The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 453 Prepare early
After Wei Jinghai introduced the expansion and training of the troops, Li Yulin and Lin Lianhui began to introduce the combat readiness work of the camp office and the field hospital.

According to Li Yulin, the camp office now stores a huge amount of ammunition. Since the establishment of the army, there has never been such a huge ammunition reserve.

However, due to the substantial expansion of the army, there was almost nothing left after this huge amount was distributed.

This is the result of a huge amount of recent seizures and the secret support of the Hanyang Gun Factory.

At present, the ammunition stored in the camp office is, on average, less than four bases of ammunition for a force of 250,000, and there are only a little more than three bases of mountain and field artillery shells.

The only item that was in large quantities was mortar shells. After the Ordnance Section of the Camp Office increased manpower and expanded production capacity, and organized workers to work in three shifts, the number of mortar shells of various calibers increased greatly, and currently there are 320,000 shells in stock.

Li Yulin did not mention the amount of grain currently in the hands of the vanguard army, but simply said, "Enough for the vanguard army to eat."

Li Yulin has already written down the amount of grain reserves of the vanguard army in the account books reported by the camp office. They now have 1 million dan of rice and flour, more than 2 million dan of millet, sorghum and other grains, and more than 1.5 million dan of black beans and other horse feed.

Although the vanguard army now has 350,000 to 400,000 people, it is likely to reach more than 400,000 people in a month, and there are nearly 20,000 war horses and pack horses, which is a huge number every day, not to mention every month. However, these stored food are enough for the vanguard army to persist until the end of the year.

The reason why Li Yulin did not report the specific figures was that among these stored grains, in addition to the grain stored in government granaries transported from various counties and prefectures in Zhili, especially the counties and prefectures in Southern Zhili south of the capital, and the grain purchased from wealthy families in Southern Zhili, the vast majority of the grain came from government granaries and private granaries in the capital.

If this matter were to leak out, although Teng Yuzhao would not be harmed, trouble would be inevitable after the war, and it is even possible that Teng Yuzhao and the vanguard army would be held accountable.

Regarding the training of new recruits, Li Yulin did not report and introduce it himself, but asked Sun Shijun to do it.

Li Yulin's actions made Sun Shijun both excited and thrilled.

Since he was dismissed from his post as sentry leader by Teng Yuzhao at the beginning of the uprising, he has been almost marginalized.

To this end, Sun Shijun has always been cautious and hardworking, and has made great contributions to training new recruits. Teng Yuzhao has praised him several times.

Li Yulin secretly told him that Teng Yuzhao was very satisfied with him and asked him to work harder and achieve some results.

Now, Li Yulin asked him to come out and introduce the situation and report it, which was undoubtedly giving him another opportunity to show himself.

According to Sun Shijun, there are still more than 100,000 new recruits in the training camp of the camp office, which can be organized into nearly 100 battalions. Although they are still in training, they have basically met the training requirements and can be incorporated into the troops at any time.

Now young and strong people from Zhili, Shanxi, Henan, Shaanxi, Hubei and other places are still rushing to join the army, and the number of new recruits participating in training increases by hundreds almost every day.

Teng Yuzhao no longer has any grudge against Sun Shijun. After being relieved of his post as sentry leader, Sun Shijun not only insisted on staying in the vanguard army, but also worked very hard in the camp office and made great contributions to the training of new recruits. He is already considering how to place Sun Shijun.

After Sun Shijun finished his introduction, Teng Yuzao couldn't help but give him some words of praise and encouragement, and even hinted in his words that he would never forget Sun Shijun, which made Sun Shijun so excited that he almost shed tears.

After Sun Shijun finished his introduction, Li Yulin asked Zhang Xiyuan, the general manager of the camp school, to introduce the situation of the camp school, which made Teng Yuzhao alert.

He vaguely felt that Li Yulin seemed to be intending to fade out or even withdraw from the vanguard army.

Teng Yuzhao sighed secretly in his heart, but now the war was imminent, so this matter could only be put aside for the time being. After the war, he would have a good talk with Li Yulin.

