Luo Jian's conversation with the soldiers had a great impact, and it was still talked about by the people of Yangzhou after a long time.

In the teahouse opposite Aunt Liu's bun shop on Dongmen Street, five or six scholars gathered around a table near the window on the second floor and were chatting.

"Brother Liu, I heard that you also went to the Metropolitan Governor's Mansion that day?"

"Go, go, but unfortunately I couldn't talk to the Duke. However, after listening to the teachings of the Metropolitan Governor, I realized that I was a frog at the bottom of the well before. ”

"How did I become a frog at the bottom of a well when I studied the books of the sages, astronomy, and geography?" The scholar surnamed Song was obviously dissatisfied with Brother Liu's words.

"As far as what we learn is called 'going to school astronomy'? Let me tell you, after we had dinner that day, the Governor showed us what the movie? Yes, it's called a movie, it's called "Our Solar System", and after watching that, I realized that we were living on a big ball, and the reason for the four seasons of the year, sunset and sunrise in the movie was too clear. ”

"What you said is true?" The scholar surnamed Song had an envious expression on his face, and he regretted that he couldn't go to the Dadu Governor's Mansion that day.

"But no, I used to think that the earth dragon and the drought were all caused by the lack of virtue of the above, but now I know that these are natural phenomena, and people can actively prevent them, but they can't change them."

"The Metropolitan Governor said that these are the categories of the study of the scientific way, and now the students in the Metropolitan Governor's Mansion are learning the scientific way. Now even the overseers are very interested in this, and they are reading these books. ”

"I wonder when I'll be able to see these books?"

"The Governor of the Metropolitan said, now the conditions are limited, only a small number of these books can be printed for everyone to study, if you are interested in this way of science, you can go to the house to study with you, this is not stupid brother is going to sign up tomorrow, to study in this school."

"Then I'll go tomorrow, Brother Liu, how about we go together?" The scholar surnamed Song was a little impatient.

On the second floor of the Yangzhou Restaurant, there is also a group of scholars who are talking.

"Senior brother, are you determined to vote for the Metropolitan Governor's Mansion?" Hou Fangyu, who had a very ugly face, stared at Yangzhou's high filial piety.

"Yes, now that the Manchu Tartars have stolen and occupied the capital of our country, brutalized my people, and suppressed my thoughts, if my scholars still don't listen to what is going on outside the window, I am afraid that this day will be like what the Metropolitan Governor said as soon as possible, and my generation of scholars will never be able to find a quiet desk again." Gao Xiaozhang said leisurely.

"I think this Luo Dadu Governor is alarmist, I heard that the Manchu Qing court is preparing to open a department to recruit scholars, and also takes scholars very seriously. However, this metropolitan governor asked the scholars to do some vulgar things, and made some strange tricks and tricks to deceive people's hearts, in the long run, how can our generation of scholars establish their hearts for heaven and earth, and establish their lives for the people? ”

As soon as the man surnamed Li finished speaking, the scholar surnamed Wang next to him stood up, pointed at him and asked, "The surname Li, are you going to participate in the imperial examination of the Manchurians?" Do you want to be a traitor as the Metropolitan Governor said? ”

"Why did Brother Wang say such ugly words? Why not? This Ming Dynasty has exhausted his qi, and Ma Shiying, Ruan Dacheng and other traitors in the DPRK control the government, without a trace of Zhongxing, how can this Luo Jian turn things around? The Manchu Qing Dynasty replaced the Ming Dynasty, maybe it was also the destiny of heaven, and my generation of scholars should be the ones who know the times as the heroes. If you can enter this Manchu court, you can advise the Manchu emperor to treat my people well, which is also a good talk. ”

The man surnamed Li didn't see that everyone was glaring at him, but he was still proud and spoke eloquently.

When the shopkeeper who was serving the food heard Li Juren say these words, the plate in his hand was deliberately loosened, and suddenly half of the soup flowed into Li Juren's neck, which made Li Juren jump up and scream, and turned around to scold.

"Li Kaifu, you get out of me! Today is me doing the east, I knew that you are this kind of person, this meal would rather be fed to the dog than let you eat a bite! Another scholar surnamed Wang on the opposite side stood up and shouted, blocking Li Kaifu's words about scolding Xiao Er.

"Let's go! I'm ashamed to be with you! All the scholars at the table pointed at Li Kaifu and scolded.

The corners of Hou Fangyu's mouth moved a few times, and he didn't say what he wanted to say.

The shopkeeper heard that Xiao Er had scalded the customer, so he hurriedly ran up, and saw that everyone was pointing at the person who was burned and scolding, and felt so strange.

After inquiring clearly at the table next to him, he stepped forward and said to Li Juren, "Today, the second child of our shop scalded you, if you want to compensate, go downstairs to find me, but in the future, we will no longer welcome you." ”

turned around and said to Xiao Er: "I will go down and get an extra month's salary, and when I meet this kind of person in the future, you will be hot, and I will pay for it if it is burned." ”

In the contemptuous eyes of everyone, Li Kaifu did not mention the matter of compensation, and walked away.

"Brother Chaozong, I know that you have a deep grudge with Nama Shiying and Ruan Dacheng, and now that you see that the Metropolitan Governor does not want to correct the Chaogang, you must be dissatisfied in your heart. On that day, the superintendent said that there are major contradictions and secondary contradictions in everything, and the main contradiction now is the life-and-death struggle between our Ming Dynasty and the Manchu Qing Dynasty. How is the grudge between the overseer and the traitorous party compared to the clan brother? Inspectors can put aside personal grievances and work hard for national affairs, why don't Brother Chaozong let go of their knots and join us in this vigorous anti-Qing cause? ”

Gao Xiaozhang saw that Hou Fangyu was depressed, knowing what he was thinking, and Wen Yan said with relief.

