Chapter 82: Militia

Ma Shao naturally would not refuse.

He had wanted to assimilate all the Native Americans, not to mention the Navajo. The Navajo language was also part of the Apache language, and they were relatives of the Apaches, and were sometimes even considered a part of the Apaches.

"Welcome, Apache Sleeping Bear City welcomes all indigenous people to join us." Ma Shao said.

This Navajo clan was a little excited, and it was apparent that they were in a difficult situation and had come to seek refuge.

Ma Shao led them to choose a site in Mianxiong City to set up tents and explained the law to them.

"Alcohol restriction?" The alcohol restriction in Sleeping Bear City often confuses or even resistant new residents.

"That's right. We are implementing a restriction on alcohol. Someone will come to buy your existing liquor. Private storage is not allowed. This is a very important rule. If you have any questions, you can go to the liquor store to ask." Ma Shao said, "If you must drink, you can go to the drinking house."

"We will comply." The chief nodded.

Ma Shao asked: "How many people are there in total?"

"There are one hundred and eighteen of them in all."

118 people.

Ma Shao calculated the total population of Mianxiong City. With the addition of this clan, the population of Mianxiong City has exceeded 2,500.

He personally recorded the identification information of each new resident and had a brief conversation with them so that they could get to know themselves.

"Great Chief." At this moment, a voice came from the side.

Ma Shao turned around and looked: "It's Shulang, you're back, what happened?"

The visitor was none other than the wolf he had sent to the Comanche forest tribe more than ten days ago. At this moment, the wolf was covered in dirt, and it was obvious that he had just returned, and it seemed that he had been caught in the rain on the way.

"I have said everything I need to say. I did see Square-faced Man in the Forest Tribe." Vertical Wolf paused and continued, "But Owl was unwilling to hand over Square-faced Man and even said he was considering attacking us."

"consider?"

Vertical Wolf: "Yes, he obviously knows how powerful Sleeping Bear is, so he didn't make a decision right away. Although I don't think he will really attack us, we should still be on guard."

Ma Shao pondered for a moment, then nodded: "Okay, I understand. You did a good job, go back and rest first."

When he finished taking the census of the new residents, he went to the army to get Thick Shoulders.

Just as he handed over most of the teaching work to other teachers, Ma Shao also handed over most of the military affairs to the officers, while he himself was mainly responsible for training the officers and conducting regular assessments.

A combat-ready army must have not only qualified commanders but also strong grassroots units.

Ma Shao believed that even if he died suddenly now, the army he built would not collapse directly, and might even continue to grow according to his plan.

At this moment, Hou Jian was leading his one hundred soldiers in various trainings. Not far away were two other centurions and their soldiers. The three centuries were competing with each other and comparing their training results.

"Great Chief." Houjian saluted immediately when he saw Ma Shao. Ma Shao had already taught the salute he was familiar with to the soldiers.

Ma Shao first briefly inspected the training and then motioned for Hou Jian to follow him.

"Squad leader, lead all squads to continue training!" Hou Jian ordered, then turned around and walked to a nearby place with Ma Shao.

"Thick Shoulders, I plan to form a militia." Ma Shao coined a word.

"Militia?" Hou Jian really didn't understand.

"You are soldiers, and militia is half soldier and half civilian." Ma Shao explained for him, "You have to do a lot of training almost every day, and carry weapons with you every day. You have the salary of a soldier, and you have to deal with the most dangerous enemies... But the militia only has a small amount of training, and most of the time they are ordinary people, without a formal salary, and they also take on auxiliary work in the war."

Thick Shoulders understood and nodded.

Ma Shao continued, "There are currently 2,500 people in Mianxiong City. I plan to select 600 of them to form a militia. We will officially start training after the wheat harvest. You will be mainly responsible for this."

In the past, Indians could basically be described as a nation of soldiers, but with continuous development, this state will certainly not continue.

After all, development means division of labor, just as the development of organisms is always accompanied by cell differentiation.

In fact, the division of labor process of Mian Xiong has already begun, and the speed is very fast.

A year ago, the soldiers under Ma Shao were half civilians and half soldiers, but now they have become professional to a large extent.

Whether in terms of characteristics or combat effectiveness, Mian Xiong's current 300 soldiers can be considered professional soldiers.

If possible, Ma Shao hopes that all the 2,500 people in Mianxiong City are professional soldiers, but this is obviously impossible.

Even three hundred professional soldiers was already a lot, more than one-tenth of the total population. Without the tax revenue from Clark Town and the income from the clothing company, he would not have been able to maintain the existence of this army so easily.

Therefore, if Ma Shao wants to continue to reasonably expand the scale of the military, it can only develop militias, let the militia share some low-difficulty military tasks, and can quickly transform into professional soldiers at critical moments.

After talking with Hou Jian for a long time, Ma Shao said, "…Three hundred professional soldiers and six hundred militiamen can form a group of three, with one professional soldier leading two militiamen. We can add such a link in the training process to cultivate our small group cooperation ability."

"Small group collaboration ability?" Hou Jian thought thoughtfully.

Ma Shao nodded: "This is a vital ability. I hope that in the future, any three of our soldiers can work closely together, and even if they are deep behind enemy lines, they can maintain a high fighting spirit and iron discipline and carry out combat missions in an orderly manner."

Thick Shoulders seemed to simulate that scenario in his mind and said yearningly: "If we can really do that, we may become the most powerful army in North America."

"Not America, but the world," Ma Shao corrected. "Even if the white people unite, they will be beaten to a pulp by such an army."

The step of selecting the militia was completed quickly - it was almost just a matter of gathering all the adult males in the city of Sleeping Bear.

But formal training did not start immediately. After all, it was the end of June and the winter wheat was about to be harvested.

During this period, in addition to paying attention to wheat, Ma Shao also frequently communicated with the gunsmith Browning.

Since moving into the cabin, Browning has adapted quite well to the life in Sleeping Bear. He even semi-voluntarily learned a lot of Apache language and semi-voluntarily taught some English to the Apaches... There was nothing he could do about it, because every day there were a dozen Apache apprentices surrounding him to learn gun-making techniques from him.

Ma Shao himself is one of the apprentices. He comes from time to time to learn some gun-making techniques. Although he is far from being a professional, he can already turn into reality the things he talked about on paper in his previous life.