In May, there was often a magnificent scene of cavalry running along the Wei River from Tianjin Sanwei to Dagukou.

The horse team ranged from 100 to 300, and the riders in full armor led a horse and galloped along the banks of the Wei River from east to west, carrying food and water for three days.

Sometimes they marched in dense numbers, sometimes in circles, resting and marching day and night, and sometimes at noon, when the sun was just right, they tied their horses to the side of the road and rested along the official road; Sometimes in the middle of the night, a horse neighs and hooves rush by.

Sometimes, not only cavalry, but also infantry and artillery would join in the marching exercises, so that the banks of the Wei River were full of iron horses and gold in the middle of the moon, and the people of the surrounding villages did not dare to go far for fear of colliding with the army and causing trouble for themselves.

Chen Mu also led the team to run a few times, but he never went west, on this official road of two hundred and thirty miles back and forth, every time he led the team to travel, he only went east and not west from the military palace.

The cavalry preferred to follow him, because in the training syllabus, the march of the general's palace to the east to the hundred households of Dagukou was called marching, and the longer road from the military palace to the west of Tianjin Wei was called a rush.

Only a few generals who formulated the training syllabus knew that in fact, there was no distinction between marching and rushing in the original training, but when their commanders planned to strengthen their riding skills and marching ability, there was a difference between difficulty and ease.

The western route is Heiyunlong and Du Tong take turns to lead the team, and the cavalry should travel 100 miles a day, the foot cavalry 80 miles a day, and the infantry artillery cavalry 40 miles a day.

The eastern route is led by Chen Mu and Juniper in turn, and the cavalry travels 80 miles a day, the foot cavalry travels 60 miles a day, and the infantry artillery travels 25 miles a day.

There is still a lot of room for improvement in the speed of both the east and west routes, and there is no baggage, small troops, and official roads, and the infantry can reach the speed required by the cavalry on a rapid march.

But they were not for the sake of endurance or the ability to march quickly, but for the most basic of marching conditions, such as changing formations on the march, not falling behind on long marches, and getting the soldiers accustomed to such basic marches—conditions of march that are rare in a lifetime, and when it comes to battle, their marching speed may be slower than this, but the physical exertion is greater, and the complete march is much more uncomfortable.

Chen Mu's participation in the marching training was asking for hardship, but he couldn't help it, he was loose for a few months, he gained a lot of weight, and he wanted to vomit when he rode a thirty-mile horse, and he didn't dare to lead the fleet to the east in such a physical state.

What's more, he led the team to Dagukou also had other purposes, the fleets of the two provinces of Beizhi and Nanzhi were temporarily requisitioned for the first phase of recruitment exercises, and the family members were sent to the ship to follow the fleet to guide the soldiers.

There are only four warships in the North and East Oceans, and the few warships that the emperor wants to use to travel around the world, and the grain ships, horse ships, and military ships used as the three-masted Daifuku ships are sent by Nanzhili, but there is a lack of warships.

Earlier letters from Xiangshan and Nanyang would deliver a batch of ocean-going warships to the East this year, as well as more firearms and armor for the North Sea.

He knew that the warships belonging to the Beiyang Military Government would be delivered along with the rice, grain, gold and silver sent to Tianjin by Nanyang this year, and he even knew that everything he hoped for would be delivered within a month.

But knowing this did not prevent him from having a feeling of waiting for a precious express in his heart during this time.

Therefore, in recent days, every evening, he stood at the newly renovated Dagukou Cannon Temple and looked out at the sea, sometimes watching the assembled fleet sail to Leiden or Jinzhouwei, sometimes watching the ocean-going fleet return to the port, and sometimes he could see the merchant fleet coming to and from Shandong, Liaodong, and even Korea.

More often than not, there is only the exceptionally lonely blue sea and blue sky.

Today is no exception, there are 500 men and horses who followed Chen Mu to march eastward to Dagukou, one cavalry hundred households and one artillery hundred, and the other two first-phase infantry hundred-hundred-households and a second-phase infantry hundred-hundred-household, the second phase of recruitment has only been trained for more than a month, and there are both slow-moving mule and horse artillery teams in the march, and they also have to take care of the recruits, the speed is very slow, and they almost didn't even complete the training outline of the east-stage march.

