Westerners have no sense of integrity, they have always been the most aware of current affairs, and they are like cockroaches without moral baggage, they can take root and survive in the horns and corners of the world, Li Xin thought secretly.

Li Xin did not mean to despise him, but he looked down on his own Han people even more. Whether it is a scholar or a reckless hero, one by one they keep saying that they will be loyal to the monarch and serve the country, but they can not be killed, but when the Ming Dynasty building is about to fall, how many people are not blind to the invaders and are willing to be slaves? Thinking of this, Li Xin couldn't help but think of an allusion he had seen before, saying that a certain Han general under the command of Zeng Guofan was summoned by the Empress Dowager Cixi, and this thing was grateful for a minion, until he left the Forbidden City, no one made fun of him for not knowing the rules, and Han people like him were not even qualified to call themselves slaves.

Don't talk about the distance, just talk about it now, take these important ministers in the north and south of Beijing as an example, how many of them are not for their own selfishness? Even if it is not for himself, he can't escape the constraints of the party's selfish interests, and seeing that the national disaster is at hand, the building is about to collapse, and he still has the heart to deceive himself.

How many of those old men in Nanjing are fuel-efficient lamps? From Zhang Fangyan to Zheng Sanjun, if they hadn't been suppressed by Li Xin, they still don't know what to do with the provinces in the south of the Yangtze River!

Putmans saw that Li Xin did not speak for a long time, and then took the initiative to offer courtesy: "Your Excellency Marquis, please order your most faithful servant if you have any tasks!" ”

This brought Li Xin back to reality from his cranky thoughts, and Putmans he didn't need it for a while, so let's dry him first.

"Your Excellency is new to the city, so let's get familiar with the situation."

Li Xin sent people to lead Putmans to his temporary lodgings, and then he called a meeting of local officials in Hangzhou with only one agenda.

"The Three Guards Army is about to withdraw from Zhejiang, and Zhejiang must also set up a new army in order to deal with the war that may break out at any time in the future."

Li Xin's two henchmen, Gao Zhenfu and Fan Youming, immediately raised their hands in agreement.

"What does the Marquis of Zhenyu command, just say that it is, the Hangzhou government will pay for it!"

Fan Youming, the prefect of Hangzhou, patted his chest and expressed his loyalty to Li Xin. Since the Three Guards defeated the Zheng family's sailors and foot soldiers, he has been convinced by this horse thief-born Hou Ye, and he is even more determined to follow Li Xin's footsteps.

Moreover, just yesterday, Zheng Hongkui, who staged a mutiny in Fujian and killed Zheng Zhilong, had already sent an envoy to express his attitude of obeying Nanjing's dispatch, and also asked the Three Guards Army to send a large number of people into Fujian as soon as possible to sweep away the remnants of the bandits who had rebelled.

Not only that, Zheng Hongkui also sent the captured King Huai to Hangzhou. It can be said that the military operations of the Three Guards in several provinces south of the Yangtze River have been victorious one after another, and since then there will be no one south of the Yangtze River who can shake the position of the marquis.

In fact, without Zheng Hongkui's request for the Three Guards to enter Fujian, Zhang Shi's grenadier battalion had already swept to the sea by Shao Wu. When the officials of Fuzhou saw that the Zheng family was gone, they immediately changed the direction of the wind and expressed to Li Xin the attitude of obeying Nanjing's dispatch and moderation.

For a while, the officials of the provinces south of the Yangtze River looked at the scenery, and at this time Li Xin proposed to form a new army in Zhejiang, Fan Youming was keenly aware of the stakes, if he did not take the opportunity to drill the camp at this time, he would definitely regret it in the future.

Gao Zhenfu was naturally not willing to lag behind Fan Youming.

"The Hou of Zhenju made a decision, the soldiers of the local guard in Zhejiang were rotten to the bones, and there were only a few dead and wounded soldiers due to years of thieves. I don't know where the marquis plans to draw soldiers to form a new army? ”

In Gao Zhenfu's mind, Li Xin's choice was nothing more than the original two ways of recruiting soldiers and guarding soldiers. But Li Xin shook his head, "Back then, Qi Jiguang recruited troops and specialized in recruiting mountain people, do you know why?" ”

Gao Zhenfu and Fan Youming said in unison that they didn't know, but in fact, how did they not know? It's just to welcome Li Xin. Li Xin could also see that they were insincere, but he didn't poke it to his face, and explained slowly: "It's because the mountain people are simple and have not been contaminated with the slippery habits of soldiers." ”

Therefore, Zhejiang's new army should also be recruited in the same way. However, the recruitment work cannot be handed over to Gao Fan and the others, they can only assist from the side, and the Three Guards Army has formed a complete set of regulations for selecting soldiers and training soldiers since its establishment, and when the time comes, as long as relevant personnel are sent to organize recruitment. Local officials in Zhejiang are responsible for cooperating.

The recruitment of the Forces nouvelles was in full swing, and Wallace had been following Li Xin to inspect the localities and inspect the Forces nouvelles for several days. He soon discovered something in the operation of the Three Guards that he found incredible.

That is, although the name of the new army is Zhejiang local soldiers, his military rations and salaries are not the responsibility of Zhejiang localities, and all the silver money is allocated and distributed by the logistics office of the Three Guards Army.

