＆#160; ＆#160; ＆#160; ＆#160; ＆#160; "How late has the gentleman arrived!" Zhao Dangshi greeted him with a smile, his eyes signaled left and right, and Zhou Wenhe, who was responsible for attracting people into the room, understood, and immediately turned around and closed the door.

At that time, the night was thick, but the interior was brightly lit, as bright as day. Zuo Sili, who came belatedly, showed a little sneer, rubbed his hands and said: "The villain is afraid that his tone will be offensive during the day, which will make the adults dislike, and he was really worried before." ”

Zhao Dangshi sat down separately from him, and said with a smile: "Mr. has a difficulty, how can Zhao not know what he means." This matter has to praise Mr. Qian's wisdom, if it is not mentioned many times, with Zhao's foolishness, I am afraid it will be really difficult to understand. Now the idle people and others have all retreated, and only you and I are just talking. ”

Zuo Sili said ashamedly: "I knew that the adult was so beautiful, and the villain should be more calm." Shaking his head lightly as he spoke, "It seems that Zuo Shuai's words are true." At this time, there was no cover-up, and he took the lead in speaking.

Zhao Dangshi smiled and said: "Sure enough, Mr. is Zuo Shuai's own person." To tell the truth, Zhao has admired Zuo Shuai's divine rites for a long time, but he only hated the different ways of the officials and thieves, and it was difficult to see each other. Now that Mr. is here, he can quench my thirst. Then he asked, "But I don't know what Zuo Shuai said?" ”

Zuo Sili said: "Zuo Shuai once said that looking at today, there are only a handful of people who can be called heroes. The Ming Dynasty has seven points, and the remaining three points are scattered all over the world. ”

Zhao Dangshi frowned and said with a smile: "With the breadth of my Ming Dynasty and the prosperity of talents, I should have a bag of heroes in the world, how can I only occupy seven out of ten heroes in the world, what is the solution for daring to ask the other three?" ”

Zuo Sili replied: "Zuo Shuai himself is a first-class figure. Since he has this pattern, he will not be like those who sit in the well and watch the sky. Speaking of this, his voice shook and said, "In Zuo Shuai's high opinion, these three points, two points lie in Liukou, and one point lies outside the gate." Then he continued to add, "However, now the adults have abandoned the darkness and turned to the light, and you are the important general of my Celestial Empire, so when it comes to heroes and heroes, I can account for eight points, and one of them will be one for the rogue and the outside of the gate." ”

Zhao Dangshi thought for a moment and said: "Zhao is flattered to be able to get Zuo Shuai's blue eyes." However, since I have said this, let me guess who will win the remaining two points of the award. ”

Under Zuo Sili's smiling gaze, Zhao Dangshi said: "The point outside the pass, needless to say, must be the puppet emperor who is now a slave." Although he enjoyed the success of the old slave, since he took the throne, he conquered Mongolia, invaded Korea, unified all the tribes, and constantly expanded his territory and even had the momentum of fighting against my Ming Dynasty. ”

Zuo Sili said kindly: "Lord Zhao's vision is extraordinary, and the villain admires it. This point is indeed correct. ”

Zhao Dangshi guessed again: "Then another point, is it ...... Vice General Zhang, the Eight Kings of Xiying? He deliberately did not say Li Zicheng, firstly, he knew that Zuo Liangyu had more to do with Zhang Xianzhong, and secondly, the current situation of Li Zicheng in Shaanxi was not good, and I am afraid that in Zuo Liangyu's eyes, he was not qualified enough.

But Zuo Sili said: "My lord is wrong. The last point is not Deputy General Zhang, but Li Chuang. And explained, "Have you forgotten that Zhang Xianzhong returned to the imperial court with you and is no longer a rogue." Moreover, although he is known to be brave, he has been defeated repeatedly under my left hand, and he cannot be shortlisted at all. And Luo Rucai, Ma Shouying and others are even more insignificant, because Li Zicheng is the only one among the rogues, and he can be heroic in the eyes of Zuo Shuai. ”

Zhao Dangshi pondered: "The reason why Zhang Xianzhong was despised by Zuo Liangyu is probably because of the revenge of killing his brother at the beginning. But he can look at the overall situation and see that Huang Taiji and Li Zicheng have the qualifications to become people in the world, and he really has some vision. "Zuo Liangyu is illiterate, and he has no background in Xuanhe, and he can reach today's weather step by step, which has his own outstanding features. Only through a few short conversations with Zuo Sili, Zhao Dangshi was sure that Zuo Liangyu must be a person who saw the situation very clearly and was quite able to take advantage of the situation. Dealing with such people, in a sense, will be a lot easier.

