Chapter 12: Training Soldiers (Part 1)

  The next morning, Song Zhe-wu's command post was packed with people. The heads of various units who had been appointed the day before arrived early at the divisional headquarters conference room with their deputies and chiefs of staff. The unit commanders were: Zhang Ya-fei, commander of the 1st Regiment; Gao Zong-bao, commander of the 2nd Regiment; Zhang Tao, commander of the 3rd Regiment; He Shu, commander of the 4th Regiment; Meng Da-hu, commander of the 5th Regiment; Wang Liang, commander of the 6th Regiment; Liang Fang, commander of the Artillery Regiment; Wei Guang-hui, commander of the Cavalry Regiment; Wu Jin, commander of the Logistics Regiment; Ye Chang-gui, commander of the Special Forces Battalion; Wang Xing-gang, director of the Political Department; and Wang Xu, deputy chief of staff. They sat in front of a long conference table formed by several tables pushed together, waiting for the meeting to begin.

  As the captain of the special forces, Xiao Guodong thought of Ye Changgui first after reading the training plan and formation standards for the special forces given to him by Song Zhiwu. Ye Changgui not only had excellent martial arts skills and marksmanship, but also was quick-witted and decisive in his actions. This choice was agreed upon by both Xiao Guodong and Song Zhiwu.

  The officers, including Zhang Yafei, sat there with a calm expression, but their eyes betrayed their excitement. The current training volume of the troops was already greater than what they had experienced in their previous units, and Song Zhe Wu had added some new and innovative training methods, which were yielding excellent results. If they continued to increase the training intensity, it wouldn't be long before this unit became one of the strongest forces. The newly promoted officers looked eager, as if they couldn't wait to get their hands on the training plan and rush back to train their troops, so they could make a name for themselves and live up to Song Zhe Wu's expectations. Only Ye Changgui and Wang Xinggang had somber expressions. Ye Changgui was worried about the difficulty of the training plan, which he felt was too high even for him to achieve at present, and he still didn't have any soldiers under his command, so he would have to figure out how to recruit personnel and instructors on his own. Wang Xinggang, on the other hand, looked troubled because Song Zhe Wu had demanded that they not only boost troop morale but also actively enhance unit cohesion. As soon as he thought about this, Wang Xinggang began to grumble inwardly, thinking that Song Zhe Wu was the core of the unit's cohesion and should focus on strengthening his own cohesion rather than making demands on others.

  Everyone's expression was seen by Song Zhe Wu, and even their thoughts could be guessed eight or nine out of ten. He just smiled faintly without thinking much. When it was time for the meeting, he nodded at Xiao Guo Teng, indicating that the meeting could begin.

  Xiao Guodong had his staff distribute the training plan to each of the attendees, saying: "Give everyone 10 minutes to look at the training plan, then whatever ideas or difficulties you have can be brought up."

  The training plan was nothing more than the cultivation of soldiers, physical training, individual soldier techniques and tactics, tactical coordination between soldiers, platoon, company, battalion, regimental and divisional level tactics, as well as infantry-artillery cooperation. However, this plan still made Song Zhiwu rack his brains.

  Soldier cultivation was easy to handle, if the German army said it was second, probably no one would dare say first. Song Zhiwu took the German army as a model, making only slight changes to suit China, and in Tianjin, the military discipline of the Security Brigade was outstanding.

  Physical training was almost non-existent abroad, European powers' armies did not pay much attention to physical training for soldiers, it seemed that the US military was slightly better. But even if there were, Song Zhiwu would hardly adopt them, he advocated the methods of the Eighth Route Army and the People's Liberation Army, conducting comprehensive physical training, with armed cross-country training as a highlight.

  Song Zhiwu considered this point especially important, China's transportation conditions were poor, railways were scarce, most places did not have railways, even highways were not well-developed, military movements were mostly on foot, large-scale movements during wartime relied on walking; individual soldier techniques and tactics training, Song Zhiwu emphasized shooting and hand-to-hand combat as key points, in addition to the correct use and maintenance of weapons, trench work essentials, route selection during attacks, rational utilization of obstacles and rapid crossing.

  Soldier coordination referred to coordination between soldiers within a platoon, the training plan required each platoon to be divided into small combat groups, three to four people per group, during battles, especially during attacks and retreats, group members had to cooperate with each other, fight in unison, including coordination between groups within a platoon; subsequent platoon, company, battalion, regimental and divisional level tactical exercises; mutual confrontation exercises; infantry-artillery cooperation exercises above the company level.

