Ming Dynasty: Summoning game players at the beginning

Chapter 105 No one knows acting better than me
Li Mu received the notice in the camp where the prisoners were housed.

Along the way, he divided the captives, persuaded them, and used both kindness and force, and finally managed to stabilize the captives' emotions. Including the captives taken away by the Huguang guerrillas, these captives were organized into a total of 9,000 households.

Many of the settlers had no family members at all, so Li Mu grouped them into households with two or three able-bodied men.

In the future, if he has a military call, each household must provide at least one able-bodied man to arm into the militia.

In order to erase the traces of the past "Tiger Camp", Li Mu named them "Yingshan Camp".

Of course, the Yingshan Camp will not be needed within half a year. They must be made semi-self-sufficient within half a year. Moreover, the former leader of the Yingshan Camp has not been captured and is still being pursued.

Through player reports, Li Mu learned that the "land distribution" benefited three thousand households.

Including the farmers who had reclaimed wasteland and were previously protected, the number of farmers directly controlled by Li Mu now reached 15,000 households.

This does not include the indirect impact on the farmers who benefited from the land distributed by the beggars.

As long as the weapons and protective gear are complete and the food supply is sufficient, Li Mu can raise an armed force of 10,000 people within a year at most.

Although the combat effectiveness of the hastily assembled militia is average, their momentum is absolutely shocking.

But unfortunately, there is no system reward. Perhaps the gentry who plotted the riot were too weak to get enough reward points from the system.

There was still some finishing work left in the affairs of the settlers, so Li Mu could only entrust it to the farming players, while he personally led 500 players and a mixed force, riding on war horses, inferior horses, and mules, and hurried back to Shangcheng County.

As soon as Li Mu dismounted in the county town, he issued a task to the garrisoned players and county officials...

At this time, several days had passed since the county government received the news of Li Mu's promotion.

Zhang San sat in the militia camp, reading with great interest a copy of the "Huaxia Times" founded by his own people.

He skipped over the serious content, which was nothing more than reporting on the current events of the Central Plains government army's "suppression of bandits" based on information provided by the undercover agents ahead... where the Tartars were marching... the customs and practices of Jiangnan... advertisements for businesses and shops...

What interested him most were the historical novels serialized in newspapers.

Although the novel was a fictional history, he could tell at a glance that it was set in the late Ming Dynasty, and all the characters were compared with famous people in the Ming Dynasty.

The general content is that after Cao Mengde died of illness in Luoyang, he traveled back to the fourteenth year of Chongzhen, on the eve of the Battle of Songjin, and became the crown prince Zhu Cilang in the late Ming Dynasty.

Cao Cao roughly understood the situation after his soul traveled through time and space. He cursed the old thief Sima for usurping his kingdom. He also felt that Prime Minister Zhuge Liang, who devoted his life to the country until his death, was a well-deserved loyal minister.

Over a thousand years have passed since the Cao Wei Dynasty. Countless prominent figures have faded into the distance, and the ruling territories of successive dynasties in the Central Plains have fluctuated repeatedly. The positions and powers of officials at both the central and local levels have also undergone tremendous changes.

He was filled with emotion about the imperial examination system since the Sui and Tang dynasties, but then he thought that even if there was an imperial examination system during the Cao Wei period, it would only become a tool for the powerful families to control it.

But now it is the Ming Dynasty, and the use of firearms is beyond his imagination.

Even though the Ming Dynasty was already in turmoil, Cao Cao still felt that the Ming Dynasty's foundation was far more stable and profound than his own Cao Wei foundation.

Different methods are needed in different eras. Cao Cao read the "Family Records" of the Ming Dynasty carefully and found that the crown prince of the Ming Dynasty was not suppressed and feared by the emperor as in other dynasties, and could even indirectly participate in government affairs.

So he made good use of his status as the crown prince, recruiting as many civil and military talents as possible to consolidate his political team...

Zhang San saw the "living Cao Cao" wandering around the capital with a group of young guards, and suddenly ran into a powerful and evil slave who was hurting someone.

