After the coordination of Xi Benzhen and Shen Xiang, at dusk, the Weng family could only survive with a broken arm, and honestly handed over the eldest son Weng Gongjin, who contacted Liangshan Liukou, and 100,000 taels of silver owed to pay Tianfu.

According to the agreement reached with Xi and Shen's two families, Fang Yuan returned to Suzhou City with the silver and Weng Gongjin, who was tied up with a lot of flowers.

He was willing to accept the peace of the Xi and Shen families, but he didn't really let go of the Weng family.

According to the land information book obtained by Fang Yuan, 150,000 mu of more than 200,000 mu of forest land suitable for building a large military base on the edge of Taihu Lake was controlled by several business families of the Dongting Merchant Gang. Among them, the Weng family accounted for 70,000 mu, the Xi family accounted for 50,000 mu, and the Shen family accounted for 30,000 mu.

Shang Zhan killed the Weng family, and one of Fang Yuan's goals was the Weng family's 70,000 acres of woodland on the edge of Taihu Lake. The rash use of force to execute the Weng family will inevitably cause a full-scale backlash from the Dongting merchant gang, and it is far away to expropriate these forest lands for the construction of military bases.

Land is the most important thing in a small-scale peasant society, and land expropriation must not simply be suppressed by pure force. Because as soon as this Pandora's box was opened, there was no difference between the other side and the rogue who fought the local tyrants and divided the land, and even the violent conquest of Jiangnan by the Manchus was only a targeted massacre of certain areas of resistance, rather than a large-scale confiscation of land.

Suzhou Mansion, and even the entire Nanjing Mansion, although they dare not openly oppose Fang Yuan, they will inevitably be afraid of him, and once there is a stir, they will fight back. seems to have unlimited scenery, but Li Zicheng, who was in the north, was defeated by the Manchu Qing Dynasty and could not turn over, which is the reason.

Now Fang Yuan has negotiated the conditions with the officials of the Suzhou government; The Xi family and the Shen family of the Dongting Merchant Gang also temporarily reconciled; Qian Qianyi and the Weng family were lucky not to be wiped out, and now it is difficult to protect themselves, so they don't dare to come to Fang Yuan's trouble again.

After a month of operation, Fang Yuan's situation has been greatly improved compared to when he first entered Suzhou City, since the forces of all parties have almost stopped, leaving a thousand brocade guards in Suzhou City, it is enough to deal with any unexpected situation.

The Xuanjia Army and the Shenji Battalion staying in Suzhou City all day long is also a disturbance to the people, and it is not conducive to maintaining the morale and combat effectiveness of the army.

Fang Yuan arranged for Jing Jie, Chigutai, and Su Hongyu to lead the Xuanjia Army and the Shenji Battalion to Suzhou Wei outside Suzhou City.

There are two guards and one military port of the Ming army in Suzhou Prefecture, the two guards are Suzhou Wei and Taicang Wei, and the military port is Zhenhaiwei.

Fang Yuan conveyed to Jing Jie on the road five tasks for rectifying military affairs.

The first task was to investigate the situation of the three guards of Suzhou Prefecture eating empty salaries.

Thoroughly investigate the situation of Suzhou Wei, Taicang Wei, Zhenhaiwei and other three guard sergeants eating empty salaries, and the old, weak, sick and disabled sergeants are full, and form two reports to be submitted to Fang Yuan for review, one is true and the other can be announced to the public.

Eating empty salaries, the old, the weak, the sick and the disabled are the unwritten unspoken rules of the Ming army.

Xu Guangqi once played Chongzhen, when he counted the Ming military guard in Gyeonggi, there were only more than 7,000 people in the 10,000-strong Ming army parade, most of them were still old, weak, sick and disabled, only 2,000 people could be called 'soldiers', and less than 200 people could be called elite.

In other words, in the 10,000-strong Ming army, there are less than 200 elite soldiers who can compete with the Manchu iron cavalry.

At that time, Yuan Chonghuan had 150,000 troops, and he only dared to hide on the city wall and pile up cannons, which was reasonable. Because among the 150,000 Ming troops, it is thankful that there can be 10,000 elites. And the elite, who was less than 10,000, went out of the city to fight a field battle with Huang Taiji's 60,000 Manchu iron cavalry, which was borrowed from Yuan Chonghuan's courage, and he didn't dare.

