After Zhang Zhenren left, the Mid-Autumn Festival soon arrived, and the date of the Eastern Expedition to Korea on September 15th was getting closer and closer. There was still a vacancy of at least 10,000 shi of food and fodder for the Eastern Expedition army.
As the saying goes, the three armies should move forward before the food and grass are used. Now that there is a problem with the food and grass, if the emperor's personal expedition is delayed in the end, it will be a serious crime of beheading.
Officials from the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the Ministry of Household Affairs are under great pressure.
Emperor Wu Ding gave Xie Yang and Ge Yewen full responsibility for raising food and grass for the army.
Xie Yang is the top leader in the civil affairs system, and Ge Yewen is now the Minister of Household Affairs.
Like other power agencies, the civil affairs and economy of Qi State are also two carriages, advancing at both ends.
One set is the original Kaiyuan system, that is, civil affairs officials. In addition, the Ministry of Household Affairs was established following the previous Ming Dynasty.
The two go hand in hand, are interconnected but independent. This is a special phenomenon in the transitional period and may change in the future.
Xie Yang and Ge Yewen have been anxious these days.
In early August, the Eastern Expedition troops arrived in Kuandian one after another. The forwards of the cavalry corps had crossed the Yalu River and entered Sinuiju. There, they would join the Qi Jinbu of the Third Corps stationed in North Korea, and then wait for Emperor Wuding to cross the river and head toward the Yellow Sea together. The Taoist army launched an attack.
The Eastern Expedition army, together with the accompanying civilian auxiliary troops, numbered more than 300,000 people. Just like the Battle of Saarhu, it was impossible for so many people to enter the battlefield within a day or two, nor to march in a long line.
The 80,000-strong army was divided into four groups, each with 20,000 people, divided into east, middle, west and south. The commander of the East Route Army was Deng Changxiong, the commander of the West Route Army was Qi Jin, the South Route Army was led by Wu Aheng and landed in Incheon, and the Middle Route Army was personally led by Emperor Wu Ding.
With so many troops marching forward, it would not take only one or two days for them all to reach the battlefield. After the forwards crossed the Yalu River, there were still more than 70,000 follow-up troops stranded in Liaodong. The army's daily consumption of food and grass was an astronomical figure. Xie Yang and Ge Yewen took the daily consumption of The list of supplies frightened the two of them.
After the flood and plague, from Tunpu to the Chamber of Commerce School, from Tieling to Qinghe, all the disaster-stricken places turned to Xie Guangkun and the others for food and pasture.
Xie Guangkun was not like Zhang Zhenren who could trick the Supreme Emperor into turning into soldiers, so naturally he couldn't turn it into food. He was so anxious that the last few unruly hairs on his head completely fell off and he became bald. If he didn't wear a hat or a wig at ordinary times, , Xie Guangkun is now more like a monk than a monk.
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On the 15th day of the eighth month of the third year of Taichu, the Seven Star Tower in Shenyang.
A bright moon rises above the west tower, and a few stars adorn the night sky, as if it has been washed by water and is exceptionally clear.
There is a table of Eight Immortals in the private room facing the window on the third floor. Liu Zhaosun is holding a wine flask and pouring wine for his subordinates. Next to the Supreme Emperor are Ma Shiying, Sun Chuanting, Song Yingxing, Xu Guangqi, Zhang Dong, Pei Dahu, Xie Yang, Wu Xiao and Ge Yewen. , Jin Yinghe, Francisco et al.
This year’s Emperor Wuding’s family banquet was held from the Qianqing Palace to the Qixing Tower. From the palace to the inn, the dishes were changed from the original 108 dishes to just a dozen or so, and most of them were frogs, fish, snakes, toads and the like. , there is only one elbow, and the size of the banquet has shrunk by more than one and a half points. In addition, many of his subordinates were not invited to the banquet. Dongfang Zhu Linyu, Fujiwara Kyouji and others were blackmailing the Zheng family in Weihaiwei and have not returned yet. The chief officers of each regiment rushed to Kuandian.
Liu Zhaosun drank three cups of sake mixed with water. He smiled and raised his chopsticks. The tip of his chopsticks swam back and forth among several cooked toads. Finally, he picked up a cooked bungara snake and invited everyone to say goodbye.
"Don't be polite, everyone. In the year of the great disaster, I am not rich either. The poisonous snakes have been devenomed and the toads are half-cooked. They are all specialties of the Hunhe River. Eat them, eat them."
When Francisco heard that it was a "specialty of Hunhe River", he hurriedly spat out the piece of fish he had just swallowed, pinched his neck and his face turned red from holding it in.
Liu Zhaosun picked up the fish as if nothing had happened and swallowed it in one mouthful.
"In a year of great disaster, you should be thankful if you have something to eat, and you are not a fish that eats the flesh of dead people."
After hearing what the Supreme Emperor said, a group of people all frowned and sat there, not daring to move their chopsticks. The Supreme Emperor grabbed another elbow and swallowed it in one gulp.
Xie Yang couldn't help but interrupt the Emperor's enjoyment of the meal. He frowned and said: "Your Majesty, I have tried my best, but I am still short of 10,000 stones of food and grass. It is really difficult to get it together. Yesterday, the magistrate of Lu County came to me again to ask for food. I... ···”
Ge Yewen also hurriedly complained beside him:
"Your Majesty, the Ministry of Household Affairs only has 35,000 taels of silver left. Deng Changxiong and others have moved all the grain from the granary. Now Zhu Changhui heard that Daqi was hit by floods and refused to sell us any more grain. The smuggling trade with the south is unsustainable. , their price is too high, one stone of rice costs five taels of silver... If this continues, people in Liaodong will starve to death, let alone an expedition to Korea."
Liu Zhaosun waved his hand, not paying attention to the complaints of his two men. He tilted his neck and drank half a bottle of low-quality liquor mixed with water. He continued to eat "Hunhe's specialty" and felt that his body was full of energy.
"Director Xie, Shangshu Ge, if you really can't bear it, just follow Master Zhang south and become a monk in Wudang Mountain. By the way, where is Master Zhang now?"
Wu Xiao put down the untouched drink and quickly replied: "Your Majesty, I guess we will arrive in Fucheng County soon."
"If you chase me now, when will you catch up?"
Wu Xiao calculated with his fingers and blurted out: "We have to wait until midnight tonight."
Emperor Wu Ding stood up and looked at the two men who were asking for debts from him: "I don't have any food. If there is really no other way, I will allocate some military rations to the people."
Lewen
