New Shun 1730

In the early morning, artillery shelling sounded as usual on the north side.

Zhao Lisheng, a soldier of the 13th Battalion, chewed today's breakfast, swallowed the greasy piece of lard, and said to his companions: "Lard, dried meat, tea with sugar... a meal to die for."

The companions next to him laughed loudly. Indeed, looking at this breakfast, he knew that he was going to be involved in a bloody battle.

Because even the water in the kettle is tea with sugar added. Instead of pickles, breakfast was served with dry biscuits, pickled lard, jerky, a large piece of cocoa candy, and a sweet orange. Chewing tobacco was even handed out.

Their combat engineers are actually specialized grenadiers, so they are not allowed to smoke and can only chew tobacco, otherwise they are prone to accidents.

Eating such a breakfast was called a death meal by these soldiers.

After swallowing the orange with the peel, the company officer began to ask each Shiwu to check each other.

"Look at the muskets, flints, bullets, grenades, shovels, pickaxes, dry food and kettles. Don't miss out."

Zhao Lisheng mechanically checked each other's muskets with his comrades around him. Their muskets were not standard army guns, but navy guns with short barrels, which were convenient for use in trenches and for throwing grenades.

They are an assault company.

The two companies at the back are cover companies. They look like the Tiger Crouching Cannon has been revived in this era. In fact, it is not. They are just improved grenade launchers, but with a larger caliber.

One team and one door.

At the beginning, the Academy of Sciences' idea was to follow the ideas of bowl-muzzle guns and Hussite hand cannons, trying to equip grenadiers with this hand-cannon structure, which also began to be briefly revived in Europe.

But after trying it, I found that this thing was not easy to use, so I gave up the idea of ​​​​one bowl-mouth hand cannon for each person, and switched to this kind of tiger-crouching cannon, which was used to launch grenades.

It has a short range and is useless in field battles, but it is particularly effective in sieges and is a specialized specialization. It can shoot in a straight direction and can launch explosive grenades. It is mainly used to attack trenches, anti-gun slopes and triangular forts.

No one dares to use the cannon with explosive shells. The chamber pressure is too high. At this time, the explosive shells cannot withstand the chamber pressure and can easily kill themselves.

If you throw a grenade by hand, you really can't throw it very far. It's okay when you're close to the trench. If you don't get close, who has the ability to throw the grenade fifty or sixty meters at this time?

For example, Zhao Lisheng's advance company could not hide behind and use small artillery to throw grenades. It could only see red with bayonets, attack trenches, climb hills, and engage in hand-to-hand combat.

As for whether these people can be beaten, in fact, there is a chain of contempt within the Dashun military.

To put it simply, the more actual combat, the lower one is at the bottom of the contempt chain within the military.

The largest number of actual battles were fought by the garrison troops in each province. They had to fight the former private salt dealers, smugglers, bandits, and strong men who gathered for righteousness.

In the army, they are regarded as the least capable of fighting. The so-called playing chess with a stinky chess piece makes it stinky the more you play.

The ones who engaged in most actual battles were the troops who had returned from the southwestern provinces. They had to fight the chieftains, the slave owners, and some ethnic groups.

In the army, they are regarded as "never be dragged out to participate in a real war, and all their experience can be used in the southwest, but it is nonsense if used in India and Europe."

For example, their experience: the troops must use all firepower; heavy artillery is of no use; the troops should be completely replaced with light artillery and some small artillery that can be carried by three or two people; the standardized mule and horse artillery is useless; flint The flintlock gun is not as easy to use as the matchlock gun because the ignition rate of the flintlock gun is lower than that of the matchlock gun; the standard 12-pound cannon cannot be carried up to the southwest mountainous area, so the 12-pound cannon configured in the division and brigade is actually of little significance...

Wait, wait.

These experiences cannot be said to be useless, but if used in the war with Europe, they will be purely side effects. In particular, the conclusion drawn from the Southwest Revolutionary War was that "flintlock guns are not as good as matchlock guns"; "the firing rate of flintlock guns in the humid southwest is very low, and is not as good as matchlock guns paired with squatting tiger cannons and battalion light cannons." Or a one-pound cannon" experience also triggered a discussion within Dashun in the early days.

