"As long as the grain tax can be completed this year, this system will be completed, and it will be easy to handle in the future." Weeser made a pre-war mobilization of the General Staff.

"In accordance with the three divisions we proposed earlier, the guerrilla zone, the guerrilla zone, and the enemy-occupied zone, in order to be able to turn the guerrilla zone into a base area as much as possible. We need a victory now, a big victory over the Qing army! The annihilation of a Qing army unit can deter the Qing army, and secondly, it can prove to the local people that the official army is nothing great in front of us! ”

After Wei Ze finished speaking, Wei Changrong first vomited bitter water, "Now we occupy a large territory, and there are more than 30,000 troops. According to the current situation, even if we only select more than 15,000 people and train them to the troops we want, we can get winter at the earliest! If we are now mobilizing manpower, the degree of training will be greatly reduced. ”

Ke Gongyu immediately agreed with Wei Changrong's proposal, "That's right, we taught the brigade to vacate the position to train the next round of commanders, so we have to wait until December." In the past, the people who were trained were all old brothers, and everyone had fought and seen blood early on. Now the new brothers here in Anhui are far behind, and they are counting on them to be able to take charge on their own, and they will all get December. Even then, the army could use no more than fifteen thousand. So this is not necessarily a good time to fight. ”

With these two men in the lead, all departments were against the war. Of course, the logistics department believes that the grain reserves have bottomed out, and even the military industry department has raised the problem of its own manpower shortage. Chen Zhe, director of the technical department of the military factory, said: "Prime Minister, if you want to modify the fire cap gun faster, you must expand the number of craftsmen. Otherwise, by December we will not be able to guarantee the supply of 15,000 troops with muskets and guns. ”

Everyone talked about the size of the 15,000-strong troops, which made Wei Ze a little speechless. After repeated discussions and calculations, the number of 15,000 elites was finally determined.

The Teaching Brigade believes that it can train at most 3,000 commanders this year, and this alone limits the upper limit of troops. As for arming these fifteen thousand men according to the standards of the ordinary powers of this era, it is already a great expense.

Mr. Smith, an arms merchant, came to Anqing twice, and because of Nanjing, a major customer, Mr. Smith decisively sold all the gunpowder to Nanjing. What he brought to Wei Ze was a batch of 5,000 second-hand flint guns, and a large number of spare parts. and a batch of used 12-pounder mountain howitzers of French origin. Smith gave Weeser a price of conscience, forty-eight guns, and five hundred taels for a howitzer. The price of ammunition is not included.

Looking at the patina on it, Weser asked Smith, how could this thing come from thousands of miles to China?

Smith couldn't coax Weser and simply told the truth. After the end of the Opium War in 184o, the whole of Europe felt that a large market had been opened, and European production companies, including arms dealers, thought that they could make a lot of money, and they borrowed money to expand production. Waiting for the influx of orders.

As for the creature of the arms dealer, they are more realistic. It was unrealistic to expect China to come to Europe to place orders for arms dealers, so they shipped a batch of arms directly to China in an attempt to sell these weapons to the Qing government. However, these efforts undoubtedly failed, and the arms were piled up in Shanghai for several years, and Smith met Weeser and immediately sold them.

Smith smiled, "Your Excellency, please rest assured. The guns are almost brand new. There are no problems other than a lack of accessories. I can sell you another forty-eight of these guns if you still need them. But the price will have to go up, after all, you don't give me enough deposit, and if you give enough, I can send you all the guns at once! ”

Even when Mr. Smith criticized him, Weeser thought it was good. "This deposit can be enough for you. I need this artillery! ”

"Do you need a 24-pounder regimental gun?" Smith proposed the new yì. A 12-pounder gun is a divisional gun at best, and if you want to blast through thick walls, you have to use a 24-pounder cannon.

"I don't have any plans to build a fortress just yet, so I won't need that!" Weser regrettably rejected Smith's offer.

Mr. Smith, an arms merchant, arrived in Anqing on a paddle steamer, and as he sailed downstream, Mr. Smith loaded the ship with raw silk and tea that Weeser had prepared. And Smith also got a letter signed by Wei Ze, allowing Smith to do business freely in Anqing. Weser secretly asked Smith to bring some opium to Anqing.

Forty-eight 12-pounder mountain howitzers could only equip two divisions, and the artillery in Weeser's unit was rigorously trained, and with these guns, the accuracy of shooting was greatly improved. Even if he had such a sharp weapon in his hand, Wei Ze was willing to fight with the Qing army. Unexpectedly, it was collectively vetoed by the generals of the General Staff.

"Prime Minister, our army really can't be dispatched. Qing Demon was defeated all the way at this time, but there is something I want to report to the prime minister. Hu Chenghe said.

"What?" Weser asked a little unhappily.

"The king of heaven decreed that all the old and weak women and children in the city should go out of the city to harvest the ripe rice. After the old people camp and the women's camp went out, the king ordered the city gate to be closed and they were not allowed to return to the city...... "Hu Chenghe is not very confident, if a few months ago, if anyone said that the Taiping army would treat the old people's camp and the women's camp like this, Hu Chenghe himself would not believe it.

Closing the gates of the city was a matter of deciding to provide food to the old man and the women, who had to rely on themselves to obtain food. If you can't get food, the result is as simple as starvation. Although Hu Chenghe himself was very enthusiastic about the worship of God, he could not accept such a change immediately.

Wei Ze did not answer immediately, as early as Wei Ze had a large number of Wuchang people who had broken away from the Taiping Army on the south bank of the Yangtze River, he saw that there must be a big problem with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's method. I didn't expect things to explode so quickly, just less than half a year after the capture of Nanjing, there was a shortage of grain.

"Prime Minister, although the King of the East hasn't come yet, but since we are in the upper reaches and have taken such a large amount of land, I am afraid that the matter of providing grain and grass to Tianjing cannot be avoided." Hu Chenghe said.

Wei Ze stiffened his face, "I didn't want to avoid the past, if there was no Tianjing, we would have been besieged by the Qing Demon in Anhui long ago." Where can you stay so safe until now. If Tianjing can't hold it, what will happen to us? If you can't figure this out, you should have stopped doing it for me. ”

"How much grain does the prime minister want to transport to Tianjing City?" Hu Chenghe asked.

"Get the food first, then deliver the food. I am not without a bottom line, in any case, 60,000 people must be guaranteed a year's food. The rest, we'll talk about it later! ”

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