Forbidden City, Yingtai!

"Major General, Long Live is waiting for you inside. I will send you here, and you can go in the rest of the way by yourself." Wang Chengen stood on the painted boat and made an invitation gesture to Wu Sangui.

There was a middle-aged servant standing on the shore, bowing and waiting. It seemed that he was here to guide Wu Sangui.

Wu Sangui never dreamed that there would be such a big inner lake where the emperor lived. What made him even more unexpected was that there was an island on the lake, which looked quite small.

When we got on the small pier, the waiter bowed and said nothing, just made a gesture of invitation.

"May I ask my father-in-law, where is this place?" Walking on the path, Wu Sangui took out a piece of silver and stuffed it into the hand of the waiter. The waiter did not take the money or answer and just led the way. He was like a puppet on strings.

!

"He won't answer you. The waiters here have all cut out their tongues. They can't speak!" A voice came from above his head, and Wu Sangui suddenly raised his head. He saw Zhu Youjian holding the railing and looking at it with interest.

he.

"Long live the meeting!" Wu Sansui knelt down on the ground without saying a word.

"Come on, there's no need to be polite here."

Wu Sangui hurriedly got up, ran a few steps across the steps and ran to the platform. Zhu Youjian was standing in front of the railing, leaning on the railing and looking into the distance. Standing behind Zhu Youjian, Wu Sangui peeked at a large area of ​​the palace.

"That's the Qianqing Palace. I should have met you there. But Li Xiao has many eyes and ears, so I have to be careful. The people here are smart people selected by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and their tongues have been cut out.

.I will never speak in this life, and I will never leave here. Perhaps, this is the only place where I can talk to my beloved without worrying about leaking it." Zhu Youjian patted the railing and sighed with melancholy.

"Your Majesty! Thank you for your love!" Wu Sangui knew that the emperor was trying to reassure him. Nothing about his coming here or what he said to the emperor would be spread to the outside world. Even if Li Xiao's ears were astonishing,

I can't get any news from here either.

"Last time, I saw that you were a man of talent. This time you have made great achievements in battle. I am very happy that the Ming Dynasty has such a loyal minister like you. Tell me, what is going on with this Li Xiao? Jin Yiwei is a loser.

The information I found was not useful at all."

"If I wish to return to Long Live, it's true that Li Xiao is indeed from Ivory Village, Liaodong. I drank with his younger brother Li Hu and tried to trick him while they were drinking.

In the year when the late emperor succeeded to the throne, the Tatars entered his family's village and massacred the entire village. The brothers escaped with a sister. First they went to Liaoyang Mansion and met Ao Canghai. Later, Li Xiao offended

He married a local master and was sent to the front line of Hunhe. When Hunhe was defeated, he escaped. When Liaoyang fell, he took Mangui and other defeated troops and fled to an island called Pi Island at the mouth of the Dongjiang River.

Li Xiao made his fortune on Pi Island, and Li Hu said he didn't know how his elder brother knew how to prepare gunpowder. He might have been taught it by a Japanese gunsmith!"

"Gunsmith?" Zhu Youjian asked thoughtfully.

"Yes! His name is Inatomi Yunao. Li Hu said that his eldest brother knew how to make gunpowder, and it was probably the Japanese who taught him. As for why Li Xiao was able to command the battle, he probably taught himself without a teacher. According to Li Hu, Li Xiao

When I was a child, I only learned writing for a few days from Mr. Wu who went to a private school in the village. I have no way of finding out who Mr. Wu was. Li Hu said that when the Tatars massacred the village, they were burned alive."

"Oh! I remembered that Jin Yiwei once said that Li Xiao had a famous gun-making master from the Japanese country. He was known as Yimengzhai, and he was indeed a master gun-making master from the Japanese country. About Mr. Wu, Jin Yiwei has similar information to you.

It's impossible to find out.

It’s strange that a person who has never even passed the scholar examination can actually teach such a student!”

"Li Xiao's success is actually inseparable from three people. One is Ao Canghai, who was originally Li Chengliang's subordinate. Later he became a head catcher in Liaoyang Prefecture, a small official as big as a mustard seed. He was vulgar, but it was not enough.

For concern.

The second one is Man Gui. This man's Xuanfu people were at first serving as servants under the Xuanfu general's tent. Later, when the Tatars made a big fuss, the imperial court sent troops to garrison Liaodong, and Mangui and his hundreds of men followed him.

Went to Liaodong. They met Li Xiao in Liaoyang Mansion, and they contributed a lot to Li Xiao's success. Later...!"

"These Jin Yiwei have all said it, and I know it all. Tell me, he made the capital a mess and made money everywhere. Where did he use the money? I heard that he paid very high wages to raise soldiers. With this

Is it something?" Zhu Youjian waved his hand and interrupted Wu Sangui.

"Li Xiao's salary for leading troops is indeed high. He divided the soldiers into soldiers and non-commissioned officers. Generally, in the first year of joining the army, he will become a private soldier, and his monthly salary will be three taels of silver. In the second year, he will become a superior soldier, and his monthly salary will be three taels and five cents of silver.

.

If you are promoted to deputy squad leader, you will be a corporal, and your salary will also increase to 4 taels. A sergeant will get 4 taels and a half of silver, and a sergeant will get 5 taels of silver. The next level will be an officer, a second lieutenant will get 6 taels of silver, a lieutenant will get 6 and a half taels, and a captain will get 6 and a half taels of silver.

Seven taels, Major...!"

"Wait a minute, why don't I understand? Why didn't his soldiers follow the Ming Dynasty's military system? What is this thing he did himself?" After hearing Wu Sangui's words, Zhu Youjian frowned. This kind of thing,

Jin Yiwei didn't report it.

