Chapter 365 Visiting the Showroom
The Haihan Militia has relatively frequent live-fire training, especially in the artillery, which is seriously short of personnel. The Military Commission has been sparing no effort to invest resources, and even tried to find ways to contact the Portuguese to hire instructors. As one of the most technical arms at present, the artillery training course is also the most complex, and the training period is the longest in the army. The most effective way to shorten the training cycle is to arrange a large amount of live-fire training for students so that they can master the correct posture of gun handling during live-fire shooting.
When Enrique lived in Port Victory, he could hear bursts of gunfire from the artillery range across the harbor from time to time. At first, Enrique was just as scared as the other people who had just come here. Later, he learned that this was the Haihan Militia that would conduct live-fire training twice a week. The local people have long been accustomed to this situation, and they will inadvertently show a sense of superiority when seeing frightened outsiders - haven't you seen that before? Ours is a high-end port protected by artillery!
Enrique had long wanted to go to the militia garrison on the east side of the harbor to find out what was going on and see what the level of the army that beat the South Vietnamese army to shit on the Annan battlefield was like. However, his scope of movement in Victory Port was limited. Without special approval from the Executive Committee, it was impossible to go to the strictly controlled military garrison. This time, Enrique finally fulfilled his wish by taking advantage of the arms trade negotiations to visit the live-fire training.
After setting foot on the land of the military camp area, Enrique, like Li Nai who visited here for the first time, noticed a considerable number of children near the pier learning to march in formation. These children all wore the same gray military uniforms as the Haihan Militia, and they were organized into teams according to the squad level. They were simply a miniature version of the Haihan Militia.
"These are the Boy Scouts we recruited. Most of them are homeless orphans. We recruit them here for military training and give them opportunities to receive cultural education. This is all for charitable purposes. "Yan Chujie took the initiative to explain to Enrique in a timely manner.
"This is really a commendable act of kindness. May God bless these lovely children." Enrique responded with a smile, a little reluctantly.
Enrique would not believe the reasons given by Yan Chujie. If it was for the sake of these children, why not let them study in Shengli Port Primary School? Or send them to the workshop to work, at least they can learn a craft to make a living. Let these children without parents grow up in military camps. Will they find employment elsewhere when they become adults?
Enrique also noticed that the military barracks of the Haihan Militia also adhered to the simple and bright Haihan architectural style. All the barracks were oriented east-west. According to Yan Chujie, this could better provide indoor lighting conditions. Although these barracks are all made of bamboo and wood, Enrique also noticed that the windows of the barracks are all made of glass. In his opinion, the standard of this hardware is considered luxurious.
Yan Chujie took Enrique to randomly inspect several barracks. The cleanliness inside gave Enrique a new assessment of the discipline of this unit. Although he is not a soldier, he has met many professional soldiers before and knows that the level of internal affairs can reflect the combat effectiveness of this unit to a certain extent - if even the barracks where the soldiers live are messy and smelly, then How can we expect such a disorganized army to strictly observe military discipline and execute military orders on the battlefield? It was obvious that the Haihan people's ability to manage the army was no less than their ability to do business. Enrique also understood why the Haihan people had the confidence to send troops across the sea to fight in other places.
"This is our army's honor room." Yan Chujie was not in a hurry to take Enrique to the shooting range, but took him to continue to visit the military camp facilities, which naturally included the honor exhibition room with Haihan characteristics.
Enrique noticed that this "Honor Showroom" was one of the few masonry buildings in the entire camp, which was enough to show how much the Haihan military attached importance to this facility. After entering the door, the first thing you see is a huge display board with gold characters on a red background. Although Enrique can speak relatively fluent Chinese and even some dialects of southern China, he is not very fluent in reading written text - in fact, he can't even read the display board. It’s not clear in what order the words should be pronounced.
According to the rules of the Ming Dynasty, words are generally written and read from top to bottom, from left to right. However, Enrique has had many contacts with the Haihan people and knows that the rules of the Haihan people are somewhat different. It seems that the order is from left to right. To the right, writing horizontally. Yan Chujie seemed to know that Enrique was not comfortable with this aspect, so he explained to him: "The above content is about the time, place and reason for the formation of our Haihan Militia, as well as the main battles it has participated in since its formation. And the record. So, please read what’s on the board to Mr. Enrique.”
The educational level of most of the naturalized soldiers in the Haihan Militia is very worrying. Although the militia also has internal literacy classes, there are not many people who can read hundreds of words. So now the Military Commission has set the literacy level as It is also used as one of the criteria for officer promotion. At the same time, in order to improve the cultural level of the army, the Military Commission also specially recruited some young and down-and-out civilians to join the army to serve as civilians in the army. There is a large amount of written and picture information in this honorary exhibition room, so literate soldiers are specially equipped to provide explanations here.
"Sir Gentleman, my humble position is Lu Ting, a subordinate of the Publicity Department of the First Battalion Headquarters in Shengli Port." The showroom staff who followed immediately stepped forward to identify themselves.
