Chapter 1353 Militia more terrible than the regular army
Heilongjiang's new generation of 120-ton first-class inland river warships is a reduction and improvement of the navy's previous standard patrol ships, and is specially provided for use by the inland river fleet.
In the past, the Navy directly transferred those 150-ton and 180-ton standard coastal patrol ships to the inland fleet for use, but later found that the actual use results were not good.
When this type of patrol ship was originally designed, the main goal was to focus on coastal patrol operations, while also taking into account operations in inland rivers and lakes. Its most typical use environment is the coastal waters at the Yangtze River estuary and the lower reaches of the Yangtze River.
At the same time, it can also be used in other rivers and lakes with relatively deep water depths, but often when used in other inland rivers, the effect is not very good.
Because of the inland river fleet, they don't need to take care of coastal patrols, they just need inland river patrols.
However, in the past, the navy's patrol ships could also be used in inland rivers and lakes, but they were mainly used along the coast. Therefore, inland warfare was still not as good as those specialized inland warships.
So the Navy simply used the patrol ship as a model, improved the design, and came up with a scaled-down version that further reduced the draft and made the warship more maneuverable.
The ship is currently exclusively used by the inland river fleet, mainly used for inland river operations, and also takes into account offshore patrol at the seaport.
Therefore, the ship is not called a patrol ship like the previous patrol ships, but is called a Class A inland river battleship, which is classified as an inland river battleship.
This type of river warship has a displacement of only 120 tons and a very shallow draft, but its firepower is relatively powerful, enough to compare with a 180-ton patrol ship.
Of course, with a smaller tonnage, if you still want to maintain strong firepower and maneuverability, you have to sacrifice seaworthiness. Although this new generation of Class A inland river warships can also be used in offshore waters, the effect is not very good.
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In this way, the Tang Navy also developed two types of warships that catered for both offshore and inland river operations. The patrol ships with larger tonnage tended to be used along the coast, while the patrol ships with smaller tonnage tended to be used in inland rivers.
Under this solidification, this 120-ton first-class inland river battleship has become the core ship in the major inland river fleets. It is usually used as the flagship of each brigade under the inland river battleship, and then matched with three to four ships.
Used by second-class inland river warships ranging from 50 tons to 100 tons.
The actual use effect is quite good!
The two brigades of the Heilongjiang Fleet had two A-class inland river warships and six B-class inland river warships. Taking advantage of their small, flexible and shallow drafts, they ran ahead and to the left and right of the Changzhou to cover the bombardment led by the Changzhou.
The fleet conducts operations.
However, it was obvious that the landing and bombardment plan carefully prepared by Qiu Xiao failed to produce much effect, because the natives of Nurgan City did not resist at all.
Except for the more than 500 people who rushed out at first to try to resist, and then were killed by two rounds of shelling, the natives in the city were unable to retreat.
And when the Changzhou led several armed merchant ships and river warships to bombard Nurgan City, the natives in the city simply ran away in a swarm.
Then Rear Admiral Qiu Xiao and the others were left with a lonely Nuergancheng.
After the landing operation started, Qiu Xiao had been standing on the bridge in the river wind, observing and commanding. But an hour later, seeing the natives running away, he was too lazy to stay on the bridge to blow the sea breeze.
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The bridge of the battleships these days is not the command tower or anything like those in the steel battleships of later generations. It is actually a small wooden platform built on the main mast, the open-air kind.
"You guys keep an eye on it and report any situation immediately!" After that, Rear Admiral Qiu Xiao got off the bridge and returned to the war room.
Without Qiu Xiao's personal command, there was no impact at all. All ministries continued to act according to the predetermined plan.
Under the cover of the inland river warships, the bombardment fleet gradually approached Nurgan City, and then the Changzhou and three armed merchant ships anchored. The inland river warships took a small number of marines and rushed directly to the small dock outside Nurgan City, and
A landing force of nearly fifty people was sent up.
At this time, the more than 2,000 main troops were still hundreds of meters away. They were affected by the bad roads along the way, and at the same time they maintained their formation to avoid accidents, so they were moving slowly.
Therefore, something embarrassing happened for the main force. When they finally arrived at Nuergan City, the Dragon Flag of the Tang Dynasty was already flying on top of the city.
More than fifty marines sent up by river battleships occupied the top of the city without firing a single shot. No, it should be said that they occupied the entire city.
Because before they entered the city, all the natives in the town ran away, and no one was left.
Standing on the top of the city and looking outside, you can still see thousands of indigenous men, women, and children running out in a swarm, then turning into the dense forest and disappearing.
The soldiers of the Tang Navy were amazed by the ability of these natives to run away!
