Nanyang Storm 1864

Chapter 74 Recruiting important officials
In June, the fields south of the Yangtze River are full of vitality, with rolling green rice waves and wheat ears beginning to turn yellow.

The cavalry marched along the dirt road in the countryside. On the endless flat fields, repaired ditches crisscrossed and large fields of spring rice were planted.

The highest altitude of Chongming Island is 4.5 meters, and the lowest is 2.2 meters. There is no mountain on the island. It is a flat land formed by the large-scale silt accumulation of the Yangtze River. Originally, it was covered with endless reeds and weeds.

In autumn and winter, a fire can burn out large areas of reeds, leaving behind a thick layer of gray-black ash. The land is plowed deeply with cattle and horses, and after being raked flat, it becomes fertile farmland.

The dirt road is 25 meters wide, with neatly planted fir trees on both sides, stretching straight into the distance.

Riding slowly on horseback, the branches and leaves of the trees block the dazzling sunlight, and the gentle breeze blows, making people feel comfortable from body to mind.

Li Hezhang was in high spirits along the way, chatting and laughing with Zheng Guohui, appearing to be very interested.

"My dear nephew Jinghai, I see a lot of straw men in the fields here. It seems that there are a lot of birds causing harm. I wonder why?"

"Haha... Uncle San is a wise man and knows the benefits of military farming. If we want to get a good harvest on Chongming Island, we can eliminate the human threat, but we need to step up our efforts to prevent harm from birds and beasts." Zheng Guohui pointed with the whip in his hand.

Around the fields, there are many hunters with bows and arrows wandering around, while others spread rice bait and set nets to wait. Sometimes, dozens of birds can be caught in one net.

There are many varieties of wild birds, including various birds, geese, swans, wild ducks and pheasants. After being caught, they are quickly sent to the village, transported to the dock by mule carts, and sent by boat to Shanghai, Suzhou Prefecture and other places.

Every day, two or three boatloads of wild geese could be caught, totaling tens of thousands, worth hundreds of taels of silver.

A little bit of money adds up to a considerable income.

Most of the birds shot with bows and arrows were consumed by the villagers themselves, adding to their meat supply.

After more than a year of repeated killing, the damage caused by birds has been greatly reduced.

have to say
Chongming Island is really a great place. Here you don’t need to go to the river to fish. You can just cast nets and fish in the rivers and ditches on the island, and you will often get a good harvest.

At the end of the day, the fat fish caught by the fishing boats can fill the ship's hold. It is also one of the island's specialties that are transported to Shanghai and Suzhou on time, including fish, shrimp, lotus roots and river seafood.

Most fishing boats are small wooden boats with a capacity of 10 to 20 dan. They need to go to the town dock, load the fish into the live water tank of a large ship, and then transport it to surrounding towns for sale.

Fresh fish caught on the same day will appear in the Shanghai market the next morning.

After riding for more than an hour, the place became gradually desolate.

The remains of the fires from last autumn and winter are still there, and green clumps have sprouted on the vast gray-black land, and the weeds are growing tenaciously again.

Walk here
Zheng Guohui tightened the reins, and the horse under him slowly stopped. The horse wheezed through its nose and lowered its head to start eating the grass.

"My dear nephew Jinghai, has the area beyond here not been developed yet? Is there a shortage of manpower?" Li Hezhang also followed and reined in his mount.

Zheng Guohui shook his head and pointed to a river several dozen meters wide in front of him and explained;

"It's not that we lack manpower, but the river in front of us is the boundary. The east side of the river is a grain-producing area, where rice, soybeans, rapeseed and other crops are grown, and millet is stored as food, which is the main output.

After crossing the river

Hexi is mainly a pastoral area. After several periods of burning, alfalfa and elm grass, which are the favorite feeds of cattle and horses, are planted everywhere, and most of the animals are raised in a free-range manner.

Uncle San, look...

There is a fence on the wooden bridge ahead, which is opened when people and horses pass through. It is closed at other times and guarded by a special person to prevent livestock from entering the agricultural and pastoral areas and destroying food.

In the grazing areas, large livestock such as cattle, horses, mules, and donkeys are all allowed to graze freely in the wild.

When the young animals grow up, they can be caught and tamed, which can save a lot of manpower."

Sure enough, a large herd of cattle appeared in the distance. The strong cows were accompanied by many calves, moving with the herd.

Li Hezhang looked at it with admiration and asked, "Free-range livestock are wild and difficult to tame. What should we do?"

"It's not completely free-range. There are cow pens and large areas of cattle pens built in Hexi. They are usually driven into the pens at night, and the same goes for horses." Zheng Guohui looked at the large group of cattle and sheep in front of him, his eyes full of satisfaction, and continued to explain with a smile;
"When calves and foals grow up, they should be kept separately from the cattle and horses, mainly to reduce their wildness and make them easier to tame.

The same goes for mules and donkeys. After being raised in captivity, they are mainly used to pull millstones and then sent to rice mills and oil presses, where they are harnessed to pull the millstones every day.

In just six months, all the wildness is gone.

Only after the wild nature is completely worn away can it be used to pull carts and goods, and then it will be much more useful."

