Fu Shanhe

Chapter 256 Rumors
Outside Yangzhou city.

"If you are here to see me off, I would like to thank you on behalf of my husband.

All other matters are off the table.

I think you all have an idea of ​​why the Yangzhou Camp left.

It's not that we are unkind, it's just that some people are too greedy and dare to take anything.

If you can’t share wealth, don’t expect to share adversity either. This is a universal principle from ancient times to the present.”

Jing Yaqing's words made all the officials in Yangzhou Prefecture very embarrassed.

All the small actions mentioned above were tacitly approved by them.

Without the cooperation of local officials, even the aristocratic families would not dare to act rashly.

The temptation failed, but the person was offended.

Now that I'm in trouble, it won't be that easy to ask for help.

"Madam, for the sake of the hundreds of thousands of people in Yangzhou, you still..."

"These matters are the responsibility of you officials. I am just a little girl and have no ability to interfere.

Well, it’s getting late, please get out of the way.”

Gu Youwen was interrupted by Jing Yaqing just when he was halfway through his words.

The tough statement made a group of Yangzhou officials think of the saying "Only villains and women are difficult to raise."

I felt very unhappy, but I had to put on a smile.

Those who were born in the Duke's Mansion were at the top of the imperial elite no matter what era.

And she married a powerful general like Li Mu, so she had every right to ignore them.

"Madam, please tell Lord Li that as long as Yangzhou Prefecture can be saved, the conditions can be negotiated!"

Gu Youwen said with a cruel heart.

Allowing the other party to set the conditions is undoubtedly giving up the initiative.

There was no way. It was too inappropriate to stop a woman's bicycle in public.

From beginning to end, Jing Yaqing did not show her face in the carriage in order to avoid suspicion.

"Sir, if we let them go like this, what will Yangzhou do?"

After watching the convoy leave, Ma Tongzhi asked with a gloomy face.

The departure of family members means the greatest bond is gone.

The rebels cannot take away the land and mines even if they come.

The imperial court can take it back if it puts down the rebellion.

As the main force of the army to suppress the rebellion, perhaps they can get more.

"What if you don't let them go? Given the identity of that person just now, do you dare to detain him?

If any rumors spread, do you think we can handle it?"

Gu Youwen said unhappily.

If any rumors get out, they're doomed.

No matter how noble the civil officials are and how low the military officials are, it does not mean that these middle-level officials can challenge the top nobles of the empire.

Losing office is a minor matter; the worst thing is that the other party does not follow the rules and comes directly to me in a ruthless way.

There are so many rebels now, it is not impossible that one of them suddenly appears in their hometown and carries out an operation to wipe out the entire family.

There are precedents for similar cases in history.

No one would be surprised if a man like Li Mu, who is full of vigor and vitality at such an age, did something extreme.

In the beginning, they just tentatively reached out to the Yangzhou camp, but hundreds of people died.

That kind of bloody scene was totally beyond the expectations of the civil servants.

The turmoil subsided quickly afterwards, and the most important factor was that everyone was scared.

In the past, conflicts over interests were all overt and covert struggles, and none of them led to a killing spree right away.

Faced with this unfamiliar pattern of struggle, they had no better solution than to submit a memorial of impeachment.

But now is a time of war, and the court will not take ordinary impeachment memorials seriously.

Those who died were all people who specialized in doing dirty work, either they were hooligans or thugs with hidden identities.

A bunch of unpresentable guys died and there is no way to bring the matter up in the court.

There was no way out in the past, and now that we have to ask others for help, we feel even more helpless.

After all, they all have families and careers, and they need to consider their families and clans when doing things.

……

Guangxi Camp.

Looking at the list submitted, Li Mu frowned slightly.

There were more generals interested in Zhejiang than expected.

Seven of the ten generals under his command signed up, and fifteen of them signed up for the positions of deputy commander and deputy commander.

There are only eleven prefectures in Zhejiang Province, how can it accommodate so many deputy generals and lieutenant generals?

No matter how wealthy a place is, it cannot be so warlike.

According to Li Mu's estimation, Zhejiang Province could accommodate at most three deputy generals and eight lieutenant generals.

The three lower prefectures with more developed economy and greater importance, Hangzhou, Jiaxing and Huzhou, each had a deputy general, and the other eight prefectures each had a lieutenant general.

Once the training is completed, Zhejiang's original local military forces will almost be squeezed to death.

