Chapter Twenty: The Military Stick and the Enemy

  Liu Min returned to the hut area with his logistics team in the afternoon, followed by several donkey carts and ox carts, which creaked and groaned as they came over. He had purchased 100 stones of grain, three pigs, salt, iron pots, and a bunch of other things. Strangely, Wang Yuanzheng also came along with them.

  Chen Xin has just appointed five squad leaders and ten sergeants. The original three officers and the current five squad leaders are his mid-level cadres. Haigouz and Zhang Dahui serve as assistant instructors, and they are now working together to determine the role of each soldier in each team, specifically assigning roles such as rifleman, knife-wielder, etc., with different requirements for each type of weapon. The shield requires agility, usually held by sergeants, the long sword requires a fierce aura, and the spear requires strength and a fierce aura. Chen Xin wanted to simplify the troops, but there are too few people now, so he can only use this small formation, and the only reference is Qi Laoye's Mandarin Duck Formation.

  He saw Wang Yuanzheng had also arrived, and hastily called over Song Wenxian to pay his respects. Wang Yuanzheng's attitude was even better than the previous few days. Chen Xin didn't have a living room here, but fortunately Liu Min had bought back some tables and chairs, which they quickly moved in for the two of them to sit on.

  Wang Yuanzheng looked at the initial scale of the hut area and smiled: "Chen Qianhu is indeed a person valued by Governor Zhang, in just a few days this place has become very different, I heard that brick houses are also going to be built."

  Chen Xin recalled that this man still owed him a bunch of farm tools and military households, and smiled: "Your Excellency is overpraising me. If not for the lack of manpower, it should have been even faster."

  Wang Yuanzheng felt a bit embarrassed and smiled apologetically: "Don't worry, Director Chen, those twenty households have all been arranged for, they'll arrive here in a few days."

  Song Wenxian didn't think much of this official and said indifferently, "Also, Master Wang, don't forget the farming tools for the troops' farmland."

  Wang Yuanzheng repeatedly said he didn't dare, and followed Song Wenxian to explain. Chen Xin saw Liu Minyou making eye contact with himself from behind, and after telling Wang Yuanzheng about the crime, went over to Liu Minyou's side.

  "This King opened a rice shop on East Street, I met him when I was buying rice, he saw us buying other things too, and followed us, guessing that he wants you to make some purchases."

  Chen Xin suddenly realized that Lord Wang had taken a liking to this market of over a hundred people, and he knew that he wouldn't have any harvests for a long time. So he followed him to try to pull some strings. Chen Xin now had a plan in mind, and quickly returned to Wang Yuanzheng's side, where they reached an agreement on fixed-point procurement. From then on, all of Chen Xin's grain would be purchased from him, with Wang Yuanzheng guaranteeing 110 kilograms per stone. Wang Yuanzheng was overjoyed at the prospect of making a profit, and the relationship between the few of them became slightly closer.

  These Weihai officials all have some shops, according to Wang Yuanzheng, there are 20 official shops in the Weihai city, which are owned by these officials. Yang Zhihui has three shops selling cloth, tea and salt. Because Weihai is surrounded by sea, most military households boil their own salt for personal use. Yang Zhihui never allows them to sell salt in the city because he runs a salt shop himself. There are five rice shops in Weihai, apart from Wang Yuanzheng's one, there are four others run by relatives of officials and gentry from Wendeng County and Ninghai Prefecture. Although Wang Yuanzheng is a Tongzhi, he doesn't dare to offend them, so he secretly makes an agreement with Chen Xin. Chen Xin spends money anyway, while Wang Yuanzheng is in charge of the tuntian (military colonies), so he can get some extra benefits.

  Seeing off Wang Yuanzheng, Liu Min complained to Chen Xin: "The silver is flowing like water! Today more than 100 taels are gone." Chen Xin had given Liu Min a thousand taels of silver for civil affairs expenses. Now Wang Daiji can also calculate the accounts, temporarily acting as a female accountant.

  "It doesn't matter, have you asked about drilling a well and repairing the house?"

