As early as when the Victory Harbor military training base was built, the military department adopted a large number of orphans in addition to recruiting and training militias, and formed the Scout Camp, a paramilitary organization for schoolchildren.

Unlike the regular militia army, the cadets in the Scout camp are more dependent on and loyal to Haihan. For these children who have no roots and no family, they can only survive in this social system by identifying with and defending their Haihan origin from the bottom of their hearts. And the difficulty of brainwashing these half-grown children is much easier than that of adults. Although they don't understand what the goals of the executive committee are, it's clear who feeds them and clothes them, and who they should fight for.

The executive committee also attaches great importance to the boy scout camp, and in Tao Donglai's words, these children will probably grow into the backbone of the Haihan army after ten or twenty years. Compared with the militia soldiers, who have already reached adulthood when they join the army, the children who have grown up little by little from the Scout camp will have a stronger mind, and their reliability is far from being comparable to that of ordinary militia members. Therefore, the military also allocates the best training resources to the Scout camps as much as possible, and takes the military qualities required of officers as their training goals. While ordinary militiamen were still being trained in all kinds of basic tactics, older children in the Scout camps were already exposed to military skills that only military commanders could master, such as marching, camping, arming, and baggage.

However, in order to stand out from the military environment that emphasizes seniority, it is not enough to rely on background and training level, but the most important thing is actual combat experience and good combat achievements. Most of the people with a little longer seniority in the Haihan militia have one or several military merit medals or seniority medals, and this is also the main basis for ordinary militia soldiers to be promoted in the army. No matter how good the background of the Scout camp is, no matter how high the education level is, it is difficult to gain a foothold in the army without the qualifications of front-line combat. Therefore, in this military operation to unify the northern Qiongbei region, the military selected more than 30 older cadets from the boy scout camp to follow the troops to the front line to experience the atmosphere of the battlefield.

Of course, these young cadets did not take on actual combat missions, and the purpose of their assignments to Qiongbei was to experience life in the field, and at the same time to observe how the regular army completed various combat plans during the combat period, and how the command system in the army operated.

Although the process of the militia occupying the northern Qiongbei area was also regarded as a military operation, there was no actual fighting during the period, and the Annan militia army performed a double reed of the enemy's retreat and our advance, and easily took the main city in northern Qiongbei. However, although there was no battle, the thousands of troops, including the navy and the army, were still fulfilling their combat missions in strict accordance with the requirements of wartime. No one, whether it was a high-ranking officer who knew the inside story or an unknown rank-and-file soldier, took this seemingly easy task lightly, because the Executive Committee and the Military Commission had repeatedly stressed before the start of the operation that the military occupation was only the beginning of Haihan's direct rule over Qiongbei.

If the Executive Committee wants to promote the Haihan system on a large scale in northern Qiongnan, it will inevitably encounter much greater resistance than in the base area of southern Qiongnan, where the population density is greater and social wealth and resources are relatively more concentrated. If we want to popularize the Haihan system in this region, especially the public ownership of land, it will inevitably affect a considerable number of vested interests, and there will certainly be some bold and reckless fellows among them, who will jump out and openly oppose the Haihan, and even adopt the means of armed confrontation to resist the implementation of the new policy.

The situation in Chengmai County is an example of this situation. Although the land system of Haihan has not yet begun to be officially promoted in northern Qiongbei, there are already landlords who have received rumors that are ready to resist Haihan's "invasion". After learning that Zhuangzi had begun an armed confrontation on the side of Chengmai County, the headquarters immediately dispatched three companies of troops to suppress it, and sent more than a dozen cadets from the Scout Battalion to let Yu Tiezhu, an "old qualification", give them a field command lesson.

"I'm sure you've all learned the tactics of using range advantage to suppress the enemy's firepower in the training camp, so I'm going to test you now!" Yu Tiezhu put his hands behind his back, looked at the team of young soldiers in front of him and said, "According to the combat process you have learned, how should you command next?"

