Chapter 682: Recruitment

"Zheng Xin's method is not appropriate." In the Nanjing Palace, Chen Ming thought for a while and did not agree with this opinion. "It is certainly not wrong to strictly discipline the army, but it is inevitable that there are people who hold grudges but hide them in the army. This kind of people are gloomy, they may not be able to fight and kill the enemy, but they are very talented in fanning the flames, and they are likely to cause trouble in the future. No matter how big or small, it is not advisable." That is a typical case of a rat shit spoiling the whole pot of soup.

Urgent news came from the Burmese battlefield again, which was Zheng Xin's method-holding a large recruitment in the prisoner-of-war camp. It was clearly stated that the loyal ones among them would be promoted to middle and lower-level officers (squads, platoons, teams). In this way, it would be enough to convince the public-because they are loyal, and they can also win their hearts. Zheng Xin's brain is flexible and came up with a seemingly good idea. But there is no guarantee that those "loyal people" are truly loyal.

The Nanyang Navy Headquarters was very happy to hear this and appreciated Zheng Xin's method. This allowed them to get rid of a burden as soon as possible.

"Your Majesty, the best part of this method is that it can - openly divide the captives. Since they are captives, most of the more than 10,000 Burmese soldiers are cowards. There may be some who are loyal to Burma, but not too many. The treatment of the local garrison is even higher than that of the Burmese army in the past. For the new recruits recruited in Burma, this is very attractive. So there are many people willing to serve under the temptation of gold and silver? Add to that the open selection, it will be even more attractive. And in this way, there will inevitably be an unbridgeable rift between the Burmese prisoners of war who are willing to surrender and those who are unwilling to surrender. At least this way we can further screen out who are the real "Burmese". This is very important."

"If the prisoners of war who are willing to serve are mostly Mon people, then we can openly alienate the Mon and Burmese..."

This should be the biggest reason why the Nanyang Navy Headquarters agreed to Zheng Xin's plan.

Chen Ming knew that if he did not order a stop, he would not be able to stop Zheng Xin from recruiting prisoners of war. Because when this letter was passed to him, several days had passed. Now when he was reading this urgent report, Zheng Xin might have already started to do something.

Now he could certainly stop Zheng Xin's action, but this would be a huge blow to Zheng Xin's prestige. Chen Ming couldn't take this risk. So, he had to watch Zheng Xin and Zhu Fu join forces. I hope the consequences will be good.

The reorganization of the Burmese prisoners was sent to the Nanyang Navy Headquarters by Zhu Fu under Zheng Xin's insistence, and Zhu Fu no longer insisted after the headquarters recognized the restoration. The two of them set the rules for the next step in a few words. They mobilized a whole regiment of troops to enter the prisoner camp, together with a reinforced battalion guarding the prisoner camp, and Zheng Xin added a cavalry battalion under his command to support the battle. And notify all prisoners in the prisoner camp that those who are willing to surrender to the Sino-Siamese coalition can sign up with the guards now.

On that day, the guards urged a group of prisoners to work all afternoon, clearing a large playground in front of the prisoner-of-war camp and setting up a wooden platform.

And let’s not talk about the reaction outside, just talking about the situation inside the prisoner-of-war camp, that can be said to be a world of chaos. The prisoner-of-war camp, which looks like a "camp", actually has ten camps of different sizes. Nearly 10,000 prisoners of war were scattered in ten small camps. The next day, the prisoner-of-war camp did not lock them up again, and 10,000 prisoners of war gathered consciously in the large playground that had just been set up.

According to the close relationship on weekdays, these nearly 10,000 prisoners of war were in groups of three or five, six or seven, and it was not uncommon for there to be 40 or 50 people. There were also several large groups, with no less than 200 or 300 people, sitting together. The whole playground was full of discussions and discussions about surrendering and recruiting soldiers.

It was exactly what Zheng Xin thought. This attention really made the prisoners of war completely separated into two groups: supporters or opponents. There is no neutrality in this matter.

The playground was surrounded by heavy soldiers, but the prisoners of war surrounded in the middle did not feel too much pressure, because as long as you shouted "I want to surrender", you can immediately walk into another camp with relatively good facilities. Or shout "I surrender", you can also walk into the camp with relatively better facilities. In the end, only the stubborn group of people were left!

On one side was the miserable life of prisoners of war, and on the other side was...

The whole recruitment process went smoothly beyond the imagination of Chen Ming in Nanjing City. It took only one day, except for the last two thousand people who were stuffed into a small camp that usually held less than a thousand people.

——This is a real prisoner of war camp. They will have two meals a day in the future. Dry in the morning and thin at night. Because they have to work in the morning, and at night..., the bed is a millstone.

The other four thousand prisoners of war still live in the original old place. The place is a little more spacious, and the preferential treatment comes immediately, that is, food - after a month, they finally see meat, one salted fish per person. They chose to surrender, but they ranked lower, so they became the reserve. Only the first 3,000 people, accounting for one-third of the total population, lived in the place where the guard army originally lived, and the food was better. They can now be said to be members of the local garrison.

