Chapter 1675 Defense Zone Handover
For the Haihan Executive Committee and the Ministry of National Defense, of course they would like more elite troops like the special operations battalion, the better. After all, force is the truly effective means for the Haihan Kingdom to continuously expand its territory. But there is another paradox that everyone has to face, that is, elite troops must be personally formed by senior generals and trained for a long time, so that the quality of the soldiers and the combat effectiveness of the troops can be guaranteed to the greatest extent. But in this way, these troops often obey the orders of one general for a long time, and their direct allegiance is not to the executive committee in Sanya. They can easily evolve into de facto warlords, and even separate themselves into separate factions. Originally, large sums of money were spent to form and maintain these elite troops for the purpose of consolidating their rule. However, when the strength of these troops reaches a certain stage, the rule of the Executive Committee will be exposed to more hidden dangers.
To prevent the occurrence of certain extreme situations, in addition to strengthening the military's political work, another extremely important means is to regularly change the garrison locations of these troops. Although this measure requires a large amount of additional military expenditures and an extremely complex action plan to mobilize troops across regions, there is no doubt that it can achieve results.
For example, the location of the special operations battalion will be changed almost every one or two years, and they will often go to the border areas of the Haihan map to perform combat missions. The special operations battalion has basically no local foundation. Its logistics supply and recruitment are very dependent on the support of the Ministry of National Defense, which eliminates most of the objective conditions for it to evolve into a warlord force.
The Marine Corps of the Navy is in a similar situation. This amphibious force built by Wang Tom himself has no fixed station outside Hainan Island. Basically, it follows the Navy wherever there are combat missions. If it needs to go by sea, In the task of long-distance delivery, it is one point more efficient than the army. Especially in the context of amphibious operations, the combat effectiveness of this unit is not inferior to that of the special operations battalion known as the Haihan First Army.
The situation of the cavalry battalion is somewhat special. A horse stable must be built for the war horses at the station. Otherwise, the long-term settlement of hundreds of war horses will be an extremely troublesome problem. Therefore, each station of the cavalry battalion has to spend a lot of money on the horse farm. In order to save military expenses as much as possible, the station will be relatively fixed. Moreover, in the area ruled by the Haihan Kingdom, in addition to the war horse ranch on Hainan Island, there are also Just a few limited places. The mobilization of the cavalry battalions is generally arranged around these places with horse farms.
At present, the only elite force with a relatively fixed station is Roger's South China Sea Special Warfare Group. This force had already begun to take shape when he was in charge of Amborna Island. Since Haihan stationed in Star Island at the end of 1633, Roger has been serving as a military officer there and began to build his own team in 1634. Before his unit came to Manila, its main scope of activities was concentrated in the Strait of Malacca. Its actual combat experience was much less than that of other teams. It can be said that it is a small force among the elite units.
In view of the current situation of this unit and the Sing Tao area, the Ministry of National Defense will not transfer it to other places for the time being. Therefore, after the war in Manila ends, Roger will still lead this unit back to its original station and continue to protect Haihan. The western gateway to the South China Sea.
After these elite troops leave Manila, the army battalion transferred from Haikou will stay here to take over the security and defense. Battalion Commander Yu Tiezhu has been serving in the army since 1627, and can be regarded as one of the founding heroes of Haihan. The battalion he commanded once served as the garrison of Victory Fort in the early years, although its combat effectiveness is not as good as those of those. An elite force, but it is already considered a first-class existence in the army.
During the Battle of Manila, Yu Tiezhu and his troops were almost all doing hard work, serving as substitutes for several other elite troops and responsible for baggage transportation, and did not get any chance to shine. However, this is a reasonable thing. The Ministry of National Defense finally gathered all the elite troops under the general's command from all over the world to Manila. The purpose is to complete the battle without any accidents. Naturally, these ace troops must be mobilized. All piled on the front line of the battlefield. Naturally, this army battalion, which participated in the war as ordinary troops, could only suffer some grievances and become a green leaf.
