An explosion sounded, and Qin Chuan and everyone picked up the Zeiss telescope in their hands to check the direction of the explosion. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

Under the command of Qiu Qinghe, the commander of the artillery brigade of the Yan Regiment, 54 mountain guns opened fire one by one, and the shells whistled and flew towards a target area 100 meters long and 50 meters wide marked by red flags on the slope of the mountain five miles away.

This is a newly expanded artillery brigade in Qinchuan, which is conducting live artillery training.

Qin Chuan, who had a deep understanding of the power of modern artillery, was naturally very dissatisfied with the fact that the Yan Regiment had only formed an artillery company, and as soon as the 100 and eight 75mm Krupp mountain guns that William bought for him arrived, he immediately formed an artillery brigade.

As for artillery, although all departments in the Beiyang are equipped with a lot of artillery, the Beiyang Army still only regards artillery as a dispensable auxiliary arm, and there is no strict control over the number of artillery units in each department. As for the size of the artillery team of the Salt Regiment, which is self-reliant, it is none of their business.

In view of this situation, Qin Chuan simply expanded his artillery company into an artillery brigade, not only did each squad have twice the number of personnel, but also doubled the artillery assigned to each squad, both of which were under the jurisdiction of two mountain guns; Each platoon is composed of four squads, one of which is a baggage support squad, and the whole platoon has six mountain guns; There are four platoons in the company, one police platoon for baggage, and eighteen mountain guns in the company; The brigade has three subordinate companies, equipped with a total of 54 mountain artillery pieces, and the whole brigade has more than 800 people.

Although Beiyang does not attach much importance to the artillery teams of various departments, Qinchuan's salt regiment is only a paramilitary force after all, and it is still a bit unbelievable to configure hundreds of artillery pieces, so Qinchuan only configures Menshan artillery in the artillery brigade, but the personnel are over-allocated, and all personnel in each artillery squad are required to master the skills of various positions in artillery operation, the purpose is to train more artillery personnel, once the artillery needs to be pulled up, it can be expanded into a brigade immediately, and even the formation of an artillery regiment personnel is enough.

"Commander, our artillery brigade is becoming more and more powerful."

Zhou Dajing couldn't hide his excitement while observing the live firing of the artillery.

"Hmph."

Chu Yunfei on the side put down the telescope in his hand, let the belt hang the telescope on his chest, and said a little unconvinced.

"Qiu Qinghe, this kid, has to shoot hundreds of shells every day these days, it's all white silver, so much silver has to be thrown into the water There must be a lot of movement."

Hearing Chu Yunfei complain, Zhou Dajing put down the binoculars in his hand and quipped: "I said Yunfei, don't you talk about Qiu Qinghe, doesn't your battalion have to shoot thousands of bullets every day, although it is not as valuable as those shells, but the silver to buy those bullets is also a lot, and the sound in the water will not be small, right?" ”

Chu Yunfei grinned and said, "That's different, my bullet needs hundreds of rounds to compare to one of his shells." ”

Qin Chuan put down his binoculars and turned around to look at Chu Yunfei.

"Don't just stare at the silver, if you don't pay attention to training, once you go to the battlefield, how can you effectively kill and injure the enemy?"

Chu Yunfei nodded, and glanced proudly at the three battalion commanders Wang Xiping, He Ruhuai, and Fang Weijun beside him, as well as the reconnaissance company commander Xu Tong.

"What the eldest brother said is that my brothers, after a few months of shooting live ammunition as if they didn't need money, are now much better."

Zhou Dajing also nodded and said, "Commander, Yunfei's battalion's shooting performance has indeed improved very quickly, and their shooting performance is the best among the three battalions." ”

Zhou Dajing suddenly remembered something, turned his head to Chu Yunfei and said, "Hey, that's right." Yunfei, do you have any good ways to improve your shooting performance, tell everyone. ”

Hearing that Zhou Dajing praised his battalion's high shooting level, Chu Yunfei puffed up his chest happily, but he refused to say it with a smile.

Xu Tong on the side snorted and said: "This kid is very slippery, I only learned recently, he stipulated in his battalion that the monthly assessment shooting score is less than 50 rings, as well as in other training subjects, such as stabbing, trenches, alternate cover charges, etc., the last 100 people in the battalion in the assessment of each section must be deducted two yuan of military salary, and every time a result is deducted, the squad leader and platoon leader must also be deducted from the military salary accordingly." Only those who have scored 10 rounds and 70 rings in the shooting can be considered qualified, and all the military salaries withheld will be added to the good scores. ”

"I don't know who this kid learned from, and he will fiddle with this money?"

Chu Yunfei straightened his neck, rolled his eyes and said confidently: "Who did you learn from, you learned from my eldest brother." ”

Chu Yunfei's words suddenly made Xu Tong speechless. Peeking at Qin Chuan, who was crying and laughing angrily, he stretched out his tongue and stopped making a sound.

