At the end of the afternoon, the two hundred Zhizhentang "straw sandals" had been divided into several teams, from left to right, artillery, musketeers, cavalry, infantry, and soldiers.

Yang Xuan stood at the front of the team, looking around at everyone with a stern but mighty look. The "straw sandals" were in a mess at first, but seeing Yang Xuan's calm and self-defeating look, they gradually stopped talking.

Yang Xuan said loudly: "Brothers, maybe some of you don't know me yet. I am the direct grandson of Yang Yuchun and Yang Zhongwuhou, and my name is Yang Xuan. A few days ago, I was the man who assassinated Wang Dabiao in Guangzhou City and made a big fuss in the religious camp.

That’s me!

"Today, under the order of the hall master, I led everyone to Sanshui County to avenge my cousin Su San. When we joined the Zhizhen Hall of the Tiandihui, we vowed to help each other, share blessings and share hardships.

"Now, Su San has died at the hands of Sanshui County bully Chen Zhonghao. Chen Zhonghao has two hundred militiamen in his hands and is the local bully in Sanshui County. If we want to kill Chen Zhonghao, we must defeat those two hundred militiamen.

"We lack training and have no combat experience. If we rashly engage the militia, we may suffer heavy losses. Therefore, we stopped marching and trained here for three days. After three days, we will go to attack Chen Zhonghao.

"Some people say, what can you train in three days? If you sharpen your weapon in battle, it will be useless if you are not happy. In these three days, we will train one thing, 'order and prohibition'!"

"To put it simply, you do whatever your superiors ask you to do, and you absolutely cannot do whatever your superiors don't let you do!

"For example, musketeers should not let go randomly when fighting, but should line up in two teams, front and rear. When the front row shoots, the rear row reloads. After the front row shoots, it reloads, and the rear row follows up and continues shooting.

"When to shoot, you must obey the orders from above and do not follow your own whims. If you do not obey the orders, you may be defeated on the battlefield, or your life may be lost.

"Now, according to the formation we are standing in, we are roughly divided into two parts: soldiers and soldiers. There are fifty soldiers, including artillery, musketeers, cavalry, and infantry, and they are the main force of this battle.

"There are five hundred porters and boatmen over in Sanshui County who will help us attack Chen Zhonghao. The man named Chen is from a wealthy family in Sanshui County. His family has thousands of acres of fertile land and ten thousand taels of silver.

"If seven hundred of us fight against two hundred of them, we will definitely win. At that time, the Chen family's silver and grain will become our spoils of war. Whoever makes the greatest contribution will get the greater reward.

"Fifty soldiers are responsible for charging into the battle. Those who have the greatest merit will receive a reward of ten taels of silver each. If one person is killed, an additional reward of ten taels will be given. If he dies in battle, he will receive a pension of fifty taels of silver. If other soldiers have meritorious service, they can also receive rewards.

.”

Everyone's eyes widened when they heard there was a reward. Many people were beaming with excitement and gesturing left and right.

Ten taels of silver is not a small amount. Among the two hundred "straw sandals", the vast majority of people are poor and have never saved ten taels of silver in their pockets.

Yang Xuan knew that talking to these people about truth would most likely be playing the harp to a cow and would have no effect. It would be better to talk to them about money directly and use something more practical to inspire their fighting spirit.

Of course, relying on money to reward military morale will not last long. Yang Xuan had just raised the flag to rebel, and he could not care about so much. He could only defeat Chen Zhonghao's militia first.

In fact, Yin Zheng only allocated two hundred and forty taels of silver to Yang Xuan, intending to reward him with these two hundred "straw sandals" later.

Yang Xuan wrote a bad check, obviously he had already sunk the boat and put all his bets on it.

Seeing the excitement in the audience, Yang Xuan knew that his mobilization had an effect. He stopped everyone and continued:

"Don't get too excited, everyone. We won't be rewarded until we fight. Only after we kill the enemy will we be rewarded. If you want to kill more enemies, you have to use these three days to train well."

"Among the soldiers, if there are those who are timid and dare not fight, you can apply to be transferred to the army. If there are those who are brave and willing to fight, you can apply to be transferred to the soldiers. I respect everyone's wishes. If so,

Raise your hands now!”