Resources are limited and we can't support so many soldiers.

After a brief hesitation, Li Mu readily signed the list.

How to place these generals is the business of Marquis Wuyang.

If Zhejiang province alone cannot accommodate the people, people can be sent to other provinces.

The current Marquis of Wuyang concurrently serves as two governors-general, and is in charge of four provinces.

In addition to Zhejiang's lack of outstanding generals, Fujian and Guangdong also lack outstanding generals.

The most important thing is that this kind of division is exactly what the emperor and officials like to see the most.

On the surface, after the war, Li Mu still had more than 30,000 elite soldiers under his command.

Looking at the entire Dayu Dynasty, only Liaozhen can be compared with such military strength.

More than 20 key generals left, taking away more than 10,000 elite troops, and the newly born "Gui Clique" was disbanded.

With these additional troops, the pressure on Zhejiang, Guangdong and other places that were originally short of military strength was not so great.

The remaining 10,000-odd soldiers were not so eye-catching in the eyes of the emperor.

If the military strength remains strong after the troops are fully replenished, we can transfer them out.

From the outside, it seemed that without the court's continued investment of resources, it would be difficult for Guangxi to support more than 10,000 soldiers.

Since he does not pose a threat, Li Mu's position can be moved up.

In essence, this is a silent political deal.

But Li Mu was smart enough to split the team in advance before the emperor became concerned about him.

Of course, on the surface, the credit still belongs to Marquis Wuyang.

It was he who proposed the plan, and Li Mu just cooperated in its execution without causing any trouble. He was a law-abiding general.

“Sir, letting so many people leave at once will definitely affect the combat effectiveness of the army.

I'm afraid it will be difficult to explain to the governor's office!"

Lan Linjie persuaded tactfully.

The transfer of military generals is normal. In order to strengthen control over the army, the imperial court will make personnel adjustments every few years.

However, most of the adjustments are aimed at recruiting soldiers, and they are still fine-tuning.

Large-scale personnel adjustments only existed in the first few decades after the founding of the People's Republic of China.

Later, due to cost considerations, the frequency of such transfers became lower and lower.

Training a qualified soldier requires a lot of manpower, financial resources and material resources. In the eyes of many people, elite soldiers are money and food.

In order to avoid losing money, even if people had money, they would use it to support servants.

Only the nine important border towns have the spare capacity to train soldiers.

In fact, the people there were mainly servants, and they had to train a group of capable soldiers just because of the war.

Guangxi soldiers were also born under the same conditions.

The victory in the previous war allowed Lord Xu to see an opportunity to open up the situation in Guangxi, and he made an effort to increase the amount of money and grain.

With the help of Li Mu's planning and the assistance of the noble group, a troop with good combat effectiveness was trained.

After being pulled onto the battlefield and fighting a few battles, they gradually transformed into elite troops.

Although this "elite soldier" is relative to his colleagues, it is still a valuable asset.

According to the current price cost, if you want to train 10,000 elite soldiers, you need to invest at least two million taels.

In practice, it may cost more.

After all, elite soldiers have to go to the battlefield to fight, and there will definitely be casualties during the battle.

In this process, the loss is impossible to control.

If we are lucky, after a few battles, the casualties may only be 20 to 30 percent.

If you are unlucky, you might die on the battlefield.

With current medical conditions, even if the injured recover, they will most likely have to retire.

“It doesn’t matter. After the list is sent over, His Majesty will issue an imperial decree.

If the governor's office has any objections, let them talk to the court!

The war situation in Jiangnan is tense now. If nothing unexpected happens, the court will transfer the Yangzhou camp back.

After all this turmoil, the original Yangzhou Camp is now just an empty shell.

If you want someone, let the Yangzhou prefectural government go and fight with the generals for him!"

Li Mu said with a smile.

He is the commander-in-chief of Guangxi and has been in command of the Yangzhou camp for a long time. How can this be ridiculous?

In the past, it was a time of war and no one would find fault.

Now that the army has entered a period of rest and recuperation, all kinds of troubles are coming one after another.

In order not to make things difficult for others, Li Mu naturally made arrangements in advance and gradually transferred his trusted men out of the Yangzhou camp.

Those who stayed in the Yangzhou camp to serve were the sons of these nobles and their servants.

Now that these people have left, Yangzhou Camp has become a complete empty shell.

Not only is the Yangzhou Camp an empty shell, but even the Yangzhou Navy is an empty shell.

