Chapter 64: Desire to End, Heart Broken, Ten Thousand Difficulties (Three)

  In fact, no matter what era or background, the gap between new recruits with different willpower and motivation emerged quickly after Zhou Wenbo deliberately created a relatively equal starting point for everyone, and the gap grew wider and wider.

  Some who initially met the standards for being a healthy and strong soldier, were lazy and sloppy in their daily lives. If they encountered a careless squad leader or deputy, it was like letting goats run wild.

  As hundreds of new recruits join the army every day and start training, each batch of new recruits has only a short time to learn and master new skills. The remaining time is spent by Zhou Wenbo directing and instructing the next wave of new recruits, while these rotating recruits can only rely on the supervision of selected squad leaders and deputy team leaders, or their own perseverance to persist.

  The nine people under Li Mutang are undoubtedly the fastest progressing, and Li Mutang himself can be considered a qualified instructor. Every day after Zhou Wenbo teaches new content, he can grasp it in the first place, and after just a few days, from his spirit, he is simply comparable to the old soldiers of the Liberation Army in his previous life.

  He was also very strict with his subordinates, and even Chen Shaojun, who had the worst physique, could now do things in a proper manner. After several days of regular training and sufficient food, the muscles on his body were rapidly taking shape, completely different from when he first joined the army.

  Zhou Wenbo didn't teach much, just the set he learned during his university days when he participated in military training, and even deleted the parts of the military body fist because he had long forgotten the content of this part, and was even more afraid of losing face in front of a group of soldiers who were proficient in martial arts.

  Zhou Wenbo taught these things, of course, with his own plans and considerations. He wasn't thinking about being able to pull together a people's militia in this era; in fact, he couldn't have done it even if he wanted to - the productive forces of this era hadn't yet reached the point where they could support such a fantastical army.

  He just wanted to teach these mostly rural-born poor people some of the most basic things, which would make them more disciplined, more united, and the amount of exercise was not too much, which could also allow a group of new recruits who were still freezing and starving to transition more smoothly from civilians to real soldiers.

  In fact, Zhou Wenbo not only had to spend five or six hours on the training ground every day, but also had to take out various spare time to preside over some other work. This work can make his first army establish a sense of glory and pride, only such an army that has produced its own glory and soul is the most powerful army, and it is a strong army that can win without being proud and lose without being discouraged.

  The arrival of Master Cui Hao can be said to be the greatest help to him. Cui Hao has been serving as the chief steward for three years, although he is not very familiar with military affairs, but after following Zhou De's work for two days, he has already been able to successfully manage the three villages of Junjiang Village, Zhoujiazhuang and Junhu Village, and also command the civilian workers hired by Zhou Wenbo to complete the logistics support work for new recruits.

  On the fifth day of Zhou Wenbo's recruitment, Liu Meng finally took over as the instructor for new recruits. Zhou Wenbo had already taught all the training content and the rest was up to the soldiers themselves to practice and master.

  Clothing, food, shelter and transportation, these four aspects can be said to be the most basic living standards for a person in the world, regardless of which era.

  Zhou Wenbo organized a large number of farmers to work together, and through this quasi-socialist collective labor, they demonstrated great initiative and significantly improved efficiency. This enabled them to transform the military camp in just a few days and provide enough food, hot water, and good living conditions for the increasing number of new recruits every day.

  However, in terms of dress, this group of new recruits still has a huge deficiency.

  Especially in the past few days, many of those who came to join the army were people who could no longer survive and were on the verge of death. After eliminating some people who did not meet the recruitment standards, most of the newly recruited soldiers were tattered and worn out, with some even having no rags on their bodies. Zhou Wenbo really didn't know how they had survived the previous cold winter days, so he needed to rush to make a batch of winter clothes.

  However, in this 10th century era, Zhou Wenbo was also a clever woman who couldn't cook without rice. In the context of small-scale agricultural economy, there were no clothing factories, and he had no way to complete this task in a short period of time.

  Create your own conditions if there aren't any, especially since he currently has a huge advantage.

  He is Zhao Guo Gong, he is the master of more than 10,000 people on this land. All the villagers in Zhoujiazhuang cultivate his land and are his tenants. He has every reason and ability to organize these people, concentrate their strength and do great things. In fact, the first batch of village women he recruited were meant to play a model leading role.

  Junjiang Village is only a few miles away from Zhoujiazhuang, and it will take less than half an hour to get back if you run fast. On the days when Junjiang Village was working, Zhou Wenbo took care of food and accommodation, although these meals were not greasy, they were also full. These workers ate very well, and naturally they were still grateful to Zhao Guogong, the landlord of their own home.

