Although the two doctors had a lively conversation, it was obviously not appropriate to start large-scale construction and run a school before the victory against the flood.

Zhao Hao asked Li Zhi to report to Wu County first, and then work in Suzhou City during the day and return to Kunshan to teach students every other night.

After all, maximizing the value of assets is an instinct ingrained in capitalists.

Although the two cities are seventy miles apart, the Loujiang River runs from Suzhou's Changmen Gate directly to Kunshan City's Chaoyang Gate, and it takes less than an hour to reach the destination by following the current.

Of course, the return journey will take nearly two hours, but Dr. Zhao will arrange the most comfortable speedboat for Dr. Li, with two of the best boatmen, which can control the sailing time to one and a half hours.

In this way, Dr. Li only needs to go out at five o'clock in the morning and will not miss the morning classes at all, and he can even take a nap in the cradle-like cabin on the way.

Perfect!

~~

After sending away Li Zhi, who was about to live in a dual city four hundred years earlier, Zhao Hao asked Gao Wu to invite Jin Ke in.

Jin Ke came to report the results of the survey of the county's armed forces.

"Sir, I have figured it out. Kunshan County has a 500-man musketeer team, and the camp is located north of Zhihetang. But I went to check it out, and there are only 180 people in the camp. It seems that because they haven't been paid for a long time, most of them have gone home to make a living."

In the past few years, the Japanese pirates had caused serious troubles, and the government army was stretched thin and unable to protect the people. Therefore, each prefecture and county funded their own militia to guard the county and resist the Japanese pirates.

Kunshan County naturally also formed a team of gunners, made their own swords, guns and muskets, and hired retired military officers for training, which cost a lot.

However, the Japanese invasion has gradually subsided in the past two years, especially in the Jiangsu and Zhejiang areas. There have been no large-scale invasions by Japanese pirates for several years, so the counties have become slack.

Especially in a poor place like Kunshan, they have naturally cut spending year after year, leaving only a shelf just in case...

"How about the weapons?" Zhao Hao asked again.

"There are fifty bird guns. The workmanship is good, but the maintenance is too poor. There are quite a few fire guns, but they are useless." Jin Ke smiled bitterly, "And the problem is that the gunpowder is all damp, and it's impossible to dry it in this horrible weather, so none of them can fire for the time being."

"In addition, there are quite a few spears, swords, and javelins, but they all need to be repaired before they can be used."

"Well, not surprising." Zhao Hao nodded. Looking at the atmosphere of laziness and dejection that permeated the entire county, he could imagine that the situation of the militiamen was not much better.

"Just do your best to fix as much as you can. I'll have the people from the Armament Bureau come over later and replace all of them with new ones."

"There's really no rush. Even if we give them the best muskets now, it's useless. We need to train them hard!" Jin Ke cracked his knuckles and sighed.

"But they made conditions for me, saying that I can only train if I am paid. And the amount of training must be linked to the salary. If I am paid half the salary, I can only train half a day..."

"What about double pay?" Mr. Zhao's eyes lit up.

"According to their idea, we should be able to double the training..." Jin Ke said with a wry smile: "Ah, I've heard that Suzhou people are smart, but I didn't expect Kunshan people to be the same."

"There's nothing wrong with being smart." Zhao Hao waved his hand and said, "As long as they get paid to work, it's fine. Tomorrow you should first distribute last month's wages, and tell them that as long as they train well, the wages they owe will be paid at the end of the month. In the future, as long as they train seriously, they can be paid double wages... Of course, the specific method of distribution is up to you to decide."

"Yes!" Jin Ke immediately bowed and responded.

On the way south, General Jin has completely positioned himself.

As long as there was enough money and food, he would devote himself to training Zhao Hao's troops. As for the rest, it was not his turn to worry about it, and he didn't care at all.

There is no way, who asked Master Zhao to give too much?

This was only one month's salary, but it was enough for him to pay off his debts. Next month he would be able to buy land and build a big house in his hometown.

This is really the love of heaven, earth and the emperor, but it is not as close as Mr. Zhao’s money...

~~

"My father has announced that the entire county has entered a flood control state, and several prohibitions will be announced tomorrow. Without sufficient armed forces to guarantee it, the county will definitely be in chaos."

Zhao Hao instructed Jin Ke again: "So we must restore the strength and combat effectiveness of the Gunners as soon as possible to maintain order in the entire county."

"Yes." Jin Ke responded solemnly, and reminded Zhao Hao:

"The county has three shifts of 60 yamen runners and 100 unemployed runners. The patrol office has 42 archers, the post station has 18 postmen, the express post has 30 soldiers, and the delivery station has 60 guards... Before the gunners can be used, they have to fill in the manpower."

"Yes." Zhao Hao nodded and said with a sly smile: "Tonight, their leaders will all stay on the dike, so Brother Jin will gather these small soldiers and retrain them."

Xu Wei suggested that Zhao Shouzheng move all the county officials to live on the levee. Of course, this was necessary for flood control, but wasn't it also a way to lure the tiger away from the mountain?

Only in this way can they legitimately gather their soldiers, train them uniformly, and deploy them uniformly.

As for what the county will become in the future, flood control is everything now. Who has the time to think so far?

"Yes, sir." Jin Ke agreed without hesitation.

"Can Brother Jin handle this alone?" Young Master Zhao asked expectantly, "When will our helpers arrive?"

"It will probably take a few days." Jin Ke also smiled and said, "They should have arrived in Huzhou by now."

"So fast?" Zhao Hao's expression brightened.

"That's nothing." Jin Ke said as a matter of course: "If it weren't for the injured comrades, they would have arrived earlier than us."

"It's better that we arrive two days late. Otherwise, when we get to Suzhou City, people will think we are lying, right?" Young Master Zhao said with a smile.

After Zhao Hao and Qi Jiguang reached an agreement to help resettle the disabled and retired soldiers of Qi's army, Jin Ke and the other two wrote letters to their former comrades in Zhejiang, telling them that if they had no means of living, they could go to Suzhou to seek refuge with County Magistrate Zhao.

Suzhou is the most prosperous city in the world, and there are former generals here. Naturally, it is a great attraction for the veterans of Qi's army who generally have unhappy lives after retirement.

The reply I received was that hundreds of people wanted to sign up.

Jin Ke asked Zhao Hao for instructions, and Mr. Zhao expressed a warm welcome.

However, hundreds of people crossing the border would be too eye-catching, so they had to come in batches.

When I left Nanjing, I received a letter saying that the first group of eighty people had already set off.

I didn't expect that the person would arrive in just a few days.

This way Zhao Hao was completely relieved.

Eighty former soldiers of the Qi family. Even if only twenty of them are intact, they are enough to bring about a qualitative change in Kunshan's armed forces.

~~

Zhao Hao reminded Jin Ke again that he must strictly enforce military discipline and never allow any situation where anyone disturbs the public under the pretext of maintaining order.

This may be difficult for other generals of the Ming Dynasty to accept.

But the Qi family army had strict military discipline and did not harm anyone. Wherever they went, the people all welcomed the king's army with food and drink. Therefore, Jin Ke fully understood and supported Mr. Zhao's decision.

ps. Second update.

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