Lin Zhenyu asked: "Who is your surname? Where are you from? Why do you want to worship me?"
King Dai Mao looked ashamed and quickly explained: "Lin Yingguan, a villain Cui Qi, a native of Jinhua, Zhejiang, recruited soldiers in the first year of Wuding, and there are seventy-eight thieves under the army! He was originally in the third battalion of the First Corps As a sentry horse, in the second year of Taichu, the Sixth Corps expanded its army and transferred manpower from various corps. I followed He Longzhou to go to Shandong to kill the White Lotus Sect... Later, He Longzhou went to Liaodong to rebel and asked us where to go. If I don't go, many brothers will not follow me, so they disperse, and I will retire and return to my hometown."
Lin Zhenyu was about to ask Cui Qi why he dropped the grass, but he heard King Da Mao sigh and say:
"Hey, Officer Lin, it's not just a villain who wants to be a thief! It's just that the court is unfair!"
It turns out that Cui Qi returned to his hometown of Jinshan after being discharged from the army, and there was an old mother at home who needed his support. Cui Qi had earned some money as a soldier over the years, but his daily expenses were high and he didn't have much money left. He originally planned to rely on the one hundred taels of retirement silver issued by the court to live on eighty acres of land, and the mother and son also had a place to live. . I didn’t expect that when I retired and my silver hair came back, I wouldn’t have one hundred taels at all!
"Then how much have you been paid?" Although Lin Zhenyu is also an officer, he has been staying in Ryukyu Province and is not aware of the vigorous disarmament in the country in the past two years.
"Damn it, the civil affairs officer of Jinshan Guard Tunbao used the excuse that the imperial pension was insufficient and the village did not have any money, so they could only pay in installments. Each person was given ten taels first, and the rest will be calculated as interest. When the money comes out later, the principal and interest will be paid together. Make it up for us."
Lin Zhenyu was stunned. He had no idea that the local civil affairs officer could operate in this way.
It should be noted that the pension money issued by the imperial court was announced in the official document of the Ministry of Household Affairs, and the amount could not be insufficient. A small civil affairs official of Jinshan Guard dared to embezzle so much silver. In the era of the Supreme Emperor, if an official embezzled more than a hundred taels, he would have to They were skinned and tortured to death.
In the sixth year of Guangde's reign, Liu Kan issued a decree that all officials who were corrupt with money, regardless of the amount of money involved, would be arrested first and sent to prison for trial. Since then, it has been declared that officials in Qi State who are corrupt will not be punished with death penalty.
"Where's the land? Where's the land given to veterans by the imperial court?"
King Dai Mao gave a bitter smile and said angrily: "Land? It is said that each person is given eighty acres of upper land for cultivation. When it is divided equally, it is either wasteland or lower land. There is very little upper land, or the fields are deliberately divided into more than ten miles. The fort outside will make it impossible for you to grow..."
"The most hateful thing is," Cui Qi spat: "As long as the fields are allocated to upper fields, all fields will be taxed as upper fields."
Lin Zhenyu asked in confusion: "Didn't you go to the state or county to file a complaint?"
"The pension land for hundreds of thousands of people amounts to more than tens of millions of taels, which cannot be covered by one or two state officials."
Cui Qi pointed to the top of his head, gritted his teeth and said: "There are people above them, and they share the money together! They divided the fields of the veterans, the mines and ponds in the camp, and the officials protected each other. It's useless to sue!"
Lin Zhenyu shook his head and said: "A bunch of rats dare to touch veterans' money! They are really not afraid of death!"
King Dai Mao said angrily: "The veterans are scattered all over the place. There are only two people in our village, so we are no match for them to cause trouble."
"My mother is sick, and the house at home is gone because of the medicine. I want to survive, but I have no choice but to leave the grass behind."….
After listening to King Daimao's story, Lin Zhenyu felt dizzy, and a sense of powerlessness that he had never felt before came to Lin Zhenyu's heart. He was silent, and after a long time, he murmured:
"I didn't expect the veterans to be in such a difficult situation. They couldn't even survive. At the beginning, Kang Shoufu promised that the soldiers would receive preferential treatment after they retired. It turned out to be such preferential treatment. The training officer said that the soldiers should think about the country. I If you don’t get laid off, who will get laid off? The soldiers do think about the country, but now they are short of food and clothing, and they have no food and clothing. Who cares about them?”
Cui Qi looked at the sky and said with infinite emotion: "When I joined the army, I wanted to kill thieves and make contributions to the country. I never thought about money. I didn't expect that I would end up in such a land."
The original ideal has been abandoned.
They betrayed Daqi.
"The new emperor and the civil and military officials say they are implementing the New Deal, but in fact they are betraying Da Qi, betraying the Supreme Emperor, and abandoning us soldiers..."
King Da Mao is still describing the tragic experiences of veterans,
Suddenly I heard someone behind me say:
"Officer Lin, it's getting late. Please give me an idea whether we should set up camp or continue on our way."
Lao Pan held his pipe in his mouth and looked at Lin Zhenyu with a smile.
"knew."
