Chapter 119, Yuhang Town Mopping Up Battle (Part 1)
"...We have a long march, comrades, look forward,
The team flag is flying high, and the commanders are at the front...
The soldiers are all brave and young, with sharp eyes like eagles.
We all have the supreme honor of having made great achievements in battle...
We must speak clearly and let the enemy remember:
We have traveled all over the world and will fight again if necessary.
Soldiers set out! Set off! Set off!
Dear, I will write you all the way back,
Hear the bugle calling,
Goodbye, let's go! Set off! Set off! ”
……
Early the next morning, after letting all the soldiers in the army eat a meal of sticky rice cooked with red beans, which is said to have special significance, Major General Sun Yang and Zhuang Zhuang took out five thousand soldiers from the miscellaneous troops from all over the world. According to the pre-divided teams of fifty people, holding a war zone map that was rushed out based on satellite aerial photos, and under the guidance of the Phoenix Villa guide waving a small yellow flag, they embarked on a journey to sweep the villages and towns around Hangzhou.
When the mopping up teams raised their flags and set out for battle, they all sang the translated version of the former Soviet military song "Departure" with a southern and northern accent.
——Since the founding of the Chinese League, choosing which national anthem and military song to choose has become a big problem: if it is improvised, it is obviously difficult to come up with a popular classic song with the level of music of the time-travelers. It's a bit difficult, but just copy those ready-made ones As for classic songs...Modern Chinese military songs usually either have too obvious political overtones, or contain geographical terms such as the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers. For people who lived on the east coast of North America or the Pampas of South America in the 17th century, , there seems to be some lack of recognition. In addition, the tune also tends to be pathos and does not conform to the "main theme" - the passionate and tragic story of defending one's country in the face of adversity is completely different from the heroic ambition of taking great strides to conquer the world!
As for the military songs of European and American countries, most of the classic songs are too cheerful and lack the sense of military chill. The older military music of Western European powers, such as the British "Grenadier March", was composed during the era of queuing to be shot. Yes, we need soldiers to While listening to military music and walking in unison with drum beats, they faced the incoming bullets and artillery shells with their chests. If the tune was not cheerful, it would easily make the soldiers who were already under great pressure have a nervous breakdown... just like the pills on the outside of modern medicine. Like a layer of sugar coating. And those less cheerful songs are often mixed with "disharmonious words" such as God, kings or foreign place names, which are seriously inconsistent with the tone of the "atheistic republic" of the Chinese League.
After so much picking and choosing, "Departure", the opening song of the Soviet Red Army Radio Station in the 1950s and 1960s, did not contain specific names of places or people, and its purpose and thought also conformed to the actual strategic needs of the Chinese League, and it was also full of enthusiasm. With enough optimism and aggressiveness, it was successfully selected as the military anthem of the Chinese League Army. As for the military song of the Chinese Alliance Navy, it is still being debated over and over again. For the time being, the fleets of each country can only sing their own songs...
In short, five thousand miscellaneous troops with super-era firepower and weapons were scattered and started a mopping up operation while singing "Go".
However, when the revenge arrows of the "Australians" have brought the entire Hangzhou area into range, the local wealthy gentry are still unaware of their subsequent miserable fate... In their eyes, their village is not Next to the Qiantang River, far out of the range of naval guns, there were well-fed armed servants stationed there. And once they leave the strong ships and cannons, the bandits will be like a tiger without teeth, at least they will not be more difficult to deal with than the Japanese pirates of the past. Little did they know that what they were about to face next was the most brutal and brutal special security force under the Chinese Alliance Star Ring!
——Although they sing the war hymn of the Soviet Red Army, the style of this mob is definitely more inhumane than the German fascists!
These miscellaneous troops sent out by Major General Sun Yang to carry out mopping up operations were mainly led by naturalized civilian officers from various union republics who had made mistakes and served meritoriously. They were called "Security Army", "Fenggong Brigade", "Overseas Brigade", and "Foreign Legion". "," Auxiliary Legion" and other various titles.
As for the identity and origin of its grassroots soldiers, it is even more miraculous. It can almost be said that they are the most notorious violent maniacs, scum and criminals from all corners of the world - Japanese ronin who are used to begging for food with a knife all day long. Scalping people with tomahawks Indian warriors, Russian Cossacks who are known to cultivate the land with horse hooves and swords, Tunguska hunters in the outer northeast who are forced to fight against the harsh nature since birth, Korean official slaves with strong sexual tendencies, all come here with dreams of getting rich. Oriental or The New World has become captives of English pirates, German mercenaries whose profession has been war and plundering for generations, professional slave-catching teams that have brought blood and tears to Black Africa and North and South America for centuries, and slave-capturing teams who captured " After "enlightenment" Black slave soldiers who turned around and harmed their compatriots... However, the proportion of Han soldiers was less than a quarter, and even these only Han soldiers were mainly people who had completed their sentences - needless to say, these guys They are just a bunch of extremely vicious mobs.
