Volume 1 Wuchang Vortex Chapter 58 Reorganization
Walking on the quiet path at the foot of Guishan Mountain, Shen Shukai felt as if there were seven or eight drums in his chest, beating wildly. He was even more frightened when he saw the leading soldier actually plunge into the rammed road. When he stepped into the rammed road, he found that this was a secret arsenal. The first thing he saw was piles of long wooden boxes, and then the familiar back of a man holding a Hanyang rifle in the middle of the wooden boxes. Xiao Anguo and another officer were laughing and chatting happily next to him. He didn't know whether it was intentional or coincidental. When he just stepped into the warehouse, the back of the man suddenly turned and pointed the gun at him.
Seeing the muzzle of the gun suddenly pointed at him, Shen Shukai was so scared that his knees weakened and he almost fell to his knees, with beads of sweat dripping from his temples. Yang Qiu was already full of anger. If he didn't have any financial talents at hand, he would have definitely fired the gun, but now... he could only temporarily suppress his impulse, pretending to quickly retract the gun and said with a smile: "Brother Shen? Didn't scare you? Haha, I forgot you were coming in the excitement." After that, he quickly pulled the bolt, threw it to Zhang Wenjing and said with a smile: "Don't be afraid, this gun has no bullets."
Zhang Wenjing took the gun and put it back into the wooden box, then said with a smile, "I've heard of Manager Shen for a long time, and it's a great honor to meet him today. By the way... these soldiers didn't scare you, did they?"
"No, they treat me very well." Shen Shukai was already shaking all over. Just now, when he faced the gun, he finally realized that troubled times were really coming. All the words he had prepared were blocked by the gun.
"I just heard from Manager Dong that the boat has arrived downstream of Chenjiaji?" Yang Qiu glanced at him with his hands behind his back and asked, "Do you want me to send someone to greet them?"
"No, no. I ordered them to come immediately before I came, and they should be here soon." Shen Shukai waved his hand and tremblingly took out the Citibank deposit certificate he had kept for a long time from his arms: "I have deposited all the money in the US Citibank in your name according to your instructions. I saw that the German ambassador was very satisfied with this transaction. It happened that they had stock on hand, so I purchased 18 seven-shot five-mountain cannons first. It's a pity... I didn't buy any shells."
Yang Qiu took the passbook and glanced at it, asking deliberately, "Didn't we agree on a 40% to 60% split? Why..."
"This business is all thanks to you, how dare Shukai have the nerve to share the profits..." Shen Shukai lowered his head and trembled, obviously frightened, how could he dare to mention the matter of profits. Xiao Anguo, who was nearby, heard that he actually bought 18 cannons in advance, and his face suddenly became much better. But Zhang Wenjing secretly glanced at Yang Qiu, whose face was calm but his fists were clenched tighter and tighter behind his back. This action actually sealed the fate of this person who became famous all over the country for opening branches in Japan and Southeast Asia.
This Shen Shukai may be a figure in finance, but unfortunately he is an absolute idiot in politics. He thought that buying cannons in advance would allow him to take credit and escape, and that he could save his life? Little did he know that the more he did this, the more people would think that he had planned it in advance, and even if he just said a few lies, it might be better than it is now. Just looking at his appearance, you can tell that the era of Shanxi merchants is over! These people who made their fortunes in Shanxi in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties and were used to playing both sides have finally come to the end. It just so happens that the person in front of him has not understood it yet. It should be said that so far, the merchant group in this country has not understood what is about to happen! This is a turbulent era where you must not stand on the wrong side, just like the chaotic times before the founding of the country in all dynasties. Either you take a gamble, and you can't frown even if it's a sea of fire and swords, or you just don't intervene! Even if it is a huge fortune, you will never touch it. But then again, which of these businessmen is not like this? From Hu Xueyan to Sheng Xuanhuai, they all thought they were doing it, but what was the result?
But at present, this person is still needed. After all, I can manage money but I can't make money. Once I stand firm, I will need a huge amount of capital investment and a dedicated person to integrate every penny in the control area, which I can't do. But I can be sure that even if Shen Shukai can build a huge financial system, he will be finished as long as his successor matures! Because Yang Qiu yesterday is completely different from today. At this time, not to mention him, even I can't make a second choice. No matter how difficult this road is, I must go on.
Yang Qiu opened and closed his fist, as if he was repeatedly considering Shen Shukai's fate. After a moment, he slowly loosened his fist, which made Zhang Wenjing breathe a sigh of relief. He immediately said, "Manager Shen is thoughtful and knows that our army is in urgent need of cannons. In my opinion, you should reward him well."