In the change of his own life back then, Yuan Chonghuan only brought a mere 9,000 cavalry back to the Beijing Division, but it was not that he supported the troops and was self-respecting. But these 9,000 cavalry are the only elite of the Guanning army, and the remaining tens of thousands of sergeants who stayed in Ningyuan are on the battlefield, and they will be frightened when they encounter the Manchu iron cavalry, and they are the rabble used by the Guanning army to defraud Chongzhen's military salary.

Even the 1,000 Xuanjia Army under Fang Yuan's command is enough to easily sweep away the old remnants of the three guards in Suzhou Mansion with one as ten and fifty. Therefore, Fang Yuan wanted to personally form the Xuanjia Army, and every head must be a real fight, and he would never rely on the so-called guards to fill the number indiscriminately.

Of course, Fang Yuan had not yet gained a firm foothold in Suzhou Mansion, and would never take the initiative to touch the hornet's nest where the Ming army of the Suzhou Mansion Guard was eating empty salaries. In the current Suzhou Mansion, the Ming army, bureaucrats, gentry, and wealthy merchants have not yet been connected, so Fang Yuan was given various opportunities to break through. If these parties form a joint force, Fang Yuan will face much more severe difficulties if he wants to integrate Suzhou Prefecture.

Fang Yuan ordered Jing Jie to check clearly, and he also had a good idea of the situation of the Ming army in the Suzhou Mansion Guard. In the future, once there is a war, it will be clear which one is the elite, which one can go to the battlefield, and which one is only worthy of staying in the guard post to make up the numbers.

The second task is the integration of the army.

The Xuanjia Army, the Shenji Battalion, and the Ming Army of the Three Guards of Suzhou Prefecture under the command of General Fang Yuan. Strive to select 500 to 1,000 elite and strong soldiers who can ride and fight in the Ming army of Suzhou Prefecture and 1,000 sergeants of the Shenji Battalion to supplement the main elite Xuanjia army.

The most basic principle is to prefer shortage to abundance. Recruiting non-commissioned officers who are afraid of death is indiscriminately filled, and going to the battlefield will lead to unpredictable consequences.

Then check the armament of the Xuanjia Army, including the Thunderbolt Gun, the Three-Eyed Gun, the Five Thunder God Machine, explosion-proof equipment, Hongyi cannons, various medium-sized artillery, gunpowder, lead bullets, and other armaments. According to the standard of unified allocation, if there is a deficiency or loss, a procurement list will be sorted out and the procurement will be carried out centrally.

The third task is to carry out the mobilization of the army.

The Xuanjia Army, which is really capable of fighting, and the Xuanjia Army brought from the capital to be stationed in Suzhou Wei for professional drills; The rest of the indiscriminate charges were all thrown to Taicang Wei and Zhenhaiwei.

It can not only ensure the military spirit and military strength of the Xuanjia Army, but also support it if Suzhou City changes sharply. And throwing those old and remnant soldiers far away to Taicang Wei and Zhenhaiwei is also to prevent these soldiers from colluding with some opposition forces in Suzhou City and plotting against them.

The fourth task is to choose a suitable location and build a large military base suitable for training cavalry and sailors.

Suzhou Wei did not have a horse farm for cavalry training, and it was not a good place to train musketeers, so it was necessary to find a suitable place to be used as a horse farm and establish a military base.

The training of sailors is related to the southward extermination of the sea merchant Zheng Zhilong, as well as the Francophone fleets such as the Dutch and Portuguese who occupied the territory of the Ming Dynasty, and must be put on the agenda.

Although Zhenhaiwei is a good naval base, it is completely defenseless because Zhenhaiwei's sailors are overwhelmed. If the naval base is built in Zhenhaiwei, it will not be able to defend itself against foreign attacks.

Before Fang Yuan's sailor fleet began to take shape, no matter whether he supervised the sailor or trained the navy, he could not stay in Zhenhaiwei.

