"Is it necessary to recruit so many foreigners?" Zhang Xinda said, "If you want to take advantage of foreign self-respect and fool the Qing court, you can find one or two obedient foreigners as decorations, for example, you can even find an Indian Ah San to be the nominal general, but what is the matter with you recruiting more than 200 white people to engage in foreign guns?"

With your current strength, the foreign guns are not even the icing on the cake at all, right? Now that your weaponry, training methods, combat methods, and supply capabilities are much stronger than the regular armies of the Western powers, why do you want to get foreigners to come and add to the blockage? Those foreigners will, it seems that they still line up to shoot that outdated method, making it clear that spending more money is not pleaseless.

Moreover, although I have never seen that Wall, if it is really the Wall in history, then this is not a guy who keeps to himself, but a very power-hungry and ambitious person, you should be careful to get you into trouble in the end. ”

"You're right." Li Yongji smiled, "But I have my own considerations. ”

"What considerations?" Zhang Xinda asked.

"Adaptive training!" Li Yongji said.

"Adaptive training? Mao? ”

"In layman's terms, it is to find a group of foreigners to come to me and let my soldiers contact these foreigners in advance, so as to reduce the curiosity and fear of Chinese soldiers towards foreigners." Li Yongji sighed when he said this.

"Originally, I didn't expect this, but since that Yang Fang took some kind of military warrant and unimpeded in my barracks, I found a big problem, that is, these soldiers, or these Chinese, already have some mindsets in their minds!"

They are accustomed to obeying authority, they are accustomed to being afraid of the government, and in the same way, they are also accustomed to being afraid of foreigners. If this situation does not change, it will be difficult for me to lead this flock to victory in the future. Facts have proved that it is not enough to have good weapons and equipment, but also to have a strong mind, and the lessons of the Italian soldiers must be remembered. ”

"Hey, don't laugh at the Italian soldiers, a lot of them are false, the Italians are a little worse at fighting, but it depends on who you compare to, and it's not too bad. If you say that you can't beat Ethiopia, people really don't brag about Ethiopia's combat effectiveness at that time, but when Italy attacked Ethiopia for the first time, ah......"

"Stop!" Li Yongji hurriedly said, "What about the Qing Dynasty here, what are you talking about Ethiopia?" ”

"Oh-oh, I'm sorry." Zhang Xinda touched his nose, "Well, you mean, just like the school invited foreign teachers back then, to let Chinese and foreigners get close to each other, reduce strangeness and curiosity, and let them no longer be afraid because they understand?" ”

"That's right!" Li Yongji said, "It is easy to solve the problem of obeying the authority of the government, as long as I make a new disciplinary regulation, such as only obeying my orders, the orders of the government do not need to be ignored, I believe that my authority is still greater than the authority of the government in the minds of these soldiers."

But the affairs of foreigners cannot directly rely on orders, because those foreigners were too mysterious to most Chinese at that time, they still had little contact with foreigners, and they always spread all kinds of false rumors about foreigners, so they were afraid of foreigners from the bottom of their hearts and subconsciously did not want to get close to foreigners.

Don't you see, when that Wall came to see me, my guards seemed to be standing guard very standard, but I know that they are all a little shivering, and they have been looking at the ground with low eyebrows, and they don't even dare to look at Wall, that's the problem. To be honest, it was at that time that I had the idea of recruiting foreigners to come over and have adaptive contact. ”

"That's a good idea." Zhang Xinda nodded, "As long as you have been in contact for a long time and know what is going on with foreigners, you will have no fear." In this way, when there is a war in the future, the combat effectiveness will not be affected because of fear...... Hey? No, your main enemy now is the Taiping Army, the Chinese, it's still far from the foreigners, isn't it too early to engage in adaptive training at this time? ”

"It's not early." Li Yongji shook his head, "It's April 1860 when I'm here, have you forgotten when this is?" This is the time of the second ** war! The Anglo-French forces have landed in Zhoushan and are about to advance to Beijing! Therefore, I must make the troops form combat effectiveness as soon as possible, and then look for an opportunity to go north and fight with the British and French forces, at the very least, to avoid the tragedy of burning the Old Summer Palace! ”

"Going north to fight the Anglo-French forces? You, you ......" Zhang Xinda was really surprised this time, "Your brain is pumping, right?" Your territory is Qingpu County, it is Shanghai! Go north to fight the British and French forces, first of all, even if you win, the Qing court may not remember you well, after all, you are acting privately! Secondly, if you do this, you will have bad relations with the British and French powers, and you will have all kinds of difficulties in the future. The army may be very strong, but the people do not have the navy, if their warships hit you along the Yangtze River, what will you do? ”

