At the beginning of the new year in 1632, Victory Harbor, Luhuitou Army Base.

"It's so unfavorable to line up! Look at the back of your head, don't look east, open, west, look!" Gu Wei reprimanded the helpless recruit with a loud voice, and spit on the unlucky egg.

In 1631, the winter conscription on Hainan Island had ended, and in the past few days, young people who had signed up for service from various states and counties arrived at Shengli Port to report to the camp. The object of Gu Wei's reprimand was the more than forty recruits who had just arrived here after a day's boat ride from Lingshui.

Most of these young people are not natives of Hainan Island, but immigrants brought in from the mainland in the last year or two. For the people of this era, joining the army is not a very good choice, the Daming guard system has long collapsed to the point that it is difficult to maintain, such as the original Yazhou, the guard post has already existed in name only, otherwise the crossing group would not have chosen Yulin Port as the landing site without scruples. However, for the immigrants introduced in the past two years, joining the army is a shortcut for them to obtain Haihan naturalization, which is a necessary condition.

Compared with the early days of the initial creation, today's Haihan civil affairs department is more strict about the definition and treatment of naturalized nationality, and if immigrants do not have the patience to wait for a period ranging from three months to one year, the fastest way to naturalize is to become a soldier. On the walls of the village committees of each resettlement village, there are uniformly painted conscription propaganda slogans such as "One person enlists in the army, the whole family is naturalized", which is indeed very attractive for immigrants who are eager to take root in the local area. Moreover, the salary of the soldiers of the Haihan militia is not low, which is slightly better than the traditional occupations of agriculture and labor, and it is also a good way to make a living from an economic point of view.

In addition, these immigrants have seen the Haihan militia in the process of coming to Hainan Island from the mainland, and the impression left by the militia soldiers who are neatly dressed, loaded with guns and ammunition, and strict military discipline is completely different from that of the Ming army. For example, the current team of recruits from Lingshui are all from the same immigrant village, and the total population of this village is less than 800 people, and about half of them are young and strong, and the proportion of those who have signed up for the army has exceeded one-tenth.

Of course, it is not easy to turn these young people, who have no military training at all, into soldiers who are not afraid of sacrifice and forbidden. They need to complete two months of basic training at the Luhuitou Army Camp before proceeding to the next step of class allocation. For example, artillerymen, snipers, scouts, engineers, and other specialized arms that have relatively high requirements for skills have to be further selected from among those who have completed the training of new recruits, and then specialized training will be carried out, and the training cycle will be much longer than that of recruit training.

However, for Gu Wei, who was responsible for training recruits in the Haihan Army, it was even more laborious to bring these recruits than to go to the battlefield himself. Many people can't even tell the difference between left and right when they enlist in the army, and they need to keep shouting and even shooting in line to make these people understand their instructions.

The reason for the distraction of these recruits today is not only because they are not familiar with the military training instructions, but also because the regular army of the Haihan People's Regiment that is being assembled in front of them makes it difficult for them to concentrate on carrying out the orders of the commander.

Next to the training ground for recruits is a standard 400-meter runway sports field, at this time, the teams of three army companies have been assembled on this field, as well as a mountain of various combat equipment and materials, Yan Chujie, the leader of the Haihan military, is giving them a pre-departure lecture in front of the soldiers. For the recruits who had just entered the camp, it was the first time to see the Haihan militia group pulling out from the garrison in an organized manner, and this kind of formation really made them feel both novel and shocked, and at the same time a little envious. It is said that the destination of this unit is Hong Kong Island at the mouth of the Pearl River, and according to the regulations of the army, such troops stationed in other places can also enjoy additional allowances and subsidies, and they can at least feed one more person every month.

"Report to the chief, the villain has a problem and asks for advice!" someone in the team raised his hand and said loudly.

Gu Wei looked back and saw that it was a young junior with a fair complexion, so he walked over and stood in front of him: "Ask!"

