Nanyang Storm 1864

Chapter 274 I would rather die standing than live on my knees.

Manila Advanced Infantry School

In the Great Hall
King Zheng Guohui of Chu, dressed in full military uniform, stood on the rostrum and delivered a passionate speech to the more than 1300 officer cadets present. His sonorous and powerful voice echoed in the auditorium.

"...

For nearly two hundred years, the Chinese nation that was impoverished, weak and bullied is gone forever, and the Chinese nation that suffered from the rule of the Manchus and foreign races is gone forever.

The times call for brave Chinese men. Under the leadership of this king, the Chu State rose in Southeast Asia and was determined to build a free kingdom belonging to the Chinese nation. This is the dream of every brave man here.

Follow my footsteps and obey my guidance, and I will lead you to open up a broad future.

A future full of infinite hope.

A vast territory where the sons and daughters of China can fully display their talents.

This requires countless sacrifices, paving a road to victory with countless bones, writing glory with loyalty and military honor, and writing the iron-blooded history of the Chu State.

You must remember what the king said

This is a world where people eat each other, and the cruel law of the jungle is followed. Everyone only respects the strong and has no mercy on the weak.

The weak can only accept the tragic fate of being enslaved, while the winner takes all, and the strong can do whatever they want because the winner will not be blamed.

Do you want to be a slave and weak, or do you want to be a strong person?"

"We must be strong. We are not afraid of sacrifice or bloodshed!"

"Loyal to His Majesty, loyal to the country, and defending military honor to the death."

"Follow in His Majesty's footsteps and pave the way for a strong nation with blood and life."

"I'd rather be a ghost hero than a slave."

The young officers in the meeting hall were so excited that their blood boiled. They waved their arms and shouted desperately. Wave after wave of cheers was like a rolling tide, and the surging youthful enthusiasm almost broke the hall.

On the podium of the Great Hall
A group of senior generals looked at the young officers with flushed faces, waving their arms and shouting, with fanatical glints in their eyes, and they couldn't help but feel secretly horrified.

Your Majesty has absolute control over the army, and no one can shake it.

Just a few words of encouragement were enough to make countless young and passionate officers sacrifice themselves and face death with indifference. This lofty prestige had reached its peak.

Everyone here is a military commander, so you know clearly what this means?
King Zheng Guohui of Chu pressed his hands down and made a gesture of silence.

In the auditorium, which was bustling with cheers just now, the waves of cheers that were louder than the previous ones quickly died down, and soon it became so loud that you could hear a pin drop.

King Zheng Guohui of Chu, dressed in a white marshal's uniform, looked around fiercely and said again in an angry tone;

“My loyal soldiers, please know this;

While we were building a happy country with our hard-working hands, there were a lot of voices of suspicion and criticism in the north, and all kinds of news that discredited the State of Chu were flying around.

In southern Australia, news comes from time to time about the wanton bullying of our Chinese compatriots. They are squeezed, exploited, robbed, and humiliated to death.

In the West, at the Governor-General's Office of the British East Indies and the Governor-General's Office of the British Straits Settlements.

In the north, the French colonial governorate of Saigon, and in the south, the governorate of the Dutch East Indies.

In these places, the white foreigners who were used to looking down on the people of Southeast Asia were looking at the newborn Chu State with hostile eyes, full of malicious malice.

They are like hungry wolves. Once the State of Chu exposes its soft underbelly, these evil wolves will swarm over and tear our beautiful country into pieces, plunging it into war and endless famine.

Those who are not of the same kind as me must have different hearts.

These European powers hiding in the dark regard our Chu State as a piece of delicious fat meat, and are determined to plunge it into war and enslave it under the foreigners.

Just like many of the indigenous kingdoms around us, they want to ride on the necks of the Chinese people and act tyrannically, greedily sucking the blood of the Chinese nation to feed their bottomless appetite.

It's now……

The British coalition forces have set out and are marching towards our Chu State in a mighty force.

This beautiful land will be ravaged by the ruthless war, and many of the beautiful homes we have built will be reduced to ruins in the war.

Your wives and children will be abducted. This is a war of conquest imposed on us by the British devils.

This king needs the support of all citizens. He needs everyone to show the bravery of the Chinese people, to call upon the national pride that has been hidden in their blood for five thousand years, and to let the long-forgotten glory of the Han and Tang dynasties reappear in the world.

Anyone who openly offends the mighty Han will be punished, even though they are far away.

