On January 1, 1623 in the Gregorian calendar, a grand military parade was held in the central square of the southern district of Manchu, and the parade exceeded the small size of the company on the National Day to reach an army battalion. Moreover, this army battalion is still the latest to be established, and more than 200 of them are Chinese immigrants from the Ming Dynasty who have only been in the army for more than two months.

After that, this army battalion will be mixed with most of the existing army combat units, and the army will be reorganized into two combat battalions and a number of fortified garrison units, with a total strength of more than 900 troops.

According to statistics, the population of the country exceeded 10,000 for the first time, reaching more than 11,000 people, including more than 4,500 Chinese, more than 3,000 Europeans, and more than 3,000 vassal populations, mainly Delaware Indians.

In addition to the elites, some of the well-connected elders of the Native American villages were also invited to attend the New Year's Day parade, as well as high-level European immigrants from major corporations, most of whom had attained at least formal residency.

Together with the hundreds of senior Chinese immigrant craftsmen and their families who lived in the southern district of Manchuria, the number of citizens who watched the entire New Year's Day parade exceeded 1,000.

The European residents, who were told that they were the representatives of all the people, were so excited that even the Chinese residents, who had only been living in Manchester for two months, were a little excited by the lively atmosphere.

The small national flag issued by the Ministry of Civil Affairs of the government was dragged in the hands of men, women and children, shaking it randomly without discipline and rhythm, and staring at the end of the square.

Dozens of Chinese-American policemen who had just finished their work training also officially took up their posts today, and they stood in a neat row along the viewing platform to protect the dignitaries and dignitaries behind them.

The "March of the Soldiers" sounded under the beating of the military band, and the phalanx of three infantry companies of the nine-person group entered in turn.

In the phalanx of the second company, Qiao Xi and Yu Shan walked side by side in the first row, and the neat and straight winter military uniforms made the two of them extremely energetic. After more than two months of "easy training" and "overeating", the two young men's bodies are much more solid.

On the viewing platform, Chang Kun stood tightly behind the country's highest mascot, President Chen Yuanyuan, and watched the infantry phalanx dozens of meters away walk by at a uniform pace, shaking his head and reciting sour and high-spirited words such as "The country is at its peak, the king is mighty, and it deters the four yi", which caused Su Zining on the side to almost laugh.

The atmosphere was indeed an incontagious thing, and when the national representatives from West Point began to cheer loudly at the officers and men of the Third Company, the thousands of people watching the ceremony could not help but start shouting.

"Next month, at least half of them will be on the front lines." Yan Xiaosong muttered softly beside Su Zining, so that Su Zining couldn't help but turn around.

"Well, Zheng Quan has played a big game this time, a reinforced infantry battalion, more than 400 officers and soldiers, hundreds of pack horse transports, and hundreds of Pecot and Mohican servants, using 16 river transport ships to provide logistical support." Su Zining glanced at the high-spirited Minister of Defense and the two service commanders, and a smile appeared on the corner of his mouth, "No matter how dirty the purpose of the war is, it should be a good start for this country, and the army is beginning to notice the direction of its true duties." ”

"Do you have to kill and enslave the Indians to develop?" Suddenly, Yuan Xinyi, the fiancée on the side, lowered her voice and trembled slightly, "We think that with a higher civilization and knowledge, we can get what we need in a bloodless way." ”

"Yes, but our current knowledge and civilization cannot solve our primary manpower problem, and we have to cross a hurdle, which is inevitable. Either the cost falls on our own people or on our opponents, we don't have a third choice, we have to pass on the cost. Su Zining sighed and looked into his fiancée's eyes, "Xiao Xin, I can also tell you that after research, the Moheks are the tribe closest to the Chinese race among the North American Indians. But they are now enemies, and even if we don't need manpower, the contradictions with them are irreconcilable at this stage, and the Mohoks are famous for their belligerence in history. Think of it as an opportunity to stop the fight with a fight, just like the Pecots ......"...,

"What about us? Do we want to leave this mark in history? Or let these Indians live in isolation on the reservation, as they have historically? Yuan Xinyi's love was a little excited, and she grabbed Su Zining's hand and quietly exerted force.

"Until the twenty-first century, the developed countries have not shown real repentance to the enslaved peoples and the African colonial countries, even though they believe that their countries have reached a high level of human rights development...... We can try to be better than them in this area, but we are not obligated to do better than them! ”

At this time, Liu Yun, the Minister of Homeland Security, who was standing on Su Zining's side, suddenly interjected, and this remark caused many eyes to gather.

"Hehe, it's too crowded here, let's go out." Su Zining smiled, noncommittal to Liu Yun's words, just patted his fiancée's back and squeezed out of the crowd with the other party.

"Hey, dear, look, it's the Navy!" Katarina, who had just completed the engagement ceremony with Yan Xiaosong a few days ago, was wearing a second lieutenant winter coat at this time, holding her fiancé's arm and waving excitedly.

