Wind Rises in North America 1625

Chapter 165 Recruitment
"Bah, damn it! I thought these crops were all peanut seedlings!... Turns out these are potatoes!"

Liu Ninggen held a dug potato in his hand, brushed off the dirt on the outside, and then broke it open with force to reveal the yellow flesh inside. He opened his mouth and took a bite. The texture was very hard. After chewing it for a few times, he felt a fishy and astringent smell, so he spat it out.

He looked up at the endless potato fields in front of him, his face filled with surprise. He then turned to Deng Kun and said, "Sir, with so many potatoes, we should be able to produce hundreds of thousands of dan of grain, right? Hey, they really didn't lie to us. With these potatoes, we really don't have to worry about going hungry anymore."

"Maybe we can really produce tens of thousands of dan of grain." Deng Kun stared blankly at the potato field and didn't come back to his senses for a long time.

Wow, just this one potato vine, if you dig it up with a shovel, you can pull out a bunch of potatoes, two or three at least, five or six at most. Eating two or three is enough to fill one person's stomach.

Everywhere you look, you can see a vast potato field, probably covering tens of thousands of acres.

How many potatoes would that take?

Moreover, this thing can really fill your stomach and tastes much better than steamed bread mixed with bran.

The climate and environment here should be similar to those in Liaodong. If these potatoes can be brought over, I wonder how many Liao people they can feed.

I heard from those immigrants who came a few years earlier that potatoes are not very picky about the soil and can produce good harvests even if planted in some dry land.

In terms of yield, it is definitely several times higher than wheat and sorghum.

No wonder they dared to bring so many people from the Ming Dynasty. Just based on potatoes, they could feed as many people as they wanted.

After the ten-day quarantine and training, except for more than 30 skilled Liao people who were assigned to various factories and mines, the rest of the more than 400 Liao people were dispersed and placed in more than ten colonization production teams in Shixingbao and Guangfengbao to enrich the local agricultural population.

To be honest, Deng Kun was not used to this arrangement.

You said, how can a hand that is used to holding a knife hold a sickle or a shovel?
Look, after digging potatoes with the old immigrants who came a few years earlier for only half a day, my hands, which were once covered with calluses, were now covered with blisters, and my arms were sore. It felt more tiring than fighting in a war and killing people.

Haha, it’s ridiculous to think about it. When we were begging for our lives in the Jiannu territory, what my parents and I longed for most was to be able to farm the land in peace and contentment.

But the result was that the old slaves did not allow them to farm in peace. Instead, they slaughtered and drove away people who "had no grain", causing tens of millions of Liao people to suffer a devastating disaster.

In desperation, the parents could only drag their children to flee to Korea in the hope of surviving the butcher knife of the Qing army.

But in the end, his parents and two younger brothers were caught up by the Jiannu cavalry while fleeing, and fell under their swords one by one. However, he managed to escape and joined Dongjiang Town, becoming a Ming Dynasty official soldier.

After more than ten years of fighting, and with the reward from the general, he gradually accumulated merits and was promoted from a small soldier to a captain, and had a certain status and wealth in the army.

However, they never expected that the Liu brothers would launch a mutiny, murder the general (Chen Jisheng), usurp control of Dongjiang Town, and then detain and control all of them, the former general's trusted soldiers and generals of the Dongjiang Left Association, and prepare to eliminate them at the appropriate time.

Fortunately, Mr. Shen (Shen Shikui) of Dongjiang Town had some friendship with their Dongjiang Zuo Association in the past. When the two large ships from Qiming Island came to Pi Island, he indirectly rescued them in the name of exchanging Liao people for food.

Finally, they crossed the ocean and arrived at this so-called New Continent.

Alas, it seems that from now on I can only farm the land here honestly and become an ordinary farmer.

I’m afraid those Zuo Xie brothers who came from Pi Island have to accept their fate too. No one knows where they have been assigned.

"Deng Kun?"

"……arrive!"

Deng Kun had just finished lunch and was sitting on the ground enjoying the sun. Suddenly someone called his name. He immediately stood up subconsciously and shouted "Here" loudly.

Zheng Lihui, the head of the Marine Cavalry Squad, walked up to him with a smile and looked him up and down.

He is less than 1.7 meters tall, but he has a very imposing aura. Although his eyes are evasive, they reveal a gleam of brilliance from time to time, and he faintly reveals a fierceness like a tiger crouching and an eagle.

Well, he is indeed a man from Liaodong who has fought in the battlefield and killed Tartars.

"Can you ride a horse?" Zheng Lihui asked directly.

"...Yes." Deng Kun hesitated for a moment and replied in a low voice.

