please make me king

Chapter 1260
"Are you Jiang Xiang?" Zhang Shun couldn't help asking, looking at the disheveled and tied-up man in front of him.

"If you want to kill, then kill, why talk too much!" Seeing Zhang Shun's kind face, Jiang Xiang said forcefully.

"My brother Jiang Rang and my brother Jiang Xuan are both famous generals. If I die, my brothers will avenge me!"

No, since you are so stubborn, why are you making up the last sentence!
Zhang Shun couldn't laugh or cry, why are you guys so virtuous.

Without waiting for Zhang Shun's answer, Sun Chuanting, the former governor of Shanxi, suddenly jumped out and cursed: "Beggar, don't dare to be rude!"

"What...how do you say that?" Zhang Shun was taken aback when he heard the words, but he was very surprised in his heart and said: This Sun Chuanting is also a cultural person after all, why did he engage in personal attacks?
Unexpectedly, Sun Chuanting explained to Zhang Shun with a smile: "Your Highness does not know that there are rich and poor in this important town on the nine borders of Ming Dynasty."

"The richest among them is the second town of Jiliao. Not only do they have more soldiers, but their military pay far exceeds that of other towns."

"Second is Sanbianer. Xuanda is the poorest. The military salary can't be more than four or seven dollars, and there are many arrears. Most of the arrears range from seven to eight months a year."

"Nowadays, there are many natural disasters in the three places, and the price of rice is soaring. Therefore, there are soldiers in the three towns in the west of Xuanda Shan. Some sell their sons and daughters, some eat grass roots and bark to satisfy their hunger, and some beg along the streets."

"Its army looks like beggars, and everyone calls it 'beggar army', 'begging flower army', and 'begging army'!"

"Don't say it, don't say it, please don't say it!" Jiang Xiang, who was still very stubborn, couldn't help touching his face when he heard the words, feeling shameless.

It turned out that there was a trend of extravagance in the late Ming Dynasty, proud of being rich and ashamed of being poor, as the saying goes, "laugh at the poor but not at the prostitutes".

Therefore, the three towns in the west of Xuanda Shanxi, as important towns in the Nine Borders, were exposed by others, which immediately made Jiang Xiang feel ashamed of being a human being.

Tsk tsk, only then did Zhang Shun understand.

The appearance of the famous "Datong mother-in-law" was not for the enjoyment of these "thieves with the army", but for the "employment and re-employment" of the families of these "thieves with the army".

"Really so poor?" Zhang Shun couldn't help but feel somewhat disbelieving.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the recruitment system was implemented. Although the Ming court owed wages and delayed wages seriously, at least in name it was "well-paid".

The soldiers who have just been recruited not only have a monthly salary of two or three taels, but also receive an extra ten taels of Anjia silver.

However, according to what Sun Chuanting said, how much money did the Ming frontier army still have?

"This Ming Dynasty has the distinction of 'army' and 'soldiers'!" Sun Chuanting couldn't help laughing when he heard this.

"The so-called soldiers are the soldiers of the guards; the so-called soldiers are the recruits."

"The monthly salary of the guards is still one stone per month, and it has been converted into four or seven taels of silver successively, so many soldiers fled."

"The recruiting is also divided into north and south, new and old. The southern soldiers originated from Wuyue, originated from Qi Nantang, and were thicker than the northern soldiers; the northern soldiers were recruited from the guards, and recruited according to their nationality. military."

"For old and new recruits, there is a difference between the morning and evening of recruitment. In the early days, Qi Nantang recruited soldiers from Jinhua and Quchu, with a monthly salary of one tael or five kuai, 'and food for two', which can be described as generous."

"At the end of Wanli, there were frequent military incidents in Liaodong. 'Each soldier is paid [-] taels of silver', which is the same as that of southern soldiers."

"By the beginning of Tianqi, in Liaodong, 'each soldier can use about two taels per month', of which eight money per month for veteran soldiers, and three taels of money for new recruits per month."

"However, among the three towns in Shanxi, Xuanfu, the east is not as good as Jiliao facing Houjin directly, and the west is not as good as Yansui Rebel Army. Therefore, there are many northern soldiers, many old soldiers, and very little food and wages."

