On the upper river less than five miles away from Baoshanwei.

A Fu ship with a displacement of about 120 tons, escorted by six small patrol clippers, propped up its sails and accelerated, and in the luxuriously arranged shipbuilding, the Yuan family father and son sat around and whispered secretly.

The three brothers of the Yuan family took turns to express their impressions and opinions on Zhu Daolin, and analyzed Zhu Daolin's army reorganization measures and two orders, but in the end, no one could figure out what Zhu Daolin's purpose was, and Yuan Jizhen, the third brother of Yuan Lao, wanted to sign up for the special training camp, but was unanimously opposed by the two elder brothers.

Yuan Zhizhong, who had thick bones but a wrinkled face, coughed lightly, signaled the arguing sons to stop, and looked at his youngest son Yuan Zhizhong kindly:

"San'er, tell you the truth, why do you want to participate in this special training camp?"

Yuan Jizhen, who was full of heroism, replied truthfully: "The child wants to learn more naval combat skills...... Now the world is different, the Jiangnan Navy Division has doubled its strength with the strong support of General Zhu, and in the past two months, Longjiangwei's 8 new and old warships have been training between Jiangyin and Tongzhou, including two 3,500-material new warships with two large masts and bow skews, they call them 300-ton two-masted warships, and the speed is amazing, and there are as many as 22 large general cannons and 6-pounder bronze cannons on the deck and lower deck! ”

"Ten days ago, the child escorted the Li family's fleet to Guazhoudu, and met Longjiang Weihe halfway to practice artillery.

"So, the boy thought of the family's fleet, and our two largest ships of 2,000 materials only had 8 Francophone alphabet guns, and even the Franco-machine merchant ships equipped with 10 general cannons were stronger than us!"

"Big brother, second brother, maybe you will say that you can't buy it back if you don't have enough guns, but how many gunners do we have? How to train the gunners to fire a thousand-pound general cannon? ”

The second Yuan Zhongzhen retorted again: "What's the use of having more guns? Can he Zhu Daolin have more artillery than the Zheng family ship in Fujian? Ten years for him can't compare! ”

"I see. The third child is tired of staying at home, and you want to go out to play fresh, and if you want to play fresh, you can play with you in Yangzhou City, but I'm afraid that your small body can't stand it. ”

"Second brother, how do you talk?" Yuan Jizhen was suddenly annoyed.

The eldest Yuan Bozhen hurriedly came out to play a round: "Second brother, don't say a few words, don't worry, third brother." What you said just now does make some sense, we should buy a few big ships of more than 4,000 materials and more powerful bronze cannons to come back, but we don't have to go to any training camps. ”

"Didn't you hear what Zhu Daolin said with a black face? Just the sentence '200 taels of silver for the dead, wounded, disabled and disabled', you know how ruthless he is and how he trains the army, everyone knows, right? ”

"Zhu Daolin doesn't intercede with anyone, whether it is an official or a soldier, they all practice to the death, so ah, we would rather buy a few warships and dozens of generals' bronze cannons from the Zheng family in Fujian to come back, and by the way, invite a few artillery masters to come back and train hundreds of masters. It's a hundred times stronger than what special training camp you go to......"

"Dad, what do you mean?"

Yuan Zhizhong raised his calloused hand, stroked his half-foot-long beard, and nodded slightly with his eyes half-closed:

"If you don't want to buy a big warship, you can't buy it, and you have to buy a general's cannon, otherwise it's useless to save more silver and more property...... But there is no need to be in a hurry, the top priority is to find out Zhu Daolin's strategy for the whole army as soon as possible, and figure out his attitude towards our Yuan family. That's the main thing. ”

"For more than half a year, we have followed my father's orders. did not participate in the battles between the major families and Zhu Daolin and Jinling Xungui, and also provided a lot of convenience for the two batches of Francoji merchant ships, Zhu Daolin should be able to see it. Yuan Bozhen, the young head of the increasingly mature family, said.

Yuan Jizhen echoed casually: "This is Dad's foresight...... Several thousand households and hundreds of households on both sides of the upstream have been hollowed out by the Jiangnan family, and we are the only ones who stay out of the matter, which now seems to be completely correct. ”

Yuan Zhongzhen, the second brother with a stout figure and a rough personality, immediately rolled his eyes, and almost didn't scold the sycophant.

