New books, collections, recommendations

The news that the British Empire was preparing to include West Borneo in its Shili range, and that a wealthy Chinese man with the title of Fellow of the Anglo-French Academy of Sciences (Royal Society) and the title of British Viscount had arrived in Singapore immediately caused a sensation in Nanyang. Whether it is the Western colonizers in the upper strata of Nanyang, or the main force of Nanyang's economic development, the Chinese, and even the indigenous kings in Nanyang, they are all talking about these two things very enthusiastically, especially the various deeds of Sir Zhu Jishi in Europe, which have been spread by adding salt and vinegar.

However, Zhu Jishi's identity as a "descendant of the Ming family" did not spread, and most of the Nanyang Chinese were devoted to the Qing Dynasty, and Baba looked at the Daoguang Emperor above the Dragon Court in Beijing and protected them as people. Therefore, even if Zhu Jishi plays the banner of opposing the Qing Dynasty and restoring the Ming Dynasty in Nanyang, not too many people will respond, but it will make most Chinese people stay away from him.

It seems that his identity as a descendant of the Ming Dynasty has not yet been transmitted to Nanyang, Zhu Jishi thought to himself. In this case, don't play the banner of the Ming Dynasty at present, rebel or anything, and talk about it later.

Luo Xiangju and Liu Peng had already returned to West Borneo with his letters, and Ren Yijiang and Han Si also went to Dagang, where the headquarters of Heshun Company was located, with similar letters. The purpose of these two groups of people is similar, that is, to invite the bigwigs of all walks of life in West Borneo to Singapore to discuss with them the formation of the Grand Duchy of Lan Fong.

At the same time, the establishment of schools in Hong Kong was also steadily being pushed forward, and Brother Trigo, Bésemer, and another professor sent by Cambridge University in the United Kingdom, John Brown. Crumb and the other three formed the Hong Kong Jeshi University and College Preparatory Committee, and went to Hong Kong first - now the construction of Jeshi University and Jeshi College has not yet been completed, and there are projects in the south of Hong Kong Island such as Deep Water Bay, Tai Shue Wan, Ap Lei Chau and other places. After taking care of the affairs of the Singapore branch, Jones also went to Hong Kong Island.

While waiting for a reply from West Borneo, Chu had a recruitment notice published in an English-language newspaper in Singapore. The recruits are teachers or generalists who are proficient in Chinese and English, and the monthly salary is 50 yuan (Singapore silver dollar), which is a relatively decent income in Nanyang.

While recruiting teachers, Zhu Jishi also began to think about recruiting students. According to his vision, the students of Jeshi University and Jeshi College are divided into two categories: free students and fee-paying students. The enrollment targets are mainly Chinese children, but it is also possible for Westerners or Nanyang indigenous children to enroll, but they cannot enjoy the treatment of free students.

As long as they are Chinese children, who are over 10 years old and under 18 years old, in good health, and have a good understanding of literature and ink, they can enter Jishi Academy for free, not only all tuition and book fees are free, but also clothing, food, housing and transportation and all miscellaneous daily expenses are covered by the college! And as long as they are admitted to the academy, Jishixing will immediately sign a ten-year employment contract with them, and pay a salary of 100 yuan in advance!

For the Chinese here in Nanyang, such a good thing is really no different from pie falling from the sky! Send your child to study in the academy, you can actually take the foreign, and there is also the British Jishi foreign bank as a guarantee, directly sign the employment contract, the salary stipulated in the contract is not low, the college system is four years, after graduation, can not be admitted to the Jishi University, are hired by the Jishi Bank, the monthly salary of 10 yuan. Admitted to Jishi University to continue his studies, after graduation, he was also hired by Jishixing, and the monthly salary was as high as 80 yuan, which is the starting treatment of a comprador in a foreign bank!

