Chapter 126: Xiangcheng Yuan Family
Chapter 126: Xiangcheng Yuan Family
Soldiers wearing big peaked caps, new army uniforms and carrying long rifles lined up in an orderly manner to board the ship.
Among these soldiers, the core officers have been trained for more than a year and have participated in more than ten battles of varying sizes, including the Dutianmiao bandit suppression, the destruction of the foreign rifle team, the rescue of the Tongwei Escort Agency, the destruction of Qiwei, the suppression of the Chenhu water bandits, the destruction of Baijiawei, the massacre in Guiliucheng, the Zhenjiang victory, and the Wuwei Campaign, and have grown into real veterans.
All the soldiers who initially followed Shao Quanzhong have become officers.
Shao Quanzhong no longer needed to personally train a group of rookies to stand at attention and march in step, and teach them how to shoot, charge in a skirmish line, crawl forward and dig trenches.
There are more than 1,300 soldiers under his command who have been trained for more than half a year. With these backbones leading them, new recruits can quickly integrate into the collective when they enter the camp.
The Huai Army had become a modern army that could generate its own revenue and continue to expand. All Shao Quanzhong needed to do was to continue to throw money into it and then personally supervise that every ounce of military pay was actually distributed to the soldiers.
Shao Quanzhong immediately went outside the Huai Gate, to the North City River, looked back at the prosperous Hailing City, and sighed.
Hailing was prosperous and wealthy, but it was not a place for heroes to live for a long time. The Huai Army that he had built had already passed its infancy and was about to go out to face the real test of wind and rain.
Artillery Battalion Commander Emery stood side by side with Shao Quanzhong, and he was in a very good mood.
Wu Ziyi's men who were sent to Guangzhou, Xiamen, and Shanghai to recruit artillerymen reported back that there were enough people who knew mathematics, but they were unwilling to come. Finally, the monthly salary of the artillery regulars was increased by two taels to six and a half taels, and finally enough people were recruited.
Realizing the value of technical arms, the backbone members of the Huai Army discussed and decided to increase the salary of artillery officers by 50 taels. Now Xiao Ai's monthly salary is 350 taels.
"Sir, our artillery is not good enough yet. If we train in the barracks for another half a year, we can really catch up with the elite artillery of the United States. It's a bit urgent to leave Hailing now."
Grant beside him laughed heartily, "Emory, I think you just can't bear to leave the newly built telegraph room in Hailing City. The trans-Pacific telegraph cable will be completed soon. You will be able to contact your family directly soon. You are reluctant to go to Fengyang, a poor place with no information."
Shao Quanzhong comforted Emery, "Xiao Emery, wherever our territory expands, telegraph will soon follow. You are right to be strict with the artillery, but time waits for no one. If we arrive any later, Anhui will no longer be ours. Fortunately, our opponent's artillery is worse. They don't even know how to aim and just fire randomly."
Grant also agreed with Shao Quanzhong's approach. "Tactics must still be subject to strategic requirements. In fact, the people here are used to riding ships, so it is more difficult to train cavalry. But I believe that the enemy also faces this problem. We don't need to train perfectly, we just need to be better than the enemy."
Shao Quanzhong looked towards the north and said, "Old Ge, the cavalry must continue to train in actual combat. In the future, I intend to clash with the Russians, and by then the requirements for the cavalry will be higher."
Grant and Emery went to organize their subordinates to board the ship, and Haiqing moved closer to Shao Quanzhong.
"Brother, are we really not coming back? I think it would be a shame to abandon Shaojiaxu after running it for so long."
Shao Quanzhong glared at Hai Qing and said, "I see you are reluctant to leave the casino in Hailing City. Third brother, I am warning you, if you gamble once or twice, I will pretend not to see it, but you are the head of the military police, if you break the law again, I will punish you."
Hai Qing shrank his neck and said, "How could that be possible? I only go there once or twice during holidays. Why don't you care about my brother visiting Mingyue Tower?"
"Going to brothels is not against military discipline, but gambling is."
