Liu Pei concentrated on shrinking at home in the following days, from time to time to accompany his family and children for two sessions, and guided his subordinates to strengthen their strength.

During this period, he gradually digested the benefits obtained after the extermination of Kong Youde. In the process of quelling Kong Youde's rebellion, the official army and the rebels worked together, causing many middle- and lower-class landlords to flee or die, vacating a lot of land.

Liu Pei mobilized a large amount of money and began to buy a large amount of land. During this period, Liu Pei also got acquainted with many local gentry in Dengzhou. The purpose of these gentry and wealthy families was the same as Liu Pei's, which was to grab the vacant land.

At the beginning, Liu Pei still thought about the two sides to negotiate the distribution of these lands. But the local gentry didn't take Liu Pei, an outsider, seriously at all! Liu Peizai, who was furious, had to send out soldiers to intimidate them!

Of course, the intimidation effect of sending soldiers is not great, it just tells these gentry that Liu Pei has enough power to lift the table. As for the cavalry and underworld elements disguised as horse bandits, the real contribution!

When confronted with these two men, the gentry flinched. After all, the horse bandits don't recognize their six relatives, and they kill people at every turn! And those underworld elements are like maggots attached to the bones, which are disgusting, and it is difficult to catch them!

After seeing Liu Pei's methods, the gentry chose to retreat. After friendly negotiation between the two sides, Liu Pei obtained a large amount of land.

The most critical point is that the land of Zhaoyuan Gold Mine fell into the hands of Liu Pei. After acquiring the land for the Zhaoyuan Gold Mine, Liu Pei was not in a hurry to develop it. Instead, the Zhuangzi there was first arranged for people to cultivate. Subsequently, a new barracks was built there. The barracks were used to cover the mine. Slaves were then arranged to dig for gold. The excavated ore is not smelted locally, but transported to Jiaozhou to be smelted into gold.

Although Liu Pei felt that the news of the gold mine in Zhaoyuan would leak out sooner or later, it would still be as long as it could be delayed. After the news was revealed, Liu Pei would have enough strength to keep the gold mine at that time.

At the same time, the thing that made Liu Pei the happiest was the return of Fan Hualong. At first, Liu Pei didn't have much hope for Fan Hualong. Because yes

People who thought that the Ming Dynasty was going to die would generally find it difficult to switch to a potential traitor like Liu Pei. Maybe when I learn about Liu Pei's details in the future, I will fight back.

But it was the Ming court that helped Liu Pei. Fan Hualong stayed in Beijing for many days, and as a result, the imperial court did not have the slightest intention of counterattacking Liaodong except for being rewarded with layers of skin. And the contempt of the princes in the court made him even more disheartened!

So as soon as he returned to Shandong, he saw that his family and the victims of Lushun were well settled, so he immediately took refuge in Liu Pei!

And after careful observation by the Intelligence Bureau, it was found that Fan Hualong was a very traditional general. That is, he can only fight, and he does not understand anything else. He will do whatever Shangguan arranges.

At this stage, Liu Pei likes this kind of military general the most. As for the future, it's hard to say. Because a military general like Fan Hualong is the easiest to rebel with his superiors. However, this was not surprising at the time. At that time, the relationship between the superiors and subordinates of the generals was very close, and small groups were often formed. This is related to the repression of civilian officials.

In the Ming Dynasty, everything about the warriors was in the hands of the literati. Overwhelmed by the civil officials! Therefore, the warriors naturally have to huddle together to keep warm, so as not to be broken by each one. At the same time, in order to survive, the warriors began to learn to monopolize the road of military generals. Finally, there are large and small Jiangmen groups. In the Song Dynasty, there was a kind of family, a folding family, etc., and the representative of the Ming Dynasty was the Guan Ning Army.

So in order to win Fan Hualong's heart, Liu Pei had a big banquet on the third day and a small banquet on the fifth day. Liu Pei also promised Fan Hualong that he would be the vanguard when he counterattacked the Tartars in the future! In this way, Fan Hualong has a preliminary loyalty in his heart.

Since he found out that Fan Hualong is a very traditional general, it shows that he doesn't care about the rest, but he cares a lot about the war. Therefore, Liu Pei tried to introduce Fan Hualong into his own strength.

As a result, after Fan Hualong came into contact with the new firecrackers and artillery, he was fully immersed as if a child had received a new toy. When Liu Pei threw him the phalanx tactics and infantry artillery tactics again, Fan Hualong was completely immersed in it.

So Liu Pei feels that he has mastered Fan Hualong

The loyalty is more certain. The most critical point is that when Fan Hualong came back from Beijing to recruit pro-soldiers, more than half of the recruits were all people sent by the Intelligence Bureau. They will always pay attention to Fan Hualong's every move. Besides, his family is still in Shandong, so he is not afraid of any repetitions.

The second thing that made Liu Pei happy was that after many days of calculation, Liu Pei finally had a surplus on his books!

The reason for calculating the annual income in advance is due to the overall bumper grain harvest in Southeast Asia. Preliminary calculations have shown that the rice and other crops produced in Southeast Asia are not only sufficient for local consumption, but also for large livestock farming.

Liu Pei, who had long been driven crazy by money, immediately ordered the finance department to calculate this year's income in advance. The conclusion is that by the end of this year, Liu Pei will have a surplus of more than one million taels on his books!

After getting this good news, Liu Pei can be regarded as taking a long breath! Since Liu Pei arrived in the Ming Dynasty, life has been tight, and all the money has been invested in raising the army, shipbuilding and scientific research. Now that the clouds are open and the moon is bright, Liu Pei also celebrated it for this.

But then the Government Council gave Liu Pei a blow to the head! The Council came up with a huge plan to recruit 30,000 new recruits, 30,000 foreign legions, and 120,000 slaves. A five-year offensive to Southeast Asia is planned. The goal is to bring all the existing countries and tribes under Liu Pei's rule! At the same time, 500,000 immigrants will be immigrated within 5 years. However, Liu Pei's team left in Shandong was not among the expeditions.

Liu Pei had a long time grinding with the Government Council, but Fang Degang resolutely refused to give in. So it was Liu Pei who gave in in the end. Because Liu Pei also knew that this was a good time to seize Southeast Asia.

There is no strong country in Southeast Asia right now, so sending troops to the government is the best option at this time. But it also means that Liu Pei will have to spend the money he earns in a short time. But fortunately, the Ministry of Finance assured Liu Pei that there would be sufficient military spending to him in the future. Because the development of Southeast Asia can follow the model of fighting to feed the war. So in the end, Liu Pei had to pinch his nose and sign the order. But Liu Pei doesn't have to worry about things after that.