Chapter 4: Jiangbei Patrol Camp

  Jiang Yu also took his newly designed and manufactured firearms to Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany for a sales pitch, which although not entirely smooth in process, ended up being extremely successful.

  After demonstrations and trials, Kaiser Wilhelm II recognized the role of submachine guns and the suitability of Mauser 98K for trench warfare. Both weapons were procured in batches. The sales of ZB-26 went smoothly, as Germans were satisfied with its low production cost, reliability in various environments, high accuracy, and light weight. Their only dissatisfaction was the limited magazine capacity, but it also had a 30-round version (after improvements by ?ZK, inspired by the Bren light machine gun), which was acceptable for a light machine gun. As a result, the German military procured 8,000 units.

  The arsenal was building semi-automated production lines on one side, while starting to develop new products. Jiang Yu included the Mauser 98K and ZB-26 light machine gun in the list of production line construction, as for the MP18, no specialized semi-automatic production line was built because it was only a temporary product and not mature in the submachine gun family, perhaps after producing seven or eight years, the production line would be scrapped.

  The arsenal also made achievements in artillery, successfully imitating the French 75mm quick-firing gun and making a breakthrough in recoilless guns. Soon, the 75mm quick-firing gun was purchased and equipped by the German Army in large quantities, and the German military still understood the terror of this artillery.

  At the same time, mortars with modern mortar properties were manufactured. The performance of various caliber mortars exceeded that of mortars in this era. These mortars are also equipment that the German army likes to purchase.

  The munitions factory was soon revived in Jiang Yu's hands, from being on the verge of bankruptcy to thriving, without taking much time, which fully acknowledged this son-in-law.

  After marriage, Jiang Yu's time at the Military Academy decreased, but his studies did not slacken. He and Britta had a very fulfilling married life, and the girl had been transformed into a woman by him, obediently taking care of household chores every day.

  In early 1910, Jiang Yu had been in Europe for five years and the end of the Qing dynasty was near, so he decided to return to China.

  Although Britta was reluctant, she couldn't follow Jiang Yu back to China because her belly was already big and her father didn't allow him to take his daughter to China before Jiang Yu made a name for himself in China.

  This year, Jiang Yu returned to China with several members of the martial arts society who were willing to follow him to China. They were Frank, Karl and Peter, graduates of the infantry department, and Thomas, a graduate of the artillery department. They were Jiang Yu's loyal followers and had been learning martial arts from him for quite some time.

  Apart from this, Jiang Fangzhen also returned to China with him. Originally, Jiang Fangzhen was going to return to China last year, but due to Jiang Yu's situation, he stayed in Germany for another year to wait for Jiang Yu to return together.

  When they saw the Shanghai dock, Jiang Fangzhen sighed: "Finally back, since you married Miss Bulieta, I really doubted that you would never come back again!"

  "How could that be." Jiang Yu smiled and said, while Zhang Fangzhen retorted: "You've earned so much money in Germany, married the daughter of a big businessman, and will inherit an enterprise worth tens of billions of yuan. If I were you, I'd probably just stay in Germany and live a comfortable life!"

  "Haha! Brother Baili, you've become corrupt."

  "Haha!"

  Two people chatted and laughed as the ship entered the port under the guidance of the harbor boats, docked at the pier, holding the new address of their home, Jiang Yu brought people to Nanjing Road in Shanghai's French Concession.

  Jiang Yu stood outside a large courtyard with red walls and green tiles, then walked forward and knocked on the door.

  The gate opened immediately, and a man in his fifties saw Jiang Yu and exclaimed with surprise and delight: "Young master, young master, you're back!"

  "Yes! Fu Bo, I'm back." Jiang Yu smiled and said, the whole courtyard suddenly became lively, Jiang Yu's parents also rushed out.

  Jiang Yu's father was Jiang Yuan Chuan. He was originally a small landlord in Suzhou, but after Jiang Yu was born, he gradually became a big businessman.

  The main reason was Jiang Yu, who made plans and strategies for his father, encouraging him to engage in business. By the time Jiang Yu went abroad at the age of 13, the Jiang family had accumulated nearly three million taels of wealth and purchased a lot of land.

  Later, Jiang Yu went abroad, and the family business suffered some setbacks. Jiang Yu let his father specialize in producing silk and satin in Shanghai, and over the years, Jiang Yu had remitted ￡2 million to the family. With this huge sum of money, Jiang Yuan Chuan bought a large amount of land in Shanghai.

  Especially on Nanjing Road in Shanghai, facing the likes of Hardoon, Jiang Wan'gan bought 46% of the land on Nanjing Road, and his holdings on Nanjing Road have surpassed those of Jewish real estate mogul Silas Aaron Hardoon.

  At the same time, he also bought a large amount of land outside Nanjing Road and became a well-known real estate merchant in Shanghai. He even applied for an escort team at the Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai County.

  Jiang Yuankai also moved his family to the Shanghai French Concession, where they were not subject to Qing jurisdiction. Even newspapers that spread anti-Qing rhetoric could sue the Qing government here, and Jiang You didn't have to worry about his parents being persecuted by the Qing government and local officials.