It is urgent to build an amphibious military base capable of training cavalry and naval divisions.

According to Fang Yuan's previous agreement with Jing Jie, this military base should be built on the edge of Taihu Lake, covering an area of at least 200,000 mu. The waterway of Taihu Lake to the Yangtze River has been opened up in the Spring and Autumn Period of Wu State, when Wu State was a sailor who practiced in Taihu Lake, and could go to sea through the mouth of the Yangtze River.

Fang Yuan told Jing Jie to go to the edge of Taihu Lake to find a place where he could build a military base, and also to explore the number of fishermen who needed to move 200,000 mu of land, the amount of silver spent, and the amount of silver needed to build a large sergeant base.

The fifth task was to invite Bi Maokang, a Ming Dynasty firearms master who lived in seclusion in Nanjing, to build a large-scale military factory specializing in the manufacture of domestic muskets and firearms together with Tang Ruowang, a Western firearms expert, and the Ming Dynasty Shenji Battalion and Franco machine craftsmen brought from the capital.

Before the completion of the large-scale military merit factory, a firearms research institute should be set up to do relevant theoretical research, and the firearms manufacturing house in Suzhou Prefecture should first do preliminary practical demonstrations, so that large-scale production can be carried out when the original large-scale military base is completed.

In Fang Yuan's plan, firearms similar to the Bird Gun, the Three-Eyed Gun, the Five Thunder God Machines, and even the Thunderbolt God Gun and the Hongyi Cannon, were all to be phased out.

The firearms manufactured by the military factories are at least breech-loading flintlock pistols that are more powerful than the thunderbolt and Hongyi cannons, including breech-loading guns that can be used in land and naval battles.

Fang Yuan specially purchased the principle drawings of the breech-loading flintlock pistol and breech gun on Taobao for Bi Maokang, as well as Tang Ruowang and others to study.

In order to avoid leaking military technical secrets, Fang Yuan strictly ordered Jing Jie to closely monitor this group of firearms experts involved in the development of new firearms, and no drawings, data, or even these firearms experts themselves were allowed to leave the institute without Fang Yuan's permission.

Fang Yuan explained these five urgent military affairs, and then found Chigutai and assigned him a task, that is, to take a hundred musketeers to Shandong to contact Liangshan Liukou, and in the Grand Canal of Yanzhou Mansion, rob the merchant ships of the Weng family that went north to sell silk and cloth, and completely cut off the Weng family's trade route to the north.

After the robbery, the silver was divided equally with Liangshan Liukou, and another 2,000 war horses were purchased from the horse farms in Gyeonggi, Shandong, and Huaibei, and then transported back to Suzhou via the Grand Canal.

Whether it is to buy or raise war horses in Jianghuai, the cost is indeed higher than that in northern Xinjiang. But back then, Zhu Yuanzhang was able to organize a cavalry of 20,000 or 30,000 to successfully make a northern expedition with the base area of Nanjing, and Fang Yuan asked himself that he should be able to do it.

If the Xuanjia Army can have 30,000 elite musketeer cavalry, it will be enough to have a hard-fought field battle with the iron cavalry of the Manchu Eight Banners.

At present, the cavalry battalion of the Xuanjia Army only has more than 1,000 elites, and after integrating the three guards of Suzhou Prefecture, this number can be increased to 2,000.

Jing Jie led the sergeants of the Xuanjia Army and the Shenji Battalion to Suzhou Wei to station, Fang Zheng entered the city and joined Qin Zhan's Jinyi Guard, escorted Weng Gongjin directly to the petition office, and ordered Lexing's bereaved family Zhou to come to watch the execution.

Fang originally announced that Weng Gongjin was the murderer of the five Jinyi Guards, and then ordered the Jinyi Guards to shoot Weng Gongjin, who was so frightened that he lost his three souls and seven souls, on the spot, which was regarded as an example.

Seeing that the revenge had been avenged, the Zhou family kowtowed to Fang Yuan again and again to thank him.

Fang Yuan knew that this time was really a helpless compromise, at least Weng Yang, the head of the Weng family, was still alive and well, killing Weng Gongjin was only a bit of interest, and he was still 108,000 miles away from revenge.