The end of the Ming Dynasty swept the world

Chapter 845 One Hundred Thousand Guangxi Soldiers

September of the first year of Rende (1646).

Liuzhou, Guangxi.

In March last year, Wu Sangui took the post of admiral of Liuzhou, Guangxi, where he trained [-] soldiers.

This place was also decided by Ding Yi and the courtiers after a long discussion.

There are many chieftains in the southwest of Liuzhou, and the folk customs in the south are also aggressive, and Guangxi soldiers are also quite famous in history.

Wu Sangui brought 500 elite veterans under Ding Yi, [-] experienced civil servants from Lushun, and [-] million silver to recruit troops on the spot.

At that time, the soldiers were paid three taels of silver per month, including food, housing and clothing, and the family had farmland.

Such good conditions immediately caused a sensation in Guangxi. After all, in the troubled times of the late Ming Dynasty, it was not easy to survive, let alone money and food and housing.

A large number of people around Liuzhou and Nanning flocked to sign up. Many former deserters and even bandits and chieftains also came. The recruitment was full within two months, and the successors were selected and eliminated.

Ding Yi's soldiers and horses each train 50 people, 2000 people are responsible for training 10 people, and another [-] are officers and substitutes at all levels.

The vigorous Guangxi military training has begun.

The governor of Guangxi was Fang Zhenru, the former Guangxi councilor. He had a good relationship with Shi Kefa, and Shi Kefa recommended him as Guangxi councilor. He was honest and honest.

When Ding Yi was in charge, Fang Zhenru fully supported Wu Sangui and mobilized resources from all over Guangxi to build camps, sew clothes, and prepare food and logistics for Wu Sangui’s recruits. Wu Sangui was responsible for paying the money, and the two cooperated very well. of.

In June, Song Fei came to Guilin with [-] soldiers and horses and served as the general soldier of Guilin.

Guangxi was pacified in November of the previous year, but at that time it was determined by the imperial edict, and it was all ordered by the imperial court Ding Yi.

There are still a small number of Ming troops in various parts of Guangxi, and the gentry still rely on them there.

After Wu Sangui arrived, he concentrated on training soldiers and ignored these things.

When Seinfeld arrived in June, starting from Guilin, we followed the old routine, first abolished the slaves, and separated the gentry and chieftains from the slaves, especially the chieftains everywhere were tantamount to a slave society, which was worse than that of the Ming Dynasty.

Seinfeld's move to cancel the slaves caused dissatisfaction among a large number of chieftains, and immediately caused a strong backlash in Guangxi.

But before Wu Sangui trained soldiers, he lured a large number of local people with high salaries, and even some slaves fled to serve as soldiers.

Therefore, the strength of the local chieftains has been weakened.

Sein Fei directly sent troops to suppress, thunderous strikes, merciless.

Half of his [-] soldiers and horses were brought out from the senior officials, and it was his turn to return to the country to change defenses. He was good at mountain warfare and had rich experience in fighting the senior officials. perish.

At the end of the year, Sein Fei quelled most of the rebellion in Guangxi, and then began to re-measure land and collect land taxes in important state capitals.

At the end of the year, Wu Jinsheng, the general soldier of Nanning appointed by Ding Yi, also arrived in Guangxi.

Wu Jinsheng took over [-] elite Han troops from Liaodong, took over from Seong Fei's squad, and continued to pacify the chieftains. According to Ding Yi's request, all chieftains had to be cancelled, and all their fields had to be remeasured and allocated.

At this time, the news of Ding Yi's proclaiming emperor also came to Guangxi. The governor Fang Zhenru cried bitterly in the direction of the capital like a bolt from the blue, but after crying, he found that Guilin was completely under Sein Fei's control.

At this time, he thought that it would be useless if the Chief Secretary of Guangxi did not support Wu Sangui's military training, and Song Fei could make his words useless at any time.

And for the past six months, Wu Sangui gave money happily, and did not want subsidies from the Chief Secretary of Guangxi. Everyone cooperated very well.

This has never happened in the previous Ming Dynasty.

Thinking about Ding Yi training [-] troops in Guangxi, what else could Fang Zhenru think?
The point is that Ding Yi will officially raise the salaries of officials all over the world.

Fang Zhenru cried for a long time, but finally accepted the reality.

Wu Sangui stayed in Guangxi for a year and a half and spent a lot of money to train [-] Guangxi soldiers for Ding Yi.

After that, Ding Yi will disperse the [-] Guangxi soldiers to garrison all over the country, and some of them are going to be used in Southeast Asia.

After entering September of the first year of Rende (1646), Wu Sangui's mood was a bit complicated.

Because not long ago the imperial court came to the imperial decree to summon the general soldiers of the world to the capital to face the holy.

Judging from the gossip, Ding Yi is going to start rewarding meritorious officials and at the same time determine the distribution of the national army.

The previous allocation of general troops was to stabilize the place and clear obstacles for the subsequent measurement of fields.

From April in the 17th year of Chongzhen (1644) to September in the first year of Rende (4), it took Ding Yi two and a half years to complete this step. Now all the land in the country has been re-measured, and it has entered the integration of officials and gentry. The steps of feeding.

Wu Sangui was in a complicated mood because he was very happy working in Guangxi, and he also saw the ability of Ding Yi's subordinates to train soldiers.

For more than a year, [-] Guangxi miscellaneous soldiers and civilians were trained under the order and prohibited, and they were extremely elite.

He was a bit reluctant to leave Guangxi, but in his estimation, Ding Yi might transfer him away.

It's useless to think about it now, no matter what, it's a big job now, and I still have to listen to the Holy Majesty.

