"Xue Taishen, let's talk about the external situation specifically." Hong Tiancheng was the first to open the topic.

"In mid-June 1652, the situation in Livonia deteriorated rapidly, with the death of Ketler, the patriarch of the Knights of the Holy Sword, who had taken refuge in heaven, and the heavy losses of the main army that the Knights of the Holy Sword had worked so hard to build.

However, at this time, the Holy Sword Knights had an internal power struggle because of Ketler's accidental death, and the second heir of Cutler's line of lineage was able to retain his strength because he guarded the lair of the Holy Sword Knights and did not accompany his father to encircle and suppress Livonia against the remnants of the nobility, and the eldest son, as the first heir, although he successfully survived the Christian Brotherhood ambush, his henchmen were almost wiped out, and there were very few old people of the Holy Sword Knights who escaped. When he retreated to the lair of the Holy Sword Knights, he was intercepted by Ketler's second son who secretly sent a killer!

After the failure of the interception was exposed, Ketler's second son, because he was worried about revenge, gathered his henchmen to suddenly rebel in the lair of the Holy Sword Knights, and after success, he privately declared himself the legitimate successor of the Holy Sword Knights, and sent people to our Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in the hope of being recognized.

The second son of Kettler was so arrogant that he sent a letter claiming that if the kingdom of heaven did not recognize his position, he would join the Christian Brotherhood and completely cut off Livonia!

Of course, he was so arrogant mainly because he had won a big victory in the confrontation with his brother later, although the current Holy Sword Knights were ostensibly divided into two factions, but in fact, there were not many people on the side of Ketler's eldest son, according to the latest news from Jinyiwei, there were less than 100 armed forces left around this legitimate heir, and his younger brother had at least a thousand troops at his disposal. ”

"Thousands of troops, relying on the prestige of the fortress and the Knights of the Holy Sword, plus our support, it is enough to withstand the attack of the Christian Brotherhood in the Livonian region for a period of time, the inheritance law of the white guy does not care, only what is useful to us is called a puppet, that Ketler's eldest son is the legitimate heir but he can't even beat his own brother, it is not worth our investment." Hong Tiancheng concluded in a flat tone.

"Your Majesty the Heavenly King, my subordinates thought so at first, but after achieving a decisive advantage, this second son of Ketler made a new request to the Heavenly Kingdom, not only did he ask the Heavenly Kingdom to support him with a large number of firearms, but also asked the Heavenly Kingdom to recognize the independent status of the Holy Sword Knights in the Livonia region, withdraw all the supervisors and brocade guards, and he asked the Holy Sword Knights to sit on an equal footing with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom!"

Puff~~~

A sneer suddenly came from the quiet hall, and then it was immediately suppressed, and Zhao Yan, who was flushed, looked down at Hong Tiancheng with an expressionless face embarrassedly, and found that he didn't mean to reprimand himself, and said with a smile on the corner of his mouth:

"Just a thousand-strong legion dares to shout on an equal footing with us and the Heavenly Empire, no wonder the Holy Sword Knights will become the dust of history, they are simply a gathering place where stupid people are born."

Xue Taishen held back Zhao Yan's glance and turned his head to look at Hong Tiancheng, waiting for his clear order.

"Zhao Remnant is right, I don't have the habit of raising a white-eyed wolf, withdraw the supervisors of the Holy Sword Knights, it won't be long before there is no organization in this world."

"Your Majesty, don't we support Ketler's eldest son either?" Xue Taishen confirmed.

"A first heir who occupies an innate advantage, but he lost in the infighting without even underpants, not to mention the price we need to pay to support him is not much different from sending troops in person, even if I want to support, I will not support a mediocre talent!

It's a pity that Ketler is such a stubborn man who can retain the fire and a certain amount of combat power decades after the fall of the Holy Sword Knights, this kind of wisdom and forbearance is a useful person, I thought that his body bones could live for ten or eight years, just to help the Kingdom of Heaven defend the northern gate in the initial rise period, but I didn't want to die in battle so soon.

Don't bother with any requests and impotent 'threats' of the Holy Sword Knights, Zhao Yan, you take out one of the main forces of the four regiments and set up a cordon on the northern border of Lithuania, whether it is the Holy Sword Knights or the Christian Brotherhood, as long as they dare to step into the territory of the Heavenly Kingdom, let them stay on this land forever! ”

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Zhao Yan straightened up and saluted.

"Your Majesty, the war on the Kiev side is extremely unfavorable to our side, since the main Polish force and the Russian Imperial Expeditionary Force have joined forces, the strength has increased greatly, and a multi-sided attack has been launched on the defense line of Kyiv City, the courier delivered the information a few days ago that the white servant army in Kyiv City has lost more than half of the battle, even if we add the 1,000 Ottoman Sultan's personal soldiers we have just supported in the past, there are only less than 2,000 Ottoman Sultan's personal troops left in Kyiv City, if we do not carry out reinforcements, with the current offensive intensity, It is estimated that the city of Kiev will survive until the end of 1652 at most. ”

After Xue Taishen finished speaking, Zhang Juzheng suddenly stood up and said: "Your Majesty, the main force of a regiment of the Taiping Army in the northern Livonia region is enough to deal with it, but the Polish border in the western part of the Kingdom of Heaven must be garrisoned by the main force of a regiment, this regiment can not only put an end to the ambition of the Polish-Lithuanian Kingdom to create a second battlefield, but also deter the small people within the Heavenly Kingdom."

Lao Chen has already recruited a group of local Lithuanian militia in the occupied area, and they are naturally not good at the front-line battlefield, but it is still okay to be the main force of logistics miscellaneous service and second-line cannon fodder, so we might as well adopt the organizational form of the local militia with the main force corps, so that all of them can be declared as the Taiping Army, creating a momentum in numbers, and under the guard of the main force corps, these local militias are unlikely to cause trouble.

As for local policing, there are 5,000 Polish scythemen and 3,000 Swedish town militia newly recruited by His Majesty the Heavenly King, which is enough to deal with. ”

After hearing this, Zhao Yan's eyes lit up, and he asked, "How many Lithuanian militias can we raise now?" ”

Zhao Remnant, the Minister of the Army, mainly managed the system troops, and the security forces in the occupied area were composed of aristocratic private soldiers, mercenaries, miscellaneous soldiers who took refuge, and recruited Lithuanian citizens and peasants, and Zhang Juzheng was always in charge of the all-rounder.

"On the basis of satisfying all the public security work of the township and other grass-roots administrative units, I can draw out tens of thousands of local militia arms, but most of them only have cold weapons, if we only need to maintain public security work in towns and big cities, we can transfer more than ninety percent of the local militia security forces, in that case, conservative estimates, at least 50,000 people!"

"What?! 50,000 people! How do you do it! Hong Tiancheng glared at Zhang Juzheng in shock, it was the first time he had heard that so many militia forces loyal to Heaven could be pulled out of the occupied area!