Accurate? Guan Zhuofan's heart was first surprised, and then turned into doubts: It's accurate, what does it have to do with your noble brother, you want to thank yourself?

After thinking about it for a while, it suddenly dawned on me that the three ministers of trade in Tianjin, under the jurisdiction of the prime minister's yamen, were ordered to manage the foreign affairs and coastal defense of the northern ports, and the fold he had made was to suggest that the Aspen fleet be placed in Tianjin, and now it seems that most of the fleet has fallen into the hands of Chonghou.

But I don't know if there is any follow-up to my request for "a piece of the pie to Shanghai"?

"Congratulations to Chonggong!" He suppressed his heartbeat and made a jubilant expression, "It was the best choice to lead the fleet with Chonggong in general. ”

"Hehe, Yixuan, you have won the award, I don't dare to take the words 'the best choice'." Chonghou is humble in his mouth, but he is very proud in his heart - this is the first navy of the Great Qing Kingdom, and now it is under his own control, how much dignity and glory is this? Su Su smiled and said: "The fleet is controlled by the General Administration, and I am just accompanying him and being the 'President Han' of the fleet." Yixuan, you also got a 'division', from now on, our brothers are really their own people, military matters, you have to give me good guidance. ”

After Chonghou finished speaking, hahadaxiao, that smug look could no longer be hidden, and between the words, he faintly regarded Guan Zhuofan as his subordinate.

Guan Zhuofan's heart was itching, and he didn't take his tone as a pestle at all, and only thought about one thing in his heart: Is my division a name, or can I allocate a ship to me? I can't help but say something to test it.

"To be able to serve under Chonggong's account, that's really unwanted!" Guan Zhuofan's face was full of the words "sincere", "It's just Shanghai to Tianjin." It's a long way to go. I'm just afraid I won't be able to do much. ”

"Dagukou to Wusong. It's only a three- or four-day sea journey, so there's nothing to delay. Chonghou said with a smile, "The two palaces and the prince have already decided, and from the seven ships in the fleet, a medium-level warship and a small-level warship will be rowed out and assigned to your command." If there is something to gather, if there is nothing to do, they will be divided into Shanghai. Count as a sailor for the Xuan Army. However, during the annual exercise, it is necessary to go north from Shanghai to Tianjin, where it meets with the main fleet and practices tactics and formations. ”

Haha, Guan Zhuofan couldn't laugh anymore, he suppressed the ecstasy in his heart, and asked knowingly: "Chonggong, but I don't know what kind of person the 'foreign president' of the fleet, that Asben, is?" ”

"Hmm...... Is it a British naval colonel or a colonel. I don't remember. Chonghou shook his head and said. However, the charter has been set, and President Yang still has to listen to me, President Han. Anyway, there is Li Tai to coordinate everything, and the rest will be talked about when the ship arrives at the end of the year. ”

Guan Zhuofan sneered in his heart: Colonel or Colonel? It is unbelievable that such a straw bag person would dare to lead a fleet.

He knew very well that Li Taitai was a man with great ambitions, and he not only wanted to build this navy for China and be China's "father of the navy," but also wanted to completely control this fleet in his own hands. The so-called "President Han", in the eyes of Li Taitai, is nothing more than a puppet, and the dream of sublime wanting to lead the fleet can only be a flash in the pan after all. But this layer, of course, does not need to be uncovered at the moment.

Whatever, let him rejoice in the air for a few more months! As long as he firmly grasped the two boats assigned to Xuan Jun, he didn't want anything else.

"It turns out that the fleet will be able to arrive within the year, which is also very fast, but I don't know if Li Taitai is a reliable person, can he be trusted?"

"He is very enthusiastic," said Chonghou, smiling, "not only have the sailors and crews been recruited, but even the names of the ships have been decided." ”

"Oh?" Guan Zhuofan was extremely interested, "What are they called?" ”

"The flagship is called Jiangsu, and the rest are China, Beijing, Tianjin, Fengtian, Guangdong, and Xiamen."

"This ......" Guan Zhuofan thought to himself, it seems that he gave Li Taitai the five thousand taels of silver, so that he remembered it, and even the flagship gave the name of Jiangsu, which is really incomprehensible - since it is the same ship, how can it be reasonable to put Jiangsu before China? shook his head at the moment and said with a smile: "This Li Taitai is making a joke." ”

"Naturally, it's a joke!" There was a look of disdain on Chonghou's face, "In the end, the foreign devil is still shallow in knowledge, and the General Administration has redrafted the name and instructed him to correct it." The flagship was changed to 'Zhenwu', and the two ships given to you, the Beijing was changed to 'Jintai', and the Guangdong was changed to 'Baiyue', one medium and one small, all of them were good ships, and there were 110-pound cannons on the Jintai. ”

One hundred and ten pounds! Guan Zhuofan was fascinated, thinking that in the battle of Gaoqiao, the 68-pound naval cannon thundered, it was already a shock, and the 110-pound cannon rang out, what kind of situation was that?

