The troops stationed in the Eight Banners Majiamen practiced together with the river camp, so Ren He and Ji Lu also handled money, food and ordnance together.

Ama Fugui, who has known Jilu for a long time, has always thought that although Fugui has become a member of the Fujian Customs, he actually has no ability, let alone real talent, so he also looks down on Jilu who has only studied in the official school for a few years. It wasn't until he had been a grain official for more than half a month that he had always thought highly of himself, and he had always felt that he had never met Huai Cai, and finally realized what it meant to be "useless and a scholar".

First of all, Wang Hedong and others were transferred back to Heying, not that they would be done when they came to Nanyuan, they had to go to the Ministry of War to apply for the transfer of official documents, and then go to the Yamen of the Infantry Army Commander to handle the transfer, and then they had to go to the Yongding River Yamen in Gu'an to help handle the appointment, and even to help bring back the official seals of the military attachés such as Du Si and Qianzong.

If they didn't help them run, the Zhili Grain Road would not have allocated food and salary to the nearly 200 people who were transferred back from the patrol camp. Although the little money and grain given by the grain channel are only enough to stuff the teeth, it is better than nothing. The newly recruited soldiers must be registered, and they must also be reported to the Yongding River Yamen in Gu'an.

Although he has been a Beijing official for a few years, he doesn't know many people, and he has hardly been to those yamen before, if it weren't for Jilu's help, I'm afraid he wouldn't even be able to enter the door of the military department.

The procurement of grain, oil, bean feed, shovels, sledgehammers, flat poles, iron pots, baskets, sacks, hemp ropes and other items must not only be fast, but also of high quality and low price, and Han Xiufeng is only allowed to hire two scribes, for the food, drink and Lazar of the 400 or so people in Heying, he is really busy. If it weren't for Jilu's help, I don't know how many mistakes would have gone wrong.

Early this morning, together with Ji Lu, he took more than 20 temporarily hired young men and drove six carts to the armor warehouse of the Armament Institute to select knives, guns, armor, quilts, boots, shoes, felt and other ordnance.

With Jilu here, this errand went quite smoothly.

It's just that the ordnance in the warehouse of the armament yard is not maintained at all, the swords and guns are rusty, the armor and quilts are tattered, and many of them have been piled up in the warehouse for hundreds of years from the marks left by the craftsmen, and the earliest can be traced back to the Kangxi Dynasty. So much so that I rummaged through the days as if picking up rags, and only found two large cars that could be used.

Thinking that he couldn't delay the big thing because of this, he rushed back to Nanyuan and couldn't even take care of dinner, so he and Ji Lu came to Han Xiufeng's temporary office in the old palace non-stop, planning to ask for a silver to build another one.

I didn't expect it to be so late, and the lobby was brightly lit.

Han Xiufeng was looking at the public case with Rong Lu, Wang Qianli, Yongxiang, and Wang Hedong, and Ren Yu'er, an official lady who should not have left the door, was pouring tea and water on the side like a maid. And at a glance, I knew that it should also be Xiao Shandong, who had just returned, was holding a stack of palace doors under the anti-wind lantern, reporting the news found in the Old Summer Palace during the day.

"Long-haired entangled with Henan twist bandits, attacked the mall and Gushi, and tried to watch Hubei from Lu'an, Gwangju. However, according to the Henan report, the bandits have won the guarantee, Yuan Jiasan has repelled, and the siege of Gushi has also been lifted. In the past few years, Xiaoshan, who has not only learned a lot of words in the "Houyi Hall", but also can break sentences, paused, and then said: "He Guiqing, the governor of Liangjiang, rushed to report for 600 miles, Jiangxi Changmao broke into Zhejiang, and fell into Jiangshan, Changshan, Kaihua and other counties and ......"

Han Xiufeng didn't care about the battle situation in Henan and Liangjiang, and nodded slightly to Ren He and Ji Lu, who were about to pay a salute, and then looked at Yutu with a candle and asked, "Is there any news from Tianjin?" ”

"Yes."

Xiao Shandong hurriedly took out a copy of the palace gate and said: "Tan Tingxiang, the acting governor of Zhili, said the day before yesterday that there are guns and artillery on both sides of Haikou, and there are eight or nine thousand brave soldiers, which are arranged separately, and the prestige is stronger. If Xiyi is not allowed to comply with the reconciliation, or if he is forced to rush into the inland river, can he immediately open artillery attack. The emperor first decreed that 'if he fires guns, he will be rude first, and then he can shoot back, and he must not use force first, so that he will have an excuse'.

