Chapter 126: Battle Assessment

On the beach outside the village, in the headquarters tent, the officers, NCOs, and NCO students of the Baitu Expeditionary Force, at the squad level and above, were all gathered together. The nurses of the medical team poured tea for everyone. Everyone was in a good mood. Although there had been a slight embarrassment, the battle had ended perfectly according to the textbook, with not a single casualty.

“We need to get into the habit of summarizing and improving after every battle. Everyone can speak freely at the meeting, with no taboos.”

The native NCOs naturally dared not speak. Their sense of hierarchy was still very strong, and Xi Yazhou did not force them—everything had to be done slowly.

“How are the arrangements for the troops’ camping and security?”

“They’re all arranged.”

“This is the first time a large force has fought together, and there are many problems. When the enemy’s cannons fired, all the platoons were shaken. Fortunately, the enemy’s cannons were too rotten. Otherwise, if a few had been hit, wouldn’t the whole army have collapsed immediately?”

“No veterans, all rookies.”

“In the future, we need to do more adaptation training under artillery fire. It’s also good for them to get used to hearing the sound.”

“The key is still to fight more—”

“There will be plenty of fighting in the future, but in this state, they will most likely collapse at the first touch. It’s good if they know how to run away, but I’m afraid they’ll just lie on the ground waiting to die! The few from the first company who buried their heads in the ground today were really a sight to see, acting like ostriches.” Xi Yazhou’s criticism was extremely harsh.

Wei Aiwen blushed deeply. He was the commander of the first company, and the first company was the benchmark company of the training battalion, with an excellent rate of over 60% in all training subjects. He didn’t expect that the biggest joke this time would come from the first company.

“After we go back, I will properly rectify them!” Wei Aiwen’s tone was low. “Those who acted cowardly, I will clear them all out and send them to the logistics.”

“It’s their first time in battle, it’s understandable to be afraid. How do you fill the vacancies if you clear them out? You have to train them again.”

“I don’t think it’s necessary either,” Xi Yazhou said. “If the troops are not up to par, the commander should look for the reason in himself, not blame the soldiers!”

Wei Aiwen felt as if he were sitting on a stove. This had practically turned into a struggle session. He stood up and said, “I will make a deep self-criticism to everyone—”

“Forget it, forget it, Little Wei, it’s okay,” the people next to him quickly pulled him back.

“There’s no need for a self-criticism. Go back and submit your new training plans and methods to improve as soon as possible. And you few platoon leaders, don’t think your men are tough. It’s your good luck that you didn’t make a fool of yourselves, it doesn’t mean your soldiers are strong.”

You Laohu and the others could only grimace and agree. It seemed that this post-battle review meeting was really not easy to get through.

“And the shooting, in the checkpoint battle, the volley fire was very uneven. At 200 meters, three platoons fired a volley and only took down a dozen people. This result can’t be said to be good! And this was with Minie rifles, and they still produced this result?”

“The soldiers are not good at mastering the sights, many are not used to it—”

“After we go back, we must focus on sight shooting. Otherwise, it will be suicide to face cavalry in the future.”

Huang Xiong thought that these Kun people’s way of managing the army was really different: after a victory, it was not about rewarding merits and holding a banquet to reward the three armies, but rather nitpicking for faults like finding bones in an egg. How could this kind of leadership make people sell their lives for you?

Huang Xiong did not deny that this new army had brought him many shocks, especially the weapons and equipment. The word “extremely sharp” was probably not an exaggeration. But the concept and practice of military management and warfare, he had always felt were naive and ridiculous. Perhaps the ideas of the overseas barbarians were just different from those of the Central Plains.

“The effect of the 12-pounder mountain howitzer was better than expected. The disadvantage is that it can carry too few shells. Fortunately, it was a low-intensity battle, otherwise it would not have been enough. The degree of mule and horse transport in the army is low, but the number of personnel is organized according to the standard of mule and horse transport. The soldiers, in addition to carrying their equipment and weapons, also have to carry a considerable part of the artillery equipment, which consumes too much physical strength. Fortunately, there were the liaison officers from the various villages as porters, otherwise many soldiers would have fallen behind during the march,” Ying Yu made the artillery’s summary.

“The low degree of mule and horse transport cannot be solved for the time being,” Wen Desi said. “Raising horses and buying horses are not things that can be done overnight, and Hainan is not very suitable for raising horses.”

“I know that too. Wu Nan Hai can’t conjure up horses out of thin air,” Ying Yu said. “My meaning is, since we have too few mules and horses now, we can appropriately expand the personnel establishment of the artillery—”

“Damn, isn’t that just using soldiers as beasts of burden?”

“That’s the meaning.”

The transmigrators present looked at each other. In their hearts, this was the most despised thing in the old-time military system, a hundred times more despised than the banner system of slavery.

“I also know this method is rotten, but who else has any other way to ensure the mobility of the artillery now?”

Indeed, there was no other way, unless they made a rush purchase of horses. Buying horses in Guangzhou was a troublesome matter. Not only was the government’s inquiry strict, but horses on the market were also very rare.

