263: Chapter 261: Standing Army 263: Chapter 261: Standing Army Now that Gao Yang was in charge of the Skull Gang and considering problems from a position of overall control, he realized just how significant it was to have conquered Bosaso.
Uriyangko was just across the gulf, a short stretch of water away, and Uriyangko had already established a secure smuggling route in Al Mukalla.
As long as the Skull Gang could afford it, Uriyangko could get them anything.
Military equipment is extremely expensive, with third-generation fighter jets costing at least tens of millions of US Dollars, and fourth-generation fighters easily exceeding a hundred million.
Such items are unaffordable for anyone but superpowers.
However, they can also be quite cheap, because firearms, ammunition, and obsolete artillery still fall under the category of military equipment.
The price for a gun ranges from a few dozen to a few hundred US Dollars, and a rocket launcher might cap out at a few tens of thousands of US Dollars.
New model airplanes, tanks, and artillery—Somalia as a whole couldn’t afford these, not to mention the Skull Gang didn’t even consider it, as it was completely unrealistic.
But for the Skull Gang’s finances, it was entirely possible to establish an army that could move unchallenged within Somalia.
Equipping a few T54/55 tanks, a dozen or so armored vehicles, plus a hundred or so mortars and a few dozen Type 63 107mm rocket launchers—such firepower would be overkill for Somalia, but for taking down Bosaso, it would be child’s play.
The issue now was while the Skull Gang had the funds to purchase these relatively heavy-duty weapons, and Uriyangko could supply them, the only problem was getting the weapons into the hands of the Skull Gang.
The Skull Gang’s territory had no ports.
The Type 63 rocket launchers were already at the limit of what they could manage by boat, as the cargo needed to be transferred from cargo ships to fishing boats near the coast, then from fishing boats to speedboats, before finally being delivered ashore by speedboat.
Clearly, this method of transport was incapable of handling any heavy equipment.
Taking Bosaso would mean that the Skull Gang would control not just a large city and more population; the key was that Bosaso had a deepwater port.
Admittedly, it was “deepwater” only relatively speaking, as the depth and facilities couldn’t satisfy the needs of a ten-thousand-ton vessel.
But for the Skull Gang, with Bosaso, all the materials they needed could be directly unloaded at the port.
Conquering Bosaso offered many benefits besides a deepwater port: for instance, the Skull Gang would have access to a larger number of recruits, and they could also control a greater maritime area.
These benefits were all tangible.
Although taking Bosaso also had drawbacks, such as exposing the Skull Gang to international scrutiny and attracting the attention of more powerful armed factions within Somalia.
Gao Yang was now truly in control of the Skull Gang.
Soldiers and civilians willingly obeyed his commands, Maide offered full support, and the Instruction Platoon had made good progress in training and expansion.
However, when it came to attacking Bosaso, Gao Yang was still unable to make up his mind.
In some ways, the attacks the Skull Gang had suffered were a blessing in disguise.
At least the members of the Skull Gang would no longer naively believe they could develop peacefully.
Whether they liked it or not, war was coming their way, and the entire Skull Gang was now in a state of preparing for conflict.
For Gao Yang and his team, the benefit of being attacked was that it allowed everyone, including Maide, to understand that their money was not taken for nothing; without the training of the Instruction Platoon, without the artillerymen they trained, the Skull Gang wouldn’t be able to continue existing.
A month was about to pass since the British and the Mokadi Faction launched their attack.
The attack that Gao Yang had been worried about did not come again, but the supplies urgently purchased from Uriyangko in preparation for battle had arrived.
With a month-long buffer period, the Instruction Platoon had basically completed its initial training.
As for the strength of the Instruction Platoon, it depended on the opponent.
If placed on the world stage, its combat power was only average, just another regular, run-of-the-mill army.
However, in Somalia, the Instruction Platoon was an elite force.
If they fought against an equally sized force, the Instruction Platoon could be considered invincible.
The Skull Gang’s standing army, including the Instruction Platoon, was maintained at a scale of one thousand personnel.
Fearing another attack, and to improve combat strength as quickly as possible, Gao Yang had purchased another five hundred AK74s, in addition to the five hundred AK74s already acquired, to reequip all one thousand soldiers of the standing army.
Following the reequipment was training.
Although there was only one month for training and the instructors were soldiers from the Instruction Platoon, Gao Yang and his team still managed to completely overhaul the appearance of the Skull Gang’s standing army in just one month.
In the training syllabus Gao Yang and his team had created for that month, there was only one item: discipline.
Besides discipline, it was still discipline—every aspect of training was designed to teach discipline to this group of ragtag soldiers who previously had no sense of following orders.
The Instruction Platoon was trained by Li Jinfang, and the standing army was trained by the Instruction Platoon; hence, the movements of the standing army soldiers inevitably carried a strong Huaxia flavor.
The month-long training was very basic: marching in step, standing in formation, and the most basic tactical movements, such as shouldering the rifle while lying down and crawling forward.
Aside from that, they were only taught how to make use of their rifles, what the correct shooting posture was, and each soldier underwent shooting training with a few dozen bullets.
There was nothing else besides these extremely simple exercises and movements.
The content was simple, but the effects were good.
The Skull Gang’s soldiers were not accurate marksmen, and they had no understanding of coordination tactics between squads and platoons, nor were they taught how to throw grenades.
It was these very simple things, repetitively drilled in a short time, that finally taught the Skull Gang’s soldiers to obey commands.
Now, the Skull Gang could fight on command: to attack when ordered to attack, halt when ordered to stop.
Accomplishing this was no longer an issue; thus, they had left behind their ragtag status and become qualified recruits.
Whether the soldiers would turn and run when the commander ordered a charge in the face of a disadvantageous situation remained to be seen in real combat.
If they could still charge forward on command despite heavy casualties, then that force was indeed a truly elite unit.
Even if their tactics and movements were poor, Gao Yang considered them elite troops as long as they could follow orders strictly.
Of course, the Skull Gang’s troops could now barely be called a force, and whether they had truly become elite soldiers capable of strict discipline needed to be tested by fire.
However, Gao Yang had no doubts that with enough time for him and the Skull Gang, their standing army would inevitably grow into a formidable force, a trump card capable of storming and plundering across Somalia.
(To be continued.
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