Chapter 53: Recruiting Soldiers (Seeking Bookmarks)

  Ningbo, Zhejiang.

  The people here have different living standards, the rich are so rich that they can afford to be extravagant, while the poor can't even afford to open a pot. In fact, it's not just Ningbo, but the whole country is like this. These years, Ningbo has also been affected by some wars, but because this place is the foundation of China's economy, there hasn't been any real impact on the fundamentals.

  So the people here generally have a comfortable idea. However, at that time in China, no matter what, those who couldn't fill their stomachs were still the overwhelming majority. Otherwise, why weren't the National Government and local warlords afraid of fighting and killing? Because once you're dead, you can be replenished, although the replacements aren't old soldiers, but it's more or less the same thing. So at that time, people's lives weren't even worth as much as a cow, which is why there was revolution, and China made progress under constant oppression.

  The 318 team has already submitted the full team configuration to Director Cai of the Travel Department yesterday, and Wang Mingyu also submitted an application for himself out of safety considerations. After all, taking measures alone is different from being killed together. The big hat of owning troops is too heavy, no matter how many mouths you have, it's hard to distinguish.

  The division headquarters was also very considerate, after all, Wang Mingyu was new. It's said that Wang Mingyu and Director He of the Military Affairs Department had a good relationship, so naturally there would be no problem with the grain ration after the personnel quota was full. It was also out of this consideration that the division headquarters allowed Wang Mingyu to handle it at his own discretion. Then the division headquarters submitted a report to the higher-ups, and an identical report landed on Director He's desk in the Military Affairs Department. Someone with ulterior motives even put it on top of the documents for approval.

  Minister He walked towards his office with a spring in his step, humming a tune, his face flushed with excitement. The past few days had seen a string of victories on the front lines against the Communist Party, and even the Chairman was somewhat elated. As one of the Chairman's trusted followers, Minister He naturally felt quite pleased with himself.

  "What important things are there today?" Minister He turned to ask his secretary. "Minister, there's nothing important today, but..." The secretary also didn't quite grasp Minister He's attitude, so he spoke more cautiously.

  "What's going on? You'd better tell me, you little scamp, what kind of tricks are you playing?" Minister He scolded with a smile. "Minister, Wang Mingyu has applied for troop expansion!" the secretary said. "Wang Mingyu?" Minister He thought for a moment, he had an impression of this talented young man who was favored by the leader, but as soon as he went to the troops, he started expanding, what was his intention? Usually, officials would use such tactics to embezzle funds and eat empty salaries.

  "It's not actually an expansion, Minister. It's just that their troops suffered heavy casualties during the suppression of the Communists, with about half of them dead or injured. So they want to fill up their ranks." The secretary explained, "Oh? I see. That makes sense." Minister He nodded and said, "I understand now." In his mind, he had already made a plan. Even if they filled up their ranks, it would only be around 1,500 people, which was nothing for the National Government's top administrator. The key thing was how to deal with Wang Mingyu - maybe in the future, this guy would make a name for himself and have his own achievements.

  He Yingqin returned to the office and, without hesitation, approved the note. He also wrote on the back: "Allocate 50,000 yuan from the military supplies department, 1,500 rifles, 500,000 bullets, 10 mortars, and 10,000 hand grenades." To prevent embezzlement by higher-ups, he added in parentheses: "Use special funds for special purposes, must be executed." This way, people below would understand the severity of the matter and wouldn't dare to slack off. It's likely that the supplies would be directly sent to the 318th Regiment, rather than being embezzled layer by layer, leaving nothing but a few mosquito bites when they finally arrived at the 318th Regiment.

  Wang Mingyu naturally didn't know that the plan book he submitted would have such an effect, but these things were no longer of great interest to him, as they were all small money. Wang Mingyu's company in the United States was taken care of by Jefferson, and Wang Mingyu secretly sent a telegram to Jefferson, instructing him to use the money earned from Zhongsheng Pharmaceutical to buy a large number of stocks. Although these stocks seemed ordinary now, some were even a bit sluggish, but Wang Mingyu knew that these companies would become well-known in the future, like Boeing. However, Wang Mingyu couldn't care about these things at present. He still had millions of dollars on him, but it was not easy to spend this money, as he needed to support a team of around 3,000 people. If he was frugal, he could maintain it for about a year.

  Wang Mingyu is not worried about his money being insufficient, since penicillin has been produced, this thing that is comparable to gold is in his hands, how can he possibly lack money? The cost of producing penicillin is not high, it can be said that at that time, the penicillin controlled by Wang Mingyu belongs to the most profitable industry, and no one can compare with him.

