The snow is falling and the cold wind is gentle.

The long-lost sun hides behind the gray-white clouds between the sea and the sky, and the reflection of Lu Lixia still makes people feel a little warm.

On the wharf east of the Weihai Acropolis, there are crowds of people and busy.

The officers and men of the Longtan Gun Battalion and the Baggage Battalion have boarded the ship with all their bags, and the more than 2,000 soldiers who have been eliminated from Dengzhou and more than 1,200 conscripted craftsmen and their families have also carried the luggage issued and boarded the four treasure ship-style transport ships.

With the help of friendly brothers, the officers and men of the cavalry battalion of the Longtan Army are leading 850 war horses and 350 pull-back horses onto two 700-ton special transport ships.

Under the strong north wind, the fleet from Weihaiwei to the south will arrive at Baoshan Port at the mouth of the Yangtze River in only six days, and will rest for two days to replenish supplies, and will once again board the transport ship of the East China Sea Fleet and sail directly to the Hsinchu Tun Reclamation Area on Yingzhou Island.

Three Spanish captains, including the commander of the East China Sea Fleet, Bargas, are saying goodbye to more than a dozen instructors from European countries in the North Sea Fleet.

Tang Zhenglin, the commander of the Longtan Army, Li Yugang, and others, surrounded Zhu Daolin and chattered endlessly, until Zhu Daolin urged them to board the ship for the third time, and then he reluctantly saluted and said goodbye to Zhu Daolin, and greeted the brothers who saw them off around him, strode to the wharf, boarded the traffic boat, and went to the large transport ship moored on the periphery of the wharf and full of important equipment and materials.

9:40 a.m.

A fleet of 4 500-ton warships and 12 large and small transport ships sailed south, leaving only 5 old small rowing boats and 3 dhows more than 10 meters long on both sides of Weihaiwei Wharf.

In order to prevent Zhu Dadian, the governor of Shandong, and the Dengzhou army from claiming a large number of captured warships, Zhu Daolin was on the second day after the end of the Battle of Dengzhou. The 66 captured ships of more than 300 tons were divided into two.

35 warships suitable for inland navigation were handed over to the Jiangnan Navy Division under the command of Wei Guogong, and the remaining 31 ships were brought back to Shangyuan Port in Jiangnan by the participating navy and handed over to the Hushan Shipbuilding Workshop for maintenance and refit.

The remaining 65 warships and transport ships with a displacement of between 50 and 250 tons were all assigned to the North Sea Fleet, of which more than 20 warships and transport ships were used for daily training, and in the last month they went back and forth between Weihai and Qingdao to transport supplies. The remaining ships have been anchored on the west coast of Liugong Island, a few miles east of Weihai Harbor.

The officers and soldiers who saw them off on the dock gradually dispersed.

Guo Zhongjun looked around, walked quickly to Zhu Daolin, who was talking to Xu Wentao, and asked: "Hundreds of brothers in Weihaiwei have repeatedly asked to join our army, but in view of the problem of belonging, the current position of our army is rather embarrassing...... The subordinates did not dare to agree, so they asked the general for instructions. ”

Zhu Daolin thought of the hundreds of lazy officers and soldiers in Weihaiwei who were in tatters, wrapped in sackcloth and still shivering from the cold, and couldn't help but shake his head again and again:

"That's it, this time Weihaiwei and Qingdao Wei have not been taken down, and we have no jurisdiction over the officers and soldiers in these two places. Give them some grain and frozen meat. People can't take ......"

"Weihaiwei is under the jurisdiction of Shandong Bingbei Dao, these hundreds of veterans are different from the Dengzhou soldiers and Dongjiang soldiers who were captured before, unless the emperor decrees that Weihaiwei can be taken in under the jurisdiction of our army, otherwise they will definitely be ripped off in the future, and maybe they will become the handle of Shandong officials attacking us again."