Although they are a mob speaking N languages, basic military discipline is still guaranteed, and arranging a square formation with military flags is quite decent - not to mention the Japanese and Koreans, who can do it for three meals a day. The smell of meaty rice is so prohibitive that it’s astonishing. Even the more lax black and white soldiers have acquired basic discipline and obedience under the day-to-day education of instructors and supervisors with sticks and whips... As for those stubborn and stubborn soldiers who are disobedient. , are now in mines or plantations!
Generally speaking, the troops engaged in mopping up operations are basically composed of these messy people. In terms of charging into battle and storming strongholds, they are probably slightly worse than the regular army. But when it comes to doing "dirty work" like security warfare, he is extremely smooth and skillful. He definitely lacks moral integrity and is cruel and ruthless. He never has such superfluous things as military honor in his mind - —They were originally specialized in doing this.
Currently, most of the land forces under the command of Major General Sun Yang are bullies and afraid of the strong. The remaining small number of regular troops are only enough to garrison Phoenix Villa and monitor Hangzhou City. Therefore, as a sign of knowing people and being responsible, the tasks assigned to him were to cut off the canal, take in the homeless Caoding and refugees, massacre the landlords and gentry, frame the Ming Dynasty Zhongliang, establish order in the occupied area, and collect as many people as possible for the rear. Food, labor force, as well as alleviating the imbalance between men and women in the union republics, plus beauties from the south of the Yangtze River "specially provided" for travelers to enjoy...
In order to create an atmosphere of panic to the greatest extent and put pressure on the Hangzhou government, when these soldiers passed the Hangzhou city wall, they would raise their guns and fire a salvo on the city wall as a souvenir, and then run away before the defenders had time to react. ...So, explode Bean-like gunshots rang out intermittently from morning to noon, which made the wealthy gentry people hiding in the city couldn't help chanting Buddha's name. At the same time, they criticized the prefect Liu Mengqian: These damn thieves have come to the door, and you can't even fight back the enemy. There is no way to come up with any strategy! What an incompetent loser!
However, compared with the misfortune that was about to befall the landowners in the countryside, the little scare they received was nothing.
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Although the Jiangnan water town has always given people the impression of peace and prosperity, in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, Hangzhou also suffered from Japanese pirates. Every time Japanese pirates sailed to invade, they went up the Qiantang River. The largest one was in May of the 34th year of Jiajing (1555), when more than 10,000 Japanese pirates invaded Hangzhou. In that era, the Yiwu soldiers under General Qi Jiguang once left a great reputation here, and there are still many popular stories that are widely told to this day. But by the end of the Ming Dynasty during the Chongzhen period, the last remaining descendants of the Qi family army had long been buried on both sides of the Hun River in Liaodong. The actual combat effectiveness of the Ming Dynasty officers and troops in Zhejiang is generally not as powerful as the rural warriors organized by the landlords and gentry.
In general, by the end of the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Emperor maintained a imperial guard (Jingying) who could hardly fight, nearly a million distant relatives (clan) who only had free food and no work, and millions of people who only existed. In addition to the ghost army on paper (the military households of the Guards), there is also a group of insidious officials (Donglin Party) who are thinking about how to cut off the government's tax revenue and collapse its financial resources. Even if the imperial court wanted to reorganize its armaments, it could not raise the minimum funds. Therefore, in addition to barely squeezing out the little fiscal revenue to support the last few decent border guards, the imperial court could only naively hope that the people would not only bear heavy taxes and corvee, but also voluntarily The emperor took the initiative to help the court defend the empire at his own expense...
As a result, when the news of the invasion of the Kun bandits came, according to the practice of this era, Magistrate Liu naturally closed the city gates tightly and never attacked. At the same time, he sent people to notify various towns and villages, calling on the local gentry and local tyrants to organize rural warriors. , to defend Sangzi by oneself. The clerk's office in the yamen also dug out the old files from the Jiajing period, slightly changed the year number, names of people and places, copied several copies as they were, and then sent out "About the whole of Hangzhou Prefecture" to four towns and eight miles. Important documents such as "Notice on Strengthening Team Training Construction" and "Some Guiding Opinions on Team Training Construction in Hangzhou"...