The eldest of the three brothers gradually inherited the family business. The third child is the most favored, what do you want the old man to give, and even a few of his concubines even praise the third uncle for being handsome, but he, the second child, is not up or down, and all he does is the rough work of forcing debts and contacting the rude bandits in the rivers and lakes. Full of resentment, but there is no way to attack.

The eldest Yuan Bozhen quickly understood what his father meant, and nodded thoughtfully: "In this case, I will move around more when I go down, and it is close to Shi Qingyang's set, but it is just ...... Dad, we must send the soldiers, ordnance, warships, military fields, public property, etc. within five days, what should we do? ”

Yuan Zhizhong said with a solemn expression: "Except for the warship and our family's fields, I want to see what he will do." ”

"If you treat everyone equally, that is, he still needs my Yuan family, everyone can get along in harmony and make a fortune together, if he suppresses us, it will be a little troublesome, but don't be afraid of him, he definitely doesn't want to force my Yuan family to the side of the Jiangnan family."

"Take 10,000 steps back and say, if we are in a hurry, we will bite him hard, and then go south to Fujian to take refuge in the Zheng family of the Sea Dragon King, so that there will not even be a way out."

"What worries me most now is that he ignores us, and if that's the case, I'm afraid we won't be able to sleep well."

Yuan Bozhen's face also became dark.

The second eldest Yuan Zhongzhen said with a grin, "The soldiers will block the water and cover the soil, who is afraid of whom", and then took a cup of tea and leaned on the cushion behind him.

Only the third elder, Yuan Jizhen, asked in a low voice after pondering: "Dad, the child thinks that it is also a good choice to take refuge in General Zhu and Jinling Xungui...... Didn't you say that in the past few months, the Jiangnan family has been beaten to the ground and lost its soldiers, because the military power is in the hands of the nobles? ”

"The child thinks that the world is getting more and more chaotic, and it is the safest to hold the military power."

Yuan Zhizhong looked at his youngest son with a gratifying face, and passed on his experience to his sons in a serious manner:

"San'er is right, born in troubled times, it is the safest to grasp the power of the army! As the saying goes, there are gains and losses, although my Yuan family has occupied the unique Chongming Houdao for decades, but it is also limited by water on all sides and cannot develop and grow, which is also the biggest regret of your grandfather before he died. ”

"That's why I spared no expense to get the official titles of a thousand or a hundred households for your brothers, so that once the opportunity comes, you can all be promoted to two more levels, recruit thousands of soldiers, and raise an army to take charge of yourself."

"However, the world is too chaotic nowadays, and no one can see what the future holds......"

"Let's take this Zhu Daolin as an example, it seems that his ability is extraordinary and his career is thriving, but how can he compare with Mao Wenlong Mao Marshal in Liaodong? Mao Dashuai, who fought a tough battle with the Manchu army for more than ten years, won more and lost less, was finally cut off by the civilian official Yuan Chonghuan! ”

The three sons sat upright together, savored their father's words, and gradually understood that their father was indeed good intentions, and understood the difficult situation of his father's strict neutrality and non-offense.

The father and son of the Yuan family felt deeply difficult, and Zhu Daolin was also not easy.

He inspected the resettlement sites during the day, held on-site meetings with the construction directors and the generals in the morning and evening, and was busy all morning just to demonstrate the ratio of two kinds of cement and concrete, and at noon he rushed to a banquet jointly held by the merchants, repeatedly expressing the attitude of accompanying the market, buying and selling fairly, and never defaulting, and paying in advance a deposit of 30,000 taels of silver to the six merchants who supplied the stone and bricks, which dispelled the concerns of the merchants and enabled the raw materials to be transported continuously.

It wasn't until the end of the summary meeting on the evening of the third day that Zhu Daolin was a little relieved, and continued to discuss with Chai Cheng'an, the commander of Baoshanwei, and Shi Qingyang, a confidant general who were left alone, until midnight, when he was able to get out under the pretext of contacting the messenger of Tianshu Pavilion, and in the worried and puzzled eyes of Chai Cheng'an and Shi Qingyang, he walked alone to the mouth of the Yangtze River overgrown with reeds in the vast night. (To be continued.) )