My Apprenticeship to Uncle Jiu: I Was a Warlord in the Republic of China

After Jiang Youchi's explanation for an afternoon, Jiang Li had a basic understanding of Guyang County.

The next day, after saying goodbye to his family, he set out for Tengteng County to begin gathering troops.

In just two days, seven hundred people were drawn from various places, plus the local garrison of Tengteng County, totaling fifteen hundred people, and then the equipment was distributed.

Why do we say that equipment needs to be distributed? Of course, it is because the purchasing staff has purchased a batch of weapons in the past two months, including fifty Czech-style light machine guns and fifty grenade launchers.

These will be distributed to each company to enhance their firepower.

He also bought two Maxim heavy machine guns, but because the guns were too heavy, he did not plan to equip them to the infantry, but instead equip them to the motorcycle brigade.

By the way, in the past two months, Han Yong made two more trips, delivering four motorcycles, a truck, and one thousand liters of gasoline.

So he simply formed a motorcycle brigade with these ten motorcycles and equipped them with all six Maxim rifles, while the remaining four could only make do with Czech light machine guns.

Back to the topic, this time, to be on the safe side, he also transferred the only six field guns of the second company commander's artillery company.

Medical soldiers are on standby at all times. Together with the newly arrived truck, they are ready to receive and treat the wounded at any time.

After the weapons were distributed, he ordered his men to familiarize themselves with the weapons and practice coordinated operations with other companies to avoid any mistakes in this battle due to lack of coordination.

He called all the company commanders to the conference room and began to discuss the troop routes and combat methods.

"Everyone, tell us what you think. If we have a fight like this again this time, where should we start?" Jiang Li spoke first when he saw everyone gathered.

Afterwards, each company commander expressed his own opinions. Some said to push forward in one wave, some said to defeat them one by one like last time, and some said to declare war openly and fight a positional battle to train the soldiers.

In short, everyone has their own ideas and it is impossible to reach a consensus.

Fortunately, Jiang Li already had an idea in mind. He asked everyone to speak so that they could express their opinions and hoped that they could grow.

Then he said to everyone in a loud voice, "I have heard everyone's opinions. Both positional warfare and defeating the enemy one by one have their merits, so I think we should do both."

After that, he ordered the four company commanders, "Each of you take your own troops to capture the four towns near Tengteng County and weaken their strength first."

"And I will personally lead a thousand people and march quickly to Shiliping, build fortifications here, and force them to fight a positional battle with us."

"We have artillery, heavy machine guns and fortifications, so we should be able to defeat them quickly. The other four companies must not stop after occupying the town, but quickly move to the two sides of the enemy and cooperate with the main force to kill as many enemies as possible."

"Do you have any other opinions?"

Then two company commanders raised their hands to ask questions. One of them asked, "Mr. County Governor, I would like to ask why it is Shiliping?"

Another person asked, "Why do we have to fight a positional war? Isn't it better to just launch a surprise attack?"

Jiang Li was not dissatisfied with the two people's questions, but explained happily, "Shiliping is located in the southwest of Guyang County. According to the information sent by intelligence personnel, the terrain here is open and flat, with no obstructions, which is suitable for heavy machine guns and field artillery to perform."

"And if we put the battlefield in the wild, we won't have to worry about harming innocent civilians. This will be very helpful for occupying and controlling Guyang County in the future."

"As for using a major war to train soldiers, this is just incidental. Do you still have any questions now?"

When everyone heard Jiang Li's increasingly serious tone, almost questioning him, they all stood up and saluted, saying in unison, "No!"

"That's good. If anyone misses the deadline and fails to complete the set goal in this operation, this county magistrate will never let them off easily. Do you hear me?" Jiang Li solemnly warned everyone present.

Hearing this, everyone responded loudly. The four company commanders who were responsible for occupying the town unexpectedly frowned, but in the end they didn't say anything.

Afterwards, Jiang Li asked them to go back and make preparations. As soon as the soldiers had finished their training and their military supplies had been delivered, they would march to Guyang County.

Three days passed in a flash, and everything was ready. Jiang Li gave an order and the army set out for Guyang County.

Four of the companies, led by their company commanders, set out with the intelligence personnel, while Jiang Li himself led a thousand people and headed towards Shiliping at a leisurely pace.

But this time he did not walk in the front, but walked in the middle of the team under the protection of a dozen Taoist soldiers.

Jiang Li marched with so many fully armed soldiers without any concealment, so it was impossible to hide it from Marshal Zhang. That very night, Marshal Zhang learned of their situation.

He learned the marching direction of Jiang Li and others and the weapons and supplies they carried. After carefully comparing them on the map, he finally determined that they were most likely coming for him.

So he issued a military order overnight and tried his best to gather soldiers. However, his soldiers were poorly trained to begin with, and now faced with such an emergency, how could he gather all the people?

After spending a whole night working, he only managed to gather 400 people. The others were either stationed in various places or were out and had not returned, so they could not be notified at all.

By noon the next day, all those who had gone out had finally gathered. He had no time to punish them at this time, and hurriedly asked them to organize their weapons and equipment, while he personally led people to prepare tents, food, pots and bowls and other supplies.

Another whole day passed, and the soldier sent to mobilize troops finally arrived with the garrison from a nearby town. Seeing that most people had arrived, he gave the order to set off without caring how tired these people were after a day's journey.

Because he had just received news that the group had already captured four of his towns, killing and capturing more than 300 people. If he did not set out, he would be defeated one by one.

Just as Zhang Tiande was on the road with his assembled thousand-strong army, Jiang Li was leading his men to build defensive fortifications in Shiliping!

Thanks to the training of a professional instructor like Wang Zhi, Jiang Li's troops were very familiar with the basic skills such as digging trenches and building machine gun positions.

In order to make the most of the Maxim, he also used stones to build half a stone wall so that people on motorcycles could work with peace of mind.

As for Jiang Li, he led a dozen Taoist soldiers and a company of soldiers to guard the second company commander's artillery company and the medical team in the rear.

Since they had practiced setting up fortifications before and there were no distractions, the soldiers quickly set up the fortifications.

But no matter how long Jiang Li waited, he still didn't see Zhang Tiande coming with his men.

This left him completely confused, and he quickly sought out several intelligence agents to inquire about the situation.