"Miss Xiangjun was killed by Ruan Dacheng, and now she is trapped in the palace, it is better to wait for me to ask the Metropolitan Governor and ask him to ask the emperor for someone, with the power of the Metropolitan Governor, you will be able to reunite the two of you."

Hou Fangyu listened to Gao Xiaozhang's words, and wanted to open his mouth to refuse, but after thinking about it again, he fell silent again.

The conversation between Luo Jian and the soldiers in Yangzhou City is still spreading, and the vigorous military training outside Yangzhou City has been in full swing.

Luo Jian has been so busy these days that his feet don't touch the ground, and he even eats and lives in the military camp outside the city.

A few days ago, all the troops had already arrived at their stations outside the city, and after resting for a day, they immediately began training in accordance with the pre-drawn training plan.

In the past few days, Luo Jian has been conducting a detailed investigation and study of the equipment of the troops.

Through careful understanding, Luo Jian found that there were indeed many firearms equipped in the army at this time, and there were extremely many types, some of which were even handed down during the Jiajing period.

The largest number of individual firearms, such as three-eyed guns, rifles, and shotguns, are numerous. Most of these firearms are extremely rough workmanship, and it is understood that they were made after the Apocalypse, but the firearms made in the previous Wanli period were of the best quality.

Among these firearms, the longest-range guns are only one or two hundred meters away, and the effective range is not even fifty meters, and the slightly thicker armor cannot penetrate at all.

Some of the muskets did not even let go of a single shot, and the soldiers who used them did not dare to use them for fear of exploding, and held them in their hands purely for show.

Luo Jian has seen these firearms, and it is true that even the thickness is uneven, which makes people feel uneasy at a glance, and it is no wonder that the soldiers dare not use gunpowder.

The results of the investigation made Luo Jian realize that if he relied on these firearms, he would not be able to win the battle.

Huang Degong, Liu Zhaoji, Li Chengdong and other generals were gathered, and after careful discussion, they simply collected all these substandard firearms and sent them to Liu Weimin's steel factory.

Fortunately, enough weapons and equipment were captured, and after receiving these firearms, no one in the army would train empty-handed.

The high-intensity physical training made the long-term malnourished grassroots officers and soldiers a little unbearable, and Luo Jian had no choice but to reduce the high-intensity physical training and increase some joint training and training in military formations.

During this time, the food and salary supplement of the imperial court was sufficient. In the past, the demand for food and salary of four or five hundred thousand huge soldiers in the four towns overwhelmed the Southern Ming court, but now north of the Yangtze River, the imperial court only needs to supply more than 100,000 people and horses, and the pressure has been reduced a lot.

Even though the soldiers were exhausted, their enthusiasm for training was undiminished, lest they could not keep up with the training and be eliminated from the army.

There are scholars who come to join the army every day, although it is still a drop in the bucket for the 50,000 troops, but Luo Jian feels that this is a good momentum.

Let He Gang gather these readers for five days of training, and after the training, these readers have a new identity "instructor".

When these instructors arrived in the troops, they not only taught the soldiers to learn culture, but also taught them the principles of patriotism and love for the people.

Wang Xiuchu took half of Liu Liangzuo's troops to Tianchang County and stopped, and Luo Jian asked Liu Zhaoji to take his group to help streamline and reorganize.

The result of reporting to Luo Jian in a few days was that only four or five thousand of the more than 20,000 horses could be used, and the others were basically old, weak, sick and disabled, purely making up the numbers.

According to Li Chengdong, the previous Gao Jie Department was not much different from this situation, but later it was just because he had been pursued by the Qing soldiers, the old, weak, sick and disabled were all dragged away, and the rest were young and strong.

Huang Degong's department was in the best situation, but only about half of the men were left in the reorganization.

This made Luo Jian also understand why the four or five hundred thousand horses in the four towns of Jiangbei were completely vulnerable to the Qing soldiers, in fact, it is estimated that only one-fifth of the soldiers who can really participate in the battle, and most of these are the generals' personal soldiers. This is also the reason why Zuo Liangyu's troops claimed to march to Nanjing with four or five hundred thousand horses, but they were defeated by Huang Degong's troops in a few days.

It did take Shi Kefa a lot of effort to settle the old, weak, sick and disabled of more than 10,000 people, but fortunately, after the Qing soldiers retreated, there were many ownerless fields, and most of them were resettled on the spot, and Shi Kefa personally stayed in Tianchang for five or six days before settling down more than 10,000 people.

Liu Zhaoji had long heard of the poor military discipline of Liu Liangzuo's troops, but he did not expect that within two days after the unit was streamlined and reorganized, soldiers went out in groups to rob, which made Liu Zhaoji so angry that it was not until the heads of five low-level generals and more than 30 non-commissioned officers hung on the flagpoles in the battalion that this evil trend was suppressed.

Luo Jian originally wanted these horses to be stationed in Tianchang, but after discussing with Liu Zhaoji, he felt that these horses really couldn't form an army alone, so he simply scattered them and divided them into divisions.

This incident had a great impact on Luo Jian, who used to always want to constantly expand the team, but now it seems that if these 50,000 horses are indeed trained into elite soldiers, it will be enough to cope with the situation for a period of time.

After running back to Yangzhou and talking with Shi Kefa for a long time, the two finally reached an agreement, deciding not to expand the army in the near future, but to concentrate on training and supporting the 50,000 horses, and then make other considerations when the situation has changed greatly.

The artisan battalion (will be the camp) was transferred by Luo Jian to Guazhou, where Liu Weimin's steelmaking mill was built.

The training slowly got on track, and Luo Jian finally had time to go to Guazhou to have a look.