"Spread out in front of a sentry!" Chang Kaisheng, the commander of the first sentry of the first battalion of the newly built army, roared, and 80 soldiers wearing blue military uniforms and big caps from five platoons formed in a column formation quickly stepped forward in a line with their guns and dispersed, with a distance of about half a meter between them.

Chang Kaisheng looked at the fairly neat formation and was slightly satisfied. After almost twenty days of training, the gang finally got a look.

"A platoon, quickly step flat and put marksmanship! Ready, go! With Chang Kaisheng's order, the 15 soldiers of the first platoon on the far left advanced in small brisk steps under the leadership of the platoon commander. After entering the range of the musket, under the command of the platoon commander, the whole platoon began to load nervously. Put! 16 muskets fired a salvo at a target 80 meters away.

"Second row, half of the right turn before putting marksmanship! Ready, go! ”

"Three rows, one word in front; Four rows, half of the side turns left and goes up; Five rows, half of the right turn forward; Three volleys, ready ... Put! ”

With the sound of passwords, the officers and men of the whole outpost kept practicing the contents of these daily drills.

"Report!" Chang Kaisheng was carefully observing the training, when suddenly the voice of the herald of the battalion headquarters came to his ears.

Chang Kaisheng turned around, returned the salute, and motioned for the other party to speak.

The herald is also a traversal, 19 years old, but he looks very burly, and the military uniform on his body is a little too small.

"Battalion Order: 10 o'clock for the whole battalion to carry out a joint exercise, each post must be assembled in the dock yard before 9:30, above!"

"Order! Meet at the dock yard before 9:30. Chang Kaisheng replied.

On 8 December, the day set by the War Department for the whole battalion to conduct joint exercises, the three posts will henceforth stay together for a long time for training. In the past, the three outposts went out to drill separately, and according to the infantry drill code concocted by the War Department, they were divided into training queues, military discipline, basic skills, and so on.

After watching the training at each outpost a few days ago, Army Commissioner Peng Zhicheng felt that the whole battalion could conduct a joint exercise, so he arranged for today's training.

9:15 a.m. Chang Kaisheng shouted the trumpet and walked into the wharf yard with the 82 officers and soldiers of the first post, and he was surprised to find that the second and third sentinels had actually come in advance.

Chang Kaisheng did not dare to slack off, and commanded the column to become a horizontal team, and formed a 5-line horizontal line in the open space to the left of the second post. After finishing the line, he and the deputy sentry Jiang Zhiqing immediately stood in front of the first row and looked ahead.

Peng Zhicheng, the army commissioner who was also the battalion commander, glanced at the troops in front of him with a serious face, Liao Meng, a former PLA non-commissioned officer and current army minister and deputy battalion commander of the first battalion, stood behind him on his right side, and the herald stood behind the two; Standing in front of them was Zhu Liang, the compiler of the infantry drill code and the battalion commander.

"Stand upright! Look to the right! Zhu Liang shouted in a loud accent, and then began to check one whistle after another.

The whole battalion stood in three sentry columns, one sentry to the left, two sentry to the center, and three sentry to the right. The two chief and deputy officers of each platoon stand two steps in front of the middle of the first row of the outpost, and the platoon leader of each platoon stands one step to the right of the head of the right row of the platoon. The whole camp stood solemnly, silent, and their eyes moved with Zhu Liang's figure.

After Zhu Liang checked it slightly, he immediately ran to Peng Zhicheng in small steps and stood still, saluted, and reported: "Report to the battalion commander!" The total number of officers and soldiers of the first battalion of the newly built army is 250, and 250 people will be drilled on this day. Above! ”

The tentative establishment of the new army of 250 people (without logistics personnel) specifically includes: 1 battalion commander, 1 battalion deputy, 1 trainer, and 1 herald; It is divided into three posts, with 1 person for each post chief and deputy post chief; Each post is divided into five platoons, with 1 platoon commander and 15 soldiers; A total of 250 people.

"Take a break!" Peng Zhicheng returned the salute, then walked to the sentry ranks, corrected a few soldiers who were not neatly dressed, and then returned to the front of the line.

"Our new Army First Battalion is the first unit of the Executive Committee, and it has been three weeks since it was established, and we have been training for 20 days." Peng Zhicheng said, "In my opinion, everyone is very active and very hard training. Before joining the army, most of us were ordinary people, only a few of us had military or combat experience, and it was not easy for you to be able to do this in a short period of time, and I am proud of you! Our enemies are murderous, inhuman pirates who want to take our lives and take our belongings, and we will not allow them! We will defeat them, prove our prowess with their blood, and fight for victory! ”

"Fight for victory!" At this moment, whether it is the crossing officers and soldiers, or the Swiss immigrant soldiers, everyone has a feeling of common hatred.

"Next, the training officer will make specific arrangements for the content of the whole battalion's joint training." After Peng Zhicheng finished speaking, he stepped aside and prepared to start observing the training.

