On the sea surface in early winter, the waves blown by the strong northwest wind are like mountains, and the air is full of the smell of damp sea.

Taking advantage of the good wind of this night, Li Huamei's Aomei led more than ten gunboats of all sizes and could already see Ningyuan City in the distance with the naked eye.

From Ningyuan City to the dock on the sea outside the city, it was densely packed with people. All kinds of large and small ships on the sea are constantly shuttling back and forth, the busy crowd on the wharf is like ants, and the sound of all kinds of work is like a tide, carrying all kinds of mountain-like goods unloaded from various ships from the south into the stacks, and people shouting and neighing, shouting and shouting can be faintly heard dozens of miles away.

Ning Yuan, because of the task of supplying and transporting the Liaodong army, has become very prosperous.

Originally, the Liaodong military town was a black hole that consumed the largest grain and salary of the Ming Dynasty, and now there is a superintendent Hong Chengchou leading more than 100,000 horses, eight or nine general soldiers to fight here, and the natural food and material transfer makes a very heavy task, for this reason, Qiu Minyang, the governor of Liaodong, deliberately sat in Ningyuan, and never went north with the superintendent Hong Chengchou.

The defense of the Ming Dynasty, since Chengzu Zhu Di moved the capital to Beijing and was known as the Son of Heaven guarding the country, has focused on the nine sides. Among the nine sides, the supply of Liaodong Military Town is the most abundant. With the emergence of the self-respecting consequences of the previous Ning Yuanbo Li Chengliang's self-respect, the original evenly distributed more than 2.8 million taels of silver in each town began to gradually tilt towards Liaodong.

From Sun Chengzong, Xiong Wencan, Yuan Chonghuan to today's Hong Chengchou, the food and salary expenditure of Liaodong Military Town has become the largest part of the Ming Dynasty's military expenditure. Although it is said that the army and the city are getting smaller and smaller, the share of food and salary is not as good as when Inspector Yuan was there. The household department can only give money and grain according to his requirements, so that his Yuan family quickly changed from a dick to a local tyrant in Guangdong, but even now, the Liaodong military town from Shanhaiguan to Jinzhou is still nearly five million taels a year, and the rest of the towns are generally only a few hundred thousand taels. And Lu Xiangsheng, who Li Huamei is familiar with, has to develop Tuntian in the Xuanda area in order to be able to support himself.

And on the income of the Ming Dynasty, the middle of Wanli. The imperial court has summer grain and autumn grain every year. There are about 26 million stones, of which the Taicang silver treasury of the household department collects about 3.6 million taels of cash every year, and the military expenditure is the surplus. There is already a deficit every year. Liaodong war together. Finances are even more struggling to make ends meet.

Three salaries and factions, from the forty-sixth year of Wanli to the present, in these years. A total of about 20 million taels of silver was collected, but in the past few years, the annual military expenditure has reached more than 8 million taels, and with the surplus expenditure, it is still unable to make ends meet, and the salary is a heavy burden.

Not counting the Xuan armies of Yang Guozhu and Wang Pu, the Guanning army in Liaodong Town, Shanhai Town and other places alone has as many as 120,000 soldiers and horses. Based on one stone of grain per soldier per month, two million stone of grain is needed a year, and the cost of horses is even more, and those who think that war horses can be fed as long as they eat grass can rest. In addition to the life of men and horses, there are also armor, weapons, gunpowder, city repairs and other expenses, in fact, today's military salaries are far from enough, and the soldiers are in arrears every year, not to mention, they have to reduce military expenditures.

However, if you want to propose to shrink the defense line to cut expenses, you will immediately face the joint opposition of the Korean Chinese military minister, "The size of the ancestral land cannot be abandoned!" "Those who dare to say no land should be served by the law of the land!"

However, when the ministers said this, they must not have carefully looked at the changes in the territory of the previous emperors during their reigns or the actual control area. Starting from the territory left by Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di's father and son, Hamiwei, Nuer Gandusi, Sanxuan Liuwei, and the Hetao area suddenly shrank the actual control area from Turpan to Jiayuguan, and from the Outer Xing'an Mountains to Shanhaiguan, and handed over the Hetao area, which was both an agricultural and animal husbandry area, and the Yellow River, which was only rich and harmful, to the Mongols, making the Xuanda area, which was originally the hinterland, become a border defense line. It even moved the Tielingwei capital from the Han River basin to the north of the Yalu River and turned it into a big city.

