It was already the end of September when Lu Xiaofeng arrived at the capital Dongfang Port.

After resting and having fun at home for a while, on October 10, he finally received the exact news that he followed a delegation from the Joint Staff Headquarters to the Far East in late October. It is said that there are dozens of people, most of which are from the Navy and Army, and there are also representatives of several government civil servants. For the purpose of going to the Far East, it is better to carefully evaluate the situation in mainland China so that the Executive Committee will provide detailed references when making decisions in the future.

Lu Xiaofeng vaguely heard that if the report sent by the inspection team finally pointed out that the situation in China is irreversible, then perhaps the local people would consider agreeing to the request of the military headquarters and sending the First Mixed Battalion of the Army to the Far East to wait for an opportunity to take action. Many of the officers who said this were the officers in the First Mixed Battalion. After all, the recruitment of troops in this battalion came from Dongfang County, the capital, and there were the largest number of second-generation people here, so there were naturally many people in the army. They all said this, and Lu Xiaofeng naturally had no reason not to believe it. At the same time, he was more curious about the San Francisco Far East where he was about to serve. Has the situation there really changed significantly?

However, two familiar playmates told Lu Xiaofeng that recently some people suggested sending a mixed battalion of troops to Europe to help the Dutch defend important cities such as Amsterdam or The Hague. Of course, defending the city is definitely not the main purpose of the East Coast people. What they want to do more is to ensure the personal safety of the Third-level Parliament Speaker De Witt. You must know that this man continues to rule is very in line with the interests of the East Coast.

Of course, once a war between United Provinces and France breaks out, the biggest enemy of United Provinces will automatically transform into France, the giant, has already shown signs. At that time, the Orange faction, who has always advocated that France is the biggest enemy, is likely to gain power, and the Orange family, which has seized military power in history, has saved the Netherlands many times, will also have a high possibility of becoming the Dutch ruler (this position has been abolished for many years), which is not a good thing for the East Coast people.

Therefore, although it seems that the decline of the Republicans and Speaker Devit is inevitable, it is a very particular thing to be weak. What's more, Speaker Devit is in charge of the third-level parliament for many years, has a good reputation and a large connection. With him, the Republicans will not be distracted. Therefore, the East Coast people want to send people to the United Provinces to protect the safety of Speaker Devit and his family, and they are counting on him to continue to restrain the Orange faction in The Hague.

However, the idea of ​​the East Coast people may seem quite difficult at the moment. First of all, let alone what the Republicans think, don’t doubt that this sect is a full-staffed mixed battalion and goes to the continent to be cannon fodder. Many people in China think this way will cause huge criticism; furthermore, the Dutch may not be happy! There are only more than a thousand people in one squad. Isn’t you kidding? If you are all full-staffed battalion sent to United Provinces, the Dutch will definitely welcome you, but only one squadron has the troops, are you kidding me?

Therefore, this matter sounds quite a fantasy. Lu Xiaofeng thought about it himself that the more than 1,000 children of the capital of the First Mixed Camp have been going to the Far East for a few years. I hope that when I get there, I can promote my style. Don’t let some people from other counties look down on the First Mixed Camp composed of children of the capital of the capital, whose families are generally wealthy. They have always been the object of envy, jealousy and hatred by people from other camps, so there are many strange words, such as they are not brave enough when fighting bayonets.

Lu Xiaofeng is also a child of the capital, and many of his friends and playmates served in the First Mixed Battalion, so he naturally scoffed at this. He most often refuted others that during the Eastern Portuguese War, the First Mixed Battalion and the Dongfang County Security Corps conducted consecutive night-time assaults. Although he suffered a lot of casualties, he directly broke the enemy's courage. Other camps did not do this. Therefore, he believed that the First Mixed Battalion was the first strong army on the east coast.

Considering that the mission to the Far East could not be completed in one or two days, before waiting for the delegation to return or send back the news, the First Mixed Battalion of the Army could not spend his military pay at home. Therefore, under the order from the Joint Staff Headquarters, the more than 1,000 officers and soldiers of the battalion, except for 110 cavalry companies, boarded the two troop transport ships of the First Fleet. Then, under the escort of two newly launched "Star"-class light cruisers, together with several merchant ships, arrived at Huaiyuan Port on Huaiyuan Island (i.e. Trinidad) in mid-to-late December 1670.

Major Lan Fei, the new battalion commander of the First Mixed Battalion, has always known each other, and Captain Cai Anguo, the commander of the Caribbean Squadron of the Navy's First Fleet. They have worked together to attack the French Caribbean colony before, and they have worked together happily during this period. I don't know who arranged this time, and the two of them fought together again, which is also a fate.

"Sir Zee, what is the situation when it attacks Tortuga this time? Is the support from the Caribbean shipping company in place?" Major Lan Fei asked while drinking juice.

This time, the first mixed battalion was not for sightseeing. In fact, the local government has given many important tasks to the battalion. The first pile was to drop the pirate den on Tortuga Island, because it seriously threatened the maritime transportation line of the East Coast people (in the past two years, several East Coast merchant ships have disappeared in the Caribbean Sea, and the Admiralty Department highly suspected that it was related to the pirates in the Caribbean Sea). It had to be eliminated. What's more, fighting such pirate dens is generally not small, and it should be enough to pay the "appearance fee" of the East Coast Navy and Army.

However, naval cooperation is indispensable when fighting Tortuga Island. With the strength of the First Fleet, the Caribbean Squadron, only two "Star"-class light cruisers, they will definitely not be able to solve the beard of the "Pirate Island". Even with the two "Star"-class light cruisers that will escort, the four warships are still a little weak, so they still have to look for foreign aid.

