Three days passed, and Sun Yuan, Fei Hong, and Guan Tao went to the military camp to inspect together.

These two people, one is his deputy, and the other is the financial steward, and they are Sun Yuan's most useful arm at present.

In fact, the renovation of the barracks is not as complicated as I imagined, that is, tearing off the weeds on the school field and leveling the ground. The leaky houses in the soldiers' quarters have been re-tiled, and they should be repaired, and they will be able to live in them. The only thing that took more time was to make beds, and originally, it was possible for soldiers to lay on the floor, and it was very cost-effective. But the land south of the Yangtze River is too damp, and if they all lie on the ground, the ghost knows if they will get sick. Besides, everyone is lying on the ground in a mess, and it looks like a rabble, and it is not like words.

Therefore, Sun Yuan drew a common pattern of getting on and off the bed in later generations and asked the carpenter to follow it.

At this moment, in the carpentry room, more than two dozen carpenters are pushing the planers hard, and the shavings are flying in all directions and piled up on the ground.

Fei Hong: "If you go back to the general, it has already been issued to the officers above the general flag, but it is ......"

"But how?" Sun Yuan turned around and asked.

The so-called "Infantry Drill Code" is actually a booklet written by him in combination with the training methods of the army in later generations, and the number of words is not much, about 1,000 words. Sun Ziyuan began to ponder this volume when he was in Nanjing, and after several deletions and corrections during the period, it was finally finalized, and the bookstore printed 30 copies.

Sun Yuan had never been a soldier in his previous life, and he did not consider himself a qualified officer. I really asked myself to go into battle to train new recruits, first of all, I was impatient, and secondly, I didn't know what I would train them to. There is a specialization in the art industry, and the professional things should be left to professionals like Fei Hong to do! and themselves, provide ideas.

Fei Hong's face was embarrassed: "General Yu, except for General Mo, Wen Laosan, and Donkey, who can read a few words and can basically understand military orders, everyone else is blind." The drill code sent by the general was incomprehensible to everyone. ”

Sun Yuan took a breath of cold air, he really ignored this matter. A great man once said: An army without culture has no combat effectiveness.

Now even if the entire Ningxiangwei is full, there are only about 1,000 people, and it doesn't hurt if the officers are illiterate, and it's a big deal to rely on shouting for communication.

But Sun Yuan didn't think that he would stay here forever in the future, and the army would not be able to have this scale forever, and it would definitely be expanded in the future. When the number of troops is large, the banner communication between the troops, tactical drills, and post-war reviews all require a cultural literacy. This group of middle- and low-level officers under Fei Hong is loyal to him, so he naturally wants to be of great use. Could it be that they were eliminated because they did not meet the needs of the army?

After thinking about it, Sun Yuan turned around and asked Guan Tao: "Boss Guan, are you literate?" ”

Guan Tao: "I have read books for more than ten years, and I am naturally literate. ”

"Okay, when the recruits join the army and are busy for a while, you and Guo Daodao will take some time to run a class every night to teach the officers to read and write."

"This ......" Guan Tao hesitated a little: "I'm afraid that it will be difficult for the villain to take on this important task, the best age for this person to be enlightened is six years old, and after twelve years of enlightenment, he can't learn it." Moreover, the little talent is shallow, and the general should invite another talent to come to the museum. ”

Sun Yuan smiled: "Do I want to train all the officers to be talented, that is, to let them know a few basic commonly used words, and they can understand military orders." ”

Guan Tao still couldn't help shaking his head, and Sun Yuan was helpless: "Since you don't want to be the boss, then the professor of this school will be served by General Ben himself for the time being, and I will talk about it when I find a suitable gentleman in the future." ”

Fei Hong: "The general is only eight buckets high, and it is naturally my honor to be able to teach everyone to read and write, but now this code ......"

"It's simple, don't you understand it, just teach them word by word, and tell the general flags to memorize it first, and then follow it."

Fei Hong nodded: "That's all it takes." ”

Sun Yuan asked the carpenter about the progress of making beds, and replied that more than 300 beds had been made, and according to the current progress, 500 beds should be ready in two days.

He saw a room of strangely shaped wooden sticks, about one meter and three long, in the middle room of the carpenter's house, and he was curious, so he took one and compared it with his hand for a long time, and then he found that it was the butt of a musket.

Fei Hong explained: "General, this is used to train recruits to walk in queues. As soon as the musketeers entered the barracks, they could not fire their guns, they had to guard against misfire, and some of the recruits were so timid that they would pee their pants at the sound of gunfire. They have to be trained to be numb first, and then they will be released later. ”

He added: "Besides, the general is bent on training musketeers, and now we only have twenty or thirty muskets in Ningxiang, which is not enough at all." The blacksmith said that even if he worked day and night, it would take three to four months to build a thousand suitable shotguns. General, although the last general is also a gunner in the firearms battalion, to tell the truth. Not to mention that this musketeer is expensive, it is useless to come to the battlefield, it is better to simply train them to be foot soldiers. ”

Guan Tao also nodded again and again, he was a businessman and was used to being stingy. As the chief steward of a thousand households, every penny that others come to him to pay is like cutting his heart. Fei Hong's proposal naturally hit his heart.

Sun Yuan: "This matter should not be mentioned again, and practicing foot soldiers will be a matter for the future." By the way, Fei Hong, didn't the Nanjing Military Department also allocate a lot of firearms? "Just kidding, what age is this, queuing up to shoot, and fire suppression is the future battlefield form.

Relying on the infantry, with the thin body of the Jiangnan soldiers, how to face the sea of people of Li Chuang and the Eight Banners of the Qing soldiers on the battlefield?

Fei Hong smiled bitterly: "At that time, for the sake of silver, the military department gave us a hundred shotguns. However, there was no way to use it, and as soon as the gun was released, it was going to explode, so it was simply handed over to the blacksmith to return to the furnace. As for the armor and quilts that have been issued, they are no different from garbage. ”

Sun Yuan shook his head: "Boss Guan, let's go and see the materials that Lao Fei bought back from Nanjing this time, and see how much money my Sun Yuan has now." ”

Fei Hong spent more than 100 taels of gold in Nanjing this time, but he gained a lot.

Pig iron alone bought tens of thousands of catties, then gunpowder, lead used to make bullets, tents, grain, and commonly used herbs, and a warehouse was piled up full. The best thing is that he even bought the best coal from the half storehouse, which was about to be used to forge muskets.

You know, the Jiangnan region is not a major coal producing area. In addition, the phosphorus and sulfur content in coal is high, the calorific value is also small, and the forged steel contains many impurities.

In addition to these supplies,

At this time, a jingle sounded and Sun Yuan asked with a smile: "Why, the blacksmith started work so quickly?" ”

Guan Tao: "Master Cui and his apprentices invited from Nanjing have already set up a stove, and they know that the general is in a hurry to make guns, so they naturally dare not delay." ”

Sun Yuan suddenly became interested, and waved his hand: "Let's go, take a look." ”