"Then I won't find a place where the battleship can't hit me as a base, China is so big, there are more places to go. I have the golden finger with me, where I am, the territory is there, and the supply is not a matter at all! On the contrary, if I don't take advantage of this, and stick to one place like before, then I'm stupid. ”

"Well, even so, but what about the money-making thing?" Zhang Xinda said, "If you want to fight with Britain and France, there is no market in Britain and France, do you just stare at the market of the Qing Dynasty?" Let me tell you, the Qing Dynasty was short of gold, and if you wanted to buy gold, you had to deal with Britain and France, and at that time one-third of the world's gold was in the hands of Britain and France. ”

"Cut, do I have to buy gold to make money? Isn't it enough that there were so many jadeite jade stones in the Qing Dynasty? What's more, there are other products, such as precious wood, such as silkworm cocoons, such as precious medicinal materials, which can also be sold at a good price from you. I can even use the labor here to do labor-intensive contract processing with you. Li Yongji smiled, "Besides, you underestimate the political wisdom of the heads of state such as Britain and France." If I win the Anglo-French coalition, there is a good chance that they will not turn against me, but will desperately befriend me and win me over. Believe it or not, there's an 80 percent chance of this happening! ”

"Well, that's true." Zhang Xinda nodded, "In the era of the great powers, what the great powers valued was strength, and if you showed enough strength, they might really win you over." Moreover, Britain and France had just finished the Crimean War, with 500,000 dead and wounded, and they simply did not have the strength to expand the war in the Far East, and the second ** war was more of a speculation, just like the first time, but unfortunately, the Qing court was even worse, and it was a shameful loss when it had a chance to win...... So, are you really going to fight the Anglo-French forces? ”

"That's right!" Li Yongji said lightly, "Do you know why I want to desperately expand the army and expand the army by one division?" Do you think I'm really timid? Do you think I really don't know, as long as there are 3,000 people, I can defeat the Taiping army? So that they dare not see my face? ”

"In other words, you were planning to fight Britain and France from the beginning?"

"Yes." Li Yongji said, "Maybe from a practical point of view, it is better for me to let Britain and France defeat the Qing court, but it is a pity to burn the Old Summer Palace, so many treasures." Since we have made it clear that we want to rebel in the future, then the things in the Old Summer Palace are my things, and I can't let the British and French robbers rob me of my things!

In addition, if the Anglo-French coalition army is defeated, according to the usual practice, there must be reparations, even if the Qing court is deflated, just like the Sino-French war in the future, if it is won, it will also be aggrieved and sue for peace, but as long as I don't let go of the prisoners, then the British and French still have to talk to me, then I can take the opportunity to make a lot of money.

As for victory, I have no doubt that I have a golden finger with me, even if it is a long run. My numbers are about the same as those of the British and French forces, my firepower is greatly superior to that of the other side, and I have the advantage of intelligence, as long as the soldiers are no longer afraid of foreigners, my chances of victory are ninety percent! ”

"Then there is still a failure." Zhang Xinda said, "War is not child's play, there are too many factors that affect the ending, have you thought about what to do if you fail?" ”

"I'm not afraid of failure." Li Yongji said, "It's a big deal, you can run, go incognito to another place to redevelop, there is a golden finger, as long as I don't die, I can make a comeback at any time!" ”

"Well, since you said so, then I can only accompany you to the end. Hey, it's weird, I'm a good rich man, but I worry about your business all day long, mom it's so weird! ”

"We're brothers." Li Yongji smiled, "So, since I want to fight the British and French coalition forces, I need to improve my mobility, and you have to worry about the horses, now I only have 15,000 horses, which is far from enough, and you have to give me snacks for other weapons." ”

"Don't worry, if you burn the Old Summer Palace, at least you have to fight the Battle of Bali Bridge, then it will be September, and the time is completely in time."

"Don't take it lightly." Li Yongji shook his head, "You are the history of another world, who here dares to guarantee that they will not advance?" So, I had to plan ahead and be completely prepared. ”

"Okay, I'll send you the horses as soon as possible." Zhang Xinda sighed, "I will also speed up the production of weapons, and I will also hoard some more ammunition materials for you to ensure that you will not be delayed in the war." In short, you can rest assured, you really want to fight the British and French forces, you can rest assured here, and ensure that the logistics are OK! ”

"Then I'll be relieved!" Li Yongji nodded.

"But have you thought about it, the Anglo-French alliance is still very late, but the threat of the Taiping army is imminent, do you plan to give up Qingpu? Don't fight the Taiping Army? ”

"Who said not to fight?"

"And who are?"

"I'll fight the Taiping army first, and then I'll beat the foreigners. In short, when my troops are no longer afraid of foreigners, and the training process can satisfy me, I will take the initiative to attack first, and I will not wait for others to hit me! ”