The wind rises at the end of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 83 The Road
Under the scorched ruins, the abrupt gold and silver colors are naturally particularly eye-catching.

Seeing this scene suddenly, the Liao cavalry who followed behind couldn't help commotion.

Chen Wang glanced back, but didn't pay too much attention behind him.

It is not a normal person to see so much gold and silver and have no idea.

But after taking the money, you have to have life to spend, and you have to have a place to spend it.

Chuangjun's camp was already in ruins, and there were scenes of fires raging everywhere.

A lot of gold and silver have been melted and mixed together.

Every time a city is broken or a place is plundered, most of the gains are collected privately, and only a small part is captured and returned to the public.

The rogues are not completely disorderly, there are also transactions and markets among them.

There are also basic rules between them, and they are not allowed to act arbitrarily.

Gold and silver can buy things, some people sell them, and some people buy them.

When Zhenning was broken, Guo Tianxing Hui Dengxiang still joined forces with Li Zicheng.

Therefore, Prime Minister Hui Deng distributed almost half of the gold and silver, so Li Zicheng did not own much gold and silver.

But even so, the gold and silver accumulated by Li Zicheng is still not a small amount.

At least for Chen Wang at this stage, it was already an extremely terrifying number.

Naturally, strict statistics are used for gold and silver, and there is no shortage of silver cents in the jurisdictional treasury.

According to the information given by Xing, there are 650 taels of gold and 720 taels of silver in the treasury.

It sounds like a lot, but it only takes four or five large trucks to load it all.

16 taels a catty, if converted, gold weighs 470 and [-] catties, and silver weighs more than [-] catties.

"People cleared the ruins, and all the melted gold and silver were dug out and loaded into cars."

Chen Wang didn't get off his horse, but led a group of cavalry standing on one side while leading the horse.

The one who started to clean up the ruins was naturally not the Liao cavalry behind him, but the battalion soldiers who had arrived early and were on duty here early in the morning.

Tang Shiping received the order, and immediately led a few cavalrymen to jump out of the cavalry formation, and then ordered hundreds of garrison soldiers to start cleaning and digging.

"After the gold and silver are loaded into the car, there will be rewards for each, but if anyone dares to hide it privately, he will be killed immediately!"

Tang Shiping's expression was gloomy and cold, and he made no effort to hide his murderous intent.

"If you want to live, if you want gold and silver, don't play tricks."

Tang Shiping's cold voice came to the ears of the camp soldiers who were cleaning up the ruins and digging for gold and silver, and they all trembled in shock.

Chen Wang didn't interrupt Tang Shiping.

In troubled times, heavy scriptures are used, especially in governing the army.

This is the rule of this era, and he didn't want to change these things eagerly now.

There are priorities, and they must be selected first and then executed.

Chen Wang, a remnant soldier who was originally under Ai Wannian's command, was not mobilized when digging and transporting gold and silver.

There are a total of three rounds of soldiers here, all the refugees he recruited in Binzhou, the first batch of soldiers he trained.

Time passed quietly, and boxes of gold and silver were weighed one after another and loaded into the car.

Chen Wang's thoughts have also shifted from Jinyin's body to other places.

Antiques in prosperous times, gold in troubled times.

In the Shaanxi market, the price of gold is constantly rising, and now the purchasing power of one tael of gold is equivalent to 12 taels of silver.

The purchasing power of the more than 7000 taels of gold is enough to be 9 taels of silver.

The more than 6 taels of silver here, plus the silver taels from selling horses and mules, can make up about 8 taels.

In other words, in this battle, the spoils he won had already reached 17 taels of silver.

This is not counting the captured armor and weapons, as well as the bounty rewards for meritorious deeds such as the captured heads.

A full 17 taels...

In this world, one and a half of the military salary and two and a half of the silver for settling down, Shaanxi and Shanxi provinces are full of people applying.

All 17 taels were used to raise soldiers, enough to raise [-] soldiers for almost a year.

Chen Wang now finally understands why Cao Wenzhao issued such a generous bounty after the Battle of Binzhou.

I'm afraid Cao Wenzhao also took a large amount of gold and silver from the bandits.

