January 25, 1681, Shanyang County (now Mount Isa, Australia)

In the northeastern region of Hanzhou, the best quality pastures are basically located on the slopes and valleys on both sides of Dadong Mountain (the Great Dividing Range), that is, in Guangling Prefecture, Yunyang Prefecture, Xiangjiang Prefecture and other areas. Of course, there are also some better pastures.

Distributed in the plains between the Ya'an Highlands (today's Buckley Platform) in the north and Jingkou Bay (today's Gulf of Carpentaria).

The rainfall in these places is much higher than that in the northwest, so the aquatic plants in these areas are very lush and are particularly suitable for the development of large pastures.

In contrast, Shanyang County has much less precipitation in this vast area because Dadong Mountain and Ya'an Highlands block the humid air. Therefore, although there are many pastures in this area, these pastures

Most of them are built along rivers or lakes.

Just like the pastures in Anshun Town (today's Mornington Town, ten kilometers south of Mount Isa City), it basically belongs to this situation. Anshun Town has a population of more than 300 people, along the Anxi River (today's Lehiha

Built on the Anxi River, most of the pastures in the town are located on both sides of the Anxi River, where aquatic plants are abundant.

The entire Shanyang County jurisdiction is extremely vast, covering an area of ​​more than 16,000 square kilometers, but its population is only a pitiful 3,400 people. It was a county system that was only established last year.

Twenty-six years ago, an inland exploration team discovered an indigenous "tribal kingdom" in Shanyangbao. Their leader was a pirate who first failed to attack Jianye City and fled inland. Although this so-called indigenous kingdom

It had a population of nearly 2,000, but when faced with an armed exploration team of more than 100 people, the "whole nation" surrendered very simply.

After the surrender, the indigenous "king" presented their most important discovery to the exploration team - a super silver mine (Cannington Silver Mine) comparable to the Potosi silver mine in Spain's American territory. The mine has abundant reserves.

The high quality and low mining cost amazed the mining experts after the inspection. In addition, this silver mine is also accompanied by a large number of lead, zinc, copper and other mineralization zones, which has extremely high economic value.

However, this super silver mine is located inland. Even if it is mined in large quantities, it cannot be transported out at all. Therefore, the Qi State Cabinet Government completely blocked the place named Shanyang Fort and sent troops to

A company of cavalry was stationed here.

Until the eighth year of the Han Dynasty (1678), the railway from Guangling (now Townsville, Australia) to Jincheng (now Chartersburg, Australia) extended westward to Lianshanbao (now Huonden Town, Australia), Santaibao

(today's Julia Creek, Australia), it was only more than 250 kilometers away from Shanyangbao, and transportation was greatly improved. The mining department "recruited" a large number of Nanyang workers to develop this super silver mine.

Thousands of immigrants were gradually relocated to Shanyangbao and surrounding areas.

In the Qin State, a distance of tens of kilometers is almost equivalent to the distance from one county to another county. However, in Qi itself, especially in the inland areas of Hanzhou, dozens of kilometers are nothing at all. Some pastures and

Ranchers may even live hundreds of kilometers apart.

Because there are no large carnivores in the inland areas of Hanzhou, so in the inland pastures of Hanzhou, cattle are basically raised in open fences, and basically no one needs to take care of them. At night, the cattle will return to the pasture by themselves.

Shed. If you are herding sheep, you only need to raise a few shepherd dogs, and you can guard a large group of sheep (but be wary of thylacine attacks).

Ai Cheng was riding a horse, looking at the dozens of cows and hundreds of sheep scattered in front of them, all marked with various colors of dye, but there was not even a shepherd to take care of them, and he couldn't help but secretly curse in his heart.

Damn it! No one is taking care of the cattle and sheep that the people of Qi are grazing in the wild. If I had left Da Qin alone, they would have been stolen long ago!

