The guy who received the money happily took it and dreamed of all kinds of sweet dreams. Maybe he thought about going home and marrying a wife, or thinking about buying a house and land.

I was so excited for the first half of the night, but for the second half of the night everyone slept like a dead dog.

"Du...! Du...! Du...!" A series of whistles sounded, and the platoon commanders rushed into the dormitory like madmen. They shouted at the soldiers like animals, and everyone had to bring them with them.

The weapons are assembled on the playground.

Some were wearing the wrong clothes and hats. Some were only wearing one shoe, and the other one was kicked into a corner by someone who didn't know who. The worst one couldn't even find a shoe. He was barefoot.

Kicked out!

The plight of the soldiers was terrible. Li Xiao conservatively estimated that the chaos lasted at least ten minutes. The team was now standing in order, but many soldiers had their clothes buttoned wrongly. They were all twisted and unsightly.

If someone makes a surprise attack, hundreds of people will be on the island by now. They are attacking various targets!

Li Xiao remembers that at that time, he had to put on his backpack and put on clothes for five minutes. It was a five-kilometer journey out, and anyone whose backpack was not packed tightly could only run with the quilt in his arms. When he returned, he would be scolded by the squad leader, and then he would be forced to stand in a military posture.

push-up.

The guys in front of him were enough to make his recruit squad leader so angry that he whipped him away.

Li Xiao regretted that he did not engage in this kind of training earlier. It seems that he will formulate a strict training outline in the future to figure out what he will do in the future.

After casually running around the playground twice, Li Xiao asked them to go back to sleep.

"Why bother?" Li Hu mumbled back to the dormitory, took off his shoes and clothes and fell on the bed. He just closed his eyes in a daze! "Du...! Du...! Du...!" Then

The damn whistle sounded again!

"Fuck! I won't let anyone sleep anymore!"

After struggling three times in one night, everyone was listless at breakfast the next day.

Li Xiao didn't speak, and neither did the people at his table. After eating, the three of them gathered in Li Xiao's study again.

"The lot will be drawn tonight, and in two days the first batch of people to go home will board the ship. How will it be done?"

"If we let him go, we don't have enough manpower. If we don't let him go, we will lose credibility. It will be the Chinese New Year in a few days, and people's hearts will already be flying. It's a dilemma!"

"Hey...! The most important thing is that we don't know which day the Tatars will attack. There is no moon in the 30s and the first and second day of the lunar month are also dark. There is no way to guard against thieves for a thousand days. We can't stare at them every night.

Keep your eyes open and keep watch all night long. What to do during the day? People will collapse in a few days."

Li Xiao's eyes lit up, and he stretched out his hand to stop the two guys who were complaining. After leaving the door, he went to find the old man Yu, who needed the help of the old guy to do this.

Spring, nails, flint, there is no time to get fulminic acid. We can only make the most primitive impact fuze. Just give an external force to press it. The spring will urge the firing pin, ignite the nitrocellulose and explode violently in a small space.

Shoot out countless iron nails and small steel balls.

The whole afternoon, Li Xiao was talking about what Mr. Yu was doing.

"You see, that's it. Now as long as you step on this thing, the spring will activate the firing pin and flint, causing sparks. The principle is very similar to that of a flintlock gun. This thing will explode." With the help of Yu Lao,

, one of the most primitive wooden mines was created.

"This little mechanism is quite exquisite. In other words, this thing is buried in the ground. It will explode as soon as someone steps on it?" The old fisherman held the wooden model and looked at it carefully. I really admire this fantastic idea!

"Yes! What we worry about most now is early warning, and this thing is the best early warning system. Every evening, we bury this thing on the beach. As long as someone lands on the island, this thing will explode. Not only will it kill

It can injure sneak attackers and also provide them with early warning."

"Yeah! This thing is pretty good!" Mr. Yu also admired Li Xiao's creativity.

"Adding a steel wire here can act as an insurance. As long as it is inserted in, this thing will not explode. As long as it is pulled out, it will be in a state to be excited."

"Yeah! It's safer this way." The old fisherman nodded frequently.

"You can use cast iron as the shell, of course the thinner the better." Mr. Yu added some advice to Li Xiao.

"Okay, that's it. Let the big hammer do it quickly. The more you can do, the better. The production of other things can be delayed a little longer!"

"If you improve this thing, it can be used on artillery shells. From now on, the artillery shells thrown by the trebuchet will no longer need to be lit before being fired." The old fisherman's thinking is divergent, and he soon thought of this trigger fuze.

Can be used on cannonballs.

"You should study this thing. I have to discuss something with Master Ao and Master Man. I haven't seen that old guy Yu Nao Inatomi for several days. What are you doing?" Li Xiao was busy.

In the afternoon, I remembered that I hadn’t seen Yu Nao Inatomi for a long time.

"The old guy is researching something, and I heard that he can develop a repeating musket. I went to see it two days ago, and it's unreliable." The old fisherman believed that Inatomi Yu was just having a whim.

"What? Continuous!" Li Xiao was immediately frightened. If Inatomi Yu invented Gatling, Li Xiao wouldn't mind building a shrine to enshrine him.

"I've tried this nonsense many times without success. The old guy is stunned! Don't you want to discuss something? Let's go!" The old fisherman urged Li Xiao to leave quickly. He couldn't do anything here.

Concentrate.

"If you tinker with something and bury it on the beach in the evening, it can serve as an early warning."

"Buried by the sea?"

"If someone steps on it, it will explode. If it is loaded with twenty kilograms of explosives, people within a radius of five feet will definitely not be able to escape."

"real?"

"Of course it is true! I have been tinkering with Mr. Yu all afternoon. Mr. Yu will make a sample tomorrow and try it before it can be put into production. By then, as long as you hear an explosion somewhere, you will know where someone is trespassing on the island."

