Bringing the Railway to Daming

How can a foreigner gain a foothold in France and other European countries?
In China, if you want to become a separatist force and eventually vie for supremacy, you definitely need a territory.

However, Zhu Gang discussed this with his advisors and even consulted Zhu Biao via telegram. The final conclusion was that, as a foreign race, if they wanted to gain a foothold in an unfamiliar land, the first thing they needed was not land, but people.

In fact, the Jin army and the guards of the four princes entered France under the guise of mercenaries, and initially they did not have a good chance of occupying territory.

Therefore, whether it is the Jin vassal garrison or the guards of the four kings, the key in the early stages will be to acquire capable personnel.

When they have enough "usable people" or even "their own people" in France, then they will be able to truly occupy a place and eventually replace the original ruling class of France.

Therefore, in addition to collecting various valuables, a major task of "mercenaries" like Zheng Jian, who were sent to fight for nobles, was to recruit followers.

At this point, with the help of the translator, Zheng Jian explained the situation and began recruiting soldiers from among the hundreds of French farmers.

Firstly, there are certain requirements regarding age and physical fitness, but not high ones—the age limit is between 15 and 40 years old, and the physical fitness is only slightly better than that of an ordinary farmer.

Then comes the most crucial requirement: obedience.

Therefore, Zheng Jian first had the translator select more than two hundred able-bodied French men who met the age requirements, and then had these men stand in an open space in a posture demonstrated by Jin soldiers, without moving; if they moved, they were eliminated.

These two hundred-plus French farmers simply couldn't understand the requirements, and some of them were naturally unable to stay still, so more than a hundred were eliminated in just fifteen minutes!

The standing test lasted for nearly half an hour. When only fifty people remained, Zheng Jian announced loudly, "Good! You've all done very well to last this long, barely meeting our requirements for the escort troops. From now on, you will be the escort troops of the Pingyi Guard of my Jin State!"

The translator of the name "Pingyiwei" would not interpret it literally, but rather transliterate it, and the same was true for the Duke of Bourbon's side.

Therefore, neither the Archduke of Bourbon nor the French peasants below him knew the meaning behind this "army name." By the time some people learned Chinese a few years later and could barely understand the meaning of the name, it was too late.

The total population of the Baron Gangri is estimated to be only a few thousand, and if farmers are counted by households, it is estimated to be less than a thousand. Furthermore, due to decades of war, there is a severe gender imbalance with more women than men.

In addition, Baron Gangge had already conscripted five or six hundred able-bodied men, and after deducting some who escaped, there were only about five hundred French farmers who were semi-captured and brought to the castle to listen to Zheng Jian's "speech".

Being able to select fifty people from over five hundred who barely met the requirements for the escort army was already considered a fairly high proportion.

To enhance the propaganda effect, Zheng Jian announced that these people had become his personal guards and immediately began distributing resettlement allowances—three silver coins per person!
Both the French men who became part of the Pingyi Guard and those who were not selected were shocked.

"God, they're giving out three Rivers as a resettlement allowance right from the start? I've never heard of such a good thing before!"

"I'm so regretful! I should have held on a little longer!"

"General, I can actually stand for that long too, so please let me join you?"

"General, I can stand for a long time too..."

For a time, many farmers who had previously participated in the standing trial regretted it and clamored for another trial in order to join the Pingyi Guard.

However, this standing trial tests obedience. These people could physically endure it, but failed to complete the trial because of some thoughts in their minds, which clearly showed that their obedience was insufficient.

It's already difficult for such people to become useful soldiers, let alone become "one of our own" in the Ming Dynasty.

So Zheng Jian ignored them completely. When he saw some farmers starting to disrupt the order, he directly ordered his soldiers to go up and beat them. The farmers were immediately beaten so badly that they ran away with their heads in their hands and dared not make any more noise.

The fifty selected farmers felt extremely honored—most of them had families, and at the translator's suggestion, some gave their resettlement allowance to their parents or wives, while others, who had neither parents nor wives, kept it for themselves.

Having completed this task, Zheng Jian went to the castle and began writing the mission report.

After completing the report, he would take the spoils collected during the expedition, the French retinue he had recruited, and some prisoners of war back to the Pingyiwei garrison. These prisoners of war were mainly relatives and servants of Baron Gangri, and were mostly women.

As expected, these French women will all be sent to the State of Jin. Some of them may be able to stay in Jin, but some will certainly be sold to the King of Chu.

Zheng Jian heard that the King of Chu had been buying people from the overseas vassal kings at high prices, with beautiful white women fetching particularly high prices...
···
Meanwhile, in the Earldom of Navel, the Four Kings' mercenaries were doing something similar.

Although Neville was only a count, his estate was quite large, nearly half the size of the Grand Duchy of Bourbon. Moreover, it bordered a estate belonging to the Duke of Burgundy—the Duke of Burgundy in France currently owns more than one estate, and the one adjacent to Neville's estate is the second largest of his estates.

