No matter what happens, Zhang Meng has always been a person who does what he says.

As soon as the urban planning model of Vava'u Island was completed, Zhang Meng began his urban construction actions.

In his words, if you want to govern a country, you must first start with a small city that is poor and white.

Fortunately, Vava'u Island is located in the Central Pacific region, which was considered a barren land in the twenties, and few ships of any country would pass through it, so Zhang Meng's actions did not attract the attention of the international community in the slightest.

Of course, Zhang Meng was still cautious and did not neglect his vigilance because of this.

In order not to attract attention, all transactions were done separately in the name of businessmen from other countries, and Zhang Meng sent people to purchase the necessary materials for urban construction and construction machinery and equipment from different countries and businessmen in batches.

The materials and equipment for urban construction can be purchased directly from abroad, and it will take several months to arrive on Vava'u Island, and Zhang Meng sent people back to Shanghai to recruit all kinds of professional and technical workers needed for urban construction.

Zhang Meng was not worried about the manpower issue, because he knew that the land of China was in a period when the warlords were fighting and the people were struggling to make a living, and as long as he gave food, he could recruit hundreds of thousands of industrious and simple young and strong laborers, and with a little money, he could dig people and dig the walls from the territory of the major warlords, and recruit all kinds of engineering and technical personnel needed.

Zhang Meng had handed over this job to Fu Bo, and Zhang Cheng was also transferred out of Tonga, and ordered him to return to China to assist Fu Bo in recruiting young and strong laborers for Zhang Meng, as well as elite talents from all walks of life.

Although Zhang Cheng did not pass the loyalty test set by Zhang Meng in the end, Zhang Meng still trusted him for the time being, and Zhang Meng was also relieved that Fu Bo was watching him.

When Fu Bo and Zhang Cheng returned to Shanghai, they immediately began to recruit laborers.

As an important city in China's opening up to the outside world, most companies from all over the world have offices to recruit Chinese workers, because compared to the wages of Western laborers, Chinese workers are less than one-twentieth of their salaries, and they work hard, and the hundreds of thousands of Chinese workers in Europe during the First World War have won their praise.

In order to reduce the attention of the outside world as much as possible, Fuber chose the recruitment and labor departments of more than a dozen foreign companies to recruit workers on his behalf, and allowed them to pay an additional three oceans of handling fees for each worker. For these foreign companies, a sheep is also a drive, and a flock of sheep is also a herding, so they readily agreed. As their extra income, obviously they won't tell their company boss, so that there is a legal recruitment location, and the outside world can't find out that Zhang Meng is recruiting.

The old man of the Zhang family naturally often asked Zhang Meng and Zhang Wei what they were doing, but according to Zhang Meng's explanation, Fu Bo did not dare to tell the old man the truth, and only lied that Zhang Meng opened a company and set up a factory abroad and needed manpower.

Fauber was too old to travel long distances, so he sat in Shanghai to recruit laborers on the spot and arranged for special ships to send them to Vava'u Island in batches.

And Zhang Cheng traveled all over the country, under the name of Zhang Xinhai, to dig people and dig up the feet of the walls on the territory of the major warlords.

Because they were willing to spend money, a large number of elites from all walks of life in the territory of the major warlords were poached. According to Zhang Meng's instructions, the fortress of Vava'u Island, the air base, the naval base, the submarine base on the outer islands, as well as the security police force of Inner Yafu, and the future marines need at least 30,000 troops to serve as garrisons and logistics support, so Zhang Cheng needs to poach people from the warlords in various places.

Because Zhang Meng knew the temperament of the subordinates of the major warlords, their old concepts were difficult to change, so their soldiers Zhang Meng asked Zhang Cheng to choose a good student, who had both skills and easy control, and did not want any officers this time, as long as 30,000 young and strong soldiers who had fought on the battlefield, because Zhang Meng planned to let the trained people of the Zhang Family Security Regiment serve as middle-level and low-level officers, and let the people of the Blue Fox Special Service Team serve as senior officers, so that these 30,000 people can be trained into Zhang Meng's private army in a short time.

At this time, the major warlords were fighting openly and secretly, with a total of more than 4 million troops and security regiments throughout the country, and the national government began to reduce the national army on a large scale.

With the help of the greed of the warlords and generals, Zhang Cheng knew that they were short of money and weapons at the moment, so he spent money to provide them with weapons and 'borrowed some soldiers' from them.

Just as Liu Bei asked Cao Cao to borrow troops, there was naturally no repayment. The subordinate generals of the major warlords also knew in their hearts that they did not plan to repay the money, so it was impossible for Zhang Meng to return it.

Fortunately, Zhang Cheng was smart enough to only deal with the brigade-level officers of these warlords, and only borrowed a few hundred people from each family, under the pretext that the Zhang family wanted to build a security regiment to guard the home and nursing home, so it would not attract the attention of the officers.