Just as he was thinking wildly, Wu Guozhu rushed in excitedly from someone outside: "Master, Guilin shipped a new shipment of money, good guy, I heard that Guilin can make their own money."

Wu Sangui was taken aback for a moment, then ecstatically, he hurried out with Wu Guozhu and arrived at the pier quickly.

There is an official waterway in Liuzhou, and all the supplies of the imperial court can go from the south of the Yangtze River or the capital along the waterway to Liuzhou. This is also the purpose of Ding Yi's military training here. It will be very convenient to transport the soldiers and horses away in the future.

When he arrived at the pier, he saw a thousand large ships in the waterway, and a navy general was arranging unloading?
Wu Sangui knew him. It was Shang Zhixin who brought 500 million silver with him back then. I heard that he was the son of General Ding Yi Shang Kexi.

"Mr. Wu."

"General Shang."

The two greeted each other from a long distance, Shang Zhixin was a little strange: "The imperial court summoned the general soldiers from all over the world to go to Beijing, and the general soldiers of Wu haven't set off yet?"

Wu Sangui smiled and said: "Vice General Fang is still in Qingyuan, I'll wait for him to come back before leaving."

The deputy general of Liuzhou, Fang Chenggong, was stationed in Qingyuan Mansion, and the imperial court ordered the local deputy general to take over first, and then the generals went to Beijing.

"I see." Shang Zhixin said with a smile, "Congratulations to Mr. Wu."

This time the Holy Majesty wants to award meritorious officials generously, Wu Sangui must be counted as meritorious. Back then, he sacrificed Shanhaiguan and trained [-] troops in Guangxi.

Wu Sangui chuckled: "We are all happy together, please take care of Shangbutang."

Shang Kexi is now a cabinet minister, no worse than Wu Sangui.

Shang Zhixin also smiled complacently. At this time, his subordinates were about to carry the new copper coins and silver coins, etc., so he jumped off the boat and chatted with Wu Sangui.

Wu Sangui asked: "I heard that Guilin can also mint new coins?"

"It can be made." Shang Zhi said: "The imperial court has installed coin minting machines in several provinces, and it will not need to be transported from the capital in the future. It will take too much manpower and material resources."

"Guangxi's waterways are vertical and horizontal, which is very convenient for the transportation of copper coins."

"Can it be made in every province?"

"It will definitely be in the future, but not yet."

It turned out that Ding Yi had set up mint machines and mint bureaus in many provinces together with provincial banks, such as Jiangnan, Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangxi, Huguang, Shanxi, Sichuan and so on.

It will be set up in all provinces of the country in the future, and the coins of each province will be made by each province itself.

Wu Sangui was thoughtful, thinking, what if the local government casts it privately?
Everyone knows that one tael of silver can make a lot of silver coins.

"The mint bureau is managed by the chief envoys of the provinces, the bank works, and the guards are in charge of the local generals. The three parties supervise each other. Every year, a part of the local tax revenue is kept as expenses, and the rest is handed over to the central\central government."

The agricultural tax is basically fixed. How many acres of land there are, how much grain tax is paid, what is kept for personal use, and the rest is handed over to the court.

There is no previous fire consumption and any miscellaneous taxes.

There is no consumption. In the past, transporting ten stones of grain would cost a few stones on the way.

Now it is counted as self-use, and if you transport ten shi of grain, you must ensure that ten shi go to the central\central or provincial grain storage warehouses.

The commercial tax has not been fully collected yet. It is estimated that after the finalization of the general army, the next step is to fully collect the commercial tax.

In this situation, it is basically impossible to mint silver coins privately, unless someone learns how to make a minting machine.

But Ding Yi's minting machine uses the principle of a steam engine, and most of the outside is sealed with all steel. You can't see the structure inside unless you take it apart. Even if you take it apart, no professional can understand it, so don't There may be people who will learn how to make a minting machine.

Wu Sangui chatted with Shang Zhixin, accepted the military salary, and then had someone transport 80 silver to Shang Zhixin.

Back then, Ding Yi asked him to bring 500 million silver, and it has not been used up yet.

Now that the court issues new coins and brings 80 silver coins, he will give Shang Zhixin 80 silver coins.

At this time, he said: "The 500 million that the emperor gave me has been used up."

Shang Zhixin laughed loudly: "In the future, you will mint it locally, and I will transport the 80 silver to the Bank of Guilin."

After sending Shang Zhixin away, Wu Sangui got on his horse and said, "Let's go home and exchange for silver coins."

He himself still has a lot of silver, including the salary of the previous court, and the silver brought from Liaodong is almost more than 1 taels.

He hadn't exchanged silver coins before, but now it seems that using new coins will be the general trend in the future, and it's useless for him to keep silver.

The bank in Liuzhou is not far from his headquarters, and there are guards guarding the gate.

After all, the bank is newly opened this year, so we still need to take precautions.

Facts have proved that the local people are still rushing to exchange.

It has been driving for a long time, and Wu Sangui came again, but there was still a long queue at the door.

The imperial court has a decree that by the end of June next year, the previous circulation of gold and silver will be completely cancelled, so ordinary people and wealthy people will exchange their gold and silver for new coins.

But the key is to change all over the country, so Liuzhou is often short of new coins.

Sometimes it can stop for a month or two in the middle. Now that there is a mint in Guilin, this kind of thing should not happen in the future.

As soon as Wu Sangui arrived at the gate with a few soldiers, he was startled by the long line.

Fortunately, when the guard saw Wu Sangui, he immediately turned around and entered the bank. After a while, staff members came out.

Wu Sangui saw that they were wearing uniform gray robes, and there were name tags hanging on their chests, with their names written on them.

"Mr. Wu, go through the back door, let's go." The visitor led them around from behind.

(End of this chapter)