In the next half a month, the two county defense areas in charge of Wu Ming were really safe and sound, but Chen Zhaoxian's Fourth Regiment, which was stationed in Jiangshan, was in constant trouble, and was subjected to small-scale sneak attacks and harassment by the Red Army in northern Fujian for three days.

After the Red Army in northeastern Jiangxi was replenished, it launched a series of sorties, and the attack was huge, causing the whole province of Jiangxi to shake and almost shake the overall situation of encirclement and suppression.

Xiong Shihui, chairman of Jiangxi Province and chief of staff of the Nanchang Xing Battalion, was called by Chairman Chiang to be beaten, and in annoyance and anger, he hurriedly sent the four directly subordinate security regiments and the three regiments of the Shangrao Administration that had just completed the change of clothes to launch a large-scale encirclement and suppression of the Red Army in the Huaiyu Mountain Range.

The elusive Northeast Jiangxi Red Army beat the Jiangxi army to lose its armor and mourn, and then carried a large number of captures and retreated calmly, and disappeared in the mountains and mountains in a blink of an eye.

In the face of a lot of news and intelligence, Wu Ming made a judgment after repeated analysis:

Although the Red Army in northeastern Jiangxi won, but also paid a great price, after continuous battles, not only the officers and soldiers were tired, but also needed to digest the results well, and it was necessary to always guard against the ferocious retaliation of Xiong Shihui's Jiangxi army, so it would not pose a threat to the western border of Zhejiang in a short time.

During the 40-odd days of rare calm, Wu Ming paid close attention to the basic training of 800 recruits, and from time to time inspected the defense areas of various counties, inspected the progress and quality of the construction of fortifications in various border areas, rewarded the good and punished the inferior, and strictly ordered military orders, so that the morale of the officers and men of the whole regiment was full, and all plans and plans were carried out to the letter.

During this period, Wu Ming twice rushed to the Maoliangwu Fenghuangshan Base to inspect the operation of the hydropower station, supervise the progress and quality of the Maoliangwu ordnance manufacturing workshop, inspect the results of the second phase of tactical training of the rotational training company, and convene the officers under his command to review and summarize.

In order to ensure the safety of the Maoliangwu area and strengthen waterway patrols and tax collection, Wu Ming dispatched 20 flexible-minded veterans from the baggage company to the Maoliangwu fleet to learn how to drive and maintain motor boats, and then took out 48,000 oceans and entrusted Li Kun and Lao Zhong brothers to rush to the Qianjiang Shipyard in Hangzhou to customize four high-horsepower steel-hulled speedboats specially used for inland river patrol and vigilance, and in the name of making up for the emptiness of border waterway defense, they engaged in some money-making activities such as anti-narcotics and anti-smuggling, tax evasion, and arms trafficking.

On the whole, everything went smoothly in Wu Ming's department, and the only thing that gave Wu Ming a headache was that the light and heavy machine guns of the brothers in the machine gun company were playing well, but they couldn't play mortars well.

In the two mortar live-fire assessments, the hit rate of the brothers was below 20 percent, and the old and new 18 French Brandt 81mm mortars, four German Geertz 15-fold gun mirrors and four theodolite purchased at a high price were almost furnished, and Wu Ming was so angry that he couldn't sleep for two days.

However, Wu Ming's regiment did not have a few talents specializing in artillery, and Yang Sixian, the commander of the machine gun company, graduated from the Zhejiang Army Artillery Crash School, which had only been run for two periods, and could be regarded as a professional veteran gunner, but after he was promoted to major battalion commander, he led his troops to garrison the Kaihua defense area, and in addition to strictly guarding against death, he also needed to seize the time to train the troops, and he was so busy all day that his feet did not touch the ground, and he had to keep his eyes open when he slept, so where was the time to return to the machine gun company as an instructor?

In order to solve the problem of the lack of professional and technical backbones, Wu Ming once again adjusted the training plan for the past year, and selected 50 boy scouts from the more than 200 teenagers in the Mao Liangwu School who had received one to two years of modern education to enter the army for key training, but the oldest of these children was 16 years old, and the youngest was only 13 years old, so don't expect it to be at least three years.

