Chapter 5: Teachers and Elders (Part 2)

  For several days, apart from training, Tan Xiao thought most about how to save expenses. It seems that the best way is to get the arsenal up and running as soon as possible and produce training ammunition. As for other things, he racked his brains and used all the knowledge he had in another space-time: For example, using locally produced tea seed oil filtration to replace light machine oil for maintenance of ammunition and equipment, artillery training temporarily did not conduct live-fire training, only observation, ranging, gun control, rapid loading and other training.

  Chen Chong, who had received Tang Xiaohong's red envelope, received his telegram asking for help in contacting equipment and material suppliers. He was happy to help and soon got a response. A British firm in Hong Kong would send someone to negotiate immediately.

  People from Hong Kong have not arrived yet, but Guizhou has brought a batch of uninvited guests: Wang Fu, a staff officer of the Guizhou collaborators who smuggle opium and arms, led a group of Miao and Dong people to come, and as soon as they arrived, they clamored to see the military weapons.

  The Red Army entered Guizhou, and the situation in Guizhou became tense. The price of ammunition changed daily. Many soldiers who used to secretly sell military supplies stopped doing so. The leaders of ethnic minority areas could no longer stay put because they heard that the Red Army would arrive and share their wealth and wives, killing all these leaders. So they had to find a way out of the province to buy ammunition, and one of their suppliers was Wang Fu.

  Good! Tan Xiao was just thinking of selling a portion of the guns in the warehouse, and it really is "as you wish"!

  Tan Xiao is an outsider when it comes to doing business, he just plays the role of host and leaves the business talk to Ji Ping, he's only responsible for nodding or shaking his head.

  "They want two thousand good guns! Payment in gold!" Ji Ping whispered to Tan Xiao: "I promised Wang Fu a 50% kickback."

  So many! Tan Xiao wasn't unfamiliar with the business of selling guns to ethnic minorities, usually they would want thirty or forty guns.

  "Do they have so much money?" Tan Xiao was somewhat skeptical.

  "Wang Fu said that the leaders of each village have joined forces, they are all afraid of being attacked by the Red Army, this time they all brought gold with them, and the horses are carrying it!"

  "That's great, sell as much as you can, we need the money!" Tan Xiao added: "Empty their pockets!"

  Looking at those Miao and Dong people chattering for half a day, but still not closing the deal, Tan Xiao became impatient, thinking that if you come to my turf, don't think about leaving with your money, if the transaction doesn't go through, I'll rob it! Tan Xiao was crazy for money!

  Ji Ping walked over and said: "I told them that the price of silver is rising sharply now, and one or two taels of gold can only be exchanged for twenty yuan. They refused to do it! Let's see how Wang Fu handles this."

  Due to the US announcement of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act this year, silver prices have risen sharply. Now, the exchange rate of silver to gold in Changsha has reached around 23 yuan per liang, which is about a 10% increase.

  "Uncle Chun, do they know about the exchange rate? This is a rip-off..."

  "Haha, they know it's useless, even if they do take a large amount of gold to exchange, the price will immediately drop. Moreover, they don't have the guts to carry so much gold around, Wang Fu can persuade them, be patient."

  As expected, after a bag of cigarette's worth of effort, those leaders yielded and everyone started discussing the price of guns. Another round of stalemate, with Ji Ping opening the bid at twenty taels of gold per gun, and it seemed that the leaders were enraged.

  "Everyone, you don't know, when those Red Army passed by our place, they looted and killed everyone. Now the nearby area is still not peaceful, this gun is more precious than gold, everywhere people are buying it, one day one price, rising every day. We are the army, these guns were issued by the higher-ups, brothers dare to sell them at risk of losing their heads, also considering Mr. Wang's face. If the price doesn't come down later, we brothers will have to buy back so many guns at a loss, can't it be cheaper?"

  Tan Xiao listened to Ji Ping slandering the Red Army on one side, feeling strange and unpalatable in his heart. On the other side, Wang Fu was translating with a patter, Tan Xiao understood some Miao language, and there were many Miao soldiers under him, clearly hearing that Wang Fu's translation was even more outrageous.

  The price has been negotiated: sixteen taels of gold for one Hanyang-made belt and one hundred bullets! This price can buy ten belts and five hundred bullets of Type 38 Arisaka in Shanghai or Guangzhou! Doing business really requires a black heart and black hands!

  During the final inspection, according to Tang Xiao's intention, they deliberately exposed the four 7.5mm caliber French M1924/29 light machine guns and the 8mm caliber Hotchkiss heavy machine gun, firing a few rounds of ammunition. As a result, the leaders took the bait, haggling over prices, with each light machine gun selling for 500 taels of gold and the heavy machine gun selling for 800 taels of gold. The bullets were sold to them as well because there was not much stock left, so it would have been useless to keep them after selling the guns. The leaders felt they had gotten a good deal after negotiating for so long, and they all left in high spirits.

  One deal was made, with an income of 34,800 taels of gold, basically emptying the gold brought by the leaders. Finally, under Zhang Ping's hint, Tan Xiao also gave the leaders another 200 hand grenades. For Tan Xiao, who had never done business in his original time and space, this day was a great gain in experience. He couldn't hold back his excitement and offered to personally entertain the leaders tonight.

