Chapter 289 New Soldiers Drill
The population of Harland Territory is not large. At the current development speed, it will be enough to mine more than 100,000 tons of coal next year. However, with the extensive use of steam engines, the consumption of coal will also increase greatly.
With the increase in coal mining, the coal chemical industry can be developed.
Richard has established the Chemical Research Institute for many years, but there has been no rapid progress in this field.
Under Richard's guidance, the Chemical Research Institute has begun to study coal tar. With the help of microscopes, they have made some discoveries.
To extract various substances from coal tar, experiments must be done many times, and there is no shortcut.
After observing for more than half an hour, the steam mine car started twice and transported the coal accumulated in the mine to the outside.
Listening to the roar of the steam engine, Richard left the mine and returned to Chavison's office. He casually searched in Chavison's office and found the miners' salary book.
Richard opened it and found that the miners' wages increased rapidly, and the monthly salary increased to eight silver coins, catching up with ordinary soldiers.
The work in the coal mine is quite dangerous. There have been many accidents in recent years, killing and injuring dozens of people.
The coal mine is now operating well and can turn in a large amount of profit every year, so the treatment of the coal mine unit has increased rapidly. Richard knows that this is human nature.
Richard put down his salary book and said to Cha Weisen: "There are miners' files in the mine, right? Go and find the miners' files. I want to take a look."
"Two years ago, the coal mine was assigned to several educated people. Under their work, the file registration work has been completed."
When the Harland Territory was first established, the household registration file system was established. In the first year, Richard and Wendy personally participated in the construction of the household registration file department.
At that time, there were not many literate people in the Harland Territory. In order to leave a file for everyone, Richard often wrote files late at night, and wrote more than a dozen copies every day.
The early files were very simple, usually recording the name, gender, age, household registration, professional skills, etc., and a red handprint would be pressed in the lower left corner of the file.
With the establishment of Riverbank Primary School, education has been developing continuously. Now there are a large number of literate people in Harland Territory, and the household registration and archives system has been effectively implemented.
The archives are becoming more and more complicated, adding academic qualifications, work experience, height and weight, physical health, marital status, immediate family members, etc. In addition, the honors obtained and the crimes committed will be recorded in the archives.
In today's Harland Territory, archives and household registration are very important for a freeman, and they are related to a person's future and life.
Richard opened the files of the miners and began to read them at a glance. He found that their cultural level was extremely poor, and there were almost no knowledgeable people.
The only five or six elementary school graduates were also assigned to the coal mine in the past few years, and they were basically in the logistics and archives departments.
Among the front-line workers, the illiteracy rate exceeded 99%, and it is estimated that only a few team leaders and managers can understand the documents.
After reading the files, Richard said with a heavy heart: "The illiteracy rate is too high."
"We also want to recruit educated front-line workers, but the working conditions in the mines are too bad. Those who are educated can basically find an easy job. They can pay their tuition fees and their family conditions are also very good. Even if they are assigned to a coal mine, they are unwilling to go down to the mine. Those who go down to the mines are all poor people who have just become free people. They work for a high salary and to become government workers. They are not afraid of death because we give them pensions."
"You should improve the conditions and directly give them the status of basic officials. You are deputy county-level Departments with high autonomy and fast promotion are attractive to young talents who are interested in official careers. Coal mines need to recruit some new workers with knowledge and focus on training them in the future to train them into skilled workers. The improvement of mining technology cannot rely only on experience, but also on knowledge and scientific calculations.
Although output is important, production safety must also be paid attention to. Next year, you will be equipped with steam mine cars, and your efficiency will be improved. Your main task is to ensure production safety and reduce the occurrence of accidents. If a serious accident occurs, I will hold you accountable. "
After inspecting the coal mine, Richard returned to the barracks.
From last autumn to this year, Harland has added 9,000 soldiers, and the number of troops has almost doubled, but the average quality of the soldiers has declined seriously.
In a year and a half, the 5,000 captive soldiers recruited last year have completed literacy, replaced their equipment, and started breathing practice. Two soldiers with good qualifications have been promoted to medium-level warrior apprentices, received key training from the army, and promoted to the headquarters directly under the department.
As long as people with good talents invest resources to cultivate them and work hard to improve themselves, they can basically be promoted to high-level warriors and play a big role on the battlefield.
