12-32 Great people

Outside the city of Qingdao, the mountains are full of jubilant soldiers and civilians, with tears in their eyes, shouting and rushing over, salutes are fired at the head of the city, and the whistle is sounding in the bay.

Liu Ziguang's eyes were also moist, he slammed the horse's belly and shouted: "Drive!" As if feeling the excitement of the master, the war horse made a long roar, and the two front hooves fluttered a few times in the air, and then galloped forward, and the knights glanced at each other, and they also followed closely behind the marshal, and joined the Qingdao military and civilians.

Running in the front are hundreds of sailors wearing blue and white striped sea soul shirts, don't look at them as sailors' soldiers, but the riding skills are more exquisite than ordinary cavalry, galloping to the front, one by one jumped off the horse to bow down to meet the car, after the handsome salute, a roll of the big hula unfolded, a huge black Liu character in the bright red flag, very dazzling.

Liu Ziguang continued to move forward under Daxu, and the officers and soldiers of Qingdao's 6th Water Army and the people generally surrounded Daxu, shouting in various accents: "Dashuai!" "Dashuai" people set aside a big road, standing on both sides to admire the heroic posture of the handsome, Liu Ziguang on the horse from time to time to the left and right to salute, everywhere the eyes go, the people into a piece of worship, the mouth of the handsome auspicious, this is still the Manchu reign left oral habits, now the Han Manchu family, this blessing has not been abolished.

In just a few miles, he walked for half an hour, and finally walked to the city gate, Liu Ziguang's face was numb with laughter, and his hands were arched sore, but when he saw the people standing at the city gate, the stiff smile on his face gradually softened, with a smile on the corner of his mouth, but the corners of his eyes were a little moist, it turned out that there was a group of people standing in the center of the city gate, in order to be Peng Jingrong, who had been with him for many years, she had not seen her for many days, her face was obviously thin, and the people were also darker, Peng Jingrong was behind the remnants of the Red Shirt Army who escaped from Beijing and the generals of the Guogong Mansion. are all familiar faces, they can't help but shed tears of relief when they see Liu Ziguang finally return safely, how many days of fear and restlessness, today can finally let go of their heavy hearts.

There were so many people, Liu Ziguang didn't want to make any overly intimate moves, he just jumped off the horse, held his son's hand, and whispered: "You have worked hard." ”

Peng Jingwei said with tears in her eyes: "I'm sorry for you, the princess and the prey were not rescued, Liu Xiaomei was also lost, Han Xueer (Fan Bingbing) disappeared with the child, and her sister did not come back safely, only me and Xiangjun escaped in the whole family, and more than half of the family in the house was about to die, and I ...... I couldn't cry before I finished speaking.

Liu Ziguang said: "It's good that you are safe, escaped family, I have arranged for people from the Heaven and Earth Society to rescue me on the way, you just have to rest assured, as long as I am here, no one will dare to touch half a hair of my family." ”

Coming to the Yamen of the Admiral of the Navy, Liu Ziguang ascended to the main hall, and a cadre will be lined up on both sides, and the army left in Qingdao is less than 10,000 people, but it can already sweep Shandong, which is why after Qingdao openly rebelled, the imperial court did not immediately suppress the reason.

Looking at the whole ** team, the north of the Huai River is basically Liu Ziguang's sphere of influence, now there is no threat of war in the Central Plains, the army is concentrated in Beijing and Tianjin and Shaanxi, Gansu and Shanxi, Hebei's garrison is composed of Xu Zengshou's Xuzhou Army and Li Yan's Red Shirt Army and the original pseudo Qingjing**, Xu Zengshou's ability to command the army is not strong, give him 3,000 men and horses can bring beautiful and beautiful, give 30,000 horses can't look at the stall, as for Jing **, don't worry, the military pay and baggage are provided by the Red Shirts, so they can't mutiny.

The situation in the three northwestern provinces is slightly more complicated, because Yuan Chonghuan is in Chang'an, he has more than 100,000 soldiers under his command, Wu Sangui, Liu Zongmin and other generals, although this person is not as good as Liu Ziguang in the war, but the ability to command the army is stronger, none of the generals Liu Ziguang left in the west is his opponent, and the weapons, ammunition, grain and grass of the western Red Shirt Army all rely on the Central Plains and Jiangnan transportation, as long as the imperial court cuts off the supply, this army will become a lone army.

Looking at the strength of the imperial court, in addition to the northern provinces and the Red Shirt Army's dog-toothed troops, the most effective fighting force is the Gyeonggi 100,000 troops, since ancient times, the Beijing garrison is the best equipped and best trained, although the training of the Beijing army is not as good as the Red Shirt Army, but the weapons and equipment are on par with it.

In addition, a small number of forbidden troops and regiments in various parts of the Yangtze River are armed, and all the people in Huguang, Sichuan, Yunnan, and Guizhou together are only 50,000 or 60,000, and it is okay to maintain local law and order, and it is almost hot to pull out the field battle.

