Early the next morning, Xie Tian and Tiedan rode tall horses to Gushan Temple in brand-new military uniforms. They wore belts around their waists and had shell guns inserted into their belts. They looked like regular soldiers.
It was only because of the hard work of those women that they rushed out more than a dozen sets of military uniforms after working all night. Tang Haoer's tired look made Xie Tian's eyes feel distressed.
Thank God for promising Tang Haoer that he would go to Taiyuan to buy some sewing machines for Tang Haoer when he had time.
Such valuable things as sewing machines are not available in Pingyuan County. I am afraid that there is not even a sewing machine in the entire county. Maybe people don’t even know what a sewing machine is.
However, Tang Haoer obviously knew something like a sewing machine, and perhaps had used it before. After hearing this, he just hummed flatly: "I will go with you when you go. I know where there is a sewing machine. If you are not familiar with it, you may not be able to find it."
Xie Tian was not surprised that Tang Haoer knew about sewing machines. He knew that Tang Haoer's ancestors ran a dyeing shop, so he was naturally familiar with things in the fabric industry.
When we arrived at Gushan Temple, the entire Gushan Temple was quiet, with few people getting up and moving.
It's freezing cold, and there's nothing to do when you get up. It's better to curl up and digest less food.
Xie Tian walked into the regiment headquarters. Qin Fen, who was washing his face, was surprised to see Xie Tian come in: "Regiment leader, so early?"
Xie Tian grunted and ordered Tiedan: "Xie Jin, go and get all the soldiers to do exercises. Today we will practice formation first. There is no need for squad leader Wang of the cooking class to do exercises. You ask him to prepare breakfast for everyone first and boil a few pots of water for later use. When you're done, hitch up the carriage and go to the silk shop to bring over the weapons and military uniforms."
Qin Fen raised his eyebrows: "Are we going to distribute weapons to the soldiers today?"
Xie Tian nodded: "Originally, we should have trained for a few days before issuing weapons to everyone, but we don't know when the enemy will appear, so we can only shorten the time and at least let everyone have some resistance capabilities. As for training, let's just Take advantage of every opportunity and squeeze out some time to practice your troops."
Qin Fen nodded vigorously: "Yes, the Zhangzhuang stronghold is only sixty miles away from us. The Japs can be there when they ask."
Xie Tian hummed: "So our time is very tight, let's go do some exercises first. The master from the barber shop in town will come over later to help everyone get haircuts. When you are a soldier, you have to look like a soldier. If your hair is messy, you look like a bandit. , and it’s not convenient to bandage if you get injured on the battlefield.”
Qin Fen grinned, and he kept his hair half-long, but he washed it frequently, unlike the high school boy who had hair that looked like a chicken coop.
Not to mention the refugee soldiers. They have walked thousands of miles and their stomachs are not full. Who cares about their hair? They are all dreadlocked.
Anyway, Xie Tian gave the barber shop master a day's work, and no one counted, anyone could come and have their hair shaved.
The refugee soldiers were kicked out of the barracks by Tie Dan and lined up in the small square at the entrance of Gushan Temple. They were all yawning and staggering around without waking up.
I finally had two full meals, and I had a quilt to cover me when I slept at night. Although there were not enough quilts now, and two or three people had to squeeze into one quilt, it was still better than nothing. As a result, I slept comfortably, and I still had to get up. Get out of trouble.
But it was better than having to walk dozens of miles a day to get one last meal and no next meal. The refugee soldiers were quite content.
Xie Tian personally taught everyone how to line up. Amidst the chants, many refugees were awakened and ran out to squat under the sunny wall to watch the excitement.
When the refugees moved in yesterday, Xie Tian arranged for them to receive food rations. The hair sticks weighed five kilograms for adults and three kilograms for children. The sticks and noodles were enough to last them for several days.
Stone mills are readily available in temples and towns. As long as you are not lazy, you will not be hungry.
After walking in line for more than an hour, the soldiers finally started to look better. Sweat was steaming from the tops of the soldiers' heads, carrying a sour smell of decay.
At this time, squad leader Lao Wang of the cooking team also brought weapons, ammunition and newly made military uniforms from the silk shop. According to Xie Tian's instructions, he moved a table from the temple and piled the military uniforms on the table. The weapons and ammunition were unloaded beside the table. .