Someone immediately replied: "Report to the sir, after successfully suppressing the enemy, send infantry to climb the city walls, or send sappers to blow up the city gates, so as to seize the passage into the city." ”

Yu Tiezhu nodded and said, "What you said is true, but you can't completely copy what is written when you fight." When I first joined the militia regiment, the instructors taught us that the battlefield is changing rapidly, and we must keep a clear head and make timely judgments and corresponding tactical adjustments to the battle situation. Is there anything else else you'd like to say?"

"Report to the sir, just keep the artillery bombardment at the moment, blast a gap for a while, and then the infantry will line up with guns and gradually advance. In case of resistance, you can open the way with artillery fire, which should be able to break through its defenses. Another student boldly raised his hand and said.

Yu Tiezhu cast an approving gaze: "That's right, although our combat method is to practice siege warfare, the actual situation in this place will still be quite different from siege warfare. Since we have a strong superiority in firepower, we should make the most of this superiority in the course of the battle! I have heard the chief recite two lines of a poem before, the cannon is fired at his mother, and Weijia Hainexi returns to his hometown. As long as our artillery bombards, nothing will be able to organize the advance of the militia army!"

As Tiezhu spoke, several cannons that kept bombarding really knocked down the wall of Zhuangzi about three zhang long. After a brief lull, about 100 infantrymen, armed with rifles, marched on foot in neat horizontal formations towards the gap.

About twenty feet from the breach, the army fired a round of gunfire in a row, knocked out several diehards who appeared at the breach, and then continued to move forward and occupy the passage that had been carved out by artillery fire.

It wasn't until the large army took control of the place and began to clean up the site that they found that the artillery fire just now and the platoon of guns also killed and injured about 40 resisters, and there seemed to be a few people under the wall that was collapsed by the artillery fire, but after being buried for a long time, they were probably all hopeless.

After the militia army entered Zhuangzi, they quickly captured more than ten culprits. However, given the image of the people's voice, the Military Commission has ordered as few post-war direct executions as possible, so there is probably still a chance for these people to continue to live and use their spare energy in a mine somewhere. Considering the shadow that this kind of law and order war would leave on the hearts of the local people, the residents of this village were bound to be dismissed after the war and dispersed to other states and counties or even overseas to settle down.

When the militia soldiers pressed the dejected captives out of the village and headed for the county seat, Yu Tiezhu specially brought the cadets of the child soldier battalion to watch by the roadside, and paid attention to the expressions on their faces. For individual students whose eyes and expressions were obviously unbearable, Yu Tiezhu secretly wrote it down, no matter how loyal this kind of soft-hearted person is, he is not suitable for commanding operations on the front line.

These first-time trainees are only now realizing the cruelty of war, but the mercy of the enemy on the battlefield is the cruelty of their own side, not to mention that in many cases, the commander must send his men and horses to the front of the battle to sacrifice, without a heart of stone, it will be difficult to complete the cruel combat mission. In the comprehensive evaluation of these cadets, this consideration has also been added, and those cadets who are not suitable for operational command will probably change the direction of their training in the future and develop towards logistics or technical services.

Similar to this kind of public security war, until the beginning of Haihan's occupation of Qiongbei, has been intermittent and uninterrupted. Although the militia is not afraid of these local small-scale forces, it is quite a headache to keep swatting the buzzing mosquitoes. Fortunately, the Li and Miao tribes in northern Qiongbei did not participate in the dispute between the Haihan and the Ming Dynasty, but remained a cold observer.

Of course, this is also one of the results of the efforts of the relevant departments before the war, and the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the Ministry of Security have sent many naturalized people from Li Miao to work in Li Miao Cottage in northern Qiongbei. Although this kind of visit will not immediately draw these cottagers to the side of the Haihan, it can at least keep them neutral and not rush to get involved in this conflict of interest.

Of course, the Haihan also gave these neutrals certain benefits, such as cheap salt, ironware, medicinal herbs, and long-term trade agreements. Even if these mountain people were unwilling to take refuge in the Haihan, they could at least obtain better external conditions than during the reign of the Ming Dynasty.

