On March 15, the birthday of the God of Wealth, the return of Deng Zilong, who escorted the first batch of baggage convoys to land in Asia, ended.

Returning to Acapulco, Deng Zilong boarded the Nantang, the main battleship named after Qi Jiguang, as the admiral of the fleet, and set off for the south under the command of the fleet.

As the fleet left the harbor, the eastern mountains thundered and rained on the other side.

The huge mountain range not only separates the coast from the plateau, but also divides the east and west sides into different climatic zones, Shanxi is dry and hot, Shandong is cool and rainy, and it is geographically determined that Mexico City can only be walked by a few canyons from the coast.

Ma Gui had always had some suspicions about this mountain range, he felt that this huge mountain range should be connected with the mountain range seen in the Black Water Ya Islands in the north, so he always felt that Chen Mu's men had drawn the map obliquely.

Chen Mu felt that his own fleet had brought too much baggage, so that Ma Gui had time to think about these issues.

Through the scouts of Lin Manjue's department, the Oriental Military Office knew more about the road to Mexico City in the east, which was generally flat to the east, crossing two small rivers and a canyon through the mountains hundreds of miles away, each of which was easier to defend than the other.

On this 100-mile road, the terrain gradually rises, and when you cross the canyon further east, there is a plateau, which is a mountain step by step, and only a few villages are close to the road.

There is another road from the north of the port to the east, which is the road that Shao Tingda returned after the victory of the White Horse, which is also full of dangers.

That is, Shao Tingda launched an attack when neither the enemy nor I expected them to attack, and if Bernal was a dumbfounded ambush along the line, they would have fought a very ugly battle.

In any case, Shao Tingda and Fu Yuan landed without authorization and won the reward that the soldiers should have rewarded, and the harvest of the capture of Taxco was claimed back by the military government, and then the military affairs department set the reward amount, and the operation department allocated two silver taels, and finally rewarded the soldiers more than they got in Yincheng.

In addition, those who should be punished should also be punished, and now the two of them led their troops to the north and the south, and the garrison was in search of the key places, and repaired the pass according to the map given by the Port Army Bureau.

Chen Mu found that the generals who graduated from the Jiangwutang in the army were very interesting, perhaps because the textbook he compiled for the Jiangwutang divided the trenches in the earthwork into three sections, first digging from the foxholes, digging the foxholes, then expanding into half-body trenches, then expanding into upright trenches, and finally connecting them into trenches.

As a result, the current fortification drawings given by the War Bureau to the engineers of the front-line troops take into account the situation encountered during the construction process, so that they can build a kind of fortification for war.

First dig the trench, after the trench is dug a few sections of cut plateau wood on the front frame, build another layer on the trench, pile a layer of bunker with earth and stone on the outer edge, build a rainproof shelter on it, and build a two-layer structure.

The banner troops in the lower trenches shot outward from the gaps in the logs, and the upper bannermen observed the shooting behind the bunkers, and with the help of wood, earth, stone and a small amount of cement carried by the baggage, they were able to quickly repair the improvised fortifications.

Several of these intermittent trench walls formed a key defensive fortification, and after repair, further horses, trenches or fortified structures were erected on the perimeter to increase the defensive capacity according to the situation and time of the battle.

Yang Ting of the Ordnance Bureau is very respectful of this set of things, and the flag army also built two barrier walls and trenches in the port and beach where it is easy to land, and when he took Chen Mu to urge the flag army to excavate, he introduced: "This can be built during the battle, the flag army in front is guarded, and the flag army in the back can be repaired." ”

"As soon as our troops dug a pit when the enemy broke through, the flag army relied on the pit to fight; When we dig trenches, we fight on them; After digging the barrier wall, they relied on the barrier wall to fight the trenches, and with the initial defense, they could build a fortress in the rear. ”

Chen Mu wanted to call this the spirit of copycats, but it was not suitable, but the people of the Ming Dynasty did have a strong spirit of this kind, and found that one thing was easy to use, and they could use this method in everything that could be used.

Just like the Franc machine, it was originally just a small cannon spliced with wrought iron bars, which was widely used by the Ming Dynasty on all kinds of cannons, small cannons and even firearms, and it was used well.

Zou Yuanbiao, who was not sure who he was, was also doing well on his side.

Perhaps it was the local people who personally felt the deterrence of the Ming army to drive away the Western army, or the leniency of the decree, plus Chen Mu, who did not want to stay, respected their wishes and let them go, at least until now, the Ming army and the local people got along quite well.

The local people are not resistant to learning Chinese, and they can understand Spanish and do not affect normal communication.

Since the simple brick kiln was repaired and fired, it was only ten years when the green bricks came out of the kiln, and then the bricks and tiles of the kiln were continuously transported into the village by workers.

The Han School in the city, the Jun Temple in the north of the city, the Wenchang Temple in the south of the city, and the Chenghuang Temple in the east of the city were built one by one, and the city god was worshiped as the city god because of the ordinary flag army called Fan Keyin by Shao Tingda's subordinates.

Wenchang Temple for Wenchang Emperor Zhang Yazi and the sky deaf and dumb, Daojun Temple for the Dragon and Tiger Xuantan Zhenjun Zhao Gongming and Zhaobao Nazhen Zhaocai City, except for the God of Wealth pottery statue covered with mountain armor, the head of the iron helmet, the shoulder of a four-foot bird, the waist plug two carved handcuffs, there is nothing wrong.

Chen Mu said that this is the germ of magical realism in Ming Dynasty sculpture.

The market is also planned, at the entrance of the Daojun Temple, to please a good fortune, although the shops and warehouses are only set aside for the construction of the land has not yet begun, but the road is built quickly.

Thanks to the large number of over-fired and under-fired bricks in the process of firing the green bricks and the excess manpower of the port, two horse-drawn carriage tracks leading directly to the port were quickly built.

All this was seen by the former governor of New Spain, Almanza, and the monk Acosta, who had nothing but admiration and doubt, but when he told his doubts to the previous governors, the old governor could not give him any correct answers.

"They were highly accomplished in architecture, complex writing, powerful empires, and strong armies, and I would have hardly believed them if I hadn't seen them with my own eyes—they weren't just barbarians above barbarians, maybe they weren't barbarians themselves."

"But if they were not savages, without Jesus, who taught them the truth and saved them from their fate?"

"On behalf of the emperor, they would make gods on behalf of the emperor the dead soldiers, just as the king canonized knights, and make statues of gods to worship in temples."

"And Your Excellency, don't you think that in that pagan temple dedicated to the 'Dao King', the statue of the god looks ......" Acosta showed an indescribably complicated expression, raised a hand to his side, and said with difficulty, "Similar to someone we know?" ”

The old governor Almansa looked at Acosta, who was about to become a madman who was about to be tortured by religious thoughts, and let out a long sigh, and said, "Monk, I am a devout believer. ”

"But I don't know what you're talking about, are they barbarians or not? I saw with my own eyes that the young general named Bianjiao annihilated the Herrera legion with 1,200 infantry and 900 cavalry without artillery spears. ”

"They have better weapons than we have, more muskets than us, stronger armor than us, and if they are barbarians, what are we? Monkeys? I don't think we're thinking about whether they're barbarians or not. ”

"You should make a report that exalts them as much as possible, for I have a hunch that whether they are barbarians or those higher than us, we are going to lose the New World, for it sounds better for the higher people to lose their land than to lose them to the barbarians."

Almanza's hand pointed to the village not far away, and said, "The biggest problem now is that they don't seem to be leaving, they are not leaving!" ”