"Ben Bo has 250,000 soldiers and horses, he is on one side, and he has the merit of supporting the current saint, how can he endure me?" Liu Zeqing was half arrogant, and half of him was inward-looking.

"Sir, the student has also learned the art of the emperor for a few days, you might as well speculate a little bit about Liang Guogong's thoughts, and Shuai can confirm it against the current situation. Look at what the students say yes and no. ”

"Speak!"

"If I were Liang Guogong, I would send a point inspection and review officer to the soldiers and horses in each town to check the soldiers and horses and equipment, and review the strength and combat strength of each department. Then, the inspection officers who went to each department were accompanied by elite soldiers and horses. During the inspection, he said that there were too many vacancies in your army, and the soldiers were hungry and cold, and asked you where the food and salary equipment issued by the imperial court went, how should you answer? Don't tell me that there is no one in the imperial court who does not eat empty quotas and does not drink the blood of soldiers! At that time, according to the routine of the Nanyue Army, while instigating the treacherous villains among the soldiers to rise up and report you, they will arrest and interrogate you. Let me ask the marshal, can your handsome standard battalion be able to solve the combat power and strength of the soldiers and horses of the first brigade of the Nanyue Army in one battle? If not, it is necessary to plan in advance to mobilize soldiers and horses from the left to fight together, but in this way, the situation is not secret, and it is easy to leak the news. If the battle is delayed and delayed for a long time, it will inevitably be besieged by the nearby units of the Nanyue Army. At that time, the commander, no matter how many soldiers there are, and what merits he supports, he will not be as big as the crime of rebellion! ”

Wu Feiluan's eloquence is quite good, and a few words are like a sharp sword piercing the weakest part of Liu Zeqing's heart.

What Wu Feiluan said, eating empty quotas, drinking soldiers' blood, stealing and selling military rations, equipment, and military uniforms, Liu Zeqing not only has them, but also does every one of them in full swing, which is outrageous. According to the amount of soldiers and horses in the army he reported, 250,000 horses, others must have at least 60 horses in the camp, even if they are old, weak, sick and disabled, deaf, blind, paralyzed, lame, etc., at least one head is there. However, in his Liu Zeqing camp, even if these people are counted, it is barely less than fifty percent. The huge amount of empty salaries and rations was naturally swallowed by his uncle and his generals at all levels. Also, the imperial court paid them once a month according to their requirements. However, Liu Zeqing is very active in invention and innovation.

At first, they only adopted the means of "interception" and "deduction" to deduct some military salaries. The so-called interception and detention of construction are the common methods used by officials to embezzle military salaries. The budget for military pay is the whole year, and there are often vacancies and substitutions of soldiers in this year, and it is inevitable that the dates are not connected, and the disconnected military pay needs to be deducted on time, which is called a cut-off. At that time, the calculation date was based on the 30th day of the lunar month, and when there were only 29 days in the small month, it was called Xiaojian, and one day was deducted, and only 29 days were actually issued, which was called Buckle Construction. It was supposed that both sums of money should be turned over to the state treasury, but the generals almost never handed them over.

It may be that it is too troublesome to do this, not neat enough, and that the small amount of money is not enough to spend. So, Liu Zeqing was very clever in inventing the "Nine Customs" system. The so-called nine passes will be calculated according to 360 days a year, and military salaries and rations will be paid once every 40 days, which is nine times a year. The military salary is called the Guan salary, which is the origin of the nine passes. As a result, one-third of the annual salary of every soldier and low-level officer was taken away by Uncle Liu. If you accidentally run away and die, then I'm sorry! Your military salary has been laughed at by Uncle Dongping.

(Let's have fun!) Liu Zeqing, Lord Liu, originally thought that according to the standard of paying military salaries once every forty-five days, eight times a year! This system of paying military salaries once every 40 days and 45 days is not made up by the author, but is invented by the Huai Army to pay military salaries once every 40 days, which is the origin of the nine passes. The military salary paid to the soldiers once every 45 days came from the Jiangnan camp of the Qing army during the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement. Therefore, those brothers and sisters who want to wear clear clothes should make a good plan, if they really wear clean clothes, can they find a way to live? ）

It's a pity that our uncle Dongping's life on weekdays is too frugal, and his aunt is less than sixty, in order to make up for the lack of manpower in the family, it is indispensable to raise a few orangutans and other animals to help with some housework. There are less than sixty aunts and wives, and there must be at least three or five people around them, plus cooks, gardeners, gardeners, porters, and other servants, as well as thousands of relatives and soldiers who guard the palace. As a result, the family's house is not spacious enough, and it only occupies less than half of Huai'an City.

