Ning Shijun is going with David, the two will break up in Jinan, David will board the ship from Tianjin and return to the United States, and Ning Shijun will go to Taiyuan with Long Qian's instructions. In the end, I didn't have time to participate in the engagement ceremony between Long Qian and Chen Shu, Lu Shan and Li Wenxiu. David was a little regretful and went to Chen's house to give a congratulatory gift of 100 taels of silver. The silver was paid from Song Jinguo, and David was counted as a section-level officer, and he received a lot of shares under his name, plus the accumulated military salary, David's net worth was not thin.

"Miss Chen, you must wait for me to come back from the United States before getting married," David said to Chen Shu in his proficient Shandong dialect, "I will bring you a gift from the United States, and I will ensure that you will like it." ”

The niece's important matter has been decided, and Chen Chao is in a good mood, at that time he was discussing with several prominent figures in the village to repair the wall, and said to David with a smile, "Don't you want to come back to your rich American country." If you want, I can help you find a beautiful Chinese wife, what do you think? ”

"That's a good feeling. I'm definitely going to come back, I'm already an officer in the Mengshan Army. David grinned.

Chen Chao still can't figure out what kind of ecstasy soup Long Qian poured into David, which made him obsessed with China and this ravine.

After Ning Shijun and David left, Long Qian calculated the time, and before leaving for Yixian, he threw himself down and plunged into the army, and about 900 soldiers who were holding calves were recruited into the army, making the total strength reach 3,400 people, but most of the companies were not satisfied. Long Qian took a special approach to maintaining a battalion with full combat strength for each step mark. The guns are sufficient, and they can be pulled at any time to fight, the first standard is the second battalion of Cheng Erhu, and the second standard is the first battalion of the Fengguo pillar. Every morning, Long Qian took Zhang Ping to inspect the training of various units on horseback and did not return to the headquarters until dark.

Long Qian had already sent a cavalry company and men from the intelligence department to investigate the situation of the horses on the border between the two states, and Yanzhou and Yizhou were mountainous. Especially Yizhou. Located in the hinterland of Yimeng for 800 miles, there are countless large and small ringing horses entrenched in the seventy-two valleys, most of them are thousands of people, and some are dozens of people. But Jiang Yun initially gathered the information. It reflects that Lunan's horses were shaken by the Mengshan army's extermination of the calf-hugging horses. Many of the ringing horses have left their places. It seems to be hiding from the soldiers of the Mengshan army. Long Qian's plan was to use the ringing horses of the two states to train the troops, and this news made him a little crying and laughing, so he passed down the order to the counties of the two states. All the horses gathered in the mountains and forests voluntarily surrendered to the local government within a month, and the Wasion Army would pardon their crimes. The order has been passed down, and I don't know how effective it is.

On the eleventh day of the second lunar month, under the preparation of the local gentry and the logistics office of the headquarters, Long Qian and Lu Shan held a somewhat simplified engagement ceremony on the same day. Betrothal is different from marrying, and there is no fixed ceremony. But under the Zhang Luo of Song Jinguo, Sun Juan and others, it was still very lively. Long Qian wanted to be simpler, but Zhao Jialou and Li Langzhong (Lu Shan's quasi-father-in-law) and Chen Chao subconsciously wanted to be lively. When the news came out, the surrounding squires came to pay their respects, and the officers and soldiers of the Mengshan Army did not lag behind, and went to the logistics to spend money to congratulate the commander. When Long Qian heard this, he gave an order, absolutely not to accept gifts from his subordinates, and not to allow all departments to take the opportunity to hold a banquet to congratulate him. Isn't it just an engagement? What's there to brag about? He also criticized Zhang Hongcao and Sun Juan, who were busy before and after, and they were not allowed to put down their work to do this!

Zhou Yi disagreed. I think that the concubine of the cottage Sun will have to hold a banquet and be lively in the whole mountain for a few days, not to mention that this is not only a great joy for the commander, but also a great event for the whole army. Although I have been an official, I have never eaten pork and have seen pigs run, this is the case in officialdom, it is your boss who does things, can you not go with a gift? Our Mengshan army has grown from weak to strong, from small to large, all of which were created by you, and the brothers have long been looking forward to eating your wine. Even the new recruits who have just joined the gang are holding back their strength to toast you! If you don't allow this or that, doesn't that chill the hearts of the brothers?