Tan Tingxiang did not give up, and yesterday he went to the road again, and the emperor didn't seem to be very happy, so he issued an edict, saying, 'The governor must not start the war first because of the courage of the soldiers'. It is said that 'Tianjin is not difficult to win, and if it is disturbed elsewhere, I am afraid that it is not comparable to Tianjin'. Let Tan Tingxiang and others 'be careful not to listen to the words of the soldiers who lead the troops, the intention is to invite merit, and not think about the future troubles'......"

"This Tan Tingxiang's tone is not small, I really don't know if he went to Dagukou to see what foreigners are like." Han Xiufeng put down the candle and sighed helplessly: "He is self-righteous and speaks wildly, the emperor actually believes it, otherwise he would never say such a thing as 'Tianjin is not difficult to win'." ”

What he was talking about was all about national affairs, and Ren He had the feeling of being an official for the first time, and couldn't help asking: "My lord, are you saying that the battle over there in Tianjin is not easy to fight?" ”

"Zhonghua, you tell me about it." Han Xiufeng sat down and said.

Rong Lu was stunned, and hurriedly picked up the candle and said: "Judging from the defense map sent by Lord Chonghou of the Changlu Salt Transport Division, according to Tan Tingxiang and Zhang Dianyuan's 'separate arrangement', if this battle really starts, their more than 10,000 soldiers and horses will probably be defeated by Xiyi with one blow!" ”

"How so?" Ren He asked in surprise.

"There are only 1,000 soldiers guarding the three forts on the south bank, and the new Tianjin Town Chief Soldier Da Nian and the deputy general of the Dagu Association led the remaining more than 1,000 troops to garrison the back road of the fort; There were only more than 600 soldiers stationed in the north bank fort, and more than 1,000 soldiers from Zhang Dianyuan, the commander of Zhili, were stationed at the back of the fort; The Beijing Firearms Battalion led by the deputy capital Fuller Duntai was far away in Yujiabao, six or seven miles away from the north shore fort. The cavalry led by the commander of the protectors, Zhu Leheng, was even more far away, and was actually stationed in the new city more than twenty miles away from the fort on the south bank! ”

Rong Lu put down the candle and pointed to the map that had just been marked: "You see, more than 10,000 reinforcements are stationed in Xincheng, Xinhe, Yujiabao, Tanah Lot Temple, Caogutou and other places on the back road of the fort, ranging from three or four to twenty miles away from the fort, and there are more than 1,600 soldiers who really guard the fort. If the fort falls, there is a good chance that the soldiers stationed in the rear will flee when they hear the news, and there is no way to talk about supporting them. ”

Wang Qianli said even more hatefully: "Whether it is appropriate to put aside such a troop arrangement, what I can't believe the most is that so many commanders are hiding behind, and none of them are taking the lead." If the boss doesn't go to the fort and doesn't live and die with the fort, where does this morale come from? ”

"According to the two of you, if you really fight, you may really be defeated in one fell swoop!"

"So we've got to hold on." Han Xiufeng stood up, looked at Ren He and asked, "Brother Xing, are you leading the armor, weapons, and quilts?" ”

Speaking of it, Ren He hurriedly said: "My lord, the weapons in the armor of the Arsenal are similar to scrap copper and rotten iron, and the same is true for armor and quilts. Xia Guan was incompetent, rummaged through for an afternoon, and only picked out two cars that were barely usable. ”

Ji Lu said with a bitter face: "Fourth master, I don't think we need to go to the North Saddle Warehouse, the South Saddle Warehouse and the Powder Magazine, going will only delay our efforts." ”

"The enemy is now, and the big war is imminent, how can the soldiers resist the enemy empty-handed?" Wang Hedong said eagerly.

Rong Lu knew that the armament institute was eroded, but he didn't expect it to be so erosive, thinking that the more than 100 cavalry teams under his command were unarmed, and said eagerly: "My lord, I don't know when the foreign guns and gunpowder that Shanghai helped to procure will arrive, and the arsenal can't be counted on, and it is estimated that the military department is the same, it seems that we can only build and catch up by ourselves." ”

Han Xiufeng took a deep breath, turned around and asked, "Qianli, how much silver is left?" ”

"My lord, there are more than 6,000 taels left in the account, and all the silver from before is used to buy grain according to your instructions," Wang Qianli paused, and then said: "But this afternoon, Master Jiang Haoxuan Jiang came over with a scribe from the accounting department, and reminded me that no one would be able to make a good profit in the end after such a investigation, and asked me how I would be willing to give up." ”

"What do you say?"

"I've already found out about this, my face has long been torn, and I don't bother to go around in circles with them, and bluntly say that there is a shortage of silver in the river and Haizi, but do you know what the scribe he brought said?"

"What did the scribe say?" Han Xiufeng asked.

