The affairs behind General Linghai Chen Qice were extremely gratifying. Because the old general had no wealth in front of him, Zhou Shixiang took out two silvers and handed them over to Chen Qice's eldest son Chen Shibang for funeral. At the same time, the old general's resignation was sent to Qinzhou and submitted to Kunming by the Governor's Office in Qinzhou. It is believed that the court would receive the resignation from the old general after receiving the resignation from the old general.

After the funeral, according to the wishes of the veteran general during his lifetime, his navy was officially reorganized into the navy of the Taiping Army. Zhou Shixiang ordered Wu Yuan to be the commander of the navy and was actually given the rank of general; general Zhou Sheng and Zheng Chengkui were appointed as deputy commander of the navy and were both given the rank of deputy general. The veteran general's aide Hu Deyu was appointed as the prefect of Zhaoqing, and the old general's eldest son Chen Shibang was appointed as the magistrate of Xinhui. The other son Zhou Shixiang also made proper arrangements to ensure that the veteran general's subordinates did not have any dissatisfaction.

Because the veteran generals arranged in advance, and the main generals were willing to rely on the increasingly powerful Taiping Army, the acceptance and reorganization of Zhaoqing and Xinhui Navy went very smoothly. According to inventory statistics, General Linghai's troops had 78 lucky ships, 68 Dou Ships, Haixia, and other ships that could be used for naval battles. In addition, 400 materials, 35 400 materials, 78 inland ships, such as mail ships, sand ships, etc., and dozens of them were under construction. The navy officers and soldiers were 78, and 52 generals and below were generals.

Among the old general's subordinates, the general Zhou Sheng and Zheng Chengkui, the deputy generals, had made suggestions to accept the Taiping Army's adaptation when the old general was still alive. The former had a grudge against the Qing army to destroy the family, and his life's wish was to break into Beijing and destroy the entire Aisin Gioro family, so he wanted to join the Taiping Army that had won many victory in the Qing army; the latter witnessed with his own eyes how the Taiping Army grew stronger and stronger step by step, and how it completely wiped out the Jidu army, so he also had the intention to surrender.

When the Taiping Army did not rise in the past, Zhou Sheng and Zheng Chengkui followed the veteran general to fight against the Qing Dynasty on the coast. Although the navy was large in scale and strong in combat, they repeatedly damaged the Qing navy, but because they had no power to fight 6, they could not gain a foothold in the 6th place, so they were driven to an isolated island overseas by the Qing army to persist. Without a stable territory, the navy had no fixed source of food and salary, and the court had long ignored them, and the governor's office in Guangdong could not pay any money and food, which made it difficult for the Guangdong navy to maintain.

When they were on the way to the Kawashima, General Linghai's troops sent the navy to the sea because they had no food, and even turned the warships into fishing boats to go out to sea to fish. During those days, the navy was desperate about the future, until the veteran general resolutely led them to Xinhui. Since then, the navy has changed drastically, first gaining a foothold in Xinhui City, and then taking Zhaoqing. The navy's warships have more and more warships, and the territory has become larger and larger. The soldiers will no longer drive the warships out to fish because they have no food.

The navy knew how all this was obtained, so they were close to the powerful Taiping Army from the bottom of their hearts and were willing to join. After all, only by joining the powerful side can they fill their stomachs and survive. The generals may have other thoughts, such as winning the credit and becoming famous for all ages, but the soldiers are simple. If they take their stomachs and taking their revenge, they will work hard for whoever can take them to revenge.

During the Battle of Xinhui, Wu Yuan was the registered general. After occupying Zhaoqing, the old general asked for his merits. The court issued an order and actually appointed Wu Yuan as the general of the Guangdong Navy and was under the jurisdiction of General Linghai.

Wu Yuan never advised the old general to join the Taiping Army, but he did not object to this matter. He was an orphan adopted by the old general back then. After more than 20 years, he largely regarded himself as the old general's private army and general. If the old general did not make arrangements during his lifetime, Wu Yuan might also consider establishing his own business. After all, accepting command from others is still fundamentally different from owning his own army.

It is better to be a chicken head than a phoenix tail. The Taiping Army has no naval army and will continue to rely on him for a long time in the future. He is also a commander of the Guangdong Navy commander who was actually appointed by the court. Therefore, Wu Yuan can also get the benefits that the old general could get from the Taiping Army in the future, and even get more. But now the old general has made arrangements, and Wu Yuan has stopped his self-esteem. He also knows that if he is determined to act alone, the people below may not agree. At least Zhou Sheng and Zheng Chengkui may take the boat to go directly to Zhou Shixiang. It is better for everyone to follow Zhou Shi together, so that the navy can maintain unity. In the future, Zhou Shixiang will treat them badly, and everyone can twist a rope to fight him.

