Chapter 12, Small Favors

  Wu Shaotong's expression was calm and composed, and he didn't seem to care about the murmurs of discontent from the soldiers. He said solemnly: "From today on, I will conduct a three-month intensive training for the rear guard, and all the training projects will be informed to the four team officers within today."

  "Intensive training?"

  "What is intensive training?"

  "Why...do we have to go through this training?"

  For a moment, the comments were in an uproar, and everyone's face was so unpleasant. The Shanziying camp had never seen such a troublesome thing before, were all the officers who stayed abroad so troublesome? No wonder the big men upstairs thought the new army was so much trouble, it seems that today is indeed the case.

  "Director Wu, we've always done it this way in the rear guard, can't you just not make a fuss about these trivial matters?" Officer Chen Qun was the most outspoken and immediately expressed his discontent.

  "Let me finish speaking," said Wu Shaotong, continuing in a calm tone. "I respect each of your opinions. This time, I won't force you to participate in the training session; it's completely voluntary. However, for all those who do participate, their monthly salary will be increased by one tael of silver. Those who complete all the training projects every day will receive an additional reward of two to three taels of silver."

  The soldiers were relieved when they heard the first half of the sentence and were determined not to participate in this training. But when Wu Shaotong said the second half, everyone's eyes immediately lit up. They had been soldiers for so many years, what protecting the country, what making achievements, these were all empty words, the most important thing was still to fill their stomachs and save some money.

  Wu Shaotong saw that the soldiers were moved, and he smiled slightly, saying: "What is meant by intensive training is to train your physical fitness and combat effectiveness. Although it will be very hard every day, it is always beneficial for you. I have no grudge against you, no reason to harm you! Since it's harmless to you and can earn more pay, why not do it?"

  The soldiers whispered to each other, and these peasant-born soldiers didn't have complicated thoughts, they all thought Wu Shaotong's words made sense. The four team officers also gradually understood that what Wu Shaotong said yesterday was that as long as they listened to his command carefully, the missing pay could still be issued.

  "Director Wu, are you serious?" Li Wenqi was the oldest and naturally had the most reservations, so he couldn't help but ask another question.

  "You can rest assured, from this month on, all the empty quotas in our rear guard will be handed over to Wang Xiutai for safekeeping. Even if I return later, Wang Xiutai can still distribute the silver to you. As for Wang Xiutai, all of you can supervise him. If he dares to embezzle this sum of silver, I will not let him off lightly." Wu Shaotong said with a serious tone.

  The soldiers were overjoyed, and this Lord Wu was indeed a man of great audacity.

  Wang Lifa also felt a bit pleased, at least this shows that Wu Shaotong is very trusting of himself.

  "How about it? Is anyone willing to participate in this training?" Wu Shaotong asked, looking at the excited soldiers.

  "I agree!"

  "I'm willing too!"

  "Join in, join in!"

  The soldiers all raised their hands in a gesture of willingness, with no one unwilling to participate.

  Wu Shaotong had long expected that these old soldiers who had lost their positivity could only be motivated by a reward mechanism. Anyway, the silver used as rewards were all empty quotas from the rear guard, and it was better to use them for something practical rather than letting the four team officers embezzle them. The amount of silver was not too much or too little, and if he took it for himself, he would definitely be very extravagant. But compared to his future prospects, he naturally preferred the latter.

  "Alright. Now I'm going to reorganize your formation, from now on when you assemble, assemble according to the formation I've arranged."

  He then had the soldiers form up in four ranks, each rank standing in order of height.

  Yesterday, I ordered Wang Lifa to reorganize the eight scattered teams into four full teams. However, because I got up too early today and didn't have time to inform them of the reorganization results, Wu Shaotong let Wang Lifa announce the reorganization results during this period, so that those soldiers without a team officer could remember clearly which team they belonged to from now on.

  When the sun rises slowly in the east, the new formation is finally arranged.

  Wu Shaotong took a look at the formation and said loudly, "Everyone listen up! Remember the people in front of you, behind you, to your left and right. In the future, when we assemble, we will follow this formation. Whoever remembers incorrectly, don't blame me for being impolite!"

  The soldiers hastily and seriously recorded their own formation positions.

  Then Wu Shaotong explained to the soldiers the role of Pai Tou Bing, Jian Zi Bing and some column commands. When everyone had heard enough, he ordered the team to disperse and practice once. After practicing for six times, these soldiers finally remembered all the indicators of column formation.

  Before lunch, he called the four team officers to the tent that had been set up for the meeting, and the content of the meeting was the training plan. This training plan was not the drill learned from Germany, but a 21st-century military standard training program, which included military salute, physical fitness, operation, military common sense, weapons and actual combat training, all of which were copied over.

