open sea

Chapter 810 Set up a card
August in the sixth year of Wanli is about to come, and the climate in Asia has become hotter.

If someone can look down from the sky above Mexico, it is located south of the huge Mexico City in the lake. There is a road made by the Aztec ancestors in the rolling mountains. Capulco, which is now Changsheng County.

On this road, tens of thousands of aboriginals and mixed-race aboriginals worked for their Spanish overlords, using manpower to move stones mined from the mountains to build star-shaped fortresses.

Building four star-shaped fortresses to divide the main roads in the mountains and valleys is a helpless move for the Duke of Alva who issued this order. No one wants to work in July when the rainfall is the most abundant, but those Ming army scouts are too arrogant.

The war between Mingxi came to an end in May when Alva led the army to recapture Mexico City and sent someone to convey the news of the truce.

But behind the scenes, the scouts of the Ming army and the scouts of the Western army never gave up obtaining more information from the areas controlled by each other.

In the beginning, the scouts of the western army had the upper hand, because the army behind them was more numerous and powerful. Although the Ming army who won the battle with Bernal in the canyon achieved brilliant results, they suffered a lot of losses in the end. For the weak Ming army, it was even worse.

When the Ming army entrenched in Changsheng County was less than [-] at full strength, and barely [-] troops including untrained aborigines, the Western Army near Mexico City had more than [-] troops, and the Western Army scouts Don't be afraid of anything.

They ran rampant and unimpeded, holding the red cross flag and walking between the high mountain official road and the dense forest path, checking everything that could be seen around them.

It's a truce anyway, isn't it?As long as they don't enter Changsheng County, even if the Ming army scouts see them, they can only threaten them with weapons instead of shooting without authorization.

But things are not what they imagined.

The guerrilla flag army under Lin Manjue was acting as scouts. They were indeed ordered not to fire guns at the Western Army during the truce, but this did not mean that they could not attack to drive away these uninvited guests.

Landmines are their weapon of choice.

A large number of firearms were consumed in the battle between the main force of the Ming army and Bernal, but grenades were rarely used because the personnel of the two armies would often fight together, and there were also mines that were previously deployed along the coast of the port to ambush enemy ships.

These mines transformed from grenades and sea mines are often arranged at the necessary places in the forest trails. They often use ropes to ignite as the firing method, and sometimes they are even as simple as sealed pottery pots filled with gunpowder. He was blown to pieces.

It's not that the Ming army didn't trample on the organs that made them angry. There is actually no difference between the two types of organs in terms of complexity and cost, but the buried mines are easy to be forgotten, and Lin Manjue doesn't want his banner army to step on them.

In a few days, less than twenty landmines were detonated, and the scouts of the Western Army became much more well-behaved.

Of course, they also sent people to Changsheng County to issue a condemnation, but it was useless. The official caliber of the Dongyang Military Government was "that was a one-time killing weapon buried before the war", and the suggestion given was that the scouts of the Western Army should not be used again. Take the forest path.

Well, then don't take the forest path, but what's the matter with you setting up a card on the official road?

There are seven checkpoints, starting from Changsheng Gorge on the edge of Changsheng County, going eastward to the aboriginal town 120 miles away, and the last checkpoint even reaches the bank of the Baima River, which flows from north to south.

The Baima River is 250 miles away from Changsheng Port in the west and 330 miles away from Mexico City in the east.

Several guerrilla troops under Lin Manjue didn't even have a small flag. One day they stood beside the official road, and the next day they set up tents to cut trees. On the third day at the latest, the refusal horse, which symbolized the customs defense of the Ming Dynasty, stood alone on the road. middle.

I really want to say that these few people have nothing to fear, but they are so few and extremely arrogant. It does not mean that the army does not allow the scouts of the Western Army to pass, they allow it.

But the guerrilla army under Lin Manjue said that they are tax cards, and they have to pay tolls to pass through. Since the scouts of the Western Army are always dispatched in groups of three or five, the price offered by the scouts of the Ming Army is to pay a coat of arms for passing the checkpoint. Silver coins, no horse riding, and a small silver coin for each additional horse.

The Big Silver Coin is an irregular silver coin produced by the Mexican Mint, which in the original world will have a thunderous name for the next 300 years, eight reals, also known as pesos.

But now, these hand-made and pressed silver coins are more like small irregular silver cakes. The silver is of high purity. The Spanish coat of arms and crown are printed on the front, and the cross castle and lion are printed on the back. The diameter is about one inch and two cents, weighing Seven money.

Small silver coins are also produced in Mexico and Peru, but they belong to the previous generation of silver coins. They are called four riels, which are not as valuable as eight riels.

It's okay, after telling their officers, the scouts of the Western Army held their noses to pay the road tax, passed the tax card, and received the road guide issued by the Ming Army with the Chinese characters "White Horse Pass" printed all the way west, but they haven't walked out yet. Fifteen miles away, another tax card appeared in front of them, and they were asked to pay taxes again.

The same peso, and the same four riels for each horse.

This is a bit too much. When the scouts of the Western Army inquired, there are still five checkpoints away from Changsheng County. Three people and three horses will have to pay two and a half liles to pass a checkpoint. After all, if you want to reach Changsheng The county has to pay seventeen and a half silver coins, who can bear it!

Not to mention that the Duke of Alva has been owed six months since the army was assembled from the mainland of Spain and has not been paid. Even with the meager wages of these scouts, he cannot afford to pay these vampires from the Ming Dynasty.

It's not that they haven't tried to break through the checkpoints. The guerrillas of the Ming Dynasty didn't stop them when they broke through the checkpoints. Within two hundred steps of the forest, the aborigines replaced with iron arrow clusters shot out a rain of arrows, and they couldn't hide.

The scouts of the Western Army working in Changsheng County had a hard time, and it was all in vain. Not to mention handing over money to the Ming army, the pay was not directly proportional to the reward. Only a few people could get money from the knights in Changsheng County Get information, true or false.

The guerrilla army that can work in the direction of Mexico is different.

The Western Army does not have landmines. Although they put some traps in the forest, it has little effect on the guerrillas. These guerrillas who are trained to go wild are doing what they are old for, let alone they not only take small paths to drill into the forest , Walking the official path is also swaggering without fear.

If you get in the way, you will force your way, and if you do something, you will have a gun. If you don’t move, you will say: "Why do you not let me pass in the joint governance area in the agreement, and why do you collect taxes?"

If the agreement has not been signed, they are even more arrogant: "You won't let me live without an agreement? Isn't there a truce?"

Teach them to cross the White Horse River and walk all the way to Mexico City.

Duke Alva really had no other choice but to station troops and build fortresses in dangerous places, in order to completely stop these unscrupulous Ming Dynasty scouts.

However, as the footsteps of August approached, there was a very bad news for the Western Army from Changsheng County.

　Good morning!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)