Linghai General Chen Qice's posthumous affairs were extremely glorious, because the old general did not have much wealth in front of him, so Zhou Shixiang took out 3,000 taels of silver and handed it to Chen Qice's eldest son Chen Shibang for the funeral. At the same time, the old general's posthumous performance was sent to Qinzhou quickly, and it was handed over to Kunming by the governor of Qinzhou, Yamen, presumably after the imperial court received the old general's posthumous performance.

After the funeral, according to the old general's wishes, his water division was officially reorganized into the water division of the Taiping Army. Zhou Shixiang ordered Wu Yuan to serve as the commander of the naval division and was awarded the rank of general soldier; Staff generals Zhou Sheng and Zheng Chengkui were appointed as deputy commanders of the naval division, and they were both awarded the rank of deputy generals. Hu Deyu, the old general's staff, was appointed as the prefect of Zhaoqing, Chen Shibang, the eldest son of the old general, was appointed as the prefect of Xinhui, and the rest of the sons, Zhou Shixiang, also made proper arrangements to ensure that the old general's subordinates would not have any dissatisfaction.

Due to the advance arrangement of the old generals, and the willingness of the main generals to rely on the increasingly powerful Taiping army, the reception and reorganization of the Zhaoqing and Xinhui naval divisions went very smoothly. According to the count, General Ling Hai's headquarters has a total of 78 Fu ships that can be used for naval warfare, 68 fighting ships, sea falcons, and boat walkers, in addition to 35 400-material battle ships, 400-material patrol ships, 78 inland river vessels such as sentinel ships and sand boats, and dozens of other ships are still under construction. There are 7,850 officers and soldiers in the naval division, and 52 officers and colonels below the general corps.

Among the old general's subordinates, the generals Zhou Sheng and Zheng Chengkui had made a statement to accept the reorganization of the Taiping Army when the old general was still alive. The former had a grudge against the Qing army, and his wish in his life was to enter Beijing to destroy his family of Aixin Jueluo, so he wanted to join the Taiping army that had repeatedly defeated the Qing army; The latter witnessed how the Taiping army grew step by step in cooperation with Zhou Shixiang, and how it completely annihilated the Jidu army, so he also had the heart to take refuge.

In the past, when the Taiping army did not rise, Zhou Sheng and Zheng Chengkui followed the old general to resist the Qing Dynasty on the coast, although the scale of the naval division was large, the combat effectiveness was also strong, and the Qing army naval division was repeatedly damaged, but because of the lack of land combat power and could not gain a foothold on the land, they could only be driven to overseas islands by the Qing army to hold on. Without a stable territory, the sailors did not have a fixed source of food, and the imperial court had long ignored them, and the governor of Guangdong, the yamen, could not provide money and grain, which made it difficult for the sailors of various departments in Guangdong to maintain.

When he was on Shangchuan Island, the officers and soldiers of General Ling Hai's sailors even converted their warships into fishing boats to go to sea to fish for a living because they had no food. In those days, the sailors were desperate for the future, until the old general resolutely led them to Xinhui. Since then, the sailor has undergone earth-shaking changes, first gaining a foothold in Xinhuicheng, and then taking Zhaoqing. There are more and more ships of the sailors, more and more soldiers, and the territory is getting bigger and bigger, and the soldiers will no longer sail their warships out to fish because they have nothing to eat.

How did all this come about, the sailors are not clear, so for the powerful Taiping Army, they are close to and willing to join, after all, in these years, only by joining the strong side can they eat their stomachs and live. The generals may have other thoughts, such as being famous and famous, but the soldiers are simple, and they will take revenge after eating their stomachs, and whoever can take them to avenge will die for whomever they want.

During the battle of Xinhui, Wu Yuan was a registered general soldier, after the occupation of Zhaoqing, the old general asked for merit for him, and the imperial court came to the will, and Wu Yuan was awarded the chief military officer of the Guangdong Naval Division, and he was subordinate to General Linghai.

Wu Yuan did not persuade the old general to join the Taiping Army, but he did not object to this matter, he was an orphan adopted by the old general, and he followed the old general for more than 20 years, and to a large extent regarded himself as the old general's private soldier. If the old general had not made arrangements during his lifetime, Wu Yuan might also consider setting up his own door, after all, there is still an essential difference between accepting the command of others and leading an army by himself.

Rather than a chicken head than a phoenix tail, the Taiping Army has no water division, and will continue to rely on him for a long time in the future, and he is the chief military officer of the Guangdong Navy Division awarded by the imperial court, so the benefits that the old general can get from the Taiping Army in the past can also be obtained by Wu Yuan in the future, and even more. But now that the old general has made arrangements, Wu Yuan has put aside the idea of setting up his own door, and he also knows that if he goes alone, I am afraid that the people below will not agree, at least Zhou Sheng and Zheng Chengkui may go directly to Zhou Shixiang with the boat. In his own family infighting, it is better for everyone to follow Zhou Shi together, so that the sailor can also maintain unity, and in the future, Zhou Shixiang will really treat them badly, and everyone can also twist a rope to do it with him.

