open sea

Chapter 772 Spring Cold
On the front line of the canyon east of Acapulco, Ming and Western armies are still facing each other. The adventurers from Daming landed in Acapulco, arousing the drums of the shore defense.

Chen Mu looked at the port from the balcony on the second floor of the Western-style port office with white walls and orange tiles. Four ships slowly entered the port and docked under the guidance of the patrolling militia. Nearly 200 people with their bags on their backs ended their long wandering with blank expressions.

The so-called patrolling militias are young and strong assembled by the aborigines of port villages under the Lijia system. Every 110 households are called Lijia. households, the militia will be selected from among them.

In normal times, there is an incumbent chief in one mile leading ten chieftains to act as servants; in wartime, all the people are soldiers, and all ten chieftains in one mile are on duty, each leading ten chieftains, one from each household, to defend the village.

In terms of establishment, Chen Mu did not copy the Lijia system in the early Ming Dynasty. On this basis, a small Beiyang flag army was added every ten miles, called the Li instructor team.

The Li instructor team is separated from the ranks and belongs to the county government establishment. It usually teaches the people in the Lizhong to practice warfare, spread enlightenment, and manage public security. During wartime, the banner troops are temporarily promoted to the militia small banner officers, and the village chief is the deputy banner. A military officer, commanding [-] militiamen under the control of the county magistrate, shoulders the duties of patrolling, reassuring the people, and defending the defense.

Now is the time of war, there are more than [-] households in the port village and there are more than [-] militiamen. Most of these people have never received military training. Both Chen Mu and themselves know that they have no ability to fight against the Westerners.

The reason for setting up such an establishment is only to appease the hearts of the people, to embolden the aborigines, and to prevent those who are interested in taking advantage of this opportunity to make trouble.

Not long after, a member of the Li instructor team whose right arm was hung by a bandage on his chest ran to the port office. He was about to sign up for the flag army when he was stopped by Chen Mu who was upstairs on the balcony. He simply reported to Chen Mu: "Commander, It was four merchants and their attendants from Shandong, craftsmen and farmers who came by boat, and two teachers who couldn’t make a living in the local area and came to make a living.”

"The four ships are all sea-going ships built by Shandong Linxin, but... there are a lot of armor, knives, spears and bows on board."

Chen Mu recognized this Banner Army that now belongs to the instructor team. When using troops now, the Banner Army that can fight is stationed here even if it is not on the front line. Those who can be sent to the county government are not seriously injured. Whether they are lucky or unlucky.

Let's say it's unfortunate, if it's more serious, you can't go to the battlefield or even die, but you can say it's lucky, and you have to suffer at least three months of injury before you can move freely.

"Binggun? You wait below."

Chen Mu quickly walked down the small building, and then asked in detail: "What's going on?"

If he could make it clear, he didn't need the Banner Army to come over to report. He came here because he couldn't make up his mind. Brought here by the old man from Majiagang, the little one couldn't ask anything, he wanted to get permission to pay respects to the commander-in-chief."

The so-called old man is Xiong, and there is only one hundred households in Majiagang who are old enough to support him. Chen Mu naturally had some impressions in his mind, and said: "Is it a hundred households with scars on their faces, surnamed Zhou? That's a veteran, don't let him Come here, let me go and see what's going on with him."

Knowing that they were brought by Zhou Baihu from Majia Port, Chen Mu felt much less doubtful and relieved, so he simply walked towards the port gate.

The so-called gates are just the language habits of the Ming people. The port has nothing to do with it and has no gates. It is just that there are two small towers next to the trestle bridge that can station a small flag army.

The instructor team has worked hard to guard against these people who are on the shore. Currently, there are less than 200 guards, and nearly [-] militiamen have gathered around, and there are banner troops coming with reinforcements in the distance.

In Chen Mu's view, the two small flags stationed at the port tower are enough to guard against them. Even if there are any problems, the 22 well-equipped Beiyang Banners can completely outnumber ten in the face of an enemy without armor and blunderbuss.

