Fu Shanhe

Chapter 264 It's All Business
Huizhou Port.

Looking at the rows of warships gathered on the sea, Li Mu showed a satisfied smile.

After the reorganization, the Guangdong Navy finally looked like a navy. Although it was still very immature, at least it looked like a real navy.

If you want to improve further, you need to go through actual combat tests.

Pirates and Rebels are both good dungeons for beginners. They are most suitable for training soldiers.

"My Lord, these warships in front of us are the main battleships of the Guangdong Navy.

The largest of these warships could accommodate more than a thousand officers and soldiers and were equipped with multiple cannons, capable of attacking the enemy from miles away.

......"

Li Mu introduced it using his half-baked naval knowledge.

The specific combat effectiveness of the Guangzhou Navy is a mystery, but judging from the data on paper, it can still be ranked among the best in the Dayu Dynasty.

In the first few decades after the founding of the country, the imperial court attached great importance to the development of the navy, which promoted the advancement of shipbuilding technology.

Later, due to the sea ban policy, the development of the navy was interrupted and shipbuilding technology stopped for more than a hundred years.

As a result, the Dayu Navy, which was once the best in the world, was gradually surpassed by the Western world.

Of course, judging from the current situation, the technological gap between the two sides is not large.

Everyone remains in the sailing era, but because of their different needs, they have taken different technical routes.

"Ok!"

"As long as we can defeat the rebels!"

Wuyang Hou's answer left Li Mu speechless.

As expected, Dayu’s requirements for the navy are really not high.

The rebels' inland navy was made up of a group of fishermen. Not only were their ships small, but many of them were not even equipped with artillery.

It was not until the Jiangnan Navy was defeated that a few warships were captured.

It's okay for them to struggle in the inland rivers, but once they reach the sea, the waves can carry them away.

Even so, the rebel navy was still feared by the imperial court, and they blocked the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, cutting off the connection between the two banks.

"Don't worry, my Lord. We are not afraid of these rebel pirates.

Once we have completed our cross-sea combat training, we can march north to break the rebels’ siege of Nanjing.”

Li Mu immediately made a promise.

Reorganizing the navy was also an offensive task. Without the support of the governor, it would be difficult for him as an admiral to do the job.

If you want to gain the full support of Marquis Wuyang, you must first let him see the benefits that can be brought by reorganizing the navy.

Lifting the siege of Nanjing was undoubtedly the best reason.

The imperial court repeatedly ordered governors-general of various regions to give priority support to the Nanjing battlefield and ensure that Yingtian Prefecture would not be lost.

In this context, all plans to reinforce Nanjing must be carefully considered.

Those that are feasible should be implemented as a priority.

"it is good!"

"When we defeat the rebels, I will personally commend you all for your achievements!"

Marquis Wuyang replied perfunctorily.

If Li Mu hadn't invited him repeatedly, he wouldn't have appeared here at all.

When it came to suppressing the White Lotus rebels, the main players were the army and the navy was only a supporting role.

It would be best if we could defeat the rebel navy. If that is not possible, we can just safely land the army in Suzhou Prefecture.

Being able to ensure the supply of food and fodder in the future can also be considered as completing the mission.

It was impossible to invest a large amount of money. Zhejiang was caught in the war and had no income. Only Guangdong, Guangxi and Fujian could provide taxes, and he, as the governor, was not rich.

However, he was still very supportive of the reorganization of the navy.

War is not a joke. Any accident in any link may lead to the failure of the war.

If we don't reorganize properly, it would be troublesome if the rebels succeed in a surprise attack on the road, causing heavy losses to the army.

The Governor was not in high spirits and the inspection was completed quickly.

However, Li Mu's goal was achieved.

Today's play is not only performed for the imperial court, but also for the maritime merchants.

The profits from overseas interests are too lucrative, and it would be unreasonable for him, as the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, not to get involved.

If it were before, Li Mu would have to consider it carefully and discuss it with the merchants.

The situation was different this time. The gentry group suffered a heavy blow, and the maritime merchants who depended on them were inevitably affected.

Some unlucky people even died in the White Lotus Rebellion.

We are currently in the process of reshuffle of maritime interests, and this is undoubtedly the best time to get involved in overseas trade.

In fact, compared to doing business personally, Li Mu prefers to collect commercial taxes directly.

However, the maritime interest groups are still powerful.

The maritime merchant groups in Guangdong, Guangxi, Zhejiang, and South Zhili suffered from the White Lotus rebels, but the maritime merchants in Fujian were not harmed.

On land, if they were all added together, Li Mu could easily take care of them.

The situation changed when they reached the sea. The few ships under his command were no match for these guys.

Even with the addition of the Guangdong Navy, it is still impossible to dominate the sea.

He cannot afford to offend the entire maritime merchant group, but he can still have the upper hand against any one of them.

