Chapter 117 It's not that I want to make trouble for the salary, it's all the civil servants who force me to do it
"It's just a normal transfer. Zhou Yuji was transferred to Xifengkou, Jizhen, to serve as a guerrilla, to guard against the Kalaqin. Deng Maolin was originally a guest soldier in the Beijing camp. Now that the Liao incident has been resolved, he naturally took the guest soldiers who aided Liao back to their original station. Zu Kuan was born as a servant of Zu Dashou, and was recommended by Zuzhen to serve in Guancheng. Wu Xiang was a person favored by the Liaodong Yuanma Temple Minister, so it is normal for him to be transferred to Ningyuan to rectify the horse administration."

Most of these appointments were proposed by Governor Yuan Chonghuan and stamped by the ministers of King Ji-Liao Jinglüe. Bi Zisu's explanation was well-reasoned.

There was also Wang Tingshi among the civil officials in Liaoyang. There were quite a lot of vacancies for officials in Liaodong, and he had a good reputation in the Shandong officialdom, so he was quickly promoted to the military governor of Liaoyang Branch, and was given the title of provincial governor and councilor of the third rank.

Li Hao turned to Old Wang Wang Tingshi and asked, "How much food and fodder are stored in Liaonan and Liaoyang?"

Judging from the food and grass, the Ming Dynasty's attitude towards him is most appropriate. If Wang Zhichen, Yuan Chonghuan and others work sincerely, the food stored in Jinzhou and Lushun in southern Liaoning can allow the Liao people and the soldiers of Qianfeng Town to survive until the beginning of next spring.

If there is not enough food and fodder, it means that the stockpiled food and fodder is in Juehua Island, Shanhaiguan, Tianjin and other places, and Liaodong officials are preparing to use food and fodder to control the soldiers of Qianfeng Town.

"Reporting to the commander, it is difficult to transport food on the road. The food stored in southern Liaoning is either in Lushun or Haizhou. I am only responsible for the transportation of food and wages for the Liaoyang and Shenyang fronts, and I don't have much control over the food and grass in southern Liaoning."

Lao Wang was a very serious middle-aged man who managed Liaoyang City quite well, so Li Hao did not make things difficult for him.

"General Li, I can say something about this. Lushun has stored 60,000 shi, Haizhou has stored 90,000 shi, and Jinzhou has 40,000 to 50,000 shi. It is enough to guarantee the soldiers on the front line. Jinzhou and Guangning have harvests, and the people in Liao can go to Liaoxi for food and come back in the spring of next year."

Bi Zisu has been busy with these things in the past few months. The food and wages supplied to Liaodong are supervised by officials at three levels, so not much is embezzled or lost.

As soon as he heard the word "food", Li Hao understood about 70% of it.

Part of the grain stored in these three places is supplied to the people, and part is supplied to the soldiers on the front line.

There are at least 500,000 people in Liao, and the minimum expenditure is 150,000 shi per month. If it weren't for the Korean grain he brought back, the remaining food in southern Liaoning would only last for more than a month.

"What about fodder? How much is there in southern Liaoning and Shenyang?"

Fodder determines the life and death of war horses and livestock. The decline of Liaozhen was due to the fact that more than 20,000 horses starved to death on the peninsula during the Korean War.

"More than 1.7 million bundles, and there are still some that have not been handed over by the people. In the past few months, I have not been able to farm, so I have sent clerks to mobilize the people to cut grass everywhere. The people hand in a few bundles every month in exchange for food."

Bi Zisu spoke in a rather proud tone, as fodder was the only achievement that the Liaodong officials could boast of.

One bundle weighs 15 pounds. A horse eats thirty to forty bundles of fodder per month, and a war horse eats more, up to sixty bundles.

Li Hao calculated the expenses of war horses in various places and found that the stockpiled fodder just reached a limit.

A considerable portion of the horses raised by the Later Jin were captured by Qianfeng Town. The number of war horses had already exceeded 10,000, and more than 1.7 million bundles would only be enough to last for two months.

"The fodder is too heavy. It's not easy to transport it from western Liaoning. Have you figured out a solution?"

Logically speaking, Guangning and Yizhou areas are surrounded by grasslands on three sides, and the area is vast and sparsely populated, so the fodder available should be much more than that near Liaoyang.

Bi Zisu was waiting for this question. He replied as if offering a treasure: "Then we will ask General Li to move to Guangning, and the people and horses will follow him to Jinzhou and Ningyuan. There is food in Juehua Island and Shanhaiguan, and the dilemma will be solved."

"Is this your idea or the idea of ​​Wang Zhichen and Yuan Chonghuan?"

Li Hao asked finally.

"The governor made the decision, and I just executed it."