Under the watchful eyes of everyone, no one on the soldiers side had the nerve to join the army. On the other hand, the soldiers were encouraged, and thirty or forty people raised their hands to join the soldiers.

Their courage was commendable, but Yang Xuan did not want to dampen their enthusiasm, and regardless of whether they were suitable or not, he temporarily transferred them to the infantry in the fighting force.

Finally, Yang Xuan said majestically: "Brothers, no matter how you were in Zhizhen Hall before, now that you are under my command, you must obey my command and carry out my military orders.

"This battle with the militia is a matter of life and death, and it is of no small importance. I would like to emphasize three final points. First, we must use these three days to strengthen training.

"Second, we must obey orders, never disobey military orders, and never contradict Yang Tian, ​​Liu Minhu and me.

"Third, we must be brave and tenacious. We must not be afraid of hardship or fatigue, we must not take opium, and we must not run away from battle.

"Okay, let's start training!"

Yang Xuan had anticipated many difficulties and was fully prepared mentally. When he actually started to organize the training of gunners and musketeers, he was still shocked by their clumsiness and lack of discipline.

For example, the musketeers used ten flintlock muskets as weapons. At that time, it was recognized that the most effective infantry tactic was the "line infantry tactic", which later generations jokingly called the "queue to kill" tactic.

Before the birth of the machine gun, line infantry tactics were recognized as the most effective tactics, which could maximize the concentration of rifle firepower.

Line infantry tactics require soldiers to line up horizontally, advance forward in unison, and not fight back no matter what they encounter. Until the enemy enters the range of the musket, the commander can order to fire.

At that time, the soldiers in the first row opened fire, and after firing, went to the rear row to load ammunition. The soldiers in the second row moved to the front and continued to fire, and so on.

In the 19th century, the British Army's infantry line tactics were so sophisticated that they could control the firing error within one second.

Since Yang Xuan wants to organize their training, he must take it seriously and teach them line infantry tactics.

The ten musketeers in Zhizhen Hall were all the dwarfs who were the generals. Yang Xuan taught them for a long time, but their movements were still not neat enough.

Ten musketeers lined up in two rows, taking turns to advance and shoot alternately. This was already the simplest tactic.

The "straw sandals" are so lazy that they can't even practice this most basic formation.

He thought about it again and felt that he seemed to have acted too hastily. It is common history to say that Chinese people have always been smart and capable, but they are lazy and undisciplined and do not take things seriously enough.

If you want to achieve effective results, you must be serious about your spirit. Start with formation training so that soldiers can develop a basic sense of discipline and formation awareness.

Needless to say, European Western-style armies, the Prussian Goose Step and the British Army's line infantry tactics have always been famous.

Even traditional Chinese military strategists have always emphasized queue discipline in their military training. For example, in the Ming Dynasty, Qi Jiguang organized the Qi Army to fight against the Japanese pirates, and in the Qing Dynasty, Zeng Guofan organized the Hunan Army to suppress the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement, both of which attached great importance to the discipline of the army.

Yang Xuan participated in military training in high school and college, and was lucky enough to join the national flag class. He is quite familiar with the basic formation of the army.

He looked around at the gunners, cavalry, and infantry, and found that they all had these common problems: poor queue discipline.

If this continues, the training will be completely ineffective.

Yang Xuan simply stopped the training, gathered everyone together, and organized them to train in formation. He did not teach anything too difficult, and only asked them to practice military postures and two movements in unison.

The military posture is the simplest and the most testing one. If the attitude is not serious, it will be difficult to make standard movements and persist for a long time.

During the military posture training, Yang Xuan discovered several good talents. They were meticulous in their movements and did not compromise at all.

There was a young man named Xu Zuoxin, who was only seventeen years old. He had a determined expression and regular movements, which left a deep impression on Yang Xuan. He was from Foshan Town outside Guangzhou and had just joined Zhizhen Hall not long ago.

Because of his thin body, Xu Zuoxin looked sickly and was not welcomed by the senior officials of Zhizhentang, so he was sent to Yang Xuan.

This was a good young man who could serve as a soldier. Yang Xuan took a fancy to him at a glance and promoted him to a soldier.
Chapter completed!