It had been several days since Lu Fang arrived in Wenzhou, and he arrived by boat with Shao Shuguang, general manager of the Bank of Taiwan, and his entourage, a total of more than 10 people.

These people came to Yongjia County, Wenzhou Prefecture, where King Lu was stationed, and the timing was actually very delicate: today was August 15, 1680, and the news that the army on the east bank had broken the Qing army in Shaoxing Mansion and captured the four counties had just arrived, and the regime of King Lu fell into silence for a while.

There is no other reason, not too long ago, Zhang Huangyan, the first minister under the command of King Lu, personally served as the three-way superintendent, and led tens of thousands of people in the country to attack Shaoxing and Yanzhou in the north. At that time, Zhang Huangyan's three armies were killed, and after a hard battle, they recovered Zhuji County, shocked Shaoxing, and also took the Yanzhou Mansion close at hand, threatening the flank of Hangzhou. During that time, it was the most glorious time period of King Lu's department, not only the gentry in southern and western Zhejiang, but also the gentry in northern Zhejiang were a little ready to move, and began to send people to secretly communicate with the song, which seemed to lead the army of King Lu to enter Hangzhou, break Huzhou, Pingjiaxing, and occupy Songjiang Compared with the "famous" yellow-clothed thieves, they still prefer King Lu to rule, which has nothing to do with anything else, only interests.

The smooth operation of King Lu's army stunned many people's minds, and even Zhang Huangyan, who had always been more steady, slowly became optimistic after defeating the Qing army outside Zhuji City, which can be seen from a series of twists and turns he wrote to King Lu at that time, and he was excited in his heart.

It's a pity that the good times didn't last long, the Qing army transferred troops who could fight well, and commanded by the veteran generals who were old in the army, defeated the army of King Lu at once, recaptured the county seat of Zhuji, and then pursued with the defeated army, and at the same time expelled all the troops of King Lu, they also occupied Pujiang County, Jinhua Prefecture. Yanzhou Mansion, which was originally stationed with few troops, also completely fell under the blow of a Qing army's partial division. At this point, King Lu's department really stole chickens and rice, not only lost a border town, but also lost more than 20,000 horses in vain, which was really a loss to his grandmother's family.

As a result, this time, the people on the east bank organized more than 30,000 troops, along the Cao'e River suddenly Shaoxing, Shengxian siege battle, Shangyu siege battle, Yuyao River battle all won, and then the total army into the west of the Cao'e River, captured innumerable, before and after killing and wounding nearly 40,000 Qing troops, the results can be described as brilliant, greatly shaken the Lu Wang regime. Zhang Huangyan, the former three-way supervisor, even asked King Lu to choose another meritorious, but fortunately, although he Zhu Yihai was not in good health, his head was still sober, and he was not allowed.

That is to say, when Lu Fang, Shao Shuguang and others came to Yongjiagang (that is, Wenzhou City in the later world), the Lu Wang's regime held a complex mentality mixed with envy, doubt, fear and eagerness for them. This kind of mood is very complicated, mixed with the faint fear of the yellow-clothed thieves of the traditional scholars in the Lu Dynasty, and at the same time the envy of the combat effectiveness of their army, and of course, it is also full of the mentality of some people who eagerly hope to carry out military reform with the help of the East Bank and improve the combat effectiveness of the troops, especially Zhang Huangyan.

Therefore, you can see that in the residence provided by King Lu where the people from the east coast stayed, Wang Jin, the young general of King Lu's regime, the son of the late veteran Wang Chaoxian, and the general soldier of Jinhua, came to meet him as soon as possible. After a little bit of idle talk, he mentioned the request for deepening military reform and improving the combat effectiveness of the troops, and this is actually one of the goals of the people on the east coast this time, that is, to help the army under the command of King Lu improve its combat effectiveness and reduce the defense burden of the people on the east coast.

Of course, the people on the east coast urgently need to improve the combat effectiveness of King Lu's army, but this does not mean that they will provide services for King Lu for free, which is unrealistic, and the burden is too heavy, which is not a good choice. The most ideal way is to reform step by step its traditional, outdated, and inefficient military institutions, train and appoint qualified modern military personnel, and purchase modern weapons and equipment with the help of the East Coast Republic through economic cooperation with the ruling area on the east bank of Ningbo.

