"People, it's better to live an easy life, don't worry too much about yourself."

Li Xian said calmly, he planted Gu before, and now he will pour some anesthetic.

Xiao Sheng gasped for a while, he didn't excuse himself like this, but after all, he was bored alone, and finally an outsider spoke, and his tangled heart was slightly soothed, yes, why do you care so much......

"Tell me, is there something you want to trick me again?"

Xiao Sheng calmed down, yesterday's conversation, he thought over and over again, and he already had a full understanding of this Li Xian's "insidiousness".

"I want to ask you, is Bai Zongrong's family so poor that he can't cook, and he melted the cannon to make a pot, and he can't eat enough empty food?"

Li Xian asked without any taboos, now there is no need to see this Xiao Sheng.

"I thought you really knew about the things in the army, but it turned out that you were just a layman, and the matter of empty food, your knowledge is similar to that of a mediocre people......"

Xiao Sheng scoffed, and then his face froze again.

"You kid, what are you going to say to me?"

He subconsciously regarded Li Shi's words as a fishing trick again, and he didn't blame him for overreacting because he had suffered too much yesterday.

"Brother Xiao, I'm not an immortal with thousands of miles of candles, but I don't know everything......"

Li Xian sweated slightly, the sequelae are really not light.

After telling Master Zhong as it was, Li Xi asked, "This should be a privately made artillery, right?" ”

Xiao Sheng hugged his cheeks as if he had a toothache, and sighed for a long time.

"Of course, it is a capital offense to make artillery privately, but this is not private, but public. Bai Zongrong's business in Yingde is this, it seems that I am going to be involved with you again, ah-"

Everyone was involved, and Xiao Sheng no longer covered it up, and began to explain to Li Xian resignedly. If you want to talk about the business of the innocent general soldiers, you have to start from the background of the green battalion salary, otherwise you will not be able to understand the situation of the white general soldiers.

Listening to Xiao Sheng's explanation, Li Shi gradually raised his eyebrows, the corruption of this green camp is actually such an article.

Although Li Xi knows the military system of the Green Battalion, it is only limited to the content that military fans can be interested in, and he has not cared much about salary, only knowing that the generals of the Green Battalion eat empty salaries for soldiers, which is the so-called drinking blood of soldiers, and there is no concept of other shady scenes, but what Xiao Sheng told him was a different scene.

"There are three kinds of empty food in the green camp, the first of which is for official business. The salary of the green camp is not only the salary of the soldiers, but also the renovation of military uniforms, the repair of the official office and the teaching ground, and the red paper, all of which are also included in it. ”

"All the military officers of the construction department, including the battalion co-standard, had to move out of the vacancies and use salaries to meet the tolerances, that is, 'publicly-funded rations', which was uncertain. For example, Taiwan, where there are many affairs, and the publicly-funded grain there can reach five cents. Bai Zongrong is located in Shaozhou, there are many thieves, miners, and displaced people, not much less than Taiwan, I estimate that there must be three points, this is the old rule of the imperial court's acquiescence, and the governor knows it. ”

Three points is three percent, and the Shaozhou town standard is three battalions and 3,000 people on the books, which can produce about 100 soldiers, which is 1,000 taels per year. And under the control of Shaozhou Town, there are also Sanjiangkou Association and Nanxiong Association, because of the principle of the size of the green battalion, Bai Daolong can not eat their soldiers. In addition, what can be eaten is the Yingqing River Defense Battalion of more than 200 people.

"So you can see that the teaching field outside the county town and the office of the left camp of the middle camp have been rented out, and the general army yamen is also dilapidated. Since these publicly-funded rations are insufficient, the successive chiefs simply only use them on matters such as red paper. Although they have a salary in the name of red paper, it is a personal subsidy for them. ”

In addition to the publicly-funded famous grain, the second kind of empty grain is the "Qinding Famous Grain", Xiao Sheng said the specific content, and Li Xian linked it with the future Yanglian Yin.

