Sun Ji has been having a headache recently, and the news has been coming and going by sea intermittently, the reason is that pirates are rampant, and the official ships have been captured by pirates several times, and the people and property have been taken away along with the ships. At first, Nan Zhili thought that something happened to Lang Da in the sea wind, but later a soldier escaped and came back, only to reveal this angry secret.

Sun Ji immediately recruited Li Xin to discuss the suppression of bandits, but pirates were no better than land bandits, and the army drove all the way to crush them, and they were invincible. But this is on the sea, and even the brave and fierce Three Guards can only look at the ocean and sigh.

"Alas! That is, in the land where the capital of Nanzhi is subordinate, the pirates do not dare to wreak havoc too much, and the pirates who are now raging in Fujian and Guangxi are no less than the pirates in the Jiajing year! ”

At that time, most of the pirates were composed of Chinese, but most of these pirates in the name of the pirates were inseparable from Japan. Just like the pirates of today, most of them have Japanese backgrounds. At the same time, it was torn between the Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish and other Western maritime colonists. They take advantage of each other, and they rashly turn their faces when their interests are not in harmony.

Li Xin is also not very familiar with these sea strongmen, and the ones he is most familiar with are probably Zheng Zhilong and Zheng Chenggong's father and son. Nothing else is known.

Suddenly, Li Xinxin moved. "Why don't you recruit pirates and rule them with coars?"

Sun Ji shook his head, "Treating pirates has always been used to suppress and appease, and it makes sense to recruit them if they can't sleep and eat." Otherwise, it would have given them an official body in vain, and they still didn't listen to the propaganda! ”

Li Xin said it in a flash, and as soon as the words came out, he already realized the ridiculousness of this method. After listening to Sun Jie's analysis, he secretly said yes.

The two of them discussed for a long time and didn't have a definite solution, and finally Sun Ji explained a few words, "This matter has to be like this first, you also think about the way, most of my energy here is on the war in the west." Tomorrow, I will take a boat to Taiping Mansion to meet with Wei Guogong......"

Many people in the Three Guards were dissatisfied with the appointment and dismissal of the imperial court, but their attitudes were relatively optimistic. At present, the centrifugal force between the Three Guards and the imperial court has been very obvious, and the suspicion and conspiracy of the imperial court have made the vast majority of people in the army lose their last thoughts of the imperial court. However, in their opinion, their own generals seem to have unrealistic illusions about the imperial court.

"Lu Xiangsheng? Isn't it the person who lost the battle the year before last and was wiped out, thanks to the person who was saved by our general? ”

"I heard that there is also the tiger Dawei who broke his arm with Lu Xiangsheng's comeback, and these two were saved by our general."

In the eyes of the ordinary soldiers of these Three Guards, Lu Xiangsheng and Hu Dawei are both generals of the defeated army, and they are not brave enough. The emperor sent them to Shandong, but he may not be able to open up the Grand Canal passage in Shandong. Many people think that the imperial court will never be able to open this channel! Nanjing's mountains are high and the emperor is far away, which is conducive to the development of the general here.

But things don't seem to be as easy as people wish, and the news about Henan soon spread to Nanjing. Li Zicheng was caught between the army of King Shen and Yang Sichang, and had to flee into the mountains north of Huguang. It seems that the purge of the thieves in the Central Plains is already imminent. It is conceivable that the emperor will definitely order Yang Sichang to march eastward, and work with Lu Xiangsheng to eliminate the thieves in Shandong and restore the north-south passage.

Unlike people's anxiety, Mi Yan has a different view.

"It's not the first time that Yang Sichang has lied about the military situation, a small victory is reported as a big victory, a small defeat is reported as a small victory, and even a lot of cover up for the fiasco, this time Li Zicheng's departure to the south may be just an instant strategic shift!"

Li Da on one side agreed with Mi Yan and echoed this statement. But there are still people who question Mi Yan, Lu Jiu pouted and said: "The strength of King Shen and Zuo Liangyu cannot be underestimated, since they are fighting with them, shouldn't they lie about the military situation?" ”

"The main problem now is not to lie about the military situation, Li Zicheng went south to Huguang, and he could form a corner with the Huangmei thief, the king of Huai in Jiangxi, but I am afraid that Wei Guogong's use of troops will be frustrated!"

Zhang Shishi's voice was very solemn, in his opinion, it was not good news for the thieves to go south to the Yangtze River Valley.

"Wouldn't that be better? Wei Guogong suffered a defeat in order to have a place for our Three Guards! ”

Among these elders of the Three Guards, Niu Jinsong, who has always been unable to interject, also said a word in a timely manner.

"In my opinion, the Marquis of Zhenyu has more important things in Jiangnan than fighting, if it weren't for the imperial court's order to let the Three Guards put down the chaos, the general might not be ......"

Suddenly, someone whispered and silenced, and then Li Xin quickly stepped into the tent of the Chinese army, and all the generals who gathered in the tent to wait for the military meeting to proceed closed their mouths.

"Let's summarize the progress of the first phase of the project!"

