New Shun 1730

The water beside Fort William can be regarded as Ganges water in a broad sense. The combat engineers whose hair was burned soaked in the Ganges water, smearing cheap and smelly soap made of cottonseed oil or whale fat on their bodies, and had no interest in chasing the soap bubbles floating on the water.

On the shore, several large pots were boiling water, in which their military uniforms were soaked, using this method to remove lice eggs on the uniforms.

Several naval trainee officers took the cats on the ship for a walk on the shore with ropes, which was a very important task.

The trainee officers had to learn various navigation techniques, longitude and latitude measurement, etc. on the ship. They could not be idle on the shore. They had to watch the cats on the ship to prevent them from running to the shore and not returning to the ship. In that case, if the cats were lost during a long-distance voyage, it would be a big trouble.

The soldiers who were taking a bath saw the cats walking, and they knew that the place they were going this time was probably very far. However, they were still in a relaxed and happy mood after just experiencing two crushing battles.

On the shore, the staff of the logistics department of the Governor's Office were shouting loudly, asking these people to take a bath and hurry up to do their business.

"Companies, if you want to exchange your spoils for money, go and exchange them quickly. If you don't want to exchange them for money, hand them over to the logistics department for sealing. Wash quickly!"

In the river, Ergou kept applying soap to his black body, muttering and cursing: "What are you urging me to do? I tell you, don't store small items in the logistics department, they are often lost. Carry what you can carry with you."

Zhao Lisheng, who was next to him, also gradually adapted to this kind of fighting life. As the saying goes, "A red man is red when he is close to a red man, and a black man is black when he is close to a black man." In the previous battle of Fort William, Zhao Lisheng saw Ergou stabbed a surrendered British officer to death - Ergou asked the officer to walk forward with his hands raised, and suddenly stabbed him twice in the back, saying that he was trying to escape.

Of course, the benefit of doing this is that Ergou got a beautiful gold-plated belt buckle and a pocket watch. Zhao Lisheng, who worked with him, got a beautiful silver snuff bottle, and the two of them shared twenty silver coins.

At least a year ago, Zhao Lisheng was still a standard soldier of high-quality soldiers from farming people, and he also obeyed military discipline during training in Ceylon.

But since Ceylon, they have fought a few battles, and basically learned all these things.

They received a lot of rewards in the Battle of Fort William. The higher-ups were quite conscientious. After sealing the warehouse of Fort William, each soldier was given two pieces of Indian silk according to their rank, and the officers got velvet.

Apart from these public rewards, what they can get depends on their own abilities.

For them, what is the purpose of being a soldier and fighting? It's not just to rob money, food and women.

Since the idea of ​​building the army is to expand the power of the bourgeoisie through imperialist colonial wars, then these soldiers of Dashun will naturally reach this level.

As for the grand and magnificent things like going to the West again three hundred years after the Three Treasures, it is meaningless to these soldiers. Only officers above the battalion and company level who have received the most basic new community consciousness education can make such an exclamation.

After all, they are all human beings. Without intentional or unintentional education, they can't even speak, let alone more complex consciousness.

These soldiers are basically illiterate, and they are basically not good people - these days, there are no "law-abiding good people" in the traditional sense, and they will not appear in the mines of Ceylon. Thirty percent of them have blood cases, forty percent were originally members of the bandits certified by the court, and most of the remaining thirty percent were forced to flee during the Songsu Reform. This is not much different from those who went to colonies in Europe, such as North America, and most of them are heretics who violated the "State Religion Law" and could not survive in their own country.

Just like Zhao Lisheng, if you ask him to join the army for military pay, to be able to grant land in the South Ocean after retirement, and to make a fortune on the battlefield, it will definitely work.

To say that he did it for the court, for His Majesty...his whole family was almost killed by the court, his brother was almost killed in the black gold mine by Liu Yu's salt policy reform, and he sold himself as a slave to Ceylon, that really doesn't make sense.

However, they have little culture, but it doesn't mean they are stupid. Many soldiers have accumulated a lot of wisdom in practice.

After taking a bath, he ate dumplings and eight-treasure rice in the evening. When he started to pack his bags the next day after his clothes were dry, Zhao Lisheng already knew that the place he was going to this time would definitely be far away.

Because the quartermaster came to the company to distribute blankets, woolen uniforms and trousers that these people who have been serving in Ceylon have heard of, never seen, and never worn, as well as a pair of standard linen and cotton blended trousers, and even a pair of leather boots that can't be worn here at all.

"Pack these blankets and autumn uniforms and board the ship at 1:30 pm."

The company commander gave the order. Zhao Lisheng looked at the blanket and woolen uniform, sighed and said to his accomplice: "It seems that the place we are going this time is far enough? Where are we going? I haven't seen such thick clothes for many years since I ran away from northern Jiangsu."

Most of the soldiers in the company are familiar with autumn clothes. Before they fled to Southeast Asia, most of them had seen them even if they didn't have them.

After all these years, these soldiers, who are actually mostly soldiers from the Yellow River and Huai River Basin, have actually forgotten that there is snow in winter.