However, Yu Tiezhu didn't mind such an arrangement, because before departure, Defense Minister Yan Chujie had an interview with him and asked him if he was willing to lead the troops to station overseas. Yu Tiezhu knew very well that if he wanted military glory, he would definitely have more opportunities by stationing abroad than staying in Hainan Island. Although Manila is a relatively unfamiliar place, it is not a barren land. There is no need to worry about basic living facilities after arriving there. and material supply issues, and the military salary is much higher than staying on Hainan Island. Maybe there will be an opportunity to compete with the surrounding indigenous armed forces to accumulate military merits, so why not do it.
After Qiu Yuan and Xiao Liang arrived in Manila, they immediately began to take over local military and political affairs. Relatively speaking, the military's defense and command transfer work is relatively simple, because Yan Chujie and other generals have not yet left Manila. Xiao Liang can obtain more detailed local information through them, so that he will not have nothing after taking over. clue. While Yu Tiezhu was stationed in Haikou City, Qiu Yuan happened to be his immediate boss, so it was easier for the military and the government to communicate on many matters.
Of course, when the Executive Committee and the Ministry of National Defense made such personnel arrangements, they probably considered that it would be easier to quickly take over the military and political affairs of Manila. Moreover, Xiao Liang had led troops during his time in Guangdong, so he would not be dismissed by the people below because he was not familiar with the business. Give some space.
Regarding the handover of defense, in fact, the interim management committee had already made arrangements before this. However, because the Haihan Army's clearing operations in the area north of the Pasig River were still in progress, the related handover work continued to be postponed. Xiao Liang also This gives me more time to familiarize myself with local conditions.
The actions of the Haihan Army on the north bank of the Pasig River were not smooth sailing. The Spaniards who fled to this area were often rich or noble, and many of them had small-scale private armed forces. They understood the pursuit of the Haihan Army as this. The intention is to kill them all, so naturally they will not put down their weapons easily and submit. The instructions given by the Haihan Army were to attack all resistance. As a result, many armed conflicts inevitably occurred, with both sides suffering casualties.
Of course, the casualties of the Haihan Army, which had an absolute advantage in combat power, were not large. However, many of the fleeing Spaniards were decisively slaughtered by the Haihan Army because of their resistance with force. According to the figures reported to the Administrative Council, more than 300 Spaniards have been killed in arrests north of the Pasig River in recent days. The number of prisoners who were captured and taken back to Manila was several times that number.
However, this is not the focus of General Haihan's concern. After all, in troubled times, human life is as cheap as grass, not to mention the human life of the enemy camp. A few hundred people dying is just a number. Of course, what the generals were most concerned about was how much money was seized from these Spaniards during the arrest. The participating troops did not disappoint the eagerly awaited generals. On the second day of the arrest operation, the total value of the seized property exceeded one million. On the third day, the leading cavalry unit defeated three wealthy Spanish merchant families in one fell swoop in the town of San Miguel. It took more than ten carriages to transport the seized property back to Manila. After an overnight count, the Interim Management Committee announced that the cavalry battalion was the first to achieve the goal set before the operation, and received a reward of 100,000 yuan from Yan Chujie. Of course, since the wool comes from the sheep, this bonus will definitely not come from Yan Chujie's personal pockets, but will be discounted from the property seized this time, and will be advanced by the Ministry of National Defense.
While commending the cavalry battalion, Yan Chujie also announced that rewards would be given in proportion to the money seized from each unit. The more seized, the greater the commission proportion. The effect of financial incentives is undoubtedly huge. The several troops involved in the arrest are very motivated and want to turn over the hundreds of miles of plains north of the Pasig River and capture all the living people back to Manila City.
The generals were naturally happy to see the success, and Quan should give his troops one more chance to earn bonuses. However, the Spaniards were unlucky, especially the dignitaries who fled the city early to avoid the war. If they resisted even a little, they would be killed by the gun. It is better to stay in the city. As long as they don't come forward rashly, they will be killed at most. The Haihan army ransacked the house and lost money, but at least their lives were safe.
