Annam, Golden Harbor.

This place, which was originally called Da Nang in later generations, has been on the fast track of vigorous development hundreds of years ahead of schedule since it was favored by Gao Pragmatic. In just over two years, on the coastal plain, which was originally only a few small fishing villages, a new city of Golden Port in Annam, second only to Thang Long and even larger than Thanh Hoa, has been miraculously built.

Gao Mengnan, the commander-in-chief of the three towns of An, Hue, and Quang Nam, who was "recommended" by the Jinghua Group and officially appointed by the Commander of the Annam Metropolitan Envoy, held a grand military parade in Jingang today to welcome the arrival of Huang Zhiting, deputy commander of the Annam Metropolitan and envoy of the town of Viet Nam.

The important figures of the three towns who participated in the parade also included Gao Wuqin, deputy commander-in-chief of the three towns, and Gao Jing, commander of the Annan detachment of the Beijing-South Ocean Fleet.

The army participating in this parade is divided into two parts: land and sea.

In terms of the army, the Jingang garrison concentrated 20,000 troops to participate in the parade, of which 7,000 were the part that was about to accompany Huang Zhiting to southern Burma;

On the naval side, the entire Annan detachment, which had just been temporarily strengthened, participated in the full participation, and at the same time, the Ming and Annam civilian armed ships willing to participate in the expedition were also concentrated.

Among them, it belongs to Jinghua's fleet, with a total of one first-class cruiser of 2,400 materials, three second-class cruisers of 2,000 materials, and eighty-four armed transport ships; The number of civilian armed seagoing vessels that took the initiative to enlist also reached 39.

Since there is no fixed number of guns for civilian armed sea vessels, it will not be counted here for the time being, and only calculated by the fleet to which Jinghua belongs, and the investment in this expedition can be called shocking:

According to the Jinghua shipyard and fleet system, the first-class cruiser has two deck guns, 52 guns of various sizes, a crew of 346 people, and a single ship costs as much as 160,000 taels of silver;

The second class cruiser is a deck gun, with 42 guns of various types, each with a capacity of 288 people. This time, three ships were dispatched, with a total tonnage of 3,000 tons, 126 artillery pieces, and 864 people. The cost of a single ship of this class is 120,000 taels of silver, and the total cost of three ships is 360,000 taels.

Jinghua's armed transport ships are 800 tons and have open-air deck guns, each with 28 guns of various types and a capacity of 180 people. The total tonnage is 67,200 tons, 2,352 large and small artillery pieces, and the crew is up to 15,120 people.

The cost of a single Jinghua armed transport ship is cheaper than the first two serious "warships", but because Gao Pragmatic has positioned them as "quasi-warships", the cost of a single ship is still as high as 55,000 taels of silver, and the total cost of the 84 ships here is also very amazing, as high as 4.62 million taels of silver, which is more than half of the family foundation accumulated by Jinghua Haimao in the past ten years of development.

If we add the civilian ships that have been recruited by the people, the Jinghua Expeditionary Fleet alone has more than 20,000 seafarers participating in it, which is more than the landing force that Huang Zhiting will lead.

And the fleet has more than 3,500 large and small guns, even if the ship-based light artillery at this time can only be used to fight pirates or something, but Jinghua's own fleet strength is enough to be hard-rooted: more than 200 heavy guns in the first place, and more than 300 heavy guns in the second period - these 500 heavy guns of this period alone require almost 3,000 people to operate.

Although Gao Jing still set out in the name of "Commander of the Annam Detachment of the Nanyang Fleet" this time, in fact, the fleet under his command was already eighty percent of the combat strength of the entire Nanyang Fleet.

After all, this is a super expedition with a fleet alone costing more than five million taels.

Gao Shishi even suspected that when he went to the West, the Ming fleet might not be able to reach this cost, because Zhu Di's shipbuilding was different from him, and it was a political task, and it was not popular to equip so many expensive artillery at that time, and the wood may even be directly requisitioned, and there is no money to be made below, and the total cost must be much cheaper.

However, Jinghua's shipbuilding is basically still a commercial ship, even if the Jinghua fleet orders ships from Jinghua's own shipyard, the purchase price of the ship is not much favorable.

In the concept of high pragmatism, shipyards must of course also make profits, otherwise how can they continue to develop? Only by being self-financed can we have the driving force for development and sustainable competitiveness.

As for where the purchase money of the Jinghua fleet comes from, of course, it is the income of the transport fleet from maritime trade! The reason why Jinghua's armed transport ships are far more numerous than those of first- and second-class cruisers is that in the final analysis, armed transport ships are tools for making money, and as for their "armament," they are a special product of this era, and they themselves are used to deal with threats at sea.

The world's countries, especially the Western navies, were almost all developing like this at this time - even Spain could not afford to raise many pure "navies", and the same was true of poorer England, which had to rely on armed transport ships.

England even issued "privateer warrants" to its own pirates in exchange for being able to requisition them to fight for their country in the event of a war.

