Ming Dynasty: Summoning game players at the beginning

Chapter 174 I will give him a reason he can’t refuse
Because the Red Turban Rebellion in Yanzhou was pacified so quickly, the civil officials had not yet figured out how to write the victory report.

Even if the Black Flag Battalion quelled the rebellion quickly and a group of civil officials could take some credit for their "strategic work", it could not cover up the serious crimes of "losing the vassal states" and "exterminating the entire Kong family".

Moreover, after entering the city and distributing salaries, they caused a scandal in which "the Black Flag Battalion, following the orders of the governor," killed several high-ranking military officers, which simply added to the charges of Governor Yan and other civil officials.

According to the emperor's temper, the more loyal and patriotic the civil servants are, the faster they die, while the brave generals with troops under their command are promoted quickly.

The civil servants did not want to lose their jobs and return home, nor did they want to lose their lives and end up having their properties confiscated and their families exterminated.

Now, after much deliberation, they decided that the only way to help them escape danger, or at least save their lives, was to ask General Li, who was in the emperor's favor and had made great contributions in suppressing the bandits, to say a few kind words.

So Governor Yan led his troops to the garrison office, followed by the prefect, the military governor, and the county magistrate...

Almost all the officials involved in the rebellion in Qufu and Yanzhou came along.

They did not want to curry favor with a military man, but were afraid that those who went would make the "absentees" scapegoats.

Even if some minor officials are not involved in the blame, they still have to be wary of their superiors' manipulation.

Yan Jizu and his entourage successfully passed through the Black Flag Camp's gate, but his personal guards and attendants were all blocked at the door, so the masters had to personally carry the gifts into the yamen.

However, as soon as Governor Yan entered the government office, he heard the voice before he saw the person.

Countless Black Flag Battalion soldiers were jumping up and down in the yamen.

There were pairs of people sparring, some standing on their teammates' shoulders to form a pyramid, some singing on the "Da Ming Good Voice", some playing the pipa and erhu, and some climbing up the roof to parkour, but they slipped and fell onto the roof, sending a bunch of tiles flying, and they fell to the ground and died on the spot.

Yan Jizu had just walked a few dozen steps forward when he witnessed three soldiers from the Black Flag Battalion courting their own death.

Others rushed to the dying, holding up their allies' heads and crying out in pain, "You can't die! We agreed to go to Dengzhou and cross the sea to kill the Tartars. Have you forgotten?"

"I can't make it. After I die, you take my ashes north to Liaodong and bury me back in my hometown of Tieling. Promise me..."

"I promise you. I will take good care of your wife and children..."

"you……"

The dying man almost sat up after hearing this, but his brother pressed his neck and forehead firmly and pushed him back to the ground.

To outsiders, this scene was just the soldiers of the Black Flag Battalion closing their eyes in remembrance of their brother.

The tragic "brotherhood" made Yan Jizu feel subtly awkward. He didn't know whether to be sad or wonder whether it was real.

It's one thing for the soldiers of the Black Flag Battalion to be fearless in the battlefield, but are they going to act recklessly without any enemies and risking their lives?

Yan Jizu continued forward and suddenly saw soldiers coming out of a house with a huge black flag.

The room could obviously accommodate dozens of people at most, but it was swallowing up hundreds of soldiers as if by magic.

These soldiers included both men and women. Some of them were holding simple weapons such as swords and spears, but they seemed to be living in this world for the first time, exploring everything around them in amazement.

Soon he ran over to Yan Jizu and the others, stroking their sleeves, pulling their beards, and even holding Yan Jizu's right hand, and then excitedly shouted, "Wow! It's a real person! The touch feeling at the highest 50% is really amazing!"

Yan Jizu tried hard to suppress his displeasure, withdrew his right hand with disgust and a fake smile, and then waved his hand and quickly fled like a star who refused to be interviewed.

In addition, a small number of Black Flag Army were unarmed and only wore coarse cloth clothes, looking like a group of young civilians.

These people were much calmer and did not harass Yan Jizu and his party. They left the garrison office on their own.

