Chapter 2189
This person who had served as a soldier and had eaten military rations had a different understanding of defenses than ordinary people. Dai Yingfan wanted to transform Daijiazhuang into an armed fortress similar to the Sanya Victory Fort to resist possible attacks by his opponents. Naturally, it is difficult for this strategy to win the approval of the salt merchant community.
Regardless of whether it is considered in terms of public image or project consumption, transforming the manor where they live into a large fortress for the purpose of stationing troops for war is obviously a very cost-effective solution for the salt merchants, not to mention that they have to wait for a long time. Live inside. The salt merchants have all lived a pampered life for a long time, so how can they stand the military control in this fortress.
What Huizhou salt merchants need is a solution to their competitors, rather than just sitting at home and defensively. If such a fortress was really built on the bank of the canal, wouldn't it be a disguised show of weakness to the opponent? This is not within the acceptable range of salt merchants.
Moreover, for such a large-scale project, I am afraid that the local government in Yangzhou will not turn a blind eye to it. If they get the opportunity, they may accuse Daijiazhuang of "secretly hiding ordnance" and "secretly amassing private soldiers." By then, even if Dai Yingfan still holds a military position, it will be difficult to whitewash the unconventional measures they took in Daijiazhuang.
Therefore, although Dai Yingfan tried hard to implement his plan, due to various objective reasons, the peripheral defense line of Daijiazhuang was stopped after only two watchtowers were built. He could only settle for the next best thing and build some carefully disguised fortifications outside the village. Although the protective capabilities would be greatly reduced compared to his original plan, it was still better than nothing at all.
Yuan Tao had also been in the military, so he could better understand Dai Yingfan's mentality. He thought that if he were in Dai Yingfan's position, he might have similar thoughts. After all, they had not been able to quickly increase the combat effectiveness of their militia in the short term. If they wanted to seek self-protection, they could only focus on defensive methods.
Yuan Tao looked up at the shooting position on the wall again, and couldn't help but praise: "Actually, Boss Dai is quite thoughtful in designing this mechanism. If there are similar mechanism rooms around Daijiazhuang, then I don't think there is any need to worry about it." If they come, they can try to keep them all here.”
Dai Yingfan said: "Shopkeeper Yuan is overly praised, but things may not be as optimistic as you think..."
Due to repeated defeats in the past year, the militiamen under the Huizhou salt merchants have long been demoralized and do not even have the courage to fight with their opponents. If this were not the case, Dai Yingfan might not have to adopt such a conservative response strategy. If the opponent really comes to attack one day, it would be good to be able to defend the village and repel it. As for the strategy mentioned by Yuan Tao, Dai Yingfan believes that it is difficult to achieve the desired effect with the current level of preparations. If one is not careful, there may even be This relatively weak line of defense may be breached by the opponent.
After hearing Dai Yingfan's explanation, Yuan Tao couldn't help but feel a little sad. A clever woman can't make a meal without rice. No matter how powerful the commander is, he can't win the battle if he has no one under his command. Dai Yingfan had to take care of the young and old in Daijiazhuang, so he definitely didn't dare to take too aggressive measures. He could only maintain the status quo and wait for Haihan to intervene before making any plans.
Dai Yingfan continued: "Those who have some skills and are willing to work hard for the family are basically selected this time and are going to be sent to Zhoushan for training. The defense in the next period of time really depends on the efforts of Treasurer Yuan. ! ”
Yuan Tao had no way of verifying whether Dai Yingfan's words were true or false at the moment, but he felt that the Dai family would not put all their treasures on Jindun. If something went wrong, wouldn't it mean that the life and death of his family would all depend on it? into the hands of outsiders. But what kind of back-up the Dai family had left, it was not convenient for him to break the pot and ask.
During the rest of the morning, Dai Yingfan took Yuan Tao to check around Zhuangzi. After Yuan Tao visited several places, he realized that Daijiazhuang was not as undefended as it seemed on the surface. In fact, there were defense points disguised as ordinary houses near every intersection entering and leaving Zhuangzi.
Moreover, according to Dai Yingda, they have set up several early warning posts in the farmhouses near the village and on the other side of the canal. In this way, if the opponent launches a river crossing operation from Yangzhou City, there is a high chance that they will be observed by these early warning posts, so that they can send signals to the enemy in advance. A warning message was sent from Daijiazhuang.
