Nanyang Storm 1864

Chapter 134 The Third Class of Students

at dinner

Zheng Guohui sat in the host seat, Li Hezhang sat in the guest seat, and Li Jingji and Zheng Jialiang accompanied them. The table was full of exquisite dishes, which were delicious and beautiful.

After the meal started, Madam Zheng Li came out to offer her third uncle a glass of wine, showing her full courtesy, and then left with her personal maid.

Needless to say, everyone was drinking and chatting happily at the banquet, and the atmosphere was very harmonious.

The next day
Zheng Guohui came to the shore of Xuanwu Lake for inspection with a small entourage. There used to be a large abandoned academy here, which was completely deserted during the bandit period.

After the recovery of Jinling City
This abandoned academy that no one claimed fell into the hands of Zheng Guohui, who then sent people to renovate it and use it as the headquarters of the Jiangning Town Academy Training Corps.

It was the former Jinling Military Academy, but it just changed to a more low-key name.

The training regiment occupies a large area and is also home to an artillery battalion and two infantry battalions, totaling over 1400 officers and soldiers. Adding the 370-plus members of the training regiment, the total number approaches 1800.

There was a large piece of wasteland on the side of the yard facing Xuanwu Lake, which was leveled and used as a training ground.

When Zheng Guohui arrived, the training ground was bustling with activity, with soldiers practicing in strict formations. On the other side, many officers and soldiers were exercising on the training equipment.

Seeing the general coming to inspect, several battalion officers and more than ten of their officers came to greet him, kneeling on one knee and saluting, "Your humble servants greet the general. My troops are carrying out daily training. Please give them your instructions."

"Continue organizing training and don't slack off."

"As ordered!"

The officers and soldiers of Jiangning Town are well-trained and have strict military discipline. It is a highly combat-effective army. They implement a training system every Wednesday, and the training intensity is much greater than that of other troops.

Among some Green Camp soldiers whose military discipline has been lax, it is considered good if they can train once a week. Some cannot even train once a month, and are basically left to their own devices.

It doesn't work in Jiangning Town. The system is to patrol for three days a week, train for three days, and rest on the weekend, and this cycle repeats.

Zheng Guohui stood at the edge of the playground, watching the soldiers' drills. He saw that the soldiers were very skilled in marching, changing formations to the sound of drums and music, and coming and going freely.

When the general came for a routine inspection, the morale of the officers and soldiers was particularly high, and their slogans were in unison and loud.

In order to demonstrate the training results, the battalion officers specially added live-fire shooting subjects.

The soldiers faced the direction of Xuanwu Lake and skillfully loaded, aimed and fired in one go, demonstrating a high level of training and a commendable mental outlook.

Zheng Guohui was quite satisfied. Among these soldiers, a large number were new recruits recruited in last year's large-scale military expansion. After a year-long training, they have been completely integrated into the Jiangning Town Army.

He planned to go to Southeast Asia in late June, bringing with him no less than 6 soldiers, who would serve as the main force for the future attack on the Luzon Islands and would see blood on the battlefield.

The main purpose of sending troops into Mindanao in advance is to adapt to the local climate and environment and prepare for the next step of the attack.

As for replacements, they are currently being recruited in northern Anhui and northern Jiangsu. The requirements are still that they must be young and strong, and able to read and write. This standard is quite high.

Only in a place with a flourishing literary culture like Jiangsu and Anhui can such high-quality soldiers be recruited successfully.

After a year of careful training, they have become another group of elite soldiers.

Zheng Guohui's current approach is like an ant moving house, sending batches of trained elite soldiers to Southeast Asia, and then recruiting new soldiers to supplement them, and repeating this process.

All he had to do was hide it for a few years, and wait until he had completely defeated the Franks entrenched in the Luzon Islands, then he could declare himself king in the South Seas and submit to the imperial court.

At that time, just like the vassal states such as Korea, Vietnam, and Ryukyu, people will be able to travel freely between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, whether to visit relatives or return to their country to marry and have children, and there will be no more obstacles.

In the equipment training ground, there are many facilities such as horizontal bars, parallel bars, single-plank bridges, low walls, and pits. These were designed and built by Zheng Guohui himself. They are located in various barracks in Jiangning Town and are used to train soldiers.

The third batch of students of the teaching regiment were also gathered. They were crawling and rolling around on the training ground, their bodies covered like mud monkeys, but they were still full of energy.

Among these people
Zheng Guohui saw his third brother Zheng Guoguang and his fourth brother Zheng Guoyao. They used the aliases Zheng Guang and Zheng Yao respectively. They were also training among the students and did not receive any special care.

In just over a month, he became much darker, but also much stronger.

The food for the cadet team is a level higher than that for the soldiers. They can see some meat at noon every day. Each class will get a dish, which is shared by 12 cadets in the class. Rice is provided as much as they want.

There is also a large bucket of soup cooked with water used to wash the pot. The dishes cooked in the kitchen every day do not need to be served cleanly, leaving some residue. Then pour in two large buckets of water and boil it, add a bowl of egg drops and sprinkle some salt.

The egg droplets are as thin as catkins, and the oil only floats on the surface. Don’t even think about getting something cheap, as they are sold out every day.

According to the battalion officer

These students were in the growing period and each one was a bigger eater than the other. They could eat three or four bowls of rice in one meal and devour them like starving ghosts.

