Chapter 70 Recruit (1)
As more and more locals came to work near the Tiandu Iron Mine, a small market gradually formed not far from Chuanzhong's No. 2 Base. Every five days, nearby mountain people bring all kinds of mountain products, fruits, furs and other commodities here to trade with the travelers. Through word of mouth, people within a radius of dozens of miles know that the Haihan people here can continuously provide a variety of daily necessities, and the prices are quite cheap. The influence of this market is increasing rapidly. A few days ago, vendors from Fenghuang Town even came here to set up stalls and sell goods.
Among the trading supplies currently provided by Chuanzhong, the most popular products among local people are salt and pig iron products. The executive committee specially recruited seven or eight local people with blacksmithing experience, and built a blacksmith shop under the guidance of metallurgical experts to specialize in making agricultural tools such as shovels, hoes, rakes, and plows for sale to local people, as well as iron kitchen knives and iron pots. Because the output is quite limited, it has become a hot commodity in the blacksmith shop, and it has even reached the point where you need to pay a deposit first to wait for the goods. The reason why this kind of bilateral trade has become very lively in a short period of time is because the trading conditions are very relaxed. Locals can trade with money or various commodities designated by the Traveling Crowd. They are really poor. People who have nothing to give can exchange for what they need by working on the construction site.
The local Miao and Li people had been unable to receive pig iron imports for a long time due to intentional control by the court. Now the situation has finally improved and they can use iron products on a large scale. Although these iron products are still expensive, compared with the previous dilemma of having nowhere to buy them, they are very relieved to be able to exchange agricultural products and livestock for iron products.
Similar to ironware, there is salt. After the salt farm commune was put into operation, the current output has reached approximately 300 kilograms per day. Taking into account the existing manpower situation and backward production technology of the salt farm, this output is already considered to be at an upper-middle level. If we want to increase the output on a large scale, we must achieve it through later technological transformation. Although this output is still seriously insufficient to supply raw materials for the chemical industry, it is more than enough to be used as a commodity. The salt farm even hoarded some salt, intending to sell it to Yazhou and other towns when conditions at Luo Shengdong's side matured. The price of salt that the Li and Miao people traded from Chuanzhong was half cheaper than the previous official price. This benefit also allowed them to maintain sufficient goodwill towards Chuanzhong.
Today is the day to go to the market again. People from nearby areas arrived at the market early with various items, intending to first seize a favorable position closest to the gate of Base No. 2. Anyone who often trades here knows that these short-haired Haihan people are very generous. They buy everything they like in baskets and baskets. They are not like the salesmen who used to go to the villages and have to bargain for a long time. Willing to trade.
However, the people who came here today found a row of tables outside Base No. 2, with about a dozen Haihan people sitting there. It seemed that they wanted to purchase something on a large scale. At that moment, some bolder people went over to inquire, and then they realized that the Haihan people were not trying to purchase items, but were recruiting people to organize a militia.
Militia groups are not a new thing. There are militia groups organized by landlords and gentry in Fenghuang Town, Tianya Town, Nanshan Town and other places. Miao Village and Lidong also have paramilitary organizations similar to militia groups. In places where there is a lack of official security agencies, militia groups have always been an important means for civil society to protect themselves. However, organizations like militia groups are not permanent institutions. They usually gather for action when the world is not peaceful. The militia group that the Haihan people will set up seems to be a little different. Not only does it claim to maintain the establishment for a long time, but it also provides a lot of welfare rewards.
Soon the loudspeakers at the entrance of the base began to take turns announcing the recruitment policies and benefits in several different languages, which immediately attracted a large number of locals to gather.
Simple people may not understand the profound meaning behind organizing militia groups, but they can distinguish whether the benefits received by participating in militia groups are good or bad. People soon discovered that the benefits of joining the militia were much better than those of the communes that were almost overcrowded some time ago, so the choice became very simple. What's more, the Haihan people also said that if they signed up to join the militia but were rejected due to unqualified conditions, they would still have the opportunity to be selected as the next batch of commune members.
The vigilante group's requirements for applicants are not very strict. As long as men between the ages of sixteen and forty-five are in good health and have no illness or disability, they can sign up. Such conditions undoubtedly greatly lowered the entry barrier, and soon a large number of young people signed up. After learning from the lessons of recruiting soldiers in two communes, the Military and Police Department began to pay more attention to physical fitness when facing applicants. The young people from the Li and Miao ethnic groups mostly lived in mountainous areas for a long time. Han youths who make a living by hunting in the wild and whose physical strength is significantly better than those who farm and fish in coastal areas have become the main targets of this conscription.
