Southern Ming: A boy soldier at the beginning, supporting the world

Chapter 39: Foreign Soldiers
The Portuguese mercenaries were about to be disbanded. There were 309 of them when they arrived, 23 of them died in battle, and 2 died of illness. After Qu Shisi's persuasion, 11 of them were willing to stay, which was worse than expected.

Cen Danchu took on the task of commanding the foreign soldiers, intending to use them to train artillery and musketeers. When he heard that most of the foreign soldiers were leaving, he hurried over to keep them.

"Captain, priest, please have a look." Danchu handed over a piece of white paper with English written on it and said, "Last night, an old man carrying a cross appeared in my dream and taught me a foreign language. I heard that the cross is a sacred vessel of God, so I came to visit you. May I ask, what language is this?"

The interpreter was of mixed race and did not know English, so he translated Danchu's words into Portuguese.

Captain Ferreira of the foreign troops was a Portuguese, a professional mercenary, an artillery captain, and a well-informed man. He vaguely felt that this was English, but he was not sure.

The postman Bi Fangji was an Italian who came to China during the Wanli period. He was well-educated, could speak Nanjing Mandarin, and could write classical Chinese. He took the white paper, looked at it for a moment, and said, "This is English, which originated from Latin, but unfortunately it is very different. Captain, are there any English people in the army?"

Ferreira thought for a moment and said, "There are three. They are all Catholics. They were persecuted by the Ing-Ji Church and became mercenaries in exile."

Three Englishmen were called over quickly. Two of them were illiterate, and the other one knew a little English. He read in English first:

"I'm telling you mercenaries, General Cen is a saint sent by God to East Asia to rescue civilians and resist the Tartars..."

Cen Danchu also tried his best, recalling his high school English, and continued in English: "You mercenaries should do your best to help General Cen, obey General Cen, and serve General Cen. You must not decide whether to stay or leave based on the amount of remuneration..."

The three Englishmen widened their eyes, unable to believe that the young man in front of them could write and speak English.

The Englishman was so excited, as if he had seen a miracle, that he translated the English on the paper into Portuguese.

Danchu remained calm and repeated it in Chinese.

Ferreira and Bi Fangji were both shocked. They had both dealt with Danchu and heard of his legendary stories. Danchu was a child soldier, but he was promoted to the commander of the left side of the Du Biao Army based on his military merits. If it wasn't for divine help, how could he have achieved this?
Danchu stopped talking and let the foreign soldiers speculate.

There was silence for a while, and finally Bi Fangji broke the silence.

As early as the Wanli period, Bi Fangji served as an official in the imperial court and had deep feelings for the Ming Dynasty. He had decided to stay and said to Ferreira:
"Captain, God has shown His power and sent saints to the Middle-earth. We are all devout believers and should obey God's will. From now on, we will follow General Cen wholeheartedly to fight against violence and drive out the Tartars."

Bi Fangji was a devout missionary. After saying this, he knelt on one knee and kissed Dan Chu's shoes to show his loyalty.

Although he was somewhat reluctant, Danchu still extended his right hand and accepted Bi Fangji's kiss, just as he had seen in the movies.

As a mercenary captain, Ferreira traveled all over the world and heard many magical stories, but this was the first time he saw a miracle, and he knelt on one knee involuntarily.

He was the captain of the foreign soldiers and had great prestige among them. He had originally planned to leave. This was a person who should be won over. If he stayed, more followers would surely stay.

Danchu remained calm and did not say anything. He took out the long knife he carried with him, tapped Ferreira's shoulder lightly with the scabbard, and asked, "Captain Ferreira, are you willing to obey God's will and serve the saints?"

Knight's oath of allegiance?
Everyone present was a little surprised, and the interpreter translated Danchu's words into Portuguese.

Ferreira had no choice but to answer: "Yes."

Danchu tapped his shoulder with the scabbard again and asked:
"Are you willing to pledge your allegiance to the Saints, protect the civilians and fight against the Tartars until your death?"

"willing."

"Are you willing to endure a hard life and follow strict military discipline?"

"willing."

Danchu extended his right hand to accept Ferreira's allegiance.

Immediately afterwards, the British and English interpreters present also swore an oath of allegiance.

Because of Ferreira's stay, more mercenaries chose to stay.

Danchu declared that the Ming army could not afford high military pay, and if the foreign soldiers wanted to stay, they would have to endure low military pay, hard life, and prolonged war. Those who voluntarily stayed would no longer be mercenaries, but volunteers. Ferreira selected 50 volunteers and dismissed the rest.

Dan Chu was ordered to lead the volunteer soldiers and had high hopes for them. After consulting Jiao Lian, he selected 100 gunners and 300 musketeers from the entire army and handed them over to Ferreira for training.

Jiao Lian certainly supported this. After training, these gunners and musketeers will be assigned to the Du Biao and directly commanded by Jiao Lian. The gunners will be assigned to the Du Biao Central Army, and the musketeers will be assigned to the Central Army, the Left Brigade, and the Right Brigade.

