"In terms of artillery, although it is lacking in terms of quantity alone, in fact, except for those earthen cannons captured from the Manchu Qing Dynasty and heavy artillery that are difficult to transport, artillery is even more lacking than muskets!" Zuo Zongtang continued to talk about artillery, "The entire usable artillery has been purchased from foreigners for a total of 1,200 pieces, of which 400 have recently arrived and have not been released to the army in the warehouse; The ones captured from the Manchu Qing Dynasty and those dismantled from the warships were counted together, and there were more than 6,000 in total, but only more than 1,800 of them could be used, and many of them were still difficult to move. In addition, the Imperial Arsenal produced dozens of small and medium-sized guns, and the Imperial Krupp Steel Company has also been producing, and it is currently capable of producing 2,000 guns a year. Now the empire has a total of 4,200 artillery pieces. Of course, compared with the newly reorganized artillery of the captured army, there is still a serious shortage of personnel. ”

Feng Yunshan knew from Zuo Zongtang that Moltke thought that artillery should be used intensively. However, the artillery establishment of the original first-class division remained unchanged, and the artillery regiment remained two to meet the requirements of the infantry division fighting alone. Five new pure artillery divisions were formed, each with 1 infantry regiment, a Congreve rocket regiment, 8 artillery regiments, 1 engineer regiment, as well as 1 special operations battalion and a logistics regiment, with the exception of the infantry regiment, which was 1,300 people, and the rest of the regiments were 600 people. Each artillery division needs 500 artillery pieces, so these five artillery divisions alone need 2,500 guns. Moreover, these artillery divisions were equipped with artillery, which could not be too small, and transportation had to be extremely convenient in order to ship the role of artillery. In this way, this artillery is indeed extremely lacking. Feng Yunshan calculated, it will take about 2 years, and the artillery can basically meet the needs of the army.

For the time being, the reserve and the militia will not be equipped with artillery.

Zuo Zongtang reported to Feng Yunshan with an excited face: "Your Majesty, the conscription that has started nationwide now has basically ended. A total of 150,000 new recruits were recruited for this conscription. Because of these recruits, a group of soldiers who originally belonged to the Manchu surrendered troops were cleared out of the ranks, and they were ordered to return to their hometowns to cultivate the land and become reserves. In addition to replenishing all 40 infantry divisions, the recruited recruits also equipped with a river water division and four offshore fleets on the naval side, and in addition, there were 70,000 troops left, and in addition to the five newly established artillery divisions, two new infantry divisions could be built. In addition, in this conscription, surplus troops were also recruited, and reserve forces and local militia organizations were gradually established. ”

Feng Yunshan nodded with satisfaction and praised: "Yes, no matter how the reorganization of the captive army is this time, the expansion of the army is the first priority, and you have done a good job." Next, it is necessary to strengthen the army and the elite soldiers, and first and foremost improve the military quality of generals and grassroots officers. Zuo Aiqing, you have to pay close attention to the establishment of a military academy in the army, this is your focus, as for the rest, let Lao Maozi do it, and you will do it. ”

When Feng Yunshan said this, he regarded Zuo Zongtang as a real confidant. Of course, the meaning of his words is nothing more than that you are actually the person I trust the most, don't look at me letting Moltke do things around, in fact, they are all miscellaneous things, and what you have to do is the point. However, what made Feng Yunshan depressed was that Zuo Zongtang gently reminded: "Your Majesty, General Mao Qi can understand some Chinese." ”

Feng Yunshan was stunned for a moment, and then with an embarrassed look on his face, he just wanted to say something, but he saw Liu Shengbang and Wu Chongyao running over in a hurry.