In the Qing Dynasty, civil officials were paid very low, and military attachés were even lower. The total amount of a grade in Hezhi County is 36 taels of silver, and it is necessary to go above the garrison to enjoy the additional subsidies of vegetable candle charcoal silver and heart red paper silver. It is an unspoken rule for civilian officials to eat fire, while military attachés correspond to eating "pro-Ding famous food", that is, in the name of family members, occupying a number of military vacancies.

"In the forty-second year, the imperial court publicly recognized this pro-Ding famous grain, and the approved posts of the provinces were uncertain. Here in Guangdong, there are 80 commanders, 60 total soldiers, 5 thousands, and 2 for people like me. ”

Listening to Xiao Sheng's explanation, Li Xian thought to himself, this lack of soldiers is not justified, but now it has become a system of the 28th Classic, which is really funny. In this way, there is a shortage of towns in towns, there is a shortage of cooperatives, and there is a shortage of camps. On paper, there are more than 600,000 green camps in the country, but how many can there actually be?

"The first two kinds of empty grain are combined, and it is estimated that there is a shortage of one percent in light places, and here in Shaozhou, it is estimated that it can reach one into five, which is an example. And the third kind of empty grain is corruption, which is put on the table, and the chief official will be impeached. This kind of empty food is not as outrageous as outsiders imagine, and most of them are vacancies in the battalion, and the chief officer does not make up for them. Or the soldiers do another errand, leaving half a vacancy. Most of the terms of each term only add a little bit to the predecessor, and they don't know how far they will accumulate after a few years. ”

After saying a lot, Xiao Sheng made a summary.

"Adults don't just eat empty food, and this little money can't feed them."

Li Xian nodded in agreement, counting that this Bai Zongbing can only eat a maximum of five hundred soldiers, only six or seven thousand taels a year, which also includes office expenses, this is a second-grade officer, and even the level of Li Zhushou's "clean official" is not as good.

Thinking that it is still the year of Kangxi, the green camp has not yet reached the bottom line of corruption, and this third type of empty grain has not accumulated to the extent that it is too obvious, so the military attache will make money and move other thoughts.

Xiao Sheng summed up two directions, one is still in military spending. Including the embezzlement of the construction and interception [1], the funds for the purchase of horses, that is, the false reporting and embezzlement of the deduction. In addition, the proportion of money paid to salaries, the greed of Ma Gan (silver converted from war horse forage), etc., are all small actions. As long as the predecessor is not brought out, it will be continued as an unspoken rule by the successor.

Commanders with low status and no popularity can only do things in military spending, but those who have the ability, or rely on a good place and have a good position, have another way.

"Doing business?"

Li Xian blinked, secretly saying that he should have thought of this a long time ago.

"The Taiping banknote customs is in Shaozhou Mansion [2], and the general military yamen uses military ships to do business, which can be exempted from customs and commercial taxes, and sometimes it is also lent to merchants, and you can receive a lot of filial piety, which is a big deal."

"There are hundreds of patrols in the banknote pass, and the salaries are not low, and many of them are green battalion soldiers. Several commanders and superintendents of the banknote customs had a tacit understanding, and the green battalion went out to earn half of the money for the banknote patrol, and the banknotes saved this silver. Because it was the people of the Green Battalion who went on the ship to check the goods, the merchants would also send some filial piety to the general soldiers. ”

Li Xi said secretly, this is a typical draught by water.

"Not only in business, Bai Zongrong has opened several mines in Yingde and Master Zhong, in fact, this is also the career established by the successive chief soldiers, which can not only find a job for the soldiers, but also get some silver. The county magistrate can only turn a blind eye, anyway, he still has one. ”

There are also backers to eat the mountains, and in this poor place in northern Guangdong, the general soldiers can actually squeeze out oil flowers, which is really talented.

The background explanation is almost complete, and Xiao Sheng talked about the business that Li Xi mentioned.

