Xuzhou's city defense has always been very strong, there are four Hongyi cannons, 16 large Franc machine guns, a number of small and medium-sized Franc machines, but for a long time without a battle formation, many artillery pieces have become ornaments, plus some officers sell arms to make a fortune, only one Hongyi cannon is intact, less than half of the large Franc machine remains, and other artillery is also seriously damaged. However, the artillery of Xuzhou Sanwei can be preserved, Zhu Hao collected more than 50 Franc cannons of various types, more than 1,000 shells, among which there are many flowering shells, which made him pleasantly surprised.

Under the auspices of Bi Zhonglin and Xu Sanduo, the armory room overcame difficulties and finally created 3,000 muskets near the end of the year.

Coupled with the 2,000 bird guns that Xuzhou could use, he barely managed to make up 5,000 musketeers. According to his suggestion, the warheads of paper shell bullets were all replaced with cones to enhance their lethality, and live-fire training has begun, and nearly 10,000 grenades have been produced. After the invention of matches, he prepared to develop a string grenade.

The foreign devil Seaman has made some achievements in glass production recently, but the production of transparent and flawless modern glass is too low, and Zhu Hao can only use it in the production of telescopes first. Zhu Hao told Seaman and Bi Zhonglin the idea of pulling the string grenade, and the two hurriedly put down their work and studied it together.

In addition, the armory room has created more than 100 new rifled guns, under the guidance of Zhu Hao, craftsmen transformed a number of binoculars into sniper scopes, mounted on guns, becoming the world's first batch of sniper rifles. Zhu Hao tried a few shots, but the rifled gun was really not covered, and in the case of using paper shell bullets, he actually hit a distance of three hundred steps! It's just that because the sniper scope and the gun body have not been well corrected, the accuracy is not very good, and it has to be adjusted slowly.

He selected 100 gunners with good marksmanship from the musket team and trained them rigorously in order to train them to become snipers. As for the guns that were eliminated after the improvement of the musket, Zhu Hao did not discard them, but used them on the improved handguns, which could be loaded with two guns at a time, and Zhu Hao was ready to equip the cavalry battalion and officers at all levels with handcuffs to enhance their combat effectiveness.

There are only ten days before the New Year, Zhu Hao is busy and has no time to take care of the New Year, everything is handled by Liu Ruis and Li Dong and Liu Maozong, but the Ming official system, officials are not allowed to return to their hometown without authorization, fortunately, Chen Xiyao sent a letter, Yangzhou is almost ready, and he will leave for Xuzhou in the next few days.

Zhu Hao got the letter, happy and worried, I don't know how his wife reacted when she saw Liu Ru, but the wood was already in the boat, and it was useless to worry.

On the twenty-fifth day of the lunar month, Zhu Hao got the news that Yangzhou's team had arrived outside Xuzhou, Zhu Hao hurriedly sorted it out and took his subordinates out of the city to greet him.

"It seems that the husband is very happy in Xuzhou, and the worry of the concubine is completely unnecessary." Seeing Chen Xiyao looking at himself and Liu Ru beside him with a smile, Zhu Hao was a little hairy.

"The slave family meets the lady." Liu Ru still has eyes, and hurriedly salutes respectfully.

"Sister, I know you're a victim too." Chen Xiyao glared at Zhu Hao fiercely, and hurriedly helped Liu Ru is up, although she hated Zhu Hao, but she did not reject Liu Ru who was born in the dust, on the contrary, she appreciated it very much.

"Thank you, ma'am."

"Hey, don't call it so raw, it's all a family in the future, I entered the door early, how about we call each other sisters, if it's a sister?" Chen Xiyao is still very good at wooing people, and she knows that Liu Ru is unlikely to pose a threat to her status.

"Then my sister will thank you sister." Liu Ru is one year older than Chen Xiyao, but she is the first to start, and she is a little weak in her heart, and Liu Ru is sister is voice has no burden.

"Okay, in the future, our sisters will have one heart, but sister, you have to help your sister take care of someone, so as not to bring us back some Hedong lions." After speaking, he glanced at someone who was smiling fiercely.

"It's my sister, and my sister will be my sister in the future." Liu Ru is very smart, and she can see that this main house does not hate herself, and she is also very happy.

"Husband, when are you going to marry your sister and pass through the door, it's not a matter to drag it out like this."

"Ah, this, this ......"

"Sister, Xianggong has been busy with official business, let's talk about my sister's affairs later." Liu Ru excused someone.

"No matter how busy you are, you have to do big things first, so let's do everything, I will arrange everything, and I will marry you during the New Year." Chen Xiyao slapped the board.

Zhu Hao arranged a family banquet in the general's mansion in the evening, in addition to a few senior generals, Chen Xiyao also brought the foreign girl Julia, and the two of them plus Liu Ru chattered non-stop, leaving Zhu Hao aside, Zhu Hao had to chat with the foreign devil Seaman without a match, and it was interesting to learn that Julia and Seaman had hooked up in Yangzhou as early as possible.

Julia sat next to a tall and handsome young Westerner, Zhu Hao learned that this was Julia's brother Treea, who had just come to China from Spain, and when he saw his sister coming to Yangzhou, he followed him to meet his future brother-in-law, Seaman. The woman's conversation was hot, and Tuleya couldn't bear the loneliness and joined Zhu Hao and He-Man.

Seaman could speak Spanish, acting as an interpreter for the two, and after a small talk, Zhu Hao was surprised to find that this Trerea had just graduated from the Royal Military Academy of Spain, and he had the spirit of adventure that Westerners generally had at that time, so he was unwilling to stay in China, so he came to China to join his sister.

This is a talent, Zhu Haole looked at him happily, thinking about how to recruit him into his command.

"What do you think of China?"

"Your Excellency the General, China is a magical country, the people here are industrious and intelligent, I like this place very much."

"Yes, China is a great country, but now this country is suffering, you know?"

"Yes, I have heard and seen many poor people, and it is very worrying to hear that there are infidels in the north who are invading."

"Yes, there are bandits in China now, there is invasion of infidels outside, especially the people in the north live very hard, I want to be determined to defeat these infidels, this is why I want to build an army, what do you think of my army?"

"Your Excellency General, although I have not been in China for a long time, but listening to what my sister said, you are a great general, and I myself am very curious about you, but I am not familiar with the situation, so I can't comment for the time being." Trerea didn't know what he meant, so she told the truth.

"That's right, for the sake of the country's strength and unity, I want to build a great army, and lead this army to continue to fight until the great revival of the country, my army is in need of talents like you, are you willing to help me, are you willing to build a great army with me? Willing to be the savior of a fledgling empire? Zhu Hao's beautiful words seduced this young man who was not deeply involved in the world.

"Oh God, what a grand plan, can I take part in this great plan?" Treia was obviously choked by the flickering, and her face was full of excitement.

"Of course, I need someone as talented as you, what kind of class did you study?"

"Artillery I learned in school."

"Great, I'm just short of an artillery commander, what are you going to do?" Zhu Hao was overjoyed, it really took no effort to get it.

"I need to go to the barracks and have a look before I make a decision." Trerea thought about it and didn't fall for it.

"No problem, I'll arrange for you to visit the barracks tomorrow." Zhu Hao happily agreed.