In the evening, Zhao Mengqi accompanied Qian Duo and sent her best friends out of the house.
It's not that they don't even want to host a dinner, but because Prince Yan's Mansion is outside the city, these young ladies have to return to Lin'an City before the city gate is locked.
When saying goodbye, Xie Yunqiao and Hu Zhen looked at Zhao Mengqi with eyes full of resentment and unwillingness.
But Zhao Mengqi seemed unaware, and just maintained the courtesy and smile that a host should have, "If you don't entertain me well, I hope you ladies will be considerate."
Seeing his indifferent look, Liu Huan couldn't help but get a little angry. He stamped his feet, twisted around and walked towards the bullock cart, "Let's go, let's go!"
Sighing in their hearts, the ladies squatted and said goodbye, one after another getting on the bullock cart.
Wanwan, who was silent behind, walked to the side of the car and was about to get on the car. She couldn't hold it back. She looked back at Zhao Mengqi. There seemed to be a thousand words in her eyes, but in the end they just turned into a slight squat.
The driver waved his whip and made a crisp sound. The two old oxen side by side stepped up their hooves and pulled the wide oxcart on the road.
In the carriage, it had been dull for a long time, but the young women's eyes always glanced at Wanwan from time to time, with jealousy and defensiveness, wanting to question, but had no position.
Finally, it was Xie Yunqiao who broke the stalemate, "Sister Wanwan, after you return to your hometown, when will you come back?"
Obviously several other people were also concerned about this issue, and their ears immediately pricked up.
How could Wanwan not understand the thoughts of these young ladies from noble families? She felt that there was no need for them to misunderstand, so she shook her head and said, "I will never leave Wujiang this time."
"Ah? Why?" Liu Huan was a little confused.
"My late father had a life-and-death friend named Liu, who was a descendant of a wealthy Wujiang family. When they were young, they joined the army and became brothers. Later, not long after I was born, my late father made a marriage agreement with Liu Shibo. It was finalized. Next month, I will be married. When you turn sixteen, it’s time to make an appointment to give a big gift..."
Wanwan explained calmly, without joy or sadness, as if she was talking about someone else's affairs.
…
Zhao Mengqi didn't think too much about Wanwan's return to his hometown. His subconscious was still the thinking of later generations, and it was just a return to his hometown.
But they forget that in this era, cars and horses are very slow, letters are far away, and 'departure in life' and 'farewell in death' are actually not much different. Not only is it difficult to see each other, but there is even no news at all.
After resting for half a day that day, he started to be busy again the next day.
The most important thing is to recruit troops. If you want to make changes to the Song Dynasty, without an absolute force in your hands, everything will be just a fantasy.
Speaking of which, the Song Dynasty had more than 600,000 troops on its books at this time, mainly composed of the Forbidden Army, the garrison army, the Xiang Army, the Tu Army, and the archers. The Forbidden Army was divided into the three government-directed armies and the state-controlled Forbidden Army.
There were initially five armies stationed in the camp, led by Han Shizhong, Liu Guangshi, Zhang Jun, Wu Jie and Yue Fei. At that time, they were the absolute main force against the Jin Kingdom.
After the situation stabilized, Zhao Jiumei and the ministers of the DPRK were naturally unwilling to lose military power. After a series of reorganizations and reorganizations, they finally formed ten garrison troops along the border and 13 main troops directly under the three yamen, with a total of almost 200,000 people. about.
These thirteen armies are the only ones that can really fight. The rest of the states are either general or non-commissioned armies. They are basically equivalent to miscellaneous troops. Most of them are privately occupied by officials and are responsible for various tasks. They can occasionally suppress bandits and civilians. To rebel and maintain local stability is almost as important as the Xiang army.
This is too complicated and cannot be clarified in a few sentences, but if Zhao Mengqi wants to make changes to the entire military system, the best way is to first establish a model for a new army in the name of the Royal Guards. After the experiment is mature, then to convert other troops.
Therefore, he had to recruit 5,000 people as soon as he took action, which frightened the civil and military forces of the entire court. You must know that the total garrison in Lin'an nominally numbered 100,000, but due to frequent transfers and shortages, the actual number was only about 70,000.
After it became clear that the recruitment requirement was between fourteen and sixteen years old, the ministers were relieved a little. They thought that these were just half-grown children and it was impossible to develop combat capabilities in a short period of time.
Recently, people from the Imperial City Department have frequently been in and out of various temples, constantly transporting the accumulated money to Prince Yan's Mansion. Therefore, some ministers thought that Prince Yan had too much money and was looking for playmates.
Although he had almost more than 20 million guan in hand, the military salary Zhao Mengqi gave when recruiting troops was not as outrageous as recruiting workers. It was mainly to prevent dissatisfaction from other armies.
The Song Dynasty implemented a recruitment system. Being a soldier was a lifelong occupation, and military pay was the highest in history. However, the payment of the salary was very complicated, including currency, cloth, ready-made clothes, corn, as well as rewards and military merits.
To sum up, the money spent on an elite soldier in the early and middle stages of the Song Dynasty was about forty or fifty thousand dollars a year. However, the price of rice at this time was almost twice as high as before, so now a soldier in the main army spent one thousand dollars a year. Bai Lai Guan.
Therefore, Zhao Mengqi added a little bit based on this base number and settled on, "The official salary is six guans, the rest of the food and clothing expenses will be fully covered by the army, and the rewards and military merits will not be lower than those of other armies."
This income is not very attractive to ordinary citizens of Lin'an. After all, the average monthly expenditure per person is only five or six dollars.
But for the refugees and poor people, it was like pie in the sky, especially the half-grown ones who had not yet grown up, but had an amazing appetite. If they were thrown into the army of King Yan, they would not only have enough to eat, but also provide a lot of subsidies for their families.
More importantly, King Yan set a rule that after serving for fifteen years, he could retire freely.
So outside the military camp where King Yan's guards were located, there were crowds of applicants.
P. I have a cold. There is only one chapter today. Alas, I have lost all my attendance. I am crying...
