Li Jifeng knew that the Haihan people had always acted cautiously, especially in handling the relationship with the Ming Dynasty, and it was not easy for the Haihan people to provide military assistance to Lijiazhuang, so he also went to visit the Guangzhou Office in person. Unfortunately, Schneider has been transferred back to Shengli Port, and now the person in charge of the executive committee in Guangzhou is not strong enough, and neither He Xi nor the newcomer Marik have the right to decide on such a major matter, so they can only transmit the information to the base camp and hand it over to the executive committee to make a decision.

"Let's talk about it, after all, everyone is asking us now!" Tao Donglai looked around at the executive committee members present, and said in a deep voice: "Can we help this favor or not, and if we want to help, how can we help, let's sum it up together!"

"Help is definitely going to help, the Li family is now our spokesperson for the interests of Daming, if their wall is dug down, it will also cause us a lot of losses. Besides, the shareholders of 'Qiong Lianfa' have just joined the company, and they will also see in their eyes and keep in mind what kind of reaction we will have to the Li family's request for help. Schneider took the lead in expressing his attitude: "As for how to help, I think this still has to listen to the opinions of professionals, and I will not talk nonsense as a layman." ”

From the perspective of pure interests, Schneider's words are indeed right, although the export channels of Haihan goods are now a lot more than half a year ago, but "Fu Ruifeng" is still recognized as the spokesperson of Haihan in the Daming business circle, as long as Haihan is allowed to sell the goods, "Fu Ruifeng" is the first merchant to get the goods, and even many rare things that cannot be seen on the market, and the "Fu Ruifeng" family has a unique source of goods. In the more than half a year after establishing a business relationship with "Fu Ruifeng", the gross profit of the goods sold through the channel of the group has exceeded 200,000 taels of silver.

In addition, the materials purchased by the crossing group in the mainland, the immigrants introduced, and the bases arranged by the group are all contributed by "Fu Ruifeng". Without the assistance of this Ming Leading Party, the layout of the Crossing Group in the mainland would not have been so smooth. Now, although the Ministry of Commerce has taken the lead in setting up the "Qiong Lianfa" organization to develop more leading parties, the Executive Committee's attention to the veteran of "Fu Ruifeng" has not been reduced, but has specially engaged in the "Golden Shield Security" to help the Li family broaden its business scope, of course, the main purpose of establishing this organization is to make preliminary preparations for the military layout of the crossing group in the mainland region.

Many things that are inconvenient for the crossing group to do in their own name are almost handed over to "Fu Ruifeng", and now although there is a larger shell of "Qiong Lianfa" to borrow, the storage of "Fu Ruifeng" is still an indispensable help for the crossing group now. On the choice of "whether to help or not", no one in the executive committee will definitely have a negative opinion on this, because no department can completely detach itself from the supply of materials and manpower from the outside world, which is also the current status quo of the group.

Sure enough, after Schneider finished speaking, no one jumped out to question his opinion. No matter from the perspective of justice or self-interest, it is impossible for the crossing group to stand idly by and watch the Li family's difficulties.

Bai Kesi opened his mouth and said: "I also agree with Mr. Shi's opinion, help is definitely to help, but how to help, what kind of help to do, this really has to be summed up." What exactly is the situation of the civil unrest in Guangzhou is not particularly clear in the telegram. Teacher Ning, do you have any relevant information there?"

Ning Qi nodded and responded: "After receiving Mr. Tao's notice, I went to check the database, and found that this mess in Guangzhou Mansion is not just as simple as it was said in the telegram, and the root of this matter has to start from a few years ago......

In the third year of the Great Tomorrow Apocalypse, that is, in 1623, four years before the traversers came to this world, Conghua County of Guangzhou Prefecture caused a banditry, and its main force was the low-level people who made a living by burning charcoal, and the leaders were Lai Dingji, Liao Dabi, Zhang Weichong and others, numbering thousands, in Conghua, Zengcheng, Longmen, Qingyuan and other counties in Guangzhou Prefecture, as well as Shaozhou Mansion and Huizhou Prefecture. This bandit plague lasted in Guangdong for many years, and historical records recorded that it was not until the fifth year of Chongzhen that it was gradually calmed down.

