Shanghai: The First Warlord of the Republic of China

Zhao Tiansheng felt that the conditions he offered were generous enough and more than enough.

Any warlord in the Republic of China would probably find it difficult to refuse so many benefits.

However, Ye Yunfei still refused.

Being able to reject such favorable conditions, Ye Yunfei must have bigger ideas.

What is his idea? The entire Republic of China.

This is the only one.

That's why Zhao Tiansheng asked.

Ye Yunfei said calmly: "Mr. Zhao, I will not answer this question. After all, everyone has their own ideas. There is no need to tell others all your ideas."

"I have already told Mr. Zhao everything that needs to be said. There is no need to say the rest."

Zhao Tiansheng nodded and said, "Okay, I think I understand."

"Then Sect Leader Ye, let's end today's discussion here. I will convey your opinion to our commander."

"But I still hope that Master Ye can consider our opinions. This is beneficial to both of us."

Ye Yunfei said: "I will consider it, but the result will most likely not change, so don't have too high expectations."

Zhao Tiansheng nodded: "Okay, I understand. I'll leave first, Master Ye. I look forward to seeing you next time."

Ye Yunfei nodded.

Then Zhao Tiansheng left.

Ye Yunfei took a few puffs of his cigarette, thinking about what Zhao Tiansheng had just said.

The reason Zhao Tiansheng came to him this time was simply to recruit him.

But now he is not someone who can be recruited by just anyone.

Although the so-called government behind Zhao Tiansheng is the strongest in the Republic of China, it is impossible to get him to join.

Now Longmen may not be as good as the person behind Zhao Tiansheng, but as long as it continues to develop, it will definitely surpass him.

And there's one more thing.

Ye Yunfei's goal is to unify the Republic of China on his own, rather than cooperating with anyone else.

Besides, Zhao Tiansheng nominally said it was cooperation, but in fact it was just recruiting.

If he really agreed, he would just be helping others. How is that possible?

Therefore, without further ado, I just refused.

After a while, Ding Li came in.

"Brother Fei, how was the talk with Zhao Tiansheng?"

Ding Li said.

Ye Yunfei said: "It's not that great, just a casual chat."

Ding Li said: "When Zhao Tiansheng left, he looked unhappy. Is he alright?"

Ye Yunfei said: "It's okay, we just talked about some things, you don't have to worry about it."

Ding Li nodded and said, "I'm glad you're okay."

Ye Yunfei thought for a moment and said, "By the way, Ali, you control the entire Longmen army. Do you know how many people there are in Longmen now?"

The conversation with Zhao Tiansheng made him think of some things. They have occupied the southeast for some time.

It's time to march across the country.

After all, living in a remote corner is not a long-term place, and his goal is the entire Republic of China.

When the time is right, we will continue to develop northwards.

Ding Li said: "The total number of people in Longmen is about 650,000 now. The Southeast is still recruiting, and the number is still increasing, but the overall number is about 650,000 now."

Ye Yunfei frowned and said, "Only 650,000? I thought it was 700,000 or 800,000."

"Didn't the number of people in Longmen approach 600,000 before? During this period of time, you have been recruiting soldiers from the eight southeastern provinces, but you have only recruited tens of thousands of people."

"There are eight provinces in the southeast, with such a large population, it shouldn't be difficult to recruit some soldiers."

After occupying the southeast, Ye Yunfei asked Ding Li, Liu Zhengfeng and others to recruit soldiers in the southeast.

Several months have passed, and he thought that the number of people in Longmen should have reached 700,000 or 800,000.

Even if there is not 800,000, there is still 700,000.

But unexpectedly, there are only 650,000 now.

In a few months, they only recruited tens of thousands of people.

This number was somewhat different from what he had expected.

Ding Li said: "Brother Fei, we originally thought that recruiting soldiers in the southeast would be very easy and smooth. After all, the southeast is so big and has such a large population."

"But when we actually recruited them, we realized that it was not the case at all."

"Wu Fatian, who previously controlled the southeast, was an old bastard. In order to supplement his army, he captured young men everywhere in the southeast. Almost every place, every village, and even every household, he captured a lot of young men."

"Not long after these people were taken away by him, they went to the battlefield, and most of them died on the battlefield."

"He has occupied Southeast China for nearly seven or eight years. He has ravaged every part of Southeast China. Now there are very few young and middle-aged people left."

“So, although it seems easy for us to recruit soldiers, it is actually very difficult.”

"And there is one more thing. When Brother Qiang was here, he told us that when recruiting soldiers, every household must keep one male. Not all the men in a family can go to serve in the army."

"So, when we recruit soldiers, we basically follow this principle. Because of this, it is even more difficult to recruit soldiers."

“It took several months to recruit tens of thousands of people.”

Ding Li told Ye Yunfei about the situation.

Ye Yunfei also understood.

It is indeed troublesome to recruit soldiers in the southeast.

In fact, this situation is not only happening in the southeast, but all over the country.

Because of the warlords' infighting, many people would die in every war. Once someone was killed, the warlords would immediately capture able-bodied men nearby. Almost all young men were captured into the army and became their soldiers.

Most of these people were unwilling to do so, but they had no choice; with guns pointed at them, they had no choice but to join the army.

Because of this reason, there are very few young and middle-aged people in the entire Republic of China today.

This is true in the southeast, the Central Plains, and the northwest.

Therefore, even though Longmen now occupies the entire Southeast, it is not so easy to recruit people in the Southeast.

Ye Yunfei had not thought of this before, but after listening to Ding Li’s words, he also thought of it.

He nodded and said, "Ali, Wen Qiang is right. When you recruit soldiers, you must keep one man from each household. You can't recruit everyone."

"If everyone joins the army, there will be no one to plant the land at home, and no one to do farm work. The crops will be abandoned, the economy will wither, the people will not be able to eat, and we will not be able to collect taxes."

"More importantly, we need to leave a family with a seed. We can't let all of them die. Otherwise, the entire Southeast will be without a next generation, and Southeast will be finished."

"So, we in Longmen must never do anything like conscripting men. We in Longmen are not short of men to that extent. Moreover, conscripting men will ruin our reputation."

"Don't do things that bring bad reputation..."