Chapter 21: A Traveling Troop (2)

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  During the three weeks of new recruit training, the Propaganda Department of the Garrison Command went to various villages and counties in Shanghai for propaganda. Each time they brought cash with them. As long as someone signed up on the spot and passed the physical examination by the Logistics Department, they would immediately receive 30 yuan in resettlement allowance. The 30-yuan resettlement allowance was not a small sum, and many poor farmers felt that it was worth more than selling their sons or daughters, so there were quite a few who responded to the call.

  Another week passed and the new recruit camp was officially put into use. The propaganda department and the logistics department counted that there were about 1,200 people signed up for military service. Before the new recruit camp was fully built, the logistics department arranged to place these 1,200 people in the Shanghai garrison camp, and only recently they were busy transporting the new recruits to the new recruit camp by military vehicles.

  The new barracks covers an area of 300 mu, but the overall usable range includes two large mountains, which can accommodate 8,000 people at one time. However, there are only over 1,200 newly recruited soldiers now, so Xu Shaowen divided the new barracks into two areas: a new soldier training area and an old soldier garrison area. Once these 1,200 people finish their training, they will be directly transferred to the old soldier garrison area, and the vacated new soldier area will continue to train the next batch of new soldiers.

  In late November, Beijing sent a telegram deciding to establish the 115th Division in Shanghai. The Shanghai Garrison Command was changed to a division headquarters, and the Shanghai Military Governor's Office continued to be called the Military Governor's Office but actually operated as a brigade headquarters. After receiving this telegram, Zheng Ruicheng immediately found Xu Shaoxun and told him that there were already two brigades of troops stationed in Shanghai. Now that a division headquarters was established, it meant that the new recruits under the jurisdiction of the Military Governor's Office would have to be organized into another brigade.

  Xu Shaowen did not express any opinion on this, but he was not very happy in his heart. He now had the money, and according to the original plan, it was intended to form a division-level army, but now it has been greatly reduced to a brigade. However, this is what Beijing means, if one acts arbitrarily, it may cause controversy, not only will Uncle Xu Shichang be blamed, but also oneself may be seen as a potential threat by Zheng Rucheng.

  However, a full-strength army of travelers also has as many as 6,000 people, and being able to control so many troops is not bad either.

  When the first batch of 1,200 people started training, Xu Shaozhen hired two US Army officers as training consultants for the Du Junfu, and Xia Guozheng from the Military Department dispatched several top-notch officers to the new barracks to command the new recruits.

  Xu Shaowen, when he entered the 21st Century Police Academy, had undergone rigorous military training and was also familiar with the training program of the 21st century Chinese army. He decided to apply the methods of the 21st century in this era, striving to complete the training of the first batch of new recruits within three months. He divided the three months into thirteen weeks and formulated a training schedule.

  The past two weeks were spent training in military posture, although standing at attention is part of military etiquette, it can also temper a new recruit's character. Moreover, standing at attention is extremely dull and arduous, regardless of wind or rain, every day must be trained for eight hours, which can hone one's willpower and discipline. This is a training that all warlords in this era would not think of.

  The following two weeks were training in basic marching and other fundamental commands. Training in marching and standing at attention are actually complementary, both aimed at teaching new recruits to endure boredom, temper their individual wills, and further cultivate the idea of obeying officers.

  The next four weeks were physical strengthening training. Although during the first four weeks of training, there were routine long runs, loaded runs and emergency assembly runs every morning and evening when standing at attention and marching, but the main focus of this four-week physical strengthening training was to conduct obstacle runs, wilderness survival training, close combat bayonet techniques and various crawling exercises with more technical content.

  Moreover, Xu Shao Wen also imitated the training methods of the US Military Academy at West Point, using dead pig intestines, rotting animal corpses and other bloody objects to create a battlefield environment, making new recruits crawl back and forth in these things every day. Even specially mixing feces and mud together to create a muddy pit, letting new recruits take turns soaking in it.

  Anything can happen on the battlefield, so soldiers must adapt to all kinds of adverse environments.

  The last five weeks were spent on more advanced military training, including the use of various firearms, hand grenades, vehicle driving and communication facilities. Even two American training consultants believed that the soldiers being trained by Xu Shaowen were too luxurious, having already reached the international high-standard military training standards.

  Xu Shao-wen knew that many warlords' troops in China at the time had not received any regular training, and were just given a uniform and a gun to become regular soldiers. However, he was unwilling to do so. The new recruits in the training camp were all from his own trusted units, and now that he had both money and time, he was determined to train them into elite troops.

  After three months of standard training, the remaining training was handed over to the officers in the Wu Guan, and after one month of supplementary training according to traditional methods, the first batch of troops was officially qualified after four months.

  Xu Shaowen counted on his fingers and calculated that by the middle of February next year, the first batch of soldiers could be incorporated into the regular formation. This was indeed a difficult period to endure. He felt that he couldn't wait that long, or rather, he couldn't wait four months to train just over a thousand people. At this rate, it would take a whole year to train an entire regiment. He assigned more officers to the new barracks and began training the troops in three phases.

  The first batch was 1,200 people who entered the camp at the end of November, the second batch entered the camp at the end of December, and the third batch will enter the camp at the end of January next year. Anyway, the new barracks are very large and can accommodate so many new recruits for training at the same time. For now, as long as the Propaganda Department and Logistics Department increase their recruitment efforts, they can find new sources of soldiers.

  When Xu Shao Wen's military government published the recruitment notice in the newspaper, the news spread far and wide. Some poor men from Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces knew that the newly formed army in Shanghai had a high monthly salary, so they flocked to join. Even some mountain bandits heard about this matter, and many weak forces calculated with their fingers, thinking that making money by being a soldier was more than looting, and it was also more stable, so they came to Shanghai in groups to join the army.

  In the past two months, there have been many new recruits, but their quality is very poor. In this era where education is not widespread, most of the poor are illiterate. Xu Shaowen and Li Zhenning decided to set up several cultural supplementary classes after each batch of new recruits finished training, not necessarily to cultivate these rough men into gentlemen, at least they must learn basic numbers and characters.

  Anyway, after the new recruits finished their training, they would be idle in the barracks and have plenty of time to study and make up for their cultural deficiencies.

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