Dominate the Country

We arrived at Chongming Island, the training ground for the North American Expeditionary Force. Three sailboats had just docked at the pier.

In order to distinguish the imperial army from the private army of the nobles, Chen Ming gave the latter a new name - the Expeditionary Force.

The personnel of the Dengzi Camp were carrying backpacks as big as a mountain and queuing up to disembark slowly. There were many strong men in their twenties and thirties among these people. They looked strong and healthy, but this could not hide the fact that they had passed the peak of their lives and the golden age of military service. They were the former retired officers and soldiers who were recruited into the private army.

They were generally over 25 and under 35 years old.

The total number of the Dengzi Camp was not large, 500 people, a battalion, riding on three Chinese sailboats. At this moment, the ships were docked and the soldiers disembarked. With the restraint of these retired officers and soldiers, all the people were neatly waiting patiently on the deck in squads, and the queues were in order.

Dengziying is the army of King Deng Chen Kuai, not the people with the surname Deng. This is a rule of the dispatched army. It is named after the title and is also called Dengziying.

Although King Deng is still young and naturally cannot come forward to preside over everything, he still has a father, right? And his uncle, right?

For the six younger brothers of Chen Ming, King Cai, King Xu, King Deng, King Xue, King Ju, and King Shen, they are more looking forward to the early establishment of land. Because in China, their future is less secure than those of Chen Ming's sons. So they themselves are more looking forward to going to North America as soon as possible.

No one expected Chen Ming to be so generous, not only allowing them to gain a foothold in the existing territory in North America, but also allowing them to form their own small forces. Although there are restrictions on the establishment, the family of the first level of the baron can only form a team, or a reinforced team [noble], but the maximum cannot exceed 200 people, and they may not even have many security personnel for their subordinate companies and enterprises. But these are two different things! Completely different in nature.

The highest level of princes is a full-staffed battalion; the next level of marquis has a dwarf battalion of 300 people.

Although this number is not large, think about it, the Chen family army at that time also developed from the standard of 100 or 200 people. And if you don’t organize a regular army, you don’t know that this thing is really a completely different concept from security.

First of all, you need guns and ammunition, sufficient logistical supplies, military pay, training consumption, and officers and non-commissioned officers to output various military skills to the soldiers.

Of course, the court provides training grounds, dormitories, shooting ranges, etc. Otherwise, the investment of a regular army will be even greater.

And they also need artillery, right? There are cavalry, scouts, transport teams, medical soldiers...

With the gathering of various arms, the composition of a regular army is not that simple.

Now there are tens of thousands of troops gathered on Chongming Island, and they all stand on the shoulders of giants, which makes them look so regular.

The autumn sun is still hot. Under the sunshine, the morning mist-like light smoke shrouds the sea surface of Chongming Island. The patrol sailboats that shuttled far away seemed very blurry, with only a little gray shadow moving. Only the colorful lights on the patrol sailboats from time to time were reflected in everyone's eyes with the slightly cold sea breeze.

It's another morning.

The Dengzi Battalion, which arrived at the Chongming Island dock yesterday afternoon, set out from the temporary barracks set up near the dock. They were temporarily placed here yesterday and now got up early to wait for the order to set off.

After the Deng family army completed the assembly and roll call at the dock, the entire battalion set out to the real camp.

There are very few residents on Chongming Island now. There are only a few militarized agricultural reclamation bases with a small number of farmers and fishermen engaged in agricultural and fishery production, and all the output is almost consumed by Chongming Island itself. This was originally a marine training base of the navy, but now it has become the headquarters of the dispatched army.

In addition, there are soldiers and labor camps serving the army.

The latter is not only responsible for loading and unloading goods, such as the goods loaded on the three sailboats that arrived with the Deng family army yesterday, which will form various factories on the island, such as producing food, bedding, shoes, vehicles and small boats for the army. At the same time, they are also the main force in the construction of the entire training base.

So there is almost no commercial atmosphere here. Except for the shops and warehouses in the commercial port area, other places are completely under the state of "military control". The few people walking on the road are all wearing various uniforms.

Coming here, you can more deeply experience the tense atmosphere before the "war".

After the Deng camp was settled in the camp, the whole camp, except for a few sick people, was pulled to the training ground in the afternoon for training.

The first to arrive at the Chongming Island training ground was the Yan camp, which was the team organized by Chen Erbao. The arms were particularly complete. Although it was also limited to 500 people, the team-level organization under the entire camp had more than a dozen subordinates.

Except for the navy, including the marines, Chen Erbao has gathered all the existing arms of the national defense army. His status and influence in the army made him the first among all the nobles to complete the compilation of the army, and the first to complete it so beautifully.