"Well, that's a great idea. I've seen so many people transferred off the island. Is there a labor shortage?"

"There's a shortage at the moment, but we've been recruiting refugees from various prefectures in northern Jiangsu. Thousands of them are coming, and they'll be sent to the island soon." "As long as there's enough manpower, this island has great potential!"

"Uncle San is absolutely right. Chongming Island has reclaimed nearly 10 mu of farmland, producing over 6 dan of rice each season, enough to feed soldiers for a year. Given time, it will surely become a major rice-producing area. If Uncle San joins us, our great cause will be accomplished!"

Zheng Guohui's words revealed his intention to win over others, without any concealment at all.

Li Hezhang replied with a smile;
"My dear nephew Jinghai, I, with my old bones, can do my best to support your great cause and contribute my humble efforts.

As for joining, there is no need for that.

The Li family does have many talented young men. If you are willing to accept them, the immortals would be willing to recommend them to serve under the general, which would be a good opportunity."

The Huai Army led by the Li brothers was being highly valued by the imperial court. Some of them were reorganized to garrison one area, some went to the northern battlefield, and some entered Shaanxi and Gansu to suppress the Hui rebellion. They had no shortage of good places to go.

There were many people in the Huai Army who were promoted faster than Zheng Guohui, and several of them were promoted to generals in just a few years.

under these circumstances
Li Hezhang is willing to recommend young talents to Zheng Guohui, which shows that he is very optimistic about future development and has promised to make a big bet.

The Hunan Army was different. At Zeng Guofan's command, more than 300,000 Hunan Army soldiers disarmed and returned home, leaving only tens of thousands of Hunan Army soldiers, which made Prince Gong Yixin furious.

This is also the biggest reason why Zeng Guofan never got promoted to the central government of the imperial court and served in the Grand Council.

Zeng Guofan was now encircling and suppressing the Nian Army in the north, and most of his men were Huai Army troops, as well as Green Camp soldiers mobilized from all over the country.

Most of the Hunan Army, which was once so large, had already disbanded and returned home.

Seeing that Li Hezhang politely declined, Zheng Guohui didn't care. He took him across the wooden bridge with great interest and went to the grazing area to visit the herds of cattle, sheep and horses, chatting and laughing all the way.

It was already evening when the group returned to Guangming Town.

When passing by a large pile of ore in Tucheng, Zheng Guohui stopped his horse and pointed at the pile of ore and asked, "Uncle San, what do you think this is?"

"This... doesn't look like a reddish iron stone. Could it be..." Li Hezhang didn't take it too seriously at first, but after taking a closer look, his expression suddenly changed.

He jumped off his horse and hurried to the pile of ore to examine it carefully. He picked up one piece after another and finally determined what the ore in his hand was.

He asked with a slightly trembling voice, "Jinghai, is this bronze?"

Zheng Guohui smiled but said nothing. He just nodded slightly and said four words, "It's copper material."

This was like the sound of a bell exploding beside his ears. Li Hezhang stared blankly at the pile of copper materials that looked like a small mountain. He felt numb all over.

What does copper material mean?
It means money piled up like a mountain. With money, you have soldiers, with money, you have food, with money, you have everything.

This is Zheng Guohui's ultimate move, he doesn't believe it.

With the wisdom of my third uncle Li Hezhang, how could he not understand what the continuous supply of copper materials means?
"How is Third Uncle?"

"Could this... be produced in the Luzon Islands?"

"To be precise, it comes from the copper mine in Zamboanga, Mindanao, which we currently occupy. If we have enough miners and equipment, we will be able to continuously produce large quantities of high-quality copper ingots in the future, enough to meet all our needs."

"This is truly astonishing. With such a large fortune, I no longer have to worry about not being able to make ends meet or running out of money. I can accomplish great things!"

"Then...what do you think, Third Uncle?" Zheng Guohui pressed again, his eyes fixed on the expression on Li Hezhang's face.

Li Hezhang sighed deeply, straightened his clothes solemnly, clasped his hands together, bowed deeply to the ground, and said in a clear voice: "General, please accept the respect of the immortals. I am willing to lead the way for you, even if I die, I will have no regrets."

"Hahaha... We are all family, please don't be polite, Third Uncle." Zheng Guohui laughed and stretched out his hand to support him.

"Wait a minute! Without rules, there will be no order. From now on, I will treat you as my lord. Please just call me 'immortal fellow'. Don't mess with the hierarchy."

"Well... okay, from now on, in public, I will shamelessly call you 'Brother Xianqie', but in private, I will still call you 'Third Uncle', how about that?"

"We will follow your orders, sir. I, the immortals, will not object." Li Hezhang put on a very serious attitude and bowed respectfully with his fists clasped.

Zheng Guohui was overjoyed. What he lacked most now was a steward who could take charge of both internal and external affairs.

With Li Hezhang in charge, Zheng Guohui will be able to lead the second large fleet planned to sail to Southeast Asia in August and personally go to the Luzon Islands to command all matters.

If you let others do things, there will always be some unsatisfactory aspects.

(End of this chapter)