Ai Chengnai is the grandson of Ai Nengqi, the king of the Northern Kingdom of Daxi, and the second son of Ai Chengye, the current Marquis of Pingyuan of Daqin. Two years ago, he came to Hanzhou with the 32 first batch of Daqin students studying abroad. Together with those supervisors selected from the Imperial Academy

One after another choose to enter

The difference between studying in several universities in Qi and studying politics, finance and taxation, machinery, transportation, economics and other majors is that Ai Cheng and a dozen other meritorious children of Qin directly entered the Qi Army School to learn the ways of war and kill people.

The art of.

The strength of Qi is not only reflected in the strength of their ships and artillery at sea, but also their reputation in land warfare is well known to the world.

Not to mention that the Qi State had severely damaged the Qing captives on the mainland several times and saved the crisis in Shenzhou. With their ability to cross thousands of miles away, they defeated Japan, a country with a population of 20 million, to the point of losing troops and territory, and finally forced the Tokugawa shogunate to cede territory.

He paid compensation and opened the country wide to Qi.

What is even more frightening is that a few years ago, Qi State assembled tens of thousands of navy and army for an expedition to India to launch a military attack on the Mughal Empire. It is said that this country has a population of hundreds of millions and an army of millions.

The level of wealth is also far greater than that of our great Qin. As a result, under the military attack of Qi, it was simply vulnerable. Not only did it lose hundreds of thousands of troops, but even the emperor of the empire was killed in the battle.

This achievement really frightened the monarchs and ministers of the Qin Dynasty. Many knowledgeable people were vigilant and could not help but secretly speculate that if the Qi State came to attack the Qin Dynasty, how could the hundreds of thousands of troops of the imperial court resist it?

You must know that the army of the remnants of the Northern Ming Dynasty was trained by the Qi State. From the organizational model to the equipment of all personnel, it was almost a simplified version of the Qi Army. But this kind of army allowed the Qin Army to have enough food in North Korea.

Although Kong had several times the numerical advantage, the Ming army was still helpless. Finally, with the mediation of Qi, he had to make peace with the Northern Ming Dynasty, allowing it to occupy a place in Korea.

The imperial court imitated the Qi Army two years ago and established our new Qin Army. In addition to hiring dozens of Qi military instructors to provide guidance and assistance, the imperial court also sent corresponding military students to Qi to learn and master specific and practical military skills.

It became the most urgent choice for the court.

Including Ai Cheng, there are a total of fourteen Daqin students studying at Jianye Army School and Daxing Army School respectively. The subjects chosen are mainly three majors: infantry, riding, and logistics.

Originally, some Qin students wanted to major in artillery, engineering, and topographic surveying, but after a simple entrance test, they were all determined to have not mastered the necessary basic knowledge of mathematics and were unable to carry out normal teaching.

Unless these Qin students who are familiar with "literary and ink" agree to extend their study time and receive systematic training in mathematical professional knowledge. You must know that artillery, surveying and mapping, and military engineering are the majors in the Qi Army.

High-tech arms are needed

It requires a lot of calculation work. It is not like those primitive artillery who just rely on their feelings to insert a shell, light the fuse, and then fly out with a "bang". As for whether they can hit the target, it all depends on the individual.

Be blessed, or be blessed by gods and Buddhas all over the sky.

More than 20 days ago, the Daxing Army School organized a long-distance training exercise for third-year students to enable the students to master and understand combat skills in various environments.

A group of more than 200 cadet soldiers took the train all the way north from Daxing. After arriving in Guangling, they transferred to Jincheng, where they then conducted an infantry and cavalry confrontation drill on the plains. The military police stationed at the gold mine and the rural soldiers on duty

Act as an imaginary cavalry regiment and conduct a simulated attack on the temporary defensive positions they established.

On the open grassland, this group of cadet soldiers held out against the incoming "enemy" for three days by digging horse pits and trenches, and using accompanying vehicles to set up defensive horses. They were finally repelled by sharp artillery.

They defeated the "enemy army", but the cadet soldiers who were new to the "battlefield" paid most of the price in "casualties".