Obviously, in the process of modernizing King Lu's army, it is inseparable from the help of the military advisory group on the east coast, which has existed in Shun for a long time. They will rebuild King Lu's military command system, reserve system, and logistics supply system, and at the same time use Yantai University and Heishui Transportation College, two universities in the Far East, to help King Lu cultivate a series of related talents. Compared with these actions, adding some guns, armor and other military equipment is not the point, but I don't know how determined the Lu Wang's regime is to cooperate.

Of course, from the current point of view, the first step taken by both sides is very good. The Lu regime may have really been hurt by the Qing army, not once or twice, but many times, so the traditional conservative forces gradually declined, and the call for reform gradually became louder, so the issue of military reform with the help of the east coast should not be a big problem, the difference is only the degree of depth.

"This is a great opportunity. Many people in the small court of King Lu were angry at the weak combat effectiveness of the army, so they had a positive attitude towards military reform, and we should seize this opportunity. Although theoretically only responsible for economic affairs, Shao Shuguang still pointed out the military in front of most people, especially when the Bank of Taiwan had recently been approved to create a small army.

"Cultivating officers in the army of King Lu who have a good impression of us and who are influenced by us should be the primary goal. If possible, it is better to let these people climb step by step, to be able to command the army, and the benefits in this are undoubtedly very huge, and not for a moment, but for a long time. Shao Shuguang continued to talk loudly, only to hear him say: "Back then, we trained a lot of officers for Shunguo, which strengthened our influence on this regime, but when we wanted to go further, Shunguo was very vigilant, and their emperor was a cunning and sober guy who interrupted our plans. However, the Lu Wang's regime did not have the same conditions as Shunguo, his regime only had two million people, and the military system was also very primitive, which was an opportunity for us to play. Special Envoy Lü, when you were in Ningbo, did you discuss how much money it would cost to achieve the initial modernization of King Lu's army? ”

"Well, the preliminary estimate is about 20-300,000 yuan per year, and it will continue to be invested for 5-10 years. After all, the cultivation of talents takes time, and the reconstruction and run-in of the system requires constant thoughts, so if it is safe, the results can be seen in ten years, provided that the reform is not interrupted in the middle. Lu Fang stroked his beard and said.

"We can afford to wait five to ten years. After the first battle of Shaoxing Mansion, the Qing court should not dare to find fault with us in a short period of time, and it should be able to win a certain amount of peace. However, is it too much to invest two or three million yuan in ten years? How much money does the Lu regime pay a year now? There are many mountains in southern Zhejiang and little land in western Zhejiang, and they have been barren since ancient times, can they afford it? Although the Bank of Taiwan has already made plans for aid for trade, it is still difficult to say whether it will really achieve the desired goal. Shao Shuguang said to himself with some hesitation.

In his opinion, in addition to a mountain basin in Jinhua and Quzhou, the control area of King Lu's small court is not much, and there are lofty mountains everywhere, so you can imagine how poor this economic foundation is, which also seems to explain from one side why the combat effectiveness of King Lu's army is so poor and cannot afford to support it!

At present, the largest trade between the people in the ruling area of King Lu and the people on the east coast is probably the trade of tea and medicinal materials, but it is only more than 200,000 yuan per year, which is a bit chicken. In addition, there is also some small trade such as bamboo and lacquerware, which is also drunk, and even the area controlled by King Lu has to import a lot of goods from the east coast every year, and spend a lot of extra gold and silver.

"Captain Ma's meaning is to give them some military supplies, such as medicinal materials, gun butts, spear shafts, drums and other things, so that they can also earn some money. In addition, vigorously develop new trade! For example, the porcelain and stone ware produced in the prefecture, such as all kinds of fruits and poultry produced in Taizhou, such as the bamboo and tea produced in Wenzhou, such as the tea oil and tea oil produced in Quzhou, such as all kinds of medicinal materials and mountain and wild goods produced in Jinhua Mansion, etc., can be sold at the highest price in Ningshao and Denglai, and no import duties will be charged for the time being, and they will do their best to help them increase their trade volume so that they can have money to pay for military reform, and of course, the biggest part is the cost of supporting and maintaining the new army in the future, which is not a small amount. If we do not first develop the productive forces and increase the output in the jurisdiction, the future of these new armies will be worrying even if they are really established. "Before Lu Fang came, he also studied the products in King Lu's jurisdiction fiercely, which will be the first thing to say. But to be honest, he is still a little pessimistic, because there are many mountains and few places in Wufu under the jurisdiction of King Lu, and there is not a lot of household registration, and it is difficult to say whether there will be enough commodity output in the future.