Hu Deyu was once the magistrate of Taishan. After the Qing army entered Guangdong, he joined the old general and worked as an aide. He was honest, otherwise he would not have been sleeping in the open and endured hardships at sea every day. He had no intention of power, so he was afraid that he would surrender to the Qing Dynasty early. In more than ten years, he could be a prefect in the Qing court. If he did well, he could even get a governor. Why should he follow Zhu Ming, who was about to die?

Hu Deyu was loyal to the Ming Dynasty and was devoted to planning for the veteran general. Therefore, when the veteran general decided to come to break the siege of Xinhui, he also advised him. Later, he fought with Zhou Shixiang's subordinates for the seized spoils and food, but the efforts were not to fill Hu Deyu's private pockets, but to the veteran general and the thousands of navy soldiers under his command.

Hu Deyu was very sad for the death of the old general, but he knew what was the most important thing at the moment. Before his death, the old general was thinking about serving the king and saving the emperor. As his aide and a minister of the Ming Dynasty, Hu Deyu put down his sadness and tried his best to cooperate with Zhou Shixiang to integrate the navy. He also happily accepted the position of Zhaoqing prefect who was appointed by Zhou Shixiang. Even though he knew that Zhou Shixiang did not have the authority to appoint the prefect, he still accepted it calmly. His concern was to settle the situation in Zhaoqing as soon as possible and prepare for the Western Expedition to serve the king.

After the Navy was integrated, Zhou Shixiang allocated another 80,000 taels of silver to expand the scale of the Zhaoqing Shipyard, and ordered the shipyard to build as many sand ships as possible before August. He also ordered Zheng Chengkui to lead a fleet to go up the Liujiang River to Guangxi to explore the waterways, detect hydrology, and prepare for the Taiping Army's massive westward advance.

In addition to the old general, Zhaoqing also has another force, but it is Zhu Tong, the general of Zhenguo. The general of Zhenguo is the first rank of military officer, the eldest son of the county prince is called the eldest son of the king, the second son is the general of Zhenguo, and the other sons are the general of the state of auxiliary state.

Zhu Tong was the ninth generation grandson of King Ning Xian. After the Qing army entered the pass, most of the royal families chose to surrender to the Qing army, such as Zhu Changqing, the Lu King who surrendered in Hangzhou and others. Zhu Tong refused to surrender to the Qing army and scattered his family's wealth and bravely resisted the Qing army. Like Zhu Wei'e, the Tang king who insisted on resisting the Qing Dynasty in Taishan, they were all examples of the royal family who never surrendered until death.

Zhu Tong's deeds of scattering his family's wealth and insisting on resisting the Qing Dynasty made Zhou Shixiang very impressed, but Zhou Shixiang always felt that he was at a disadvantage when dealing with this general in power. Because this royal family was really an anomaly, he refused to suffer any losses no matter what he did, and was good at calculating like a businessman. When discussing the reorganization of his department with him, Zhu Tong showed that he was not shrewd, but was almost greedy, or he spoke loudly.

After Chen Qice's navy was taken over by Zhou Shixiang, Zhu Tong knew that it was inevitable that the Taiping Army would take over Zhaoqing. He could not refuse the Taiping Army's takeover of Zhaoqing, so he smartly chose to cooperate. He had only three or four thousand soldiers under his command, and the soldiers he could fight were actually only a few hundred. If he really didn't cooperate, Zhou Shixiang would not have to fight, Chen Qice's subordinates could also eat him.

The weak strength does not mean that Zhu Tong was willing to let Zhou Shixiang manipulate him. He put on the airs of the royal family and asked Zhou Shixiang for the establishment of the two soldiers. These two soldiers not only asked Zhou Shixiang to give people money and food, but also weapons.

Zhou Shixiang felt that Zhu Tong was really shameless, but the other party showed off his appearance as loyal to the country and put on a grand clan airs. He was really not easy to offend him, and he was even more difficult to force him to submit with force. He could only use patience to discuss with the other party. Finally, after a bargaining, Zhu Tong was satisfied to win the conditions for himself to be a town.

Zhou Shixiang gave Zhu Tong a town to form a town and established it as the eighth town of the Taiping Army. In addition to the 4,000 soldiers in his army, more than a thousand people were drawn from the Navy's 6th battle. In addition to the two thousand volunteers that Guo Zhiqi had recruited on the coast, he finally gathered three brigades. He also selected one low-level officer from the third town and the military preparation training institute to be assigned to this town and ordered him to station in Zhaoqing.

It took more than half a month to sort out the matter in Zhaoqing. During this period, Zhou Shixiang successively invited Ming army generals stationed in various places to come to Zhaoqing to negotiate the affairs of the king. There were more than 20 copies of the posts, and only 7 people were willing to come. The rest were either waiting for the orders of the Governor's Office, or making excuses to refuse to come. However, there were not even a reply from the Governor's Office in Qinzhou and the Governor of the Four Prefectures in Gaozhou.

Zhou Shixiang was very angry, and he decided to solve the problem by force. (To be continued.)8
Chapter completed!