Long Qian explained that the bad rules in the officialdom must be broken, and our Mengshan Army is different from them. In the future, I will officially marry, and it is okay to hold a few tables of wedding wine, but now it is absolutely not, last time because of drinking and mishaps, there was a big mess, and the lesson has not been learned? Let me make it clear to everyone, when I Long Qian officially marries, I will definitely set up a banquet to invite brothers, and this time forget it.

The Chen family and the Li family are going to invite guests to set up wine, as a man, it is really bad that there is no movement at all, fortunately, Shen Wuxi, Xiao Guanyu and others pooled their money to invite the Lu Opera team from a Yanzhou family to sing on the stage in Zhengjiazhuang for two days.

In the name of Zheng Chan, Zhou Yi set up two tables of banquets at his house and invited the main officers of the headquarters to drink once. This Long Qian couldn't refuse, so that Zheng Chan said to Zhou Yi in private, how can I feel that he is not so happy, is he dissatisfied with Miss Chen? Zhou Yi said of course, he turned around in a circle and mixed up a two-state town guard, and he still had the title of deputy general, Miss Chen was really not worthy of him.

Zheng Chan was unhappy, "Doesn't that mean that I don't deserve your standard?" I heard the third aunt say, your standard can be compared with the Lord Cao who followed the second brother, do you want to find an opportunity to divorce me and marry again? ”

"Go, you women just have a lot of things, and you will get something to do whatever you say."

Zheng Chan is usually very docile, but today she is a little out of shape, "It is said that infatuated women are lovers, and Commander Long is good for everything else, but this is not good." ”

"What are you doing here? When did people lose their feelings? Aren't you cursing Miss Chen? Don't mention this again! Zhou Yi scolded.

Song Jinguo saw that the female soldiers in the hospital were so obsessed with opera, and jokingly said to Long Qian, why don't we also set up a crew, you see how much everyone likes it.

Long Qian said it was a really good idea. Looking for Sun Juan and Zhang Hongcao to discuss, we also have a lot of female soldiers, I heard from the people in the staff section that there are a lot of girls who have asked to join the army recently, and there are talents in this area among them. The old repertoire can be performed, but what is more important is to publicize ourselves and make a repertoire of some things that are worthy of propaganda and encouragement in the army. It will certainly be welcomed by the officers and soldiers.

The so-called Lu Opera team in Yanzhou is actually a pheasant team, with only a dozen men, women and children combined, and it is very hard to make a living everywhere. When Song Jinguo invited the troupe to dinner, he talked about it, and the head of the class called Che Tinggui, a middle-aged man in his forties, and immediately said that if the team was willing to accept it, they were all willing to join the right wing of the Wasion Army. Lao Che was moved after hearing about the rich military salary of the Mengshan Army, and after discussing with the members of the team (mostly his relatives), he asked Song Jinguo to join the army, and Lao Song asked Long Qian. Long Qian immediately agreed. As a result, the Mengshan Army had an additional team of literary and artistic soldiers.

Wu Yong, the prefect of Yanzhou, came to Zhengjiazhuang on the third day after Long Qian's engagement. He had just returned to Yanzhou from Jinan, and he rushed to Zhengjiazhuang without sitting firmly.

Long Qian was very concerned about Wu Yong's arrival in Jinan, mainly because of Yuan Shikai's attitude. According to the rules of officialdom, Long Qian, the envoy of the two states, should have gone to Jinan to pay respects. But Long Qian has been delaying the departure date under the pretext of being busy with military affairs. Wu Yong arrived. told Long Qian about meeting Yuan Futai. Said that the governor is very concerned about the situation of you and the right wing of the Wasion Army. I greatly appreciate the fact that as soon as you returned with your army, you wiped out the Tao Sansho Division. Even praise you for being a famous general in the world. Lord Long, should you go to Jinan?