Zuo Sili looked honest, but he was very talkative, Zhao Dangshi chatted with him for nearly half an hour, and he didn't feel tired. Later, as the exchange deepened, the content of the two gradually turned to the main topic.

The main topic is very simple, in less than half an hour, Zuo Sili made the beginning and the end clear.

It turns out that Zaoyang County is not only a transportation hub, but also rich in natural resources, and regardless of the vast area of plaster land in the county, the Qingshan and Loess Weir in the southwest of the county are both producing silver ore, and the output is considerable.

However, the focus of the main topic is not on these two silver mines, but on the deer head shop.

"These two pits have been depleted in recent years, and there is not much time to mine them. Who would have thought that just half a month ago, Dafu Mountain has newly unearthed a silver vein, saying that it contains a huge amount, if it is mined, the profit can be imagined! Zuo Sili's eyes were blazing, and he sighed, "I'm afraid that it is really Longxing who is shining and sheltering this county." "The deer head shop is leaning on Dafu Mountain in the east, and it is close to the silver vein in the mountain.

In this way, Zhao Dangshi understood the meaning of Zuo Sili, and nine times out of ten, Zuo Liangyu fell in love with this silver mine in Dafu Mountain and wanted to intervene to make some benefits.

In fact, the Ariake generation basically has a negative attitude towards the mining industry. Zhu Yuanzhang even said bluntly: "The disadvantages of silver mines are less beneficial to the officials and more harmful to the people, so they cannot be opened." Therefore, in the early days of the Ming Dynasty, the mining industries involving gold, silver, copper, and mercury were basically copied from the normal production of the previous generation, and private mining was strictly prohibited. After Hongwu, the ban began to be relaxed, for example, Yongle and Chenghua came to Huguang to "open up mines" during the years. When the scale was at its peak, in Wuling and other 12 counties, "21 sessions, 550,000 servants". Therefore, there is a precedent for the mining industry in Huguang. Nowadays, the law is abolished, and the interests are current, it is not surprising that Zuo Liangyu dares to violate the ban as a military attaché.

"Zuo Shuai, the pillar of the country, understands the righteousness, since the army, all he thinks in his heart is to seek the well-being of the people and share the sorrows and hardships of the court. However, the thieves are rampant, the rest of the officials are weak, and it is not easy for Zuo Shuai to support half of the sky of my Ming Dynasty by himself. As the saying goes, 'it is difficult for a good woman to cook without rice', to continue to protect the peace of my Ming land, you can't do without Zuo Shuai, and Zuo Shuai can't be driven by money and food to serve with soldiers. Therefore, the villain was sent to the deer head store to make plans for the Dafushan silver mine. Zuo Sili gushed, it seemed that in his heart, the world of the Ming Dynasty was all against Zuo Liangyu's shoulders, he saw Zhao Dangshi nodding his head, his heart was satisfied, and he said, "However, Zuo Shuai's impatience for justice and righteousness, and the urgency of the Zhou people are well known to the world, and now your camp must be in urgent need of military resources at the beginning, and he respects the adults as people, so he also put himself in the shoes of your camp." Therefore, it is my intention to divide the output of this silver mine with your camp. Gain the benefits of the military, and join hands to help my country. At the end, he added, "If you are a different person and you don't get the favor of his old man, you will never get this care." ”

Zhao Dangshi thought while listening: "This Zuo Sili said it well, but it was just that Zuo Liangyu was worried about the benefits of my entry into Lutoudian and the monopoly of the Dafushan silver mine, so he sent this Zuo Sili to wake up." However, thinking of this, he couldn't help but touch one thing that he had been thinking about for the past few days. For this matter, he has negotiated with Chang Zeyu, Hou Dagui and other battalions of Chinese martial arts no less than ten times, but he has not yet been able to make a decision. Zuo Sili is here, and there is a coincidence.

This matter, in the final analysis, boils down to one word - money.

In the past, when Zhao Ying was still a Kou, although Zhao Dangshi was often trapped by the problem of money and food, but generally speaking, at that time, the army was in a state of constant flow, and the shortage of military money and food was actually relatively easy to solve. It is nothing more than plundering or temporarily reducing the cost of living of soldiers, the simplest open source means. In extraordinary seasons, the whole camp is often mentally prepared for difficulties, so every time they encounter difficulties, they can grit their teeth and get through, but such a situation, with the return of Zhao Ying to the imperial court, has gained temporary stability and no longer exists.

