The end of September in the 20th year of Qianlong's reign
The climate in Guangdong and Guangxi is at its most pleasant, with cool temperatures all day long except for a slightly cooler morning and evening.
At this time, Zhang Rui's bandit suppression team had recruited more than 7,000 people. This force includes two thousand musketeers, two thousand sword and shield soldiers, two thousand pikemen, three hundred scouts, three hundred cavalry, one hundred artillerymen, and four hundred medical soldiers.
According to Zhang Rui's opinion, the proportion of musketeers should be increased. There is no way, who made him particularly like Musketeers when he played the Empire game before.
However, the situation is stronger than people, and many things can be done without thinking.
Although the current construction of muskets is assisted by hydraulic workshops, the construction of muskets at this time can only be done by hand-rolled iron and welding, unlike in later generations, which can be drilled out with machine tools so conveniently and quickly.
The number of muskets produced could not keep up, and it would be useless no matter how many musketeers were recruited.
And now Zhang Rui has begun to rifling all the muskets, and the production speed is much slower.
On the contrary, due to the seizures in two battlefields, Zhang Rui had a large number of steel knives and spears in his warehouse.
Looking at the weapons in the warehouse, Zhang Rui decided to recruit more sword and shield soldiers and spear soldiers.
After all, he doesn't have much time to lurk. In this era where cold weapons are still the mainstay, if you have someone with weapons on your side, your survival will be more secure.
Thinking of this, Zhang Rui felt relieved and no longer loved the Musketeers.
Originally, Zhang Rui thought it would be difficult to recruit people. After all, not many people were willing to become "rebels."
But Zhang Rui underestimated the power of silver and overestimated the rule of the Qing Dynasty.
Although the Manchu Qing Dynasty has always been in a high-pressure state towards the people below them, as long as there is any sign of rebellion, they would rather kill a thousand people by mistake than let one person go. However, in the Guangdong and Guangxi areas where the emperor was far away, it seemed that they did not pay much attention to the rule of the Manchu Qing court.
After the battle with Geng Shangzhi, Zhang Rui gave one hundred taels of appeasement money to the families of all the dead team members, and announced that each dead team member's family would not have to pay rent for the twenty acres of land for twenty years.
People who were not keen on joining Zhang Rui's bandit suppression team now wanted to join Zhang Rui's bandit suppression team immediately.
Moreover, Zhang Rui built a place called Zhongyi Temple in Zhilian Mountain. It is specially dedicated to worship all the dead members of the bandit suppression team, so that people who were originally afraid are chanting, and they will be seen in the Loyalty Shrine after death.
Everything seems to be a means, but it is difficult to refuse.
Being able to recruit so many people was a bit unexpected for Zhang Rui and also made him overjoyed. After all, nothing makes Zhang Rui happier than having others recognize and follow him.
In terms of finance, Zhang Rui is not under pressure yet. After all, he just got a lot of money from Yang Yingju. With the completion of Zhilianshan Commercial Street, Zhang Rui has no shortage of money at this time.
Zhang Ruidao also wanted to get something that most time travelers know: soap glass and the like. But he found that now he really couldn't spare that time. Due to lack of manpower, he is really busy all day long now.
Otherwise, with the hot weather in Guangdong and Guangxi, soap will definitely sell well. You can definitely make a lot of money from glass too.
But when life is at stake. The economy is no longer Zhang Rui's biggest concern. Weapons, population, training...etc. are what Zhang Rui pays most attention to.
Although Zhilian Mountain's business with the outside world has not been broken now, weapons cannot be purchased and can only be made by oneself.
After the weapons are built, they still need to be trained, which is not something that can be accomplished overnight. How can Zhang Rui not be worried?
Originally, Zhang Rui wanted to build a direct line from the North Sea to Hainan Island.
Today, all Zhang Rui's troops can only stay near Zhilian Mountain for high-intensity training.
Directly connected to the school grounds two miles outside the mountain
At this time, the sounds of various trainings here were noisy and confusing.
Originally, there was a school ground directly down the mountainside, but it was really close to where people lived. In order not to disturb the people, Zhang Rui could only open a training school again in this empty and uninhabited place.
The school grounds are also simple, just find a relatively flat open space and make simple repairs. Then it will be divided into areas for training of several military units.
Come here for training during the day. At night, you still have to go back to the barracks in Zhilian Mountain to live. After all, there are houses there to live in.
"Hello, Sixth Brother, hello, Counselor Wang."
Li Guozhong, who saw Zhang Rui and Wang Kaiyuan arriving to inspect the training, gave the two a team salute and said
Looking at Li Guozhong, who was already the commander-in-chief of the Musketeers. Zhang Rui couldn't help but sigh that Li Niushi, who was still following him at the time, could now achieve such success on his own.
"Brother Guozhong, hello." Zhang Rui replied with a team salute.
"Batalion Commander Li, okay." Wang Kaiyuan also returned a familiar team salute. At that time, he thought it was awkward, but now he is so used to it that he can no longer get used to it.
"Brother Guozhong, how is the training going now?" Zhang Rui looked at the recruits who were practicing shooting on the field and shouted excitedly.
Although Li Guozhong is not as thoughtful as Zhang Zhishan, another musketeer general, he is better than him because of his loyalty. There is never any doubt about Zhang Rui's words, and he will only implement them to the letter. The important thing is that Zhang Rui knows him completely.
Zhang Zhishan will also fully implement Zhang Rui's orders, but Zhang Rui feels that he will be more thoughtful.
Zhang Ruidao is not afraid even if he is careful. There are officers from the team who do ideological work for the bandit members all day long. In addition, the families and welfare of the bandit members are there. Even if Zhang Zhishan wants to drag people out to fight against Zhang Rui, it is impossible.
However, everyone has likes and dislikes, and Zhang Rui is no exception.
The army does not need too many ideas, otherwise it will be difficult to control and manage.
Li Guozhong is obviously more in line with this, so Zhang Rui inevitably likes him more. It's just that Zhang Rui loves him, but he doesn't show the fairness of the two thousand teams.
After all, the men and horses of the two General Managers belong to him, not Li Guozhong and Zhang Zhishan. Zhang Rui could see this clearly, so the soldiers would not feel that they were their soldiers.
Even the names given to the two members of the Thousand Corps did not have a trace of the two of them. The one led by Li Guozhong was called Menghu Camp, and the one led by Zhang Zhishan was called Zhongyong Camp. The two have similar meanings but are completely unrelated.
Now, Zhang Rui's bandit suppression team cannot be called a team, but a bandit suppression army.
Zhang Rui's bandit-suppressing army also adopted the ternary system of later generations, and its names were also re-adapted.
Ten teams form a team, with a captain; three teams form a division, with a director; three divisions belong to one battalion, with a battalion commander; three battalions belong to one brigade, with a brigade commander; three brigades belong to one army, with a corps commander.
"Everything went well in the training. The new type of muskets have a really good range. Unfortunately, there are fewer of them, they are easier to break, and the supply cannot keep up. If we need more of these muskets, I am confident that I will follow Brother Six. Take the throne of emperor and give it to Sixth Brother." Li Guozhong said with a sigh.
