Chapter 2013
From a condescending perspective, Sun Bing was able to confirm through the telescope that this officer was not the most common Jurchen, Mongolian or Han in the Qing army. This man has a tall nose and deep eyes, and his appearance is obviously different from the Easterners he is familiar with. On the contrary, he is somewhat similar to the Portuguese who had fought side by side in the Manila and Korean wars.
The task force sent by Portugal participated in Haihan's emergency rescue operation against North Korea. It had just carried out several strikes against the Qing army with the Haihan army a few months ago. Naturally, it was impossible to carry out military cooperation with the Qing army at the same time. . Moreover, the Portuguese must report to Haihan in advance for their activities in the coastal areas of the mainland north of the Yangtze River. Even business dealings with areas under the Ming Dynasty must follow this principle, let alone sneaking into Liaodong to contact the Qing Dynasty. Presumably the Portuguese would not betray Haihan, a powerful ally, for some economic gain.
So after Sun Bing eliminated the suspicion of the Portuguese, the remaining answers seemed to be ready to come out. The Military Intelligence Bureau had reminded him in the intelligence provided before this operation that he should pay special attention to whether there were outsiders similar to the Spaniards operating in the Qing military camps, because the muskets they installed were most likely to come from overseas channels, and The Spaniards are currently the most suspected.
It was actually difficult for Sun Bing to distinguish the Spaniards and Portuguese whose hometowns were in the Iberian Peninsula from their appearance, but this was nothing new to him. After all, the Portuguese officer Simao who led the army to Korea to participate in the war, It is also often difficult to tell the difference in appearance between Han people and North Koreans in the north. The reasoning Sun Bing made was based on this similarity - since the person he was observing looked like a Portuguese but could not be a Portuguese, then he must be a Spaniard.
Soon Sun Bing noticed that there was another person beside the Spanish officer who was worth noting. From the telescope, he could see that this person was imitating the Spanish officer's expressions and movements from time to time, and was mumbling something. It seemed that he should be an interpreter, but he didn't know. Did he translate the officer's instructions into Chinese or Manchu?
But in the far north of Liaodong, there are no talents who can understand Spanish. The Spanish base is far away in the depths of the South China Sea, and it is unlikely that anyone under their command is familiar with Manchu. It is not difficult to find people who understand Spanish and Chinese. Sun Bing had seen many local Chinese descendants in Manila who were bilingual. However, the traditional area of activity of the Spaniards is mainly the South China Sea. For them, Liaodong should be a very unfamiliar area. How did they hook up with the Qing Dynasty?
This question can probably only be answered by catching the Spaniard at the foot of the hill for trial, but Sun Bing knew that it was unlikely to realize this plan at the moment. Although the musketeers training at the foot of the hillside only numbered fifty or sixty people, and it might be possible to give them a try, but even if the Spaniard was captured on the spot, it was unlikely that he could be taken away smoothly. After all, this place is too close to the Qing army's camp. They can't outrun the enemy cavalry's pursuit on two legs, and the effect will be counterproductive.
Sun Bing tried hard to suppress his desire to take action and focused his energy back on observing the movements of these people.
Although these Qing troops lined up and raised their guns in a target shooting posture, they did not fire, they were just pretending. Of course, this is not surprising. After all, live-fire training is a very expensive method, even in the Haihan Army, it must be within its capabilities. Presumably the Qing Army cannot afford such expenditure. Money is only one aspect. The ammunition shipped from overseas and the loss of guns during use make it difficult for the Qing army to replenish them in time, so they must use them sparingly.
But since the target was specially brought out, live ammunition shooting must eventually take place, and this was what Sun Bing wanted to see. Based on his experience in the military for several years, he believed that he could definitely see some problems - such as gun performance, loading speed, basic tactics, etc.
The effect of such training in such cold weather will obviously be greatly reduced. The exposed hands will soon become stiff, and whether it is loading ammunition or raising a gun to aim, it will be obviously affected. As for the extent to which this musketeer team could enforce orders and prohibitions, it was still far behind the Haihan Army. Sun Bing saw that many people were rubbing their hands or blowing on their hands or stamping their feet in place from time to time. To keep warm, he did not fully follow the officer's instructions for training.
