The Dachu Empire's military entered the breech-loading rifled era and began to apply skirmishing tactics, and a series of problems arose.
However, none of this dissipated the Dachu Empire's determination to carry out a comprehensive change of appearance.
After all, the problems brought about by new weapons and equipment and new tactics are not worth mentioning compared with the huge tactical and even strategic advantages they bring.
This can be fully reflected in the war on the Nanyang Peninsula and the war in North America.
Especially in the complex terrain and climate environment of the Nanyang Peninsula, the effect of breech-loaded rifled weapons is even greater.
In complex terrain, even if the local indigenous people use backward matchlock guns or even bows and arrows to ambush, they can still cause certain casualties to the Chu army using front-loaded muskets.
However, with the batch equipment of breech-loading rifled rifles, the Chu army was able to quickly find bunkers to protect themselves when facing small-scale attacks. At the same time, they used breech-loading rifled rifles to fire back, and took advantage of the high rate of fire and high speed of breech-loading rifled rifles. Precision, quickly annihilate the invading enemy.
If they still use front-loading muskets, the Chu army will have greater limitations. If they spread out to find bunkers, it will be difficult to fire back. If they line up to defend and fight back, it will give the enemy an opportunity to take advantage of them. Resulting in some casualties.
Therefore, the equipment of breech-loaded rifled rifles gives the Chu army better tactical freedom in complex terrain and climate conditions, and makes it easier to deal with small-scale indigenous attacks.
As for the role of breech-loading rifles in large-scale frontal battles... to be honest, the Chu army is not sure yet, because it has not fought such a battle in the past year or so.
The natives are not stupid, how can they still fight head-on with you when their equipment is extremely backward, lining up to die stupidly!
Not to mention now, even when the Chu army used percussion muskets before, the indigenous troops with a little experience would not engage in a large-scale head-on confrontation with the Chu army. That would be a recipe for death.
This has nothing to do with muskets. The key is that the Chu army's artillery is too sharp!
As long as you dare to give the Chu army enough time to assemble a large number of artillery, the Chu army will dare to blow your entire defense line into pieces.
The reason why the Chu army put great pressure on the natives in the age of flintlock guns, making the natives shout invincible... was mostly because of the Chu army's artillery.
This is an empire that dared to bring hundreds of artillery pieces to the battlefield in the era of front-loaded smoothbore cannons, and except for the 65mm field cannon, these artillery pieces can basically fire grenades.
A large number of 115mm artillery and an equally large number of 150mm light howitzers are enough to provide the Chu army with sufficient field artillery firepower.
Not to mention if it is a siege battle, those damn Chu troops can even pull a bunch of 200 mm and 250 mm mortars onto the battlefield like crazy.
The grenade, which combines wooden sabots and metal disc fuses, gave the Chu army unstoppable artillery firepower in this era.
And now... the Great Chu Empire has further equipped itself with rifled artillery. Regardless of whether it is a rear-mounted or front-mounted rifled artillery, their biggest advantages for the Chu army are the same.
That is to be able to launch cylindrical grenades, allowing rifled artillery of the same caliber to obtain several times the killing power of smoothbore artillery of the same caliber.
In the past, it might have taken a 150mm spherical grenade to cause relatively large explosive damage to the enemy, but now... a 75mm mountain gun shell is enough, or even more powerful.
In the past, it might have taken 200mm or even 250mm spherical grenades to deal a certain blow to the enemy's solid defenses, but now... the 120mm rifled howitzer shells are sufficient and even more powerful. big.
The Navy has previously used 150mm forward-loading rifled guns to bombard the enemy's solid coastal defense batteries and coastal cities in the Indian War and the African battlefield. Its explosive power even exceeded the traditional 300mm-caliber smoothbore guns.
The Navy has even tried using 150mm semi-armor-piercing projectiles for bombardment, which has a very good ability to hit solid defenses.
The large-scale service of rifled artillery, regardless of whether it was front-loaded or rear-loaded, brought a leap in artillery firepower to the Chu army.