When a phalanx of 100 sailors walked through the square, the light cruiser Enterprise docked on the East River also began to fire a salute at this time.

The thunderous salute no longer represents blood at this time, bringing the atmosphere of the crowd to a climax.

The whole month of January will be the busiest month for the country, not only as the government prepares for the largest foreign military operation since the founding of the People's Republic of China, but also the Chinese residents of the Ming Dynasty who have crossed the ocean to North America are also looking forward to the first new year in this strange land.

Preparations for war by the Ministry of Defense and the military reached the last month. Every day, a large amount of supplies are transported to West Point Town for reserves, and the Beiyang Shipping Company has stepped up the construction of six 60-horsepower inland river steam carriers in two months, plus the Mayflower, which has completed the steam power transformation, can be regarded as ensuring that the capacity of inland river military and civilian transportation will not be greatly affected.

The special operations team led by Zhu Xiaoli finally returned on January 7. In addition to a large number of winter maps of the Albany region, the distribution of Mohek villages in the Albany region was also brought back.

In order not to arouse unnecessary vigilance, Zhu Xiaoli gave up any opportunity to show off this time, and the group almost completely avoided any engagement, which made the comrades-in-arms who carried out special operations for the first time sigh a pity.

The map is detailed, but it's a bit confusing to find that most of the Mohok villages, numbering more than 1,000 people, are located a dozen to dozens of kilometers away from the outskirts of the Albany landings. Albany has only one temporary trading post abandoned by the Dutch, and there is only an unknown small Indian tribe village of a few hundred people nearby.

Such a distribution situation will inevitably lead to extremely scattered operations, and in the harsh and unfamiliar snow season environment, there will be a large number of unpredictable accidents.

According to historical records of the Mohoks, they were roughly divided into three large clan communities, and they fought against other Indian tribes in the east in the upper reaches of the Hudson River all year round. At present, the number of Mohoeks near West Point is close to 1,000, so according to the population distribution, the population of Mohoks near Albany should not be less than 10,000, but the current reconnaissance results have found less than 5,000 people.

The size of these 5,000 men alone would not be enough to dominate the middle and upper reaches of the Song River, because neither the Pecots nor the Mohicans would fall below that number.

So where did the rest of the population go? This question has been plaguing Defense Minister Zheng Quan, the architect of the battle plan, and even Brigadier General Chen Liwen, the commander of the army, who has always been full of self-confidence, is a little uncertain.

In the farther areas around Albany, due to the harsh environment and limited reconnaissance means and time, the special operations squadron will not be able to obtain more information. …,

There is no turning back from the bow, if these Mohek villages that have been reconnoitred can also harvest at least 2,000 prisoners of war, this number is enough to support the manpower needs of several major mines in the future.

The New Year's reorganization of the troops will be completed in mid-January, and the final number of troops participating in the battle has been determined. At that time, the strength of the military base in West Point will be increased to five infantry companies, three of which will form the North Combat Reinforcement Battalion, and the remaining two infantry companies will launch a military strike against the Mohok camp north of the Creek Plain northwest of West Point after the beginning of spring.

There are high hopes that the artillery unit will make its debut in this operation, but the army is obviously unwilling to use such a large-scale lethal weapon, after all, the fundamental purpose of this northern war is to defeat and capture the opponent, and it can not be used as much as possible.

A string of numbers is outlined in the copy of the Ministry of Defense, from soldiers to supplies, from routes to time, ordinary soldiers have no idea that their fate has been predestined in these paper operations.

This year's winter was extremely cold, even on New Year's Day, there was still light snow, and more often, the frequent snowfall caused many Chinese soldiers from the southern Ming Dynasty to complain.

After the military parade on New Year's Day, after only two days of rest, Qiao Xian and Yu Shan's company began to split and reorganize with other troops, and then the intensity of training in the snow season increased instead of decreasing. Fortunately, most of the rearrangements were carried out in class units, which kept Qiao Xian and Yu Shan from being separated.

Looking forward to the approaching Chinese New Year's Eve day by day, the two were depressed for continuing field training at more than ten degrees below zero every day. But Qiao Yan's character is okay, and he is a typical example of enjoying silently if he can't resist. And Yu Shan continued to complain, from the sound of the drums when he got up was unpleasant, to today's breakfast was actually steamed buns, to the leather boots in the snow and wet the footcloth, in short, any little unpleasantness could cause him to mutter for at least an hour.

What bothered him even more was that at the end of the two months of recruit training, his rank was still limited to private, which is usually a sign of the worst performance of a recruit's training. And Qiao Xian was successfully promoted to private.

At the investiture ceremony, Corporal Makarov reminded everyone that if some idiot's complaints could be reduced by one, it might be possible to get the rank of first class at the end of the five-year military service.

This poor, insinuating personal assessment made Yu Shan complain in self-pity for half the night. (To be continued.) If you like this work, you are welcome to (.) to vote for recommendation, monthly pass, your support is my biggest motivation. [This text is provided by @earthly, drama]