General Li Shuanzhu is nearly forty years old. In the past 20 years of joining the army, he has experienced many battles and has experienced life and death. He has long lost his impetuousness when he was young, and has become calm and moderate, and has no anger and power.

When Li Xiaozu and Duan Changjiang arrived, the Count was drinking tea slowly. Two fifteen-year-old boys stood beside him, Li Xiaotian, the second brother of Li Xiaozu and the third brother of Li Xiaoru. These two naughty boys stood aside with a restrained expression, and did not dare to breathe for a moment.

Li Xiaozu knew that his father had always been unrestrained in the mansion, and was upright and rigorous, and highly valued rules. So he went up to worship and said, "I'll pay my respects to my father."

"I have met my uncle and kowtowed to you."

"Well, get up, I know that Changjiang is a good boy. You and Xiaozu stand aside and come with me to welcome the guests later."

"My nephew obeys the order."

After responding, Duan Changjiang didn't dare to say much. After kowtowed, he stood obediently next to Li Xiaozu and stood by his side with his hands down.

In fact, he is the second generation of aristocrats. The previous generation was born in hardships. He was able to achieve today's glory by hard work without fear of life and death. He was strict in governing the next generation. Under the teachings by words and deeds, these young people born in aristocrats learned rules and practiced etiquette since childhood, but did not become crooked.

Not long after

The servants came to report; Viscount Humen and his party came to visit.

General Li Shuanzhu suddenly stood up and walked out first with dragon and tiger steps. Li Xiaozu and others behind him did not dare to be negligent, and hurriedly followed behind him to greet him.

"The noble Count, I'm disturbing you."

"Hahahaha... Sir Li is polite. It's a great pleasure to have friends coming from afar. You and I have been friends for more than ten years, so why should I see you outside? Please come in and talk to you."

"Then, it's better to obey your orders than to be respectful."

Viscount Humen Li Yong is a middle-aged man with a low stature. He is a little thin, but his aura is not small when he stops there.

The two of them are indeed old acquaintances. More than ten years ago, when Li Shuanzhu was just a lieutenant colonel, he followed the African Expeditionary Force led by Major General Mo Rufeng to Mozambique. He stayed in Somalia for half a year to prepare for war.

Acquaintance is acquaintance, but there is no intersection.

Li Shuanzhu is a very pure soldier who will not be too close to smugglers, nor will he be attracted and corrupted. He himself is very resistant to interacting with these people and has no friendship.

A few greetings

General Li Shuanzhu brought the guests to the main hall and sat down. His servants presented fragrant tea to entertain the guests.

The servants who came with Viscount Humen presented more than a dozen gifts, so there were naturally some people in the Earl's Mansion to hand over them, so there was no need to worry.

In addition to these more than 10 gifts, Viscount Humen also presented 10 precious Arab purebred horses, and ten Arab women covered in black veils. Although they could not see their faces, they showed their graceful appearance while walking, and they must have a very good figure.

The so-called "the top has policies and the bottom has countermeasures.

The empire explicitly prohibited slavery. At the feet of the emperor, the nobles dared not violate the law. These Arab women were not female slaves, but long-term contract workers with heavy debts.

As for how much heavy debt is, haha... I will never pay it back in my life anyway.

Seeing these gifts, Li Xiaozu could still pretend to be calm. Duan Changjiang could no longer help but walk behind and poke him with his fingers, as if he had a lot of opinions about publishing.

Li Xiaozu was so troubled by him that he turned around and glanced at him with a stern look, slapped his hand off with a slap. Duan Changjiang was only more honest.

In the main hall

Viscount Humen Li Yong, with his two sons, and his two confidants, sat there talking. His two sons were the second son Li Jianguo and the third son Li Jianhua. Although he was not old, the mark of wind and sand could be seen on his face and his eyes were sharp.

One of the two confidants is the Old Wolf Baron, known as the Wolf Jazz, and the other is the "Blood Yama", known as the Blood Jazz, and they are both famous and ruthless characters in Somalia.

However, in the First Class Earl's Mansion in Gaomen and Shenyuan, they were all small characters, only to be obedient and obedient, and there was no chance to speak. The gap in identity was too big.

It is impossible to talk about secret matters in such public places.