"Drinking is against military discipline, how can Lao Ge drink?"
"If you have Lao Ge's ability, you can go to the casino every day and I will provide you with gambling funds."
Ahem, Shao Quanzhong's subordinates are not easy to deal with. There are a lot of crazy people and fools under him. Some of them are addicted to gambling, whoring and drinking. Even smoking opium is strictly prohibited... When the Huai Army left Hailing for the expedition, Shaojiawei was completely abandoned and became the garrison of the 2,000-strong battalion newly built by Lord Qiao.
Wu Ziyi did not go with the army. He is now leading Shao Yuan, who was transferred back from Xuzhou, and the commissioner sent by Stanford to supervise the construction of the Jiangning Provincial Railway, which has just begun.
At the same time, he also took part in the training of the new troops in Mr. Qiao's battalion. With the Huai Army as an example, Mr. Qiao's battalion also became a full-speed rifle team, which made the British arms dealers very satisfied.
Wu Ziyi is a senior general of the Huai Army after all, so he can lead a few soldiers to help with the training. Even if Mr. Qiao's standard camp is not as good as the Huai Army infantry, it can still have 60% to 70% of its combat power, which is the best among the governor's standard camps of my Qing Dynasty.
The preparatory school for overseas students moved to the city and was located in the same courtyard as Hailing Middle School and Hailing Girls' High School. Rong Hui served as the principal.
These students have been learning modern knowledge for more than a year and have been completely transformed. They are no longer the children of Jiangyan farmers. They can speak German well and will be sent to Prussia in a while.
After the rear arrangements were completed and there were no worries, Shao Quanzhong dismounted, took his guards on board, and set sail.
The huge fleet passed through the Tongyang Canal, the Grand Canal, Hongze Lake, and the Huaihe River, and landed at the Fengyang Wharf on the Huaihe River two days later.
Since the rise of Emperor Zhu, there have been famines for nine out of ten years. Rich families have sold their land and small families have sold their children.
Fengyang was a poor place, but as the birthplace of the former dynasty's Taizu, Fengyang City was not bad. With three city walls and an outer city circumference of sixty miles, it was a big city as the former dynasty's central capital.
Even now, it has always been on the north bank of the Yangtze River. Apart from the capital Anqing, it is the second political center of Anhui. Luzhou, which was later renamed Two Fat Men, is not currently ranked.
Fengyang City was large and difficult to defend, so it was captured by the Taiping Army. It was then recaptured by Yuan Jiasan, the imperial commissioner, governor-general of the grain transport system, and supervisor of Anhui military affairs.
Yuan Jiasan relied on his sons to fight. His eldest son, Yuan Baoheng, who was the editor of Wenyuan Pavilion and was awarded the flower feather and known as "Iletu Baturu", led 5,000 elite Green Camp troops to station here.
Shao Quanzhong, the prefect of Fengyang, brought a division of modern troops to take office, which was unprecedented in the Qing Dynasty. People from all over the city went out to watch the excitement, and Yuan Jiasan also sent Yuan Baoheng to welcome him in person.
When Shao Quanzhong saw Yuan Baoheng, whose figure and face were extremely familiar, he was in a trance and asked him to skip the formalities and ride alongside him.
"Xiao Wu, has your cousin Yuan Baozhong's fourth son been born?"
Shao Quanzhong called by Yuan Baoheng's pen name.
Yuan Baoheng is thirty-six years old, much older than Shao Quanzhong, but age is not important in official circles. Now Shao Quanzhong is the prefect, so he cannot lower his status.
Yuan Baoheng was puzzled. He could never have imagined that this would be the first question the prefect asked him when he saw him.
My cousin Yuan Baozhong did not enter the government, but bought a Tongzhi position to look after the family in Xiangcheng. No one outside knew his name, so why would the prefect care about him? Why did he specifically ask about his fourth son?
"To answer your question, my brother's fourth son is already three years old. When he was born, my father returned victorious from the suppression of the Nian rebels. My brother named him 'Shikai'."
(End of this chapter)