Dominate the Country

In the afternoon, a bugle sound suddenly sounded in the No. 1 Coast Defense Battalion camp in the northeast corner of Dongcheng District, Tokyo, followed by a series of sharp military whistles and the sound of hurried footsteps of soldiers dispatching.

About two teams of officers and soldiers from the coastal defense battalion were wearing light spring military uniforms and oil canvas raincoats. Some of them didn't even have all the buttons of the raincoats buttoned up, so they rushed out of dormitories holding on to their helmets and carrying rifles. , and then braved a light drizzle to quickly gather in line on the playground. During the formation of the team, except for the sound of footsteps and the slight clash of firearms, no soldier made a sound. They all stood upright with their guns on their backs, letting the sea breeze blow and the drizzle hit their faces.

He Yang, who had already achieved the rank of sergeant, stood at the head of the queue. After the Battle of Salton, he was transferred out of the Salton Basin and came to Tokyo. The life here is much more stable than in the deserted Salton. Whether it is food, drink, play, or even the rest and sleeping conditions, they are the same as those in Salton. I just came to Haiphong Camp. He Yang was very happy. He had been promoted and was in a good place.

But as time went by, He Yang felt that this place was too unfulfilling and boring. He actually missed his days in Salton Basin.

But now he is the officer of the 3rd Division of the 1st Battalion of Tokyo Coastal Defense. Although He Yang feels that life in Tokyo is boring, he knows that in order to transfer him away from the dangerous Salton, he has spent a lot of favors from his father. . He is not willing to trouble his father again because he is bored. It is easy for the officers in the rear to go to the front line. The expeditionary force headquarters is preparing a counterattack. The strength is the second batch of dispatched troops and that regiment that came to North America last year. The Praetorian Guards started the battle in Manzanillo and the target was Mexico City.

The combat quality of those dispatched troops cannot fully convince the headquarters. They need a large number of middle- and lower-level officers to be inserted to enhance their combat quality. They can be transferred as soon as a report is made. But He Yang missed life in the Salton Basin, only in his mind. After all, he hoped that his safety could be higher. He didn't have the courage to return to the dangerous front-line battle now.

Looking sideways at his team, in the distance, several battalion officers were running over, and the one in the middle was the battalion officer.

He Yang looked at the sky and felt a little uneasy as he gathered urgently during the storm.

Are there enemies outside the port?

An idea came to He Yang's mind that even he thought was ridiculous. How could that be possible? As the main naval base of the expeditionary force, there is no one or force on the west coast of America that can pose the slightest threat to this place. But why not?

Time did not give him any time to continue thinking wildly, as the battalion officer’s command sounded:

"stand at attention!"

"Take a break."

"Look to the right."

"Look forward!"

"Report the count."

…

"Turn right."

"Running forward——"

After a series of rapid assembly commands, the troops set off immediately.

With their shoes stepping on the slippery ground, two teams of coastal defense soldiers ran towards the dock.

Their tasks have been clearly communicated to their superiors. Five slave ships departing from the Port of Manzanillo were hit by a storm on their way to Tokyo. Two slave ships were seriously damaged, which slowed down the return of the entire fleet and delayed the entire fleet's journey by four days. days time. The distance between Manzanillo and Tokyo is more than four thousand miles. There are ocean currents from Tokyo to Manzanillo to save effort, but from Manzanillo to Tokyo you can only rely on wind speed. The fleet's journey originally took ten to fifteen days, and with the extra ten days, the fleet was at sea for seventeen days.

Seventeen days did not allow the more than 1,700 Spanish prisoners of war and their families on board the ship to develop serious infectious diseases, but a small number of Spanish prisoners of war broke out in riots when the storm hit!

The latter was of course severely suppressed, causing more than thirty casualties during that period. The fleet is on the vast sea, and the guards responsible for surveying and protecting it cannot settle accounts with the Spaniards immediately. But when the ship arrives at the port of Tokyo, it is time to settle accounts later and clean up the moths.

"Now that the fleet is about to dock, your task is to rush to the dock area to maintain order at the dock, assist the hospital and police in separating prisoners of war and patients, and arrest some diehards who previously incited trouble on the ship. If anyone dares to control the dock, If you create chaos or resist, I will allow you to be shot on the spot!”

The battalion officer's words still echoed clearly in He Yang's ears.