Then, after all the crew rested for two days, they continued to take the train and headed deep into the west inland. Five days ago, they arrived at Santaipu, the terminus of the railway.

Here, the Ministry of War and the local government prepared 30 carriages, 200 horses, 60 camels, and half a month's supplies for this group of cadet soldiers to prepare for the most arduous long-distance march ahead.

Ai Cheng and several companions from the cavalry department, as the vanguard of the troops, first arrived at the lush grassland on the Anxi River. Since it was an actual combat exercise, they, the cavalry sentries, had to conduct a detailed and detailed investigation of the place.

, thinking that the army was on alert. However, after running north along the river for several miles, except for these hundreds of cattle and sheep, there was not a single person in sight.

"That's almost it." A student soldier from Weiguo reined in the reins, stopped the horse, and said with a smile: "Is it possible that the enemy can sneak up here and catch us by surprise?"

Hearing this, Ai Cheng also reined in the reins, stopped by the river, looked around, nodded and said, "That's right, there are few mountains here, not even a few trees, how can we hide our tracks?"

According to the instructions of the instructors in the military academy, the troop's cavalry sentries need to patrol within fifteen kilometers of the temporary camp to determine whether there are any enemies nearby, so as to avoid being raided by enemy troops while setting up camp for rest.

But this is the inland hinterland of Qi State, and the surrounding indigenous barbarians have been cleared out over and over again, and they have all been sent to nearby mines to work as coolies, so there is no threat.

Furthermore, the imaginary "enemy" might still be near Fort Luan (today's Daly Waters Town in northern Australia), marching arduously in the inland desert like them. If that's the case, then

It's better to be lazy, take advantage of things, and just deal with it carelessly.

It's a drill, not a real battle!

Their next stage of the exercise project is to compete with the cadets sent by the Jianye Army School for control of Fort Gangu (now a small town in Tennant Creek, Northern Territory, Australia), and to eliminate the enemy's effective forces on the battlefield as much as possible.

Ai Cheng and his group of Qin students received special instructions from the instructors before leaving. The inland desert areas of Qi are very similar to the topography of the northwest of the mainland and Mongolia. They must closely integrate the key points of knowledge explained in the professional courses. Here

During this actual combat drill, you will be able to master the corresponding military skills such as desert marching, camping, infantry and cavalry confrontation, and seizing strategic points.

It should be noted that for a long time in the future, the northwest and the north will be the two most important battlefield directions of the Qin State, and the combat method is mainly based on confrontation between traditional infantry and prairie cavalry - especially since the Qin State has not yet established a large army.

In the case of the cavalry corps.

Ai Cheng deeply believed in the assertion of the Qi instructors. The threats to the Central Plains dynasties in the past mainly came from the north. At present, the situation of Da Qin is more dangerous, facing two powerful enemies, the remnants of the northern Qing Dynasty and the Khalkha

The Mongols and Tatars are linked together and are eyeing the entire north. The newly emerged Junggar Khanate has spread its power to the Western Regions, threatening the Hexi Corridor, Qinghai, and Uzbekistan.

As for the Great Qin Army, after several years, the overall cavalry size did not exceed 20,000. Facing the military threats of the two nomadic forces, it was always in a passive situation and could only garrison along the Great Wall, the Hexi Corridor, and the Hehuang area.

A large number of soldiers and horses to deal with it.

Although, the Qin State's military accepted the advice of the Qi State Military Staff Group again, and adopted a small-scale and frequent trip to the Monan area to attack the Qing captives, and carried out cannibalizing attacks on the grassland tribes from time to time, using a low-intensity combat mode of continuous bloodletting, and constantly

Weaken the strength of Qinglu and Mongolian Tatars.

However, the Qin military did not have much confidence in carrying out a plowing attack on the north and completely eliminating the northern border troubles. In their view, the most important way to fight against the nomadic forces in the north was to build a huge cavalry force.

The army, just like during the Han and Tang Dynasties, had hundreds of thousands of cavalry, marching straight into the depths of the grasslands to attack the Huns and destroy the Turks, once and for all eliminating the threat of nomadic forces.