  Zhongsheng Pharmaceutical's current orders can be scheduled for ten years later, but Zhongsheng Pharmaceutical has a lot of goods stored in secret warehouses due to Wang Mingyu's previous purchases. It can be said that the secret warehouse is currently the best in China for light weapons and medicines. Of course, these will be analyzed slowly later.

  In Ningbo's downtown area, Wang Mingyu and Zhang Deen started the recruitment process with the efforts of a row of soldiers.

  318 Corps Recruitment Announcement:

  First: Age between 16 to 30 years old (male);

  Second: Physically fit, no disability;

  Third: Soldiers recruited will receive 2 silver dollars per month;

  Fourth: Those with junior high school education or above will receive 3 silver dollars per month;

  Fifth: Those with special talents will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis, with a minimum of 3 silver dollars per month;

  Sixth: All recruits must undergo a 3-month probation period within the corps. If they pass, they will continue to serve as soldiers in the corps. If they fail, each person will receive an additional 5 silver dollars for travel expenses on top of their monthly salary.

  Seventh: Every week, the team has fish and meat, and the rice is full; as soon as the announcement of this 318 team was posted, it was immediately surrounded by onlookers. In this year, there are still such good things? People all think so.

  However, there are many people who doubt the letter, but for survival, more people sign up. If it's such a treatment, then at least going to join the army can support their families. Now that the war is not tense, almost all poor households want to join the army because the conditions opened by the 318 team are really too tempting. Every week there is fish and meat, even if only one meal, which is very luxurious for people now.

  The recruitment of the 318th Brigade began, and in just half a day, thousands of people signed up. The news spread like wildfire, with many curious onlookers wondering if it was true. After all, the National Army's reputation wasn't great, and embezzlement of food and wages often occurred. How could they possibly provide fish and meat every week, and rice to fill their bellies? Many people participated with an attitude of "it's better to believe it exists than not", thinking that if it was fake, the announcement said that those who didn't qualify after three months of training would be eliminated, so if it was a scam, they could just pretend to be unqualified and get out easily.

  "Make way, make way, make way!" Several men similar to house slaves crowded around a young man in brocade clothes and walked over.

  That young man in brocade clothes walked over to Wang Mingyu and the others, rapped on the table and said: "You're setting up a stall at our family's shop entrance? You're affecting Young Master's business. Can you poor soldiers afford to compensate us? Get out of here quickly!"

  Zhang Deen glared fiercely at the young man in brocade clothes, his face flushing with anger: "What kind of thing are you, daring to interfere with grandfather's affairs?"

  That young man in brocade clothes didn't even look at Zhang De'en as he spoke: "What are you doing? Do you think old soldiers can't get up? Believe it or not, with just one phone call from me, you'll be begging to leave!"

  Zhang Deen was clearly shocked by his words. In this day and age, how many people with money don't know someone in power? As a small deputy regimental commander, he was nothing but a fart in the eyes of those in power. Zhang Deen's face turned even redder as he stuttered "y...y...y..." unable to get out a word. If it were the old Zhang Deen, it wouldn't have mattered, but this time Zhang Deen had been warned by Wang Mingyu that Ningbo was not like the countryside, and you never know who might be related to the committee head, so he mustn't offend anyone randomly. In fact, Wang Mingyu's words were just a warning, as he had lived in Ningbo for so long and seen all sorts of people. He, Wang Mingyu, was the boss of Ningbo (in the past, don't get me wrong!)

  The young master in brocade clothes saw that his words had subdued Zhang De'en, and he became even more arrogant and domineering. The dirty words coming out of his mouth were very satisfying to him. Wang Mingyu just smiled and watched the young man in brocade perform alone, as if watching a good show.

  However, the young master in brocade only took a glance at Wang Mingyu and felt somewhat familiar, yet couldn't recall who he was. No wonder, as Wang Mingyu had left this place for over two years now, enough time for a batch of young whippersnappers to grow up gradually.

  Zhang Deen was furious, but there was nothing he could do. Finally, he managed to squeeze out a sentence: "You little brat, what do you want to do?", this sentence already had a hint of compromise.

  However, the young man in brocade didn't have such a high awareness. As soon as he saw Zhang De'en yield, he said: "Compensation, our shop's losses today, 500 taels of silver! I also know that you poor soldiers don't have much money, otherwise I'd ask you for 10,000 taels of silver, wouldn't that scare you to death? Hahaha... Have you ever seen so much money?" After finishing speaking, he still looked at Zhang De'en with disdain.