Chapter VI Conspiracy succeeded to build a militia
On the other side, Inspector Zhang wrote a document "Requesting Ding Yong to help pay the bandit discount" and handed it to the governor Yang Wending. The escaped governor Yang Wending approved the discount without saying a word, and agreed that the salt merchants would recruit Ding Yong on their own and go to
Gaoyou, to assist in the defense of Yangzhou. Because Yang Wending has no troops available, and he is eager to get rid of his crime and make meritorious service. Anyway, he does not need to pay. Ding Yong’s injury is none of his business. In the end, if he has meritorious service, it will be his. Why not?
?
After receiving the approval, Zhang Xunqin immediately summoned the salt dealers in the counties in eastern Yangzhou. He announced that each family would recruit Ding Yong from the salt merchants of Yangzhou farmers, and each family would recruit 500 people. Dong Shuheng, representing the Dong family, was prominently on the list.
After Mrs. Chen found out, she couldn't help but feel worried. "Shu Heng, you have not been familiar with martial arts since you were a child, how did you do that thing of leading troops in war? Your uncle is working in Caotai, why don't you ask him to let Mr. Caotai
Come forward and say something?"
"Mother, please rest assured that my child will not go into battle. Besides, the imperial court only recruits Ding Yong to do some hard work. It is not our turn to attack cities and demolish strongholds." Dong Shuheng comforted him.
A remote salt farm owned by the Dong family in Taipei is currently under construction in full swing. Dong Shuheng has started the money-spending mode and has recruited 1,000 Huaixi refugees who are working hard on the construction. Seeing a small military camp that is beginning to take shape, an arsenal is rising from the ground.
, walls and bunkers are all available. It is connected to Dongtai through the Chuanyang River and has convenient water transportation. Dong Shuheng also built a small dock by the river.
On the training ground, I saw Liu Qingnan leading a team of 500 people, who were practicing in an orderly manner. These people were recruited in the name of the company's security department. Most of them were from Yanding and some were refugees from the mountains. I saw them
The skin is dark and skinny, but extremely determined. These five hundred people were selected through fierce competition. Dong Shuheng gave such good treatment. Many people broke their heads and tried to squeeze in. This can be said to be their only chance to change their destiny.
As for why Dong Shuheng dared to raise salt privately, haha, with the current control of the Qing court, as long as you don't openly rebel, you will be fine. Besides, there are bandits outside now, and which rich family doesn't have a 180-year-old guard. Moreover,
In a place as quiet as Dongtai Salt District, no one would care about such things. It is said that later generations of the New Fourth Army and the New Military Headquarters were placed here because of the large area and sparse population. As long as a few important waterways are blocked
, outsiders generally cannot enter.
Dong Shuheng organized this team into a teaching camp based on the battalion, company and platoon model. Five Prussians were responsible for the daily drill training of this battalion. These people were hired by the Ministry of Manpower through Dove Matheson in Shanghai, and they were all experienced in combat.
The veterans of the formation were led by a man named Karl.
Seeing Dong Shuheng's arrival, Liu Qingnan ordered the team to stop. After several days of training, the five hundred people lined up in five square formations, which at least looked neat.
"All at ease"
"Pia..." There was a sound of feet landing.
There was another sound of "comments", which made Dong Shuheng very satisfied. These German bearded men perfectly executed his revised infantry drill.
"From today on, I hope you will regard yourselves as soldiers. I spent a lot of money to help you buy the most advanced muskets in the world today, and hired Prussian instructors. They are the strongest army in Europe. What you will face in the future is not only
It’s just about protecting the family and the courtyard, but it’s a real battlefield. Those who follow me, Dong Shuheng, I guarantee that you will also get the opportunity to build a career, have a wife and a son, and change your destiny. Let’s just decide whether you want to do it or not?”
"Fuck...fuck...fuck!!!" 500 people shouted with overwhelming momentum. Speaking of which, they were paid twenty taels per month, and received fifty taels of pension even if they died. If they were injured, the company would arrange a job for them to support themselves.
Even the Eight Banners soldiers don't have such good treatment for themselves. Human life in this era is not valuable at all. The boss gave me these, and it was worth selling my life for my family.
Chinese people have a strong sense of family. They are really not even afraid of death for the sake of their family. The reason why the Qing soldiers are not good is that their treatment cannot be guaranteed. If they die, their family will not get pension and protection, so who is willing to sacrifice their life? Don’t run away.
How strange!
The team continued training. Liu Qingnan was called over.
