The imperial court thought that Li Hongzhang had a lot of armaments in his hands, but in fact, the embezzlement of military funds was from top to bottom, layer by layer, and there was a long tradition, so the lack of ammunition of the Qing army really could not be completely blamed on Cixi's head, Cixi thought that the soldiers under Cixi had enough food, Cixi thought that there were 100,000 troops, but in fact, it was 50,000, Cixi thought that there were 50,000 troops, and it was likely that there were not even 25,000, which is easy to understand a lot of absurd things.President Meng was too lazy to explain to Xuan Zonglu, and after a few words of comfort, he said goodbye to Xuan Zonglu and immediately drove to Benxi.President Meng's war can be regarded as the first real war in Chinese history that combines infantry and artillery, although it is the first time, but there is the chief of the army of Albert Kirchbach, who participated in the Franco-Prussian War, and Rob Cris, an American officer who participated in the Civil War.Although the three hundred Krupp howitzers of the artillery brigade cannot reach the power of modern warfare, in this era, it is definitely the existence of the ruling level, plus there is time to build artillery positions and infantry positions in advance, as well as grenades, President Meng is confident in holding Benxi City.The setting of artillery positions depends on the situation, and not all of them like to be placed on high ground, and the role of high ground is not mainly to stand high and shoot far.The general high ground is less than a few hundred meters higher, and the extra firing range of a few hundred meters is nothing for a gun of more than ten kilometers.It is easy for infantry to climb the mountain, but it is very difficult to drag a few tons of artillery up the mountain, except for light artillery such as mortars and mountain artillery.Other howitzer cannons are generally not sent to the mountains with great effort.The advantage of going up the hill is that it can improve the shooting range, but there are very few times when this factor comes into play.More often than not, the purpose of going up the mountain is to use the anti-slope of the mountain to arrange artillery positions to prevent enemy shelling.When you're on the back side of a mountain, enemy rocket launchers and cannons with low stretches will have a hard time reaching the back of the mountain.In fact, in combat, large artillery cannot go up the mountain, and positions are arranged at the foot of the mountain.Chief of the General Staff Robccles and Grand Albert Kirchbach helped President Moe choose the artillery positions, and Chief of the General Staff Robccles personally directed the artillery.President Meng's artillery, strictly speaking, there is no one, that is, it is supported, 300 guns, and there are more than 60 foreign instructors.Moreover, many of these more than 60 foreign instructors are ordinary soldiers, who just came to Danzhou and became instructors, and in this era, excellent artillery commanders are very scarce.President Meng stayed in the artillery position for two more days, systematically listened to many views of the two, and he was also constantly learning, President Meng originally wanted to go to Germany to learn for a while, but later changed this idea, felt that it was not necessary, and bought more talents by himself, and it was the same to learn at home.Moreover, many people can't buy it, they have to train themselves, and in the process of training, aren't they also making progress The second regiment is mainly responsible for the task of response, and the first regiment is the guard of President Meng, and there will be more tests.The task of defending Benxi also fell mainly on the head of the 1st Regiment.While actively preparing for the fortifications, the troops also had to train intensively, which was also strange enough, an army composed entirely of thermally armed recruits.Although the training method of the Huai Army is outdated, it is not suitable for the requirements of hot weapon combat, but the combat effectiveness of the Huai Army is indeed very strong, after fighting the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Twist Army, it has basically not stopped for more than ten years, and they are all veterans who can fight well.The explosion radius of the grenade is about 25 meters, so the troops need to be more than 30 meters, otherwise they will blow themselves up.Bomb throwing training, as well as foot drill training has not stopped, the German training is huge and detail-oriented, starting from the soldier sitting, standing, walking, 106112 steps per minute, 110116 steps per minute, 170,180 steps per minute, and the stride length is also required, can be accurate to the centimeter, anyway, it is the so-called science.Hey.The recruit period is mainly to adjust the training items include individual soldier queue movements, three steps training, squad, company queue training, salute and other subjects individual soldier tactical actions include, lying down, crawling forward low posture, side low posture, high posture, side high posture, leaping, rolling into other physical training including, five kilometers, 100 meters or 50 meters sprint, equipment exercises single, parallel bars, push-ups, sit-ups, end abdomen and other physical training including, one to three sets of military physical boxing, shovel techniques, stick techniques, dagger exercises, freehand exercises, etc., These subjects are also different according to the different troops, and there is also a 400-meter hurdle, but this recruit is also divided into troops.Some practice and some don't practice, emergency assembly and tidying up housekeeping or something, basically not a recruit, the main stage is to develop a soldier's habit for you, usually the main thing is to fold quilts and tofu blocks to tidy up internal affairs, learn regulations, political education.After 3 months, the troops began to evaluate and select people, and then they entered the regular stage, and the infantry practiced assassination, shooting, bomb throwing, blasting, and earthmoving operations.Benxi has almost become a big training ground.Zhao Qingluo also dispatched a propaganda team to help with the propaganda, mainly to the mountain people along the way, as well as to the residents in the towns around Benxi and Caohekou, so that everyone gradually relaxed their vigilance against this army wearing all foreign clothes.The propaganda work was supposed to be solved by the army itself, but President Moe's army was small in number, coupled with the heavy task of training, and digging trenches.Benxi is in full swing of preparations, but the entire court of the Great Qing Kingdom is in a state of panic, in a tense discussion, from top to bottom.Li Hongzhang was urgently transferred to the Beijing Division to participate in the discussion of the Military Aircraft Department.Li Hongzhang himself is also the Minister of Military Aircraft.Li Hongzao and Li Hongzhang are not having a good time, these two brothers whose names are only one word apart, in fact, they have nothing to do with each other, and because of political disagreements, they are still opponents, and they have no personal relationship at all.Because Xuan Yuemeng was sponsored by Li Hongzhang at the beginning, and later became Li Hongzao's disciple, and lived in the Forbidden City for half a year, he can also be regarded as the adopted son of the Queen Mother of the Two Palaces, and Emperor Tongzhi also gave him the background of lifting people.Now it seems that it has become a big joke, this time, it is not only the face of the queen mother and the emperor of the two palaces, but also the face of these two scholars.The court talked about it in private, and this matter not only gave the Qing court a huge force oppression, but also gave face oppression.t1706231537: