"Woooo..."
When the piercing battle alarm sounded, on the mast of the armored cruiser Cao Guogong, the observer Staff Sergeant Lu Benwei, who had been working in the Ming Dynasty Navy for eight years, was a little confused.
He is just a farmer from a remote county in Yunnan, because the land in his family is already the minimum size of the family farm in accordance with the "Land Equalization Order" and the "Land Restriction Order" (the land limit has not only an upper limit but also a lower limit). The share cannot be divided any more, so it must be inherited by his elder brother. But after graduating from junior high school, he could only "apply for land" from higher education and join the army as a soldier, becoming a sailor.
And the reason why he wanted to be a soldier was not to make meritorious deeds... That was what low-level officers with civilian backgrounds daydreamed about all day long. When he was a soldier, he didn't even think about that. In the Ming Dynasty's army, it was very difficult for a soldier to be promoted to an officer. No matter how good a soldier was, he could only be promoted to a first-class sergeant major. Lu Benwei is also very interested in becoming a first-class sergeant major. His purpose of joining the soldier is just to do a little "asking for land".
The so-called "request for land allocation" means that the state rates the children of farmers from the Ming Dynasty who apply for land. Those with high scores will be given priority in land allocation, and those with low scores will be sorry... I am afraid that they will not be able to allocate land for the rest of their lives.
Of course, just because there is no land to distribute does not mean that the country will not care about it - King Zhuge Wuzhong, an "idealistic" time traveler, has long drawn rules for his descendants. If the land allocation plan stipulated in the "Land Equalization Order" cannot be implemented due to too many people, then the court will help Ding men who "ask for land" to purchase real estate in the city. Don't think about good locations in the city center of big cities. Usually, a small plot of land is allocated near the satellite city of the big city or the industrial zone of the emerging industrial city, and the men can build houses at their own expense.
So now, in the suburbs of cities of all sizes in New Daming, there are many neatly planned towns, all of which are built with single-family two or three-story Chinese-style buildings. The people living there were not rich people, but poor workers who had failed to get land and had to go to the periphery of the big city to get a piece of land to build a house.
Throughout their lives, they have a small building, two cars (cars have just been invented and are not yet popular, but they will definitely be available in the future), a wife and two or three children. Well, in the imagination of the citizens of the imperialist New Ming Dynasty, a poor person can only be so poor. If you want to be poor again, you have to find a Japanese wife who is better at living...
However, Lu Benwei is a more motivated person and does not want to be a poor worker. He would rather be a rich farmer who owns a family farm... and there are generally only two ways to become a rich farmer. One is to earn points. Now the Ming Dynasty still has some land in its hands that can be divided, but it is already very precious, so ordinary people cannot get it. They have to serve the country as a soldier for a few more years to earn enough points. In addition, you can earn a lot of points by studying hard and entering an agricultural college. But Lu Benwei was poor at studying and could not get into the Agricultural College. Therefore, being a soldier is the only way for him to earn points.
In addition to earning points, you can also work as a rich farmer in a feudal state or in the "no man's land" on the frontier. But that requires a lot of capital, and the risk is also high. If not, you may lose everything and become a "poor among the poor". By then I won’t even be able to get a Japanese wife.
So Lu Benwei became a soldier. Because he had very good eyesight, a very clever mind, and was a quick learner, he was assigned to the Navy as an observer. There are only two main tasks. One is to use a telescope to look around on the sea; the other is to use a stereoscopic rangefinder that looks a bit like a bamboo pole placed sideways at first glance to measure distant islands, ships and the warship you are on. s position.
His position usually doesn't matter much, it's just that there are a lot of assessments, but when it comes to war... Whether the cannon can fire accurately depends first on his observation level, and then on the gunnery bridge. Are the abacus calculations of the "abacus soldiers" in the army well done?
