African Nationhood

Chapter 61 New Army
  After sending away the civil servants from the five northern districts, Anhai Town ushered in the first big harvest of the reservoir farm.

These fertile lands were nourished by the island's guano, and the wheat yield per mu soared by 20%, reaching an astonishing 180 kilograms per mu.

In addition, high-yield potatoes, corn and sweet potatoes are also a bumper harvest.

This bumper harvest has greatly alleviated the Anhai Town management’s long-standing anxiety caused by food shortages.

There are three harvests a year. If there is a bumper harvest every time, it will also lay a solid foundation for Anhai Town to support a larger permanent population.

Based on this momentum, the town maintains a permanent population of 40,000 to 50,000 people without any pressure.

While Anhai Town enjoyed a bumper harvest, Englishman William Sfield finally couldn't sit still and agreed to the Nanhua Company's slave exchange trade.

Shi Jintang was naturally happy to see this result, but while the British were thinking about it, he met several British and Dutch long-distance traders through Cecil Rhodes.

These people were very excited about the huge profits of Nanhua Company's "slave exchange", and finally made a deal with two people.

As a result, Europeans accounted for three of the merchants who helped Nanhua Company transport immigrants, and Chinese Li Jinlong was still the only one.

Shi Jintang expected that Chinese traders would be the main ones, supplemented by European and American traders.

……

In order to form a new army and support the construction of the five northern regions, Shijintang specially issued 50 pounds of ten-year bonds with an annual rate of 4.9%.

The reason why the annual interest rate was increased was because the capitalists in London collectively looked down on the prospects of South China Company.

They believe that there are no new profit growth points in Southwest Africa and its development prospects are limited.

Shi Jintang was so anxious that he almost broke the news about the diamond mine, but in the end he held back. Even if he wanted to break the news, he had to wait until the new army was trained.

After some consultations, the annual rate was finally set at less than 5%.

The day the 50 pounds arrived, Shi Jintang rushed to Cape Town.

When Governor Freire saw the "wealth boy" arriving, he almost lost his teeth in laughter.

After friendly negotiation, the two parties negotiated two transactions.

In the first payment, Nanhua Company paid 4 pounds to purchase 8000 Martini-Henry mk II rifles and 150 million rounds of ammunition.

This price can be said to be a considerable premium, and the excess will naturally go into Governor Freire's pocket.

（清国1880年，用4.4万镑购买了10000支毛瑟1871式及500万发配套子弹。）
  It is currently in the start-up stage, and Shi Jintang cannot care about the extra premium. The guns and ammunition purchased this time are enough to last until next year.

Just wait until next year, when his contract with the British military will expire.

At that time, Nanhua Company will receive a large arsenal for free, which can produce not only rifles but also bullets.

Although this arsenal only produces Martini-Henry rifles, it can help Shi Jintang train industrial workers in the military industry department and lay the foundation for future self-development of "new rifles."

In addition, there are two advantages of buying goods from Governor Freire. One is that you can pay and deliver at the same time, and the other is that the quality can be guaranteed.

It's not like the Qing Dynasty who spent a lot of money to get defective and second-hand goods.

As for how Governor Freire reported the loss, that was his business. These British officials in the colonies were very good at making money.

Otherwise, the Second Boer War would not have resulted in a huge military expenditure of 2.2 million pounds.

The second transaction was naturally the purchase of land. Shi Jintang spent 2.6 pounds and bought another 3 acres of land in the Rand Basin.

The previous 3.2 acres of land had already been cultivated by later Chinese immigrants.

The newly purchased land, Shi Jin Tang, is not going to be sub-leased, but will be used as a military meritorious field.

The military headquarters of the third battalion of the advance battalion is located on the newly purchased land. The number of the third battalion is 500, and the battalion commander is Tian Liang.

His militia team directly broke up the backbone of the third battalion, which also facilitated the newly built third battalion to quickly exert its combat power.

The sources of troops came from Chinese American immigrants from Rand Farm, as well as subsequent immigrants from the Qing Dynasty.