Long Qian said with a bitter face, "There are a lot of things in hand." I also wanted to pay a visit to Lord Futai earlier, but I really couldn't leave. The Queen Mother, her old man, placed infinite hopes on the Wei Sheng Army. I must not fail to live up to her old man's high hopes. The reorganization of the troops, the instability of the army, and the digestion of the three Tao departments all need to be calmed down. The large number of wounded patients brought back also need to be properly accommodated, otherwise they will have to disperse the morale of the army. When these are done, I can go to Jinan. ”

Wu Yong disagreed. felt that Long Qian was a little detoured. Feeling that he had some feelings of distress with Long Qian, he said solemnly, "Thinking back, I will ask you to say a few words today." Of course, the things that the court explained had to be done, and the Queen Mother's explanation was also true. But after all, your time as an official is short, you must know that your boss is the most important, how can you be lazy! If you rely on the support of the Queen Mother, you are very wrong! The Queen Mother has a lot of opportunities, where can she care about little Lunan? Yuan Weiting is famous for a while, and there is a lot of Austrian aid from the DPRK and China. Even if you have a great deal of merit in your hands, if he picks a bone in the egg, we will be painted as a black mess. I mean, after thinking about it, you should leave for Jinan immediately. Lord Futai is okay this time, but his subordinates have a lot of complaints. Lord Xu Shichang said, 'Long Qian is such a big shelf'__"

Of course, Long Qian knew the attitude of Yuan Shikai's group towards himself, especially the attitude of Li Chun and Cao Kun and other generals who were taken away by him, and his background and future position were destined not to be in the same boat as Yuan Shikai. is to sell himself to take refuge, and Yuan Shikai will not regard himself as a confidant, thus replacing Duan, Feng, Wang and others. The result of that is that both sides are not pleased, and they lose the original intention of the court and lose themselves.

But none of this can be told to Wu Yong, "Brother Yongchuan, you are right. Long is indeed ignorant of the rules of officialdom, and only relies on two words, conscience. Whether it is leading an army to fight a war or governing a locality, it depends on these two words. I did not despise the majesty of Lord Futai, did I not send my chief of staff to Jinan with my letter? If Yuan Futai doesn't understand, then I can't help it. I think the best way to respect your boss is to do your errands well."

Wu Yong sighed in his heart, when you become a boss, are you the king of Qi Wei? You work hard to take care of errands here, and you are promoted if you don't stammer, don't take refuge? That's it, it's his own business to do it, not to mention that the status of others is still above him.

"My lord," Wu Yong changed his title, "I don't know if the adults are calling, what's the urgency?" ”

"It's about the Yixian Coal Mine. Long felt that there was an excellent opportunity at the moment, and if it was done well, Lunan's economy would be greatly improved. However, the brother was busy with one thing at hand, and Brother Yongchuan happened to help the brother with details. ”

That was the first Invalids farm where the Mengshan Army was established. The land is ready-made, that is, the land that is zoned under each person's name after the land reform in Zhengjiazhuang, and the scale of building a farm is large enough. In the past two years, the Mengshan Army has a number of disabled officers and men, most of whom can no longer fight with the army, and most of the disabled officers and men have no families and are unwilling to leave the army. There had to be a proper way to settle it, and the construction of the Invalids Farm became the best solution. Long Qian set aside the silver taels of Gongzhong to exchange the land and set up a Zhengjiazhuang Rongjun Farm whose "property rights" belonged to Mengshan Army. A small number of disabled soldiers who served as military justice supervisors were eliminated, and the rest of the disabled soldiers were placed as managers on this farm with thousands of acres of land. Xu Deyi, the former platoon commander of the fourth company, was seriously injured in the white-knuckle battle with the Germans, his left leg was disabled, and he took a car all the way to Taiyuan, and was sent back to the base by the original Minfu team. The reorganization of "21" did not arrange his position, Xu Deyi was extremely sad, and cried loudly when he found the old company commander Fan Deping. asked to go to the reserve headquarters with Fan Deping, Fan Deping asked Long Qian for intercession, and Long Qian said how could he ignore an officer like Xu Deyi who had made military achievements? I have an arrangement. You go and talk to Xu Deyi. Reassure him. Now that the mystery has finally been revealed, Long Qian proposed to let Xu Deyi be the director of the farm, and naturally no one objected to this proposal. Yue Lianshan, who was lucky to save his life by having his arm amputated in Huailai, also went to the farm under Long Qian's personal persuasion.