The two sides simply talked about family matters, recalling the glorious years of the past, and now they are in the turmoil of the imperial capital.

General Li Shuanzhu knew the appeal of Viscount Humen. Since he was willing to accept the other party’s visit and the other party’s precious gifts, it would naturally come naturally and there was no need to say it clearly.

The commander of the Royal Imperial Guards was very sensitive, almost equivalent to the nine-sect admiral of the Qingting and the commander of the Xishan camp. He must not form cliques without authorization for personal gain, and secretly communicate with the script. The sense of proportion is crucial.

General Li Shuanzhu had already reported this to the palace, and Secretary-General Zhang Li's answer was very simple;

Your Majesty has been on vacation in Longhu Palace these days and traveling around the forest. There is no need to report these trivial matters.

General Li Shuanzhu naturally understood it and could do it cheaply.

As a direct royal territory, the Luzon Islands are now in military control. General Li Shuanzhu, the commander of the Royal Guards, is the supreme ruler of the region. He is in charge of military and political efforts and wants to seize 500,000 acres of forests in the Legaspi area in northern Manila, which is a barrier that he cannot get around in any way.

General Li Shuanzhu didn't nod and could do nothing.

This is not to say that General Li Shuanzhu uses his power for personal gain. As a military general, he generally does not participate in local government affairs.

Since the Office of the Internal Affairs Office intends to sell large tracts of land and introduce private capital in Somalia to develop the Luzon Islands economy, it means that things have been generally settled, and there is no need for him to be this villain, just follow the flow.

To accomplish this, the military and the Ministry of Internal Affairs are indispensable. Ordinary nobles cannot even reach the threshold. The difficulty is definitely hell-level. The empire has never approved such a large piece of land at one time. This is the first case.

It can be seen from the side that Viscount Humen is really good at all. After all, he once offered his favorite concubine to His Majesty and also offered 40,000 square kilometers of land in Eritrea, which is simple in the heart of the emperor.

On the lobby

General Li Shuanzhu was very interested in the war between Humen mercenaries in South Africa and asked about the specific situation.

Viscount Humen Li Yong clasped his fists and bowed his fists respectfully and replied;

"Thank you, the noble Count, for your concern. I feel ashamed to speak. When we arrived at the ghost place in Djibouti, there was nothing but the mouthful of sand. The environment was too harsh.

You know, after the smuggling business was completed, the armed mercenaries gradually developed.

After all, the men are all working hard, and punching and kicking have created the big scene today.

At the end of last year, the British came to the door and spoke very arrogantly. They felt like giving alms and were rejected directly by me.

Half a year later

The war in South Africa has been deteriorating again and again, and the British are also in a hurry to seek medical treatment. They are willing to sit down and talk about the employment contract seriously, which eventually led to cooperation.

Originally, the British man asked for 15,000 people as soon as he opened his mouth, and he said casually that money was not a problem and everything was easy to talk about.

I was also shocked by the British's good appetite. After coming back and touching the bottom, I finally decided that the size of five or six thousand people should not exceed seven thousand people.

These 6,500 mercenaries are almost half of our family. If there are more, they will affect our smuggling business in the Arabian Peninsula and Persia. This is much more prosperous than the business of mercenaries who spend money, and that is absolutely impossible.

Now on the battlefield in South Africa

We hired mercenaries to show off their prestige and fame. In more than three months, we wiped out more than 2,300 enemies, captured more than 470 people, and captured 22,000 Buer civilians, which greatly increased our face.

To be honest, our losses are not small. More than 780 people were killed and nearly a thousand injured in the battle. The total number of casualties exceeded 1,800, which was close to a quarter of the proportion. We had to slow down the pace of the battle and let the guys take a breath.

The Boers are like African venomous bees, with a sharp counterattack and extremely accurate marksmanship. When they move slightly slower, they are reversed, which is quite difficult to mess with.

So, I have sent a telegram to Li Jianyang from the front line of South Africa, asking this child not to be too stupid and to deal with the British. If we continue to fight like this, we will not be able to bear it.

The key point is to reduce casualties.”

"Li Jianyang, is he the eldest son of your mansion?" Li Shuanzhu asked with interest.

"It was my son who asked him to go, not to command anyone, but to contact all uncles and uncles as my representative to provide timely logistics supplies and intelligence information. How to fight is the business of all uncles. Well... There is a saying in our mercenary corps: life and death are based on fate, wealth and honor are in heaven."