Xu Wentao smiled bitterly: "Alas, my Ming army has a very hard life, and in winter, the days are even more difficult, compared with the soldiers on the front line of Ningjin." Weihaiwei's hundreds of veterans are lucky. ”

Guo Zhongjun said that he understood: "My subordinates will go and explain to them." ”

Zhu Daolin pulled Xu Wentao and returned to the Weihai Acropolis where he was temporarily borrowed. On the way, he asked, "Have the temporary barracks on Liugong Island been erected?" ”

"Six rows of tens of meters of wooden houses have been built along the foot of the central mountain, and due to the lack of materials, tents can only be used to cover the roof for the time being, ordnance and ammunition and 5,500 recruits have moved in, and we are still hurrying to build two rows of wooden houses, which will be much more relaxed after they are built."

"Good thing the island is wooded. It took thousands of people five days to cut enough wood to burn day and night for a month, otherwise it would not have survived. ”

"At least in the next month, the rest of the officers and soldiers and the brothers of the Dongjiang Army will not be able to move in, so they can only continue to crowd in the Acropolis, and God God does not know how to do it. It's getting colder every year. Xu Wentao complained.

"Last night, 2,000 tons of cement, 1,500 tons of steel bar, 200 tons of brown sugar, 8,000 sets of cotton clothes and pants and suede shoes were brought from Tianshu Pavilion, and they were all piled up on the beach south of Liugong Island. Zhu Daolin commanded.

Xu Wentao was overjoyed: "I'm worried that there is no reinforced concrete to repair the wharf, and then I can open the mountain and blow up the stones...... There are also brown sugar and cotton pants, it's so timely! The subordinates went by boat. ”

Looking at the back of Xu Wentao turning around and running towards the dock, Zhu Daolin felt sad in his heart.

Now is the coldest period of the Xiaoice River period, there will be no warm time for the next 20 years, and in the next five years, severe drought will extend from the northwest region to the Central Plains and the Yangtze River Basin, followed by a grain harvest.

It is under such a disaster that the government at all levels not only does not provide relief, but also increases exploitation. In order to survive, the people of the Ming Dynasty could only rebel, resulting in wars and plagues throughout the country, and even the Guangdong region, thousands of miles away in the south, had to fall heavy snowfall, and the rice yield was reduced on a large scale.

In the next three days, Zhu Daolin soaked together with the generals and colonels of the Dongjiang Army, and methodically assisted several commanders of the Dongjiang Army in setting up the Military Command Office, the Military Affairs Office, the Quartermaster Department, and the Military Justice Department.

More than 50 young and promising junior officers were promoted.

Seven outstanding guards who had followed Zhu Daolin for only half a year entered the Military Orders Department and the Military Affairs Department to join the army, and Li Yuming, the deputy captain of the personal guards, concurrently served as the chief of the Military Judge Advocate of the Dongjiang Army as the chief of the town.

The weapons and equipment of the Dongjiang Army were supplemented on a priority basis, and 20 powerful mortar cannons were officially equipped with the artillery battalion, and all the officers and men of the army had exquisite black leather armor and chain mail, equipped with cold-proof cotton caps and steel helmets, two pairs of sturdy and warm suede shoes per person, the carriages and horses of the baggage battalion were in good condition, the materials were sufficient, and the ammunition received was enough to fight the three battles of Dengzhou.

Only the cavalry battalion without war horses gave several commanders of the Dongjiang Army a headache.

Most of the original war horses were sent by Zhu Daolin to Liugong Island and Qingdao to train recruits, and only 200 war horses were left for the 100 elites of the garrison battalion scout team under the jurisdiction of the Military Command Department.

The 1,150 officers and soldiers of the two cavalry battalions turned into infantry, and the main general Wu Jicheng and the cavalry battalion commanders Qi Gongliang and Sun Changman were so anxious that they jumped up, but they didn't dare to ask Zhu Daolin again: "What if the stragglers on Phi Island don't have war horses?" (To be continued.) )