Occasionally, white seabirds flash past this blue background.
It seems to leave a white line on the blue canvas.
Disappeared in an instant...
Qi Bin bid farewell to his hometown silently in his heart. There are too many memories of him here, including the people he loves, the family he hates, and the traces of his past struggles.
He wanted to use this sea as paper, his heart as pen, and his blood as ink to write a poem and say goodbye to everything he had, including his last name.
From now on, his name will be Qi Bin, with Qi as his surname and Bin as his first name. He will use his new name to start a new life in China. He wants to see with his own eyes what the young man who defeated him can do.
To what extent.
Qi Bin was very interested in Dong Shuheng's discussion of the Greater China Circle. Perhaps being able to enter this circle would be an opportunity for Japan to change its own destiny.
For thousands of years, the Japanese have been fighting nature and their own people on these islands, and it seems they cannot get out of this strange circle.
After Qi Xing regained power, he erased all the reforms originally made by Qi Bin. He repaired with the shogunate on the outside, cultivated and thrived on the inside, and no longer supported a strong army.
In order to pay compensation to the Huai Navy, the Satsuma Domain borrowed a large amount of foreign debt from merchants. Coupled with the policy of self-cultivation and interest generation, the Satsuma Domain now simply has no ability to do anything else.
Even the captured soldiers of the Satsuma Domain, Shimazu Saiki, did not pay to redeem them.
On the one hand, he has no money, but on the other hand, Qi Xing feels that these people are loyal to Qi Bin, and redemption would be a safety hazard.
This time all the more than 20,000 prisoners were brought to the Far East by Bao Youzhi. They would be reorganized through labor there first and invested in the construction of the Far East.
Because Shimazu Saiki's behavior was chilling, these prisoners gradually alienated the Satsuma Domain. Finally, they joined the Huai Navy and became an extremely fierce Japanese regiment under the Huai Navy.
After leaving Japan, the fleet continued south and made a brief stop in Naha.
Uneasy about the construction of Naha, Dong Shuheng specially met with Zhang Wenhan for an in-depth discussion.
"Wenhan, you must grasp it better. Naha and even Ryukyu are part of China."
"In the future, this place will be the frontier of openness and must be open to all cultures from around the world. However, the people here now have little cultural foundation, so they are easily eroded by foreign ideas."
"While you are doing a good job in Naha's economic construction, you must not forget to educate the people, especially the education of the next generation. Let them have a heart for China, know who they are, and who they should be loyal to?"
"A child may not be a talent, but he must at least love the motherland. On the contrary, if you train a genius, he will go to the foreigners and help them invade China. In that case, it is better not to train him!" Dong Shuheng said.
He obviously thought of something, with a look of resentment in his eyes.
"Yes, President, Wenhan must pay attention to this and do a good job in educating the people."
"In addition, foreign missionaries cannot be prohibited, nor can they be completely left alone."
"Foreigners can build churches in Naha, but different denominations must respect each other. We follow a religious freedom policy here. This can be written into Naha's law, which will help attract more people to Naha.
."
"Foreign pastors and priests can only serve their own people. If they want to preach to the Chinese people in Ryukyu, they must be carried out by Chinese people. These missionary Chinese people can be trained by them, but they must be unified and managed by us."
Finally, Dong Shuheng once again reminded Zhang Wenhan to pay attention to the quality of the project and leave enough room for planning.
In the future, Naha may have to accommodate a population of several million. Don't wait until the city runs out of room for expansion or the sewers are too narrow and need to be rebuilt.
In addition, the school must be built first. Dong Shuheng told him clearly that before the Naha school is completed, the city hall will never allow construction to begin. In addition, the construction scale of the city hall cannot exceed the school.
Dong Shuheng plans to make this a rule that all levels of Huaihai Navy government must abide by, that is, the military government's office buildings must not exceed the size of the largest local school.
"Zhang Wenhan, I hope that next time I come to Naha, the first landmark building I see in the city is Naha's school." Dong Shuheng said seriously.
"Yes, President, Wenhan understands what you mean."
Zhang Wenhan understood that Dong Shuheng had always attached great importance to industrialization and education.
Dong Shuheng would emphasize to them at various meetings that knowledge is power, and schools are places where knowledge is disseminated and developed.
In addition, Dong Shuheng has always told everyone that industrialization is the foundation of a strong country, and that industrialization represents the direction of science and technology. All members of the Huaihai Navy must unremittingly promote industrialization construction.
Dong Shuheng stayed in Ryukyu for a day, just in time to let King Shangtai go back to meet his sister Princess Shangyun.
On the ship these days, King Shangtai was basically kept on the ship studying and rarely went out. Dong Shuheng didn't have time to teach him anything. He just urged him to read and made a list of books for him. Occasionally, he would help him when he was free.
Confused.
Only when negotiating with the Satsuma envoy, he was asked to come out as a witness.
Just this time, the child was really happy. Seeing the Satsuma messenger being silenced by him, Shang Tai felt extremely happy.
In the Ryukyu Palace, King Shotai described to his sister with great joy what he had seen after going to sea, focusing on the part where he angrily denounced the Satsuma envoy.
Seeing her brother's excitement, Princess Shangyun was also very happy.
Following Dong Shuheng, King Shang Tai's demeanor seemed to be more open-minded than before.
Naturally, King Shangtai also wanted to meet with his ministers.