"So that's the case, that's great."

"Haha... I'm going to know that Lord Lord, this child went out to sea with me at the age of 12 and lived a life of licking blood from the knife. It has been more than ten years since the wind and rain. Basically, all the well-known uncles in Somalia know each other and they will give me some thin faces." Speaking of this, Viscount Li Yong also looked a little sighing.

When the child was so old, he played with a wooden sword and a wooden gun, but his son had a real gun and a live ammunition. At a young age, he had already had a life-threatening hand.

Within the scope of the Ottoman Empire, armed smuggling is not an easy task. If you are not lucky, you will be furious and robbed by a large number of patrols or tribal armed robberies.

It’s okay to win, but if you lose, you will suffer heavy losses. Not only will the goods be lost, but the guards are killed and injured, but they are also chased to the end of the world. Sometimes they have to escape into the desert of death, and they have gone through a lot of hardships to save their lives.

You can't just think about thieves eating meat, you must also see thieves being beaten.

Humen mercenaries are famous throughout the Arabian Peninsula and Persia, and their flaws will be well-known. If the armed smuggling merchants in Humen are either wiped out, otherwise they will escape and will inevitably suffer extremely bloody revenge.

Viscount Humen Li Yong's most famous battle was the "Battle of Kuwait", which made him famous in one battle.

Kuwait belongs to a remote desert town in the Ottoman Empire. The city has a population of only a few thousand people, and there is a circle of simple earthen walls. Some nearby Arab nomadic tribes are scattered around, with a total of about 20,000 to 30,000 people.

Because it is close to the harbor and is very close to the Iraqi Mesopotamia, armed smuggling is rampant. In order to combat smuggling, the Ottoman Empire sent an Enverpasha to lead troops in, with about 500 cavalry and 1,200 infantry under its command.

Li Yong was unlucky and was leading a large caravan to land in Kuwait. After a short rest, he had just left the city and walked for a day when he ran head-on into the army led by Enverpasha.

The reconnaissance cavalry sent by the armed caravan were wiped out by the Ottoman cavalry. Li Yongshang was confused and ended up crashing into the encirclement.

There is no suspense in the battle. Most of the more than 240 armed caravans were annihilated, and a small number were executed after surrendering. Only Li Yong led a dozen mercenaries to fight out a bloody path and fled into the desert desperately, and then saved his life.

After suffering a great loss, Li Yong returned to Humen and quickly summoned thousands of mercenaries and landed in a bay more than 30 kilometers away from Kuwait on 7 smuggling ships.

I took a short rest for a day, and the next night, I quietly covered it and killed it as soon as the sky was wiped dark.

The earthen walls that were most of the people could not stop the fierce mercenaries. Until dawn this night, the small Kuwait City kept gunfire, howling endlessly, and the fires soared into the sky, and were slaughtered by blood.

The army led by Enverpasha was caught off guard, and the entire army was wiped out without any accident, and no one of them was left. Enverpasha also died in this battle and was shot into a hornet's nest by bullets...

The Ottoman Empire was beyond the reach of this remote area. Sending fewer troops was equivalent to delivering vegetables. Sending more troops was heavy and the food, money and supplies needed to travel a long distance from the wealthy Syria. It was extremely expensive. After two years of entanglement, I simply gave up and ignored it.

From then on, the "African Lion King" was famous for its reputation, and Kuwait City became the base camp for Li Yong to smuggle the Arabian Peninsula. The earthen wall was raised to the height of two people, and more than 300 mercenaries were stationed all year round.

"It's really not easy!" General Li Shuanzhu sighed, but he didn't feel any compassion, just saying this verbally.

A iron-blooded general like him who has been fighting for the rest of his life can only frown on His Majesty, who vows to follow him for life, and a word can make his mood fluctuate, either panic or ecstatic, and his authority is as powerful as a prison!

Before His Holiness, he will always be the young officer walking on thin ice, a fanatical follower, and a devout believer.

As for the life and death of other people, General Li Shuanzhu saw too many things and would not be touched at all. Without iron-blooded means, how can millions of indigenous people in the Luzon Islands be realized...

Ahem, it's off topic.
To be continued...