Ming Dynasty man

Chapter 357
Cao Wenzhao pouted behind Li Jing: "I want to transfer Xiao Wu to be my supervisor."

"Nonsense, Xiao Wu is just a personal guard, what qualifications do you have to supervise the army. Besides, don't you know that Hutou is also in your army? You asked Xiaowu to supervise the army, and Hutou is still alive Fight him?" Li Jing turned his head to look at Xiao Wu, and suddenly said with a smile: "I reckon, if Hutou hits him, he won't even dare to return his hand."

Xiao Wu laughed and said: "Hutou is the eldest brother, how dare I fight with him, besides, when I was a soldier for my father, Brother Hutou told me repeatedly that if I couldn't take care of my father, he would rape me skin."

Li Jing and Cao Wenzhao laughed lightly at the same time.

After laughing for a while, Li Jing waved his hands and said: "Xiao Wu is definitely not good. Except for Hutou and Dingguo, the rest of you are his uncles who are fighting with you. Even if he uses my banner, he can't control the situation. You don't know the reason I don’t understand, then why do you still let Xiaowu go? Damn it, I know what you mean, you want Zhuzi to be your helper.”

"Hey, you can't hide anything from the commander in chief." Cao Wenzhao said with a smile.

"It's very appropriate to go to Zhuzi. With him here, none of those thorns dare not disobey orders. Okay, let's go to Zhuzi. Let Ma Wu stand for him in the capital." Li Jing said after pondering for a while.

"Thank you, Marshal." Cao Wenzhao got up and said.

Li Jing waved his hand: "Zhuzi doesn't know how to command cavalry to fight, so he can only serve as your deputy. Don't make a mistake about this priority."

"Hey, Zhuzi only needs to sit in town, and the rest will be left to Lao Cao." Cao Wenzhao laughed.

Li Jing looked at Cao Wenzhao and suddenly smiled and said: "Brother Wenzhao, don't play tricks on me with your little eyes, you want to show off your merits, right? Let me tell you, don't give me those useless things. You won't be able to get away with your first achievement in destroying the Eastern Captives, and when you return triumphantly, I will ask the emperor to make you Marquis of Pingbei."

When Cao Wen heard this, he said with a bitter face: "Marshal, don't bring such a thing. I just pushed Uncle Pingbei, and you want to make me Marquis of Pingbei. You are going to put me on the stove!"

Speaking of this, Cao Wenzhao turned his head to look at Zhu Youjian and said, "Your majesty, you should say something, I remember the commander-in-chief said that you can make the decision about the knighthood, why don't you confer the title of the commander-in-chief first. "

At this moment, Zhu Youjian was listening to Li Jing and Cao Wenzhao discussing the use of troops against the Eastern Captives with great interest. He didn't want the two to suddenly change the subject, let alone Cao Wenzhao kicked the ball to him, and he was a little flustered for a while.

But Zhu Youjian woke up immediately, turned his head to look at Li Jing and said, "Brother Li, in the last battle in Gyeonggi, you led the army to defeat the Eastern Captives. That time I wanted to confer title on you. You resigned. This time, General Cao defeated all the tribes of Mongolia, and it was also thanks to you in the middle of dispatching. In addition, you personally commanded the last battle of Datong. Any one of these three major achievements can give you a title. If you want It would be unjustifiable not to confer knights on General Cao, so why not, Brother Li confers knights first, and then you can confer knights on all the generals later, and no one else will object."

Li Jing looked at Zhu Youjian and said helplessly, "I don't know what kind of title the emperor plans to confer on me?"

Zhu Youjian was overjoyed when he heard the words: "You can't help me. I have already thought about the title. Brother Li is determined to rejuvenate the Ming Dynasty. The name Xingguo Gong is perfect for Brother Li. General Cao, Mr. Shen, Master Yang , what do you guys think?"

"Hahaha, Your Majesty is a wise man, and the commander-in-chief conferred the title of Duke Xingguo, worthy of his name." Cao Wenzhao and others applauded and laughed together.

Zhu Youjian smiled and said: "Hey, since the three love ministers have no objections, then it's decided. Cheng En, help me to draw up an edict in a while: I will add Li Jingwei, the deputy prime minister of the Ming cabinet and the governor of the five armies." First-class Xing Guogong. Later, you can find Li Guogong’s seal, if you don’t need it, then you can serve him in Li Gongye’s mansion from now on.”

Wang Chengen laughed and said, "I just don't know if the commander-in-chief will give this old slave face, or if the commander-in-chief is going to let the old slave serve him, I can't say for sure."

Hearing Wang Chengen run on him, Li Jing smiled wryly and said: "Brother Wang, if you say that, if I don't give you face, then the friendship we talked about before will be in vain? But this seal should go to the emperor, this matter It is under the control of the emperor, what's the matter with ennobling me to use my seal?"

Zhu Youjian was taken aback for a moment: "It would be good for Feng Jue to ask me to use the seal? Brother Li, are you kidding me?"

"What did the emperor say? I've said it before. It's up to you to make the final decision on conferring a title, so of course you have to use your seal. You think I'm joking!" Li Jing said with a smile.

"Didn't you say that you need the approval of the cabinet?" Zhu Youjian asked doubtfully.

"The cabinet is only a nomination, and the final decision is in the hands of the emperor, but the emperor, you have to remember, who to ennoble is related to the image of our Ming Dynasty, and it also involves the majesty of the Ming royal family, so we must be cautious, I hope the emperor can Grasp this power well." Li Jing said solemnly.

Zhu Youjian was overjoyed, and hurriedly said: "Brother Li, don't worry, I can definitely grasp it."

