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The great victory of the Taiping Army in Guangdong made Portugal's governor in Macau Bugalo scared and regretted it. He was worried that the Taiping Army, which had won the military operations of the Qing Dynasty, would turn around and blockade the Guanao city walls again, start blocking Macau again, and even send troops to attack Macau immediately. Therefore, he sent Xiao Bailang to Guangzhou to express his "goodwill" to the Taiping Army and the Portuguese government for the Ming Dynasty and the Taiping Army, and requested to "living in harmony" with the Taiping Army, a already huge and terrifying neighbor.

After repeated negotiations, Zhou Shi agreed not to block the Guanao City Wall, but the premise was that the Portuguese must immediately provide 1,000 combs to the Taiping Army for free, and 2,000 combs to the Taiping Army for 6 taels of silver per pole, 45 red artillery pieces to the Taiping Army for 1,200 taels of silver per pill, 80 copper cannons of large and small to the Taiping Army for 400-500 taels of silver per pill, and more than 20,000 kilograms of medicine were provided.

In addition, the Macau authorities must allow the Taiping Army to recruit mercenary military personnel and various craftsmen in Macau, and donate about 100,000 taels of silver to the Taiping Army. Such materials are purchased by the Taiping Army. If the remaining silver is not purchased, it can be discounted for the cost of purchasing firearms. In other words, Zhou Shixiang blackmailed the Macao authorities' arms and materials worth more than 100,000 taels of silver on the condition that he no longer blocked and attacked Macau, and allowed the Macau authorities to provide the Taiping Army with the military talents needed.

Zhou Shixiang really gritted his teeth and offered this peace agreement that was not too much in his opinion, because the wealth in Macau and Portuguese was more than ten times or even dozens of times the price he offered. It would be impossible for a few hundred thousand taels of silver to hurt the Portuguese, and would not even make them frown. If he directly sent troops to occupy Macau, the income would definitely be far more than this price, and there was no need to keep the Portuguese making the wealth of Oriental people in Macau.

Zhou Shixiang had thought of replacing the Portuguese in the East and earning military expenses from maritime trade, but the shortcomings of the navy made his idea very unrealistic, so after Tang Sanshui told him that Shunzhi in Beijing had sent Prince Jian Jidu to lead 20,000 Manchu, Mongolian and Han troops to attack him, Zhou Shixiang decisively chose to give in and no longer be aggressive towards Macau.

In the face of a great enemy, the Taiping Army could no longer use troops to Macau, nor could it be possible to distribute enough troops to maintain a blockade of the Guanao City Wall. Compromise, give in, restrain one's ambitions, or put away one's greed, and get as much arms and materials as possible from the Portuguese that can be used immediately for the Qing war. This is the correct choice for Zhou Shixiang.

After resolving the threat from the Jidu army, Zhou Shixiang vowed that this piece of fat meat in Macau would sooner or later swallow it and the bones!

If you want to get rich, you must be from him, Xiucai Zhou!

More than 100,000 taels of silver can be exchanged for peace in Macau. This amount of money is much less than the losses caused by the war with the Taiping Army. Bugalo agreed to this condition without hesitation. After all, he did not have the support of the Portuguese Oriental Fleet of Goa, nor did he have enough army to withstand the Taiping Army's attack, and he did not want the Indian governor of the East who had always disliked him to have an excuse to drive him away from Macau.

Peace has to pay the price.

Bugallo did not mind the Taiping Army recruiting Western military personnel and craftsmen from Macau, because Macau had provided several batches of military personnel to the Ming Dynasty before. The two sides had precedents of cooperation. If the Taiping Army could not defeat the Qing army in Guangdong, Bugallo would naturally not consider this "investment and enemy" plan. Now, he must continue to show the friendship between the Grape people in the past to the Ming Dynasty, because if they did not do so, Macau would likely suffer a catastrophe.

During the Chongzhen period, in order to make the new firearms and new army form combat effectiveness as soon as possible, Sun Yuanhua, the governor of Denglai, in addition to purchasing artillery firearms from Macau, he also hired a group of instructors and craftsmen. When Dengzhou was broken by Kong Youde's rebels, the Portuguese officer general instructor Teixeira Correa and 11 subordinates died for the Ming Dynasty. Fiske and 15 other people served the rebels. This made the army that joined the "Sanshun King" of Jin completely consistent with the use and training of firearms. In the second year of Yongli, Pang Tianshou, the Sili Superintendent, purchased firearms from Macau, and also recruited hundreds of Western military personnel in Macau to form Western military troops to serve the Ming Dynasty. The training methods of these Western military soldiers were almost the same as those of the Han army of Kong Youde and others, and were also similar to the training methods adopted by the second town formed by the Taiping Army.

The second town is a fully firearmed unit. The firearms seized from Pingnan and Jingnan vassals had more than 5,000 muskets, and 3,000 muskets provided by the Portuguese. The second town can be said to have one musket in hand.

The second town was filled with a large number of surrendered soldiers and officers from the Han army in the Jingnan vassal, and there was also a training manual for training of the scriptures formulated by Zhou Shixiang. Therefore, the training of muskets no longer requires the Westerners in Macau to teach them, but the artillery guidance of the artillery battalion still requires these Westerners to work hard.