The money and grain envoy Wang Laixing and the internal affairs envoy He Kewei once gave Zhao Dangshi a detailed account.

First of all, at this time, regardless of those rogues who live in fear all day long, full of hunger, the average salary level of ordinary field officers and soldiers in the Ming Court can be regarded as three cents of Japanese silver plus one liter of Japanese rice and five hehe, and if it is a horse army, it is necessary to add two cents of Japanese silver, a bunch of daily grass, three liters of daily beans, and so on.

After Zhao Dangshi accepted Zhao'an, he said that he would "share the wealth and nobility of the whole army", and promised to first treat the soldiers on an equal footing with the officers and soldiers, so he made a military order and wrote down the military salaries in black and white to reassure the army. Specifically, each ordinary soldier is given two cents of silver per day and two liters of rice per day, and the rice is paid on a daily basis and the silver is paid on a monthly basis. As long as such conditions can be persistently realized, they are actually much better than those of the officers and men of Shaanxi and Henan, who are often confronted with arrears of pay and food.

The reason why he wants to do this is that Zhao Dangshi is also taking precautions. Huguang has a variety of forces, just look at the officials and soldiers, on the surface they are happy and peaceful, but in fact, they have never stopped attacking each other and prying each other's feet in private. If the treatment is far from that of other battalion heads, the cohesion of the army can be imagined. Moreover, they have lost the means of encouragement to confront the officers and soldiers and plunder and slaughter the city, and once the soldiers are exhausted under difficult conditions, the morale of the army is easily shaken, and if they want to revive the plummeting disappointment, they will inevitably pay a great price. Another point is that Zhao Dangshi is sympathetic to the soldiers, he believes that eating well is the most basic right that the soldiers and generals should enjoy, if the commander can't even solve the problem of food and clothing for the whole battalion, then he is not worthy of commanding the army and the generals, and he is not qualified to hope for victory on the battlefield. In short, he Zhao Dangshi can be wronged, and the soldiers of Zhao Ying "cannot be wronged".

The Zhao battalion currently has three armies and one battalion, with a total of more than 10,000 people, and nearly 1,500 Ma troops. Even if these people were all counted as the most basic infantry, and all the rice, beans, etc. were converted into money, the Zhao battalion would have to pay nearly 20,000 taels of silver for these 12,000 men every month, and the military expenditure would fluctuate around 250,000 taels in turn over the course of a year, plus other miscellaneous expenses.

Zhao Dangshi also questioned the accuracy of this estimate, He Kewei took out the books and showed them to him one by one, and he accepted the reality.

As mentioned above, once the troops are recruited and stabilized, they will lose the most direct source of income, plundering, which is the most direct source of income. Zhao Dangshi personally felt that it was not easy to come up with 250,000 taels of money a year out of thin air!

The problem of money existed widely in the Ming Dynasty, in Liukou and even outside the Guan. those who have means, such as Zhang Xianzhong and Zuo Liangyu, subsidize the military through various channels; If there is no means, then it can only be called by heaven and earth and nothing to do, and even in the end, the soldiers mutinied, the battalion was destroyed, and the army was dispersed.

In addition, according to Wang Laixing's confession with He Kewei, there are still 15,000 stones of grain and grass and 5,800 taels of money in the camp, and no matter how much you tighten your belt, it will only be enough to support the whole battalion for two months at most.

Zhao Dangshi was worried because of this.

Solving the problem of money and food has become Zhao Ying's top priority at this stage.

After several meetings, the middle and high-level leaders of the battalion basically reached a consensus, believing that in order to solve this urgent need, all we need to rely on is the four-character mantra of "opening up sources and reducing expenditure."

Let's talk about "throttling" first, after fierce discussions among various factions in the battalion, Zhao Dangshi finally came to the conclusion that 12,000 people is by no means the number of standing troops that Zhao Battalion can afford now. Just look at Zuo Liangyu, who has such a wide range of financial resources, and there are only about 5,000 people in his hands, just like Hou Liangzhu, the chief soldier of Sichuan, who controlled almost all the Sichuan-Shaanxi roads, and there were no more than 5,000 soldiers. Of course, on the one hand, this is because of the fear that too many people will arouse the suspicion of the imperial court, and on the other hand, it is really tired of the burden of raising troops and the pressure of training.