Wang Qianli smiled bitterly: "The scribe said that as long as it was a matter of spending money, it would be fine, and then bargained with me, and in the end he was willing to pay 40,000 taels." ”

"They're trying to buy peace for money." Rong Lu couldn't help laughing.

"We have broken the rules, we can't break the rules anymore, if we take these 40,000 taels, the previous things will have to be written off, and we can't track them down anymore. So I didn't dare to be the master, and I was about to report to the fourth master. ”

If there was a choice, Han Xiufeng would not want to make the entire Internal Affairs Office angry and resentful like now, but thinking that the Internal Affairs Office is definitely the fattest yamen in the world, he weighed it and said lightly: "The soap servants who have been on errands in Nanyuan are not counted, there are thousands of people who have been officials alone, and how many taels are there for one person to pay 40,000 taels?" ”

"I also think that 40,000 taels is a bit less, after all, the opportunity is rare, if you miss this time, it will be difficult to raise money in the future." Wang Qianli thought so.

"If you want to spend money to buy peace, you have to get 80,000 taels." Han Xiufeng said coldly: "Just go back to them like this, the money is in trouble, and it won't work if you miss one or two." And don't procrastinate, make it clear to them, if you don't see the silver in two days, don't blame me for repentance! ”

"Okay," Wang Qianli smiled, thought about it and said: "Master Jiang should be entrusted by someone, he hasn't left yet, he should be waiting for Xin'er, I'll go and tell him." ”

"Don't worry, even if you go and tell him now, he won't be able to do anything in this pitch black."

Han Xiufeng motioned for Rong Lu to move the candle aside, and immediately took out a map of Gyeonggi, spread it on the case, and looked up at everyone: "Everyone, what will become of the situation in Tianjin has nothing to do with us. What we have to do can be summed up in two things, one is to train troops, and the other is to quickly familiarize ourselves with the mountains and rivers on the road from Beijing to Rehe and from Beijing to Shanxi, but mainly from Beijing to Rehe. ”

Rong Lu was stunned, and immediately understood as if he had been empowered, staring at Han Xiufeng and not believing that everything he had just heard was true.

Yongxiang, Wang Qianli, and Ren He also realized that Han Xiufeng dared to offend so many officials of the Internal Affairs Department, and what was the purpose of ordering everyone to hurry up and make all kinds of preparations these days, they were as stunned as Rong Lu, staring at Han Xiufeng and not knowing what to say.

Han Xiufeng didn't care about explaining, and this kind of unspeakable thing could not be explained, so he simply pointed to the map and said: "Although I haven't been to Rehe, I have checked the maps and chronicles of Gyeonggi these days, especially in the Miyun area, and I feel that I have to wait to quickly familiarize myself with the road topography of Xilizhuang, Dashatuo, Sanlituo, Xidaqiao, Dahecao, Wulijing, Zaichengpu, Shayugou, Shilingzhuang to Gubeikou."

The above-mentioned places are a few miles apart, where can be fortified, where can be ambushed, and whether there is a path that can go around our side in the fortified or ambushed place, everything must be clarified. The river camp urged the above officials above the general and the eight banners, and they all had to know it in their hearts! ”

The foreigners were in Tianjin, and Han Xiufeng planned to lead his troops to Miyun to garrison.

Thinking of Lin Fengxiang and Li Kaifang's northern offense to Zhili, the emperor had planned to go to Rehe to "patrol hunting", Rong Lu and Yongxiang and others suddenly realized that Han Xiufeng was preparing for the emperor's "hunting".

Han Xiufeng knew very well what they were thinking, and then said: "Zhonghua, Hedong, next, please summon the leaders of the Eight Banners and the officials above the general of the river camp to take turns to go to the place I just said. If you don't have a turn for the time being, then practice the courage of the soldiers, remember to add a piece of interception and alternate cover during the exercise, even if you retreat, you must retreat in a disciplined manner, and you must not collapse the army if you lose a little. ”

Rong Lu relieved himself and hurriedly arched his hand: "Huh! ”

Wang Hedong also realized what it would mean if this errand was messed up, and hurriedly said: "The lower officials obey the order!" ”

Han Xiufeng nodded slightly, and then looked at Ren He and Ji Lu: "The ancients went first before the soldiers and horses moved the grain and grass, although we have a lot of horses and dozens of mules, but when we are pulling, we can't transport much grain and grass by relying on those horses and mules. Therefore, after the two of them finished the task at hand, they also went to Miyun, chose two or three suitable places, and hurriedly stocked up on enough grain and grass for six hundred people for half a year, and beans and forage for mules, horses, and camels for half a year. ”

"The subordinate obeys!"

"Fourth master, rest assured, I will do it after I am busy with the things in front of me."

"And what I just said must not be publicized, you just have to know it in your hearts, if anyone dares to vent, it will lose their heads!"