"When the villain enlisted in the army, the conscription master said that he could be stationed in Fujian in the future, I wonder if there is really such an arrangement?" asked the young descendant.

"Are you from Fujian?" Gu Wei heard him speak with a more obvious Hokkien accent, so he guessed the purpose of his question.

"The villain was born in Putian, Fujian, and he voted for Haihan alone, just so that he could return to Fujian one day and avenge his family!"

"Revenge?" Gu Wei shook his head when he heard this, and said: "If you join the army for personal grudges, then I'd better put away this kind of thinking earlier, this army will not fulfill your personal will to fight bravely." ”

"The villain's family of seventeen people, all of them were slaughtered by the pirate Eighteen Zhi last year, only the villain escaped by luck, and the government could not bring the real murderer to justice, the villain heard that the Haihan People's League and the Eighteen Zhi were incompatible, so they came to Qiongzhou Island to join the army thousands of miles away, and became the leader of the army!"

Although in the past two years, with the change of the war situation, the number of large-scale attacks on Fujian's major coastal ports has become less and less, but it still organizes small-scale raids from time to time. On the one hand, it robbed the people's property and grain, and on the other hand, it would also loot the population and transport it to Penghu and the west coast of Taiwan for reclamation, so as to make up for the lack of grain production in Shibazhi.

When Gu Wei heard such a reason, it was not good to reprimand this offspring, after all, there were such recruits on the scene, and his attitude was likely to affect the perception of these recruits on the collective of the Haihan Mintuan.

Gu Wei thought for a while and said, "Since it is the revenge of destroying the door, it really has to be another matter. What's your name?"

"The villain's original surname was Gu, and after the accident at home, he has abandoned his original name, and now he has a single name and a hateful word to warn himself not to forget about revenge!"

"Gu Qiu?" Gu Wei said in a deep voice: "Two months later, if you can complete the recruit training assessment, I will make the decision and recommend you to serve in Fujian, maybe you will have the opportunity to avenge your family on the battlefield, what do you think?"

"Thank you for the success!" Gu Qiu fell on the ground and kowtowed three times in a row, then got up and said: "The villain can't wait to go to Fujian tomorrow and sacrifice his life to fight for the people's league!"

"You should be a scholar, right?" Gu Wei looked at the appearance of this descendant and said: "Giving you two months is to let you learn the skills of killing the enemy, lest when you go to the battlefield in the future, not only can you not take revenge, but also send you to die in vain, then it is not cost-effective!"

Gu Qiu bowed his head and replied: "The chief has to teach a lesson. The villain has spent a few years of reading books in vain, but he has forgotten this basic truth. From this time on, the villain must train well, and please don't forget to promise the villain!"

Situations like Gu Qiu were not uncommon among the Haihan army, and when there was chaos in Guangdong two years ago, many of the immigrants brought in by the Haihan from the mainland were bitter masters who were killed in the bandits. Among them, many young people chose to join the army to realize their desire to avenge their families. Therefore, Gu Wei still has a certain amount of experience in dealing with the crux of the mind of such people, and as long as he makes proper use of it, he can boost morale at a certain level and increase the cohesion of the troops to recruit recruits.

"Lizheng! turn right!" Gu Wei ordered loudly.

The responses of the recruits were still mixed, and Gu Wei scolded and used his feet to make two or three of the soldiers who had turned in the wrong direction realize their mistakes. After everyone had turned in the right direction, Gu Wei also walked to the side of the team and shouted, "Salute!"

The recruits learned this action quite quickly, and raised their right hands to the side of their heads in unison and saluted. Opposite them were militia troops that were marching out of the battalion in four columns. After leaving the camp, they will board the boat directly at the pier on Luhuitou Peninsula and head to Hong Kong Island.

However, what the recruits did not know was that the militia unit was not going to rotate its local counterparts, but would be temporarily stationed there for one to two months before heading directly to Fujian to prepare for the next phase of military operations.

