The pattern of the fleet's expedition this time was exactly the same as when Li Kuiqi was exterminated in Fujian. The fast fleet of 6 professional gunboats is the vanguard, the support fleet of 10 new lock ships and Ming soldiers is the Chinese army, and the largest number of people behind is the miscellaneous fleet of ships transferred from various water villages.

The departure ceremony was equally grand.

Considering that Guangzhou will be the new capital of the empire in the future, and it is the place where the anti-flag is officially displayed, the work of competing for the hearts and minds of the people will be arranged from now on.

So he changed his previous low-key style. Since arriving in Guangzhou, the SAR government has seized every opportunity to expand its influence, trying to subtly and imperceptibly instill in the people the concepts of the general's office being strong, affluent, and credibility.

Specifically, at the departure ceremony on the day.

Since early in the morning, the area around Baietanan has been surrounded by water. In the Middle Ages, there was a lack of entertainment, and in this era of cutting off heads, weddings, funerals, and weddings could become people's entertainment items, the army went out to fight at the level of a happy base camp, not to mention that the news of "there is a good show to watch today" was spread out in advance.

So early in the morning, not only around the wharf, but also many painting boats on the White Goose Pond surrounded them, and the periphery of the warning ring was blocked. At the same time, the three leaders in the red official robes were already sitting on the makeshift platform and talking and laughing.

The three leaders who came to the scene were Hong Mou, the prefect of Guangzhou, He Mou, the general soldier of Guangdong, and Cao Mou, the deputy general.

Underneath the ceremonial table is a long wooden table.

On the desktop at this moment, there are countless shiny and shiny "Cao Datou". One by one, these mechanical silver dollars were erected and creatively stitched together to form a sinuous "silver dragon".

The hovering and shining silver dragon attracted everyone's attention and attracted the amazement and noise of countless melon-eating people.

Usually when the ancients held a mobilization meeting, the style was very rude: xx kicked down the silver box, began to loudly mobilize cannon fodder, and then the morale of the army exploded, and began how to kill the enemy bravely.

And the traversal who has experienced all kinds of chicken blood brainwashing in later generations and the scene of 100 million yuan banknotes issuing bonuses will naturally not be so low. Publicity, you only need to make the scene of the award a little artistic, and it can have a better effect, which is enough to make today's scene an enduring topic for the people of the city.

More than 2,000 "officers and soldiers participating in the battle" mobilized by He Zhen from Xijiang and Beijiang were now lining up, grinning, and under the supervision of the soldiers holding the 28th Dagai, one by one they stepped forward to receive silver dollars—ten per person.

After receiving a stack of shiny silver cakes from the tent office, the mental outlook of these officers and men suddenly improved qualitatively. While laughing and blowing silver dollars one by one, they ran to the stage to kowtow to the lords, and the chaotic scene continued until the gang of masters got on the boat.

In the Ming Dynasty, except for a small number of elite troops as the tactical core, most of the rest of the armed forces belonged to the combination mode of "family soldiers".

Although the number of personal soldiers who were the personal troops of the generals was scarce, they devoured most of the resources in the army. The generals relied on these well-equipped elites to suppress the troops and maintain the system.

To put it another way: how many families a general can afford to support represents the number of troops he can command. In troubled times, as long as the core family members are still there, then it doesn't matter if the army is broken up and the generals are scattered - the routs and homeless people everywhere will become an army again if they are caught casually.

Then in this mode, the life of ordinary soldiers is naturally not easy. These people are usually short of materials, and the food and food are all taken by the Lord to eat the empty quota and support the family, so they are generally demoralized, and their lives are difficult, and their lives are similar to that of calling Hanako.

However, there are gains and losses. On weekdays, it is not good to raise soldiers, and when they need to go into battle, these Qiu Bake will become uncles. All kinds of expenses such as family support expenses, opening fees, arrears, rewards, equipment repair costs, etc., jumped out overnight, and if they were not given, the uncles would not move.

Therefore, the death of Ming is not only a natural disaster, but also a **. When the standing army system degenerates to such a ghostly appearance, even if they get enough money to go to the battlefield, the combat effectiveness of these people is not guaranteed, and those battles that are about to collapse at the touch of a button in the later period are examples.

......

Since the ten taels of silver that these soldiers got today belonged to Cao Datou, then it must have been from General Cao's pocket.

There is no way, it can't be done if you don't pay it. Whether it is the clan or He Rubin's general army yamen, they are all enthusiastic when they discuss the suppression of bandits, but as soon as they heard that they were going to pay for the promotion and the arrears, the bigwigs directly changed their faces and began to cry poor, eager to expose their patched underwear to prove their innocence.

Therefore, Cao Da Fool can only take out Cao Da's head to solve the start-up funds of this war: the previous arrears are 5 taels per soldier, and a comprehensive promotion fee of 5 taels per person, and then there is a sum of money for repairing ships and food for each water village and a pension for the reserve. On the whole, today's departure ceremony cost no less than 40,000 taels of Cao Datou.

