Xu Hongji and Xu Wenjue never expected that their actions of opening up Lu Ruolin's relationship through Zhang Jingrui did not have a positive effect, but instead became the Xu family's death talisman.

The specific handling of the Xu family, Lu Ruolin, did not discuss in detail, and Zhang Jingrui was very wise and did not ask.

"How is Hong Chengchou doing recently?" Lu Ruolin asked suddenly.

"I am familiar with the troops in the military camp, very low-key, and have no contact with anyone outside." Zhang Jingrui replied seriously.

"What do the officers and soldiers below have the impression of Hong Chengchou?" Lu Ruolin continued to ask.

"I was a little resistant at the beginning, but I gradually accepted it after spending a long time together." Zhang Jingrui's tone was filled with admiration.

"That's good." Lu Ruolin nodded.

When the capital city was broken, Lu Ruolin rescued Hong Chengchou, who was imprisoned in the prison.

Hong Chengchou was imprisoned by the court because of his failure in fighting with Li Zicheng. He was originally going to be prepared to kill him. However, because of the slow procedure and Li Zicheng's rapid progress, Hong Chengchou was still imprisoned in the prison when the city was broken.

Hong Chengchou has many controversies in history, but no matter from any aspect, he is a talent. The failure of fighting against Li Zicheng has great objective factors, which does not mean that he is not capable.

So out of love for talent, Lu Ruolin caught him out of prison.

At that time, the capital had lost order, and the Ministry of Justice was useless. It didn't take much effort to rescue Hong Chengchou.

In southern Liaoning, Hong Chengchou was well taken care of and gradually understood the situation in front of him.

Although the Ming Dynasty was still there, there was no hope. Hong Chengchou, who had been in prison, had nothing to nostalgic for the Ming Dynasty. Lu Ruolin only invited him once, and Hong Chengchou agreed to serve An Guojun.

There are not many senior generals around Lu Ruolin who have command capabilities in a large army. Even Wang Dahai, Sun Fugui and others have grown up slowly after they have been promoted. In other words, An Guojun's own strength is too strong, which has diluted their shortcomings in command capabilities.

Hong Chengchou was different. As several generals in the late Ming Dynasty, if the imperial army had not been too messy, it would have not fallen to its current level.

This time when I went to Sulu, Lu Ruolin was not worried about the naval battle. It was just that how to occupy the territory after getting ashore was a big problem. At that time, the navy was not able to help, and it was the battlefield of the army.

Because it is far away from the local area and is completely unfamiliar, the candidate for the commander is very important. Because it not only involves the issue of war, but also has various alliances, conspiracies and tricks. Without a skilled commander, it is difficult to pacify Sulu in a short period of time.

It just so happened that Hong Chengchou agreed to apply for it and was eager to make some achievements to prove himself and wash away his previous shame. Lu Ruolin took the opportunity to arrange him as the commander of the Sulu Expeditionary Army, with a total of 20,000 troops under his command.

This is just an early army. If everything goes well, Lu Ruolin will gradually increase troops to Su Lu and authorize Hong Chengchou to form a Chinese army locally.

There is only one goal, to occupy Sulu as soon as possible and pacify the local situation.

Because of the special system of the Anguo Army, Lu Ruolin was not very worried about the rebellion of his generals. Therefore, even if Hong Chengchou's loyalty to Lu Ruolin is questionable, it does not prevent Lu Ruolin from entrusting him with important tasks. After all, Hong Chengchou is now a senior tool man under Lu Ruolin.

Hong Chengchou is from Fujian, and Fujianese are also a major force in the Jiangnan officialdom. Logically, Hong Chengchou should contact fellow villagers in the officialdom when he goes to Jiangnan, but his identity is a bit awkward now, so he simply hides in the military camp and trains his soldiers carefully.

In fact, since Hong Chengchou was defeated and imprisoned, and then the capital was captured, no one in the Ming Dynasty's officialdom has paid attention to him, the former commander of the Ming Dynasty. He was not even a person who paid attention to him specifically, but he thought he had died in the fall of the capital.

If you want to return to the world's sight, nothing can compare to a brilliant victory, so Hong Chengchou put all his energy into running-in with his soldiers.

What made him more gratified was that An Guojun was disciplined and even a commander like him who was airborne, still had high authority.

The promotion mechanism within the Anguo Army is very strict. Most people need to start from the grassroots level and also need to study and training.