After all, Harland Territory is not an old noble, and there are not many available people. As long as they are talented, they can easily be valued by the top leaders.
People with outstanding talents have very smooth channels for promotion.
Because their relatives have moved here, this group of soldiers has been fully integrated into Harland Territory.
Although the combat effectiveness of the captives is not as good as that of the veterans of Harland Territory, they have many years of war experience after all, and they are qualified soldiers in terms of thinking and skills. After practicing breathing methods and replacing sophisticated weapons and armor, their combat effectiveness is far greater than before. If they are placed in the main legion, they are considered good soldiers.
Four thousand recruits have completed the recruit training and will be assigned to various troops.
The training period for recruits in the Haaland territory is one year. When they first joined the army, the amount of training was not very large and the training tasks were not heavy. There will be queue training in the morning, literacy activities in the afternoon, and after dinner, they will recite military regulations, become familiar with military drums and horns, learn to obey orders, and begin to cultivate military style.
Three months later, the literacy work was over. They started practicing breathing techniques in the morning, training various military skills in the afternoon, and training on formation and physical fitness every few days.
During the year-long training period, the management is very strict, and only two days per month are allowed to leave the camp to receive family visits.
After completing recruit training, the soldiers have been transformed and have a military style. But without actual combat experience and without having fought several cruel wars in mountains of corpses and seas of blood, recruits will never be able to complete their transformation and will never become veterans.
The influx of a large number of new recruits into the army will inevitably lead to a period of adjustment, which will also make the commanders of each unit somewhat uncomfortable. In order to avoid affecting the combat effectiveness of the old troops, most of these four thousand recruits were divided into the 7th, 8th, 9th, and 14th Infantry Brigades. Each new brigade needs to receive 600 recruits and 600 converted prisoners.
The proportion of new recruits in these four brigades exceeds 40%, and the proportion of converted captive soldiers exceeds 40%. The old base of Harland's territory is only 20%.
The third, fourth, fifth, and sixth brigades will also receive 300 new soldiers and 400 converted prisoners. More than half of these four old units are veterans. Because their numbers have increased a lot, their combat effectiveness has improved compared to before the reorganization.
The Second Brigade received 200 new soldiers and 300 captive soldiers, and basically the old base was not mobilized. This reorganization also added more than sixty pieces of enchanted armor made of ogre skin, strengthening a skeleton squadron. During the recent period, Captain Lost always had a smile on his face and walked with wind.
The First Brigade is the core of the infantry in Haaland Territory. Not only did it not lose any blood, but it also drew 500 veterans from other infantry, which greatly improved its combat effectiveness.
The remaining recruits and converted prisoners were mainly assigned to guard brigades, second-line units, etc.
The special forces in Harland's territory, such as the Magic Hot Air Balloon Troop, the Lion Cavalry, the Warcraft Cavalry Brigade, and the Scout Cavalry Brigade, will not select soldiers from new recruits. If there is a vacancy in these troops, only key veterans will be transferred.
After Richard arrives at the military camp, the recruits will have their final drills in three days, then a farewell ceremony, and finally they will be divided into different armies.
In recent days, the boot camp is about to disband, and the boot camp has dinner every day.
The officers and soldiers in the boot camp spent a year together, and many of them developed deep feelings.
We are about to part ways. In this era of frequent wars, once we are separated, we may never see each other again for the rest of our lives.
The recruits are about to leave the army, and many officers pay out of their own pockets to treat the soldiers to meals and drinks. During this time, the discipline of the recruit camp is not strict.
Richard also attended a recruit dinner, but with him present, the soldiers behaved more reservedly and the atmosphere was solemn.
Seeing that he had affected the farewell of the officers and soldiers, Richard did not continue to participate. Instead, he found Frank, who was in charge of recruit training.
It has been ten years since Frank joined the Harland Territory. When he first entered the Harland Territory, he was already a third-level professional. At that time, Harland's territory was not very strong, and third-level professionals were still relatively rare. Frank was an officer whom Richard relied on ten years ago.
Among the officers in Haaland Territory, Frank already had seniority.
Frank was born in the Grizzly Bear Legion and practiced the Giant Bear Breathing Technique. Because he was stuck with advanced skills, he had not been promoted in more than ten years.
