Li Rongfa was a little dizzy, Hong Tiangui's statement is really novel, there are ideals, morality, culture, and discipline, is this still the army? What's more, there are only a small number of literate people in the whole world, and most of them are purely illiterate people who can't even write their own names, how can such a person meet Hong Tiangui's requirements.

"Your Majesty, should this matter be considered in the long run?"

Hong Tiangui shook his head and said: "No need, this king has already decided, you can draw the backbone from your army to study, this king promises, if they can complete the learning task, they can be promoted to a higher level and reused immediately." ”

Li Rongfa's expression changed, and a touch of uneasiness flashed in his heart. This is not wartime, the stall of the young army is so big, how can he arrange it for hundreds of people to be promoted to the next level at once?

But looking at the decision made by Hong Tiangui, he can't refute it, because being able to read and write is a big thing in this era, and Hong Tiangui letting these big-headed soldiers read and write is nothing more than a great kindness to them, and if he stops it, I am afraid that he will seriously damage his prestige in the army.

This is a naked conspiracy, Li Rongfa understands that he can't refuse.

"Your Highness, rest assured, five hundred officers will be sent to study at the end."

Hong Tiangui nodded with satisfaction, how could he not feel Li Rongfa's vigilance against him, but he was not in a hurry at all, he was the lord of the kingdom of heaven, as time went by, his position would only become more and more stable, and it was not difficult to annex the young army. But Hong Tiangui is not in a hurry, the calm of the West can block the eastward march of the Hunan army, and perhaps he can give himself more time, during this time he also made every effort to build his own descendant troops, in this troubled era, the gun is the guarantee of safety. The new army is where his hope lies, and the transformation of the young army is not achieved overnight.

After inspecting the Young Army, Hong Tiangui returned to the New Army, and with the training of the New Army, he buried himself in the huge pile of books at night to write a tutorial for teaching.

Through training, he should disseminate his own ideas, cultivate his own henchmen, and then use these henchmen as the foundation to build a new army.

On the second day, both the young army and the new army spread the news, especially the news that His Majesty the King of Heaven personally served as an instructor shook the whole army, if he could successfully graduate, it would be a hardcore protégé of the Son of Heaven, which in the Manchu Dynasty could only be the Jinshi of the palace test to have the honor of being a protégé of the Son of Heaven.

For a while, there was a flood of registrations, and both Wang Jian, who was temporarily in charge of the new army, and Li Rongfa, who was in charge of the first army, felt extremely headaches.

In order to cope with this situation, the whole army only accepts the registration of officers above the two horses, which greatly limits the number of applicants and greatly reduces the difficulty of selection. Just when the armies sent the lists, the people sent by Hong Tiangui finally had news from Lu Shunde's department.

What made Hong Tiangui inexplicable was that Lu Shunde, who came from the front line, did not follow the official road, but changed his route, and surrounded and suppressed more than a dozen large and small water bandits along the way, and most of the water bandits in the Suzhou and Hangzhou regions were eliminated, and even some Cao Gang merchant ships were unlucky, and they were forcibly requisitioned by Lu Shunde. No wonder Hong Tiangui couldn't find them, now they are not on land at all, but along the waterway into the Yangtze River, and are heading towards Tianjing City.

"Who is this Lu Shunde? Let people check it out immediately! Hong Tiangui issued an order, the Heavenly Sword Daoist did not dare to slack off, and the Internal Affairs Department quickly obtained a piece of Lu Shunde's information and sent it to Hong Tiangui's hands through ward rounds.

Lu Shunde, born in October 1818 in Tengxian County, Guangxi, formerly known as Haiping, was a native of Dali Ancient Village. In his early years, he participated in the triad, and when Hong Xiuquan was planning to rob the Qing tax in the Dahuangjiang River, he rebelled with Luo Xuan. For burly heroes, good at driving boats. Originally, he created a naval division of the Kingdom of Heaven, but unfortunately he later abandoned the boat and went ashore as the commander of the infantry army, and went south with the king Li Shixian.

"Boat Master? No wonder he chose the waterway! Hong Tiangui had some expectations for Lu Shunde's arrival. There was a lack of naval forces in the Heavenly Kingdom, and the existing naval armies were all attacking Shanghai under the command of King Zhong, and they were not at the disposal of Hong Tiangui.

Three days later, at the head of Tianjing City, facing the vast Yangtze River, Hong Tiangui couldn't help but sigh on his face.

Rolling Yangtze River East Passing Water, Waves Sweeping Away Heroes, Throughout the Ages, I don't know how many heroes have stood here watching the Yangtze River pass away, and what can they perform in the future.

"Your Majesty, here!" The Heavenly Sword Daoist whispered.

Sure enough, some sails appeared above the eastern river, and then there was gurgling black smoke.

"Huh? There are even steamers in the army? ”

Now that the first industrial revolution in the West is basically complete, the steam engine as a power has changed the face of the entire West, and has greatly strengthened the ocean-going capabilities of the Western powers. Moreover, the West has now opened the era of ironclad ships, and it is believed that in a few years, the iron-covered steam engine ships cruising in the eastern oceans will be replaced by ironclad ships, and the world will officially enter the era of cannon giants.

Soon, there are dense shadows of ships on the Yangtze River, all kinds of boats have, that is, there are 100-meter-long galleons, there are also more than 10-meter-long fishing boats, which can be described as varied, the flag in the center of the team is a steamer, looking at the style is actually a British steamship, but it is slightly old, and there are obvious traces of repair on the ship.

"How can Lu Shunde have a British ocean-going warship?" Hong Tiangui was taken aback.

"Your Highness, according to intelligence, there is a giant bandit named Jiang Long in Taihu Lake, nicknamed 'Turning River Dragon', he bought a warship from the British in Shanghai last year that was damaged after experiencing a storm in the open ocean, and I think it should be this one." Heavenly Sword said in a deep voice.

"The giant cannon on it is still there, and the British didn't disassemble it?" Hong Tiangui asked with some puzzlement.

"The British are very shrewd, even if they have a huge cannon, the bandits may not be willing to use it, but the shells are too expensive, and it costs thousands of taels of silver to shoot a shot. And it can only be bought from the British. ”

"This is an old British method, but this thing may not fall into our hands, but unfortunately there is only one!" Hong Tiangui was a little regretful.

This steamer is nearly 60 meters long and nearly 20 meters wide, and it is also a behemoth in the British Navy. Could there be some conspiracy in it?

In the roar of the steamer, the fleet entered the Nanjing wharf, and Hong Tiangui from a distance saw that the ships of hundreds of ships of this size were full of Taiping troops, and the number was the Ministry of the King.

"Our navy has been found!" Hong Tiangui had a trace of expectation in his heart. Throughout modern history, whoever has a strong navy will be able to grasp the initiative of the whole world, Britain has become an empire on which the sun never sets by virtue of a small land, relying on its navy that dominates the whole world, and even the Beiyang Fleet established by the Manchu government has also earned a lot of face for the Manchus before the Sino-Japanese First Sino-Japanese War, and has greatly suppressed the attempts of the great powers to carve up China.