After today's duty ended, Yan Song and Xu Jie did not rush to leave, but stayed to discuss the specific salary increase plan. The entire cabinet was brightly lit, and only two figures were busy.
"Come on, let's have a cup of tea first!" Xu Jie said, pouring a cup of tea for Yan Song who was deep in thought.
The thoughts in Yan Song's mind were completely disrupted by Xu Jie's words, so he simply stopped thinking about it, picked up the teacup, and took a sip.
"Good tea! Even better than the tea your Majesty gave me." Yan Song then put the teacup aside and commented.
"Old Yan Ge is really a saint, your majesty actually gives you tea?" Xu Jie was secretly unhappy after hearing what Yan Song said, but on the surface he still showed a look of great admiration.
"If Mr. Xu Ge wants to drink, I will have some delivered to your house another day." Yan Song said with a warm smile on his face.
"Then thank you Yange Lao!" Xu Jie responded with a smile.
"Well, Your Majesty has found us a hard job. This matter is related to the salaries of many officials in the imperial court. If the draft is not perfect enough, not only will His Majesty not be able to spare us, but even those officials, big and small, will have to work behind our backs. Poke our spine!
After Yan Song said this, he picked up a reviewed memorial and started reading it.
"Yes, we are caught in the middle and suffer from both ends."
Xu Jie also sighed with emotion.
"Keep thinking. No matter what, we have to come up with a feasible method."
"yes!"
…
Fujian, Zhangzhou Prefecture.
Since the First World War in Shouning County, the army commanded by Hu Zongxian has been unstoppable and fought more than a dozen battles, large and small. Without suffering many casualties, it successfully marched eastward according to the strategy formulated before the war, and was surrounded by enemies along the way. All the areas occupied by the Japanese pirates were recovered!
The three armies also joined forces, totaling more than 9,000 people, and camped on the outskirts of Zhangzhou City. They waited until early tomorrow morning to launch a general offensive and complete their efforts in one battle, completely wiping out the last group of Japanese pirates entrenched in Fujian Province!
In the main tent, Hu Zongxian looked at the map of Fujian Province hanging on the wall and asked everyone: "Is the navy at the Ministry of War in place?"
"Your Majesty, the Governor, the navy from the Ministry of War has arrived and has completely blocked the escape route of this group of Japanese pirates at sea. Now, this group of Japanese pirates has become a turtle in a urn!"
When Yu Dayou saw Hu Zongxian asking questions, he immediately stood up and responded.
"Well, just wait until early tomorrow morning to order the entire army to launch a general attack to completely wipe out this group of Japanese pirates and rescue the people from dire straits!" Hu Zongxian looked around the crowd and ordered in a deep voice.
"yes!"
"Oh, by the way, how did you do what you were told earlier?" After Hu Zongxian finished speaking, he turned to Tan Lun and Yu Dayou and asked.
Tan Lun and Yu Dayou naturally knew what Hu Zongxian was referring to. The purpose of dispatching the army this time was not only to suppress the Japanese, but also to clean up the wealthy gentry who hid the population and annexed the land!
Immediately afterwards, Tan Lun stood up first, took out a book, and handed it to Hu Zongxian: "Your Majesty the Governor, here is the list of the wealthy gentry I have dealt with! Except for some of the property obtained to reward the soldiers, the rest remains intact. It will be kept on site and can be transported back to the court after the war is over."
Hu Zongxian took the book from Tan Lun's hand and looked through it briefly. He saw that it was full of people's names. Then Hu Zongxian turned it to the last page, which recorded in detail the confiscated property, a total of seven hundred and thirty. Thirty thousand taels!
"Well, you did a good job." After reading the contents of Tan Lun's booklet, Hu Zongxian turned his attention to Yu Dayou.
"Lord Governor, this is the booklet of the last general. What the last general wants to say is the same as Mr. Tan!" Yu Dayou said and handed a booklet to Hu Zongxian.