"That's right." Yang Qiu's eyes flashed coldly, even though Zhang Wenjing didn't notice it. He smiled and said, "We need someone who knows how to manage money now. I think Brother Shen might as well come and help me." Seeing that Shen Shukai seemed to be rejecting, he continued, "Brother Shen, don't worry. First, I won't let you resign from the position of manager of Heshengyuan. Secondly, I will give you a guarantee that our relationship before the Qing Dynasty is overthrown will only be known by a few people here. How about it?"
Shen Shukai knew that if he refused, he would be angry. But he was also worried that he would be in trouble if the imperial army came to attack. So after thinking it over again, he nodded and said with gritted teeth: "Shen Shukai and the adults are of the same mind. As long as the adults order, I will go through fire and water without hesitation."
Seeing the tragic look on his face, Yang Qiu smiled and said, "Brother Shen, you don't have to be so desperate. Things are not hopeless yet. Fighting is our job as soldiers. If we are not sure, we will not die in vain."
"Your Excellency is indeed a man who can accomplish great things. Shen Shukai admires you." Shen Shukai clasped his fists and said, "Your Excellency, please ask me to cultivate you. I am not qualified to be called the eldest brother."
This guy is smart now! Yang Qiu sneered in his heart and changed the subject: "Peizhi, I need your help with two things now. First, help me stabilize those people from the Shanxi Merchants Association immediately. Tell them that I will help them get back the money they lost last night, but there are too many things to do during this period of time, so please wait! Second, how much do you know about the details of the Hanyeping Company?"
Shen Shukai guessed that it would be difficult for Yang Qiu to take out the money, but as long as he was willing to pay it back, he could keep those people stable. But the second thing made him scratch his head. Hanyeping was Sheng Xuanhuai's golden goose, but in fact most of its resources were swallowed up by the Japanese, so he hurriedly said, "My lord, forgive me for being blunt, but I'm afraid you are not qualified to move Hanyeping at this moment."
Seeing him speak so directly, Zhang Wenjing and Xiao Anguo were somewhat impressed, thinking that it was no wonder that Yang Qiu chose him to cooperate. In fact, Yang Qiu also knew that he could not touch Hanyeping at the moment, but he had to move this mountain, and the sooner the better.
He was no longer a newbie. After a period of understanding, he gradually realized that the reason why the Hanyang Arsenal was under-operated and suffered losses year after year was actually closely related to the lack of raw materials! There were mainly two main reasons.
First, Zhang Zhidong chose the wrong equipment, so the steel mill next door could only produce low-carbon steel, which could not be used for military industry. Second, because of the existence of Hanyeping, most of the iron sand produced in Huangshi flowed into Japan. Su Hongsheng and his team had to rely on purchasing expensive raw materials from abroad to maintain their business. In addition, foreigners were desperately suppressing domestic military industry, which led to the current dilemma. Therefore, if the raw material problem is not solved, even if the best equipment is bought back to rebuild the Hanyang Arsenal, it will eventually come to nothing because of the high price and unaffordability.
"If Peizhi is free, please go to the American Consulate in Hankou to inquire about the market and see if you can contact the American Steel Company. I want to purchase a set of steelmaking equipment."
"Sir, do you want to reopen the gun factory?" Shen Shukai guessed Yang Qiu's intention at once. Because Hanyang could not accommodate two steel mills, the steelmaking equipment must be purchased for the gun factory. This way, they could get rid of the restrictions of the steel mill. But the problem was, what about the raw materials?
"I'll have someone give you the detailed information and model numbers later. Besides, you should also prepare for opening a bank." Open a bank?! Sir, your thoughts are jumping too fast, aren't they? Shen Shukai smiled bitterly.
"You'll know when the time comes." Yang Qiu didn't explain, and took out a list from his pocket: "How long will it take to collect these things?" The list was all about raw materials, such as copper, tin, and soft steel (spring steel). Some of them can be bought domestically, but some have to be purchased from abroad. He said: "Copper and tin are no problem, but there is basically no stock of soft steel in China."
"The Hankou Merchants' Steam Navigation Company is short of someone. You should work hard to train him and take on the job. Then you can go and purchase in the name of the company and ship as much as you can to Hanyang. But you must purchase soft steel from Sweden. As long as the quality is good, it doesn't matter if the price is a bit higher, but the quantity must be at least 5,000 tons." Spring steel is a necessity for manufacturing weapons. These days, not to mention China, even many European and American countries have to rely on Sweden for this technology, so I gave you a few special instructions.
