Zhu Yijun looked at the bare hillside in front of him and the camp soldiers on the hillside who carried baskets instead of guns and sickles instead of guns. He couldn't help frowning at Tian Le and others and asked:
"Is this the soldier from Zheng Qi Camp?"
"Your Majesty, it should be that no one except Bing Yong would live here."
"However, even if the soldiers are brave, I think there should be a lot of people fleeing, otherwise there would not be such a small number of people."
Tian Le replied.
Zhu Yijun then looked at the small market town down the hillside and saw that there was only one shop open in the entire small market town, and now officers and soldiers were rushing towards that shop.
When the officers and soldiers rushed over, they naturally wanted to ransack the store.
Because this store is Dang Xin's grain store, it is already classified as reverse production.
When the officers and soldiers arrived, the price of food in this grain store had been marked at two taels of silver dollars per stone, which was nearly ten times higher than usual!
The more food is scarce in a place, the higher the price of food tends to be, especially for a food shop with such a background, which is obviously intended to suck out the bones of the camp soldiers.
"What do you want to do? Do you know who our boss is?"
Song Xinglong, the shopkeeper of this grain store, was not afraid when he saw the officers and soldiers appearing. He immediately summoned a group of thugs and started questioning them with guns and knives.
"Your boss, Dang Xin, has been ordered by His Majesty to seize his official title, destroy his ashes, and confiscate his family property first. He will then decide whether to return it based on whether the income is illegal or unfavorable."
"Now your store will also be confiscated. You must not resist the order, otherwise you will be killed without mercy!"
Wang Jun, the commander in charge of raiding this grain store, said in a deep voice.
Song Xinglong turned pale on the spot.
"Those who hold guns and swords should put down their guns and swords! Otherwise, they will be killed without mercy!"
Wang Jun then shouted again.
These thugs did not dare to resist and quickly put down their guns and knives.
Wang Jun then waved his hand and asked his officers and soldiers to collect these guns and knives, and then asked Song Xinglong: "Where did these guns and knives come from?"
"Bought from the camp soldiers."
Song Xinglong replied.
After hearing this, Wang Jun ordered: "Register the gun number."
"yes!"
Then, Wang Jun asked Song Xinglong: "What is the origin of these gun-wielding people?"
Song Xinglong replied: "He was originally a soldier in the camp, but now he has become our Dong Weng's servant."
"Why can they become Dang Xin's servants?"
Wang Jun asked again.
"They stuffed the younger one with money, or gave the younger one their girls and wives."
Song Xinglong replied.
After hearing this, Wang Jun ordered: "Record it on record! Capture all these people who are not soldiers of the imperial court but bribed to become private soldiers of the bureaucracy!"
"The imperial court won't pay us military wages, and our whole family won't have enough to eat. If we don't do this, what else can we do? If we don't rebel against the imperial court, it's a good thing! Why do you want to arrest us!"
At this time, the family members spoke loudly and unconvincedly.
"Although you have your own last resort, the state has national laws and the military has military regulations. Soldiers in the camp are not allowed to privately sell or rent the guns they are equipped with to others, and they are not allowed to concurrently hold other positions or even run other businesses without permission. This is stipulated by the imperial edict. Therefore, I must follow the order to arrest you!"
"If you dare to disobey, you will still be killed without mercy!"
At this time, Wang Jun continued to speak loudly.
The servants immediately fell silent.
Today's firearms in the Ming Dynasty can only be manufactured by factories under the Ordnance Bureau directly under the control of the central court. Each firearm manufactured has a number and is registered for every soldier sent to it.
Therefore, the Ming court can now trace back to which officer or soldier each firearm that suddenly appeared on the market was lost.
Now, Wang Jun will also have people number the collected firecrackers.
Next, the officers and soldiers led by Wang Jun ransacked the store and transported all the food.
Song Xinglong, who had limited knowledge, was not very sad when he saw this scene. He did not expect that an official as big as Dang Xin would be defeated.
"First use the plundered food to distribute food to the soldiers who are still in the camp!"
"Fortunately, the rebels from Ningxia in the north did not attack here. Otherwise, the soldiers in the camp would have been reduced to eating dirt and tree bark, so what kind of fighting power would they have? Even with the newly made big guns, they wouldn't be able to stop them. Hulu, if you don't turn around and follow the officers and soldiers to attack the imperial court, you can be considered conscientious."
After the grain store was raided, Zhu Yijun looked at the sallow-looking soldiers in Zheng Banner's camp and gave orders.
Tian Le here said yes.
And not for a long time.
The new guerrilla Zhang Zhirong gathered the remaining soldiers from the Zheng Banner Camp on the school grounds and lined up to receive food.
Zhu Yijun was sitting on the high platform in the school grounds watching this scene.
Tian Le personally announced the emperor's oral instructions to the soldiers who were receiving food. The content of the oral instructions was nothing more than that the emperor already knew their situation and told them that the culprit of all this was Dang Xin, and now the emperor has dealt with it. He personally came to replenish their food and salary, hoping that they would continue to be loyal to the emperor and serve the country, and not lose their ambition to make contributions.
The soldiers of Zheng Qiying, like the poor clans in Xi'an City in the past, all cried after receiving the food and salary, and even looked at Zhu Yijun with gratitude.