Of course, there are no documents with these two names in this time and space, but there are still proclamations and notes with similar contents. Considering that Zhejiang has not had a war for a long time, there may not be many military talents among the people. Therefore, based on Qi Jiguang’s experience in fighting against the Japanese during the Jiajing period, the prefect’s Yamen issued a notice to surrounding towns, explaining in as much detail as possible how each village should organize group training: all males aged 16 to 60 in each household must be registered, and three One Ding is selected to participate in standing military training, and families with young boys can recommend one Ding from several households. The armor commander must serve as a "vanguard model", that is to say, each armor commander must act as a "trainer" and personally lead the brave men to fight. Every village and town must set up a public office, with the local gentry serving as the head of the public office. The village warriors have to practice every day, patrol during the day, stand guard at night, and strictly monitor the surrounding rivers and roads. At the same time, communication signals between villages were stipulated. One blast was to alert each village that there was a suspicious situation, two blasts meant that the bandits were coming, and three blasts meant that the enemy had arrived.
These notices were originally accompanied by architectural drawings, instructing villages and towns in various places on how to build strong fortifications. But now that the bandits have taken up residence in the outskirts of Hangzhou, they will soon be out clearing the valleys, and they don't have much time to build deep ditches, high embankments, and high walls for the villagers. Therefore, the Hangzhou government had no choice but to warn the local gentry to abide by the rules. If they really could not defend their villages and towns, they would evacuate to distant counties that had not been hit by the military...
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In Yuhang Town in the western suburbs of Hangzhou, before the vanguard of the Kun thieves arrived, just the official document sent by the prefect's Yamen had already made the two major families of Shen and Chen who had lived here for a long time startled - as they live next to each other. Power, this The two families usually have many discords, and fights are common. But when it comes to sharing the same hatred, the two families finally have a sense of the overall situation, and for the time being they no longer dwell on the old grudges in the past. .
Regarding the question of whether to defend the town and fight against the bandits, or to pay protection fees and buy peace, the head of the Shen family, Shen Tiande, who is over eighty years old and had personally experienced the Japanese rebellion as a child, immediately stood up and advocated impassionedly. Prepare for war. In his opinion, based on the experience of resisting Japanese pirates in the past, the inland Yuhang Town only needs to practice village bravery, set up water fences, send patrol boats, and take strict precautions, which is enough to prevent any small group of bandits who dare to invade Yuhang. Back. And relying on the power of the Shen family in the officialdom, the severed head of the Kun thief can also provide a career for the younger generation of the family.
And seeing the grey-bearded old patriarch of the Shen family drooling with excitement and waving his crutch, as if he was about to kill the Kun thief with a knife, and the Shen family's enthusiastic mobilization of the young, the Chen family in Yuhang Town also Naturally not to be outdone - the head of the Chen family not only mobilized the entire family In preparation for the war, he immediately mobilized his nephew to rush to the Chen family ancestral hall, take out the four "house-holding artifacts" tiger squatting cannons enshrined inside, polish them, and install them on the watchtower guarding the entrance of Yuhang Town, so that the entire town can Everyone can know who is the pillar of Yuhang!
As a result, Yuhang Town, which used to be quiet and leisurely, suddenly seemed like an ant nest that had been stepped on by someone. Everything became noisy: the people running on the streets were no longer servants from each house, but people holding hands and The village warriors with swords, guns and sticks, and the busy river where boats usually come and go, are no longer busy. Instead, there is a blockade composed of wooden piles and stones, as well as bamboo on the river bank to prevent water bandits from landing. fence. The blacksmith shop in the town was working loudly. Basket after basket of lead, iron and charcoal were sent into the blacksmith shop, and when they came out, they turned into lead and spear heads. The tailor shop is hurriedly making cotton and paper nails. The stitches that used to be fine in the past are as big as centipedes - it won't take a few days anyway... With this series of work going on, the people in Yuhang Town, who were originally a little panicked, have become more and more anxious. Stable again.
At the entrance to the official road in Yuhang Town, patriarch Shen Tiande, who was over eighty years old, directed several junior members of the Shen family to move a heavy cauldron to the watchtower. At the same time, he shouted inarticulately that he would wait until the thieves came. , let them taste the golden juice boiling in this cauldron.
There were also four squatting cannons that had been carried to the watchtower by the Chen family, which gave these village warriors who rushed into the army great courage. They were all gearing up to use these magical items left by Grandpa Qi back then. Use weapons to make a career for yourself.
