Rise From Eight Hundred

In the end, the people of Jinxi County who came to see them off or to watch donated more than 60,000 yuan in property on the spot!

This is definitely a huge sum of money for a mountainous county. When Tang Dao reported this amount, many recruits in the field began to calculate how much they could get. Even if it was just one or two yuan, most of these farmers from mountain villages would be very satisfied.

However, as a recruiting officer, Tang Dao refused the money and donated his military pay for the next three years on the spot, asking the county magistrate to set up a military family assistance foundation.

As long as people from Jinxi County, whether they joined the 22nd Army or the 23rd Army or other troops, joined the army to fight against Japan outside Sichuan, their families could apply for living allowances from the foundation if they encountered difficulties in life.

And if there were soldiers who died in battle, their parents, wives and children, regardless of whether they were rich or poor, could receive a fixed living allowance from the foundation every month according to the number of direct relatives.

In order to ensure that the fund has enough funds to pay, the fund will be operated by the Tang family and the Jinxi County Chamber of Commerce to ensure that the fund has no income. The county government will supervise the operation and expenditure of funds.

Once the idea, which is considered novel in this era, came out, the agitated recruits at the scene suddenly calmed down.

This is much better than the few dollars they had imagined before. It basically solves their worries. Even if they can never return to their hometown, their parents, wives and children can at least have food to eat, and they will never be left without a place to live.

County Magistrate Song, who was moved by Tang Dao's impassioned speech, was completely conquered by Tang Dao at this moment. Seeing that Tang Dao trusted him so much and entrusted him with such a big thing as the foundation, he swore to the sky on the wooden platform to the recruits and the people.

"Song entered the officialdom as a minor official, and experienced the sinister hearts of the officialdom. It took more than 20 years for him to become the head of a county. The ups and downs of the officialdom have long forgotten the dream of his youth. Fortunately, the soldiers and civilians below the stage are generous and high-spirited today, so that Song can find the past thoughts!

Now that Chief Tang of the Four Lines Group has entrusted me with an important task, although Song's official position is humble, I also promise to the elders and villagers of the whole county: As long as the Japanese pirates are not destroyed, Song will not leave Jinxi, and I will spare no effort to help the families of my soldiers in Jinxi without a penny less! If I violate this oath, Song will cut himself off from the world!" County Magistrate Song, wearing a long robe, stood on the stage, with veins on his forehead bulging, and pointed three fingers to the sky.

"The War of Resistance will win!"

"My Sichuan Army will win!"

"My sons will win!"

Amid such slogans, Tang Dao sat back on his warhorse and left with Lv Sanjiang and others with his head held high.

Tang Dao promised the recruits that he would give them half an hour to say goodbye to their relatives. The rural road three miles away was the place where the entire recruit team would gather again.

From here, the recruits would go with him to a market town thirty miles away, where hundreds of carts and 2,000 pack horses had gathered. The largest "baggage team" in the history of Jinxi County would cross the 2,500-mile Qianshan Mountains and arrive in the southeast of Jin.

The slogans were deafening, but the crying was also deafening!

The mother held her son, the wife held her husband, and the son held his father, and they were inseparable!

Half an hour, as short as a few seconds!

The gongs and drums suddenly sounded, and the lion dancers shook their lion heads vigorously. The time for separation finally came.

The recruits wiped the tears from their faces, broke open the arms of their relatives who were reluctant to leave, found their squad leaders who had raised their small flags, and lined up to rush towards the five people and five horses standing in the distance.

In less than two months of recruit training, many of them may not have been able to hit the wooden target 50 meters away, but the veterans have told them countless times that military orders are like mountains, and those who do not respect military orders will be killed!

That word is definitely not empty. On the battlefield, the muzzles of the supervisory team and the law enforcement team are equally hot!

At least there is a pension for dying on the front line, but if you die here, it would be too unfair.

So, although these soldiers who should still be called farmers are relatively new, after nearly ten minutes of gathering, only about 200 people are still standing outside the queue, not because they are late, but because they couldn't find their squad in a panic and could only run over in a mess.

Tang Dao did not enforce military law on the spot, but only ordered all the soldiers who were not included in the queue to form another team. With a wave of his hand, the army set off.

After arriving at the market town to collect various materials that needed to be transported, Tang Tuanzuo has ordered that all the soldiers, including himself, must march on foot.

