Australian Storm 1876

   Chapter 691 Mercenaries

  One day at the end of April 1895, the weather was gloomy and dark clouds rolled.

  On the mountain road not far from Humen Pass, a long team of cavalry rushed forward. In front of the team was the well-known big mercenary leader Baron Li Yong, with deep eyes as sharp as an eagle.

He is riding on a sturdy pure black Arabian horse with a wide-brimmed Australian cowboy hat on his head. The beard on his face grows messy and full of vicissitudes of life. One hand is placed on the revolver around his waist and one hand The manipulator slowly moved forward with a rope wrapped around it.

A mercenary leader with a sturdy look came up from behind on horseback, flexibly controlled the horse under his seat to slow down, and said with a pleasing smile; "Yong Ye, brother, can you ask how long we can rest this time? time?"

"what's wrong?"

  "It’s okay. I haven’t fought many battles in the past few months, but I ran back and forth from the east to the west of the Ethiopian plateau. The brothers’ horses lost their fat so badly that they could not be brought back in two or three months."

   "Da Lao Hei, you won't be a moth, are you?"

   "How can it be Yong Ye, let me not dare to let me have the courage!"

"You and your people will remember me, this time I will go back to rest, let the brethren vent the fire, heal the wounds, all the ups and downs will be rectified for me, no matter how long the rest is. , I’m going to set off again with an order. I asked all the yelling soldiers, who would dare to put a belt on the Lord’s Lord and pull his hind legs. If he broke the big business of Lord Lord, I let him go on his own. The Italians charged with machine guns, do you understand?"

   "Yes, Lord Yong, our brothers will never dare to delay your important affairs."

  "If you don’t want to do it, just let me know in advance. The mountain wolf, Abao, and Mad Dog have a lot of manpower. There is no shortage of you."

  "Farewell, Lord Yong, we old brothers have been with you for so many years. They have never frowned from birth to death. I assure you, whoever dares to pull his hind legs, I will twist his head off and kick the ball."

   "Huh, that's the best."

Hearing the whispering buzzing voice behind him, Li Yong looked back sternly. The cavalry in the long horse team was as silent as if they were strangling their necks. It was clear that the reputation of "African Lion King" was not overshadowed. It was enough. Frightened a crowd of mercenaries.

  Li Yong took over the employment of Ethiopian Emperor Menelik II at the cost of 30,000 square kilometers of land on the west side of Humen City. He would use this as a tribute to His Majesty the King.

  If the plan is successful, a hereditary aristocratic title will be no problem.

  So, it was Baron Li Yong’s big plan. He paid all the expenses of the 2000 mercenaries for this, and he would never allow anyone to hold back.

  Experienced Chinese mercenaries are quite expensive. According to the employment contract with the special envoy of Ethiopian Emperor Menelik II, Baron Li Yong is responsible for organizing no less than 2,000 mercenaries to participate in the battle for a period of one year.

  At that time, no matter who wins or loses, this land will belong to Baron Li Yong.

The area is now in the hands of the Italians. In the past few years, the Kingdom of Italy has invested heavily in civil engineering, building roads, bridges and railways in the area, building irrigation facilities for farmland, and building large and small Italian-style towns. This regards the area as a native of Italy. To build, more than 70,000 Italian immigrants (within an area of ​​only 30,000 square kilometers) moved to settle here.

  Compared with the inland areas, the narrow and long plains along the Red Sea belong to Eritrea, where rainfall is abundant, water plants are abundant, and suitable for farming and grazing, and there are large areas of fertile land that can be cultivated.

  The Italians also took a fancy to this point and spared no effort to carry out key construction in the area.

Menelik II was a very foresighted African monarch. He naturally knew the fertility of the land in central Eritrea, but he also knew the weakness of the Ethiopian army. There was no shortage of soldiers and weapons. The most lack of combat experience with European troops equipped with muskets, and this, experienced Humen mercenaries can just make up for it.

  If the greedy Italian colonists cannot be driven away, the entire Kingdom of Ethiopia is in danger of falling.

  Which is more important, Menelik II can still figure it out clearly.

What's more, he can't afford the expensive price of hiring 2,000 Chinese mercenaries. According to the current market conditions, hiring an experienced Chinese mercenary for one year will have to pay 600 to 800 silver dollars (one silver dollar is worth one German mark) , This is equivalent to 30-40 pounds, if the fighting is frequent, it will cost more than 50-60 pounds.

  With the terrible finances of the Kingdom of Ethiopia, it is impossible to afford this huge sum of money. The best way is to cede the territory to repay the debt.

  Humen mercenaries are famous for their fierceness in North Africa and the entire Arab region, but no one dared to squander their debts. Anyone wanting to do so has long since turned into bones.

  Once there were Arab tribes who could not afford expensive employment fees. As a result, the entire tribe was slaughtered, young women were trafficked, men were all executed, and tribal camps were reduced to death.

  Humen is heavily guarded before the checkpoint. There are only a dozen Italian horse-drawn carriages waiting to be inspected before the checkpoint, preparing to enter the city of Humen to seek asylum and escape from the war.

Humen City does not reject these white Italian immigrants. Many young Italian women will marry local wealthy Chinese. These low-level people who are struggling to survive in Italy include many skilled leathersmiths, shoemakers, dyestuffs, and tailors. , Blacksmiths, stonemasons, craftsmen who make various utensils, are the talents that Humen urgently needs.