Being able to save his life was already a blessing from heaven, so Shen Shukai dared not to agree. But after he left, Yang Qiu's face suddenly turned cold, and a bullet immediately appeared in his palm with a twist of his fingertips. He handed it to Zhang Wenjing and said, "Keep this bullet! We have to have someone to take care of the logistics and financial matters, so you have to take the initiative to be responsible for many things now! In addition, Shen Shukai may not be able to return to Shanghai for a long time, so you can send someone to bring his family here."
How could Xiao Anguo not hear such an obvious hint, so he also felt sympathy, but before he could say anything, Yang Qiu had already walked out of the warehouse. He wanted to chase after him, but Zhang Wenjing pulled him back and shook his head: "Master Xiao... this is already the best result!"
The arms ship flying the American flag finally docked at Hanyang Wharf, and the greatest haze in Yang Qiu's heart gradually dissipated. With 18 Krupp seven-piece mountain cannons, 20 Maxim machine guns, 100 Madsen light machine guns and 300,000 pointed bullets, he at least had the confidence to protect himself. Of course, weapons alone were not enough. He had to establish the position of this unit in the first uprising as soon as possible.
After the equipment was transported into the barracks, the prisoners were frightened by the amount of weapons. They were secretly glad that they did not fight to the death. If they had delayed for another day, they would have been beaten to pieces. Even Yue Peng rushed back from Hankou after hearing the news, but a moment later he turned bitter and said, "Sir... where can you let me find so many machine gunners? We can't have a machine gunner for each person and no infantry, right?"
Yang Qiu also knew it was difficult, but he had no choice now, so he said, "The 20 Maxim machine gun squads must be selected immediately and learn how to use them first. 48 light machine guns will be allocated to each infantry company, and the machine gunners will train overnight using the Hanyang-imitation pointed bullets. Maxim can use round-nosed bullets, and the requirements for bullets are not strict, but light machine guns may not fit when using Hanyang-imitation pointed bullets. They must be selected one by one before they can be used. You must pay attention to this, and don't let the Manchus destroy all the machine guns before they arrive."
Yang Qiu was worried and repeatedly reminded them before continuing to discuss the expansion of the army. Even though he was not afraid of the threat from Wuchang, thinking about the large army that would begin to arrive in a few days, he now wished he had a hundred hours a day to use.
According to the previous decision to establish a regiment, the title of "Biaotong" was naturally inappropriate, so he was immediately promoted to commander by officers such as Yue Peng. Xiao Anguo, who made the first contribution, was supported to become the deputy commander and director of the military training department. As for Ma Kui, although he joined the staff, he asked to continue to be in charge of the baggage battalion. Considering that the two regiments are now pure combat units, the logistics and baggage battalion really needs someone who can take responsibility, so Yang Qiu agreed to him. He Xi and Yue Peng served as the commanders of the first and second regiments respectively, Song Ziqing was elected as the chief of staff, and Zhang Wenjing really served as the chief of military supplies and logistics.
According to the organization, each regiment is composed of three infantry battalions, one artillery battalion and a training company. Since the troops are still relatively mixed and the soldiers' temperaments have not been completely determined, the training company can only be composed of some relatively loyal veterans, mainly to build the current two regiments. One of the regiments is mainly composed of the original first battalion and Su Xiaohu's independent battalion. Although the independent battalion is not a professional, the boys originally trained with the 42nd Battalion and went through intensive training in February, so they can still be entrusted with important tasks. Ji Fucheng served as the battalion commander of the third battalion. The second regiment is composed of the second and third battalions. The battalion commander is promoted from the original team officer, and the third battalion is led by Hang Zhi.
The two default infantry battalions were composed of the original mixed engineering company and soldiers who defected. If there were not enough, they would recruit soldiers from the surrendered soldiers. In order to ensure combat effectiveness, 100 veterans were drawn from the two regiments and incorporated into them.
Each infantry battalion is fully staffed with 550 men, all of whom are Hanyang-made. Each battalion is equipped with three Maxim heavy machine gun squads and six light machine guns. As for the German-made pointed bullets, Yang Qiu did not allow them to be distributed for the time being, because the German-made pointed bullets have better craftsmanship and are more suitable for use in light machine guns, and they must be used at critical moments.
Fan Liangshan was also busy. His baggage company was incorporated into Ma Kui's baggage battalion. He took selected soldiers and incorporated 200 river defense battalions to form two independent garrison battalions, responsible for the Guishan Fort and the river defenses in Hanyang and Hankou. Except for some opium smokers or those who were particularly bad, Yang Qiu also kept most of the remaining prisoners and handed them over to Ma Kui to train with the baggage battalion. After all, one more person in the upcoming war would increase the chances of victory.
