While waiting for the observers to arrive in Tianjin, preparations for the exercise were also carried out in an intense and orderly manner; first, an area with a total area of about 25 square miles including rivers, forests, and small hillsides was selected, and then, at the unanimous request of the Americans and Germans, Yuan Shikai had to send people to set up all kinds of necessary buildings in the field, some simple houses made of wooden planks, earthen walls, fences, and even two bridges. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

These facilities form five key points in the site: the headquarters of the American and German advisers at Points X and Y, respectively; The remaining three points, Alpha, Beta and Charlie - this is what the Americans called it, while the Germans used another way of calling it - were located in the middle of the exercise area and represented three villages that needed to be captured and fortified. However, they were not just villages, as Captain Webb suggested, once a force from either side had captured the village, raised its flag and defended it for more than fifteen minutes, the soldiers who had been eliminated in the battle could return to the battlefield as reinforcements at a fixed rate.

Of course, the speed at which reinforcements appeared was also determined by Weber, and when a point was captured, fifty soldiers would return to the battlefield every thirty minutes; two points, a hundred soldiers; Three points, one hundred and fifty soldiers.

And these reinforcements can choose to enter the battlefield at any point under their control. Captain Webb said it would make the exercise more intense and the outcome more confusing. At the same time, in order to further increase the intensity of the "battle", the captain also made a supplementary suggestion that if one side occupied all the villages and held out for thirty minutes, the exercise would automatically come to an end, and that side would prevail - of course, if its command fell into the hands of the enemy in the process, the winner would be the other side.

Undoubtedly, the captain's suggestion made the situation more intense and complicated, and at the same time made it more difficult for the commanders to give orders: whether to occupy three points and hold them for thirty minutes, or to send troops to occupy one or two points while attacking the opposing headquarters directly with the main forces, or to symbolically capture one point and then move to total defense...... With only 1,000 soldiers on both sides, it is worth considering how to strategize and distribute the forces......

In fact, it was a trap, and Weber needed to win the exercise, but at the same time wanted to make the exercise more ornamental, because Mahan was going to visit the exercise, and it was likely that Yi Shui was coming, and he had to behave better than normal in front of them - fortunately, Geraberman and his colleagues were completely unable to spot his trap, on the contrary, the Germans believed that the Americans had given up their greatest advantage, and that according to the new rules they could not stay in the trenches all the time, and had to keep attacking, which they were not good at - As a result, Captain Graberman and his colleagues were thrilled to see their odds improved again.

The mood of the Germans is very relaxed.

But the mood of the Americans is much more relaxed.

Yuan Shikai and his henchmen wondered why the Americans and Germans were all confident, and everyone knew that the outcome of the exercise would determine who would eventually become an adviser to the Beiyang New Army.

It's weird.

They speculated in confusion, trying to find an answer, while waiting patiently for the observers. Finally, on the tenth day after the New Year, the last observer also arrived in Tianjin, and the exercises could begin.

But there is still one more thing to be done.

"We only have one day to dig the trenches." Shepard looked at the Chinese soldiers who were digging trenches not far away, and the thousands of Chinese peasants attracted by the two silver dollars and a lunch, and with their efforts, the five circular trenches around point X had basically taken shape, and all that was left to do was to reinforce them, construct civil bunkers, and dig communication trenches. This was the fastest speed the Major had ever seen, but he was still not satisfied, shrugged his shoulders, and said, "It's a pity that we can't build the most perfect defense system in this little time." ”

He turned to Webb. "You should not agree to the Germans' request to postpone the construction of our fortifications until the day before the exercises."

"It's just a tactic to confuse the enemy. And even if we had enough time, we couldn't build a fortification that would meet the requirements exactly. Webb sighed reluctantly. You know we don't have barbed wire. ”

The absence of barbed wire, perhaps the greatest flaw, was certainly not fatal, and the troops under the command of the Germans could not have broken through the five ring trenches in a very short time - but Shepard and Webb still wanted to see barbed wire.

It's just that the problem seems impossible to solve: China neither produces nor imports barbed wire, and they don't come to China with tens of thousands of feet, something that is clearly not suitable for carrying.

Shepard sighed heavily as he looked at the stakes erected in front of the outer trench as pillars of barbed wire. "I should have ......"

His remorse was interrupted at the beginning, and a member of the advisory group ran up to him and Webb in excitement, as excited as if he had heard God's voice. Of course, he didn't hear God's voice, but got a gift from Santa Claus. "Colonel Mahan brought us 60,000 feet of barbed wire."

"Really?" Shepard and Webb's eyes widened at the same time, "Where?" ”

"It's being shipped."

"Great!" Then, at the same time, they thought of another question. "What about the Colonel?"

"The colonel and the boss have gone to visit General Yuan Shikai."

Thank God, Weber was glad that he had prepared so well that Mr. Yi Shui had arrived in Tianjin, just as he had guessed.

But Yi Shui was definitely a guest that Yuan Shikai didn't guess; Even though he had dealt with foreigners a lot and had a lot of experience, when he saw Yi Shui and heard his identity explained by the translator, he still had a feeling of unreality and a dream.

In fact, he knew that Yi Shui, even if he did not consider that he had led the American army to be stationed in the Guangzhou Bay Concession for so long, after Tan Zhonglin had made such a big trouble, this lieutenant colonel had already become a little famous in the Beijing court - of course, it was all bad reputation - but for such a person of such status, would the person he saw be too young?

Yuan Shikai could conclude that the "Lieutenant Colonel Yi Shui" standing in front of him was definitely not more than twenty-five years old, and he might not even be more than twenty-four years old, and such a young person basically had no chance of becoming a military general commanding thousands of people even in the army of the Great Qing Dynasty, and it seemed even more impossible in the army of the Great United States.

