Chapter 1767 Rangers
Sent away Zhu Shouren, the pig teammate, and his three men, solved a hidden danger, Zhu Ping'an suddenly felt a lot more relaxed.
It was not in vain that I used some tricks to "read" them a few carefully prepared stories. I thought I would show them a few more stories, but I didn't expect that their mental endurance was so poor. I can't stand it anymore.
Watching his uncle and the others disappear into the distance, Zhu Pingan returned to the school with a smile to check on the riding skills of the soldiers.
The Zhejiang Army has been intensively practicing their riding skills for two days, but the cavalry is not that easy to practice. Veterans of the Zhejiang Army have become proficient in riding horses due to their long exposure to horses, but that's all. If they want to become qualified cavalry, in Liu Mu's words, it will take at least two months.
Cavalry is not as simple as riding a horse and galloping. Riding and shooting requires at least three months to achieve a qualified level, not to mention the necessary skills for cavalry such as equestrianism, formation, and horse fighting. After a complete set, at least It takes about half a year to train a qualified cavalryman.
There is a shortage of horses in the south of the Yangtze River, and the recruits in Yiwu are all from rural areas. They have almost never been exposed to horses before. After intensive training in the past two days, most of them can only ride on the back of a galloping horse without being thrown. Just come down.
However, this also met Zhu Ping'an's expectations.
Zhu Ping'an did not expect to be able to train a cavalry in such a short time. It is enough to be able to ride a horse. Riding a horse is much faster than walking, which can greatly improve the mobility and flexibility of the Zhejiang Army. .
In order to deal with the coming Japanese pirates, Zhu Pingan made slight adjustments to the Zhejiang army.
A group of veterans from the Zhejiang Army who are skilled in riding horses and a group of Yiwu recruits who are unfamiliar with riding horses form a ranger.
Zhu Ping'an sent fifteen such rangers to all directions in Suzhou, rotating back to camp every two hours and letting them roam around Suzhou. On the one hand, he practiced equestrian skills, and on the other hand, he monitored Japanese pirates.
In addition, Zhu Ping'an also traveled around Suzhou on horseback and carefully selected fifteen highlands, all of which were Gaogang and Qiufu suitable for overlooking each other, and he built simple buildings on them. A total of fifteen beacon towers were built on Fifteen Highlands.
The fifteen beacon towers are distributed in three rings with Suzhou City as the center. Each ring has ten beacon towers, and each ring is eight miles apart.
In ancient times, beacon towers were usually spaced ten miles apart. Zhu Pingan was worried that the distance was too far and difficult to observe, so he changed the distance to eight miles.
As for the materials for burning wolf smoke, wolf dung is hard to find. There is a lot of wolf dung in the horse dung camp. It is dried semi-dry and semi-wet horse dung, mixed with grease, dry firewood, wet firewood, reeds and mugwort, and dried grass for dry firewood. Mix grease to start a fire, then add half-dry and half-wet horse dung and wet firewood. Once it is ignited, thick black smoke billows upwards and can be clearly seen eight miles away.
Of course, the beacon tower relies on smoke during the day, and the thick smoke is billowing, so it is easy to see during the day; it relies on fire at night, and the fire is soaring into the sky, so it is easy to see at night. If a beacon fire is lit at night, reeds, mugwort, dry wood and grease will be used as fuel.
Each ranger who goes out to patrol is responsible for a beacon tower, and they must stay with five people at the beacon tower while patrolling.
Once the whereabouts of Japanese pirates are discovered, a beacon warning will be lit as soon as possible.
When all the rangers who were traveling outside saw the beacon fire, they would ride on their horses and beat gongs to warn the people in the surrounding villages and towns that the Japanese pirates were coming.
Zhu Ping'an also specially told the soldiers that if they encounter rainy or foggy days, visibility is low and the smoke can't be seen clearly, after lighting the beacon, they must ride horses to the next beacon tower to warn them as soon as possible.
Zhu Ping'an was still in the Zhejiang Army camp and specially arranged two groups of soldiers to look at the direction of the beacon tower. When a beacon is lit, we must detect the beacon as soon as possible so that we can make arrangements to respond.