Of course, the most important reason is that Zhang Meng is worried that it will be easy to form local factions in the army in the future when selecting soldiers from one place, which will affect his management and even cause hidden dangers, so the soldiers from each place will pick a few hundred people, and different places will be mixed together, and there will be all kinds of places in Tiannan, Haibei and Beibei, so as to prevent this kind of hidden danger from happening.

"Haven't lived in a building, have you? As long as you follow our Commander Zhang, your whole family will have a western-style house to live in! ”

"When will you be able to marry a daughter-in-law with that little military salary! Follow our Commander Zhang, ten yuan a month, and you can marry a daughter-in-law in two years! ”

"Sir, my family is all farmers, what are you doing over there?"

"Rest assured, as long as you are willing to work and earn money, you will be assigned a job immediately, and the salary will be good!"

……

In the era of warlord warfare where the people are struggling to make a living, where can you find such a job and treatment?

Zhang Cheng hired a group of professional propaganda teams, and under their vigorous publicity, the number of applicants surged, and more than 100,000 active-duty soldiers signed up in just one month.

According to Zhang Meng's request, Zhang Cheng quickly screened out the recruitment target of 30,000 elite soldiers.

After receiving the telegram, Zhang Meng called back and praised Zhang Cheng.

According to Zhang Cheng's report, there are actually more than 30,000 soldiers who are eager to go to Vava'u, and they also meet the minimum standards set by Zhang Meng.

There is a way that the plan can't catch up with the changes, Zhang Meng considered that the 30,000 elite soldiers who have been recruited will have to go through strict training, and a large number of people may be eliminated during the period, so he has to keep enough reserve personnel. In addition, the large-scale urban construction of Vava'u Island was about to begin, even if these people could not meet Zhang Meng's standards, then it would be quite good for them to stay on Vava'u Island as workers, so he ordered Zhang Cheng to take the remaining 30,000 soldiers to Vava'u Island with them.

In order not to alarm the government of the Republic of China, 60,000 elite soldiers and more than 50,000 skilled workers of various types went to Vavau Island in batches within two months, for which Zhang Meng hired more than 100 ships and transport ships from abroad.

In the past two months, Zhang Meng led the Zhangjia security team and the aborigines of Vava'u Island to temporarily build a staff dormitory near the scheduled construction site. Fortunately, the climate on Vava'u Island is warm, so you don't have to worry about the cold. However, Zhang Meng still prepared 2,000 boxes of medical supplies to prevent the spread of diseases.

When these people arrived on Vava'u Island one after another, they were a little disappointed, because the island was only a tropical jungle and a cave. They even thought they shouldn't be fooled for a while, but when Zhang Meng paid them the first month's salary in advance, their hearts were also settled.

"Those who are willing to join Tongan nationality and live permanently on Vava'u Island will get a house of their own!"

Of course, the building had to be built by himself, and Zhang Meng only provided them with equipment and materials. Neither they were rich men, nor were they rich, and the temptation of the house was too great for them to refuse this great temptation.

Fifty thousand workers were assigned to various construction sites according to their professional skills, and they received wages and the temptation of houses, so they worked very hard, so that the construction of urban and military facilities on Vava'u Island was carried out in an orderly manner with quality and quantity.

As for the 60,000 soldiers, Zhang Meng immediately gave them a dismount, pulled out the Zhangjia security regiment, and conducted a military exercise with live ammunition.

These soldiers are all from the warlord army in the country, and it is good to have a Hanyang-made and three bullets in their hands in peacetime, and those who can afford to use Mauser rifles are elite troops. What they saw in front of them was the Thomson submachine gun, and the powerful individual firepower made them envious.

They had seen infantry guns and mortars, but few had seen the M2 heavy machine gun, and they were even more surprised by the powerful rate of fire and destructive power that a concrete wall was smashed into ruins in the blink of an eye.

In order to deter them, Zhang Meng deliberately spent a lot of money to buy back twenty SRA medium tanks from the French company Snyder-Renault. The tank was developed in 1925 with a crew of 4 people, armor with a maximum thickness of 25 mm, an engine power of 180 horsepower, a travel speed of 20 kilometers per hour and a maximum range of 257 kilometers. A 75 mm L18 howitzer was mounted in front of the hull, and two 7.5 mm machine guns were mounted in the single turret, with a total combat weight of 18 tons.

For these 60,000 soldiers from the warlord army in China, they have never seen any tanks, and they have seen large iron boxes launch fierce attacks in a sea of mountains, breaking through pillboxes, trenches and high walls that they thought could not be broken through at all, and even wading directly through a small river less than a meter deep.

"It's called a tank! Invincible! ”

"Next, you will participate in a six-month intensive military training, and those who meet the standards will become a member of the Zhangjia Army, think about it, in the Zhangjia Army, you have these tanks to protect, and your life safety will be guaranteed."

This sentence really touched the hearts of the 60,000 soldiers, who fought with the former warlord troops, and everyone knew that most of the time they were cannon fodder to die. If you can join the Zhang family army and have these tanks to protect you, then your life will be saved.

Out of the most primitive belief in survival, they all have a lot of strength in their hearts, and they must become a member of Zhang Jiajun.