  Li Wenqi and others listened to this detailed training program, and their heads immediately swelled twice as big.

  They often saw the new army training, which seemed to be completely different from what Wu Shaozhong described. The new army was nothing more than learning foreign drills and equipping advanced weapons, so why would Wu Shaozhong's training be so complicated?

  Wang Yun couldn't help but ask this question.

  Wu Shaozhong laughed and said, "The new army's training is just superficial. I was sent to the strongest German army corps for internship because of my excellent performance in Germany, where I saw the latest training methods of German soldiers. You should know that why would foreigners want the Qing Empire to become stronger? Once the Qing Empire becomes strong, wouldn't foreigners no longer be able to take advantage of us?"

  The four of them suddenly realized and immediately started scolding again.

  "I've long known that foreigners are no good, they just cheat us Chinese." Wang Yun said with a hum.

  "No wonder the Governor-General sent new troops to Qinglian to suppress bandits several times, but they all returned without success. The new army thought it was trained by foreigners and had the best weapons, but in the end, it's just a group of useless people."

  "You know what, foreigners always keep something to themselves. Have you ever seen a master teach his apprentice with all his heart?" Wang Lifa said with a sneer.

  Wu Shaotong smiled secretly for a while, these half-enlightened people are really easy to fool. He stopped his hand and let the crowd stop discussing it, saying: "You four as military officers, starting from tomorrow's training, not only must you set an example, but also supervise the soldiers. If there are soldiers who are lazy or give up halfway, you have the power to punish them. Do you understand?"

  Four people nodded in agreement one after another.

  At this time, Li Wenqi rubbed his hands and put on a flattering smile on his old face, stuttering as if he was about to speak.

  Wu Shaotong glanced at Li Wenqi, and immediately understood what the other party wanted to say. He smiled slightly and said first: "I know what you want to say. The soldiers can get a silver coin as a reward for participating in the collective training, and you military officers naturally want to take more, right?"

  Li Wenqi smiled thickly: "Director Wu is indeed a keen observer! Look, we four are officials after all, how can we be on the same level as soldiers? This doesn't conform to the rules. Let's just say we fully support Director Wu in your training efforts. Why don't you take a look and see if you can give us some extra subsidies?"

  Wang Yun, Chen Qun and Wang Lifa also nodded and bowed in agreement, echoing Li Wenqi's words.

  Wu Shaotong nodded slowly and said, "What you said makes sense. Don't worry, as long as you cooperate with me, you will definitely benefit every month. I can say that not a single copper coin of the empty quotas in the rear guard will fall into my own pocket."

  Four people heard this and were secretly delighted. In other words, Wu Shaotong's meaning was that all the vacancies in the rear guard would eventually be given to them and the soldiers.

  "Director Wu is really clean and honest!"

  "Yes, yes, don't worry, Lord Wu, we will definitely do our best to make this training session a success."

  "To go through boiling water and walk through flames, I will not refuse!"

  "Anyone who doesn't work hard during training is going against me, Chen Qun!"

  Wu Shaotong looked at the four team officers with a faint smile, waving his hand to signal them not to be so formal. "Today at noon, I'll treat all the brothers in the squadron to a meat meal, let's consider it an oath-taking ceremony for the start of our training. After this meal, everyone must prepare themselves well, from today on, you will all have to suffer."

  The four team officers focused on the first half of Wu Shaotong's sentence, "Officer, please have some meat", which was a great thing. At the same time, their impression of Wu Shaotong also changed in their hearts. Wu Shaotong was indeed smiling with a knife hidden, but this guy wasn't a bad person.

  After the meeting, Wu Shaotong took out 10 silver dollars from his savings and handed them over to Li Wenqi, asking him to take Zhou Xiaohu to a nearby town to buy some cooked food back, but not allowed to buy wine.

  Li Wenqi held the ten heavy silver dollars, suddenly overjoyed, and while spreading the news in the camp that Officer Xiao would be treating them to meat for lunch today, he also found Zhou Xiaohu to prepare to go buy meat.

  The soldiers heard that there was meat to eat at noon, and they immediately cheered and jumped up, privately praising the officer for being generous. Before, only they invited the officer to eat meat, but never saw the officer invite the little soldier to eat meat.

  Li Wenqi was most familiar with the surrounding environment of the camp, and soon bought back fifteen catties of cooked beef, twenty-five catties of braised pig's feet, fifteen catties of pickled chicken meat and some sauces. These things are not a small number, he and Zhou Xiaohu pushed a rickshaw to come back.

  At this time, the cafeteria also sent someone to deliver lunch, and Wu Shaotong had a hearty meal with the soldiers.

  Everyone, this book is a slow burn, cultivating and developing, hoping everyone can give it some time.