These ethnic policies are all mature models that have been tested in practice in southern Qiongnan and central Qiongzhong, and they are equally easy to apply to the Limiao cottage in northern Qiongbei. Although the enlightenment of these mountain people is limited, who has more benefits to follow, the mountain people can still use their simple values to draw correct conclusions.

After completing this combat mission, which took two hours and 30 minutes, Yu Tiezhu returned to Chengmai County with the group of students. After settling down with the group, Yu Tiezhu had to spend the same amount of time writing today's action report and giving his own conclusions about the students' expressions.

Of course, due to the limited number of literate words, Yu Tiezhu's action report will not be long-winded, and its standard format is roughly as follows.

On a certain day, a certain unit of the militia was ordered to attack a village in Chengmai County, opened the road with artillery, advanced with infantry, and captured the village at a certain time on the same day, killing xx enemies and capturing xx, and our army's casualties were lightly wounded x people, seriously wounded x people, and no casualties.

As for the students' tables, it is even simpler, the superior has sent him a prepared form, which has already marked the name of each student and the matters that need him to score, such as concentration, decision-making, action, etc., as long as the score is marked with a ten-point system under each item. If there is any additional content that needs to be expressed, it will be attached separately.

After Yu Tiezhu filled out the form, he put it in an envelope and sealed it, signed his name on the outside of the envelope, and then called the orderly and asked him to send the letter to the battalion headquarters along with the combat report. The scoring reports from the grassroots officers will be summarized at the battalion headquarters, and then sent to the Qiongbei command center in Fucheng, where Yan Chujie will personally look at them.

At this time, Yan Chujie was in the lobby of the Qiongzhou Mansion, according to the habits of the military, this place has been converted into a command center, in the middle of the lobby is the sand table in the north of Qiongzhou that has just been completed, and there are several officers from the staff standing next to it, who are planting small flags of different colors into the sand table.

The small blue flags represent areas that have been completely controlled by the Haihan, such as the main cities in northern Qiongbei. The areas of the small yellow flag represent the areas that have been occupied but not actually controlled, and such places are actually in the majority, because the vast areas outside of a few cities almost all fit this definition. The small red flag represents the area where the militia is currently carrying out combat missions, and although there are not too many such places, there are still four or five places on the entire sand table.

Next to the wall, there are three radio stations, which are the communication channels between the command center and the garrisons of other states and counties. It is precisely this kind of communication that the General Staff is constantly adjusting the small flags on the sand table according to the actual situation. For example, the results of the battle that Yu Tiezhu had just participated in had now been transmitted here via the Guò radio, and the officers who got the news immediately replaced the small red flag of the local area with a small blue flag for security.

The command center here does not command specific battles, but mainly plays the role of issuing orders, summarizing information, and maintaining communication between superiors and subordinates. And Yan Chujie's focus is indeed not on the current sporadic security war, but more on the news blockade in the coastal areas of northern Qiongbei.

Although the means of disseminating news in this era were still very primitive and the speed of transmission was also very slow, the matter of Haihan replacing the Ming Dynasty on Qiongzhou Island would sooner or later spread to the mainland through the mouths of merchants and ordinary people. Haihan made a lot of foreshadowing for this, and even did not hesitate to spend money to borrow troops from Annan to act, find a reasonable excuse to send troops to Qiongbei, and replace the rule of the Ming Dynasty, can only be temporarily used in the name of assisting the government, but it is difficult to find a long-term available excuse.

All the Haihan military can do now is to block the sea lanes and delay the revelation as much as possible, so as to give other departments more time to implement their rule over the northern Qiongbei region.

The text placed in front of Yan Chujie is a report from the navy to apply for additional supplies, which says that in order to complete the task of blockading the Qiongzhou Strait, the navy needs to apply for another 1,000 tons of refined coal for two hybrid warships, as well as a team of engineers who can complete the surveying, mapping and design tasks of the Haikou military port, so as to be able to complete the construction of the military port wharf.

"Changing tricks, asking for money and people!" Yan Chujie could only smile bitterly when he looked at the report.