Chapter 58: Reorganization
Walking on the quiet path at the foot of Guishan, Shen Shukai's chest felt like it had been stuffed with seven or eight big drums beating wildly, especially when he saw the soldiers rushing into the warehouse, his face turned pale with fright. It wasn't until he stepped inside that he realized this was a secret arsenal. The first thing he saw were piles of long wooden crates, followed by the familiar figure in the center of the room holding a Hanyang-made rifle. Beside him, Xiao Anguo and another officer were chatting and laughing, it's unclear whether it was intentional or coincidental, but as soon as Shen Shukai entered the warehouse, the figure suddenly turned around with his gun pointing straight at him.
When the gun muzzle suddenly pointed at him, Shen Shukai was so frightened that his knees went weak and he almost fell to his knees. Big drops of sweat dripped from his temples. Yang Qiu had been furious for a long time, if it weren't for the fact that there were no financial talents on hand now, this shot would have definitely gone out, but now... could only temporarily hold back the impulse, pretending to quickly put away the gun and laugh: "Brother Shen? Didn't scare you, did I? Hehe, got carried away and forgot you were coming." After finishing, he quickly pulled the bolt back and threw it to Zhang Wenjing, laughing: "Don't be afraid, this gun has no bullets."
Zhang Wenjing put the gun back in the wooden box and smiled: "I've long heard of Manager Shen's great name, today I'm really lucky to meet you. By the way... weren't these soldiers intimidating you?"
"No, they treated me well." Shen Shukai's whole body was trembling, and only when he faced the muzzle did he finally understand that the chaotic world had really arrived. The good words he wanted to say were all blocked by the muzzle.
"I just heard Mr. Dong say that the boat has arrived at Xiajiaqiao downstream?" Yang Qiu turned his back and glanced at him, asking: "Do you want me to send someone to greet them?"
"No, no need. I had them come ahead of time and they should be arriving any moment now." Shen Shukai hastily waved his hand and rummaged through his pocket to produce a long-saved Citibank deposit slip: "I've already followed your instructions and deposited all the money in your name at Citibank USA. Seeing that the German ambassador was very pleased with this transaction, and they happened to have inventory on hand, I went ahead and procured 18 Type 05 mountain guns for us. Unfortunately... we didn't manage to buy any ammunition."
Yang Qiu took over the deposit slip and scanned it, intentionally asking: "Didn't we agree on a 40-60 split? How come..."
"This business was successful all thanks to the adults, how can Tree Kai still have the face to ask for a share......" Shen Shu Kai lowered his head and stuttered, clearly intimidated, no longer daring to mention sharing. Xiao An Guo, who was standing beside him, heard that he had already bought 18 large cannons ahead of time, and his expression improved greatly. However, Zhang Wen Jing secretly glanced at Yang Qiu, whose face remained calm but clenched his fists tighter behind his back, an action that actually sealed the fate of this person who was famous nationwide for opening branches in Japan and Southeast Asia.
This Shen Shoukai is perhaps a big shot in finance, but unfortunately, he's a complete idiot when it comes to politics. He thinks that buying cannons ahead of time can help him gain merit and escape disaster, and that this will bring him a chance to save his life? Little does he know that the more he does this, the more people think he had ulterior motives from the start. Even if he just casually says a few words or makes up some nonsense, it would be better than what's happening now. Just looking at his appearance is enough to tell that the era of Shanxi merchants has come to an end! These individuals who rose to prominence during the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, who were used to getting by through flattery and manipulation, have finally reached their limit. But this person in front of me still doesn't understand, and it's not just him - up until now, the entire group of merchants in this country hasn't grasped what's about to happen! This is an era of turmoil where you can't afford to take sides incorrectly, just like the chaotic times before the founding of every dynasty. You either have to go all-in, even if it means risking life and limb, or you have to stay out of it altogether. Not even the greatest wealth is worth getting involved in this. But then again, which one of these merchants isn't like this? From Hu Xueyan to Sheng Xuanhuai, they all thought they were clever and could manipulate things to their advantage, but what was the result?
For now, this person is still needed. After all, I can manage money but cannot make it grow. Once I get established here, I will need a huge amount of investment and someone to integrate and control every penny in the district, which is something I am not capable of doing. But one thing is certain... even if Shen Shukai manages to establish a massive financial system, once his successor matures, he will definitely be finished! Because yesterday's Yang Qiu and today's are already two different people. At this point, it's not just him, but even I won't have the chance for a second choice. This road may be difficult, but I must continue on it.
Yang Qiu's fist opened and closed, seemingly weighing Shen Shu-kai's fate repeatedly. After a moment, he slowly relaxed, letting Zhang Wen-jing breathe a sigh of relief. He immediately said: "It's still Manager Shen who is meticulous, knowing that our army urgently needs cannons. In my opinion, the adults should reward him properly."
"That's not bad." Yang Qiu's face flashed a cold glint, which even Zhang Wenjing didn't notice, and smiled: "Now we need someone who knows how to manage money. In my opinion, Shenda should come and help me instead." Seeing that Shentu Kui's face seemed to have refused, he continued: "Don't worry, Shenda, I won't let you quit as the manager of Heshengyuan. Secondly...I'll give you a guarantee, before Manqing is overthrown, our relationship will only be known by the people present here, how about it?"
Shen Shukai knew that refusing again would be a slap in the face, but he was also worried that if the imperial army came to punish him later, he would suffer along with them. After thinking about it repeatedly, he nodded heavily and gritted his teeth: "Shen Shukai is already of one mind with Your Excellency, as long as you instruct me, I will not hesitate to rush into boiling water or walk through fire."
Seeing the tragic color on his face, Yang Qiu smiled: "Shen Da Ge, you don't have to be so desperate, things haven't reached a hopeless point yet. Fighting is our military's business, if we didn't have confidence, we wouldn't send ourselves to death for nothing."
"An adult is indeed a person who does great things, Shen Shu Kai admires." Shen Shu Kai clasped his fists and said: "Sir, you'd better call me Pei Zhi, the two words 'big brother' are not worthy of my humble position."
"This guy is now clever! Yang Qiu sneered in her heart and changed the subject: "Pei, there are two things I need your help with right now. First, help me stabilize those people from the Shanxi Chamber of Commerce immediately. Tell them that I will help them find the money they lost last night, but for now, there are too many miscellaneous things to deal with and it's not the time yet! Second, how much do you know about the Han Ye Ping company?"
Shen Shukai guessed that Yang Qiu wouldn't easily hand over the money he had obtained, but as long as he showed a willingness to repay, it would be possible to placate those people. However, the second matter made him scratch his head - Han Yeping was ostensibly a golden egg-laying chicken for Shi Xianglin, but in reality, most of the resources had been swallowed up by the Japanese, so he hastily said: "Sir, forgive me for speaking bluntly, at present, I'm afraid you're not yet qualified to make a move on Han Yeping."
Seeing him speak so directly, Zhang Wenjing and Xiao Ankou couldn't help but admire him, thinking that it was no wonder Yang Qiu had chosen to cooperate with him. In fact, Yang Qiu also knew that he couldn't move Han Ye at this moment, but this mountain had to be moved away, and the sooner the better.
It's not just a newcomer, after a period of understanding, he also gradually became clear that the reason why Hanyang Arsenal was unable to start work and suffered consecutive losses for many years is actually closely related to the fact that raw materials were being strangled! There are two main reasons for this.
One is that Zhang Zhidong chose the wrong equipment at the time, resulting in the adjacent steel plant only producing low-carbon steel, which cannot be used for military industry. The second reason is that due to the existence of Han Ye Ping, most of the iron sand produced by Huangshi flowed into Japan, and Su Hongsheng had no choice but to rely on purchasing expensive raw materials from abroad to maintain production. Adding to this, foreigners were desperately suppressing domestic military industries, resulting in the current predicament. Therefore, if the problem of raw materials is not solved, even if the best equipment is purchased back and the Hanyang Arsenal is rebuilt, it will ultimately become a bubble due to the extremely high price and inability to equip.
"If you have time, help me go to the American Consulate in Hankou to ask about the situation and see if we can contact the United States Steel Corporation. I want to purchase a set of steel smelting equipment."
"Does Mr. Shen want to restart the gun factory?" Shu-kai guessed Yang Qiu's intention at once, because Hanyang couldn't accommodate two steel mills, and purchasing steelmaking equipment must be for the gun factory, which would allow them to get rid of the restrictions on the steel mill, but what about raw materials?
"I'll have someone send you the detailed information and model later, also prepare for opening a bank account." Open a bank account?! Lord, your thinking is jumping too fast! Shen Shu Kai secretly smiled bitterly.
"When the time comes, you'll know." Yang Qiu didn't explain and pulled out a list from his pocket: "How long will it take to gather these things?" The list was all raw materials, such as copper, tin, and soft steel (spring steel), some of which could be bought domestically, while others had to be purchased abroad. He said: "Copper and tin are no problem, but there's basically no inventory of soft steel domestically."
"Hankou Merchant Bureau is short of personnel, so you'll have to work a bit harder and take on more responsibilities. Then, in the name of the Merchant Bureau, go and make purchases. Bring as much as you can buy to Hanyang. However, for soft steel, it must be purchased from Sweden. As long as the quality is good, even if the price is a bit higher, it's okay, but the minimum quantity must be 5,000 tons." Spring steel is an essential material for making weapons, and at this time, not only domestically, but also many European countries rely on Sweden in this technology, so I'm taking the trouble to remind you specifically.
