Valley Emperor

"Hey, wait for the Huguang soldiers to come to the rescue, so don't count on it. Master Zhang has already sent 30,000 troops to attack the Xingquan Mansion of the bandit army. He said that he was going to raid the bandit army's old nest. Back then, Wuzhou was so dangerous. The adults have not sent reinforcements to Guizhou, how can they send troops to rescue us now!"

"But they went to fight Xingquan Mansion for so long, and they haven't heard any good news, and they don't know how they fought. It was an army of 30,000 people, and the bandit army was at most in Xingquan Mansion. Thousands of people, and they haven't been shot down yet!"

"Don't worry about Xingquan Mansion, and don't worry about whether there will be reinforcements from Huguang. The key is what should we do now?"

"Yes, what should we do, are we just waiting to die?"

"The only solution for now is to recruit more young men to defend the city's defenses, and there must be brave men under the heavy reward. When the battle is going to give more rewards to the soldiers, this city also has a chance to defend!"

"But we still have money there. We have been besieged for more than a month, and we have spent a lot of money when the thieves attacked the previous few times. Now we don't have much money left. How can we reward our soldiers?"

Is there no money in Guilin Mansion? It is true that the government is poor, but we in Ming Dynasty have a good habit, which is called hiding wealth in officials.

These officials present here can give as little as a few hundred, as much as a few thousand or even tens of thousands of taels of silver, but this money is their own, and they take it out as a reward? Don't be kidding, they would rather let the bandit army cut off their heads than take out the money they have worked so hard to find.

After so many years of hard study, he was admitted to the imperial examinations and became an official, and after so many years of hard work, he accumulated this wealth through corruption and bribery, and let them use it as a reward? Believe it or not, they immediately opened the city gate and let the thieves in!

Even if it is a thief, this official can't come up with money!

Therefore, these people consciously did not say anything about the wealth of the big guys, whether they should put together a few thousand taels to respond to emergencies or something, but soon a smart person said: "Now the city defense is in crisis, why don't you go? The palace is begging for mercy and asking the palace to provide a sum of money?"

The royal mansion of Guilin Mansion, of course, refers specifically to Jingjiang Mansion. This mansion has been crowned as a king since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, and was later moved to Guilin, Guangxi during the Yongli period. It has been passed down for seven generations and lasted more than one hundred years year.

Now the king has passed to the seventh generation Zhu Bangramie, and when Zhu Bangramie saw the officials of Guilin government who came to ask for food and grass support, he showed great concern, and patted his chest, saying that as the king of Daming, facing the bandit army To besiege a city, it is natural to need to contribute money and effort, and it is impossible to do so, but it is a trivial matter for money! "

Hearing that Zhu Bangramie agreed so readily, the officials who came were full of smiles. Originally, they thought King Jingjiang would refuse, but they did not expect Zhu Bangramie to be so cheerful.

But when they heard Zhu Bangramie's next sentence, their expressions began to change!

I only heard Zhu Bangramie say: "There are still 800 taels of silver in the mansion now, so let's take them all. It's a big deal that we people in Prince Jing's manor will eat chaff and veggies for a while, and these days will always be able to survive. But in order to fight the bandit army, this hard time is worth it!"

Hearing this, the officials all looked at each other, and even some people's expressions turned cold.

Eight hundred taels of silver? Really think they are beggars!

But before they could say anything else, Zhu Bang said, "Okay, it's getting late, and the adults are probably still busy with city defense affairs, so this king won't stay!"

With that said, I brought up the tea!

Those officials looked at me and I looked at you, but in the end they didn't say anything, and left with a rather bad look.

After they left, Zhu Banglin squinted his eyes and sneered: "They are all a bunch of corrupt officials, they don't pay a dime, they just want to ask this king to pay.

And when the money was taken out, it didn't end up in their pockets. I really thought this king was a fool! "

At this time, an old man dressed as a servant walked by, and he only listened to him: "My lord, now the city defense is in crisis, is this money given too little, after all, defending the city costs a lot, and there is no monetary incentive, I'm afraid it is It's hard to hold on to this city!"

Zhu Bangram said, "What are you afraid of, they have money!"

"It's true that defending the city needs to spend money, but why do they earn so much money when they are officials on weekdays, but at this critical moment, they all don't make money? It looks like a bad guy?"

"When the situation is urgent, don't be afraid that those officials won't take out the money to serve as military needs, otherwise the city will be destroyed, and they will all die!"

But Jingjiang King Zhu Bangli didn't know that at this time, in the prefect's yamen, several middle and senior officials of the Ming Dynasty heard that they had only received a mere 800 taels of silver from Jingjiang's palace, and their faces were quite ugly.

Among them, the Guilin mansion also knows: "In the past 100 years, their royal mansion has absorbed how many people's fat and people's ointment, and accumulated more than one million gold and silver. Are they not willing to even spend a mere 10,000 taels of silver to motivate soldiers to defend the city?"