Feng Yunshan saw that he could resolve his embarrassment, and hurriedly turned to Liu Shengbang and Wu Chongyao, and asked, "Wu Aiqing is in such a hurry, why is it the matter?" ”

Wu Chongyao played respectfully: "Back to Your Majesty, the previous time I begged the captive army to send troops to Annan, and recovered the entire Annan into two provinces. When the Western France and Britain knew about it, the British Minister Bao Ling and the French Minister Bourblon came to Nanking from Hong Kong Island to protest to His Majesty, and made many demands in passing, and the tone was very tough. ”

"Oh, the ministers of these two countries haven't come to me for a long time, and the last time I ascended the throne, I only sent a congratulatory watch, and I didn't even come to congratulate me in person. It's rude, and now I'm just recovering the homeland of China, what are they jumping out to do? Feng Yunshan is very dissatisfied, now the situation is different, he is the emperor of the empire, he is no longer the so-called "Cantonese thief and thief", treat these two foreigners, even if they are ministers, they can't be too equal, after all, he represents the entire Chinese empire, and it is related to the overall dignity of China. Until this time, he somewhat understood the mentality of Daoguang and Xianfeng at the beginning.

"Your Majesty, Wechen inquired from the side, and this incident was mainly caused by the French Minister Bourblon. They had always had an attempt against Annam, and had tried to use Annam as their French stronghold in the Far East years earlier, but had been rejected by the Nguyen dynasty. Later, they were ready to use force, but the sudden outbreak of the Crimean War interrupted their plans. They originally planned to attack Annam as soon as the war ended, but unexpectedly, things seemed to have changed, the Crimean War lasted longer than expected, and it is not over yet, but we have recovered Annam, which is equivalent to taking the fat they want, so the French emperor sent him to warn us, and demanded that we withdraw from Annam, otherwise we will be punished with the British. Wu Chongyao told the truth of the matter.

"Sanctions? It's a declaration of war, right? Feng Yunshan sneered: "The empire is just recovering the territory that originally belonged to our Huaxia, what does it have to do with them?" European countries, running to the territory of China to point fingers, want me to spit out the fat in my mouth, I want to be beautiful! I'm not a soft bastard like the Manchu Dog Emperor. Wu Aiqing, have they arrived in Shengjing? ”

"Exactly! Your Majesty, it has been two days since they arrived in Shengjing. Wechen always wanted to send them away, but no matter what, they insisted on meeting His Majesty in person, making their protests to His Majesty in person, and negotiating with His Majesty. ”

"Negotiations?" Feng Yunshan was happy, it seemed that this foreigner also knew that Annan, who had already reached his mouth, would not spit it out, so he thought of getting a piece of the pie by negotiating nonsense. It must be so. However, it is also possible to deliberately negotiate perfunctory to oneself in the first place, to form an illusion that one will delay until the end of the Crimean War and then directly declare war on oneself?

In any case, they cannot be resolved directly by force at this stage, and can only be negotiated through negotiations.

"In that case, let them come, I want to see how they want to threaten me!" Feng Yunshan actually wanted to understand their hole cards through contact with Bao Ling and Burbulon, so as to find out what happened in the Crimean War.

For the news on the European side, it is too closed. Although Guo Songtao has been sent as a special envoy to Europe to build an office and spy on intelligence, after all, it has just been developed, and it is only in the homeland of several European powers, and it is too time-consuming to go back and forth. Therefore, Feng Yunshan was eager to know the progress of the Crimean War. According to the original trajectory of history, by this time, Russia should have been defeated and signed the "Paris Peace Treaty" with Britain, France, Turkey, Sardinia and other countries in Paris, but in fact, so far, Feng Yunshan has not received the news of the end of the Crimean War and its signing.

Feng Yunshan knew that this was also the butterfly effect caused by his coming to this world, but he didn't know where the specific reason was. He just sent someone to bring the British female nurse pioneer Nightingale to China, founded a nursing school in Guangzhou, and organized hundreds of injured patients to go to the college every day for the nurses there to practice. Could this alone affect the outcome of the entire Crimean War?

Feng Yunshan didn't believe it, there must be other reasons, but he didn't know. In any case, for themselves, for the Chinese Empire, the longer the Crimean War is fought, the better! [.]