Chapter 24: Practicing Hands (New Book Seeking Attention)

  Erdong is less than fifteen kilometers away from Xinghe County, and at the speed of cavalry, it took less than an hour to arrive.

  As soon as he walked to the city gate, Li Jingyuan was shocked by the huge changes that had taken place in Xinghe County. In just a few months, the originally not-so-high city walls of Xinghe County had been rebuilt to look like real ones, especially the ring-shaped fortifications were quite large-scale. Alone at the west gate, he saw hundreds of tall and short blockhouses, from which he clearly saw the machine gun barrels extending out of the shooting holes.

  "Big nephew, when did you build these fortresses?" Li Jingyuan asked out of curiosity.

  "Report to the special envoy, from several months ago when construction began until now, a total of four months have been used. The east and west gates of the county town have built 177 large and small forts, and many forts and high points have also been built inside the city." Chen Feng replied.

  "Don't always call me Special Envoy, it's too formal. I've had a decades-long friendship with your father since we were young, and he even saved my life back then. You can just call me Uncle." Li Jingyuan said with a smile.

  "Haha, Uncle Li is joking. You're here on official business this time, I don't want people gossiping about you behind your back." Chen Feng said with a smile.

  "You're not some government official, Uncle Li. Who would bother to provoke me? How did you come up with the idea of building city defenses? Can you predict the future?" Li Jingyuan asked in puzzlement.

  "What can we do? This is all because of the bandits. You don't know, not long ago on the east side of the county town's Daqing Mountain, another pole was erected, it's a group of bandits who escaped from the northeast, with quite a few people and strong combat power. Not long ago, they even robbed Zhang Bei's Zhang Jia Bu Xiang. With their strength, it would be easy to wipe out our former security team without much effort. I'm also doing this for survival, and it's quite helpless!"

  "Haha, you really have to thank these bandits. If it weren't for such strong enemies, you wouldn't have gone to so much trouble to build city defenses. Not bad, not bad. I didn't expect this small Xinghe County town to be turned into a fortress by you." Li Jingyuan said with a smile.

  "This was indeed spoken by Uncle Li, with these city defense works, plus the brothers under my command who are still working hard, I, as the commander of the city defense, can also do my job with peace of mind, without worrying about being beheaded by bandits at any time." Chen Feng said.

  "Tell me about your troops. This time, I was ordered by Commander Fu Zuoyi to investigate the security teams in various parts of Suiyuan. Now it seems that only your place is not bad, while other places' security teams are just empty shells. Ten security teams put together may not even be able to form a real infantry battalion. It's really disappointing!" Li Jingyuan said.

  "Li Shu, our security regiment has three infantry battalions and one machine gun battalion, plus a company each of guards, scouts, engineers, artillery, and logistics, as well as a platoon of communications soldiers. The total strength of the entire regiment is over 3,000 people." Although this Li Shu was very kind to him, it could be seen from his words that he was really concerned about himself, but Chen Feng did not dare to tell him the true composition of the troops, because even with the current security regiment's composition, they were already greatly overstaffed.

  "What, your security team has more than 3,000 people? My goodness, that's equivalent to one of our Shanxi Army infantry brigades! What about their weapons and equipment?" Li Jingyuan asked hastily.

  "The equipment is pretty good, all German gear, which I bought myself with my own money from the Germans. It cost me about half of our family's savings, and now whenever my dad sees me, he scolds me for being a spendthrift!" Chen Feng said with a smile.

  "In my opinion, among the Chen family, only you have vision. In this chaotic world, having money and power is not as good as having a gun. With a gun, the other two are just trivial matters. By the way, why didn't your father come? Where is he now?" Li Jingyuan said.

  "This isn't the start of war, is it? My dad estimated that our family business will probably go bankrupt, so he went to various branches to deal with the business and has been gone for almost half a month." Chen Feng didn't want Li Jingyuan to know about the existence of the Daqing Mountain base, but the mountain was too far away from Chen Binggong, so Chen Feng had no choice but to tell a small lie.

  "Wait for your dad to come back and give him a good scolding. Today, Uncle Li has official business to attend to, let's talk about official business first. After we're done with the official business, you and I will have a good drink together, then I'll go back and report."

  "Alright, I'll listen to Uncle Li. Let's go to the big drill ground, the troops are already assembled there." Chen Feng said.

  As the troops increased a lot, the original security team's large campus was no longer sufficient, and it had to be expanded again.

  Li Jingyuan was stunned by the army in front of him, although Chen Feng's military uniform looked a bit strange to people at this time, but the neat and uniform action, complete formation, and unified Mauser rifle and bayonet made this three-thousand-man team look extremely intimidating.

  "It looks good, but I don't know if it's durable enough," said Li Jingyuan.

  "Uncle Li, this is a mule or a horse that's being led out for a stroll. I see the guard unit behind you isn't bad, it should be an elite force under Commander Fu's command. Am I right, nephew?"