Even the ships that were borrowed that year were reported as losses in the battle to encircle and suppress the rebels.

Of course, compared with the army, the navy has a lower presence, and I guess no one would think that Yangzhou has a navy for a while.

“Sir, the rumors outside are very unfavorable to us.

Everyone is saying that we took the looted wealth from the Holy Kingdom of White Lotus.

Some say it was tens of millions of taels of silver, some say it was hundreds of millions of taels of silver, and some say it was tens of millions of taels of gold and hundreds of millions of taels of silver.

Some people have asked the students privately, and I'm afraid there are a lot of people targeting us.

At a time like this, having soldiers in hand is more important than anything else!"

Lan Linjie said with a nervous look on his face.

Every husband is not guilty, and he is guilty of his crime.

Having huge wealth without sufficient strength to back it up is a disaster.

What’s more important is that after the war, Li Mu did not make any arrangements, as if nothing had happened.

Once rumors started spreading from the outside world, officials who wanted to get a piece of the pie also began to add fuel to the fire.

However, the officials in Guangxi are not strong enough, and no one dares to ask for it even if they are thinking about it.

If the news reaches the capital, it will be a big trouble.

After all, those who were personally involved knew that the rumors from outside were not groundless.

Li Mu did not get that much, but with the gains of generals and soldiers at all levels in the army, after discount, it was really tens of millions or even hundreds of millions.

In this context, the best option to avoid risks is to keep your troops to yourself.

With tens of thousands of troops stationed there, even if the imperial court knew it was true, it could only pretend not to see it.

"Mr. Lan, you can't say these things carelessly. When did we ever have a huge amount of seizure?

All the generals in the army can testify that we gained nothing in the battle to encircle and suppress the false emperor.

The Guizhou army next door also joined the war. We can't just take all the spoils and let them just stand by and watch!
The rumors out there now are all spread by the rebels, and we need to look at them rationally.

If outsiders ask, let them calculate the daily expenditure of millions of rebels.

Try to draw everyone's attention to the smugglers and let the outside world know that the wealth looted by the rebels is used to feed the soldiers.

They secretly sent someone to spread the news that the wealth looted by the rebels was just the ostensible property of the gentry.

More silver was buried in the cellar.

Arrange people to pretend to be a treasure hunting team and search the old houses of wealthy families to see if there are any unexpected gains.

If not, then they will deliberately arrange a few to let people see them.”

After hearing Li Mu's answer, Lan Linjie was slightly stunned.

The rebels' rumors were a complete conspiracy.

No matter how you explain it, there will always be people outside who are skeptical.

Even if you hand over the spoils, there will still be people who are suspicious.

It's no use denying it. There are so many people in the army, it's impossible for all of them to keep it secret.

If there are a few people who like to brag, the rumor will be confirmed.

In this context, if you don't want to get into trouble, it is very necessary to be prepared for armed confrontation.

As long as he made a gesture, no one in the court would dare to move.

No one expected that Li Mu's way of dealing with the problem would be to drag someone else down with him.

It is true that Guizhou's government troops participated in the war, but they only joined the second half.

The convoy was intercepted in front, and only a group of stubborn rebels were left behind.

Throughout the battle, the Guizhou government troops were either being beaten or on their way to being beaten.

All the military merits were gained by taking advantage of others, so how could there be any spoils of war?
Anyway, there is nothing to gain, so even if I am taken as a scapegoat, I am not afraid of the court sending people to investigate.

Smugglers everywhere are in trouble.

In the next period of time, the number of officials who seek to extort money from them will inevitably increase greatly.

Especially in the context of tight military spending, if things go wrong, the property might be directly confiscated.

Although they have connections and backers, once the profits reach a certain level, no matter how powerful the connections are, they cannot stop people's greed.

At least compared to powerful generals like Li Mu who hold heavy troops, they are all soft persimmons.

A number of uninhabited gentry mansions will become lively in the next period of time.

If their surviving children did not return home quickly to look after the house, they would be dug up deep.

As the treasure hunt begins, their ancestral graves may also be affected.

After all, these people may only have silver hidden in the cellars of their houses, but there must be burial objects in their ancestral tombs.

"Your Excellency's opinion is excellent. I will arrange it right away!"

Lan Linjie said with joy on his face.

Whether other people are unlucky or not has nothing to do with him.

As long as the court believed that their gains were not as great as the rumors said, the matter would be over.

(End of this chapter)