Chuyu and Chuqian were of the same model, with a displacement of 780 tons and a maximum speed of 13 knots. They were equipped with two British-made 120mm rapid-fire guns, two 75mm rapid-fire guns, two Hotchkiss machine guns and two Swedish Feld machine guns. The Jianghan ship was a little worse, with only one 120mm naval gun, two 76mm rapid-fire guns, and no machine guns, so Yang Qiu took out the captured Hotchkiss and asked a master from the gun factory to install it. After all, the guns were still very useful when blocking along the river. Since the three gunboats were the strongest firepower support force in his hands, it was always a problem to find a reliable leader.
The captain of the Chu Qian ship, Wang Guangxiong, is a bearded man in his forties . It seems that it is fashionable for the navy to grow beards these days. From the initial contact, he does not seem to be a very talented person, but after all, he is the first one to surrender voluntarily after Chen Delong was captured. In addition, there is no one to replace him, so he has to continue to lead. For safety reasons, Bingwen needs to continue to serve on the ship for a period of time.
In order to control the only mobile firepower, which was also the starting point of his naval dream, the three ships and several armed patrol boats were organized into a naval battalion and were directly commanded by Yang Qiu.
As for the artillery battalion, Yang Qiu and the officers were very worried. Apart from the artillery of the three ships and the river defense battalion, there were only six gunners in the entire unit who knew how to operate artillery. Just when everyone was in the most urgent situation, Song Ziqing gave him a surprise. He not only brought more than 40 young officers and more than 300 relatively neutral soldiers, but also brought Jiang Tai and his right team of the Third Artillery Battalion.
Yang Qiu immediately assigned the task of forming an artillery battalion to Jiang Tai, and selected some veterans to strengthen the team. Finally, the skeleton of the two main artillery battalions was set up. Each battalion had 18 seven-gun and five-Krupp guns, and the firepower was equivalent to that of the Beiyang guns of the same organization. According to Yue Peng's idea, the remaining five-gun and seven-mountain guns were all piled up on Guishan Mountain. Two temporary artillery batteries were built with the main artillery battery as the core to strengthen the firepower coverage of the Yangtze River and the three towns.
However, he was still worried about the firepower problem. You have to know that in the Battle of Yangxia in history, the Beiyang alone sent two artillery battalions, each with three battalions, and each battalion was equipped with 18 Krupp or Japanese 75mm field guns. Not only were the artillerymen skilled and fierce, but when combined with other artillery battalions, their firepower was nearly ten times that of their own!
The same is true for machine guns. Compared with the 20 Maxim machine guns in a Beiyang town, there are still too few heavy machine guns on his side. The number of Madsen light machine guns is sufficient, but the light machine guns have a small coverage area and need to change magazines frequently, so it is impossible to fight against heavy machine guns. Moreover, machine guns have a natural disadvantage in front of cannons, and the barrel of this machine gun is very troublesome to change, which is almost impossible on the battlefield, so he has to rest every time after firing 200 rounds, but he can't solve these problems at present.
Taking into account the complicated situation at the moment, in order to protect Yang Qiu's safety, everyone proposed to change the original law enforcement team of 150 elite soldiers into a guard company. Lei Meng, the new company commander, was so happy that he almost kowtowed. With the final decision on the guard company, the size of the troops has reached 6 infantry battalions, 2 artillery battalions, 1 garrison battalion, 1 baggage battalion and 1 naval battalion. Not counting the prisoners who followed the training, the total number has reached 4,627, reaching the standard of the previous 21st Mixed Brigade, with better firepower and equipment.
The skeleton has been built and the number of people has increased, but the combat effectiveness has decreased a lot. This is because each battalion has incorporated a lot of new recruits, and as for the morale and ideology, it is out of the question. Therefore, we must not stop at this moment, because if we stop, the morale will be messed up, so we must use war and blood to gather the troops into a solid foundation!
In addition, Zhang Biao's occupation of Liujia Temple has become a major concern. If it cannot be resolved as soon as possible, then when the northern army joins him along the railway, it will be even more passive! More importantly, this unit has not been recognized by the people of Hankou and Hanyang, and it is in urgent need of an impressive record. By defeating Zhang Biao and removing the threat to Hankou first, the momentum and cohesion of the troops will naturally rise. So he decisively ordered the Second Regiment and the Second Battalion of the First Regiment to immediately set up an ambush around Liujia Temple, and the rest of the troops immediately conducted high-intensity integration training at the Hanyang base. The Navy Battalion will also set off for Hankou tomorrow morning to assemble and prepare to encircle and annihilate Zhang Biao's troops.
It was already four o'clock in the afternoon when they finished all these. When the busiest 24 hours was about to come to an end, Yue Peng and others all looked at him. Now it was time to give the other side a surprise and to give this unit an accurate positioning!