In the next three days. Several groups of people came to the surrounding area of ​​the prisoner-of-war camp one after another. These people were treated better, and they set up camps separately. These people were the Burmese who took the initiative to join the army. The difference between them and ordinary prisoners of war was that they "took the initiative" to join the army, which made them have a higher status than the captured soldiers.

Chen Ming didn't know that this incident had a major impact on the Irrawaddy Delta region. This was a bit like buying a horse's bones for a thousand dollars. The Sino-Siamese coalition vigorously recruited the Mon people, but the latter's regime was destroyed and they became slaves of the country. The situation is very attractive? Many of the Burmese prisoners of war who voluntarily surrendered were Mon.

Behind each of them represents a family, a clan.

The influence of this incident continues to spread as the South Route Army in Yangon moves north. Therefore, although the South Route Army is not as fast as the North Route Army, the influence it exerts on the local area is much stronger than that of the North Route Army. few.

Pa Yirong had no idea that just when he sent the message from Feige to the Southern Route Army, a reconnaissance team dispatched by the Southern Route Army was being besieged by the Burmese army he had just learned about.

The latter has few troops, but the former has even less troops. There are only fifty Chinese Marine Corps soldiers, but they have to deal with ten times more enemies.

Li Xin's prediction was really accurate. They were very unlucky this time. His right eye kept twitching when they set off. Isn't this why they are surrounded by so many Burmese troops? Fortunately, this battlefield is not in the rainforest but in the mountains, otherwise their team would have been able to attack the street.

The Burmese obviously wanted to eat this Chinese Marine Corps. Taking advantage of their large numbers, they were like lone wolves who hit a stick and shrank their heads, but they refused to leave their positions.

"Whose turn is next?" Li Xin stared at a target while pulling the trigger of the rifle. He was not a sniper, but just an ordinary rifle shooter. With the organizational reorganization and weapon replacement of China's entire army, more and more rifled guns are appearing in the army. Just like the Chinese battlefield during World War II, each infantry squad was equipped with a machine gun to enhance the firepower of the army. The current National Defense Force has added a large number of rifle shooters to the unit organization to ensure the long-range suppression power of the organized units. Many rifle shooters are eliminated snipers. They may not be able to adapt to some sniper training, but their pure shooting talent and ability are much stronger than ordinary people.

Li Xin reloaded the ammunition skillfully while shouting, "Throw it away when you need to, and blow him up, son of a bitch."

The situation is already quite critical.

The words just fell. Twenty or thirty grenades with fireworks falling on the attacking Burmese soldiers. Then more than a dozen grenades were thrown from the position.

A "boom" explosion sounded. The Burmese soldiers, who had long been afraid of grenades, immediately jumped up and ran away with their heads in their hands, regardless of the bullets fired from the mountain. You must know that they were frightened by several rifled guns before, but now many of the panicked Burmese soldiers straightened up. Even ordinary flintlock warriors received a lot of bonuses. After a hail of bullets knocked down people, the Burmese finally retreated to the mountainside again, and the battle came to an end.

If the latter wants to muster the courage to continue attacking, it will have to go through a period of adjustment. This gave them time to rest.

Either lying under the rocks or lying in thatch, the potholes on the mountainside became a good place for Burmese soldiers to take refuge. It's much safer here than on bare flat ground.

Nevin turned his head to look behind him again, and the red streaks of blood on the side made his eyes hurt. They were the bodies of five fleeing Burmese soldiers, including a low-ranking officer.

They saw with their own eyes that the trapped Chinese released two white pigeons on the top of the mountain. If nothing else happened, the Siamese army would arrive soon, but Ne Win wanted to eat the Chinese soldiers in front of them. This was worse than Destroying ten times the Siamese army would boost morale even more.

"Everyone listen. For conquering this mountain, each of the standing people will be rewarded with ten jas [the ancient monetary unit of Myanmar]. Each of the dead people will be rewarded with 20 jas. Except for these people, those who capture Chinese soldiers alive will depend on their rank. At least fifty people will be rewarded.”

Ne Win himself really wanted to capture the mountain, so he offered a heavy reward. The allusion that a heavy reward must lead to a brave man may not be found in Burma, but the meaning is the same. If you capture this Chinese army, you will be able to control the people in your hands. It's worth spending it all. As long as he rushes back to Pasen with the heads and prisoners, King Meng Mang will not only not blame himself, but also reward himself greatly.

"Soldiers, follow me -" Ne Win decided not to just stare. In order to boost the morale of the Burmese army, in addition to paying a heavy sum of money, he also decided to raise a shield made of bamboo strips and join the attack. middle. Clutching the shield tightly to his chest, Ne Win drew out his knife and bravely rushed in front of the team for the first time.

The Burmese soldiers, who were excited by the heavy silver reward, saw that they were the first to rush forward. Their morale immediately increased, and they climbed towards the top of the mountain with golden eyes. Although they still feared the rifle rifles on the mountain top, they had regained their motivation.