On July 2, less than 20 days before the expedition to Pingle, the artillerymen and musketeers of the Supervisory Standard had just been recruited and had only trained for two days on the parade ground.

Danchu was worried and went to the training ground to inspect the training.

Ferreira had already changed into the uniform of the Ming army and was organizing training for the musketeers. The content was simple: line up the musketeers in two rows, advance according to the whistle, and everyone keep in step.

Danchu understood that Ferreira wanted to train the line shooting tactics. This tactic has been popular in Europe for a long time and has high requirements for queues and discipline.

Since ancient times, the Chinese have attached more importance to the continuity of attack, and thus invented the three-stage attack tactic. For example, the Song Dynasty army used bows and crossbows to deal with northern cavalry, and stipulated that the crossbowmen should attack in three groups to ensure the continuous output of arrows. The Ming army was equipped with a large number of firearms and also used the three-stage attack tactic.

Line shooting tactics and three-stage shooting tactics seem similar, but in fact they are very different. Line shooting tactics pursues the density of firepower, while three-stage shooting tactics pursues the sustainability of firepower.

The effective range of the matchlock gun was only 80 steps, and the firing rate was very slow, at most two rounds per minute. However, the cavalry had a fast charge speed, and it only took seven or eight seconds to pass a distance of 80 steps. In this case, concentrated firepower was obviously more important than continuous firepower.

Cen Danchu agreed with the line shooting tactics and Ferreira's training methods, and rarely interfered with the musketeers' training. Ferreira was very grateful for this.

Despite the language barrier and communication difficulties, the two of them have already reached a preliminary understanding.

Seeing Danchu coming, Ferreira handed over the training to his deputy and went to greet him with the interpreter.

Danchu asked, "Captain Ferreira, the army will march east in twenty days. Can the musketeers be trained well?"

"Yes," Ferreira replied confidently, "Under normal circumstances, it only takes fifteen days to train peasants with no basic skills into qualified musketeers. Middle-earth peasants are the most patient, obedient, and hardworking people I have ever seen. I guarantee that I can train these new recruits into shape within fifteen days."

Hot weapons are much better than cold weapons, and do not require soldiers to have physical strength or martial arts skills. With just a simple training, peasants with no basic skills can be sent to the battlefield.

"Well," Danchu was very satisfied and asked, "Are there any difficulties?"

Ferreira was blunt. “It’s mainly about ammunition. I’m worried that the supply of gunpowder, lead, and wicks will be difficult to guarantee.”

"I'll find a way to do that too." Fortunately, the Dubiao had less than 300 muskets, so the logistical pressure was not great.

Cen Danchu immediately thought of a question he had been thinking about for a long time, and said, "I plan to install a fixed and detachable bayonet on the muzzle of the gun. In this way, the musketeer can not only shoot at distant enemies, but also use the bayonet in close combat. Captain Ferreira, do you think this is feasible?"

Musketeers have poor self-defense capabilities and usually shoot at the enemy in front of the formation, and then hide in the formation when the enemy gets close.

In actual combat, musketeers often faced the threat of enemy cavalry. A common phenomenon was that musketeers often picked up spears on the battlefield and inserted the spear tips into the barrels of their guns to serve as makeshift bayonets.

Ferreira is well-informed and said, "A few years ago, the French army equipped muskets with special bayonets. However, this bayonet is inserted into the muzzle, and once installed, it can no longer be fired. If the sleeve bayonet mentioned by the general can be invented, it will be of great use.

"The muskets we are using are all purchased from the Bugalao Gun Foundry in Macau. This gun foundry is the largest in East Asia, with many skilled craftsmen. General, you may want to hire the gunsmiths there to try making bayonets for the guns."

"Yeah," Danchu said without comment, "I understand."

The Imperial Observatory Qu Shawei and the military supervisor eunuch Pang Tianshou had recruited a group of artillerymen in Macau and cast a lot of red cannons in Quanzhou. Now that the court has moved to Fengtian, it is unknown where these artillerymen have gone. Instead of recruiting artillerymen from Macau, it is better to send people to Quanzhou to inquire about their whereabouts.

How to deal with the Eight Banners? Danchu had gradually formed an idea in his mind. Historically, in Europe, the line shooting tactics plus the sleeve bayonet eventually put an end to the heavy armored cavalry. Of course, the premise is that they are equipped with flintlock rifles with higher accuracy, faster firing rate, greater power and greater reliability.

The flintlock rifle had been invented long ago, and the Ming army also equipped it on a small scale, calling it "self-fire", but its reliability was poor. The muskets of the Ming army were still mainly matchlock rifles. Equipping the matchlock rifle with a bayonet could at least improve the musketeer's self-defense ability and prevent them from looking for the tip of a spear on the battlefield.

The problem is that line-fire tactics, flintlock rifles, and sleeve bayonets place very high demands on military industry and logistics!
China has many skilled craftsmen, so it is not a big problem to invent the sleeve bayonet and improve the flintlock. The key is to produce bayonets and flintlocks in batches and with unified standards. The key is that they lack direct armed forces, have no territory, and are not strong enough!
(End of this chapter)