  Depending on individual workload and quantity, laborers could also earn an additional 5 to 30 wen per day.

  Some families have urgent matters and take a leave of absence to go back home for a while, then they can get their wages from Miss Lan Zhi, although it's only a few dozen coins, but they can still buy two catties of soy sauce at the military market, pull out a few red strings, and still have many Kaiyuan Tongbao left over, bringing them back home.

  The villagers originally suspected that these neighbors had been recruited by the Duke and never returned, but when they saw their neighbor, who was normally pale and thin, walking to the village entrance with a bottle of soy sauce in his left hand and a red rope in his right hand, swaying three steps at a time, they immediately became envious.

  "Big pillar, didn't you go out to work with the Duke? How did you come back in just a few days?" A loafer asked first.

  "My brother-in-law sent me a message saying that my wife's belly has gotten bigger, so I quickly asked for leave from the Duke and came back to take a look at my wife." Da Zhu Zi proudly waved the thing in his hand in front of the idle men.

  "Big pillar, you've become rich and noble now, haven't you? You can still go to the market to buy things after being out for two days?" A loafer couldn't help but ask.

  "I work for the county magistrate, just moving heavy things around. The county magistrate not only feeds me well but also gives me eight coins every day. Today I've worked for five days and got paid forty coins, which I'll use to buy some soy sauce for my family and a red ribbon for my daughter!" Big pillar was poor at home, often going hungry, and wasn't well-liked in the village. Now he's like a rich man returning to his hometown, exuding an air of satisfaction all over.

  "It's only five days of work and you can earn forty cents?" Several idle men heard this, suddenly became restless, stood up one after another and surrounded Dazhu.

  "I earn a little less, Wang Mujiang from our village is now directing more than a dozen people under him and can earn 30 cents a day! That's one yuan a month!" Dazhu still felt that using himself as an example was not impressive enough, so he quickly brought up the example of Liu Mujiang, who earned the most.

  "One tael of silver a month, twelve months in a year, that's twelve taels of silver! My goodness! These twelve taels of silver are enough to buy two mu of land!" A lazy fellow counted on his fingers for half a day before he suddenly jumped up.

  "Hey, Big Pillar, can you put in a good word for us with Master Guo? Let us tag along and make some money...I mean, work with Master Guo?" The loafer, who normally looked down on Big Pillar and loved to humiliate him whenever they met, now had an obsequious look on his face, reminiscent of how he acted around Zhou the butler.

  The big pillar with a sneering expression on his face said to the idle crowd surrounding him: "You also want to go? The Duke only recruits those who are willing to suffer and work hard, as many as he wants. If you're cunning and deceitful, be careful not to earn a single penny, let alone get beaten up!"

  "If I can earn a mu of land in a year, I'll endure the hardship!" A idle man seemed to have made up his mind, muttering to himself.

  Just as the news of Dazhu's return to his hometown spread throughout Zhoujia Village in one day, causing countless people to regret and move their hearts, Zhou Wenbo was comparing with two craftsmen.

  These two were none other than Master Zhao Ironsmith of the Zhao family ironworks and Wang Woodworker, who could earn ten coppers a day.

  Zhou Wenbo found these two people to make spinning wheels.

  In my party's previous life in Yan'an, in order to break through the enemy's blockade and be self-sufficient, a grand production movement was launched. On one hand, people were busy farming in Nanjiecun, on the other hand, large numbers of cadres and masses were organized to spin and weave, launching competitions.

  Our beloved Premier Zhou also won the title of "Spinning Master" in the spinning competition among central government agencies. Wu Boxiao's "A Spinning Wheel" was once selected for junior high school Chinese textbooks, and Zhou Wenbo still remembers the content vividly.

  But the spinning wheels used by our party on a large scale at that time were the most primitive hand-cranked spinning wheels. The structural pattern of this kind of spinning wheel appeared in China as early as the Han Dynasty, but the speed and efficiency of textile production were extremely low.

  In Wang Zhen's "Nong Shu" of the Yuan Dynasty, two more advanced spinning wheels were introduced, one was the large spinning wheel and the other was the water-powered large spinning wheel.

  The water-powered spinning machine is specially designed for long-fiber spinning, mainly used for processing hemp and silk. The hemp spinning machine is larger, about 9 meters long and 3 meters high. It is different from the manual spinning machine, equipped with 32 spindles, with a more complex and massive structure, including four parts: spindle, drafting, waterwheel and transmission device. Two leather belts are used to drive the 32 spindles. This spinning machine uses water power, with higher efficiency, each machine can spin 100 kg of hemp yarn per day.