Chongzhen Daming: Starting from Coal Mountain

Chapter 55
Chongzhen only brought more than [-] Yi Ding, Gao Qiqian, Lu Jiude and a dozen other eunuchs, and drove an ox cart to the gate of Li Chengdong's barracks. The ox cart contained [-] taels of silver.

When Li Chengdong heard about it, he hurriedly took the general out of the camp gate and knelt down to meet him.

"Minister Li Chengdong, I respectfully invite Shengan." Li Chengdong said respectfully.

"Pingshen." Chongzhen said, "I'm here to send you money."

"Your Majesty, I'm afraid." Li Chengdong didn't dare to get up, and hurriedly explained, "In fact, I tried to dissuade the soldiers, but the soldiers didn't listen to my advice."

Chongzhen said: "So, Ai Qing didn't know beforehand?"

Li Chengdong swore: "Your Majesty, I really don't know, if you lie..."

"Okay, I trust you." Chongzhen felt ashamed, did you, Li Chengdong, not know?If you don't know, you are a ghost. If I believe you, you are a fool.

This matter must have been instigated by you, Li Chengdong.

It is not easy to judge the intention, maybe it is to make money, or it may be to establish prestige.

To put it bluntly, Li Chengdong had just become independent from Gao Jie not long ago and had not yet established his prestige, so it is entirely possible that he would use this quarrel to establish his prestige, and the rest of the towns would follow suit after seeing him.

Only a general who can fight for the interests of his subordinates can be supported.

It's a pity that Li Chengdong and the others made a wrong calculation this time, because they met Chongzhen.

"I don't mean to blame Aiqing." Chongzhen stepped forward to help Li Chengdong up with his own hands, and then entered the barracks holding Li Chengdong's hand, saying, "I know Aiqing's loyalty."

Li Chengdong is loyal?Even Chongzhen himself did not believe this.

Li Chengdong and Wu Sangui are the same thing, they are both speculators.

It's just that Li Chengdong can't be moved right now, at least until Huang Deli's army arrives.

The soldiers of the other eighteen towns are all watching. To deal with Li Chengdong at this time will only make everyone feel insecure. In that case, there is no need to wait for Jiannu to go south, and the frontier troops of the eighteen towns themselves have already collapsed.

However, not cleaning up Li Chengdong does not mean doing nothing.

We must take this opportunity to bypass Li Chengdong and other eighteen town commanders, directly connect with the officers and soldiers at the bottom, and try our best to gain the support of the officers and soldiers at the bottom.

I'll give you a bottom line!

Don't you want to support yourself?I robbed all your soldiers!
When entering the gate, Li Chengdong glanced at the four silver boxes on the bullock cart with eager eyes.

According to the military system of the Ming Dynasty, the military pay for recruiting soldiers in border towns will be paid by the Lord in the future, so Li Chengdong thinks that Chongzhen will definitely hand over these four boxes of silver to him for distribution, but he doesn't know how much silver there is in total?
According to military practice, he can detain at least half of them.

However, Li Chengdong was disappointed, and Chongzhen didn't mean it.

After entering the camp with the ox cart, Chongzhen said: "Li Aiqing, arrange for the soldiers to come to collect the salary. According to the establishment, one post will come one by one, and tell the soldiers that there is no need to worry at all, everyone has a share."

"Ah?" Li Chengdong was stunned, what's going on?
Chongzhen asked with a smile: "Li Qing, what's wrong?"

Li Chengdong really dared to say: "Your Majesty, there is no need to bother you with such trivial matters as payment."

"Aiqing's words are wrong." Chongzhen said with a straight face, "Soldiers are important matters for the country, the place of death and life, and the way of survival. It is very important! Therefore, the payment of salary is not a trivial matter, and from now on, the distribution of my salary in Ming Dynasty will be presided over by me or the imperial envoy, and it will be used as a rule."

Hearing this, what else can Li Chengdong say, he can only agree.

In the end, unless Li Chengdong dared to rebel, he could only obey.

But obviously Li Chengdong didn't dare to rebel, at least not now.

So even if you want to do something bad, you can only do it secretly.

After a while, the soldiers in the battalion were organized, and a post came first.

There are two types of military systems in Ming Dynasty, one is the Weisuo system and the other is the recruitment system.

The twenty-eight towns in Xuzhou are all recruited, and their establishment is divided into five, even, team, sentry, general, battalion, and town. Among them, one army has five people, one ten has ten people, one team has thirty people, and one sentry has nine soldiers. ten people.

Ninety officers and soldiers lined up in a long line at one post, eagerly waiting to receive their pay.

For soldiers, the happiest moment is when they are paid every month.

Chongzhen said in a loud voice: "The same soldier eats food, and also works for the court. There should be no distinction between one and another. Therefore, I decided to treat all towns equally, and quoted the Guanning Army's monthly payment of 2 taels of silver!"

The ninety officers and soldiers lined up immediately cheered, as standard as the Guan Ning army?
The border towns in Daming are different from the border towns. The Guanning army pays 2 taels a month, while the rest of the border towns pay 1 tael.

Chongzhen said again: "Because this month is going north from Yangzhou to Xuzhou, so as usual, the sub-branch should be paid, double the rate!"

Hearing this, the ninety officers and soldiers lined up were even more ecstatic. They didn't expect that the standard was raised to the level of the Guan Ning Army, and they could still receive their salaries?This is a good thing that has never happened.

In the past, Gaozong Town did not pay them travel expenses.

