There was no change in the lunch meal, just potatoes with big ribs. During the morning target practice, all participating militiamen fired at least ten rounds of bullets, and quite a few of them complained of sore shoulders.
Yang Mingzhi knew that good soldiers were all fed by bullets. Unfortunately, after the war began, the Soviet Union mobilized too many soldiers. Especially the militia composed of patriotic citizens urgently recruited from Minsk, some of whom had never even used a gun.
To train ordinary people into warriors, we have to practice slowly. However, this time there was a large training session for more than 200 people, and more than 2,000 rounds of ammunition were consumed in one go, which was really painful.
It seems that the issue of bullet reloading must be put on the agenda.
Star fruit gnawed on bread, and the aunts in Catfish Village also cooked several pots of beetroot soup. As for the children, they basically shared some fresh milk. Seeing that star fruit was eating happily, and she did not complain about feeling unwell, Yang Mingzhi was relieved.
.
Due to restrictions, the army currently has no indoor canteen at all. Soldiers can only eat outdoors, and only a few are willing to eat and drink in their respective residences. In this way, soldiers and officers are treated equally, and many people sit on the grass and drink soup.
Yevlov drank some wine, he walked a little unsteadily, and walked straight to Yang Mingzhi with a small piece of bread in his hand.
"Hell, as a teacher, maybe you shouldn't drink. I can already smell it on you."
"I just drank a little, and Bobosky brought out a bottle of good wine."
"Oh? There's also this matter. Did you leave some for me?"
Yevlov smiled innocently, "Why do you, a Chinese, still drink?"
Yang Mingzhi was too lazy to talk nonsense with him. His wife was still here. It was really sorry for Yang Tao to see a "drunkard".
Yevlov patted his face and woke up, pretending to be calm and asked: "I know about the young soldiers' target shooting training in the morning. Besika hit five. Others only hit one or more.
Two, and some even miss all."
"Yes, to make these children good soldiers, we can only invest more energy in training them."
Yevlov looked at Carambola. This girl is a good nurse, a decent surgeon, and her marksmanship is also decent. "There was another girl this morning, that Natasha. The report said that this person has the potential to be a sniper?"
"
"It's true. I'm always on target, and I'm very adaptable. I originally wanted to discuss it with you in the afternoon, but I didn't expect you to ask now."
Yevlov shrugged. He had been discussing food issues with the mayor of Catfish Village all morning.
Compared with training new soldiers, solving the food problem has become an extremely important thing. It takes at least sixty days from planting to harvesting potatoes. It is almost August. It is not as cold as in Moscow in Belarus, but winter still comes early. Puri
Piaj is a swamp, relatively close to the Black Sea, and the climate here is warmer.
Two months may be enough. In theory, you can have a stable harvest of potatoes before winter comes. This way, you can still have a large amount of food without having to deal with the food for the winter.
Once the food is abundant, we should continue to draw troops over, gather the surrounding civilians here, and turn the small village into a big village. "Under war conditions, small villages and small groups of guerrillas will be meaningless. We will turn the collective of the entire swamp into a big one."
When the farms are integrated into one, our combat effectiveness will be stronger." Basically, there is no objection to Yevlov's opinion, and the problem is only related to village liaison.
After dinner, Yevlov had to continue the meeting. He knew his abilities very well. In terms of administrative management, a martial artist was useless. Therefore, the status of the Cheka girl Yelentina was even more important. She did not care about the military, but she
Just take care of people's livelihood and politics.
Now that Yang Mingzhi does not supervise training in the afternoon, he is also pulled into the conference room.
Yang Mingzhi didn't know anything about the morning's issue, and he had some opinions after listening to it. In short, Yevlov and Yelentina had agreed on the same opinion. If they had no objections, they would support it. The rest of the matter was up to them.
Now, Yang Mingzhi puts a very practical problem before his eyes.