Hu Zongxian took the book and looked through it. He found that the number of wealthy gentry that Yu Dayou dealt with was not as many as Tan Lun's, but the confiscated property was much more than Tan Lun's, a total of 8.69 million taels!
"The total cost of this army expedition was one million taels, but in the blink of an eye, more than 20 million taels of silver were taken from the homes of these gentry and landlords. Together, our expedition is to make money for the court. !”
Hu Zongxian said, stroking his beard and laughing loudly.
"Oh, by the way, are the 150 furlong cannons ready?" Hu Zongxian asked such a question after being happy.
"Your Excellency, we are all ready! When we attack the city tomorrow, we can let the Japanese pirates have a taste of the power of the cannon." Qi Jiguang immediately stepped out and replied loudly.
"Okay! Everyone, please go down and rest first, recharge your batteries, and launch a general attack early tomorrow morning!" Hu Zongxian ordered in a deep voice.
"yes!"
…
In the government office of Zhangzhou City, the Japanese pirate leader Zhang Lian looked anxious and was pacing in the room.
At this moment, the person he had sent out to inquire about the news returned to the mansion. Zhang Lian seemed to have grasped a life-saving straw and asked quickly: "How is it? Did you find out anything? Who is the Ming army outside the city?" The commander?"
"Report...report to the leader that the Ming army outside is led by Hu Zongxian, the governor of Zhejiang Province. In addition, he also has generals such as Qi Jiguang, Yu Dayou, Tan Lun, etc."
The person responsible for inquiring about the information did not dare to hide it, and recounted the information he had obtained to Zhang Lian verbatim.
"Stay there." After listening to the news reported by his subordinates, Zhang Lian waved his hands and said hoarsely as if he had lost his soul.
"Yes!" Upon seeing this, the subordinate hurriedly left, fearing that he would be implicated.
"It's over, it's over, everything is over!" After his subordinates left, Zhang Lian fell to the ground like a walking corpse, murmuring incessantly.
Now everything makes sense. Why was this Ming army so brave? In just one week, they regained all the territory previously occupied by their own people.
Hu Zongxian, Qi Jiguang, Yu Dayou, and Tan Lun all have extremely impressive records, and they are even better at dealing with Japanese pirates!
Even if his troops are several times larger than the opponent's, Zhang Lian has no confidence that he can defeat these few. At present, these famous generals, with more than 9,000 well-equipped Ming army elites, are approaching the city. They will wait until tomorrow morning. A general attack was launched.
At this moment, Zhang Lian's heart was filled with endless regret. He hated that he should not have been so reckless and should not have listened to the bullshit of those wealthy gentry and landlords, thus putting himself in this lifeless situation.
Zhang Lian knew that with these people in Zhangzhou City, he would never be able to defend the city! These people are more active than anyone else when it comes to robbing homes and plundering people. Once the war officially starts, it will definitely collapse.
Therefore, Zhang Lian decided to sneak away with the looted treasures. In this way, Qingshan was not afraid of running out of firewood, and could sleep peacefully, waiting for the right time to act again!
With this idea in mind, Zhang Lian summoned his cronies. More than a dozen people, carrying a large amount of treasure, sneaked out of the government office and headed for the port, where several escape ships were parked.
Unexpectedly, as soon as everyone reached the port, they were stopped. A group of soldiers appeared from nowhere and surrounded Zhang Lian and his cronies.
"What do you want to do? Do you want to rebel?" Zhang Lian looked at the soldiers around him who were approaching him with ill intentions. He tightened the baggage containing the treasure in his arms, then pulled out his long knife and threatened.
"Hmph, are you going to abandon us and wait, sir?" The leader of the group of soldiers stood up and mocked.
Without waiting for Zhang Lian to reply, he continued: "I'm sorry, leader, you are not the only one who wants to live. We also want to live, so we offended you."
"Do it!"
"Ah!" There was a scream, and Zhang Lian's cronies were all killed.
(End of chapter)