However, whether these two ships can be successfully obtained depends on Zeng Guofan's movements.

"Chonggong, I don't know what it means to be overseer?"

"Of course Zeng Disheng wants to hold this fleet in his hands, but he can't oppose it openly when the imperial court has already decided." He said proudly, "I recite a few words from his excerpts, and you will understand as soon as you hear it, 'The foreign ship is swift, the building ship is as towering as Huayue, and the long dragon sampan is like a child or grandchild, it is a sharp weapon, but Li Tai is a person with a strong spirit, how can he be willing to live under the people?' Isn't it ridiculous to say that Li Tai came out to talk about it? ”

It's not ridiculous at all, Guan Zhuofan thought to himself, Zeng Guofan was an old man who was planning for the country, and he had insight into the key points at a glance. However, he naturally refused to disturb the lofty interest, and said it with foaming at his mouth.

*

*

Early the next morning, Shanghai's civil and military officials bid farewell to Chonghou at the Dongmen Wharf. Guan Zhuofan returned to the county government to sit down and calculated all the affairs that should be done.

Xuanjun's recruitment is progressing very smoothly, and it has been fully recruited five days ago. Guan Zhuofan has already explained to the four people, Wall, Forrest, Ding Shijie, and Daniel Zhang, that when conducting training, they should not rely solely on words and deeds, but should first compile a set of simple drill rules and combat regulations as a model for training. The newly purchased foreign guns have been put in place, and the eight-pounder field guns are still the mainstay, supplemented by six twelve-pounder British guns, which have been transferred to the regiments and battalions, and the new gunners have been ordered to step up their training. The 6,000 breech guns will not arrive until May, which is a no-brainer, so some Xinyong have to shoot two people and let them learn the basics first.

In fact, I wanted to change the military uniform, but I didn't dare - after all, it was the official uniform of the imperial court, and it was not yet the time to be different. The real imperative was to deal with the problem of the inconsistency of ranks, that is, the separation of positions and ranks, as he had originally envisaged.

The official rank mentioned is actually the rank of military attache in the imperial court system. In the current Xuan Army, there are many reasons that add up, resulting in a lot of "inverted ranks" phenomenon, such as a person who has been rewarded with the rank of garrison is still serving as a sentry commander, and another Qianzong has become a battalion officer, and so on.

Guan Zhuofan's approach is to regard rank as a kind of political treatment, and regard position as a truly effective military rank. He used Wall's original method in the foreign gun team, slightly modified, and formed a set of "six-color armbands" system, all made of foreign cloth, worn on the left arm, used to indicate different military positions, in order to make a clear distinction.

Pawn length, light blue armband.

Long and dark blue armbands.

Sentry length, light green armbands.

Battalion officer, dark green armband.

Regimental officer, red armband.

Uniform strap, white armband.

In daily training, regardless of rank among officers, only military positions are saluted, and those with low-level armbands salute the military first, and those who do not obey orders are ordered to be given 20 military sticks; On the battlefield, if the organization is disrupted, the officer wearing a high-ranking armband will be the commander, and those who do not obey the order will be immediately beheaded.

With the backing of this strict military discipline, the six-color armband system was soon implemented, although it was not complete, but it already had a slight meaning of "military rank system", which was an important stroke in the history of the development of the Xuan Army.

Bai Qiwen, the regimental officer of the Second Foreign Gun Regiment, and Liu Yulin, who surrendered to Shun, are still recuperating from their injuries. The worry about his life is gone, but for a while, he can no longer return to the battlefield, so the second foreign regiment is still under the acting of Bai Qiwen's deputy, the Englishman Gordon.

Jin Yulin's "Shanghai Donation Bureau" has also hung up a sign, and the place is near Guan Zhuofan's newly selected domain secretary Yamen. Within the seven counties of one prefecture, a total of 44 tax cards have been set up, each card has two tax collectors and six tax collectors, who are on duty in shifts, and notices have been posted in the neighboring townships.

The patrol house in the British and American concessions recruited forty Chinese arresters for the first time, and a small half of them were disciples of the Youth Gang in Shanghai. For this matter, Xu Mingshan specially invited Thurin to "white phase" to express his gratitude. In addition to eating, he also visited the hall, as for what he did in the hall, Tulin blushed and never said, and Guan Zhuofan didn't ask again.

Two groups of people from Citigroup's European Division and the American Division have recently separated and traveled to those two distant continents. Whether the jihua they conceived will work or not, and what they can bring back, can only be verified by time.

*(To be continued......)