Imperial warlords: Cannons are the only truth

Within Youzhou territory—a submarine force training base.

"Commander, the base has now recruited a total of 36,732 trainees who meet the recruitment standards for submariners."

"Their age is generally between 18 and 25 years old."

Accompanied by his entourage, Shen Moshen visited the submarine force training base, which had been completed just two months prior.

They will undergo six months of systematic training at the training base before they can become qualified submariners.

They will spend the next six months learning submarine warfare theory, submarine weapon systems, diesel/electric propulsion system theory, and escape training.

There are relatively strict restrictions on the recruitment conditions for submariners.

Because it requires learning and mastering a lot of professional theoretical knowledge.

Therefore, literacy has also been listed as a mandatory requirement for recruiting submariners.

However, this problem is not difficult to solve.

Thanks to the education system that the Great Qian Empire had implemented for over a hundred years, although the Great Qian Empire was backward, the literacy rate of its people was still very high.

More than a hundred years ago, the Great Qian Empire implemented educational reforms—allowing all school-age children, regardless of gender, to receive free literacy education in public schools, organized by village.

Moreover, this literacy education is semi-compulsory in nature.

At the beginning of the reforms, the Great Qian Empire even included the literacy rate in villages as an assessment indicator for county magistrates.

This was a groundbreaking innovation at the time.

What's even more remarkable is that this system has been maintained to this day.

It is precisely for this reason that the literacy rate of the people in the Great Qian Empire is still very high.

Therefore, the literacy requirement for submariners is precisely the easiest to solve.

However, due to the characteristics of the working environment for submariners, the biggest challenge lies in the physical fitness and psychological resilience required.

This is why submariner training typically lasts up to six months.

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"More than 36,000 trainees?"

As Shen Moshen toured the base, he remarked with admiration, "To be honest, it's quite surprising that so many qualified submarine trainees have been recruited in such a short time."

"This is also thanks to the generous conditions offered to submariners by the Navy Headquarters."

Base leader Li Qiankuan then explained: "Now all the people of Youzhou know that joining our Youzhou army is like having a secure job."

"If we join warlord forces in other parts of our Great Qian Dynasty, let alone military pay, it's questionable whether we'll even have enough to eat."

"Delaying wages and pay is standard practice."

"Not only that, beating and scolding soldiers was commonplace. They didn't earn much money and were bullied."

"But our Youzhou army is completely different."

"Our Youzhou army is disciplined and follows the proper procedures. Every soldier in the army receives one silver dollar a month without fail."

"Because of the harsh conditions, the Navy Headquarters specially increased the monthly salary of submariners to 2 silver dollars."

"Moreover, we have already recruited people who can sign a 12-year service contract at once, which is definitely a secure job."

"Once this salary standard was announced, the recruitment lines at the submarine force recruitment points stretched as far as the eye could see from morning till night..."

"I see." Shen Moshen nodded. "It seems that having more people does have its advantages."

The Great Qian Empire is the world's most populous country, with a total population of over 20 billion.

Although Youzhou Province ranked last in terms of area and economy among the 36 provinces of the Great Qian Empire, its population was still quite good.

The total population of Youzhou Province is approximately 6000 million.

Therefore, choosing to develop stealthily in Youzhou Province means there's no need to worry about a shortage of population.

Furthermore, the enthusiasm of the people of Youzhou for responding to the recruitment of the Youzhou army was unprecedented.

There's a saying circulating in Youzhou these days: Join the Youzhou Army, and you'll have a secure job!

Joining the Youzhou army meant not only good food and sleep, but also a monthly salary.

The real benefits are right there; it would be strange if people weren't scrambling to get in...................

According to Shen Moshen's initial plan, the Youzhou army should build an armed force of at least 300 million people within three years.

Once such an armed force is established, unifying the Great Qian Dynasty will be a piece of cake.

When the time comes, it will be time for Xie Kangnian, this old fellow who has been a pillar of the Great Qian Empire for more than a decade, to step down.

In the past few days, Shen Moshen has visited the Youzhou Army's artillery training base, armored vehicle training base, pilot training base, and now the submarine training base.

Overall, the training was very satisfactory.

The trainees generally showed high enthusiasm for learning.

When it comes to professional training, Shen Moshen is absolutely unambiguous.

All the officers with outdated ideas and tactics, including Gu Xingbang, were sent by Shen Moshen to the Youzhou Military Academy for "re-education."

These officers must be trained and mastered advanced tactical concepts.

Those who fail to meet the learning requirements will be demoted or simply reassigned to the ranks of ordinary soldiers.

In short—the officers of the Youzhou army must not be "incompetent"!