In the fourth year of the Apocalypse, most areas of Guangzhou Prefecture suffered from famine, and rice merchants took the opportunity to raise the price of rice, and as a result, the price of rice rose in Boluo County, Huizhou Prefecture and Guangzhou Prefecture respectively, which provoked a popular uprising, although the government suppressed the civil uprising in these two places in a timely manner, but there were still a large number of bankrupt and hungry people who chose to join the gangs in Guangdong in order to survive. After that, it was during the period from the sixth year of the Apocalypse mentioned in the Guangzhou call to this year that the banditry caused by natural disasters intensified.

According to historical records, in the next few years, Guangdong will continue to suffer from droughts, floods, earthquakes, plagues, and pirate attacks, and the frequent occurrence of various disasters will further aggravate the civil unrest. If we infer from historical data and the Guangzhou telegram, then the bandit forces that have been causing chaos near Guangzhou Prefecture in the near future and have already threatened Lijiazhuang should be dominated by the "charcoal burning party" that began to emerge two years ago.

In fact, the government has no good way to deal with these bandit forces, otherwise it would not have allowed them to do evil in Guangdong for many years. The Li family has obviously realized this, so they did not pin their hopes on the official, but quietly and directly approached the Guangzhou Office for help.

"Four years ago, these bandits were also veterans? If a few thousand people went to attack Lijiazhuang, it would be difficult for them to defend it with a few people from their militia group. After listening to the historical background introduced by Ning Qi, Bai Kesi also had a better understanding of the current situation of the Li family.

"Are you sure that the bandits will definitely take action against Li Jiazhuang now?" Yan Chujie finally opened his mouth to express his opinion: "If this is certain, then we can't delay any longer and slowly discuss how to rescue the Li family, but we have to take action immediately!"

"Shengli Port is so far from Guangzhou, it will take a while to mobilize manpower and purchase materials, right? Besides, the local situation is unclear, and it is difficult to draw conclusions about how many people we need to send, shouldn't we be cautious at this time?" Gu Kai has always disagreed with the military's attitude of fighting and killing at every turn, and immediately questioned Yan Chujie's statement.

"When we slowly mobilize manpower, prepare supplies, and then cross the sea to Guangzhou by boat, we will have to take seven or eight days, right? Do you think it will take seven or eight days for thousands of bandits to besiege a village? It's okay for us to hold a meeting here slowly, but can the Li family afford to wait? Will those bandits sit down and wait for us to discuss the results before they do it? The Li family came to us in the hope that we could help in a crisis, instead of collecting the bodies of the people in Lijiazhuang!" Yan Chujie mercilessly refuted Gu Kai's statement, and almost threw it out. On paper".

Gu Kai was robbed of his white by Yan Chujie, and he was also a little embarrassed, but he didn't want to debate with Yan Chujie in this regard, so he moved his lips a few times and finally chose to shut up.

"Okay, old Yan, don't be in a hurry, aren't we just discussing a solution now?" Tao Donglai hurriedly stood up and played a round, and gave Gu Kai a look, signaling him not to argue with Yan Chujie anymore. Every time the Executive Committee is ready to take military action against the outside world, there will always be opposing voices, it used to be Meng He of the Ministry of Information Industry, but after this re-election, Meng He was squeezed out of the new Executive Committee, and this candidate with a pacifist tone became Gu Kai, who was transferred back from Heitu Port.

Although there is no political party in the Executive Committee, whenever such a time comes, it is still faintly divided into two factions: the "main battle" and the "main peace." However, since the victory of the Battle of Annam, the voice of the "main battle" at this time has obviously become much louder, in addition to the old man Yuan has clearly stood in line, Ning Qi, who often questioned the military's approach, is now often riding the wall, only Gu Kai is still a little "ignorant of the times" and insists on using non-violent means to solve the problem.