All disabled officers and soldiers who were placed on the farm still retained their military status. This reassures the disabled. It felt that the troops did not abandon them.

Wu Yong listened to Long Qian's thoughts. I was very impressed and thought it was a good law. As far as Wu Yong knows, the Hunan army is no more. Whether it is the Huai Army, the disabled soldiers are all paid severance pay, and they are not as good as Long Qian to the end. From this point of view, it can be seen that the cohesion of Long Qian's department will definitely not be low.

In the afternoon, a meeting was held to discuss the method of setting up the farm, and Long Qian invited Wu Yong to participate. It was the first time for Wu Yong to attend an internal meeting of the Mengshan Army, and he felt very fresh. The novelty was the way the meeting was held, not presided over by Long Qian but by someone else, and not all the officers who attended the meeting, but also the local gentry and disabled soldiers. The moderator set the agenda and time for presentation, and the discussion began.

There are two opinions on how to operate the farms, one is to centralize management, hire a part of the labor to cultivate and harvest, harvest the surplus after feeding the farm personnel, and use the surplus as military rations, and the other is to rent the land to landless or landless peasant households, and collect land rent as the cost of supporting the farm.

Wu Yong pondered the pros and cons of the two methods, and he preferred the second one. But how Long Qian's subordinates owned so much land made him puzzled, and it was difficult for him to ask. In the course of the discussion just now, someone always went off topic, and was immediately stopped by the moderator, prompting him to go off-topic. So, Wu Yong just listened quietly.

After all the participants finished speaking, the host asked Long Qian to speak and handed over the presiding power to Long Qian. Long Qian tilted his head and asked Wu Yong with a smile, "Could you please tell Wu Fuzun about it?" Lord Fuzun has served as a county magistrate for many years and is an authentic pro-people official. There must be a very good idea in this regard. Everyone applauded and welcomed the instructions of the Lord. ”

Wu Yong is a little unaccustomed to the way of applause. Unable to save face for Long Qian, he said a few words that were insignificant and meaningless, saying that the establishment of the Invalids Farm must be a good law, which is equivalent to opening up a new way for the resettlement of disabled soldiers in the army. This is the embodiment of the town guard making the adult love the soldier like a son, how to do it, the town guard makes the adult must be confident. Let's leave it to the Guardian to make a decision.

Long Qian smiled and said, "Wu Fuzun will be my army, then I will throw bricks and lead jade to say a few words." Indeed, the Invalides Farm is a new thing, and no one has experience. I don't know how to run a good farm, but the standard is clear, and there are three requirements: first, to resettle the disabled soldiers, and effectively solve the problem of the disabled soldiers' clothing, food, housing, transportation, and starting a family; Second, profit, that is, the farm must make money, not lose money; Third, the requirements are higher, that is, it is necessary to guide the surrounding rural areas to use new methods to increase the yield per mu, increase the grain income, and prepare for war and famine. ”

Wu Yong deeply appreciated these three articles, especially the third one. If you find a way to increase the yield per mu and report it to the imperial court, it will be a great achievement.

Long Qian continued, "I don't think it's advisable to hire a farmer for a fixed salary, and the effect will definitely not be good, so there is no need to argue about this. But there was also a problem with renting land in blocks to nearby farmers, at least not reflecting my own purpose in establishing the Invalides Farm. The purpose of running a farm is not only to feed the disabled soldiers of the army, but more importantly, to explore ways to increase the yield per acre of land. Nowadays, the phenomenon of not having enough to eat is widespread, especially in the case of continuous natural disasters. You have rented out all your land, and you have become landlords who have earned nothing, waiting for the rent to be collected, which is not good. In the establishment of farms, it is necessary to actively introduce improved seeds, change the traditional farming methods, and explore a method that can be applied to Lunan to increase the yield per mu. If you rent out all the land, these methods will not work. My opinion is to combine the two opinions you have just made, that the land should be in your hands, and that it is necessary to hire farmers, but that the income of the farmers involved in the cultivation should be linked to the harvest, and that more grain should be harvested. Farms are not necessarily all used for farming, I have seen, a lot of slopes are not suitable for crops, you can try to plant some fruit trees, you can also raise sheep, pigs, rabbits, chickens, and do a variety of business. There is a great shortage of meat, and many families eat meat several meals a year, and the troops are training intensively, and the officers and men also need nutritional supplements. The pigs, sheep, chickens, rabbits, and fruits produced on your farm can be purchased by the troops at market prices. Some people think that it is too much work to do this, and they can't look at it this way, even if the right wing of the Wasion Army is transferred away by order of the imperial court, the farm will have to be run as well, so it is necessary to have a long-term vision. All the money earned belongs to the farm, and the troops use your food and eat your vegetables, and all the money is paid for it.

