"The first is to persuade the rich to donate. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 infoEspecially in places that have been plagued by long-haired thieves, or where they are about to be plagued by them, send local famous people to persuade the squires and wealthy families to donate money and salaries. I think you know that. However, you can take many walks around, and you will personally come forward to hold a banquet, invite the rich and wealthy to participate, and show the emperor's holy decree of 'raising funds for group training' during the banquet, and those rich people have to donate. ”

After hearing this, Zeng Guofan pointed at Guo Songtao and smiled: "Bochen, you are too cunning and shameless. Only you, the rich man, can come up with such a way to deal with the rich. ”

"The second is to sell fame. Those who achieve great things are not informal. Prisoners, tributes, meritorious cards and even virtual official grades can be sold. As long as it is stamped with the 'Hunan Trial Bureau' or the governor's seal. ”

Zeng Guofan was thoughtful and seemed to be intent on moving.

"The third is to levy centi. In the territory of the south and the north, checkpoints are set up to collect the checkpoint tax and commercial tax of passing merchants. ”

Zeng Guofan's face changed, and he said: "This article needs to be changed, this businessman, if it is firewood, rice, sauce, vinegar cloth, etc., it is all related to the vital life of the people, if it is levied, I am afraid that it will raise the price of these things, I am afraid that it will cause a civil uprising." Only tobacco, silk, tea, etc. can be levied. ”

"Fourth, sell illicit salt!" As soon as Guo Songtao finished speaking, Zeng Guofan interrupted him and said, "Bochen, no!" This method is to leave a handle for people, since ancient times, eating salt is the monopoly of the imperial court, and it cannot be touched. If it is......" Zeng Guofan did not say any more.

"But, Bochen, these methods you mentioned can indeed help you get money. I'm going to do it accordingly and raise the funds. I hope you can help me! Zeng Guofan stared at Guo Songtao with his triangular eyes.

"Disheng, I know that every time I run into you, it's not good to prepare. Well, who called me the idea! Guo Songtao agreed with a smile.

Then, he remembered something and said, "Disheng, the water master is urgent, but he needs to be trained as soon as possible. ”

"I heard from a merchant friend that the Cantonese thieves in Liangguang, for some reason, got a few warships from the foreigners, which were huge and the artillery was sharp, and the Guangdong sailors fled when they heard the wind, and the county town near the water in the Leizhou Mansion in Guangdong was blasted open by a few cannons. Although there may be exaggerations, such news is certainly not groundless. I'm worried that if the sailors don't make it up, once the Cantonese thieves grow stronger, like the war between foreigners and the imperial court ten years ago, we will have nothing to resist. ”

Zeng Guofan listened to Guo Songtao's words, and his mood became heavier and heavier. That's exactly what worries him!

He understood very well the meaning of the imperial court's request to urgently set up a sailor, that is, to use the powerful terrain of Dongting Lake in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River to train sailors, which could not only firmly protect Wuchang, but also take advantage of the natural dangers in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River waterway to recover Yiganzhou County, which was captured by Guangdong thieves downstream.

He already had a plan in his heart, and was ready to send people to Shanghai to contact the foreigners, and buy some new artillery first, and if he had silver taels, he also wanted to buy some new warships, but it was difficult to achieve it at the moment. Both the Yangtze River waterway and the Pearl River waterway were occupied by Cantonese thieves, and he suddenly found that he could only trade with foreigners by detour by land.

However, he is full of poetry and books, even if he knows that the new weapons of foreigners are huge, but he still thinks that weapons are always only foreign objects, and talents are the foundation, so Zeng Guofan's focus is on Xiangyong's training and cooperation.

After Guo Songtao left, Zeng Guofan suddenly thought of another friend, Zuo Zongtang, and was suddenly a little unhappy. Remembering that he still has a few talents he likes, he can't be snatched away by Long Hair anymore, and he has to recruit them to his side as soon as possible.

So, Zeng Guofan thought about it for a while, wrote a few letters, and ordered someone to send them.

First of all, he wrote to Jiang Zhongyuan and asked him to write to the imperial court, asking him to train his troops. Of course, Zeng Guofan's idea was that after training the army, of course he would not really return it to him. Even, if you ask yourself to help train the troops, why do you have to give yourself some food!