"Li Xiao didn't know where he got the military system, but it was very effective. He organized eight people into a squad, with a squad leader and a deputy squad leader, and the remaining six were soldiers. Generally speaking, the squad leader is

The sergeant, the deputy squad leader is the corporal.

Three squads are organized into a platoon, and the platoon leader is a second lieutenant officer. Three platoons are organized into a company, and Li Xiao's smallest operational unit is the company. In other words, whenever something happens, he will send at least one company.

This organization method can effectively link soldiers together. Officers at all levels perform their duties, which is very efficient. In Yichen's opinion, it is much better than our Ming Dynasty's military system of one hundred households, one thousand households, etc.

Especially when several companies are organized into a battalion, it is even more different. Generally, a battalion is equipped with a mortar company, which is the kind of gun that fires very fast. If the platoon gun is added to the mortar,

If you let them occupy the high ground, they will bombard you with mortars when they are two or three miles away. They will have muskets a hundred or two hundred paces away, and grenades even closer.

Layers of fire nets are coming down, and you have to admit defeat even if you have thousands of troops. I think that in terms of combat power, Li Xiao's 18,000 soldiers can already fight the Tatars, and

We can still win the battle. Even Li Xiao's army will not suffer heavy casualties."

"The Tatar army has more than 76,000 armored soldiers. I heard that they recently defeated the Eight Banners of the Han Army. Are you really sure that a mere 18,000 soldiers can annihilate the Tatars?" Wu Sangui said with confidence,

Zhu Youjian still didn't believe it. After all, the Tatars' military strength was more than three times that of Li Xiao, and they also had the red-haired people's firearms to help. It might be possible to win, but it would be difficult without much loss. You must know that from ancient times to the present

In most battles, one kills one thousand enemies and suffers eight hundred losses.

Although Zhu Youjian had been idle and had nothing to do in the past, he also read military books. He did not believe that Li Xiao's army could be so strong.

"Long live! This only refers to inland operations like Liaoyang and Shenyang. If it is a coastal area like Liguan Town, Li Xiao's naval guns are extremely powerful. It can be said that Li Xiao's gunboats can now move sideways in the Ming Dynasty. .From south to north, no one dares to touch any ship flying the flag of the Li family.

No matter how ferocious the Japanese pirates are, they have to stay away from the Li family's fleet when they see it. It can be said that Li Xiao's second brother Li Xiu is now the overlord of the sea. On the sea, as long as the name of Mr. Li is mentioned, .The Koreans, Japanese people, red-haired people, and Rakshasa people all give me face. Now on the sea, there is already the legend of the King of the Seven Seas."

"King of the Seven Seas!" Zhu Youjian gritted his teeth bitterly. Is it the king's land in the whole world, and the king's ministers are on the shore of the land. The sea is no exception. As a descendant of the Zhu family, Zhu Youjian is more powerful than his ancestors. His lofty ambition is that the sea is also his home.

When he was a boy, he went out of Beijing to Tianjin Wei. When Zhu Youjian saw the sea for the first time, he was shocked by its vastness. The beautiful legends of Abbot, Yingzhou, and Penglai have always been lingering in his mind. This is also Why, the reason why he wanted to rename this island Yingtai after he ascended the throne.

"Yes! That's what I heard from the boat boss who came to run the ship in Yizhou. Oh, by the way! Long live, Li Xiao has conquered Yizhou. Now the former Liao Army general He Kegang is running Yizhou. I heard that there are already people There are more than 30,000 people, and tens of thousands of kilograms of sugar are produced every year. The recent drop in sugar prices in the capital is related to Li Xiao's shipbuilding of sugar to Daming.

Also, they found a herbal medicine called camphor in Yizhou. Weichen had never seen it, but mothballs made from that stuff did not attract insects when placed inside clothes and bedding. Li Xiao also took this stuff Come back and sell them aggressively in our Ming Dynasty. The annual income from these two things is very generous, not to mention the price of the big front door is extremely expensive. These things from Li Xiao..., the Commodity Inspection Department cannot collect a single penny in tax."

"Um?"

"Long live! The officials of the Commodity Inspection Department are all scholars. The merchant fleet under Li Xiao is said to be a merchant fleet, but in fact it is no different from pirates. If the people from the Commodity Inspection Department dare to board the ship to inspect the goods, they dare to throw people into the sea. Li Xiao We have hired a large number of gangsters at Tianjin Wei Port. Anyone who dares to cause trouble for the Li family will be packed with sacks and thrown into the Haihe River. No one dares to care!"

"Huh!" Zhu Youjian breathed heavily from his nostrils, and his knuckles holding the white marble railing turned white.

"Li Xiao did not spend the money he got back frivolously. Part of it was used to raise troops, and the other part was used to trial-produce new weapons on Changxing Island. Yuan Chonghuan's victory in Liguan Town actually relied on a new weapon called a rocket launcher.

Wei Chen saw with his own eyes that a phalanx of more than a thousand people was completely destroyed in the blink of an eye. There were scattered corpses everywhere, none of them complete. The scene could only be described as the earth was shattering. I heard that Li Xiao was still alive. There is a kind of arsenal ship that is more powerful than this kind of rocket launcher. But Li Xiao is very strict with this kind of arsenal ship, and Wei Chen tried his best to fail to take a look at it. "

"Is there such a thing?" Zhu Youjian was stunned, and more than a thousand people were wiped out in the blink of an eye.

Those were still fierce Tatar soldiers. If they were soldiers of the Ming Dynasty...!
Chapter completed!