  "My nephew has a good eye for talent. The company behind me, although only 110 men strong, is comprised of crack troops handpicked by Commander Fu from his personal guard to serve as my personal bodyguards." Li Jingyuan said with some pride.

  "Let's do it this way, let my security team and Fu's guards have a practice match. Only after they've practiced will we know if they're useful or not. This way, you'll also have something to report back to Fu." Chen Feng said with a smile.

  "Haha, it seems that my young nephew is determined to win. Alright, De Gong, now it's your turn. Don't let me down and get humiliated by Fu Si Ling's guards!" Li Jing Yuan said with a smile.

  "Don't worry, sir!" a lieutenant colonel beside Li Jingyuan said loudly.

  "Commander Chen, since you've brought up the idea of linking up, let's link up. How do we link up? You tell us," said Captain Bai Degong loudly.

  "Since it's a comprehensive strength comparison, let's divide it into two categories: collective and individual. There are three items in total. The first item is shooting, with five bullets per person, and the final score will be calculated based on average performance. The second item is hand-to-hand combat, where teams of equal numbers compete to see which team falls first. The third item is a one-on-one duel between the strongest soldiers from each team, with shooting and hand-to-hand combat as the competition subjects! What does Captain Bai think?" Chen Feng asked.

  "It's very fair, although I don't think your team can defeat us consecutively, but your team's bravery is still commendable!" Bai Degong said in a deep voice.

  "In this world, anything is possible, whether or not I can defeat you depends on the performance of my troops next." Chen Feng said with a smile.

  "Commander Chen, I've brought three infantry platoons this time. Shall we compete collectively by platoon?" said Bai Degong.

  "Let's go!" Chen Feng said briefly.

  "The third company of the guard battalion, first row, has just lined up. Everyone is quite clear about the rules, right? Five rounds per person, don't embarrass Commander and our Shanxi Army."

  "Yes!"

  "Third company, third battalion, third regiment, fall in! You must know that you are competing against the guard of General Fu Zuoyi, Commander-in-Chief of the Seventh Army Group and Chairman of Suiyuan Province. Show your usual training level, go!"

  There were a hundred targets on the large shooting range. After replacing the target papers, Chen Feng looked at Bai Degong and said, "Let's start!"

  "Alright!"

  "Ready!"

  "Fire!"

  Bang Bang Bang

  Unlike Fu's guard unit, Chen Feng's security team fired three shots at the fastest speed and quickly formed a queue to wait for Chen Feng's next instruction. Fu's guard unit, on the other hand, aimed and shot one by one after finishing each shot, using up to one and a half minutes for five bullets, while the same five bullets were used by the security team in less than 15 seconds.

  "Fire at will!" Chen Feng ordered.

  "Fourth Ring!"

  "Fourth Ring!"

  "Five Rings!"

  "Three Halos!"

  ......

  The final statistics show that Fu's guard company averaged 4.1 rings, while Chen's security team averaged 4.4 rings, slightly better than the guard company.

  This result was already anticipated by Chen Feng, although Commander Fu's guard company can be considered an elite force, but Chen Feng's security team had the upper hand in terms of timing, location and human factors. If they still couldn't win, it would truly disappoint Chen Feng's expectations.

  The security team trains on the campus every day, and those targets are hit by each person no more than once or twice a day. Now that the ammunition department is self-sufficient, Chen Feng has opened up the supply of bullets to improve the unit's shooting accuracy. Under the nourishment of a large number of bullets, the unit's shooting accuracy rate has risen sharply. Chen Feng's minimum requirement for ordinary soldiers is that the hit rate of the first five bullets must reach four rings, otherwise it will be considered unqualified.

  In addition, the rifles used by the security team were German-made Mauser rifles, which had excellent performance and were far better than the Hanyang-made rifles used by the Shanxi Army. Moreover, when the soldiers of the security team competed with each other in front of their comrades at home, there was no way they would not give it their all, and a score of 4.4 rings was nothing to brag about. If Chen Feng let the special forces take action, they might have achieved a score of five rings.

  "It seems that Commander Chen's troops have worked hard on their marksmanship, and I, Bai Degong, admit defeat with humility." Although Bai Degong did not expect his guard company to lose to this unknown security regiment, he still graciously acknowledged the outcome.

  "Alright alright, let's proceed with the second round then!" Chen Feng said humbly.

  "Alright!"

  "Second company, fall in!"

  "Third company, second platoon, fall in!"

  "When fighting, all of you will switch to wooden guns. There are no rules for the fight. Whoever knocks down his opponent wins!" Chen Feng announced the rules and then ordered the two teams to start practicing.

  At this point, the gap between the old and new soldiers suddenly appeared. Although the training methods of the Jin-Sui Army's guard company were backward, they were all people who had fought in the pile of dead bodies, dared to fight and fight, and although their formation was scattered, they completely suppressed the 2nd platoon of the Security Regiment on the momentum.

  Ten minutes later, the security team was left with less than twenty people, while the Jin-Sui army's guard company still had thirty people, and the "casualty" ratio between the two sides reached 2:1.