Chapter 202 Charge!

Chapter 202 Charge!

Chapter 202 Charge!
"Lin Bozi is dismissed from his post on the spot and appointed as acting commander of the Provisional Second Mixed Division. He will be serving his sentence with meritorious service."

The fastest thing transmitted to the front line of Sanjia Group was not the battle order, but the punishment for Lin Bozai.

"He was dismissed not because his troops lost the battle, but because he rushed into the battle himself in a fit of rage. This is not the quality a senior commander should have. Tell him that as a commander, if he dares to command the front line again in the future, he will no longer be in this position and should go back to Taizhou to collect silk for the British."

Why was Lin Bozai allowed to make meritorious contributions while serving his sentence? Because he deserves praise for his courage to fight and charge.

Compared with some troops who "considered fleeing after encountering the enemy as the most courageous", Lin Bozai's brave charge has always been the benchmark of the Huai Army.

Crazy Lin boosted the overall morale of the Huai Army, which is worthy of recognition. However, Bo Zai's current position does not allow him to do so.

As for the reason why Bo Zai rushed forward without caring about his life, I can’t mention it…

In Lanzhou, at the Huai Army's front-line headquarters, Le Xiucai was extremely busy.

The Huai Army expanded to 80,000, and the logistics and dispatch work increased several times.

Le Xiucai was dizzy with the waiting supplies of food, ammunition, horses, bedding, tents for various troops, and equipment for river crossing and bridge building for the engineering brigade, and he no longer cared about the intelligence work over there.

The intelligence sent from various places was sent directly to the General Staff, for Grant's staff to sort out themselves.

The General Staff Department was faced with an inexplicable increase in workload and formally protested to the Intelligence Department.

When Shao Quanzhong went to inspect Le Xiucai's work, he was organizing pack horses and artillery shells for the mortar company that was about to set off for the Sanjiaji front, and contacting the requisitioned transport ships on the Tao River, while also replenishing food and fodder to be sent to the Sanjiaji front.

The logistical tasks sent to the Xining and Suzhou fronts were still queuing up behind. The food for the new recruits, which guaranteed them meat two days a week, was simply sent back by Le Xiucai and postponed to tomorrow.

Seeing that Mr. Le had no time to receive him, Shao Quanzhong smiled and returned to his temporary residence in Lanzhou City.

Wenxiu hasn't left yet, and there are still many problems to be solved at the woolen factory.

The wool here is not good. Although it seems to be extremely cheap at one penny per pound, the wool is not sheared professionally, not only is the length uneven, but there are also a lot of impurities.

For this reason, the woolen mills have to hire hundreds of people to re-clean and select the collected wool, which greatly increases the cost.

What should we do? We need to immediately organize people to train herders, provide them with sharp special wool shears, and train them in wool shearing techniques.

At the same time, the water quality of the Yellow River does not meet the standards for wool washing and will corrode steam boilers. What to do? Dig a filter pool.

What should we do if transporting wool from all over here increases costs? We can build three factories, divided into the East Factory, the West Factory, and the Middle Factory, to purchase wool nearby, process it into semi-finished products, and then send it to the processing workshop, which can save transportation capacity.

A total of more than 24 American machines were purchased this time, including 32-horsepower steam engines and -horsepower steam engines, combing machines, spinning machines, weaving machines, woolen washing machines, wool cleaning, cage filling, wool drying, wool shearing, bleaching, calendering, brushing, blow-drying, dyeing and other equipment. Ten foreign workers were hired from the United States to teach the use of the machines.

The local labor force has not been trained, and it is extremely difficult to learn how to operate the machines. We also need to set up temporary technical schools...

To open a modern factory in the backward northwest region, it is not enough to just have machines. In fact, the pioneers have to bear the burden of training industrial workers and cultivating raw material suppliers.

If these problems are not solved, the factory will be just a decoration. In history, the weaving bureau established by Zuo Zongtang could not solve these problems and eventually lost money and closed down.