Seeing that Xu Tong was deflated, He Ruhuai, the commander of the third battalion on the side, smiled evilly and said: "Don't say it, this kid is really effective in making such a fuss, and those people in his battalion are training one by one." I've heard this kid say that except for his battalion on horseback, which can't compare to Du Baozhong's cavalry company, he is not a problem in all other subjects, that is, the reconnaissance company and the guard company trained by the commander himself. ”

As soon as he heard Chu Yunfei say that his battalion's training performance was comparable to that of the guard company and the reconnaissance company, the two units personally trained by Qin Chuan, Shi Feng, the commander of the guard company, didn't say anything, just smiled honestly, but Xu Tong suddenly quit.

"Hey, I said Chu Yunfei, as soon as I praise you, your tail will rise to the sky, if you are not convinced, the two of us will compare now."

Wang Xiping stretched out his hand and punched the proud Chu Yunfei and said with a smile: "You kid is not authentic, if He Ruhuai hadn't told me in private, I would still be in the dark." ”

Hearing that Chu Yunfei was using his brains in training, Qin Chuan couldn't help but be interested, let's go, let's go to the first battalion today to check the training situation, if Yunfei's practice is effective, we will promote it in various departments.

Although the snow has just fallen in the morning, the surrounding open space and roofs are still covered with white and crystal white snow, shining with a holy glow in the sunset, but the east street is made of bluestone strips on the road teeth planned neatly and wide bluestone slabs and sidewalks on the side of the road, but there is no trace of snow, and even the shops and shops on the street are dry and spotless, the exterior walls and walls of all the buildings on the entire East Street are painted with bright white paint, and the roofs are painted with maple red. Although it is not as different as the architectural styles in the concession, nor is it as tall as it, it is also unique.

These colorful paints are all waterproof exterior wall paints produced by Qinchuan's newly opened chemical plant, and naturally Qinchuan has applied for a patent.

Although such a façade paint that is not afraid of wind and rain is nothing in later generations, it is still a hot commodity in this era, even if it has just started production, it is now only to meet the needs of the building on East Street, but there are already many customers in the concession, and even many customers in the capital have placed orders.

Of course, although this waterproof coating is also a profitable business, Qin Chuan has to buy this waterproof coating all over the world with a lot of money-making ideas, which is still disdainful of Qin Chuan. Qin Chuan has authorized patent production in Europe and the United States to large chemical companies in various countries, and he just collects a lot of patent fees.

The reason why the streets of Dongjie are clean and tidy is because Qin Chuan instructed Li Mingfang to unite the merchants of Dongjie to set up the board of directors of the Dongjie Administration Bureau in imitation of the Ministry of Industry in the concession, and Li Mingfang is also the chairman of the management bureau. Because of the existence of this authority, East Street has a special department to clean up the streets, and they are the ones who clean up the snow on the ground.

Because of the earth-shaking changes that have taken place in East Street, it has already attracted the attention of people with intentions, and many people have begun to buy real estate and open shops and restaurants on East Street, the most eye-catching of which is that Liang Yanqing, comprador of Jardine Matheson and Gaolin Foreign Company, bought a piece of land at the end of East Street.

Knowing that Liang Yanqing bought land on East Street, Qin Chuan was immediately startled, and at the same time Qin Chuan was excited, although Liang Yanqing, who was extremely wealth-conscious and had some eccentricities, never believed in any banks and enterprises, and never invested money in other places, but he only believed in British-funded banks and British-funded enterprises, his money was only stored in HSBC, and his investment was only in British-funded enterprises. However, the bureau Qinchuan knows that this Liang Yanqing is not absolutely not investing in businesses other than British capital, for example, this Liang Yanqing is particularly interested in investing in real estate.

According to Qin Chuan's understanding in the information before the crossing, this Liang Yanqing is very visionary in investing in real estate, and he makes a lot of money in real estate.

Because of Liang Yanqing, Qin Chuan had instructed Li Mingfang to buy a large piece of wasteland on the east and west sides of this East Street.

Although it is almost evening, there is still a surge of people on the East Street, in addition to shopping to see the excitement, most of the people are either from the near and far states and counties to buy goods in the East Street, or they are the staff of the merchants of various foreign banks, silver numbers, and TJ Wei who go to the Aurora Bank to handle business, and even some small merchants and hawkers and ordinary people have many people who have just earned and are not used for a while to take the surplus money to the Aurora Foreign Bank to store, and some hawkers who are ready to set up night markets have begun to set up stalls to prepare for night buying.

After finishing the training, Qin Chuan led Zhou Dajing and the guard company to ride back first, except for Du Baozhong's cavalry company to train in the field, the troops of several other battalions and companies were still on the way back later.

As soon as he stepped on the land of East Street, Qin Chuan couldn't help but feel an inexplicable excitement in his heart, Qin Chuan, who was riding on the big black horse, couldn't help but straighten his already straight waist, and smiled with the shopkeepers and acquaintances on the street and nodded frequently.

When passing by a two-story restaurant, Qin Chuan had just turned his gaze when he saw a person quickly turning out of the shadows in the restaurant.