On second thought, it is.

However...... It was only a few seconds later that he was confused again, and if the young man standing next to Colonel Mahan of the Great United States Navy was not Yi Shui, but an impostor, such a thing would obviously not have happened: a colonel of the Great United States Navy would not make such a boring joke, especially on an occasion like this......

While he was secretly speculating, Yuan Shikai still did not forget to return the salute to Mahan and Yi Shui, and asked them to sit down - and then his problem was solved.

Not because he got a conclusion, but because there was another person in the living room that Yi Shui knew.

"Mr. Kuroshima," he had already greeted before he could speak, "aren't you the first secretary at the Consulate General in Hawaii?" ”

Yi Shui didn't notice anything wrong with his words at all, but Kuroshima Ren was taken aback. "Didn't you work as a first secretary in the Consulate General in Hawaii", any professional spy will always think that his disguised identity has been exposed at first when he hears such a question - of course, many spies will quickly realize that this is not the case, but Kuroshima Ren has his own problems, a spy he sent to investigate Qin Lang and Yi Shui has disappeared from the world, maybe he fell into Qin Lang's hands, and confided in the secret, although the samurai of the Great Japanese Empire are very loyal, how can a spy easily trust others?

And after the Southwest War, there were no real Japanese samurai......

Kuroshima Ren blinked his eyes and brought himself back to reality, now he had to deal with Yi Shui with more energy than speculation.

"Mr. Lieutenant Colonel, I didn't expect to see you here." He replied in the usual Japanese polite tone, "I heard that you have caused quite a stir in Canton Bay. ”

Yi Shui knew what he was talking about, Ma Han also knew, of course Yuan Shikai knew better, and even they could guess Kuroshima Ren's purpose, so it was obvious that no one would let him get his wish.

Yuan Shikai kept smiling. "Mr. Kuroshima, do you know Colonel Yi Shui?"

"Yes, Lord Yuan." Kuroshima nodded, but was reluctant to say more. What happened in Hawaii had always been seen by him as a disgrace, and he would never say it.

But Yi Shui will tell the story. It's as if Kuroshima Ren hates him, and he hates Kuroshima Ren too; He's more than willing to let his mood go bad.

"Actually, I met Mr. Kuroshima once in Honolulu." Yi Shui explained to Yuan Shikai in a serious manner, "There was a little trouble at that time, and some Japanese ronin created an organized and violent attack against American soldiers, causing many injuries. But the attack was eventually stopped by my soldiers, and a mob was also shot dead by my soldiers, so I had to work with Mr. Kuroshima to solve the problem......"

That's not true! Kuroshima Ren thought angrily, but he didn't take any action to refute Yi Shui, who was also an official investigative report, and if he accused him of lying, Lieutenant Colonel Kiyomi Mikoku, who was very good at elevating the issue to diplomatic and political heights, would definitely use the topic again, and then things would become even more tricky.

Kuroshima is not the kind of fool who is easily impulsive, and even in the most angry moments, he can maintain his composure and make judgments that are most beneficial to himself. So he always kept a fake smile all the time, watching Yi Shui boast about his achievements to Yuan Shikai, while glancing at his companions from the corner of his eye, ready to take action to stop him at any time.

He glanced at him nervously: this Ryusuke Ito Shaosa was by no means a sane character. In fact, like most officers in the Army, who were in his position, Ito had only war, murder, and promotion in his head, and was good at causing trouble, accusing those who opposed them of being "traitors," and even clamoring all day long about "God will punish the country" -- God knows what trouble he will get into.

But fortunately, Yi Shui was also very smart, and did not further stimulate the Japanese, but only briefly introduced what happened to satisfy Yuan Shikai's curiosity.

He then handed over the floor to Mahan, and the conversation turned back to tomorrow's confrontation exercise.

"The exercise will start at 8 a.m. tomorrow and end at 6 p.m. and will last for 10 hours." Yuan Shikai didn't want the exercise to last too long, of course ten hours was a little shorter, but there was nothing to be done: soldiers couldn't fight at night, there was no point in continuing the exercise after six o'clock, and accidents were prone to occur.

Of course, the reasons for disclosure are always high-sounding. "This official needs to prioritize the safety of friendly education."

Mahan nodded. "What are the drill steps and rules?"

Every observer was very concerned about this issue, and Yuan Shikai had to repeat it. However, before he finished the introduction, Yi Shui already understood all the rules and all the details. He had heard of them, and Weber's rules were actually a kind of game that Qin Lang had prepared for mercenaries, and they were officially announced when he was in Guangzhou Bay, so he only knew some information related to them.

That information was more than enough for an observer, who knew that most of the time, such a game was used for squad-level confrontation training, and this was the first time it had been played on a "map" that covered an area of twenty-five square miles.

Yishui is full of expectations.

He calculated the time, it would only take nineteen hours, and his expectation would become a reality, and it was very fast, it only took a moment, and the time passed.

At 7:30 a.m., 30 minutes before the exercise officially began, the soldiers began to assemble, while the military advisers gathered with the observers to listen to the final explanations of the referees.

"It should be noted that once a soldier crosses the boundary of the exercise area, he will automatically be considered to be leaving the battlefield, and if he does not return to the exercise area within ten seconds, he will be shot as a deserter - of course this is only a way of saying that the soldier has been lost until he returns to the battlefield as a reinforcement." The referee made a gesture and finally warned, "Be sure to restrain your soldiers." ”

The advisors nodded, so the referee turned his head to Yuan Shikai, and after obtaining his consent, announced, "Now, please lead the troops into the battlefield." (To be continued, if you want to know what will happen next, please log in to the www.qidian.com, more chapters, support the author, support genuine reading!) (To be continued.) )