What a joke! How could a trusted soldier (housekeeper) of the general not be able to ride a horse to charge into battle?

However, our Dongjiang Town generally does not use cavalry to fight against the Jiannu. Instead, we choose to attack their weak points, emphasizing "fast as the wind" and "aggressive as fire".

Well, to put it bluntly, it was guerrilla warfare, specifically targeting the Jiannu's weak defenses and fleeing to the sea before they could launch a substantial counterattack. How could you escape the pursuit of the Jiannu cavalry if you couldn't ride a horse?

"Then do you know anything about cavalry combat skills?" Zheng Lihui asked again.

"I know a little bit."

"Then ride it around and show me."

"Huh?" Deng Kun was stunned.

What do you mean, ride a horse for you?
"Hey, untie the horse and bring it here." Zheng Lihui turned around and shouted at a horse-drawn cart carrying potatoes without waiting for his answer.

When the driver heard the order, he immediately untied the horse from the carriage and led it over to the two men.

"Just ride this horse?" Deng Kun asked in surprise, looking at the bare horse's back.

"Why, you can't ride without a saddle?" Zheng Lihui said with a smile, "Even Mongolian children can gallop on bareback horses, so why can't you, a veteran cavalryman, ride one?"

Upon hearing this, Deng Kun immediately walked over, pushed the coachman who was leading the horse away, then reached out and grabbed the horse's mane, jumped lightly, and jumped onto the horse's back.

He held the horse's reins with his right hand, shook it hard, turned the horse's head, tapped the horse's belly lightly with his feet, and then ran into the wilderness.

Zheng Lihui walked to a ridge of the field, put his hands on the sunshade, and watched the man and horse running freely in the field, but he couldn't suppress the smile on his face.

Good, good. If the Marine Corps is combined with the cavalry squad that we are about to form, and then supplemented by artillery, it will be a basically complete army.

Although Qiming Island is surrounded by dense primitive jungles, leaving little room for cavalry to operate, as the number of immigrants increases year by year, the intensity of development also increases. Patches of forest are cut down and replaced by pieces of farmland.

In this situation, if the Spanish attacked in winter, there would be a very spacious battlefield space.

Without a team of cavalry to maneuver on the battlefield, we would inevitably be in a passive position.

To take a step back, if the invading Spanish were defeated in a decisive battle, the cavalry would have to pursue them closely and take advantage of the situation to expand the victory.

These former Ming Dynasty official troops from Pi Island may not be able to be trained into obedient line-filling musketeers due to their habits and accustomed combat methods, but they can definitely be used as scouts and sentinels of the troops, or as charging cavalry to cooperate with the line infantry in combat.

"Hey..."

"Hiss..."

About seven or eight minutes later, Deng Kun returned on horseback and galloped towards the cornfield. When he was about to approach Zheng Lihui, he pulled the reins in a very cool way, causing the horse's front legs to jump high, barely stopping the charge.

"This horse is no good. It can't serve as a cavalry mount for charging into battle." Deng Kun dismounted, patted the horse's neck, and said in a deep voice, "This horse not only lacks endurance, but also lacks the impact force. At best, it can only be used as a regular riding horse."

"Well, you're right," Zheng Lihui said with a smile. "Right now, we don't have a single real warhorse on Qiming Island. We only have some poor horses that can only pull carts and plow the fields. They really can't serve as cavalry horses."

"However, due to geographical limitations, large-scale cavalry battles won't occur here, so these inferior horses are barely sufficient. Wait a little longer. In a few years, after we establish a true cavalry unit, we will definitely import and train specialized warhorses for you to ride."

"Cavalry?" Deng Kun's heart skipped a beat when he heard this. "General, are you saying that I've been selected for the cavalry?"

"Yes, you've been drafted," Zheng Lihui said. "Due to your cavalry combat skills, you'll be drafted into the Marine Cavalry Squad starting tomorrow."

"So what should I do today?" Deng Kun suddenly felt happy.

"What are you going to do today?" Zheng Lihui glanced at him, then pointed to the vast potato field. "Today, of course, you have to continue harvesting potatoes and strive to complete your work quota."

"Tomorrow morning, at 8:00 sharp, you must report to the Marine Corps Barracks at Shixing Fort on time. Any delay will result in court-martial!"

"General, where is the Marine barracks?"

"There is a big red flag on the high ground on the east side of Shixing Fort. You can see it just by looking up." Zheng Lihui said as he led the horse towards the place where the potatoes were piled.

"Oh, damn it, after all this twists and turns I still have to be a soldier and work to earn a living!" Deng Kun picked up his shovel from the ground and dug out a potato vine in front of him with its roots.

"...Hey, what time is eight in the morning?"

(End of this chapter)