Nanyang Storm 1864

Chapter 135 Means
In the classroom
There were several classes of students in session, and Zheng Guohui, accompanied by the instructors, went to inspect them one by one.

Wherever he went, the students all stood up and saluted. He gave them a few words of encouragement in turn, which always aroused the enthusiasm of the young students.

In the last sentence, Zheng Guohui announced "extra meal tonight", which won unanimous and warm cheers from the young students.

Their request was so simple, just to steam a few more buns and add a meat dish in the evening.

After coming out
Zheng Guohui asked as he walked;

"Mr. Instructor, are the trainees able to adapt to the courses offered, including mathematics, English, military history, military drawing and geography, tactical analysis, company combat command, and a brief history of weapons?"

"General, there are always some students who excel, possessing a voracious thirst for knowledge and absorbing everything like a sponge. But there are also those who lag behind, and that's not surprising."

“Which course do students find most difficult?”

"It should be English, Military Drawing, and Geography. Military drawing uses scale. With all due respect, Chinese drawings tend to be more freehand, and it seems they never had similar mathematical concepts."

"That's not surprising. If we delve deeper, we'll have to consider the differences between Chinese and Western cultural philosophies. The topic becomes too broad. What about English?"

"It might be the language environment. The students had never been exposed to it before, nor had they imagined that there were languages ​​with Latin scripts in the world. Many students believe that China is the entire world, which is obviously a very biased perception."

"So, studying here is very important for every young person." Zheng Guohui ended the conversation with this statement and said to the instructor;

"Thank you for your efforts, gentlemen. It is a very challenging task to enable more young people to open their eyes to the world. Your outstanding performance will be duly rewarded. Each of you will receive a bonus equivalent to 10 pounds. Now you can cheer."

As expected, real money moved people. More than a dozen British instructors screamed with joy and blew kisses to them one after another.

This made Zheng Sheng, who was standing aside, extremely dissatisfied. He stared at these foreigners with a pair of murderous eyes and muttered:
"You damned killers, how dare you be so rampant? If it weren't for the master protecting you, I, Ah Sheng, would have twisted each of your heads off and kicked them like balls."

Zheng Guohui smiled and didn't care at all. He didn't even have the slightest thought of stopping the scolding.

This is a loyal dog protecting its master, how can it make people feel cold?
Since the British instructors had been rewarded, the more than 40 Chinese instructors in the teaching corps could not be left out. Zheng Guohui waved his hand and rewarded each of them with 10 taels of silver, which was equivalent to double salary for this month.

The Chinese instructors knew the rules and all bowed to Qian'er to express their gratitude.

After finishing the morning training, the battalion commanders and the students of the teaching regiment were pulled into the playground in batches to line up and listen to the instructions of their superiors.

Zheng Guohui is already familiar with such occasions. He often inspects garrisons in various places. He will soon travel north to Weiyang, Huai'an, Xuzhou and other prefectures to inspect the officers and soldiers stationed on the front line.

Every place

He would go deep into the military camp to inquire about the officers' and soldiers' well-being, listen to their needs and grievances, and solve them effectively. This won the respect of everyone from top to bottom, and they were willing to work for the general.

This is often the case. As a superior, Zheng Guohui lowers his posture and comes among the officers and soldiers, which is a great encouragement to all the officers and soldiers.

The soldiers’ idea was simple;
The general treats us as human beings, gives us food to eat, clothes to wear, and lets us live with dignity like human beings, so let us sell our lives to the general.

Not to mention there have been rumors in the military camp
Those brothers who went south, after arriving in Southeast Asia, made military achievements. The general not only gave them women, but also gave them land and houses. After retirement, they were given places to stay and were guaranteed to have food and clothing for the rest of their lives.

This kind of fantasy statement is something I could never even imagine in my dreams.

However, the future sailors who were going to Southeast Asia spoke so enthusiastically that many of their names matched the names, which invisibly made the soldiers in the barracks even more excited.

Everyone wants to be chosen to go to Southeast Asia. These men who have experienced life and death countless times don’t care about life and death at all. They are more eager to live a happy life as described in the legend.

Among the new recruits who joined the army last year, many were settlers on Chongming Island. Some of their companions became boat people, and some went to Southeast Asia, so they were naturally more well-informed.

However, this matter was strictly forbidden to be discussed or spread in the military camp, and was only known to a small number of people.

From the beginning of November

Zheng Guohui spent one and a half months inspecting all the garrisons across the province.

Wherever he went, he would go deep into the camps of ordinary officers and soldiers to ask about their well-being, encourage and cheer them up, and give them public speeches and give them some encouragement. This was a routine operation.

Many problems were also discovered, some officers who committed dereliction of duty were investigated and removed, and military law and discipline were strengthened.

After returning

He issued a transfer order in the capacity of Jiangning General, rotating the positions of Xuzhou Lieutenant General Tian Peilin, Huai'an Lieutenant General Zheng Jiabao, Jiangning Lieutenant General Zheng Shouye, guerrilla general Hu Zuqing, Dong Huanzhang and others, involving a group of garrison and thousand-level officers.

The purpose is to change the traditional malpractice of "soldiers belong to the generals". Every once in a while, senior officers will be rotated to completely sever their ties with their original troops.
The most important thing is that you cannot stay in one place for too long.

This series of transfers greatly consolidated Zheng Guohui's "only one" position in the Green Camp Army in Jiangning Town, and no one could compete with him.