These defense points located in Daijiazhuang will be stationed by Jindun troops and guarded jointly with Dai Yingfan's men. However, Dai Yingfan's elites have to leave here and go to Zhoushan. After Golden Shield is stationed, they will soon take over the command within these fortifications.
The two were busy until noon and went straight to Dai Yingfan's home for a simple meal. Both of them have military experience, so they are both practical and don't care about red tape. After lunch in a few minutes, Dai Yingfan sent an order and immediately gathered people at the grain drying field south of Zhuangzi for Yuan Tao to review.
After taking a short rest, the two set off from Dai Yingfan's house and walked through the village to the meeting point.
When they arrived, more than two hundred people, including Dai Chengrong, were already waiting on the grain drying field, and some people came here and there.
Yuan Tao has rich experience and naturally knows how to evaluate the combat effectiveness of a team. He didn't look at anything else but the queue first. If this team couldn't even form a uniform formation, it would probably be difficult for them to follow orders and prohibitions when performing combat missions. Whether the discipline reflected by this is strict will also affect the actual combat effectiveness to a great extent.
However, the situation of this team did not look ideal. They lined up, but the queue was crooked, and people were whispering to each other. It seemed that they did not take this gathering seriously. Of course, it is more likely that they are usually in this state. They are used to being relaxed and don't have much tension.
If this is used as a criterion for judgment, it is obvious that the strength of this team is indeed only at the level of ordinary militia groups. Even compared to the militiamen in Haihan countryside, there is still a relatively large gap. As for compared with an armed organization like Golden Shield that specializes in recruiting veterans, it is not on the same level at all.
When Yuan Tao saw it, he already had a preliminary assessment of the team's situation in his mind, but he didn't show it and waited for Dai Yingfan to complete the team.
Dai Yingfan was someone who had been in the military after all, so he couldn't help but blush when he saw this situation. He hurried back from Yangzhou City today and didn't have time to say hello to his men in advance. As a result, these guys were so lazy after gathering, which was simply an embarrassment to him in front of outsiders.
Dai Yingfan had to spend some time to organize the team, and then explained to Yuan Tao: "These people are not all from Daijiazhuang, there are also people recommended by other families who are going to be sent to Zhoushan for training, so the team is a bit chaotic, which makes Yuan Tao The shopkeeper is laughing!”
Yuan Tao nodded calmly and said: "It doesn't matter. They will definitely have time to practice the basic skills of lining up when they arrive in Zhoushan, and they will improve quickly." Yuan Tao said it easily, but he was worried in his heart. He made up his mind to point this out to Zhoushan in the subsequent report, and the intensity of the queue training of this group of people needed to be strengthened. If you don't even master the basic skills of lining up, how can you learn the tactics of using a musket?
Dai Yingfan then asked the selected people to line up in a separate line for Yuan Tao to take a look. Since the two sides had not reached an agreement on the specific number of people to be sent to Zhoushan for further study, only seventy or eighty people were selected here. Yuan Tao had already informed them, but Dai Yingfan obviously had no time to make up the number.
Yuan Tao took a general look and found that the people chosen by Dai Yingfan were indeed acceptable. At least they were in good physical condition and did not appear to be walk-in-the-bag figures. This made him feel a little more relaxed.
One of Haihan's concerns was that the Huizhou salt merchants took too much into account the distribution of interests of each family when selecting personnel, and placed some young master-like figures among them who were not suitable for military training.
However, Dai Yingfan did not make a special introduction to the selected personnel. It seemed that among these people, only Dai Chengrong was a genuine young master. However, Yuan Tao believes that if the various salt merchants did not arrange special people to join them, but only Dai Chengrong, who was to be appointed as the commander, was the core figure, then it was probably Dai Yingda who could make such an unusual arrangement relying on his own prestige.
After seeing the candidates, Yuan Tao said to Dai Yingfan: "As for the number of candidates, I have discussed it with the young master before. Boss Dai can discuss it with the young master later to make up the number of people as soon as possible and then organize the departure. This matter is getting more serious The sooner the better, if you delay it too long, the situation may change again.”
