Dominate the Country

In the fifth month of the lunar calendar, the sky over America was tense and dark clouds were gathering. The clouds of war had been gathering thicker and thicker in the past two years. The Spanish colonial governments in many places had already "driven out" Chinese goods. Once a smuggler was found, he would be hanged directly, not just the smuggled goods would be confiscated.

Therefore, resistances broke out in various parts of Spanish America, internal conflicts became increasingly fierce, and the war in the southern tip of America was still burning.

But there were also "calm" places, such as the border between Dengguo and Spanish Florida.

There was originally a small European town there, where British, French, Spanish, German, Italian, etc. lived, and together with several small villages on the periphery, there were a total of 1,500 to 1,600 people.

In this era in America, it was not easy to have more than a thousand people living in non-prosperous areas.

But just last year, more than 3,000 Orientals poured in at once, which made the local town council and residents Alexander.

They never thought of using force to resist, because among the 3,000 Orientals who poured in, at least 500 were equipped with guns, and they also dragged four cannons and a cavalry.

This directly made everyone in the town dumb.

Hundreds of guns and cannons facing a town with a population of less than a thousand people, facing a village with a population of only one or two hundred, everyone would be weak.

And under the protection of these guns and cannons, a group of short-haired short laborers wearing uniform canvas work clothes and wielding shovels and hammers opened a quarry at the foot of a hill 1,800 meters away from the town. The stone here is real granite. Although it can't be sold at a high price in America now, it is absolutely necessary. This can be used for defensive fortifications. Whether it is a bunker, a city wall, a fortress, or a turret, granite can serve as a permanent fortification. It is even stronger than the current disadvantage of earth and cement.

With the power of cannons and rockets in this era, it is really not easy to deal with a fortress built entirely of hard stone.

The crushed stones in the quarry are also useful. After the large pieces of rock are blasted by black powder, the large pieces of stone are transported away, and the small pieces of crushed stone can be used to pave the road, but this still requires manpower to crush.

As for the steam-type air breaker that is already widely used on large domestic construction sites, I am sorry that such advanced equipment will never come to this place. This place is not safe at the moment, and there is a danger of war, so everything is kept simple.

Most of these Japanese had shaved their heads when they boarded the ship. There was no choice but to shave. Those who shaved their heads had two meals a day: one dry and one liquid, and occasionally they could mix some salty cakes with minced meat. Those who did not shave their heads also had two meals, but all of them were liquid.

The Japanese also attached great importance to hairstyles. After the Qing Dynasty entered the Central Plains, Chinese businessmen who went to Japan to do business were ridiculed and discriminated against by the Japanese because of their golden rat tails and long gowns, especially Japanese samurai. The fringe is a symbol of the "ruling class" in Japan. Many lower-class samurai, who can't even get enough to eat, have their fringe very neatly groomed. When they go to work for merchants, they have to cover their hair.

But now, under the temptation of food, they can hold on for one or two days, but ten days and a half months is the limit, and one or two months is impossible. Many people can't hold on and have their hair shaved short one after another. No matter how much you pay attention to, it can't be bigger than your belly. The world is big, but the belly is the biggest.

These Japanese are laborers, and their role in America is the same as that of the Chinese workers who were sold as piglets in the original time and space. It's just that the Chinese treat them much better than the American livestock treated the Chinese workers in history.

Even the reason why these people came to America thousands of miles away to make a living is similar to that of the Chinese workers in the original time and space.

They can't make it in China anymore, and they are poor and have nothing. When they come to America, no matter how hard and tiring the work is, there will always be food, right? And a salary that is not low for Japan.

After the Tokugawa shogunate did the first business of exporting labor, they would do the second and third business when they saw the benefits.

The Chinese Immigration Bureau in Japan recruited more women, and the Japanese still had to organize the labor force themselves. Those local daimyo with many refugees and displaced people in their territories are now generally engaged in labor export. It's just that their companies are easy to set up, and they do make money when they make a business, but there is not much business.

They are not immigration bureaus paid by the cabinet, so they can hoard people first and then transport them to America. The labor export of these local daimyo is only after receiving orders, and then waving food to organize men, and the direction is not only to America. For the business in Sakhalin Island and Outer Northeast, where the environment is very harsh, they also accept orders.