According to the plan, the Zhao battalion will gradually reduce the field strength to 5,000 to 6,000 in the next few months, and the quota arrangements will be 2,500 for the Wuqi Army, 1,500 for the Xiaojie Army, 1,000 for the Qihun Army, and 500 for the Feijie Battalion.

"I wanted to be recruited, so that I could live a free life, but I didn't think that when I became an official, there were fewer soldiers and horses under my hands." Guo Ruke already had an opinion on Zhao'an, but now he was even more dissatisfied, and he complained in private.

His thoughts were not isolated, the fewer soldiers he brought, and some of the generals in the battalion felt depressed.

If he is not in his position and does not seek his own politics, Zhao Dangshi's views are different from theirs. He has always been a staunch supporter of the elite line, and the occasional joint venture or expansion can only be seen as a stopgap measure. Raising a huge army is a great challenge to logistics and drills, Zhao Dangshi is very sober-headed, and the method of coercing ants and plundering can be made by rogues, and it is impossible to settle down.

He gave an example to Guo Ruke and others, saying what would happen if 100,000 pigs were raised in the camp for fighting? As a result, we naturally have to face the undoubted rout on the battlefield and bear the huge pressure of money and food. Guo Ruke and the others were thoughtful, and listened to his bitter words, but he was not a person who did not know the matter, and those unangry words were all taken back. According to what they thought, how many years of sharing weal and sorrow have been with Zhao Ying, and it is not bad at this time. If the soldiers are gone, they can be recruited again if they become bigger and stronger, if Zhao Yingzhen is dragged down, everything will be useless.

Let's talk about "open source". To Zhao Dangshi's surprise, at this point, He Kewei already had a plan in his chest. He is in charge of the military resources in the battalion, and involves many aspects such as money, food, and personnel in the battalion, and he thinks the most about logistics, and no one in the battalion can stand out from the rest of the battalion in his opinion on this area.

He listed four strategies for Zhao Dangshi to raise military funds.

First, Tuntian. In fact, this can't be completely regarded as what he proposed, since ancient times, Tuntian has been a good deed for the benefit of the army and the people. In the Western Han Dynasty, Chao Cuo and Zhao Chongguo both proposed the measures of migranting people to the real border and taking care of the cultivation; Cao Cao of the Eastern Han Dynasty also gave the army Tuntian under the advice of Zao You, Han Hao and others, and in the first year, he "got a million Hu", and he had no worries; Zhu Yuanzhang, Taizu of the Ming Dynasty, vigorously promoted the Tuntian of the Wei Institute, the so-called "living with the army and the people", and his people proudly said that "I raise millions of soldiers, and it does not cost the people a grain of corn".

Looking back at Zhao Ying itself, since the imperial court accepted Zhao'an's request, it was not just a superficial matter, it was more or less kind, and gave some practical benefits. Among them is the best land to the west of Lutoudian in Zaoyang County. Zaoyang has experienced many years of war, and the people have fled and died, so there are many ownerless wastelands in the county that are not cultivated by people. According to the edict, there are 200 hectares of land allocated to Zhao Ying for self-sufficiency, but He Kewei has conducted an on-the-spot investigation and estimates that the real area is about 150 hectares.

There is more dry farming in the north and more rice in the south. In the Taihu Lake Basin, which has the highest yield per mu in the next season, the fields can reach maturity and harvest more than four or five stones in one season. Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Sichuan have an average yield of three or four stones per mu, while Huguang is known as a heavy land for fish and rice, especially when the southeast gradually turns to cotton, hemp and other cash crops, its local grain production has developed greatly. He Kewei is cautious, and conservatively estimates that the worst yield potential per mu of Zhao Ying is also in Sanshi. According to the current situation of two crops a year in Huguang and the main spring in autumn, it is estimated that autumn cropping is regarded as three stones, so the spring crop yield is half of it, and after comprehensive calculation, one mu can have more than four stones of harvest per year. The 150 hectares of Zhao Ying can produce a total of 120,000 stone of rice every year.

As for the labor force involved in the tuntian, the preliminary plan was that the troops to be dismantled would not be dismissed, and as the main force of the tuntian soldiers, and the soldiers of the Zhao battalion also cultivated part-time in addition to daily training, so that the labor force was more than enough and there was no need to worry. In addition to 120,000 stone for military supplies and stored as seeds, there is still a surplus, which can be exported. This tuntian alone is enough to support the rice and grain needs of the Zhao camp.