  If following the training rules, item by item, without more than a year's time, it would be impossible to complete. But Song Zhiwu couldn't wait, he didn't have time, the Central Plains War would start in 1930, and 1929 was already a year of many events. First was the Jiang-Gui war, followed by several rebellions of the Northwestern Army, as well as Tang Shengzhi's rebellion, all of which could affect him, not to mention that he wanted to take advantage of these events to seize opportunities to develop and expand his own troops.

  Everything required the Security Brigade to become a strong army within half a year. To save time, Song Zhiwu combined platoon-level tactical coordination with individual soldier tactics, resulting in a significant increase in training volume.

  According to the plan, every morning, cross-country training is conducted, and the training volume increases from 5 kilometers of unarmed running to 10 kilometers of armed cross-country; after breakfast, individual combat tactical training is conducted; in the afternoon, various levels of tactical coordination training are conducted, of course, also starting from the company level and transitioning step by step, from squad to regiment, each level for a month; before dinner, there is another 5-kilometer run with equipment around the circle; after dinner, officers from company to battalion level go to their respective training classes in the instructional team for rotation training, while soldiers conduct 2 hours of literacy training in units of companies.

  Because in this room, except for Wang Xinggang, they were all old men who had been established in Tianjin to form a security team. Most of the training courses they had already experienced in Tianjin, only individual subjects such as single soldier coordination, inter-group coordination, and artillery cooperation had not been trained. In their view, this training plan was just more perfect and more detailed. Of course, the biggest difference was still the significant increase in training volume. So most of the people attending the meeting in the house were calm, only Ye Changgui and Wang Xinggang were worried about how to carry out their work.

  Song Zhe-wu saw everyone's disbelieving expression, cleared his throat: "Everyone has seen the training plan, what problems, difficulties, let's talk about it."

  The newly promoted several regimental commanders first looked at each other, and finally focused their attention on Zhang Ya-fei and a few other old-regimental commanders.

  "Don't all look at us, Commander wants you to mention difficulties, if you don't mention them now, it'll be too late when you're in trouble. I have no opinion, whatever the Commander says, I'll do it that way, everyone has seen it over the past two years, as long as we follow the Commander's words, there won't be any mistakes."

  When Zhang Yafei was speaking, the second team leader Gao Zongbao opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something, but ultimately didn't. Song Zhewu saw this and smiled, saying: "Older brother Zongbao, you and Afey are all veterans of our security brigade, if you have something to say, you can't just swallow it and hide it, if you're having difficulties and don't speak up, others will find it even harder to say anything."

  Gao Zongbao was the oldest among his classmates at Baoding Military Academy, including Song Zhiwu. He usually didn't talk much and was a bit dull, but he had a good grasp of military tactics. The 2nd Regiment was the main force that blocked Sun Chuanfang's troops. Seeing Song Zhiwu speak, Gao couldn't help but say something, so he said with some embarrassment: "This plan is very good, I have no opinion, it's just that the training intensity is too high, I'm afraid the brothers' bodies can't take it, can we increase the food standard a bit?"

  Song Zhe-wu nodded and asked the other team leaders if they had any problems. Zhang Ya-fei, Gao Zong-bao, Zhang Tao, Wei Guang-hui and others didn't need to be mentioned. Several newly promoted team leaders wanted to take this opportunity to perform well in front of Song Zhe-wu, thinking only about how to train the troops well. They didn't think much about the difficulties, and even if there were real difficulties, it wasn't good to say too much. Seeing Song Zhe-wu's inquiry, they all echoed Gao Zong-bao.

  Everyone thinks that the food standard should be improved. Song Zhe Wu immediately decided: "From tomorrow on, the entire brigade's food allowance will increase by 2 silver dollars."

  There is a guarantee for food and accommodation, everyone's confidence in training has increased a lot, and they are all very happy. Only Xiao Guotong frowned and thought to himself: "It's really not good to be at home without knowing the price of firewood and rice." These few battalion commanders only think about training well, but none of them have thought about how much money is left! Now everyone has gotten used to not being short of money, because Song Zhewu has said more than once: "We are not short of money." But this one sentence alone adds over 100,000 yuan to the monthly expenses.

  Cavalry regiment commander Wei Guanghui saw that everyone was in high spirits and couldn't help but cough and say stiffly, "I have an opinion."

  This chapter is a bit short, just want everyone to see it earlier, and there's another one. Hope everyone will encourage Deep Blue and collect it again. Thank you all!