After pondering for a while, Li Jing continued: "This time the emperor went around Shanxi, and I don't know if he saw King Jin (who was in Taiyuan), King Dai (who was in Datong) and King Shen (who was in Lu'an, Today’s Changzhi) and the kings of the following counties?”

Zhu Youjian smiled wryly and said: "I see, I stayed in each of the three palaces for one night."

"I don't know how the emperor feels after living in the palace?" Li Jing asked.

Zhu Youjian sighed and said, "They are all richer than me, the emperor."

Li Jing smiled and said: "In fact, there are many things that the emperor can't see. For example, the emperor doesn't know how much land the vassal king actually owns. Two years ago when I was in university, I sent someone to investigate the amount of land owned by the king. There are tens of thousands of hectares (one hectare is equal to one hundred mu). Some of these lands were rewarded by the emperor, some were purchased by themselves, and some were occupied by them. dedicated to nobles and gentry who can be exempted from tax). The vassals own so much land, and the imperial court has to distribute their salaries and food, so naturally they are all very rich."

Zhu Youjian sighed softly and said, "Brother Li, I know what you want to say, just do what you want."

Li Jingjing nodded: "After Zhang Ao clears all the territory of the country, I will issue an order to withdraw the domain."

Zhu Youjian waved his hand and said, "I promise you that you will no longer interfere in government affairs, so don't tell me about these things."

Li Jing smiled and said: "These people are all royal families, and they are all people with titles. Naturally, I want to tell you that you can't do it if you want to pick someone."

"Hehe, you are planning to let me be the villain, okay, I promise you." Zhu Youjian laughed.

Li Jingjing nodded: "I estimate that it will take a few months for the land of the whole country to be cleared. If God opens his eyes in the coming year and the weather is good, the state treasury will not have to worry about food until next autumn."

Zhu Youjian turned his head to look outside the door, sighed and said, "I hope God will open his eyes, our Daming has suffered too many natural disasters these years!"

Li Jing was silent for a while, then turned to look at Shen Zhengdao: "Father-in-law, Brother Wenzhao will use troops against the Eastern Captives in the coming year, and the logistics must keep up, especially the food must be guaranteed for the troops. Do the math, Pingyang Mansion is now Whether the food reserves can support the needs of 15 troops for half a year."

Shen Zheng silently calculated upon hearing the words.

Li Jing said that the 15 troops included the garrisons in Shanhaiguan and Songjin areas, and the 15 troops needed at least 40 shi of grain for half a year.

However, among the 15 troops, Cao Wenzhao’s cavalry consisted of two divisions, about 5000 people. There were also more than [-] cavalrymen under Wu Sangui’s troops in Shanhaiguan, and there were more than [-] cavalrymen in the Songjin area. Among them, Cao Wenzhao All the cavalry are riding with one man and two horses, which means that there are nearly [-] war horses that need to be fed.

The food consumed by so many war horses is not a small number. Shen Zheng made a preliminary estimate that in order to support this great war, at least more than 60 shi of food should be prepared.

60 shi of grain can be produced by Pingyang Prefecture, but the food in Pingyang Prefecture is mainly coarse and miscellaneous grains such as corn, sweet potatoes, and potatoes.

Coarse grains and miscellaneous grains are used for disaster relief. It’s okay to feed ordinary people who can’t afford food, but most of the soldiers are young people, and they train all day long, especially for Li Jing’s troops, the training is far more difficult than that of Ming’s army , These soldiers consume more energy, and they will definitely not be able to eat enough if they eat coarse grains and miscellaneous grains as their staple food.If you want the soldiers to eat enough, you have to have strength, at least with a certain amount of fine grains and meat.

Shen Zheng calculated for a while, and finally smiled wryly: "I calculated, at least 40 shi of coarse grain, 20 shi of fine grain, and a lot of meat. Pingyang government can only pay 40 shi of coarse grain, and I am afraid that fine grain and meat will be supplied. not on."

Li Jing nodded lightly upon hearing this.

Since he entered Beijing, the pressure on Pingyang Mansion has increased several times. In the past, the financial and material resources of Pingyang Mansion only needed to support [-] troops (referring to regular soldiers), but now they still need to support the troops of Hong Chengchou, Lu Xiangsheng, and Sun Chuanting.

Even for the troops in the capital and Liaodong, Pingyang Prefecture also needs to bear a large part of the food. With more than 20 people, Pingyang Prefecture really cannot afford to supply it.

Of course, the Pingyang Mansion of 20 shi fine grains will definitely be available, but there are still troops in the Pingyang Mansion. In addition, Gao Qi’s troops are now cooperating with Hong Chengchou and Lu Xiangsheng to encircle and suppress the rogues in Shanxi, Shaanxi, and Henan. At present, the food must be supplied by the Pingyang government. Are these troops going to be outraged by transporting so much food to Liaodong?
After pondering for a while, Li Jing said, "Is the step-ancestor of the second uncle's family in Henan now?"

"Now Zhengzhou." Shen Zheng nodded.

"In this way, I will ask my wife to write a letter to his brother, and you will ask Jizu to bring his wife's letter to Kaifeng to find King Zhou, and ask King Zhou to help us raise [-] shi of grain. As for the remaining [-] shi of grain, let Lu Xiangsheng went to Luoyang to ask Fu Wang for it, and he said that I asked him for it, and as long as Fu Wang is not stupid enough, he will definitely give the hundred thousand shi of grain." Li Jing said.

Yang Liufeng heard this, and suddenly stretched out his thumb to praise: "The commander-in-chief is clever, if he doesn't know how to climb such a big step for King Fu this time, then the commander-in-chief won't be polite to him in the future."

(End of this chapter)