In the establishment of the African Expeditionary Force, the division headquarters directly administers the division headquarters battalion, the engineer battalion, the cavalry battalion and the artillery battalion, as well as the baggage regiment, and has four infantry regiments under its jurisdiction, with a total number of more than 10,000 people.

Compared with the Queensland Army Division, this establishment has increased the establishment of an infantry regiment, strengthened the establishment of cavalry battalions, strengthened the establishment of engineer battalions, and reduced the establishment of artillery regiments, and the main firepower of the artillery battalion is six 95-mm field infantry guns and 18 60-mm field infantry guns, a total of 24 artillery pieces.

This was mainly due to the fact that there were fewer fortified targets in Africa, weak city defenses, relatively rare fortified walls and fortress facilities, and a poor logistical supply base, so the artillery establishment was reduced.

Artillery is a branch of the armed forces that places great emphasis on logistics supply, and an artillery battalion's ammunition base can be fired in tens of minutes, but hundreds of freight wagons are needed to transport it, which is simply a nightmare in Africa, where transportation is extremely underdeveloped.

The cavalry battalion did not use Australian quartter horses, but Arabian horses from West Asia, which were tall, able to withstand the heat of the desert Gobi desert, and had strong sprinting ability, making them excellent riding horses.

The merchants of Xi'an Town had a very developed smuggling tentacles, which had extended to West Asia, Persia, Iraq, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Yemen, and exchanged mature industrial products from Queensland for gold, silver, jade, lapis lazuli, agate, saffron, women and horses and other easily realizable materials.

The smuggled Arabian horses and ordinary war horses are used to reequip the African expeditionary team stationed in Xi'an Town to improve patrol efficiency and achieve greater vigilance.

The better Arab horses were hoarded and sold to the cavalry battalions that arrived empty-handed, and after more than three months of running-in training, the cavalry battalions had the ability to attack.

The best Arabian horses are carefully fed and brought back to the Australian mainland by ocean freighters to improve the local Australian horse herd, improve the horses of the Dragoon Division and the Tiger Cavalry Division, and a small number of Arabian horses of the top pedigree remain pure-blooded for the high-end market.

Roughly calculated, there are tens of thousands of Arabian horses that have entered Xi'an Town in the past year or so, and after the cavalry battalion and the local African expeditionary team have changed their clothes, some Arabian horses have flowed into the Suez Canal for the British and French troops, which is a very popular and popular product.

The price of the Arabian horses obtained by the British and the French from the regular channels is obviously not comparable with the smuggled horses, and many officers and cavalrymen are willing to buy themselves a cheap and high-quality spare horse, and the Arabian horse from Xi'an Town is the best choice.

The total number of British and French troops in the Suez River region exceeded 100,000, which was a market with extremely strong consumption power, not only a large number of Arab horses and women from Xi'an Town, but also a whole ship of Australian supplies, including high-quality wheat flour, Australian sausages, toffee, all kinds of canned fish and meat, smoked ham and frozen meat, because of the rich variety, high quality and low price and popular popularity.

Since the development of phosphate mines, the Australian food additive industry has sprung up, extended the storage and shelf life of Australia's high-quality agricultural and sideline products, greatly improved the taste and quality, and gradually became the trump card product for export.

Early January 1886

Xi'an Town, a luxury mansion

"Brother Zhuzhu, Brother Fool wishes you a successful start and a return with honors." Lei Xiaopeng's complexion is darker than more than two years ago, and his body is obviously blessed, he raised the wine glass in his hand with a red face, and said with emotion; "More than two years ago, we came here full of ambition to do a great job, but we didn't expect it to be ...... Hehehe...... Creation makes people! ”

"Thank you, Brother Xiaopeng."

Li Xuanzhu didn't say much, raised his glass and drank it neatly, turning his hand to light up the bottom of the cup.

Recently, Shangfeng's order came down, and all the officers and men of the original African expeditionary force were reorganized into the garrison of the Xi'an Town Garrison District, and nearly half of the 1,800-strong contingent was reduced.

According to the adjusted plan;

The garrison area is stationed in Fort Orient and Fort West, two companies in Great Hanish Island, two companies in Xi'an Town, and one company in Mogadishu.

The garrison area of Xi'an Town is a regiment-level unit, and the commander Lei Xiaopeng was awarded the knight of the earl's guardian for his merits, and was awarded a silver oak leaf knight's iron cross, which was personally awarded by Brigadier General Mo Rufeng, the commander of the African Expeditionary Force, as a token of encouragement.

The Silver Oak Leaf Knight's Iron Cross is a very high honor, and Li Xuanzhu once won one, and no more than nine have been awarded so far.

This medal of honor rewarded Lei Xiaopeng for his brilliant achievements in opening up Africa, although there is nothing remarkable in the record, but in the construction of Xi'an Town, it has bloomed with a dazzling light, and this Gibuti Oasis that does not has been built into an important town in the Horn of Africa, with prosperous commerce and prosperous trade, which makes professional civil affairs officials feel ashamed, and I have to say that it is indeed a great ability.

What does it mean that you, an officer, are not doing your job well in expanding the territory, but you come to compete with us for jobs?