"Long live thanks!" Immediately a soldier knelt down.

"Long live thanks!" One knelt down, and the others followed suit.

Looking at the officers and soldiers who shouted long live three times, Li Chengdong's mood was a little complicated.

This bought you off?Your lives are too cheap.

But Li Chengdong didn't know that Chongzhen's good show of drawing salary from the bottom had just begun.

"Get up." Chongzhen raised his hands falsely, and said again, "Hurry up and get paid, there are still many people waiting behind."

The first soldier stepped forward eagerly. Lu Jiude gave him two silver picks and asked in a sharp voice, "Whose soldier did you become?"

This time, I am much more proficient in the high dive business.

He immediately reminded the soldier, "I'm a soldier of the Ming Dynasty."

The soldier then yelled: "Be a soldier of the Ming Dynasty!"

Lu Jiude gave the soldier two more silver ladles and asked, "Whose food did you eat?"

After being guided by Gao Qiqian, the soldier shouted loudly again: "Eat the food of Long Live God!"

With this good start, the following soldiers followed suit. In a short while, the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty and the food of the Long Live Lord resounded through the barracks.

Li Chengdong's mood became more complicated.

How do you feel like you shot yourself in the foot?

It took more than a dozen hours, and finally the salary of 6 border towns was paid out.

When the 24 taels of silver went out, half of Liu Zeqing's confiscated silver went.

Liu Zeqing is not as powerful as Gao Jie, and his ability to steal money is not as good as Gao Jie's. His family property is less than 50 taels.

As for the remaining 2 township brave men and strong guards, there is no salary. Although they have three full meals a day, they can save the meals and take them home for their wives and children.

The pay incident was successfully resolved.

The soldiers are all honest.

But the incident wasn't over yet.

Because blindly offering favors can only get you an inch.

Only by giving kindness and power together can we truly establish prestige.

Therefore, thunderous means must be imposed next, and the most severe punishment will be given to those who provoke the wages.

The case investigation must naturally be left to professionals. Li Ruolian, the commander of Jinyiwei, began to exercise his powers and began to summon and interrogate the officers and soldiers of various towns.

During this period, Chongzhen did not sit idle for a moment.

From time to time, Chongzhen would bring two barbarians and two eunuchs to randomly appear in the barracks of a certain town, and then stay with the officers and soldiers of this town all day long, training together during training, and eating together Shouting to be a soldier of the Ming Dynasty, eating the food of the Long Live God, and camping at night is also mixed in the soldiers' tents.

It has to be said that Chongzhen's hand is even more powerful than Zhu Yuanzhang's.

Zhu Yuanzhang only selected five hundred elite soldiers from the surrendered army to serve as the guards.

But Chongzhen mingled directly with the officers and soldiers of the towns, eating, living and training together.

It is indescribable the feeling in the hearts of the officers and soldiers to see the majestic Ninth Five-Year Master follow him to train in the queue, eat brown rice mixed with the sofa, and sleep in the same broken tent at night.

This is the same feeling that French soldiers felt towards Napoleon more than a hundred years later.

However, Napoleon ate and lived with the soldiers and walked with the army, just to keep track of the physical condition of the soldiers, but unexpectedly won the enthusiastic support of the French soldiers.

Chongzhen did it deliberately.

Bitterness is bitterness, but Chongzhen clearly felt that the soldiers became more enthusiastic when they shouted him long live, and when they shouted the slogan that soldiers eat food before eating, they were not just shouting slogans, but from the heart.

Eight days later, that is, on May [-], Huang Deli's army arrived in Xuzhou.

When Huang De's army arrived, Chongzhen was in the camp of the "ogre" Ma Huabao.

"Being a soldier of the Ming Dynasty, eating the food of the Long Live God!" After the resounding slogan, the officers and soldiers who were so hungry that their chests were pressed against their backs all morning began to gorge themselves.

Those who didn't know, thought it was more than a thousand pigs eating pig food.

Chongzhen also ate very well, because the food has improved significantly.

All fools know what the food of the ancient army was like. Until the Republic of China, they all ate pig food, and the food of the Ming army was even worse than pig food. If you can eat it with one bite, it will be very fragrant.

In short, from the chief generals of the towns to the cooks, there are all kinds of deductions.

But Chongzhen broke this chain of interests, making these moths at a loss.

Because no one knows which town Chongzhen will go to today, let alone when he will go there, and then he will have dinner with the soldiers at the bottom, what should we do?Can't do it!
I can only pay enough for the food expenses, and dare not deduct a single cent.

Therefore, the chief soldiers and cooks of the towns were made miserable by Chongzhen.

However, the soldiers in various towns supported Chongzhen enthusiastically and became more fond of Chongzhen.

When Huang Degong walked into the Ma Huabao camp with the general soldiers of the ten towns under his command, he saw such a scene. Chongzhen was eating brown rice with several frontier soldiers. There was no food, only a plate of bean paste.

Huang Degong was very emotional about this, but the ten soldiers under his command looked at each other in blank dismay.

The Holy One is so cruel?Can you follow the big soldiers to eat this kind of pig food?

"Uncle Jingnan, are you here?" Chongzhen greeted with a smile, "Let's have some food together?"

"Chen Huang Degong kowtowed to the Holy One." Huang Degong didn't dare to neglect, he brought the ten towns generals to visit, and after getting up, he introduced the ten towns generals to Chongzhen one by one.

(End of this chapter)