This is nothing. In this era of scarce carriages and horses, walking is as common as drinking water and eating for mountain people.

Two-thirds of the recruits were not issued guns. The old sleeves used in previous training had to be reserved for the next batch of recruits. Only the 1,500 people trained by Tang Jili had Hanyang rifles, but each of them was issued 20 rounds of bullets, plus water bottles and not abundant food bags, bedding, etc., and the weight of a single soldier was only about 10 kilograms.

Under such a light load, let alone walking for a month, as long as there is enough food and drink, even three months is not a big problem.

But obviously, they thought too much.

The task of delivering hundreds of thousands of kilograms of food to the front line would not be so easy.

The military equipment purchased by Tang Dao from Shancheng was transported by special carts, about 20 carts and 20 pack horses. Tang Dao handed it over to the 75 veteran instructors who led the team.

Each person was required to keep a gun and a grenade with him, and was the only armed guard in the army of thousands of people.

But the remaining nearly 600,000 kilograms of refined rice, white flour, soybeans, etc. will have to rely on the new recruits.

Based on the number of carriages and pack horses, Tang Dao required an infantry squad of 15 people to be responsible for a large cart and 7 pack horses.

There were 4,500 new recruits, excluding 75 veteran instructors who were required to escort military equipment and more than 180 soldiers who did not have time to return to the team, a total of 280 infantry squads. The military order issued by Tang Tuanzu required that the weight of various grains transported by each recruit squad after arriving at the destination must not be less than 2,000 kilograms!

That means that if a large cart is loaded with 1,200 kilograms, the 7 pack horses must each be loaded with more than 100 kilograms of supplies to barely be enough.

That's fine, the carts are reinforced with hard wood, and a cart with 2 pack horses can carry more than 1,000 kilograms if it is just towing. With 15 people and 7 horses, the transportation volume of 2,000 kilograms can definitely be guaranteed.

But from Jinxi to the front line of the second war zone, it takes at least more than 2,000 miles. If we march 60 miles a day, it will take at least more than 30 days. All the people and horses are transporting supplies. What do the guys and 9 horses eat and drink in these 30 days?

The military order of Tang Tuanzuo is also very clear. Unless there is an attack or damage caused by extremely bad weather, those who fail to meet the weight requirements of transported supplies will be punished by military law!

Moreover, Tang Tuanzuo has set an example. As the highest commander, he brought a serviceman and three second lieutenants, a total of five people. They don’t have to be responsible for the carts and horses, but they also have to transport 700 kilograms of food, which is about the same as the recruits on average.

The sturdy war horses under the five people have become temporary pack horses. Including all weapons and equipment, each war horse has a load of more than 150 kilograms.

In order to ensure the food consumption of 5 horses and 5 people on the road, Tang Dao, Mingxin, Longyan, Lu Sanjiang, and Xia Dayu, in addition to carrying pistols close to their bodies, all made shoulder poles with hard tree trunks cut on the spot and carried food bags.

Xia Dayu was the youngest and had not grown up yet, but the food on both ends of the shoulder pole was 40 kilograms!

Mingxin looked thin, but the food bags on both ends of the shoulder pole were frightening to look at, and even a tough guy like Longyan grimaced when he carried them.

The weight was a full 100 kilograms. The thought of carrying so many supplies over mountains and hills for a month would probably make anyone's head buzz.

But obviously, that was because they didn't see Tang Tuanzuo. The weight of Tang Tuanzuo's shoulder pole was almost 150 kilograms, which was almost abnormal.

After estimation, Lv Sanjiang and Long Yan also carried 70 jin and 80 jin of food respectively. The five people carried a total of 440 jin of food, an average of 44 jin per person and per horse. If they could arrive in 30 days, it would be enough to support the consumption of people and horses.

With the leader taking the lead, the recruits in the infantry squad also came to their senses. The leader meant that in addition to the food to be transported, the rest of the food they could carry was their own rations for the next 30 days!

If you can carry more, you can eat more. If you carry less, you can only barely make ends meet!

Sichuan people have always been hardworking, but what they want in life is to eat enough and then stand in a circle to set up a dragon gate formation or something!

So, the recruits followed suit and cut wood from the mountains as shoulder poles. Those with strong strength carried more, and those with thin bodies carried less. The average amount of food carried by a single person was about 40 jin.

