Aunt Liu's restaurant is still very lively today, and there are many customers coming in and out.

The bookkeeper was still reading the newspaper to the guests, but there were now two copies of the newspaper.

Today, Mr. Ledger first read "Yangzhou Weekly", and as soon as he read the title of the first article on the front page, the guests below exploded.

The title of this article is "Driving the Tartars Out of China", which was written by Gu Yanwu himself, although according to Liu Lan's requirements, this article is written in the vernacular, but Gu Yanwu is indeed extraordinary, the article is still written impassionedly, and the listeners are enthusiastic.

"Is the Yangzhou army marching north? I've finally been looking forward to this day. ”

One of the guests was extremely excited, as if he was going to go to the battlefield himself.

"Now that the world is peaceful, the Manchu court is now powerful, and the Yangzhou army is asking for trouble, if it is defeated, our good days will come to an end."

The guest who made this sound was quickly scolded by the other guests and ran out of the small restaurant, causing Aunt Liu to chase after her to ask for the account, and then hurriedly took out a string of copper coins and handed it to Aunt Liu.

At this time, the Senate maintained a high degree of unity with the Metropolitan Governor's Office, and on the second day of the publication of the "Yangzhou Weekly", the "Ming Pao" also issued an article expressing support for the upcoming military operation of the Yangzhou Army.

The Yangzhou Army, which had made up its mind, acted extremely quickly, and at the time of the newspaper's publication, the Third Division had already maneuvered to Yangzhou, preparing to distribute a regiment of Yangzhou Type 1 rifles, and then board the ship from Yangzhou and go straight to Anqing.

The fleet on the canal stretched for more than ten miles, and these were all ships transporting grain, grass, ammunition and other materials to Xuzhou.

The rapid development of industry and commerce in Yangzhou in the past two years has really reflected the effect at this time.

With an order, basically all merchant ships were requisitioned, and the number of merchant ships and the high transportation capacity made even Luo Jian feel a little surprised.

With the overall plan of the General Staff Department and the Logistics Department, the Yangzhou Army was busy but not chaotic, and each of them carried out its actions in an orderly manner according to the plan, but the troops were maneuvering over a long distance, and I am afraid it would take more than 20 days for all the units to be able to move in place.

Luo Jian was a little free at this time, and he sat in the staff headquarters for two days, and seeing that everything was going according to plan, Luo Jian simply took the escort to Guazhou.

The battleship "Huo Quai" will be launched in a few days, but now everyone has no heart to pay attention, and all the energy of Guazhou is also focused on the production of ammunition and firearms.

The Chen Zilong that Luo Jian saw was very haggard, with a stubble on his face, and even his eyes were sunken, looking even more depressed than the last time he came back from going out to look for mines.

Chen Zilong didn't go back to his home in Nanjing for the New Year at all, and he didn't even come to Luo Jian's wedding, but he just asked Xiao Liu to bring a word to apologize, Luo Jian didn't expect him to toss himself like this.

"Brother Mao, what are you doing here? You can't do things without your life, right? Luo Jian looked at Chen Zilong and said reproachfully.

"Haha, Xinghua, I finally found some doorways, give me more than half a year, and I can get your bullet out for you." Chen Zilong didn't feel it at all, and when he saw Luo Jian, he shouted excitedly, and handed it to Luo Jian while holding a newly made bullet.

Although Chen Zilong was very excited, Luo Jian knew that this was not an easy task, being able to make dozens of bullets and being able to mass-produce were completely different things, in which the transformation of technology was difficult and the process was complex, with the current industrial base, it was definitely not possible to solve it in a short time.

Luo Jian ignored Chen Zilong, beckoned Zhao Quan over, said a few words in his ear, Zhao Quan waved his hand and called two guards, without saying a word, stepped forward to hold Chen Zilong and walked outside.

"Xinghua, what are you doing?" Chen Zilong was startled, struggling and shouting.

"Don't do anything, you go back to Yangzhou now, live in the Metropolitan Governor's Mansion, have a good rest for a week, don't think about anything, don't do anything, your task is to rest!" Luo Jian said fiercely.

"Xinghua, you can't do this, let me do nothing, you might as well kill me!" Chen Zilong was still shouting, causing many people to run out to watch.

"What do you see? I'll get back to work, it's none of your business here. When Chen Zilong saw that everyone was running out of the house, he immediately became anxious, and he didn't care about making trouble with Luo Jian, so he only shouted at everyone.

Song Yingxing, who heard the movement, also hurried over, he had been doing research work together in Zhu Cihuan's laboratory, and during this time, Guazhou was running at full capacity, and he was also worried, so he rushed over two days ago.

"Maozhong, you just listen to Xinghua, go back and rest for a few days, nothing is in a hurry, you go back and think about it, and then adjust your thinking, maybe it will be faster when you come back." Song Yingxing saw that Chen Zilong was really working too hard, and he also persuaded him.

Chen Zilong reluctantly followed the two guards, and while walking, he turned his head and glared at Luo Jian fiercely, making Luo Jian cry and laugh.

"Xinghua, come here, Xiao Liu has made some good things again." Song Yingxing saw that Chen Zilong was finally gone, and called Luo Jian to a room.

"Xinghua, this zha medicine was prepared for you by Xiao Liu, the kind you used last time you fought Huai'an, and there are also some of the thirty shells we made, this thing is still a little unstable according to Xiao Liu, you have to be careful to transport it."

