"What? How could such a thing happen? Yang Yan's face changed, and he said to Wu Xi: "It's been a few days. Eight [one] 〈文〕]?.] ８）１)”

Wu Xidao: "This month, each brother only received 40 catties of grain, and 30 days' rations were only given for 20 days. And I also asked the other armies of the front division of the palace, and the same is true. I heard that the front division of the palace is quite good, and there are other soldiers who only have fifteen days of rations. And only since leaving Lin'an, until now, they have not been paid for two months, and now they have begun to withhold rations again, and the brothers are not satisfied with the scriptures, and they all say that if this continues, how can this battle be fought? ”

Yang Yan nodded, pondered for a while, and was about to speak, but Zhao Qianru hurriedly said: "Wu Tongzhi, we won't stay here for a few days anyway, and we will return to Longxing Mansion soon, you go back and tell the soldiers that when you return to Longxing Mansion, the missing rations and military salaries will be made up." ”

Yang Yan listened, nodded also, and said: "Wu is in charge, I can't control other armies, but our own people, rations and military salaries will never be less than the brothers, you go back and appease the brothers more, so that they can rest assured, and they are definitely not allowed to make trouble here, otherwise I will deal with it with military law and will not be spared." ”

Wu Xi nodded and said, "The last general understands, appease the lord and princess, you can rest assured, we will never make trouble." The last general retired first. ”

After Wu Xi left, Yang Yan said to Zhao Qianru: "We have money and food, and we can make up for it, but what about the other teams?" What do they do? Is it so hard that the soldiers really go hungry to war? ”

Zhao Qianru smiled bitterly, shook her head, and said, "Then what are you going to do?" ”

In fact, there is no need for Yang Yan to answer, Zhao Qianru also knows what he will do. Sure enough, Yang Yan said: "Withholding rations, this matter is not trivial, it will inevitably affect the morale of the army, this wind must not rise, I must tell the emperor that this behavior must be stopped, and the culprit must be severely punished this time." ”

Since Yang Yan was appointed as the pacification envoy of Jiangnan West Road and the pacification envoy of Jiangnan East Road, he has been discussing with Han Yanzhi, Liu Hui, Yang Yi and others about the deployment of troops on Jiangnan East Road in the past few days, and has not returned to Longxing Mansion to take office for the time being. But I didn't expect this kind of thing to happen.

Since Zhao Yan succeeded to the throne, because he advocated the use of troops against Jin and the reconquest of lost territory, although he did not implement major changes in the army, he has always attached great importance to it. Although there are also cases in the army of withholding soldiers' salaries, the deduction is not too heavy, at most only fifty percent, and the soldiers can basically bear it, but everyone knows that the deduction of salaries is nothing, and at most the soldiers take less, and once the rations are insufficient, it is easy to cause a camp roar or mutiny. Moreover, according to the standards of the Great Song Dynasty, a soldier's daily ration is two catties, except for a few soldiers with a large amount of food, the rations of ordinary soldiers are actually about ten taels per catty, and there will be a slight surplus. Therefore, the soldiers' rations were never deducted.

And Yang Yan also knew that Zhao Dian and his entourage themselves brought out a lot of money and grain materials from Lin'an, and after arriving in Tanzhou, a lot of money and grain were sent from all over the two lakes, only Yang Yan sent 50,000 stone grains and 1 million copper coins, and the money and grain in Tanzhou were enough to pay for more than half a year, so the current Tanzhou is not short of money and grain. This kind of thing only shows one point, that is, some people are greedy for military salaries, money and food, and fill their own pockets. Unexpectedly, it has only been a few days in Tanzhou, and as soon as he has settled down, this kind of thing happened. In any case, stop it.

Zhao Qianru sighed softly and said, "Do you really want to do this?" You must know that daring to deduct military salaries and rations will never be something that ordinary officials can do, and this will definitely involve the ministers of the court, and maybe there will be ruling ministers who will also be implicated, once you stab this accompanying matter to the emperor, it is tantamount to putting yourself in the whirlpool of political struggle. ”

Yang Yan nodded and said, "I know that you are for my good, but I may be able to compromise on other things, but in this matter, I will never give in." You should also know in your heart that if this trend is not suppressed in time at the beginning, it will lead to the discouragement of the army, and the soldiers will fight hard, not to mention the restoration of the country, and it will be difficult to even maintain the current situation. So I can't sit idly by. ”

Zhao Qianru smiled bitterly again, and said: "I naturally know what you said, but you can stop it, but you are a foreign minister, not a minister of the court, so it is best not to go directly to the official family, I think you should first tell Han Shumi and Chen Xianggong about it, and let them deal with it." They are all ruling ministers, and there should be a good way to deal with it. And that way, you'll have less chance of showing up, and you might be able to avoid those things. ”

Yang Yan thought for a while, finally nodded and said, "You're right, you should go to them first." I'll go. ”

Zhao Qianru said again: "I'll go to my sister immediately and tell her about it, she still has a strong influence on the official family, and if it gets to the official family in the future, she can also speak for you." ”

After the two discussed, they immediately went their separate ways, Yang Yan immediately told Han Yanzhi about the matter, Han Yanzhi was also taken aback when he learned about it, and hurriedly sent someone to investigate, and a day later, the investigator reported that what Yang Yan said was true. It turned out that Yang Xiaoming and Han Fei of the Household Department Jinbu Langzhong and Han Fei of the Outer Department teamed up with Li Zhi, the grain manager in the army, and others, and the general's salaries and rations were privately swallowed. And things were even worse than Yang Yan said, some stragglers even only put ten days' rations.

