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Hu Xiaoyan returned to Lieshan and convened the first meeting of the Internal Affairs Investigation Bureau.

The Internal Investigation Division is headed by Zheng Jun, supplemented by Lawrence. Among them, Zheng Jun is mainly responsible for internal investigations, while Lawrence is responsible for counter-espionage operations. Subsequently, Hu Xiaoyan signed Zheng Jun and Lawrence's organizational plan and application for personnel and weapons.

The Internal Affairs Investigation Division was established.

After finishing the Internal Affairs Investigation Department, Hu Xiaoyan came to Ma'anshan as a small steamer. The progress on the Ma'anshan side is very slow, mainly because of the great official resistance. After the local prefectural magistrates learned of what happened to the Suxian prefectural magistrate, although they did not oppose it on the surface, they secretly continued to use various means.

It's a pity that they will never understand that in troubled times, the barrel of the gun is the most important thing. This time, Hu Xiaoyan brought 10,000 soldiers and horses for long-distance training.

Later, after the troops were in place, he followed Major Andrew and Wang Tingjiao to watch them dispatch the army to conduct experimental offensive and defensive drills throughout the Ma'anshan area. For this live-fire exercise, Hu Xiaoyan paid 1 million rounds of ammunition and 500 rounds of artillery shells.

Hu Xiaoyan is not very good at the army, but the arrogance of 100 rounds of ammunition per person and 500 shells still shocked Wang Tingjiao, Zhang Shaozeng and others. They also trained with the New Army and Wu Yijun at the Tianjin Martial Arts Academy, but they never fired more than five bullets.

A team of 12,000 men fought near Ma'anshan, and the remaining 3,000 did not participate, and they were the elite who trained with the special forces. Not ordinary troops.

The current commanders of the three regiments are Zhang Shaozeng, Lu Jin and Li Shirui. The division commander was, of course, Wang Tingjiao, and the staff officer was a German led by Andrew, leading some cadet soldiers.

Three regiments, two regiments attacked, and one regiment defended. Then rotate.

At present, it is Zhang Shaozeng who is defending, and their position has been shrouded in dust after artillery fire. For the coming war, this time the artillery was directly attacked from real positions. If Zhang Shao had been killed by artillery, he would have been unlucky.

For this exercise, Hu Xiaoyan issued a 30 percent death rate acceptance request. That is, it is acceptable to keep the casualty rate of the troops within 30%.

Hu Xiaoyan, Wang Tingjiao and others stood on the hillside in the distance, holding binoculars and looking at the past from afar. The coverage of artillery fire is sufficient, and the hit rate still needs to be improved.

After the artillery fire ended, Andrew frowned, and Wang Tingjiao could only laugh dryly. The artillery shells used to be trained to shoot black powder shells bought from the Hanyang Arsenal. Now it's smokeless gunpowder shells. The effect is certainly not ideal.

But the trenches are well repaired, and there is no way. At the exercise meeting, Hu Xiaoyan proposed a live-fire exercise. When real people were directly involved, even Andrew was scared.

No matter how Wang Tingjiao and Andrew objected, Hu Xiaoyan was determined to do so. There is no way, his enemy is too strong, if he is soft-hearted at this time. When you get to the battlefield, all you can do is pray. A soldier who has not been baptized in iron and blood is not a qualified soldier at all.

In order to save his life, Zhang Shaozeng not only dug his trenches very deeply, but even found ash to strengthen the trenches. I used everything I could think of like a bomb shelter.

He, Zhang Shaozeng, also had to stay in the trenches and be baptized by artillery, instead of hiding in a safe corner to inspect!

Sometimes it's as simple as that! Hu Xiaoyan just made a start, and Andrew Wang Tingjiao and others thought about all the things that could be used in the trenches and drew drawings. There's no way, if you don't want to be thorough, everyone may be killed by artillery fire.

Thanks to Andrew's rich experience as an active major, Zhang Shao once hid in the trenches unscathed, but the loss of the army still made his heart ache! A burst of artillery came down, and it was only a hundred shells. But he lost at least a hundred people.

Chen Chunyuan, the artillery commander, returned to the artillery unit to continue studying with the Germans after studying with the Beiyang Naval Division for a period of time. At this time, he not only had the experience of shelling in an unstable environment, but also the technical support of German shelling.

The artillery platoon he personally led was the most accurate.

Zhang Shaozeng was heartbroken for the death of his two platoon commanders and more than a dozen non-commissioned officers, while Chen Chunyuan was angry that his subordinates were wasting artillery shells.

In fact, except for his platoon, which was very accurate, the other forty guns combined for all hits were about the same as him. He pointed hatefully at his artillerymen, who were speechless in anger.