As time goes by, Frank's position in Haaland's leadership becomes lower and lower, and his position has not been transferred in eight years.
"The army is expanding recently. Have you ever thought about leading the troops?"
Both Richard and Frank were in Fort William, and Richard often came to the boot camp. The two met often and had a deep relationship.
"I have considered this issue. My professional level is only level three. I cannot convince the public as a captain, and I am too old to be a squadron leader. It is better to stay in the boot camp and make some contributions to the territory."
"If you can't be the captain, you can be the deputy captain. Do you only want to be the chief officer and not the adjutant?"
Frank shook his head and said: "I have been the deputy squadron leader in the Grizzly Corps for three years. Of course I am willing to be the adjutant. It's just that I have been in the boot camp for these years and have developed feelings for this place. I don't want to leave."
Frank has good talent, but his background is too low. He did not have any breathing techniques passed down from his family, and he was controlled by others after joining the army. After escaping from the Orc Empire, he served in the Harland Territory. If you are an ambitious person, for the sake of your own future, you will immediately leave Harland and join the Grizzlies.
Frank doesn't have much ambition, and it seems he doesn't want to go down and lead the troops to fight. Since Frank was unwilling to go down and lead the troops, Richard did not force anyone to do anything.
There are many elite soldiers in Harland territory now, with more than dozens of third-level warriors. Richard has many people who are motivated and capable, who want to stand out and make military exploits.
Richard stayed in the army for three days, and in a blink of an eye it was time for the recruit training.
"Sixth Squadron changes into another team and comes forward!"
At the command of the commander, the 120 soldiers of the Sixth Squadron quickly changed from a horizontal formation to a column, and quickly ran to the front of the queue.
After a year-long formation training, the soldiers formed a very strict formation. The distance between them was about half a meter, and there was no chaos in the action. Just looking at the queue, it feels like elite soldiers.
"After the first squadron is separated, the column changes into a horizontal formation, accelerates the march for 100 meters, forms a formation and shoots arrows, fires six rounds rapidly, and is ready to start!"
Following the drill officer's order, the First Squadron quickly turned the marching column into a formation, then turned back and began to march quickly. When they arrived about a hundred meters away, they arranged their formation and started shooting six rounds of feather arrows.
The quality of the first squadron of recruits was good. Even during the accelerated march, the queue was not too chaotic. After arriving at the predetermined location, the time to complete the team is also very short.
Richard looked at the hit rate and found that more than half of the shots from 60 meters away had hit the target.
The bows and arrows used by the recruits are about eight-dou bows, which are considered soft bows compared with the main force.
There are many talented people in the main force, who are very powerful and very accurate. After more than ten years of accumulation, there are more than a hundred people who have reached the third level of archery.
A considerable number of these soldiers who have reached the third level of archery skills are already professionals and have become grassroots officers. They use Dusanshi enchanted bows.
The strength of professionals is far greater than that of ordinary people. Coupled with the destructive power of fighting spirit, the lethality is very strong and the destructiveness is extremely shocking. Even the snake-like man, the backbone of the orcs, might lose his life if he is targeted by a third-level shooter.
For example, the enchanted bow and arrow used by Richard's uncle Thoros, if the bowstring is fully drawn, has a power of nearly one thousand kilograms, which is more than sixteen stone. Among the more than 20,000 officers and soldiers in Harland's territory, no more than ten can fully draw the bowstring. When this kind of enchanted bow is used, even without the addition of fighting spirit or the use of enchanted crossbow arrows, it is as destructive as a bed crossbow. It is impossible for professionals below the mid-level to survive as long as they are shot in the vital part.
Although the combat effectiveness of new recruits is far inferior to that of veterans and grassroots officers, their qualities demonstrated in the drills show strong discipline and they are considered qualified soldiers. Relying on these 4,000 new soldiers, Richard was confident of defeating 100,000 serf soldiers.
Recruits can sometimes play a key role on the battlefield. The key lies in how the commander uses them.
Especially in defensive battles, recruits can also rely on fortifications and equipment to kill professionals. A recruit using bows and arrows and throwing alchemy bombs can also kill professionals. Soldier quality, tactics, equipment, psychological state, geographical conditions and even climate conditions are all part of determining the outcome of a war.