Chapter 265: It

Huizhou Port.

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

The reorganized Guangdong Navy finally had the look of a navy. Although it was still very immature, at least it looked like it.

Wanting to improve further, it needed to experience actual combat tests next.

Pirates and rebels were both good novice dungeons. Using them to train troops was the most suitable.

"Marquis, the warships in front of you are the main warships of the Guangdong Navy.

Among them, the largest warship can accommodate over a thousand officers and soldiers. Equipped with multiple cannons, it can attack the enemy from several miles away.

……"

Li Mu introduced with half-baked naval knowledge.

The specific combat effectiveness of the Guangzhou Navy was a mystery, but judging from the paper data, it could still be ranked in the Great Dayu Dynasty.

In the first few decades of the founding, the imperial court still attached great importance to the development of the navy, promoting the progress of shipbuilding technology.

Subsequently, because of the sea ban policy, the development of the navy was interrupted, and shipbuilding technology stopped for over a hundred years.

So much so that the Great Dayu Navy, which was originally the world's first, was gradually surpassed by the Western world.

Of course, judging from the current situation, the technical gap between the two sides was not large.

Everyone stayed in the age of sailing, just because their respective needs were different, they embarked on different technical routes.

"Hmm!"

"Just be able to defeat the rebel army!"

The Marquis of Wuyang's answer made Li Mu very speechless.

It was truly Great Dayu; the requirements for the navy were really not high.

The rebel army's inland river navy was purely composed of a group of fishermen. The ships were small, and many ships were not equipped with cannons at all.

It wasn't until they defeated the Jiangnan Navy that they harvested a few warships.

Tossing around on the inland river was fine, but once they reached the sea, the waves could take them away.

Even so, the rebel navy was still feared by the imperial court, which hard-blocked the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, cutting off the connection between the two sides.

"Marquis, rest assured, the mere rebel water thieves are not to be feared.

Only waiting for the completion of cross-sea combat training, we can lead the army north to break the rebel army's siege of Nanjing."

Li Mu immediately drew a pie.

Reorganizing the navy was also an offensive job. Without the Viceroy's support, he, the Commandant, would also have trouble doing it.

Wanting to obtain the Marquis of Wuyang's full support, he had to let people see the benefits that reorganizing the navy could bring.

Lifting the siege of Nanjing was undoubtedly the best reason.

The imperial court repeatedly ordered various Viceroys to prioritize supporting the Nanjing battlefield and ensure Yingtian Prefecture was not lost.

Against this backdrop, all plans to reinforce Nanjing had to be carefully considered.

Those with feasibility had to be prioritized for implementation.

"Good!"

"Waiting for the day to defeat the rebel army, I will personally request merit for all the officers and soldiers!"

The Marquis of Wuyang answered perfunctorily.

If it weren't for Li Mu's repeated invitations, he wouldn't have appeared here at all.

On the issue of suppressing the White Lotus rebel army, the protagonist was the army, and the navy was just a helper.

Being able to defeat the rebel navy was naturally the best; if this couldn't be done, as long as the main army could be safely sent to Suzhou Prefecture to land.

Subsequent ability to guarantee grain supply was also considered completing the task.

Investing heavy money was impossible; Zhejiang was engulfed in the flames of war without income, and only Liangguang and Fujian could provide tax payments, so he, the Viceroy, was not rich either.

However, he was very supportive of reorganizing the navy.

War is not child's play; any link having an accident could lead to the failure of the war.

If not reorganized well, in case of being successfully ambushed by the rebel army on the road, it would be troublesome to implicate the army in heavy losses.

The Viceroy's interest was not high, and the inspection work was completed quickly.

However, Li Mu's purpose was achieved.

Today's play was not only for the imperial court to see but also for the sea merchants to see.

Overseas interests were too lucrative; for him, this Liangguang Commandant, not to get involved was really unreasonable.

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

This time the situation was different; the gentry group was severely damaged, and the sea merchants who relied on them could not avoid being affected.

Some unlucky ones even died in the White Lotus rebellion.

At this moment, it was in the stage of reshuffling overseas interests, and wanting to intervene in overseas trade was undoubtedly the best node.

In fact, compared to personally going down to do business, Li Mu preferred to collect commercial taxes directly.

However, the sea merchant interest group still had strong power.

The sea merchant groups in Liangguang, Zhejiang, and Nanzhili were harmed by the White Lotus rebel army, but the sea merchants in the Fujian region were not damaged.

On land, adding them all together, Li Mu could easily clean them up.

Once at sea, the situation changed; just the few ships under his command were really not the opponents of this group of guys.

Even adding the Guangdong Navy, it couldn't achieve dominance at sea.

Afraid of the whole sea merchant group, but against any single family, it could still occupy an advantage.