Of course, Gao Shishi's situation in the South Seas is different from that of England, a "game-breaker", he is more like the state of the Spanish Navy in Europe at this time, and he is a vested interest in the first place, so he has always focused on cracking down on pirates and supplemented by incorporation, and there is absolutely no possibility of issuing privateer licenses.

It is precisely because of this that Jinghua will have as many as thirty-nine civilian armed ships to follow this expedition - Jinghua has always rewarded merit, although it is dangerous to fight, but once it wins, it will definitely gain huge benefits, and there are few timid people who dare to eat by the sea in these years.

Even now, the people in the Annan Detachment who want to fight with the Francophile are not Gao Jing or the people of the Jinghua fleet, but the bosses of each of these two armed sea ships.

Huang Zhiting and his 13,000 troops appeared outside Jingang City on time, and Gao Mengnan and Gao Wuqin greeted the arrival of the "Deputy Commander of Annan" according to the predetermined etiquette.

After a brief exchange of pleasantries, Wong's army set up camp at the designated location, and she herself watched the shelling and platoon gun display of the Jingang garrison.

Artillery includes a series of tactical actions, such as rapid transfer of artillery teams, rapid deployment and positioning of firing angles, artillery salvo coverage, and artillery layer by layer advancement.

The display of the infantry almost ignored the confrontation of cold weapons, and mainly carried out drills in the field of guns, including the new "three-stage attack" that I don't know whether it should be regarded as Gao or Qi's, the hollow phalanx of bayonet platoons, the hollow phalanx of the car battalion, and the approach of the platoon gun array.

It even concentrated a small number of cavalry in the Jingang garrison to conduct a joint combat drill in which the musket array approached the attack and the two flanks of the musketeers surrounded and covered the battlefield.

Overall, at least it still looks like it's still presentable.

Huang Zhiting, as a real front-line general who commanded the Battle of Liangshan, naturally has her standards. In her opinion, the tactical literacy of Gao Pragmatic's "Jiading Army" is sufficient, but I don't know whether it is Gao Pragmatic's own tactical set-up or the nature of the army itself, she always feels that they seem to be better at defensive operations, and their offensive or more bluntly aggressive is somewhat insufficient.

Huang Zhiting asked Gao Mengnan and Gao Wuqin privately, but it turned out that these two didn't actually know much about soldiers, and Gao Zhiqin even said that "since they are garrison troops, they naturally take garrisoning places as their first priority", and Huang Zhiting almost rolled her eyes when she heard it.

Fortunately, Gao Zhang, who accompanied him, finally saved some face for the "Gao Jiajun", saying that this situation itself was expected by Gao Shishi, he said: "The master believes that the advantage of our army is in firearms, and the advantage of firearms is in range and firepower, that is, 'dense projectile delivery per unit time'." In this way, in order to give full play to its advantages, it is necessary to have a stable and dense battle line, so that soldiers can calmly and quickly reload and shoot, so whether it is the Golden Port Garrison or the Thang Long Garrison, most of their training is to ensure that the battle line is stable as the first priority. ”

"I see." Huang Zhiting nodded in understanding, and then asked, "Is there any arrangement for the city defense drill I asked for before?" ”

"Yes, yes." Gao Mengnan immediately said: "Since Jingang is a free port set by seeking truth and personally, now there are not only Ming people and Annan people in the port, but even many people from Fanbang, so in order to ensure that military secrets are not leaked, I took it upon myself to change the place of the show to twenty miles south of Jingang." ”

Huang Zhiting said: "Consulate General Gao is very worried, although these Fanbang people are here to do business, it cannot be ruled out that there may be a possibility of fine work...... But is there a city in this place you are talking about that can practice defending the city? ”

Gao Mengnan said: "That place was originally called Th?yS?n in the people of Annam, which means 'water mountain', and it is a mountain of plains. Although this mountain cannot be said to be tall or majestic, it is enough to overlook the surrounding area in that area, and even the Golden Harbor can be vaguely seen from the top of the mountain, so we built a fort there as a defensive base for the Golden Harbor, which I think should be able to meet the needs of this exercise. ”

Huang Zhiting nodded secretly, and said in his heart: Although the clan brother Gao Lang used in the three towns in the south is not very knowledgeable about military affairs, it can be seen that he still has put some thought into it, not to mention that he basically completed the construction of Jingang City in just two years, which shows that he is better at government affairs, and as the leader of the three towns, it is enough to describe it as an excellent performance.

Originally, Gao Mengnan also arranged a reception banquet, but Huang Zhiting politely refused the offer on the grounds of military urgency, so the group rushed to Shuishan non-stop, ready to watch the prepared city defense drill, and even under Huang Zhiting's leadership, even lunch was made up of dry food on the horse.

Huang Zhiting has a good impression of Gao Mengnan, and Gao Mengnan is also secretly amazed by this legendary female general who now seems likely to become his brother-in-law.