Most of the officers of the Privy Council General Staff have never been to Europe, and can only understand the world from the general education they received.

They knew that the spring and autumn seasons were reversed in the Cape of Good Hope, the Southern Ocean, and the Northern Hemisphere, and that the latitude of Gibraltar was similar to that of Xinxiang. Based on the climate of Dashun, it must be quite cold there. At least the uniforms of Ceylon were made of trousers, so it seemed that going to Xinxiang for the winter was not a good idea.

The Logistics Bureau of the General Staff was originally prepared by Liu Yu specifically for transoceanic operations. If these basic supplies were not prepared in place, it would be a loss of life.

This time, the battalion heading to Gibraltar was issued blankets and tweed uniforms. In addition to the reason of guessing the temperature by looking at the latitude, there was also the reason that the furs of Dashun Jinghai Company were sold in large quantities to Europe. According to their reasoning, if Europe was as hot as Ceylon and people had to wear trousers all day, it was estimated that the furs would not have such a large sales volume.

These blankets and tweed clothes gave these soldiers a little fantasy about distant places. Although most of them have seen snow, they haven't seen it for so many years. Seeing the clothes prepared for the snowy winter at this time, there are always some indescribable emotions.

Under the urging of the officers, the soldiers packed these things into backpacks with various guesses. There is still some time to wait for boarding, and each unit can move freely within the prescribed range.

In the distance, an officer wearing an officer's pheasant feather hat sat on the embankment of Fort William, holding a flute and playing something.

Several officers next to them were singing a song.

"No matter how the sea dries up and the rocks crumble, the great principles will never be lost. Finally, the Huns will be frightened and submit to the power of Hande... Finally, the Huns will be frightened and submit to the power of Hande..."

The ranks of these officers were not enough to know where to go, but they also guessed from the leather coats and boots they were distributed that this time they really had to go tens of thousands of miles away.

They all sang in Mandarin, and after singing, the soldiers might not be able to hear clearly, but they just felt that the sound of the flute could magically arouse people's emotions.

Gradually, Zhao Lisheng and others gathered by the middle embankment, looked up at the officers who were singing, and asked after they finished singing: "Sir, this flute makes people feel uncomfortable and itchy. Where are we going?"

Perhaps it was because of the inexplicable emotions, or perhaps it was the sadness of going to a place that might be very unfamiliar tens of thousands of miles away and being buried in a foreign land after death, these officers were in a particularly good mood today.

After singing Su Wu's shepherd song, the officer who played the flute and wore a pheasant feather hat turned around and did not say what the song was about. He just smiled at the soldiers and took out a very beautiful silver cigarette case from his arms and said: "Brothers, try it, Havana is top-grade. Who cares where it goes? Anyway, the world is round, and it's only 80,000 miles away."

The cigarette box was thrown down from the middle embankment, and Zhao Lisheng took it. He secretly said that this cigarette box was very beautiful. It's not that the material is very good, but it's silver, and they have seen it before.

Instead, the workmanship was very exquisite, and it was obviously not a simple commodity. They didn't know where Havana was, and they didn't know that the quality of the cigarettes there was really good. Of course, they couldn't know that there were very few such goods in Dashun, and most of them came through diplomatic gifts. If you really want to play dumb, you can translate it as tribute.

Behind the cigarette box was a stack of cigarette paper with a faint fragrance, which was completely different from the "two-finger width" used by soldiers like them. It smelled like a faint honey.

He tore off a piece of cigarette paper skillfully, gently stroked the center of the cigarette paper with his thumb, poured tobacco leaves, rolled it skillfully, and handed the cigarette box to others.

After waiting for everyone around to finish rolling, he took out a phosphorus sulfide match from the side of the cigarette box, rubbed it on his pants, and everyone came over to light it.

"Well... It's like drinking egg tea with sesame oil when your throat hurts."

Waiting for the puff of cigarette to go down his throat, Zhao Lisheng gave a very high evaluation that was in line with the identity of a soldier.

The so-called egg tea is boiled water with eggs. Add sesame oil, very tender and smooth.

When he said this, the soldiers beside him also hummed in agreement.

The officers above all smiled. After all, they were not in the same circle. They did not agree with this metaphor, and could not understand how high this evaluation was among the soldiers.

After the soldiers boarded the ship, they were definitely not allowed to smoke and could only chew tobacco. But for officers of a certain level or with connections, it was naturally different.

Not to mention smoking, the captain's meal can be served with grape wine and luminous cups every day, plus the chef's special preparation.

After taking two sips, Zhao Lisheng climbed to the middle embankment, handed over the cigarette box, and said thank you.

"Thank you, sir. Sir, are we going to attack Havana?"

When the officers heard this, they all laughed and said, "Havana is under the control of the Spanish, and we are fighting the British in India. Don't talk nonsense."

"As for where to go, we don't know. We will get on the ship and find out when we get there. We will fight wherever we are told to fight."

"You combat engineers are doing a great job in India. You all work hard, and the power of the Celestial Empire will be spread all over the world in one fell swoop."