With such a living expenses, how can our Uncle Dongping maintain such a scale of household expenses just by relying on those kind intentions to help the soldiers keep and prevent them from spending them indiscriminately, such as the military salary that prostitutes and gamble excessively?

However, fortunately, Uncle Dongping is also a veteran of the army, so of course he knows how to solve such a problem. As a result, the military rations, uniforms, armor, equipment, and even gunpowder cannons and other items that were received from the imperial court became the wine on Dongpingbo's plate. That's fine! It can be regarded as making the best use of things, lest they be piled up in the warehouse, not to mention eating ash and insects, many of them are flammable and explosive materials, or various safety hazards, it is better to take them out and exchange them for silver dollars or something, so that everyone can feel at ease!

Such a diligent and thrifty housekeeping, turning waste into treasure, and turning decay into magic means is the traditional essence of my Chinese culture. After hundreds of years of inheritance, it has been carried forward by a glorious magical army.

In this army, he is known as the "small chairman", has held the so-called "vice president" post many times, and in his own descendant troops, he has promoted the so-called "economic openness, ideological openness, and personnel openness", and created a team known as the five main forces, and then Chen Cheng, who has been boasted by countless fruit fans, has a sentence that hits the nail on the head, "A person who has been a quartermaster in the national army for three years is not wronged if he is pulled out and shot." "You know, within the Kuomintang, among the top leaders, he has always been known for his incorruptible image.

Huang Wei, a general of his civil engineering department and who was obsessed with the research of perpetual motion machines in the merit forest, was transferred from the position of the commander of the unit because he raised the food standard of the soldiers in the 18th Army without authorization, so that the soldiers could eat a few or two more meters a day. The reason is well known.

(This glorious tradition is still true in the Taiwanese military.) If you don't believe me, you can take a look at the food dishes on the soldiers' dinner plates sitting next to Ma Ying-jeou and others when they left the army. Let's take a look at various Taiwan news, for example, during the exercise, various fast food trucks such as Little Bee sold 'pig scratches' (that is, pork finger cakes) to feed the officers and soldiers. Sure enough, it is the essence of traditional Chinese culture in Taiwan! ）

Thinking of the legends, when Liang Guogong cleaned up the generals of all battalions and departments in Guangdong, he cleaned up the means of the governor's standard battalion pro-army, the governor's standard battalion pro-army, the governor's standard battalion pro-soldiers, and the battalions, towns, and departments stationed everywhere, as well as the routine of punishing the generals and officials who did not listen to the call, and suddenly Liu Zeqing had a feeling of being anxious to find a toilet.

"Mr. Wu, do you mean to say that the Liang Guo Guild took advantage of this inspection and review to order people to be unfavorable to me?" People who kill like hemp are often the weakest and most timid in their hearts, because they themselves are the most afraid of death. When Liu Zeqing realized that he might be arrested on the spot by the people sent by Li Shouhan, and that he might face the low-level soldiers who were oppressed and exploited by him on the charges of drinking soldiers' blood, deducting military salaries, eating empty quotas, and reselling military supplies, he was suddenly shrouded in fear from head to toe.

"Listen to his words and watch his deeds. Based on what Liang Guogong and his old man did in the past, he has always loved soldiers like sons, and what he hated most was the generals who feared the enemy like a tiger, lied about their military exploits, deducted military salaries, and abused soldiers! Didn't the uncle wait for dispatch under the command of Liang Guogong and his old man when he was also in Shandong? As far as the students know, Liang Guogong has always been stingy in the supply of materials, salaries, and rations. However, if any of the officers and soldiers of the department took the weapons and ate the grain and grass and did not work, did not work hard, or even cowered and lied about the war exploits, then, hum! His old man also has a thunder method! ”

"That?! That old man gathered all the troops and horses, and defended the city! Lao Tzu is surrounded by deep ditches and high bases in this Huai'an City, and in the surrounding Huaiyin, Shanyang, Qinghe, Andong, Yancheng, Taoyuan, Suqian, Shuyang, Suining, Ganyu, Pizhou, Haizhou, these nine counties and two states and his Nanyue army are fighting for one city and one pool! Lao Tzu wants to see how many men and horses he has in the Nanyue army, which can fight Zuo Liangyu in the west and deal with us in the north! It's really not good, Lao Tzu is like Xu Dingguo, he went north to shave his hair and surrender the Qing army! Lao Tzu can't beat them, so find a helper to fight together! ”

Liu Zeqing was a little left and right that was not the way out, he broke the jar and fell, and became angry.

