Chapter 96 Don’t let the wealth go to outsiders

That evening, Shao Quanzhong continued to gather officers to teach his "simplified version of military theory class."

His military theory class was a summary of the Beiyang military theory after absorbing the ideas of the Prussian soldier saint.

As for him, he was not a direct descendant of the Six Beiyang Towns in his previous life and his education was average, but his military thinking during the First World War was much better than that of other people of that era.

In his previous life, he relied on a rising star from the Hongmen to train his best soldiers. Later, the rising star rebelled and his forces suffered a heavy blow, which he still remembered vividly. Therefore, he never let Liao Rong, who came from the Hongmen branch triad, lead the army in this life.

Fortunately, rifles and artillery had already been invented, and the military thinking of World War I already had a basic weapons foundation, but it had not yet been popularized.

Of course, the transportation, logistics and communication infrastructure is still lacking, and Maxim does not have it yet, but this is no longer a critical issue.

Railways have been built everywhere abroad, and telegraph cables have been laid across the ocean to Shanghai by the British and Danes. Shao Quanzhong will definitely promote their popularization in China in the future.

As for weapons, Shao Quanzhong has already started to think about the American Gatling manual machine gun. Although it is much inferior to the automatic Maxim, it is also a machine gun, right? It will be out soon, right?

After the lecture, he convened a military meeting at the headquarters, and all officers above the rank of battalion commander were present.

The military expansion has been basically completed, and large-scale military training is about to begin. The number of officers above the battalion level has increased greatly.

The more than 10,000 newly trained soldiers were called a "town" by Shao Quanzhong, and Shao Quanzhong changed his name to "commander-in-chief".

He had a brigade of infantry under his command, divided into left and right wings, and Shao Quanzhong himself served as the brigade commander.

The left wing commander Shao Hengzhong was in charge of two battalions, whose commanders were Qu Laosan and Yan Laoliu, Jiang Yan's confidants who had risen to prominence during the Dutian Temple bandit suppression campaign.

There was also a Zhang Wushuan, who died in the Zhenjiang battle while protecting Shao Quanzhong.

The commander of the right wing was Tian Xing, who had three battalions under his command. Tian Xing was also the battalion commander of the first battalion, Song Laosan was the battalion commander of the second battalion, and Lin Buer was the battalion commander of the third battalion.

The cavalry battalion did not have anyone qualified to be a battalion officer, so Shao Quanzhong asked Hai Qing to take over temporarily. The acting battalion officer of the artillery battalion was Ding Gongchen, but Ding Gongchen had to take charge of the Hailing Arsenal and was not in the military sequence, so he was not present.

The battalion commander of the engineering battalion is Wu Ziyi, who is also the battalion operations officer.

Wu Ziyi, Haiqing, Le Sen and Zhang Siwen were all given commander-level treatment and were directly under the command of Shao Quanzhong in the headquarters.

Wu Ziyi was the camp officer, Hai Qing was the military police captain, Le Sen was the logistics and grain station officer, and Zhang Siwen was the commander-level guard platoon leader.

Liao Rong attended the meeting as a representative of the navy.

Shao Quanzhong sat on the armchair and looked around at his subordinates. These were his basic team now. What a shame they were lacking a chief of staff.

We can't make do with the lack of one. A fifth-rank garrison commander doesn't have the strength to recruit talented people. He needs to make more military achievements to get promoted. Let's deal with it this way for now.

"Except for the artillery and medical soldiers, we have basically all the men. The task of continuing to expand the scope and recruit more soldiers will be handed over to Ziyi."

Wu Ziyi stood up and tapped his heels together, "I will follow the commander's orders."

Shao Quanzhong pressed down his white-gloved hands and said, "Sit down. We are a group of people having a meeting, so just sit down. No need to stand up and salute."

He glanced at Le Sen and said, "For the preparation of our logistical clothing, leather goods, horses, and food and fodder, the lijin and donations from Taizhou are enough. From now on, we will continue to use Lord Wu's account, and Brother Le will be in charge."

Le Xiucai stood up and said, "Yes, sir."

Shao Quanzhong was being polite and told everyone not to salute or stand at attention, but his subordinates were not to take it seriously.

"Tomorrow, I will go to Shanghai to transport the large number of rapid-fire guns and ammunition that I ordered last time to equip the troops. I will also help the navy purchase training ships. When I'm away, you will organize the training as usual, and Brother Tian will still be in charge."