"Brother Nan, the imperial court has just ordered us to organize a regiment of 500 people to help retake Yangzhou. I will send people to recruit again. Now this group of people are carefully selected, and I plan to train them as officers. Of course, you still need to be here
Continue to pay close attention to training and use the evening time to let these soldiers learn to read and write. Our team will become larger and larger in the future and we will need a large number of grassroots officers."
"Yes, I promise to complete the task, but it is a bit difficult to learn to write. My subordinates are all rough people, and there are really not many who have read."
"Then treat it as a task. Learn ten words every day. Those who can't pass the test will be punished."
Liu Qingnan looked helpless and couldn't help but feel aggrieved by his soldiers.
Then a strange scene appeared. In the military camp that was just taking shape, the shouts of killing were loud during the day. Under the oil lamp at night, several old masters and a group of big soldiers were reading the Three Character Classic and reciting Sun Tzu's Art of War. A group of big soldiers were suffering.
I can’t say it out loud. I’m not afraid of death. How can I still be afraid of recognizing a few words?
Dong Shuheng didn't let them learn anything advanced. He just invited a few old scholars to teach them how to read. In addition, they had to memorize the Cao Dian. It doesn't matter if they don't know how to read. Just follow the teacher and read sentence by sentence. After reading too much, they will naturally memorize it.
Modern war strategies are becoming less and less important. New weapons simplify war into a comparison of firepower, logistics, and willpower. Common calculations can be calculated in advance.
After that, Dong Shuheng would go to the military camp to eat with the regiments every other day. It was the scene of this group of people eating that was really unsightly. In the words of the regiment members, they couldn't even think of white rice and steamed buns in the past, but the boss actually took care of it.
Just like a dream, you must eat enough. After so many days of recuperation, the bodies of these group members are getting stronger and stronger.
Sometimes Dong Shuheng would tell them some overseas stories to increase their knowledge. However, what the soldiers loved most were the stories of famous ancient Chinese generals. They probably listened to them as storytelling. Sometimes he would also talk about the current situation in China.
This made the members of the regiment ignite a strong sense of patriotism. Everyone knew the reason for their suffering, which made the regiment members hate the Qing court even more. Dong Shuheng did not expect that he would brainwash a bunch of uneducated members of the regiment with his unreasonable talk.
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Speaking of which, the infantry drill was neither fish nor fowl, and Dong Shuheng and Karl almost quarreled over this. The Prussians were not generally stubborn and rigid. At this time, Prussia had just been partially equipped with Dreiser, and Karl and the other veterans had grown up playing with muzzleloaders.
, they still believe in queuing up and being shot.
If you want to play queuing to shoot, why would I spend a lot of money to buy your Dreiser? There are a lot of cheap muzzleloaders in American warehouses.
So each side pulled up a company and conducted a simulated exercise. When Dong Shuheng acted as the offensive side, he was a skirmisher line in a three-by-three system. When defending, he hid in the infantry trenches. Karl was immediately blinded. This was too useless.
Chivalry, right? But the battle loss ratio of 1:10 impressed this stubborn Prussian veteran. Finally, he came over and asked Dong Shuheng coyly if he could give this code of conduct to Prussia.
Dong Shuheng naturally agreed. Since people already knew about it, they couldn't hide it.
"Karl, I hope you can bring your message to the Prussian minister. I hope to gain Prussia's friendship." Dong Shuheng knew that Karl and the others had channels to communicate with the Prussian minister.
Dong Shuheng handed over the task of recruiting new regiment members to the Ministry of Manpower. Dong Shuheng simply set up an armed division under the Ministry of Manpower to take charge of recruiting troops. He also transferred two veterans from the guard to help because they knew what kind of soldiers were best to use.
With the Anjia's five taels of silver, plus the monthly salary of twenty taels, the saltmen rushed to invest.
All 500 people were recruited in one day, but the applicants still refused to leave. So Dong Shuheng gritted his teeth and recruited 500 more people. It was estimated that Mr. Sun from the Finance Department would jump in with him. This young man's ability to make money was not yet
It can be seen that his ability to spend money is first-class. It turns out that the remaining three hundred thousand taels in the account have to be used up by him. In this regard, Dong Shuheng could only pretend to be mysterious and said: "The money will be available soon."
.”
These thousand men are equipped with muzzle-loading rifled guns. After all, Dreiser is his trump card. It's not time to take them out and escape.
It is said that artillery is too conspicuous and cannot be equipped by his regiment for the time being. So Dong Shuheng thought of the ancient unit of grenadiers.