What this person said was an expression of indignation. People who didn’t know thought he was a good official who served the people and the country, but since this person took office as a member of the Guilin government, he had probably made more than a few thousand taels of money. The official has only been in office for more than ten years. It is said that his family only had tens of acres of thin fields before, but now they have more than a thousand acres of fields in their hometown in the south of the Yangtze River, and there are many kinds of shops.

Of course, the people present were basically like birds, so naturally everyone would not think of this aspect, but instead criticized the Jingjiang Palace.

It is now in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the Xungui Group has long since declined, and the vassal kings are raised like pigs. Although they still maintain their former glory and wealth, their political status is almost nonexistent. A jinshi civil official dares to scold a vassal king, and often he can win a reputation for not being afraid of the powerful.

Heaven and earth conscience, in this day and age, their civil servants are the most powerful people!

Those military commanders, nobles and vassal kings are nothing but a group of pigs fed by delicious food and drink!

After condemning Queen Jingjiang, the big guy is back to the old issue. How to defend the city? How can I boost morale when I have no money to defend the city?

You must know that the reason why he was able to defend the city under the attack of the pseudo-Tang thief army a few times was all because of high gold and silver incentives.

In order to boost morale, these officials offered high rewards, killing one fake thief can get 10 taels, and killing one real thief can get 32 ​​taels.

And these are still small numbers, because it is impossible for them to kill a large number of thieves, and the rewards they offer are often of a mass nature. If so, all the soldiers will directly reward the amount of silver, although it is a reward of a few taels of silver, but it can't stand the crowd.

During the period when the city was under siege, the first regiment was temporarily organized to conduct three exploratory attacks. The first two were just fire reconnaissance attacks to find the weak points of the defenders, and the third attack was only Mainly to fill the moat.

But these three attacks have already cost the defenders in the city thousands of taels of silver, plus the daily food and drink, and the daily rations. Since the thieves invaded Guilin, the Guilin government has directly paid for the war. It has reached more than 10,000 taels.

And this not only exhausted the reserve silver of the official warehouse in the city, but even apportioned it twice.

If the temporary first regiment outside the city knew that the defenders in the city were relying on a lot of money to maintain their operations, it is estimated that they would launch frequent attacks.

After a lot of discussion, the only way to think about it was the old way of apportioning to the city for the third time, and this time the apportionment is not only limited to those big households, some middle-class families also need to apportion.

But even so, it is not impossible for them to get too much money. They have been apportioned twice. Those big families have tempers. They give it once and twice, but it is impossible to give it every time, even if it is , it is impossible to give as much as before.

And the result was indeed the case. During the third apportionment, all the big households were crying poor, and the total apportionment was only 2,000 taels of silver. What is this amount of money enough for? Thousands of defenders in the city are not enough. It is distributed by one person and one tael of silver.

And according to the usual practice, the two thousand silver coins and even the more than 800 taels of silver taken out of the Jingjiang palace will be washed away, at least 30% of them will be deducted, and the rest will be distributed. The lost part is naturally everyone present. The hard work of senior officials and many yamen officials.

Presiding over the city is also very tiring and frustrating, and this is also a practice in the country. They even took a mere 30% of the money because of the tension in the war. If it was normal, the money would pass through their hands, at least It is not bad to be able to leave half of it for the soldiers.

And after the money reaches the military, the generals at all levels will deduct a portion of the money according to their official rank. In addition to putting this money into their personal pockets, a portion of the money needs to be distributed to the personal soldiers.

why? Because the personal soldiers are their confidants, and even the core combat power of the entire Ming army defending the city!

As for ordinary soldiers and even young adults, it is very good that they can share the remaining two or three achievements!

And this kind of thing is taken for granted by everyone. It has been an old rule for many years to float and skip, and everyone has become accustomed to this and has formed a routine.

Otherwise, how do you maintain a decent life, support your family, buy farmland and shops in your hometown, and rely on a salary of only a few dozen taels of silver a year, don't joke.

The two thousand eight hundred taels were shared by the people present, and the money raised by the two previous apportionments and the thousands of taels in the official warehouse will naturally not be taken less by the people present.

This siege battle is not over yet, and everyone present has a lot of pockets!

Not to mention the final whereabouts of these silvers, nor to say how much benefit everyone in the audience shared, but after the third apportionment, even if adding the 800 taels of silver donated by the Jingjiang Palace, the total amount will be raised. Two thousand eight hundred taels of silver, this number is not enough.

"This silver is still short, should we apportion some more? The big gentry in the city may not be able to take it out, but there must be money in the palace. If you go a few times, you will be able to get the silver. Otherwise, once the city is destroyed, everything in his Jingjiang palace will not be taken by the bandit army, let alone money!"

"What's the use of going now, will he give it?"

"When the thieves officially attack the city, I'm not afraid that he will not pay!"

"Yes, at that time, King Jingjiang will definitely not sit back and ignore the city!"

These Guilin government officials didn't know yet that King Jingjiang also came up with this idea, and now people on both sides are counting on the other party to come up with money to save the crisis at a critical moment.

As for the lack of money and food now, let's lack it first. Although the reinforcements of the pseudo-Tang bandit army have come, it has not yet attacked the city!