It only took the Military and Police Department a day and a half to recruit the missing number of people. News that the Haihan people were recruiting people to form a militia group with generous benefits quickly spread in the surrounding areas. It was not until three or four days later that people came to sign up. The executive committee did not waste these good young men. As long as they signed up, they would all sign up first. Taken into the commune as a candidate for the next batch of enrollment expansion. Anyway, now the commune has lost a lot of labor force due to conscription. After recruiting these people, they can temporarily make up for the immediate manpower gap.
Three days later, one hundred and twenty local youths were recruited and boarded a ship at Victory Port. After crossing the estuary of the Tiandu River, they came to the sandbank that was used as a shooting range by the Military and Police Department. The actual number of recruits was 20 more than planned because the Military and Police Department believed that some people might be eliminated due to various reasons during the training process, so it prepared 20 more to make up for the quota. Anyway, those who were eliminated would join the commune as laborers. Ning Qi, who was still complaining at first, did not raise any objection in the end.
This sandbank covers an area of nearly one square kilometer and is an important traffic artery to enter Victory Port. The Military and Police Department thought it was a pity to just use it as a shooting range, so they simply set up the future soldier training camp here. This will firstly isolate land transportation from the base camp, making it easier to manage these new recruits; secondly, it will be close to the shooting range, so that they can be accompanied by the sound of gunfire every day, so that they can be more courageous on the battlefield in the future. The tattered clothes, shoes and hats worn by the recruits when they entered the camp were all forcibly changed, piled together and burned cleanly. Then they were asked to enter the newly built bathhouse and wash each other with brushes and soap. Brush up and down. As for hair, considering that the origins of these recruits are relatively complex, forcing hair cutting may cause them to be dissatisfied, so we will shelve this issue for the time being.
The new military uniforms have been prepared for a long time, including a full set of military green training uniforms including underwear, military caps, Liberation rubber shoes, canvas belts, and each person also has a 35-liter canvas backpack for personal luggage. Of course, the quality of the clothing provided to recruits is still far different from that of Chuan Chuang's own equipment, which is basically the level of military training clothing in later generations of universities.
When the Executive Committee originally ordered this batch of uniforms, there was some internal opposition. They believed that although the money was not very large, it seemed a bit wasteful to prepare military uniforms for the naturalized civilian troops in advance. However, the Military and Police Department insisted on purchasing this batch of materials, and believed that a neat military appearance was one of the best ways to give naturalized soldiers a sense of identity and collective honor. Uniform uniforms were also more convenient for daily management and wartime. command. In the end, the opinions of the Military and Police Department prevailed, and the Executive Committee spent nearly 100,000 yuan to purchase 1,000 sets of training uniforms, and it is expected that 500 naturalized civilian troops will be prepared.
Gu Wei clasped his hands behind his back and stood on the side of the ship watching the new recruits standing in such a mess after getting off the ship to the beach. Some people looked blank, some were dejected, and some looked excited, as if they had arrived at some fun place. They only knew that they were here for training. As for the content of the training and what their future life in the militia would be like, they had no idea. People have clear concepts in their minds.
Gu Wei shook his head, picked up the tin trumpet beside him, raised it in front of him and said loudly: "Everyone listen, put down your backpack, half a stick of incense, and arrange a column for me in groups of ten. All those who have not been completed by the time If one person fails to line up, the entire team will be punished. If one team fails to line up, the entire team will be punished! ”
There was a special translator next to him who repeated it again in Li and Miao, and chaos suddenly broke out on the beach. Although they don't quite understand what a column is and why they are punished if they don't line up well, it's obvious that being punished is not a good thing, so they still have to work hard to line up no matter what.
In the chaos, some people were pushing and shoving, some were shouting loudly, and some were counting heads silently to see which group they should join. Gu Wei watched all this with cold eyes and had no intention of giving orders or intervening.
The time for half a stick of incense passed quickly. Not even one of the people lined up on the beach appeared. Those who could form a team alone according to the number of people specified by Gu Wei were only four teams. Everyone else was still there. Wandering around like a headless fly with no direction.
"Time's up!" Gu Wei loudly announced the end of this farce. He went down from the gangway to the beach, pulled out a group that had been divided into people and arranged the ten people in a column. Then he picked up the tin speaker again and shouted loudly. : "This is a ten-man column. I will give you half a stick of incense time. Arrange it like this. If you can't do it, the punishment will be doubled!"
This time, the new recruits did not disappoint Gu Wei again. After having the template, the speed of queuing was also improved a lot. Soon, the second and third columns were lined up next to the first column... without waiting. When the timer ends, the arrangement of the twelve columns is completed.
(End of chapter)