"To cover the land, the food and pay depend on three kinds of garrison, democratic movement and Beijing movement. However, in recent years, natural disasters have been frequent, and most of the famine has been declared, and the garrison has been abandoned; the rebel army has risen everywhere, and most of Shaanxi is occupied by the rebel army. Henan lost two prefectures and one prefecture, and was again Jiabing, Shanxi Town has frequently lost its commanders, so the delays in the democracy movement have become more and more serious; only Yu Jingyun is not enough."

"Nowadays Xuanda's food prices are so high, 'four taels of rice, two taels of millet', so all the soldiers in Xuanda are beggars!"

Zhang Shun was taken aback when he heard the words, and suddenly had mixed feelings.

It's no wonder that the Ming army can do small-scale battles, but once they engage in large-scale battles, they will undoubtedly lose.

It turned out that due to the unbalanced economic development between the north and the south, and the frequent disasters in the north, the situation of "the north has silver but no grain, and the south has grain but no silver" has resulted.

The Ming court had no choice but to repeatedly increase taxes and pay to deal with the current economic and military crisis.

The result is naturally that the more taxes are increased, the more rogues will be; the more the rates are increased, the more severe the inflation in the north will be.

As the saying goes, "Don't worry about scarcity, but worry about inequality", the imperial court tried harder to maintain the situation, recruited new soldiers, and increased salaries, so the contradictions between the north and the south, between the old and the new, and between the soldiers became more and more prominent.

This is also the economic reason why the Ming Frontier Army performed well in small-scale battles, but would fail disastrously in large-scale battles.

Of course, Zhang Shun contributed to this.

His "grain war" of buying five million shi single-handedly pushed up the price of food, which in turn led to how many people in Xuanda Jiliao town and Houjin sold their sons and daughters and exposed their corpses in the wilderness.

Thinking of this, Zhang Shun couldn't help feeling a little sympathetic towards Jiang Xiang.

He couldn't help asking in a gentle voice: "I don't know if what Mr. Sun said just now is true?"

"It's true." Jiang Xiang couldn't help lowering her head in shame, humming two words out of her throat.

"Then you are a general of the Ming Dynasty, do you drink the blood of soldiers?" Zhang Shun became more and more curious when he heard the words.

"This general is upright and honest, how can he be such a person!" Jiang Xiang couldn't help denying loudly when he heard the words.

"I just moved the military salaries of those old and weak soldiers to other places, and supported the servants to serve the country's ear."

"Oh?" Zhang Shun heard this noncommittal, but asked, "I don't know how many soldiers, how much food and salary are under your command now, how many servants, how much food and salary?"

"There are [-] soldiers under my general's command. The monthly salary of the infantry is four qian, and the monthly salary of the horse is eight qian. Among them, there are [-] family members, the monthly salary of the infantry is one tael, and the monthly salary of the cavalry is one tael. Two dollars." Jiang Xiang hesitated for a moment when he heard the words, and answered.

According to Sun Chuanting, nowadays, "four taels of stone rice and two taels of stone millet" are declared, so the salary of an ordinary pawn for one month is enough to buy twenty-four catties of corn or twelve catties of rice. The Ming court really sent beggars away!

Zhang Shun couldn't help but patted Jiang Xiang's shoulder heavily, and said with emotion: "Qing Guo is also a loyal minister!"

"Da Ming treats you like this, and you still don't turn against me, it really makes this king look at me with admiration."

"At this moment, if this king lures him with money again, it will be an unjust act."

"In this case, I will take the grain and silver back to the warehouse, and then send the heroes off!"

Wait, wait, can we not only not die, but also change families and continue to receive food and pay?

"Wait a minute, I don't know how much money King Shun wants to pay me?" Just as Jiang Xiang was embarrassed and didn't know how to speak, a soldier asked loudly.

"The people in the land under my king's jurisdiction are poor and have little money, so only the soldiers are paid a stone of rice and millet every month." Zhang Shun couldn't help but feel ashamed.

"Dry other brewing, one stone of millet is two liang, one stone of rice is four liang, it is worth it no matter what. I quit, I will follow King Shun to conquer the world!" All the cavalry were stunned and shouted immediately.

Jiang Xiang was also taken aback when she heard the words, and turned her head to look, only to see that the soldiers under his command were already about to surrender one after another. I am afraid that after a little later in the evening, her family will become bare generals.

He quickly touched the bottom of his forehead, and shouted in a low voice: "Unexpectedly, King Shun's benevolence and righteousness are like this, and Jiang is willing to be the king's pioneer, just by driving!"

(End of this chapter)