  "Ask Wang Yuanzheng, he can help call people to come and work on it. On this side, drilling a well only costs two or three taels of silver to see water, and repairing the brick tile house in Datong alley is not expensive either. It depends on how big you want the military camp to be. If you only repair the current one for over a hundred people, six rooms for the barracks, one room per household for those with families, plus some offices, about 20-30 rooms, it would cost around 170-180 taels of silver. However, they say that in winter the ground is too hard and digging trenches is more difficult, so you need to add some more silver."

  "Tell him, it's one hundred and seventy taels of silver, if he doesn't do it, I'll let the soldiers do it themselves." Chen Xin estimated that a brick house would cost around five taels of silver per room, with several rooms in the barracks being larger, so the price was about right. If his own soldiers had ever built a brick house before, he wouldn't have gone to ask someone else to build it.

  Liu Min nodded slightly: "I'll go find them again tomorrow, we've planned a single room for those with families, do the bachelors want to plan one too? They're all soldiers, some have and some don't, it's not fair psychologically."

  Chen Xindao said: "This single room will be charged rent."

  "How much does it collect in a month?" Liu Min furrowed his brow.

  "One yuan per month, rent enough to cover the cost, and it's theirs, installment payment."

  Liu Min, who had suffered enough from high housing prices, finally felt at ease. He thought Chen Xin would take back the military pay from real estate again.

  "The people's food, the grain we bought back, will be handled in the same way. Those women and children who can work will be paid wages, those who cannot work, we also cannot raise them for free. You set up a small grain store here, except for the soldiers, everyone else will eat on their own, the grain won't make money from them, sell it to them at cost price. That's fair to them."

  "Good, this is also what should be done. By the way, didn't they just say that you organized an election?"

  "That's right."

  "Hmm, I'll also organize one in my logistics team."

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  As soon as the sky brightened, the five teams of soldiers arrived at the abandoned land to line up. Fire soldier Zhou Shao'er secretly took a look at the team leader Wang Changfu, who had been in Weihaiwei for over ten days. Ten days ago, when they were voting, he also voted for Wang Changfu. He thought this person was very reliable and willing to take charge of everything. Later, after the voting results were announced, Wang Changfu indeed became the team leader, Huang Yuan and Zheng Santu were the squad leaders, and Zhou Shao'er, as a fire soldier, was directly under the command of the team leader. The other soldiers had no right to command him.

  He patted the iron-tipped wooden pole beside him, his main weapon and tool for carrying loads. In emergencies, he could use the iron tip to poke people. He also had a short dagger inserted into his waist. He never had much confidence, and it was already good that he could enter the combat team. Every month, he would receive one or two silver coins, with the squad leader receiving three. Food and clothing were free, but Commander Qian had said that if they failed to meet the requirements after three months of training, they would be demoted to the logistics team. The logistics team only received one or two silver coins per month, and every day was spent doing chores. Recently, they had been helping with house repairs, which wasn't easier than training. He heard Huang Yuan say that those people were very envious of the combat team's prospects and high monthly pay. Seeing that some people in the logistics team were much stronger than him, he felt a strong sense of crisis. Every time he trained, he worked extremely hard, hoping to pass the assessment two months later.

  "Attention!"

  Zhou Shao'er suddenly had an idea, and out of the corner of his eye, he saw Lu Chuanzong, the deputy commander of the first and second small teams, walking over with a big stick. He quickly stood up straight, each team was lined up in two rows, the team leader on the left, the middle two soldiers, the squad leader and knife hand standing on the left side of each squad, Zhou Shao'er, this fire soldier, was at the far right.

  "Start carrying the load!" Lu Zizi shouted loudly.

  Zhou Shao'er was secretly suffering, but he didn't dare to show it. He quickly tied the iron bars to his legs and arms without any delay, then put a 10-kilogram sandbag on his back. This was also one of Qi Jiguang's training methods. Chen Qianhu seemed to attach great importance to running and formation drills. Every day, they would run in the morning, practice physical strength and formation in the afternoon, practice individual skills in the evening, and have another formation drill before dinner.