Seeing that he said the same words as Xu Dingguo, going north to surrender to the Qing army, Wu Feiluan stroked a beautiful beard in his hand, and secretly rejoiced in his heart: "This rough horseman!" Sure enough, I have a plan! ”

"Sir! Don't talk nonsense! Liu Zeqing's subordinate Li Huajing, seeing that Liu Zeqing was in a hurry, actually said such a rebellious thing as surrendering to the Qing army in the north, and hurriedly came over to dissuade him.

"Mr. Wu, my marshal is in a depressed mood today, worried about the state and military situation, and unconsciously drank a few more glasses of wine, and he didn't choose what to say, and I hope that Mr. Haihan is a little bit right."

"The general doesn't have to be polite, the marshal is full of pride, but he is a man of temperament, and the students admire him tightly. Where is the word to blame? ”

Wu Feiluan and Li Huajing have to perform their own hypocrisy. In fact, each has quietly explained their own attitudes and what they want to know.

"Mr. Wu, we might as well open the skylight and say something. Nowadays, the soldiers and horses everywhere in the Ming Dynasty, in addition to the Nanyue Army directly under the Duke of Guo and his old man, is the Fengyang soldiers and horses to which the first assistant Ma Shi Yingma belongs. If Guogong just plans to check the strength of the soldiers and horses by checking the strength of the various departments, knock everyone down, let everyone quickly make up for the shortage of soldiers and horses, and restrain what they have done before, this, not only our old Liu, I think, the soldiers and horses in these towns in Jiangbei will also obediently bow down and obey orders. However, if the old man of the country wants to use this reason to cut the feudal domain and annex it, if he wants this, hehe! Although our old Liu thinks that his combat power is not as good as that of the Nanyue army. However, after all, there are more than 100,000 people under his command, all of whom are chicken heads, fish and tofu scum, if Guogong swallows it in one bite, he is not afraid of eating it badly? ! ”

Liu Zeqing's words were angry and ruined, but they did not cause any reaction that he expected from Wu Feiluan. Wu Feiluan's face was still as usual, and he just refilled his purple clay pot with hot water from the clay pot on the red peat stove, and then enjoyed his tea for a long time.

"Uncle's words are to the point. Since it wasn't the uncle's family who did this, then, why didn't the uncle connect the generals from all over Jiangbei, everyone was in unison, the interests were the same, and millions of people shouted in unison, and if they wanted to come to Liang Guogong's old man's house, they also had to re-examine one or two. Not to mention anything else, what Li Chengdong and Jin Shenghuan, the two goods who are now in command of Gao Jie's troops and horses stationed in Yangzhou, as well as Liu Liangzuo, who was killed in Shandong with your uncle, Huang Chuangzi Huang Degong, who was stationed on the front line of Anqing in Chuzhou, although he is a second goods, but his subordinate generals may not be willing to be at the mercy of others! If you do this rough calculation, there are millions of people! What's more, now Liang Guogong has to deal with the enemy's Qing troops in the north, and hundreds of thousands of people in the west to face Zuo Liangyu, and there are Li Chuang's millions of tigers and wolves behind Zuo Liangyu! How dare he be heavy-handed against the soldiers and horses of Jiangbei? ”

Wu Feiluan's words undoubtedly pierced a layer of window paper for Liu Zeqing, Li Huajing and others, making them feel like they were suddenly opened. Originally! Eating empty quotas, drinking soldiers' blood, and selling military rations is not just a matter of my Dongping Bo's subordinates, but a common thing in all towns and departments of the Ming Dynasty. It can be said that after the collapse of the guard system and the battalion system, the family became the core of the combat effectiveness of each department, and the trump card and the shield for the generals to flee for their lives. In this process, it is an extremely common phenomenon for generals to withhold food and salaries from soldiers. They used their exploits to live a corrupt life of spending all day and night, and bribed officials of the military department, supervising eunuchs, and Ji Gong Yushi to seek promotion or exoneration. This determines that the contradictions between them and the soldiers will inevitably intensify, and there will be a lot of friction in peacetime, and on weekdays they will often make noise, demand money, and mutiny, and it will be even more impossible to achieve unity from top to bottom in wartime. Dai Li once pointed out that the border generals of the Ming Dynasty "had 10,000 soldiers, but there were only 6,000, and 4,000 were used for communication, self-sufficiency, and family support." It has been followed for a long time, but the family members have been protecting and risking their merits, and they regard the other 6,000 as discarded. There are many discarded things and few families, and in the end, they cannot resist the enemy. "In order to save their lives and status, the generals adopted the method of supporting their own families. They took out some of the money they had withheld, raised a small group of selected soldiers, and gave them better living conditions and equipment such as horses and equipment. Shen Defu's "Wanli Ye Shu Compilation" addendum volume 3, "Jiading" article said: "Today, the generals in the northwest have accumulated a family, and their clothes and weapons are ten times more than the number of soldiers. Whenever the great enemy is used to trap in battle, its good fighters mostly take the first merit to fight themselves. "Even if the generals are dismissed from their posts and leave their posts, their families are still brought back to their hometowns to provide for them.

