Taking advantage of the night, Yang Wangu first led his men in unearthing the buried ammunition and then transported it to the riverbank by cart.

  It was a bit more difficult from then on, as secrecy was required, and all these hundreds of boxes had to be loaded onto the ship by manpower. Yang Wangui only brought over 30 carefully selected subordinates to handle this matter. The others were mainly responsible for perimeter security, not allowing local residents to approach the riverbank, so due to the shortage of personnel, loading the ship took some time.

  Fortunately, Ye Zuowen also understood the rules. He gave Yang Wangu a 200-yuan red envelope and each soldier 15 yuan, which was almost equivalent to two months' worth of silver pay. Additionally, he gave each person an extra pack of cigarettes. Having received benefits, everyone naturally wouldn't complain about the hard work of moving things, nor would they shout out what happened tonight everywhere.

  The next day, the weapons were transported to Hankou. The British concession police station also received their share of "gifts", so naturally no one was foolish enough to go to the dock to ask about this matter. When the representative of the Zongshang Party saw that the military supplies had arrived, he immediately boarded the ship to inspect the goods. Upon seeing that they were new, he let out a big sigh of relief, feeling that his mission had been accomplished very smoothly and that he would be able to report back to the king in Beijing.

  "That representative also excitedly shook Ye Zuwen's hand and said: 'Mr. Ye, thank you very much, I will remember your loyalty to the imperial court, when I return to the capital I will certainly report it to the prince.'"

  The remaining 500,000 was also handed over to Ye Zuwen through HSBC on the same day. As for the military supplies, they were exchanged at the dock for a German ship and transported along the Yangtze River and then via the Grand Canal to Huai North Zhang Xun's place.

  As for how much of the revolutionaries' pure blood these weapons will eventually stain, that is no longer something Wang Zhenyu needs to consider. He even comforted himself by thinking that if the revolutionaries' blood did not flow a bit more, how could the red flag be dyed red?

  Good fortune is in sight, and Wang Zhenyu's mood has been exceptionally good lately. He greets everyone with a smile, and the entire camp can feel the warmth of spring, despite the fact that Hanyang is currently experiencing a light snowfall.

  After a few more days, although the weather was getting colder, Wang Zhenyu, who had made a fortune, looked at his subordinates living their small lives every day, drinking small wine, and had different ideas. He felt that it was necessary to practice his troops now. After all, these people were his biggest capital and reliance in this era, and it was not bad to make the capital more robust. Moreover, although the direction of the next road was still unclear, Wang Zhenyu still understood the logic that the strength or weakness of the combat power of the army in his hands would affect how far he could go in this era.

  He said and did it immediately, convening a meeting of all officers in the camp.

  "What? No way!" Yang Wangu and others were shocked, their mouths hanging open in amazement.

  Just now at the military officer meeting, Wang Zhenyu clearly issued an order for so-called winter training:

  Every morning five kilometers

  Morning drill and military subject training

  Afternoon cultural class

  Marching forty li with heavy loads every five days.

  Holding this winter training plan book that seemed a bit far-fetched to everyone, the team leaders were thoroughly stunned.

  This time, even Yang Wanguo, a bootlicker, took the lead in protesting: "Wang Guandai, now that the war has stopped, take a look at the militia troops in our neighboring defense zone. How many of them are still on duty? If you want to be on duty, we brothers have nothing to say, it's only natural for soldiers to be on duty and eat their rations. But take a look at what you've arranged, it's a huge amount! The younger brothers below will probably make trouble about this."

  Song Xianfu followed with a shout: "Yes, yes, Wang Guandai, let's not mention these running and marching drills. We soldiers are born to suffer, but look at this, there are even cultural classes! Our men under us can't even recognize big characters, you're forcing them to take cultural classes, aren't you making them suffer?..."

  Several teams are moving Wang Zhenyu from the back of the world to the front, and their winter training plans are not worth mentioning.

  Originally, Wang Zhenyu still wanted to pretend to be a big shot and negotiate with everyone, but his face turned from red to white, then white to purple, and finally black. He couldn't bear it anymore, so he slammed the table: "You, you, you, all of you get out! Anyone who dares to oppose me will be punished with 20 military rods. Those who don't want to participate in winter training can take off their uniforms and run back to Hunan naked. My troops won't accept this kind of scoundrel. Get out!"

  The pipe band really got angry, and the team members were so scared that they rolled out of the camp. The army is not a place where democracy is discussed, since the boss has decided, who else dares to say anything? Alright, each returns to their own team, preparing for those big-headed soldiers.

  From that day on, the officers and soldiers of the First Division of the Aid-Hubei Army returned to the old society step by step. Every morning before the chickens cried, the officers would go crazy with sticks and pull them out of bed, forcing them to run five kilometers first. Oh, and it was specially stipulated that the last one who didn't eat breakfast would be punished for dropping out. In such cold weather, running made their lungs ache from the cold air, and the soldiers were all gritting their teeth in hatred, secretly asking about the female relatives of the team leader's family.

  After breakfast, everything has not ended. First, they were punished to stand at attention on the playground for half an hour (the big-headed soldier called it "penalty standing"). Then there was military training, shooting, bayonet fighting, and hand-to-hand combat. Every day, there were new tricks until lunchtime. After half a month, the soldiers were all exhausted, with bruises all over their bodies, and not a single piece of skin that wasn't thick and rough.

