In the eighth year of Tongzhi, in May 1869 of the Western calendar, the Kingdom of Prussia.

At this time, Prussia was fighting hard, and the top management of the kingdom basically unanimously agreed that there must be a war with the French, and if Prussia, which was weak, wanted to win, it was necessary to work together to develop; Fortunately, the troika of the top of the Prussian kingdom was too powerful, King Wilhelm I, Prime Minister Bismarck, and Chief of the General Staff Moltke, all three of whom were masters of a generation, and under their helm, Prussia was moving at high speed towards the goal of victory.

With the support of a large number of orders and large advance payments, the monthly output of Mauser's new rifles (made in Hanyang) has reached 20,000 units, and as long as the new guns pass the inspection, they will be sent to the troops for installation, and it is believed that in the near future, the order for 500,000 new guns will be completed.

It's just that the new bullets that match it have not been successfully trial-produced so far, but fortunately, the Far East company has continuously transported the ammunition needed by the army, because of the long distance, the transportation is inconvenient, and the price of the bullets is very expensive, so the Prussian army training is limited to use, and one or two silver can only buy five bullets.

However, Prussia's opponent, France, still lived an unhurried and leisurely life, and in the heart of Napoleon III, the resentment towards Prussia became heavier and heavier, but he still did not take the poor and backward Prussia in his eyes.

Although Napoleon III succeeded his uncle Napoleon the Great, he did not inherit his uncle's eloquence; Our Eastern wisdom has this description: to despise the opponent's result is often to fail; Napoleon III was a strategic and tactical defiance of his opponents, and his final fate was self-evident.

In May 1869, Japan officially moved its capital to Tokyo, and last year the emperor Muhito, who changed the name of the era to Meiji, was determined to reinstate the government, and the government would enforce the policy of returning the copyrights, abolishing the policy of vassals and prefectures, dividing Japan into three prefectures and 72 prefectures, and establishing a centralized political system, and the clarion call for Japan's Meiji Restoration was officially sounded.

In the eighth year of Tongzhi, Zuo Zongtang officially marched into Shaanxi and Gansu and took action to pacify the Shaanxi and Gansu rebellion.

The Tongzhi Emperor in the Forbidden City is already fourteen years old, and the one who controls the Qing Empire is still the Empress Dowager of the Two Palaces, which is actually the Empress Dowager Cixi of the West, because the other Empress Dowager Ci'an is not very keen on court politics and her ability to handle government affairs is relatively weak. The fate of Emperor Tongzhi was both lucky and unlucky, fortunately he was born in the emperor's family, ascended the throne at the age of six, and unfortunately he had a mother who was infinitely passionate about power.

At this time, the Empress Dowager Cixi was worried about the fold in front of her, which was written by Zeng Guofan, the governor of Zhili, and at the end of the fold, he recommended Guo Songtao, who was currently at home, to serve as the governor of Zhejiang; A few days ago, Li Hongzhang, the governor of Huguang, recommended Peng Yulin to be the governor of Sichuan, and she knew that Peng Yulin, who had repeatedly resigned from the government before, but this time he was actually recommended by Li Hongzhang, which proved that the differentiation of the Hunan military system was becoming more and more serious, which was exactly what the imperial court was willing to see, so Li Hongzhang's recommendation was quickly approved by the imperial court.

Coincidentally, the governor of Zhejiang happened to be vacant. But is it appropriate to hand over such an important position to Zeng Guofan's henchmen? In recent years, Zeng Guofan has been much more low-key, such a recommendation has not been on for a long time, if the court does not allow it, Zeng Guofan will come to the old man and return to his hometown again, then the court will be passive. At the beginning, Emperor Xianfeng had promised that those who pacified the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom could be crowned king, but in the end, the Hunan army led by Zeng Guofan did it, and the court only named him a marquis.

If Zeng Guofan returns to his hometown again, won't the world say that the imperial court treats heroes harshly?

The current Miss Cixi is not the one who said it in her later years: measure the material resources of China and the joy of the country; After I die, no matter if it is a raging flood and other unscrupulous people, she still has to face now.

And that Ma Xinyi is also incompetent, and promoted him to be the governor of Liangjiang, hoping that he can find out some traces of the Zeng brothers who are greedy for money from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, but more than half a year has passed, and there is still no news.

This matter is complicated to say, Zeng Guoquan's army broke through Jiangning City and occupied the capital of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, but he actually reported to the court that he did not find any gold and silver treasures, and the Tianwang Mansion was also burned by Hong Xiuquan himself, who can believe this?

But the imperial court had no evidence and could only be left to the disposal of the Zeng brothers; The Hunan army must have made a fortune, but they are also reasonable, because the Hunan army's military salary has not been allocated by the imperial court, and it all depends on them to raise it themselves, so if they win the battle, the Hunan army can certainly share the spoils.

Alas, the more I thought about these things about Chen Sesame and rotten grain, the more annoying I became, Miss Cixi frowned, got up and walked a few steps, and An Dehai, the chief eunuch who served on the side, hurriedly walked a few steps, stretched out his right hand to act as a handrail for the Queen Mother, and waited for the Queen Mother to take a walk in Changchun Palace.

Three days later, the imperial court still granted Zeng Guofan's excerpt.

The Empress Dowager Cixi weighed it again and again, Zeng Guofan's influence was too great, and it was not yet time to tear his face, and the imperial court still needed these Han ministers to stabilize the country.

Guo Songtao, who heard the news, was overjoyed, and naturally felt grateful to his junior brother Liang Sihan.

Our young master Liang stayed in Hainan, training recruits day and night, and the army and navy ran at both ends.

The boot training camp has been held for two periods, and the shortage of officers at the grassroots level has finally improved. During this period, Huang Qiying, who was training in the inland cottage, sent him a Xiucai, whose surname was Tan Mingjikan, a native of Liuyang, Hunan Province, who was robbed to the cottage by bandits on the way to visit friends in Guangzhou.

The strange thing is that this Tan Xiucai did not leave in a hurry after being rescued, and after observing the training of the Liang family army for a few days, he actually proposed to join the Liang family army, which is to put pen to paper. Master Huang has always respected scholars, so he sent him to the Qiongzhou base.

There was a shortage of scholars on Liang Jiajun's side, and it was natural for a Xiucai to join, so Tan Xiucai was arranged to be a clerk in the military department. Young Master Liang, who was busy with military training, didn't pay special attention to this showman.

But soon Tan Xiucai revealed his ability to surprise Young Master Liang. Tan Xiucai, who had been in the Hainan base for more than a month, wrote a report and handed it to Young Master Liang. In his report, he fully affirmed Liang Jiajun's instructor system, believing that this system can strengthen the army's cohesion and combat effectiveness, and if this system can be further improved and strengthened, then even if Liang Jiajun expands its army to one million in the future, it will be able to pass through and issue orders, and command it like an arm!

Young Master Liang, who read this report, was shocked in his heart, Liang Jiajun's adoption of the instructor system was completely plagiarized from the system of the People's Liberation Army in his previous life, but Tan Xiucai could see the superiority of this system at a glance, could it be that he was also a traveler?

He immediately summoned Tan Xiucai.