There were still seventy or eighty miles from the Tianjin Acropolis to the sea, and it took nearly two days for the army to arrive.

The Haiphong battalion is located on the south bank of the Haihe River estuary, in a place called Dagu.

During the Jiajing period, in order to prevent the invasion of the Japanese invaders, a coastal defense battalion was set up in Dagu, with more than 3,000 sailors and more than 100 warships, guarding Tianjin's maritime frontier. After the Japanese disappeared in the Daming Sea, the establishment of the coastal defense battalion was still there, but it lost its original status and was no longer taken seriously.

The soldiers are all military households, they have military fields, and if they catch some fish and shrimp, they can get by. But for decades, most of the military fields were annexed by the officers, and the ordinary soldiers were reduced to tenants and enslaved by the officers, no different from the local officials and soldiers.

The general of the coastal defense battalion is named Fang Maode, who has the status of a thousand households, and most of the fields around Dagu belong to his family, and he is short and stocky, and he does not look like an official general, but more like a big landlord.

Fang Maode had already learned the news that Zhou Yuji was coming, and he took a carriage to greet him for twenty miles.

He is a general of the coastal defense battalion, and Zhou Yuji is the chief soldier of coastal defense, and he is his immediate boss.

"Dashuai, your subordinates are a little careful." Fang Maode smiled all over his face and asked his soldiers to carry a box to Zhou Yuji's tent.

"What's in there?" Zhou Yuji asked lightly.

Fang Maode waved off his subordinates and opened the box himself, which was full of silver ingots.

"I'm afraid there aren't one or two thousand taels for this, right?" Zhou Yuji looked at Fang Maode playfully.

"A total of three thousand taels of silver, please smile at it." Fang Maode said with a smile on his face.

Zhou Yuji had a smile on his face: "I have a heart." ”

Fang Maode sighed and withdrew from the military tent.

On the second day, the army continued to march and reached the mouth of Dagu at noon.

Zhou Yuji immediately ordered to take over the barracks, and asked his subordinates to immediately take over the account books of the coastal defense battalion, and then summoned the officers and soldiers of the coastal defense battalion to begin to count and count the number of troops, ships, and weapons.

"Did you give the silver taels that the big guy made up to Mr. Zhou?" Several chief sentinels of the coastal defense battalion quietly asked Fang Maode.

Fang Maode comforted: "I sent it, he also accepted it, don't worry, it's just a formality." ”

Unexpectedly, three days later, the officers were summoned to the Shuai tent, and Zhou Yuji threw the roster account book in front of them.

"There are a total of 2,850 soldiers on the military register, and the actual number is only 1,152 after counting, where are the 1,600 people?" Zhou Yuji asked angrily.

Beads of sweat on Fang Maode's face suddenly rolled down, and he couldn't speak.

"There are 30 warships of 2,000 materials and 50 warships of 1,000 materials on the roster, but now there are only 30 ships in the entire harbor, where did the other ships go?" Zhou Yuji continued to ask.

"Marshal Rongyu," Fang Maode finally came back to his senses, "The imperial court has allocated less and less money and food, the military households are living too hard, many people can't stand it and fled, and the last general has no choice, the imperial court has not allocated money for repairs for more than ten years, and many ships have long been decayed, so they can only be dragged ashore and chopped for firewood......"

"Yes, handsome, we can't help it." The other sentinels also gossiped.

Zhou Yuji sneered: "The coastal defense battalion has a total of more than 125,000 mu of military land, plus the money and grain allocated by the imperial court every year, it is enough to feed more than 3,000 soldiers and their families, so why can't it go on?" Even if many military families have fled, why is their name still on the military register? Where did the money and grain allocated by the imperial court go? ”

Fang Maode and others couldn't speak.

"Come on, take them down, torture them!" Zhou Yuji said angrily.

A dozen Praetorian Guard soldiers rushed in, dragged a few people and left.

"You can't, big handsome!" Fang Maode cried out sadly.

"You can't do this, you just received five thousand taels of silver from us." The other sentinels also gossiped.

"Oh, I remember, you also tried to bribe the general, you committed the crime of bribery, and the silver has been confiscated." Zhou Yuji said with a smile, "But Ben Shuai didn't see five thousand taels, only three thousand taels of silver." ”

"Ahh The sentry chief stunned the generals, and looked at Fang Maode incredulously.

"Bastard, you are greedy for even this silver!" One officer raised his leg and kicked at Fang Maode, and the others also cursed.

Zhou Yuji waved his hand: "Lock them up together and let them quarrel first." ”

Brother Zheng Zhilong was dumbfounded.

"What, think I'm not upright enough?" Zhou Yuji said to Zheng Zhilong with a smile.

"The last general will not dare." Zheng Zhilong hurriedly said.

"In order to comfort their hearts, they thought that if I received the money, they would not be on their beware, and they would not be wary, but they would not be tired of deceit." Zhou Yuji said with a smile.

"If all the generals were so discerning and honest and honest, the Ming army would not be like this." Zheng Zhilong sighed.

Zhou Yuji nodded: "Occupy the soldiers' military fields, eat empty amounts and greed for military salaries, the army of the Ming Dynasty has long been rotten, and it has to be heavy-handed." However, the reason why I took down Fang Maode and others was to quickly regain the power of the coastal defense battalion and organize and train the naval army as soon as possible. ”

"Will there be trouble?" Zheng Zhilong said worriedly.

Zhou Yuji sneered: "What trouble can there be? The evidence of their greed for military salaries is conclusive, and no one can overturn the case, I will distribute the military land they occupy to the soldiers of the coastal defense battalion, and the soldiers of the coastal defense battalion will surely rejoice, and who will complain for them? ”

With the emperor, the biggest backer in the world, and a powerful army in his hands, Zhou Yuji is not afraid of anyone.

Zheng Zhilong bowed.

Sure enough, when Zhou Yuji announced the redistribution of military fields and distributed all the fields occupied by the officers to the soldiers of the coastal defense battalion, he immediately received an enthusiastic response from the soldiers, who called Zhou Yuji the marshal of the blue sky, and as for their former commanders, they had already been thrown out of the clouds.

With the support of the officers and men of the coastal defense battalion, the next thing went very smoothly.

The soldiers of the coastal defense battalion are all sailors, and most of them know how to operate boats, but the coastal defense battalion is a flat-bottomed boat that can only drive in the coastal waters.

Fortunately, a few days later, more than 10 large ships came from Dengzhou, but they were used by the Tianjin Wei generals for smuggling for profit.

Zhou Yuji mixed the soldiers of the Praetorian Guard and the coastal defense battalion, with the Zheng brothers as instructors, and began to practice.

Most of the Praetorian Guard soldiers were landlubbers, and most of them had never seen the sea or taken a boat. At the beginning, many people were dizzy and vomited out all their bitter gall. Zhou Yuji ordered that everyone must stay at sea for three hours a day, and it was not until half a month later that most of the Praetorian Guard soldiers got used to the sea boats and stopped vomiting.

Sailing and lowering sails, anchoring and pulling anchors, determining the bearing, without a long life at sea, it is impossible to master these skills.

However, Zhu Youzhen's requirements are also very simple, the navy does not need to go to the open sea, as long as it is driven inside the Bohai Sea.

After more than two months of training, most of the Praetorian Guards have basically adapted to life on board and learned basic boat skills.