You veterans who fought for the country also have to do what you can, since everyone has the ambition to march with the army to fight, why can't you do this crop well? I want you to manage this land well and become a logistics base for the Wasion Army. Not only do we do a good job in this farm, but we also have to find out the experience, and wherever we go to the Wasion Army, we will run the Invalides Farm. It not only ensures the supply of troops, but also reduces the burden on the local area. ”

Long Qian stressed that his opinion is for reference only. The farm has been established, and the basic idea of the army for the management of the farm is to decide only the person in charge of the farm, and Xu Deyi's appointment is set by me. If you don't do well, I'll get rid of him and choose another meritorious. How to operate it, the people on your farm have negotiated it themselves, and the standards for running a good business are those three.

Wu Yong was surprised that not only the well-dressed gentry attending the meeting, but also the peasants who looked like mud legs, also expressed their opinions in the Lunan dialect with great interest? The army runs the Invalids Farm, why invite the farmers? Wu Yong was immediately taken aback because he had discovered a secret. This secret has always existed, but it just can't be grasped when it is dangling in front of my eyes.

What's the secret? Wu Yong found that the farmers in Zhengjiazhuang were very different from those elsewhere in the Qing Dynasty. The peasants here are all flamboyant and dare to speak, and their facial expressions are extremely rich, as if they were on the stage to praise. And elsewhere, such as the farmers who came to the house, all had the faces of Zhang Mune.

What's going on here?

In the evening, Long Qian invited Wu Yong to drink and talked about the Yixian coal mine. Wu Yong was even more smear to Lunan, but he was still surprised by the fact that there was a large coal mine with an annual output of 2 million tons under his rule. Long Qian said the purpose of calling him here, you are the prefect of Yanzhou, and I am the town guard, so it is reasonable to ask about this matter. Let's go to Yixian County to find Zhang Lianfen Zhang, not to snatch the management rights of others, but to help him overcome the current difficulties. It is said that this Zhang Daren took great pains to get rid of the German control of the coal mines, and the credit was in the country. I have a lot of respect for him. It is necessary to build a railway from Yixian to Taierzhuang, and not only that, we can use coal mines as the core to set up large-scale industries, such as power plants, which can be completely done. With electricity, other industries are easy to do. Now this Lord Zhang is probably short of silver, it doesn't matter, I'll figure out a way to do this, and I'll invest it one after another.

Wu Yong was very happy. When he was by Li Hongzhang's side, he knew Zhang Lianfen, but because of the disparity in status between the two sides, he had no deep friendship. Long Qian's attitude was destined to be welcomed by Zhang Lianfen, so Wu Yong patted his chest and said, "I don't know how to build a railway, but Master Zhang is very highly regarded by Li Zhongtang, and he said okay, that's a very good thing." If Lord Long could come out with the money, he would be very happy. By the way, Brother Huisi, you are hiding it from me so hard, didn't Chief of Staff Ning tell me, where did I know that you just got married? This is contempt for me! Punishment for drinking. As he spoke, he took out a silver ticket and stuffed it into Long Qian's hand, "I heard that the woman is near the left, can I come to the door to congratulate me?" ”

Of course, Long Qian would not refuse to give the Chen family this face, so Song Jinguo accompanied Wu Yong to Chenjiaya on the second day and sent a congratulatory gift. When Wu Yong returned, Long Qian was ready, took a cavalry platoon, and went to Yixian again. (To be continued......)