The Beacon of Laiyang Metal

Chapter 30 Anton’s Daily Life
  Andong County

Since the aircraft production line will not be delivered until the end of the month, this time Weiyuan traveled back to Anton with the already packed coal mining equipment and the 200 million Yuan Datou customized by Moubao.

At this time, Andong County has undergone earth-shaking changes compared to when Wei Yuan first came. The originally muddy and uneven soil roads have all hardened cement. When viewed from the sky, they look like a winding road. The silver dragon connects 12 towns and villages in Andong County.

At this time, in addition to the speeding engineering transport vehicles on the road, there were also many horse-drawn carriages, mule carts, and ox carts pulling various goods on the road.

The strange thing is that there are many mules and horses wearing something like a cloth bag behind their buttocks.

It turns out that since the completion of the highway, many traveling merchants and caravans have also changed their routes from Andong County. Although the distance is sometimes longer, it is still better than having their wheels stuck in a mud puddle on a rainy day.

However, a large amount of mule and horse feces also brings many health problems.

For this reason, Shi Gongxing specially set up a highway management department, which is responsible for highway maintenance and road cleaning. At the same time, owners of livestock walking on the road must clean up their feces. Otherwise, they will be fined or have to clean the road as a punishment.

So some people began to put a cloth bag on the back of the animal's buttocks to use it as a manure bag. Gradually, other people began to follow suit. Over time, as long as they entered Andong County, wearing special cloth bags for livestock has become a trend among these businessmen. Habit.

The increase in caravans has also led to the development of commerce in Andong County. Originally, there were only a few dozen shops in the entire county, but now there are more than a hundred.

Even mountain products such as mushrooms, hazelnuts, and fungus from surrounding farmers are easy to sell. For this reason, nearby villagers call this road "Wei Highway" to thank Weiyuan for building this cement road.

After hearing Shi Gongxing's introduction, Wei Yuan just smiled reservedly on the surface, but he was very happy in his heart. One day, our old Wei family can also be called "gong".

The original purpose of building this road was for military considerations so that the armored and mechanized troops could be deployed quickly in response to the invasion of the Kwantung Army.

Unexpectedly, it was the civilian effects that were first revealed. As the old saying goes, if you want to get rich, build roads first.

Shi Gongxing went on to introduce: "In terms of industry, the main buildings of the planned factories in the entire park have been completed, and the rest are some projects such as road hardening, green plant transplantation, and the construction of family buildings."

The family building was built based on the drawings provided by Wei Yuan and modeled on the Tongzi Building in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China. The indoor area is divided into 20 square meters, 60 square meters, and 80 square meters, which can be allocated according to the actual conditions of the workers.

The advantages of the tube building are that it is economical, durable, and can be built quickly. The disadvantage is also obvious, that is, the residents are too close to each other and there is basically no privacy at all.

Fortunately, during this period, people had very low material requirements. Even if they lived in buildings, they would still need bicycles.

The ordnance factory that Weiyuan requested to be built and maintained as a priority has been completed since it started construction at the earliest time and invested the most manpower.

The technical workers recruited from the city have also entered the factory, and the machines have been installed and are being debugged according to the instructions provided with the machines. Trial production can be started within two days.

Wei Yuan nodded and said to Shi Gongxing: "Brother, I have been working hard during this period. If it weren't for my help, I'm afraid the progress in all aspects would not be so smooth. I will serve as a host in the restaurant tonight to give you a drink."

Shi Gongxing waved his hand and said: "It's not hard work. Being an official will bring benefits to the whole party. With the arrival of Chief Wei, the entire Andong County has undergone visible changes, and the lives of the people have also improved a lot."

"As a parent official, I feel like my face is bright when I walk on the street. When it comes to thanking you, I should be the one thanking Chief Wei on behalf of the local people."

After saying that, he approached Wei Yuan and whispered: "If it were another garment factory, textile factory or the like, it would be fine, but our little Anton has built an ordnance factory in this place. Isn't there something wrong? "

"In the entire three eastern provinces, Fengtian is the only one with a gun production factory. If we do this in private, I'm afraid the young marshal will blame him if he finds out!"

After hearing this, Wei Yuan said with a nonchalant look: "It doesn't matter, I have my own instructions from the young marshal. I just need to ensure that the factory can produce normally as scheduled."

It turns out that when Wei Yuan first arrived in Anton, he sent someone to send the 100 kilograms of amine yellow to Fengtian.