About an hour later, five somewhat damaged sailing ships docked quietly at the pier. The ship was filled with cheers from the crew and escorting officers and soldiers. Not long after, groups of ragged Spanish prisoners of war were carrying the wounded, The sick, or supported each other, walked off the ship.

"No, you can't treat me like this, I'm a Spanish officer, I'm a Spanish noble!" A Spaniard in his thirties roared angrily. But the whole person was always held tightly by two coastal defense soldiers.

"Pa!" A military boot kicked him hard on the crook of his leg from behind. The Spaniard was caught off guard and suddenly fell to his knees on the ground. The person behind him had no intention of letting him go. A big yellow hand grabbed the Spaniard's hair, causing his whole head to rise upwards. The Spaniard, who was aiming at the sky, saw He Yang's face. Zhang's cold face and a saber in his hand.

Right on the dock, in front of everyone, as the Spaniard screamed and begged like a pig being slaughtered, He Yang slowly wiped the Spaniard's throat with a knife, and the blood immediately dyed a large area of ​​the ground red.

The drizzle continued to drip, and before the blood could gather into a stream of red water under the dead Spaniard, the Spaniard's body was carried by two coastal defense soldiers and thrown onto a cart nearby.

It was a flatbed carriage, which appeared at the dock to pull corpses. Now there was finally the first corpse. Then the second, third, fourth, fifth, until the sixteenth. The sixteen Spanish corpses piled up a small mountain on the carriage, and blood dripped down the gaps in the carriage.

"Hold!"

A forty-year-old old driver seemed to be unaware that he was pulling a pile of corpses, but a cart of soil. He waved the whip in the air and drove the carriage out of the dock area.

There was a specially dug pit there.

The Coast Guard is the second-line force in North America, and some of them are new recruits who have never seen blood. He Yang killed the first Spanish prisoner of war himself, and the next three carts of corpses were all killed by new recruits in the queue. Use bayonets, no lead bullets, and one knife can kill people.

Although these recruits have no experience, their training camp life tells them where the bayonet is most likely to kill people.

This knife is a relief, a sublimation of a realm.

Although facing the Spanish pleading and the crying of the family women on the side, some soldiers really hesitated when they took action. This is to kill prisoners of war who have no power to fight back, not to play hand-to-hand combat on the battlefield. But He Yang stood expressionlessly beside him, and his cold eyes made the new recruits dare not not to take action.

The two teams of Coast Guard soldiers and the police in the port area cleaned up the termites in the entire prisoner team without any pressure, and fifty people were executed. The remaining Spanish prisoners of war and their families were all silent.

When the cleansing came to an end, the Spanish men, women, and children who had survived the disaster shivered and carefully passed the road marked by the soldiers. They boarded the iron-shell wooden carriages designed specifically for pulling prisoners of war and slaves, and then a group of people were pulled into the quarantine area.

These Spaniards were indeed infected with an epidemic. Although the situation was not very serious, they could not be put into labor production immediately.

He Yang looked at the prosperous Tokyo Wharf behind him and kicked a small stone on the roadside in distress.

Should he report to the front line?

Just now, when he cut the Spaniard's throat with a knife, he suddenly felt a sense of joy that was difficult to describe in words. There was a voice in his brain that echoed loudly: War, war! He was thirsty for blood!

As far as He Yang knew, the second batch of troops and the regiment of the Royal Guards who were distributed in Tokyo and Hanjin after arriving in North America were about to be shipped to Manzanillo. They were previously on guard against the Spanish cavalry's harassment of Tokyo and Hanjin. That damn Spanish cavalry was drawn into a trap when they first harassed Tokyo, and nearly half of their troops were killed. But the Spanish cavalry recovered quickly and came back again after a month. To a certain extent, it tied down the North American Expeditionary Force and the Guards of that regiment.

Of course, this is also because the Spanish offensive on the front battlefield was frustrated, and the pressure on the expeditionary force was reduced.

The chain panic caused by the defeat in the Battle of the River Mouth has passed, and the expeditionary force has passed its most difficult moment.

Now, as the fire in the Spanish backyard is getting more and more intense, this army has finally been transferred back by the Spanish to suppress the local area. When dealing with Indian armed forces, the role that a cavalry battalion can play is more powerful than two or three thousand infantry. So Chen Han can send out the troops that came to North America last year but never entered the front battlefield to "exercise" their muscles.