“I think it’s also good to add some gunners,” Xi Yazhou avoided the term “using soldiers as beasts of burden.” “Now, one 12-pounder mountain howitzer is equipped with 6 gunners. If we increase it to 10, the burden on the gunners can be reduced a lot. We can also have more fire cover.”

“It’s best to develop some light and short weapons for the artillery, which are more convenient to carry. For example, carbines or something.”

“But the enemy may break into the artillery company’s position. It’s not appropriate to equip them all with short weapons.”

“6 gunners use short weapons, and another 4 standard infantry are organized.”

“This plan is feasible,” Ying Yu said.

“Also, there is a problem with our current ration standard. Theoretically, each soldier gets 0.75 kg per day, but in reality, there are many who eat 1.5 kg per day. If this continues, what’s the point of the ration standard? Let’s revise it.”

“A diet lacking in fat and protein is like this,” Dongmen Chuiyu, as the ration observer of the agricultural department, said helplessly.

“What’s the reaction to the ‘Grassland Plan’ rations?”

Wei Aiwen was about to speak when he was interrupted by Xi Yazhou. He called out the name of Tian Liang, who was secretly looking around.

“Tian Liang, you tell me. How has the food been these two days?”

Tian Liang didn’t expect his name to be called. He stood up and saluted as if by reflex.

“Reporting to the chief!”

“Don’t shout, just tell me.”

“Very—good,” he swallowed. This was indeed his sincere feeling: he was full, could eat fine grain, what else was there to be dissatisfied with?

“Sit down,” Xi Yazhou looked around. “Do all the soldiers say so?”

Everyone nodded in unison. A squad leader smiled embarrassedly and stood up:

“Reporting to the chief, the brothers in the squad all say that it would be even better if there was some meat to eat.”

Everyone laughed, and the atmosphere relaxed a little.

“It’s a good thing to want to eat meat. It’s still a bit difficult right now. When things are better, the brothers will have meat to eat every day!” Xi Yazhou wrote a check.

“Really? Chief… Chief Xi?” This squad leader was a little excited and lost his composure. Huang Xiong couldn’t help but laugh to himself: if you can believe the words of an official, the sun will rise from the west—to give soldiers meat to eat every day, where in the world is there such a good thing?

“Of course it’s true,” Xi Yazhou nodded and let him sit down. “The soldiers probably have no objections. What about the officers?”

“No oil and water!”

“Grassland No. 1 and No. 2 are very good. No. 3 and No. 4 are very bland. I can’t eat them without luncheon meat.”

“It’s best to make special jars of oil, just like the fish sauce we brought. It would be very good to add a little when cooking.”

“Too few vegetables. Eating like this will cause ‘heatiness’ sooner or later!”

There were indeed many opinions about the food, but not as fierce as expected—this was because they had not yet started to gnaw on Grassland No. 5—the instant rice cakes. Dongmen Chuiyu had already eaten one, and the taste was quite terrifying.

After the meeting, the several elders of the village were brought to the front of the headquarters tent and knelt down together. Then they were helped up by Wen Desi who came out to greet them and were led inside.

The transmigrators needed the people and things of Baitu Village, but to forcibly move more than 500 people from a place where they lived and worked in peace and contentment to another strange place, the emotional resistance and dissatisfaction were obvious. After Wen Desi arrived, he discussed with the senior military officers and decided to do more work on the upper echelons, to use them to appease the common people, so as to avoid any violent incidents on the way.

Of the three people who came in, two were from the main major surnames in the village, both from Fujian. One was surnamed Lin, a carpenter, and the other was surnamed Lu, a blacksmith. These two had come with their entire clans and had the greatest power in the village. The last one, a Cantonese man surnamed Zhang, was a shipwright, but he had only come with his wife and children.

The Lin family also knew how to build ships, but their skills were not refined, and they could only build small boats. Zhang the shipwright was the core technical personnel here. The best-selling 400-liao ships could only be built by Zhang the shipwright. Zhang the shipwright knew that he was alone and weak, and was a Cantonese, so he kept the shipbuilding methods secret and did not take on apprentices. The core work such as drawing the lines and laying out the ship were all done by himself. Outsiders only did the work and did not know the reason why.

The residents of the village, besides the clansmen of the Lin and Lu families, were mostly landless peasants and craftsmen who had fled from Fujian and Guangdong. The actual power of the entire village was actually in the hands of the Lin and Lu families. Zhang the shipwright, because of his skills, also had a great say. After Wen Desi toured the village and successively interrogated some ordinary villagers, he knew that most of the common people here were actually the exploited: the workshops, tools, and ships, almost all the production facilities belonged to the Lin and Lu families.

Understanding the ins and outs of this, Wen Desi had already formulated a plan on how to break them up. Zhang the shipwright was obviously the easiest to be divided among the three elders.

Wen Desi said some comforting words to them: all the property here would just be moved to Bopu, and the private property of every household would be protected. There, they could continue to build ships under the protection of the transmigrators, and they would be paid for their work. As for housing and food supply, there would also be proper arrangements in Bopu.

This statement was obviously not very believable to them, but whether they believed it or not did not matter. Wen Desi just wanted to reduce their hostility.