He previously told the Ministry of Manpower to recruit a group of craftsmen in Shanghai. Dong Shuheng built a military workshop next to the Taipei military camp. He took the time to take a look and found it was too messy, so he divided them into the Taipei Gun and Bullet Factory and the Taipei Gunpowder Factory. Gunpowder
Nowadays, granular black powder is still used. There are no technical obstacles in China. Smokeless gunpowder will have to wait a few years to appear! Of course, Dong Shuheng has already ordered people to find relevant chemical talents.
There was a French craftsman named Robert in the gun factory who said he was good at making hand grenades. Dong Shuheng asked him to draw a drawing, and it turned out that it was still a big iron ball. Dong Shuheng felt that Chinese hand grenades must have wooden handles, so they were mounted on the body like this.
So handsome!
So he picked up a pen and added a hollow wooden handle to the ball. The wooden handle was very simple and could be made on the factory's steam lathe. Then he drew patterns on the iron ball, and an iron ball was divided into several petals.
"Oh, boss, you are really a weapons genius. Your idea is really great. The wooden handle can increase the throwing distance and protect the lead. The pattern can increase the number of shrapnel, so I can make the grenade smaller."
Robert looked at his boss with wide eyes, admiration on his face.
"Robert, work hard. If you can make more than a hundred grenades every day, I will set up a separate grenade factory for you, and you will be the director."
"Oh, boss, you are so generous. I will definitely do a good job, but boss, I need more manpower."
"no problem."
The war produced a large number of refugees, and Dong Shuheng ordered the Ministry of Manpower to recruit a large number of people. The younger ones were sent to factories, and the older ones were sent to farms. The salary did not matter, as long as they were given food, there were plenty of people to work. He took the fields at home
It was divided into two farms and spent another 10,000 taels to buy the development rights of wasteland in Taipei from the Dongtai County Magistrate. The county magistrate originally donated money, and it is really useless to be a county magistrate in a place where birds don't poop.
What kind of money and water? When Dong Shuheng's ten thousand taels came out, the county magistrate directly asked him to demarcate the land himself. Anyway, just don't invade other people's land. So he went to Sichuan East, Xincao, Dazhong, Haifeng, Fang Qiang in later generations.
Five farms were built in the area at once. Each farm can accommodate 2,000 displaced households. Of course, it is still a shelf now. Only when conditions are available later, after the seawall is repaired and canals are dug for alkali treatment, will it become fertile farmland.
In the barracks, a thousand recruits have begun basic training. Dong Shuheng organized these recruits into two battalions. Through individual soldier competitions, he selected more than 100 recruits to serve as squad leaders of the recruit companies. There is no problem at all in using this later organization.
, Anyway, the regiment is not a regular army, there are no restrictions, no one can control how he organizes it. There are 500 people organized into a battalion, three ordinary companies, and one battalion is a guard class, a communications class, and an engineer class.
In addition, he also selected people to form a special effects team, and Xiao Lou and Xiao Ai were also included in the special operations team. Now the two brothers each have two Colts inserted into their waists, and they look like Western cowboys. Who said
There is no need for Chinese warriors to grab. The martial arts idiot Xiao Ai can draw a gun faster than a throwing knife. It is said that this brother actually learned to throw a knife before. After feeding 100 rounds of bullets, his marksmanship is six times better than Dong Shuheng's. If you want to duel, with this
His speed and accuracy are definitely unmatched.
Hui'er saw it and made a fuss with Dong Shuheng to get one. Now this girl follows Dong Shuheng to the military camp to practice shooting when she has free time. Not to mention, this girl is wearing an armed belt and has a smooth shape, which makes a lot of big heads in the army look like it.
The soldiers drooled.
The costumes of the regiment members were designed by Dong Shuheng himself. Nowadays, the regiment members outside wear very casual clothes and basically do not have standard clothes. He does not like the uniforms of the Qing army. He imitated the camouflage uniforms of later generations and had the cloth dyed.
They were made of yellow and green, long-sleeved tops and trousers, without zippers, and the clothes could only be tied with short ropes. The people around them jokingly called them the "Beggars Army" when they saw it. Each person also had a hat, made of hardwood pieces.
Made of hat brim. These salt men cherish this set of clothes very much. You must know that they may not have had decent clothes before. The boss said that each person will be given two new ones every year. Some are planning to wait for the new ones.
, send the old ones home for your younger siblings to wear?
The training of the regiment members gradually became formal. While running around the military camp, Dong Shuheng also had to do rotation training for the company's housekeepers when he had time, keeping his busy feet off the ground.