In fact, this foreign aid has been found by the East Coast, which is the Spanish Windward Fleet.

After years of construction, the Wind Fleet has added that it is no longer the weak fleet that had only a few small broken ships and struggled to fight against pirates. Although its current strength still looks very limited on the East Coast people. Moreover, the Spanish did have the urge to solve this pirate island. Because after French Santo Domingo was handed over to the Spanish Kingdom, the existence of this pirate base at the door of the house had seriously threatened the Spanish rule here, so they had to make a big move to destroy it.

According to the agreement with the East Coast people, the Spanish windward fleet will dispatch four professional warships with the best ship condition and secretly go to the Port of San Juan on Puerto Rico with four warships on the East Coast to gather, and then wait for three Air Canada warships to come to meet and attack Tortuga together. Considering the inconvenience of communication and contact, if Air Canada's ships fail to come to meet in time, they will not wait any longer, but instead guard the ships carrying the army, head straight to Tortuga, and fight with the pirates.

"Air Canada has been focusing on the free country in recent years." Cai Anguo, who was smoking a cigarette and searching on the chart, said without thinking: "And these guys are very stingy. The ships are transporting all day long, even warships, and may not be able to draw a few ships to support us. In fact, as I said, it doesn't matter whether your broken ships come or not. Our seven or eight warships are enough to scare away some pirates, and the remaining few hard pirates may not be able to stop us from landing. Therefore, Air Canada may not come to warships, but please send two transport ships to carry some Black Eight Banners soldiers for us to use, just like the last attack on French Santo Domingo."

"Free Country? What are they fiddling with?" Major Lan Fei was a little dissatisfied when he heard this. He paused the glass heavily on the table, stood up and walked for two steps, and asked.

Another task given to the First Mixed Battalion this time was to garrison Fengtian and Rehe in the Kingdom of Free State. In addition to garrisoning, we helped the Black Eight Banners train their troops. After all, many of the black laborers who were transported to the Free State in the later period were black laborers with contract expiration, not South African Eight Banners who had been on the battlefield. These people were as timid as mice and were not very strong in their bodies, so it was necessary to conduct qualified military training to resist foreign enemies.

However, what puzzled Lan Fei was that in the official document issued by the Army Department, it mentioned that the number of Free State troops that he needed to train was about "three thousand", which was much lower than his perception, so he began to doubt what Air Canada was doing over the years and how many black people had transported to North America, so he asked this question.

Cai Anguo was also a little embarrassed about Lan Fei's question and didn't know how to answer it very well. As the commander of the Caribbean Squadron, Major Cai Anguo, who has been in contact with Air Canada and Liberty State for many years, has more or less knowledge of Air Canada's large Kangcaien company, and he even knows some of the secret activities the company has done, such as selling black slaves.

The black slaves sold by Air Canada are not from other places, but from local construction teams, South Africa and even New China, and black laborers who have served in plantations for seven years. These laborers are logically shipped to the Free State by Air Canada ships. However, who is Air Canada? A greedy colonial trading company! Therefore, under the operation of its president Ding Yiyu, a large number of black laborers who have expired were shipped to the Mobile Trading Station in Canada and secretly sold to the Spanish, France, England and the Dutch colonists in the Caribbean to make huge profits.

Major Cai Anguo estimated that Air Canada has been doing these things for a year or two, but for a long time. Otherwise, do you think the Mobile Trading Station can now become a Mobile Fortress? How did it be built? How did so many people recruit? However, these people are more restrained and strictly control the number of slaves sold every year! In short, they only sold a part of the slaves, and the rest were transported to the Free State to settle normally, so that their eating habits would not look so ugly.

Therefore, this can perfectly explain the reason why the Free State has only more than 30,000 people after so many years of development. In addition to war, plague and food scarcity, Air Canada's "drift" caused too little supplementation is also a major factor! The lack of population of the Free State naturally leads to its insufficient economic strength. However, the lack of economic strength naturally leads to too many soldiers. In the current Free State, the one with the largest number of standing troops is the New Beijing Mo family, with a total of 1,000 full-time standing troops, which is also the most powerful force in the kingdom;

Secondly, Liang Zan, the commander of the Fengtian Jiedu, also had a professional full-time military force of 500, which was the second regular military force in the kingdom. As for Mo Dashan, who had been in the position of Jiedu, for a few years, because of the lack of money and food and a sparse population, there are only more than a hundred relatives brought from South Africa as the core armed forces (all veterans who have fought in South Africa and the Far East for many years, and their combat effectiveness should not be underestimated). However, they also had to participate in labor in daily life, which is considered the coldest. They are quite powerful and unwilling to deal with friction with Indians on weekdays, and they are also helpless.

So we can see that the entire Free State currently has a population of more than 30,000, and 1,500 full-time professional soldiers (in wars, a large number of domestic strong men were recruited, and the whole people were soldiers), and after the older generation of Black Eight Banners gradually withered, their combat effectiveness was quite suspicious. Although the East Coast Gendarmerie had helped to renovate the training department before, they were not as professional as the First Mixed Battalion. Therefore, this time, the superiors let the battalion move to Xinjing, Fengtianhe, Rehe, and stabilize the local situation (the Indians were quite ready recently), and also carried out second training for the Free State's army in order to improve combat effectiveness. As the battalion commander of the First Battalion, Lan Fei naturally knew about this.
Chapter completed!