In order to strengthen the combat effectiveness of the towns, he inspected back and forth between the towns, and almost all the officers above the rank of guard officer were received once, and the military training center also went several times, and even personally demonstrated the infantry killing technique learned in his previous life for the soldiers in the first town.

Due to the limited conditions, Zhou Shixiang could not equip the fire guns with swords, so the fire guns were all equipped with waist knives, and those with insufficient waist knives were equipped with daggers and short swords, so as not to turn the fire guns into burning sticks such as the battle of Shenwan when fighting in foggy and rainy weather.

The instructors of the killing tactics mainly focused on the spearman, and the spear was made of ash rods in a uniform system of three meters and five. In battle, if the duo assassinates, one person will be stabbed in the leg and the other in the head; The trio assassinated one in the head, one in the leg, and one in the block. Training and combat are based on the premise of simplicity and flexibility.

In order to give full play to the advantages of firearms, the C Brigade of the three brigades under the jurisdiction of each town is an all-firearms combat unit, and the A and B brigades are mainly sword and shield bearers and spearmen. When the firearm brigade fights in formation, it should separate the two wings to form crossfire. When the battle was fierce and the rate of fire of the musket could not suppress the enemy in front of him, the musketeers abandoned the musket and drew their swords.

In the case of group operations, the cavalry brigade assumes flank cover, and the artillery battalion is placed behind the main formation, and the advance is fought as necessary. The tactic of infantry and artillery coordination Zhou Shixiang has not yet been able to promote it in the army, mainly because the artillery of the artillery battalion belongs to backward front-loading guns, and the cannons are mostly solid shells, while the number of large pole guns and tiger squat guns that can fire scattered bullets is limited, and the power and range are also limited, so it is impossible to engage in any infantry and artillery coordination. If you really want to do this, you will definitely be killed by your own artillery fire more than the Qing army.

During the inspection of the fourth town of Xiangshan. Zhou Shixiang sent back an order to Guangzhou, asking Song Xianggong to organize blacksmiths to make shovels, even if the production of agricultural tools was delayed. Be sure to build 5,000 shovels within a month. In fact, what Zhou Shixiang wanted was a sapper shovel, but the current technology could not be reached, and the scale of production could not be reached, so he could only use the long-handled shovel commonly used by farmers in this era.

When he was in Xiangshan, Zhou Shixiang asked someone to build a "bunker", which was made of glutinous rice mixed with bricks and stones and boiled into a paste. Three meters high, the fort can be tuned with a soldier. Twelve holes were opened from top to bottom, and each hole could be used to place a firearm for shooting, as well as for shooting arrows. The roof of the fort is also built with a shielding wooden plank, in which an iron pot is placed, so that the gold juice can be boiled to kill the enemy soldiers close to the pillbox, and the "wolf smoke" can be lit on it to transmit military information to the rear.

It took dozens of masons from Xiangshan County to work for three days to complete the construction of a bunker according to Zhou Shixiang's wishes. Zhou Shi was very dissatisfied with their speed. The construction process is programmed. After each procedure was streamlined and fixed, the masons were asked to rebuild, but this time it only took two days, but Zhou Shixiang was still not satisfied, and in the end, the masons took a total of half a day to build the bunker that Zhou Dashuai needed.

The bunker style is simple, and there are almost no living facilities inside, except for the ability to kill people. It's basically useless. The space inside is small, and it's okay to stay for a few days for a short time. After a long time, people can't stand it at all. Zhou Shixiang went in by himself and was stunned, and he felt depressed. This stuffiness is not because of breathlessness, but because of that hidden suffocation.

After giving these masons a reward, Zhou Shixiang asked them to build a "watchtower" on the basis of the bunker. This watchtower is actually an enlarged version of the bunker, nearly five meters high, the volume is also three times that of the bunker, in addition to having the same military setting as the bunker, there is a living house behind the watchtower, can live people, can cook, can also raise horses. The living area has a wall more than two people high, more than one meter wide, which can be walked on, and there are simple fortifications.

Even if the masons worked hard for the bounty, it took three days to build such a watchtower.

Zhou Shixiang frowned and approved of this speed, and the next step was to recruit all these masons into the army, and let Guangzhou gather all the masons from all counties in Guangzhou, and then recruit thousands of young men into the camp to study. What he learned was not how to kill the enemy, nor anything else, but how to build bunkers and watchtowers.

A pillbox for half a day, a watchtower for three days, there is a reward for repairing it, and punishment for failure to repair it is the only order that Zhou Shixiang gave to this group of recruited masons and young people.

Building bunkers and watchtowers requires a large amount of masonry and glutinous rice, Zhou Shixiang asked Song Xianggong to prepare the raw materials needed to build 500 blockhouses and 100 watchtowers no matter what means, and the original brick kiln factories near Guangzhou are all produced, and at the same time, the Ministry of Civil Affairs Post Department should immediately build new kilns in various places to ensure that masonry production can keep up with the progress. All the young and strong men in all counties must be mobilized, and if there are not enough men, women must also be recruited.

Not only were the counties controlled by the Taiping Army mobilized to build kilns to produce bricks, but Zhou Shixiang even sent people to Huizhou to let Hu Qili also build kilns in the Haifeng area of Huidong to produce bricks.

Although Hu Qili didn't know what the Taiping Army wanted so many bricks for, in order to get the support of Zhou Shixiang, he immediately ordered someone to implement the matter of making kilns.

Hu Qili, who was confronting Wu Liuqi in Chaozhou, also received the news that the army of Prince Jian of the Qing court was heading south, and in horror, he had sent two groups of people to Guangzhou to ask Zhou Shixiang for help. Zhou Shixiang promised that after the New Year, he personally led the main force of the Taiping Army into Huizhou, which made Hu Qili settle down a little.

Zhou Shixiang originally planned to leave Xiangshan and return to Guangzhou on the 25th, but on the 23rd, Song Xianggong sent someone to hurriedly come over and tell him that the minister of the imperial court was coming.

Is there someone from the Yongli Imperial Court? So fast?

Zhou Shixiang was a little surprised, the envoy he sent to Kunming to report the victory should not have arrived in Kunming yet, why did the Yongli Imperial Court send people to Guangzhou so quickly, could something have happened?

Thinking of his hard work for Guangzhou and the Taiping Army these days, Zhou Shixiang couldn't help but be excited, he was very afraid that the Yongli Imperial Court would send someone to take over Guangzhou, and did not recognize the political envoy he set up to serve the Yamen, and did not recognize his appointment and dismissal of Hu Qili, Hu Mingyi, Wang Zhaoxing, Wang Zhangjun, Zuo Qing and other demoted generals, which meant that Zhou Shixiang had to turn his face with the Yongli court. After all, compared with his own general soldier who has been a man in two lives, Linghai General Chen Qice and Zhenguo General Zhu Tong have a strong concept of Zhu Ming's orthodoxy, if they choose between the imperial court and Zhou Shixiang, they will definitely not choose the latter, and the sailor in his hands is exactly the strength that Zhou Shixiang needs to rely on. (To be continued.) )