More than a dozen officers who had privately complained and behaved in an extremely arrogant manner were transferred for investigation and then disappeared without a trace, never to be seen again. Zheng Guohui exercised an iron grip on the military, swiftly suppressing any signs of rebellion, without mercy.

Even some elderly members of the Tongzhou militia who touched upon sensitive taboos, spoke shamelessly and showed no respect in private would be ruthlessly eliminated.

All of this is just for the purity of the army, to maintain one and only one voice, that is the order of the general.

May 3rd
Zheng Guohui ordered a rotation of troops, replacing the 3,000 troops stationed in Nanjing with the 3,000 troops stationed in Xuzhou, replacing the 1,500 troops stationed in Nanjing with the 1,500 troops stationed in Huai'an Prefecture, and replacing the 800 troops stationed in Nanjing with the 800 troops stationed in Huaiyang Prefecture.

A total of 5300 people were rotated this time. These elite soldiers with rich combat experience went directly to Chongming Island to rest and prepare to go to Southeast Asia.

The Nanjing garrison was short of more than 5300 people, which was supplemented by more than 6000 new recruits recruited from various places. Military training was carried out in Nanjing. All military camps and training grounds were ready, and the logistics supply was also very mature.

Today, Jinling City has become the base for training new recruits under the jurisdiction of Jiangning Town. There are a total of six camps conducting training at the same time, with the ability to train tens of thousands of new recruits at the same time.

Zheng Guohui has always suppressed the size of his army and used the method of "stealing and replacing" to send elite troops to Southeast Asia. He was cautious and tried not to give others any excuses.

The various garrisons under Jiangning Town were registered with the Ministry of War and were organized into Green Camps. The number of soldiers in each camp and the number of garrison troops could not be increased or decreased at will.

This is not a joke. It is one thing to eat the empty salary and suck the blood of soldiers. This is almost an open secret in the court. Any general would do this. At most, he would be punished.

But if he expanded the army privately and was caught, even Prince Gong Yixin would not be able to protect Zheng Guohui, and there was a high probability that he would lose his head.

Just ask "What is your intention?"
Eating empty salaries and sucking the blood of soldiers is greed for money, and secretly expanding the army requires money to be spent, which is a thankless task. If there is no intention of disloyalty, then "what is the purpose"?
It is difficult to find a reasonable explanation for such soul-searching questions.

Then some people say that Jiangning Town’s large-scale recruitment of soldiers cannot be concealed from the public.

This involves another problem, that is, officials from all over the country have always reported good news but not bad news. They only report good news to the court, while losses are kept silent.

The imperial court was well aware of this phenomenon. For example, when suppressing bandits, 1000 enemies were injured and 800 of their own men were killed. However, when reporting a great victory, only 80 of their own men were killed, and the remaining losses were reported as unaccounted for.

As long as you don't report it, the court won't investigate further.

The officials below just need to clean up the mess and not let others make a fuss, which would be embarrassing.

A similar situation occurred in Jiangning Town. When the Nian bandits moved south, they were repeatedly encircled and suppressed, but there were very few casualties. The reports to the court were all about great victories and the complete annihilation of the bandit army.

After the imperial court investigated and verified the situation, rewards were given according to merit. Everyone in Jiangning Town, from top to bottom, got promoted and became rich. Then the losses were compensated from other places. This situation was not uncommon.

As long as the total number of troops remains the same, the court will not interfere.

Due to the lack of information in today's society, Jiangning Town recruited soldiers from more than a dozen prefectures, with each prefecture recruiting only a few hundred people, which did not cause much noise.

The outside world can only guess how many new soldiers were finally recruited.

After the new recruits entered the camp, Zheng Guohui's military and political affairs came to an end, and he could focus on preparing for the relevant matters of going to Southeast Asia.

"Brother Xianqie, how much silver can you afford now?" Zheng Guohui saw Li Hezhang sitting down, pushed the tea forward attentively, and then asked.

Li Hezhang sighed lightly. Now the fleets going to Southeast Asia have increased to 12, with more than 170 ships of various sizes and more than sailors employed.

With so many people to feed and horses to pay, the monthly net expenditure is more than 117,000 taels of silver, not to mention the ship expenses and repair costs.

Ship expenses include replacing torn sails, ropes, anchors, replenishing wooden barrels, stockpiling materials, and purchasing tung oil, oil bristles, ramie, and other items.

Chinese immigrants who earn an average of 3.2 to 3.5 yuan per month are living beyond their means, and their money is spent like water.

Even with the two highly profitable businesses of illegal salt and tropical fruits, it was impossible to save any money.

The general is very good at spending money. He has made a name for himself in the Nanfeng Hall in the Beijing-Tianjin area. He earns 5 taels of silver in the capital every month, and more than 1 taels of silver in Tianjin.

But this money never reached Li Hezhang's hands and was directly transferred to the Wan Guo Tong Bao Trading Company as the order payment for the second phase of equipment, and it was far from enough.

From now on, don’t expect the money in Beijing and Tianjin to be deposited into your accounts.

Li Hezhang was filled with resentment at the thought. He took a sip of his teacup and responded directly, "No, General, you spend money faster than you earn it. We are really at a loss. How about... selling that half of Jinling City? It should be worth at least 10 taels."

"Hehehe... Uncle San, I can't! I'm arranging for people to clear the garbage on that street and prepare to start building new houses. Selling it now would be a huge loss. How about... can you help me find a way to raise 20 taels?"

"It's 20 taels, why don't you go and rob it, sir? I really don't have it. By next month, at best I can get 10 taels, and no more."

(End of this chapter)