When a person has been squeezed too hard for too long, even restoring his legal rights and making up for the benefits he deserves seems to have become a gift to this person.
Why were ordinary soldiers and civilians of the Ming Dynasty so easily moved?
The reason is that they have been treated as cattle and horses for too long!
Even if the time span is extended to hundreds and thousands of years, the time when they were not regarded as human beings actually occupied most of the entire history of hundreds and thousands of years.
Therefore, they have become accustomed to being exploited and not treated as human beings.
When the ruler gives them a little favor, they think it is an unexpected favor, which is abnormal.
Even if the benefits that they deserve are suddenly given to them, they will even feel a little resistant and uncomfortable. They feel that the ruler suddenly treats them as human beings, and there must be a bigger intention.
On the contrary, if you don't treat them as human beings, they will feel comfortable and normal.
This is just like a person who has not been loved since childhood, but when he grows up, he is easily moved and is even afraid of others showing kindness to him.
Even if a person is not cared for, he will be more tolerant of other people's evil, and he will ask himself to be kinder and more tolerant.
Especially after experiencing too many situations where people are inferior to dogs in troubled times, the thinking of the entire Han nation will become that as long as anyone gives a peaceful world, they can even be dogs, and take the initiative to discipline everyone to be kind and kind. It’s better to toss.
"It's not like the Tatars are coming and want us to die, right?"
At this time.
A battalion soldier named Lu Liang couldn't help but ask his superior, Sentinel Luo Lang.
Luo Lang was also a little uneasy and said: "When we get the food back later, everyone will cook it immediately. Eat more and eat until we are full. This way, even if we are dragged down to fight the Tatars tomorrow, we don't have to be a soldier if we die in battle." Starving ghosts, at least they have had a full meal! Who makes our lives so cheap? Your Majesty knows that letting us have a full meal before letting us die is much more conscientious than those high-ranking officials who let us go to war hungry! "
That night.
When Zhu Yijun was staying at Zheng Qiying at night, he heard the sound of sharpening knives.
"What's going on? Is someone trying to cause trouble?"
Zhu Yijun therefore summoned Tian Le and asked.
Tian Le replied: "Your Majesty, don't worry. I have already inquired about it. There are many soldiers in the camp who think they are going to kill the Tatars, so they are preparing to sharpen their knives."
"Why do they think that?"
Zhu Yijun asked.
"Returning to His Majesty because they felt that Your Majesty suddenly would rather kill Governor Dang Xin than let them have enough to eat, just to let them die. Otherwise, they would not think of letting them have enough to eat and get money for their families."
Tian Le replied.
Zhu Yijun was silent for a long time after hearing this. After a while, he asked Tian Le: "Then tell them quickly, I have no intention of letting them kill any Tatars, and the Tatars are not that powerful. They will kill here. Tielinghou's army and Nanchang The emperor's personal army led by Hou is still blocking the front, and even if they kill the Tatars, it won't be their turn."
"I have asked Zhang Zhirong to convey it, but some soldiers still don't believe it. They only think that the imperial court is refusing to admit the truth in order to stabilize the morale of the soldiers. In their view, it must be bad for them to suddenly be so kind to them today."
Tian Le replied.
"Am I so badly thought of by them?!"
Zhu Yijun suddenly asked sharply.
"If you show kindness to your soldiers and people, you must have another purpose?"
Zhu Yijun then sneered again and asked.
"Your Majesty, calm down!"
"Three feet of ice is not frozen in a day. This kind of long-standing disadvantages that have lasted for hundreds of years cannot be completely corrected at once, and the image of the imperial court among the military and the people cannot be completely improved at once, especially with Dang Xin and Quan Xin." After the disaster caused by corrupt officials like Dingyue, the soldiers here are even more unaware that the court today is no longer the court of the past."
At this time, Tian Le held up his hands to comfort Zhu Yijun.
After hearing this, Zhu Yijun left Zheng Qiying the next day.
…
"Your Majesty is gone?"
"Fuyuan also left?"
"You don't plan on letting us go north to kill the Tatars?"
The next day, after learning that Emperor Zhu Yijun had left, the soldiers in Zheng Qi camp were very surprised and started talking about it.
Therefore, some officers from the camp came directly to ask the general Zhang Zhirong what was going on.
Zhang Zhirong said to these people: "I have said it a long time ago. His Majesty did not ask you to kill the Tatars before he would make up for your back pay, subsidize your food, and give you cotton winter clothes. He just wanted to express condolences to us, the frontier soldiers. You prefer If you don’t believe it, you must regard Your Majesty as one of those officials who are corrupt and pervert the law.”
Zhang Zhirong said this, and the fact that Yujia was really far away, slowly heading east on the official road in March with red flowers and green willows, the soldiers of Zheng Banner Camp of the Ming Dynasty really believed it and were really moved. , and they all became really happy.
Because although this matter is just to repay arrears and distribute some food, it essentially gives the camp soldiers a sense of respect as being treated as human beings.
Therefore, many soldiers in the camp were even more moved.
"Great, it turns out we are not going to die!"
"Your Majesty really takes us into your heart."
Some soldiers from the camp climbed up the hill in small groups, watching the emperor's departure in the direction with tears streaming down their faces.
Some even ran all the way, following at a distance, as if they wanted to take a closer look at the emperor.
(End of chapter)