Because the Earl of Neville, like Louis II of Bourbon, was a staunch advocate of war, Philip II pretended not to see or to ignore the fact that some of the nobles under his control were encroaching on the Earl of Neville's territory.

Therefore, the Count of Navel faced a much more difficult situation than the Grand Duke of Bourbon, with more battles occurring within and around his territory. This was one of the reasons why the Jin Domain and the Western Sea Commandery chose the Count of Navel as the client of the Four Kings' mercenary army.

The outskirts of Navel.

The Four Kings mercenary camp.

Li Daqi, who was selected as the commander of the Four Kings Mercenary Army through a competition, convened a meeting of senior officers from the four armies. He was a subordinate of Prince Ning, Zhu Quan, and had no prior reputation, but he shone brightly in the selection competition for the commander of the Four Kings Mercenary Army, outperforming the other three in both the literary and martial arts tests.

After entering the territory of the Earl of Navel, they established a camp on the outskirts of Navel as planned—this would make it easier for them to obtain a stable supply of military pay and provisions.

Since the Earl of Navel had previously needed their services for small-scale battles, and considering that the Four Kings' mercenaries were, after all, the guards of the four princes and could not truly be integrated, he assigned each of the four armies to be responsible for a small-scale battle.

This also helps to avoid sordid disputes arising from the distribution of spoils.

The reason for summoning the senior officers of the four armies was that Navel had given him a big task.

Although some of these high-ranking officers were dissatisfied with Li Daqi, such as Yang Duo, the deputy commander under the Prince of Dai, they were all elite soldiers who knew that the army was not a place for trouble. Therefore, after the appointment was made, they generally obeyed Li Daqi's command.

"According to information provided by Count Neville, Count Charolais, who is subordinate to the Grand Duke of Burgundy, is very angry about the defeats in some small battles a few days ago, so he has gathered tens of thousands of troops and is preparing to have a big battle with Count Neville."

"The Earl of Navel hopes we can help him win this war."

After listening to Li Daqi's explanation, Yang Duo asked, "How many exactly are the tens of thousands of troops? What is their combat strength? Also, we are mercenaries. What price is Earl Navel willing to pay to help win such a major battle?"

Li Daqi laughed and said, "Yang Tongzhi asked a good question—Earl Naville is also unsure how many troops Salolai can mobilize; tens of thousands is the most accurate number he can give."

"Therefore, I have contacted the Light Guard in Salore, hoping to obtain more accurate information as soon as possible. Of course, just in case, we can also send spies to the Salore Earl's territory."

"As for the price Count Neville is willing to pay—he has already promised that if we win this war, in addition to paying us three thousand gold francs, he will also allow us to invade and plunder the territory of Count Salore at will."

Yang Duo said, "The Three Thousand Golden Hairpins think they can command our six thousand elite troops? That's a bit stingy."

Li Daqi said, "If Magistrate Yang thinks it's too little, we can continue to talk to Count Neville—to be honest, I think three thousand francs is acceptable, which is equivalent to one or two thousand taels of gold. Afterwards, we might all get several dozen taels."

"Moreover, our greatest gain is being able to enter the territory of Earl of Salore and plunder in the name of Earl Navel."

The other officers nodded slightly.

Yang Duo insisted, "That old man Navel is very rich. Since he needs us, we might as well make him bleed a little more."

Li Daqi said, "That's not a problem, we can try—if there are no other issues, we can then discuss the details of this troop deployment..."

More than ten days later.

On the banks of the Leyne River, where the Earldom of Navel and the Earldom of Salore meet, the autumn wind is bleak.

Count Charolais looked at the army of over 13,000 behind him, feeling smug and self-satisfied—there were many counts in France, but he was probably the only one who could muster an army of over 10,000.

Although he only had more than 5,000 men directly under his command out of the more than 10,000 troops, it did not prevent him from becoming the commander of the army.

Baron Auxerre, who was standing nearby, noticed that Count Salore was in a good mood and immediately flattered him, saying, "Your Excellency, Navel and the so-called Four Kings mercenary army he hired only number a little over nine thousand, which is far fewer than ours."

"Moreover, you have also borrowed a thousand Snow Lion Knights from the Grand Duke. You will surely win a great victory over Navel and wipe out the mercenary army he hired!"

"Hahaha!" The middle-aged Earl of Salore laughed heartily upon hearing this, stroking his combed mustache, and said, "The advantage is on our side, and it is only right that we have won a great victory in this battle. I suppose Navel is trembling with fear right now."

On the other side, Count Neville, whose hair had already turned white, looked solemn.

“Commander Li, not only does Salolai outnumber us, but they have also borrowed a thousand Snow Lion Knights. This battle is going to be very difficult.”

Li Daqi listened to the translator's translation and laughed, "Your Excellency, rest assured, more people does not necessarily mean higher combat strength, and a thousand Snow Lion Knights are nothing."

In fact, after so much time, he knew the composition of the army led by Salolai better than Navir did. (End of Chapter)