"Over the mountains and mountains, alas-the feet are strong~ the feet are strong!"

"The thin-legged tender baby is here - don't lose your breath~ Don't lose your breath!"

The spring of March is about to pass, and the warm sun is about to fade from that layer of warmth. Behind the Rooster Crown Mountain, the two teams were a mile or two apart, and they were marching rapidly between the mountains. A team of people and horses is like a spring outing, very leisurely, and there is still room to sing, with the taste of the people in the mountains and wilderness. The other group of centaurs had crooked mouths and slanted eyes, staggered steps, and gasped like bellows for striking iron.

"Panshiyu, that bastard! Sooner or later, I'm going to tear his rotten mouth! ”

Being sung like this by those Yao family men, Meng Songjiang really felt that he was about to die. Cursing angrily, he looked back at his team, his stomach churning with bitterness. Why is your luck so bad? There are actually a bunch of Foshan soldiers on the stall!? Just like the song sings, these Foshan soldiers are all known as kung fu, what Cai family into the cloud boxing, what Li clan's mountain palm, is spiritual. The earliest physical training looked decent, but as soon as it was pulled out and armed for cross-country, it was fully revealed. It's only been thirty miles, and one by one they are about to lie down, looking at the Yao soldiers on the opposite side, it is estimated that they have just finished warming up.

Forget it, if it falls, it will fall, this competition is not a matter of one or two days, Meng Songjiang reluctantly ordered to rest.

More than 300 people on one wing gathered according to their eyes, and everyone only felt that the soul that was about to leave the body was finally poured back. In the team, Cai Fei wiped the sweat on his face, and he felt that he couldn't bear it.

"Cai Zhengmu, can you beg Meng Yichang not to compare with Pan Yichang? They are Yao people who have been used to climbing mountains all their lives! ”

Cai Fei's deputy head Liang Qing cried bitterly.

"Yaomin? Yaomin will also walk in the queue, and the guns are more accurate than us! Where can we overcome them? Fist? People will still have straight knives, no matter how hard they grit their teeth, what kind of face do you think we have to take the same silver as others? Get the same treatment? ”

Cai Fei worked hard to encourage everyone's spirits.

"Admit it...... Our Foshan Wing seems to be the worst, but don't send it to Mr. Li to throw us back to Foshan as a patrolman, let's do our best, don't always think about comparing others. ”

The other, older eye-to-eye, sighed in resignation.

"I, Cai Fei, came to do this Qingtian guard, but I am not a stepping stone for others, so I can't wear the worst hat!"

Cai Fei didn't want to accept such a reality, he had a deal with Li Shi, and also helped Li Shi stabilize the local martial arts hall in Foshan. After that, he worked as a foreman in the newly established Foshan Iron and Steel. A month ago, Qingtian Siwei came to Foshan to recruit people, Cai Fei thought about it for a long time, resolutely threw away the job with a monthly salary of four or five taels, signed up for Siwei, and signed the ten-year contract that everyone called the "life and death contract". He didn't care about any of this, he just felt that there seemed to be a more magnificent stage waiting for him, and that it should be a new future. This idea stems from the previous dealings with Li Shi, as well as the recent series of turmoil in Guangdong, as well as various rumors that are difficult to understand.

"Brothers! I can't control the others, but I pulled out this whistle of ours, even if I want to lose face, I can't throw it into the crotch! Cheer up, everyone! ”

Cai Fei cheered, and the ten people in this whistle were also excited.

The backhill of Cockscomb Mountain sounded the earth-shattering trumpet, and in the camp of the guards in the valley of the front mountain, the drumbeat was also beating. The four small horizontal formations marched forward in order, and at a distance of 100 paces, hundreds of soldiers wearing Qing soldiers' uniforms stretched out their bows and arrows, and a rain of arrows was thrown over.

It is different from the previous image of the guard, although the guards in this wave of horizontal formations are still wearing gray and blue cloth suits, the head is no longer the wide-brimmed round cloth hat before, but the iron helmet that is as bright as a cymbal, but the brim of the helmet slopes downward in an arc. There is also an extra piece of armor on the upper body, which looks like rattan armor and bamboo armor.

The sound of ticking dense raindrops sounded, and the rain of arrows fell on the advancing crowd, most of them only bowed their heads slightly, and the few who were out of step were pulled out of the queue by the officers of the team, and their faces were ashamed.

"These are the old guards?"

On the side of the "battlefield", Duan Hongshi was fascinated and casually asked Li Shi beside him.

"If it's an old guard, you won't blink your eyelids, and your head won't be lowered, let alone messy under your feet."

Li Shi's answer was full of confidence, the sentry in front of him came from the Beijiang Wing adapted from the boatman, and only the chief and deputy head of the head were the old guards.

It has been a month and a half since the duel with Yinzhen, and although Li Xi has finalized the "life events", in this era, if you want to marry a daughter-in-law, you have to have six complete ceremonies, which cannot be done in a while. In addition, Li Shi is already very human, and his marriage is also related to the situation in Guangdong. When to hold a wedding gift, it depends on the general trend, even if Li Xian is anxious, this hot tofu can't be eaten immediately.