Since everyone is doing this, let's carry it together!

However, although everyone knows that the purpose of doing this is to evade inspection and protect the rights and interests of being able to continue drinking the blood of soldiers legally and semi-legally. However, just like the officials and gentry organized violent resistance to the law, violently resisted taxes, and then wrote a "Tombstone of Five People", Liu Zeqing also pondered his name for this act of resisting the inspection and proofreading.

Not only should you have a bright banner in hand, but you should also contact your allies as much as possible to expand your momentum.

"This is natural. Nowadays, the people and gentry everywhere in the Ming Dynasty are suffering from the new policy and dare not speak. The uncle might as well join the other marshals to ascend to the heights and shout, asking the court to remember the suffering of the people in the world, and it is the great plan to do benevolent government. If it is in the name of benevolence and righteousness, not only is it justified by the actions of the commander's subordinates, but also the scholars of the Jianji Palace and the scholars of the military department who are stationed in Yangzhou will also express their support for the uncle's actions! ”

"Mr. Wu is really a last resort, and his intelligence is unparalleled!" Li Huajing couldn't help but admire the five-body throw to the ground on the side, and stretched out his thumb to Wu Feiluan with both hands. In this way, the various ministries in Jiangbei played the banner of asking the imperial court to implement benevolent government under the name of the Shi Pavilion Department, and Liang Guogong's inspection ended without a problem. Even if the imperial court does not pay the various ministries in Jiangbei in the short term, there are large officials and gentry in Jianghuai and Yangzhou, are they afraid that they will not be willing to donate military salaries and rations? ”

"At that time, we can have a good talk with the court and Liang Guogong about the price and the catty. At the very least, if you want us to talk to the imperial court, is it that Liang Guogong wants to give Lu Mahong, Liao Dongzhi in Xuzhou and Linyi, and that Wu Xing, the descendants and collaterals of the Southern Yue Army, give an order, let them fuck them withdraw the bullshit team to Lao Tzu first! Give those states and counties back to Lao Tzu?! ”

The pattern of people determines his attitude and vision, and Liu Zeqing, who can barely be a warlord, only talked about the territory of several states and counties, and how to bargain with the imperial court and Liang Guogong. In this regard, Wu Feiluan, who had long been on the case, sneered in his heart, but he still had a gentle smile on his face.

"Uncle, this is a fallacy! We are all ministers of the Ming Dynasty, and we have received the grace of the king, and we should repay the emperor's grace. Especially you, uncle, are also a member of the imperial court and a subordinate of the Duke of the country, so you should share his worries for him. ”

"Mr. Wu, you say, how should we share our worries as subordinates to the old man?" Li Huajing heard Wu Feiluan's words, implying another layer of meaning.

"The benevolent policy we proposed to the imperial court is naturally to take the new policy implemented by Liang Guogong and Ma Shoufu in various places in Jiangnan a step further. Please ask the two of them to agree to implement it everywhere in Jiangbei! ”

Liu Zeqing was able to go from an officer who had been defeated repeatedly and fled from the enemy to today, step by step, and he didn't dare to say anything else, but his ability to listen to the wind and see the color was first-class. His eyes rolled twice, and a smile appeared on his face.

"What the gentleman meant, a certain family understood. A certain family wrote a letter and ordered someone to send a letter to Li Chengdong in Yangzhou, Liu Liangzuo in Luzhou, Huang Chuangzi in Anqing and other places! ”

"Then there is Uncle Law! Students can also have a way to share their worries with their uncles. The student went back and asked his disciple Liu Yuanqing to go to Kaifeng Mansion. It's also good to help you uncles and generals find reinforcements all the way! ”