I will lead you to fight to the last soldier. Men, women, young and old, all have the responsibility to defend our land. Five million citizens and five million soldiers, we will fight to the death.

The Chu State only had Chinese soldiers who died in battle, but no slaves who knelt on the ground..."

The highly inspiring oath of King Zheng Guohui of Chu instantly ignited the blood in the hearts of the young officers and soldiers, and it suddenly exploded.

"Your Majesty, please rest assured. Five million citizens and five million soldiers will fight to the last man."

"Loyal to His Majesty, loyal to the kingdom, loyal to the Chinese nation, and fight to the death."

"Your Majesty, please give the order. We soldiers are willing to stand on the front lines against the enemy, even if we die a thousand times, we will not regret it."

"I swear to kill the ghost, why should I care about my life."

"I swear to be loyal to your majesty's orders until death. Wherever the enemy points to, even if it's a sea of ​​fire or a mountain of sword, what do I fear?"

The noise this time was even louder. Even on the streets outside the Manila Advanced Military Academy, one could hear the thunderous roar of killing the enemy and serving the country, and everyone who heard it stopped in shock.

After listening quietly, the passion of solidarity against the enemy was also aroused.

Many Chinese people stood on the streets outside, raising their arms and shouting in the same voice, spreading this condensed iron will far away.

Large banners were posted everywhere in the streets of Manila, and armed militias patrolled the streets in formation, with security much stricter than before. "We swear to fight to the death against the enemy invasion. Defend our Manila, defend our homeland."

"Every inch of land is stained with blood. I would rather die standing than live on my knees."

"Be loyal to His Majesty, obey His Majesty's call, unite, and fight to the end."

"To defend our Chu State and our homeland, we need the strength of every citizen."

During these days
The State of Chu did not sit idly by. Instead, it selected activists from various prefectures and counties to carry out extensive patriotic and national propaganda in city streets and even in rural areas, taking advantage of the opportunity of foreign invasion to further consolidate national consensus and Chinese national identity.

When a crisis comes, this effect is infinitely magnified.

A wave of national identity emerged in all cities, prefectures, counties and towns. Ceremonies pledging allegiance to His Majesty the King of Chu and to the State of Chu continued. At the same time, in-depth propaganda on the war against the massive invasion of foreigners further increased the people's sense of crisis.

The propaganda teams in cities and villages will focus their speeches on the main ideological line of "loyalty to the emperor, love for the country and hometown, and unity to resist foreign enemies", repeatedly emphasizing the Han blood of the Chinese people, emphasizing national identity, consolidating and strengthening national consciousness, and strengthening national identity.

In this situation
The Chu people who migrated to Southeast Asia soon had a clear understanding;

"Each of us is a descendant of the Chinese nation, a nation with a 5000-year history. We have created the glorious Han and Tang dynasties, and the splendid civilizations of the Song and Ming dynasties. We are definitely not slaves of the Qing Dynasty..."

"The Chu State is our common homeland. It is the hope for restoring the former glory of the Han and Tang dynasties. It is the most solid support for overseas Chinese. We should be proud of it and dedicate our lives and everything to it..."

"The invaders are coming, and they will be met with nothing but swords and guns..."

The entire Chu State was mobilized, using this unprecedented crisis to further consolidate national consciousness and unite the originally scattered sand into an iron fist.

The specific publicity plan is presided over by Deputy Prime Minister Earl Zheng Shouxin and is being carried out in cities and towns across the country, creating a vigorous publicity atmosphere.

Military preparations, material preparations and political preparations were carried out simultaneously, but this did not affect the bustling production of industrial and mining enterprises.

The war preparations inevitably affected the economic and trade transactions between Chu State and the European powers in Southeast Asia. Most of the transactions came to a standstill, and the number of frequent cargo ships also decreased sharply.

France clearly stands on the side of the British, and today's Napoleon III is Britain's follower. This position is not surprising at all.

The expeditionary force planned to conquer the State of Chu was also a coalition of Britain and France.

The French Governor-General of Saigon provided 11 sailing ships and 8500 troops to participate in the possible colonial feast, and was eager to get a piece of the pie.

The Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies officially announced that he would remain neutral and not participate in any party.

The United States, Germany and the Kingdom of Portugal all declared neutrality and did not participate in the war of invasion of Chu, so foreign trade with the above countries continued, but the scale was sharply reduced.

The major market for Chu's industrial products exports was the northern Shenzhou. Together with the newly opened markets of Fuso and the Ryukyu Kingdom, it effectively resisted the losses in the markets of Southeast Asian countries, and the overall decline in industrial product exports was very limited.