Cai Mao was now ordered to form the Ryukyu National Defense Force, eliminate the old and weak from the original troops, and recruit young men and women from Ryukyu residents of all ethnic groups. Instructors from Huai Haijun were responsible for the training. The organization of the troops was also completely modeled on that of Huai Haijun.
The weapons and equipment of the Ryukyu National Defense Force will also be purchased from the Huai Navy.
Of course, the Huai Navy will not give their latest equipment to the servant army.
However, they will also be equipped with front-loading rifled guns used by militiamen, which are relatively advanced nowadays. At this time, many countries, including the Russians, are still using smoothbore rifles.
This time the Russians would suffer a big loss in the west at the hands of the British and French forces equipped with Migne rifles. Therefore, they began to pay attention to the use of rifled guns.
In the past, rifled guns were only used in small quantities among line infantry. It was not until Napoleon invented skirmishing tactics that the number of rifled gun equipment gradually increased. The invention of the Migne rifle developed this tactic to the extreme.
The Huai Navy went one step further than most of the current infantry. They had basically abandoned line infantry tactics and used a brand new skirmisher tactic.
After staying in Ryukyu for a day, the main fleet embarked on the journey again and sailed directly to Haimen Port.
Dong Shuheng has been away for a long time now, and he will probably have to backlog a lot of things when he goes back this time.
What worried him most was that there was no movement from the Taiping Army, especially on the long defense line bordering the Huaihai Navy. There was no small movement at all.
On the Western Front, some actions were taken.
In March, Shi Dakai of the Taiping Army suddenly led his troops into Hubei. On March 22, he broke through the camp of Wu Wenrong, the governor of Huguang, who was stationed in Huangzhou City, and killed Wu Wenrong. On the 16th, he reached Hankou and Hanyang.
However, they were ambushed by the Hubei Army formed by Zuo Zongtang. They suffered heavy casualties and retreated to Huangzhou.
Since Zuo Zongtang returned from Yangzhou last time, he received the support of Zhang Liangji in Wuhan and formed the Hubei Army.
The Hubei army has two divisions, the Army Division and the Navy Division. All the soldiers in the Army Division are poor people from Hubei. Zuo Zongtang only recruited children from tenant farmers and landless mountain people when recruiting troops.
These people are all extremely poor. After joining the Hubei Army, they can save their whole family from starving to death through salary. Therefore, they cherish their status very much. Coupled with the generous war death pension system, these people fight bravely and fearlessly.
die.
Most of the navy personnel are fishermen and boatmen on the river, and their lives are also extremely difficult. These people make a living on the river and are very familiar with the waterways of the Yangtze River.
Zuo Zongtang also received many modified sampans from the Huai Navy. Each ship was equipped with three or five small guns, which were far stronger than the sampans of the Taiping Army.
In terms of the quality of the soldiers, this is a simple team. The weapons used by the Chu army are basically imported from the Huaihai Navy. The infantry are all equipped with front-loaded smoothbore flintlock guns, and they are all high-quality products produced by the Huaihai Navy.
Unlike the ones used by the Qing Army and the Taiping Army, which would explode at every turn.
The quality of flintlock guns made with industrial lathes is more than one level higher than those made by hand.
It was precisely with such equipment, diligent training, and sufficient wages provided by Zuo Zongtang that the newly born Hubei army was able to win the first battle against the elite Taiping Army.
Zhang Liangji, his old boss, obeyed Zuo Zongtang's words. Zhang Liangji knew that his practical ability was insufficient, and he also knew that Zuo Zongtang was a great talent, otherwise he would not have asked Zuo Zongtang to come out.
Nowadays, Zuo Zongtang has the final say in Hubei’s government affairs.
Taking advantage of this power, Zuo Zongtang asked Zhang Liangji to recommend a group of grassroots officials. Most of these people were Zuo Zongtang's close friends in Hunan. Some of them had been promoted by Zuo Zongtang into the Fuxing Association.
Zuo Zongtang was originally one of the elders of the Renaissance. After that secret meeting, in order to confuse the court and allow the power of the Renaissance to spread and develop, Zuo Zongtang went to Hubei to develop another team to echo the Huaihai Navy from east to west.
Especially since Huai Haijun had openly fallen out with the imperial court. Zuo Zongtang's power became particularly important.
In order to balance Dong Shuheng, the imperial court would even support local armed forces like Zuo Zongtang, giving Zuo Zongtang greater opportunities for development.
Now Zeng Guofan is still in trouble, and the Hunan Army is in disarray. Zuo Zongtang is using the power in his hands and Zhang Liangji's previous connections in the Hunan Army to constantly poach the Hunan Army.
Anyway, his Hubei army is still in the expansion stage and needs a large number of people. Moreover, he now needs guns and money.
Huai Haijun was willing to provide him with flintlock guns, and the gentry in Hubei Province was severely harmed by the Taiping Army, so they were also willing to provide him with money and food.
After defeating the elite Taiping Army this time, the Hubei army suddenly became famous.
Emperor Xianfeng was overjoyed when he heard this. He immediately promoted Zuo Zongtang as governor of Hubei and Zhang Liangji as governor of Huguang, removing the word "acting" and no longer serving as governor of Hubei.
The Qing court now needs a local armed force that can compete with the Huai Navy. Moreover, this Zuo Zongquan was born in Juren, and his identity is much more reliable than Dong Shuheng.