Chapter 42 Training (Thanks to all the big guys for the rewards and monthly ticket recommendation support)

Madagascar, Zhangjiacheng.

Inside a stone building, which is the office building of the Meihua Company here, the senior executives of the Meihua Company are holding a meeting inside.

"The fishery resources in the waters near here are quite abundant. We can set up a base near the sea to fish. With these fish, we can get a lot of protein supplements and reduce food consumption." A manager suggested.

The most urgent issue to be resolved at present is food self-sufficiency. The Meihua Company has made a lot of efforts. In addition to reclaiming wasteland on a large scale and planting a variety of high-yield crops for multiple seasons, it also raises a large number of livestock. At present, fishing seems to be a good suggestion.

"Well, that's good. We can convert a few fishing boats to fish, and then build a fish processing plant to process the fish for long-term preservation. Combined with agriculture and planting, and by controlling the speed of immigration, it won't be long before we can achieve food self-sufficiency and we won't need to spend extra money to buy it." Lei Wanting immediately agreed to this suggestion. He needed to try his best to help the company reduce costs.

They then made suggestions and discussed agricultural production, and after completing it, they moved on to the next item.

"Next, we will continue to discuss the development plans of education and the military," Lei Wanting said after summarizing.

There is a breeding shed outside the city. This is the livestock farm of the Meihua Company. Most of the employees are women, with only a few male employees. Their daily job is to help take care of the livestock in the livestock shed and clean it regularly.

The manure in the livestock shed must be cleaned every day to keep it clean and hygienic, prevent the livestock from getting sick, and most importantly, prevent large-scale epidemics. In addition, the manure itself is a valuable fertilizer and is of great benefit to agricultural production.

Most of the animals raised here are cattle, sheep, pigs, and a small number of horses. However, the number of horses has been increasing recently. Some of these horses were used to establish the Meihua Communications Company. With the increase in immigrants, the land near Zhangjiacheng has been reclaimed.

Therefore, the reclamation teams need to go to more remote places to open up wasteland. Some other factories are also located far away from the city. These places need to keep in touch with Zhangjiacheng frequently, so they need to use more primitive tools such as horses.

But this is just a transition. As Zhangjiacheng continues to develop, bicycles will gradually replace them, and even telegraphs and telephones. I believe this day will come soon.

The development and innovation of many affairs of Meihua Company, in addition to the constraints of money and talent, are also related to Zhang Feng's strategy of laying a solid foundation. They need to start from scratch. He hopes that some industries can be developed from scratch rather than directly copying.

For example, as for the communication mentioned earlier, you only need to spend money to purchase equipment and simply train telegraph operators. You can skip the previous steps and directly use telegraphs to transmit information.

But Zhang Feng hopes to save money while establishing his own communications equipment industry. By studying, researching, and building a factory to produce his own telegraph equipment, he can cultivate his own communications talents step by step and support the future of an industry.

It is best to follow the laws of the development of affairs as much as possible. There is no need to pursue the speed of development too much, so as not to cause an unstable foundation and affect the upper limit. The current world technological development is not as fast as in the future. He can catch up slowly. The current cost of time and money is relatively low, and it is also easy to obtain cutting-edge technology.

Of course, for those that have no development prospects or are low in technical content and can be solved with a small amount of money, there is no need to go through so much trouble.

In an open space not far from the cattle farm, hundreds of guards were practicing horse riding, hacking and shooting under the instruction of several white and Chinese instructors.

"Hold the horse's belly with both feet, kick it lightly with both feet at the same time when moving forward, hold the reins tightly with both hands, pull left if it turns left, and pull right if it turns right. Do you understand?" The instructor began to teach the basic horse riding skills loudly.

"I understand." The recruits also responded loudly.

"Okay, now get on the horse."

The recruits climbed clumsily onto their war horses. At first, the training they went through was just sitting on horseback and wandering aimlessly on the grass.

At the beginning they needed to learn how to control the horses. After a long period of honing their skills and basically learning how to ride a horse at a leisurely pace in special training lasting several days, they began to try to gallop on horseback.

After the recruits had basically mastered horse riding, several instructors showed off their skills in front of everyone. They held their swords high and galloped on their horses like lightning, made a deep cut on the wooden pole standing in front of them, and then rode away.

"Did you see the movements just now? You have to swing the knife steadily, accurately and ruthlessly. Let's start practicing." said a Chinese instructor. He had been a horse thief on the mainland for a period of time, so his skills were quite good.