Hu Xiaoyan put down the binoculars. Soon, the battle report of the loss came from the front position, and he was very relieved to see that there were only a hundred dead and wounded. After all, he is not a madman, and he really wants his men to lose more than 30%!

Wang Tingjiao and Andrew were also relieved. Only 100 of the 3,000 were killed, and this death rate is still acceptable.

Soon, two regiments began to enter positions for positional battles. Each person has ten bullets at this time. After the bullets are fired, you have to go into hand-to-hand combat. A hundred rounds of ammunition cannot be fought in one battle. There's still a long way to go.

The battle losses of the first day were reported in the evening. In addition to the 100 killed by the shelling, 50 more were killed in positional and hand-to-hand combat. More than 200 people were injured.

The next step is to rest and review, and Hu Xiaoyan is just listening. Andrew took Wang Tingjiao and the three heads of the regiment to explain the documents and sand tables. Other non-commissioned officers and cadets can also put forward their opinions, and everyone can discuss them together.

The second exercise resumed ten days later. This time, Wang Tingjiao and Lu Jin's regiment entered the defender's trench. In response to the effect of the first shelling, they again revised the course of the trenches.

This shelling was much more accurate than the first, but the casualties were far less, and only fifty unlucky ones were killed. Only two of them were killed.

The so-called recruits are afraid of artillery, and veterans are afraid of machine guns.

After the summary after the first artillery session, all the non-commissioned officers and cadets had a sufficient understanding of the shelling. Therefore, during the shelling of the second exercise, the non-commissioned officers and students stabilized the mood of the recruits. Unlike during the first shelling, many of the recruits who died were hit by cold running while running around after being frightened by the shelling.

The second exercise ended quickly, and by this time Hu Xiaoyan was already in the heavy industry base. Report arrives before the evening. Hu Xiaoyan looked at it briefly. A total of 80 people were killed in the exercise.

Hu Xiaoyan threw it aside after reading it. Now he is more concerned with the construction of steel plants.

Since Hu Xiaoyan brought back advanced mining equipment from Britain and Germany, as well as Davy lamps from the United States, etc.

Coal mining is much more planned than the disorderly development of the past, and the output is constantly increasing. Coal from the Huaibei Coal Mine is not only supplied to other parts of Anhui, but also to coal-fired power plants and coking plants attached to steel plants.

The main body of the coking plant and steelmaking plant in the heavy industry base of Ma'anshan has been completed, and the installation and commissioning are being carried out intensively at this time. The research institute in the base also began to test the coal and iron ore early.

Hu Xiaoyan only had a general understanding of the progress of the heavy industry base, and then put his mind down. Chen Ronggui and others did a good job. This time, Hu Xiaoyan brought with him an army of 1,000 men, all armed with Type 1888 commission rifles, who would serve as security guards at the heavy industrial base. Security is directly accountable to Hu Xiaoyan and Chen Ronggui. With these thousand guns, the security of the base is much more reliable. As for the commander of the army, it was Zhang Dakui of the Tianjin Wubei Academy. This is Zhang Dakui's own will. His mission was to protect the factory and recruit and train recruits locally. Hu Xiaoyan gave the establishment of a regiment.

Locally, Hu Xiaoyan mixed with Tesla and Henry, the director of the research institute, every day, and finally with the help of Tesla, the equipment of the steel plant was installed and improved. For this reason, Hu Xiaoyan paid an extra 10,000 pounds as a reward to Tesla, Henry and others.

Thanks to the efforts of everyone, the new steelmaking plant was finally able to start in May, and Hu Xiaoyan used a great summoning technique to summon Enming. Enming obviously still has great expectations for the first steel mill in Anhui.

Coking plants predate steel mills. The supporting steel rolling and arsenal will be a little behind. As much as possible, Enming was still very excited. Because this is the second steel mill in the Qing Dynasty under his rule.

Hu Xiaoyan was not as excited as Enming, because he smashed 10 million taels of silver here. Including a complete set of equipment for steel plants and supporting plants for thermal power plants. There are also research bases, Anhui University, and so on. If it weren't for Germany's support, and the cost was discounted, where would 10 million taels of silver be enough?

But no matter how you say that you will throw 10 million, if a small steel factory still can't handle it, then Hu Xiaoyan will have to raise the butcher's knife. The original Hanyang Iron Works was only more than 2 million taels, and then because the quality of the steel was not up to par, the equipment of the Hanyang Iron Works was renovated and renovated to spend a total of 5 million taels. And Hu Xiaoyan is here in one step. There is no waste.

Heavy industry bases have always been a money-sucking thing, and that's just the beginning. He did not accompany Enming to see the molten iron from the steel mill. Instead, he waited in the office, and Enming's visit this time was by no means so simple. Because he came from Jane on a small steamer by light car, unlike in the past, he came with eight sedan chairs.

Something must have happened in Beijing! It's just that the news hasn't come yet.