Originally, according to his previous thoughts, although Huang Zhiting commanded the bloody battle in Liangshan, the command was under command, and most of the time he was just sitting in the army with Gao Shipra, not necessarily that he himself would really come and go in the wind and rain like a man. But today, when he saw with his own eyes that this female general, who had become the deputy capital of Annan, walked forward on the horse, while casually nibbling on naan cakes to satisfy his hunger, he knew that he really underestimated people.

And when the twenty-mile journey was over, Gao Mengnan admired it even more.

Since he came with the army this time, there were no Taiping horses to ride, everyone rode military horses, but he himself wore a thin civilian dress and rode a horse, and he felt that his bones were about to fall apart, and the naan cake was quietly hidden after two bites.

And Huang Zhiting, who was dressed in armor, not only ate all the naan cakes, but also looked refreshed when she got off the horse, and she didn't seem to feel any discomfort - the key is that she had already traveled for several hours in the morning.

Gao Mengnan couldn't help but sigh in his heart: it is said that wolf soldiers are easy to raise and can fight, it seems that it is really not boasting, it is just that a young girl's family suffers more than men, and people are actually still from the general background of the emperor, which shows the quality of the wolf soldiers under his command.

It's no wonder that after the original Qiuzhen Xian brother controlled the Cen and Huang families, even Annan, who had been unable to stabilize for decades in the heyday of the Ming Dynasty, dared to fight, although Qiuzhen was confident in his political skills, but who dared to say that he could not trust the combat effectiveness of the wolf soldiers? Don't you see, how did Cen Ling's name of the Living Yama King come about? The Cen clan's wolf soldiers are like this, and the Huang clan can be as famous as the Cen clan with a slightly weaker force, so naturally it will not be worse.

Gao Mengnan was distracted, but Huang Zhiting didn't notice him, but looked at the fort dock on the water mountain with interest for a while, and then suddenly turned his head and asked: "Commander Gao, this fort dock is quite interesting, I look like Gao Lang...... Uh, the kind of fortress I mentioned? ”

Gao Mengnan came back to his senses, pretended not to hear the word "Gao Lang", and seemed to turn a blind eye to the two red clouds that quietly rose on Huang Deputy Dutong's face, coughed lightly, and replied: "The Good Sect Deputy Dutong knows that this Shuishan Fort is indeed a fortress. ”

Huang Zhiting saw that he didn't notice his momentary gaffe just now, so he quietly breathed a sigh of relief, and returned to business, and asked with a little surprise: "But Gao Cheng told me that he only has a general understanding of the structure of the fortress, and he doesn't have time to think too much about it for the time being, are you here...... I mean, this water hill fort doesn't look like it's been built recently, and it's been built for at least a year, but what's going on? ”

Gao Mengnan didn't know much about military affairs, and he didn't know that Huang Zhiting actually judged that the construction time of Shuishan Fort was not less than a year from the dark moss in some of the building cracks, he just nodded after a while of surprise and said: "The eyes of the deputy capital are like a torch, this Shuishan Fort has been built for a year and a half - when Jingang City only built a city wall, twelve outer fortresses of Jingang City, including Shuishan Fort, have been built, because at that time, our construction idea was to ensure safety first." ”

Huang Zhiting nodded, but did not interrupt Gao Mengnan's words, because he obviously hadn't finished speaking.

Sure enough, Gao Mengnan paused slightly and continued: "As for why these fortresses were built as fortresses...... Actually, I didn't know what a fortress was at that time, but I remembered Qiuzhen's description of the fortress.

I don't know if the deputy capital knows that there is a priest Luo Mingjian who has met in Annan more than two years ago? But Qiu Zhen talked to him about some cooperation, including the recruitment of various talents from Father Luo Mingjian's hometown. This priest Luo Mingjian seems to have quite a few connections in his hometown, and many high-nosed and deep-eyed Westerners have come to Jingang after that, and I have adhered to the will of the time to seek truth, and after making appropriate selections and comparisons of these people, most of them have been hired, especially in architecture, these fortresses were built under their suggestion, but they were also shocked by the cement of Jinghua, and asked me how I understood the secret of the lost history of Rome in the past......"

Huang Zhiting didn't have much interest in the history of cement, she only cared about the structure of this fortress now, and looked at it intently for a while, and said: "General Gao, after a while, I want to have a good visit to this fortress." Other than that...... Forgive me, if Commander Gao doesn't know anything about the structure of this fortress, I wonder if he can find a master who understands the construction of the fortress to explain it to me? ”

The ruler is short, the inch is long, Gao Mengnan didn't feel offended, and said with a smile: "It's not difficult, those architects from Italy have no less than twenty people in Jingang, and I will send someone to invite a few over." ”

Huang Zhiting was very satisfied, thanked him with a smile at the moment, and secretly said in her heart: Wonderful! It seems that I can bring a few "architects" who can build fortresses to Bago this time, as long as this thing is really as powerful as Gao Lang said, and even if Mangyingli goes south, I can deal with him well...... It is necessary to exhaust the power of this thief chieftain.

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