In the spring of the first year of Hongguang, Lee Siu Ki lived a very fulfilling life, and he set off a wave of reform of trading companies.

The reform of the army was ranked first, and the War Department and the Navy Department were the first to be established, with Yang Yandi and Chen Liuzi serving as commanders respectively. However, the reduction of the army and the expansion of the navy were immediately followed, and the reduction of the Eastern Brigade was very resistant at first, but soon people saw Li Zhaoji's determination.

Although the army is being reduced, it does not mean that the soldiers will be unemployed, a large number of soldiers who have been reduced have been transferred to the navy, and some people have joined the Guards, which is a new army established by Li Zhaoji after returning to Tamsui, and the last group of people do not want to stay in the trading company, or return to their hometowns, or join Zheng Sen's command.

The creation of the Guards kept their mouths shut up to all those who opposed the reforms.

At the beginning, when the army was reduced and the navy was expanded, the officers were noisy that the navy, which had not made meritorious contributions, overwhelmed the meritorious army, but when the guards unit was established, everyone finally understood that this was Li Zhaoji's concentration of power and grasping the power of the army.

The former can also be seen as a dispute between the branches of the military, the officers of the army and navy all talk nonsense, and those who do not speak will be suspected of loyalty, but with the establishment of the Guards and the change of public opinion, speaking at this time is to provoke the authority of Li Zhaoji and will be suspected of loyalty to the trading company.

Moreover, with the advancement of reform, people gradually discovered that Li Zhaoji was just trying to save expenses, and did not intend to suppress anyone.

The vast majority of officers were retained, and those who did not either found a major mistake or wanted to retire and return home. This is because every officer is an important talent of a trading company, and the number of positions is far greater than the number of officers, and some meritorious veterans have to be promoted to rank and file as junior officers.

No one's legitimate interests are suffered, on the contrary, both the navy and the army have become regularized and institutionalized.

Academies in the army and navy were the first to be established, and Lee needed to use the schools to train more qualified officers, rather than mentoring and training veterans in the army. There are two kinds of people who join the academy, one is the veterans who have just been promoted from the soldier's position, and they need to enter the academy to learn the knowledge required by officers, and the other is the relatives of the martyrs and the nobles.

The children of the families of the officers who have established meritorious service can enter the military academy, the bereaved families of martyrs who died on the battlefield can also enter the academy, and the children of nobles who have been attached to trading companies in various places.

Among them, the children and nephews of the families of those who died in battle or were wounded are more special, and their children can only enter the academy between the ages of 14 and 16, while those over the age of 16 and under the age of 22 directly join the Guards.

Li Zhaoji expanded the Guards Regiment into a small unit, with an infantry battalion, an artillery company, and a cavalry squadron.

It can be said that the savings in military spending and personnel saved by the reduction of the army were allocated to other branches of the army, rather than retiring and returning home.

The commander of this guard regiment, Li Zhaoji chose Liu Shun, who was on the cusp of the storm, to take over, and the position of Sado garrison was handed over to Haruki to take over.

For the Navy, the most important thing is not the expansion of the Marine Corps, but the complete regularization of the Navy. Although the navy was still full of Yahat ships, these armed merchant ships would gradually be phased out and transferred to the shipping department of the trading company, and the navy would rebuild its fleet with cruisers and schooners.

Henceforth, the Navy is no longer allowed to undertake commercial missions. However, the ships of the shipping department of the trading company may be transferred to the naval fleet at any time to supplement them.

February, Freshwater City.

In the dining room of Li Zhaoji's house, he took out the most beautiful porcelain in the house, and ordered a table of dishes from the best restaurant in Tamsui, just to entertain a distinguished guest, Zhao Wenji.

"Zhaoji, you have coaxed the saint. Knowing that the old man was coming, the Son of Heaven also asked the old man to carry a letter. Li Zhaoji took a letter from Zhao Wenji's hand, and when he saw it, the fire paint on it had been removed, and it was obvious that the letter had been read in advance.

Li Zhaoji didn't care either, after all, the Ming Emperor's son of heaven had to be cautious when communicating with an outsider.