Lin Zhenyu waved to Lao Pan, turned to Prince Da Mao and said:
"Brother Cui, what are your plans for the future? Do you want to follow Yixian Tian to rob?"
Cui Qi looked up at Lin Zhenyu, his eyes full of expectation:
"I would like to follow General Lin and go to Yunyang to make great achievements. I wonder if General Lin will take him in, even if he goes with him as a personal soldier."
Lin Zhenyu looked embarrassed. According to the law, battalion officers were strictly prohibited from recruiting soldiers privately. After Emperor Guangde came to power, this ban was abolished, and soldiers and followers could be recruited by the generals themselves.
The dozens of Ryukyu soldiers who followed Lin Zhenyu north this time were following him as his own servants.
"What about those people under your command? What will happen to them if you leave? I can't recruit so many soldiers at once. I won't be able to support them."
King Daimao smiled and said: "They are all bankrupt farmers in the surrounding areas. Only a few of them are my former colleagues. They are used to robbing and probably don't want to join the army. I can only take two people with me at most."
Lin Zhenyu was hesitant, not sure whether he should agree or not. He asked King Da Mao to search for the minions who had just escaped, while he stood there hesitating.
At some point, Lao Panlai came over. The old Ryukyu man held a pipe in his mouth, squinted his eyes, and asked with a smile:
"Since you are really here to vote, why is Officer Lin hesitant?"
Lin Zhenyu lowered his voice and said: "Lao Pan, why are you here to join in the fun? Others don't know, but don't you know our current situation?"
Lao Pan shook his pipe and said with a surprised look on his face: "What's the situation?"
Lin Zhenyu said anxiously: "The emperor asked me to be the battalion officer of the Fourth Corps. I have been promoted several levels. Many eyes of the court are staring at us. We have not yet arrived in Yunyang, and we are recruiting troops on the road. If those people know, we will definitely If you write a letter of impeachment and arouse the emperor's suspicion, it will be difficult to save your life, let alone become a camp officer..."
Seeing Lin Zhenyu's anxious look, Lao Pan coughed dryly: "Hahaha, you are young and energetic, and you think about things simply."…
"How simple?"
Lao Pan seemed to be possessed by a dog-headed military advisor and said with a smile: "Since the emperor asked us to go to Yunyang, he must trust us. When we left Nanjing, he did not allocate troops to us, but rewarded you with a hundred thousand taels of silver. What he means now is to let you I recruited soldiers and horses along the way and cultivated confidants so that I could compete with Qin Jianxun and the others. You couldn't see such an obvious move?"
Lin Zhenyu thought for a moment and felt that what Lao Pan said made sense.
"But these bandits and thieves cannot be attacked too many times, otherwise if we let them stick together, we will have nothing to do."
Lin Zhenyu smiled and said, "Then we will only accept three or five."
Now he recruited Cui Qi, the stupid king, the second leader of the family, and a leader, a total of three people as Lin Yingguan's personal soldiers, and recruited a dozen minions who were willing to join the army. Lin Zhenyu's team already exceeded a hundred people. In the next few days, robbers joined Lin Zhenyu's command one after another every day.
Under the guidance of Lao Pan, Lin Zhenyu first paid the soldiers' salaries to these new recruits and said some words to boost their morale. Not to mention the idiot king, even the newly joined minions were grateful to Camp Officer Lin. It seemed that You can go through fire and water for him.
The entire journey was silent.
After leaving Nanzhili, we went up the Shuo River, then took a post road, and arrived at Wuchang twenty days later.
When the fleet passed Guishan, the remains of the battlefield left by the Supreme Emperor during his campaign against Zuo Liangyu were still vivid in his mind.
Lin Zhenyu held his hand on the side of the boat, looked at Guishan and Snake Mountain, and said with infinite emotion:
"Back then, the Supreme Emperor was invincible in his wars in the north and south. Unfortunately, I was born too late. If I have the opportunity to serve under Taizu, I don't know how many lifetimes I will be blessed!"
Maiko said from the side: "Although General, you did not follow the Supreme Emperor to fight, General, your father has always followed the Supreme Emperor. In the past, your father followed Liu Zhaosun to conquer the world, but now you have to follow Emperor Guangde to govern the world..."
Lin Zhenyu was a little displeased when he heard Maiko calling the Supreme Emperor by his name. He was even more furious when he heard what she said about following Emperor Guangde to govern the world.
"That's what Kang Jingxiu, Kang Guangxu and others did. I'm just a martial artist, but I don't have this ability."
Maiko knew that she had said the wrong thing and quickly changed the subject.
"Don't you Han people say that there are nine-headed birds in the sky and Huguang Lao on the ground? Why is it that everyone in the world is rebelling, but Huguang is the only one who is not rebelling?"
Lin Zhenyu wanted to correct her statement.
"Qin Jianxun has the final say whether Huguang is in chaos or not. Let's go, we are going to meet Da Qi's youngest corps commander."
Lin Zhenyu looked west at Yunyang, with the Yangtze River rolling eastward in front of him, thinking deeply. .
Dream of Wuyue
