Arrived at Zhushan Town
The next day, under the command of Lu Shuangyong and Le Jialin, the soldiers of the shock camp gathered all their things and set off down the mountain to Zhushan Town.
Zhushan Town is the center of Mati Ridge, located in a valley. The town has only about 100 households and a few small shops, usually quiet and deserted, except when the market is held, it becomes slightly lively, farmers from surrounding villages come to sell agricultural products, herbs, wild animals, etc., and then buy some salt, farm tools and other miscellaneous goods. Zhushan Town originally had several wealthy families and government institutions such as the county office. After the rise of the Unity Association, the wealthy people and officials did not dare to stay, all ran to the county seat, Zhushan Town has since entered a state of anarchy.
Luo Yi asked Tang Yuanpu to go to Mati Ridge for rural construction. Although Tang Yuanpu had doubts about Luo Yi's identity, since this place was originally unmanageable, and Luo Yi was willing to go, Tang Yuanpu just went along with it. If Luo Yi really had the ability to subdue the local bandits and could pay some taxes to the government, why not? As for the bandits suddenly becoming a security team, such things were not uncommon at that time. The security team would also turn against the bandits again, Tang Yuanpu just turned a blind eye.
The assault team arrived in the town and took over the yard of the original rural government office. The rural government office had been abandoned for many years, and several rooms had been occupied by wandering tramps from outside. The soldiers rushed in with guns, shouting loudly, and the tramps fled one after another, vacating the rural government office.
Luo Yi had the soldiers clean up the house and arranged it into offices, warehouses, meeting rooms, etc. At the entrance of the town hall, Luo Yi hung a sign that read "Ma Ti Ling Security Team" and also had the soldiers write slogans such as "Security for the People by the People" on the walls with white paint. This was considered to be the takeover of local power.
Several large households that ran to the city had their gates tightly locked, and there wasn't even a servant watching the house. According to the surrounding residents, these families only came to burn paper and sweep tombs under the protection of the county security team during Qingming Festival and Winter Solstice every year, staying for a few days, so no one dared to occupy their houses either. Although the houses were empty except for furniture, Luo Yi ordered the soldiers to pry open the locks of each house and assigned each house to a company as barracks. Now there are only more than 40 people in the whole camp, and a company actually has only one platoon's establishment, living in a mansion still feels empty.
"Brother Luo, we can't just occupy someone else's house like this. What will happen when the owner comes back? We're not bandits now." Le Jialin reminded Luo Yi.
"Who cares, just stay first. With a gun, you're the king of the grassland. Haven't you heard what the residents said? They won't be back until Winter Solstice, which is still three months away. By then, I'll have made some money and can just buy it directly."
Su Xiaofeng and others were not as cautious as Le Jialin, when they heard Luo Yi's order to pry open the door, they didn't say a word, picked up their tools and started working. After entering the mansion, everyone rushed to roll around on the big bed in the wealthy old master's room, and it was indeed a thorough display of their bandit nature.
Luo Yi himself found a courtyard as his private residence, living in the main house of the wealthy old master. Tu Jiu brought three soldiers to form a temporary guard squad and lived in the wing room, taking care of security and errands together. Tu Jiu is now the captain of the guard squad and can lead troops under him. Everyone didn't have much opinion on this, as when Luo Zi was looked down upon by everyone, only Tu Jiu stood up for him, and could be considered his kin. Now that Luo Yi has become the leader, appointing Tu Jiu as the General Manager of the Imperial Guard is a natural thing to do.
The young lady's boudoir in the wealthy family's compound had been given to Zeng Shan, complete with embroidered bed and dresser. Zeng Shan was finally a true young mistress. Tu Jiu had already considered Zeng Shan as his future wife, so he wanted to help her buy a maid, but was met with opposition from Luo Yi and Zeng Shan. Luo Yi opposed it because she didn't want Zeng Shan to become a pretentious lady. Zeng Shan opposed it because she wasn't used to it, being just a wild girl who wasn't born into a wealthy family and couldn't enjoy the life of a young mistress.
Zeng Shan had no objection to living in the same house as Luo Yi, she used to follow the old master and now followed the new master, which was also reasonable. However, the soldiers of the Tuziying were secretly speculating whether Zeng Shan had already been taken by Luo Yi. This man and woman, living in the same house, would they sneak into one room at night? Who knows?
