The summer solstice of the fifth year of Wanli, Tianjin Dagukou.

Behind the wall of the city of Baihu, there are several banner soldiers standing every ten steps, and the cold Zhenshuo general's muzzle is raised to the sea, and the high banner is waving in the wind.

Since the Beiyang Military Government was established in Tianjin, the originally lazy banner army at Dagukou met an idle Beiyang minister, and ran back and forth with cavalry all day long, so that no one could be lazy.

The majesty of the Beiyang Army resting on the beach outside the hundred households, the armor of the fort made the eyes of the hundred households of the fort hot, and the armor of some cavalry was painted with red and Xuan paint, and the tassel belt was still hanging on the chest and shoulders, reflecting the sunlight and shining; Many more wore only plain armor, bright enough to reflect a figure on the breastplate, and the collar of the dark blue standard recruit uniform under the armor stood up, and the symmetrical square pattern identifying the number of the army and the name of the position was tied.

Beiyang infantry and artillery are already simple in terms of military armament, and even then they are all of the highest quality, whether it is a properly cut military uniform or a finely forged armor, it is enviable.

The cavalry obviously entered another class in terms of armament, the armor and weapons were more exquisite, and there were more ornaments on the bodies of men and horses, and each cavalry cuirass was made with an etching process by the skilled military craftsmen of the Nanyang Guard, and the brim was smaller and shorter than that of the infantry helmet, and the neck guard lock curtain pendant was colored wolf hair and yak hair, and the biggest difference was that the cavalry cadet uniform was red.

For a long time, people believed that the color of the military uniform was pure red, and purple, blue, yellow, and white were used as colors to achieve the purpose of intimidating the enemy and showing the prestige.

However, the color of the uniform originally had the effect of being easy to identify, especially in the infantry, and the various colors of clothing and armor could be easier for the generals to identify, so it was easy to achieve the purpose of command, so there were few pure red uniforms at this time.

Even the military uniforms of the Beiyang cavalry were dark blue at the beginning, but just in time for the lack of blue dye in the clothing factory, a batch of red military mansions were made, and later Chen Mu found that the red looked better and was more suitable for the majestic appearance of the cavalry galloping, so he simply ordered the cavalry to complete the first phase of military training in September to change their clothes, taking this as a ceremony to enhance the sense of honor of recruitment.

In this way, the sense of honor of the cavalry does have it, and the envy of the rest of the troops also follows - regardless of the first or second phase, the recruits are all for this money, the infantry has the lowest salary, the artillery and cavalry are higher than others, and the cavalry is better than the artillery, who can not envy this?

It's a pity that envy is useless, when the bird gunners are promoted to various arms, they look at the results, the best talents in the subjects of spearmanship, gunnery, and battle formations have the subjects of promotion to cavalry, and the artillery is also selected according to the results of geometry, arithmetic, eyesight and other subjects.

To put it simply, as long as you are good enough, you can have the opportunity to become a cavalryman, but artillery is different, artillery also depends on talent, and some recruits have very good results, even if they are killed, they will not be considered ballistic, so they will not be artillery.

Several banner troops of the hundred households in Dagukou stood on the city wall, and the general cannon of Zhenshuo watched the cavalry resting in the distance, and was discovered by the flag officer patrolling from afar, and walked over with a calm face and whispered: "Stand up straight and listen, Chen Shuai of the military government is over there, don't embarrass us in this realm!" ”

Seeing that the officers were coming, the flag army hurriedly stood up, and boldly muttered to the general banner, saying: "Look at the big cockscombs inside, isn't it the new army, okay, look at their energy." ”

The big cockscomb is talking about the large cluster of red tassels on the helmet of the Beiyang cavalry, which is two inches high from the top of the helmet and falls backwards to the shoulder blades.

Originally, the treatment of recruiting soldiers was better than that of the flag army, they were all soldiers, and the flag army was still a world soldier, but a few buckets of rice a month on the treatment was much less than the monthly salary calculated by the stone, and now there is a recruitment of the Beiyang Military Government, and the treatment is higher than that of the past recruitment.

"Have you heard of it, this Beiyang cavalry, I don't know how to calculate the silver, eat and live well, many people can get three taels of broken silver a month!"

In these years, most of the soldiers who killed people were rich, and no one killed that little military salary was only enough to manage half a full, where is it like the Beiyang Army, the salary for training soldiers without fighting is so much, and it is forty taels a year, and the total flag is only this number.

"You want to give me this money, not to mention sending the head to the tower, you can pluck the bird feathers and put it in the tower!"

The young general banner raised his feet expressionlessly and kicked his subordinates who were unobstructed, and asked them to stand guard with righteous words, don't think about what they have, and only after taking a few steps did they calculate how much property they had in their hands, looking at Chen Shuai is also very kind, can you ask someone to get a place for this year's martial arts hall enrollment.

His family has been the general banner for three lifetimes, and the highest generation is fortunate to be a hundred households, and in his generation, if he can be a hundred households, even if he glorifies his ancestors.

But then again, who doesn't want to be a thousand households and a conductor? This Tianjin has been peaceful for a long time, and it is impossible to get promoted and not want to work the road to money, but the same is to make money, send it to thousands of households, and you can be promoted to 100 households in two years, but if you want to send yourself to the lecture hall and come out in two years, it will not be just 100 households.

In just the past ten months, several of the students in Beiyang who have come out of the Xuanfu Lecture Hall have risen from 100 to 1,000 households.

Just thinking about it, the flag army on the tower of the hundred households blew the buffalo horns, and when they raised their eyes, several lucky ships on the sea slowly sailed along the coast, large and small, all of which looked like warships.

"Go, no, follow me to inform Chen Shuai, the lucky boat is here!"

He knew that the Oriental marshal had been running to Dagukou in recent days, but he was waiting for the Beijing transportation from overseas.

There was no need to be reminded at all, Chen Mu had already seen the lucky boat coming from the sea, he put down the binoculars and frowned and handed it to Zhao Shizhen, saying, "Let's see, is it a way-finding ship that sailed from Nanjing to Spain with Tang Juan." ”

There are a total of six large and small Fu ships, and the carrying capacity is not up or down ten thousand stones, this scale is not a Beijing ship sent from the South Seas, but after the treaty was signed, there were only two Dafu ships that went to Spain to recognize the way, and the extra four ships did not know where they came from, which made Chen Mu feel itchy.

"There is one boat that went to Spain to find the way, and it is back, and there are two boats that seem to be the same as the Chen Ye to find Magui last year." Zhao Shizhen looked at the sea with all his eyes, and said slowly: "There are three left, like cargo ships on the other side of the South Sea." ”

"Chen Ju's ship?"

Chen Mu tapped his temple, and he remembered that Chen Ju had taken a dangerous journey when he was returning from Majia Port in North Asia, and a ship turned around and went south to the north of the equator and came back, and he went out for a few months one after the other.

Although there was a navigation chart of the Manila galleon sent by the Spaniards in the past, it was also the first voyage in the end, and it was not much safer, and Chen Mu was even more worried about whether there would be a shortage of sailors on their ship.

"The cargo ship in the South Seas, presumably the Beijing ship has also arrived, I will pick up the people, you stay in the port for a few days, waiting for the Beijing ship."

Chen Mu slapped one place with his two hands as he spoke: "Look at what Nanyang can send us this year!" ”