However, this slightly undisciplined situation soon changed. Several cavalry and horses came from the camp. Sun Bing observed their actions. It should be a senior general of the Qing army who came to supervise and train. The soldiers who looked a little lazy just now immediately cheered up, fearing that their superiors would find them paddling during training.
Sun Bing raised the corner of his mouth slightly, as if he also found a familiar feeling from such a scene. He had done something similar in training before, but unfortunately he was caught on the spot and asked to be punished by the instructor by running around the school field. After a full hour, I no longer dared to be lazy during training. However, he was still very lucky to have had that experience. Otherwise, he would not have trained so hard in the future, and he might not have had the chance to be selected from the ordinary army to serve in the Marine Corps.
Of course, Sun Bing would not have any good impressions of these Qing soldiers. After all, he himself was a Han from Liaodong. If his hometown had not been occupied by the Manchus, he would not have left his hometown and fled to the south. Fortunately, his life was not bad, and by chance he joined the Haihan camp as a refugee, and then joined the army to fight in all directions. After being ordered to go south at the end of last year, he felt that he might not have the opportunity to return to Liaodong again, but now he has returned to Liaodong to perform a mission again. If there is a chance to do it, he will definitely kill a few more enemies ruthlessly to commemorate his death. The fathers and fellow countrymen whom he slaughtered.
The Spanish officer paid great attention to details during the training. From time to time he would stop and then personally step forward to correct the soldiers' movements. The Qing army general who came to supervise the training seemed to be very patient, so he stood quietly watching and did not interfere in the training process.
After practicing basic movements for more than an hour, the Qing general's patience was probably almost worn out, so he called the translator next to the Spanish officer over to give a few instructions and then conveyed them to him. After hearing what the translator said, the Spanish officer stopped the training and asked people to distribute ammunition to the soldiers. Sun Bing was refreshed and thought that after waiting for so long, the main show was finally here. But the live-fire training scenes Sun Bing saw didn't actually have much new stuff. They were basically the same techniques and tactics he had practiced when he first joined the army. The reason for this is also very simple. The basic combat skills he learned all came from fixed routines taught by high-level military officials. The source of these things was originally Western countries with more advanced gun tactics in history. Comparing the two, they are naturally similar. There are many ingredients.
Of course, he has now joined the Marine Corps, and the rifle he uses is no longer the old-style flintlock rifle he was equipped with when he first joined the army. Therefore, the corresponding tactics have also been greatly changed, and he no longer uses this rifle down the hillside. It's a formation of lining up to kill. The result of the battle with the Spanish army in Manila at the beginning of this year has fully proved the advanced tactics of the Haihan Army. Therefore, when Sun Bing saw the basic tactics of the musketeers on the hillside, he could not help but feel a little superior. Feeling, I secretly thought that even if you could learn this thoroughly, you would never be able to beat the elite soldiers of our Haihan Kingdom.
The advanced tactics of the Haihan Army are difficult for other countries' armies to imitate. This is not only a gap in combat concepts, but also a reflection of comprehensive strength in equipment, logistics, transportation, etc. At least until the performance of weapons is greatly improved, it is unlikely that the musketeer tactics of other countries will break away from the existing framework, and the overall combat effectiveness will naturally not be effectively improved. Sun Bing didn't quite understand these underlying reasons, but he knew that even if the Qing army could train some musketeers, it would not be able to change the current passive situation with Haihan. Such musketeers could only ambush the unwary. If the patrols of the Haihan Army were placed on the frontal battlefield to compete with the main force of the Haihan Army, they would be wiped out in a matter of seconds.
Of course, if the opponent of the Qing army is the Ming army or the Korean army, then this kind of musket unit will have much more room to play. Although the Ming army also had a firearms battalion, as far as Sun Bing knew, most of the muskets equipped were relatively primitive matchlocks. When they attacked Manila this year, the local Spanish armed forces had already equipped a considerable proportion of flintlocks. If these weapons are provided by the Spaniards, then the equipment level should be better than that of the Ming army. As for the Korean army, maybe it can be improved to a certain extent with the help of Haihan in two or three years, but for now, even the Qing army without firearms is not an opponent that the Korean army can resist. The strength gap between the two sides It is not limited to the field of weapons and equipment.