This made Wallace puzzled, it was clear that the Marquis could order the local government to be responsible for the food and salary of the new army, but he actually had to pay out of his own pocket. Wallace couldn't help the curiosity in his heart, and finally asked with a full stomach: "Your Excellency, Marquis, why don't you let Zhejiang Province give this money and grain?" ”

Li Xin smiled, if the new army is compared to a kite, then this silver money is equivalent to the silk thread of the kite, if Zhejiang Province is asked to pay for the grain, then over time, the silk thread that involves the kite is in whose hands, then it will be a big question mark.

He did not intend to conceal this intention from Wallace, and briefly described the basic policy of the Three Guards, although the purpose of forming the new army was to be responsible for the local defense of Zhejiang, but it was subordinate to the Three Guards in terms of establishment, and had little to do with the locality, and the three local divisions had no right to dispatch.

Wallace doesn't seem to understand this. In his subconscious, it is still the political concept of monarchs and vassals in Europe, where the nobles are responsible at all levels, and he doesn't understand Li Xin, who contributes money and efforts to support local soldiers, where does the Three Guards have so much money?

When Wallace asked this question again, Li Xin only smiled mysteriously, but did not continue to answer.

In fact, it is very simple, in the end the wool is out of the sheep, according to the rules of the Ming Dynasty, the provinces in the south of the Yangtze River pay taxes to Nanjing, and then Nanjing will transport this tax to Beijing through the Grand Canal, and now the north and south of Xinjiang are cut off, and Nanjing's money and grain naturally do not need to be transported to Beijing. Then the money stranded in Nanjing will naturally be responsible for all the expenses of the Three Guards, and at that time, the Three Guards will allocate the money to the new armies of the provinces, and the new armies of the provinces will buy grain on the spot with the budget money, and the problem of food will naturally be solved.

In this way, it also avoided the hidden danger that the local government could exert influence on the new army by controlling the salary.

Fan Youming began to participate in the formation of the new army with great interest, hoping that he could get a credit for his efforts in the new army and that he would be able to have a place in the new army in the future. After all, the system of the Ming Dynasty was to control the military with civilians, and it was common for civilian officials to participate in military affairs.

However, as the establishment of the new army gradually took shape, Fan Youming realized that the methods and methods of recruiting and training the new army of the Three Guards were very different from what he knew. The officer who came out of the officer training camp didn't look at him, the prefect of Hangzhou who was the fourth grade of the Ming Dynasty.

In the words of those Qiuba, they only obeyed the orders of the superior officers, and no one outside them could transfer a single soldier from them even if the governor came.

"The method of training the soldiers of the Zhenyu Marquis is weird, it is really incomprehensible, Gao Tiju, what do you think?"

Fan Youming and Gao Zhenfu have been inseparable for these days, and Gao Zhenfu also feels that the two of them feel a little hot and have a cold buttocks, but his consciousness is one layer higher than Fan Youming after all.

"Fu Zun is confused, and the army is also something you and I can touch?"

Gao Zhenfu wanted to speak and stopped, although he was only halfway there, Fan Youming immediately woke up, and immediately sweated again, but it was all cold sweat. It was almost early spring, the weather was warm and cool, and a gust of wind blew, and his soaked clothes immediately became cold, and he sneezed fiercely.

Yes, if the strength of the new army in the drill camp is in the eyes of the marquis, what should he think? Once there is a problem against him, won't all the previous efforts come to naught?

As soon as he thought of this, Fan Youming immediately bowed deeply to Gao Zhenfu, "Thank you Brother Gao for mentioning it, otherwise, otherwise, it will ......" He couldn't go on with the next words.

Gao Zhenfu hurriedly dodged away, "Brother Fan, what are you doing?" You and I are dedicated to planning for the town and the court, where do you thank me? ”

The 50,000 new army gradually grew in size in two months, and Li Xin also decided to return to Nanjing on the eighth day of March. Just three days earlier, he had suddenly received a military report from Fujian that Zheng Sen had gradually become a climate at the junction of the coastal areas of Guangzhou, Guangzhou, and had organized many ships that had a great impact on the maritime trade routes of Liangguang and Fujian.

This fundamentally affected Li Xin's established strategy of comprehensively opening up the five southeastern provinces to sea and trade. At first, Zhang Shishi asked Li Xin for orders to completely pursue and destroy Zheng Sen's remnants, especially Zheng Hongkui, who was particularly active in this. However, it was delayed because of the recruitment and training of the new army in Fujian, and it was unthinkable that in just two months, this person would grow stronger again like an inexhaustible weed.

Li Xin does not regard the war as his life, and he does not have to kill anyone, but if anyone blocks the way to open the sea and trade, it will touch his bottom line.

Therefore, Li Xin ordered that the Fujian New Army should go south to Liangguang, and Wallace would lead the fleet south to blockade the Liangguang sea area, and advance by sea and land at the same time to pacify the Liangguang region.

As a result, because of the war between Guangxi and Guangzhou, it was delayed until March 15, and at noon on this day, a messenger suddenly came to Nanjing, bringing good news, but Li Xin's brows involuntarily twisted slightly.

Lu Xiangsheng and the five battalions of the left of the revolution entrenched in the two Huai fought in the new year, and won a great victory in Xuzhou, the five battalions of the left of the revolution lost their troops in the first battle, and the land of Huaibei was recovered by the Ming army, and even a few prefectures in Huainan could not be saved.