What Yan Chujie said was not a battle of will, and now even if the Executive Committee immediately passed the proposal for military assistance, organized the troops, prepared the supplies, and the fleet, it would take at least two days to set off from Shengli Port, and even if the journey was smooth, it would be almost a week before they arrived at their destination. The local bandits really want to attack Lijiazhuang, but they are afraid that they will do it a long time ago.

"What does the military mean?" Tao Donglai asked a little knowingly to help Yan Chujie with the rhythm.

"Prepare with both hands. Yan Chujie gestured with a scissorhands: "First, the base camp will immediately dispatch militia troops to form an expeditionary force and set off as much as possible." Second, organize resistance forces in the vicinity of Guangzhou and go to Panyu to assist Lijiazhuang in defending against bandits. ”

"The armed team near Guangzhou, then there is only ......" Ning Qi heard this, and he already roughly understood what Yan Chujie meant.

The armed forces of the crossing group in the vicinity of Guangzhou, which originally consisted only of a small number of militia in the Guangzhou Office, have only recently been expanded to a platoon. The second is the Li Jiamin regiment, which was trained in Guangzhou, and currently has about two companies. In addition, there are more than 100 people in the fourth company of the Shengli Port Independent Battalion, which was recently sent to the mouth of the Pearl River to establish a stronghold on Dawanshan Island, which is probably the resistance force that Yan Chujie said.

In terms of combat capability alone, the militia of the fourth company is certainly stronger than the Li family militia group, which is not only that the fourth company equipped with flintlock pistols is much more than the Li family militia regiment, which still uses arquebuses as the main weapon and only a small number of elites distribute flintlock pistols, but more importantly, the fourth company is an armed force with real combat experience, and the combat experience is still very different from that of the amateur militia of the nature of the Li family militia. If it is a battlefield duel, the establishment of the two companies of the Fourth Company alone against the Li Jiamin Regiment should be without pressure.

If the fourth company is transferred to Lijiazhuang to participate in the defense, then the certainty of repelling the bandits will be much more certain. After all, on the battlefield of Annam, the Fourth Company also had a record of repelling several times the enemy, and the combat effectiveness of this bandit could not be much stronger than that of the South Vietnamese army. The most important thing is that the arrival of this group of Haihan regular troops can completely act as a branch, organize a more hierarchical and disciplined defense force in the locality, and command the Li Jiamin regiment to cooperate in the operation.

"The Fourth Company went to the Pearl River Estuary this time to carry out the stationing mission, and the weapons and ammunition were very sufficient, which could fully support them to complete several small-scale operations in the local area. The voyage from Dawanshan Island to Panyu by the Pearl River is more than 60 nautical miles, which can be reached on the same day by boat, and the distance is also very close, and the time is completely in time. Yan Chujie went on to give other reasons that could prove the feasibility of this plan.

"The Explorer is also still docking at Dawanshan Island, and if it is necessary to mobilize four companies, the capacity is not a problem. Yue Zhiyun of the Ministry of Shipping also added. Although the navy has now become a separate army, because the navy's capacity is too poor, overseas operations often require the cooperation of the shipping department, so the shipping department is also clear about the situation of the only warship in the ranks.

"What about the defense of Dawanshan Island? We still have hundreds of migrant workers left on the island, and even if the base camp mobilizes troops to reinforce it, there will be a time difference of several days in between. Ning Qi asked with some concern.

"This brings us to the benefits of establishing a grassroots militia organization!" Yan Chujie immediately took over: "Half of the personnel selected to participate in the construction on Dawanshan Island this time have received militia training more than three times in Shengli Port. Our military's intention was to make these personnel on the island an auxiliary force if necessary, but now it seems that they will be able to come in handy in advance. After the departure of the fourth company, the defense can be temporarily handed over to these militiamen, anyway, it will only be a few days in between, and the reinforcements from the base camp will be fine as soon as they arrive. ”

"And what about the weapons they used?" Ning Qi continued to ask.

"The weapons have already been loaded onto the ship and shipped together, this is not your Ministry of Civil Affairs's business, why are you still asking me?" Yan Chujie seized the opportunity to laugh at Ning Qi.