Han Yanzhi also knew the powerful relationship inside, and after the investigation was clear, he didn't say anything about it first, but just took Yang Yan to see Chen Junqing immediately. Tell him what happened and the results of the investigation. Chen Junqing was a person who couldn't tolerate a little sand in his eyes, and when he heard this, he was immediately furious, and immediately led the two of them to Qianzhao Dian together. When the court told the story. And strongly demanded that these parties be interrogated in detail, all their accomplices should be dug up, and they should be sentenced to death, so as to have the effect of killing one and respecting a hundred, and we must prevent the recurrence of such things.

Because Han Yanzhi and Yang Yanyi had thoroughly investigated the matter in advance and the evidence was conclusive, Zhao Dian couldn't help but believe it, and immediately ordered someone to arrest several parties and put them in prison. Dispatch the Criminal Department Shangshu Fan Chengda for trial. After hearing the outcome of the trial, a decision will be made. Since the administrative organs of the Great Song Dynasty have not yet been fully established, and the Dali Temple, which is responsible for the presiding trial, has not yet been established, the presiding judge by the Criminal Department is considered to be the highest level.

After Yang Yan returned to his residence, he told Zhao Qianru about the passage. After Zhao Qianru heard this, she sighed and said: "Actually, the handling of this matter is very simple, just arrest those officials, interrogate them clearly, kill a few to police others, and degrade others who should be degraded, and exile those who should be exiled, and that's it." Why do you want to make such a big fuss? Chen Xianggong This is 'Xiangzhuang Dancing Sword, intended for Pei Gong'! It's just a little too rushed. ”

Yang Yan was stunned for a moment, and said with some confusion: "What do you mean?" Why can't I understand, who is Chen Xiang going to deal with? ”

Zhao Qianru glanced at him and said: "Anyone with a discerning eye can see that Yang Xiaoming, Han Fei, Li Zhi and others are nothing more than a few petty officials, and if they have the courage to do such a thing, there must be high-ranking officials behind them." The household department is in charge of finance, and Yang Xiaoming and Han Fei are both officials of the household department, so Zeng Mao, the secretary of the household department, can't get rid of it this time anyway, it just depends on the size of the responsibility. And Zeng Mo and Long Dayuan, Zhang Shuo and even Shi Hao and others have always been one party, and this time I am afraid that they are all implicated. Now it seems that Chen Xiang's purpose is not clear? Naturally, he just wanted to take this opportunity to fight Long Dayuan and Zeng Mo, the villains in his eyes. Although Chen Xiang is a gentleman, it is a pity that right and wrong are too clear, you must know that 'the water is clear and there are no fish'. ”

Yang Yan disagreed: "If it is really Long Dayuan and Zeng Mo who are behind it this time, I think we should also take this opportunity to eradicate them all, which is a good thing." ”

Zhao Qianru sighed and said: "The problem is that now that the administration of the imperial court has just been restored, everything should be based on stability, which at least involves two prime ministers and a scholar, and I don't know if there will be others, not to mention that Long Dayuan and Zeng Mo are also deeply rooted, and they will never be caught like this, they will definitely try to fight back, so they are fighting back and forth, I am afraid that it will cause turmoil in the court again, and I don't know when it will be a rest." In the end, wasn't it the Great Song Dynasty that was damaged? I thought that Chen Xiang would take care of the overall situation, but who knew that he would still ...... Alas!"

Yang Yan understood a little. In terms of political vision, although he has increased a lot more than before, he is still much worse than his wife.

At this time, Zhao Qianru sighed again and said: "I asked you to go to Han Shumi first and let them come out, just because I don't want you to get involved in these things in the imperial court, then I know that now Chen Xianggong must make a big deal about it, and it would be good if he could get them in one fell swoop, but the official family has always been soft-hearted, and Long Dayuan and Zeng Mo are the old ministers of the first emperor, and they are deep-rooted, I think it will not be solved in the end." So now, it's impossible for you to think about it, and that's what I'm most worried about. ”

Only then did Yang Yan fully understand his wife's hard work, gently held her hand, and said, "But we can't keep thinking about how to hide from things, because there are some things that you can't dodge." So if you can't hide from it, let's face it. I'm sure you have a way to cope. Just let it go. ”

Zhao Qianru looked at Yang Yan's trusting gaze, finally nodded, and said, "Don't worry, I will have a way?" ”

Sure enough, Zhao Qianru's guess was right, Chen Junqing's request to do this was indeed not entirely because of the matter of withholding military rations itself, but because he hoped to take this opportunity to strike hard at the party of Long Dayuan and Zeng Mao.