Chapter 111 Eating North Korea
"The treacherous ministers have already jumped out. Yuan Chonghuan is one, and there is also Wang Zhichen!"

Li Hao slammed the table and stood up, pointing at many civil servants and cursing.

With his notorious reputation, the general of Qianfeng Town slammed the table and frightened these people so much that they trembled all over and could not recover for a long time.

After confirming that the general was only cursing and not using violence, this group of civil servants actually admitted their mistakes with a grievance, and began to actively find ways to obtain food, firstly to pay the soldiers in the vanguard town, and secondly to provide disaster relief to the people of Liaodong.

Li Hao counted on his fingers how much food this group of capable civil servants needed.

"Dongjiang Town also planted grain in Tieshan and other places. The Dongjiang people who needed relief were counted as 150,000, the surrendered people were counted as 150,000, and the refugees from Liaoxi and Denglai who fled back home were counted as 200,000. That's 500,000 mouths, and we can expect to eat 150,000 shi of food a month, which means 900,000 shi by the end of the year."

"The Tartars can still hold their ground in the north. If we fight them one by one, it will take at least this winter or next spring to wipe out the two red flags. They may even flee north, or capture some wild Tartars and fight back."

"The troops inside Fushun Pass are mainly the remnants of the two yellow flags and the two blue flags. The mountainous terrain is rugged, and we need the Jurchen soldiers among the surrendered soldiers to fight to the death in order to capture Ajige, Jirgalang and others and present them as captives."

"If we fight on two fronts like this, we need at least 10,000 soldiers in the mountainous area, 15,000 in the north, and 5,000 to guard the cities of Liaoning and Shenyang. If we want to eliminate redundant soldiers, we must first eliminate Guancheng and Ningqian. My 30,000 soldiers must fight and earn money. Even if some soldiers only earn a single salary, we have to keep the stall going until we can plant the crops next year."

There were still capable people among the Eight Banners soldiers in the north. They used scattered cavalry to quickly attack the Ming army in the Shenyang area. They would withdraw quickly after only one battle and would not linger on. This caused a lot of combat casualties to the ordinary Ming soldiers who were not very mobile.

Li Hao's countermeasure was to select powerful generals from various places and lead one or two hundred cavalrymen to attack everywhere. The ordinary soldiers were gathered in large cities and small forts, and they continued to fight a static battle.

Of course, this is also a good opportunity to train troops. The general of Qianfeng Town intends to train three to five thousand elite cavalry capable of long-distance attacks through practical training in the second half of the year.

The rest of the ordinary soldiers and surrendered soldiers will not be idle either. Those who can ride horses will gradually be equipped with horses and also practice the ability to maneuver quickly.

"This year's Liao salary will be paid to Liaozhen as usual. Since the situation is like this, the troops from Shandong and other places will not come to repair the city. But there are about 500,000 taels of silver left. After the grain from Huguang goes north this year, I will order people to buy grain at 60 to 70 cents per stone to get through this year first."

After being frightened by Li Hao, the governor of Liaodong finally remembered that he and the governor of Ji-Liao still had the Liao salary that was about to arrive this year. He used his brain a little and embezzled the money for building the city.

These civil servants were all Jinshi graduates and had very good brains. After deciding on the general direction of not cutting down the vanguard garrison troops and providing relief to the Liao people, they also proposed several effective strategies one after another.

These included continuing to ask the court for disaster relief grain, transferring the general's camp from Guancheng, and moving the Ningqian camp soldiers under Zu Dashou.

Speaking of these points, Li Hao sat back down and asked, "Old Zhao sacrificed his life for the country. What reward did the court give him? And what about Zhu Mei?"

Even if the Ming government operates slowly, it is time to spread some news.

Seeing that the commander-in-chief's tone had softened significantly, the civil officials dared to bring up the topic cautiously.

Old Dong smiled and explained, "The Ministry of War proposed to give the title of Haizhou Earl to General Zhao, but the emperor has not summoned his ministers recently, so there is no one to preside over the conferring of titles. General Zhu Mei's funeral went smoothly. He was posthumously conferred the title of Left Commander-in-Chief and General Officer, and one of his sons was appointed as the Assistant Commander of Guangning Guard, a hereditary position. The Imperial Household Department transferred 50 taels of silver from the treasury and collected two rolls of fine silk for General Zhu's wife, and the Ministry of War paid 30 taels for the coffin."

After serving in the Ming Dynasty for a few months, Li Hao learned that the emperor's reward was capped at fifty taels of silver from the treasury, so the pension given to Zhu Mei was not bad.

"You should ask Wang Zhichen to submit a series of memorials to urge him to do something. Old Zhao fought with me in Haizhou City at his old age, and also fought hard to attack the Tartar camp. It is unreasonable for the court to delay rewarding him.

By the way, the reward money for the more than 4,000 heads that were handed in later must also be transferred as soon as possible. This is more than 100,000 taels of silver. Selling grain and distributing it to the Liao people can help them survive for a few more months."

The general said this purely out of kindness. He couldn't just let the people who had fled to his jurisdiction starve to death.

The other civil servants looked a little mysterious.