But Hong Chengchou is definitely not an ordinary person.

In terms of level, Hong Chengchou and even Lu Ruolin's old superior have rich combat experience and are well-known.

So when Hong Chengchou took Lu Ruolin's appointment letter and refused to accompany senior Anguo Army officials and came to the military camp alone to take office, after a brief surprise and commotion, the soldiers of Anguo Army accepted this fact.

Hong Chengchou was very satisfied with the result. The start was perfect. Next, he needed to get along with the officers and soldiers and gain their trust.

The atmosphere in the Anguo Army army made Hong Chengchou very enjoyable. The hierarchy here is strict, disciplined, and clear division of labor. There is no military leader or small group. Once his order is issued, it will be implemented efficiently immediately.

The military's tutor system made Hong Chengchou very interested.

At the beginning, Hong Chengchou believed that this custody system was an invasion and supervision of his own power, and he was repulsive deep in his heart.

But after learning more, he gradually felt that this custody system actually did not pose much threat to him, but instead saved him a lot of trouble.

At least he doesn't have to worry too much about tedious things such as logistics and soldiers' ideological work. The tutors will perfectly help him solve them. Although Hong Chengchou cannot easily decide on rewards and punishments and personnel, which makes Hong Chengchou, who is used to arbitrary behavior, he knows that no matter how cautious he is on this issue, it is still necessary.

Perhaps the Anguo Army's stable state lies in the seemingly inconspicuous system of custody officials.

Fortunately, Hong Chengchou, as the top leader of the army, had no doubt about the power and status he should have. Hou Ziping, the governor who cooperated with him, also respected him very much. Overall, Hong Chengchou was still very satisfied.

Hong Chengchou has also been a soldier for many years and has seen many various armies. An Guojun is said to be the most worry-free and labor-saving army he has led.

When Hong Chengchou was still in Liaodong, he had several contacts with the Anguo Army and was deeply impressed by the overall quality of the Anguo Army. For this reason, he also sent many people to the Anguo Army to learn from the scriptures.

However, they only learned the basics of An Guojun's set. Without the support of the entire system, their role in enhancing the overall combat effectiveness of Guanning Army is limited.

In particular, the Guanning Army was formed almost around the various military leaders. The deeply rooted military leaders' families had a very terrifying control over the army and could even lead the army to rebel at any time.

In this case, it is completely impossible to make the Guanning Army transform with the Anguo Army as a template.

Therefore, there are actually many people who know the training methods of An Guojun, but none of them can learn them.

Hong Chengchou was born as a literati. Although he finally became a general in command of the army, his literati color could not be washed away no matter what.

However, the Anguo Army was completely an alien among all the troops at that time. The literacy rate of officers and soldiers was very high. It can be said that it was an ideological and cultural army.

The new recruits recruited by the Anguo Army generally have a certain foundation in literacy, and the army has never interrupted literacy education after training, so most officers and soldiers have basic reading abilities, and some people with strong abilities can also write articles.

Although this level of culture is not even as good as that of Tong Sheng in Hong Chengchou, it is extremely rare to be with these big-headed soldiers.

What interested Hong Chengchou the most was the ideological education work of An Guojun, which had almost never appeared in the Ming army.

The Ming army supervisors either used severe punishments to deter soldiers, or devoted themselves to how to make money, and did not care about the lives and death of grassroots soldiers.

The officers of the Ming Dynasty also spent most of their worries on making money and eating empty wages. They regarded ordinary soldiers as slaves and livestock, and it would be strange if their relationships improved.

The Anguo Army is different. The soldiers are treated well and distributed in a timely manner. There are also custodians who communicate with them at any time. Some conflicts and problems also have channels for feedback, so the relationship between the upper and lower levels is relatively harmonious and there are very few large-scale corruption.

In addition, An Guojun is willing to invest in equipment, and various reward measures are implemented well, so it would be strange if the combat effectiveness is not overwhelming.

Such an army is what the commander wants, otherwise no matter how good the strategy is, it will be futile without a strong team to implement it.

The longer he stayed in the Anguo Army, the more Hong Chengchou admired the system founded by Lu Ruolin when he established the Anguo Army.

Under such a system, the super combat effectiveness of the Anguo Army can be guaranteed without worrying about the army being out of its own control.

Now Hong Chengchou is full of confidence and is waiting to fight a turnaround in Sulu and wash away his previous shame in one fell swoop.