In a subsequent telegram sent to the Marshal's Mansion, he stated that in the future, he would supply as much amine yellow as needed by the Northeastern Army at cost prices.

At the end of the telegram, he tactfully mentioned that he had people imitating foreign firearms, and stated that once the trial production was successful, the firearms produced would only be equipped to his own militia, and the technology would be shared unconditionally with Fengtian Military Factory.

The response from the Marshal's Mansion was just: "Understood", presumably not taking Wei Yuan's counterfeit firearms seriously.

At present, the entire Northeastern Army's top brass is considering how to respond to the Kwantung Army's repeated provocations, and there is no room for concern for a small Anton militia.

In Weiyuan's plan, when Fengtian notices the true scale of its military factory, it is probably not far away from the little devils launching the September 18th Incident. By then, a large number of Northeastern troops will withdraw to the pass to accept Jiang Guangtou's adaptation, and he will not To avoid the need to hide strength.

In the subsequent conversation, Wei Yuan and Shi Gongxing discussed their plans to implement nine-year compulsory education and free medical care in Andong County, and use this to attract immigrants.

Shi Gongxing pondered for a moment and then said: "Chief Wei cares about the common people. Shi Mou admires it. The two benevolent policies of compulsory education and free medical care can be said to be the first of our Chinese civilization for thousands of years. Even Sage Kong, who had three thousand disciples, could not do it. , but I’m afraid it will cost a lot!”

"The 50 yuan spent on road construction and factory construction in the early stage has already been spent. Then the labor and materials for the formal production of the factory will be a lot of money."

“According to Chief Wei’s wishes, every township in the county must build a primary school with a capacity of no less than 500 students, and three middle schools with a capacity of thousands of students must be built in the county. In addition, students must be provided with three free meals a day. “Coupled with one health clinic in each township, a new hospital in the county with no less than beds will not only require a large construction cost, but also the subsequent personnel costs and daily losses. "

Seeing Shi Gongxing express his worries, Wei Yuan smiled and said: "Brother, there is no need to worry about money and food. This time I will allocate another 200 million yuan to you. I will make up for the shortfall."

"At the same time, I plan to follow the example of some Western countries in implementing a high-salary and clean-keeping system. In addition to the salary paid by the Young Marshal's Office, I will give the public servants in Andong County a subsidy that is the same as their salary. But after receiving this subsidy, If anyone dares to reach out to Anton's development funds again, don't blame me and others for being unkind, I want to see if it's their neck that's tougher or the bullet in my hand that's tougher."

At this point, the guard leader, who was still smiling at first, suddenly looked murderous. Even Shi Gongxing in front of him felt a little timid, "Sure enough, no one who can lead troops is easy to get along with."

Corruption was rampant in the officialdom during this period. As long as there was a place to make money, everyone from top to bottom wanted to make a profit. Even if Shi Gong was a fairly upright person, it was impossible to be alone in this big vat of corruption. of.

Wei Yuan simply gave him a vaccination first, lest he would be dragged out to practice shooting due to corruption. After all, it was a great achievement to meet such a civil affairs official who had good abilities and was able to talk to him. Relatively rare.

He decided that after the militia training was completed, he would regularly send people to conduct audits of various projects in the county, and find out a few "big rats" and take them out for target practice, so as to serve as a warning to the monkeys. As for eliminating corruption from the legal system, this We still have to wait until our territory is stable before discussing.

After the county government came out, Wei Yuan drove his Ford car straight to the temporary residence of the security group, preparing to inspect the recent training results.

Still two or three miles away from the station, Wei Yuan heard bursts of gunfire. He was probably conducting live-fire shooting training. When he drove to the gate of the security group, he saw two sentries holding the bayonet on with one hand. Springfield M1903 stood on duty at the gate of the camp with a gun in his hand and a look of caution on his face.

Compared with the casual state during the training session for new recruits, the whole thing looked more serious and upright. It seemed that Yue Weilu's training during this period was still very effective.

Although the sentries on both sides had already recognized the car belonging to their own regiment, they still followed the duty regulations and saluted, and only let them go after questioning. This made the guardsmen even more satisfied with the recent training of the militia.

After entering the militia, Wei Yuan went straight to the training ground to observe the live-fire shooting training at close range. After receiving the news, Yue Weilu, Kang Daguo and others lined up at the entrance of the training ground to welcome their arrival.

Wei Yuan patted Yue Weilu on the shoulder and smiled: "How is the security team doing?"

