Next, Ma Xi Cheng will read out the list of appointments for the ninth army officers. Everyone should focus their attention:

  "Yang Wanguo is appointed as the acting chief of staff of the 9th Brigade; Xu Yuanquan is appointed as the acting deputy commander of the 9th Brigade and the regimental commander of the 1st Infantry Regiment, Song Xianfu is appointed as the lieutenant colonel and commander of the 2nd Infantry Battalion, Hao Bing is appointed as the lieutenant colonel and commander of the 3rd Infantry Battalion. Appointed by: Wang (Wang Zhenyu), Commander of the 9th Brigade of the 4th Division of the Hunan Army, Republic of China, January 20, Year 1."

  "Hereby appoint Ma Xi as the Major of the 9th Brigade's Logistics Department, and Zhao Dongsheng as the Major of the 9th Brigade's Guard Battalion...". After half a month of brief training, except for Zhao Dongsheng who was promoted to Major and served as the Guard Captain in the brigade headquarters, nine out of the remaining twelve people were assigned to various companies as company commanders. Among them, Tao Liyue, Li Hongkui, and Zhou Zhengming were appointed as Senior Captains and company commanders of the 1st, 4th, and 7th Companies respectively; Chen Yuxin was appointed as the commander of the 2nd Company, Deng Kunru as the commander of the 3rd Company, Dai Yue as the commander of the 5th Company, Tian Shouhai as the commander of the 6th Company, *** as the commander of the 8th Company, and Liu Mingkai as the commander of the 9th Company, all with the rank of Junior Captain. Song Haomin, Tang Hairong, and Zhang Xuanguang were also awarded the rank of Junior Captain and remained in the training team as squad leaders.

  The organization of each battalion was also largely disrupted, and Wang Zhenyu rearranged the five teams into nine companies according to the principle of "same clan but different classes, same village but different rows". Each company had no more than 30% of the original team members. The original platoon leaders were all promoted to second lieutenant deputy company commander or combat staff officer in the brigade headquarters, and the squad leaders were promoted to platoon leaders, but they were assigned to different companies from their original platoon leaders. The nine deputy company commanders and six combat staff officers were all transferred to the training battalion for 20 days of training before taking office. Wang Zhenyu's plan was to wait until the nine company commanders he appointed had fully grasped the troops before releasing them, and as compensation, they would be promoted to lieutenant colonel at that time.

  Wang Zhenyu also had Ma Xicheng publicly announce the treatment and promotion of officers and soldiers in this expedition: "From now on, the officers and soldiers of this expedition are divided into eight levels: travel, team, camp, company, platoon, class, first-class soldier, and second-class soldier. The treatment is as follows: The monthly salary of a travel officer is 180 yuan, and the consolation for death or injury is 1,800 yuan; the monthly salary of a team officer is 120 yuan, and the consolation is 1,200 yuan; the monthly salary of a camp officer is 80 yuan, and the consolation is 1,000 yuan; the monthly salary of a company officer is 50 yuan, and the consolation is 500 yuan; the monthly salary of a platoon officer is 30 yuan, and the consolation is 300 yuan; the monthly salary of a class officer is 20 yuan, and the consolation is 200 yuan. The above-mentioned deputy officers are uniformly treated as 80% of the same-level officers. New soldiers are second-class soldiers, with a monthly salary of 8 yuan, a family allowance of 20 yuan, and a consolation of 80 yuan. First-class soldiers are old soldiers who have served for one year, with a monthly salary of 15 yuan and a consolation of 150 yuan.

  The officers and soldiers were very excited after hearing this, as the treatment was much better than that of other troops. To know that previously, ordinary soldiers' monthly salary was at most five yuan, now new recruits are eight yuan, and what makes people feel more at ease is the consolation system, which is ten times the salary. This time, everyone can fight without worrying about their families. However, Yang Wangu and other officers frowned, this treatment is too good to be true, although no one would refuse a pay rise, but if the boss can't afford it, wouldn't that be empty joy?

  "Outstanding soldiers will be awarded the rank of corporal, sergeant, and deputy squad leader, and will be eligible for selection into the instructor team. Those who pass the selection will enter the instructor team, be awarded the rank of army lieutenant, and undergo training. After completing training, they will be awarded the rank of army captain by the division staff department and reassigned. The treatment of instructor team recruits will follow the procedures for deputy company-level positions.

  All battalion commanders and above military officers are personally appointed by the division commander. The transfer of combat units above the platoon level must be approved by the chief of staff and reported to the division commander. Combat units above the company level must have a written order from the division commander to mobilize.

  Orders from the division command center must be executed unconditionally. Those who violate military orders will be punished, with lighter punishments resulting in expulsion and heavier punishments resulting in on-the-spot execution. Strictly executing commands according to their content will result in rewards of first-class merit, second-class merit, and third-class merit, with reward standards announced separately.

  Additionally, the punishment standards for violating military law are as follows..."

  On the twentieth day of January in the first year of the Republic, Wang Zhenyu promoted and appointed more than a hundred military officers in one breath, issued four orders for treatment, consolation, promotion, reward and punishment.

  At this point, Wang Zhenyu can be said to have thoroughly grasped the Ninth Brigade's armed forces through the system, and is no longer relying on the victory of the Battle of Hankou to maintain it. In other words, even if the superior issued twelve golden plaques to take away his military power, the Ninth Brigade now belongs to Wang.

