In the early winter, Liaodong Bay is now a bleak place, early in the morning you can see the mountains full of white frost and dew, most of the trees except pines and cypresses are colorful, and the banks of the stream are full of thick hoarfrost and transparent ice slag, shining in the sun.

The bell rang again from the high watchtower in the southwest corner of Phi Island, and the North Harbour, which had become a harbour town, was soon busy, with hundreds of coolies and shrewd merchants leaving the sizable new neighborhood and flocking along the wide, flat stone pavement to the wide, heavily guarded port.

On the balcony on the second floor of the Sihai Commercial Bank above the wharf, Hou Xinyi, a shopkeeper in his forties, was wrapped in a black fur coat, lying on a delicate rocking chair, with a thick and warm and colorful tiger skin under him, and holding the Longtan purple clay pot that has been popular in the Ming Dynasty for several months.

"This is the third time since the beginning of winter that a large fleet has arrived, and it seems that this winter is not stable!"

The voice of the shopkeeper Hou is deep and low, revealing the confidence and calmness of a successful person, and the slender eyes that are squinted by the warm sun are shining.

The sturdy guy who was bent over and standing on the side smiled, and his two powerful hands were still hidden in the warm sleeves: "The new city of Yizhou within a radius of eight miles has been built." ”

"So fast? Is it really built? ”

Shopkeeper Hou turned his head in surprise.

The guy nodded hurriedly: "The day before yesterday, Xiao Xiao led the convoy to deliver sauce to the brothers in the defenders of the new city, and only 5,000 craftsmen and coolies were left to put bricks on the northern city wall, and they were all about to be pasted under the battlements...... More than 40,000 people who had originally built the city went home for the winter with double the wages rewarded by the Dongjiang New Army, leaving only a few thousand sloppy and lazy North Koreans squatting in their sheds at the foot of the mountain in the west, waiting for relief from the Dongjiang New Army. ”

Shopkeeper Hou sighed with emotion: "This new style of city building method is really powerful, first build four strange big fortresses with stone and blue bricks at the four corners, and then build the city tower in the middle of the four white lines in the southeast, northwest and northwest. Finally, a five-zhang thick rammed earth wall was built between the gates of these fortresses, and 50,000 people built such a large city in only four months, which is really remarkable! ”

"The Tartars on the other side watch this new city rise from the ground every day, but they can't do anything about it, they must be very uncomfortable in their hearts, haha!"

The guy also laughed out loud: "I'm afraid Liaodong Tartar won't be able to come this time." The five-zhang high city, the four corners have four three-layer fortresses that can hide thousands of soldiers, each fortress has eight 2,000-pound heavy cannons, before the winter, General Xiao Li has led the second division of the Dongjiang New Army to leave Phi Island and enter the new city, every day hard training is not stopped, the roar is shocking, every ten days and eight days also practice an offensive and defensive battle and what anti-landing warfare, guns and shells do not need money to blast out, the Tartars on the other side dare to come over to be strange. ”

"Hmm. That's the case, with the new city of Yizhou and the old city of Yizhou, which was heavily guarded by the Koreans thirty miles upstream, it is indeed not so easy for Liaodong Tartars to come over, but the more than 6,000 recruits of the Second Division led by General Xiao Li are still a little thin, and their combat power is definitely not as good as the more than 6,000 veterans of the First Division in the big battalion behind us. "Shopkeeper Hou leisurely passed the addiction of ordering troops on the battlefield.

Young guys are sent around all day. I drank a little wine with the brothers of the Dongjiang New Army, so my brain was much more active than the Hou shopkeeper stuffed with abacus beads:

"General Xiao Li's second division is actually quite good. All the muskets and vehicle-mounted field guns, the steel helmets and leather armor covered with invulnerable chain mail, most of the 6,500 people were the scattered brothers of the original Dongjiang Army, and the rest were Liaodong Han who were one in a hundred, plus two artisan battalions and two engineer battalions who were lucky enough to join the Dongjiang New Army at the beginning of the construction of the city. There is also an artillery battalion composed of 600 veteran gunners who operate the fortress artillery, a total of 15,000 officers and soldiers stationed in the new city of Uiju, and more than 2,000 young women who are married to new officers and soldiers to cook and boil water, which is enough. ”