This is considered as secretly buying the hearts of the people, which has always been a taboo for border generals.

However, the leading civil servant Yuan Chonghuan did not speak out a reminder, and the other civil servants also let the matter go.

"This governor has another plan. Marshal Li can lead the surrendered soldiers into the mountains to wipe out the Tartar soldiers in Fushun Pass. This can not only strike at Ajige and other Tartars, but also consume the surrendered soldiers and reduce military pay expenditures."

The governor of Liaodong still did not want to pay the salaries of the surrendered soldiers.

Li Hao was so angry that he laughed, "Why don't you let me lead the troops to chase Ajige all the way to Kuandian and other places, and then drive the Tartar soldiers to Korea. I will arrive right after and take the food back from Korea."

There are only a few roads in and out of Hetuala. If the Ming army launched a large-scale attack from Fushun, Ajige and others would either have to flee north or go south to Kuandian, cross the Yalu River estuary, and go to Korea to make a living.

Yuan Chonghuan and the others' eyes lit up, and the governor praised: "Eating Korea is also a way out for the surrendered soldiers. Let's do it. As long as we can survive this year, by next autumn, the 25 garrison households in Liao will be able to hand in more than a million dan of grain, which will be enough to feed 30,000 soldiers."

Although he was thick-skinned, this was indeed a way out. Li Hao thought for a moment and decided to lead his troops to hunt down the Eight Banners soldiers in the eastern mountainous area. With the combat effectiveness of the surrendered soldiers and the various fierce generals he had collected, he could also fight against the two red flags under Huang Taiji and Yue Tuo in the north.

Although it is impossible to advance the front line northward, there will be no problem in stabilizing the Shenyang area.

The Liaohe Basin and the Mongolian tribes in the north were also very slippery. After the Ming Dynasty rose to power, the Mongols no longer wanted to help the Later Jin.

The general nodded, acknowledging the feasibility of this strategy.

The next things to be discussed were more complicated, such as allowing Liao to reopen various salt wells and iron mines, and sending people into the mountains to collect ginseng, sending the output to the inland to exchange for money, and buying grain from the inland to bring back to Liao.

The key point is that the government cannot support these people for nothing, they have to let them do some work.

"By the way, how do you calculate the station of Yuan Futai and me?"

At the end, Li Hao asked about what he cared about most.

According to Ming Dynasty convention, the governor of Liaodong and the general should be stationed in Liaoyang City.

"Liaoyang City still has gaps, and there is no government office, so it is not convenient to do things. Before next autumn, this governor will still be stationed in Ningyuan City. Please ask General Li to station in Shenyang City in autumn and winter, and in Guangning City in spring and summer to guard against the two routes of barbarians."

Li Hao pondered over this passage and realized that if he wanted to fight Zu's generals and chop off Governor Yuan's head, he would have to go to Ningyuan City.

Although it was a bit far, the advantage was that two things were done at the same time, and it was close to Shanhaiguan, so the Ming court would not have time to react, which helped to smoothly enter the pass and collect salaries.

"Your Excellency the Governor has made the right arrangements. I also think that this kind of garrison is fine."

Since he was going to kill Governor Yuan in the future, Li Hao rarely said a few good words to him.

The governor of Liaodong also smiled, bowed, and left with some civil servants.

Dong Yingju and Bi Zisu stayed. Old man Dong was grinning from ear to ear. He felt that the future of the commander-in-chief of Qianfeng Town was bright.

"My granddaughter has also arrived in Shenyang. When will you meet her? So we can exchange birth dates."

"It's the one wearing the linen gown and the net scarf on his head..."

Li Hao told Old Man Dong about the appearance of the woman he had met before to avoid any mistakes.

"Yeah."

Old man Dong nodded repeatedly. He was quite satisfied with Marshal Li as his grandson-in-law.

Like the scholars in Zhejiang and Nanzhi, the majority of the scholars in Fujian were hardliners against the Tartars. Dong Yingju could not even imagine how much praise he would receive when he returned home after his granddaughter married the general of Liaozhen.

"Let's go through the process of exchanging birth dates. I think she has a good character. Do you have any land in Fujian?"

Li Hao asked one last question.

This is to prevent the boomerang from hitting my father-in-law's family when the land of the wealthy families is divided after the torture.

"No, I don't own any farmland. Not to mention Fujian, I don't own any land in the two capitals or the thirteen provinces. I only own a few shops in Tianjin and other places."

Although he didn't know why the commander-in-chief asked this question, Old Man Dong still explained his family's situation clearly.

The Bi brothers had a close relationship with Dong Yingju. Bi Zisu explained to Li Dashuai, "Brother Dong had been bullied by a high official because of his land, so he had long ago sold all the land passed down from his ancestors. After he passed the imperial examination, he resolutely refused to encroach on other people's land. This was a rare sight in the court. The scholars in Fujian could regard Brother Dong as the sea pen holder of Fujian."

Li Hao chuckled. This old man Dong's family tradition is quite upright, but in terms of integrity, he can never be compared with Hai Rui.

He planned to take care of household affairs during this period of time to avoid suffering a great loss when his son was not around.

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(End of this chapter)