  The people of Lingling have a traditional way of drinking, their wine culture emphasizes a lively atmosphere, interesting conversations, and clever tricks to get people drunk. The purpose is to knock people down! Those northerners had never seen such an interesting scene before, under the attack of a large group of charming little sisters in Xiangxiang Building, they soon fell defeated, getting drunk and losing their sense of direction. Even Wang Fu, who had obtained over 1,000 taels of gold, was also drunk to the point of speaking nonsense, thinking he had become an emperor...

  Tan Xiao, who was originally not bad at drinking, returned to the base that night after pretending to drink with water. Taking advantage of his slight drunkenness, he launched a surprise attack on the soldiers in the base, suddenly gathering them and making many officers and men flustered. However, several companies appeared in front of him, fully equipped and very neat. These company commanders were secretly remembered by Tan Xiao and would be entrusted with important tasks in the future.

  In the blink of an eye, a month passed. In this busy month, Tan Dechang finally laid to rest, the military camp was built, the training facilities were complete, the guns and cannons sent by the Guangdong and Guangxi armies arrived, and the equipment for the munitions factory and arsenal were also installed. The British even sent two engineers to assist with the installation and testing. With money in hand, Tan Dechang spent over 500,000 yuan, upgrading the two small workshops directly into an arms factory. Although the scale was still small, it was already sufficient to produce training ammunition and artillery shells. If the newly recruited workers became skilled and there were enough raw materials, the monthly production capacity could keep up with a first-class division fighting at maximum intensity for three days and nights. However, Tan Dechang was now worried again: after spending around 100,000 yuan on various raw materials, his funds had returned to around 500,000 yuan, and the money earned from selling military supplies had been spent completely.

  The opportunities that Tan Xiao, a time-traveler, encountered were rare and fleeting. He grasped them, but they were all short-term deals, not long-term solutions. The question was what to do next? Maintaining an army was too difficult! Currently, the financial situation wasn't too severe, with monthly expenses of around 10,000 or so. His own opium and tax revenue brought in over 30,000 per month, which could barely cover the costs. However, his troops' equipment was far from Tan Xiao's goal. He aimed for at least half a division of heavy firepower, equivalent to thirty or more artillery pieces! Currently, he couldn't afford to buy cannons even if someone gave them to him for free.

  Money is a problem, but there are others: the quality of grassroots military officers is also a problem. Although he has pulled in several graduates from Huangpu 7th and 8th periods through his classmates' relationships, it's still not enough, especially for platoon leaders. In his eyes, there are less than ten truly qualified platoon leaders in the entire division, and company commanders are the most important level of grassroots officers to Tan Xiao. He knows that later on, when they got Jiangshan, **the military set up instructors at the company level, which has its own logic.

  That day, Tan Xiao was on the high observation tower as usual, holding a telescope to watch thousands of soldiers training in the cold weather, but saw from afar that a military vehicle had arrived at the gate, and the license plate was a central army vehicle.

  Who is it? A tense feeling in his heart: Is it going to be a troop deployment to Guizhou to fight the Red Army? The Red Army is currently engaged in fierce battles on the border of Guizhou and Yunnan, and three divisions of the Hunan army have also been deployed. Two days ago, He Jian held a military meeting to prepare for possible deployments, although after the meeting, a group of officers chatted casually, everyone knew that including He Jian himself were not very willing to deploy troops again. But in case of an urgent order from the central government, they would have no choice but to execute it. Moreover, since He Jian had always looked down on Tan Dechang, it was highly likely that this time he would send the 23rd division as cannon fodder. Thinking of this, Tan's heart skipped a beat. After thinking for a moment, he asked the guard to find a white cloth to wrap around his military cap, and see if using mourning as an excuse would work. At this time, the phone rang, it was the gatekeeper calling, the adjutant answered and asked one question before turning around to report: A Captain He Shao-tang from the Military Affairs Department is looking for the division commander!

  Wow! It's this little brother! Tan Xiao's heart cleared up instantly, and he hastily tore off the white cloth strip on his military cap, running down the stairs in a flash. The two guards were so anxious that they hurriedly chased after him.

  "Haha, what wind blew you here, little brother? Come on in!" Tan Xiao rushed forward and gave He Shao Tang a bear hug, then jumped into his car.

  "Brother, you're in high spirits today!" He Shao-tang chimed in.

  "Where, where, busy, eh? Oh, little brother has been promoted!" Tan Xiao remembered that the last time he saw He Shaotang, he was still a lieutenant.

  "Hey, aren't you just a lieutenant? You're wearing a major general's insignia, don't make fun of me!"

  "What a great car!" Tan Xiao listened to the sound of the car engine starting. "Don't laugh at me, my temporary 23rd division doesn't even have one car, and this small car I'm using now was bought by my father when he was a security commander years ago!"

  "Don't tell me this, little brother doesn't have the right to approve your car!" He Shao Tang was indeed clever and immediately caught the underlying tone. "How can little brother come all the way to see you, but you, as the older brother, only know how to take advantage of him?"

