Chapter 2188
If Huizhou salt merchants want to overwhelm their opponents in combat with their own strength, forming a musketry team is probably the most direct and effective way. But before getting help from Haihan, they could only fumble forward in the dark with extremely limited information, trying to form a combat force equipped with muskets from scratch. With the military knowledge and personnel reserves they possess, one can imagine the difficulty of doing so.
The opponent's situation was obviously better than theirs. The Hirado Domain of Japan provided them with muskets and related tactics originating from Spain, which was enough to give them the upper hand in this battle.
There must be knowledgeable people under the Huizhou salt merchants who know the problem, but they have not been able to find an effective solution. It was not until Haihan took action in Yangzhou last year that they discovered that the strong has its own strong hand. In line with the principle that one thing brings down another, seeking apprenticeships from Haihan people to learn their skills has become a life-saving straw in the eyes of some Hui-born salt merchants.
Dai Chengrong is also one of them. A few months ago, he had discussed with Dai Yingfan, the third uncle in charge of the defense of the Dai family militia, whether it was possible to learn the tactics of the Haihan people through some channels. However, because the conditions were not mature at the time, and the Huizhou salt merchants' internal opinions were not unified, they did not decide to seek the support of Haihan, so such a plan could only be abandoned.
After a long wait, Dai Chengrong finally got the opportunity he expected. After discussions, the heads of the seven major surnames finally decided to seek cooperation and assistance from Haihan, which also included learning military skills from Haihan.
Originally, the candidate to "study abroad" in Zhoushan should be his third uncle Dai Yingfan, but because the environment for Huizhou salt merchants has become increasingly tight recently, Dai Yingda believed that the local area was facing greater risks, and it was still necessary for Dai Yingfan to stay in Yangzhou and take command, so temporarily The candidate was changed to Dai Chengrong.
He is young, has a professional foundation, and is a core member of the next generation of the family. These labels on Dai Chengrong immediately made him the object of high hopes for the seven major surnames. Whether Huizhou salt merchants can establish a private armed force with strong combat effectiveness through Haihan's assistance depends largely on the learning results of Dai Chengrong and his group after they went to Zhoushan.
Before setting off for Zhoushan, Dai Chengrong also hopes to get more information from Yuan Tao, especially about the training he will receive in Zhoushan. If he could make some targeted preparations before then, he thought he might be able to achieve better results in just two or three months of training.
"Yesterday, Shopkeeper Tingyuan mentioned that the training cycle is about a hundred days. Can you tell us a little bit about what kind of training will be done during this period?"
When Yuan Tao heard Dai Chengrong's question, he smiled and responded: "Actually, it's all relatively simple content, mainly several major projects such as queues, physical fitness, tactics, shooting, and marching. Under each project, there are also It’s divided into several minor events. It shouldn’t be too difficult for students with a certain foundation like the young master, but it will definitely make you tired during the training, so you’d better be prepared to endure hardship.”
Seeing that Yuan Tao was not shy about talking about this topic, Dai Chengrong continued to ask about the details of these training projects.
In fact, what the Haihan military prepared for them was basically the training subjects for the first three months of recruits joining the army. This was not a military secret. Yuan Tao picked out the parts he could talk about and gave a general explanation to Dai Chengrong.
The training methods of the Haihan Army are basically copied from the advanced methods brought by Zongcong over the centuries. Naturally, they are far ahead of this era. They are still quite different from the training methods of the Ming Army that Dai Chengrong learned from the guard instructors. the difference. Just listening to Yuan Tao's simple description, Dai Chengrong felt that there were many new things that he had never been exposed to before.
However, although Haihan will provide Dai Chengrong and others with training content that is almost the same as that of new recruits, the training intensity and corresponding standards will not fully comply with the requirements of the army. After all, this is not training for Haihan's own troops, and there is no need to perform the same training. standards. Moreover, the training intensity of the Haihan Army far exceeded that of the armies of the same era. According to the standards of the army, most of the people sent by Yangzhou would be too much to bear.
Of course, if there are individuals with outstanding talents among this group of people, the Haihan military will definitely take some special measures to provide individual training. Dai Yingda's previous worries were not completely unfounded. The Haihan military would not miss the opportunity to attract talents, even if they came from the salt merchant family.
