Xuanjun's sailor yamen has been catching up with the regulations of the sailor in the past two days. In order to approve Ding Ruchang's request, Guan Zhuofan allowed the establishment of a water division grain station in the yamen, and the water master's salary was distributed through here in the future.

Shui Yong's monthly salary, the lowest is five and a half, and it increases step by step. This number is a little higher than the sailors of the Hunan army, and at the same time, compared with the sailors of the Hunan army, the sailors of the Xuan army also have the position of interpreter.

On the Jintai ship, there are four interpreters, and the Baiyue ship is three, in addition to a very good salary, they can also receive a bonus at the end of the year, which is a compensation for the perennial water life.

In the fleet, from Edward to Edward, there were a total of 77 foreign officers and men, and their salaries were specified in the contracts between the two sides, and according to Li Taitai's private statement to Guan Zhuofan, this salary was not only much higher than that of the Chinese officers and men, but also nearly twice as high as that of the Royal Navy officers and men on the British gunboat Wusongkou.

"There is no way," Li Tai said with a shrug of his shoulders at the time, "without such a salary, who wants to quit the Royal Navy?" ”

Guan Zhuofan knew that his statement was not true, such a high salary was just a means for him to invite the hearts of the soldiers, so that the officers and soldiers under him would absolutely obey his own command, and it was not him who paid the bill anyway.

If you can buy it, I can buy it too, isn't it seventy-seven people?

Double it!

This amount of money is really not small, but according to Ding Ruchang, for at least a year, the two gunboats are inseparable from foreigners, and considering a possible change in the future, Guan Zhuofan can't help but be ruthless. Make such a decision.

The fleet is formed. Soon the drill began on the Pujiang River. Every time I go out on a tour, there are crowds of spectators along the river. The intrigues surrounding the fleet are not clear to the common people, they just simply think that this is our Chinese warship, so the cheers and admiration are all from the heart.

However, there were also three people who watched it and were not so happy.

Two of them. It was the French consul Aitang and the American consul Charles, who saw very clearly Britain's intention to intervene in the construction of the Chinese navy by arranging this Aspen fleet, and naturally had a dissatisfaction in their hearts.

The other is Guan Zhuofan.

"Ruchang, what is hanging on your ship?" In the evening, Guan Zhuofan boarded the Jintai as the flagship and greeted Great Edward. After expressing condolences, they dined in Ding Ruchang's cabin. At this moment, he said to Ding Ruchang casually, "Take a side and show me." ”

He was talking about the military flag, and on the mainmast of the Jintai and Baiyue, a green flag was hung and waved in the wind.

The spare military flag was quickly retrieved, and when it was unfolded on the countertop, it was indeed a triangular flag with a yellow cross on a green background, and a yellow embroidered dragon in the center.

The Yellow Dragon Banner is the national flag of the future Qing Dynasty.

"Edward said that this is the military flag designed by Mr. Li Taitai for the fleet."

With you say? Guan Zhuofan glanced at Ding Ruchang, he knew this period of history very well.

The Aspen fleet, anyway, is also a fleet purchased by China, but Li Tai arbitrarily designed this nondescript flag according to his own preferences as the military flag of the fleet. What is even more ridiculous is that the Qing Dynasty did not have a "national flag", since it was heard that there was a need to fly the national flag on the ship, in history, it was simply this triangular flag as its own national flag.

How can such a big thing be designed by Li Tai?

Naturally, it should be designed by me, Guan Zhuofan.

He squinted at Ding Ruchang and said in an official tone: "Then what do you think, is this flag good-looking?" ”

Pretty...... Still doesn't look good? Ding Ruchang heard that the tone of the handsome man was not good, hesitated for a moment, and suddenly realized.

"It's not good-looking, it's not good-looking," Ding Ruchang shook his head like a rattle, and said solemnly, "The military flag of the Xuan Army Naval Division should naturally be handed over by the marshal." ”

"Uh-huh, that makes sense." A smile appeared on Guan Zhuofan's face, "Since even you said so, I had to reluctantly embarrass it." ”

After the tacit play is done, the matter of the military flag is over. Guan Zhuofan planned to go back and move the book, and Bao Ding Ruchang was a deputy general -- of course, this was not because Ding Ruchang was able to "look up to his will". The responsibility of the water master is heavy, and his official rank must be commensurate with the status of the Xuanjun water division.

Guan Zhuofan has always looked at Ding Ruchang differently, especially the sentence he said, "Sailors can form an army independently", which made Guan Zhuofan feel deeply rooted in my heart. In any case, as the commander of the Beiyang Naval Division, Ding Ruchang has been proven by history to prove his talent and integrity - when he was in a desperate situation, he refused Ito Youheng's persuasion to surrender and committed suicide by taking poison. And the fall of the Beiyang Navy, although it cannot be said that he is not responsible, but the main cause of defeat is probably still in the imperial court and Li Hongzhang.

The current Ding Ruchang is still a young and calm, humble and studious general. Guan Zhuofan thought to himself, since such a person is under his own account, it shows that the fate of history may have taken a turn.

Ding Ruchang, I will give you a chance to wash away that shame with your own hands.

I'm going to let you run rampant in the East.

*

*

The affairs of the fleet were handled very easily, but on land, the Huai army that entered Taicang in the north and the Xuan army that swept south from Kunshan seemed to be in the same way, and they both encountered big trouble.