However, how can he be fearful and shrewd, according to what he thinks, Zaoyang has a lot of available land, and it is unreasonable for the huge Zhao Ying to have only one hundred and fifty hectares, and he proposed to Zhao Dangshi to negotiate with Zaoyang County, at least to ask for another one hundred and fifty hectares of good land. Zhao Dangshi has no suitable reason for this matter, so he will not mention it for the time being.

Second, set up a card. The traffic status of Zaoyang County is self-evident, even in the war season, the merchants and pedestrians from Henan, Huguang, Shaanxi and other places are still endless. Since Zhao Ying is stationed at the throat of Lutoudian, there is no reason not to get a piece of the toll from the toll, and besides, how can he be afraid that Pang Jinming has visited, and there are seven or eight checkpoints set up by the Inspection Department on all sides of Lutoudian. With the mountain of Zhao Ying pressed on it, Su Zhao will inevitably make concessions.

In this regard, He Kejing's expectation is to give a guaranteed figure of 50 taels per month, which is 1,500 taels per year, and then adjust it according to the specific situation in the future. Although the number is not much, no matter how small the flies are, they are still meat, and it is not a bad thing to have an entry.

Third, silver mines. However, because he didn't know the silver veins of Dafu Mountain before, He Kewei's idea was to mix as much as possible from the two existing silver mines in Zaoyang County.

However, now that there is Dafu Mountain, it needs to be a different matter. Overall, the Ming Dynasty followed the previous dynasty has matured the soot blowing method to extract silver, the efficiency is not high, the Yuan Dynasty has Duanzhou Mengshan Field, the annual output of 35,000 taels of silver is the top of the country, and the Ming court does not attach importance to mining, so that the total national silver production in the four years of Tianshun is only 180,000 taels. It can be inferred from this that no matter how much Zuo Sili blows the sky, the silver output of Dafu Mountain will not be high enough to support Zhao Ying to do whatever he wants.

Fourth, merchants. This mainly refers to Kong Qingnian in Yankou Town, Sichuan. At the beginning, Zhao Ying assisted Kong Qingnian to destroy several other competitors, and with this opportunity, Kong Qingnian must go all out during this vacuum period to spread the Kong family's business as much as possible. Zhao Dangshi doesn't plan to look for him at this stage, after all, the other party is also "waiting to be revived", so he has to leave some time for him to develop and rectify. However, in the future, the plan is to basically use the Confucian family as a transit to obtain rice, firearms and other military materials from Sichuan and Yunnan. The cheapness of Yunnan rice can be seen from Xu Hongzu's words, "The price of rice in its land is quite cheap, and twenty Wen can satisfy three or four people"; And in central Yunnan, there are also cross-guns are very famous, and the southwest wolf soldiers are good at using cross-guns, "good at birds, and do not lose one in a hundred shots", which is also an optional source of supplementing Zhao Ying's firearms.

Although Kong Qingnian's young daughter Kong Xin was hostage in the camp, Zhao Dangshi did not intend to use this as a threat to become a bloodsucking moth of the Kong family. After all, mutual benefit and reciprocity can only develop for a long time, and fishing with all their might, not only consumed the Kong family, but also affected Zhao Ying in the end. Zhao Dangshi and He Kejing thought that they could take advantage of Zhao Ying's stationing in the hinterland of the Central Plains to become the distributors of the Confucian family in the middle and lower reaches of the river, so that Zhao Ying could not only make a profit, but also feed back to the Confucian family, forming a win-win situation.

In addition, Zhao Hudao and Du Chunchen, who went to the southeast, have no news and will not consider it for the time being.

Open source: Tuntian, set cards, silver mines, merchants; Throttling: Separation of soldiers and tuntian soldiers. These are the results of days of terrible exhaustion.

It is fair to say that apart from him, there is indeed no one in the battalion who can focus on the reality of Zhao Ying's camp and put forward such a constructive proposal. Chang Zeyu, Mu Gongchun and others are certainly talented, but they specialize in the art industry, and when it comes to logistics, they are still inferior and fearful. Zhao Dangshi didn't realize until this moment that he suddenly realized that he was so fearful that he couldn't look down on him at the beginning, he really had a real talent and real learning, if he hadn't made plans behind Zhao Ying's scenes, it was hard to imagine what Zhao Ying's situation would be like with only Zhao Dangshi and some laymen. Further, Zhao Dangshi admitted that He Kewei had become an indispensable part of the camp like Chang Zeyu, Hou Dagui and others.