The master and servant were happily talking on paper. The large fleet from the south of the Yangtze River bypassed the front of the watchtower in the northwest sea, and the sharp-eyed guy soon saw the pennant fluttering on the second large armed merchant ship, and hurriedly asked the shopkeeper Hou to take a quick look: "The front mast of the second big ship has the flag of our Four Seas Firm!" ”

Shopkeeper Hou immediately stood up, put his hand on the pergola and looked intently, quickly turned around and entered the room, and gave an order with rare agility and decisiveness: "You immediately go and ask the shopkeeper Zhang of the bank next door to rush to the dock and tell him that the third batch of weapons and equipment sold to the Korean monarch has arrived." ”

"The little ones are going."

The young man rushed to the stairs as if he were flying.

……

……

In the dusty base camp of the Dongjiang New Army, two miles from the wharf, the 1st Division of the Dongjiang New Army, composed of 7,000 veterans of the former Jiangnan New Army, was assembled and headed to the Beigang Wharf to carry supplies.

The 3rd Division, composed of 6,500 Liaodong men, was still training the wide school grounds, and the military judges with steel helmets on their bodies and a bunch of red tassels on top of them stood in groups of two and two, staring at the officers and soldiers in front of them like wolves, as if they would rush up at any moment to find out some illegal ruffian, and then press them on the ground and wave their scabbards to beat them.

The dignified general's mansion was busy.

Wu Jicheng, commander-in-chief of the Dongjiang New Army, and Zhang Yizhen, deputy general of the Dongjiang New Army, sat on handsome chairs facing north and south and listened to the news from the commander of the garrison who had arrived in a hurry to report that the fleet had docked at the port.

"Where's the list?" Zhang Yizhen asked loudly after listening.

The young garrison battalion commander was full of helplessness: "That old guy with long hair like a monkey made things difficult for his subordinates, and his subordinates saluted him respectfully, and repeatedly asked to hand over the list, but his old brother just didn't give it, and he didn't even get off the boat and told his subordinates to get out, if he didn't see the lieutenant colonel military academy hanging on his collar, his subordinates immediately dragged him down and beat him up." ”

Wu Jicheng turned to Zhang Yizhen in surprise: "Isn't Sun Monkey here?" Wasn't this grandson transferred to the martial arts academy as an instructor? ”

Zhang Yizhen laughed: "There is no one else in the army with long hair on his face except him, you can't call him Sun Monkey after meeting later, this old brother is famous for loving face, and his qualifications are not below you and me, if it weren't for the bad luck of the days when he was the captain, he drank too much during the training, which caused the new warship to hit the reef twice during sea trials, and the current deputy commander of the East China Sea Fleet is probably him, haha!" Let's go, go meet an old friend and give him some face. ”

Wu Jicheng was so happy that he signaled the garrison battalion commander to go to the dock first, and when he walked into the yard and was about to get on the horse, he remembered something: "Don't worry, Lao Zhang, what is Sun Monkey's position now?" Could it be that the general sent him over to join us? The commander of the 3rd Division has not yet been appointed! ”

Zhang Yizhen grabbed the reins and pondered for a moment: "I can't figure out what position he is now, but I don't think he will come over to partner with us, Sun Monkey was born in a sailor, and he is good at water warfare, and he never suffers when he fights ghosts and ghosts, and he is very calculating with bad ideas, otherwise the marshal will never favor him, with the mistakes he made, if someone else would have gotten out of the army, but the marshal quietly kept him and got him to the martial arts academy as an instructor to avoid the limelight, and not to let him enter the Army. ”

"Haha! That's good, that's good! I won't tell you the truth, I'm most afraid of Sun Monkey's bad mouth, **** has always been unforgiving, as long as he grabs the handle, he will definitely keep it in mind, and when there is a benefit, he will immediately turn it out, I am afraid of this **** grandson! ”

Wu Jicheng, who was relieved, turned over and rode to the dock with Zhang Yizhen surrounded by a team of guards. (To be continued.) )