Chapter 989 Military Elementary School
In the early days of Haihan's occupation of the Qiongbei area, Yan Chujie personally served as the chief military officer. Later, this position was taken over for a period by Roger, who had just transferred back to the military from the Ministry of Industry. After the situation in Qiongbei stabilized and Roger went south to take up a post on Amborna Island, the command of the Qiongbei defense zone, including Haikou City and Danzhou, was taken in turns by Yan Chujie and Wang Tom on a half-year cycle. However, both of them have recently returned to Sanya for the upcoming founding celebration, and the highest local command authority is temporarily exercised by Qiu Yuan.
Of course, in the current peacetime, it is unlikely that Qiu Yuan will need to use his command power, and he is not even required to interfere with the daily operations of the garrison. Today, in order to welcome the arrival of the inspection team, Qiu Yuancai dispatched a team of cavalry to put on a show - this show was not for Ning Qi, but for the Dutchmen who were traveling with him.
Van Diemen did notice this small armed cavalry, not because of the cavalry muskets on their saddles and the sabers slung around their waists, but because the horses these cavalry rode were a bit special. These horses were tall and obviously not from the Far East. Van Diemen was convinced that they should be Arabian horses and Andalusian horses from Europe, or mixed descendants of the two. Haihan must have put in a lot of effort to obtain such good horses in batches, and he must have already had a large population to be able to deploy a cavalry team in a place like Haikou City.
The mobility of the cavalry on land and the charging tactics on the battlefield are parts that every commander will pay special attention to. However, while having powerful abilities, the cost of training and maintaining a cavalry is also very high. The cost of a war horse The daily expenses are at least equivalent to three to four infantrymen, and the amount of food and grass supplies required is far more than that of infantrymen. Not only must they be fed fodder, but they must also be fed with concentrates such as black beans, and when the combat intensity is high, they must also be fed with salt. . Of course, salt is not valuable in Haihan, and it can be supplied at any time. The main difficulty lies in the logistical supply during wartime. Although the cavalry has high mobility, the logistics troops may not be able to keep up.
Therefore, in order to maintain the combat effectiveness of the cavalry, the cavalry unit must not only have war horses, but also a considerable number of pack horses. It is normal for a cavalry team of one hundred people to have two hundred horses. The heavy cavalry may need to have an additional daily riding horse in addition to the war horse and pack horse. The Mongolian cavalry that swept across the Eurasian continent even reached one person. Six horse configuration. Of course, the current Haihan cavalry is far from being equipped with such luxury. Just maintaining the establishment of one person and two horses is already very expensive.
If non-nomadic people want to maintain an established cavalry, their military expenditures are quite staggering. With the financial resources of the East India Company, in the past, they could only maintain a cavalry team of 200 people in Batavia. However, due to the brutality of the previous battles, this cavalry team was also completely lost in the battle with the Ma Da Blue Army. It is currently undergoing post-war reconstruction like other local garrison troops. However, since the war horses had to be transported from distant places to Batavia by sea, it was still unclear when the cavalry could be reorganized. When Van Diemen saw Haihan's well-organized cavalry, he naturally felt so sad. A little pantothenic acid.
It was about six or seven miles from the military dock where Ning Qi and others landed to Haikou City. It took a short carriage ride to reach the outside of the city. The carriage stopped at the edge of the town outside the city, and everyone got out of the carriage. This time, Qiu Yuan did not take his daughter out of the car, but asked his entourage to take her back to his official residence in the city in a carriage.
The area outside the west gate of Haikou City is not the main residential area. The people living here are mainly military families, totaling more than 1,300 households. Since these people all have similar family backgrounds, the residential area outside Ximen has become like a small society. There are schools, clinics, post offices, grocery stores and other service institutions dedicated to the military system. The security is also provided by the military. The gendarmerie is in charge.
The towns here are as clean and tidy as those in military camps. There are no urchins chasing and playing in the streets, and there is no smell of livestock excrement. From Van Diemen's point of view, the cleanliness of this civilian area outside the city is even higher than We visited the Danzhou City we had just inspected.