"Reporting to the regiment, the regiment has a total of 1836 people divided into three battalions. Each battalion has 3 infantry companies. Each infantry company is fully equipped with 120 people and is equipped with 1 Browning M3 heavy machine guns and 3 Maxim heavy machine guns. ,, one 60mm and one 80mm mortar each, the squad leader and deputy squad leader are equipped with a Thompson submachine gun and an M1911 pistol, ordinary soldiers are equipped with Springfield 1903 rifles, and radio stations have been equipped to the platoon level."

"A separate combat vehicle detachment was formed and equipped with 18 combat vehicles (tracked tractors were modified with steel plates and machine guns)."

An artillery unit equipped with eight US-made M1 75mm mountain guns. "

"A special marksman unit, 30 members are all equipped with Springfield M3 rifles equipped with 1903x scopes. Later, it is found that soldiers with excellent shooting results will be added to the special marksman unit again."

Our security team's current equipment is inferior to even the tax police team's, Yue Weilu said with excitement;
  "I can hear the sound of your training guns and artillery from a few kilometers away. Where are the soldiers' training results?"

"In terms of firearms shooting, the first round shooting at 200 meters can achieve an 8% target accuracy. In terms of artillery, due to relatively high technical requirements and the fact that most soldiers are illiterate, the current progress of training while learning is relatively slow, and we can only do After three rounds of calibration, the impact point of the artillery shell can be controlled within 3 meters."

"Soldiers in the tank unit have no problem driving proficiently. The current main training direction is the coordinated attack of infantry and tanks."

After listening to the report, Wei Yuan nodded with satisfaction and said to Yue Weilu: "Deputy Commander Yue, our militia has many new recruits, and basically none of them have seen blood. We still need to take a chance to conduct a practical training. , I heard that there are many horse bandits nearby who often go down the mountain to harass the people in the territory. You send someone to pay attention to it, and it is just used for training. Don’t be reluctant to give up ammunition during normal training. I will replenish it for you as much as it is consumed. The new soldiers still have to practice more."

Upon hearing Wei Yuan's arrangement, Yue Weilu stood at attention and saluted, "Yes."

At this time, Wei Yuan noticed that there were a few new faces in the instructors behind Yue Weilu. After saluting him, he stopped talking. His tough temperament was very similar to that of Yue Weilu, so he asked Yue Weilu beside him. : "These brothers look a little unfamiliar, don't they?"

"Back to the regimental seat, these were my colleagues in the tax police corps. Because they couldn't stand the behavior of the National Congress Party, they were ostracized by the superiors at every turn, so they left their jobs and returned home. In addition, my instructor We were short of manpower, so we wrote privately to invite them to come to our security team to help train. I originally wanted to discuss it with the team leader, but the team leader was not in Anton recently, so I made my own decision."

The surrounding atmosphere suddenly became a little solemn. Acting privately has always been a taboo in the military.
  Moreover, in addition to serving as instructors of the militia, these people also served as chief officers of each company. It was inevitable that they were suspected of being cliques and aroused the suspicion of the superior officials.

Wei Yuan smiled and said indifferently: "Oh, talents are rare. Thanks to all my brothers for not giving up, I traveled thousands of miles to come to this remote place like Anton."

"I haven't said it yet. As long as you come to the militia, you will be my brother Wei. As I said, as long as I have a bite to eat, my brothers will not be hungry."

Then Wei Yuan called Yue Weilu aside and said: Pay attention and see if there are any old acquaintances who know how to fly airplanes. If there are any, dig them out for me no matter what the cost! "

Seeing Yue Weilu looking at him in surprise, knowing that it was not good for him to poach others so blatantly, even the already thick-skinned guard couldn't help but blush.

Then he comforted himself in his heart: "I am doing this for the development of the security group and for the realization of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. There is nothing to be ashamed of."

"Cough cough."

Wei Yuan cleared his throat and said with a serious face: "If the tax police team can't find a suitable flight instructor, you can send a telegram to Wei Youtian, the manager left behind in Magic City. Old Wei is now working with the so-called upper-level officials in Magic City. If the fight is fierce, we can ask him to find some foreign flight instructors through various channels. The little devil won’t have much time left for us.”

Seeing that his security group was not only equipped with tanks and artillery, but also had the opportunity to equip aircraft, Yue Weilu, a dark-faced man, turned red with excitement. He saluted with a serious face: "Yes, I will live up to my humble position." expectations”.

(End of this chapter)