Chapter Eleven Basic Training
The next day, the "Xiaowangzhuang Militia Command" was set up in the village, with Chen Jifan as the commander-in-chief, and Wang Jicai, Hu Yunfeng and Zhao Jun as deputy commanders. Wang Jicai's main job was to coordinate logistics, to ensure good material supplies for training, of course all this Chen Jifan insisted must be bought with money.
In order for the militia to have a quiet and independent environment, Wang Jicai and the villagers discussed and allocated a piece of land outside the village as a training ground. According to Chen Jifan's requirements, they asked carpenters to make various training equipment.
On the first day of assembly, Chen Jifan went through the roll call according to the name list, then organized 240 people into two companies, with Hu Yunfeng and Zhao Jun respectively serving as company commanders. Each company was divided into three platoons, each with 40 people, and four squads. The candidates for platoon leaders and squad leaders were recommended by everyone and temporarily took charge. Later, they would be promoted or demoted based on their training performance.
Then Hu Yunfeng announced the militia's military regulations and reward and punishment rules. The military regulations were not many, mainly emphasizing not to disturb the people, obey orders, and hand over captured goods to the public. The reward and punishment system was also much more lenient, after all, it was just a militia.
Chen Jifan asked Wang Jicai to find someone to copy the military rules and reward and punishment regulations and post them in a conspicuous place on the training ground.
Then came the announcement of the training plan.
First stage: seven days.
Assemble at 6:00 am and run three kilometers.
6:30-7:00 Breakfast. After breakfast, conduct queue training. This stage mainly trains the most basic standing at attention and at ease. (Breakfast is cooked by villagers, and grain is purchased from the village by Chen Jifang)
10:00-11:30 Physical training. Push-ups, pull-ups and 100m sprint.
11:30 Return home for dinner (Chen Jihong's money is limited and cannot afford the food for over 200 people for the time being).
Assemble at 2:00 pm in the afternoon, receive patriotic education and learn to sing songs.
3:00 Queue Training
5:00-7:30 Physical Training
7:00 All-day training ends, dismissed and returned home.
Yesterday, Zhao Jun saw this schedule and burst out laughing, saying that this is not military training, but rather university student military training. Chen Jifan set the standards so low because he was afraid that high-intensity training would scare people away. Besides, these people were still farmers yesterday and couldn't even tell left from right, so they had to come slowly.
As expected, in these seven days of training, there were quite a few "Xu Sanduo"s who couldn't even tell left from right, let alone perform a simple drill like marching in step. However, everyone remained undaunted, after all, these people would one day be the backbone of the resistance against Japan. Besides, who is born to be a soldier? Didn't Xu Sanduo eventually become a great military leader?
Chen Jifan stipulated that an assessment would be conducted seven days later, and those who failed to meet the standards would be punished together with their squad leader, platoon leader, and company commander. As a result, neither Hu Yunfeng nor Zhao Jun dared to slack off. The two took the opportunity to instill team spirit, bucket theory, and other concepts into the troops, with the ultimate goal of fostering a culture of unity and mutual assistance during training.
Hu Yunfeng and Zhao Jun, one a lieutenant colonel and the other a senior captain, had both commanded troops before, so many things didn't need to be instructed by Chen Jifan to be done well. Although the training plan was not high, both of them secretly added intensity during training, neither wanting to lose to the other.
After entrusting the training matters to Zhao Jun and Hu Yunfeng, Chen Jifan was not idle either. He had been thinking about the troops on the mountain all along. Chen Jifan found Wang Jicai and asked him to help purchase some grain, pork, and eggs. There wasn't much food left on the mountain, so after the first phase of militia training ended, Chen Jifan planned to go back for a trip and bring these grains back with him.
After several days of training, Chen Jifang called Zhao Jun and Hu Yunfeng to ask about the militia training situation. As a result, the two poured out their grievances to Chen Jifang.
"At first, I also knew that this job was not easy to do. What's more, the discipline is poor and the training is difficult. The key is that these people lack something," said Zhao Jun.
"Oh? Then you'd better tell me, what exactly are they lacking?" Chen Jifan said with a smile.
"Morale, that's it, morale. No matter how I boost their spirits, the whole team just can't get excited, to be honest with you, these people are not capable of fighting a war, they don't have that kind of energy." Zhao Jun sighed.
Hu Yunfeng also spoke up, saying: "Captain Chen, what Zhao Jun said is not wrong at all. The training has been tough, but I think back when I was a new recruit, it was the same way. These people have decent physical condition, but they lack the spirit of a soldier. I can patiently teach them how to hold a gun and shoot, but this spirit thing, I'm afraid there's no quick fix."
Zhao Jun's answer did not surprise Chen Jifan. The devils had never been to Xiaowang Village, and the villagers had no real understanding of the cruelty of the devils. Participating in the militia was not motivated by any lofty ideals; most people were just there for the two silver dollars. Even so, Chen Jifan accepted them without hesitation. Ideological work could be gradually resolved through routine training.
Chen Jifan suddenly asked, "Isn't there a thought education class arranged in the training plan? How come it doesn't have any effect at all?"
"Never mind, we also thought of using this time to carry out some patriotic education and cultivate a sense of national pride, but no one was interested. Teaching them to sing songs is still possible, but the people of this era are all tone deaf, they can make even good songs sound terrible." Zhao Jun took a sip of water and waved his hand.
"It seems that we need to think carefully about a solution, this can't go on like this, we don't have so much experience and time to waste here," said Chen Jifan.
At this time, Hu Yunfeng took over and said: "Captain Chen, I think we can't rush into this matter. The troops have only been training for a few days. Let's wait until they can all hold guns, then we'll take them out to do some small-scale real combat or call the mountain troops down to give them a parade performance."