Even those front-line generals with heavy troops were not as fast as the Yanzi Battalion, because they did not have as much leisure time as Chen Erbao.

The Yanzi Battalion is also one of the most capable forces in the entire Chongming area. This battalion has almost a hundred officers and non-commissioned officers, about half of whom are retired veterans, and the other side is specially recruited young people, over 18 years old and under 20 years old.

The training is strict, because there are still instructors in the camp who have retired from the recruit camp.

Therefore, Yanziying naturally became one of the first batch of dispatched troops to arrive in North America.

When the soldiers from Deng Ziying arrived at a nearby training ground, many fields were already occupied. Flags were flying on each playground, and the banners of each household were displayed.

Deng Ziying was led by the staff to the No. 1 venue in Area B. This is a large and spacious playground, covering an area of ​​four or five acres. In addition to the flat and clean runway and playground, there are also horizontal bars, parallel bars, and zip lines. , single-plank bridges, obstacle windows, slope jumps, dodging frames, climbing frames, and a series of other training equipment.

Yanzi Camp is in Area A. On the way over, the officers and soldiers of Dengzi Battalion saw the lively Yanzi Battalion training. Next door to them, in No. 2 of Area B, was the Zhengzi Battalion to which Gao Pengyue, who died in the battle, belonged. During the founding of the country, Gao Pengyue was granted the title of Marquis of Zhengyang by the emperor.

Basically, each training ground has a fixed number of battalion-level structures, just one. Chongming Island is so big that there are more than one training ground, and each training ground has at least two areas. Speaking of which, Chen Han was still a prince of the first rank.

"The bayonet is a hero, the bullet is a fool!" On the training field, the instructor of the Zhengzi Battalion was giving a pre-drill commentary. This sentence was said by Chen Ming when he was teasing the Manchus for their weak hand-to-hand combat ability, but it was quickly adopted by the army. spread. Today, the firepower of the National Defense Forces is already quite large, and operations have shifted to the stage of "win with firepower". However, this sentence still has a profound influence in the military, especially at the top.

What's more, Chen Ming has always emphasized the soldiers' hand-to-hand combat capabilities.

"Shooting, bombing, assassination, demolition and soil work are the five most basic skills for every infantryman. This is not only the real need of an infantryman, but also the necessity for China and the military to win; it is what every soldier must keep in mind. There is no distinction between officers and soldiers. To be honest, officers are better than soldiers. Officers at all levels must not only be good at it, but also be excellent and proficient. "

"Next, we will continue to strengthen assassination training. Hand-to-hand combat is of unparalleled importance in the wars of today's era."

Although Gao Pengyue died, there were still many people in the Gao family, so they naturally came to help at this time, including Chen Ming. The death of this man, who he said was his cousin, has not been forgotten by him to this day.

During the entire war, Gao Pengyue could be said to be the person with the highest level of sacrifice.

Two instructors wearing rattan armor and headgear protective gear entered the demonstration mode, and at the same time explained and performed the key points of assassination confrontation to the soldiers.

Two armies confront each other, soldiers fight against each other, and people directly confront each other. This cannot be simulated in words. Facing a bayonet, most people's legs will weaken. Not everyone can kill someone. That's why there is such a saying: A soldier who has not seen blood is not a good soldier, and true elites cannot be trained on the training ground.

Zhang Youcai still remembers that during a training session when he first joined the army, an instructor picked up a musket with a bayonet and came to his team to demonstrate. There was a snap, and the bayonet with a cold light was thrust forward, the tip of the knife was directly in front of his eyes, asking how he felt. Zhang Youcai clearly remembered that his whole body was weak at that time. He clearly saw the bayonet thrust in front of him, but he couldn't even avoid it. In this regard, he cannot compare with his nephew Zhang Dashan. Zhang Dashan and he are on the same team. Except for the first two times when he subconsciously dodges, he can calmly watch the bayonet stabbing him in the third time. In front of him, he remained motionless.

Zhang Youcai, a man who was frightened by the bayonet and made people pee, could not become a regular soldier. Later, he and some people in the same team were transferred to the logistics force.

Zhang Youcai is still working in the army. He is a staff member of the Chongming Island training base in front of him. With so many people training on the island, the consumption of military supplies is huge. Don't look at the small number of people per share, but you have to look at how many shares there are. The number of dispatched troops on Chongming Island has reached more than 20,000.

After the first batch of dispatched troops set off, a large number of people followed.

Zhang Youcai was originally taking people to build a single-plank bridge at Site No. 5 in Area B. He just saw someone coming in at Site No. 1, so he walked over to take a look, and then discovered that the Zhengzi Camp in Site No. 2 was practicing assassination.