Lu Shuangyong brought a few soldiers to live in the county government office, guarding the office and supplies. Currently, the entire assault battalion has very little supplies, but even though it's small, it's complete with all its internal organs, and there are still some account books and other things. Luo Yi said that once they have money, they will make large-scale purchases of various equipment, and at that time, they will need to have a dedicated warehouse manager.
Luo Yi didn't have much management talent and was too lazy to worry about it, so he threw all the trivial matters to a few subordinates to handle. The chubby music teacher Lin had a great interest in managing household finances, busy running around to settle everyone down, and even went to town to haggle over prices to buy new bedding and other items for everyone. He worked hard every day and actually gained a few pounds. Since the assault camp currently didn't have a centralized barracks, the daily rations and food allowance were allocated to each company, which had to figure out how to buy ingredients and cook meals on their own.
Lu Shuangyong arranged sentry posts both in the streets and outside the town, and a high platform was built at the entrance of the town with wood, where soldiers stood watch at all times. Although the assault battalion had the protection umbrella of the security team, everyone had been a bandit for many years, and their vigilance against government troops always existed. They had to guard against the government suddenly turning its back on them and make preparations to deal with various changes.
The townspeople watched the troops' entry with mixed emotions, some of whom recognized the soldiers of the assault regiment and knew they were actually mountain bandits who didn't understand why they suddenly became a security team wearing uniforms different from all other armies. The residents did not know what this troop reorganized from bandits would bring to themselves, but since ancient times, there has been no distinction between soldiers and bandits, so it is estimated that the soldiers will not pay for things like eating watermelon on the street in the future.
Luo Yi thought Wang Da Cheng was a man with some ideas, so he handed over the ideological and political work of the troops to Wang Da Cheng. He wrote down the three major disciplines and eight points for attention, asked Wang Da Cheng to memorize them, and then teach all the soldiers. The soldiers were mostly from poor peasant backgrounds, and their original leader also paid attention to protecting the people, with the slogan "kill the rich and help the poor". Therefore, the assault regiment still had some foundation in terms of mass discipline. Luo Yi's requirements did not encounter much resistance among the soldiers. Luo Yi originally wanted to promote the glorious tradition of the Eighth Route Army, such as sweeping yards and carrying water for the masses, in the assault regiment, but after thinking about it, he decided to put it aside for now. The troops had just been transformed from a bandit gang, and their quality was fundamentally incomparable with that of the Eighth Route Army.
To do a good job in mass work, Luo Yi let people find several old men with some prestige in the town, and patiently chatted with the old men for half a day, finally winning their recognition. Luo Yi asked these old men to form a town council, responsible for communication between the troops and residents, and asked them to assist in supervising and reporting the soldiers' misbehavior. The old men had never seen such a people-friendly army, and were moved to tremble with emotion, bowing to Luo Yi one after another, saying some nonsense like "Yue Wu is reborn". Unfortunately, they all spoke in classical Chinese, which Luo Yi couldn't understand at all, and he was so annoyed that he finally got rid of them.
In Luo Yi's mind, this small Zhu Shan Town was the future base of the assault camp. Tongzhou, located in the hinterland of Luo Xiangshan and Mu Fu Mountain, has always been a good place to hide troops. Zhu Shan Town is surrounded by mountains on all sides, with a terrain that is easy to defend but difficult to attack. If encountered with heavy troops attacking, there is also enough depth outside the town to maneuver. Luo Yi learned many experiences of building bases from countless historical literary works, and he recalled these experiences bit by bit, then assigned them to his subordinates to implement one by one.
Luo Yi knew that the future enemy of the assault regiment was not the Nationalist Army in the county town, but the Japanese army that was about to launch a full-scale invasion of China. According to historical records, Tongzhou was never occupied by the Japanese during the war of resistance, and Luo Yi did not know whether his crossing would change this history or lead to the Japanese attacking Tongzhou. From a strategic position, Tongzhou is located between Wuhan and Nanchang, two heavily guarded towns held by the Japanese, making it an important base for anti-Japanese struggles. With only four years left until 1937, Luo Yi had to seize the time to build Zhu Shan Town into a steel fortress. Luo Yi was a man who liked to fight, but his preferred enemy was foreign invaders, not domestic foes. Whether he was a mule or a horse, he would go to the anti-Japanese battlefield to test himself.