  Jiang Yu's mother, Xu Shi, was born into a wealthy family. Her father had been an official in the imperial court and later was beheaded by the Qing dynasty. She became the child bride of Jiang Yuan Chuan, a small landowner in Suzhou. Xu Shi was very capable at managing the household, everything was well organized and in order.

  Seeing her son return, both of them were overjoyed.

  "Little Yu, you've grown taller and stronger." Madam Xu was delighted to have felt Jiang Yu's body for half a day. Jiang Yu chuckled and said, "Of course! It's been five years, how could I not grow?"

  "By the way, did that foreign daughter-in-law bring it back?" Mrs. Xu's smile suddenly disappeared and she asked Jiang Yu.

  "Not yet! Let's bring her over in a few years!" said Jiang Yu. The Madame was still not very happy and complained to Jiang Yu, "How can you get married without discussing it with the family, just deciding on your own?"

  "Never mind, never mind, what's the point of talking about this now? That foreign daughter-in-law doesn't look bad either, and she's from a wealthy family, so it's not like we're losing face for our family's Yu'er." Jiang Yuan Chuan said on the side, cutting off the topic with a swift knife, "Little Yu's friends are all standing here! Aren't you going to welcome her in and entertain her?"

  Xu Shi finally reacted and hurriedly beckoned the crowd that followed Jiang Yu in.

  The Jiang family's mansion is a garden-style design, although it's not a high-end garden, the scenery is excellent, and it's pleasant to live in, which is the style of Jiangnan gardens.

  Frank, Karl, Peter, Thomas and others had never seen a garden before, they were amazed, Jiang Fangzhen and others were also shocked by the family business of Jiang Yu, the Jiang family can be said to be a big family.

  Jiang Yu returned home and immediately conducted an inspection of the family business, which was managed by a steward named Zhou Ziyue.

  Zhou Ziyue is very young, only thirty-two years old this year, but he was promoted by Jiang Yu and has strong business management skills.

  After inspection, Jiang Yu felt relatively satisfied overall. The Jiang family had a large market share in sericulture, silk reeling factories and raw silk exports, with annual profits of over 8 million taels. In addition, tea mountains, tung oil and exports also generated annual profits of around 3 million taels.

  In terms of real estate, the annual rent collected is as high as over 800,000 taels, which is just small change, and the bigger profit comes from the appreciation in land value afterwards.

  The Jiang family can generate tens of millions of yuan in profits every year, and this money is heavily invested in real estate, repeatedly accumulating a large amount of property.

  Shanghai, Nanjing, Suzhou and Hangzhou all have plots of land owned by the Jiang family in their bustling commercial districts.

  After staying at home for three days, Jiang Yu immediately went to visit Governor of Jiangsu Province Cheng Dequan.

  Cheng Dequan was a Buddhist governor who liked to do good deeds and give generously, often getting into debt. During his tenure in Jiangsu, his main goal was to maintain local stability, making him a decent official.

  Jiang Yu met Cheng Quande and found that this guy had a thick black beard. If he wasn't wearing official clothes, he would have thought he was a Northeastern bandit.

  Jiang Yu and Jiang Fangzhen visited Cheng Dequan, mainly to seek a military position. Cheng Dequan was not very interested in these two who had returned from studying in Germany.

  Now that Yuan Shikai has stepped down, German-educated students are no longer in favor and are being ostracized everywhere.

  However, Jiang Yu and Jiang Fangzhen did not enter the new army, but instead made it more convenient for Cheng Dequan to arrange. The new army was full of officers who had studied in Japan, and it would be inappropriate to insert Jiang Yu and Jiang Fangzhen into it.

  In addition, the two men sent silver and demanded to lead one side. Cheng Dequan then arranged for them to go to Jiangbei Xunfangying, with Jiang Yu as the commander of Xunfangying and Jiang Fenzhen as the deputy commander.

  The Jiangbei Patrol Camp is located in Huaiyin, also known as Huai'an later on. As soon as I heard about the Yangtze River and Sichuan, my spirits lifted - what a great place! Underground, there are rock salt, oil, and iron ore, just lacking coal mines, but northern Jiangsu has coal mines, and Anhui also has coal mines.

  Jiang Yu took over the documents and immediately led his troops to Huaiyin to take office.

  Arriving in Huaiyin, Jiang Yu paid a visit to Zhang Binglong, the county magistrate of Huaiyin. Zhang Binglong was somewhat intimidated by the group of foreigners accompanying Jiang Yu and treated him with great courtesy.

  Afterwards, Jiang Yu and Jiang Fangzhen inspected the Jiangbei Xunfang Camp and found that nearly half of the troops were absent. The remaining half had many who smoked opium, gambled, visited prostitutes, and many soldiers were busy with their own small businesses and were completely useless.

  Jiang Yu and Jiang Fangzhen then simply dispersed the soldiers of the patrol camps, sending them back home, and also let their military officers return home to wait.

  Every month's pay is still issued as usual, but military camps don't have to be attended anymore.

  Jiang Yu and Jiang Fangzhen then re-recruited soldiers.