Theoretically, it is possible for the Qing army to counter the Haihan army by improving the performance of their weapons, but the quality gap can only be made up by quantity. They must form a firearms unit several times the strength of the Haihan and Liaodong garrison. May smooth out weapon performance disadvantages. But the problem is that no country in East Asia in this era has such industrial capabilities that allow the Qing army to arm thousands of troops with muskets and artillery in a short period of time, let alone the Spaniards as far away as the South China Sea. , even Haihan Ordnance Industry has difficulty meeting such production requirements.
Therefore, it is almost destined that the expansion rate of the Qing army's firearms force will be limited by the supply of weapons for a foreseeable period in the future, even if they have the ability to produce their own weapons in the future. However, if the development in this direction goes smoothly, the Qing army's firearms installation speed may catch up with and surpass the Ming Dynasty in a few years. This is why the Haihan Executive Committee decided to introduce the Qing army's firearms that appeared in the Liaodong region. The troops regard it as a hidden danger that must be identified.
One of the main purposes of Haihan's expedition to garrison in Liaodong was to hold back the Qing's military strength in this direction, so that it would not dare to boldly raise its troops southward to ensure the stability of the Ming Dynasty. But if the balance of power between the Qing Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty changes significantly, causing Huang Taiji's ambition to go south to knock the pass in advance, it means that Haihan will have to send troops to intervene. After all, Daming is Haihan's main source of raw materials and sales market, and maintaining its social stability is of extremely important significance to Haihan's current development. The world is in chaos, which is an unacceptable situation for Haihan at this stage.
However, if such a large-scale war is fought inland far from the coast, the Haihan Army will not be of much use. Therefore, the most effective way for Haihan was to suppress the development of military technology by the Qing State as much as possible, and launch several small-scale wars in Liaodong from time to time to tighten the clockwork of the Qing State so that it could not be distracted from looking south.
One of the purposes of sending Sun Bing to perform a reconnaissance mission behind enemy lines is to confirm how big the hidden danger is and whether it has reached a level that requires the use of means to eliminate it as soon as possible. However, judging from what Sun Bing has seen so far, the training level of these musketeers is just that, and it is estimated that because they have too little actual combat experience, their formation conversion speed during live ammunition shooting is obviously too slow, so that two rounds The interval between firing is too long, which greatly affects the intensity of the firepower output. Sun Bing had trained with the Fujian Ming Army, which was also equipped with flintlock muskets, and its firing frequency was at least half as fast as this musketeer team.
If the Qing army's musketry force was only of this size, Sun Bing felt that it was far from enough to have a significant impact on the situation in Liaodong. How the Spaniards and these weapons got in was definitely a direction worthy of investigation. If the source of its weapons can be cut off, the Musketeers will soon cease to exist in name only.
Sun Bing had seen Spanish warships during the battle in Manila. If a sailing ship with a special shape like that appeared in the Liaodong waters, it would definitely be a conspicuous target on the sea. However, so far, the Military Intelligence Bureau has never received any sighting reports in this regard. , this is also a very strange phenomenon. Of course, it is possible that the Spaniards avoided the Haihan Navy's daily patrols on the east coast of the Liaodong Peninsula, but compared to this extremely risky approach, Sun Bing felt that another possibility was more likely, that is, the Spaniards entered The Qing Dynasty's method may not be to ride on a large sailing ship with a conspicuous appearance. If a Chinese-style sailing ship appeared in this area, probably no one would pay special attention to it.
The more Sun Bing guessed, the more he wanted to go down the mountain immediately and capture the Spanish officer for trial. However, he also knew that he could not be impulsive at this time. What he should do now was to continue to observe the movements of the musketeers. But after returning to the beach tonight, I have to write a written report as soon as possible and report what I saw today to my superiors.
(End of chapter)