When they arrived at the temporary camp at the mouth of Dagu, the veterans of the first phase had a special spirit, and they had to complete the camp early and repair the camp under the leadership of the officers of each team.

Approaching the evening, when the smoke rose from the military village, several horses slowly reined in from outside the gate, Zhao Shizhen walked through the camp to the gun temple to find Chen Mu, climbed to the tower, saw Chen Mu facing the sea and was looking at something, coughed lightly and reminded him to say: "Dashuai, it's done." ”

He went to earn money for the Beiyang Military Government.

"Tsuneyoshi is back, how." Chen Mu turned his head, patted the corridor railing, and asked, "Can there be more silver on the military government's account?" ”

"Originally, there were 24,000 taels of silver available in the account, but this time the Xuanfu official city was insufficient, and the imperial court almost stopped, and the military department that supported the city in previous years also did not take over due to Tan Butang's illness and returned to his hometown, and everything in the city did not go well, and the military government borrowed 14,000 taels to go out."

Since the opening of the mutual market, there is an official market first, and then the official city is opened after the completion of the private market, the imperial court stipulates that the annual city of each border official city shall not be less than 200,000 taels, which is used to purchase the goods required by the mutual market, and there is no less, in previous years, it was not enough to either borrow customer salaries, or send troops to the horse price silver, but this year because of Zhang Juzheng's father's illness, the atmosphere of the court was strange, and the officials of the various ministries did not speak, and the people below were more serious, especially when it came to the use of money.

Blame each other very much.

This year, the commander sent by the Xuanfu to the local government to purchase goods went to Shuntianfu, and the city had not yet made up enough, and it happened that the Beiyang Military Government still pressed a batch of goods, so he asked Zhao Shizhen to talk.

"When the mutual market is over, buy war horses according to the market price of ninety percent, roughly the proposed price of twelve taels of high-grade gelding according to the value of eight taels, and then ninety, according to seven taels and three dollars, you can get more than 1,900 good war horses."

Zhao Shizhen said and presented the notebook to Chen Mu, and said: "In addition, they also have to buy goods, and the satin for the official market is two taels and one horses, and the warehouse sells 1,300 horses; The blue and red cotton cloth was sold by the clothing factory for 6,000 horses; There are also candy, cloth, pots, pots, kettles, needles, threads, combs, grates and other things sold to the people's market, which can be calculated to be 23,000 taels more than before, and more than 1,900 war horses have been earned. ”

"But we can't see this money, and we spent 30,000 taels to send merchants to enter the city with the purchase command, and the fast horse has already arrived outside the mouth to submit a letter to the Altan Khan to purchase wool, and the account is less than before, and now there are more than 17,000 taels left."

Chen Mu finally withdrew his gaze from the sea, blinked and said: "It's useless to keep the money, 30,000 taels of silver, and it will cost some money to collect the Xuanfu Woolen Mill, how much wool can you collect?" ”

"Well, this student can't be counted."

Zhao Shizhen chuckled and explained: "Cashmere wool, different colors and prices are high, if the lowest market price of ordinary wool, you can collect 600,000 catties; If the highest price of yellow and red velvet, you can only collect more than 40,000 catties. ”

"According to the requirements of the marshal, all kinds of wool and cashmere on the grassland are collected, and the students are estimated to be around 200,000 catties to 400,000 catties, but this is the best situation, the time is too short, the market will open in Zhangjiakou on June 13, if you want to collect the fluff on a large scale, you have to look at next year, but the marshal will go east this year. Moreover, if the Nanyang Beijing transport ship does not come again, the military government's finances will be tight. ”

"That's enough."

"This year is enough, I didn't expect these wool to make money, there are many ways to make money, as long as there is this number of wool textiles, they can give them an impact, no need to let England sheep eat people, no need to enclose land, but also promote Xuanfu as a wool spinning base, one stone."