Chapter 12 The Old Slave is My Nephew

Mr. Li Qian naturally would not refuse, so he took it and thanked him.

Then he asked the officials of the Ministry of Health for the troops that were previously under his command. If no one escaped, there should be eighty-seven people.

After that, Yuan Chonghuan arranged a slave head parade in the afternoon. It was quite grand. Surrounded by the Daobiao Battalion and the elders, they first walked around the main residential areas along the four main streets, and also visited the City God Temple and Guandi Temple in the east of the city to pay homage to the ancestors.

The generals and Yuan Bingxian urged Li Hao to participate in the parade and worship ceremony, but the newly appointed captain declined on the grounds that he was busy with affairs and preparing weapons and armor.

"General Li, you can't postpone the banquet tonight. First, congratulations to the general on his promotion. Second, I have some ideas to discuss with the generals. You all have to come."

A brave general like Li Hao came to the camp under the provincial government. Although a powerful enemy was approaching, Yuan Chonghuan still prepared to have a small celebration. After all, the people in the camp were his trusted confidants.

The front door of the provincial government office was surrounded by the public, so Li Hao and his servants had to go out from the back door. He had to follow Pei Guozhen from the Wei Office to collect the eighty taels of silver reward.

"Manager Pei, I can recruit my own servants, right?" As they were moving forward, Li Hao had nothing else to do, so he asked about the greatest achievement gained from the four heads.

The household servant system was a helpless response to the deterioration of the Ming Dynasty's military system and the systemic corruption of civil servants in charge of military affairs.

Although there were recruited soldiers, after some of them were embezzled by civil officials, the military pay in the hands of the battalion commander was not enough to support the operation of the entire battalion. Therefore, the officers turned to using the limited food and wages to support their servants to ensure that they had soldiers under their command who could fight.

What is abstract is that the imperial court actually condoned the existence of household servants and controlled the household servants who were dependent on the commander by paying them salaries.

"Yes, after the general has recruited his own men, he can go to the Daobiao Camp and find a clerk to register them," Pei Guozhen replied.

Li Hao nodded, indicating that he understood.

He instructed his five servants: "If you have relatives who are brave and capable of fighting, you can recruit them. It can be servants or soldiers. We have plenty of vacancies now."

Brothers fight together in war, fathers and sons fight together in battle, and soldiers in the initial stage can only fight effectively if they have relatives as the bond.

The relatives of these servants could not recruit many people, so Li Hao decided to wait until the Ningyuan battle was over, and then go to Shanhaiguan to recruit a large number of capable soldiers and servants, and then go to the Kalaqin Ulianghai area to seek benefits.

The Mongols and Jurchens are still the Ming Dynasty's first-class source of soldiers. It should be noted that the Jurchens cannot be equated with the Jiannu Tatars. A few years ago, the Haixi Jurchens were still staunch allies of the Ming court and fought to the death with the Ming Dynasty against the Jianzhou Jurchens.

Among the three major Jurchen tribes, the Jianzhou Jurchens had completely broken with the Ming Dynasty, but there were still many Haixi Jurchens and Wild Jurchens who were unwilling to surrender to Nurhaci. This group was considered a high-quality source of troops for the Ming army in the field.

In Datong Town, there were many Jurchen soldiers who fought for the Ming Dynasty. In 1644, after the Later Jin general Ajige captured Datong, he beheaded those Jurchen Ming soldiers.

As for the Mongols, the nine borders of the Ming Dynasty recruited a large number of them. Zu Dashou himself had a large number of Mongolian servants. In the later period, there was even a war camp called the Jiangyi Camp, which was composed entirely of barbarians.

Li Hao remembered that Zu Dashou had a nephew who worked as a military advisor in a Mongolian tribe. When he wanted to collect money, he could use this line to recruit some soldiers there, and then find the hated Ligdan Khan to make a fortune.

After receiving the silver, Li Hao immediately took his servants to the blacksmith shop in the west city. In the past two years, many new military farms and forts have been opened around Ningyuan City, and the blacksmith shop business has been booming.