Zhengziying is not a newly established team. They have been in Chongming for more than half a month. Assassination training has been carried out several times, but the difference this time is that they are going to engage in an assassination confrontation. The Zhengzi Battalion is a dwarf battalion. There are two small teams among the 300 subordinates, that is, there are only two small platoons of regular soldiers in one team, and there are only two squads in one small platoon. There is also an artillery platoon, a cavalry platoon and a baggage platoon, plus combat units such as the reconnaissance squad [mountain] and sniper squad [squad], as well as non-combat troops such as medical, etc. Everyone dispersed in an organized manner and moved to an empty field. Then the first team and the reconnaissance squad that were mobilized began to send their respective assassination masters to start confrontation training.

Deng Ziying at the training ground next to him paused his training and stared at the next door.

Assassination confrontation training is a point that is strongly emphasized in all armies. It can even be said that in the current era, when the two armies are compared, nothing can be seen by simply looking at the shooting training on the shooting range, but the confrontation of assassination training But we can see some signs.

And since they are soldiers, they naturally have a desire to win.

Deng Ziying knew that the Chongming Island training base would hold a big competition every ten days. First there were competitions between the training grounds, and then there were competitions between the training grounds. Chen Erbao's Yanziying had been doing this for two consecutive months. Won first place. This news made Chen Erbao so excited that he made a special trip from Nanjing to Chongming, bringing chicken, duck and fish with him to greatly commend Yanziying.

Two warriors face to face fighting training, both wearing special protective gear and head protectors. The face is protected by leather and iron, and the other person's face cannot be seen clearly from the outside, except for those eyes. Both sides of the confrontation held wooden spears of the same weight as muskets and wore rattan armor, just like ancient warriors wearing armor all over their bodies. They were extremely powerful.

The top of the wooden gun was wrapped in white flour. If it sticks to the body, it will definitely be a point.

The rule is whoever gets five points first wins.

As for how to get five points with one shot, that is to shoot the fatal part in the head, chest, and abdomen. If you get five points, you will get it first. Then there are the edges of the chest and abdomen, as well as the limbs. One hit will score two or three points. If you can hit it twice, you will win.

Therefore, the assassination confrontation is particularly fierce, and the soldiers also like to watch the assassination confrontation, because this is an evolved version of the martial arts competition.

Although in the current era, people with strong force are no more resistant to one lead bullet than people with weak force, human beings always respect those with superior force. Otherwise, why would there be so many fierce generals in "Three Kingdoms", "Sui and Tang" and "Shuo Yue" that attract people's attention?

When mentioning the Three Kingdoms, many people may think of Cao Liusun, Zhuge Sima, and Diao Chan and Er Qiao, but more people think of the Five Tiger Generals and Lu Bu among men and the red rabbit among horses. After watching "Romance of the Sui and Tang Dynasties", the most memorable thing is definitely not Yang Guang and Li Shimin, but Qin Shubao riding on both sides of the Yellow River. He is Tianbao general, wearing a double phoenix golden helmet and a chain golden armor, sitting The next horse that can travel a thousand miles is Yuwen Chengdu, who has phoenix wings gilded with gold; and the perverted monster Li Yuanba, who has a pointed mouth, a sickly face, and a skinny stick, but carries a 400-pound sledgehammer in each hand...

Human beings' admiration for those with strong force is deep in their bones.

This feeling lasts until now, so this assassination training is particularly attractive.

The assassination masters in each other's teams faced each other tit for tat, exhaling like thunder. The confrontation between each other often lasts for a long time, because this is not a battlefield, but when they fight, they are like masters of cold weapons, and the winner can often be determined in a few seconds.

This kind of fight may not seem to last long, but it consumes a lot of energy and endurance from both sides. After a fight, if you take off your rattan armor and mask, you will see a man dripping with sweat and emitting white smoke.

With two snaps, the fierce confrontation came to an abrupt end, and the winner was clear.

That's how hand-to-hand combat is, stabbing the opponent to death with one shot, unequivocally.

And there is one of the most exciting bayonet fights, which is limited in time and takes half a minute. There was no winner in one game and both teams were eliminated. There are also team fights, all of which are meant to make them adapt to the battlefield.

Several pairs of eyes were staring at the center of the field. The surrounding area was so quiet that you could hear the drop of a pin, with only the heavy breathing of both sides and the occasional clash of wooden guns. Then came the thunderous cheers and applause, and many people had veins on their necks when they roared, because in addition to external honors, there are also different honors within any battalion, and no one can fall behind. Downwind, to the point of ridicule.