Before Bi Zisu noticed the change in the Qianfeng Town's general's tone, Wang Tingshi beside him suddenly changed his expression and began to sweat.

"That's why they forced me to go to Juehua Island and Shanhaiguan to ask for food."

Li Hao shouted loudly and ordered the soldiers on duty in the general's mansion to come in, arrest the two civil servants and their followers, and put them in prison.

Bi Zisu, who still didn't understand what was going on, cried out in injustice, "General Li, there must be some inappropriate communication. Let us discuss it carefully." Wang Tingshi's brain was much better than his boss's, and he stated on the spot, "I have supervised the grain and supplies in Dengzhou and Denglai, so I am considered a useful person. I am willing to be a clerk in charge of transporting grain and grass for the general."

Li Hao ignored them and waved his hand to order the soldiers to take them away.

These two are indeed talented and will be useful in the future. Now we still need them to serve the various soldiers.

The news that the civil official was captured by the newly arrived general quickly spread in Liaoyang City. Unlike Shenyang, this place was the headquarters of the Ming Dynasty's governor in Liaodong, and there were enough people gathered here.

The people who had nothing to do discussed the general's behavior. Combining the popular reputation of Marshal Li and the people's inherent impression of corrupt officials, the people quickly concluded that it was Liaodong Deputy Envoy Bi Zisu and Liaoyang Military and Legal Supervisor Wang Tingshi who had embezzled military pay and even a lot of silver for buying grain for disaster relief by the imperial court.

The situation fermented for three or four days, and generals from all walks of life and their soldiers arrived in Liaoyang City one after another.

Except for the generals who led troops to burn the wasteland in Shenyang, all the generals and captains who could come were basically summoned by Li Hao to the meeting hall of the general's mansion.

"It's not that I want to make trouble for the salary. They forced me to do this. Tell me, are the rewards and official titles given to us by the court enough? The Liao salary this year was collected normally, but why is the Liao salary given to us so much less?"

The general first glared and immediately set the tone for the riot.

No one dared to contradict him, so everyone started complaining.

"The Marshal is right. I haven't even received the full salary of 2,400 taels this month."

"Many of my men are surrendered soldiers. The clerks sent by the Futai Yamen and Deputy Envoy Bi don't even recognize them as soldiers. They used to be paid a salary, but now they have to rely on horse grass to fill their stomachs. If it weren't for General Li's great reputation, these surrendered soldiers would have run away long ago."

"That's right. My uncle captured seven chieftains from the Five Camps in one battle. But the people in the Jinglüe Mansion said that the Five Camps had been following us to fight the Tartars, and that their invasion was forced by Marshal Li to plunder the livestock of the Five Camps. They refused to promote my uncle."

"When assessing the military merits for conquering Phoenix City, the third-rank civil servant sent by the Military Governor's Office actually called General Cao a meritorious dog. Who could tolerate this?"

Among these generals, Cao Bianjiao had the greatest resentment. His uncle's greatest achievement was capturing several chiefs of the five major camps outside Yizhou City, but the Jinglüe Mansion felt that this achievement was mediocre and only counted it as a small achievement.

Perhaps the commander's record was too dazzling, and the Caos were not highly regarded by the two Caos in Shanhaiguan, Ningyuan Governor's Office and other places.

"Gong Gou's words are insulting. When the incident reaches Shanhaiguan, I will ask Wang Zhichen to hand this man over and chop off his head to avenge General Cao."

"Gong Gou" is the name Liu Bang gave to some generals. Although it is also used to describe a general's bravery in battle, it has a slightly derogatory meaning, referring to a general who can only plan attacks under the command of the commander-in-chief and military advisors and has no other abilities.

All the generals nodded in agreement, and many of them called on the court to confer a title of nobility on the commander-in-chief.

"Great! All the generals, lead all the soldiers you can to Jinzhou. Once the brothers who are clamoring for money have gathered, we will go directly to Shanhaiguan to demand money and official positions."

It would take some time to gather the army, so Li Hao planned to let the generals and soldiers go to Jinzhou first. During this time, he would take one or two thousand elite cavalry to hunt down the Tatars in the north.

Even if they couldn't catch up with Huang Taiji, they had to drive these remnants of the Eight Banners to the north, making Kaiyuan and Tieling a buffer zone between the two sides.

After unifying the generals, Li Hao mobilized soldiers from all over. He gathered most of the soldiers near Liaoyang and directly brought the silver winter melon given to him by his godson to the soldiers.

"This thing is called Mei Nai He. It is made of one thousand taels of silver and weighs 62.5 kilograms. It is too heavy for me to hold it. Can you guess how many of these things there are in the homes of officials in the south?"

Under the gaze of twenty or thirty thousand pairs of eyes, Li Hao began to mobilize.

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(End of this chapter)