Since everyone was wary of each other, then build a platform and show off the strength in their hands.

Finding an opportunity to sit down and discuss the division of maritime interests, everyone getting rich together was the right path.

Li Mu's goal was very clear; no matter how everyone fought at sea, he could pretend not to see.

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

The plan had started to be implemented, but Li Mu still didn't have a fleet capable of long-distance voyages in his hands.

Not having a fleet was not a problem; as an official of the Great Dayu Dynasty, as long as he held power, he wouldn't worry about not having partners.

After today's big play, those sea merchants who lost their backers in the court would naturally come to the door to seek cooperation.

Before his own fleet developed, it was very necessary to gather a group of younger brothers.

In the Great Dayu Dynasty, merchants with hard backers treated smuggling as legal business and didn't avoid people at all.

Standing in Li Mu's position, if his heart was blacker, he could even designate a piece of island as an officially designated pirate disposal nest.

Now the several major disposal nests overseas all had official backgrounds.

Who was manipulating behind the scenes, it hadn't been figured out for a while.

Anyway, he, this Liangguang Commandant, had just taken office not long ago, and someone sent a dividend.

If nothing went wrong, after today, the amount of dividends would increase.

The main thing was interest binding, turning military generals into his own people.

Without any surprise, Li Mu also accepted the money.

In order for the suppression work to proceed smoothly, he had to stabilize these guys first.

If he really ended the disposal and supply nests, those pirates would go ashore to plunder.

The long coastline was completely impossible to defend.

It was easy to push down the original order, but difficult to establish a new order.

……

Yangzhou Prefecture.

Li Mu was training his troops in Liangguang, but Pei Yunxuan, this Jiangnan Viceroy, was under great pressure.

After the rebel army besieged Nanjing, it didn't stop its pace of expansion.

Many prefectures south of the Yangtze River fell into the hands of the rebel army one after another.

Looking at the map, Zhejiang, Nanzhili, and Jiangxi provinces only had a small area left.

Zhejiang's problem didn't need his worry, but Nanzhili and Jiangxi were both under his jurisdiction.

"Viceroy, take care of your health!"

Gu Youwen stepped forward to advise.

The imperial court urged them to recover Anqing as soon as possible and force the rebel army to give up Yingtian Prefecture.

Unfortunately, this plan was purely wishful thinking.

If it were just an isolated Yingtian Prefecture, the rebel army might have been forced to choose to withdraw because of the loss of Anqing.

The situation now was different; in the entire Jiangxi region, besides the isolated city of Nanchang, there were only a few counties in the south in the hands of the imperial court.

That was one of the few results of the Fujian army sending troops to Jiangxi.

On the Nanzhili side, they also lost Huizhou Prefecture, Ningguo Prefecture, Yingtian Prefecture, and Suzhou Prefecture one after another, and most of them were lost.

Coupled with the rebel army's territory in Huguang and Zhejiang, regardless of whether they possessed Anqing, the rebel army would not give up capturing Nanjing.

"Nanchang is in an emergency!

If there are no reinforcements, the entire Jiangxi will fall into the hands of the rebel army.

I, this Jiangnan Viceroy, will soon become a joke."

Pei Yunxuan said helplessly.

Now he really wanted to send troops to reinforce Nanchang, but unfortunately, there were no troops to use.

To let the Capital Battalion put in effort, he personally went to express condolences.

As a result, that group of guys agreed well on the surface, but when it came to specific execution, they were still slacking off.

Deep down, he seriously suspected that the group of soldiers chose to watch from the sidelines, just wanting to see Nanjing fall.

Everything was caused by interests; the White Lotus rebellion had been making a scene until now, and the civil official group still hadn't made concessions to the military generals.

Without getting what they wanted at the negotiating table, the nobility continued to execute their "scraping the bone to remove poison" plan.

After the rebel army's baptism, they jumped out to recover the lost territory.

Before that, those who slacked off slacked off, and those who mixed days mixed days.

The specific performance was the Huguang battlefield, which had changed in recent days.

The newly appointed Baoqing Assistant Regional Commander and Chenzhou Assistant Regional Commander, with Li Mu's support, recovered Baoqing Prefecture and Chenzhou Prefecture one after another.

Even in the Changsha region, there was only one prefecture city in the hands of the rebel army, and other regions were recovered by the newly appointed Changsha Vice Regional Commander.

The most unexpected thing was Changde Prefecture, which was recovered by the Hunan militia, and now they were launching an attack on the Yuezhou and Jingzhou regions.

If the guess was correct, the turning point of the suppression war would occur after the fall of Nanjing.

After reaching this conclusion, Pei Yunxuan felt bad all over.