When Zhu Ping'an sent the rangers, he specifically emphasized to them:
"Your mission is to warn. I do not ask you to stop Japanese pirates, let alone kill or injure Japanese pirates. If you encounter Japanese pirates, ,伱We take warning as our top priority. As long as you warn in advance, I will give you a big credit. "
"After completing the warning, harass and stop the Japanese pirates to buy time for the people to evacuate." br>
"We must take advantage of the mobility and flexibility of firecrackers and horses to avoid close combat with Japanese pirates."
Zhu Ping'an's orders to the rangers were mainly to give warnings, supplemented by harassment and blocking. The Japanese pirates were fierce, and their numbers were overwhelming. The rangers they sent out had poor riding skills, and their numbers were small, so they were no match for the Japanese pirates.
After Zhu Pingan gave careful instructions, he dispatched fifteen groups of rangers to all directions in Suzhou.
As the sun set in the evening, Zhu Ping'an went to Suzhou City to meet with Shang Wei, the prefect of Suzhou.
Although the government office has been released and all the officials have gone home, the prefect is still working in the government office.
"I'm here to pay my respects to Lord Shang." After Zhu Ping'an entered the office, he was led to the study room of Magistrate Shang and bowed his hands to greet Magistrate Shang.
"No, no, Zihou, please don't do these false rituals. I haven't congratulated Zihou for his great contribution to the sea ceremony. With this contribution, Zihou will get rid of it." The word 'dai' in Dai' deputy envoy is even It's not impossible to go further. The decree from above is probably just a matter of these few days. When the time comes, I'm afraid I'll have to salute you." Magistrate Shang chuckled and took Zhu Pingan's arm, hugging him affectionately. Invited into the study.
Entering the study, Magistrate Shang asked Zhu Pingan to sit down and personally poured a cup of hot tea for Zhu Pingan, who took it with both hands.
"Zihou, your camp has enough grain, grass, baggage, armor and weapons. If it's not enough, don't be polite, I will send someone to deliver it to your camp."
Zhifu Shang looked enthusiastic. Asked, the attitude of a rich man with no shortage of money was immediately exposed.
"Enough, it's enough. I haven't thanked the Governor Shang for his strong support, so that our Zhejiang Army has no worries. Ping An and the Zhejiang Army have nothing to repay. We can only shed our lives and blood to keep Suzhou safe."
Zhu Pingan stood up sincerely and bowed to Magistrate Shang to thank him.
The Zhejiang Army has just arrived. In the past few days, the Suzhou government has given more support than the imperial court has given since the army was formed.
Although Suzhou Prefecture is the most wealthy in the world, the full support of the Shang Prefect is the most critical. Otherwise, other people's wealth belongs to them, so what does it have to do with you?
The Zhejiang Army's garrison in Suzhou is its own duty. The Suzhou government has no obligation to provide food, grass and baggage for the Zhejiang Army.
Generally speaking, the place where they are garrisoned will provide certain support to the garrison as a favor in exchange for the garrison to be loyal to their duties, protect the safety of the place, and not harass the local people. Of course, their support is relatively limited. Places like Suzhou Prefecture that provide such strong support are rare.
"Zi Hou is too polite. To be honest, since he took office, he has been determined to achieve some achievements. Civil affairs are just some small achievements that are not worth mentioning, but the military is ashamed. Local military preparations Si Mu was so angry that he couldn't say anything. , and someone who is not familiar with military affairs, but interfered several times, which made things worse."
"Zihou, I am very happy about your arrival. Zihou, you are young and promising, and you are also proficient in military affairs, especially you. Since the Zhejiang Army garrisoned in Suzhou, it has It is rare that I have committed no crime. I have sent people to inspect your army many times and secretly. I am very impressed by your army's military discipline. It turns out that Qiu has committed no crime and not a single sergeant has harassed or bullied the people. What your army has done since its garrison. Only an army like this can truly protect Suzhou through training, patrolling, and setting up defenses.”
“If I, Suzhou, don’t support an army like yours, who should we support?!”
Magistrate Shang said with a smile. (End of chapter)