When these were finally reflected on battlefields overseas, it made the Chu army's many overseas military operations smoother and further accelerated the Chu army's expansion in overseas areas.
In the winter of the 34th year of Chengshun, Army Lieutenant General Qian Xingbang, the commander of the 22nd Army who was in charge of the war in Siam and Myanmar and the garrison commander of the Nanyang Peninsula, sent a good news to Jinling City.
It is said that the 22nd Army, with the cooperation of garrison troops from Siam, Bangladesh, Hue, and Malacca, after several months of fierce fighting, has completely destroyed all organized resistance in Siam and Myanmar, and found and captured the enemy in the mountains of western Myanmar. Killed the remaining royal members and officials of the Burmese royal regime.
From now on, there is no large-scale, organized resistance group in the area.
The above two areas will officially enter normal public security operations in the future.
After receiving the report, Luo Zhixue ordered the Ministry of Military and Political Affairs to reward the officers and soldiers according to their merits. Those who should be promoted should be promoted and those who should be rewarded should be rewarded.
For some of the senior generals who performed well, as well as a few middle- and low-level officers and even soldier representatives who performed well, Luo Zhixue personally signed the edict of commendation.
More than a dozen soldiers and non-commissioned officers with outstanding military merit were exempted from the examination and allowed to enter the Army Officer School.
Don’t look at it as just enrolling in the Army Officer School without taking the exam, giving you a chance to go to school... But in fact, for these soldiers and non-commissioned officers, this is the best way to achieve a class jump and transform from ordinary people to the upper class of society. aisle.
The Army Officer School of the Great Chu Empire was very valuable in the Great Chu Empire. Not to mention ordinary families, even children from middle-class or even wealthy families were proud to attend the Army Officer School.
Because enrolling in this school and joining the army is the best way to enter the upper class society in the Chu Empire, achieve a class jump, and maintain prosperity and wealth.
Officers in the Da Chu Empire are treated very well. If they are lucky enough to be stationed overseas to fight, their trophy income will be even higher...
At the same time, officers go from military academy to serving, and then to retirement. Even if they have no merit, they can successfully reach a certain level just by enduring seniority. After reaching a certain level, they transfer to local politics and start directly at the seventh or even sixth rank...
But if you directly participate in the imperial examination and enter politics, you may not be able to advance to a higher level in more than ten years, and you may not be able to reach the eighth grade when you retire at the age of sixty.
There is no mention of automatic promotion after a certain number of years as a civil servant.
After such a comparison, you can find that the best way to enter politics is: first join the military to gain qualifications, and then switch to local politics after reaching the seventh rank, skipping the ninth and eighth ranks, which are the most difficult and fiercely competitive places in the local area. Two levels.
Therefore, young people joining the army and middle-aged people joining politics were the ideal life paths for many young scholars in the Chu Empire.
In fact, this was done deliberately by Luo Zhixue, in order to attract young scholars to actively report to the military academy to join the army, improve the overall quality of the officer group, and at the same time enhance the social status of the officers to avoid the situation where the civilized and military are weak.
Joining the army can not only pave the way for a career in politics, but it is also the best way to obtain a knighthood. As a civil servant, unless you reach the level of Minister of Counselor, you basically cannot expect to obtain a knighthood. But joining the army... even if you are just a civilian. Ordinary lieutenants and colonel officers can also be awarded titles as long as they make enough contributions and are lucky enough.
At the same time, it is relatively easy for senior generals to obtain knighthoods.
In addition, the empire's top title, Duke, will not be conferred except for military merit... In the case of Marquis, it will not be conferred except for military merit and major scientific research!
At the same time, all hereditary titles are not awarded except for military merit!
In other words, in today's Great Chu Empire, if you don't join the army, don't expect to be granted a hereditary title, nor can you expect to be granted a duke. As for the title of marquis, there is actually no hope for normal people.
Because apart from military merit, there is only one way to be awarded the title of Marquis, and that is to become the top genius scientist and make breakthrough scientific research results with huge impact... There are not many scientists in the entire empire who can do this. , and all are concentrated at the Royal Institute of Technology.