Ning Qi seemed to have a little impression when he thought about it, and among the military supplies loaded on the ship at the beginning, it seemed that there was indeed a "militia weapon", but at that time he thought that this was the weapon of the militia troops stationed on the island, but now he thinks about it, the weapons of the militia are all loaded on the "Exploration", and the goods marked as "militia weapons" on the cargo ship should be what Yan Chujie said.

Of course, these grassroots militias did not have any high-end weapons, and even arquebuses were not equipped on a large scale, and the standard weapons were iron-tipped spears with a small number of swords and shields. However, the trained militia and such armament are certainly sufficient to deal with a rabble that lacks long-range and heavy weapons. In fact, as long as it is not a naval war, the military thinks that it may be enough for them to deal with the pirates that infest the nearby waters.

"The other materials needed for the fourth company to fight in Panyu ......"

"Guangzhou City is only forty miles from Panyu, what do you need, say hello to the Li family will naturally purchase it and send it over, so we don't need to worry too much about this. Without waiting for Ning Qi to finish asking, Yan Chujie immediately rushed to answer his question.

Ning Qi made a helpless expression and said, "Okay, I don't have any other problems for the time being." ”

"With all due respect, I think you're all overlooking one thing. Gu Kai, who had been silent for a long time, couldn't help but speak again: "When we send troops to Panyu to fight, do we need to consider the feelings of the local government of the Ming Dynasty?" First of all, the feelings I said have nothing to do with respect, the key is that if the Ming Dynasty knew that we openly sent armed forces to fight in the area near Guangzhou, would they regard our existence as a threat?"

"It's true that the possibility you are talking about, but we don't really need to make this operation public. Tao Donglai took the initiative to take over the question raised by Gu Kai: "The storage of the civil group training is a semi-legal storage in the Ming Dynasty, even if the weapons and equipment are a little excessive, as long as they do not take the initiative to make trouble, the local government will generally turn a blind eye." When we enter Panyu to fight, in fact, we should not play the banner of the Haihan People's League. Our people will not be stationed in the local area permanently, and besides, the local government knows that there is a bandit disaster in that place, and it is too late to hide, so how can they send people to the local area to check whether the militia is equipped to exceed the standard at this juncture. ”

"Let's vote, after all, time is tight. Seeing that the others had no intention of continuing to ask, Yan Chujie immediately urged.

The result of the vote was also expected, and the Executive Committee approved the proposal to support Li Jiazhuang with armed support, and authorized the Military Commission to command the military operation, and other relevant departments must also fully cooperate.

After Yan Chujie got the Shang Fang Sword, he immediately asked for leave and left, and did not even participate in the subsequent meeting, and hurriedly returned to the office of the Military Commission and convened an emergency meeting. First of all, the first thing was to send a telegram to the Guangzhou Office and Dawanshan Island respectively about the resolution of the Executive Committee and the general action plan, and to ask the two localities to start preparations immediately and complete the corresponding redeployment in the shortest possible time.

Secondly, the base camp cannot be so idle, just in case, it is necessary to prepare the second wave of reinforcements from the north immediately. After the Battle of Annam, the base camp has been expanded, recruiting cadets from three companies of the army and navy, and at present the army cadets have actually completed the three-month training period, but they have not yet been included in the formal establishment. The military's claim to the outside world is that the Shengli Port Independent Battalion is far less than an independent battalion, and even after sending four companies, the army stationed in the Sanya area still maintains the size of six companies. After discussions, the military top brass decided to send two more companies, one old and one new, to the north to ensure that the military aid operation was foolproof.

"I feel like we're going to become mercenaries!" Gu Wei said with a sigh: "After helping the Vietnamese fight the rebels, we have to help the Ming Dynasty fight bandits, and the military operations after the formation of the army are all to help outsiders fight!"

"It doesn't matter who you help you with, what matters is the actual benefit after the fight. You wait and see, after this battle is fought, the Li family will definitely pay for our military expenses!" Yan Chujie smiled, completely without the anxiety he had just in the executive committee