Chapter 506

The chaos in the Pioneer Army camp lasted for nearly a week before things finally settled down and began to get on track.

By this time, personnel formalities had been sorted out, and the novelty of visiting relatives, friends, and going out to explore the streets had worn off, so the camp finally launched a wave of closed training.

Though called closed training, it was really just marching in step and getting familiar with commands — not even goose-stepping was required. It was essentially a watered-down version of university military training.

Additionally, while drilling the troops, a great deal of time was set aside for these people to get to know each other and form their own cliques.

In short, although the Pioneer Army had the word "Army" in its name, its methods had little to do with a regular military; in many respects, it was even the complete opposite.

This was also the standard organizational model for a colonization and pioneer regiment.

The Government would not spend enormous military funds to train these people. If that were the case, they might as well just dispatch the regular army to sweep through the South Seas — why would they need these people at all?

Unfortunately, up to this point, the Transmigrators had only managed to establish fewer than five battalions of regular Army troops. With this meager troop strength, they had to be responsible for garrisoning multiple strategic points stretching from Guangzhou in the south to Tianjin in the north, leaving absolutely no surplus forces to fight in the South Seas rainforests.

Maintaining an army is an extremely expensive project.

The regular army in the hands of the Transmigrators was built according to the military doctrine of later generations, following a path of pouring resources into producing elite soldiers.

This approach is extraordinarily resource-intensive. In later generations, compared to military spending, the famously wealthy figures like the Two Mas were truly nothing: a standard Grade A infantry division required 16 billion RMB just for weapon Equipment procurement, not counting the roughly 400 million to 2 billion for barracks Construction, plus enormous training costs and personnel Wages.

Note, this is just the expenditure for a single division. How many divisions and group armies does the rabbit have? In the face of a nation, an individual is truly insignificant.

The same held true for the Transmigrators. Despite having only a handful of regular battalions, these few thousand men already consumed the Majority of the Army's military budget.

And even though the Transmigrators were now earning a fortune daily, the total social wealth of the Seventeenth Century was inherently very low and still needed time to cultivate and grow.

In fact, with the Army plus the gold-devouring beast that was the Navy, just this tiny Territory was enough to make the rookie Transmigrators — who had never governed even a county-level regime — groan endlessly under the burden of military spending, finally understanding the hardships of ruling.

Thus, the Pioneer Army was destined to receive very few resources; it was a wild child.

Furthermore, the Pioneer Army's combat model also differed from that of the regular army.

In the vast South Seas, competing with natives for Territory to establish Mines and plantations — this combat model was characterized by low intensity, daily routine, and a very long time span. If one referenced the conquest of the North American Indians, this time span could even last for decades.

This model of long-term "security warfare" and "Mobile Corps Commander warfare" centered on strongholds was highly unsuitable for the regular army. Only the plantation owners who had claimed the land would protect their property year after year.

Therefore, with insufficient initial investment and starting as a makeshift outfit, the Pioneer Army was destined to be a motley force that was "self-financing," "lax in discipline," and treated "human lives as worthless as weeds."

Moreover, from the very beginning, this motley force was planned to be developed using groups. A group, after several years or decades, would likely evolve into several neighboring plantations, living as neighbors for generations, with intermarriage and mutual support. So the Pioneer Army did not restrict internal clique-forming, and its Establishment was rather casual.

It was under these circumstances that Wu Sanye and his group threw themselves into basic training.

Of course, since this motley force destined to fill the South Seas with human lives was deployed by the Transmigrators, it still possessed some advantages that transcended the era.

As it happened, after a week of drill training, the team members, who were beginning to show results, collectively attended a novel PPT Lecture.

Inside the large classroom with curtains drawn, the Natives were astonished to see the lecture subjects projected via slides.

The instructor, Wearing a regular army uniform, changed the projection slides one by one while Explaining.

This strange "Shadow Play" first mapped out the geographical relationships between the mainland, Tai Island, and the South Seas.

By this point, the vast Majority of the Natives in the room had, for the First Time in their lives, clearly understood the location and size of the Great Ming, grasped their own current position in Tainan, and understood where the South Seas — the place they were going to fight in the future — was located.

Next, the instructor used rich images and vivid language to popularize basic Knowledge for the audience about the customs, geography, climate, Diseases, Natives, and other fundamentals of the South Seas region.

This Knowledge was common information in the eyes of later generations, but in this era, it was truly a secret not passed on to outsiders. Things that Europeans had taken centuries to summarize were now being explained to these subordinates by the Transmigrators, interwoven with some scientific principles, in simple and accessible terms.

At this moment, the gap between individuals became apparent.

An old fox like Wu Sanye not only listened with intense concentration but also signaled the more educated Yusheng to record all of this — Previously in Taipei, the reason their group had managed to Survive intact until now was precisely because they had meticulously followed some of the Company's seemingly trivial regulations.

The PPT lecture would leave behind no written text. After the instructor finished presenting the content, he packed up and left, offering these people no opportunity to ask questions. So how much one could learn from these seemingly novel but actually life-or-death Knowledge points depended entirely on the individual.

Unlike those who simply listened and let it pass, Wu Sanye and his group hurried back to their dormitory Aftermath. Each contributing their recollections, with Yusheng recording, they produced a "Secret South Seas Handbook" just like that.

Then came another Half a Month of basic training. Once this chaotic bunch had at least Learned the basics of silent marching and obeying various commands, they were transferred to a combat zone, prepared to "use war as training."

Where was the combat zone? The Guangdong Bandit Suppression Campaign front lines.

On August 10, 1630, Wu Sanye's group boarded a ship and arrived at Huangpu Naval Port, ready to participate in the imminent bandit suppression security war.

The Transport Ship Wu Sanye and his group were on, after Departure from Taijiang, first crossed the strait to Xiamen Port for rest and refitting. After spending two days at Xiamen Port, a Southbound Fleet appeared from the direction of Fuzhou on the open sea. At this time, Wu Sanye's Transport Fleet also hurriedly caught up and joined the formation.

The ship Leading the fleet was the Fuyuan Battleship, currently the largest-tonnage vessel in the Far East.

With the Fuyuan leading the way, the fleet naturally sailed One Road with impunity, unimpeded. By August 10th, the fleet entered the Pearl River.

Later, Passing By Huangpu, the fleet parted ways. Wu Sanye and his group went straight to Huangpu Naval Port, while the four-ship formation Led by the Fuyuan continued upstream, all the way to White Goose Pond outside Guangzhou City.

At the Official Dock beside White Goose Pond, a crowd had long since gathered, with big shots assembling. Guangzhou officials Wearing various grades of Official Robes had already arranged their order of precedence on the dock early on, just waiting for the Fuyuan to dock.

At this moment, on the Fuyuan's mainmast, two long, large flags were fluttering. One bore a huge character "Xiong" in bold script, and the other read: Acting Inspector, Minister of War, Right Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate, Governor-General of Liangguang and Local Military Affairs, concurrently in charge of provisions and Fuzhou Governor affairs.

Lao Xiong had arrived.