  "The target is far away, let's run and march forward. Wang Changfu gives the order, depart."

  "Attention, everybody! Run!"

  The team slowly started running, and a neat footsteps sounded. Zhou Shao'er can now distinguish between left and right, but there are still several teammates who can't tell the difference, such as his front teammate Changdao Shou Shanxi people Zhong Laosi, he just took one step and first stepped out with his right foot, now no matter how he changed, he couldn't change it. Zhou Shao'er secretly called for trouble.

  As expected, the patrolling sea dog immediately noticed this independent soldier and excitedly ran over with a stick to start beating him on the back. This Zhong Laosi has been beaten many times recently and has gained some experience from it, so he didn't make a sound because if he did, he would be beaten even harder.

  Zhong Lao Si was beaten, his heart racing, his footsteps became more chaotic, Hai Gou Zi added a few more sticks to the beating. He had endured Chen Xin's beatings before, but this time he felt somewhat vengeful towards society. Zhong Lao Si was drenched in sweat, the short-sleeved training uniform he wore offered some resistance, but the pain from the sticks was still excruciating.

  "Alright, brother, stop fighting, I've had enough." Zhong Laosan finally adjusted his pace and begged for mercy from Haigouz.

  "Speak again! Let you speak! Still dare to call brother!" The sea dog child hit two sticks again.

  Zhong Lao Si was also hot-tempered, although he feared Chen Xin and Zhu Guo Bin, but he didn't take this sea dog seriously. After blocking a stick, he angrily shouted: "Hit me again and I'll fight back!"

  Hǎi Gǒu Zǐ yī lèng, wàn yuán le yī bàng zǐ dǎ guò. Kāishǐ hái dǎ de bù suàn zhòng, Chén Xīn de yāo qiú shì zhǐ néng dǎ tòng, bù néng dǎ shāng, xiànzài Zhōng Lǎo Sì yī huán zuǐ, Hǎi Gǒu Zǐ zhè yī bàng jiù méi le qīng zhòng, dǎ de Zhōng Lǎo Sì zī yá chī zuǐ.

  "Damn it!" Zhong Laos's anger burned, he grabbed a stick and started fighting with Haigouz. He had been a porter for a long time and recently his nutrition was good, so his strength was much greater than Haigouz. Haigouz was soon hit in the face repeatedly and was at a disadvantage. The trained soldiers saw that they were fighting and stopped what they were doing, some watching the commotion and others trying to mediate, causing the team to fall into chaos.

  "Quickly come and help, ah, damn it." The sea dog shouted while being punched again. Lu Zizong, Zhang Dahui and others were on the other side, hearing the commotion came over to take a look, unexpectedly dared to hit the instructor, without saying a word rushed up and surrounded Zhong Laosi for a beating, that Zhong Laosi alone could not withstand, was beaten to the ground in a few moves. The sea dog suffered a loss, furious in his heart, kicked Zhong Laosi on the ground wildly.

  "Stop!" Liu Minyou and Chen Xin rushed over, they didn't participate in this heavy load training, the team just set off and something went wrong, the two saw it and hurried over.

  Liu Min pulled away the still energetic sea dog, "Stop it, who fights like this?"

  "He hit me."

  Zhong Laosu was pulled up by Wang Changfu, and there were already several bumps on his forehead. He heard the explanation and said: "He hit people hard, I was hit in a hurry and fought back."

  Chen Xin had called Lü Zīzǐ and Wáng Chángfú, after inquiring about the situation, asked Zhu Guóbīn: "What is the punishment for beating a teacher?"

  Zhu Guobin thought for a moment and replied: "Not yet."

  Chen Xin hesitated for a moment, then said to Zhong Laosi: "Zhong Cai Sheng beat up the instructor, left the formation without permission, deduct one or two months' salary, complete today's training and add 300 push-ups, and punish him with 50 military sticks. Let him clean the latrines for the fifth squad of soldiers for a month."

  "Sir, he was the one who started the fight..."

  "Four hundred push-ups, sixty clubs."

