When David held the pre-war preparation meeting, Huang Gang, a recruit in the Medan boot camp, was maintaining his weapons according to the instructor's instructions.

Huang Gang had just received a brand-new Lee Enfield the day before yesterday, which was a standard Lee Enfield produced by the Nyasaland Military Industrial Group, with a gun length of 1,130 mm, a caliber of 0.303 inches, a magazine capacity of 10 rounds, and a magazine partition like the export model exported by the United Kingdom.

This magazine divider has been abolished in southern Africa, but it is still used in Britain, and this batch of rifles was supposed to be sold to the Ottoman Empire, and at the strong request of the Ottoman Empire, the Nyasaland military industrial complex also equipped it with magazine partitions.

The Ottoman Empire's reason for requiring the use of magazine partitions is very simple, and like the British War Department, the Ottoman Empire also believes that the magazine of ten rounds is too much, which will cause a lot of unnecessary consumption and bring more pressure to logistics, so it is necessary to use magazine partitions to turn the original magazine of ten rounds into a single-shot rifle.

The first lesson for all recruits to get their weapons is how to maintain them, and the Medan troops have inherited the tradition of the Southern African Army, which is to take care of their weapons as if they were their own eyes, regardless of whether there is live firing on the day, and the instructors of the training camp will personally check the maintenance.

Perhaps because he was going to fight tomorrow, the recruits around Huang Gang were silently sorting out their equipment, and no one spoke.

After maintaining the rifle as required by the instructor, Huang Gang put the rifle on his bed with the scabbard containing the bayonet, and then began to arrange his clothes.

There are three sets of clothes and two pairs of shoes, two sets of training uniforms, one set of regular clothes, and both pairs of shoes are boots that can cover the ankles.

According to the instructor's requirements, when the troops participated in the war, they should bring two sets of training uniforms and shoes, leaving only one set of regular uniforms, Huang Gang was going to go to the instructor for leave after a while, if he could, Huang Gang wanted to send this set of regular clothes home to his youngest brother.

Before joining the Medan Army, Huang Gang was a worker at the Lingzhi Plantation, with his grandmother's parents, three younger brothers and two younger sisters.

Huang Gang and his two younger brothers were conscripted into the army, and only the youngest brother was at home.

After the regular clothes were sent out, Huang Gang only tried it once, and then folded it neatly, originally planning to send it home.

"Stand upright!" The squad leader's command came from the door, and the recruits all put down their work and stood up, no matter what they were doing.

Walking into the tent was instructor John, who also took a recorder with him.

"Tomorrow we are going to leave, according to the custom we have to leave a suicide note, the suicide note is a letter to our family - relax gentlemen, leaving a suicide note does not mean that we are going to die, but in order to let you leave no regrets, if we unfortunately die in battle, rest assured, the pension will let our family bury us happily." John's words did not make the recruits relaxed, and the atmosphere became more solemn.

"Sir, if we die in battle, how much pension will our family get?" A recruit dared to ask.

"What is your current monthly salary?" John asked rhetorically.

"A pound." The recruits are quick to respond, and they have all just received a paycheck.

Like all colonial governments in the world, in order to make it easier to plunder the East Indies, the Dutch colonial government used the guilders issued by the colonial government itself in the East Indies, which were different from the guilders used by the Dutch mainland, so the Medan troops were paid in sterling sterlings.

"The pension is your salary for two years, so it's about £24." John sat down on the only chair in the tent, a pension that should satisfy the vast majority of people.

"24 pounds?"

"Are there really that many?"

"I won't give it—"

The recruits finally broke the silence and expressed their surprise at this number.

There is nothing surprising that human life is worth this price, let alone 24 pounds, for the sake of a few pennies, there are people who take risks to kill people and goods.

"There is no doubt that if one of you dies in battle, his family will definitely get the money." John emphasized that the pension is very useful, not only as a comfort to the families of the soldiers who died in the war, but also as an encouragement to other soldiers, so it is impossible not to give it.

Even the East Indian Servants had a pension system, but it may not be strictly enforced.

The Medan forces certainly did not have this problem, unless Roque was to abandon the East Indies.

"You don't have to worry, we won't go directly to the battlefield this time, but to feel the atmosphere of the battlefield in advance, which is the saying "see blood" John didn't know enough about the situation, and many recruits were a little embarrassed when he said "see blood".

Don't forget that it was now 1910, and it was still the East Indies where there were frequent conflicts between tribes, and these recruits in the Medan army were probably on the battlefield for the first time, but if you want to talk about blood-

Many of them may have seen blood before John.