Being able to keep his life was already a stroke of luck, and Shen Shukai didn't dare not agree. But after he left, Yang Qiu's face suddenly turned cold, and with a flick of her finger, a bullet appeared in the palm of her hand. She handed it to Zhang Wenjing and said: "Keep this bullet! We need someone to take care of logistics and financial matters, so you have to take charge of many things from now on! Besides, Shen Shukai probably won't be able to return to Shanghai for a long time, so send someone to bring his family over here."
It was so obvious that Xiang Ankou couldn't help but feel a pang of sympathy, but before he could say anything, Yang Qiu had already walked out of the warehouse. He wanted to chase after him, but Zhang Wenjing held him back and shook his head: "Sir Xiang... this is already the best outcome!"
The warship carrying the American flag finally docked at Hankou Wharf, and Yang Qiu's biggest worry also dissipated. 18 Krupp 75mm mountain guns, 20 Maxim machine guns, 100 Madsen light machine guns, and 300,000 rounds of pointed bullets; with these things, they at least had the confidence to protect themselves. Of course, relying solely on weapons was not enough; he also had to quickly establish this unit's position in the Wuchang Uprising.
After the equipment was transported into the military camp, the captives were even more frightened by so many military weapons, secretly rejoicing that they didn't fight to the death with others. If they had dragged on for another day, they would have been beaten to pieces. Even Yue Peng hurried back from Hankou after hearing the news, but soon frowned: "Sir... where do you want me to find so many machine gunners? We can't possibly give each soldier a machine gun and not need infantry anymore, can we?"
Yang Qiu also knew it was difficult, but now there was no choice. He said: "20 Maxim machine gun squads must be selected immediately and learn how to use them first. The light machine guns will be allocated 48 each to the infantry battalions first. The machine gunners will train with pointed bullets made by Hanyang at night. The Maxim can use round-headed bullets, and the requirements for bullets are not strict, but when using light machine guns with pointed bullets made by Hanyang, it may not fit in the chamber. We must screen them one by one before using them. This point must be noted, and we must not let the enemy come and destroy all our machine guns."
Yang Qiu was still worried and repeatedly asked about it, only then did he continue to discuss the matter of expanding the army. Even if he wasn't afraid of the threat from Wuchang, thinking that in a few days, the endless stream of troops would begin to arrive, he now wished he had 100 hours a day for himself.
According to the previous decision of building a team, the title of "Biao Tong" was no longer suitable, so he was immediately promoted to Commander by Yue Peng and other military officers. Xiao An Guo, who had achieved the first merit, was supported as Deputy Commander and Director of Military Training Department. As for Ma Kui, although he joined the General Staff Department, he himself requested to continue in charge of the Logistics Battalion. Considering that both teams are now purely combat troops, the logistics battalion indeed needs someone capable, so Yang Qiu agreed with him. He Xi and Yue Peng respectively took up the posts of Commander of the First and Second Battalions, Song Zi Qing was elected as Chief of Staff, and Zhang Wen Jing really took up the post of Quartermaster General.
According to the organization, each division has three infantry regiments, one artillery regiment and one instructional company. Due to the current mixed nature of the troops, the soldiers' mentality is not yet fully determined, so the instructional company can only be composed of some more loyal old soldiers as a framework, mainly for building the two divisions at present. One division is mainly composed of the original first regiment and Su Xiaohu's independent regiment. Although the independent regiment was not born in the military academy, the young men had been training with the 42nd Division before, and after the collective training in February, they can still be entrusted with important tasks. Ji Fujing took over as the commander of the third regiment. The second division is based on the second and third regiments, with the original team officers promoted to take charge, and the third regiment is led by Hang Zhi.
Two infantry battalions were formed from the original mixed engineering company and surrendered soldiers, supplemented by recruits from the defeated army if necessary. To ensure combat effectiveness, 100 veteran soldiers were also drawn from two regiments to join them.
Each infantry regiment was fully manned with 550 people, all equipped with Hanyang-made rifles. Each regiment had three Maxim heavy machine gun squads and six light machine guns. As for the German-made pointed bullets, Yang Qiu temporarily did not allow them to be issued because the craftsmanship of the German-made pointed bullets was better suited for use in light machine guns and could only be used at critical moments.
Fan Liangshan didn't idle either, his logistics team was merged into Ma Kui's logistics battalion, and he himself led the selected soldiers and incorporated 200 river defense troops to form two independent garrison battalions, responsible for the Turtle Mountain artillery position and the river defense of Hankou and Hanyang. Except for some prisoners who smoked opium or were particularly bad, Yang Qiu also basically kept them all, handing them over to Ma Kui to train with the logistics battalion, after all, in the upcoming war, one more person means one more chance of winning.