As a result, the serialization of Nima ended.

"And what a lousy author who's always breaking chapters! Who the hell wrote this? I'm going to lock him up in a dark room and not let him eat unless he writes 30,000 words a day!"

Zhang San picked up the newspaper and threw it on the table, cursing angrily.

"It seems to be a player from the Beggars' Army. This book is dual-opened. The last book, about the late Ming Dynasty, hasn't been updated in ten days. Before that, it was updated every five days..."

"Good fellow..." Just as Zhang San was about to curse the "dead eunuch", he heard a ding-dong sound in his head.

He saw that he had received a special mission and if he accepted it he would receive a special reward.

If you refuse, you will not be allowed to wear civil or military uniforms near the county government office for one day.

Zhang San chose to accept it without thinking. Who wouldn’t look forward to a special reward?

It would be awesome if I could get a customized COS suit.

The content of the mission is very simple. All civilians and instructors who participated in the suppression of the riots at night a few days ago must use their acting skills.

Act miserable.

Of course, this was not a lie, but a way to visualize the achievements of suppressing the tiger bandits and the rioting evil gentry and show them to the gentlemen who came to confer official titles.

When special tasks were issued, players began to use their brains.

They seemed to have returned to their naive school days, using simple paints to draw realistic "wounds" on their bodies, pretending to be abused and looking pitiful.

Those players who were truly injured and unable to move were planning to commit suicide in order to get a more flexible body, but suddenly heard that the "injured body" could be recycled, and immediately gave up the decision to commit suicide and decided to get some mission rewards first.

So when the team of officials from the province arrived at the mall, they saw a group of enthusiastic, orderly, playing musical instruments and singing, but almost everyone in the army was injured.

Bloody bandages adorned their foreheads, blood-stained clothes still on, severed arms and legs bound with chopped-off trousers. Their faces bore deep bruises from whipping, while others, carelessly rolled up in winter sleeves, revealed slashes from sharp blades. Blood gushed profusely from one person's neck; closer inspection revealed it was the rupture of a goat intestine containing red pigment.

Even Li Mu, the leader of this militia, had his right arm in a sling, and his forehead, chest and abdomen were wrapped with bandages. The gauze was faintly oozing with red marks, as if the severe injuries he suffered in the battle had not yet healed.

The band playing musical instruments and singing had festive expressions on their faces, but the music they played was filled with a sense of desolation and sadness.

Li Mu stepped forward and bowed first, calling out the names of the officials mentioned in the document one by one.

"Welcome, all the superiors!"

More than a thousand militiamen roared at the officials.

The accompanying officials were all shocked by the powerful roar. They didn't expect that a group of wounded soldiers, half real and half fake, could be so powerful.

The governor's staff and the accompanying military governor all looked approving.

I thought that Li Mu was really talented in training soldiers. He was able to train a group of militiamen to be so brave and valiant that they could maintain their spirits even though they were covered in wounds.

They also heard on the way that Li Mu led thousands of local militiamen to fight against the 100,000 "Tiger Camp" bandits. He used the tactic of "putting the military flag in front" to lead the charge and defeated the 100,000 bandits. The rivers in the valley were dyed red with the blood of the bandits.

Li Mu himself fought seven times with two steel knives, killing thirteen bandits in a row, and remained standing despite receiving dozens of wounds.

Li Mu then rode back to the county seat at full speed, covering 200 miles on horseback, and calmly commanded the militia to defeat the internal riot. He then broke into the rioter's house alone and, with his eloquence, forced the rioter's leader to surrender in tears.

In just a few days, Li Mu fought two battles and won both, making him a powerful general at that time.

Of course, these are just rumors in the market and should not be taken seriously.

Officials only believed that the events of "suppressing bandits" and "quelling riots" were real, with only slight differences in details.

Looking at the militiamen under Li Mu's command, almost everyone was injured.

Some people's wounds looked fake at first glance, and the officials knew that this was a trick often used by warriors to "scam funds", pretending to be very pitiful and in urgent need of more money, food and weapons.