These days, there are very few normal people who can get into the Royal Institute of Technology, they are all perverts!
The path of scientific research and knighthood has nothing to do with ordinary people. It is the path of a very small number of perverted geniuses. Their IQs are less than 100 or even 200. Don’t even dream of it...
Joining the army is much simpler. Even if you are an ordinary student, as long as you work hard enough and have a little talent, you still have hope of becoming an officer.
In fact, if you want to say how smart the freshmen in the two major military academies are, you can't even talk about it... Generally speaking, they are just about the prefecture-level top students in small places.
For ordinary soldiers in the military, it is basically impossible to go to military academies through formal channels... Although military academies also allow soldiers to self-study and then report to the military academies, and even provide more than ten special admission quotas for active military personnel every year, but as for There are so many people competing for those dozen spots, and ordinary soldiers simply cannot compete.
However, if ordinary soldiers make enough contributions, they can be admitted to the Army Officer School without taking the examination.
Luo Zhixue gave these more than ten meritorious soldiers interviews to enter the Army Officer School. They studied books, but what changed was their lives.
This is much better than simply being promoted to a military rank and given some rewards.
In addition to this group of meritorious soldiers, rewards were also given to a small number of officers and generals who made outstanding contributions.
Among them, Army Lieutenant General Qian Xingbang was promoted from baron to viscount.
Many other generals also received many rewards.
These are all rewards that Luo Zhixue handled personally, but more still need to be handled by the Military and Political Department!
The awarding of large-scale rewards also means that large-scale military operations in the Nanyang Peninsula have come to an end, and subsequent conventional security wars will be much simpler.
Chu State has very rich experience in public security warfare in overseas territories. It has been implemented steadily for two or three years, and it is basically the same.
What is more important now is the development of the Nanyang Peninsula. Organizing immigration and development is much more important than purely military issues.
However, these things have already been planned before, and now they only need to be executed according to the plan.
According to the Chu Empire's plan for the Nanyang Peninsula, the entire Nanyang Peninsula will be brought under the direct rule of the empire.
A total of five provinces, namely Myanmar, Siam, Malacca, Hue, and Thang Long, will be established. These five provinces will all implement direct rule like the provinces in the hinterland of the Central Plains.
The Chu Empire wanted to turn this area into an inalienable part of China since ancient times.
With the completion of the direct administration of the Nanyang Peninsula, the Chu Empire also began related planning for many islands in the Nanyang region.
Among the many Southeast Asian islands, the Luzon Islands are the simplest. They were originally colonized by the Spanish. After the Chu State took over, they continued to rule. Through gradual immigration and development, they now have full control of Luzon and Mindao. There are no natives on the two islands, and most of them are immigrants from Chu State.
There are still a lot of indigenous people on other islands, big and small, but immigration and development will continue in the future, and a number of reservations have been established to allow local indigenous people to move to these reservation islands to continue living.
The same is true for Borneo and Java Island. The Chu Empire has been promoting immigration and development in these places for more than ten years, with considerable results.
The population in Borneo and Java Island is now dominated by immigrants from the Chu State. There are very few indigenous people, and they are concentrated in a few remote areas on the edge. These remote areas are reservations planned by the Chu State for these indigenous people. .
This kind of reservation policy was a system established by the Chu State during its colonial development in Nanyang. It was intended to reduce the intensity of resistance of the indigenous people. The Indian reservations that were subsequently established in Siam and Myanmar were actually also this policy. variant.
Of course, there are still many ignorant or simply ignorant natives on the Nanyang islands who simply ignore the Chu State. For these natives, the Chu State has no good solution, except to engage in immigration and development step by step.
But no matter what, the immigration development in these places will be a foregone conclusion.
The only remaining problem is the Kingdom of Aceh on the island of Sumatra.
This kingdom is also the only large-scale kingdom left in Southeast Asia after the collapse of the Kingdom of Burma and the Kingdom of Siam.