  However, from the perspective of all officers and soldiers, the above-mentioned ones are still relatively happy, because such a large amount of training is not paid in vain. Three meals a day, every meal has meat, and the quantity is enough, let alone occasionally having some wine to warm everyone up. If this were put in their hometown, even small landlords might not be able to eat so well every day. Oh, right, while eating meat, everyone also doesn't forget to think about the good of the leaders who take care of them.

  The most miserable thing is after lunch, cultural class.

  This time it's not just soldiers, even officers are at a loss for words!

  Although the 49th Division belongs to the new army, Hunan's new army was trained relatively late. The phenomenon that Wang Zhenyu, who graduated from the Hunan Army Primary School, can be granted as a team leader, can also illustrate what kind of cultural level the Hunan New Army is in.

  The cultural level of the new army in Hunan is fundamentally not on the same level as that of Hubei, which has the Third Army Middle School. Yang Wangu and his comrades were still platoon leaders before the revolution and were transferred from old troops. The biggest characteristic of such officers is to take pride in being uncultured. In Wang Zhenyu's view, any army can form combat effectiveness through military law, clan law and other systems as a bond in a period of time, but this combat effectiveness is difficult to sustain in the long term. An army must have ideology and culture to maintain its combat effectiveness for a long time, specifically, it must know why it fights. Therefore, cultural education is indispensable. In short, Wang Zhenyu firmly believes that an army without culture has no future.

  After lunch, there was a 30-minute break, and then Ma Xi Cheng or Zhao Dong Sheng would take a stick to beat the bottom of the washbasin: "The whole camp is assembled, and the regimental commander will give everyone a lecture."

  All the officers and soldiers heard Ma Xicheng or Zhao Dongsheng's voice, as if they had seen a death warrant, their faces turned pale, their limbs weak, and some even cried out in exaggeration: Kill me, I'd rather die than go to class.

  Wang Zhenyu's response was very clear: before you die, you must first finish your lesson.

  Because there is no professional teacher, this cultural class is just Wang Zhenyu lecturing alone.

  Due to the lack of teaching materials, cultural classes have largely become Wang Zhenyu's personal storytelling sessions, which gave him a great sense of self-fulfillment as he later became a university teacher.

  As for the cultural courses, they were roughly history classes, military history classes, and patriotic education classes. However, in the initial stage, there was only one course, which was a character recognition class. Every day, they would teach everyone to recognize 20 characters, and on the second day, they would ask everyone to recite them from memory. If someone couldn't recite them, it was a tragedy. But the most common situation was that after teaching 20 characters, half of them were forgotten by the first day, only a few were remembered by the second day, and all were forgotten by the third day. This group of idiots made Wang Zhenyu so angry that he spat blood, and he would have liked to beat them to death with sticks.

  "You, 100 push-ups, if you can't finish it, there's no dinner, go now...!" At this time, Wang Zhenyu was like a large blower that blew the officers and soldiers of the second battalion to stumble left and right, even the company commander couldn't escape. Every time they reached the silent word, Song Xianfu and Hao Bing were like monkeys scratching their ears and cheeks, anxious to death, their eyes occasionally glancing in the direction where Yang Wanguo was.

  That's why the officers and soldiers are like they've lost their father when they hear that they have to attend classes.

  This is what later historians repeatedly touted as opening a new page in history - the Hanyang Reorganization.

  Through the training, the tactical awareness and military quality of the whole camp were generally improved, which also laid the foundation for Wang Zhenyu's expansion in the future. However, for the participants of the exercise, it was a painful memory that could not be recalled.

  It's been almost a month since we first met.

  On one side, Wang Zhenyu was training the second battalion's officers and soldiers to the point of exhaustion, while on the other side, business matters were also progressing very smoothly.

  Ye Zuwen was indeed a business talent. Due to the war, most import businesses were suspended. Ye Zuwen personally went to Shanghai Han-Ye-Ping Coal and Iron Mine Co., Ltd., met some key figures, had three banquets, sent out several red envelopes, and quickly smoothed out the connections. As a result, he sold two sets of equipment for 8 million yuan at a very good price. Although it was 2 million less than the original contract signed by Rui-Cheng, it was 200 million more than Wang Zhenyu's expectation. Wang Zhenyu kept his promise and gave Ye Zuwen 1.6 million as cooperation fees. As for the remaining 6.4 million, Wang Zhenyu deposited 6 million into the Hang Seng Bank, and took out 400,000 for personal use.

  It takes money to get fit, with such a large amount of exercise, good wine and meat are needed to serve, 10,000 meters a day, how can brothers persist in this cold winter.

  Now that he has a large sum of money in hand, Wang Zhenyu feels an unprecedented sense of solidity. To be sure, Wang Zhenyu's life ideal is to count his money until his hands cramp up. 400,000 yuan, if calculated according to the price standard of later generations in 2013, that would be over 10 million! (44 kilograms of flour for three silver coins, you can calculate it yourself.)

  The most inexplicable thing in this world is probably a person's fate. Originally on the verge of bankruptcy, Ye Zuowen, who was waiting for others to watch and laugh, suddenly came back to life overnight and became a big shot in Hankou Concession, feeling extremely proud. Taking advantage of the turbulent situation, Ye Zuowen bought and sold properties everywhere, his generosity has made it impossible to count how many people are now envious, jealous and resentful of him.

  So when facing Wang Zhenyu, Ye Zuwen's heart was filled with gratitude. His grateful feelings were no less than those of the Second Master, and apart from helping Wang Zhenyu manage his business well, Ye Zuwen didn't think about anything else.