"Director Qiu, are you conducting a health raid to cope with the inspection?" Ning Qi was also a little surprised by this scene, so he teased Qiu Yuan and said: "This one is not going to be scored, and it is not going to be evaluated, so there is no need to spend so much money." ”
Qiu Yuan couldn't laugh or cry and said: "Mr. Ning, you have wronged me. This is really not the result of a surprise attack, but has always been like this. I, Qiu Yuan, are not bragging. If you come back and see it anytime, it will definitely be at this level. .”
"Oh? Then it seems that the social work here is well organized!" Ning Qi knew very well that maintaining this sense of cleanliness does not just require sweeping the floor more diligently. This must also rely on the people's literacy to reach a certain level, or Regulations are stringent enough to provide protection.
"It used to be a mess here, but since Wang Tom transferred Yu Tiezhu to take charge, he has taken up the work of city appearance and environment." Qiu Yuan explained the reason to Ning Qi: "In the first half year of his taking office, , there are not a few people who are beaten with military sticks for disorderly conduct. Most of the neat and orderly streets you see now are the result of him using military sticks to force them. ”
"So it's Yu Tiezhu! Where are the others?" Ning Qi heard that this person was not an outsider, and immediately wanted to meet the person involved.
Yu Tiezhu was one of the first batch of veterans from the local fishing village to sign up for the army after Haihan landed in Yulin. Relying on his accumulated military exploits over the years, he has been promoted along the way and is now a major and battalion commander. With both Yan Chujie and Wang Tom returning to Sanya, Yu Tiezhu is the officer with the highest rank and position here. Although he still has to obey Qiu Yuan's orders, he is actually directly responsible for managing the troops stationed in Haikou City. and commanded. As for the military-affiliated area outside the west gate, the land is allocated to the military, and he has the final say in local affairs. Because of his well-organized management and remarkable results, Qiu Yuan basically would not interfere in the affairs here, leaving them to Yu Tiezhu and the army battalion headquarters to take care of them.
Not long after, Yu Tiezhu rushed over sweating profusely. After saluting, he quickly explained the reason why he didn't wait here in advance - his wife was giving birth at home, and he was worried, so he went back to take a look. Unexpectedly, At this moment, the people from the inspection team arrived.
When Ning Qi heard this reason, he had nothing to criticize and quickly stopped Yu Tiezhu: "Okay, don't apologize anymore. On behalf of the executive committee, I now order you to take leave immediately and go back to look after your wife and children. Go! After the baby is born, you can come back to announce the good news.”
After Yu Tiezhu thanked him repeatedly, he trotted away again. Qiu Yuan smiled and said: "This guy has never said anything about his family affairs. If you hadn't come here, he would have passed by quietly."
Ning Qi smiled and said: "At least I have been his teacher for a few days, so there is still a sense of teacher-student friendship."
When Haihan started to run literacy classes, Yu Tiezhu had worked under Ning Qi, so it was true that there was a teacher-student friendship. It's just that Yu Tiezhu's talent in reading and literacy was limited, and the army was in urgent need of recruits at that time. Yu Tiezhu's academic career did not last too long. He could only read and write seven to eight hundred common characters. However, as he has been promoted in the past few years, he has to write more written reports. It seems that Tiezhu still studies on his own in private to increase his knowledge. Qiu Yuan nodded and said: "I'll have someone send some condolences to his home later. Yu Tiezhu is a nice person, but it's better to let him fully feel the warmth of the organization."
Everywhere Ning Qi went, he would visit local educational institutions, and coming here was no exception. He mainly asked Qiu Yuan to lead the way to the primary school here.
The military-affiliated primary school outside Ximen was requisitioned from a local landlord's house. Of course, the landlord's family had already been sent elsewhere for resettlement, so there would be no disputes over property rights. There are four classes in the courtyard, which are divided into junior high school and high school according to the course progress. Girls are divided into a separate literacy class because of the small number of students enrolled. There are currently more than 200 students in the military primary school, and the sound of reading loudly can be heard from far away in the courtyard.
The textbooks used here are also basic textbooks uniformly compiled and distributed by the Ministry of Education in Haihan. Since it is a primary school directly under the Ministry of Education, the curriculum does not include the content of the Four Books and Five Classics found in ordinary private schools. The teaching content is mainly literacy and common sense. Most of the teachers here have received special teacher qualification training in Sanya. Ning Qi attended several classes and actually met several students who had studied under him and are now teachers here. Naturally, he was very enthusiastic at the moment. of greetings.
