Chapter 28: Beginning to Train Soldiers

  Chongzhen 8th year July outside Wanghai Castle a piece of empty land

  Pang Gang stood in the center of the school field, and in front of him were 120 men selected by Pang Gang, including Wang Zhi, Da Zhuang, Li Yuan, and others. These men were all between 18 and 30 years old, and although they couldn't be said to be one by one with broad waists and strong backs, at least they were the most qualified batch of soldiers in Wang Hai Castle.

  Although the current Wanghai Fortress is a place where troops are stationed, according to the rules, they don't need to go on the battlefield to kill enemies. Why does the hundred-house master have to waste precious manpower to train soldiers many times? This is what many people in the fortress think!

  But others can think that way, but Pang Gang can't. He, who came from the future, knew what a huge storm would be stirred up in the Central Plains in the next few years, with Li Zicheng as the leader of the rebel army and the Manchu Eight Banners. This storm will burn the entire Central Plains and decide the fate of the Chinese nation in the future. If he can't join this magnificent storm when he comes to this era, it would be so boring.

  But although he had decided to train his troops, how was he going to do it? Who would he get to train them? This problem had been plaguing Pang Gang. Thinking back to the end of the Ming dynasty, there were indeed famous military leaders who were known for their training skills, such as Lu Xiangsheng and Sun Chengzong, whom Pang Gang knew were renowned experts in training troops. But this was easier said than done - one was the Governor-General of Huguang and the other was the current emperor's teacher. At this time, if Pang Gang wanted to ask for their help in training his troops... Hmm, haha! The weather is really nice today!

  No choice, since no one came to help with the training of our large army, he had to do it himself. For the sake of military training, Pang Gang specially brought back Qi Jiguang's "Ji Xiao Xin Shu" and "Lian Bing Shi Ji", two military books. In these two military books, what Pang Gang admired most was a sentence said by Qi Jiguang: "A majestic formation, thousands of people lined up in front, the brave cannot advance first, the timid cannot retreat last; dense guns poking forward, dense guns poking backward, chaotic knives chopping forward, chaotic killing and retreating, it's just a matter of advancing together, turning hands is difficult, how can you accommodate left and right movements? One person turns back, the crowd will also doubt; one person moves an inch, the crowd will also snatch their hearts, how can you accommodate advances and retreats?"

  What does this sentence mean? The consciousness of this sentence is that when fighting, it relies on the majestic and upright formation, thousands of people advancing in a row, regardless of whether they are brave or timid, no one is allowed to retreat. No matter how many soldiers there are, they must listen to the command like one person, if the army is trained to this point, it can be said that it is invincible under heaven.

  Pang Gang's old father, who had participated in the Sino-Vietnamese War of Self-Defense, also said that the most important things in an army are discipline, discipline and discipline. From this, we can see that whether it is ancient or modern times, the most important thing for an army is discipline!

  There are now 120 soldiers standing in front of Pang Gang, led by Da Zhuang and Wang Zhi. As soon as Pang Gang saw the posture of over a hundred soldiers, his eyebrows furrowed. Some of these people were originally from military families, while others were vagrants, but they are all now part of the Wanghai Castle's military households. Now they stand in front of Pang Gang, laughing and chatting nonstop, each one standing crookedly, some leaning to the east, others to the west, even those who were originally from military families are no exception.

  Watching them, Pang Gang secretly sighed. No wonder that in later generations, new recruits had to start training from the most basic formation drills, and that was still in the era of hot weapons. Now, in the era of cold weapons, strict formations and discipline were even more important. Any army that could maintain a tight formation at any time was a well-disciplined elite force, while those who couldn't were just a mob.

  "Everyone stand up! Now please let Lord Bai Hu train us! Nobody can speak anymore!" On the side, Wang Zhi, who was still quite spirited, saw Pang Gang's face getting darker and darker, and quickly stopped everyone from speaking, letting them listen to Pang Gang's training.

  Suppressing the anger in his heart, Pang Gang said loudly: "Everyone listen to me, today I invited you all here just to practice military training. Some people may say that military training has nothing to do with us? We are just garrison troops, fighting is the job of the combat troops, but those who say this are wrong! Fighting is not just the business of combat troops, it can fall on our heads at any time! Does everyone still remember the incident in Wangjia Village a few days ago?"

  Originally, there were still people who couldn't stop talking and laughing, but when they heard about this matter, the young and strong ones started to change color slightly. After all, the Wangjiatun incident had just passed not long ago, and this battle was also a pain in the hearts of all military households in Lingshanwei.

  "It seems that everyone has not forgotten. "Pang Gang's face showed disdain: "That battle was really a loss of face, more than 600 people were defeated and escaped by hundreds of bandits, and more than 2,000 people were captured. Don't you feel ashamed? I think it's a shame for the officials too! You say that if there are bandits attacking Wanghai Fortress in the future, what will we use to resist? Will we rely on these cowards who only know how to escape?"

  "We're not cowards!" At this time, a young man stood up and loudly said: "If the bandits come again, I'll fight to the death to kill them!"

  Pang Gang sneered, "Who can't talk nonsense? You've said all the nice words, but I haven't seen any of your actions that satisfy me. Now, everyone line up in a row, with an arm's distance between each other! Quick! From now on, no one is allowed to whisper to each other, and whoever dares to speak out of turn will be recognized by my stick! Now listen to my orders, attention!"

  Under Pang Gang's strict orders, 120 garrison troops stood still on the drill ground, while Pang Gang walked back and forth among them with a large wooden stick in his hand, hitting anyone who dared to move slightly.

  A stick as thick as a child's arm hitting someone's body is no joke, and the person being hit can't move around, still having to stand there straight. After nearly half an hour, Pang Gang saw that the fire was almost ready and only then did he let the soldiers relax for a meal.

  They immediately started with formation training, turning left and right, marching in step, running and other subjects. At first, the crowd of soldiers was curious, but soon they became a chaotic mess.

  At the beginning, the team training was even more unbearable. A team of over 100 people not only twisted and turned, but also couldn't tell left from right. This situation wasn't just limited to the young soldiers below, but also applied to Da Zhuang and Wang Zhi themselves.

  Seeing this situation, Pang Gang also didn't have a good method. Later, Pang Gang suddenly had an idea and remembered reading somewhere that during the late Qing dynasty and early Republic of China, the Beiyang government encountered similar problems when training new troops. A certain officer then had an epiphany and tied a rope around the soldiers' left arm to help them distinguish between left and right.

  After several days of such training, the situation improved slightly. Pang Gang's temper in dealing with soldiers was very good in peacetime, but on the training ground, he became a different person. If he saw anyone making a wrong move or standing unstable in formation, he would immediately beat them up with his stick.

  It's strange to say, but after the soldiers were beaten, they didn't have any complaints, and their training became even more serious and efficient. During these intense training sessions, the surrounding villagers and children would also gather to watch, and when they saw the young men being beaten for making mistakes, they would burst out laughing, with even the little kids teasing them by making faces at them. This made the young men train even harder in shame!

  After seven or eight days of training, when Pang Gang led them to start running, their footsteps were much more uniform than before.