Hu Deyu used to be the magistrate of Taishan, and after the Qing army entered Guangdong, he defected to the old general and has been doing staff work. He is virtuous, otherwise he would not have slept in the open and followed the sailor to endure hardships at sea every day. He also doesn't have the heart of rights, he has to have it, he was only afraid that he would fall to the Qing Dynasty early, and after more than ten years, how could he be the prefect in the Qing court, if he mixed it well, he could not get a governor to do it, why follow Zhu Ming, who was about to die.

Hu Deyu was loyal to the Ming Dynasty and was also dedicated to planning for the old general, so when the old general decided to relieve the siege of Xinhui, he also persuaded him, and later fought with Zhou Shixiang's men for the captured booty and food, but what he did was not to fill his Hu Deyu's private pocket, but for the old general and the thousands of officers and soldiers of the Navy Division under his command.

The death of the old general made Hu Deyu very sad, but he knew what was most important at the moment, the old general was thinking about King Qin saving the Son of Heaven before he died, as his staff and a courtier of the Ming Dynasty, Hu Deyu put down the grief in his heart, tried his best to cooperate with Zhou Shixiang to integrate the water division, and also gladly accepted the post of Zhaoqing prefect entrusted by Zhou Shixiang. Even if he knew that Zhou Shixiang did not have the authority to appoint the prefect, he still accepted it calmly, and all he was worried about was to stabilize the situation in Zhaoqing as soon as possible and prepare for the western expedition to the king.

After the integration of the naval division was completed, Zhou Shixiang allocated 80,000 taels of silver to expand the scale of the Zhaoqing shipyard, ordered the shipyard to build as many sand ships as possible before August, and ordered Zheng Chengkui to lead a fleet to go up the Liujiang River to Guangxi to explore the waterway, detect the hydrology, and prepare for the Taiping army's westward advance.

In addition to the old general's force, Zhaoqing also has a force, but it is Zhu Tong, the general of Zhenguo. The general of Zhenguo is the military attache Zhengyipin, the eldest son of the county king is called the eldest son of the king, and the second son and below are all Zhenguo generals, and the second son is an auxiliary general.

Zhu Tong is the ninth grandson of King Ningxian, after the Qing army entered the customs, most of the clans chose to surrender to the Qing army, such as Zhu Changshu, the king of Lu who surrendered in Hangzhou. Zhu Tong resolutely refused to surrender to the Qing army, and raised money from his family to bravely resist the Qing army, just like Zhu Weiyi, the Tang king who insisted on resisting the Qing in Taishan, he was a model of the clan who did not surrender to the death.

Zhou Shixiang admired Zhou Shixiang's deeds of dispersing his wealth and insisting on resisting the Qing Dynasty, but when he really dealt with this Zhenguo general, Zhou Shixiang always felt that he was at a loss. Because this clan is really an outlier, no matter what he does, he will not suffer losses, and he is better at calculating like a businessman. When discussing with him about the reorganization of his department, Zhu Tong showed that he was not shrewd, but almost greedy, or the lion opened his mouth.

After Chen Qice's sailor was accepted by Zhou Shixiang, Zhu Tong knew that it was inevitable for the Taiping Army to take over Zhaoqing, and he could not refuse the Taiping Army's takeover of Zhaoqing, so he shrewdly chose to cooperate. There are only three or four thousand soldiers under his command, and the soldiers who can fight are actually only a few hundred, if he really doesn't cooperate, without Zhou Shixiang's hands, Chen Qice's subordinates can also eat him.

Weak strength does not mean that Zhu Tong is willing to be at the mercy of Zhou Shixiang, he put on the shelf of the clan, and asked Zhou Shixiang for the establishment of two towns and soldiers. The soldiers of these two towns not only asked Zhou Shixiang to give people money and food, but also to give ordnance.

Zhou Shixiang felt that Zhu Tong was really a little shameless, but the other party put on a picture of loyalty to the country, and put on a big show of the clan, he really didn't want to offend him, and it was not easy to force him to obey by force, so he could only show patience and discuss with the other party. In the end, after some bargaining, Zhu Tong satisfactorily fought for himself on the conditions he had already thought of - the establishment of a town.

In addition to the 4,000 soldiers of his department, more than 1,000 people were transferred from the seat of the naval division that was good at land warfare, plus the 2,000 volunteers recruited by Guo Zhiqi on the coast, and finally made up three brigades. Another 100 junior officers were sent to this town from the third town and the military training center, and they were ordered to garrison Zhaoqing.

It took more than half a month to sort out the affairs of Zhaoqing, and during this time, Zhou Shixiang successively sent invitations to the generals of the Ming army stationed in various places, asking them to come to Zhaoqing to negotiate the affairs of King Qin. A total of more than 20 posts were issued, but only 7 people were willing to come, and the rest either said that they would wait for the order of the governor's yamen, or found excuses to say that they would not come. However, the governor of Qinzhou, Yamen, and the governor of Gaozhou, there was not even a reply.

Zhou Shixiang was very angry, and he decided to solve it by force. (To be continued.) )