Tian Xing was sitting on Shao Quanzhong's right. He wanted to stand up to answer the order, but was held down by Shao Quanzhong himself. "Brother, why don't you try to use this trick on me?" Shao Quanzhong looked at Shao Hengzhong. "Hengzhong, you are the commander now. Both of your battalion officers are from Jiangyan. You should not be polite to them and take charge of them."

He glanced at Qu Laosan and Yan Laoliu with murderous intent on his face, "If you two dare to rely on our status as fellow villagers and disobey Hengzhong's command, don't blame me for being merciless and killing you!"

Qu Laosan and Yan Laoliu stood up and saluted, "Yes!"

"And Song Lao San, Lin Bu Er, Brother Tian is your boss, his words are my words, you are not allowed to disobey him in the slightest!"

Song Laosan and Lin Buer stood up and saluted. Lin Buer sat down, but Song Laosan did not.

"Reporting to the commander, I have been promoted to battalion commander. From now on, I will be one of your Five Tiger Generals. You can no longer call me by my nickname. I have been given a formal name."

Shao Quanzhong was amused, "What name did you choose?"

"I admire educated people like Le Xiucai the most, so I named myself Song Le. I asked Le Xiucai to help me choose a character. His name is Le Sen, and his name is full of wood, so he named me 'Jia Shu'. Now I am Song Le, the battalion officer of the Second Battalion of the Right Wing of the Infantry Brigade, and my character is Jia Shu."

Shao Quanzhong was stunned and almost slipped off the armchair.

He stood up, put his hands behind his back and strolled in front of Song Le, looking at Song Le's face from beginning to end.

Song Le was frightened by his gaze, "Brother Shao, what are you going to do?"

"Good, boy, someone who has never been to school can actually write."

"Brother Shao, you and Bo Zai have never been to school, but you can still read. Why can't I? Besides, who said I never went to school? I am now an officer in training at the Huai Army Military Academy. I can write more than a thousand words and even write essays."

Shao Quanzhong patted Song Le on the shoulder and said, "I underestimated you, Third Brother. You look too simple and honest. You should marry a beautiful wife in the future to make your descendants more beautiful."

Song Le was puzzled. "Brother Shao, why do you care what kind of wife I marry?"

"I have to worry about it. We have been friends since childhood. When you have three daughters, they should be married to my sons."

Song Le was indignant, "Why should you, Brother Shao, give birth to a son and I have to give birth to a daughter?"

Shao Quanzhong smiled but did not answer. He turned around and said, "Tomorrow I will take two veteran companies and a guard platoon to Shanghai to receive the arms. You all should start your normal training at home. You must train our Huai Army into the world's top-notch strong army and disband it!"

Everyone stood up and stood at attention, "Yes!"

Twelve subordinates came out of the command center, all wearing high-quality woolen officer uniforms and woolen coats. The sound of their military boots was in unison as they gradually faded away.

The next day, Shao Quanzhong mobilized all of the more than ninety green-browed salt-carrying ships and more than forty sampans, and led two companies of veterans from the Loyalty Battalion, and Liao Rong on board.

The newly formed new army company was a reinforced company, with 250 people in each company. Basically, all the members of the old Zhong Battalion were taken away by Shao Quanzhong, and the original Heng Battalion was temporarily responsible for home training.

We have to buy more than 10,000 guns this time, and we can't afford any losses. These 500 people will not hesitate to fight with the foreign rifle team when necessary.

The original nine personal soldiers were demoted to the grassroots level to serve as company commanders. Zhang Siwen formed a new guard platoon, all of whom are currently armed with long rifles.

When the ship arrived at the port at the mouth of the Grand Canal, all the soldiers went ashore to change boats.

Two huge steam freighters were moored at the port. They were the cargo ships of the Youshi Yangtze River Freight Company, a joint venture between the You County Magistrate's family in Jingjiang and the British. Shao Quanzhong wanted to go to Shanghai to buy arms, so he sent someone to inform You County Magistrate a few days in advance.

Shao Quanzhong put his hands behind his back and recalled the past when he rescued Wang Sige's bodyguard team here. He turned around and boarded the freighter, followed closely by forty personal guards.

The 1,500-ton steam freighter Yunsheng No. 1 of the Youshi Yangtze River Freight Company set sail, spewing black smoke and heading straight for Shanghai.

(End of this chapter)

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