Although Miss Luo Si's face was flushed with shame, she did not leave the banquet, but just lowered her head and did not speak. Zhu Jishi thought to himself, now that he and the Luo family and Heshun Company are his own people, Liliang in these two aspects should be able to be used for himself, right? So he put aside the thoughts of men and women, first focused his thoughts on military affairs, stood up, arched his hand at Lan Fang and Heshun who were present, and said: "In the next thanks to the wrong love of the Luo family and the Wang family, I promised marriage, and now I can be regarded as a member of the Chinese in West Borneo!" Therefore, when it comes to speaking, there are fewer worries, and if there is anything offended, I hope that you Haihan. ”

"Sir, if you have anything to say, everyone is your own brother, and you can't tolerate a word?" Zheng Hong said with a bold face.

"Brother Jishi, if you have something to say, you might as well say it directly." Luo Xiangmei's tone was even more cordial, and she looked at Zhu Jishi with a smile.

"Then I'll be straight to the point, we West Borneo Chinese will soon have a real country! The reason why we say the word real is because in the past we did not have our own country, but because this country is very irregular and cannot be regarded as a real country! ”

"How come the Lanfang General Republic is not a real country?" Liu Aliang suddenly said, "Is it because Uncle Luo Fang has a grand duke in his heart, does not build a king, and creates a republic?" ”

"What Brother Liu said is extremely true, the biggest reason for Lan Fang's weakness is that he does not build a king, but practices a democratic republic." Zhu Jishi glanced at Liu Aliang, who was indignant, and said with a wry smile: "The democratic republic and the world are for the public, which is very good, but it is not easy to do, and it is not suitable for the situation in our West Borneo. Because a democratic republic is a country of citizens, it needs to be loved and maintained by all citizens. Speaking of this, Zhu Jishi pointed to the braid that Liu Aliang was dragging behind his head. And here in West Borneo, there are only Qing outcasts, no Lanfang citizens! Therefore, a democratic republic will not work, and the only way to do it is to practice the law of the country and the world. ”

The country and the world, of course, are backward! But here in West Borneo, it's the only way to go! Because the Chinese in West Borneo, including the elites among them, still consider themselves Chinese or the Qing people, and do not consider themselves Lanfang nationals, there is no way to establish a nation-state in West Borneo.

After listening to Zhu Jishi's words, everyone was silent. In fact, Lan Fang's road to the republic has been going on for decades, and everyone has long known whether it will work or not. It's just that it's not easy to go back and run the world, because no one has the authority of the founding king. But now, Zhu Jishi seems to have such prestige......

"Of course, now is not the time to reshape the Lanfang political system, the top priority is to repel the combined forces of the Sultan of Wanna and the Sultan of Brunei! And to repel their tens of thousands of horses, it is not enough to rely on the battalion of foreign soldiers I brought from Singapore. Therefore, I plan to recruit two more battalions of Chinese recruits, all of whom will be trained and equipped according to the methods of foreigners, and will be able to form an army in three months at most, and then I will not be afraid of the native soldiers of Borneo. I don't know what you think? ”

"Okay!" Luo Xiangmei patted lightly on the table and agreed: "It is the organization of our Chinese army, the army is the foundation of a country, and it must be in the hands of our Chinese themselves." Moreover, the reason why we have been bullied by the Dutch and the indigenous sultans in the past few years is because there is no regular army, and we all rely on the rabble of improvised organizations to fight, which is very scattered, and we cannot withstand the hard fighting at all. ”

Liu Aliang's face was a little ugly, Luo Xiangmei was his favorite woman, and the Luo family's property was also regarded by him as a bag. Now Luo Xiangmei has made it clear that the carriage and horse want to lean into Zhu Jishi's arms! Miss Luo Jiasi, a delicate and expensive beautiful lady like her, actually sent her over as a concubine, isn't this a front station for her sister, and when the opportunity is ripe, she wants her sisters to work together? This genuine Mrs. Zhu is probably Miss Luo's goal!

"I'm afraid that's not appropriate, right?" Liu Aliang objected with a gloomy face, "It is the teaching of Uncle Luo Fang that all the people are soldiers, and we should always follow it!" ”

What is this? Ancestral family law is immutable? Zhu Jishi sneered in his heart, Luo Fangbo is not the emperor, but a gangster! What else is the ancestral family law?

"I think it's quite suitable," Zheng Hong slapped the table and said loudly: "Sir Zhu, let's send a battalion of strong men from Heshun Company, which can be regarded as a dowry for Yunjiao's sister!" ”

"Thank you, Brother Zheng!" Zhu Jishi thanked him, "But there is one sentence, I still have to make an agreement with Brother Zheng." ”

"Okay, what's that?"

"Although the battalion of strong men from Heshun Company are all Hong family brothers, the army has the rules of the army, especially the Western-style new military law, which is strict, and it is not the Hongmen family law!"

Such ugly words really have to be said in the front, the rules of Hongmen are very loose, and there is no problem in mixing rivers and lakes, but if you want to bring this kind of rules into the army, it will be a bit of a headache.

"Well, that's how it should be." Zheng Hong nodded, pointed to his brother Zhao Daheng and said: "Little fan, the matter of recruiting a battalion of men and horses will be left to you, don't look for those brothers who are too angry, just go to the mine to recruit 500 miners." ”

There are many Chinese miners here in West Borneo, whether it is Lanfang Company or Heshun Company, their main source of wealth is gold mines, and the number of miners is as high as tens of thousands, even if it is not difficult to recruit thousands of brave men from them. However, Zhu Jishi couldn't take enough officers to command them, and at present, in addition to Qiu Fatzi, Heming and five old French officers, Zhu Jishi only has a dozen foreigners who have served in the British army as platoon commanders. In addition, Han Si is also proficient in Western military strategy, and he can barely be the battalion commander of the Chinese military battalion, and there are no other officers.

"Junqi, you also go to our Luo family's mine to recruit a battalion of soldiers, and the cost of recruiting soldiers will be taken from Sixiutang's account." Luo Xiangmei instructed her number one horse, and said to Zhu Jishi with a smile, "Sir Zhu, of course our soldiers in Sixiutang are raised by Sixiutang, and all funds are provided by Sixiutang. ”

Zhu Jishi smiled, now that Luo Xiangju is already a person in his room, he naturally doesn't take Sixiutang as an outsider - speaking of which, this Miss Luo is also one of the candidates for Mrs. Zhu in his mind (it seems that there are no two or three now).

"That's very good," Zhu Jishi said with a smile, "As for the location of the training, it's in Xindang!" When the two battalions of recruits were recruited, I personally led the troops to the new front line. He paused as he spoke, and then said, "In addition to the two battalions of soldiers, I also want to recruit 600 heavy soldiers and engineers in West Borneo, of which 400 are for my foreign barracks and new barracks, and the other 200 are assigned to the battalion soldiers of Sixiutang, I don't know if I can bother Brother Zheng and Miss Luo again?" ”

"No problem." The two spoke almost simultaneously.

The more than 500 foreign soldiers Zhu Jishi raised in Singapore were all soldiers, and there were no baggage soldiers, and it was too extravagant to raise baggage soldiers and sappers at a cost of at least 25 pounds a year, so Zhu Jihua recruited Chinese in West Borneo to serve as baggage soldiers and engineers. Counting these baggage soldiers and engineers, even if Zhu Jishi now has an army of 1,400 people, if you count the 700 people of Sixiutang, who must be standing with him, he has an army of 2,100 people. If you can really practice well, you can walk sideways here in Borneo.