Therefore, Li Shi can only put aside this major life event for the time being and devote himself to another major life event, which is, of course, to prepare for rebellion.

The whole overall situation was driven by the plan he discussed with Duan Hongshi and others, and Liu Xingchun led the public relations department and was responsible for the official work. Peng Xianzhong, who had just returned from Nanyang, led the Commercial Relations Department and made every effort to expand the industry in Guangdong. Sanjiang Ticket Bank and Sanjiang Investment continue to expand their business under Gu Xiyi's leadership. In terms of civil affairs, that is, the work of the people's hearts, veterans such as Lin Dashu, Wu Yaluo, He Gui and Tian Dayou, plus Cai Langzhong and Cai Meng, started from farming, brick and tile handicrafts and medical and health care, and spread the name of Qingtian Company to various provinces in Guangdong.

These aspects of work are under the control of Duan Hongshi, and the focus of Li Shi's work is ...... Expansion of armaments.

Judging from the experience of the Qingpu Cargo Station and the Battle of Guanyin Mountain in Fogang, Li Xi judged that from a purely military point of view, if he did not consider the problem of garrisoning the stronghold, as long as he had 3,000 elite mobile troops, he would be able to take the whole of Guangdong. To resist the siege of the Qing army on all sides, it is necessary to have more than 10,000 mobile troops.

Therefore, he established a set of three-ring military system of preparation, garrison, and combat readiness, and used this system to expand his troops.

Reservists are direct reservists, who have no requirement for loyalty, and come from locals who will not abandon their homes when fighting breaks out. Li Shi set up a huge "security" establishment for the Qingtian Company's related industries, which was used to accommodate these reservists. These reservists are paid the same salary as ordinary workers, that is, an ordinary occupation. The requirements for military skills are also very low, in good health, obey basic orders, mainly use cold weapons, and be familiar with public security and vigilance affairs.

In addition to the related industries of Qingtian Company, Li Shi's official affiliated institutions also accommodated reserve soldiers. For example, the Nanhai County Archives and History Bureau, the Foshan Inspection, the Kowloon Inspection, the Yingde Xunhuan, the Xianggang Inspection, and the Yingde County Archives and History Bureau, etc., are the official yamen that he can directly control. These security officers, who are similar to the police, are not the official armed establishment of the Qing court, and how much Li Shi wants to make up will not be recorded in the official yamen of the Qing court.

In addition to these people, Li Xi set up reserves in the green camp. For example, the town standard of Shaozhou, and the Guangdong standard of Huizhou. The town mark of Shaozhou is because Zhou Ning was kidnapped by Li Shi and put on a thief ship, while Bai Daolong was frightened, and he was looking for a relationship to transfer out of Shaozhou and avoid this disaster. Therefore, Li Xi was able to hold Zuo Ying, who had always had a good relationship with him, in his hands.

There were also some reserve soldiers in Huizhou, that is, the crippled Guangdong Biao, Li Shi distributed pension money to them for the sick and wounded through the Sanjiang Ticket Bank, and also settled down in the left and right rear camps that were beaten the most badly through the organization of learning such as industrial and commercial medicine.

Of course, Li Shi would not expect to recruit the reservists to rebel with him, the reservists had three purposes, one was to maintain order and maintain local tranquility, so as to stabilize the common people and prevent them from running away after the outbreak of war, this requirement was actually the hope of the Qing court, so he was sure that he could do this. To put it bluntly, the role of these reservists is to play soy sauce, and while making soy sauce themselves, they also appease the common people to play soy sauce together.

The second role of the reserve is to provide a potential source of troops. Among these people, they can always find people who have greater expectations for their future, and Li Xi can give them such space.

The third role is closely related to the first role, that is, to act as the eyes and ears of Li Shi, and Yu Hanyi's intelligence organization will also vigorously develop the downline in this group.

Judging from Li Shi's current situation, there are as many as 20,000 or 30,000 people who can be included in the reserve system, and these people are distributed in the Qingtian Company's industry, the grassroots organizations of the government, and the grassroots level of the green camp.

Above the reserve system is the garrison, and these people, whether they are intentional or forced, are all people who can stand with Li Xi when the war breaks out. But their rebellious hearts are not strong enough, and they can only be expected to fight to protect the order of their own territory. A number of key points in Yingde, Guangzhou, Foshan, Hong Kong, and other places should be defended with them as the main body. Li Shi did not ask them to follow him to raise the anti-flag, but only hoped that they would refuse to allow the Qing troops to enter the country and take control of the place.

The garrison has a sound establishment, with the "guard" as the unit, and now the initial establishment is the Hun Wei Guard, Li Zhuangwei , Qingpu Wei , Jiulong Wei , Foshan Wei , Dongguan Wei , Qingyuan Wei , each guard is uncertain, and it is covered up in the name of Lian Yong, village soldiers, boatmen, and so on at all levels of the officials and the people.