  The long horse team of mercenaries arrived here, and the team uttered a heartfelt cheer, flying into the sky with unspeakable joy.

  After passing Humen Pass, you will enter the world of peace and stability.

  Even if they are fierce mercenaries who lick blood all the year round, they need to return to the warm and peaceful harbor from time to time to soothe their nervous nerves, lick their wounds, soothe their scarred bodies, and prepare to set off again to meet the wind and rain.

   Seeing the brigade of mercenary horses returning, the soldiers guarding Humen Pass drove a dozen Italian horse-drawn carriages aside, and opened the road for the mercenary horses to pass.

  The Chinese face in the team is the best pass, and the soldiers at Humen Pass are the same as the mercenaries. Many people in the team are retired veterans. Those who are really familiar cannot be familiar with each other.

  Baron Li Yong rode his horse to stand for a while, and saw that most of the team had entered the Humen Pass. He knocked his feet on his belly and instigated the seated horse to move forward slowly, preparing to enter the Humen Pass.

at this time

  Parked in the Italian carriage next to it, the curtain of the window was opened in one of the carriages, revealing a very beautiful face, this is a black-haired and dark-eyed white Italian girl, looking outside full of novelty.

  Baron Li Yong glanced at him inadvertently, and his expression was a bit sluggish as if being hit by an electric current.

  Even though there are thousands of female slaves handling, Yan Feihuan is thin and beautiful, but there is no one who can compare with this girl. How do you say that kind of gap?

  As long as you stop there, the other beauties all become vulgar fans, setting off the girls to be more noble and extraordinary, and the beauty is brought on by the fairy air.

"Mad dog, inquire about the origin of the girl in the carriage, and send her to my house." Li Yong held the rein of the horse and ordered, and after thinking about it, he added another sentence; "Remember to treat it with courtesy. Can't be reckless."

   "I know Sir Sir, it's a trivial matter."

   "Also...Don't scare others, or I will take your skin off."

   "Ah...oh...we put her on our hands like a young grandmother, do you think it's okay?"

   "This is pretty much the same."

  Li Yong led the people away, the knights shouting loudly spread far away, full of the excitement of going home.

  Humen City

It is as clean and tidy as other cities in the Ocean Kingdom. Tall green trees are planted on both sides of the road, and there is a complete drainage network. The city will not accumulate water when a rainstorm comes. The tall buildings on both sides of the road extend far away, highlighting the city. Of prosperity.

  From the gorgeous buildings on both sides of the street and the clothes of the residents, it can be seen that this city is far richer than the average agricultural and pastoral city.

  In Humen Port, hundreds of large and small ocean-going fishing boats are moored.

Every evening, a large number of fishing boats return to the port, bringing the fresh fish caught in trucks to the fish processing plant, where they are descaled, fish heads are chopped off, viscera, bone spurs, fish skins are removed and added Salt, starch and food additives are pickled and processed, and then canned fish is sent to the cold storage through a series of processes, which can be stored for a long time.

   Although the craftsmanship is cumbersome, canned thornless fish, canned shrimp, canned braised fish, and canned stewed fish are popular in European countries. They are also the designated supply products for British Army troops stationed in the Suez Canal area, which are popular among officers and soldiers.

  This is an industrial chain worth tens of millions of silver dollars. From marine fisheries fishing to processing, transportation, storage and other industries, related employees account for one-fifth of Humen City, and it is one of the important economic outputs.

At that time, Humen did not rely on fishery processing and agricultural and animal husbandry industries. The real huge profits were the smuggling industry for the entire Arab region. The gold, jewelry, saffron, women and Arabian horses produced in the region were all hard currency, as long as they were shipped out. Make a lot of money.

  The Arab region has strong demand for spices, woolen products, guns and ammunition, cloth, ceramic products and various industrial products, which strongly supports the prosperous two-way smuggling trade.

The first batch of mercenaries who smuggled with Baron Li Yong are now earning a lot of money, wives and concubines are like clouds, there are shops in the city, and there are pastures and plantations in the countryside, so they quit their careers as mercenaries. It was a peaceful day.

  The power of role models is infinite, imitating the success of their predecessors, a new generation of retired soldiers joined the mercenary team and began their own adventure career.

  Located in a huge castle-style building on the side of the street in the center of Humen

  Li Yong's whole body has been completely renewed, sitting on a luxurious Persian palace-style seat with a ruddy complexion, holding the "World Journal" in his hand but not looking at it, but thinking about what is in front of him.

He returned to Humen City this time to take a rest, and secondly, the old officer, Viscount Lei Xiaopeng, was about to be transferred and returned to the mainland to take up the position of senior officer of the Royal Guards. He was replaced by Friedman Kopf as the commander of the Somali State Guard. Brigadier General, Li Yong needs to see off the old officer, and by the way, touch the new officer with Yumu's head.

  Whether it is in Xi'an or Humen, if the smuggling business wants to go on in the long run, it is inseparable from the shelter of the garrison commander and turning a blind eye.

  The thought of Brigadier Friedman-Kopf’s inadequate appearance made Li Yong a headache.

  No, he is going to call a few confidantes to discuss how to conquer this German soldier.

Wu spontaneously dumbfounded for a while, and Li Yong sighed before turning his eyes to the "World Journal" in his hand. This "World Journal" was already published more than two months ago. The huge black font on the front page immediately aroused his attention. Notice;

  A tragic and **** battle, although the defeat is glorious, the Beiyang Navy has since been destroyed!

  (End of this chapter)