Shao Shuguang nodded when he heard this, and agreed: "Okay, it's better to have special products than no special products." After a while, our Bank of Taiwan will set up a local specialty shop in each of the five prefectures and 30 counties in Luwangtou, specialize in purchasing local specialties, and then transport them back to Ningbo for sale either by sea or by land. In the case of exemption from import duties, there should still be a certain market. Even, our company can help King Lu introduce the goods to the Dutch, British, Koreans and Japanese, and whether they buy it depends on whether the ancestral tomb of his old Zhu family is smoking......"

"Ahem...... General Manager Shao, be cautious! Be careful! Hearing Shao Shuguang happily comment on the "ancestral tomb of the old Zhu family", Lu Fang hurriedly interrupted: "King Lu's ruling area may also lack some economic talents, whether this needs to be cultivated, we have to come up with a charter." Speaking of which, Fujian, ruled by the Zheng family next door, is also more mountainous and less landless, but the development of commerce is simply not the same as that of southern Zhejiang, which is a problem of the leader's concept, and it is also a problem of outdated understanding and lack of talent. In order to fully tap the potential of the two million people in the five prefectures and 30 counties in the Lu Dynasty, the cultivation of economic and political talents cannot be ignored, but I am afraid that this point is not easy. ”

"It doesn't matter. We will first make it easy and then difficult, taking advantage of the huge external pressure of King Lu's regime, to direct King Lu on how to walk through the baton of commercial trade, so that the situation will definitely change slowly. What are you worried about? King Lu's army is so weak, and the population is only similar to that of our current Ningshao ruling area, can it still run in the palm of our hands in the future? This time, King Lu and we are willing to fight and suffer, I think Captain Ma is already iron-hearted, and through this plan of killing two birds with one stone, he will completely tie King Lu's small separatist regime to our chariot, and let it become a chess piece in our hands to deal with various changes that may arise in the future. I'm not worried about whether this project will work out in the end, I just have some doubts about how long the process will take, but at this point, we can only go all the way. Shao Shuguang rubbed the Qingtian porcelain cup in front of him with both hands and said, "We are not worried about the Bank of Taiwan, what are you afraid of?" You know, we have already taken the biggest risk, I estimate, even if the trade with King Lu's ruling area is not smooth in the future, Captain Ma will ask our company to take at least 300,000 yuan a year to support King Lu's military reform, I know him too well, alas. ”

When Shao Shuguang complained like this, Lu Fang and the others all smiled knowingly, thinking that there was a high probability that this would happen. However, the Bank of Taiwan should not lose money, and this trade is actually still done, especially when the Lu Wang regime is relatively weak and needs to rely on the east coast to survive, and the political risk is almost negligible.

In contrast, the Bank of Taiwan has tried desperately to monopolize trade with the Zheng family in Fujian over the years, but it has been repeatedly frustrated, to put it bluntly, there is great political uncertainty, and the Zheng family is unwilling to hand over all goods to the Bank of Taiwan as an agent. This was not only because they had their own trading team, but also because they were wary of the East Coast fever, which fully demonstrated the relatively high independence of the Zheng regime in Fujian in front of the East Coast people (even more independent than the Li regime in Guangdong), which the Lu regime would never have been able to do. Without him, too far from heaven, too close to the east coast!

"In the past few days, everyone has suffered a little hardship and fatigue, so hurry up and sort out the thinking and form a formal document so that we can negotiate with King Lu's ministers. Take care of this, I will draw up a plan for the next stage of cooperation with the Dutch East India Company, and I will go to Fort Geranza in a short time. I just got the news that the war in the Dutch red-haired homeland has officially ended, and many plans will be changed in the next stage, so I have to worry a little more, forgive me, forgive me! Shao Shuguang said.