The river fortress in the past few days has been shrouded in a tense atmosphere. After the red and green flags advanced eastward, the news of fighting with the barbarians intermittently came back. It was at this time that they learned that the said strong barbarian tribe in the east was called the Kama Tribe. However, whether it was the Kama Tribe or the Maka Tribe, for the people on the east coast, they were just a barbarian tribe, and they were still preparing for the pre-war preparations at their own pace.

In mid-February, the 104th Company of the Army was mobilized and carried out arduous training near Hezhong Fort. After the war, this reserve force, which was not satisfactory in the last east movement, carried out a large amount of physical fitness, queue and shooting training regularly under the leadership of company commander Xiao Baitu, and continued until this year. After this purge, the mental outlook and technical and tactical level of the 104th Company have improved considerably. Although it is not as good as the main standing company, it is not comparable to that of the year.

The 104th Company was training, and the other two local troops in South Africa - the South African Cavalry Company and the South African Field Artillery Company - could not leave. The company commander of the South African Cavalry Company was Leonid, a veteran cavalry officer. This once rebellious Cossack rider seemed to have been smoothed out after many years of collision and rubbing in the East Coast army. Now he is a middle-aged officer with a frosty face. The female traveler who he once pursued back then, Li Xiaowei, finally married a traveler under the intentional or unintentional advice of the Executive Committee. In disappointment, Leonid finally married a lady from the Rodriguez family under the introduction of his old superior Xu Yu.

After getting married, Leonid focused on military training. When he was in the local area, the cavalry units under his command were always the first in every confrontation training, which made Xu Yu very impressed. A few years ago, after the knife-holding incident in the Executive Committee building. Leonid, who was sent to South Africa, continued to take charge of the newly formed South African cavalry company under the care of Mo Ming, a comrade of the National Power Tongmenghui. The cavalry unit, which was centered on Shaanxi bandits, was in Leonid.

Under the training of Germany, it has now become one of the most important armed forces in the Hezhongbao area. Whether it is tracking, hunting barbarian tribes, reconnaissing enemy intelligence, or attacking enemy formations that are about to collapse, the South African cavalry company has shown above-level qualities. At the end of February, the South African cavalry company, which has expanded to 110 cavalry, went to the east under the orders of Liu Ang, who was left behind, to attack the scouts of the Kama tribe, and to train in battle.

The South African Field Artillery Company is also a technical branch of key construction in the Hezhongbao area recently. Currently, it has two six-pound cannons, two eight-pound cannons and one twelve-pound cannons, and 45 formal artillery personnel, all of which are experienced gunners who have been rigorously trained for many years. Originally, according to the East Coast military system, each field artillery company had only four artillery pieces, but since the South African Field Artillery Company was a local army, the military system was not sound, Mo Ming later asked the South African Artillery Company to come from the local area to serve as the treasure of the South African Field Artillery Company's capital.

The South African Field Artillery Company, which has five artillery guns, is currently conducting various trainings in the shooting range in the eastern suburbs of the city. Together with them, there are South African engineering battalions and baggage battalions composed of some militias and Eight Banners. It is worth mentioning that both units have no military status and do not even have unified temporary troops. Unlike the South African Cavalry Company and Field Artillery Company, although these two units are local troops, the soldiers are all professional soldiers.

The local finance department of Hezhongbao paid their wages in real terms. These two so-called engineering battalions and supplies battalions were actually just local militia armed forces, because the war was temporarily formed. The establishment was abolished after the battle, and the wages were naturally very small than those of the regular army. The South African garrison headquarters prepared tools (engineers shovels, shovels, pickaxes, etc.), a small amount of weapons, rations and pickles. They came to report for training to provide logistical support for the soldiers on the frontline to fight.

During the training period, each soldier only had a salary ranging from 1-2 yuan per month, and the officers and non-commissioned officers were slightly higher. In addition to a small number of officers and non-commissioned officers, most of the soldiers were South African indigenous people from the Eight Banners. These free people were unable to join the samurai class for one reason or another, so their daily lives were very unsatisfactory and their lives were tight. When the war came, Mo Ming made a big move and selected more than 300 strong and physically strong people from these people to join the newly established South African engineering camp, and then selected more than 600 people to join the South African baggage battalion responsible for the logistics transportation of the war.

