For example, at the company level, the establishment of a firepower platoon will be increased and composed of pure musketeers, and at the battalion level, as the highest-level combat unit at present, an artillery company will probably be added as heavy fire support, and a direct support team such as an engineer company and a health company will also be deployed. After this disguised expansion, there has been no major change in the existing establishment, but the size of the troops that can be directly commanded by the officers can be increased by at least one-third, which can effectively alleviate the current shortage of officers.

Of course, there is another reason for this to be inhumane, that is, the military police department has previously awarded the rank of lieutenant to all the officers who have crossed the country, and only Tao Donglai and Yan Chu are outstanding in the need for management and command to be the rank of colonel. If the expansion continues according to the current establishment plan, then a second battalion will have to be established, and it seems that the military police department will have a bit of a face-saving attitude by moving officers from the company and platoon level to the battalion level and the rank of general from the rank of captain to colonel before an inch of merit has been made.

Although the original arrangement was indeed a little inconsiderate, but this is also a process that the army must go through to grow, after all, even the military police department, most of them have not been officers before the crossing, if you don't start from the grassroots commanders, directly let these people serve as commanders at the battalion and company level, it is really not very reassuring.

After the simple military parade, Tao Donglai and Yan Chujie, as the first and second leaders of the military and police department, made speeches respectively, to the effect that they were reminding these militia soldiers where their lives today came from and who they wanted to defend with their lives. Both of them had engaged in political work during their time in the army, and their speeches were also full of emotion and incitement.

Most of the soldiers came to Shengli Harbor to beg for a bite to eat, but their current living standards are indeed far better than in the past, and the promises made by the Haihan chiefs to "have a house to live, something to eat, clothes to wear, and a place to read" have now been fully realized. And after a few years of military service, they will automatically receive the corresponding labor rank, will be assigned work by the executive committee, and can even apply for a contract to grow their own food. After months of military training, the soldiers gradually understood a truth, and the Haihan Executive Committee, which gave them these preferential treatments, was the most important object that the militia wanted to defend. If there is no saving of the Executive Committee, they will immediately return to the state of poverty after eating the last meal and not the next.

Of course, there are still many people who join the army with the idea of "being a soldier to eat food and pay for their lives", after all, the treatment of the militia is second to none in all walks of life in Shengli Port, and in recent months the local situation has been calm, there are neither bandits nor pirates, and being a militia can get a high salary, and it seems that there is no need to worry about their lives.

In fact, the General Staff Office of the Military Police Department has already begun to formulate a small-scale military action plan for next year, with the tentative goal of choosing a place to establish a naval base in the Wanshan Islands at the mouth of the Pearl River. Similar to Fushuizhou Island, this maritime base can serve as a shipping transit point, provide some military support to the Guangzhou Office in the vicinity, and monitor the waters of the Pearl River Estuary.

According to the information sent back by the Guangzhou Office, there are still small groups of pirates near the Wanshan Islands, and there is a possibility of military clashes at that time. The General Staff is also weighing the need to strike first and eliminate other maritime forces that might get in the way. However, regardless of whether or not the use of force will be used, the Military Police Department regards this as a great opportunity for the militia units to conduct a live-fire exercise, and since this island station is mainly for military purposes, the Military Police Department also regards it as an opportunity to form a navy, of course, it depends on whether the No. 1 test ship of the Ministry of Maritime Transport can be launched before the end of the year and complete the basic sea trial mission, because the Military Police Department has already put this ship under the flag of the Navy in advance and is ready to use it as an armed patrol vessel.

After the parade, everyone hurried to the artillery range to see the first batch of naturalized artillery soldiers shooting live ammunition, which was also their graduation ceremony. As time-travelers from 400 years later, the vast majority of the members of the Military Police Department are devout believers in the bombing doctrine and highly respect the power of artillery in modern warfare. Especially in this era when there is no need to worry about air strikes, artillery is the king of war, whether on land or at sea. It is precisely on the basis of this consideration that the Military Police Department attaches great importance to artillery units even higher than that of the navy, and even if the existing militia is only one battalion, it does not hesitate to transfer a large number of personnel from it for artillery training, and after many times of elimination and deletion, it finally left more than 30 naturalized civilian artillerymen.

The Military Police Department will certainly not be satisfied with this scale of artillery, but the completion of this batch of artillery at least means that the future artillery unit has taken the first step to success, and it seems that it is only a matter of time before the world's most powerful army appears in the South China Sea.

Unlike the previous musketeers, which were uneven, this small artillery unit was almost all strong men with thick shoulders and round waists, and they were all relatively strong. This is also determined by the actual combat mission of the artillery, the heavy artillery body can only rely on manpower to adjust on the battlefield, and the continuous loading and cleaning in the battle can also be regarded as heavy body work, and people who are not good enough have to be tired directly after firing twelve rounds in a hurry. Those students who were not physically good enough were gradually eliminated in the course of training because of physical reasons, and only a very small number of ordinary students who showed superior minds in the process were absorbed into the various companies of the militia and trained as future grassroots officers.

