Although the number of two thousand fresh troops is not large, it can be the needle that punctures the balloon. What they want to do is not to completely annihilate the enemy, but to pierce a few holes in the thirty-kilometer defense line.
Any breakthrough will become a strategic location for the Chinese army to forcibly advance. The Chinese army that swarms in will kill the enemy's rear, and even harass the bead curtains from left to right and attack the Spaniards' rear.
A small breach can tear into a huge gap in the battle line, and ten gaps can completely cut the Spanish military formation into pieces like a dead snake!
breakthrough! breakthrough! Continue to break through! Good news kept coming to the headquarters. Sakamoto Ryoma, who was drinking, smiled reassuringly, "It seems that I will be able to sleep well in a bed in Manila tomorrow night..."
General Cai Mao smiled and poured him a glass of wine. "In this city, you can sleep wherever you want. Even if you want to sleep in the Governor's Mansion, I can make arrangements for you..."
"But you have to tell me first, how did you train this mercenary? Those arrogant Tsarist Russians would actually accept our command?"
"We have been fighting so far, but there has been no trouble at all, no rebellion or deserters. How did you do it?"
After taking a nice sip of sake, Sakamoto Ryoma put down his chopsticks, "Some things seem difficult, but they are actually not difficult to do... I didn't know how to start until I had a telegram with the European heads of state. Found the trick!"
After the War in the Far East, a large number of Tsarist Russian prisoners entered prisoner-of-war camps. There were prisoner-of-war camps in the Far East, Tanggu Industrial Zone, Ryukyu Island, and even in the Chinese mines in Fuso.
According to the assumptions of the Chinese senior leaders, these prisoners of war can definitely extract a lot of money from Tsarist Russia. Before Tsarist Russia pays compensation, all prisoners of war will have to work in exchange for their rations.
Logging, mining, transporting goods...all kinds of heavy work were placed on these prisoners of war. At the same time, the Chinese diplomatic department was still conducting close negotiations with Tsarist Russia.
Negotiations like this can't be concluded in a day or two. It takes a very long time. The Chinese lion opened his mouth and Tsarist Russia paid back the money on the spot. The two sides could not reach an agreement no matter what!
In fact, there is a wait-and-see mentality on both sides. Because of the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War, Tsarist Russia has been waiting and watching, always hoping that the French will defeat the Chinese and ultimately benefit themselves.
They didn't want to have a good negotiation in the first place, so the two sides started to delay. But as the time dragged on, those Tsarist Russian prisoners of war couldn't wait any longer.
Riots began to arise, and eventually a rebellion broke out! These Russian soldiers in the prisoner-of-war camp secretly polished spoons into daggers and hammered iron nails into wood to make maces.
Or they could be directly armed with sticks and stones. They would secretly arrange a time to start a riot, kill guards, attack the defenders, and seize weapons!
The Chinese must have been prepared in advance. In the repeated suppressions, these crazy prisoners of war never succeeded!
In 1870 alone, more than 1,200 prisoners of war died due to suppression, which shows how unruly these Russian prisoners of war were!
However, under such a general background, the head of state ordered a group of reformable people to be selected from Tsarist Russian prisoners and organized into mercenaries to supplement the weak local forces.
This order was really a headache. Even Xiao Hexin was scratching his head. He thought, depending on the rioting attitude of these prisoners of war, would they accept the Chinese adaptation?
It’s impossible even if you think about it! However, no one could question the order of the head of state. The Grand Council held consecutive meetings to choose the executor of this task, but in the end, Ryoma Sakamoto was chosen!
Sakamoto Ryoma has an extremely special status. He has half the blood of the head of state in his body, and he eventually became a monk. He does not have any official position within the Chinese community, but people feel that he can hold any position.
Sakamoto Ryoma himself has a lot of tasks to coordinate internal forces. He is obviously a monk but he has always been involved in politics. He is so sticky that he cannot be separated from politics!
Just let him do it! Even if a monk does a good job, he won't get much credit. If he does a bad job with the head of state, he won't be able to embarrass a monk, so just choose him!
After receiving the order from the parliament, Sakamoto Ryoma did not refuse, recited the name of "Amitabha", and took office gracefully!
But this task was incredibly difficult. The notice recruiting mercenaries was posted in the prisoner of war camp for three days, but no one signed up!
In the end, I had no choice but to directly name the strongest soldiers, trying to subdue them with sticks, swords and guns, and force them to submit, but it was useless!
The night after everyone was gathered together, a riot broke out at the temporary training ground, and it took a long time to suppress it!
At this time, Sakamoto Ryoma realized that you really can't force a cow to press its head if it doesn't drink water!
If coercion fails, let's use inducement! But it still didn't work. They enjoyed the delicious food and drinks, but when it came to training, they still couldn't act like themselves. They were just a bunch of fools eating and drinking!
Ryoma Sakamoto was also scratching his head. These barbarians from Tsarist Russia were not civilized at all, and they did not accept either soft or hard advice. How could they select mercenaries?
As a last resort, a detailed telegram was sent to Europe. Xiao Letian understood the difficulty of the task. After careful consideration, the head of state gave Sakamoto Ryoma an idea.
Sakamoto Ryoma was very confused when he received the call back, but he had to execute it even if he didn't understand it. He could only try it!
Xiao Letian's method is very simple: "Let these Russian prisoners of war do women's work, do meticulous work, and do long and grueling work!"
"Use this method to sharpen their character, wait for three months and then try again..."
Ryoma Sakamoto followed the prescription and selected more than 6,000 prisoners of war to conduct experiments first, but he never expected that the experiment would be a great success!
Lumberyards, mines, railway station loading and unloading warehouses... Sakamoto Ryoma transferred five to six thousand prisoners of war from these heavy tasks, and what did he ask them to do?
Plant rice! Rice fields require a lot of manpower to transplant rice!
weeding! It's over 30 degrees in the summer and you go to the fields to weed me!
Packing! The last process of leaving the factory is to weigh the nails and put them into small cartons. This work is done by Russian prisoners of war!
do the laundry! The greasy factory uniforms make these POWs come clean!
Wash vegetables and cook! The smallest leeks are picked by these Tsarist Russians. If there is a little bit of soil, they will be reworked by me!
Who dares not to work? Who dares to cause trouble? I won’t beat you or scold you, I’ll just put you in a solitary dark room!
After this set of tricks, more than 20 Tsarist Russian prisoners of war went crazy and became mentally ill in just half a month!
"Kill me, please kill me! I am willing to cut wood, I am willing to unload iron ore, I don't want to go to the fields..."
"No, don't lock me up, please spare me..."
