Yangcheng County, the city lord's mansion.

Xiao Jiu looked at the dark-skinned young man in front of him, with a smile on the corner of his mouth all the time, and the young man looked a little nervous under Xiao Jiu's gaze.

"Kuroko, I've wronged you in the past two years."

The young man opposite Xiao Jiu was naturally the naval commander Heizi who had been promoted before, and after hearing this, Heizi also bowed and hurriedly said that he was not aggrieved.

Xiao Jiu has always been on guard against sunspots, after all, he is not the old man who followed Xiao Jiu at the beginning.

However, when Lingshui County was besieged by the Qingzhou Army, Heizi was able to lead the newly formed navy to contain the other party in the hinterland of Qingzhou, until the Qingzhou Army withdrew its troops, and Heizi contributed to it.

After that, Kuroko also led his fleet to constantly harass at sea, and gradually established a large force.

It's just that Xiao Jiu has always set a limit on the number of people in the navy, so now the navy has always been a military region with no reputation.

But now that the overseas Japanese kingdom has been discovered, Xiao Jiu is beginning to prepare for the development of this navy.

The island is huge, and even if it is still in a primitive society, the population base will not be small, and if you want to eat the entire Japanese country, it is not enough to rely on the current navy alone.

The expansion of the navy was imminent, but Xiao Jiu did not want to divide the power in the hands of the sunspot.

First, because Kuroko has always faithfully completed his orders, the two sides already have a foundation of trust.

The second is that the navy, as an independent army on the sea, will definitely increase its efficiency if there are different German generals.

Before the arrival of the sunspot, Xiao Jiu already had a plan in his heart to conquer the country, and now the sunspot is standing in front of him, and Xiao Jiu no longer buys the guanzi.

"I named the giant island you found Wakoku, and now I'm going to let you take it, are you sure in your heart?"

Listening to Xiao Jiu's inquiry, Kuroko frowned and thought about it.

After more than two years of conquest, Kuroko is no longer the fierce young man with enthusiasm at the beginning, and is more accustomed to thinking about problems from a higher position.

Although Kuroko's navy now has huge warships, it is not clear how many there are on the island.

If he started a war rashly, Heizi was very worried that it would lead to failure due to lack of intelligence, so not only would he bury the lives of his brothers in vain, but Xiao Jiu would definitely look down on the navy.

After thinking about it for a while, Kuroko finally spoke slowly, "The lord said that our army does not know much about the land of the Japanese country, and if we start a war rashly, it is not safe to rely on the 10,000 navy under the command of the last general." ”

Xiao Jiu quietly listened to Heizi's answer, as if he had expected it in his heart, and said with a smile, "Through your previous letter, the Wa Kingdom must be bigger than the current Yangcheng County, and your 10,000 soldiers alone will definitely not be enough." ”

"I have already told Zhou Jin that I will soon draw up a conscription plan, and I will recruit soldiers in Yangcheng County and Yujun County, I am ready to give you another 40,000 people, can you control the Wa Kingdom?"

Listening to Xiao Jiu's arrogant speech, Heizi was a little shocked in his heart, as if he didn't expect Xiao Jiu to value that barren land so much.

Moreover, Xiao Jiu spent so much money to expand the navy, and he had to build more warships, and he invested so much money on himself, which also surprised Kuroko.

Without waiting for Kuroko to be stunned, Xiao Jiu continued to ask Kuroko with a smile, "But I have one condition." ”

Kuroko came back to his senses when he heard this, and asked blankly, "What?" ”

"I want your absolute loyalty, loyalty to Yangcheng, loyalty to me Xiao Jiu."

Xiao Jiu's face suddenly became serious, no longer the smiling and clogged appearance he had before, and the atmosphere in the room became a little depressed.

Listening to Xiao Jiu's questioning, Kuroko's breathing began to become rapid, knowing that Xiao Jiu had already believed him by asking him like this, he immediately responded.

"I swear allegiance to the lord to the death, but if I disobey it, heaven and earth will be destroyed."

Looking at the shivering sunspot who was kneeling on the ground, Xiao Jiu bent down to help him up, and began to discuss some arrangements after the expansion of the navy.

According to Xiao Jiu's plan, the expansion of the navy this time is not only to recruit more soldiers, but also to add some warships, so as to truly train the navy into a marine corps in its own right.

Manheikou is a naval base, where newly recruited soldiers are stationed, and landing operations are added to regular training.

During the period of the expansion of the navy, the navy currently in service will establish the most colony in the Wa Kingdom, and use the goods of the Lingshui caravan to attract some tribes in the Wa Kingdom to provoke a civil war.

As long as there is chaos within the Wa Kingdom, then when the navy is really raised, it can directly occupy and rule this unknown continent.

Regarding the action against the Japanese country, Xiao Jiu deployed it in detail, and Heizi felt that there was no problem and agreed directly, the only thing that made Heizi a little strange was why Xiao Jiu had such a great hatred for this Japanese people.

You must know that since Xiao Jiu started his family, he has always had a reputation for benevolence and generosity among the people, but for those Japanese people, Xiao Jiu is directly ready to make them into slaves, and their descendants are also slaves or cannon fodder.