Of course, the Crouching Tiger Cannon alone is not enough. At this time, Chen Jialuo, an old scholar, was teaching his nephews step by step how to cut lead bars to make gunpowder, and how to sift gunpowder to make the gunpowder have even properties. Everyone in Yuhang Town knew that Chen Jialuo made it. Gunpowder hits extremely far and accurately.
As a traditional Chinese family of farming and studying, the Chen family has lived a life of farming and studying for generations. This has also made Chen Jialuo, an old scholar who does not like reading but tinkers with the "crooked way" of firecrackers, become a rebel that everyone pays attention to. . Fortunately, he was really good at making fire guns, and people often came to buy his gunpowder guns, so he still had some status in the clan and was not regarded as a prodigal son. When encountering the war this time, the old scholar Chen Jialuo was the most excited among the whole family. He felt that his abilities were finally put to use. In order to make a name for himself, he not only donated several of his treasured "high-quality" animals. He taught his nephews and nephews the unique skills of making firecrackers and pressing the bottom of boxes.
"...Sift lightly. In this case, the sieved medicine will be even and solid, so that it can be hit far and accurately. Otherwise, when you use it, it will explode or just emit a burst of smoke. Not only will you not be able to kill people, but also It will hurt your arm!”
"...I was thinking of making more gunpowder before the war. Uncle, you have so many rules...Oh, don't fight, uncle, I was wrong!"
This is the frustrated old scholar Chen Jialuo, using the teacher's tricks to teach the disobedient junior Chen Jinxing. When he heard his younger brother crying and begging for mercy, his brother Chen Jinnan, who was cutting lead bars to make blunderbuss, couldn't help but be startled. His hand was not accurate, and the originally well-proportioned lead bars were cut crookedly. Chen Jinnan sighed with regret and continued to cut the remaining lead bars at hand. He then picked out the uncut and unqualified lead pellets and carefully placed them in a large tea vat next to him - this was for the squatting cannon. It was used as shotgun shells, and then the gunpowder powder was wrapped in old paper.
When wrapping the gun medicine, Chen Jinnan looked with envy at the tendons on his uncle's arms that swelled with the sifting, and then touched his withered and thin arms, and couldn't help but sigh - although scholars in the Ming Dynasty He is a master, but why does he feel that he is a useless scholar?
In short, in Chen Jinnan's eyes, Uncle Jialuo is the most particular about making things, especially on this gun. Ordinary people just pour the gunpowder and gunpowder directly into the bird gun, but my uncle always weighs the gunpowder and the gunpowder and wraps them one by one with paper that the nephew of the Chen family has practiced calligraphy on, so as not to pour too much or Not enough. For this reason, he was often scolded by the old man of the Chen family, saying that Chen Jialuo had tarnished his literary integrity. No wonder he could not pass the exam after being admitted to the scholar examination.
But now that the enemy is facing the enemy, the old man of the Chen family has no regard for civility. As long as he can repel the thieves, what does burning a few pieces of paper mean?
In addition, what worries the two clan elders even more is that there is really no qualified commander with military experience in the town who can lead the villagers to fight - although there are many local martial arts scholars in Zhejiang, but in the late Ming Dynasty, Martial arts examinations have long been just a formality, and they are largely in vain. They are far less rigorous than literary examinations. Even if you pass the martial arts exam, you may not have any real ability. It is not difficult for any son of a squire from a wealthy family who is a little more powerful in martial arts to spend a few dollars to gain the title of martial arts scholar or martial arts examiner. Of course, such a title is of no use except to sound comfortable.
In fact, among the children of the Shen and Chen families, there are a few who can dance with guns and sticks, and claim to be brave and brave, but they are all brave men. At best, they only have the "combat experience" of a few people in street fights. If the scale of the battle is Expanding to a few hundred people would be a fool's errand - the kind of heroes and young and Dangerous men who fight alone all day long are completely different from qualified grassroots commanders. Even if you are a young and Dangerous guy on the streets, not everyone can organize a big scene with hundreds of people fighting against each other... Even if you are a gangster boss, you still need a certain amount of organizational management experience!
Therefore, the two clan elders of the Shen and Chen families were really worried without an experienced veteran to take the lead.
So, they discussed whether to pool some money and hire a coach from the nearby Haimen Guard or the bodyguard bureau in Hangzhou City. However, the attack of the Kun thieves was much faster than expected. Before the training of the Yuhang Township Yongtang could figure it out, the war suddenly came...