But Lu Benwei didn't understand at all that he was sitting in an armored cruiser, looking at the scenery of the Indian Ocean, thinking about the happy life of being a "rich farmer" after earning enough points, why was he suddenly going to war?
Also, what happened to the Ming Dynasty in the past two years? Why do you keep fighting with others? Last time, there was an inexplicable war in Japan. The newspaper said that a small group of Japanese careerists caused trouble in the Kii Waterway in an attempt to provoke a world war between the Ming Empire and the British Empire, so that they could take advantage of the chaos and seize The sinister purpose of the Japanese regime... This story seems a bit false!
The result of that war, in Lu Benwei's view, was that a large number of officials were promoted for meritorious service, and the prices of Japanese brides and Japanese ladies increased by 30 to 50%!
This time it's even more inexplicable... He went all the way to the Indian Ocean to fight with people!
Are there people in India who want to cause trouble and provoke a world war between Ming Dynasty and Great Britain?
Just when Lu Benwei was shocked by the inexplicable war that broke out, the alarm sound in the loudspeaker beside him suddenly stopped, and then the voice of Captain Lei Teng came: "Comrades, , I am Lieutenant Colonel Lei Teng, the captain of the Cao Guogong... The battle is about to begin. I hope that each of you can fulfill your duties in this battle and win victory and glory for our empire, as well as for yourself. Magnificent military exploits! Long live the Ming Dynasty, long live the emperor!"
Then the cheers of a group of bridge officers came from the loudspeaker: "Long live the Ming Dynasty! Long live the Emperor!"
Then, the music of the Ming Empire's national anthem "Song of the Red Scarf Army" sounded - of course this song was composed and written by King Zhuge Wuzhong himself. The melody was impassioned and the lyrics were exciting.
Lu Benwei, who still didn't understand much about this sudden war, stopped thinking and started singing along with the music of "Song of the Red Scarf Army": "Rise up, people who don't want to be slaves..."
...
"Report, nineteen thousand yards away!"
"Eighteen thousand yards!"
"Seventeen thousand yards!"
"Ten thousand..."
As the navigator made reports one after another, the atmosphere in the bridge of the armored cruiser Blake also ignited. After all, the opponent was only eight third-class cruisers with a capacity of 3,000 tons, not three Blakes with more than 9,000 tons at all. The opponent of the armored cruiser.
Although the Ming Empire is a formidable opponent, today's victory definitely belongs to the British Empire, no, it belongs to the Indian Empire.
Unlike those officers and soldiers of the Ming Dynasty Navy who still don’t quite know why they are fighting, the officers and soldiers of the Royal Indian Navy all know why they are fighting!
The British in the fleet all know that their empire on which the sun never sets is built on victory after victory...Spain, the Netherlands, France, the princely states of India, and the barbarians of the New World are all The empire's men were defeated as the sun never set. And it is because of this that they, the English, can go from being islanders on a barren European island to becoming the people of the richest country in Europe, which is almost on the verge of catching up with the people of the Eastern Kingdoms in terms of per capita income and living standards. victory!
If they can defeat the Ming Dynasty, then their empire will become number one in the world, and they will also take advantage of it and reach the next level!
As for the Indians in the fleet...most of them were of the Kshatriya caste and came from the families of Chamindar landlords. They were quite satisfied with Emperor William's rule and believed that Emperor William would definitely make their India great again!
Well, India is great now! Not only is he the eldest son of Great Britain, but he is also the master of the Indian Ocean and has the second largest GDP in the world, second only to the Ming Dynasty.
As long as we work harder and defeat the Ming Dynasty, India will truly be number one in the world, and the 19th century will be the Indian century!
"Thirteen thousand yards!" At this time, the navigator shouted in the loudest voice, "Sir, it is already thirteen thousand yards!"
Colonel Jervis nodded heavily: "Okay! Now the left helm is full! We have to pass in front of the enemy's line. May God bless us, and may God bless Emperor William and the Indian Empire!"