These people had to undergo a certain degree of military training, and they mainly used Qing army-grade weapons. As long as Li Xiantou had a small number of combat reserves, he could integrate them and resist the Qing army in the name of "protecting the territory and the people". After the organization is perfected, the establishment of these seven guards can probably be expanded to about six or seven thousand people.

The combat readiness system is the core military strength of Li Shi. With the previous old Siwei and Hong Kong Shui Yong as the backbone, Li Xi rapidly expanded his army in the past month and a half, in addition to absorbing loyal and reliable people, he also recruited those who were willing to sign a life and death contract and exchange their lives for silver. As long as there is such determination, with generous treatment, ideological indoctrination and polishing in all aspects, as well as the control of the original core backbone, Li Xian believes that after half a year, how can this army follow him to the battlefield to fight against the Qing army.

In this way, the composition of the troop source is complicated. Lian Nan Yaomin, who was carried by Pan Shiyu, was already anti-against the Qing court, and silver was secondary. The Foshan soldiers under Meng Songjiang, on the one hand, are greedy for silver treatment, on the other hand, they are brave and ruthless, and they always want to have a stage to show their full blood. There is even a wing of Guangzhou soldiers, many of them are patrolmen of the Nanhai County History Bureau, and many of them are the three religions and nine streams that Shang Jun came into contact with when he was the head catcher in Panyu County.

This core army is still collectively known as the Qingtian Division, but it is divided into three battalions in the north, south and middle. The strategic direction of the northern camp is Hunan and Jiangxi, and the battlefield is mainly mountainous, with the left and right wings of Yingde, Lian Yao, Qujiang, and Wengyuan, with about 2,000 people on the five wings. The soldiers of the North Battalion have a deep relationship with Li Shi, get along for a long time, and are well trained, and now they are now an army capable of fighting.

Nanying takes the former Hong Kong Shui Yong as the core, and has jurisdiction over the Kowloon Wing, Hong Kong Wing, Lantau Island Wing, Dapeng Wing, and four wings of 1,500 people. This force is good at water, and with the navy being formed, it is the Marine Corps planned by Li Shi in the future. The strategic goal is to attack and harass the enemy who is delaying Fujian.

The middle camp is the core striking force, and Li Xi divided half of the old guards to expand the middle camp. It has a reserve wing composed of the left and right wings of Qingtian, Beijiang wing, Foshan wing, Guangzhou wing and scattered troops recruited from Dongguan, Shunde, Huaxian, Fogang and other places. A separate artillery wing is also included, seven wings of three thousand people, and when the training is completed, it will be a hammer.

This is just a plan on paper, so far, the personnel have not arrived, the equipment is still in full production, the organizational structure and personnel are still adjusting and running-in, and the initial training has just begun.

While pushing things forward, Li Xi was also looking back. There are too many lessons learned from the two battles of Qingpu and Fogang.

At the summary meeting, Fan Jin, Fang Tangheng, Wang Tanghe, and other commanders of the Qingpu Battle first raised the issue of insufficient artillery. Li Xian's side was also reflecting on his own battle of Fogang, the improper use of artillery, failed to play a sufficient role. Another big problem is that the artillery firepower is insufficient, there are no flowering shells, and the light artillery, which is equivalent to the nine-pounder guns of the Europeans, has not yet been able to become the "king of war".

This problem had to be left to the general to solve, and the formation of a separate artillery wing and the appointment of Wang Tanghe as the wing commander were also measures to solve the problem of artillery use.

Another big problem is the lack of protection, in the battle of Qingpu and Fogang, the Qing soldiers can effectively kill the guards by three means, bows and arrows, cavalry and artillery. In addition to cavalry and artillery, in the two battles, more than 160 people were killed and more than 300 were wounded, and nearly half of them were caused by bows and arrows.

This is the reason why the guards who are currently in the camp of Jiguan Mountain are conducting actual combat drills will have steel helmets on their heads and bamboo and rattan armor on their bodies. The style of the steel helmet is similar to that of later British troops, but the brim is wider and the arc slopes downward to protect against the arrows that are thrown. The bamboo rattan, which has undergone special treatment, is woven into armor, which is light and tough, and is enough to protect ordinary arrows from a hundred steps away.

Originally, Li Xi also considered steel armor, but now the steel production is insufficient, and it is used to expand the machinery industry, so there is nothing to be done for the time being.

"If the three battalions are successful, Guangdong is my hand, even if Kangxi Lao'er transfers the officers and soldiers of the four provinces to encircle and suppress, the old man will not be able to see it well, unless he has the heart to deal with Galdan, the three feudatories and Taiwan, and comes to look at you again."

Seeing this guard moving forward steadily, Duan Hongshi was full of confidence.

"Now...... Kangxi Lao'er, did you see me? ”

Li Xi was still a little worried, the first wave of reaction from the court and Kangxi had already come back from Beijing, and on the surface, the cover-up of him, Yinzhen and Guangdong officialdom seemed to have worked completely.

"Whether I see you or not, this is the warm breeze before the thunderstorm, Guangdong...... It should have been a thorn in the eye of the Qing court, and it was a nail in the flesh. ”

Duan Hongshi was very sober.

(To be continued)