Some militiamen wore single clothes with long spears, some wore singlets and held longbows, some wore barefoot waist knives, and some wore Ming army uniform armor or Western army mail armor. The people who came across the sea surrounded the port trestle.

But these people are not in a hurry, some are sitting in place to rest, some are boldly looking at the surrounding environment, after all, they are not enemies themselves, and the few who dodge fear in their eyes are probably not good people before crossing the sea. How many people like this Everyone kept their heads down lest others would find them.

But in fact, in Chen Mu's view, this kind of concealed appearance made them stand out from the crowd at a glance.

What are you afraid of?
At the front, Zhou Jun'an, dressed in the armor of the elite soldiers of the Liaodong Army and wearing a Beiyang helmet, stood holding a bear and holding his sword. What's so scary?

Chen Mu's personal soldiers opened the way, and the militiamen on both sides who clamored to embolden him immediately silenced, and everyone saluted to get out of the way. Most of the people here have not yet fully learned Chinese, but they learned the movements of the military salute quite quickly.

Seeing Chen Mu walking out from the crowd, Zhou Junan, who was sweating profusely in armor in the tropics, was quite flattered, the scars on his face seemed to be redder, and he quickly bowed down and cupped his hands: "Humble Zhou Junan, goodbye handsome!"

Chen Mu was only halfway through raising his hand, when Zhou Junan turned his head and whispered to the Xiong Bing he was leading: "The cripple salutes!"

Zhou Lai'er looked a bit stronger than Chen Mu when he was in Majiagang. The distinctive feature is that the Liaodong helmet with the helmet gun is already small, like a melon skin hat crookedly buckled on the bear's head, it seems to be able to He seemed to understand Zhou Junan's words. He raised his two front paws high and put them on the ground. With a touch of the bear's head, the helmet fell to the ground. Everyone couldn't help laughing.

But even though Zhou Lai'er is still naive at this moment, no one dares to underestimate him. He has grown from a small thing to a big guy, and now weighs over a hundred catties, and can easily throw people down from behind-no one will forget that this is A beast.

Chen Mu smiled, Zhou Jun'an was also interesting this time, he named the bear Zhou Lai'er, he raised his hand and finished what he hadn't finished, saying: "Get up, the Beiyang Army is not in the mood to salute, what are these Shandong people doing?" thing?"

Zhou Jun'an got up, and behind him was a flag army to put on Zhou Lai'er's helmet. He turned his head to look at the people on the shore, with a little pity on his scarred face, he turned his head and cupped his fists and said, "Last year's winter was very cold in Shandong, and the counties were covered with several feet of snow. , Crowded doors and alleys, too many animals freeze to death, people freeze to death, the fields cannot be plowed and people cannot eat."

"Just when there was a merchant craftsman Wang Chaozuo who wanted to go to Asia for business, there was an endless stream of people boarding the ship."

An abnormal climate in this era is already common to Chen Mu. The vegetation in Guangdong is covered with ice, let alone Shandong. He raised his eyes to look at the people, nodded slowly and asked, "Is there any disaster relief from the government?"

"Yes, it is said that in the winter of last year, His Majesty ordered the Ministry of Households to allocate 40 shi of rice and grain to Shandong in preparation for the severe snow this year. Yes, he also assigned Beiyang recruiters to Shandong. This year's Beiyang Army is only allowed To recruit Shandong soldiers, one person should be recruited and the whole family will be fed."

And this operation?
Chen Mu frowned, it’s not true, it’s not true if you don’t smile, he never thought that recruiting troops from Beiyang would become the emperor’s means of disaster relief, but think about it, in times of disaster, the stepped-up and generous salary of the Beiyang Banner Army is indeed enough to support a family people, and it is more than enough to feed a family with a large population.

"The idea of ​​mixing local military sources has failed, but this is not a bad thing. Since ancient times, Qiluduo martyrs, what happened to the Japanese soldiers on their ships?"

When Zhou Junan heard Chen Mu ask this, he suddenly paused, then laughed.

　Good morning!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)