The 6-pounder guns and 12-pounder guns were well targeted, and the gunners were basically qualified, after all, they had undergone several months of intensive training, and each of these gunners had fired more than 100 rounds of live ammunition, and the black powder consumed by training them alone was several tons, and the investment was not small.

According to the plan of the Military Police Department, these gunners will be equipped with eight six-pounder guns, or a combination of 12-pounder guns and six-pounder guns, with engineers, communications and baggage, to form an army artillery company. However, given the current shortage of gunners, these men may be assigned directly to serve in the harbor defense batteries, and some of them will be transferred to serve as naval gunners on board after the launch of the No. 1 test ship. As for when the next batch of artillery will be able to graduate and enlist in the army, Gu Wei estimates that it will be at the end of the year at the earliest.

After completing the scheduled target drill, the military industry department came to intervene and pulled out two 24-pounder long-barreled guns for test firing. This gun is not designed for the current army, but the large-caliber coastal defense gun that will be equipped with the shore defense artillery fortifications next, and the weight is heavier than the three 12-pounder guns combined, and the weight of the gun body alone is more than one ton, and the body-to-barrel ratio has reached 20 times. To this end, the military industry department has also designed a special mechanical gun mount, and the newly developed control and retreat device has been adopted on the gun mount to ensure the convenience of the operation of this large-caliber artillery. According to the calculations of the military industry, firing at an angle of 5 °, this kind of artillery can easily concentrate on targets at a distance of 1500 meters, and can also maintain a high degree of accuracy, in the firing state of 10 ° firing angle, the shell can even hit a target 2000 meters away at this firing distance, and the artillery of the same era has no accuracy at all.

The farthest target position of the artillery range has not yet reached 1,000 meters, and if it is far away, it can only be hit in the mountains, or it can only be hit at sea. In view of this situation, the target position was finally set at a distance of 750 meters, which was far beyond the firing range of the naval guns of the same era, and it can be said that at this distance it was almost impossible for the shore defense guns to withstand artillery fire from the sea.

The results of the test gun surprised everyone, although it was tested by a naturalized civilian artillery who operated this large-caliber gun for the first time, but it achieved an effective hit on the target in the fifth round, and the ninth and tenth rounds were consecutive hits. Considering that in the future, this kind of artillery will have to be arranged at least 20 or more in the shore fortifications at Yulin Point, this kind of hit rate is almost invincible, and only one or two salvos at this distance are enough to sink or paralyze a sea target.

After Tao Donglai saw the test firing, he made a slap on the spot and agreed to the application for this long-barreled 24-pounder gun to be the main firepower configuration of the coastal fortifications. Larger-caliber artillery is not impossible to build now, but the military industry department believes that it is no longer meaningful to further enlarge the existing artillery models, after all, the several artillery guns now equipped with are difficult to have opponents in the same era, and the goal of upgrading the technology tree should be turned to improving the barrel material, processing technology and speeding up the development of breech guns, and the existing several cast iron artillery can be sold to the "backward areas" after appropriately reducing performance, as is now done for Fujian and North Vietnam.

When the members of the Military Police Department were happily watching the artillery test firing on the east bank of Shengli Harbor, in the conference room in the No. 1 base, the merchants were trembling with fear, and the sound of artillery from time to time made their hearts tremble.

Although there was a bay between the two places, the distance in a straight line was only three or four miles, and there was no slope between the two places, and the roar of artillery fire could not be heard from afar, so that the merchants could not concentrate on the auction in front of them.

Ning Qi is also on fire at the moment, this military police department will not come sooner or later, but chose to open an auction to test the artillery, is it a bad brain or deliberately to scare these Ming merchants? Although Ning Qi has made a special explanation for this, explaining that this is a local militia group conducting daily military training across the bay, but the merchants are obviously not very satisfied with this explanation. It's been more than half an hour before and after, and there have been sixty or seventy cannons, and your militia is fiercer than the artillery fire of the official army, is this like words?

Some people even secretly speculated in their hearts whether it was the Ming Dynasty official army or the South China Sea pirates who came to the door, but no matter which one it was, it seemed impossible for such a dense artillery fire.

Ning Qi saw that these people's minds were not on the auction, so he simply said: "Otherwise, everyone will rest for a while, and the auction will continue after half an hour." You can go out and walk around, and you don't believe me when I say it, so seeing is believing. ”

As if they had been pardoned, everyone rushed out of the conference room. If you have already started fighting outside, you have to hurry to the port to board the ship, and if you are lucky, you may be able to get out. Only Li Nai sat motionless in his seat and continued to drink tea unhurriedly.

Seeing this, Ning Qi laughed and said, "It's still Mr. Li who is calm." ”

Li Nai shook his head and said: "It's not that I'm sinking down, but after living in Victory Port for many days, I'm used to it." The militia artillery drilled every three days, and at first they were a little frightened, but after a few more times, they felt very relieved. ”

Ning Qi was stunned and said, "Uh, why do you think so?"