After passing the Black Flag Camp's acrobatic troupes and giving away all the gifts they had brought with them, the civil officials finally saw General Li, whose face was slightly pale, in the relatively secluded signing room.

Li Mu was a tall and strong man, with his eyes blazing as he looked straight ahead. Even though he was wearing an ordinary soldier's training jacket, he exuded the majesty of a general without even getting angry.

As soon as Yan Jizu saw General Li, he knelt down and saluted, and other civil officials followed suit.

"Please stand up quickly, Governor Yan. Everyone, please stand up as well. We must not disrupt the civil and military etiquette..."

Li Mu said this on the surface, but in fact he pretended that his abdominal injury had not healed yet and he could not go forward to help them up immediately. He really accepted the greeting.

He then winked at several of his "trusted" players.

Li Si, Ye Niu, He Lu Si and Sula stretched out their hands to help up the kneeling civil servants.

"General Li is a second-rank military official appointed by Your Majesty, and I am only a fourth-rank Right Censor-in-Chief, the Governor of Shandong. According to the ancestral system and laws, I should perform this great ceremony..." Yan Jizu still looked humble.

Seeing that this person disregarded the old rule of "civilians are superior and military men are inferior" and behaved so respectfully, General Li ordered "show you gentlemen some seats" while walking around the desk and sitting on the chair.

When the chairs were brought in, the civil servants sat down cautiously like subordinates, not even daring to cover a corner of the chair with their buttocks.

"You all have presented gifts and great honors, yet you have come to see me, Li Mu... ahem... what is it all about?"

"This……"

Yan Jizu glanced awkwardly at the four players and gestured to Li Mu to dismiss his attendants for a private conversation. "These four are my trusted generals, so feel free to speak..." Li Mu blew on the hot tea and took a sip.

"My colleagues and I are about to face a disaster. I beg General Li to lend a hand and save us..."

Yan Jizu's voice trembled with shame. His face was filled with embarrassment, and the corners of his bitter mouth drooped, like a half-melted wax figure.

"Hmm? Where did this come from?" Li Mu pretended to be confused, pretending to be bewildered. "I led my troops to quickly suppress the Red Turban rebels, wiped out the scattered defeated soldiers, and successively recovered Qufu and Yanzhou, preventing the devastation of southern Shandong. This is a great achievement that should be celebrated by the court and the people. You should all share in the fruits of your strategic planning. How can you say that a disaster is imminent?"

Yan Jizu thought that General Li had suddenly risen to a high position and did not understand the dangers of the court in recent years.

So he tactfully explained that although the rebellion of the bandits had been quelled, the loss of the vassal states and the extermination of the entire Kong family were irreversible events, not to mention the crime of "killing a general without authorization."

According to the emperor's temper, he would definitely execute all the civil officials involved, exile their sons and nephews three thousand miles away as slaves, and send their wives and daughters to become prostitutes in the Jiaofang Bureau.

Thinking of their own tragic and miserable end, the civil servants couldn't help but sob softly.

"If I have acted on my own initiative and caused harm to you gentlemen, I am willing to commit suicide to apologize!" After saying this, "Wild Bull" drew his sword and put it on his neck.

"No!" General Li shouted, "If anyone blames me, I'll take the blame! How can a small general like you take the blame? Put away your sword!"

After Li Mu finished speaking, Li Si's voice rang out, "It's clear that those few men are maintaining their troops for their own benefit and avoiding battle to protect themselves. The masters all agree that they deserve to be killed, so they have secretly instructed our Black Flag Army to eliminate these evil thieves and rectify military discipline and affairs. What do you think, masters?"

Seeing the Black Flag Army extending an "olive branch of negotiation," the civil officials nodded in agreement, "Well done! Liu Zeqing should have been hacked to pieces long ago..."

Everyone reached a consensus on the matter of killing the general and the deputy general without authorization, and also reached a preliminary consensus on how to whitewash the victory report.

Having taken the first step in negotiating interests, gentlemen, keep up the good work.