Dai Yingfan nodded and replied: "Shopkeeper Yuan is right. I will select some more from these people later to gather enough people, and we can set off from Yangzhou the day after tomorrow at the latest. As for the remaining people, they will stay at Dai's house Zhuang cooperates with Shopkeeper Yuan to set up defenses.”
Yuan Tao nodded, but in his heart he no longer had high expectations for the people staying in Daijiazhuang. It may not be that these people cannot improve their military skills through training, but that is not within the scope of his mission.
The personnel training provided by Zhoushan is clearly priced and settled based on headcount and duration. If he trains personnel for salt merchants in Yangzhou, wouldn't it be a disguised attempt to dismantle Zhoushan? Therefore, even if these people have limited personal abilities, Yuan Tao will not It is planned to provide additional training to these personnel during the period of stationing. At most, it will be to set some simple rules for them to avoid unnecessary problems as much as possible.
Dai Yingfan probably understood the secret of this, so he never mentioned asking Yuan Tao to train these people for him from beginning to end. He seemed to be a rough and tumble person.
Yuan Tao asked Dai Yingfan for a floor plan of Daijiazhuang, and then returned to the station, preparing to summon his leaders, assign garrison points to each team, and take over the defense of Daijiazhuang first.
He now doesn't know whether the tense state of the Huizhou salt merchants is intentional or true. If it is the latter, it means that armed personnel from the enemy may come to the door at any time. This is no joke. If Daijiazhuang cannot be successfully protected, Jindun's reputation in the world will be greatly affected. Yuan Tao does not want to be the first big boss in Jindun's overseas branch to resign.
Returning to the station, Yuan Tao saw that the two communications soldiers who had accompanied the team to Yangzhou this time were taking ladders to the roof to set up the radio antenna. He immediately called for help, lest anything unexpected happened to these two people.
Signal soldiers who have the skills to send and receive radio messages are a scarce resource in the military, and their value is even comparable to the radio itself. These signal soldiers are eligible to receive professional training for up to one year after passing various selections, and then undergo a one-year internship period before they can officially take up their posts. Most of the communication soldiers who are stationed overseas are veterans with more than three years of military service.
It is said to be a signal corps, but in fact this special branch has a small establishment and it is not easy to pass the training, so almost all of them are quickly promoted to lieutenants after taking up their posts. Most of them are second lieutenants and lieutenants, and their treatment is also based on the standards of officers, even in During combat missions, military revolvers will also be issued that can only be used by senior officers.
The two people who were sent to perform the mission with Jindun this time were both second lieutenants, and Yuan Tao was only a second lieutenant when he retired from the army and changed careers, so he did not dare to neglect these two people at all, and specially stayed in the place where he lived. A room was set aside for them in the yard for work and accommodation.
Seeing that the radio station was already being built, Yuan Tao canceled the previous arrangement and watched them set up the antenna and complete the debugging of the machine. Then he sent a message to Zhoushan, telling them that they had settled down in Yangzhou. As for the more detailed content, Yuan Tao had to draft a manuscript first, sort out what he saw and heard in Daijiazhuang, and then send it back to Zhoushan for reporting.
Later, Yuan Tao summoned his leaders in the headquarters converted from a hall, described the general situation of Daijiazhuang to them, and assigned garrison tasks to the leaders based on the floor plan provided by Dai Yingfan.
Jin Dun came with more than 100 people this time, leaving some people at the dock to guard the two boats, and more than 120 people including Yuan Tao were stationed in Daijiazhuang. On the defense map provided by Dai Yingfan, including two watchtowers, there were ten overt or covert fortifications outside the village. If Jindun's manpower was allocated, it would be possible to have about ten people at each defense point, and the rest It serves as a maneuvering force.
The best combat method of the Haihan Army is not attack, but defense. Many of Jin Dun's people are retired veterans, and they are no strangers to relying on fortifications for warning and combat. Now everyone based on the specific environment of Daijiazhuang, proposed another Many suggestions for improvements were made.
For example, add more shooting holes on the side of the camouflage fortification facing the outside of the village to take advantage of the firepower of the golden shield; make roadblocks such as Luzhai to block horses in advance so that the roads in and out of Daijiazhuang can be quickly blocked in case of an emergency; find ways to Increased monitoring of nearby canal banks to allow for more buffer time, etc.
(End of chapter)