"Ah, Old Hu's idea is not bad. I think we should increase the propaganda efforts in the village to publicize the cruelty of the little devils and the righteousness of defending our homes and country. We should give the militia members' families a 'military dependent' status and instill in them the glorious idea of joining the army." Zhao Jun added.
"What you said is very good, so I'll take care of the publicity, and you two can focus on training, especially on ideological education, which is crucial. After the first stage of training is over, I plan to go back and pull some grain for them, and also find two cooks for the mountain." Chen Jifan said.
Talking about cooking, everyone can't help but think of comrades on the mountain. Everyone is a soldier, training all day, and every meal is either canned or wild game. It's really necessary to cook on the mountain.
The first phase of training ended smoothly, and the two brigades passed the assessment. Chen Jifan announced a one-day holiday, then asked Zhao Jun to read out the second-phase training plan. The second phase began with shooting and physical strength training, but due to insufficient firearms, they had to take turns.
Second stage: fifteen days
Assemble at 6:00 am, five kilometers long run
6:30-7:00 breakfast, no food for those who can't make it on time.
After breakfast, the whole group was divided into three groups of 80 people each. One group was in charge of Zhao Jun for firearms training, and the other two groups were led by Hu Yunfeng to strengthen physical fitness and hand-to-hand combat skills. The rotation took place every five days.
After gathering at 2:00 pm, we will first have an hour of ideological education and then continue training.
The training goal of this stage is for the team to reach a new standard, physical fitness continues to improve, and everyone learns to shoot with guns.
The next day, Chen Jifan brought two cooks from the village and pulled two large carts of grain back to the base. Before leaving, he instructed them to return in half a month to inspect the training results of the second phase of militia.
Actually, the new recruits in Xiaowangzhuang were very lucky because what they received was not ordinary militia training, but a crash course for new recruits of the 21st century People's Liberation Army.
For example, in shooting training, Zhao Junlian's requirements were very strict. First, they had to hold the rifle with weights hung from the barrel until they couldn't hold it steady anymore. Then, they practiced aiming in three positions, followed by live ammunition shooting. Before Chen Jifan left, he specifically instructed them not to be stingy with bullets, although they only brought 2000 rounds. Zhao Jun demanded that they use as many as possible for training, since the enemy had plenty of 38 caliber bullets anyway. As a result, each group member could only shoot an average of 8 rounds. Therefore, before live ammunition shooting, Zhao Jun required everyone to complete basic training and stipulated that whoever performed well would get priority in shooting live ammunition. Since they were soldiers, who wouldn't want to be able to truly fire their guns back? So everyone trained very hard.
What is meant by live ammunition shooting, for militia only requires accurate shooting within 100 meters, that is to say, being able to hit the target at 100 meters is already good enough. A skilled shooter is trained through bullets, and being able to shoot without wasting ammo is already excellent.
The last lesson of shooting training is disassembling and assembling guns, requiring everyone to have the most basic understanding of the gun in their hands.
While Zhao Jun was training intensively, Hu Yunfeng was not idle either. Originally a paratrooper, Hu later became the champion of various military skills competitions in the special forces. In addition to enhancing the physical strength of the militia, he also modified the PLA's martial arts boxing and taught it to these militiamen.
If there's anything that makes the two battalion commanders happy during training, it's not the improvement of the militia's military skills, but their transformation into soldiers day by day. The organizational discipline is much better than at the beginning, and through continuous indoctrination, everyone has developed a strong hatred for Little Japan.
However, some side effects have also been produced. The family members of the militiamen reacted to Wang Jicai, saying that since their family members joined the militia and returned home, they could eat more than before, and if they continued to eat like this, there would be no food left for the rest of the family. Indeed, even landlords' families did not have much surplus grain in times of war and chaos, let alone ordinary people. Although the villagers of Xiaowangzhuang had a slightly better life than those in other places, they were not yet at the point where they could eat and wear without worrying about running out.
However, Wang Jicai asked the two company commanders to rest assured that he would try his best to provide some subsidies for these families.
What is called subsidy is to persuade or require every household in the village that did not participate in the militia to contribute a certain proportion of grain, and then distribute these grains to the militia households. Of course, Wang Jicai, as the initiator, is also the richest man in the village, taking the lead in contributing 100 stones of grain. Other families were not very willing at first, but seeing the village head take the lead, they also followed suit and made donations.
It's not that Wang Jicai had high awareness, in fact, at that time, landlords who didn't oppress the people and weren't traitors were already considered good people, of course, they couldn't be expected to engage in communism. What Wang Jicai did was a kind of investment, no matter what, these troops were from the village after all, and as the village head, having 200+ armed men under his control had to be taken seriously.
Zhao Jun and Hu Yunfeng finally felt the difficulty of pulling a team this year, first of all, it was the problem of eating. To exaggerate, food is not something that can be bought with money. The best way is to rob from the devils. Every time the devils occupy a place, there is one thing they will definitely do, which is to requisition grain. It's time for the devils to take action. They asked Wang Jicai to send someone outside to gather information about the devils' movements, and as soon as any wind or grass movement was discovered, they would immediately return to report.
As the training progressed, the militiamen had mastered skills such as three shifts and four posts, with Zhao Jun in charge of arranging sentries every day. On the one hand, it was for training purposes, and on the other hand, it was also out of real combat needs, so that no one would be caught off guard in a dream.
Since the village head took the lead in solving the worries of the family, the militia's training has become more active, and even the ideological education class has begun to take shape. The logic of the militiamen is simple: whoever treats them well, they think is the most intimate. Now the militiamen are most looking forward to a real fight with the devils.