Lu Ting's native place was in Yacheng. He had studied for several years before joining the army, but he had not obtained any meritorious service and was just a boy. He was already in his twenties, and he knew that his talent for studying was limited, and his family had little spare money for him to apply for the imperial examination. It would be difficult for him to have a bright future in the imperial examination. I heard that the Haihan people were widely spread in Shengli Port. They were looking for people and the treatment was excellent, so they decided to try their luck here. Then after arriving, I discovered that although the rumors were true, the salary of this part-time job was actually divided into three levels.
The wages of migrant workers in Shengli Port who are not naturalized citizens are not high, and they do not have much advantage over Yacheng. However, the living facilities here are complete and the cost of living is slightly lower than that in Yacheng. If you want to get a high salary under the rule of the Haihan people, you must first obtain the status of a naturalized citizen. However, the place of birth of a naturalized citizen cannot be obtained immediately upon application. You must also go through a period of investigation in the local area. Lu Ting feels that This was really too time-consuming, so I chose another way to get my naturalized citizenship more quickly, which was to join the army.
According to the military's recruitment announcement, as long as all conditions are met, you will be granted naturalized citizenship immediately after joining the army, and you can also bring your immediate family members with you to obtain the naturalized citizenship that originally had to wait for one or two months. Quite a number of young people from the nearby mountain people of the Li and Miao ethnic groups have obtained the status of naturalized citizens through this method and thus left the mountains. Although Lu Ting was a scholar, his family was relatively poor, and he did a lot of farm work on weekdays. His health was not weak, and he successfully passed the military physical examination and political examination, and became a militia soldier.
Lu Ting specifically declared his cultural expertise when he enlisted in the army - this was also clearly stated in the recruitment announcement. Anyone with a certain level of literacy could be specially recruited into the army and given a civilian position. After joining the army, he was assigned to the propaganda office of the battalion headquarters as expected. He usually did things like writing slogans and materials. Occasionally he also lectured in literacy classes and helped ordinary soldiers with literacy education. After the honor exhibition room was built last month, he was transferred here to serve as an instructor, responsible for explaining the war history of the Haihan Militia to recruits and visitors.
Yan Chujie did not go out of his way to correct his problem with the title. He just nodded and said: "Tell Mr. Enrique a good explanation of the situation of our militia army."
"I humbly obey the order!" Lu Ting cleared his throat, stood in front of the exhibition board, and spoke a substandard Haihan Mandarin, and began to explain to Enrique: "Our Haihan militia was established in the seventh year of the Great Tomorrow. The People's Armed Forces, directly under the leadership of the Han Executive Committee and the Haihan Military Commission, are currently mainly stationed in the Shengli Port Military Region..."
Enrique was not very interested in Yan Chujie taking him to see this kind of exhibition hall at first, but when he understood the nature of this exhibition hall, he quickly changed his mind. The Haihan Militia is a very mysterious armed organization to both the Ming Dynasty and the Portuguese. Apart from knowing that this unit has very powerful weapons and combat effectiveness, the outside world knows almost nothing about its internal conditions. , organization, training methods, equipment level, combat experience... these are all things that Enrique is very interested in knowing, and the answers to all these seem to be found in the honor showroom.
"Since its establishment, our militia army has participated in more than 30 military operations, large and small, and participated in many battles in Victory Port, Annan, Guangdong and other places, annihilating thousands of enemies and taking tens of thousands of prisoners. It has achieved many victories with less and more. The results of the battle..."
This is not the first time Lu Ting has given this kind of explanation. Almost every batch of new recruits must come here to visit and study. What Lu Ting had to do was to memorize all the promotional materials personally written by the top military officials, and to be able to fluently describe the invincible and glorious image of "our army" to the visitors during the explanation.
Enrique saw that in addition to text, the promotional materials posted on the wall also contained a large number of hand-drawn paintings, most of which were battle scenes on the battlefield. Although this unit has been in existence for less than two years, if you just saw the promotional materials here, you would probably think that this is a veteran unit that has experienced hundreds of battles. Enrique was very interested in the two attacks of the Haihan Militia in Annan, one south and one north, and the Lijiazhuang battle. When he explained the relevant parts, he asked a lot of questions. Yan Chujie had to stand up and block the gun for Lu Ting: "Enri Mr. Ke, some of the questions you asked involve military secrets of our army, and I can only say that I have no comment.”
"Mr. Yan, I think you have misunderstood my intentions." Of course, Enrique was well aware of the differences between the two parties and immediately explained: "I just want to confirm that Haihan weapons are in use by understanding the details of the battle process. Reliability on the battlefield has no other meaning.”
"As for the weapons, you can see the real ones later, so there is no need to worry about it here." Yan Chujie smiled and did not continue to argue on this matter.
Enrique is not interested in the last part of awarding meritorious services, because in his opinion, although the Haihan people do have their strengths, the executive committee is just a grassroots team after all, which is not the same as the Portuguese Council in Macau. For a high-level institution, the awards awarded by it really don't have much authority at all. However, it seems that the soldiers of the militia are very enthusiastic about this, because he can feel that several of the accompanying military personnel, including the commentator himself, are red-eyed at the military medals on display, obviously very eager to receive such rewards.