Qin Fen didn't expect that Xie Tian actually had mortars and machine guns, and he immediately became excited.
This equipment is not much worse than the equipment of a company of the Eighth Route Army. In a real fight, it is not sure who can beat whom.
Xie Tian summoned a few cadres and said: "Today I will distribute weapons to you. As a sophomore, your reconnaissance squad will be equipped with short guns. There are three rifles for you and two soldiers. Each of you and two soldiers will be issued with twenty rounds of ammunition. I can warn you. You, we don’t have enough bullets for this gun, so you can save some for me, and when you use it up, you can figure out a way to solve it yourself.”
Gao Ernuo excitedly took the rifle from Xie Tian. It seemed that this guy had really played with guns. He unloaded the magazine skillfully. When he saw that it was empty, he excitedly asked Xie Tian: "Sir, what's the deal?" Where are the ten bullets?”
Xie Tian looked at the sophomore and asked, "Have you ever used a shell gun?"
The second-year high school kid laughed and said, "I've touched this thing a long time ago. The second boy of Ma Baotian's family has one. I tried hard to beat him with the gun. I also played with it in the Japanese gun tower and shot a few times." "
Xie Tian laughed: "You kid can get away with wherever you go. Okay, let's go aside for now. I'll give you bullets after you're all familiar with how to use them."
Xie Tian looked at Ma Ziqiang: "Ma Ziqiang, your class is a machine gun class. You will be issued one Type 96 light machine gun, five Type 38 rifles, and twenty rounds of bullets. The bullets will also be issued after you are familiar with the firearms." hair."
Ma Ziqiang responded with a loud yes. After eating two full meals and training all morning, he now felt confident in speaking.
A gun is issued with twenty rounds of ammunition. Compared with the Eighth Route Army, he is a rich man.
Each soldier of the Eighth Route Army could only receive five rounds of bullets. After fighting on the battlefield, he could only use the bayonet.
If Li Yunlong knew that Xie Baoqing was so wealthy, he would probably have to come and talk to Xie Baoqing about life and ideals, and ask Xie Baoqing what he thought about putting so many weapons and ammunition in the cellar of Xiang Hao's house instead of in the village.
If placed in the cottage, wouldn't these weapons and ammunition now belong to Li Yunlong?
The refugee soldiers became excited after receiving the brand new 38 caps.
These days, if you have a gun in your hand, you will be tough when you speak. When ordinary people see themselves carrying a gun, they will be three points shorter.
Of course, yesterday they themselves were ordinary people, refugees who were inferior to ordinary people, but now they had some status with the guns on their backs.
Xie Tian looked at Ma Ziqiang and said, "You need to arrange for a strong person to serve as a machine gunner, and also equip the machine gunner with a full-time assistant shooter."
Ma Ziqiang was a little confused: "What does the deputy shooter do?"
Qin Fen said with a smile: "The assistant shooter is the deputy of the machine gunner. His main job is to provide ammunition support to the machine gunner. To put it bluntly, he is the one who loads the bullets on his back."
After all, Qin Fen had spent some time in the Jinsui Army and was quite familiar with the affairs of the army.
Xie Tian grunted and nodded: "That's what Captain Qin said. We have few soldiers now, so you can choose among the soldiers in the squad."
Ma Ziqiang said oh, Qin Fen looked at Xie Tian and said: "Captain, I estimate that we can recruit two more troops in the next two days. There are still many refugees who don't know that we are giving porridge. After getting the letter, we should still be able to recruit more troops." More people are coming.”
Xie Tian smiled bitterly, more people would come, which meant that more food had to be prepared to distribute to the refugees.
Xie Tian was a little optimistic about the situation at the beginning. He thought that he could recruit at least a full company of soldiers from the refugees. However, he did not expect that most of the refugees who came were old, weak, women and children. It seemed that he could recruit from the refugees. Recruiting a reinforced platoon of troops is already very good.
After questioning, Xie found out that young and strong refugees had been recruited by various employment agencies on the way here. Some went to work as soldiers, and some went to mines to carry stones. Anyway, there are various ways out, but it is better than Wandering aimlessly is better.
All I have to say is to survive.
It's really hard to survive these days.
However, now that the words have been spoken, Xie Tian has no intention of going back on it. If the food is really not enough, then he should think about it again. He cannot watch these refugees come all the way to northwestern Shanxi and end up starving to death here.