Such a large appetite made the logistics officers cry out that they couldn't eat enough.

Zheng Guohui, unconcerned, ordered the students' meals to be supplemented with more bacon and salted fish. After all, his family owned a saltworks, so how could a little salt really count? He then went to the courtyard to inspect the internal affairs. Whether soldiers or students, they all slept in the barracks. The beds were lined up along the wall, with only 50 centimeters between them.

The bed is literally a "bed", just a bed board with both ends placed on square stones, about the height of a fist.

Each bed has a uniform white linen sheet and a gray single-sided thin quilt, all neatly folded and square, looking neat and simple.

On the walls on both sides, there are bamboo tube kettles hanging, neatly arranged one after another.

After inspecting the military camps one by one, Zheng Guohui once again emphasized the importance of cultivating strict discipline among soldiers, which must be constantly emphasized. Officers' leather boots must be polished to a shine, their military appearance must be neat and tidy, and they must always maintain a rigorous military style.

This is also an aspect that the British instructors repeatedly emphasized. The requirements of European armies for military appearance have reached a harsh level.

Leather boots and buttons must be polished enough to reflect a person's reflection. Military uniforms must be neat and tidy, the soldiers must obey orders strictly and obey the orders of superior officers absolutely.

The British instructors sometimes ordered the trainees to march forward in unison. When they reached the edge of the lake, they did not give the order to stop, but allowed the trainees to walk all the way into the lake.

Those who hesitate will be severely punished.

The purpose is to let the trainees know that once the order is given, they must rush in without hesitation even if there are mountains of swords and seas of fire ahead.

Instructor Wilman Buffon is a retired British Army captain who has been in China for more than seven years. He can speak authentic Chinese with a Weihai accent and has a very high opinion of the new students.

"General, these are a group of very talented students. They are smart and obedient, and they have a strong ability to absorb Western military knowledge. I am very optimistic about them."

"Oh... are they stronger than the students from the previous two classes?"

"It depends on how you compare them. The vast majority of the students in the first two classes have extensive battlefield experience and are indifferent to life and death. They are more ferocious than spiritual, and at best they can be trained to the level of company commander or battalion commander, before their potential is exhausted."

"It seems that the instructor is not optimistic about the first two classes of students."

"No, I think they will be qualified junior officers, but that's the potential of ordinary people." Instructor Wilman Buffon is a serious man. His father is a nobleman of the Duchy of Württemberg.

Therefore, Wilman Buffon inherited the rigid and dogmatic character of the Germans, and was extremely rigorous in his words and deeds. He pointed to the trainees in training and said;
"There are many talented students in this class. Based on my many years of military experience, I'm optimistic that they can go far."

"Material selection is very important. Among this class of students, there are many young people who come from scholar families. They are knowledgeable, cultured, energetic and ambitious. They are indeed good." Zheng Guohui agreed with his analysis.

The third batch of students
More than half of them had the title of scholar, and the others were at least students. Their knowledge level was much higher than that of the previous two classes, so of course there were some differences.

Why did these scholars join the army?
First of all, I want to make one thing clear: when selecting these students, it was made clear that this was not recruiting soldiers, but training officers.

Only in this way can we attract scholars with higher education to participate, rather than farmers' children who are only slightly literate.

Today's world

If one wanted to enter the officialdom through the imperial examination, it could not be said that this path was completely blocked, but it was almost non-existent.

Take Zuo Zongtang for example. Zuo Zongtang was well-read, talented, and proficient in practical affairs. He ranked first while studying at the Changsha Chengnan Academy.

After passing the imperial examination, he entered the Xiangshui School of Classics established by Wu Rongguang, the governor of Hunan Province, in Changsha to further his studies, and studied hard.

He studied hard and achieved excellent results. He ranked first in the exams seven times that year.

This excellent scholar went to Beijing for the imperial examination, but failed three times in a row, wasting his time until he was over 40. He was eventually forced to work as a staff member in the government of Luo Bingzhang, the governor of Hunan, for six years.

that time

The imperial court's rule in Hunan was already in jeopardy. The Taiping Army was galloping across northern Hunan, and many cities around Changsha were occupied. The court was on the verge of collapse.

However, the vast volunteer armies in eastern, southern and western Hunan launched rebellions one after another, and the situation was critical.

Zuo Zongtang worried and planned day and night, assisting Luo Bingzhang in "clearing the four borders internally" and "aiding five provinces externally", and worked hard to support the overall situation.

at the same time
He used his talents to eliminate bad policies, increase revenue and reduce expenditure, stabilize the currency, vigorously raise funds for military purchases, and establish militia to strengthen the army.

Luo Bingzhang obeyed his every word and "did not check any of his written documents and promises."

It was precisely because of Zuo Zongtang's careful assistance and planning that not only did the military and political situation in Hunan turn from danger to safety, but the Hunan Army also won victory after victory in battles outside the province, and Zuo Zongtang became famous because of this.

under these circumstances
With the recommendation of Zeng Guofan, an important official of the court, Zuo Zongtang was appointed Governor of Zhejiang, which marked the beginning of his brilliant official career.

How many people can replicate his situation?

Zheng Guohui's Jiangning Town trains grassroots military officers, which is equivalent to taking the civil service exam. How could those outstanding students not flock to it and seek an official position?
Therefore, this class of students has the highest cultural level, is generally young and ambitious, and is a very promising class of students.

(End of this chapter)