After Heizi took the order to leave, Xiao Jiu looked at the other party's distant back, and there was no wave in his heart.

The next day, a vigorous recruitment campaign began in Yangcheng County, which aroused a warm response from the people, because of some welfare policies for military families promulgated by Xiao Jiu before, so the people were not exclusive to joining the army.

It's just that this time the conscription, is it the navy?

For a group of peasants like them, who had never seen the ocean, they were somewhat apprehensive about leaving the loess under their feet to fight on a ship.

The notice shed at the corner of the city was already full of people at this time, who were quietly listening to the police officers who posted the notices reading the contents of it.

When the police finished reading the above content, a burly man couldn't help but ask aloud.

"We have never seen the sea before, so why do we fight on the ship after joining the army."

Listening to the burly man's inquiry, the onlookers also nodded in agreement, and the police officer had to patiently explain that their navy was mainly training and logging in operations, and they would not be hired if they were seasick.

After the police officer who issued the list answered the people's questions, he ignored the discussion here and rushed to the next notice shed to issue the list.

After the police officer left, the burly man who posted the article asked the young man dressed as a scholar on the side, "I asked that police officer just now why Lord Xiao didn't recruit soldiers in Yujun, why didn't he speak." ”

Hearing the man's inquiry, the scholar shook his head slightly, "Isn't it obvious, if the navy is all from Yujun, who knows if they will defect." ”

"After all, our Yangcheng County is Lord Xiao's own family, and those people in Yucheng County belong to outsiders after all."

After listening to the scholar's analysis, many onlookers suddenly realized, nodded their heads, and the burly man said even more arrogantly: "Then I want to be this navy, why do you have to guard the navy for Lord Xiao, if that group of fishermen dares to eat inside and outside, I Qiao will be the first to kill him." ”

After that, the burly man named Qiao Lai went to the government affairs hall of Yangcheng County without looking back and signed up to join the army.

This kind of thing is happening everywhere, and due to the continuous expansion of Xiao Jiu's territory, different interest groups have also formed in various places.

As the center of the entire territory, the people in Yangcheng County blindly worship Xiao Jiu, so this is also the reason why Xiao Jiu wants to recruit troops from Yangcheng County to expand the navy.

In any case, if you want to build a powerful navy that is always alone, Kuroko can't rely on trust as the supreme general, because you don't know if his subordinates will put a yellow robe on her for profit.

But if the soldiers at the grassroots level of the navy are filled with the children of Yangcheng County, then the high-ranking officers of the navy will lose the popular base of the rebellion.

The conscription activities are in full swing, except for the chaos when the government affairs system of Yangcheng County is busy because of the conscription, the Lingshui Chamber of Commerce is also not idle.

After receiving Xiao Jiu's instructions, the high-level leaders of the Lingshui Chamber of Commerce began to organize the Chamber of Commerce fleet to open up a route to the Wa Kingdom.

According to Xiao Jiu's assumption, through the huge financial resources of the Lingshui caravan in the early stage, it should be easy to attract a group of indigenous forces in the Japanese country.

At that time, there will be the escort of the navy under Kuroko, and when there is chaos inside the island, it will be the time to take the Japanese country in one fell swoop.

Although Xiao Jiu thought about carrying out the extermination plan of the Wa Kingdom like the white people slaughtered the indigenous Indians in Meizhou in his previous life, he still felt that it was a little too inhumane after thinking about it.

Moreover, although there is no large-scale war breaking out in the entire Central Plains for the time being, the situation of warlord secession will be detonated by some fuses at any time, and war will come at any time.

If you can successfully colonize the Japanese and let the Japanese people serve as cannon fodder for their own conquests, then it is very suitable.

The only thing that made Xiao Jiu a little regretful was that according to Kuroko's description, those Japanese people were generally short, and when the time came, they had to re-order their armor when the time came.

After thinking about it for a while, Xiao Jiu still decided to forget it, after all, he didn't regard the Japanese people as his own people.

……

It was fast approaching October, and the autumn winds were blowing through the north with a few rays of coolness, and the massive naval conscription was nearing its end.

After a brief training of the newly recruited marines, they were stationed at the Wanpingkou Military Port, and Kuroko also gained a foothold on an island in the Japanese Kingdom with the financial support of the Lingshui caravan.

Just as Xiao Jiu was about to baptize the uncivilized Wa Kingdom with the navy under his command in one go, an intelligence officer from the police station took the lead in bringing news from the south.

"Zhong Ah Si summoned 100,000 young people to attack Yangzhou, is the news accurate?"

Looking at the intelligence officer who was kneeling on the ground with his head bowed, Xiao Jiu asked expressionlessly, and after receiving an affirmative answer, he waved his hand and let the intelligence officer go back to rest.

Then, Xiao Jiu asked Li Hao to inform the officers and administrative officials in Yangcheng County to come to the City Lord's Mansion for a meeting.

Xiao Jiu didn't show too much surprise during the whole process, and he was always methodical when arranging all this, because the result had already been deduced through the previous intelligence.