"Your Majesty Liu Wenbing has a starting point!"
Suddenly, Liu Wenbing got up on his knees and knelt down to worship Zhu Yuanzhang.
Zhu Yuanzhang nodded, his tone calmer, and said: "Xin Lehou has any suggestions, but it doesn't matter!"
Liu Wenbing took a deep breath and said slowly: "What Mr. Wei said before is to stand firm and wait for help. It is just because the army has insufficient food and pay and the soldiers have no fighting spirit. Therefore, the current plan must first solve the fighting spirit of the soldiers, otherwise standing firm is just a sentence. Empty words.”
When Zhu Yuanzhang heard this, he looked at Ni Yuanlu and said, "How much silver is left in the treasury to motivate the soldiers?"
Ni Yuanlu was already prepared. Seeing Zhu Yuanzhang's inquiry, she immediately bowed and replied: "There are still 45,000 taels of silver in the treasury, of which 30,000 taels are for the funeral of Princess Le'an. Currently, there are 15,000 taels of silver available." two."
Just after Ni Yuanlu finished speaking, she heard the voice of the Prince Consort Gong Yonggu again: "Your Majesty, at this moment the enemy is facing us. I offer this silver on behalf of Princess Le'an. At the same time, I sell my property, and I should get five silver coins in return." I would like to donate a thousand taels to Your Majesty."
"Chen Gang also roughly calculated the family assets and found that he could get three thousand taels of silver. I would like to give it to the emperor to solve his urgent need."
At this time, Liu Wenbing's voice sounded again.
"I would like to donate one thousand taels of silver."
"I can donate five hundred taels of silver."
...
For a time, all the ministers donated money enthusiastically, and it was very lively.
Zhu Yuanzhang looked at these ministers coldly and remained silent.
After everyone had finished speaking and he motioned for them to stand up, he slowly said: "Okay, we are very happy that you can share our worries with us."
"We only have one requirement here, and that is that it must be in cash. If someone fails to cash out like before, we will not be lenient!"
When the ministers heard this, they didn't even dare to say so.
Zhu Yuanzhang nodded and said, "Besides this, are there any other ways to raise wages?"
Everyone knew Zhu Yuanzhang's purpose, but no one wanted to tell him.
"I have a script to start this memorial!"
Seeing that the ministers were silent, Li Jing thought of Zhu Yuanzhang's kindness, so he no longer looked at Shen Zhanran's blocking eyes and walked out resolutely.
Seeing that it was Li Jing, Zhu Yuanzhang nodded encouragingly and said, "Okay, tell us."
Li Jing said in a deep voice: "I believe that judging from the current situation, raising wages is only one of them. To solve this dilemma, it should be divided into three parts: raising wages, persuading surrender and urging aid."
"Of these three parts, raising wages is the most important, because only with sufficient food and wages can soldiers be motivated to defend the city and divide the rebels. Therefore, I suggest that in addition to calling on officials in the court to donate silver, we should also ask merchants, wealthy households, and gentry throughout the city Waiting for someone to donate money to help with salary!"
As he said these words, Wei Zaode, Zhu Chunchen, Guang Shiheng and others all cast dissatisfied looks.
Fan Jingwen, Ni Yuanlu, Li Guozhen and others were surprised with a bit of approval.
The remaining Liu Wenbing, Shen Zhanran, Huang Nilu and others all looked worried.
Although Li Jing saw everyone's gaze, he ignored it and continued: "In addition to repaying the owed military pay and boosting morale, the remaining silver should be used to divide the rebels."
"As far as I know, although the rebels besieging the city this time are said to be half a million, they actually don't have many troops capable of fighting, because most of the rebels are with their families, and family members account for more than half."
"The remaining more than 200,000 people, excluding some of the bandit leaders' personal soldiers, can be divided into three categories: refugees, rebels and deserters."
"Among these three types of people, the number of refugees is the largest. However, these refugees are originally poor people who have neither military skills nor actual combat capabilities. Their combat effectiveness is not strong, so although they are large in number, they are not a cause for concern."
"The second is the deserters. Most of these people are those who have escaped from wars over the years, or who mutinied because of military pay. Although they join the rebels, their loyalty is not high. As long as the rebels lose power, they will inevitably flee."
"Finally, there are the rebels who surrendered in the past three months. This part of the army is well organized and has good combat effectiveness."
"However, since they surrendered not long ago, have been fighting against the rebels all year round, and are familiar with many officials in Beijing, I believe their status among the rebels should be very embarrassing."
"So what we really have to deal with are the tens of thousands of rebel soldiers. Although these people are loyal, they lack experience in siege."