"Every year there will be a exchange of ordnance in the army, and as long as it is within the limit and it is not too abrupt compared to the previous example, the governor, the military department, and the household department will recognize the sale[3]. Therefore, Bai Zongrong reported for a change, and every year he built some weapons that cost almost no money here in Zhong Shangwei, and he could mix it up with Jianyue. The first two years were as usual, but next year is the emperor's 60th birthday, this year's brief reading, the military department specially greeted, Zhao Zhitai and Shi Junmen also spoke, must be fully armed, and said that it is difficult to guarantee that there will be a brief reading. This soldier is okay to say, when the time comes, it will be solved by hiring some wanderers, but it is difficult to deal with weapons, especially artillery. ”

Speaking of which, Li Xian was in a trance, and he didn't know if it was lost or blown up, or the number of cannons reported before was false, and Mr. Bai's cannon was gone anyway, so he hurriedly looked for Zhong Shangzhi to build a cannon.

"It's okay to let someone outside make it privately?"

Li Xi asked what he was most concerned about.

"Our green camp ordnance, even if it is a cannon, is made locally. The practice in Guangdong is to go to the official supervision of the Foshan Iron Yard to build the gun, but the gunhouse only has a sign. Each town found its own man, registered it for reporting, and after verification, it was fine. ”【4】

Hearing this, Li Xian just breathed a sigh of relief, Xiao Sheng seemed to want to take revenge on him, but his tone changed.

"But if you Fengtian Village want to take over this matter, it's not risk-free, after all, this is a fake and not a new one, and you have to test it in a brief reading. If the Taiwanese military gate deliberately picks about the old and the new, or chooses the cannon you made to try, something goes wrong, Bai Zongrong ...... But I won't cover it up for you. ”

Li cut off with disdain, "helping" them to cover up? That's disgusting......

"If you want to take it, Bai Zongrong is still very grateful, at least until the concoction is completed, you will never let Zhong Shangwei make trouble, you don't have to worry."

Xiao Sheng saw that his face had changed, and quickly explained, for fear that this guy would have some bad intentions.

With Xiao Sheng's assurance, Li Xi was much more relieved, and he secretly had a plan.

However, the information from Xiao Sheng's side alone was not enough, and after leaving Xiao Sheng, Li Xian went to find Duan Hongshi again. Duan Lao Xiucai was teaching a few school students, and Li Xi obediently waited outside, thinking that it was a pity, this would already be spring, and there would be no snow to pad himself, otherwise he could also have a Duanmen Lixue......

After guarding for half an hour, Duan Laoxiu came out of the house and looked at him approvingly, but when Li Xian told the matter, Duan Laoxiu almost sprayed tea again, with an expression of "You kid is simply a troublemaker".

"The old man can't help with this......"

Lao Xiucai hurriedly took himself out.

"Teacher, don't worry, the disciple is not here to ask you to help make the cannon, I guess you don't understand."

Li Xian's words made Lao Xiucai's face twist again, he is really a guy who has never been up or down, but why do you feel like it.

[1: The deduction is the salary withheld by Xiaoyue, which was originally used to fill the salary of the leap month of the Qing calendar, and later became a small treasury. The interception is the money deducted after the vacancy, and the essence is also the part that is missing. 】

[2: Banknote customs, that is, commercial customs, in the Ming Dynasty because of the exchange of treasure money and set up, later evolved into commercial customs, mostly according to the busy rivers and set up, by the sea is called customs. Qing Chengming system, in Shaozhou Yuxian Bridge near the banknote customs. 】

[3: Sales are equivalent to reimbursement, the Qing Dynasty had strict financial control, and sales control was also very strong. Of course, once the matter becomes superficial, it is just a bright book. 】

[4: Kangxi set up three artillery factories in Beijing, including Yangxin Palace, Jingshan and Blacksmith Battalion. Yangxin Palace is to make cannons for the palace and the Manchurian Eight Banners, the so-called "imperial system", Jingshan is the "factory system", and the blacksmith battalion is the "bureau system". The bureau system was provided to the Green Battalion, but that was the matter of the War of the Three Feudatories, and the Green Battalion used cannons, which were basically made locally. 】