Since Wang Mingxuan disappeared for no reason, the regimental defense battalion has no leader. Shangfeng's death was not a little surprising, after all, he had too many enemies.

He disappeared, and his brother-in-law came to take over, which is beyond reproach, after all, Mei Renhou is already the most scheming rich man in this area.

He still relies on Guo Huaiyong, but he is not overly dependent, he has his own ideas.

He estimated his strength and felt that a team of 100 people was enough, and he wanted to take the road of high-quality products, and the armament of these 100 people should naturally be carefully selected.

He recruited regimental members who were required to be 18-20 years old. At that time, no matter who recruited troops, they would pull people when they saw them, and they were either too young or too old. He also set the standard for physical fitness tests, and besides, don't smoke a lot; Don't have gang experience; Don't be innocent of your net worth; Don't behave badly, and it's best to know a few words, which is stricter than Zeng Wenzheng's recruitment.

The salary he offered was also very attractive, five taels of silver a month, which was simply a farmer's annual income. Therefore, the people who signed up in the nearby ten miles and eight towns almost broke the threshold, but the almost harsh standards made it possible to meet the standards of only a hundred and a few people, which was still recruited on the basis of lowering the cultural requirements. Some of the people who were brushed down simply scolded their mothers: "This is not a test for Xiucai, picking an uncle, but just being a Qiu Ba, is it a crime?" ”

"One hundred and eight is one hundred and eight!" originally thought that he had to expand his recruitment, but there were very few qualified people, Mei Renhou didn't complain too much, as for the shortage, you can find a way later, these people are training first, and then make up for it later. His dream is to train these 108 people into 108 heroes on Liangshan.

Originally, according to Huaiyong's routine, it was nothing more than letting these people practice their fists and feet every day, and occasionally firing a few shots to scare people. However, Mei Renhou didn't think much of it.

He hired a German instructor from the provincial town through Martin, who was a retired officer of the German Army, and his salary was one hundred taels of silver per month, which really hurt him.

Mei Renhou spent a lot of money this time, and almost used the money he earned from selling cigarettes in the past two years. The weapons are completely imported from Germany, all German Mauser rifles, which are smokeless * magazine rifles, and also the first smokeless * rifle of the German Army's standard equipment, as well as meat grinders that ordinary people have not seen at that time, two German-made Maxim machine guns.

If this mini-armed force can be carefully trained as Mei Renhou wishes, then it is really very powerful, at least in terms of weapons and equipment, there is no army of the same level comparable to it within a radius of hundreds of miles, even the so-called regular army of the imperial court cannot be compared with him.

Of course, these equipment were obtained through Martin's connections, and it would be a fool's dream to want to get such equipment from the Germans without Martin's golden signboard.

"It's really an army! But at least it will take half a year to come......" Mei Renhou thought secretly in his heart when the people and equipment were all ready.

Mei Renhou only knows some about ordnance because of the hardships he has endured over the years, which is not what he is good at, and the most realistic problem in front of him now is to train this miniature armed force at hand, strengthen his own security protection, and make himself have a force in his hands that can be used at any time to deter those who dare to trouble him, and more importantly, his business also relies on this armed force.

For the training of this miniature army, Tan Yanmin did not interfere too much with the German captain hired by the high salary, but he also asked to add some content to the training - large-scale training and a large number of live ammunition shooting.

The German captain's name was Thomas, of course, this was the abbreviation given to him by Martin, his full name was too long, and this name also interested Mei Shiren. Through Martin, Mei Renhou knew that the surname Thomas was a very classic German ancient name, and according to their own German words, this name was the most gentlemanly.

Mei Renhou thought to himself, in this world, whether in China or abroad, the son of a dragon born of a dragon and a phoenix and a mouse burrowed in the ground, and what he paid attention to was his origin.

In Mei Renhou's eyes, Thomas is a typical German, with a rigorous style and a rigid and precise life like a clock, but he is indeed very qualified as a soldier, and he may have to be an instructor with a slight discount.

Although Thomas, as a soldier who has been on the battlefield and experienced a real war, he is still taken aback by Mei Shiren's madness - large-scale exercise training is acceptable, but in live ammunition, his requirements are very harsh.

The live-fire that Mei Renhou demanded was crazy in Thomas's eyes, and he divided the soldiers into two groups, one group for normal shooting training, and the other group dug a shallow trench just enough for people to crawl in opposite the first group, and the target was inserted on top of the shallow ditch, and below was the second group of soldiers who were prostrate inside.