"Oh no! There is also something like this. If a trebuchet is placed on the top of the mountain, wherever there is an explosion, just use cannonballs to hit that place. If you are lucky enough to survive, use a gun to shoot. No one will be able to successfully land on the island!"

"Then let people go home to visit their relatives?" Man Gui's men also wanted to go home to pick up their families on the island, and he was also very concerned about this matter.

"Let go! But the number of people must be reduced, and at most 20% of the people will be allowed to go home. Aren't they spying on us? Just make it arrogant and let them know that we are letting people go home for the New Year. Then they will attack with confidence and boldness!"

Our attack is likely to be advanced. If we attack on the 28th or 9th, we still have time to have a good year! Mr. Ao, you have people move the trebuchets onto the ship. Two big ships with more than three thousand materials, one thousand materials

One boat, equipped with extra grenades, I will make sure they never come back this time."

Li Xiao knew that he had to hurt Nurhachi this time. Otherwise, he would still be thinking about letting people attack Pidao.

Pi Island is too close to the mainland, and Nurhachi's claws can still reach it. Moving is impossible. It seems that we still need to develop our own strength. We need to get to land as soon as possible!

"Well! Let some of the people go back and hook up the Tatars. Let's have another roll-up party! This is a good idea. If the Tatars suffer a loss, they will not dare to provoke us easily in the future. If they guard like this every day, even if they are procrastinating, they will have to do it.

Drag us to death. After all, we have many families!"

Ao Canghai sighed helplessly. Strength cannot be faked. There were only more than a thousand soldiers who could fight. He didn't even dare to think about overthrowing the Eight Banners of Manchuria.

"You need money to recruit people. Even though we tried every means to get some money. But in the end, it was still a small matter. This time we gave out rewards during the New Year, and we paid more than 10,000 taels of silver. People on the island eat horse chews.

It’s overhead.”

"Don't be afraid! During the Chinese New Year, I asked Ai Husheng to go to Shandong with the latest glass. I don't believe it. It can't be exchanged for money." Li Xiao didn't believe it because three flat glasses and four out of round glasses cost him two hundred taels of silver.

After a year of hard work, those crystal clear glasses after purification will not be able to sell the original ones.

Even if the craftsmanship of the glassware is not good, the craftsmanship of the glass plate is still good. Could it be that the wealthy people in Shandong don't like sunny glass windows?

"During the Chinese New Year, those soldiers go back with money. This will definitely make more people want to join us as soldiers. After the Chinese New Year, we will recruit soldiers again. The musketry team needs to be expanded to 2,000 people!"

The thrill of danger made Li Xiao decide to recruit a large number of troops in advance. According to Pidao's current strength, it would be risky to recruit two thousand soldiers at once. But now that they have been discovered, the Tatars may attack him at some point. Others first

Let it go, saving your life is still the most important thing.

"Two thousand people? How can you have so many guns?"

"The gun barrels blackmailed from the Tatars are being selected and modified. I discussed it with Mr. Yu yesterday. By June of this year at the most, he guarantees that he will be able to produce two thousand of the latest muskets."

"That's no problem. Now we have several hundred people selected to serve as squad leaders, platoon leaders, and company commanders. Next winter, if these two thousand people can't fight, you can chop off my head, Lao Ao."

"Pay attention to some people who can be used. Above the squad, platoon and company, there are battalions and regiments! This is my plan. Each musketry squad has eight people. Three squads make up a platoon, three platoons make up a company, and three companies make up a company.

One battalion, three battalions form a regiment.

After the new muskets are used in the future, the range and accuracy will be greatly improved. We no longer need to stand in a row and discharge guns. It is time to study some new tactics.

Mr. Ao, please organize officers at all levels to familiarize themselves with the new muskets in the past two days, and let them put forward any ideas they have. I will ask them in person in a few days!"

Promoting junior officers among the existing people is something Li Xiao has long considered. In the future, the team will become larger and larger, and Ao Canghai cannot manage it alone. It is necessary to promote some people with ideas and battlefield thinking to enrich them.

Go inside the officer corps.

"Huzi is going to be the squad leader, what do you say?" Ao Canghai suddenly said as the meeting was about to end.

"At a young age, he will be a woolen squad leader. Since he loves being a soldier, let him become an ordinary soldier. Lao Ao, please watch out for me. There should be no special treatment at all. Just follow the requirements of ordinary soldiers. No.

Because he is my younger brother, I take special care of him."

"Sure! This guy is really a soldier. He wasn't afraid when the Tatars attacked Pyongyang. He held a new musket and knocked down three or four Tatar soldiers."

"If the young eagle is not beaten, its wings will never become strong."

"Brother Xiao! What should I do with my cavalry?" Seeing Ao Canghai expanding his army, Man Gui was also eager to give it a try.

"After the New Year, let all your brothers go home. Changxing Island is a big island. Bring back as many people as you can. You can choose 500 people there and form a cavalry team.

Master Man, you know that the cost of these war horses is not small. With the strength of our island, we can only raise so many now. The training is done on Changxing Island. Firstly, it is to guard Changxing Island. Secondly, our island is too small.

, the cavalry could not escape either.

After the new year, I will go to Shandong to recruit a group of bricklayers to build you a house on Changxing Island. I keep my word, and I will take care of the food for the first year, Li Xiao. How about it?"

They are all old brothers who followed him out of Liaoyang. Li Xiao will never favor one over the other. However, raising five hundred cavalry is indeed the limit of Li Xiao's current ability.

War horses have to be fed with horse food. In some poor places in Shandong, people sometimes can't afford bean cakes! In addition, Li Xiao promised to supply rations for a year, and Li Xiao felt that his money bag would be emptied soon.
To be continued...