However, this is enough for people to eat, but what about horses?

Whether it is a cart or a single packhorse, they are the main force of transportation and the key to ensuring the transportation of 2,000 kilograms of food. They would rather starve than let the horses maintain their physical strength.

Soybeans are the first choice for these infantry squad recruits who come from farming families. Many infantry squads carry up to 400 kilograms of soybeans, far exceeding the rice that Sichuan people love the most.

Moreover, every time you go to a camp, you will see horse herders all over the mountains and plains. The recruits whose physical fatigue has reached the critical point will never forget to replenish fresh grass for these companions.

Maintaining the physical strength and health of packhorses is undoubtedly the greatest guarantee of transportation capacity. In this regard, the recruits have shown unprecedented excellence.

But their shortcomings are also huge.

Their physical fitness is so poor that it is hard to look at!

First of all, Sichuanese are short and thin, not as big as northern men like Lu Sanjiang. As the saying goes, a big body is strong, and a short body naturally means less strength;

Secondly, in this era, materials are not developed, nutrition is difficult to guarantee, and strength is far less than in the future;

Thirdly, they have just experienced a ten-year war in Sichuan Province. Opium in Sichuan Province can almost be used as currency, and they even bring their pipes to the war. Their physical condition can be imagined.

On the first day, they only marched 50 miles in total, but most of the recruits collapsed on the ground as soon as they arrived at the camp, and they didn't even want to eat.

More than 180 "cooks" had to deliver the prepared white rice and broth to them before they could barely finish eating and then fall asleep.

This is only in Sichuan Province. If they were in the war zone, with this appearance, it is estimated that a Japanese infantry squadron would be able to defeat this "baggage team" with more than 4,000 troops. Xia Dayu even thought that it was an overestimate.

Let me tell you here that the 180 soldiers who didn't have time to return to the team were made to serve as cooks, with two people responsible for the meals of three infantry squads. This was the military law of Tang Dao.

Each person had to carry an iron pot, oil, salt and other cooking equipment and materials, weighing more than 40 kilograms. What's more terrible is that after arriving at the camp, others can rest, but they still have to cook.

Perhaps the only benefit is that even those who can't cook can become cooks after more than a month.

Otherwise, if dozens of hungry men cursed at the same time, few of them would have such a strong psychological quality.

Of course, vegetables such as meat and eggs do not need to be carried by soldiers and cooks themselves. They are transported by special carriages. If they pass through a town, Tang Dao will also have people buy some fresh vegetables, and there will often be local people along the way. Beat the gongs and drums to bring some food to the laborers.

Except for the basic survival rice and noodles that need to be carried by the soldiers themselves, vegetables such as meat and eggs are provided by the army.

This is actually the second training session Tang Tuanzuo gives to the new recruits, a physical training session.

A large amount of weight-bearing and long-distance marches drained the recruits' already insufficient physical fitness, but they also ensured sufficient nutrition so as not to damage their still young bodies.

In the first three days, we marched 50 miles every day. It took a lot of time for the new recruits to get used to the load and distance. But on the fourth day, Tang Tuanzuo asked us to march 60 miles every day. We did not reach the prescribed distance, even though it was already dark. , and camping is not allowed.

By the 8th day, the marching distance had reached 70 miles, and the marching time on the road every day was nearly 2 hours longer than before.

The condition of the recruits every day is almost the same as that of the first day. As soon as they arrive at the camp and lay out their uniforms, they are exhausted. They snore like thunder just after dinner. They sleep until six in the morning and then repeat the routine of the previous day. story.

This kind of pain that squeezes physical energy to the extreme caused the recruits to complain a lot in private, but no one dared to say it to their faces.

In fact, their top commander is just like them. Everyone can see Tang Tuanzuo carrying his two big food bags every day, marching on the mountain road like them, and also dealing with various military affairs.

In terms of hard work, Tang Tuanzuo, as the supreme commander, had a much harder time than the rest of them.

It’s not like no one has doubted whether Tang Tuanzuo’s exaggerated-looking two large grain bags were real. During a break during the march, an infantry squad leader who sat with Tang Tuanzuo tried to approximate them.

Then, there are really not many people who can really carry a load of more than 100 kilograms and walk tens of meters.

Tang Tuanzuo can travel dozens of miles at a time.