I just didn't expect that the owner of the blacksmith shop didn't do business.

"Sir, our shop has been requisitioned by the Ministry of Defense. These days, we have been repairing bird guns and three-barreled guns, as well as making armor plates for the soldiers in the camp. I can't tell when it will be requisitioned, so I really can't make weapons for you individually."

After learning that Li Hao wanted to customize a few crescent-shaped swords, the short and fat owner of the blacksmith shop immediately said that he could not customize weapons at the moment.

"It's a pity that I just picked up a silver ingot, which weighs about five or six taels. I think it must have been dropped by you, boss!" Li Hao took out the silver, placed it in his palm and held it in front of the boss.

"It was dropped by me. The general was the one who went up to the city wall to fight the Tartars. Even if my buddies and I had to work at night, we had to make suitable weapons for the general. This way we could be considered to have contributed to the fight against the Tartars." General Li Qian snorted coldly and threw the silver into the boss's arms.

"Can your shop make that kind of iron mask? Jiannu bows and arrows are very powerful, and my servants will have to use iron masks for protection in the future."

The Eight Banners' close combat capability is relatively weak, but they are stronger in short- to medium-range shooting, so in a field battle with the Eight Banners you have to fight close to them, squeeze into a pile of flesh and start chopping.

During a charge, the face is the largest uncovered part of the body, so naturally it needs some protection.

"Master Jun, my family can also make this, but the iron mask will block the eyes, and it needs to be customized according to the face shape. It is not as practical as the Dunxiang. Dunxiang is simpler to make and cheaper."

The boss had his own plans. The iron mask needed a large piece of iron to make it, and the requirements for iron were very high. The iron used to make pots in Foshan, Guangdong and Guangxi could probably be used in large quantities to make large pieces of face shield, but the iron from western Liaoning would not work because it was too brittle. He was afraid that the military commander would not be satisfied with the result and would not pay him.

The neck is simple. Just use the nail plates of the armor to string a scarf. The extension of the nail plates does not require high standards.

"Dun Xiang~What are your opinions?" Li Hao turned to ask his servants.

Yang Shigong replied with a roll of his eyes: "You can ask the store to make a few pairs and we can compare them."

He had already guessed that this shop might not be able to make an iron mask with sufficient protection.

Li Hao gave another two taels of silver to the owner of the blacksmith shop and asked him to make two samples.

Of course, what the boss did was just excessive use. After the situation stabilized after the Ningyuan Battle, Li Hao could ask the provincial government to build a batch of iron tools to protect the face. The original duty of the provincial government was to repair and file weapons.

……

Yuan Bingxian lived directly in the provincial government office, so the small banquet in the evening was held in the second hall of the provincial government office.

All the people in Ningyuan City who had a say in the defense of the city had arrived, and basically all the commanders at the level of a thousand commanders were also invited. What Li Hao did not expect was that there were actually two Yellow Sect lamas.

"Nephew Li, these two lamas are military and military retainers, and are registered in the governor's office."

Man Gui sat in the seat of host, and because Yuan Bingxian had specifically instructed, Li Hao's seat was right next to Man Gui.

It seems that Man Gui also dislikes these two lamas and took the opportunity to explain to Li Hao to mock them in words and deeds.

Yuan Chonghuan pretended not to hear the second half of Man Gui's words, and instead asked in a friendly manner about the origin of his nephew Li Hao.

"This is actually a widely circulated fallacy. My family's Li clan has been passed down to my generation, and I am of the same generation as Marshal Li Chengliang. I don't know why my generation was lowered. In fact, the old slave Nurhaci is still my great nephew."

The old slave, also known as Li Ruzhi, was once a servant of Li Chengliang's godson.

When these words were spoken, all the generals looked at them sideways.

Li Chengliang's Li family had a wide range of connections, and half of the Liaodong generals had dealings with this Li family. Now that Li Hao had established such a relationship, even an old man like Zu Dashou had to call Li Hao "old uncle".

The atmosphere at the table suddenly became cold, but Yuan Bingxian didn't care and just laughed.

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(End of this chapter)