  "What nonsense is this? Taking advantage of me, am I that kind of person? It's just that Gui Jun gave me two big cannons, no cars to tow, had to rely on horse-drawn carriages, with both the cannon and ammunition, a large group of people had to serve, having a car would make things easier, just sighing about it!"

  "Is the KMT sending you big guns? That's a big face for my brother, just the other day Li Dequan was still crying to the Central Committee, saying they didn't even have two big guns in an entire division... This old fox... Ah, what kind of guns is he sending you? Won't it be some old discarded ones that the Central Committee will exchange for him?"

  "Where, brand new French Schneider 75mm field guns, each with four hundred rounds of ammunition, nearly thirty thousand yuan per gun!"

  "What the heck, brother! He's trying to buy you off! Your troops are stationed right on the Hunan-Guangxi Road, he's gotta butter you up a bit too! Got it? Keep this under wraps, just between us brothers, understood?"

  Suddenly, Tan Xiao felt that he was still quite childish, at least not as mature as this little brother.

  Tan Xiaozhen sincerely said to He Shaotang: "Thank you, little brother, for pointing that out. I'm still a straightforward person who doesn't know what's heavy or light. Let me take a look at my troops' training later and give some opinions!"

  Two hours later, He Shaotang finished watching the temporary 23rd Division's several drills and was shocked! Those ingenious obstacle courses, making soldiers run towards the trenches with targets on their heads in deep ditches, and the soldiers in the trenches practicing rapid shooting from 300 to 100 meters, were things he had never seen even in the Central Teaching Group. As for the soldiers hiding in the trenches who asked him to find them with binoculars but couldn't find a single one, it was also an incredible result that made him feel unbelievable. He was sure that those soldiers must be hiding in the trenches without showing their heads, but then this side waved a flag, and the sandbags on the edge of the trench on the other side actually moved! More than 20 soldiers with guns appeared right under his eyes... There were too many surprising things for him.

  He Shao Tang walked over to observe and only then discovered that the surface of the deep trenches leading to the battlefield and the undulating shape of the ground were completely consistent. The ups and downs of the people running inside and the movement of the targets on the ground changed with the terrain, allowing the shooting soldiers to make predictions about the target's movement based on the terrain in front of them, just like in actual combat. Meanwhile, the soldiers running in the trenches could get used to the feeling of bullets flying over their heads, while also training their charging rhythm and pace. As for the hidden soldiers in the trenches, it turned out that each person's helmet was wrapped with burlap sacks, and they were also draped with burlap sacks on their bodies, and then mud from the trenches was sprinkled on top, causing them to disappear from view...

  "Originally, I wanted to learn from the Germans how to make camouflage uniforms, but foreigners were asking for too high a price and it was unaffordable. Since we couldn't find any domestically, one day while paying respects to my father, I accidentally got inspiration from the hemp clothing and came up with these trench camouflage clothes. There's also another style that uses the Miao people's batik method to create a mottled grey-green-yellow-brown three-colour hemp fabric for field camouflage uniforms, which has a pretty good effect..." Tan Xiaowu introduced with some pride.

  "Brother's training method is really unique, one of a kind! This troop, given some time, I reckon will be even stronger than the Instruction General Headquarters, no exaggeration, really! Brother's training method is the closest to actual combat that I've ever seen, even better than those German instructors, how did you come up with it?" He Shao Tang was indeed full of admiration.

  "It's nothing, really. I've fought many battles in western Hunan and southern Jiangxi, so it's just based on what the battlefield needs. Who taught me? Oh right, brother, I have a favor to ask of you too - can you help me find some genuine Whampoa Academy graduates, preferably from the 8th term onwards, to come join my army as company or battalion commanders? I'm really lacking in grassroots officers..."

  "Haha, brother, do you know what I'm looking for? Alright! To be honest, this time I came to see how your troops are doing. Several classmates have been unemployed after graduation and they all asked me for help, it's a perfect match!"

  "It can't be that bad, right? A proud graduate of Huangpu still hasn't found a place? Can't be?"

  "Of course, it's not bad. Most of them are classmates with no personal connections. In the past two years, they have been gradually downsizing. Not to mention our Huangpu, even those who graduated from Baoding a few years ago and are now idle, there are many. I estimate that after eliminating the bandits, there will be more!"

  "That's great, as long as they can endure hardship and have real talent and skills, I'll take in as many as I need! If not needed now, just nurture and train them first, there will be a time when they are useful!" Tan Xiao was overjoyed to hear this, having been worried about having no one to use.

  He Shaotang looked at Tan Xiao and said, "Today's gathering, I also believe that brother has been raising some people who will be useful sooner or later. With brother's skills in leading and training troops, I think it's only a matter of time before he leads an army out. At that time, younger brother will also follow along and benefit from it, haha! Alright, I'll go back and talk to uncle about it, see if he can allocate more cars, equipment, military expenses and whatnot for brother, but I don't dare guarantee it!"

  What great news! This He Shaotang is indeed my lucky star! Tan Xiao's heart was filled with joy, and a sly smile spread across his face: "Little brother! Just for this sentence, you can't leave tonight, let's have a good drink together!"