The main reason why it was necessary to be stationed on Hong Kong Island for a period of time was to prevent large-scale military movements from attracting the attention of Shibazhi, and in this way, the troops participating in the war were transferred to Fujian little by little in phases and batches, which could not only cover people's eyes and ears, but also allow the troops to have more time to adapt to the local climate, diet, and other environmental conditions in Fujian, and make full preparations as much as possible before the start of the war.

In addition to the army base on the Luhuitou Peninsula, such small-scale troop movements are being carried out in various parts of Hainan Island. The Central Military Commission's action plan is to arrange as much as possible units with combat experience to participate in military operations in Fujian during the year, and some of the recruits who joined the army last year will take on the heavy task of defending Hainan Island during the war. As for the new recruits who have just entered the barracks to report for duty, they will probably be able to be stationed in the local area to serve in a decent manner when the war starts.

At the same time, the town of Nangang on the island of Hong Kong.

The port town, which was originally bustling with traffic, has now become quiet with the relocation and evacuation of merchants. At present, all the merchants have moved their shops to the north of Causeway Bay, where the Ministry of Commerce has built a trade zone, which will be developed on a scale far beyond the narrow Zhennan Port and become the most important trading port in the Pearl River Estuary in the future.

The shops, warehouses, hotels, and other facilities belonging to a number of commercial houses in Zhennan Port are also being renovated in an orderly manner, and the militia has requisitioned all the local real estate, and these buildings will be used as barracks and warehouses for the troops after being renovated. In the first quarter of 1632, the Military Commission intended to deploy two reinforced battalions of land forces and a fleet of fifteen ships, with an estimated garrison of about 3,000 men.

In order to allow the troops to be stationed in Shun Lì, the Guangdong office also began to be busy. Except for the grain that can be transported from Hainan Island, most of the other daily necessities need to be purchased nearby in the mainland to save costs. However, fortunately, Haihan's purchases have always been large-scale transactions, and no one will notice anything special about the recent purchase list issued by the Guangzhou Office.

At the Pearl River Wharf outside Guangzhou, several merchant ships under the Haihan Shipping Department transport all kinds of purchased materials to Zhennan Port at a weekly frequency. In addition, there are dozens of merchant ships of partners, shuttling between Sanya and Zhennan Port in different batches, secretly transporting those war materials to Zhennan Port that even the crew does not know the content.

On February 4, 1632, the fourth day of the first month of the fifth year of Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty, the beginning of spring.

The Haihan wharf on the west side of Kinmen Island welcomed a fleet of boats without any flags or identifications, and when the fleet docked, all the boats were full of young men, and each carrying a huge canvas marching backpack. This was the first batch of troops to arrive on Kinmen Island, consisting of an amphibious combat company and an artillery company, totaling more than 400 people. With the arrival of this army, it also symbolizes the official opening of Haihan's battle plan against Penghu. In the next two or three months, at least two or three reinforced army battalions and two or more naval fleets will arrive. At that time, after resting and recuperating, the military will find a period when the sea conditions are better and launch an operation against the old nest of the Eighteen Zhis in Penghu.

In addition to the troops participating in the war in Haihan, the Fujian government also secretly dispatched elite troops in the province to concentrate in Zhangquan and Quanzhou. Although the combat effectiveness of the Ming official army is not comparable to that of the Haihan militia, as an allied force acting in concert, the Fujian government will also send at least 3,000 troops to participate in this operation, and Xu Xinsu also regarded this attack on Shibazhi as a rare opportunity, after all, only in such a real battle, his own troops can learn the essence of the Haihan people's combat thinking to the greatest extent. Xu Xinsu even began to set up a military observation group as early as last year, and almost all the young talents in his army were recruited, waiting for the war to send these young officers to the Haihan militia army to learn at close range how the Haihan people command operations and deal with various situations on the battlefield. After such a battle, it is probably much more effective than going to Sanya to study for a few months.