This is the so-called Son of Heaven guarding the country and not cutting the land. He has never ceded the land, but directly retreated by himself and gave up the land. It is said that there were only two very mediocre emperors recorded in the literati during his reign, one was the prodigal Emperor Zhengde, who liked to wander around and play with his wife; The other is his cousin, Emperor Jiajing, who is even more perverted to the point that alchemy and eating geranium almost strangled him to death. And it was precisely during the reign of these two unprincipled and mediocre emperors that there was no loss in the actual control of the Ming Dynasty.

Of course, the greatest advantage of civil servants is that they are always selectively blind, and they always speak with a high-sounding sense and a strict sense of righteousness, occupying the moral high ground. (Oh, this trait seems to have been passed down well, and some people sacrifice this family heirloom when they point fingers.) ）

When talking about the importance of the Guanning defense line, they all quoted scriptures, lest the emperor listen to the slander of the traitorous ministers and give up the land outside the Guan.

But in fact, Liaojiao is a very large interest group, how many people benefit from it? It was Zhang Juzheng, the first assistant of the cabinet that year, who also received countless benefits from Qi Jiguang, the chief soldier of Jizhen! At present, the cabinet members and officials of the six ministries, Han Zhan Kedao, when it comes to greed and luxury, are as good as Zhang Juzheng. But is there one person who has the same talent as Gangneung Xiangguo back then?

Cutting off people's money, such as killing people's parents, taking people's money and eliminating disasters with others. Officials at all levels deeply understood this, so when they held the silver sent by the Liaodong Military Town in their waists, they did not propose to reduce the salary of the Liaodong Army.

Therefore, there is Wu Xiang's right play to Chongzhen, "There are 80,000 soldiers according to the book, and in fact, there are more than 30,000 people, and a few grains are not enough to support a soldier." This is a common disadvantage on all sides, and it does not start with the door closed. ”

And among these 30,000 people, there are only 3,000 families who can really fight and have combat effectiveness!

That is to say, when he asked for military salaries, he said that he had eight divisions under his command, and when he needed to send troops, he became three divisions, and these three divisions were once again greatly discounted and turned into a reinforced regiment. It is equivalent to Chongzhen spending money and food to raise an army of 80,000 and 3,000 platoon commanders. These cattle people ate fine sheep wine, wore silk and satin, and each of them had hundreds of acres of land in their homes, claiming to be able to deal with Li Zicheng's army of millions.

Wu Xiang. It is equivalent to having 3,000 Devil Terminators under his command.

However, now this genius leader is being raised in Jingshi, because he has a good son.

Li Huamei's fleet entered the waters of the wharf outside Ningyuan City, which immediately made the people on the wharf cheer. Now that this fleet has come to the sea, covering most of the port, at least Ningyuan City can ensure that there is no worries.

Qiu Minyang, the governor of Liaodong stationed in Ningyuan City, and Wu Sangui, the actual ruler of Ningyuan City, couldn't help but be overjoyed when they heard that reinforcements had arrived from outside the city. I also heard that the banner of the comer showed that it was the Nanyue Army under the command of Ning Yuanbo, and I was even more overjoyed!

"Quick! Take the robes of the officials! This official is going to the dock to meet Ning Yuanbo's army! Qiu Minyang was overjoyed and ordered his subordinates.

"Your Excellency. It is reported that the person who came was not the person who came to the aid of President Ning Yuanbo himself. It was Ning Yuanbo's eldest lady, and Miss Li Huamei, who was canonized by the emperor as the lord of Ha Jing, was. ”

"Oh? But isn't Ning Yuanbo himself here? ”

"Yes! According to the Jingshi and the reinforcement army, Ning Yuanbo was ordered by the Holy Decree and led the army and horses to Shandong to suppress the thieves. Miss Li took people to Liaodong to make a front stop first. to calm the morale of the army. ”

"Whew! If it is to help the president Ning Yuanbo to come here. The official should go to the dock to greet him as a courtesy. Now it's just the county lord here, not to mention the difference between men and women. How should I salute in terms of the number of rituals in the court system alone? ”

"Your Excellency is right. When the canonization was made that day, the Ministry of Rites was quite annoying, saying that Uncle Ning Yuan was just an earl, how could his daughter be named the county lord? At most one county lord. It's a pity that he couldn't resist His Majesty, and he still made the county lord. At this point, there were rumors among the Jingshi, saying that the eunuchs in the palace discussed that once Lord Li pacified the Dongnu and Liukou, he would be crowned as a duke, and even follow the example of the Duke Mu of Qianguo and canonized as a king, and it was also possible in the south of Shizhen. ”

"Humph! The country is in an eventful season, and this famous knighthood has become indiscriminate! Regarding the empty check issued by Emperor Chongzhen for the sake of the country's prosperity, Qiu Minyang said that he was very unimpressed.