Since the East Coast Army has greatly exceeded the firepower output density of contemporary Europe, the corresponding pressure on logistics has become increasingly greater. Moreover, with the large-scale installation of artillery, this demand for road traffic is becoming increasingly high. Therefore, it is imperative to form a special engineering force and a baggage force, which is also the reason why the Army insists on retaining the engineering force and baggage force in the previous major disarmament.

With intense training all over the Hezhong Fort, days passed day by day. On May 5, Mo Ming, the new highest commander of the South African War Zone, the captain of the South African Development Team, and the commander of the South African security commander, returned to Hezhong Port on a troop transport ship. He came with him the elite Army Company 1st Company recently transferred to the South African garrison army and an artillery company (1st Company of Independent Field Artillery, four artillery pieces) assigned to the army command. As for the 103rd Company of the Army, he arrived at Hezhong Port around mid-May.

The 1st Infantry Company of the Army, with Chang Kaisheng as the company commander, is known as the first company of the entire army, and has been stationed in the capital area for a long time. It is well-equipped, well-trained, and is also a special Dalian team. The so-called Dalian team is a new team currently being studied by the Army Department. Because many grassroots officers responded that the current 16 people in each platoon (1 platoon leader and 15 soldiers) seems to have a little weak firepower in the queue volley. Therefore, the Army Department used the 1st Company as a pilot and changed the number of people per platoon to 21 people (1 platoon leader and 20 soldiers). In addition, some expanded personnel such as gunsmiths, kids, military doctors, messengers, flag bearers, etc., the scale of the 1st Company of the Army has reached 240 people unprecedentedly, far exceeding the 180 people of ordinary companies.

In addition to the large-scale organization, the 1st Company of the Army was also the first company in the entire army to be equipped with a 32-C flintlock rifle. Unlike the currently large-scale 32-B rifle, the original position of the 32-C rifle was equipped with a fixed bayonet at the bottom of the barrel of the 32-C rifle, which was originally equipped with a fixed bayonet, where a special steel bayonet could be fixed. As for the position of the release of the bar, it was moved to the side of the barrel. After the 32-C flintlock rifle was equipped with a newly established 41-year steel bayonet, the total length reached a terrifying 1.75 meters, which means that when fighting at close range, the soldiers finally stopped throwing away the rifle and pulling out the saber and humans at their waists to fight. They could take the bayonet out of the sheath, use the hollow shank of the bayonet with internal threads to fix it with the threaded and raised bayonet, and then they could fight with the enemy.

In order to facilitate loading, the bayonet is removed and placed in the sheath at the waist. At this time, it can be used as a dagger. When the officers ordered the bayonet to fight hand-to-hand combat, the soldiers took out the bayonet and fixed it. In this way, the musket soldiers also had the ability to fight hand-to-hand combat. The bayonet assembly is still due to the increasing machine tool processing accuracy of the local No. 1 Machinery Factory. Most of the bayonet hollow shanks they processed can match the bayonets, and the pass rate even exceeded 75% under the processing of the master with superb skills.

After the 1st Company arrived at Hezhong Fort, the 2nd Company, which had been ready to go, immediately escorted a group of baggage troops on a small boat to the castle construction site in the upper reaches of the Berg River. In this area named Gouda, all the red and green flags, all the South African cavalry companies, and all the Eight Banners artillery (four artillery). At present, only scouts or small troops appeared here, surveillance and harassement of the construction progress of the construction site while placing on intelligence.

However, their efforts were destined to be futile. First, a few months ago, a moat had been dug in the Gundam Fort, and the river was introduced from the Berg River next to it. Three wire mesh was drawn on the river bank inside the moat, and a large number of Eight Banners warriors were stationed in it. These indigenous troops were stunned when they saw this well-defended position and could not get out of the way. Instead, they were accidentally attacked by the South African cavalry company, causing considerable losses.

The city wall is being built in full swing. The red and green flags have nearly 3,000 men, women, young and old. At present, only a small part of them have been completed roughly. It will take another year and a half to complete it. However, the barbarians on the opposite side will obviously not give them this time. According to the recent situation, the war may be completely launched after the autumn harvest.

The building materials needed for the Gundamburg construction site and all kinds of materials needed for people's lives are transported from the downstream by small wooden boats. The supply line of more than 200 kilometers long is not easy to use if there are no good road facilities, even if the route is flat grassland, it is unbearable to transport it by large freight carriages. Therefore, water transportation is the best shortcut. Not only is the transportation volume large, but the key is that it is also relatively safe. After all, with river barriers, it is not so easy for the enemy to attack the transport fleet on the east coast.
Chapter completed!