After the Chinese American immigrants who signed the contract became indentured farmers, they had a strong desire to protect their land. Moreover, the Nanhua Company announced that those who join the army can obtain land tax exemptions.

These Chinese American immigrants became even more enthusiastic about joining the army, and soon completed most of the new army's establishment.

Shi Jintang sent another 200 men from the Qing Dynasty, thus completing the construction of the third battalion in advance.

All troop equipment was replaced with Martini-Henry rifles, which came with 30 rounds of ammunition.

Shi Jintang also selected more than a dozen military trainees from Anhai Town who had strong ideas and high loyalty to Mr. Shi to serve as mid-level deputy positions in the third battalion.

Tian Liang supported this very much and took the initiative to adjust the ranking of the third battalion's non-commissioned officers.

Most of these military trainees hold company and platoon-level first officer positions.

Shi Jintang is very satisfied with Tian Liang's feedback.

He directly agreed to Tian Liang's application to form a cavalry company. After all, Rand Farm was close to the Boer base camp, so it was convenient and quick to purchase Boer horses. Setting up a cavalry battalion would also help improve the combat effectiveness of the troops.

At the same time, it is also to save fire for the future cavalry unit.

While the 3rd advance battalion was actively training, Shi Jintang began to build forts and walls around Rand Farm.

These actions attracted the attention of the nearby Boers, and Louis Botha personally went to the farm to inquire.

Shi Jintang directly informed that it was built to protect against attacks by wild beasts and Zulu people.

Louis Botta naturally didn't believe it, but he couldn't stop it, so he had to go back sadly.

The training place of the second advance battalion is still Anhai Town (Nagoswakopmund). Most of the soldiers are immigrants from the Qing Dynasty, and a small number are Chinese Americans.

The strength of this team is now 800, and it belongs to a reinforced battalion. The battalion commander is directly replaced by Shi Jintang.

The training syllabus for this unit was all compiled by Shi Jintang and then enriched by the military training department of Anhai Town.

The training of recruits of the second advance battalion focuses on high intensity. Whether they are non-commissioned officers or ordinary soldiers, they all have high requirements and strict discipline.

Anyone who dares to question the delay in training will be cleared from the camp, no matter who they are.

In daily training, "5-kilometer armed cross-country", "emergency march with heavy loads" and "wild survival" are commonplace.

What's even more annoying is that when recruits fall asleep at night, they will frequently encounter various emergency muster drills.

In addition, recruits also need to learn mathematics, and geometry and algebra are boring and boring.

What's even more troublesome is the frequent assessments. If a recruit fails the assessment once, he or she will be punished with intense physical training at most. If a recruit fails the assessment twice, he or she will be put in solitary confinement for self-reflection. If the recruit fails the assessment three times, he or she will be asked to leave.

The 1200 people who initially set up the recruit training quickly dropped to 1000, 900, and finally 800 people.

After the harsh and high-pressure recruit training period, the remaining recruits have been exhausted and mature.

The next step is to allocate troops. A small group of people who excel in the assessment become artillerymen that everyone envies. Their daily training becomes drawing lines and fighting artillery.

As for the ordinary big-headed soldiers, the situation is miserable. Their daily training is basically the same as that of the new recruits. In addition, they also have to learn to ride horses. If they are not good at riding, they will become a frequent visitor to female medical soldiers.

Female medical soldiers often talk about this research and that research.

It's not enough if you don't cooperate. Those medical soldiers are particularly fond of crying. Whenever they cry, they will make the non-commissioned officers furious.

After the big-headed soldiers suffered several losses, they all learned their lesson and began to show their courtesy to the medical soldiers.

The second advance battalion can often see a few stupid soldiers fighting for the opportunity to show courtesy to the medical soldiers.

These nonsense things reached Shi Jintang's ears, and he cursed helplessly: "Licking a dog will lead to a good death!"

　Please read, invest, collect and recommend. Thanks also to book friend 20220617110741886, book friend 20190617185936058, and Pindao Qingdaozi for their monthly ticket support.

　　
  　
  (End of this chapter)