"Comrades, the target shooting training in the morning was almost the first time for our militiamen to actually operate rifles. In terms of the target shooting effect, the results were very poor."
Everyone nodded, and Yang Mingzhi noticed that the comrade who managed the arms warehouse was also present. He should know the current situation best.
"Nicholas, how many bullets did we consume in total this morning?"
"It's 2257 rounds of rifle ammunition, and your pistol, 13 rounds of pistol ammunition." Quartermaster Nikolay reported truthfully. At the same time, in accordance with Yang Mingzhi's request, he also reported the current total amount of ammunition. The Soviet-style rifle ammunition is about 10 rounds.
There are 10,000 rounds, including about 50,000 rounds for Soviet pistols, and the least number of anti-tank rifle rounds, only 502 rounds.
Compared with Soviet-style weapons, the captured German-made weapons had a larger amount of ammunition, with more than 500,000 rounds of rifle bullets. The huge amount of ammunition required a lot of effort to transport them into the swamp. Fortunately, those horse-drawn carriages
played a decisive role.
To this day, the trucks that originally transported the goods and the half-track armored vehicles that were used in the war are still dumped outside the swamp. Everyone still hopes to get these into the swamp. However, conditions do not allow it, so for the time being they can only be guarded by a group of soldiers.
After Quartermaster Nikolai finished his report, Yang Mingzhi looked at everyone. "Comrades, you all understand that we don't have much ammunition. We consumed two thousand rounds in just one training today. Before we get military assistance,
We must use it sparingly."
Yevlov was very aware of the limited ammunition. He shook his head helplessly: "Perhaps we can only put down the training for the time being, or use German-made weapons. Berekov, you can continue to train the young soldiers with Soviet-style weapons.
Already."
"Okay. I don't mean that training is not allowed. We can continue to farm when we are short of food. Just because we are short of ammunition does not mean that we cannot make it. Otherwise, why did I order the soldiers to collect bullet casings before?"
Yang Mingzhi said what he meant, reload the shells and re-make the bullets. This plan was refreshing. As a small leader of an arsenal, Yang Mingzhi thought after careful consideration that even in a situation like Catfish Village, it could still be done under simple conditions.
Reload bullets.
The village chief Bobosky thought this man's statement was very strange. "Berekov, are you sure that a fishing village like ours can produce arms like the factories in the city?" His question was also the question of most people, Yevlo
Her husband, Yelentina, responded with strong suspicion.
Yang Mingzhi cleared his throat and said, "I have been observing the village these days. Your blacksmith has quite a complete set of tools. I also went to the toilets of each house and found what I wanted. That's it.
, I think the conditions are ripe for reloading bullets.”
His words were simply incomprehensible.
The village chief was filled with questions, "Blacksmith? Toilet? What is the connection between these and the production of bullets? Do you expect the blacksmith Old Ivan to make them for you?"
Yang Mingzhi nodded confidently, and the old Ivan had a little chat with him. Rather than chatting, the man's various tools were the biggest gain from the visit.
The two talked about the issue of reloading bullets, and the guy directly claimed that he had indeed reloaded bullets during the Tsarist era, in order to save bullets for hunting and had no choice but to reuse waste.
Yang Mingzhi adjusted his glasses, as if he could see everything clearly.
"It would be great if old Ivan were here at this moment. He claimed that even if times have changed, cartridge cases are still cartridge cases. The standards for firearms set in the Tsarist era have not changed, and his previous skills can continue to be used. Therefore, the only one we have now
The problem is gunpowder. In short, we just lack something."
To reload bullets, the army included the chemist Ivanov who was involved in trench digging and fighting at that time. This middle-aged man survived the disaster and preparing black powder was his specialty.
Belarus is rich in minerals. There are hot springs in the swamps, so there is also sulfur. The most scarce thing is saltpeter. There are no saltpeter mines found so far, so we have to use a traditional and extreme method - find saltpeter in the toilet.