"My lord, shall we go and greet you?"

"Anyway, this Li Huamei is Ning Yuanbo's eldest daughter, although it is quite inappropriate for a woman to show her face, but she is also diligent in the king's affairs. That's it! After she lands on the shore, the official waits for her to participate in the yamen, and then greets her at the second gate! ”

The governor's attitude towards Li Huamei's arrival soon spread rapidly among the yamen in Ningyuan City. The news reached the Ningyuan General Army's mansion, and Wu Sangui couldn't help but raise his big fingers and praise after hearing it: "What a Governor Qiu!" What a reading person's bones! ”

After complimenting, Wu Sangui turned his head to the cronies who were waiting beside him.

"Pack up and get ready to go to the dock to greet Lord Ning Yuanbo!"

"Dashuai, what kind of specifications do you greet?"

"It is to greet the angels with the etiquette of honor! When the order goes down, all the barracks, merchants, and government offices must put up lanterns and arrange gongs and drums, dragon lanterns, lions and other things to worship and dance along the street! Firecrackers are set off everywhere to show a warm welcome. ”

In the sound of gongs, drums, and firecrackers that resounded through the sky, Wu Sangui, the chief soldier of Ningyuan, personally led hundreds of family members to the dock to stand on guard, and led his subordinate generals and officials to kneel down at the anchorage of the Aomei, and loudly reported his official rank and resume, which was completely a posture of paying homage to the officials as a subordinate courtesy.

This ruler of Ningyuan City has such an attitude, and the rest of the officials are even more similar. On the road where Li Huamei led the army into the city, officials kept kneeling in front of their horses and handing over their notebooks, loudly reporting their official rank resumes.

"Hey! This group of monkey cubs is quite enlightened today! It's not like when I treated our family, and I have the virtue of nostrils facing the sky!? ”

The eunuchs sent to supervise the military rations in Ningyuan reined in their horses' heads with a smug expression.

Whether it is the eunuchs themselves, or the civil officials and scholars in various places, they have long classified the Nanyue Army as the so-called eunuch party.

"County Lord, please rest assured. There are hundreds of thousands of stone grains piled up in Ningyuan and other places, and there are also weapons and gunpowder that are enough for tens of thousands of troops to fight for months. These things are in our family's hands, as long as the mother gives an order, the county lord will use as much as she wants! ”

Since it is a family, then the eunuchs will not say anything else. Anyway, these things originally belonged to your Li family, and the emperor was so favored, why didn't our family take this opportunity to talk to you, the eldest lady of the Li family?

Besides, that Second Master Li in Ningyuan City. But it has already given us countless benefits, what is this food and salary thing?

However, this attitude of rushing to curry favor inadvertently made Wu Sangui, who followed Li Huamei in the footsteps, quite a little appreciative.

Hong Chengchou led more than 100,000 troops and horses to be surrounded by Huang Taiji in Guangning, and the Ming army in Liaodong was divided into four parts: Guangning (Hong Chengchou), Jinzhou (Zu Dashou), Songshan (Wu Biao), and Ningyuan (Wu Sangui). In fact, since he learned the news that Hong Chengchou was surrounded on the way from Jinzhou to Guangning to escort grain and grass, Wu Sangui began his journey of making a fortune and picking up foreign land.

A large number of Ming troops wandering in the wilderness were straggled, and the small Ming army that was defeated was accepted by him. and they used food as bait. Attract those Ming troops who stayed along the way to accept his command. After sheltering nearly 7,000 people, Wu Sangui decisively turned around and went south, handing over all the 20,000 stone grains and grass and more than 1,000 barrels of gunpowder that should have been handed over to Inspector Hong to his uncle Zu Dashou. Then he didn't even enter Jinzhou City, so he quickly went south to Ningyuan. took away hundreds of families under Zu Dashou.

Now. He had nearly 30,000 horses in the Ningyuan area. In addition to the stragglers who were deceived by him into eating small fish. There are also soldiers and horses from various towns that were originally left behind in Ningyuan City. If it weren't for Qiu Minyang's face, his Fubiao battalion would have been taken away by General Wu in the name of unified command and dispatch, and then there would be no scum left.