Lu Ruolin's preliminary work in Songjiang has been basically completed, and now he has sent Zheng Zhilong to report.

Zheng Zhilong did not let Lu Ruolin wait too long, and finally led his fleet to appear in Shanghai.

The Zheng family also talked fiercely about the conditions for Zheng Cai to take back.

Give up the Fujian and the senior officials who have been operating for a long time, which is a huge loss to the Zheng family. To be honest, Zheng Zhilong is unwilling to accept it.

But now Lu Ruolin is at its peak, and Li Zicheng will not be his opponent no matter how he looks. As for Zhu Cilang, if Lu Ruolin can save his life in the end, it would be a compassionate person.

On the one hand, the foundation that has been finally laid, and on the other hand, the promise of banning is temporarily out of reach. Of course, the Zheng family does not want to accept Lu Ruolin's conditions.

But if we break up with Lu Ruolin now, the Zheng family may not be able to withstand the attack of An Guojun.

The An Guojun's strength at sea is much stronger than the Zheng family, and there is no need to mention the strength on land, it is completely crushing.

Fortunately, Lu Ruolin did not do anything at all and still left a way out for the Zheng family. In addition, the temptation of enfeoffment was indeed quite large, so Zheng Zhilong needed to have a good talk with Lu Ruolin himself.

Zheng Zhilong knew Lu Ruolin's character and would never take advantage of the opportunity to come to Shanghai to do anything, so he did not bring too many people.

Lu Ruolin also gave him great face to greet him personally. After all, Zheng Zhilong is an indispensable role in the Nanyang plan.

Jiangnan's eyes instantly focused on Shanghai. The two giants in the Chinese seas gathered together, and the battle for Sulu was already on the verge of arrows.

The Anguo Army's expedition to Sulu cannot be concealed at all, and basically anyone of a little level knows it.

Lu Ruolin was not afraid of the news coming out. With the current speed of news transmission and the distance between Manila and Spain and South America, even if the Spaniards want to increase their troops, it is absolutely impossible to get there in less than a year or two.

Although they did not deliberately conceal the news, Lu Ruolin also had many enemies, and it was not difficult for them to pass the news to the Spanish.

As long as they can cause trouble for Lu Ruolin, they dare to do any dangerous things, let alone such flashy and easy things.

Jeju Island is still the center of foreign trade, and there are many Spanish people who have stayed here for a long time. When the news that the Anguo army was about to expedition to Manila came here, it caused great panic among Spain, the Netherlands and Portuguese.

For these people who have been dealing with the Anguo army for a long time, they know how terrifying the maritime power of the Anguo army is. Fortunately, China is undergoing a dynasty change, and most of Lu Ruolin's energy has been devoted to the local area, otherwise he would have gone south long ago.

Spain, Portugal and the Dutch were actually very welcome to an enlightened ruler like Ruolin.

Unlike the Chinese rulers who had only entered and did not leave, but bought almost nothing except gold and silver, Lu Ruolin also considered the interests of these Westerners in trade and tried to buy the specialties they produced in the colonies. Therefore, although the overall trade deficit is still very large, it is much better than before.

The only thing that can be blamed for the good products in China is that they are very good, and the output is also very high. I can’t find any better suppliers than here when I search the world.

Although the target of Anguo Army's expedition was the Spanish, the Portuguese and Dutch, who were also Europeans, saw a huge crisis from it.

Speaking of the Spanish and the Portuguese, the Dutch did not deal with them much. As the largest maritime power in Europe at this time, Spain's invincible fleet was at its peak, and both Portugal and the Netherlands were trembling under the tyranny of Spain.

The mentality of the Portuguese and the Dutch is the most complicated when Anguo Army is going to go to Manila.

They hope to see the Spaniards in trouble, but they are afraid that the Spaniards' power will be driven out of East Asia. After all, compared with the powerful China, these Westerners are at a disadvantage here. Although they have a dispute over interests between them, their positions are relatively close when facing China. After all, they all come from Europe.

Although Spain's power in Europe is unparalleled, it is too far away from Manila, and it cannot quench its near thirst. It is almost impossible to win against the Anguo army's fleet alone. Moreover, Zheng Zhilong, who dominates the South China Sea, heard that he has reached an agreement with the Anguo army to send troops together. Unless a miracle occurs, the Spanish will definitely lose.
Chapter completed!