All the generals had strange expressions on their faces, and they were still discussing how to start a war just now, but now as soon as Li Xin came in, he directly brought the topic to the repair of the canal. It's really embarrassing to say, which of you here is not a general above the fourth grade? Now they have all become overseers of the canals, and the soldiers under their respective commands have also become people's husbands. The number of people requisitioned has also risen from the initial 5,000 to 8,000, and the total number of soldiers is only about 12,000.

However, because the rotation system was used to recruit the soldiers of the Three Guards Army to repair the canal, all the generals present had already participated in the project of repairing the canal. The reason why all the generals gathered in the army this time was that they still occupied the light of the summary meeting.

Li Xin first severely criticized and warned Lu Jiu and Niu Jinsong, who had obviously neglected their work in the canal repair project, and announced their responsibilities and deducted two months' due salaries. Then he commended Cheng Mingjiu, who was extremely serious and responsible in his work, and announced the list in the army at the same time as the salary.

Niu Jinsong blushed and expressed dissatisfaction with Li Xin's disposition: "The general has really wronged me, I don't dare to relax for a moment in Zhenjiang canal repair, why do you say that I am passive and slacking off, and I am still shown to the public?" ”

He didn't care about deducting two months' salary, but it was the most embarrassing thing to announce him to the whole army to show the public, Niu Jinsong is also a general now, how can he raise his head in front of people if he loses this face!

However, Niu Jinsong's dissatisfaction and complaint soon drew the scorn of a battalion officer.

"When General Niu arrived at the construction site, he ate meat all day except for sleeping, and he almost became a pig in the pen......"

As soon as this remark came out, it immediately caused a laugh in the tent, that is, no alcohol was allowed in the Three Guards, otherwise he was afraid that he would get drunk all day long.

These are all big truths, Niu Jinsong smiled awkwardly, and he didn't get angry because of this, but only scolded sharply: "You are a dog, you eat meat and sleep in the camp all day, what qualifications do you have to say about me?" ”

In this conversation, the camp officer's passive slackness was revealed, and the camp officer ridiculed Niu Jinsong and finally ended up with a penalty announcement, which became a joke in the mouths of others. Niu Jinsong saw that the battalion officer was also punished, and his heart was a lot more comfortable, so he only made fun of him.

Li Xin raised his hands and motioned for everyone to be quiet.

"There are two things that you have done today. First, I recently heard that there have been drowning incidents in the military. Therefore, the camps that rotate to rest and train swimming should be put on the agenda. Second, because the waterways south of the Yangtze River are vertical and horizontal, and there are many water bandits, a naval army will be established from now on. Okay, let's talk about it, and let everyone express their opinions. ”

Mi Yan and Li Da were the first to know about the establishment of a naval army, but they still didn't expect Li Xin to move so quickly. In their opinion, the timing of the establishment of a naval army by the Three Guards at this time is not ripe, and one of the lieutenant generals of the Three Guards Army are all northerners and are not good at water, which is the first major disadvantage. Second, the establishment of the naval army is very expensive, but it has little use, at most, it can transport troops and food, why should it become an army of its own? Moreover, looking at Li Xin's meaning, it seems that he attaches great importance to the navy, intending to raise the navy to the same status as the soldiers.

After all, Mi Yan and Li Da do not serve in the army, and they have little right to speak. This idea is also generally agreed with by several senior generals in the army. However, everyone also knows Li Xin's temperament, and some things are called discussions, but they are actually unchangeable. Sure enough, the matter of setting up a naval army was finally decided, and two unexpected people were responsible, one was Heisenberg, and the other was Miyan. Li Xin only left Li Da by his side to do secretarial work. To this end, Li Xin set up a special department, called the Naval Preparatory Department, whose responsibilities are threefold: one is to collect talents; the second is to build ships; The third is to collect nautical charts.

Li Xin's canal projects in several major prefectures in Nanzhili brought him unexpected popularity, especially those who admired him, especially Zheng Sanjun, the head of Nanjing's household department. Needless to say, Li Xin took advantage of the situation to propose to use Chen Wenzhi as the acting Tianfu, and he easily gained support, and only waited for the emperor to be approved, and the word acting on his head could be removed from the official appointment decree.

The Sixth Ministry of Nanjing still has a great say in the appointment and dismissal of officials in the southern Zhili, and the people recommended by the newspaper will not be lightly opposed by the emperor and the cabinet in Beijing. Therefore, Chen Wenshan's appointment as Yin of Yingtianjing Zhaofu is a sure thing.

Of course, some people are happy and some people are worried, and Zhu Yuncai has been actively running for the position of Fu Yin, who ever thought that it would be another family. When he returned home, Zhu Yuncai drank alone, thinking about the resentment of trying his best but not being promoted, and on the other hand, he was dissatisfied with Li Xin, only feeling that he had worked so hard for him before, but in the end he was still close to each other.

Just as he was melancholy, suddenly there was a sound of footsteps breaking the silence in the yard, and Zhu Yuncai glanced at it dissatisfied, and saw that it was the old housekeeper.

"What?"

"Master, someone is visiting outside!"

"Let them go, I won't see anyone." At this time, Zhu Yuncai didn't want to see anyone, but the old housekeeper hesitated:

"People came to say that his surname was Li, and he came from Longtan ......"