Zhang Yi chatted with Kang Youwei and his entourage for a whole morning, and entertained them at noon, and finally said goodbye.

The next day, Zhang Yi rode directly and rushed back to Tianjin on horseback with a few entourages, there was no way that the time was too tight, and he even recruited and retrained, only had more than a month to do, and he couldn't hurry up if he didn't want to.

The next day, Zhang Yi had already arrived in Tianjin and went directly to see Li Hongzhang.

When Li Hongzhang saw Zhang Yi, he smiled and said: "Jianzhi, Jianzhi, haha, the emperor gave the table, this is an unprecedented honor." ”

Zhang Yi hurriedly thanked him and asked, "Lord Zhongtang, my subordinates have been in the capital for the past few days, I don't know how the recruitment of troops in Tianjin and Baoding is going?" ”

Li Hongzhang laughed and said: "Haha, Jianzhi, this recruitment is something you would never have imagined." On the day you got up, I posted a notice, as soon as I heard that it was you, Zhang Jianzhi, a hero of the foreign war, who personally returned to the country to recruit soldiers, and the people who signed up for the army in the recruitment office were really crowded, and they were crowded, and in a few days, 4,000 people had been recruited in Tianjin, if it weren't for Zhao Shixiao listening to you, the personnel who joined the army would have been strictly controlled, and the recruitment of posts would have been completed a long time ago, but, even so, I think that tomorrow, at the latest tomorrow afternoon, Tianjin side, 5,000 posts will be recruited. On the Baoding side, Li Gang also sent news that the posts would be full in the next two days, and then they would be arranged in a unified manner and assigned to various battalions. We recruited troops in the Qing Dynasty, and it has been a long time since there has been such a hot scene. ”

Zhang Yi was overjoyed when he heard this, this is a good thing, he was worried that he was not satisfied with the quota recruitment, and it was almost full in only five days before he thought about it.

Zhang Yi hurriedly smiled and said: "This is not relying on your prestige, Lord Zhongtang, otherwise, how could the recruitment of troops progress so quickly." ”

Li Hongzhang said with a smile: "Jianzhi, don't put gold on the old man's face, this is all the face of you, a national hero, but some people outside said that if you follow General Zhang to fight, even if you don't have a salary, you are willing." I just want to follow General Zhang to the front of the battle to kill the enemy and brighten the majesty of our Qing Dynasty. Hehe, Jianzhi, you have to work hard, and really train the best soldiers. ”

Zhang Yi said with a smile: "Lord Zhongtang, don't worry, your subordinates will definitely not let you down." ”

Two days passed, and Zhao Shixiao reported to Zhang Yi that now that the 5,000 new troops had been recruited, how to make arrangements.

Zhang Yi said: "Brother Shixiao, don't worry, these days are hard enough, take a day off first, compared to Brother Li Gang, who has already recruited soldiers, these days will feel Tianjin, the two new armies will be merged into one place, and we will start to unify the training." ”

After another two days, on the eleventh day, Li Gang led these ten battalions of new troops to Tianjin, and now these two soldiers are in one place, gathering 10,000 people at once, just eating and drinking Lazar is enough to be busy, fortunately, Li Hongzhang had the foresight, as early as the beginning of recruitment, he had already packed out the simple barracks, so that these new troops could live in, otherwise, Zhang Yi would be tired to death, and he would not be busy.

At night, Zhang Yi, who was sweating profusely, sat on Li Hongzhang's side, and Li Hongzhang smiled: "Why, Jianzhi, it's a little unbearable, hehe, suddenly there are 10,000 more deployments, and anyone has to be in a hurry." ”

Zhang Yi was a little embarrassed, it seemed that he was still a little tender, there was no problem with marching and fighting, but when he dealt with the rest, his inexperienced weakness was revealed, if it wasn't for Li Hongzhang's strong help, I was afraid, I would really make people laugh.

Zhang Yi hurriedly thanked: "Lord Zhongtang, this matter depends on your strong help, otherwise, my subordinates really don't know what to do." ”

Li Hongzhang waved his hand and said: "Jianzhi, you only need to train the troops, and the rest will naturally have the old man to deal with it for you, although there are enough people training under your command, but the lack of logistics, baggage and other personnel is a bit powerful, so let's do it, the old man will allocate some people from Tianjin for you to use, otherwise this new army will have to be chaotic." The expenses for the training of the new army by the imperial court have also been allocated, and the first one has allocated 500,000 taels to you, which is not a small amount. Barely able to support a period of time, as for the guns, the storage in the arsenals in Tianjin, Baoding and Beijing should be barely enough, don't worry about the Mauser fast guns produced by the German Mauser company, these guns are all negotiated by the old man, I can't hide it from me, so let you use it first. It's just that there are not many heavy artillery, and for these 10,000 horses, I can only equip you with forty Krupp heavy guns, and in addition, I am equipped with sixty ordinary artillery, which can only be so much. ”

Zhang Yi hurriedly thanked him: "Thank you for your kindness, your subordinates will never forget your great kindness." ”

Li Hongzhang waved his hand, and then said: "We are all working for Chaotian, needless to say politely, the old man is old, I don't know how many years I can live, this Beiyang will be handed over to you young people sooner or later, work hard." ”

Zhang Yi thanked him again and again.

Immediately afterwards, Zhang Yi began to adjust the deployment of the entire new army, according to the will of the imperial court, Zhang Yi was appointed as the commander of the new army, and concurrently served as the commander of the Yi word department, the five battalions of the Yi word department are Wu Peifu's new army battalion, the new army second battalion, the pipe band is the blue wolf detachment leader Zheng Hao, the new army third battalion, the pipe band blue wolf detachment leader Ling Chuanqing, the new army four battalions, the pipe band is the blue wolf detachment leader Mo Qi, this is the first elite of the new army, and it also constitutes the military foundation of Zhang Yi's future development.

The Zhongzi Department is Li Gang, the deputy chief officer, and the five battalions below are also the backbone forces brought from the Lutai Training Army.

The Haozi Department is Zhao Shixiao, the deputy commander-in-chief, and the five battalions below are filled with the backbone of the Lutai training army;

At the same time, Zhang Yi appointed Xu Huaijin as the general staff of the new army, which is a promotion to the next level, Xu Huaijin is definitely not good on qualifications, but he can't help but have outstanding ability, study in Germany, and then receive strict training from Zhang Yi, he is really the first assistant under Zhang Yi, and he is a civil and military all-rounder, but unfortunately Xu Huaijin is still held by Nie Shicheng, and Zhang Yi has no choice but to use Nie Shicheng for a period of time.

Next, Zhang Yiyou appointed Wang Wu as the chief martial arts instructor of the New Army, responsible for the martial arts and assassination training of the New Army.

Everything was arranged, Zhang Yi planted all the blue wolves he brought into the new army, five blue wolf instructors in each battalion, Zhang Yi ordered, I trained them with all my might, and I must let them form combat effectiveness as soon as possible. It was in this dark environment that the New Army began its inhumane training.

At this time, the fifth king of the big sword is also making final arrangements.