18 January 1723, Jinmen (present-day Karachi, Pakistan).

Originally a small fishing village on the coast of the Indian Ocean, Jinmen became the main anchorage of the Indian fleet of Qi after it was completely ceded to Qi more than 60 years ago. Over the decades, it has become the most important port of entry and exit for trade in Northwest India. Located inland, Baloch, Punjab, Sindh and other regions, through the Indus River navigation, the production of grain, rice, cotton and other agricultural products are continuously transported to the port of Jinmen, and then transshipped to the Han continent itself, as well as Persia, Arabia, East Africa and other places.

Jinmen is not only the headquarters of the Indian Fleet Headquarters of the Qi Navy, but also the government of the Xizhou Governorate (the jurisdiction is the vast plain area between the Hubu River and the Indus River), so the whole city has gathered nearly 80,000 people, less than 10% of the Qi people and Qi-Indian mixed-race people, most of them are local Sindhi people, Rajputs, and Baloch people.

Li Yanliang carried a heavy bag on his back, got off the boat with several companions, and then got into a military carriage and drove towards the headquarters of the Xizhou garrison in the city. Through the car window, he subconsciously looked in the direction of the dock berth.

A Persian delegation of nearly 100 people was leading the port staff to the VIP room to rest, waiting for the governor of Xizhou to send someone to greet him. In the team, more than a dozen Persian women wearing traditional Persian costumes and scarves on their faces stood out.

As the princess of the Safavid Dynasty and the daughter of the new Shah Abbas III, Nasid Mirza will eventually be sent to Han Zhou to marry the royal family of Daqi, so as to deepen the deep "friendship" between the two countries, and hope to get the strong support of the Qi government to help Abbas III in distress and revive the Safavid Empire.

The so-called Iraqi people are on the water side.

Li Yanliang sighed slightly, leaned his head lightly against the wall of the carriage, and closed his eyes silently.

"Why, after more than 20 days on the boat, the whole spirit is discharged?" A fellow lieutenant (lieutenant) touched Li Yanliang with his arm and asked with a smile.

"Well, it feels like the whole person is still floating." Li Yanliang continued to close his eyes and replied in a muffled voice.

"Rest tonight, when you meet the commander of the Xizhou garrison tomorrow, don't be so listless, otherwise you will have a bad impression, but it will delay the future."

"Now that we have been transferred to the garrison army, what good future can we have?" Li Yanliang shook his head and said: "The entire garrison army, except for the officers and artillery units of our Qi country, the soldiers under his command are all indigenous Indians, is it possible that they still expect to take these people to make meritorious contributions?" ”

"You can't say that." Chu Zewu said: "With the rank of a low-ranking lieutenant like ours, in the mobile corps, at most it is a platoon commander or the rank of tactical staff officer. However, if you want to go to the overseas territory to garrison the army, you can at least bring a company or even a battalion, and you have more or less experience as a commander. Isn't that the best springboard for promotion in the future! ”

"Really?" Li Yanliang had a somewhat suspicious look on his face.

After his withdrawal from Isfahan to the port of Bushehr, in view of his outstanding performance over the past year, Li Yanliang was promoted to the rank of Temporary Renyong Colonel, which will be officially awarded after being submitted to the local army headquarters for verification.

I thought that if I was promoted to the rank, I would be appointed as a tactical staff officer in the company, or an auxiliary officer in the company, and after a few years of seniority, I would be able to be promoted to the captain (captain) of the imperial military force step by step, so as to become the chief officer of any company.

Unexpectedly, the commander above sent him and several officers to the Xizhou garrison, saying that it was to consolidate and strengthen the training intensity and combat capability of the local garrison.

But the problem is that to the northwest of Xizhou is the vassal state of Qi - the Kharat Khanate, to the east is the territory of the Nawab Kingdom which has always been regarded as a local rebellion by the Mughal Empire, and to the southeast is separated by a small piece of Gujarat territory and the Mozhou Governorate, and to the west, oh, that's the ocean. It can be said that there is no risk of invasion by a strong enemy at all in the entire territory of Xizhou.

Working in this kind of local garrison army, I am afraid that there is no opportunity to make meritorious contributions at all, how can I get the commendation and promotion from the top?

"When we left Persia, their imperial Shah had already formally requested the loan of troops from our Qi state." Chu Zewu looked at Li Yanliang with a depressed face, smiled slightly, patted him on the shoulder, and said, "I think that our Emperor and the cabinet government will definitely accede to the request of the Persians, mobilize troops to help them expel the Afghans, and restore the ruling order of the Safavid Dynasty." ”

"Well, that's why the chief sent us to Xizhou." Li Yanliang said without self-deprecation.

"Do you think that the war against Persia is confined to the territory of Persia?"

"Or else? …… Well? Li Yan's conscience moved, "You mean, Afghanistan ......"

"That's right!" Chu Zewu nodded and said, "Our Qi army landed from Bandar Abbas or from Bushehr Port and attacked Isfahan. With our combat strength, the Afghans will definitely be expelled from Isfahan. When the time comes, you say, where will they flee? …… Definitely flee to Kandahar! At that time, our Xizhou garrison army will unite with the Kharat Khanate, cross the vast Gobi and the desert, directly dig out the old nest of the Afghans, cut off their back roads, and fight back and forth with our main army, which should be able to completely annihilate this tribal rebel army. Perhaps, through this war, we can also extend the power of our Qi country to Afghanistan. ”

Li Yanliang thought about it, and couldn't help nodding slightly, as Chu Zewu said, if you want to completely solve the Afghans, you must not only defeat them from the frontal battlefield and recapture Isfahan, but also draw money from the bottom of the kettle and capture Kandahar, directly cutting off their back road.