Chu Yu and Chu Qian were both of the same type, with a displacement of 780 tons, a maximum speed of 13 knots, two British-made 120mm quick-firing guns, two 75mm quick-firing guns, two Hotchkiss machine guns, and two Swedish F?lt machine guns. Jiang Han was slightly different, with only one 120mm gun, two 76mm quick-firing guns, but no machine guns. Yang Qiu took out the captured Hotchkiss and had it installed by a master from the arsenal, as machine guns were still useful for river blockades. Since the three gunboats were currently his strongest firepower support, finding a reliable commander was always a problem.
Chu Qian's fleet commander, Wang Guangxiong, was a man in his 40s with a big beard. It seemed that having a beard was fashionable in the navy at this age. From initial contact, he didn't seem to be a very capable person, but after Chen Delong was captured, he was the first to surrender voluntarily, and since no one else could replace him, he had to continue leading. To ensure safety, Wen needed to continue serving on the ship for a while longer.
In order to grasp the only mobile firepower, which is also the starting point of his naval dream, three warships and several armed patrol boats were all incorporated into the Navy Regiment, and Yang Qiu was directly commanded by embracing them.
As for the artillery battalion, Yang Qiu and the officers were worried to death. Except for the three ships and the river defense battalion's artillery, the entire unit had only six gunners who knew how to operate the cannons. Just when everyone was in a hurry, Song Ziqing brought him a surprise, not only bringing more than 40 young officers, but also more than 300 relatively neutral soldiers, and even pulled Jiang Tai and his third battalion's right team over.
Yang Qiu immediately assigned the task of forming an artillery battalion to Jiang Tai, and also selected some veteran soldiers to fill in. Finally, he set up the framework for two main artillery battalions, each with 18 guns, including seven Krupp cannons and five mountain guns. The firepower was already equivalent to that of the Beiyang Army. The remaining five mountain guns were placed on Guishan Mountain according to Yue Peng's idea, with the main gun emplacement as the core, building two temporary gun emplacements to strengthen the firepower coverage of Yangzi River and Santown.
However, he was still worried about the firepower issue. To know that in the historical Battle of Yangxia, Beiyang alone had two artillery divisions, each division with 3 battalions, and each battalion had 18 Krupp or Japanese-made 75mm field guns, not to mention the skillful and ferocious gunners, plus other artillery battalions, the firepower was nearly ten times their own!
Machine guns are no exception. Compared to the Beiyang Army, which has 20 Maxim machine guns in one town, there are still too few heavy machine guns on our side. The number of Madsen light machine guns is sufficient, but the coverage area of light machine guns is small and requires frequent replacement of magazines, making it impossible to compete with heavy machine guns. Moreover, machine guns have an inherent disadvantage against artillery, and replacing the barrel of this type of machine gun is very troublesome, almost impossible on the battlefield. As a result, they need to rest after firing 200 rounds each time, but these are all problems that cannot be solved at present.
Considering the current complex situation, in order to protect Yang Qiu's safety, everyone suggested that the original 150 elite soldiers of the law enforcement team be changed to a guard company. Lei Meng, the newly appointed commander of the Dalian Garrison, almost kowtowed with joy. With the final establishment of the guard company, the scale of the troops had reached 6 infantry regiments, 2 artillery regiments, 1 garrison regiment, 1 logistics regiment, and 1 naval regiment. Not counting the prisoners who followed for training, the total number of people had already reached 4627, reaching the standard of the previous 21st Mixed Brigade, with better firepower and equipment.
The skeleton has been set up, the number of people has increased, but the combat effectiveness has decreased a lot. This is because each regiment has incorporated many new soldiers, let alone morale and ideology, which are even more impossible to talk about. Therefore, at this moment, we cannot stop our steps, because if we stop, the military will be in chaos. So, we must use war and blood to gather the troops into a piece of iron plate!
In addition to Zhang Biao's occupation of Liujiatemples, which has become a major heart disease, if it cannot be solved quickly, then when the northern army along the railway and he will merge, it will be even more passive! More importantly, this force has not yet been recognized by the people of Hankou and Hanyang, and a brilliant victory is urgently needed. Defeating Zhang Biao, taking the lead in lifting the threat to Hankou, the momentum and cohesion of the troops will naturally come up. Therefore, he decisively ordered the second battalion and the first battalion's second regiment to rush to Liujiatemples' surroundings to set an ambush, while the rest of the troops immediately conducted high-intensity integration training at the Hanyang base, and the naval camp would also depart for Hankou tomorrow morning to prepare for the annihilation of Zhang Biao's forces.
After finishing all this, it was already four o'clock in the afternoon. As the busiest 24 hours were about to reach their end, Yue Peng and others looked at him. Now is the time to give a surprise to the other side, and also should give this unit an accurate positioning!