Part of the reason why the generals and schools of those battalions can afford to support so many surrendered soldiers who have not entered the military register should be here.

Chen Wang calmed down, recalling the history he had read in the book.

In the original history, the 11th year of Chongzhen was the darkest moment for the rogues in the pass.

Sun Chuanting defeated Li Zicheng in Taohe, and Li Zicheng was defeated and fled to Minzhou.

Zuo Liangyu defeated Zhang Xianzhong in Nanyang, and Zhang Xianzhong was besieged in Gucheng.

After that, the Ming army continued to increase its troops in the pass, encircled and suppressed them in many ways, and won successive battles.

Chuang Tian Tian Liu Guoneng, Guo Tian Xing Zhang Tianlin, Zhang Xianzhong, Luo Rucai and others surrendered one after another, and more bandits were wiped out.

It was at that time that the power of Zuo Liangyu and He Renlong swelled like a balloon.

Liu Liangzuo, who later became one of the four towns in Jiangbei, also became stronger after defeating Zhang Xianzhong.

Especially Zuo Liangyu, in 11 he was still only the chief soldier, and in principle the number of soldiers was only a few thousand.

But the number of soldiers and horses under his command had already exceeded thousands. By the 11th year of Chongzhen, Zuo Liangyu had already had more than [-] soldiers and horses under his command, and most of them were rogues who had surrendered.

This part of the soldiers was not included in the military quota, and the governor didn't say much about these additional soldiers.

Zuo Liangyu has now recruited a battalion of nearly 3000 bandits, and the Changping soldiers under his command who originally followed him into the customs have suffered a lot of casualties during successive years of battles.

The reason why the number of nearly 3000 people can still be maintained is because Zuo Liangyu also selected some of the soldiers who surrendered, so that they entered the camp as regular soldiers.

As more and more gold and silver were loaded into the carriages, the venue gradually became empty.

Chen Wang knew very well that these gold and silver could not be eaten.

Transforming gold and silver into armaments, soldiers, and power in your hands is the right thing to do.

In the torrent of troubled times, only those with swords and guns can stand firm.

No matter how much wealth, no matter how high the status is, there is no corresponding power to protect it, it is just a passing cloud.

Chen Wang looked back at Chunhua City in the east.

Outside the city of Chunhua, there are ruins and devastation everywhere.

Now the opportunity to expand the army is in front of him.

Now there are more than [-] prisoners in Chunhua City.

Among them, there were more than [-] elite cavalry, more than [-] cavalry soldiers, and the rest were infantry and hungry soldiers.

Chen Gong dispatched Tang Ma before to send news that he had already defeated the fleeing bandits and hungry soldiers, and now they are being pressed back to Chunhua in batches.

But Chen Wang is not going to take Zuo Liangyu's path, he is going to take another path of expanding the army.

The path Zuo Liangyu took was a dead end.

In the early stage, Zuo Liangyu relied on the elite soldiers of the headquarters as the backbone, and was able to control the army well.

However, after absorbing more and more surrendered soldiers in the middle and late stages, it became a difficult situation to ride a tiger.

Especially after Zhuxian Town's defeat, Zuo Liangyu's men were exhausted, and there were many mobs who returned afterward. Although the army was strong, they were all mobs.

And Zuo Liangyu had already found it difficult to control the battalions under his command. Although he was still the commander in chief, in fact, Zuo Liangyu at that time was already coerced by his soldiers and horses and could not help himself.

……

"History of Ming Dynasty Biography Volume 160 One":
"... Shu and the generals are asking for the side of the Qing emperor, but Liangyu is hesitant to respond."

"Why, there is something about the prince coming from the north. Shu used this to avenge the public to avenge his own grievances, and summoned the generals of the 36th Battalion to form an alliance with him..."

"...General Hao Zhongyin entered the city, set fire to the city and left."

"Liangyu looked at the fire in the city, and said: 'I will bear Yuan Gong.' He vomited several liters of blood and died at night."

(Yuan Gong in Zuo Liangyu’s mouth refers to Yuan Jixian, the Governor-General in Jiejiujiang at that time.)
(End of this chapter)