With such a dedicated officer, and they did not treat them badly in terms of food on the road, each person had three meals a day, with meat, eggs and fresh vegetables for dinner. Even if the military order was a bit harsh, who could say anything?

"I understand, the regimental commander is like a blacksmith, and these scumbag recruits are the scrap metal. Use this to gradually turn them into fine steel!" On the fifth day, Long Yan finally looked like he had a sudden realization.

Lu Sanjiang rolled his eyes. Wasn't this obvious when the military order was issued? Do you still need a special mention from your child?

Yes, despite the fact that these Sichuan recruits have already been trained, and the so-called 'elite soldiers' Tang Jili specially prepared for his son have been trained for half a year, in Tang Dao's view, they are still too bad.

Even for recruits trained with the same training standards as the Four Lines Regiment, the probability of becoming veterans is only 50%, which means that the mortality rate of the recruits in their first three battles is nearly 50%.

That is a fact that Tang Dao cannot change!

From Tang Dao's perspective, the probability of these new recruits becoming veterans was only one in five, and if they wanted to survive until the end of the war, the probability was even despairingly small.

Facing the soldiers from his hometown, what Tang Dao can do is to squeeze their potential before they enter the battlefield. Otherwise, if they cannot become stronger quickly, they can run faster and jump higher.

As for another basic skill of soldiers - shooting, Tang Dao has its own methods.

It took ten days for the huge "baggage train" to cross the mountainous areas of western Sichuan, pass through the plains of central Sichuan, and enter the mountains of northern Sichuan.

Many infantry squads' food supplies have been half consumed, and their burdens have been reduced a lot, but the food shortage crisis hangs over the recruits.

At this rate of consumption, even before we leave Sichuan and enter Shaanxi Province, everyone will have to eat three meals a day.

Tang Tuan Zuo stipulated that each person should have three or two meters of rice or noodles with one or two meat and one egg. The cooking soldiers would receive it according to this rationing system. If the food was not enough, the meat and egg rations would also be reduced accordingly.

Then, as the load lightened and the march speed accelerated, the time to arrive at the camp was in the afternoon. There were still three full hours before dark. Tang Tuanzuo issued a military order to march in the mountainous areas. Each infantry squad could send out five people and two people every day. Free hunting with 10 bullets for the gun to replenish military supplies.

As a result, all kinds of pheasants, rabbits, wild boars and other wild products deep in the Qinling Mountains suffered. The recruits who were eager to replenish food even went more than ten miles away from the campsite to 'hunt wild'.

Fortunately, there are no enemies here. Even if there are bandits, they will run as far as they can against regular troops wearing military uniforms and carrying live ammunition.

If you don't run away, it will be a disaster. Soldiers are not stupid people. Once they ask the mountain people and detect that there are armed guys with guns, knives and forks deep in the mountains, they will often unite dozens or hundreds of people together. Surround.

In this era of extreme poverty, if bandits can have more than a dozen guns, it is a big bandit den, most of them are carrying machetes. There are opponents of the regular army with dozens of guns, even a group of recruits!

Once the bandit's den is raided, that guy will have food and money!

Tang Dao's military order knew very well that as long as you are a bandit, all the harvest belongs to the infantry squad, as long as you can carry it.

With the first successful example, didn't the recruits look for local bandits with red eyes as soon as they arrived at the camp?

Tang Dao didn't care about any tactics, just issued firearms, and let the infantry squads do everything themselves.

There would be gains, and of course there would be casualties, but that was within Tang Dao's tolerance.

If they couldn't even beat these low-level bandits, how could they fight the Japanese?

However, Tang Dao was still a man of the future after all. Before allowing the recruits to "go wild", he also drew a special illustration book, such as black and white bears, golden monkeys, birds with red heads, etc., which could not be fought.

Otherwise, when these hungry recruits passed through the border, I'm afraid that the "national treasures" in this area would not even be qualified to be national treasures in the future.

On the twentieth day of the march, the army had arrived at Qingmuchuan Town at the junction of Sichuan, Gansu and Shaanxi provinces. As soon as the field radio carried by Tang Dao was turned on, it suddenly received an emergency telegram from the theater headquarters.

Even Tang Tuanzuo, who had always been daring in killing, couldn't help but take a breath after seeing the content of the telegram translated by Xia Dayu.

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