After listening to the priest's translation, Wang Xinyu stared at Turbuqing and wrote lightly: "This is very simple, the Russians will not point their guns at their compatriots, but the Russians can hire them to kill the Tartars for me." I have completed the task of buying horses, and I am ready to go back to the south, and in the future, this is the king of the Eastern Capital, Zheng Xi, to negotiate with you, and I will take those Russians away. ”

"I see!" It dawned on Tulbuqing.

Wang Xinyu also explained to Zheng Xi: "If there are any more Russian prisoners captured in the future war, they will stay first, and when the ship comes, they will be sent to the south, they are all very good mercenaries." ”

More than 20 captured Russian musketeers were brought up, and Wang Xinyu carefully looked at these Russians, only to see that they were indeed tall and strong, and each of them had a lot of blood on their hands, and they were all capable of fighting. If a group of Russian mercenaries can be organized, they will still be very useful in the future.

The Russian Musketeer is not only a ranged marksman, but also a very strong melee class, each Russian Musketeer is equipped with a long-handled axe, which can be transformed into an axe soldier in close combat. The Russian musketeers wore fur caps on their heads and an iron helmet on the outside. He wears a thick cotton coat with leather armor, and a silk lining inside the thick cotton coat, which has a relatively strong ability to resist long-range weapons, but is relatively weak in dealing with chopping weapons.

In fact, the musketeers in the West also had armor back then, but the armor of musketeers was relatively weak. The effect of the thick cotton clothes and leather armor of the Russian army is definitely better than the single-layer cotton armor of the Qing army, but it is not as good as iron armor or multi-layer cotton armor.

When the Russians are brought to the south, whether it is cotton clothing and leather armor or cotton armor, they will definitely not be able to wear it, and they can only be replaced with light paper armor with silk lining paper armor, and the effect of resisting long-range weapons is still good. As for the poor defense against slashing, it doesn't matter. There are very few who can beat the Russians in close combat.

After all the arrangements were made on Sakhalin Island, Wang Xinyu said goodbye to Zheng Zheng Jing, took his own soldiers, and returned to the south by ship with more than 20 Russian musketeers who had become mercenaries.

The speed of the clipper on the return trip was quite fast, and it was already winter, and the wind was blowing from the northwest. The speed of the clipper ship was the fastest, sailing at a speed of 15 or 6 knots, from Sakhalin Island to the mouth of the Yangtze River, it only took about ten days to reach the mouth of the Yangtze River and enter the port of Shanghai.

After leaving for five months, I returned to Jiangnan, and the new year was coming soon. After the year, he will launch an offensive against southern Zhejiang, Fujian and other places, and Wang Xinyu began to prepare for war after returning to Jiangnan.

At this time, Wang Xinyu's troops in Jiangnan. has its own Qiongzhou Army and Zheng Cong's Min Army, both of which belong to their own mobilization. And Zhang Huangyan's Zhejiang army is not under the jurisdiction of Wang Xinyu, and he has no right to transfer. In addition, the combat effectiveness of the Zhejiang army is not as good as that of the Fujian army and the Qiongzhou army, and they do not need to attack the city and seize the land, as long as they defend the south of the Yangtze River.

As soon as Wang Xinyu returned to Jiangnan, the military advisor Wang Yuyou had already handed over the counted troop and weapon numbers to Wang Xinyu.

At this time, the Qiongzhou Army had a total of eight land divisions, including Jingang Town, Qinding Town, Zhongjun Town, Xiaoqi Town, Tianlei Town, Qiongzhou Town, Nanzhen Town, and Feihu Town, of which part of the troops of Qiongzhou Town were stationed on Qiongzhou Island. partly stationed in Luzon; Some of the forces in Nanzhen were in Borneo and part in Burma. Most of Feihu's troops are in Sichuan, and part of their troops are in Jiangxi. The remaining five towns were all stationed in Jiangnan, and there were more than 80,000 people in the Qiongzhou Army and Land Division, and more than 50,000 in Jiangnan.

With the expansion of each town, the original garrison was promoted to the general army, and the deputy commander was the deputy general. Each town had a force of more than 10,000 men; There are three brigades under the town, with the general as the commander of the brigade, and the deputy is a guerrilla or garrison; There are three battalions under the brigade, which are commanded by the garrison or the commander of the thousand; There were three posts under the battalion, led by the commander-in-chief; There are three flags under the outpost. by the general manager of the hundred as the commander; There are three small flags under it, and the small flags serve as officers; There are three tithes under the small flag, and each tithe has two soldiers. Except for the two-entry system, the rest are three-three systems.

But under the town, in addition to the three brigades, there are artillery battalions, scout teams and other formations directly under the town.