This kind of enrollment condition, if it is placed in the Qing Dynasty, those who only have the imperial examination in their eyes may not be able to see it, but here in Nanyang, the Chinese have long given up the idea of studying and becoming officials, and the comprador of the foreign bank is almost the ceiling of everyone's struggle, and now there is such a road to heaven put out, and the reputation and strength of Ji Shixing and Viscount Zhu Jishi are placed there, what is there to hesitate? As a result, there was a long queue in front of the Singapore branch of Jishi Bank, all of which were Chinese teenagers who came to sign up by themselves or asked their parents to lead them to sign up.

"Sir, shouldn't we mention our enrollment conditions?" Huang Zhisheng, who had just become Zhu Jishi's secretary, looked at the long queue on Victoria Street downstairs with a little worry. Although the business of Jishi Bank in Nanyang is not small, except for the agency of Western, rubber, foreign wine, explosives and other businesses, the others are still in their infancy, and only a large amount of money goes down, and there is no profit. Now, if you recruit so many students to run a school at once, you have to pay the money upside down, and the pressure on this fund will be great.

"The money of Jishi University and Jishi Academy is out of my own pocket, and it has nothing to do with the purchase and sale of foreign banks." Zhu Jishi said quietly, "As for the contract they signed with Jishixing, I will also be responsible for it to the end, and I will arrange for them to do it when the time comes." ”

According to Zhu Jishi's current calculations, these free students of Jishi Academy will be arranged in the academy branch on Ap Lei Chau to receive a four-year militarized teaching! In addition to English and Confucianism, the subjects studied are basic mathematics, chemistry, and physics, as well as Zhu Jishi's Jesseism and Western military training!

The five veteran French officers recommended by Napoleon III to Zhu Jishi will all serve as military instructors at the Ap Lei Chau branch, and Zhu Jishi also plans to recruit some Western mercenaries to teach at the Ap Lei Chau branch in Nanyang and India. That's where the military academy really opened by itself, and as for the military academy affiliated to Jishi University in Deep Water Bay, it's actually a cover-up - with this name, Jishi University and Jishi Academy can buy muskets and cannons, otherwise let alone Will. Haiming is only the Hong Kong police commissioner, and even the governor of Hong Kong can't cover him up.

"Sir, but we have recruited too many students." Huang Zhisheng only shook his head with a ledger in his hand, and said: "Now Singapore alone has recruited more than 500, and there will definitely be students coming from Java Island and Borneo, and after a while, maybe there will be people coming from Siam and Manila, and there will be no three or four thousand such moves!" ”

Three or four thousand! It's enough for a small army! If we can turn them into officers in four years, then we can support 100,000 Western-style troops!

On the way to Singapore, Zhu Jishi has an in-depth understanding of the current Western military science, a military strategist is not, but he is not a layman, and he has fully understood the essence of the current Western army - officer training! If military affairs are closer to art in the East, then in the West it is more like a rigorous science, and an officer must go through a long period of study and training before he can fully master the military science of the West. Therefore, if Zhu Jishi wants to form an army to overthrow the Manchu Dynasty, the biggest difficulty or the most time-consuming task is to train officers. It takes four years to train thousands of officers who basically meet the requirements, but it is an extremely arduous task!

As for the soldiers, the situation in the East and the West is the same at the moment, all of them are cannon fodder! Moreover, the population base of Western countries is there, so the requirements for recruitment are not high, and basically put it in a basket is a dish, and it looks almost fine. It doesn't require much blood, let alone any ideological awakening, what enlightenment - according to the words of Frederick the Great of Prussia, if the soldiers had learned to think, there would have been no war on Shijie!

And those five old French men and Will. Hemming, Robert. Churchill's unanimous statement is that elite soldiers are trained, strong soldiers are fought, and only the guard of honor is selected. In a real critical war situation, the training time of recruits is often only a few weeks, and many people are not even able to put their guns on the front line, and the responsibility of officers is to turn all kinds of scum or cowards into real men!

"Three or four thousand is three or four thousand!" Zhu Jishi smiled, "Sir, I'm doing a big deal, of course I have to hire more people to make a big deal!" Maybe millions of people will work for me in the future! ”

"Millions!" Huang Zhisheng took a breath and said in his heart, what a big deal it must be!