I was in a trance all the way, and I couldn't think deeply about this section for the sake of an unrealistic love for children.

"I don't know, will the Indian natives in Xizhou be able to fight after the whole training?"

As early as the early days of the establishment of the Indian trading company, several Qi trading station strongholds, such as Surat, Anfeng (present-day Cochin City in southwestern India), and Ningyang (present-day Pundicheli, India, also translated as local governance), hired some locals to form escort teams to protect the safety of Qi merchants and goods.

As the Indian trading houses grew, they began to recruit a small number of natives and some Eurasian and Indian people to serve as guards in forts and colonial cities. These European-Indian mixed-race children were basically born to the Portuguese and the local Indians, and the reason why they were favored by the trading company was that they belonged to the same "outsiders" as the Qi people, and they did not have much local religious beliefs, which was easy to encompass and manage.

In addition, the trading company also recruited sporadic Hindu high-caste people such as the Rajputs and the Qi people to form a convoy, but this did not last long.

It was not until around 1670 that the Qi State gradually took control of the Cochin Kingdom through years of infiltration and seized the military command of the kingdom, and the Indian trading companies began to focus on building and developing the Indian local servant army to provide the necessary military support for the economic colonial expansion of the Qi State.

In the first Qi-India War that broke out in the seventh year of Hanxing (1677), more than 10,000 local servants of Cochin played a vital role under the leadership of a small Qi army in the battle to conquer Surat.

Subsequently, the Qi State also began to fully organize a vassal army dominated by local natives in the Mozhou Governorate (present-day Katiawa Peninsula in Gujarat, India) ceded by the Mughal Empire, which was used to maintain local order in peacetime, and in wartime, accompanied the Qi army to conquer various places, and crossed the ocean to pass through Arabia and East Africa.

Throughout India, a number of local servants, including the Indian and Bengali trading societies, were armed with national and indigenous mercenary forces. However, compared to the huge population resources in India, the number of officers and soldiers from Qi is always less than that of the local indigenous mercenaries.

The main reason why those Indian natives joined the army of Qi's colonial servants was that since the First Qi-India War, the Mughal Empire has shown an irrepressible decline, the central authority has ceased to be extended, local governors and princely princes have divided land to protect themselves, and the livelihood and economy of various places have become more and more difficult. There has long been a market for military labor in India, and in some areas the high-caste Hindus or true gods have been converted into professional mercenary groups in order to make a living.

Under the influence of an increasingly commoditized economy, they rely on selling their labor to serve their employers, who themselves do not have a modern sense of national identity and identity. In the eyes of these Indian officers and soldiers who served, the Qi people were not much different from the Indian feudal lords at all levels during this period, and there was not much difference. As long as they do not violate the traditional village community identity and religious beliefs, and can receive a satisfactory military salary, they are willing to pay allegiance to any employer who pays for recruitment. The Telugu people in South India and the Rajputs in North India were considered to be good "quality" sources of soldiers, and a large number of them were absorbed.

At present, the composition of the armed forces of Qi in India is as follows: a small number of regular Qi army units - three regiments of more than 7,000 people, stationed in Bengal, the Kingdom of Cochin and Mozhou, and a large number of local indigenous servant troops - the total number of troops in this part is about 35,000 people.

Before 1695, there was a rule that non-Qi soldiers on active duty could not serve as officers. Therefore, in the large number of local servant armies, those who served in the army as officers were all Qi people. In this context, in addition to the ordinary soldiers of the Qi State or the mixed-race soldiers of the Qi State who were willing to stay in the servant troops, the remaining indigenous soldier units formed the main source and main force of the Qi State army fighting in India.

Later, in order to win the hearts of the people, in 1695, the Qi State opened the promotion channel for low-ranking officers, allowing non-Qi nationals to serve as officers below the rank of Xuanjie Lieutenant (Major). However, in order to hold the local servant troops hostage in India, all the technical arms and artillery units in the army were personally controlled by the Qi people.

As for the source of the servant army, in addition to the high-caste Hindu warriors or peasants, a large number of True Gods and low-caste people were also recruited and absorbed into the army. Because compared with the former, the latter two types of soldiers will not be afraid to go to sea to fight because of religious beliefs.

Although many soldiers in the garrison troops in various parts of the Qi State are from high caste backgrounds, the Qi military will deliberately dilute the caste consciousness in order to facilitate control, but soldiers with the same religious beliefs will be classified into a unified company.

Although the indigenous servants of India showed a certain degree of discipline and obedience, they were still discriminated against and treated unfairly by the Qi officers in their daily training and management, and their loyalty and combat effectiveness were skeptical. Still, by and large, Indian soldiers were able to endure racial discrimination and prejudice from their superiors and work hard to maintain the ethical work ethic of Indian mercenaries.

Although it is a little incredible, in the eyes of these indigenous Indian mercenaries from different regions and religions, as hired military labor, they cannot destroy their jobs because some unfavorable factors affect the reputation of their profession.

Moreover, joining the local servant army of Qi and becoming a mercenary can receive a lot of money on time every month, after all, it is a very promising and secure career.