As a military-affiliated community, in addition to ordinary courses, the teaching here naturally also has some content unique to the military. For example, in addition to teaching common knowledge about literature and history, teachers will also tell students about the previous battles that the Haihan Militia participated in, so that these children can feel the power of the Haihan Army from an early age and feel proud of the emerging country where they are. pride. According to Qiu Yuan, active military officers and retired veterans will come here from time to time as guest lecturers to teach students basic military knowledge through their own experiences.
Although this military knowledge will not turn these half-year-old children into soldiers, it will at least allow them to establish a preliminary understanding of words such as mission, responsibility, obedience, and courage, and their perception of the military profession will also be greatly improved. It is no exaggeration to say that the proportion of students who graduate from such schools will choose to join the military in the future is much greater than that of ordinary schools. Ning Qi could completely imagine that if Yan Chujie or Wang Tom were here, they would boast proudly that this was the non-commissioned officer preparatory school of the Haihan Army.
"Do you find it a bit hard to accept?" Qiu Yuan asked Ning Qi in a low voice when he saw Ning Qi's serious expression.
Ning Qi nodded slightly and said: "It is always not good for the military to interfere in educational institutions so obviously. I will report this matter to the executive committee after I return."
Qiu Yuan advised: "Reporting may not be useful. The parents of these students are either soldiers or military dependents. If the military does not follow the wishes of the military, the teaching in this school may not be very smooth."
Ning Qi turned to look at him and said, "Is it possible that the military still threatens educational institutions with force?"
"My teacher Ning, you have been at the grassroots level for too long and don't understand the situation below!" Qiu Yuan had to explain patiently: "Think about it, all the students in this school come from military families. If the military does not understand the teaching content If you are dissatisfied with the changes, it is possible that this school will become empty in a matter of minutes. We do not have compulsory education now, are you forcing parents to send their children to school one by one? ”
Ning Qi couldn't help but frown after hearing this. The situation Qiu Yuan mentioned did indeed exist objectively, and the education department seemed to be unable to come up with any effective response method. A powerful department like the military actually has its own complete institutional system. If the military is willing, it can even build educational institutions from literacy classes to the National Defense University. The reason why only high-level educational institutions such as military academies are now listed as units directly under the Central Military Commission is mainly to consider the possible waste of resources caused by overlapping institutions. Therefore, all primary education institutions are still under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education.
However, this division in organizational structure does not mean that the education department has complete control over grassroots education institutions. Similar to the military-affiliated primary school here, Ning Qi really can't find any way to change the teaching methods and content here. And watching the teaching here "change" will make him feel that he has neglected his duty.
Thinking of this level of stakes, Ning Qi was not in the mood to visit this small campus anymore. After leaving the elementary school and looking at the neat streets and the orderly people, Ning Qi suddenly felt a little boring: "Let's go, let's go to the city to have a rest."
The layout of Haikou City is actually not much different from that of Danzhou and Yacheng. However, most of the Ming Dynasty Yamen residences here have been requisitioned by Haihan. The original magistrate's Yamen has become the seat of the management committee, and the official households under it have been requisitioned by Haihan. However, the six-room office space of Libing Xinggong could not meet the needs of Haihan official institutions with more detailed functions. Therefore, some official residences and private residences in the city were also requisitioned by the government and became the offices of various departments. Even the former residences of Dongchang and Jinyiwei, which were located door-to-door in the city, now serve as the city's pharmacy and hospital respectively.
Qiu Yuan did not hold a welcoming banquet at a restaurant in the city, but directly held a family banquet, which made Ning Qi feel at home. Probably because most of the local landowners, wealthy gentry, and gentry had been relocated, there were not as many local figures as there were to accompany the guests at the previous stops. Only a few of Qiu Yuan's close subordinates were present. They are all people within the system, so there are no taboo topics. When the banquet was about to begin, Yu Tiezhu, who had gone back to take care of his wife and gave birth to a child, also hurriedly arrived.
(End of chapter)