The two chatted in a lively manner and unknowingly chatted for more than an hour. It was not until someone came to report that Dai Yingfan, who had just returned from Yangzhou City, came to ask to see Yuan Tao that they finally stopped talking.
Dai Yingfan's appearance is quite different from the kind-looking Dai Yingda. He is dark and strong, with thick eyebrows and curly beard, and his face has a sinister look. However, he was very polite when he saw Yuan Tao. He took the initiative to greet Yuan Tao from a distance: "Dai is disturbing shopkeeper Yuan!"
Yuan Tao cupped his hands and said in response: "You're welcome, I am discussing the defense of Daijiazhuang with the young master. Boss Dai came just in time. I have many questions that I still need to ask!"
"Dai can't afford to ask for advice. Shopkeeper Yuan should give you more advice!" Dai Yingfan's attitude was very humble, which was in obvious contrast to his appearance.
Yuan Tao led the Jindun men to Daijiazhuang. One of their tasks was to assist the salt merchant family in strengthening their defense, and even temporarily take over the command of the escort team to a certain extent. The person in charge of commanding the defense in Daijiazhuang is Dai Yingfan. Now that he is finally back, Yuan Tao can start doing business.
Dai Chengrong knew that the two of them were going to discuss business matters, so he took the initiative to resign. Dai Yingfan seemed to take this for granted and made no attempt to keep him. Yuan Tao thought that the price was not small. Dai Chengrong was clearly the person who would take over the Dai family's private armed forces from Dai Yingfan in the future, but now he still had to actively avoid the defense handover.
Of course, Daijiazhuang's defense methods are not just the two watchtowers that Yuan Tao saw when he first arrived here yesterday. In fact, before the watchtowers were built, Daijiazhuang had some defensive measures that had been implemented for many years.
"Since the Wanli period, Daijiazhuang has had a self-organized militia group responsible for protecting the safety of the Dai family. However, in order to avoid trouble from the government, the size of the militia group has only been maintained at about a hundred people. Later, the salt industry operated Now that the situation has improved, we can donate money to the government, which is a bit more relaxed.”
"But looking back later, I realized that this was not necessarily a good thing. I imitated others and soon formed my own vigilante group. From that time on, business competition extended beyond the mall, almost Several lives are lost every year. In recent years, everyone has bought muskets, and they are more ruthless when fighting!”
"Last year, my opponent bought a batch of muskets from outside and hired someone to train them. At that time, I knew something was wrong, but the countermeasures I could take were limited, and I continued to suffer losses in the battle. To be honest, if If your country hadn't sent people to Yangzhou later to destroy the opponent's musketeers, I'm afraid we would have had to summon all the available people to fight against the opponent." Dai Yingfan led Yuan Tao as he walked around the village. As he walked, he gave him a general description of the situation in Daijiazhuang. Dai Yingfan's narrative tone was very calm, but Yuan Tao could imagine that after so many years of fighting, the two camps must have become feuds long ago. This kind of fighting is not entirely driven by interests, but also caused by irresolvable hatred. Even if Haihan hadn't intervened, the two sides would definitely continue fighting until one of them was forced to withdraw from this place.
In order to survive, one party chose to join forces with the Hirado clan, while the other party was forced to find Haihan for cooperation. What was originally an internal social conflict in the Ming Dynasty gradually evolved into a wrestling field between external forces in the Ming Dynasty. This was probably a situation that the ancestors of the Yangzhou salt merchants did not expect.
However, Haihan has sent troops to eliminate the overseas reinforcements from Shanxi and Shaanxi salt merchants. It will be difficult to obtain ammunition replenishment from overseas in the short term. After receiving assistance from Haihan, the Huizhou salt merchants will spend a few more months at most. This will greatly enhance the combat effectiveness of your armed organizations. By then, even if Haihan doesn't do it himself, Huizhou salt merchants will have a high probability of gaining the upper hand in the competition in the salt industry.
Yuan Tao has no intention of participating in the bloody competition of the salt merchant group, but he must protect the safety of this group of people before the Huizhou salt merchants improve their self-protection capabilities, and cannot let them be killed by the ruthless methods of their opponents. Get rid of it. The information Dai Yingfan can provide now is also very important to Yuan Tao.