The other letter was to Li Yuandu, a teacher from Qianyang and a person from Pingjiang. Li Yuandu once studied with Zeng Guofan in Yuelu Academy, and he was quick to think and asked him to be his assistant clerk, which was the best.

He also sent a letter to Chen Shijie, who was guarding the system in Guiyang Prefecture. A few years ago, Chen Shijie went to Beijing to take the Xiaojing official examination with a tribute, and during the court examination, the minister who read the papers was Zeng Guofan. Zeng Guofan saw that his strategy was full of discussions, and he had something to say, and happily accepted him. Since then, Chen Shijie has regarded Zeng Guofan as his mentor.

However, Guiyang was occupied by Changmao, and Zeng Guofan did not know whether Chen Shijie had been affected or not, and he was still not in his hometown. What he didn't know was that when Chen Shijie led the original holy army to capture Chenzhou, he was captured by Chen Yucheng and handed over to Li Guanlong, the leader of the Heaven and Earth Society, to be secretly killed.

At present, Zeng Guofan urgently needed someone to listen to the tent, so he summoned his younger brothers Zeng Guoquan, Zeng Guohuang, Zeng Guohua, etc. in Xiangxiang, as well as Luo Zenan's remaining disciples, Li Xingchun, Zhu Tieqiao and others, all to Changsha City.

He also instructed Li Xuyi and his younger brother and others to hold their own names and select soldiers in the Qing army camp and transfer them to his own hands as the leader of the troops.

A few days later, Li Yuandu was also invited. This thin-headed scholar had already prepared to bring 500 Pingjiang Yong to practice, and as soon as he came, he said to Zeng Guofan, don't help with paperwork, but be a Xiangyong general and lead troops to fight.

Next, Zeng Guofan and Luo Zenan, Wang Ju, Guo Songtao, Liu Rong, Li Yuandu and others discussed the matter of practicing courage every day.

In the end, Zeng Guofan decided to formulate detailed military regulations with reference to Qi Jiguang's law of binding the armed forces and the actual situation of Xiangyong at present, and Luo Zenan was responsible for the entire command and training.

Zeng Guofan went to Luo Bingzhang again, seconded Yang Zaifu, Taqibu, Zhou Fengshan, and Bao Chao to the Fubiao Central Army, and also transferred Chu Ruhang, Xia Luan and others from other places. Yang Zaifu is the candidate recommended by Guo Songtao for the commander of the sailor, Zeng Guofan must be in his hands, and the rest of the people are also famous, but they are not reused, Zeng Guofan needs such a general.

Luo Bingzhang readily agreed.

A few days later, Li Xubin and Zeng Guobao returned from their hometown of Xiangxiang and raised 3,500 brave men to bring to Changsha, and Zou Shouzhang and others raised 2,000 brave men from Jingzhou, Chenzhou, Xinning, Baoqing and other places, together with the 1,000 people led by Luo Zenan and Wang Xin in the past, plus Li Yuandu's 500 Pingjiang Yong a few days ago, a total of more than 7,000 people.

Zeng Guofan divided the more than 7,000 people into 14 battalions and appointed Luo Zenan, Wang Zhu, Taqibu, Li Xubin, Li Yuandu, Zhou Fengshan and others as battalion officers. In order to enable the officials and brave men to practice wholeheartedly, Zeng Guofan decided to pay a generous salary.

Due to the lack of military salaries, on the one hand, Zeng Guofan went around to feast on the wealthy merchants and squires in Changsha City, but Changsha City was robbed by the Taiping Army once, so how much wealth did he have? The crowd took refuge.

Helplessly, in order to earn some military salaries, Zeng Guofan took turns pulling out the battalions around Changsha Mansion while training troops, looking for small groups of bandits and the Tiandi Congregation, and found out where there were thieves, so he went into the mountains to besiege them, killed the thieves one after another, and robbed the gold and silver in the thieves' dens as military salaries.

Zeng Guofan found a flat vacant land in the south of Changsha Mansion and used it as a school yard.

Zeng Guofan, together with Luo Zenan and others, formulated strict camp rules for the 7,000 people of the 14th Xiangyong Battalion:

Every day, at five or three o'clock, the artillery is fired, and the cannon is set up as soon as it is heard, and each battalion sends ten people to patrol at night;

At dawn, the morning drill is performed, and the battalion officer and sentry officer must be present in person;

Roll call once at noon;

The evening exercise is performed at the sunset, and the roll call is held once before the second watch.