"Imagine that the local militia is so powerful, and what kind of pirate who is not open-minded dares to come here to make a living? Li Nai replied slowly: "With such a powerful protection, you only need to make a fortune with peace of mind, wouldn't it be happy?"

Ning Qi sighed: "Mr. Li is very conscious! If only those other merchants could have such thoughts as you." ”

Li Nai said with a smile: "Mr. Ning, please rest assured, the merchants who dare to cross the sea to trade here this time are not timid and afraid of things. Once you know the truth of the matter, you will naturally turn around. In my opinion, in less than half an hour, at most a stick of incense, these people will be back. ”

The actual situation was better than Li Nai expected, and when half a pillar of incense was not reached, a merchant came back angrily: "If you want to test the artillery, why not go to the inland no man's land, but try it in this port, to frighten people for fun, it's really hateful!"

Later, another person turned back: "It's okay, it's just a test cannon, and with such heavy artillery guards in the future, this place will be safe." ”

It turned out that after these people went out, they saw that the local people were very calm, and the outside was also orderly, and there was no sign of any foreign enemy attacking, so they knew that Ning Qi's previous explanation was the truth, and this was indeed a test artillery test by the militia and not an artillery battle. There are also more cautious people, and they even ran to the gate of the base and called the entourage waiting outside to inquire. These entourages had already been in chaos once because of the roar of artillery fire, but now they all calmed down, and told their masters that there was no need to alarm the local people, and if there was really a foreign enemy, there would naturally be sirens resounding through the port.

These merchants had been staying in Victory Harbor for the night, and of course they had heard the loudspeakers in the morning to remind the people to go to work, and the sound of that thing could indeed be heard clearly in the whole port, and the sound was even louder than the roar of the artillery. With this reasonable explanation, the merchants really put their minds at ease, and then returned to the conference room one after another.

And just as Li Nai thought, after these merchants realized the truth, they had more confidence in the safety of Shengli Port, although the source of this confidence was only that they did not see the actual artillery and artillery. But for them, a commercial port like Shengli Port, which is guarded by a coastal defense battery, is also the first time they have seen it in their life experience, and the most unusual thing is that the ownership of this fort is not the official Ming Dynasty, but the local militia organized by the Haihan people.

After experiencing this small episode, the relaxed merchants began a new round of competition, and batches of goods were returned to their owners in the bidding. In the afternoon of the same day, Li Nai auctioned the only Haihan silver mirror with a size of 2 feet in the auction at the price of 2,700 yuan in circulation coupons, and also set a record for the highest price item in this auction.

The valuable commodities that have also attracted the attention of many merchants, the limited edition customized Ding Mao New Year special commemorative set of glass stationery, were not put out for auction in the end, but were sold at a "low" price of 500 yuan to the various merchants who came to Shengli Harbor this time to thank everyone for coming all the way here to support the friendship.

This set of stationery not only has the outer packaging of a beautiful brocade box, but also comes with a certificate of "Haihan Ministry of Commerce", and each set has a unique collection number to prove its value. Li Nai thinks that this set of things can be speculated at least to more than 1,000 taels in the current Guangzhou market, and if it can be transported to Jiangsu and Zhejiang, it is not uncommon for this thing to sell at a sky-high price in terms of the number of wealthy businessmen and consumer groups there.

At the end of the two-day auction, these merchants from Guangzhou sold a total of more than 20,000 yuan of goods in Shengli Port, and the total amount of Haihan industrial products and a small amount of agricultural products purchased exceeded 80,000 yuan, and the trade surplus was very amazing. The merchants did not feel sorry for the money spent, and they knew very well that the profits they would make from the goods they purchased would also be more than 10,000 taels after they were shipped back to Guangzhou.

In order to thank the merchants for their "contributions" to local development, the Executive Committee also lost no time in holding another celebration banquet for all the merchants. As they had seen in the Guangzhou Office, the banquet of the Haihan people was as luxurious as ever, more than ninety percent of the utensils used on the table were glassware, and the non-fire and non-candle lighting fixtures used in the room made the merchants feel very curious.

The Executive Committee regards every contact with the outside world as an opportunity to promote Haihan culture to the outside world, which of course also includes values and lifestyles. After two days in Shengli Port, even those who were suspicious of the Haihan people at the beginning had to admit that these Haihan people with short hair and short clothes and northern accents were indeed truly "civilized people", and this civilization was not only reflected in the treatment of people, but also from the various details of their life and work. Although the Haihan people chose such a remote place to settle down, their quality of life can be said to be maintained above that of most of the Ming gentry, and even the paper for wiping their buttocks is better than that used at home.

The only thing they can't quite understand is why these rich and capable Haihan people find a way not to build a better living environment for themselves, but all of them are crammed into a small walled fort, living a collective life similar to a military camp.