However, those broken arms and legs were definitely not fake. Officials speculated that the real and fake ratios were 30% and 70%, and there was indeed a group of warriors who fought to the point of being disabled.

The governor's staff didn't know what other officials felt when they saw the wounded soldiers' miserable state, but he was moved anyway. Even if Li Mu didn't give him "gift money bribe", he would go to the governor and say a few good words to get more food and wages allocated to Li Mu's troops.

We can't let the loyal warriors feel discouraged, right?
The purpose of this team's coming was simple: to go on a business trip to the subordinate county, have a meal, accept gifts from officials and wealthy families, and then raise food and money for the governor to encircle and suppress the "beggars".

By the way, he conveyed the above meaning and appointed Li Mu as the "Shanggu Guerrilla" with a force of 1,500 soldiers under his command.

Each soldier received a monthly salary of one tael and two cents, and five dou of grain. Li Mu could select one hundred people as servants, with a monthly salary of two taels and one dan of grain.

As for the weapons and equipment for the guerrilla general and his soldiers, Li Mu can make do with the arsenals in Shangcheng and Gushi counties, and then replenish them when the province has time.

The troops' food and wages will be paid for one month.

Because transporting grain is difficult, the grain and wages are converted into relatively convenient silver, and a total of 2,680 taels of silver should be paid.

However, when the players received it, they actually received one thousand and two taels of silver.

This made Li Mu laugh. The more than 60% of the silver that disappeared just flew away on its own, right?

He knew the reason, but pretended not to know and said, "Why is there 1,680 taels of silver missing from the military pay? Oh, I know it - it must be that while you were transporting the silver, you were attacked by beggars and most of the military pay was taken away.

You all knew that the soldiers' expenses could not be shortchanged, so you paid out of your own pockets to make up the missing silver, which was exactly one thousand taels! Your superiors sacrificed their personal interests for the public good, and your sincere heart to serve the country makes me deeply grateful. I thank you on behalf of all the soldiers!"

Hearing the strong sarcasm in the words, the official gnashed his teeth and his hands trembled slightly, thinking to himself, how dare a vulgar military officer make sarcastic remarks in front of me?

If it weren't for the fact that this was the right time to fight the enemy, Li Mu would have been a meritorious official who had made great contributions.

Not to mention a small guerrilla, even if a third-rank lieutenant general was here, their military governors and governor's staff could strip off the military officer's pants and give him a severe beating with just one word.

What does "using civil officials to control military power" mean? It is reasonable for a seventh-rank civil official to beat a third-rank military general. Who dares to stop him?

Seeing that Li Mu was so disobedient and refused to give the "gift money", the civil officials, under the pretext of being the governor, urged Li Mu to send troops to attack the beggars.

"I also want to serve my country, but my troops have been through two consecutive battles, and we are exhausted, with many wounded. I simply cannot afford to go to war. If you only give me three more months to recruit soldiers and reorganize, I wouldn't be afraid even if you sent me north to fight the Tartars!"

The civil officials were shocked when they heard this, thinking to themselves, "You kid are so shameless in boasting. How can the Tartars be compared to the mere "beggar thieves" or "tiger thieves"?

In recent years, rumors about the Eastern Tartars have become prevalent, such as "If there are less than 10,000 Jurchens, they are invincible if they are more than 10,000." With only a thousand or so troops under your command, it would be difficult for you, Li Mu, to defeat a hundred Jurchen Tartars, right?

With the "military order" that Li Mu half-seriously said in front of everyone, the civil officials' intention to urge him to fight the enemy faded.

They all wanted to see whether Li Mu would still be as naive and arrogant as he is today when he had to obey military orders and march north to defend the king, but was defeated on the way.

Li Mu didn't know what the civil servants were thinking. He only knew that the Henan officials soon lost interest in staying in the mall for social events.

After a period of reorganization, the Qihuo Army finally assembled a large army and artillery and marched north to attack the city of Runing Prefecture.

(End of this chapter)