  According to the latest order, the whole brigade temporarily set up three battalions and nine companies. Everyone in the brigade was delighted, either promoted or with a salary increase, and naturally they were all in high spirits and morale!

  Considering that the current expansion is just a framework and does not add new personnel, Wang Zhenyu did not increase too many secular things. His mind is now fully focused on personnel adjustments.

  As a result, the three battalion commanders had just taken office and found that more than half of their soldiers were originally from other people's units, while those they brought with them were mostly assigned to others. How could this be? It was not easy to command unfamiliar troops, but after appealing to Wang Zhenyu several times in vain, the battalion commanders also knew it was useless to speak out again.

  Wang Zhenyu was overjoyed at this, and thought to himself: "With just a few moves, I'll reorganize your entire system, and by then, even the appointment and dismissal of military officers will be directly in my hands. Let's see who can still form their own clique within my team."

  Ma Xi Cheng was the biggest beneficiary of this change, from a small deputy officer who wasn't even considered an officer to becoming the major in charge of the military supplies department. To put it into perspective, there were no more than five officers in the entire 9th Regiment. As for why Ma Xi Cheng was chosen, it was simply because in Wang Zhen Yu's eyes, the position of military supplies officer was very important, and after some thought, he decided that his own cousin would be a safer choice. As for the personnel in the military supplies department, the original quartermaster and cook were added to the roster, and even Zhou Chun, the big fool from the cooking squad, got lucky and became a junior lieutenant officer under the military supplies department, although his actual job remained unchanged, still being in charge of cooking.

  Nine consecutive company commanders were replaced by student soldiers from the training team, although the training time was not long, but at least these people followed the rules and became Wang Zhenyu's students. Since they all carried Wang Zhenyu's label, it would be more reassuring to use them.

  After all this, Wang Zhenyu finally had a good grasp of the troops in his own hands.

  The famous Hu Lao Hu Zhuang also stepped onto the historical stage of the Republic of China at this time.

  The expansion of things is complicated, and Wang Zhenyu also finds it difficult to do everything perfectly at the moment. Many details still need to be improved step by step. However, one thing that Vitoye Zuwu had been taking care of has already been settled.

  "General Wang, this is the mortar and hand grenade you were talking about," said Ye Zuweng, now very polite to Wang Zhenyu, always addressing him as "General".

  Wang Zhenyu narrowed his eyes and took a glance at the several open boxes, just one glance was enough to confirm that they were indeed the mortar and wooden-handled grenades he had been thinking about for a long time.

  Since Wang Zhenyu got the expansion order, he started to worry about military supplies. The war in this era is not just a matter of playing with guns and swords, in the past decade, the world's military has undergone earth-shaking changes. Japan was able to defeat China because it relied on more brutal and fierce firepower, rather than any "martial arts" or "spiritual power".

  Weapons are a key factor in winning or losing wars, and this view is truly in line with dialectical materialism.

  But people have to face reality, in this era, even if Wang Zhenyu has money, he may not be able to get heavy artillery. Even if he's lucky enough to get it, there won't be anyone who knows how to use it anyway.

  What's even more tragic is that Wang Zhenyu has no territory and no munitions factory. Even if he overcomes all the difficulties and hires a foreign instructor to train those rascals, it won't be of much use. The expensive cannonballs alone have doomed Wang Zhenyu's dream of having big guns, which can only be secretly indulged in during quiet nights.

  However, infantry fighting without artillery support, relying solely on the power of the spirit to defeat an enemy with an absolute numerical advantage, is completely inhumane. Unless the other side are all pigs, and this side happens to be steel warriors suitable for butchering.

  Due to the reasons of later generations, Wang Zhenyu is somewhat sensitive. Therefore, strengthening the firepower of this department is the only way to significantly improve the combat effectiveness of the troops during this period.

  Don't underestimate the mortar and wooden-handled grenade in front of you. These two small things first appeared during the Russo-Japanese War in 1905, when Japan used its superior military strength to attack the Russian-held Lushun (Port Arthur). When they couldn't break through, they dug trenches and advanced, but this tactic was blocked by the Russians using these two weapons. The invincible Japanese Imperial Army suffered tens of thousands of casualties and spent a lot of time and resources before finally taking Lushun. Although Japan won the war in the end, apart from gaining benefits for China (the Qing government was lovely), they didn't even see any war reparations. Later, Japan also owed a huge debt to Britain, making this a completely Pyrrhic victory. The outcome of this miserable victory is largely attributed to Nogi Maresuke, who is known as the "God of War". He can be considered a true friend of the Chinese people. It was because he didn't know how to adapt his tactics and only emphasized the bravery of warriors that Japan paid a huge price for this war. The benefits of the war were far from making up for the losses, not to mention the countless widows and orphans left behind. Japan's national strength also declined as a result, and its invasion of China naturally slowed down.

  In practical terms, the significance of the 1905 Russo-Japanese War is comparable to Beijing hosting the Olympics - its spiritual significance outweighs its actual significance. As for Chiang Kai-shek, who claims to be a military god, based on this war, he has come up with an epic view that what Japan does not deserve our study is their army, which we have already exposed and will not discuss here. (From this perspective, both Russia and Japan are winners of this war, the only loser being China, which did not participate in the war. The Qing dynasty's princes' governance skills were truly first-rate.)