However, in the end, the military reform was completed, the "Combat Regulations" were determined, and the model of flintlock guns and field artillery replaced those messy experiences.

This group of specialized Nanyang combat engineers who belong to the Marine Corps and specialize in siege and siege of fortresses. They are essentially European grenadiers in terms of organizational position. They are regarded as "quite a few" within Dashun. Among those who can fight, can fight very well, but can only fight in the right place."

However, in the opinion of Dashun's Privy Council and General Staff, Dashun would not have the chance to fight a battle involving 100,000 people within a hundred years.

Therefore, this kind of specialized combat engineer is actually of little use in field operations.

It is not much different from Elite Line Private, but the cost is sky and earth.

For example, in large-scale field battles at this time, it can be clearly said that the standard new standard artillery 6-pound and 12-pound field guns are definitely better than these variant tiger squatting guns that are specialized for trenches and triangular forts, but are actually grenade launchers. The server configuration is valid.

The problem is that Dashun is really looking around with his sword at a loss. The surrounding area has not given him a chance to fight in the field battle of the standardized line after the military reform.

Under this idea of ​​military reform, whether these combat engineers can fight requires a formal war to prove themselves.

And the deeper reason determines that this group of people can really fight.

For example, after checking their equipment, the companions around him asked Zhao Lisheng: "By the way, I haven't asked you yet. Your brother sent you a letter last time. How is he doing in the Southern Ocean? When we finish serving, I want to go over there to divide the land. The talk is very promising, but I don’t know the details.”

Zhao Lisheng took out a piece of rock candy from his pocket, handed it over, and stuffed a piece into his mouth. Tasting the sweetness of the rock candy, a smile appeared on his face.

"I'm having a good time. My eldest brother and second brother all went there. But they didn't go to Da Dao Island, but to Xin Kuwu."

"My brother's letter said that it's pretty good. The climate is much better than that of Guandong. At least, it's much milder than that of Huanglong Mansion. Duke Xingguo sent people there before and raised a lot of cattle and horses. When we got there , there is no shortage of cattle and horses.”

"Even though I don't know how to work, I have to train the oxen and horses, otherwise I won't be able to pull the lasso or pull the plow at all. But there is so much land."

"Also, I heard that there were people bitten to death by snakes and spiders on the big island. Xin Kuwu, there really aren't any snakes there, that's weird."

"Food, meat, wine and everything else are cheap there, but clothes, fabrics, ironware, etc. are more expensive. Farming there is not as good as carpentry or blacksmithing."

"I think it's pretty good. It's definitely better than working in the gem mine before."

The granting of land in the Southern Ocean was a benefit for regular soldiers who had to serve for more than ten years, and it was also the largest expenditure given to them by the imperial court.

Nowadays, people in the military generally believe that the court basically treats them not as Qiu Ba, but as human beings.

After all, they can be given land - of course, wasteland is not valuable, what is valuable is the ticket to reclaim the wasteland and farm tools - from this point of view, their combat effectiveness can basically be guaranteed.

When Zhao Lisheng explained the content of his brother's letter to him, he couldn't help but talk about another thing. You said: "I heard that there seems to be another reason why the imperial court asked us to go there. It is said that it is because of that place. There are a lot of barbarians there, and if we occupy their land, we may have to take guns because we are used to them, so the court sent us there."

These words were simple and true. Zhao Lisheng's comrades laughed and said: "This is nothing. Those who have gone to school in our camp, don't they all talk about 'land reform'? In fact, when we go to the Southern Ocean, it can be regarded as a kind of 'land reform'" "Land reform." Isn't it a kind of "land reform" to seize the land that was occupied by barbarians?

"You don't know why I went to the Bangga tin mine back then? Our guests were in Guangdong and Guangxi, so we had to fight with the locals for land and water. We fought with each other all day long, and then we had no choice but to go to Nanyang."