"I heard that Shopkeeper Yuan specifically asked about the fortifications outside Daijiazhuang yesterday. In fact, in addition to these two watchtowers, we have also deployed other means."
Walking to the watchtower at the entrance of Zhuangkou, Dai Yingfan pointed to the houses on both sides of the watchtower and said: "Actually, the houses on the outermost edge of Zhuangzi were only built in the past one or two years, and not all of these houses are used to live in. Yuan Shopkeeper, please follow me!”
After hearing what he said, Yuan Tao thought that there must be something fishy in these houses, so he followed him into one of the courtyards.
From the outside, this courtyard seemed to be no different from other houses in the village, but after entering the courtyard, Yuan Tao saw that there was really something special inside. The side facing the periphery looks like a house from the outside, but from the inside, it is a high wall disguised as a house. There are even specially built stairs to allow people inside to go up to a higher place, and then remove the tiles disguised as a roof. With a piece of film, you can attack the target outside from the inside. There are four or five shooting positions on this wall. If there is a war outside, it will be easy to succeed in a sneak attack.
Judging from the reserved shooting positions, Yuan Tao judged that this should be a defense fortification specially designed for the use of muskets. However, for the muskets that Dai Chengrong had brought to the weapons depot, he believed that those muskets with primitive craftsmanship should be used to achieve this purpose. Accurate shooting is still relatively difficult.
Of course, if this fortification was left to Yuan Tao's men to guard, the effect would definitely be different. When the opponent is unprepared, it can kill with high accuracy from a distance of at least thirty meters.
Dai Yingfan then showed him the secret door in the yard. Through the secret door, he could immediately move to the adjacent yard, which provided a more flexible personnel mobilization route for wartime defense.
Such fortifications, if placed on a real battlefield, would of course not be of much use. If the army encountered such a situation, they would definitely use artillery to open the way and knock down the wall with the mechanism first, and then push it over flatly. However, considering the environment that Daijiazhuang is in, the most possible battle situation is a hundred people. As long as this kind of special defense can cause casualties to the opponent, it has achieved its purpose.
"If the opponent attacks Daijiazhuang from the front, their attention will definitely be on the two towers, and such an attack launched from a hidden fortification will probably not be noticed immediately. Boss Dai, this design is thoughtful. !" After Yuan Tao looked up and down, he also praised the design of this camouflage fortification.
But Dai Yingfan did not look happy because of Yuan Tao's praise. Instead, he smiled bitterly and said: "This is actually a last resort. Originally, I suggested building a trench outside Zhuangzi, and then adding a protective wall surrounding the entire Zhuangzi. The project was completed at Zhuangkou and a suspension bridge was erected between the two watchtowers, so that the defense line would be relatively complete. However, the owner believed that large-scale construction would destroy the feng shui of Daijiazhuang and make Daijiazhuang look like a fortress. The image of the home didn’t fit, so the original design could only remain on paper.”
Yuan Tao was stunned when he heard this. The scene described by Dai Yingfan was not a small project. Let alone how much money it would cost. With Daijiazhuang's local construction capabilities and relying on migrant workers to carry them on their shoulders and hands, it would be necessary to complete the defense project he mentioned. It will take a year or two or even longer. After it was completed, Daijiazhuang became Daijiabao, completely in a defensive posture, which would indeed affect the public image of the Dai family.
However, if it were to be built as described by Dai Yingfan, let alone the musketeers of Shanxi salt merchants, even if the local Ming army were to come over to attack such a fortress, it would not be easy to win it.
Yuan Tao couldn't help but ask: "Boss Dai is so familiar with this fortification. I wonder if he served in the military before?"
Dai Yingfan responded: "Dai did spend several years in the military in order to successfully obtain the position of Baihu in the early years."
Although the Dai family spent money to donate hundreds of official positions to Dai Yingfan, the management was relatively strict at that time, and Dai Yingfan had to serve in the military to truly obtain this position. However, he was originally trained as a commander of his own militia since he was a child, and he was also very interested in the military, so he simply went to the army and stayed for a few years, becoming a genuine Ming army officer.
Yuan Tao smiled and said: "Then I should respectfully address you as Master Dai!"
Dai Yingfan waved his hand and said: "There is no need for Shopkeeper Yuan. Now that Dai is no longer in the army, these hundred households are just a false position and cannot be taken seriously!"
(End of chapter)