The chief soldier of Jingang Town is Luo Xiang, the chief soldier of Qinding Town is Li Rui, the chief soldier of Zhongjun Town Liu Qi, the chief soldier of Tianlei Town Gong Xiaoda, and the general soldier of Xiaoqi Town is Wang Xinyu's younger brother Wang Zihao, but at present, Xiaoqi Town is basically an empty shelf, with only more than 500 cavalry and more than 2,000 infantry, which is far from the full number of soldiers and horses in a town.

There are not many horses in Wang Xinyu's hands, they are all war horses captured in previous battles, and these horses have to be provided to officers at all levels, night guards and messengers, and there are only more than 500 horses left to form cavalry.

Wang Jinzhong, the chief soldier of Feihu Town, is in the southwest, and Jiang Zhiping, the deputy general, is in Jiangxi, so Wang Xinyu has two fewer generals in Jiangnan. Among the more than 50,000 horses stationed in the south of the Yangtze River, the Qiongzhou Army has more than 30,000 soldiers and more than 20,000 auxiliary soldiers.

Among the more than 30,000 soldiers, there are more than 10,000 bird gunners and more than 4,000 flintlock musketeers. Artillery, on the other hand, is counted among the unarmored auxiliaries, but the gunners who are responsible for firing artillery are paid more than ordinary soldiers.

Among the artillery, in addition to the barreled artillery, the fire box cars are all incorporated into the artillery, whether it is a swarm of rocket fire cars or thunderbolt fire cars, they are all included in the artillery establishment. More than 1,000 gunmen were also included in the artillery.

At present, Wang Xinyu has a fairly strong artillery strength, with 24 12-pounder siege guns, 64 6-pounder field guns, 80 4-pounder field guns, 100 3-pounder field guns, 8 64-pounder heavy mortar guns, 12 32-pounder mortar guns, 64 12-pounder mortar guns, 80 8-pounder mortar guns, 36 swarm fire vans, and 64 Thunderbolt fire vans.

All the guns are new artillery, the original old and heavy, and not very powerful old artillery has been eliminated, and the ones that have been worn out are taken to the furnace to recast the new artillery, and some newer artillery is transferred to the Zhejiang army for defending the city. Because of the iron mold casting method and the use of hydraulic lathes, the output of artillery is very high, and the Qiongzhou Army already has a fairly powerful artillery.

A considerable part of the new field artillery and new mortar artillery in the army are bronze cannons. To forge such a large number of copper cannons, the amount of copper that needs to be consumed is staggering. However, because of the abundant copper reserves in Luzon, this solved the problem of making cannons, so that the factories could obtain enough raw materials to produce new cannons.

The copper cannon is lightweight and easy to carry. Suitable as a field gun for the army.

The naval cannons are all iron cannons, which are low in cost, but heavy in weight, and suitable for use on ships.

You can imagine how amazing the power of more than 200 field guns and more than 100 mortar guns will be at the same time in future field battles! Not to mention a hundred powerful fire vans!

Among ranged classes. In addition to the musketeers, the archers of the Qiongzhou army were actually not weak, with a total of 5,000 archers, all of whom were replaced with compound bows that were powerful, simple to operate, and easy to pull the bowstring. This compound bow is extremely powerful, and can shoot armor-piercing arrows from a hundred paces away.

Therefore, the Qiongzhou army, which has a total of more than 50,000 people, accounts for almost half of the long-range firepower! There were about 15,000 hand-to-hand combatants in close combat. There are also more than 10,000 auxiliaries who can also serve in melee missions.

The most important reason for the decline in the proportion of auxiliaries is the emergence of new vehicles. Because of the birth of bearings, lighter vehicles can transport heavier goods, and can save livestock and manpower to pull the cart.

In addition to the land division, Wang Xinyu's navy was the most powerful navy in the East at that time, with more than 100 Western-style warships, more than 500 Chinese-style warships, and more than 1,300 small sampan boats. The total strength of the navy is more than 70,000 people, which is already close to the total strength of the army division!

To support a navy of this size. It takes a lot of manpower and material resources. The navy is a gold-eating behemoth, and every ship has to be regularly maintained every year, often entering the dock to clean the bottom of the ship from seaweed shells and other attached crops, and to oil it. And the small maintenance is continuous, two or three months to a small maintenance. In the maintenance of the ships alone, this requires more than 20,000 craftsmen. And the heavy artillery of the Navy. Gunpowder is very expensive.

Fortunately, Wang Xinyu opened up the sea trade route, and the silver he earned every year was enough for him to maintain this huge navy.

Spending a lot of money to build a sophisticated navy is actually a helpless move, because Wang Xinyu's control area is underpopulated. It was difficult to maintain a large army, so it had to take the route of elite troops, choose sophisticated weapons, and conduct the most rigorous training. To take the elite route, you need silver, and if you want to get silver, you need sea trade, and sea trade requires a strong navy to protect.