The Wen family is a mature financial group and can certainly solve the problem. The problem is that only 200,000 taels of silver were invested in the machinery and equipment, and the total investment, after calculation, would have to reach 1.39 million taels.

"Brother Shao, we have invested so much money, and in the end the weaving mill won't make any money. We can only guarantee that we will not lose money, but the industry and commerce around Lanzhou will be boosted by us. If we only want to make money, we can't do this business."

"I know, I know. Wen's is a company that is taken care of by the imperial court. It is right for them to contribute to the country and fulfill their social obligations."

Shao Quanzhong looked at his wife with a smile and said, "Look, the tax revenue from Shaanxi and Gansu will soon be raised. This is our territory... By the way, since you are so capable, the position of general manager is not that important, right? Transfer Shao Yigu to me to handle logistics."

"No." "Mr. Le can't hold on any longer, dear Madam, Shao Yigu can just lend it to me for a year or two."

"Can the person you borrowed from pay you back?"

"Ma'am, come here, let me help you comb your hair."

After Shao Quanzhong's hard work, Shoigu, the general manager of the Wen Group, who was working at the steam tractor assembly factory, enlisted on the spot, was transferred to the Huai Army, promoted to logistics officer, and awarded the rank of major general.

Le Xiucai finally got rid of the logistics job he had done for several years and became a professional intelligence director.

The result was that the Huai Army's logistics and intelligence capabilities made leaps forward at the same time.

The relocation of the steam tractor assembly plant was delayed by one day, and Wenxiu, who was supposed to arrive in time to replace Shoigu, did not get up the next day.

"No, I won't accompany you. They say that after three years of war, a sow becomes as powerful as Diao Chan. You've only been on the battlefield for a year and you're already so powerful. I can't afford to mess with you."

Shao Quanzhong was driven out of his temporary residence by Wenxiu and returned to the military camp, becoming a bachelor again.

On August 21, the fourth year of the Tongzhi reign, a mortar company with twelve mortars arrived at Sanjiaji.

This was part of the first batch of artillery that Shao Quanzhong ordered from the Butterfield & Sullivan Company through Yung Wing.

150mm caliber, 32-pound mortar, produced by the Carron Gun Factory in Scotland. It is two meters long and weighs a little over one ton, much lighter than the eight-inch heavy siege gun.

This thing, its ability to destroy fortresses is much worse than that of siege guns, and its shooting accuracy is also very random. It has begun to be disliked by various troops.

But its advantages of being light weight and suitable for mountain warfare are now useful.

The mortar was light and could only be transported with difficulty in the mountains. Together with the Gatling machine gun and Williams rapid-fire cannon, it was escorted by infantry and advanced on the rugged mountain path at a troublesome snail's pace of seven miles a day. It arrived at the Taizisi front seven days later.

The mortar was buried in the ground at a forty-five degree angle, fixed in place, and began to bombard the three crude fortresses.

The mortar had a short barrel and a large caliber, and the sound it made when it was fired was so loud that it really scared Ma Zhan'ao's troops.

Just now, Shao Quanzhong destroyed the books and executed the envoys, refused to surrender, and only allowed unconditional surrender.

Ma's troops had no way to retreat and were ready to fight to the end, but they didn't expect that the enemy would actually bring in cannons?
In the first round of shelling, all the shells missed.

Without aiming equipment, how can you accurately hit the cannon buried in the ground?
The bandits laughed and pointed at the useless cannons. The second round of artillery fire arrived and got closer.

The mortar relies entirely on manually adjusting the amount of black powder each time to determine the distance, and the shooting accuracy is quite impressive.

However, with the "difference adjustment method", adjustments back and forth were made and all the targets were hit in the tenth round of artillery fire.

You cannot change the location. There is only one dose and it can be injected in one place.

The next day, the three simple camps all collapsed and gaps appeared.

Lin Bozi waved his command knife and said, "Follow me——"

He turned around and glanced at the guards who were staring at him with a fierce look, "Charge!"

(End of this chapter)