The people of this era are not flowers in the greenhouse, even the nobles are not the legendary four bodies are not diligent and do not distinguish between grains, on the contrary, many nobles have received elite education since childhood, and their ability and vision must be extraordinary.

"-Maybe you can make a small fortune, our most dangerous task is estimated to be to clean up the battlefield, when the time comes, if you pick up something, remember to hand it in, it will be distributed uniformly after the war, all the combatants are rewarded according to the danger of the task, and the size of the contribution, if you pick up something and don't hand it in, be careful that a grumpy mercenary will give you a shot." There's a lot more John would like to remind you of, and the umbrella company has strict rules in this regard.

Cleaning the battlefield is actually not easy, anything can happen on the battlefield, pretending to be dead is not nothing, but in the end it is difficult to escape, after all, when cleaning the battlefield, it is necessary to make up knives or guns.

After mending knives and guns, it is necessary to clean up the corpse, and it is still very necessary to take off the clothes from the blood-stained corpse, not to mention the operation of priing open the mouth to see if there are gold teeth.

Therefore, in the umbrella company, only African-American employees can do this job, which is the conclusion reached after many practices, there will always be omissions in the battlefield cleaned by white mercenaries or Chinese mercenaries, and only the battlefield cleaned by African-American mercenaries is the cleanest.

"Sir, I'd like to take a leave of absence to go home." Huang Gang finally found an opportunity to take a leave of absence.

"What are you doing home?" John did not directly refuse.

"I want to give my outfit to my brother, and if I die in battle, then I won't need it either." Huang Gang was very calm when he said this, and he didn't feel much sadness.

People in this era, the psychological quality is surprisingly good, life and death are commonplace, Huang Gang should have had two brothers and one sister, unfortunately they all died.

"You can come back alive is the best gift you can give your brother, this is why we have to leave a suicide note before every war, we have to write down all the words we want to say to our family, so that we can go to the battlefield without worry, don't cry and mourn your face, the bullets on the battlefield have eyes, the most timid and cowardly person must die first, if someone escapes, then don't need the enemy to shoot, I will kill him first!" John was not polite when he should be ruthless, and it was also common to escape from the battle, so the troops would always emphasize it.

This is also something that can't be helped, mercenaries have no faith, professional soldiers in southern Africa can also say that they are fighting for the country and for their families, and mercenaries participate in battles for money, many mercenaries are lonely, they don't even have their families, they die when they die, and they don't even have corpses.

Therefore, it is okay for mercenaries to fight with the wind, but once the occupation is unfavorable, few mercenaries can hold out to the end.

Of course, so far, the Umbrella Company has not faced a situation where it needs to fight until the last moment, and Bandar is a battle belonging to the Medan troops.

"You don't have to worry, the suicide note I left behind is already a big stack, and now I'm still alive and well, don't worry about my personal belongings, sort out my personal belongings and hand them over to the administrator before leaving, and then leave an address, and then go to the administrator to get them back after the battle, and the unclaimed items, the administrator will send them according to the address." John showed up to say that he tried to dispel the recruits' doubts.

"Okay gentlemen, now tell me what you want to say to your family, one by one—" The recorder stepped forward at the right time, and the recruits immediately gathered around.

"Huang, for the sake of your family, fight hard, even if you fight to the last moment, don't flinch, let alone run away, if you escape, you will be shot, and the family has no benefits, no honor, no pension, and relatives will not be taken care of, those deserters on the battlefield will eventually become a shame for the family." John stopped Huang Gang, a little worried about Huang Gang's state.

"Rest assured, sir, I will never be a disgrace to the family." Huang Gang is firm, if he is white, he will be ashamed, and he will be alive.

Compared with white people, Chinese people attach more importance to family honor, and if they do something degrading to their families, they will not have the face to meet their ancestors after they die.

On June 3, the mercenaries of the Umbrella Company and the Medan troops set out from the port of Medan and Medan respectively and advanced towards Lake Toba.

And Lake Toba, a hundred and fifty kilometers away, was already boiling, and the 2nd East Indian Division burned and looted all the way, not seemingly realizing that Lake Toba was also part of the East Indies, and those on the shores of Lake Toba were also East Indians.

It is also because there are too many things to loot along the way, the team of the Second East India Division is now very bloated, and there are more than 2,000 carts of less than 10,000 troops, and each soldier is wrapped with all kinds of looted fabrics, and the flowers and ugliness are out of the sky.

It doesn't matter if it's good-looking or not, when it's time to fight, it may be able to save a life.

However, these old lessons may not be effective now.