Like Sun Yuanhua, Zhou Shixiang gave these Western officers, including the Portuguese, a large sum of money. Zhou Shixiang clearly told these Western officers that they could leave as long as they served in the Taiping Army for three years. At that time, not only would there be huge sums of money to receive, but there would also be travel expenses. If they were unwilling to return to Europe, then the Taiping Army would also have their place, and they could completely obtain titles and official positions in the Ming Dynasty with their military merits.

Many Westerners in Macau have certain military qualities. They either declined or lost in the country, and had no way to survive and risked death on the sea to come all the way to the east to seek wealth. Therefore, the employment of the Taiping Army was simply a timely help for them.

In a few days, Xiao Bailang legitimately recruited hundreds of Western military personnel for the Taiping Army. Some of these people could be officers, while others could only be ordinary soldiers. Zhou Shixiang did not blindly "respecting foreign countries and fawning on foreign countries", and regarded these Western military personnel as treasures. Everyone assigned official positions, but personally tested and selected them. In the end, 80 people were assigned to the Military Preparation Training Institute to serve as instructors, 120 people were assigned to the Second Town to serve as soldiers, 35 people served as first-class officers, more than 20 people served as team chiefs, and more than 40 people stayed in the Military Commander's Office as staff officers, and the rest could stay if they were willing to serve in the Taiping Army and would not be willing to give travel expenses back. In the end, 589 Western military personnel became members of the Taiping Army.

Xiao Bailang recruited more than 100 craftsmen who were proficient in ordnance repair from Macau for the Taiping Army. These people were Westerners, Han people. In addition, there were some craftsmen who were proficient in firearm maintenance and forging under the two vassals of Pingnan and Jingnan. These people were transferred by Zhou Shixiang to a remote ordnance opened in the west of Yuexiu Camp. Whether Westerners or Han people, they were given a first-level salary of Weiwei. Those who have special performance and major meritorious contributions will be rewarded according to their merits.

The leader of the Ordnance Office was directly under the command of the Military Commander's Office, Zhou Shixiang agreed to use the Ordnance as the core to support a series of military projects to make it a military factory of the Taiping Army. However, he did not have the conditions to start mining in Guangdong and did not have the conditions to prepare some forging equipment, so the Ordnance Office can only rely on manual repair of damaged muskets, and cannot transform muskets. Some ideas about the improvement of muskets can only stay on the drawings. At present, the second town still uses muskets as the main equipment.

The training of surrendered soldiers in each town of Taiping Army did not stagnate because of the bandit suppression, but was adjusted in the process of suppressing bandit suppression. It would definitely be unsightly to let a sheep lead a group of wolves, but it would be impressive to let a wolf lead a group of sheep. Moreover, these surrendered soldiers were not sheep, but a group of wolves. As long as they could effectively control and utilize them and give them enough sweetness, these surrendered soldiers could quickly merge into the Taiping Army and immediately improve the combat effectiveness of the Taiping Army.

Controlling the families of surrendered soldiers to resettle them in various places to set up villages and build villages. Giving surrendered soldiers land is also a means, and dividing and governing the surrendered soldiers is also a means. Using first surrender to suppress the surrendered soldiers and then surrendered soldiers is also a means. Of course, the most effective means is to stimulate interests.

The most cliché but also the most useful. Regardless of ancient and modern times, the promotion and wealth are always the best way to motivate people to work hard. Even if the essence of the revolution in later generations is actually to get rich, but there is a layer of righteousness outside this essence. Destroying the old class, a new class will naturally be born. The Taiping Army destroyed the old landlord and gentry class in Xiangshan, and the Taiping Army's military meritorious class was also born, and obtained the right to rule the local area through violence and became a new landlord and gentry class.

With land, wealth, and things worth defending, anyone will continue to fight in the Taiping Army.

The righteousness of the Taiping Army was to oppose the Qing Dynasty, but not many people could explain why it was anti-Qing. People in this era had no concept of nation-state. What Zhou Shixiang could instill in them was the most primitive and barbaric concept. The Qing Dynasty occupied our land, robbed our gold and silver, played with our women, and enslaved us like cattle and sheep. Therefore, we must resist and take back everything that belongs to us. We will never be slaves!

This statement sounds almost ridiculous in later generations, but it is the most effective slogan.

"For the Ming Dynasty, for the Taiping Army, for your wife, children, and for your elders, you must fight!"

Zhou Shixiang promulgated the Taiping Army Song, not a new creation, but brought the military songs of the Red Turban Army at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, and ordered the whole army to sing word by word.

“Clouds follow the dragon, wind follows the tiger, fame, wealth, dust and earth;

Looking at the land of China, the people are suffering, and the fertile land of thousands of miles is deserted;

Look at the world, all the barbarians will be saved, and the law of heaven will be incomplete;

A good man, don’t want his parents, just for the people, not for the people;

Holding a steel knife with ninety-nine, killing Hu Er before stopping;

I am a man, why do you make a horse and a cow if you are a Tartar?

The hero drinks all the wine in the bowl, and never looks back when the journey is thousands of miles away;

The golden drums roared together, and they would never stop until they broke the Yellow Dragon!”

Every day, in the Taiping Army camps, teams of soldiers were heard singing loudly with big swords, spears, and muskets step by step.

"Hold ninety-nine steel knives in hand, kill Hu Er and stop!"
Chapter completed!