Before noon on the 3rd, 6th, and 9th of every month, Zeng Guofan or Luo Zenan personally went to the school to supervise the drills and give lectures.

Since then, from morning to night, a place in the south of Changsha City has been dusty and killing every day! The people in the suburbs of Nanhe City in Changsha City are very strange, what kind of soldiers and horses are these, so serious and diligent in training? If there were such soldiers and horses, presumably, it would be difficult for the long-haired thieves to capture Changsha City.

Then, the Changsha regimental training was almost over, and Zeng Guofan handed over the affairs in Changsha to Luo Zenan to be responsible. He himself rushed to Yuezhou with Yang Zaifu, Zou Shouzhang, Chu Ruhang, Xia Luan and others who had just arrived, together with 1,000 people from the 2nd battalion recruited from Xiangxiang.

Chu Ruhang once served as a fellow of the water battalion in Guangxi, and was very experienced in organizing a sailor, and Yang Zaifu had also seen how the gunboats fought when he was in the army, so Zeng Guofan, Yang Zaifu, and Chu Ruhang discussed the preparation of the sailor together, and found a place to build a shipyard in the Nanhu bay in the south of Yuezhou City, and recruited carpenters from all over the country near Yuezhou and Changsha, Wuchang, Yiyang and other places, cut down ancient trees, collected wood, and began to build ships.

After Zeng Guofan arrived in Yuezhou City, he only coordinated food and personnel matters everywhere, and all the specific matters were handed over to Yang Zaifu, Zou Shouzhang, Chu Ruhang, and Xia Luan. He had already blocked his ears, but even so, he still didn't dare to see the water, and when he saw the water, he would even think of the sound of the water himself, and then he began to get sick. So, he didn't even go to Dongting Lake at all, but just stayed in Yuezhou City.

Yang Zaifu and Chu Ruhang formed the second battalion of the water division, and the two of them each led a battalion and began to requisition fishing boats on Dongting Lake to conduct water warfare drills.

However, Zeng Guofan's goal was to establish a sailor division of tens of thousands of people, and then to continue to expand to tens of thousands of sailors when the salaries and ship funds were raised.

There's only a lot of work to be done.

Yuezhou, Yiyang, Jingzhou, and Wuchang have always been home to many boat people. Most of these boat people make a living from fishing, but a small half of them make a living by transporting goods by water.

Since the Taiping Army marched in the Xiangjiang River, Dongting Lake, and Yangtze River last year, many people have joined the Taiping Army, and the rest are the old, weak, sick and disabled, or those who do not want to be soldiers at all.

In desperation, Yang Zaifu and Chu Ruhang decided to recruit troops in Yuezhou after consulting Zeng Guofan.

Yuezhou recruited Shui Yong, the simplest oarworker, the salary was raised to support a family of four, under this huge salary, Yuezhou, Yiyang, Jingzhou and other places boat people came one after another, and many also brought wooden boats of different sizes, a little modification, it is a warship.

In just seven days, more than 5,000 people came to join the army, which greatly exceeded the establishment of 10 battalions. However, Zeng Guofan asked Yang Zaifu and others to carefully select among them, preferring shortage to abundance, and finally selected 3,000 people, so that the sailors had a total of 4,000 people and 8 battalions.

Zeng Guofan appointed Yang Zaifu as the sentry officer of the 1st and 2nd Battalions, Chu Ruhang as the sentry officer of the 3rd and 4th Battalions, Zou Shouzhang as the sentry officer of the 56th Battalion, and Xia Luan as the sentry officer of the 7th and 8th Battalions, and began training at the same time.

Since then, Yang Zaifu and Chu Ruhang and others have led 4,000 water to practice bravely and diligently, and every day on the river, the flag is dazzling, and the warship is like a shuttle. Zeng Guofan once fought for the danger of illness, blocked his ears, went to Dongting Lake, looked at the lake with his own eyes, saw the dazzling flag, the warship was like a shuttle, and the sailors were mighty and majestic, Zeng Guofan was in a very happy mood, but he was careless for a while, and he actually fell out of the damp cotton ball that blocked the sound in his ears, and suddenly, Zeng Guofan fell to the ground and foamed at the mouth, making Yang Zaifu and Chu Ruhang, who did not know the inside story, panic.

However, Zeng Guofan's sailors were finally preliminarily built. (To be continued.) )