Speaking of this, some old men are still very familiar with it. In the wars of the last century, people lined up to shoot and bayonet in group fights. Tsarist Russia’s army and Napoleon’s army used a lot of their gunpowder prepared by primitive means. The British even claimed: good saltpeter
Look for it from the corner of the church (that's where believers go to the toilet).
Preparing gunpowder in this way may sound disgusting, but it is still a way to make gunpowder.
Yevlov frowned: "Listen, Berekov, your idea is very interesting, maybe it can be done. In fact, we can find another way to solve the arms problem. For example, crossing the Dnieper River, our army still belongs to the east of the river.
There is plenty of ammunition in the controlled area."
"No! We must be prepared for the worst, because we are bound to fail in the defense of Kiev. Pripet Swamp will become a safe island, and we must be self-reliant."
When she heard about the failure, Yelentina was extremely angry. She slammed the table angrily. "Berekov, pay attention to your wording. The Germans are now being stubbornly blocked by our army, and the war situation in Ukraine is not bad."
Yang Mingzhi frowned. This girl is from the Internal Affairs Committee. Even if she has not been in contact with the organization for the time being, she is still a political commissar. Be polite to her.
"Okay, let me change my tone. I don't know whether our army in Kiev can hold this. Anyway, if you and I are Germans, the goal of the battle must be to capture Kiev and even the entire Ukraine. The Germans will use their forces to capture the entire Ukraine.
, they have captured Belarus, and the situation in Kiev will not be too good. So we must be self-reliant."
Yelentina still wanted to speak, but Yevlov quickly stopped her.
He looked at everyone and quickly smoothed things over for Yang Mingzhi, "Our Belekov has a character of telling the truth. I myself don't want there to be a feeling of failure in the army, but Belekov's words are not about feeling inferior.
It seems that we will definitely be defeated. So far, Belekov's predictions have been successful. Maybe he comes from the future, maybe he knows everything, or maybe he has a unique vision and sees clearly the Germans' strategic purpose. We urgently need this person now.
wisdom, otherwise we would have died for our motherland long ago."
Yang Mingzhi did not feel that the atmosphere was tense, which meant that Yelentina was a little nervous in terms of the so-called "failure mood". This is understandable. She is still performing the tasks of her superiors, even if her superiors have temporarily lost contact.
We discussed the issue of bullet reloading for a long time in the afternoon, but it was just a rough discussion with no results.
In addition, Yang Mingzhi talked about Natasha's problem.
Yevlov is the division commander and the commander of this unit. He pushed the girl to Yang Mingzhi without thinking. "You saved this girl and you discovered her talent. How will you arrange for her to serve in the army in the future?"
The position you take is entirely up to your own will."
"So, is it okay if she is incorporated into the special anti-tank battalion?"
"That's natural. You are the deputy division commander, and you are also the most talented staff officer at present. Your decision is very convincing."
I originally wanted to discuss it democratically, but it turned out that they didn't want to get involved. That's fine, Natasha, you will be my subordinate. Sooner or later, I will train you to become an excellent sniper for my use.
Seeing that Berekov was very excited about the arrangement of a little girl, the refugees made people think wildly. Yevlov asked coldly: "Berekov, are you more sensitive to young girls?"
Interested in. Your wife."
Yang Mingzhi was embarrassed for a moment when he asked this question. Wasn't this just asking him if he was a lolicon? He was definitely not.
"Okay, I know you just love good soldiers. When you were in the Far East, you and your wife escaped death and got married. I supported it. Later, you repaired the army's guns and even invented new weapons. I have to say, I
At that time, I somewhat admired you, so I thought maybe you could build something."
It was already the end of the meeting when Yevlov took out a black object from under the stool.
"Berekov, you should be a scientist. I don't want to know your past. I just want to know what you can do now. This is the battery of our radio station. It has been a month and our power has been exhausted. Our current
The conditions are very bad, maybe you have the ability to recharge it."