Zhang Xiyuan did not have the same experience as Sun Shijun, nor did he have any ambitions, so he seemed very calm when introducing the school. According to him, the teaching of the school of the battalion office was also very effective. In order to train more officers who understand modern warfare as quickly as possible, the school has completely stopped the normal curriculum and changed it to a six-month crash course. The latest batch of 800 students, including infantry, artillery, engineering, cavalry, surveying and mapping and other majors, will graduate in half a month.

What the rapidly expanding vanguard army lacks most is officers who understand modern warfare command. Although they are from crash courses, they are better than nothing. With them, they can always help the vanguard army meet its urgent needs.

You know, due to the lack of officers, none of the people in the battalion that originally followed Teng Yuzhao were soldiers anymore. The youngest was a squad leader, and the better ones were already sentry leaders.

Lin Lianhui's introduction was even more exciting. Lin Lianhui said that thanks to the support of Aurora Trading Company, the field hospital currently has a huge reserve of Chinese and Western medicines. Even if there are a few more battles like the one on the north bank of the Juma River, the medicines stored in the field hospital will be sufficient.

If there were enough medicines, the wounded could receive timely treatment, which would save many soldiers from dying.

Teng Yuzhao was very satisfied with the work done by the entire camp office.

Teng Yuzhao had already known about the shortage of ammunition. After losing Tianjin and Dongjuzi, it was already very good to be able to achieve the current production capacity.

After Lin Lianhui finished his report, Zhou Fu added that in the past one or two months, as news of the coalition forces of the great powers continued to increase their troops, some wealthy families in Southern Zhili had begun to flee to other provinces to avoid the war.

Although some wealthy families intended to flee the war to Henan and Shaanxi, they were unable to take their stored grain with them and could not leave for the time being. He suggested that the Governor's Office purchase the grain from the wealthy families on credit as soon as possible and transport it back to Luzhou or to Henan to prevent it from being snatched away by the Allied Forces.

Teng Yuzao agreed with Zhou Fu's suggestion, but after thinking about it, he finally shook his head.

"Mr. Zhou, I fully agree with purchasing grain in the name of the Governor-General's Office, but don't ship it to Luzhou, or even to Henan. Now that the coalition forces have invaded Southern Zhili, it will be difficult to transport a large amount of grain without getting the word out. If it is intercepted by the coalition forces, or if it gives the coalition forces an excuse to cause chaos in Henan again, it will be inappropriate."

"It would be better to provide relief to the poor people who are short of food on the spot to relieve their suffering from hunger."

As soon as Teng Yuzao finished speaking, Zhou Fu had already stood up and bowed deeply to Teng Yuzao with a solemn expression.

"Marshal Fu is so kind. I would like to thank him on behalf of the poor people in Nanzhili! Now is the time when there is a shortage of food. Giving them food at this time is undoubtedly a timely help. These people will be sincerely grateful to Marshal Fu."

"only."

Zhou Fu hesitated for a moment and said, "The amount of food is not small. Even if we win this war, the foreigners will negotiate peace, but the negotiation will not be over in a short time. It is possible that it will take several months or even a year. The tax revenue of Zhili will definitely be greatly affected. At that time, not to mention the problem of food and wages for the hundreds of thousands of troops in the vanguard army, where will the money for the food on credit come from? Please think twice."

What Zhou Fu said was indeed a problem, but Teng Yuzao could no longer care about it now.

Teng Yuzao nodded and said, "Your Excellency is right. However, this is a special period. It is already very difficult for Zhili Province to fight against the Eight Powers. At this time, it is even more necessary for officials and people to unite and fight against the powerful enemy. These grains must still be distributed."

"If the war drags on for a long time, the issue of food and wages will indeed be difficult to handle, but no matter how difficult it is, we cannot ignore the suffering of the people. Just do as I say."

Although Teng Yuzao's words sounded high-sounding, Zhou Fu knew that this was Teng Yuzao's attempt to win the hearts of the people of Zhili and to prepare for the future governance of Zhili.

He stopped trying to dissuade him and bowed again, saying, "Since Commander Fu has made up his mind, I will handle it immediately after the meeting. I will ask all the prefectures that the coalition forces have not yet set foot in to do as Commander Fu says, and also to widely publicize Commander Fu's compassion and love for the poor people."

(End of this chapter)