Chapter 3198
After the troops from the Northern Region passed the viewing platform, the next troops to appear were from the Fujian region.
Xu Yuzhuo, who was sitting on the viewing platform with the Executive Committee, straightened his back and waved to greet his direct troops.
As the governor of Fujian, Xu Yuzhuo also participated in the previous election of the executive committee. However, everyone knows that his participation is only a symbolic move, and it is not really aimed at a certain position on the executive committee.
Although he failed to win the election, it had basically no impact on Xu Yuzhuo. It doesn't matter whether he joins the executive committee or not, as long as he keeps the family property of this three-thirds of an acre in Fujian.
As for the executive committee's move to the capital, its impact on Xu Yuzhuo was limited. Starting from Zhangzhou, whether you are going to Sanya or Hangzhou, the voyage is almost the same.
If the Executive Committee hadn't come to Hangzhou en masse, Xu Yuzhuo probably wouldn't have bothered to travel far to join in the fun. At most, he could just send a detachment to participate in the military parade.
But since the executive committee was all present, Xu Yuzhuo naturally couldn't miss this opportunity to join in the fun. Moreover, the troops he brought to Hangzhou to be reviewed this time were not the Third Lu Division stationed in Fujian, nor the Fujian Fleet formed by the Xu family navy, but a guard battalion belonging to his private army.
In the previous dynasty, this kind of army was a combination of servants, soldiers, and dead soldiers. It was often the most elite force under a general.
The Xu family owns a province, so it is no problem to raise such an elite battalion. The weapons and equipment are equipped according to the level of Haihan's several special elite units. It is said that the funds invested are comparable to raising a small fleet. .
Xu Yuzhuo brought this unit to Hangzhou for display, not because he meant to show off, but because the equipment level of the Third Lu Division was too much to handle in this situation.
The equipment level of the troops in the East China Sea, Guangdong and Guangxi around Fujian, and even Taiwan across the strait is much higher than that of Fujian. The weapons and equipment of the Third Lu Division were only at the level of a local garrison in the Donghai Region.
As for the reason, Xu Yuzhuo certainly knew it well. After all, other regions were in the hands of the executive committee, but Fujian was controlled by the Xu family. Being able to form a well-equipped guard battalion is basically the upper limit of the Fujian army's armament level.
Xu Yuzhuo did not intend to seek to change this status quo. After all, among the four directions of Fujian, east, west, north, and south, only Jiangxi in the west was still the territory of the Ming Dynasty, and the local government there did not dare to take the initiative to provoke Haihan. Fujian really has no need at this stage. opportunity to use massive force.
Moreover, he knew that if he acted too proactively in terms of military preparations, the executive committee might mistakenly think that the Xu family had some agenda. At that time, the reins on the Xu family would only be tightened, and the relationship between Fujian and Xu would be Home won't do any good.
The troops that followed closely into Victory Square came from the island of Taiwan, which is just across the water from Fujian.
Seeing Taiwan's troops on the scene, the two Portuguese men, Simang and Thomas, began to wink at the Su family and his son. Although they didn't say anything, their ridicule was palpable.
As we all know, the Dutch once controlled most of Taiwan. However, since Haihan invaded Taiwan in the name of destroying pirates, the scope of Dutch control there has shrunk rapidly, and was later reduced to only Damuan Port. Moreover, the size of the armed forces stationed locally is also strictly restricted by Haihan.
Later, the Netherlands held many negotiations with Haihan on the issue of the ownership of Taiwan Island, but how could it get back what it couldn't get on the battlefield at the negotiation table.
This was an extremely serious blow to the Netherlands, and the commercial routes operating in Northeast Asia also came under the control of Haihan. As an old rival of the Netherlands, Portugal took this opportunity to expand its business scale in Japan and other places and annexed part of the business that originally belonged to the Netherlands. To this day, they still taunt the Netherlands about this whenever they get the chance.
This was not the first time that Su Keyi had encountered this kind of situation. He looked at his nose and his heart, pretending that he did not see the provocation from the Portuguese. Su Yongshan, on the other hand, couldn't keep his temper and stared back fiercely. If it weren't for the envoys from various countries sitting next to him, he would have to stand up and argue with the other party.
Fortunately, only two companies of troops came from Taiwan, a sea infantry company and a mountain company. They quickly passed by the viewing platform and did not embarrass the Dutch envoy for too long.
At the same time, Yue Shizong was in a daze as he looked at the seemingly endless phalanx of troops on the official road outside the square.
He had thought beforehand that the Hai-Han Executive Committee would come to Hangzhou in person. This National Day military parade would certainly be quite large in scale, but seeing Hai-Han troops from all over the place filing into the parade with his own eyes still shocked him.
Yue Shizong did not count how many troops passed through the viewing platform where he was, but there should be twenty or thirty large and small square formations. Just looking at the number of troops that have not yet entered the scene, there may be more than half who have not yet appeared.
This reminded him of a military parade in the capital a few years ago.
At that time, wars at home and abroad in the Ming Dynasty were extremely unsatisfactory, and the atmosphere between the government and the public was tense. In order to boost morale, the Ministry of War specially held a military parade. The emperor and officials from various ministries were present. The Ministry of Rites also specially invited some foreign envoys.
Due to the situation of the Ming Dynasty, troops too far away from the capital could not be mobilized, so only troops from Shenwu Zhongwei, Dingbian Guard, Yingzhou Guard, Yanqing Guard and other guards in the Gyeonggi area were concentrated, plus the Yulin Army and The honor guards of various palaces barely managed to gather several thousand troops.
As for the perception of the military parade, there were mixed reviews from all parties.
The emperor and cabinet officials all believed that the Ming army's troops had "high morale and firm fighting spirit." However, some officials who had been on the front line and on the battlefield believed that these troops were poorly equipped and found it difficult to fight head-on with a powerful enemy of Haihan's level.
As for the foreign envoys who were invited to receive shocking education, their general response was muted. Although he didn't say anything unpleasant in person, the private evaluation later was that it was generally believed that the Ming Dynasty was over, and that such military parades were just an act of self-deception. He looks mighty and majestic on the school field, but he has never won a victory on the battlefield.
At that time, Yue Shizong did not understand what the gap was. He only thought that some people might exaggerate and exaggerate the strength of the Haihan Army. But after watching Haihan's military parade live today, he finally understood that the negative comments he heard about the Ming army were considered very polite.
There was a person on the viewing platform who kept introducing where each of the troops on the stage came from and what historical achievements they had made. It is estimated that more than half of the military achievements of the several major regions that have appeared on the stage were achieved on the territory that originally belonged to the Ming Dynasty.
The huge difference between the honor guard troops used to decorate the appearance and the victorious troops who are truly tempered on the battlefield can be seen at a glance.
The emperor, senior officials of the court, and the former Yue Shizong would be satisfied with the troops participating in the military parade at the school field at that time, just because they had not seen a truly powerful army.
(End of chapter)