Song Yingxing pointed to the two wooden boxes on the side of the wall and said, Luo Jian knew that this was bitter acid, with this thing, with the current defensive ability of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, of course Jiancheng would not be a problem.

After looking at these two boxes of things, Luo Jian also increased a lot of confidence.

"Old Song, you said there are still thirty shells?" Luo Jian saw these two boxes of things, and didn't pay attention to Song Lao's words, and only reacted after a while.

"Yes, I personally led someone to make it, this thing is so powerful, you have to use it well." Song Yingxing said with some pride.

"Old Song, how can you do this yourself? How dangerous is that? Luo Jian said with some fear.

"According to the operating procedures, this old man is better than them, and the danger is much lower, you can rest assured, the old man knows it."

"That's good. However, these are extremely dangerous goods, and the operating procedures should not be sloppy at all. Luo Jian nodded and said.

"By the way, Xinghua, I went to the gunsmith to see, the progress is a little slow, I'm afraid you will have to wait for more than ten days for a regiment's rifle." Song Yingxing said with some regret.

When Luo Jian heard this, these three divisions were still waiting in Yangzhou to receive equipment, and now it seems that they can only go to Anqing to change their defenses first, and then let people send them to Anqing when the production is produced, otherwise it will affect the entire battle plan.

In the small courtyard of the Ministry of Security behind the Metropolitan Governor's Mansion, Lai Fu was sitting in the house sorting out intelligence information, when there was a knock on the door, and Lai Fu let him in.

It was the people who came to receive information from the periphery, and after taking out a thin bamboo tube from his arms, he hurriedly walked out.

Lai Fu took out the note of the bamboo tube, opened it and saw that it was full of Arabic numerals, Lai Fu opened the desk drawer, took out a book, and translated it carefully.

After all the translations were completed, Lai Fu suddenly showed an extremely shocked look, stood up suddenly, and wanted to go to Luo Jian with the translated information.

After walking a few steps, Lai Fu suddenly remembered something, stopped again, walked around the room a few times, his face changed again and again, and seemed to have finally made up his mind, and returned to his seat and sat down.

The look on Lai Fu's face, who had made up his mind, was a little weird, and he hesitated for a moment, picked up the note on the table and the translated information, and stuffed it directly into his mouth, chewed it in a few bites, and swallowed it.

When Luo Jian came back from Guazhou, he saw Lai Fu hurriedly walking outside the courtyard, and when he saw Luo Jian coming back, Lai Fu made a salute and wanted to say something, but finally held back, Luo Jian was in a hurry to arrange the affairs of the third division, and he didn't care too much.

Li Benshen was a little helpless, but Guazhou's production capacity couldn't keep up, and he couldn't help it, but he still took people to Guazhou to get a thousand rifles and went to Anqing.

The battleship "Huo Quai" was finally completed and launched, and yesterday it had returned from a sea trial, and the merchants of Yangzhou had been looking forward to this day for a long time, and the upcoming war did not seem to have any impact on the enthusiasm of the businessmen to make money, and they did not know whether it was the absolute confidence in the Yangzhou army, or the temptation of a lot of silver to make them forget all this.

Just after the Spring Festival, Shi Lang had already taken the "Wei Qing" and "Fengyang" to escort a group of merchant ships to Japan, and Lu Wei and Zheng Chenggong waited for the "Huo Quai" to be launched, and then escorted the "Anqing" to the South Seas.

The temporary wharf in Jiangyin is as lively as ever, all kinds of goods have been piled up on the wharf, more than a dozen merchant ships are waiting in line to load goods, and the "Huo Quai" has stopped on the shore and will leave tomorrow.

The next day, the first voyage of the "Huo Quai" was to see off Shi Kefa, Luo Jian did not go, at this time the Sixth Division had already maneuvered through Gaoyou, and would soon arrive in Huai'an, Luo Jian was ready to leave for Xuzhou.

Luo Jian, who had been busy in the staff headquarters all day, returned to the mansion and saw that Liu Lan was personally preparing her suits, Luo Jian's backpack was bulging, all of which were Luo Jian's change of clothes, and he didn't know how to stay outside for a few months.

Luo Jian watched Liu Lan keep busy, felt very warm, thought for a while, took out his pistol, carefully checked a few magazines, and saw that they were still full, so he put them in the holster and handed them to Liu Lan.

"Liulan, after we leave, the situation in Yangzhou will be more complicated, you usually have to wear body armor when you go out, don't try to save trouble, this pistol is left for you to defend yourself, your little pistol doesn't work."

Liu Lan thought for a moment, took out the small pistol from her small bag and handed it to Luo Jian.

"Okay, I'll keep this gun, you can take this small one for self-defense, don't be afraid of 10,000, just in case, there are not many bullets." Liu Lan felt Luo Jian's concern and did not brush off his kindness.

After packing up her things, Liu Lan thought that there would always be less and more in the future, so she was very reluctant, and stepped forward and gently hugged Luo Jian.

The two of them stood quietly together by the window and watched the night outside, not speaking, hoping that time would stop.

Early the next morning, Luo Jian's guards of more than 200 people were already waiting outside the mansion, these guards were specially selected by Liu Zhaoji from the first division, and they were brought back from Yangzhou this time.

Bidding farewell to Shi Kefa and Ren Minyu and a large group of people at the east gate, Luo Jian embarked on the journey with a group of staff officers.