No food, no troops. The mountain-like grain, grass, armor, gunpowder, and military salaries piled up in the large and small warehouses inside and outside Ningyuan City. It has long been regarded by him as a thing in his bag and food in his mouth. didn't want Li Huamei to come, but let the cooked duck fly.

However, being able to maneuver between eunuchs, supervisors, nobles, and courtiers in the chaotic times of the late Ming Dynasty with ease, how could Wu Sangui's mind be comparable to that of a miser?

That night, there was jubilation in Ningyuan City.

Dozens of tables were arranged in the palace of the general army to feast on the generals of the Nanyue army and above. Even the soldiers of the land and water armies stationed inside and outside the city also have their own wine and meat.

"The last general has ordered people to go to Songshan along the way, and inform them of the news that the county lord has led the forward of the Nanyue army here, and when I hear that the county lord is here, the uncle will arrive in a few days, and all the armies in Liaodong are full of morale and jubilation."

"That's nature! My Nanyue Army is here, and the Jianzhou thieves are just a group of clowns who jump off the beam, such as selling Seoul with a bid! ”

Although Li Huamei did not speak, from Shi Lang, Mo Yu to Li Peiting, who appeared at the banquet in the name of the Nanyue Army Grain and Taiwan Officer, there was such a look on his face.

"Mr. Wu, I don't know what the current situation is like for the enemy and me? Our army has arrived here for the first time today, and we still need more guidance from the general. ”

Although she is full of confidence in the combat effectiveness of her troops, Li Huamei still adheres to her father's teachings, and when she first arrives in a foreign place, she must be clear about the so-called five elements, such as the enemy's situation, my feelings, the terrain, and so on.

"The five elements are uncertain, and you will lose cleanly!"

Wu Sangui ordered dozens of lights to illuminate the lobby as bright as day.

Some of his military staff had already taken the map of Liaodong and displayed it in front of everyone.

On the map, the stars are densely covered with various flags as a sign of friend and foe. Obviously, from Ningyuan to Songshan, there are only a few Jiannu banners scattered near the mountains, and the seaside is unique. But from the north of Songshan, a large number of Jiannu banners isolated Songshan from Jinzhou.

"The person responsible for encircling Jinzhou City and isolating Jinzhou from Songshan and other places to the outside world is the Jiannu pseudo-blue flag master Jierharang. This fang with eight banners Manchuria is white flag, inlaid with white flag, positive yellow flag, inlaid with yellow flag, inlaid with blue flag, inlaid with blue flag, and there are eight banners Mongolian positive yellow flag, positive red flag, inlaid with red flag, the left and right wings of the outer domain Tumut, and one part of the inner and outer Karaqin, a total of 21,000 soldiers, and 13,000 miscellaneous servants to isolate Jinzhou City. Use the long trench built and excavated by Jiannu to continue to besiege and attack our Jinzhou defenders. ”

"Before the county lord led the army of Nanyue to come, I joined forces with the Wu General Soldier of the Beijing Camp Model Brigade of the Songshan Garrison General to fight many times, and our army successively lost two guerrilla garrison members, five general and 1,000 generals, 850 non-commissioned officers and soldiers who died in battle, lightly and seriously wounded, and scattered people were not counted, and successively killed 3,067 officers and soldiers of Jiannu. Among them were one thousand and seventy-nine real slaves. The rest are rebellious thieves. Among them, the leader of Jiannu was identified by the captured Jiannu soldiers, and there are more flags as evidence, including Zhenglan Banner Niu Lu Zhang Jing Ha Feng A, Niu Lu Zhang Jing A Xingga, Baya Lajia Lazhang Jing Maise, Baya Lazhuang Da Ao Jia. Inlaid with blue flags, Lazhang Jingjue Luoguoke, Niu Lu Zhang Jing Chi Wuti, Niu Lu Zhang Jing Yiergen, Niu Lu Zhang Jing Tuktan, share the ...... of Pashiku"

"Mr. Wu, you guys played well!" Listening to Wu Sangui's report on the achievements of the rest of the month, Mo Yu asked a little ridiculously.

In his opinion, with superior forces against the first part of Jiannu, it is a miscellaneous army with a complicated battalion, but it also has huge losses, and then it has not been able to completely annihilate the enemy army, or open a breakthrough, is it embarrassing to repay the merit here?

However, he had been in the Nanyue army for a long time, and he did not know what the mainland officials and troops were doing. With such a record, Wu Sangui was enough to proudly claim that he had won a great victory in front of the imperial court.

However, Wu Sangui made a very surprising move! (To be continued......)