"Actually, to deal with the invasion of nomadic forces, it is not necessary to establish a huge cavalry army."

After setting up camp on the banks of the Anxi River, the chief instructor of the team, Colonel Zhaoxin (Colonel) Kong Dakui, began to teach the students how to suppress and combat the raids of nomadic forces.

"In the past, when the Ming Dynasty was dealing with the Qing invaders in Liaodong, Sun Chengzong was in charge of Jiliao and built a 200-mile defense line in Ningjin and hundreds of large and small fortresses, so that the Qing invaders could not make any progress for several years. This method

Although it is relatively passive and conservative, it is still a good strategy. If the former Ming Dynasty had given Sun Chengzong a few more years, he might have been able to build the fortress all the way to Shenyang, compress the space for Qing captives to move to the maximum extent, and trap and lock them up.

.”

"In the northern part of the mainland, whether it's Monan or Mobei, there are only a few patches of grassland with rich water and grass. When the war is unfavorable, the Qing captives and Mongolians can run away, but you can't move the grassland away, right?

If the Qin State spends a large amount of money to build strong fortresses in several major pastures and water sources, garrison soldiers, and supplement it with artillery and muskets for defense, it will definitely greatly suppress the living space of the Tartars."

“Czarist Russia further north, over several decades, rapidly expanded eastward from thousands of miles away to the North Sea (today’s Lake Baikal), and even to places such as Heilongjiang and Ussuri River, conquering countless local Mongolian and other tribes, except

Firearms have an advantage, and this method is used to build many forts near key waterways or on the side of major pastures. With only a few hundred soldiers and civilians stationed, they can control the surrounding vast areas."

"Once the grassland is controlled, we can imitate the existing governance model of the Qing Dynasty, divide the grassland tribes into fixed areas, set up alliance flags, and require each tribe to stick to the boundaries and not move at will. In this way, the life of each tribe in the grassland can be completely changed.

In this state, the grassland tribes who cannot live in pursuit of water and grass have no possibility of gathering sand to form towers and rise rapidly. "

"In addition, we can make greater use of the Lama Yellow Sect that has emerged on the grasslands. We can encourage the grassland tribes to build lamasery temples on the grasslands and unify the religious beliefs of all grassland tribes. At the same time, we can use the Yellow Sect to strictly control the population of each grassland tribe so that they cannot accumulate manpower and fight against

Central Plains Dynasty."

“Of course, we can also open trade routes on the grasslands, build cities, appoint local officials, and use handicrafts, salt, tea, etc. from the Central Plains to buy livestock and furs on the grasslands, encourage mutual trade among people, and use economic ties to bind them.

, completely controlled the people's livelihood in the grassland. The border areas were allowed to be cultivated by the Chinese and the Dingshu tribes that had been expelled from the interior were colonized in the border areas. Han and Hu people in Jiabian City married each other, promoted Chinese language, promoted Buddhism, and jointly guaranteed the Tun ethnic groups. Five households were selected to control the captives.

prisoner."

"Instructor, our Great Qin court has to face threats from the north and northwest at the same time. It cannot raise enough money to build several fortresses and go deep into the grassland step by step. So how should we deal with the northern Tartars in other ways?" Ai Chengju

Hand asked.

"If you don't have money, you can only take risks." Kong Dakui pondered for a moment, and then said: "The Junggar Khanate in the northwest and the Mobei and Monan Mongolia controlled by the Qing Dynasty are not monolithic, and there must be gaps that can be exploited. If your Qin Dynasty

If the country operates properly, provoking the two parties to fight, supporting the weak against the strong, and weakening each other, there may be a chance to defeat the two enemies one by one."

"Instructor, what will be the consequences if the operation is improper?"

"With improper operation, the two enemies may become one, and their power will double. Your Qin country will face an unprecedented life-or-death enemy, and the disaster of Jinmeng will repeat itself!"
Chapter completed!