The young soldiers understood the instructor's instructions, and they rode their horses at full speed, swinging their swords with all their might. However, their attacks always missed the target, or the swords slipped out of their hands, and they had no control over the angle and strength.

Just to grasp the right opportunity to chop while galloping on horseback was enough for them to train hard for a month or so.

Even though they had chopped down the wooden stakes, due to the force and angle, the reaction force made their arms numb for a moment. After a few hits, they no longer had the strength to hold the sword. Some even lost their swords, leaving them in a miserable state.

"Those who lost their swords will have to train for an extra hour every day. You should be thankful that you are on the training ground and not on the battlefield, otherwise you would be dead bodies."

After the recruits had gone through a round of trials, the instructors severely punished them, saying that if a cavalryman dropped his weapon during combat, he would be considered extremely unqualified, and it would be tantamount to suicide on the battlefield.

The training of the cavalry is in full swing. They are the only mobile force in the hands of the Meihua Company. After the riding and sword training, the next item is the riding and archery training, which requires them to master the pistol and rifle shooting on horseback.

In an open space outside the city, there were rows of soldiers wearing uniform army green uniforms and holding rifles. Of course, they were not soldiers yet, but the company's guards. Their uniforms were different from military uniforms, which was also to avoid suspicion and not to attract the attention of French colonists.

Li Dabiao shouted slogans and led the 120 guards of the first battalion into the parade ground in unison. Several battalions had already come in and stood in line before him.

Li Dabiao did not dare to neglect it and ordered the troops to change from a column to a horizontal column, and lined up in 12 rows in the open space to the left of the third team. After the formation, they immediately stood at attention in front of the first row and looked forward.

After all the battalions had entered the venue, Xiao Cheng, the deputy commander-in-chief of the escort team, glanced at the troops in front of him with a serious face, and a messenger stood behind him.

Xiao Cheng, deputy commander-in-chief of the guard team, is also a bodyguard at Monchi Manor. He received military training at the manor with Lei Wanting. He is also one of the several Chinese who came to Madagascar with Lei Wanting.

Lei Wanting is the highest-ranking person in charge of the American-Chinese Trading Company here, so he is naturally the commander-in-chief of the guard team. These Chinese people are also here to share power with him and check and balance him.

"Stand at attention! Look to the right!" Xiao Cheng shouted in a loud voice, and then began to check team by team.

The team has a total of more than 1200 people, with two captains and deputy captains in each team. They stand two steps in front of the center of the first squad of their team. All the soldiers stand in silence, their eyes following Xiao Cheng's movement.

Xiao Cheng walked to each team and corrected a few soldiers whose clothes were not dressed neatly. After a brief inspection, he returned to the front of the entire queue. Each team was standing very neatly and one could tell at a glance whether all the personnel were present. This was the result of more than a month's training.

"At ease!" Xiao Cheng shouted and saluted. All the soldiers returned the salute and looked at him.

"It has been more than a month since our escort team was established, and everyone has been training for a full 30 days." Xiao Cheng said, "Everyone has been very active and hardworking in training. Before this, most of us were ordinary people. It is not easy for you to achieve what you have now in such a short period of time. I am proud of you!"

"Before, everyone was a refugee in the old continent. It was the Meihua Company and boss Zhang Feng who gave you a new life. You now have new clothes to wear, enough food to eat, and a warm place to live. These are all gifts from the boss, so everyone should train harder to be loyal to the boss, and pick up the guns in their hands to protect their families and the hard-earned life now. Do you understand?"

"Understood! Understood!" All the soldiers present shouted loudly.

In addition to military training, these guards also conduct ideological brainwashing and instill their loyalty to Zhang Feng.

"Before, everyone was doing drill and physical training. Now everyone has received their own weapons, so starting today, everyone will learn about firearms and artillery. Next, the training officer will arrange the specific training content for the entire team." Xiao Cheng said and left the venue.

Immediately, more than a dozen people came running over. They were all training instructors. Some of them were white people who had been transported from America a month ago. Some of them were refugees who had served in the military. There were also a few who were translators for the white instructors.

The instructor taught everyone how to hold the gun, the key points of shooting, and how to operate the artillery, such as how to load ammunition, how to calculate and adjust the angle of the gun barrel, etc.

For the next period of time, the sounds of gunfire and artillery fire could be heard every day outside the city, far away from the port of Antalaha.

(End of this chapter)