The Japanese laborers in Pensacola arrived in Dengguo in December last year, and replaced the previous group in March. They came to Pensacola, a natural deep-water harbor area near the sea, and planned to sweep the area directly at the beginning of the war, and then directly enter Cape San Blas, and the door to the north of Florida was opened.

If we can't take the initiative and let the Spanish deploy naval and land defenses around the town of Pensacola first, there will be trouble.

Chen Ming is very worried that after the outbreak of the Sino-Western War, the Spanish will learn from Feng Ting, the governor of Shangdang County in South Korea 2,000 years ago, and teach Florida to the Americans.

As long as the Spanish delay a few days in Pensacola, the deal can be concluded.

Although Chen Ming did not take the Lighthouse Country seriously at this time, his main target now was the Spanish. With a big fat piece of meat in front of him, he could not take care of the Americans. It was better to have less trouble at this time, right?

It was just that Chen Ming was not confident about the founding fathers of the United States. He could not be sure that there was no Lord Pingyuan among them.

At this time, the power of the local state governments in the United States was amazing. It was possible that the local state governments in the South had already sent troops to enter before Philadelphia agreed. [1790-1800, it was the capital of the United States before Washington was established. ]

Besides, Pensacola was also a very suitable place for a military port. Not to mention the natural deep-water harbor, the peninsula extending horizontally into the sea from the right was like a big tea cover, covering most of the waters in front of Pensacola. It was a natural seawall.

It was just that North America had always been the edge of the Spanish sphere of influence. To be honest, Pensacola's geographical advantage as a seaport alone really did not attract the interest of the Spanish. There were too many excellent harbors on the long east coast of America. The Spanish development is to select a place with the best location advantage and the best economic benefits for themselves, and then focus on investment and operation.

Therefore, Pensacola is still just an ordinary town. The port terminal is also a small civilian terminal, and even large warships cannot dock, not to mention repair plants, shipyards, etc.

Today, there are about 4,000 Orientals in Pensacola, half of whom are immigrants-2,000 immigrants, 400 households, which is very powerful. The other 2,000 people are a battalion of militia, which is a military force, and the rest are all Japanese laborers.

Although the Japanese are short, they obey orders, are docile and obedient, and work hard. They are good candidates for slave labor.

The labor force is stronger than that of the Koreans 20 years ago, and much higher than the natives of Nanyang.

The militia battalion is an army "organized" by the six vassal states in the Americas such as Dengguo. In fact, it is the original American dispatched army they hired.

As the foundation of the future feudal armies of the feudal states, these troops should be supported by their masters. Now that they are rented out, these soldiers of the dispatched army do not feel that they have been bought or disrespected. Instead, they are very happy that they can receive three wages.

One is the basic salary, and the other is the training subsidy. Yes, the war that is about to break out is "training" for the dispatched army/feudal militia.

Another is the "training" subsidy given by each feudal state.

The three salaries added together are really not low. It is much higher than the Japanese laborers who work hard.

Now, two thousand Deng immigrants have established a town-level stronghold and two village-level strongholds opposite the town of Pensacola.

Fortifications-all come from this quarry not far from the town of Pensacola.

Four production teams/400 Japanese laborers are busy inside and outside the quarry.

The remaining Japanese are also responsible for brick kilns, lumberyards, construction teams, etc.

The former attacked the raw materials for building villages and towns, and the latter expanded the city, built city walls, leveled the docks and cargo yards, and built roads on the basis of the initial situation base. In short, the workload was very large. It is said that the east will soon allocate five more Japanese production teams and 300 Indians to build and expand the port located in the south of the harbor.

Obviously, the expanded port is definitely not limited to civilian use. There must be fortifications, turrets, and artillery forts.

The weather today is not very good. It has been cloudy for most of the day, and it started to rain at around four o'clock.

By the next morning, although the rain stopped, the air was still very humid.

Mr. Fernandez hates rainy weather. He comes from the northwest of Portugal, which is the sunniest place in Portugal. There is no need to say more about why he came to North America. Anyway, Fernandez has a lame leg, and he seems to be emotionally inclined to Spain.