Since everyone is wary of each other, let's build a platform and show off our strength.

Next, find an opportunity to sit down together and discuss the division of maritime interests. The right way is for everyone to make money together.

Li Mu's goal was very clear. No matter how the various families fought on the sea, he could not see it.

But if his own cargo ship encounters an accident at sea, don't blame him for holding high the court's maritime ban and waiting for an opportunity to make up for his losses.

The plans have begun to be implemented, but Li Mu still does not have a fleet capable of sailing on the ocean.

Not having a fleet is not a problem. As an official of the Dayu Dynasty, as long as you hold power, you will never have to worry about not having partners.

After today's drama, those maritime merchants who have lost their support in the court will come to us to seek cooperation.

Before developing your own fleet, it is very necessary to gather a group of younger brothers.

In the Dayu Dynasty, merchants with strong backing treated smuggling as a legal business and did not shy away from it at all.

If someone were a bit more ruthless in Li Mu's position, he could even designate an island as an official pirate hideout for selling stolen goods.

Several major overseas stolen goods trafficking dens now have official backgrounds.

It is not clear who is behind the scenes.

Anyway, not long after he took office as the Governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, someone sent him a dividend.

If nothing unexpected happens, the dividend amount will increase after today.

The main focus is to bind the officers and soldiers with interests and turn them into their own people.

Without any surprise, Li Mu also took the money.

In order to smoothly carry out the counter-insurgency work, we must first stabilize these guys.

If we really take down the stolen goods and supply dens, the pirates will go ashore to rob.

The long coastline is completely defenseless.

It is easy to overthrow the original order, but difficult to establish a new order.

……

Yangzhou Prefecture.

While Li Mu was preparing for war in Guangdong and Guangxi, Pei Yunxuan, the Governor-General of Jiangnan, was under tremendous pressure.

After the rebels besieged Nanjing, they did not stop their expansion.

Many provincial capitals south of the Yangtze River fell into the hands of the rebels one after another.

Looking at the map, there are only small areas left in the three provinces of Zhejiang, Nanzhili and Jiangxi.

He doesn't need to worry about Zhejiang's problems, but Nanzhili and Jiangxi are both under his jurisdiction.

"Governor, please take care of yourself!"

Gu Youwen stepped forward to persuade them. The court urged them to recapture Anqing as soon as possible and force the rebels to abandon Yingtian Prefecture.

Unfortunately, this plan is purely a fantasy.

If it was just an isolated Yingtian Prefecture, the rebels might indeed be forced to withdraw because of the loss of Anqing.

The situation is different now. In the entire Jiangxi region, the court only holds the isolated city of Nanchang and a few counties in the south.

That was one of the few achievements of the Fujian army when it marched into Jiangxi.

In Southern Zhili, Huizhou Prefecture, Ningguo Prefecture, Yingtian Prefecture and most of Suzhou Prefecture were lost one after another.

In addition to the rebels' territories in Huguang and Zhejiang, the rebels will not give up on capturing Nanjing regardless of whether they have Anqing or not.

“Nanchang is in danger!

If there is no reinforcement, the whole of Jiangxi will fall into the hands of the rebels.

I, the Governor-General of Jiangnan, will soon become a joke."

Pei Yunxuan said helplessly.

Now he really wants to send troops to reinforce Nanchang, but unfortunately he has no troops available.

In order to get the Beijing troops to contribute, he went there in person to express his condolences.

As a result, those guys promised well verbally, but were still perfunctory when it came to the actual implementation.

Deep down, he seriously suspected that those soldiers chose to stand by and watch because they wanted to see the fall of Nanjing.

Everything is caused by selfishness. Even up until now during the White Lotus Rebellion, the civil service group has still not made any concessions to the military generals.

Having not gotten what they wanted at the negotiating table, the nobles continued to implement their own "scraping the bone to cure the poison" plan.

After the rebels have been baptized, they will jump out again to regain lost territory.

Before that, you should just slack off when you should slack off, and muddle through when you should muddle through.

The specific manifestation is that the Huguang battlefield has undergone changes recently.

With the support of Li Mu, the newly appointed Lieutenant General of Baoqing and Lieutenant General of Chenzhou successively recovered Baoqing Prefecture and Chenzhou Prefecture.

Even in the Changsha area, only one city was in the hands of the rebels, and other areas were recaptured by the newly appointed deputy general of Changsha.

The most surprising thing is that Changde Prefecture was actually recaptured by the Hunan militia, and now it has launched an attack on Yuezhou and Jingzhou areas.

If the speculation is correct, the turning point of the counter-insurgency war will occur after the fall of Nanjing.

After coming to this conclusion, Pei Yunxuan felt terrible.

He didn't care about the political struggle, he would be happy to see a blow to the arrogance of the Jiangnan Group.

