"Isn't it too much to recruit 40,000 Japanese samurai? The emperor should not forget Li Tang's lesson! ”

Zuo Zongtang, who raised objections, said: "The Japanese are not my people after all, their hearts will be different, and the emperor should be cautious in using his bravery." Moreover, the Japanese are an island people, not adapted to the northwest climate, and are not good at horse warfare, so they may not be able to achieve miraculous results. ”

Of course, Zuo Zongtang did not know how much harm the Japanese had done to China in another time and space, and his current opposition to Zhu Jishi's excessive use of Japanese soldiers was based on the lessons of the Anshi Rebellion.

However, Zhu Jishi had other plans. The samurai are undoubtedly the pillars of Japanese society, and according to the information that Zhu Jishi has, there are currently 400,000 to 450,000 Japanese samurai who have a fortune, and there are more samurai and ronin without a fortune, making the total number of Japanese samurai about one million. However, not all of these millions of samurai have the talent to be pillars. There will be no more than 200,000 samurai who can really support the progress of Japanese society, so to weaken Japan, it is not possible to kill a few of their so-called reform elites. But if more than 100,000 samurai elites were killed in future wars, the impetus for the progress of Japanese society would be greatly reduced!

So this time the number of Japanese samurai recruited at 40,000 is just the beginning, and the ideal situation is to drag Japan into a future war against Russia, so that the shogunate will send their elite soldiers who once defeated the Russians to the battlefield on the Western Front! It takes at least twenty years to train a living Japanese samurai to replace a dead Japanese samurai!

However, Emperor Zhu would not say these words to Zuo Zongtang. He smiled and said, "Zuo Xiang, you're too worried." I won't learn from Emperor Tang Ming. The Japanese were only incorporated into the expeditionary force as mercenaries. will not obtain the Ming military status, let alone the qualification for promotion in the army. And the cost of using Japanese soldiers is lower than that of using Ming soldiers, first of all, we don't need to divide the land for Japanese soldiers, and we can save 1.6 million acres of land with 40,000 Japanese soldiers; Secondly, the salary requirements of Japanese soldiers are low, even in wartime, the average salary and vegetable expenditure of a Japanese soldier will not exceed 6 yuan per month, and 40,000 Japanese soldiers are 240,000 yuan a month; If the soldiers were killed on the third day, the imperial court did not have to pay much compensation. They are all my retainers, as long as they let the young man in their family replace them as retainers, and give them another hundred and ten yuan.

As for the lack of adaptation to water and soil, it is not a problem at all, there is the solution of Wanyao (with a small amount of H heroin) invented by me, and there are very few people in the army who have fallen ill because of water and soil adaptation over the years. As for the Japanese people who are not good at horse fighting, it is not a problem, I have asked Oyuntana, Mongolian horse runners are all small people...... Well, these small Japanese people are just right. Moreover, in the future, horse warfare will not use spears and lances, and I plan to let them use Colt pistols. Many Japanese samurai are not afraid of death. So dare to put the enemy closer to fight. ”

Zuo Zongtang and others did not agree with this analysis. They were also reluctant to use too many Japanese in the army, so they were silent and objected.

Zhu Jishi knew that it was difficult for him to convince them, so he simply used the power of Qiangang's dictatorship, reaffirmed his decision, and then asked Zuo Zongtang and others to retire.

"Maria, I'm going to the Purple Mountain Palace, you, Akiko, and Oyuntana will go with me, and then let Akiko bring Changjilang, and let the lady and queen also meet this child."

The Purple Mountain Palace is the residence of the lady king, she and Zhu Jishi only lived in the Forbidden City for one night after they got married, and then moved to the Purple Mountain Palace and never returned to the Forbidden City. And Nagajiro is a few months old baby boy, the son of Tokugawa Iekei, his mother is Yu Qinzhifang, and Zhu Jishi and Tokugawa Akiko are Nagayoshiro's adoptive parents. Yu Qinzhifang had already returned to Japan after the confinement, and the baby boy was taken care of by Tokugawa Akiko herself. Emperor Zhu was also often concerned about his health - he was the future governor of the Tokugawa clan, and most likely could become the ruler of Japan, so Emperor Zhu naturally could not let him die in China. Under the care of Zhu Jishi and Tokugawa Akiko, Nagajiro is very healthy, only 2 months old, and his weight has exceeded 11 pounds.

