No. [-] Mixed Battalion this time is to garrison Fengtian and Rehe in the Kingdom of the Free State for some time.In addition to the garrison, help those Black Eight Banners train their troops. After all, many of the black laborers whose contracts have expired will be transported to the Free State in the later stage, not the South African Eight Banners who have fought in battle.These people are as timid as mice, and their bodies are not very strong, so it is necessary to undergo qualified military training to be able to resist foreign enemies.

However, what confused Lan Fei was that in the official document issued to him by the Ministry of War, it mentioned that the number of free state troops that he needed to train was about "3000", which was much lower than his knowledge, so that he began to doubt What exactly has Air Canada been doing these years, and how many blacks have been transported to North America, that's why I asked this question.

Regarding Lan Fei's question, Cai Anguo was also a little embarrassed, and didn't know how to answer it very well.As the commander of the Caribbean sub-fleet, Major Cai Anguo, who has been in business contact with Air Canada and the Free State for many years, has some understanding of Air Canada, a large concern company, and even some secrets of the company. He also knew all about the business, such as the slave trade.

The source of the black slaves sold by Air Canada is not from other places, but from construction teams in the local area, South Africa, and even New China, and black laborers who have served in plantations for seven years.These laborers are supposed to be transported to the Free State by Air Canada's ships for placement.But who is Air Canada?A greedy colonial trading company!Therefore, under the operation of its president, Ding Yiyu, a large number of black laborers who had expired were transported to the Mobile Commercial Station by Air Canada, and then secretly sold to Spanish, French, English, and Dutch colonists in the Caribbean for huge profits. profit.

Major Cai Anguo reckoned that Air Canada has not been doing these things for a year or two, but for a long time, otherwise you think that the Mobile Commercial Station—now it can become a Mobile Fortress—how did the huge scale be built? of?How did so many people get recruited?It's just that these people are more restrained and strictly control the number of slaves sold every year!In short, they only sold some of the slaves, and the rest were normally transported to the Free State for resettlement, so that their appearance would not look so ugly.

Therefore, this can perfectly explain the reason why the Free State has a population of only more than 3 after so many years of development. In addition to wars, plagues and food shortages, Air Canada's "drifting" has led to too little replenishment. Big factor!And the lack of population in the Free State has naturally led to the lack of economic strength, and if the economic strength is insufficient, it will naturally not be able to support too many soldiers - in the current Free State, the one with the largest number of standing troops is the Xinjing Mo family , there are a total of [-] full-time standing troops, and it is also the most powerful force in the kingdom; secondly, Fengtian Jiedu envoy and horse infantry commander Liang Zan also has [-] professional full-time soldiers, which is the second regular military force in the kingdom; As for Mo Dashan, who has only been appointed as Rehe Jiedu Envoy for a few years, because of the lack of money and food and the sparse population, he currently only has more than a hundred relatives brought from South Africa as the core armed force (they are all veterans who have fought in South Africa and the Far East for many years. should not be underestimated), but usually have to participate in labor, which is considered the most shabby, and it is quite powerless to deal with the friction with the Indians on weekdays, and it is also helpless.

So we can see that the entire free state currently has a population of just over 3, and [-] full-time professional soldiers (when there is a war, a large number of domestically strong men are conscripted, and all the people are soldiers), and after the older generation of black banners gradually fade away, their combat effectiveness is also quite Somewhat suspicious.Although the East Coast Gendarmerie helped to train the army before, they were not as professional as the First Mixed Battalion. Therefore, this time, when they had the opportunity, the superiors moved the battalion to Xinjing and Fengtianhe Rehe to stabilize the local situation (recently The Indians are quite ready to move) at the same time, the army of the Free State is also undergoing a second training in order to improve its combat effectiveness.Lan Fei, as the battalion commander of the first battalion, naturally knew about it.

"Air Canada is helping the Free State platform recently. I heard that it has dispatched [-] soldiers from the Mobile Commercial Station to the west bank of the Mississippi River to negotiate with the local Choctaws and resolve the conflict between them and the Black Banners. Well, I heard that the reason is that the cotton trade has been too hot in recent years. The number of domestic cotton fields in the Black Eight Banners has increased greatly. After the areas on the east bank of the river that are conducive to irrigation have been developed to a certain extent, the Xinjing Mo family brazenly invaded the territory of the Choctaw people. , carried out a sweep in the depths of the West Bank, and expelled some Indians so as not to pose a threat to their newly opened cotton fields on the West Bank. However, this move also annoyed the Indians. At present, the two sides are messing with each other, and the war is very The trend of escalation." Cai Anguo said indifferently: "Commander Lan, can we put aside the matter of the Free State and the Indians and turn our attention to Tortuga Island first."

(End of this chapter)