  The recruitment standards are relatively strict, with requirements for age, height, physical strength, vision and hearing. At the same time, only ordinary soldiers from a farming background are recruited. In addition, cultural soldiers are also recruited, with slightly lower physical requirements.

  Ordinary soldiers are paid 5 silver dollars per month, cultural soldiers are paid 8-20 silver dollars per month depending on their cultural level, and they are provided with food, accommodation and clothing after entering the barracks.

  At the same time, a hierarchical system was established for upper soldier, second-class soldier, third-class soldier and new soldier. New soldiers were paid 5 silver dollars per month, third-class soldiers were paid 8 silver dollars per month, second-class soldiers were paid 12 silver dollars per month, and upper soldiers were paid 18 silver dollars per month.

  Such military pay is pitifully low, considering the current gold and silver exchange rate is 1:38. Even for top-notch soldiers, monthly military pay is only about 2 pounds, while in Britain, those with an annual income of less than 100 pounds are considered poor, making up only twenty-something percent of the population.

  The promotion of new recruits depends on the level of combat skills they master, such as physical strength, obstacle crossing, marksmanship, etc. Once they reach a certain standard, they can be promoted to the next rank.

  However, this treatment is extremely high in China. If it's in Shanghai, it's a bit worse, but after all, the prices of most areas in China cannot be compared with Shanghai.

  As soon as a notice was posted, it immediately attracted a large number of young people to apply.

  Ordinary soldiers Jiang Yu are only between 16 and 22 years old, and must be born to a farming family, those from the city are not wanted. Those who come for recruitment but fail can be given travel expenses to return home.

  Jiang Yu also sent people to various places in Shandong to set up recruitment stations, and brought young people who had passed the initial selection to Huaiyin for re-examination and interview.

  The content of the interview mainly looked at demeanor and speech, as well as family background. Jiang Yu's methods of selecting soldiers were mostly borrowed from Qi Jiguang's "Jixiao Xinshu".

  Jiang Yu also applied the Xiang Fa (appearance method) of selecting soldiers from "The New Book of Effective Disciplines" to this recruitment.

  "Physiognomy selects soldiers...... Isn't this too superstitious?" Jiang Fangzhen had some doubts about physiognomy selecting soldiers, is there a relationship between looking at appearances and selecting soldiers?

  "Brother Baili, this physiognomy is a traditional Chinese art, why do you say it's superstitious? Superstition refers to blindly believing without understanding the principle. This physiognomy is an objective existence, if you don't believe it, let these gentlemen calculate it for you." Jiang Yu said with a smile to Jiang Fangzhen.

  "Is there really a way to predict the future? I don't doubt that, but does it have anything to do with war?" Jiang Fangzhen was a progressive student, but in this era, fortune-telling was a popular culture, ordinary people understood some numerology, even rural farmers could say a few things about numerology, such as "having an official position requires having wealth", and there were still many fortune tellers on the streets who had real skills, after all, it wasn't easy to deceive ordinary people in this era, whether they were accurate or not, people would know at once.

  The so-called selection of soldiers by physiognomy, Qi Jiguang also gave a standard, like the appearance of good fortune, avoid the appearance of death.

  "Actually, fate is just a time gene, or factor, representing the ups and downs of a person's life. But it doesn't include spatial or social factors. So fate is only a partial force, not all forces. And war is precisely the kind of thing that can crush personal fate, making people with different fates die on the same day."

  Jiang Yu explained to Jiang Baili, "The battlefield is the most dangerous place, and it can be said that danger lurks everywhere. If a person with bad luck comes onto the battlefield, they will attract corresponding dangers to themselves, leading to various tragedies and affecting the entire army. On the other hand, if one has good luck, it's easy to have a smooth journey. However, relying solely on luck is not enough to change the outcome of war. Qi Jiguang also had a deep understanding of this aspect, so he emphasized discipline, training, and tactics, allowing his troops to crush the enemy rather than being crushed by them. Additionally, with the overall prosperity of the army's morale, battles naturally became easy victories, and casualties were minimized. Qi Jiguang even achieved zero casualties in some battles, which is clearly related to this method of selecting soldiers."

  "If fate is considered the only factor in war, then it's superstition. If, like Qi Jiguang, one considers fate as just a part of the forces at play, then that's science." Jiang Yu concluded, "The things our ancestors left us are still very useful."

  "I see, thank you for the lesson." Jiang Fangzhen couldn't help but feel admiration again for Jiang Yu's vast knowledge, as there were really not many people who could impress him.

  In fact, Jiang Yu also learned fate after crossing over, but that was when he was three or four years old. He followed a blind teacher and studied for a period of time, gaining a preliminary understanding of the country's martial arts.

  It's more reliable to start learning Chinese martial arts from practical applications. If you directly read "I Ching" or "Tian Gan Di Zhi", you won't understand them at all.

  Studying the art of destiny reveals many principles, and all things in life have their underlying reasons. For example, a beggar suddenly becoming rich or a wealthy person suddenly becoming a beggar is not strange to a destiny analyst. Similarly, a heroic figure yielding to others for the sake of a thousand gold coins, or a greedy person fighting over a single coin, these two types of people are also not strange to a destiny analyst.