Zhu Yousong directly called Li Zhaoji my friend in the letter, and what he said was all trivial things, first complaining about the boredom of court life, and then complaining about the dilapidated Forbidden City in Nanjing. The Forbidden City of Nanjing has not been repaired for a hundred years, only the Cixi Hall is still sound, and Shen Youlong has no intention of repairing it well, but only repaired the palace used by the imperial court, and there is no sign of groundbreaking in the harem.

Zhu Yousong also complained that Shen Youlong restricted him from choosing concubines, of course, these are Zhu Yousong's nonsense, Shen Youlong did not monopolize power, so he respected the emperor very much, and the reason why he restricted his choice of concubines was because Zhu Yousong wanted to choose someone else's daughter-in-law.

And two of them are still celebrities, one is Qian Qianyi's wife Liu Ruyi, and the other is Gong Dingyu's wife Gu Hengbo. These two husbands of Qin Huai Bayan were taken captive by Wu Sangui and taken to Liaodong to become traitors, and they were beaten as traitors by Shen Youlong, and the whole family was not enslaved.

Zhu Yousong once heard Li Zhaoji talk about Qinhuai beauties, and immediately summoned these two women into the court, but was stopped by Shen Youlong.

Zhu Yousong had no choice, but he refused to let go, he bluntly said in the letter, the ministers in the court are all sanctimonious, but they are full of male thieves and prostitutes, if these two beauties are let go, I don't know which shameless one will take them home.

Obviously, Zhu Yousong knew that his letter would be peeked at, and deliberately made a weird yin and yang in the letter.

So, Zhu Yousong had to dispose of these two beauties by himself, first asked his friend Chen Shangchuan if he wanted it, and wanted to give it to Zheng Sen, both of them were unwilling, and finally Zhu Yousong remembered Li Zhaoji, and directly sent the two daughters to the Songjiang Red Mansion, asking Li Zhaoji to enjoy them together.

It's just that Zhu Yousong also made it clear that Gu Hengbo is incorruptible and shameful, and his integrity and character are not enough to match Li Xiangjun and Bian Yujing's two daughters, but fortunately, his beauty is gorgeous, not inferior to Chen Yuanyuan, who has been 'in the bag' by Li Zhaoji.

Liu Ru is extraordinary, when she was summoned to the palace, she wanted to commit suicide, she could match the second daughter, but it was a buy one get one free, she gave birth to a daughter to Qian Qianyi, and insisted on taking it with her.

"See, this is the friend I made. When I became an emperor, I didn't forget my old friends. Li Zhaoji laughed, quite satisfied with the gift given by Zhu Yousong, and immediately said: "Mr. Zhao, when you return to Nanjing, you will definitely bring me a letter to thank me for this Brother Zhu."

Brother Zhu is generous, he only marries the yellow flower girl, and leaves the mature women and young wives to me. ”

Zhao Wenji couldn't hear whether Li Zhaoji's words were praise or derogation, but he knew that Shen Youlong would definitely be furious when he knew it.

After Zhu Yousong became the emperor, he was really willing to be a puppet, and never worked against Shen Youlong in court affairs, but in royal affairs, he always looked for Shen Youlong's unhappiness, which made Shen Youlong anxious, but he was at a loss.

"Mr. Zhao, you said that I have only been friends with our son of heaven for a few months, and I have bullied him in the past. He still remembers my goodness, what about our Shen Yulong Shen? I've known each other for nearly three years, and after the New Year, I didn't say a letter, I sent someone to give a New Year's gift, and you still stopped people at the door.

Publicly want to dissociate himself from me, what kind of person? Li Zhaoji said in a strange manner, he knew that although Zhao Wenji was only a staff member, he came to Tamsui on behalf of Shen Youlong on behalf of Daming, and he took the initiative to come, just to ask for something, Li Zhaoji was not afraid of offending him.

Zhao Wenji laughed, picked up chopsticks to pick up the vegetables, and said: "Zhaoji, the old man is thick-skinned, I'm not afraid of you talking nonsense, you say it's just that, the old man eats and drinks and listens, it's a joke." ”

Zhao Wenji and Li Zhaoji are too familiar, and after working together over the years, Zhao Wenji has found two tricks to deal with Li Zhaoji.