Putting aside the topic of refugees for now, Xie Tian turned to Zhang Xingsheng and said, "Zhang Xingsheng, your second squad is the artillery squad, and is issued with one Taisho 11-year-style 70mm direct-fire infantry cannon and five Type 38 rifles."
Zhang Xingsheng responded with a loud yes and excitedly stepped forward to receive the equipment.
Zhang Xingsheng is one of the two carriage drivers who came from Gaojiaweizi. He knows a few words. Wang Banshang is his uncle. He was brought out by Wang Banshang. The Independent Regiment of the People's Liberation Army that came to Xietian also became a squad leader. It was an unexpected blessing that both of them became officials.
It's just that I haven't seen anything different about this official yet. There are only five refugee soldiers under his command, but they can still be regarded as managing people.
The servants in Gaojiaweizi are also divided into three, six or nine grades. The bankers who carry guns are considered to be the upper class among the servants. Now that Zhang Xingsheng can also carry guns and is also the squad leader, his spirits are starting to rise.
Xie Tian looked at Zhang Xingsheng and said: "Artillery is the main support force of infantry. This mortar is easy to shoot, but it is not easy to shoot it well. This requires experience to accumulate, but we only have two boxes now. It is impossible to give you live-fire training on artillery shells. You can operate this artillery piece yourself. When you are free, I will explain the actual combat essentials and technical parameters in detail. After you understand everything, I will grant you three rounds for test firing. If If you can't hit the target with three rounds, the gunner must be replaced."
Accumulate with experience, to put it bluntly, it is piled up with cannonballs. Unfortunately, Xie Tian is now poor and has only two boxes of cannonballs to use. He is reluctant to use cannonballs to feed a qualified gunner.
Two boxes of artillery shells for Xie Tian were not enough. If Li Yunlong knew that Xie Tian also had 70mm mortars, his eyes would be red.
This is a real mortar, not a grenade. It is the strongest firepower of the infantry. It is better than the Maxim heavy machine gun in long-range attacks.
Zhang Xingsheng chuckled and said, "Commander, don't worry if you hand this cannon over to me. I guarantee that not a single shell will be wasted."
Thank God for being speechless. Not wasting a single shell is simply a fantasy. Even modern missiles with satellite navigation support still have deviations, let alone a mortar that relies entirely on experience.
Okay, after the equipment was distributed, Xie Tian reached out and summoned the barber shop master in the town who had been sitting on his burden smoking a roll and watching the excitement. He announced to the soldiers: "Now everyone is lining up to come and have their heads shaved. Leaders with clean hair." Put it in and take a shower, then change into military uniform and eat in the canteen."
The refugee soldiers who were still excited complained for a while, and some even squatted on the ground.
Why are there so many things to do? I have to shave my head, take a shower and change clothes before I can eat.
Qin Fen walked out first with a smile: "I'll come first."
He is the company commander, and apart from the cooking squad and the reconnaissance squad, they are all his soldiers, so he naturally has to take the lead.
Tiedan took off his hat and glared at the complaining refugee soldiers and yelled: "What a fuss, I've shaved my head, why do you guys have bigger heads than me? Is shaving your head, bathing and changing clothes harmful to you? I love you. Shave or not, those who don’t shave will have nothing to eat.”
The refugee soldiers knew that Tiedan was Xie Tian's godson, and they also knew that both men were bandits. They neither dared to get angry nor speak out, so they fell silent.
Xie Tian raised his hand and gave Tiedan a slap in the face and scolded him: "Don't you know how to speak properly? Get out and start a fire."
Tiedan exclaimed happily and turned around and entered Gushan Temple.
Xie Tian smiled and turned back to sit down behind the table filled with military uniforms. He took out a cigarette and lit it. He said to the soldiers: "Those who can smoke can come and get it themselves. If you want to have your hair shaved, come one by one. Let's chat for a while while we have nothing to do."
A few soldiers actually came forward and took out cigarettes from Xie Tian's cigarette case and lit them. They squatted in front of the table and eagerly waited for Xie Tian to chat or lecture.
After a day of contact, they also realized that Xie Tian was not a bad person.
They couldn't understand, how could such a person become a famous bandit within a hundred miles?
I'm afraid this is another desperate story.
