Zhou Xian reduced the rest time as much as possible, and continued to accelerate his speed. He arrived in Laizhou City smoothly in mid-October.

Zhou Xian was promoted to Governor of Denglai, and in addition to him, there were a series of other appointments and changes. First, Zeng Ying was resigned as Governor of Denglai and transferred to Nanjing to serve. Wen Zhitong took over Zhou Xian's original position and became the prefect of Laizhou. Huang Fei was named the deputy governor of the Governor and inherited the Qianhu of the Jinyiwei for his merits. Tan Zhencai was promoted from garrison to guerrilla general, and Zhao Xusheng was promoted to two levels in succession for his meritorious service to Ninghai and became the deputy general. Gao Feng, the magistrate of Ye County, was promoted to Tongzhi of Laizhou with the strong recommendation of Zhou Xian, and his position changed to the highest among all officials.

Dengzhou is slightly wider than Laizhou, with a total of one prefecture and seven counties under its rule. The only one prefecture is Ninghai Prefecture, while the seven counties are Penglai, Huang, Fushan, Qixia, Laiyang, Zhaoyuan and Wendeng. Dengzhou is bordered by the sea, with barren soil and sparse population. The total population is about 200,000, which is only half of the population of Laizhou. The two prefectures together have a total population of only 600,000, which is less than half of the population of a prefecture in the Central Plains.

Because the two places are related to the security of coastal defense in the north of the Ming Dynasty, the number of troops stationed has continued to increase since the founding of the Ming Dynasty. At the most, there were nearly 40,000 soldiers, but the military discipline of the garrison was corrupted and could not be used. The two places in Denglai have undergone wars many times. At this time, after the existing garrison troops were removed, there were only about 13,000. There were about 6,000 soldiers in Laizhou and about 7,000 in Dengzhou. However, because the number of garrisons was large, if they were willing to integrate and train them, there would be no shortage of subsequent troops.

After Zhou Xian arrived at the territory of Denglai, he did not go directly to the governor's yamen in Laiyang City. Instead, he sent someone to inform Huang Fei, Zhao Xusheng, Tan Zhencai and the other two to come to Laizhou City to meet him.

Zhou Xian knew in his heart that if he wanted to let these soldiers exert their combat power in the Denglai area, he had to first place them under unified command. Now, except for Li Kai from the Laizhou Camp who was directly under his control, the other three, Huang Fei, Zhao Xusheng and Tan Zhencai were not completely under his control at present.

He had a detailed plan in his mind. The first thing he had to do was to integrate the troops of the garrison in Denglai as soon as possible. In Jiaozhou, it could be left to Tan Zhencai, while in Dengzhou, Zhao Xusheng was responsible. Except for the two garrisons with two garrisons on the coast of the east border, the others would either join forces or be directly revoked. The young and strong were incorporated into the battalion and strengthened training to enhance combat power; the old and the young were farming their fields to be completely self-sufficient.

Zhou Xian’s ultimate goal is to set up the total force of the fifth battalion in the Denglai area. The fourth battalion on land, the first battalion must have four thousand-person teams, each thousand-person team is equipped with one hundred cavalry. The first battalion of the navy at sea is tentatively set to be three thousand-person teams. In addition, a cavalry team of one thousand-person teams must be set up. However, these are his ultimate goal, and it will probably take a long time to fully realize it. However, one battalion after another can be slowly formed until it is fully realized.

The fourth battalion on land was built based on the original battalion and soldiers, and was divided into Laizhou Camp, Dengzhou Camp, Mo Camp and Wendeng Camp. The two battalions were located in Dengzhou, and the two battalions were located in Laizhou. The water camp was divided into two parts, one was located in Penglai Water City and the other was located on Furong Island. The Penglai Water City was a real combat force, and on Furong Island, it was mainly responsible for the manufacturing of sea ships and the training of water soldiers. The top priority of the merger of the sailors in the two places was also what Zhou Xian wanted to do first.

Chen Tingyang was mainly responsible for the canal transport on the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal. Although he was appointed by the court, he still needed to hand over some work. It may take some time to actually arrive in Laizhou, but the construction of the shipyard can be carried out in advance. Han Kuo previously selected the location of the shipbuilding at the front of Wang Xuzhai, but since he was responsible for transporting supplies to Songshan, the matter has stalled a little. Zhou Xian handed over the task of building the ship to Yu Baiyi. At this moment, he was responsible for the artillery field and the manufacturing of various cold weapons. He has become Zhou Xian's full-scale logistics minister. His position is not high, but it is very important.

On the second day after Zhou Xian returned to Laizhou City, Han Kuo led his fleet back from Songshan and told him bad news. After Zhou Xian left, Laizhou transported two batches of supplies to Songshan in total. The first batch of supplies, mainly 40,000 stones of grain and grass and more than 30 medical officials, arrived in Songshan safely, but the second batch of supplies was discovered by manhunt during the process of transporting the supplies from the coast to Songshan City. The sailors who transported the supplies and the Songshan defenders who were escorting the city fought desperately, but only half of the supplies were transported into the city. Nearly a hundred soldiers were lost in Laizhou, and the Songshan side suffered a little heavy losses.

Zhou Xian sighed silently, knowing that from then on, the Qing army will strengthen its defense of the coast along the border and want to transport a large number of them again.

It would be much more difficult to enter Songshan. He ordered Han Kuo to suspend the delivery of supplies to Songshan. He wrote a letter himself, telling Hong Chengchou what he knew and the current difficulties. He asked him to wait for the time being, saying that he would find ways to assist the defenders in the city.

Li Ding purchased 600 horses from the three east and west governments of Shandong, spending nearly 50,000 taels of silver. These horses not only supplemented the previous losses of the Jimu Cavalry Team, but also allowed two thousand-man teams of Laizhou Camp, each with 200 cavalry. However, the training of cavalry requires a lot of time and effort, and can only be left to Jimu for gradual recruitment and training.

Li Kai's plan to recruit miners to join the Laizhou camp as soldiers was much smoother than expected. The miners worked hard all their lives, but they could barely maintain their hunger and fullness. After Zhou Xian entered Laizhou, although they initially restricted them, their management later became much easier. In particular, they also raised their salary and hired a teacher for their children.

I don’t know if I was grateful to Zhou Xian or if I felt that the military pay was more than the mining income. In short, most of these young and strong miners were willing to join the army. When Zhou Xian returned to Laizhou, Li Kai had already recruited more than a thousand people, more than the initially requested team of 1,000 people. Zhou Xian had just returned to Laizhou, and there was a lot of things to do and had no time to worry about this matter. So he temporarily handed over the follow-up training work of these miners to Li Kai.

Meng Yue came to Laizhou again on a boat and brought Meng Qiaofang's letter. The letter said that he could not exchange the heads of fifty Jurchens for Meng Xiongchen, but he proposed to exchange 30,000 taels of silver for his son's life. After reading the letter, Zhou Xian accepted the 30,000 taels of silver, but temporarily left Meng Yue aside.
Chapter completed!