Queenslanders are very experienced in colonization work, forming a set of efficient construction processes, successively building hundreds of new towns, and emerging a large number of outstanding civil affairs officials, which can be described as shining stars, no less than the military's dazzling achievements.

Even the best civil affairs officials dare not boast that they have done better than Lei Xiaopeng in Xi'an, and this is the most interesting part.

Now the group of escorts around Lei Xiaopeng, most of them are dressed in civilian clothes, and their faces are full of red light, they are the officers who have been disarmed and returned to the field in this large-scale retrenchment, including Major Li Yong and Captain Mo Zhenxiong from the pro-guard team, both of whom are young officers who entered the pro-guard team at the same time as Li Xuanzhu.

Only Major Li Yong and Captain Mo Zhenxiong were promoted one level each when they retired, and they were reserve militia soldiers.

The two of them sat at the bottom in plain clothes, obviously fatter than they had been more than two years ago, wearing jade rings on their hands and holding a whole rhinoceros horn carved precious gemstone cane.

"Ah Yong, Zhenxiong, it is not a blessing for you to take off the restraints of this military uniform, I think the Earl is acting benevolently and generously, and he does not deepen the investigation of your reckless behavior before, which is based on some feelings in the past." Li Lianzhu put down the wine glass in his hand and said to the two with a serious expression; "You and I are friends in the officer training class at the same time, and we are all old acquaintances in the army, so here I advise you, be a businessman, be a businessman, don't be involved with the garrison area anymore, the political intelligence department and the audit and audit office are not a joke, I estimate that your information has been checked to the bottom, if you continue to do so, it is estimated that you will not be optimistic about the end of the situation, and the good words will not be listened to, but it is just the blunt advice of an old colleague, I hope you will wait for your own self."

Didn't these words be said to Lei Xiaopeng, and Major Li Yong and Captain Mo Zhenxiong, who were sitting at the bottom, began to have blue and red on their faces, and they were really ashamed.

The devil who did not control the temptation desire in his heart was a mistake after all!

"Hey...... I heard this belatedly. Lei Xiaopeng sighed, he was still wearing a lieutenant colonel uniform, but his position was changed to the commander of the garrison area, and he was transferred from the original field army to the local army system.

Lei Xiaopeng knew it in his heart;

The reason why he can still maintain his rank and position and be awarded meritorious service is Yu Meng from his father Lei Xiao, this incense will be consumed, especially the love of the earl, which is difficult to change, and now it seems that it has been a big mistake.

"Good medicine is good for disease, foolish brother has been taught, in the future, the garrison area and the smuggling channel will be completely cut, and a few of them will take off their military uniforms and become businessmen in a down-to-earth manner, and those who still remain in the army must take this as a warning, and must not make mistakes, and do their duty as soldiers."

"That's a great deal." Li Xuanzhu nodded in agreement, turned his head and said to everyone; "As far as I know, the Queensland Parliament has successively introduced a series of bills to regulate the boundaries between officials and military personnel and corruption and bribery, business and trade, and the use of legal income to invest is allowed by policy, but it is forbidden to seek personal interests under the pretense of power and convenience, enrich private pockets, use public weapons for private purposes, and bend the law for personal gain are all among the severe punishments.

These words made cold sweat run down everyone's backs, and everyone was blinded by money, and now they woke up sharply and found that they were standing on the edge of the abyss, and one foot had been stepped into the air.

It's really mysterious.

If it weren't for the fact that the one in the Red Fort had taken care of the feelings of everyone who had been born and died on the saddle horse for many years, and reined in the sword of thunder in his hand, most of the people present would have been secretly executed or thrown into a hard labor camp, and a few hands would not have been spared.

Lei Xiaopeng left the table with a solemn expression, and everyone followed closely behind.

They came to the open space in front of them to pay homage to the East, and reverently recited words in their mouths, thanking the Earl for temporarily extinguishing the wrath of the thunder, and raising it high and gently patting it for the great grace.

Li Xuanzhu sat in the seat and watched coldly, he is not a group of officers who have made mistakes, he can look at it from a detached perspective, he must know how to be grateful, Lei Xiaopeng led the crowd to do this, it is not useless, it will definitely reach the ears of the earl in some way.

The tentacles of the political intelligence department are far deeper than imagined, the security department is also not good at stubble, and the gendarmerie command is relatively better, at least it can be seen and touched on the surface.

The military bigwigs can look down on the shady deeds of the political intelligence department, but they can't deny the jealousy in their hearts, that is a secret agency that can reach the heavens, and as long as the mouth is crooked, it may affect the future of the military bigwigs.

But this mouth is not casually crooked, if it is exaggerated, exaggerated, and there is no evidence to deliberately smear a certain military bigwig, the ensuing serious backlash against the director of political intelligence Dai Yingcai will definitely not be able to bear it.

On the light side, it is an internal dumping and mutual attack, and at the worst level, it is self-destruction of the Great Wall, which is suspected of betrayal, which is not a catastrophe for the political intelligence department that has grown up entirely on the trust of the earl.

The Earl is wise and powerful, no one dares to take such a risk, and the price is definitely not affordable for the parties involved.