Political struggle didn't matter; hitting the arrogance of the Jiangnan group, he was also happy to see it.

But the problem was that he was now the Jiangnan Viceroy; if he lost Nanjing, he would be the main person responsible.

"Viceroy, directly show your cards and negotiate terms with the Marquis of Wuyang!

The only way to turn the tide now is to let Liangguang send troops.

Looking at the court's personnel appointments, Grand Secretary Xu has mostly reached a deal with the nobility.

In recent days, the Huguang battlefield is launching a comprehensive counterattack; if we don't have any action here, we can't explain it to the imperial court.

What the nobility group wants is nothing more than occupying a few more positions."

Gu Youwen advised.

As a member of the Chu Party, he had heard about his boss compromising with the nobility.

Standing from a personal stance, he was certainly unhappy; how could he let a group of military men manipulate him.

But considering the overall situation, he felt that things could still be discussed.

Every day the rebel army tossed in Huguang, they were cutting their meat and letting their blood.

Only when the imperial army recovered the lost territory early could they take back everything they lost as soon as possible.

If it dragged on for a long time, it would be difficult to go back again.

In case the White Lotus Sect's high-level brain got hot and really engaged in land revolution in their controlled area, that would be finished.

Once the White Lotus Sect distributed the land to the bottom-level people, even if the imperial army recovered the lost territory, they wouldn't be able to take back the land easily.

Since they could make compromises for the overall situation, other officials could also compromise.

The suppression of the Jiangnan gentry group had entered the final stage, so there was no need to put themselves in.

Even if the Marquis of Wuyang didn't agree to reinforce Nanjing immediately, as long as he could send troops from behind and recover the vast area of Jiangxi, it could alleviate their pressure.

"That's it!

For the sake of the overall situation, I will endure the humiliation for once.

Secretary Liu, you personally go to Guangzhou and negotiate with the Marquis of Wuyang.

As long as he is willing to send troops, I am willing to recommend the virtuous for the country with him.

My bottom line is two Vice Regional Commanders and five Assistant Regional Commanders; for lower-level officers, you look at it and negotiate with him.

As for civil officials, you can relax a bit; they don't have that many people to insert."

Pei Yunxuan said ruthlessly.

As a frontier official, everyone had confidants to cultivate.

The positions given up now were all dug out from his hands.

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

Which faction occupies more positions and important positions, that faction has more right to speak in the court.

In the past, civil officials hugged together to suppress military generals and didn't take local commanders to heart.

But after experiencing the White Lotus rebellion, the situation changed all of a sudden.

The core concept of suppressing military generals would not change.

But if major factions wanted to master the initiative, they also needed to cultivate military generals belonging to their own faction.

Like the current embarrassing scene of not being able to command the army when encountering things, no one wanted to come a second time.

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

"Viceroy is wise!"

Having obtained the desired answer, the officials present responded in unison.

In everyone's view, choosing to compromise was right.

The Marquis of Wuyang delayed providing them with support and even played tricks to detain the Yangzhou Battalion and the Huai'an Battalion, which was essentially a conflict of interests.

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

Out of consideration for interests, Pei Yunxuan refused them all.

In the appointment of local officials, the Viceroy's right to speak was very heavy.

Perhaps the people he supported might not be able to get the position, but the people he clearly opposed would definitely not be able to sit in the position.

Now it is wartime; if the relationship between superiors and subordinates is not harmonious, let alone suppressing the rebel army, just the internal fighting is enough to make people worry.

"Viceroy, besides sending people to lobby the Marquis of Wuyang, the newly appointed Liangguang Commandant Li Mu must also be taken seriously.

A few years ago, this person was still a Yangzhou Assistant Regional Commander; being able to be promoted to the high position of Liangguang Commandant so quickly is definitely not just relying on suppression military merit.

According to what the subordinate knows, this person is not only the Marquis of Wuyang's confidant but also has the most prominent Jing and Li families behind him.

Among the younger generation of the nobility, he has very great influence.

Most of the nobility generals who have risen to power now are promoted from under his command."

Ma Vice Prefect reminded from the side.

Eat a cut, grow a wisdom.

During Li Mu's tenure as Yangzhou Assistant Regional Commander, because of the conflict of power, he suffered no small losses.

If it weren't for the withdrawal of the Yangzhou Battalion, who would be the boss of Yangzhou City would not be certain.

The public security management brigade formed by the garrison army directly snatched the government office's work in the city.

Encountering things, the residents in the city would rather go to the garrison government office to solve them than enter the government office.

The most annoying thing was that the group of guys had a case-breaking speed far faster than the government office, which seriously affected their financial path.

"Hmm!

Secretary Liu, when you go, prepare an extra thick gift."

……

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 266 =====