"This time our enemies are pirates roaming the Caribbean, and their fighting style is more ferocious, and their number is unknown." Zhu Liang said, "But no matter what the enemy is, we still follow our own." In the next period of time, the first battalion will focus on the practice of shooting forward with the whole battalion dispersed, the shooting method with the whole battalion starting with steps, and the shooting method with the whole battalion forming a small platoon. In addition, there are coordinated exercises with artillery. Of course, the training of soldiers' personal skills cannot be left behind. Next, once a week, a skill competition will be held on an individual basis, a platoon unit or a sentry unit, and the losing side will be deducted part of the prize money to the winning team. ”

"From now on, the whole battalion will start to walk and shoot. Attention! Look to the right! Look forward! Zhu Liang shouted the password: "Hold the gun!" Let's go! ”

"Loading guns... Halt... Raise your gun... Ready-to-go! ”

"Quick load... Raise your gun... Ready-to-go! ”

"Under the gun... Stop the guns and stand up! ”

"Hold the gun... Let's go... Halt... Get down on your knees and get ready - put! ”

"To the left into three teams... Raise your gun... Ready-to-go! ”

"The column became a horizontal formation, and the whole battalion started walking... Halt... Four Lines Ready - Put! Quick Load... Ready-to-go! ”

More than 200 officers and men of the battalion were training mechanically like this, and Peng Zhicheng watched for a while, and then left the wharf freight yard with Liao Meng and moved to the test artillery field. At this time, an artillery unit was also being trained here.

The number of this artillery unit is the first post of the independent field artillery of the new army, and the commander of the post is Yang Xu, who was born in the former PLA artillery. The first field artillery post had 45 men, six 4-pounder guns, two 8-pounder guns, 8 ammunition carts, and 30 Finnish horses (borrowed); The specific personnel include: 1 sentry commander, 1 deputy sentry chief, 8 gunners, 24 gunners, 10 horsemen (borrowed), and 1 veterinarian (borrowed).

This artillery can be said to be a completely new unit, unlike the port battery artillery, which still has a certain percentage of skilled gunners, this unit can be said to be all fresh.

The accuracy of artillery in this era was limited, and there were few good sighting equipment on the battlefield. Yang Xu didn't know how his European counterparts in this era measured the distance, he only knew that Lu Dao taught his gunners what he thought was reasonable according to the current conditions. For example, for battlefield ranging, he decided to use his fingers and eyes to measure the distance.

This method is actually very simple, involving the mathematically simple principle of similar triangles, that is, the length of the thumb is similar to the height of the measured object, and then this ratio is multiplied by the arm length, and the distance between the measured object and oneself can be roughly obtained.

Just as the army artillerymen were holding their thumbs and staring at each other, Peng Zhicheng asked people to send two military binoculars with ranging functions, and Yang Xu suddenly had black lines on his face when he saw it.

By measuring the distance of the quasi-enemy troops, the artillery can effectively strike the enemy by adjusting the muzzle angle and adding or subtracting charges. Of course, this method requires you to first have a full understanding of the performance and parameters of your artillery, that is, you need to know how far your gun can hit in the case of charge XX and elevation angle XX. This requires drawing a detailed ejaculation table, which has no way to trick up and can only be obtained through a large number of test firings.

It just so happens that the artilleryman also needs to be familiar with the process of firing, and these two things can be done together. Moreover, these test launches are not without other functions besides drawing the firing table, and the arsenal can use these data to improve the design, production process, and so on.

The army is training intensively, and the navy is naturally not far behind. Not to mention the coastal batteries under the command of Navy Commissioner Wang Qinian, their training methods are similar to those of the army artillery.

In addition to coastal artillery, the Navy currently has several ships brought over during the crossing, namely the Yunsheng No. 1 passenger and cargo ship, a tugboat, and four non-powered barges. Truth be told, these ships have been almost forgotten by the Executive Committee in the last year. Without him, it is really the status of these ships that is more embarrassing.

Although the equipment on board was well maintained, the lack of fuel and spare parts made the Executive Committee afraid to use the ships lightly, so they could only be half-sealed there for later. However, this time when he heard that the enemy would come from the sea, the Executive Committee immediately became calm. Although it is said that the port shore defense artillery fire is strong, it is difficult for the enemy to rush in. But these ships are the tip of the executive committee's heart, and it makes people feel distressed when they touch them.

So, Wang Qinian had no choice but to let Wang Tiezhu, the first mate of the original Yunsheng No. 1, and Han Dezhi, the chief engineer, bring a group of original crew members back to the ship again, add some sandbags to the exterior of the building on the deck, and hang some steel plates on the outside of the ship. Finally, Wang Qinian also asked people to move the four 24-pounder and two 18-pounder long-barreled naval guns newly produced by the artillery workshop to the deck, and built several turrets with sandbags.