One can imagine how accurate the first shot could be, the missed bullets did not hit the target, and most of them hit the perimeter of the shallow pit, which was extremely psychologically stressful for the soldiers who were crawling in the shallow pit.

The first time such training was conducted, more than twenty soldiers were so frightened that they fainted, and next to them were a few Lang Zhong waiting to treat these people. In this way, the two groups of soldiers rotated for shooting training, which was conceivably extremely cruel for this recruit, and the training was terminated because there were too many frightened people before the training was less than half of the plan.

In Mei Renhou's eyes, these Tuanding are not human beings at all, and they can only be regarded as a dog at most, dogs who work for him. Of course, he never spared dog food.

He also set the training volume of this guard team very high. Fortunately, he also knew how to do it step by step, and he also ensured that the food of the guards was well fed and that they had enough nutrition to keep them training. In that era when everyone could not have enough to eat, being able to eat meat at the same time was a happier thing for these soldiers who had just come out of hunger.

Thomas was shocked by Mei Renhou's crazy training for his soldiers, but as a soldier, after he introduced the training level of the armies of European countries in detail, he still did not make Mei Renhou reduce the training amount of soldiers, but fortunately, after two months, the amount of physical training has not increased, which makes him and the soldiers he trained breathe a sigh of relief.

With Thomas's character, you can imagine how boring it is to get along with him, and the only common language between Mei Shiren and him is target shooting.

Thomas was able to serve as a captain in the strict German army system, which was completely obtained by his ability, as a good soldier's basic skills, his shooting skills can be said to be very exquisite, but he was very depressed to meet Mei Shiren, a crazy shooter.

Mei Renhou's shooting skills were practiced with tens of thousands of bullets, which is nothing in the eyes of soldiers a hundred years later, but it is very rare in this era. Although the use of a fast gun to shoot made Mei Renhou a little awkward at first, but after adapting to it for a while, his shooting level returned, almost every shot, and Thomas's marksmanship was on par.

Having Martin conform to himself has greatly enhanced Mei Shiren's self-confidence. Although, in order to be able to convince this orthodox Teutonic descendant, and at the same time, Thomas also hoped to be able to subdue this oriental rich man through marksmanship, the two came up with various tricks to test marksmanship very tacitly.

If nothing special, Mei Renhou would come to the barracks every day to see his soldiers, but the highlight was the marksmanship contest with Thomas, which also opened the eyes of the soldiers who were just beginning their military training. When these soldiers saw that the marksmanship of the two was extremely accurate, and even some brave soldiers dared to stand on the shooting range, with a wine jar on their heads to let them test their marksmanship, after a period of personal experience, these soldiers would no longer be like at the beginning when they heard the gunfire and their legs would be weak, and even faint when the bullet hit the side, and the wine jar on their heads was still a little psychologically stressful for them, but they trusted the marksmanship of the two more much.

When Thomas and Mei Renhou tried their marksmanship on the school field, they were always able to win the cheers and cheers of the soldiers around them, and they didn't expect that this rich man who had enough to eat and had nothing to do would have such a good marksmanship, and even their foreign instructors couldn't compare to him, so they were very convinced by Mei Renhou.

In Mei Renhou's army, the soldiers were treated very well, and the monthly salary of five taels of silver made the soldiers feel at ease, and although the discipline in this army was very strict, the living conditions were also very good, which made the soldiers very satisfied. The marksmanship contest between Thomas and Mei Renhou has been going on, which has also invisibly affected the soldiers who are being trained, and they are training harder, especially in marksmanship, and they also hope to be able to practice accurate marksmanship like the instructor and Mei Shiren.

Although bullets also need to be imported, Tan Yanmin did not feel sorry for the necessary cost of soldier training, as long as his soldiers are willing to train, the ammunition is as open as possible, almost every soldier consumes nearly 100 rounds of ammunition a month, which is a very terrifying number at that time, and it is estimated that there is no army in the provincial capital that can shoot so many bullets in live firing training.

Mei Renhou hopes that his soldiers will destroy an enemy with one bullet, and what he can do at present is to strengthen the training of soldiers, and on the basis of the inability to expand the number of soldiers, he can only try to improve the individual level of soldiers, especially the level of marksmanship, so that this small armed force can burst out with the most ideal power.

What's more, he reminded these regiments all the time, shouting slogans that made his heart flutter: "Eat the Mei family's food, speak the Mei family's words, and be the Mei family's soldiers....."