"As long as we can do a good job in the defense of the capital, hold on to the city for two days, and wear down the vigor of the rebels, their military morale will definitely be shaken."
"At that time, His Majesty can send relevant personnel to lobby for surrender. If successful, the strength of the rebels can be greatly reduced. Even if it fails, the rebels can still be suspicious and lay the foundation for later attempts to persuade them to surrender."
"The last step is to urge for reinforcements. I remember the second year of Chongzhen..."
"Ahem..."
Just when Li Jing was about to mention Yuan Chonghuan's rescue, Shen Zhanran, who was standing at the back, coughed.
When Li Jing heard the cough, he immediately reacted and hurriedly changed the subject and said: "Among the many reinforcements, I feel that Ningyuan's commander-in-chief Wu Sangui is the closest and has the strongest force. Your Majesty can send someone to supervise."
"Secondly, Huguang Commander-in-Chief Zuo Liangyu and Fengyang Governor-General Ma Shiying. Both of them have hundreds of thousands of people. Your Majesty can also issue a strict order to let them enter the capital to serve the king..."
After Zhu Yuanzhang finished speaking, he asked everyone again: "What do you think?"
When Wei Zaode heard this, he signaled Zhang Jinyan to come out and object.
Only Zhang Jinyan was reprimanded, and knowing that Li Jing was Zhu Yuanzhang's newly appointed household minister, he guessed that these might be Zhu Yuanzhang's ideas, so he pretended not to see it.
When Wei Zaode saw that Zhang Jinyan was not moving, he looked at Zhu Chunchen, the Duke of Chengguo.
Zhu Chunchen's ancestor was Zhu Neng, a famous general in Jingnan. Because of his outstanding military exploits, he was made a Duke of the country and was hereditary.
It's just that although Zhu Chunchen attacked Duke Cheng, he was a straw bag. He only had some soldiers and horses in his hands and often acted arrogantly.
Seeing Wei Zaode's signal at this moment, he walked out boldly, looked at Li Jing and said, "Have you ever led an army to fight?"
Li Jing was stunned when he heard this, then shook his head and said: "Although I am a martial arts student, I have never been on the battlefield."
After Zhu Chunchen showed an expression that was indeed true, he said in a deep voice: "The battlefield is ever-changing, and it cannot be solved by just sitting down and talking."
...
Li Jing was ready to refute at first, but later saw that what he said was nonsense that seemed correct, so she let him go.
Seeing that Li Jing didn't argue, Zhu Chunchen thought he had suppressed him.
After talking eloquently again, he walked back proudly, but he saw many people frowning.
When Wei Zaode saw that Zhu Chunchen couldn't make the point, he felt contempt in his heart and then turned his attention to Guang Shiheng.
When he saw the light, Heng's eyes wandered, and he obviously didn't want to speak.
Worried that this would ruin the plan, he had no choice but to walk out slowly and said, "I think all other options are feasible. Only the payment assistance needs to be discussed."
"After all, it's not easy for the wealthy households to save some money. If they forcefully collect wages, the veterans are afraid of causing a civil uprising, which will be detrimental to the defense of the city!"
When Li Jing heard this, he immediately retorted: "If you don't get food and salary, everything else is empty talk. Besides, how those wealthy households can save money does not depend on the emperor's grace."
"In this critical time, if they can't share the country's worries, wouldn't it be..."
"The common people think that Master Li's words are reasonable. If we don't get food and salary, everything will be in vain. As for what Master Wei said, it is not unreasonable."
"However, in this critical moment, the common people feel that we might as well give it a try. If there is any disagreement, we can discuss it separately!"
At this time, Shen Zhanran came out to interrupt Li Jing's words and spoke respectfully to Zhu Yuanzhang.
When Liu Wenbing saw Shen Zhanran standing up, he hurriedly stepped forward and said: "Your Majesty, although I have never served, I have met Tang Tong several times. I am willing to go to the enemy camp to persuade him to surrender."
Gong Yonggu and Liu Wenbing were close friends. Seeing that he was speaking out for justice and no longer avoiding suspicion, he stepped forward and expressed his willingness to persuade him to surrender.
Jinxuan, the foreign minister of the Ministry of War, Wang Jiayan, the right minister of the Ministry of War, Meng Zhaoxiang, the right minister of the Ministry of Justice, and others originally expected Fan Jingwen to follow suit, but saw that he did not object at this moment. However, Liu Wenbing, Gong Yonggu and other relatives were all outspoken and stood up one after another to express their willingness to persuade him to surrender. .
Wei Zaode saw that everyone supported Li Jing, but his own people were silent, so he had to retreat slowly.