After spending half an hour visiting the Honor Showroom, Yan Chujie took him into another showroom, and this time Enrique never showed any impatience because the displays in this place , it was the Haihan weapon that he had always wanted to get up close and personal with.
There are the first batch of Type 27 matchlocks manufactured here, the first 6-pound cannon cast by the military industry department, and the latest Type 28 breech-loaded flintlock guns, short-barreled shotguns, and 24-pound long-body guns. Enrique's eyes were a little dazzled by the new weapons such as shore defense guns, and he didn't know where to look first.
Although the weapons here have been installed in the troops, it is impossible for naturalized soldiers to grasp the detailed performance data of these weapons. Therefore, the explanation of these weapons can only be explained by Yan Chujie himself: "This is our victory. The first rifle manufactured after settling in Hong Kong, I believe you will notice that it is no different in appearance and use from the matchlock guns exported to Annan by your merchants. But what I want to point out in particular is that due to the use of manufacturing. With more technologically advanced gunpowder, our rifle has a range that exceeds that of your country's matchlock gun by about three-tenths, and the accuracy within the effective range has also been improved to a certain extent. In addition, our production standards are very uniform, and all guns The parts and ammunition on it are universally interchangeable, greatly reducing the loss of weapons in combat.”
Enrique pointed to the sample and asked: "Can I pick it up and take a look?"
"Of course." Yan Chujie made a please gesture.
Enrique took the gun in his hand and found that the size and weight of the gun were indeed not much different from the matchlock guns sold to Annan by domestic merchants. However, if what Yan Chujie said just now is not bragging, then the North Vietnamese army equipped with a large number of such weapons does have a greater chance of defeating South Vietnam.
"This is the Type 27 front-loading flintlock gun that is currently being used by our army but is ready to be replaced and eliminated. The performance of this gun surpasses the matchlock gun in all aspects, and the loading and shooting speed has also been significantly improved. , This has been fully proven on the battlefield, and there is no need for me to say more.”
Enrique picked up the gun and couldn't help but sigh that the weapons manufacturing technology of the Haihan people was indeed outstanding. Although the flintlock weapon had been invented in Europe as early as the last century, due to some ridiculous reasons, the flintlock gun did not gain rapid popularity in Europe.
After the Frenchman Mahan invented the percussion flintlock gun in the last century, he gained the attention of the king and was even appointed as a "palace personal attendant" by Henry IV. However, Henry IV died in an assassination in 1610, and the flintlock gun The process of equipping the troops came to a halt. Many French generals opposed equipping the army with flintlock muskets. The reason was that the sparks from flint were not enough to ignite black powder. Yes, no one thought about how to solve this problem by improving the purity of gunpowder or other technical means. problem, but directly rejected the prospect of this weapon, which directly led to the postponement of the French army's large-scale equipment of flintlock guns for several decades.
Of course, the French were not the only ones who made flintlock muskets at the same time. Craftsmen in Germany, Italy and Spain successively made flintlock muskets. However, due to its complex structure and high cost, this advanced weapon has always been used by European troops. failed to gain popularity. In original history, it was not until the mid-17th century that the flintlock became the main individual weapon of European troops, and it continued until the mid-19th century. In this regard, the Ming Dynasty indeed lagged far behind the West. It was not until 1635 that Bi Maokang, a firearms expert in the Ming Dynasty, produced the first self-generated firegun made of flint.
What the European army has not been able to achieve, the Haihan people have already achieved, and they are just a group of armed merchants entrenched on an island in the Far East! This fact made Enrique, who claimed to be a subject of the Portuguese Empire, a little embarrassed. The most annoying thing was that the Haihan people were actually preparing to eliminate this high-end weapon and replace it with a new rifle that Enrique had never heard of.
"About the performance of this new rifle..." Yan Chujie looked at Enrique's longing eyes, smiled and said: "I'm sorry, this involves our military secrets, so I have no comment."
"God, at least tell me something, you can say anything!" Enrique was very dissatisfied with Yan Chujie's sales. He could only look at this extraordinary-looking new rifle through the glass window. I wondered in my mind how this rifle, which neither used a match rope nor a gunpowder pot, could be fired.
"The only thing I can say is that the performance of this new rifle can completely defeat all kinds of currently known muskets. In front of it, other muskets, including the Type 27 flintlock you just took, are all inferior. They're all scum!" Yan Chujie didn't seem to be satisfied with this kind of showing off, and he didn't forget to add another blow at the end: "Of course this new weapon will not be included in the arms for sale."
Enrique finally swallowed back the curse words that had come to his mouth, and asked with a forced smile: "This means that if we Portuguese want to buy, we can only buy the weapons that you have eliminated?" < br>
"Of course, is there anything wrong with that?"
The smile on Yan Chujie's face made Enrique really want to hit him with his fist.
(End of chapter)