All added together, it’s less than 20%.

This part of the affected production capacity has been rapidly transferred to a state of war. A large amount of materials have been stored and evacuated in an orderly manner to warehouses in various prefectures and counties, fortresses and military bases, and transformed into powerful material support for a long-term war.

Therefore, instead of being significantly reduced, industrial production continued to operate at full capacity.

For example, heavy industrial enterprises such as the Manila Arsenal, Machinery Factory, and Steam Engine Factory, as well as enterprises involved in military supplies such as the steel wire and cable factory, iron mesh factory, textile factory, and clothing factory, are all operating at full capacity and working overtime day and night.

Hundreds of reinforced concrete or brick and stone bunkers were built on important roads, bridges and passes in cities and towns across the Chu State as part of deepening military preparations.

At the Manila Army Advanced Military Academy, King Zheng Guohui of Chu, after delivering an inspiring and resounding oath, presided over the flag-raising ceremony of 10 newly established Royal Infantry Regiments and awarded honorary swords to officers above the rank of colonel.

The officers' honorary swords were of the Tang sword style, which was the standard military sword of the Chu army and represented the honor of the soldiers.

When the person is alive, the knife is there; when the person is dead, the knife is broken.

This officer's standard-issue sword has a blade length of 64 cm, a handle length of 14 cm, a blade width of 2.4 to 1.8 cm, and a thickness of 0.5 cm. The blade's inner curve is often a cutting edge, and the handle is inlaid with a rosewood guard and decorated with a yellow ribbon.

The words "Gifted by the King of Chu" are engraved on the blade. This is a great honor and is only available as a standard sword for officers and above.

The swords of junior lieutenants did not have the words "Bestowed by the King of Chu" on them. Each regiment held a separate ceremony to bestow the swords, which was far less solemn and glorious than if the swords were bestowed personally by His Majesty the King of Chu.

These ten newly formed Royal Infantry Regiments, each with a strength of 12 men, were equipped with a field artillery squadron equipped with ten-pound Parrot rifled field guns to enhance firepower.

The ten-pound Parrot rifled field gun was produced by the Manila Arsenal. It is the world's first-class field gun with a long range, high accuracy, and is made of pure steel. The cost is only 220 silver dollars per gun.

Compared to the 12-pound bronze Napoleon cannon, the equipment cost only one-third of the latter, and its firepower, range and accuracy were far superior to the latter.

This ten-pound Parrot rifled field artillery has become the standard artillery of the Chu Army. It is widely equipped in various expeditionary divisions, bunkers and fortresses as basic artillery firepower.

Wilman Buffon, a foreign artillery instructor at the Manila Army Advanced Military Academy, said with a very vivid metaphor;
"Give me a team of skilled gunners, manning the M1857 12-pound smoothbore field gun. After a maximum of three rounds of calibration, they can easily hit a barn meters away.

The same manpower, operating a 10-pound Parrot rifled field gun, only needs one calibration shot to accurately hit the barn door.

It is obvious that the latter is an order of magnitude higher."

Since this time
The Manila Arsenal entered full-speed production, with several light weapons production lines operating at full capacity and more than 420 new employees added.

The 7.2 gun barrels stored in the warehouse were quickly assembled into a new type of firearm. This was a new type of rifle that absorbed the advantages of the French 1866 Chassepeau striker rifle, underwent certain technical improvements, and adopted a rotating bolt design to improve the original problem of gunpowder leakage.

This new rifle was named the Chu-type 1868 striker rifle, and soldiers usually called it the "Manila 1868 rifle". It has now begun to be widely used in the infantry equipment of the expeditionary division.

This type of rifle still uses paper-loaded ammunition because the reliability problem of metal-loaded ammunition has not been solved.

In other words, compared with the muzzle-loading rifle, the Manila 1868 rifle simply uses breech-loading, which makes loading faster and more convenient.

Due to the drawbacks of paper-loaded ammunition, this new rifle could not be equipped with additional magazines and could not fire continuously. It was only a slight improvement on the Chassaibo rifle.

The only difference is that the rubber ring that prevents gunpowder leakage does not need to be replaced frequently.

The advantage is

The Manila 1868 rifle has reserved an improvement interface. If the metal fixed ammunition can overcome the technical difficulties of reliability, it can be easily converted into a magazine-type rifle, thereby greatly increasing its power.

(End of this chapter)