In terms of sailors, the power of the imperial court is even weaker, the Yangtze River sailors are not considered sailors at all, the water police are about the same, and the sailors of Guangdong, Fujian, and Zhejiang provinces together are not enough for the Beiyang sailors to shoot a salvo, and the strength of Taiwan's sailors is strong enough, but it is difficult to say who Zheng Chenggong's heart is towards, so the sea is basically Liu Ziguang's world.

On the whole, it seems that Liu Ziguang has enough capital to fight against the imperial court, but there is another important factor that has not been taken into account, that is, military salary and logistics.

For thousands of years, every time China divided the north and the south, the north was always strong and the south was weak, this is because the north is tall and has the advantage of cavalry, but this situation has been reversed five years ago, and now the war does not depend on who has stronger soldiers and who has more war horses, but on who is richer, whose steel production is more sufficient, and the war is logistics, and your 10,000 cavalry will rush over, which is not enough for me to fire a salvo from an artillery battalion.

In addition to a Liguo Iron Works in Xuzhou, almost all the military factories of the Ming Dynasty were in the south, from basic industries such as coal and steel, to chariots, gunboats, airships, cannons, and bullets, all of which could be produced in the south, not to mention grain and cloth.

Although in recent years he has gradually planned to relocate factories and machines to the Beijing-Tianjin area, but where can the industrial base be built in a year or two, and now the north is useless except for more coal, and cannot produce high-quality steel, large-caliber artillery, let alone advanced weapons such as steam engines, ironclad chariots, and power parachutes, and can only provide maintenance for technical weapons and produce some guns and bullets. The output of grain and cloth is also seriously inferior to that in the south, and the people are barren, and they cannot collect taxes, let alone war, and they will not be able to afford military salaries in a few days.

Most of Liu Ziguang's industries are in the south, and now these factories and shops have returned to the imperial court, how can they provide sufficient salaries, the tradition of the Red Shirts is that the salary is high, and ordinary soldiers have twenty taels of silver a month, so that the monthly salary alone will be locked out of more than three million taels, Liu Ziguang came alone, what to pay them.

How did the generals know about these things, at this time they were all in high morale, and they were clamoring to fight back to the capital and eradicate the traitors, as if only one charge could solve the problem, Qingdao garrison Lu Ying stood up and shouted: "Marshal, as long as you give an order, the brothers will immediately board the ship and go straight to Nanjing, kill all the traitors, and rehabilitate Zhaoxue for you!" ”

The other generals also shouted: "Commander, you can give the order, and the brothers promise to fight to the city of Nanjing within a month." ”

Hearing these arrogant calls, Shi Kefa, who was also sitting below to attend the meeting, couldn't help frowning.

Liu Ziguang slapped the table: "Presumptuous!" Are you not openly rebelling? Isn't the accusation that the traitor has fabricated against me confirmed? The saint treats me with kindness, and now he is deceived for a while, it must not take long to wake up, I have been through war for a long time, people are determined, and they can no longer withstand fighting and killing, and the same is true for Ben Shuai, it is okay to kill Tartars, and it is absolutely impossible for them to beat their own people. ”

Everyone looked at each other, and they were all shocked by Liu Ziguang's words, the handsome man is really a loyal minister who understands righteousness, he was wronged and almost died, and he can repay his grievances with virtue, this kind of height is something they will never be able to achieve, and some people are unwilling, and whispered: "It's all, and you have to endure it, it's really ......"

Liu Ziguang is very easy-going with his subordinates on weekdays, so someone dares to make a big deal in front of him, if it was Yuan Chonghuan's account, this would have been dragged out and beheaded a long time ago, Liu Ziguang was not angry when he heard this, but said flatly: "Don't say that you are on your neck, even if you have dysentery, Ben Shuai also endures it, who let Ben Shuai be a courtier of the Ming Dynasty, all the generals have listened well, from now on, no one is allowed to rebel in vain, and those who violate it will be severely punished!" ”

There are no too high-level generals in Qingdao, the highest is the garrison level, they are all middle and low-level officers, Liu Ziguang didn't need to explain too much to them, just suppressed it with a few words.

Seeing that everyone didn't dare to talk nonsense anymore, Liu Ziguang said again: "Call the armies of Gansu, Shanxi, and Hebei, be sure to obey the orders of the imperial court, strictly prevent foreign enemies from taking the opportunity to invade, and sign the name of the commander." ”

The flag officer received the order to go to the telegraph room, Shi Kefa's frowning brows were relaxed, he didn't expect Liu Ziguang's spiritual world to be so noble, it seems that his previous understanding of him was really wrong, compared with those high-ranking officials in the imperial court, this seemingly rude, simple-minded martial artist is actually much greater.

Liu Ziguang finished the meeting and returned to the back hall, Peng Jingrong greeted him and said, "Look who is coming?" ”