  Zhong Lao Si's mouth was open, and he didn't dare say another word.

  Chen Xin looked around at the soldiers coldly and said, "On the training ground, instructors are the highest authority. No soldier is allowed to offend an instructor. If you think an instructor has done something wrong, you can come directly to me to report it, but violent confrontation is absolutely not allowed." The people around him were intimidated by Chen Xin's fierce gaze.

  Chen Xin looked down at them, turned his head to Wang Changfu and said: "Squad leader Wang Changfu is not strict with the team, deducting five taels of monthly salary, 400 push-ups, and being responsible for individual training of Zhong Cai Sheng after daily training ends until he meets the requirements. Sergeant Huang Yuan was also punished."

  Wang Changfu responded crisply, and Chen Xin nodded, he was a man who took responsibility.

  The sea dog listened and was delighted, grinning from ear to ear. Chen Xin slowly turned around, and the sea dog still looked at Chen Xin with a silly smile.

  "Marine instructor disobeyed orders, used excessive force with military baton beyond training requirements, deducted five yuan from monthly salary."

  "Ah!" The seal's mouth was agape, stunned on the spot.

  Zhong Lao Si smiled with his mouth turned down, although he was punished more severely, but fortunately the sea dog didn't run away.

  Chen Xin said loudly to the surrounding troops: "Those who left their posts during the fight just now, regardless of the reason, will be deducted one tael from their monthly salary, and immediately punished with ten military sticks and one hundred push-ups. The squad leader and team leader will be deducted two taels from their monthly salary and do two hundred push-ups. For those squads that did not leave their posts, dinner will be increased by one ladle of meat."

  Just now when fighting, more than a dozen people came over to watch, and they all looked lively. Now they're all hanging their heads in shame, let alone Wu Chang, the team leader. Almost everyone got punished, Zhou Shifang and others immediately came over to order them to get down, picked up the military stick and started executing, listening to the slapping sound of the stick hitting flesh, Zhou Shaoye secretly congratulated herself on not leaving her post.

  Chen Xin asked after finishing: "Do you three commanders have any opinions?"

  Dai Zhenggang said: "The subordinate officer is not strict with his troops, I request that Your Honor punish us together."

  Chen Xinyan shook his head, thinking that if it were calculated this way, he himself should also be punished together. Chen Xin's military law was not yet written, and now it was relying on his status to suppress these people. It seemed that the military law should be accelerated.

  "No need, the squad leader is in charge of the soldiers. Guobin, we must speed up the military law. Tonight, the four of us will finalize it together and add the article about beating officers. Let's handle it like this for now. Continue training, those who should be punished will still be punished, don't have any concerns because of this matter."

  "Yes, sir." The three main officers bowed and led the team out again, and the earth-shaking slogans sounded again.

  Liu Min said to Chen Xinzan, "Indeed a leader, this matter was handled well and everyone is convinced. It's just that the punishment for Zhong Cai Sheng is much heavier than Hai Gouzi, which has little restraint on military officers."

  Chen Xin curled his lip, "This is still heavy, if we encounter Qi Shaobao, Zhong Lao Si would have lost his head today. Take a look at the military law in Ji Xinxin's book, it's much heavier than mine. Even talking about homesickness could lead to beheading. I also dare not copy it verbatim, otherwise, how could the military law still not be settled after so long?"

  Liu Min sighed and said: "The army is the most unreasonable place. The friendship between you and that soldier may be difficult to promote."

  "I have established military law to minimize harm and humiliation, most punishments are flogging, physical punishment and labor. Promoting friendship is just a way to alleviate the antagonism between officers and soldiers. I arranged for Wang Changfu to accompany him in training also for this reason. However, on the training ground and battlefield, the authority of the officer must be maintained, it is impossible for an army not to scold or beat, later there will be more scolding and beating, not only instructors but also team leaders after completing basic training, otherwise how can we achieve the training effect."

  "What effect do you want to achieve?"

  Chen Xin stood with his hands behind him, watching the departing troops, and calmly said: "We must make soldiers fear the officers' clubs more than they fear the enemy's bullets."