After persuading the generals, Changwei camped near the Xue River, and reported to the White Lotus Army at the Taiping Pass, saying that the Weishan Battalion had restrained the Volunteer Battalion. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

Chang Ping, who was stationed near Xuecheng, also reported to Yang Guosheng that he had dragged the Weishan camp and asked for reinforcements to encircle the enemy.

As soon as Yang Guosheng heard that there were 30,000 troops here, he immediately led his troops out of Taiping Mountain and along the Xue River to kill the Weishan camp, while Zhao Yan's army retreated to the Taiping Mountain to hold the key road in Weishan County. As a result, the Taiping Shan offensive immediately collapsed.

Chang Wei immediately crossed the Xue River when he heard the news, moved closer to the direction of Taiping Mountain and asked for reinforcements, and Liu Yongming also took advantage of the situation to shift the focus of defense, so that the two sides returned to their original offensive and defensive posture again.

The Weishan Battalion, which had been given a period of recuperation, did not sit idle, and under the detailed plan of Wu Ding, it quickly carried out targeted drills according to the problems that arose during the 'armed exercises,' thus raising the combat effectiveness of this large army again.

The volunteer battalion on the other side also put away the pride it had always had, and quickly cooled down the soldiers, letting them know that they were not really invincible.

The musket battalion must be first-class in positional hard combat, but if it is engaged in field wave warfare, without cavalry to cover the flank and pursue the enemy, their firepower advantage will not be able to be brought into play.

Although the battle in this live exercise was not fierce, Chang Wei's tactics were completely aimed at the weakness of the musket battalion, which was of great significance to the upcoming counteroffensive against the White Lotus Sect.

Early the next morning, Liu Yongming, the right governor of the White Lotus Sect, went to the front line to inspect various positions, and ordered the battalion commanders to hold a meeting in the Xicang camp tonight to discuss the next combat policy.

Chang Wei immediately asked Cheng Shiyu to convey the news to the Nine Sons of the Big Dipper and Chang Ping, and to understand the situation on their side, if possible, he was ready to come to an internal and external cooperation, and defeat the White Lotus Army in Taiping Town in one fell swoop.

In the anxious waiting, the brisk sound of horses' hooves arrived at the barracks as scheduled when the sun was setting west. To Chang Wei's surprise, there was a lot of good news on the letter brought back by Cheng Shiyu's subordinates.

First of all, as soon as the ships in Huang Chongwu's fleet carrying Weishan's property arrived at Weishan Lake, they encountered Huang Chongwen, Wuxing, Ten Arhats and others who had rushed back from Zhenjiang.

Huang Chongwen and his men not only sent the treasures and prisoners they had seized from Huishui Bay to Zhenjiang safely, but also brought back two or three thousand muskets and a large number of artillery, bullets, and shells newly made in the gun factory. In this way, the 5,000 soldiers of the Volunteer Battalion were fully loaded with one gun and became a veritable musket battalion.

Not only that, Huang Chongwen also brought back the news of Fodu Island.

Before leaving Rokuyokojima, Chang Wei received the allegiance of the Portuguese Gomez, so he prepared to form an ocean-going fleet to travel east by the southwest monsoon to the northeastern waters of Japan every June, and travel eastward along the Kuroshio in the North Pacific to Acapulco, Mexico, to trade with the Americas.

The key to this route is to be able to exchange silver ingots, cocoa, wool, corn, tobacco, peanuts, tomatoes, peppers and other crops from the Americas, as well as rubber that Changwei covets.

Once these things, especially rubber trees, are brought back, the industrial system built by Chang Wei will have a qualitative leap, and there will be enough silver to produce advanced weapons and equipment such as breech-loading guns, rifled guns, and battleships.

Of course, the formation of an ocean-going fleet requires a lot of seafaring experience and tacit cooperation with sailors and technicians. Therefore, Chang Wei decided to let this envisioned fleet sail the routes of Luzon, Manila, Manila, and Batavia first, and accumulate experience to prepare for future voyages to the Americas. At that time, Chang Wei handed over this matter to Shen Kuang, Ha Kong, Li Yunzhao and others.

Shen Kuang was a strong contender for the future head of the Shen family, the richest merchant in Jiangnan and possibly the Ming Dynasty, and was a friend of Chang Wei, who was responsible for providing a large number of men, goods, and ships.

Hakong's thinking is very adventurous, full of longing for a new world, and he is good and agile, which is enough to protect the fleet under normal circumstances.

Li Yunzhao had a wealth of sailing experience, a talent for languages, and the Western sailing skills taught by Chang Wei, making him the best technical officer, and a group of sailors he selected from Tianmen to deal with the mysterious sea.

In addition, Yang Rebellion, who Chang Wei subdued a long time ago, was responsible for communicating and coordinating the opinions of all parties, and the personnel team of this fleet was thus formed.

At the end of September, a fleet of 10 ships, led by Ha Kong, Li Yunzhao, and Yang Chao, set sail from Fodu Island with more than 1,000 men and goods worth 3 million taels of silver to Southeast Asia and other places for the first trade. Of course, an important task of this trip is to contact Luo Yun, a heavy knife in Taiwan, to join Chang Wei's group, which is a very important layout in the big plan.

"The fleet has finally set sail, and this matter is just as important as controlling the rivers and lakes. ”

Chang Wei was happy for a while, and he cared about other things. The seven or eight thousand juvenile captives brought back from the Crouching Tiger Mountain in Backwater Bay simply made Chang Wei's second brother Chang Tong very happy.

Because Chang Tong is the prefect of Zhenjiang, and one of the most important aspects of local officials' political performance is population. Zhenjiang Prefecture has increased its youth population by seven or eight thousand out of thin air, and under normal circumstances, it will take at least thirty or fifty years to increase the population by such a large number, and this alone will write a strong stroke on Chang Tong's political achievements, and with this political achievement, Chang Tong will be promoted again sooner or later.

As for saying that these people are prisoners of the White Lotus Sect, that would be easier to do. After the imperial court eliminated the White Lotus Sect, these people were certainly acquitted, but how should they be resettled? Originally, they rebelled because they couldn't survive the hardships, but now they were sent to the prosperous and wealthy Jiangnan, which is equivalent to solving another troublesome matter for the imperial court.

Although the brainwashing of these people by the White Lotus Sect is a bit troublesome, it is not a problem, because it is caused by the environment and forcibly instilled education, and as long as they have a new life, they will return to normal.

The solution to the problems of these people's lives still falls on Chang Wei. His industrial system project was so huge that it required a huge amount of labor. These captives were young, strong, and disciplined, and they knew a few words, and they were trained to be extremely high-quality workers, which could not be better.

In addition to these good news about the future, the Nine Sons of the Big Dipper in Taiping Town have already figured out Hang Yuanliang's residence and action rules, and now Taiping Town is extremely empty, which is a good opportunity to start.

And Huang Chongwu also contacted Yang Guosheng and Zhao Yanbu according to Chang Wei's intentions, and agreed to start a decisive battle with the White Lotus Army near Taiping Mountain tonight.

Chang Wei immediately wrote an order for Cheng Shiyu to hand over to Huang Chongwen and Understanding, who had just rushed back, and completed the final deployment.

"Liu Yongming and the White Lotus Army of Taiping Town, your end has come!" (To be continued.) )