First, don't play tricks with him, you don't have as many eyes as him anyway.

Second, don't be angry with him, the more angry you are, the greater the loss.

Seeing that it didn't work, Li Zhaoji said: "Mr. Zhao, you always have something to do, let's talk about it, what's the matter." ”

"There's a lot going on, why don't you finish eating?" Zhao Wenji said.

"Talk while eating." Lee Siu Kee poured him wine.

Zhao Wenji said: "This first incident is the matter on Kinmen Island, Yan Pingbo said, the Zheng family's wealth was swept away by you. This is not good, you are a friend of Yan Pingbo, and you have always been bold and ........ ”

Li Zhaoji immediately put his index finger on the palm of his other hand and said, "Don't, don't put a high hat on me, it's useless."

Let me tell you clearly, I didn't take a tael of the Zheng family's silver. ”

"Playing tricks, don't admit it?" Zhao Wenji asked.

Li Zhaoji laughed and said, "Where is there, the Zheng family's silver is the Zheng Zhilong family's silver." And the booty I got on Kinmen Island, although it is also the silver of the Zheng family, but it is the silver of the Zheng Cai family that everyone gets and is punished by the Ming traitor.

Although it is a Zheng, it is not a family.

Yes, Zheng Zhilong's family was robbed by Zheng Cai, you Daming want to go back, you should go to Zheng Cai, where is Zheng Cai, he went to Japan and became a thug for the Japanese devils. I robbed Zheng Cai's silver, which has nothing to do with Zheng Zhilong, and even less to do with Zheng Sen. ”

Zhao Wenji's face was solemn: "The same sum of silver, after Zheng Cai's hand, became Zheng Cai's?" ”

Li Zhaoji took out two silver coins from his arms and said, "Put these two silver coins together, can you tell me clearly, which belongs to Zheng Sen's family and which one belongs to Zheng Cai's family?"

No one can tell!

Besides, Zheng Zhilong's house was robbed, what should Zheng Sen do, he should report to the Ming court, let the Ming court send troops to suppress the thieves, and take away the family property. And I defeated Zheng Cai on Kinmen Island, and the silver I got was my spoils of war, what should I do, and I should share it with the meritorious people.

Who has merit? Of course, I have merit, and our Ming court, not only should we not ask me for silver and rob my spoils, but also reward me for my military exploits. ”

Zhao Wenji listened to his crooked reasoning, and knew that the money would not come back, so he simply didn't want it, anyway, it was not a task that had to be completed.

"Stop, stop, don't talk about this, okay? Don't make trouble in the end, the old man didn't come back with a tael of silver, and he had to paste you hundreds of thousands of taels upside down. Zhao Wenji hurriedly waved his hand.

Li Zhaoji said with a smile: "It's still Mr. Zhao's atmosphere, for the sake of friends, I don't want the silver for the merit, let's write it off, don't talk about it again, talking about money hurts the feelings of our two families." Let's talk about the second thing. ”

Zhao Wenji said: "The second thing is the Liao soldiers on Jeju Island ........ ”

For the soldiers and horses of Liaozhen, Shen Youlong didn't want to use them at first, the reason is very simple, the Ming Dynasty now has a lot of soldiers and horses, but the military salary is counted, he wants to establish a division loyal to the Ming Dynasty outside the five towns, thinking that the forbidden army, the outer level thieves, and the internal shock of the feudal domains.

But he soon discovers that the reality is very different from what he thought.

To build a new army, it takes not only money, but also time, he thought that the four towns of Jiangbei and Chu Town could block the thieves, but in fact he found that among the towns, only Gao Jie's department can fight some, and the rest are a group of fish belly, and it is not enough.

Rao is Dashun was still fighting with the Manchus in Zhili, but the slight movement of the troops in the Jianghuai and Huguang areas shook the five towns, and even abandoned the domain and fled south.

Of course, not only the Ming Dynasty, but also the Great Western Army that occupied Sichuan, the famous Li Dingguo in later generations attacked Hanzhong with 30,000 people, and was also beaten by the 3,000 people of the Shun army and lost his armor.

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