In addition to protecting maritime trade, the navy can also transport heavy supplies, transport troops, and provide fire assistance to the land division, allowing Wang Xinyu's army to travel freely between the southeast coast and the islands.

Although the strength of the Qiongzhou army in Jiangnan is not very sufficient, in Jiangnan, there is also Zheng Cong's Fujian army, which is actually under Wang Xinyu's orders.

The Min army, the original Zhengjia army, also has more than 50,000 people, including more than 20,000 soldiers and more than 30,000 auxiliary soldiers. And the weapons of the Zheng Jiajun are not bad, the artillery is the same as the Qiongzhou army, and it has weapons of mass destruction such as fire vans.

Zheng Cong's sailors also have a lot of troops, with a total of more than a thousand ships of various kinds.

The Qiongzhou army plus the Zheng family army, with these two armies, can conquer southern Zhejiang, enter Fujian, and attack Guangdong.

As for the task of garrisoning Jiangnan, it was handed over to Zhang Huangyan's Zhejiang army. Although the combat effectiveness of the Zhejiang army was far inferior to that of the Qiongzhou army and the Zhengjia army, there were a large number of castles, fortresses, and various fortifications, and the Zhejiang army had no problem holding Jiangnan at all. What's more, the Zhejiang army has a large number of old firearms eliminated by the Qiongzhou Army and the Zheng Jiajun in their hands, including cannons and bird guns, these old weapons are matched with the castle, and the bird guns hide behind the shooting holes and shoot projectiles outside, which can still give the opponent great damage.

The combined forces of the Qiongzhou Army and the Zhengjia Army were in full swing preparing to attack and fight, as the saying goes, the soldiers and horses went first before the grain and grass were moved, and the baggage materials and transportation support were the most important links.

The bearing factory in Qiongzhou is desperately producing bearings for new vehicles.

All the carts used to transport supplies, as well as the gun wagons used to transport artillery, were fitted with bearings. Bearings reduce the friction between the wheels and axles, making the car lighter.

But at this time, the problem arises again: the bearing needs a lot of lubricating oil!

Originally, Wang Xinyu's bearing factory processed animal fat and vegetable oil, mixed according to a certain proportion, and turned into lubricating oil required for bearings. But now that so many gun wagons and carts have been built, there is a huge shortage of lubricating oil.

At that time, animal fat and vegetable oil were precious, and ordinary people were reluctant to use more oil for stir-frying. But now Wang Xinyu is very luxurious to consume a lot of fuel on the vehicle. Even if he tries his best to let people raise pigs, he can't provide so much animal fat to the bearing factory!

But where do you get so much grease?

If you don't use animal oil, only use vegetable oil to make lubricating oil, the viscosity is not enough, the vehicle bearing rolls a few times, and it doesn't take long for the lubricating oil to be consumed, either consumed by wear and tear, or leaked on the ground, and only by adding a certain amount of animal fat can you make lubricating oil.

Refining oil? This is something that Wang Xinyu can't think of, where to mine oil at this time?

Although some people in ancient China have used oil, it is the oil that flows out of the ground itself, or when digging wells, digging into the underground oil layer, and then using barrels to beat the oil. Ancient oil was known as fierce fire oil and was mainly used in the military.

However, at that time, China's fierce fire oil was mainly produced in the northwest, and at this time, the northwest was under the control of the Qing court, how could Wang Xinyu go to the northwest to extract oil? There is also oil in Southeast Asia, but the oil on land is buried very deep, and very deep wells have to be dug; And the shallower oil, is in the sea. Offshore oil fields to be built in this era? Isn't that a dream?

Even if oil can be found, what about oil refining? To refine oil in this era is a problem that cannot be imagined. Oil refining technology is too complicated for this era, so don't think about building a refinery in one step.

How to solve the problem of lubricating oil? Wang Xinyu has been having a headache with this problem.

Just when Wang Xinyu had a headache, Wang Xiuqi, a close confidant of Zheng Jing, came down from the north with a fleet and came to Jiangnan to prepare to transport a batch of grain.

"Oil? Tallow? We once sailed to the far north and saw people killing whales in the sea. So they ate the flesh of the whale and used the whale's oil to light the lamp. I think a whale of that size is worth as many pigs as one whale! Wang Xiuqi told Wang Xinyu about what he had seen.

Hearing the news, Wang Xinyu was overjoyed, grabbed Wang Xiuqi's arm, and asked impatiently, "Where have you sailed far?" Where did you see those people? ”

Wang Xiuqi said: "Outside along the coastline all the way to the north, there is a strait in front, where the sea water near the shore is frozen!" We crossed the strait and met some indigenous people. (To be continued.) )