But the problem is that he is now the Governor-General of Jiangnan. If Nanjing is lost, he will be the main person responsible.

"Governor, let's just confront Marquis Wuyang and negotiate terms!
The only way to turn the tide now is to send troops from Guangdong and Guangxi.

Just looking at the court's personnel appointments, it is clear that Lord Xu has probably reached a deal with the nobles.

In recent days, the Huguang battlefield is launching an all-out counterattack. If we do not take any action, we will not be able to explain ourselves to the imperial court.

What the noble group wants is nothing more than to occupy a few more positions."

Gu Youwen began to persuade.

As a member of the Chu Party, he naturally heard about the compromise between his boss and the nobles.

From a personal point of view, he must be unhappy. How could he let a group of warriors control him?

But considering the overall situation, he felt that the matter could still be negotiated.

Every day the rebels were raging in Huguang was like cutting their flesh and shedding their blood.

Only if the government troops recover the lost territory as soon as possible can they get back everything they have lost as soon as possible.

If you delay for too long, it will be difficult to go back.

If the top leaders of the White Lotus Sect get carried away and really carry out land revolution in the area under their control, they will be doomed.

Once the White Lotus Sect distributed the land to the lower classes of people, it would not be easy for them to get the land back even if the government troops recovered the lost land.

Since they can compromise for the overall situation, other officials can also compromise.

The crackdown on the Jiangnan gentry group is coming to an end, and there is no need to get myself involved.

Even if Marquis Wuyang does not agree to reinforce Nanjing immediately, as long as they can send troops from behind and recover the vast area of ​​Jiangxi, they will be able to relieve their pressure.

"That's it!
For the sake of the greater good, I will bear the humiliation for once.

Master Liu, you should go to Guangzhou in person to negotiate with Marquis Wuyang.

As long as he is willing to send troops, this governor is willing to work with him to select talented people for the country.

The bottom line of this governor is two lieutenant generals, five lieutenant generals, and lower-level officers. You can talk to him as you see fit.

As for the civil service, they can relax a little bit, as they don’t have that many people to place.”

Pei Yunxuan said with a cruel heart.

As a provincial governor, everyone has confidants to cultivate.

All the positions that are given up now were taken from him.

In essence, officialdom is a large-scale group game.

The faction that occupies more and more important positions will have more say in the court.

In the past, civil officials banded together to suppress military generals and did not take local generals seriously.

But after the White Lotus Rebellion, the situation suddenly changed.

The core concept of suppressing military commanders will not change.

However, if the major factions want to take the initiative, they also need to cultivate generals belonging to their own factions.

No one wants to encounter such an embarrassing situation as the current one, where one is unable to command the army.

Deep down in his heart, Pei Yunxuan made up his mind that he must make up for today's losses after the war is over.

"Your Excellency the Governor is wise!"

After getting the answer they wanted, all the officials present responded in unison.

In the eyes of many people, the right choice is to compromise.

Marquis Wuyang was slow to provide them with support and even resorted to trickery to seize the Yangzhou Camp and the Huai'an Camp, which was essentially a conflict of interest.

Some time ago, Marquis Wuyang recommended many officials to the court, several of whom were to fill vacancies in Jiangxi and Nanzhili.

Out of consideration for his own interests, Pei Yunxuan refused it outright.

The governor has a very important say in the appointment of local officials.

Maybe the people he supports may not necessarily get to the position, but the people he clearly opposes will definitely not be able to get to the position.

Now is a time of war. If the relationship between the superiors and the subordinates is not harmonious, let alone encircling and suppressing the rebels, the internal strife alone will be enough to make people worried.

“Governor, in addition to sending people to lobby Marquis Wuyang, the new governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, Li Mu, must also be taken seriously.

A few years ago, this man was the Lieutenant General of Yangzhou. He was able to be quickly promoted to the high position of Governor of Guangdong and Guangxi. It was definitely not because of his military merits in suppressing rebellions alone.

As far as I know, this person is not only a close confidant of Marquis Wuyang, but also has the two most prominent Jing and Li families behind him.

He has a great influence among the younger generation of nobles.

Most of the noble generals who are now in office were promoted from his command.”

Ma Tongzhi on the side spoke up to remind him.

learn from mistakes.

During the period when Li Mu served as the Lieutenant General of Yangzhou, he suffered a lot due to power conflicts.

If the Yangzhou Camp had not evacuated, it would be unclear who would have the final say in Yangzhou City now.

The public security management brigade formed by the garrison directly took over the work of the government office in the city.

When encountering problems, residents in the city would rather go to the garrison office to resolve them than go inside the office.

The most annoying thing is that group of guys, they solve cases much faster than the government, which seriously affects their financial resources.

"Um!

Master Liu, when you go there, please prepare a generous gift."

……

(End of this chapter)