However, this is right in the hearts of the people. There is a saying in later generations that is very appropriate: what you are staring at is other people's interest, and what others are staring at is your principal.

The reason is very simple: soldiers are not fools, and these silver cakes, which obviously have a premium in the market, are known to everyone to have been issued by General Cao. In this way, Cao's good reputation as a wealthy man who was willing to pay for his brothers would spread in the military system of Guangdong.

In this era when there is milk is a mother, what does it mean to buy a good reputation similar to "Brother Yucao in Time" among the low-level soldiers...... Who is the anti-thief who knows.

After sending the money and getting on the boat, the next thing is the second ** program of today's ceremony: live ammunition target shooting.

Target shooting is an old trick, and I used it when I was in Fujian. Because of the good effect, it was transplanted to Baietan.

Soon, under the opening of the lead ship, six beautiful battleships with white sails opened the battle line and circled in the white goose pool, ignoring the direction of the wind. Next, in the dense crowd watching on the shore, an old fortune boat that had been arranged in the center of the lake began to be washed away by a series of artillery fire.

The ship soon sank slowly in the cannons, white smoke and firelight. And the melon-eating masses on both sides of the strait and the sons and brothers, sisters and bustards in the nearby painting boat also reached ** at the same time, and the crowd let out a tsunami-like cheer...... No one has ever seen such a neat and shocking sound and light effect, not to mention that a lucky ship was sunk on the spot.

The sailors standing on the motley ship also raised their weapons and cheered at this moment: they still know how to do it, and they know what the ship that ignores the direction of the wind represents.

After loading the force, it was time for the team to officially set off. During this period, a series of action-like cadre-group interactions such as leaders' speeches, face-to-face lectures, and setting sail were indispensable, which made the onlookers addicted again. I believe that in the entire city of Guangzhou, there will be no shortage of talking points in the future.

......

After the group set off at noon, the fast fleet that played the vanguard quickly rushed through the middle section of the Pearl River and sailed straight for the mouth of the Pearl River. When the officers and soldiers of Humen Water Village saw this scene, they also immediately opened the gate of Water Village, and according to the previous agreement, released 20 warships of various sizes to join the subsequent army.

In this way, the coalition forces, with a total number of nearly 3,000 men and 150 ships, were officially assembled and began to rush to the mouth of the Pearl River.

By dusk, the fleet had reached the middle waters between Lantau Island and Macao.

This tactical move was the first to scare the Portuguese entrenched in Macau. After seeing the vigorous and large force led by the fast fleet, several plywood ships in Macau Bay immediately raised their sails and anchored, and then the St. Paul's Battery, which had just been built last year, was also full of gunners of all skins, ready to defend their homeland.

Fortunately, after the fleet passed through the middle waters, it then went diagonally to the east. So the Franz machine guy finally breathed a sigh of relief: they finally went to teach Liu Xiang, the pirate in the east, a lesson.

Liu Xiang Group was also shocked at the moment, and the big and small leaders panicked, and they all went into the big tent to ask the shopkeeper to get an idea, a chaotic scene of the end coming.

However, the chaos was strongly suppressed by Shopkeeper Liu: "The official army is going to Zhucai this time, and they are coming here to deceive the eyeliner in this vicinity. Everyone should be calm and take care of the brothers, and the officers and soldiers will change course after dark. ”

......

Yes, the real target of the Crossing Crowd to lead the army this time is another group of pirates entrenched west of the Pearl River Estuary: the Zhucai Boss Gang.

In history, that is, in this year, the pirate groups such as Zhucai Lao, Yang Liu, Yang and Yang Qi who were wandering in Fujian and Guangdong would be eliminated and annexed by Zheng Zhilong one by one.

Although these two pirates were not well-known, they were also one of the few pirate groups at that time, among which Yang Liu and Yang Qi were also members of Zheng Zhilong's early eighteen Zhizhi.

As for Shopkeeper Liu...... Looking at the posture of his old man sitting firmly in the Diaoyutai, he knows that this gentleman has reached some ulterior agreements with a certain force, and now he is waiting for the agreement to be implemented.

Therefore, the Grand Fleet will not attack Hong Kong Island this time, and the reason why the ship wants to sail to the east of Hong Kong Island is because it wants to give the nearby eyeliners an illusion and use it to paralyze the opponent.

However, this action was basically redundant, because the Grand Fleet, which had been on the way overnight, would easily outnumber the sentinel ships that had gone west to report to Zhucai, if there were such ships.

After dark, six gunboats and ten sail transports disbanded the queue and took on the role of navigator in the middle of the Grand Fleet.

At this time, the Grand Fleet, under the command of the lamppost and the correspondent arranged on the official ship, made a U-turn off the coast of Hong Kong, and then re-passed through the mouth of the Pearl River from east to west, from the open sea route where the Ming ships would not go, and rushed straight along the mainland line to Luozhou, which was 150 kilometers away.

Luozhou, known as Hailing Island in later generations, is the fourth largest island in Guangdong, located on the southwest coast of Yangjiang City, with several natural harbors, and is an excellent pirate habitat.

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