Wu Ming, who had a big head, could only ask for help from several big brothers in the provincial security department, and asked to send two professional mortar instructors to help, and then select a group of literate talents from the 800 recruits for professional training.

But after two days, Wu Ming found that most of the 800 recruits were illiterate.

Wu Ming, who was hit in a row, lowered the selection criteria twice, and only found forty-two recruits who could write and calculate, but after Lu Dao was concentrated, he found that none of the forty-two recruits had learned the basics of geometry.

At this point, Wu Ming could only look up to the sky and sigh, and sealed the "Fundamentals of Surveying and Mapping" that he had carefully compiled and the "Ballistics" compiled into popular science books, together with the three sets of surveying and mapping instruments he had ordered, and then spent five nights writing two basic textbooks, "Fundamentals of Geometry" and "Trigonometric Functions", which were patiently taught to 42 recruits and 50 boy scouts.

Fortunately, the medical officer Steve's knowledge of mathematics was relatively solid, and the combat staff officer Dai Ziran was also good, and the two quickly understood Wu Ming's teaching materials, and took time to take turns to give lectures to 92 students, sharing most of the courses for Wu Ming, so that Wu Ming could concentrate on dealing with heavy military affairs.

Wu Ming's subordinate has been requisitioned and replenished, and the number of officers and men in the regiment has increased greatly, and in addition to the two engineers who have stayed in the Maoliangwu mine for a long time to learn blasting techniques and participate in the construction of the project, the actual number of officers and men in the regiment has reached more than 2,600.

Not counting the expenditure of subsidizing 10 oceans for each officer and soldier during the New Year, the monthly expenditure of the whole regiment is as high as 42,000 oceans just for military salaries, and if we add the training consumption and a meal of meat a day, the monthly expenditure is less than 60,000 oceans.

Fortunately, Wu Ming controls the taxes of the four border checkpoints, and has a monthly income of 80,000 oceans, so he doesn't have to worry about his military rank, clothing, shoes and hats for at least half a year, otherwise he really doesn't know how to live his life in the future.

Temporarily solving the problem of money, Wu Ming repeatedly considered whether to hold a regiment-wide military skills competition and talent selection after the recruits completed the first stage of training? Through competition selection, the subordinate units will be readjusted to make them more combative, more convenient for operational command, and can also stimulate morale and form a good atmosphere of competition.

Second, we can also take this opportunity to streamline redundant personnel, lay off 500 unqualified officers and men, and simply set up the number of an engineering battalion indiscriminately, and rush to Maoliangwu and Fenghuang Mountain to build roads and open up wasteland to build water conservancy projects in the name of professional training, and then play a scoundrel again, and let Lu Da be in charge of the family and they will pay for it, and if they can use it in the future, they can bring it back.

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Just after the Lantern Festival, Wu Ming formulated a perfect set of military skills competition items and rules, summoned Deputy Regiment Commander Long Shaogang, regimental staff officer Zhang Dongning, and operational staff officer Dai Ziran, and unanimously decided after discussion:

Individual and collective accolades in the five competitions will be set at a higher level, and a large sum of money will be awarded to the winners, with the date of the competition set for April 10.

Wu Ming, who had put everything in place and breathed a sigh of relief, left the newly completed courtyard of the regiment headquarters, walked through the wide courtyard, walked out of the gate of the regiment headquarters, looked at the neat, wide, simple and atmospheric barracks, looked at the neatly arranged new barracks of red bricks and blue tiles, the basketball courts and large playgrounds paved with cement, and the officers and soldiers on the training ground who braved the cold and trained strictly.

Wu Ming, who was in a happy mood, was very relaxed, joking with his confidant Han Tiecheng while walking, and when he heard the sound of car horns coming from the gate of the camp, he looked up and found that two black cars and two troop transport trucks were stopped outside by thick landing rods, and the officer on duty was negotiating with the soldiers who jumped out of the car.