"Let's go to the Southern Ocean and grab other people's land. Of course they won't be happy. If they are not happy, then they will definitely kill us."

"As those people in our camp who have gone to school said, if you don't dare to carry out land reform at home, why don't you dare to do it overseas? Didn't Banten reform it? Didn't Ceylon also rob the Dutch of their land? ? But speaking of which, who did the Dutch steal? "

Although Zhao Lisheng's colleagues could not accurately describe the various disputes that would be faced by changing the natural public ownership mentality of primitive tribes that the land belongs to the people who live on it to private ownership of land.

But people who grew up in a place like Dashun where private ownership of land has existed for hundreds or even thousands of years really take private ownership of land as a matter of course.

When this kind of taken-for-grantedness is different from what others take for granted, conflicts are inevitable.

This kind of natural extension of private ownership of land should be willing to admit defeat, the weak and the strong, and deserve to be annexed. That’s why the traditional idea of ​​conferring land on wells and primitive egalitarianism is so dynamic, because people praise themselves for annexing others, but cry dissatisfaction when they are annexed and annexed.

The reason why Europe has not had this kind of major reshuffle that happens every few hundred years is because their agricultural productivity is insufficient. The mainstream system is still the field system, the allotment system, and the village community system. There is no mainstream private ownership of land in a general sense. and a sound land deed and land sales system.

Dashun's immigration and colonization activities in the Southern Ocean naturally added a layer of ideological conflict.

For example, a river valley land was transferred to Dashun and divided among individuals. However, the aboriginal people on the original land would inevitably find it difficult to understand why this land is yours.

The immigrants in Dashun adhere to this idea: If I open up wasteland, this land is mine. The same is true at home, and the government also recognizes it. Even if our family cuts firewood in this forest all year round, the government also assumes that this forest belongs to my family.

From this tradition, Dashun, because of this kind of private ownership thinking, actually has the greatest potential to become the last bastion of capitalism in the future. However, we must beware of the utopia of the petty bourgeoisie reactionary society that cannot afford to lose but does not want to touch ownership.

At this time, especially during the stage of external expansion, this ideology that had been deeply rooted since the mid-Tang Dynasty made Dashun's external expansion process extremely smooth.

You can't afford to lose only when you lose.

Once it starts to win, everyone will support the winning side and all the territory will belong to them.

The situation of Dashun is so special that Dashun is unified when it loses; but once it starts to win, it becomes divided.

When I lose, those who oppose the rules of the game itself and those who oppose my losing are fellow travelers; but once I start winning, those who oppose the rules of the game itself and those who oppose my losing are strangers and enemies.

However, at this time, for these special long-term professional soldiers of Dashun, they certainly support the people who win.

And Dashun rarely regards them as soldiers, but as people, and even distributes land to them and provides them with boat tickets and ox plows for immigration after retirement, which greatly improves their combat effectiveness.

Zhao Lisheng said that the court wanted to send them to the South Ocean to grab land because they had held guns and had held guns for more than ten years. His partners did not think that the court was wrong at all, but thought it was natural.

Anyway, they all held guns, whether they returned to the country to suppress the uprising of the people, or went to fight against India, Britain and France, or went to the South Ocean to grab land from the barbarians, there was no difference.

In this regard alone, they are worthy of being the strongest army in the world. Because at least, they are better than Prussia, which relies on human traffickers to buy soldiers, and Britain, which relies on catching drunkards to make slaves with lobster soldiers, because they will be granted land and reclaimed after retirement.

Self-cultivating farmers in a broad sense are the most solid foundation for the expansion of the empire. The Dashun court has always believed in this point and has been committed to turning elite soldiers into self-cultivating farmers.

At least before the death of the old emperor, this trend will continue and the soldiers recruited from the mines, refugees, and hungry people will be sent to the frontiers and overseas at a high price to grant land and reclaim wasteland. It is hard to say whether they will be willing to spend this money in the future, but they are really willing to spend it now.

It should be said that it seems to be very effective now.