They have about 10,000 troops, and with the Marine Corps of Manzanillo and the Indian armed forces under their control, the total force will reach nearly 20,000.

This is a powerful army.

The target of this army is Mexico City.

As long as Mexico City is captured, the Spanish rule in the core area of ​​Mexico is completely destroyed, and the supply line of the Spanish colonial army on the northern front is cut off, the 60,000 to 70,000 people in the north will become insignificant.

This war, which has lasted for a year, is likely to end in the summer and autumn today, and a formal armistice agreement may be reached before the New Year. He Yang's time is running out. He must make up his mind as soon as possible.

…

While the battle on the west coast of North America is still going on, China's development of Southeast Asia has entered a new stage.

In the immigrant quarantine area not far from the city of Surabaya, the boilers in several disinfection rooms are still burning, and twenty large pots are cooking a hodgepodge of salty rice porridge in the canteen of the camp. In addition to rice, the pot also contains sea fish, kelp, tofu, carrots, pineapples, apples, and spinach. In the eyes of many Chinese whose lives have improved, it is a hodgepodge.

But for the Japanese immigrants in front of them, the fragrant rice porridge smell wafting from the big pot made them swallow their saliva secretly after taking an unforgettable sulfur hot water bath.

"Go through the passage, no noise, no crowding!"

"Everyone come to get a bowl in order."

"You can get more after you finish eating."

"But you must pay attention to order and not cut in line."

"You must finish the food you get, and don't leave any leftovers or waste it."

"If you violate this rule, you will be severely punished."

Several Japanese who had received yellow books shouted loudly in Japanese under the leadership of a Japanese-Chinese who had received a red book.

The rules in the quarantine area are strict. It is strictly forbidden to urinate and defecate anywhere, to leave the residence at will, to fight, to fight, to fight and to attack others. You must get water and wash regularly every day, eat regularly, and sleep regularly. Even going to the toilet to defecate and urinate must be reported first. And this is also prohibited in the cafeteria during meals.

This is really stricter than the requirements of some Japanese feudal soldiers.

Several Japanese administrators held a tin trumpet and repeatedly shouted the same rules in their native language to the agitated crowd attracted by food.

This process always takes a month. During this month, these Japanese immigrants are constantly indoctrinated, and Chinese classes are organized. Points are calculated based on academic performance, and certain benefits and discounts are given to stimulate Japanese immigrants to learn Chinese. After a month, these Japanese immigrants are assigned to immigrant villages in various places, and the rules learned from the quarantine area have become dead rules.

The smaller number of ethnic groups and the Chinese language in the guidance also make it easy for them to take the initiative to get close to the local main ethnic group.

Japanese immigrants are very easy to recruit, and these people are also very easy to be gathered.

They had a hard life in Japan before.

On the ship to Nanyang, in order to keep them in order, each person was given a piece of military dry food a day, and when they arrived at the quarantine area, they had a delicious salty porridge.

The kind of rice that stews sea fish, bacon, tofu, fruits and vegetables with rice porridge is called salty porridge or vegetable porridge by the Chinese. But the Japanese call it meat porridge.

It's really pitiful. This meal may make them remember it for a lifetime.

After entering the quarantine area, you need to take a sulfur bath every three days. That is, sulfur is directly mixed with hot water, and the concentration is lowered. It can play a role in sterilization, disinfection, insecticide and itching. It also works on scabies, eczema and skin itching.

Although this sulfur water is harmful to the body, sulfur is a toxic substance. When used for bathing, it will be absorbed by the skin and make the skin dry, which is not good for health. But compared with the huge base of the entire immigration plan, using sulfur water to disinfect can be said to be the simplest, easiest and cheapest means of inhibiting the growth of parasites in this era.

When they left the quarantine area and came to the first meal after the immigrant village, they had fragrant rice, soft and delicate white flour buns, roasted sea fish, oily fat slices, seafood and vegetable soup with fresh taste, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and golden corn cobs. Whatever you want to eat, you can have it.

It will definitely make those poor Japanese people who have been hungry and full in Japan and have traveled across the ocean to this strange place forget all the good things in Japan, and with red eyes, they will be grateful to the immigrant village and China for letting them escape from the sea of ​​suffering.

Food is the first necessity of the people.

In this era, the poor of any nation should not expect them to have a high patriotism for their motherland.

Nothing is better than white rice + fatty slices of meat.