By the way, Zhu Jishi has already prepared a small amount of Baizelangdo (sulfonamide antimicrobial) and penicillin in the laboratory, which is enough to save the emergency at a critical moment. Therefore, his eleven children (six sons and five daughters, fortunately, there is no Family Planning Commission in this era, or Emperor Zhu would have been punished and bankrupt) are all very healthy.

……

The lady who has become a concubine has a good and empty life these days. The Ming Emperor was very handsome, but he only accompanied her for one night, and there was no skin-to-skin kiss. Emperor Shuzi Zhilu Dao was a very strong man, with eleven children, and there was absolutely no problem in that regard, and even had a strong desire, and if he didn't go on a blind date with her, he couldn't look down on her complexion. However, the emperor was still very concerned about her health, and when he left, he summoned the housekeeper of the imperial palace, and read Shuzi's recipe, and personally added eggs, milk, fruits, corn, and a few other vegetables that were not available in Japan, and told her to eat as much as possible, hoping that the next time he saw her, she would be fatter - she was indeed very thin, weighing less than 75 pounds, and her chest was as flat as an airport, which was extremely common among Japanese royal and public women.

Probably because of the long-term poverty, the royal family and the public family never pursued a luxurious life, but admired elegance. Their food is also light, and they blindly pursue finesse, or vegetarian, occasionally eat a little salted fish, basically do not eat meat and eggs, and have never seen milk. So compared to Mingzi, who was born in a samurai family, this prince of Shuzi is really in shape, and he has no face. Emperor Zhu, who was surrounded by beauties from the East and the West, naturally looked down on her.

However, the lady still feels that her current life is the most comfortable in more than 20 years. The Purple Mountain Imperial Palace was built in imitation of the Kyoto Imperial Palace, and its luxury far exceeded the latter, almost catching up with the shogun's Nijo Castle. Moreover, the expenses in the imperial palace were extremely relaxed, with as much as 300,000 silver dollars to spend each year, which almost exceeded the total expenditure of the entire Japanese imperial court. The only fly in the ointment is probably that I don't know when Lu Dao will be able to see Zhu Jishi.

"Well, what's not to be satisfied with in such a rich life." Shuzi seemed to forget that there was a maid sitting beside her, and she looked in the mirror and began to talk to herself. It was July, the hottest day in Yingtianfu, but the lady did not feel the heat, she still wore the most formal kimono, and her face was coated with thick fat powder, so the people in the mirror did not look ugly.

At this moment, a melodious Japanese roll call sounded outside the door: "His Majesty the Emperor is coming to ......"

Even through the thick fat powder, the maids saw the surprise expression on Shuzi's face. It didn't take long for the door of the Japanese room to be opened, and Zhu Jishi's tall figure appeared in the corridor outside the door.

"It looks like he's getting fatter." Zhu Jishi casually looked at the lady in the room and said, "Order the retainers to be gathered, and all the captains and above will come to the palace." ”

"Oh?" Shuzi was stunned for a moment and narrowed her eyes, "Your Majesty is going to prepare for war?" ”

Shuzi speaks Chinese very well, she began to study after she was engaged to Zhu Jishi, and has been studying for more than a year now.

"That's right, it's preparing for war."

"Your Majesty is trying to recover the Ryukyus?"

"No, it's Mongolia! Shuzi, use your name to make a request to the Tokugawa shogunate and recruit at least 15,000 more retainers. I need 40,000 Japanese samurai! ”

"40,000 samurai!? It's going to be ......"

"Prepare for war with Russia!"

"With Russia?" Shuzi nodded, she knew that she couldn't refuse Zhu Jishi's request, and the Tokugawa shogunate couldn't refuse either. Because not long ago, the Russian fleet, which had recovered a little bit of vitality, began to harass the coast of Japan again, and seemed to want to find a way back. Anti-Russian sentiment in Japan has also soared to the extreme.

"Your Majesty, do you need Japan to send troops?"

"Not for the time being, because war will not break out immediately, and all the Japanese samurai need to train for a year in the Horqin steppe. Then it will be incorporated into the Ming Expeditionary Force as a unit of 500 people! ”

"Good!" Shuzi nodded and readily agreed, "The concubine will write a letter to the shogunate immediately, and she will also send a letter to His Majesty the Emperor." Tell them to prepare for war with Russia! (To be continued......)