As the Spaniards lost power, the local Han influence began to rise again. The Han people who originally lived here were just immigrants. Due to the limited population, their status was even lower than that of the local indigenous people. However, after the Haihan Army captured Manila, the thoughts of many local Han people began to come alive. Most of them had no ties of nationality, and they could not say that they had much loyalty to the Spanish colonial government or the Ming Dynasty thousands of miles away. But since the takeover The new owner of Manila is a country with a Han background, so it will be a certainty that Han people will take over as the owner of this place from now on.
Many people regard the Chaosheng Commercial Store in the south of the city as a model of this kind of operation. A commercial organization run by Ming people can succeed in both Spain and Haihan, and it will inevitably lead to It gave rise to the idea of "I can do it myself". Based on this understanding, some people took the initiative to get in touch with the Haihan Army and expressed their willingness to cooperate with the government to do whatever they could.
The Interim Management Committee also welcomes local people who actively seek cooperation. These people have some industry and connections in the local area. Mobilizing them to do some specific and subtle things is far more efficient than the official doing it themselves. For example, it is more acceptable for local people to handle matters such as public security and policy propaganda. There is no need for the military to use coercive measures to deal with ordinary people.
Of course, not everyone who takes the initiative can win Haihan's favor. With Ran Tianlu, a local coward, as a consultant, the Temporary Management Committee can avoid many detours when selecting cooperation partners. Ran Tianlu can almost give some reference materials to which people are reliable, who are low-income people, and whose backgrounds are unreliable.
On February 17, the South China Sea Special Warfare Group was the first to embark on its return journey after completing a short rest in Manila. Although Xingdao has his reliable partner Tan Ju as the director and a thousand-man army borrowed from Annan Kingdom to look after the house, Roger is still eager to return to his own land as soon as possible. In fact, if it weren't for the generous rewards available for the arrest on the north bank of the Pasig River, he would have already led his troops to leave. In his opinion, instead of letting the troops stationed in Manila doing nothing, it would be better to return to Star Island earlier and start resuming normal training earlier.
Roger has his own views on the current situation in the South China Sea. After the Spanish were defeated in Manila, they basically lost their position in the Far East. Although there are still some colonies scattered in the South China Sea, they are all sporadic small-scale settlements. In the short term, It is unlikely to cause any more trouble for Haihan. On the other hand, Star Island, located at the east end of Malacca, has a very important geographical location, and more and more countries are eyeing this place. Even so-called partners such as Portugal and the Netherlands will also covet Haihan's stronghold, and there is no guarantee that they will not take advantage of Haihan when they have the opportunity.
If Haihan wants to control the Strait of Malacca, Singdao is the key point. Roger believes that in the current South China Sea, only his own force is most suitable to be deployed on Singdao. The previous defeat of the British and Johor coalition forces also fully proved the combat effectiveness of the special operations brigade. However, the organization of his unit is still a bit embarrassing. There is no brigade level in the official establishment of the Haihan Army. The reason why this name was originally used was mainly because many people in this unit at that time were not regular soldiers. A considerable number of the soldiers were recruited, and Roger personally selected them from the shiploads of slaves transported to Ambrosia by human traffickers. Naturally, the Ministry of National Defense will not grant a formal establishment to the army composed of these personnel who have not obtained Haihan nationality.
However, things are different now. After this mission, Yan Chujie has verbally promised to Roger that he will sign an order as soon as he returns to Sanya and officially establish the South China Sea Special Warfare Group. If nothing else, it should be a strengthened battalion. In the future, weapons supply, military expenditures, personnel treatment, military ranks and positions will also be implemented in accordance with the standards of the regular army. As for the naturalization issues of some non-Haihan soldiers, they will also be resolved at that time.
In fact, in Roger's opinion, issues such as weapons, military expenditures, treatment, and positions are not bad. The conditions provided by the Ministry of National Defense were not bad in the past. The most important thing is to solve the nationality issue of the soldiers so that they can escape from slavery. Soldiers have a greater sense of belonging and a clearer sense of who they are loyal to.
(End of chapter)