"Everyone knows that General Li is a favorite of the Emperor. His words carry weight." The prefect twitched his lips and leaned sideways, looking at Li Mu with an almost pleading expression. "General Li, could you please use your military achievements in suppressing the rebellion to whitewash our situation?"

Li Mu remained silent on this. Instead, Li Si beside him continued, "I heard that during the suppression of the Red Turban rebels, the wealth of the Kong family and Prince Lu disappeared. Don't you think this is bizarre?... Besides, my Black Flag Battalion will be returning to its base in southern Henan soon. We have so many auxiliary troops and refugees reclaiming wasteland, and our daily consumption of food and fodder is staggering. Unfortunately, we are short of mule and horse trains. I wonder if you gentlemen could help us by providing us with some carriages and river boats?"

Yan Jizu felt as if his thighs were pinched when he heard this, and his eyes widened.

Although Yan Jizu did not intervene in the inventory of the spoils, he estimated that the two families had a lot of floating wealth, totaling at least two to three million taels of silver worth of precious metals.

General Li is going to swallow up all the gold and silver treasures of Duke Yansheng and Prince Lu’s palace!

Yan Jizu was just about to gently persuade him that he had swallowed too much when he heard Li Si add a few words, "If we can dig three feet deeper and dig for a few more days, we should be able to dig out some floating wealth to fill the deficit of the prefecture and county finances and the soldiers.

In addition, you and I both know that floating wealth is just a drop in the bucket of the wealth of the lords and princes. Their land, shops, properties, mines, debts... are all valuable things but cannot be squeezed out of silver immediately. If we can find a way to make some silver from them, you and I can help out and even collect a batch of salary to hand over to the emperor.

The farmlands that once belonged to the two masters can now be directly paid as rent and included in the emperor's treasury.

You said that the emperor accepted this money to fill the vacancies in the nine frontiers, and the annual land rent also eased the expenses of the palace. Do you think the emperor will turn a blind eye and forgive you this time?"

Upon hearing this, everyone looked at each other and whispered about the feasibility of the plan.

What does His Majesty lack most today?
Military expenses for the nine border areas.

Otherwise, why would they have increased the Liao and suppression taxes for many years, and now there are rumors that they will increase the training taxes?

If they were to escort the sold-off property of the Lord to the capital along with the news of the victory in suppressing the rebels, and provide timely assistance to His Majesty to alleviate his urgent needs, the many serious crimes on their heads could be alleviated a lot, and they might even be able to get the lightest punishment of "meritorious service while serving their sentence".

"But we don't understand the art of business, and we're afraid that the petty officials and clerks under our command will take advantage of the situation and mess up the amount of tribute..."

"That's not difficult," Li Mu finally said. "My Black Flag Battalion soldiers are proficient in music, chess, calligraphy, and painting, so naturally there are also some who are proficient in business. I can assign a group of people proficient in business and arithmetic to you to sell your assets. This matter can be resolved in no more than twenty days."

In this way, Li Mu's "Five Elements Trading Company" will be able to acquire a large number of high-quality assets and take the opportunity to expand the scale of the company.

Yan Jizu and the others gathered together to discuss the matter. They all felt that General Li's series of interconnected suggestions were feasible. "Thank you very much for your advice, General Li. We are deeply grateful! But if you need us, we will definitely do our best..."

Li Mu took the opportunity to make another suggestion -

Some grain cabinets similar to "tax farming" were set up to be responsible for contracting local taxes, which would also be responsible for managing the estates of Duke Yansheng and Prince Lu.

As for the candidates, naturally they would choose wealthy and prestigious merchants through public bidding, or they could select fair and impartial representatives from among the farmers to serve as the "manor manager" -

However, the list was screened by an "ad hoc committee" composed of Li Mu and his confidants sent by the civil officials.

To ensure that all participants can share the benefits of the cake, it is better for everyone to share a piece than for one person to eat the cake.

Li Mu thought that after he had won over a group of military generals, he should also exert some influence on some civil officials and make some good friends.

"When will we start taking care of these assets and farms..." asked the civil servant.

Li Mu picked up the teacup and took a sip. "There's no time to lose, let's do it now."

(End of this chapter)