Anyway, after he came to North America with a limp, Fernandez's leg joints always hurt when it rained, so he moved from Havana, Cuba, where he first landed, to Chile. However, Chile suffered great damage in the last Central American War, and Fernandez was forced to leave there. He came to Pensacola.

Pensacola is not a place without wind and rain. The annual rainfall here exceeds 1,000 mm.

But Fernandez found the true meaning of his life here. He touched his beloved cannon again in the place closest to the Chinese. Although it was only a pitiful three-pound cannon with a small caliber, and it had been in service for more than a hundred years.

Fernandez was an artillery officer in the Portuguese army when he was young. He also served in the army of the Tatar Empire. Before being captured by the Chinese, he bravely helped the Tatar army to kill as many Chinese as possible. Because of this, the Portuguese suffered a tragic loss. The soldiers and officers who were sent by the big men to help the Tatar army suffered a hellish treatment in the Chinese prisoner-of-war camp.

It's just that Fernandez's lame leg has nothing to do with the Chinese. But it seems that he hates the Chinese and the Portuguese, and it is not completely unreasonable.

But facing the current situation, he is helpless. In the face of absolute strength, personal efforts seem so insignificant.

Even during the rainy season, he had to rely on the Chinese's "plaster" that he hated to feel a little better - Dragon Tiger Bone Strengthening Plaster. This thing originally cost 1 Yingyang, that is, 1 peso to buy a box. There are five plasters in a box, but now only two can be bought.

This is a treasure that Fernandez found by chance. That day, his legs were really painful, and he met a Chinese doctor who came to treat him. Among the Chinese, only these doctors are good people.

They come to Pensacola for free clinics every month. If there is an emergency, Pensacola also has two Spanish doctors, but their level is so bad that in addition to bloodletting, they can only use branding irons, axes and iron saws.

Compared with such terrible things, although the Chinese medical skills are like witches' sorcery, relying on a lot of grass roots and tree barks to treat diseases, they are always more believable.

Because the Chinese have been treated in this way for thousands of years. Whether it was the extremely noble emperor or the ordinary civilians, the diseases they contracted were cured by these "grass roots and barks".

The doctor came to treat a teenager whose leg was broken by a frightened cow in the rain. Seeing his painful appearance, he sponsored a Dragon Tiger Bone Strengthening Patch for free.

Fernandez unexpectedly discovered that this black ointment of the Chinese was actually useful. The effect was very good after it was applied.

So Fernandez became a loyal user of the Dragon Tiger Bone Strengthening Patch.

However, with the renewed tension and confrontation between China and the West, the Chinese closed the door to the town of Pensacola four months ago. Before, one Eagle Dollar could buy five Bone Strengthening Patch, but now only two can be bought.

Although the efficacy of this medicine is indeed good, its price is really a rip-off. Whether it is one silver peso for five patches or two patches, this is the price of the devil. Greed has completely devoured them!

There were bursts of military orders outside the window. It was the Chinese militia on the other side conducting military training, which continued even on rainy days. Unlike the Spanish army soldiers who gambled, drank, slept and fought in their spare time, the Chinese militia looked more like a real army.

As a former officer, Fernandez dared to say that these people, whether in spirit, compliance with strict military discipline, or sense of honor for their profession, were far superior to the Spanish native army.

He had seen a lot of Spanish troops in the Iberian Peninsula, Havana, and Chile, and they really could not be considered a strong army.

Especially those in America, compared with the native legions, the colonial army mixed with native whites and mixed-race people was even worse.

Originally, as an enemy, a dose of ointment and the doctor's small favors could not buy Fernandez, a determined warrior.

Especially now that he had heard a piece of bad news from the mayor, his impression of the Chinese was at its lowest point: in order to prevent unnecessary conflicts, the Chinese side suggested that the town of Pensacola remove the cannons pointing westward and hand them over to the Chinese side for safekeeping.

The vassal states and the governor's office in America were responsible for provoking incidents and intensifying conflicts. But they could not easily fire the first shot——