The Chu Empire wanted to turn the Nanyang region into its own back garden and the hinterland of its homeland. Naturally, the Kingdom of Aceh could not stay.
And the Aceh Kingdom also knows that it is facing a huge crisis!
At the same time, after they saw the tragic ending of the Burmese royal family and the preferential treatment received by the senior officials of the Kingdom of Siam after voluntarily surrendering, they also came up with the idea of surrendering voluntarily.
But they and the senior officials from the Kingdom of Siam surrendered, and then they were different from the Chu people. They hoped to get a reservation after surrendering and continue to be the king!
In short, they were willing to give most of their territory to Chu State and only asked Chu State to leave a reserved land for them.
After the Domain Affairs Department of the Ministry of Rites and Education of the State of Chu received the opinions from the Kingdom of Aceh, the local diplomats did not make the decision without authorization, but reported the matter to Jinling.
After some discussion and consultation with Luo Zhixue, the officials of the Ministry of Ethnic Affairs in Jinling felt that since the Aceh Kingdom was so understanding, they were willing to donate land and assist the Chu people in relocating the Aceh people.
So it doesn't mean that we can't be given preferential treatment as a reservation.
But don’t expect it on Sumatra Island. This place belongs to the Nanyang region, and the entire Nanyang region has been included under the direct jurisdiction of the Chu Empire. It is impossible to leave you a large reservation and let you retain the political system. .
The reservations in areas such as the Luzon Islands and the East Indies only allowed the indigenous people to live and live there, but did not allow the indigenous people to establish political power. The administration of these reservations was still managed by the reservation management yamen established by the Dachu Empire.
Therefore, the Kingdom of Aceh was given two options. One was to establish an Acehnese reservation in the western region of Sumatra, but the reservation would be directly managed and governed by the Chu people. The Aceh royal family could accept the household registration given by the Chu people. For this reason, the Chu people were even able to give the Aceh Kingdom the preferential treatment of a viscount title.
Of course, the Acehnese royal family can also abandon the Chu household registration and continue to live in the reservation as ordinary people.
In addition, there is another option, that is, the Chu Empire can set aside a reservation for the Acehnese people on the east coast of India, and allow the Acehnese royal family to rebuild the kingdom here and retain the title of king.
Well, if India can't do it, Africa can...
But I only give you a place. As for how to go and how many people can be brought with you, that is your own business in the Kingdom of Aceh.
Well, you can also hire ships from Chu to help you move people.
As long as you give me money, you can talk about anything!
Anyway, the Chu Empire previously set aside two areas on the east coast of India to serve as reservations for the Siamese and Burmese people. Now it is not impossible to add an Acehnese.
However, after detailed consideration by the Aceh people, their royal family still gave up their plan to move to India... Their royal family also planned to give up all rights.
After all, the Chu Empire had given him preferential treatment with the title of Viscount, which was still very important in the eyes of the Aceh royal family.
Being a noble in the heavenly kingdom, even a low-level noble with no real power, is much better than being the king of a reservation where life cannot be resisted.
After some diplomatic discussions, the Aceh Kingdom finally reached a series of agreements with the Chu Empire.
In April of the 35th year of Chengshun, the two sides formally signed a treaty. The royal family of Aceh and more than ten powerful aristocratic families in the kingdom, a total of more than 100 people, were naturalized in the Chu Empire and moved to Singapore to live. The King of Aceh Was canonized as Viscount of the Great Chu Empire, and this title can be inherited with reduced grades.
The Chu Empire designated an area in the western region of the Kingdom of Aceh as a reservation, allowing the Aceh people to live freely in the reservation and accept the rule of the Aceh Reserve Yamen established by the Chu Empire in the reservation.
Other places were fully taken over by the Chu Empire and immigrants were sent there.
As a result, the Kingdom of Aceh, the last indigenous regime in Southeast Asia, officially became history.
The Nanyang region has completely become the back garden of the Chu Empire. The next step for the Chu Empire is to build this back garden into its local hinterland.
(End of chapter)