The Huai army spent a lot of effort and fought with the Taiping army that was harassing along the way, and finally approached the city of Taicang and began to attack the city. Cai Yuanlong, the "king of the meeting" who defended the city, was the son-in-law of Yang Xiuqing, the original king of the east, although Yang Xiuqing was killed by Hong Xiuquan, Cai Yuanlong remained loyal and resisted very resolutely. The fierce attack and defense have been fighting for seven or eight days, and only then began to show signs that the city could not be supported, and after two more days, Cai Yuanlong finally sent someone to send a letter, expressing his willingness to open the city.

Li Hongzhang was naturally overjoyed, and under his selfish intentions, he sent his third brother Li Hezhang to lead his headquarters into the city to receive this merit. However, he felt that Li Hezhang was still a little younger, so he sent the fierce general Cheng Xueqi to bring two other battalions of people into the city together.

This arrangement saved the life of his third brother. The Huai army that entered the city, the brigade was about to finish, and suddenly there were gunshots on both sides of the city and the road, crossbow arrows were fired, and the city gate was rumbling and closing. In the rush of the Huai army, there was a great chaos, and Li Hezhang was shot twice in the left arm and left leg, and fell from his horse. Fortunately, Cheng Xueqi, who was walking behind, did not panic, and sent a battalion of people to block the gate desperately backwards, and sent another battalion to fight forward, snatching Li Hezhang out of the city in the end.

Cai Yuanlong's deception made Li Hongzhang fill in thousands of people in vain, and his heart was painful. And because of this, the morale of the Huai army was greatly reduced, although they knew that the Xuan army was already waiting for them in Kunshan, but the day of conquering Taicang had to be postponed.

What Xuan Jun encountered was another trouble -- they couldn't handle the Taihu Lake sailor of Tang Zhengcai, the "King of Navigation".

After Guan Zhuofan returned to Shanghai from Kunshan, Ding Shijie followed his orders to take Wujiang County and Zhenze County south of Kunshan to clear the periphery and prepare for the next attack on Suzhou. So Wu Jianying's Jianzi Regiment and the Foreign Gun Regiment were used to defend Kunshan, while the other two battalions of the Xuan Army Horse Regiment, the Kezi Regiment, the German Regiment, and the Foreign Gun Regiment, totaling more than 8,000 people, swept south.

At the beginning of the war, it was very smooth, first defeated the 4,000 people of "Tianfu" Zhang Anyi in Jinjiaba, and then broke six camps of the Taiping Army in Baqi Town, Zuihou was in an ancestral hall five miles outside the town, Jiang De personally captured another "Tianfu" Ji Ming, and became the first senior general of the Taiping Army to be captured in this march.

However, when it reached the edge of Taihu Lake, the situation was not right.

Suzhou Mansion is a total of nine counties and one hall, and this hall is called Taihu Hall. Three hundred miles of Taihu Lake, sparkling and vast, as far as the eye can see, are all under the jurisdiction of Taihu Lake Hall, and Wujiang and Zhenze counties are both west of Taihu Lake. The Taiping army was here, not to mention the shore barriers, but more importantly, there were hundreds of large and small warships of the Taihu Lake Naval Division, cruising back and forth, and the momentum of the Xuan army's attack was immediately blocked, and after two days of fighting, they could not advance an inch.

The reason why it is difficult to move an inch is, firstly, the artillery fire on the ship, which can provide strong support for the Taiping army camps on the shore, and secondly, the Taiping army uses ships to communicate with the camps, and can replenish the soldiers' rations, grass and ammunition at any time.

Another trouble lies in the fact that the ships of the Taiping Navy can choose a place to dock at any time to raid the supplies and rear of the Xuan army. Because of this, Ding Shijie, who has always been steady, refused to blindly attack. In this way, the battle is extremely uncomfortable, and this situation has never been seen in Xuan Jun since his debut.

"What the hell am I 'King of Navigation', if the field cannon can come up, I will sink his broken ships!" Daniel Zhang couldn't help but curse.

On the shore of Taihu Lake, the water network is vertical and horizontal, there are countless small rivers and small rivers, but it has rained again, and the artillery carriages of the Xuan army are running hard, and the power is inevitably greatly reduced. And even if they can get up, they must not come and go freely along the lake like the warships of the Taiping Army, so to say that "bombardment and sinking" is actually self-deceptive and angry.

Knowing that it could not be done, Daniel Zhang turned to scold the Taihu Lake sailor of the Xiang army: "I grass his mother's Li Chaobin, I can't take the long-haired sailor, how can we fight?" ”

Daniel Zhang was not wrong to scold - the official army was in Taihu Lake, and there was also a Taihu Lake Water Division, which was subordinate to the Xiang Army and led by the named Governor Li Chaobin, the purpose of which was to exterminate the Taihu Lake Water Division of the Taiping Army, but after a long battle without success, he was forced into a cramped corner, so who did not scold him?

However, the king of the Taiping Army was indeed not easy to match, and in Poyang Lake, he had defeated the main force of Peng Yulin's Hunan Army Naval Division, forcing Zeng Guofan to commit suicide by diving. To be fair, Li Chaobin is really not an opponent.

Ding Shijie was in a dilemma, so he had to send someone back to Kunshan, and sent a telegram to Guan Zhuofan, who was in Shanghai, through the newly built Haode telegraph room, asking him to instruct him to see if the marshal had any new deployment.

After waiting for two days, Dashuai's return call was delivered, a total of two. Several generals gathered together and watched Ding Shijie open the first telegram, but only five words were written on it.

"I also have a water master."

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