When he learned that all the natives in Nuergan City, regardless of gender, had all fled within an hour, Qiu Xiao turned to Ying Junzhi, who was sent here by the Immigration and Reclamation Division to be responsible for the development of the Immigration and Reclamation along the Heilongjiang River.
He said apologetically: "This matter is somewhat beyond our expectations. I'm afraid you will encounter a lot of trouble in the future!"
In the Tang Empire's immigration operations, the military had always cleared out the natives, and then the immigrants began to move in. But now the navy only drove the people away this time. You don't need to think about it, at least there are still people in the surrounding mountains and forests.
There are thousands of indigenous people, which will definitely have a huge impact on the lives of immigrants.
However, Ying Junzhi did not take it seriously and said: "It doesn't matter, our immigrants are not soft persimmons. When I led the immigrants to develop Jilin, I brought only 8,000 immigrants and only 2,000 young people, while the surrounding indigenous tribes increased
At least they number in the tens of thousands, but two years later, within a radius of a hundred miles, all the land belongs to the people of the Tang Dynasty, and there is no trace of barbarians.
This time our Immigration Department organized a total of 3,000 households to immigrate, and the 4,000 immigrants who came in the early stage were all young and strong, and we also carried enough weapons and ammunition that there are only thousands of barbarians, so there is nothing to fear!"
Hearing what Ying Junzhi said, Qiu Xiao also remembered that for the barbarians, those organized by the immigrant settlement division were more terrifying than those in the army!
The best the army can do is fight, killing and wounding enemies in military operations, but these immigrants are even more terrifying!
Because of the immigration policy of the Tang Empire, the treatment for immigrants was very generous. A large amount of land would be distributed free of charge to immigrants in wild areas. Depending on the size of the immigration area, the minimum would be five or ten acres per person, or more.
Dozens.
As for this immigration operation in Heilongjiang, the official rule is that anyone who is willing to immigrate to the Heilongjiang Basin will be given 20 acres of land for free on a per capita basis.
Based on the standard calculation of a family of five people, one can obtain hundreds of acres of land, and these lands are exempt from agricultural tax for five years, and only half tax is levied in the next five years.
But there is one thing, that is, although the government says it is distributed free of charge, how to 'protect' these officially distributed lands for free requires the immigrants to work hard on their own.
The military is only responsible for large-scale military operations and has no energy to deal with small-scale barbarian invasions.
Therefore, basically every large-scale immigration operation targeting wild areas or overseas areas will always establish large-scale militia forces among the immigrants, and then these militia forces will continue to expand outward to 'protect' their land from
Barbarian invasion.
Basically, after a few years of protection, there will be no barbarians in the surrounding areas. They either went to areas where the people of the Tang Dynasty have not yet set foot, or died in the process of 'invading' the land of the people of the Tang Dynasty.
The more than 4,000 immigrants who came to Heilongjiang this time were all young and strong because they were the first batch. Their families were still waiting in Busan Port for the third batch of ships.
The Immigration and Reclamation Department of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Tang Dynasty plans to immigrate more than 15,000 people to the Heilongjiang Basin in one go, with the number of households being 3,000.
Based on the standard of establishing one village for one hundred households, at least thirty villages can be established on both sides of Heilongjiang.
These young men who came in advance were naturally incorporated into the Ming army. Therefore, despite the fact that there were only more than 2,000 marines brought by the navy, the total number of people with guns who could be used for ground combat was more than 6,000.
people.
It's just that from the perspective of the army and navy of the Tang Dynasty, the militiamen's combat effectiveness was weak, and at most they could only play a role in the subsequent "protection" of the land. In real military operations, they would not be allowed to go to the battlefield, let alone
Most of them are transporting supplies, maintaining supply lines, and building castles.
In order to ensure the subsequent safety of Nurgan City and to protect itself from the indigenous counterattacks, the young immigrants needed to build the city as soon as they got off the ship!
Or rather a castle!
They will use local raw materials to build a simple earthen fortress, which is expected to accommodate 1,500 people. During war, the number of people that can be temporarily accommodated will reach 5,000.
It is also a tradition of the Tang Dynasty to build bastions in the newly developed immigration areas. They are built all over the islands in the South China Sea, in the northern grasslands, in the northwest, in the bitter cold places in the northeast, and in the colonies of Fuso.
Bastions large and small.
The defensive capabilities of the bastion have been proven in the past New Year, and the Tang Empire will naturally not abandon it.
Now the Tang Empire is obsessed with building forts!
Not only are they being built in overseas territories and border areas, but also a large number of bastions are being built in inland areas!