That night, Zhu Cihong accompanied the queen and the eldest prince in Kunning Palace for one night.

The next day, Ji Feng and others led the army back to Nanjing.

"Long live my emperor, long live, long live!" After Ji Feng placed the army outside the city, he came to Zhu Cihong to reply to him: "The last general is fortunate to not disgrace his life and bring the army back, please show the emperor!" ”

Zhu Cihong nodded, and then sighed.

On the same day, a full 350,000 troops went out to fight, together with the soldiers and horses guarding Shandong, the Ming Dynasty nearly 500,000 troops, now only more than 60,000 have returned, with more than 400,000 casualties, a tragic victory!

At this moment, how to compensate the wounded and wounded soldiers is the top priority.

After this battle, so many soldiers were killed and wounded, and the treasury of the Ming Dynasty was completely empty, and even this year's taxes had to be filled in to be enough.

In order to prevent anyone from daring to embezzle the bereavement of the soldiers, Zhu Cihong ordered the six departments of the cabinet to draw up a strategy, and the secret agents of Jinyiwei were prepared to ensure that every bereavement pension was distributed to the families of the dead and wounded soldiers, and no one dared to worry about this bereavement money.

The matter of compensity is related to the stability and reputation of the Ming Dynasty, those soldiers sacrificed their lives for the Ming Dynasty, Yu Daming, and the people have great merit, once they make a mistake, the military spirit is extremely easy to be sloppy, and they must not be sloppy, Zhu Cihong will not allow the soldiers to shed blood and tears in any case.

Five days later, the Sixth Cabinet Department drafted the statute of the bereavement pension and submitted it to Zhu Cihong for review.

After Zhu Cihong read it, he annotated and implemented it without making many changes.

Ten days later, the pension money was gradually distributed, and it was allocated by the household department to the local officials and the general soldiers of each town, and these people distributed it.

On this day, the commander of the Jinyi Guard made Peng Cheng submit a secret report to Zhu Cihong.

"Five of the emperor's eight towns have more or less deducted the pensions of the soldiers under their command, and some generals have withheld the pensions of the soldiers under their command, and there are more than 20 local officials in various counties, and almost less than half of the pension silver can be distributed to the families of the dead and wounded soldiers on average, and almost none of the full amount has been paid, and even more have not received one or two pieces of silver, either by the boss or by the magistrate."

There were originally a total of ten town soldiers who participated in the Battle of Xuzhou, but two of them were killed in the battle, so there were still eight left.

Zhu Cihong opened the secret report, and the more he looked at it, the more gloomy his face became.

"Hehe, these moths, my treasury is empty, they dare to hit my muzzle like this, I really don't know!" Zhu Cihong laughed, Peng Cheng felt a little furious when he heard it, the emperor's killing machine often flowed like a river of blood, and no one could resist it.

"Peng Cheng takes the order!"

"The minister is here!"

"I order you to lead the Jinyi Guards and put all those who dare to be greedy for the money of the bereavement in prison, and I will make them pay the price they deserve!"

"Obey the order!" Peng Cheng stood up after receiving the order, but did not go out immediately to carry it out, and stood there in slight silence.

"Peng Cheng, you have nothing else to do, but it doesn't matter!" Zhu Cihong frowned and asked.

Peng Cheng's face was a little embarrassed, and after a slight consideration, he said: "Your Majesty, many generals such as the general soldiers of the five towns have come back from participating in the Xuzhou War with the emperor, if you also arrest all of them, there will always be some."

Peng Cheng didn't continue, but Zhu Cihong knew what he meant.

"It makes people feel like I'm unloading the mill and killing the donkey? Afraid of chilling the hearts of the military? Zhu Cihong sneered lightly and said.

"Humph! Peng Cheng, I see that you are confused, those people dare to embezzle the pensions of the soldiers under their command, they deserve it, after I arrest all of them, I will vigorously report this matter in the Publicity Department, the soldiers know that they have committed such a thing, they will only be angry, and they are eager to tear them all apart, not only will not chill the army's heart, but also make the army's heart more condensed in my body! Zhu Cihong glanced at Peng Cheng.

In fact, Zhu Cihong is also very clear, whether it is a civilian official or a military general before the Ming Dynasty, the Yulu is very low, the last time Zhu Cihong reformed the Yulu system, punished some magistrates, but the army has not been involved, those generals have always embezzled the military salaries and pensions of the soldiers under their command have become a habit, it is not at all something that can be changed for a while, the general soldiers of the five towns have participated in the Xuzhou War with Zhu Cihong, fighting desperately, their merits Zhu Cihong remembers, but it does not mean that Zhu Cihong can allow them to do such a chilling thing for the families of the dead and wounded soldiers, The state has national laws, and there are laws that must be followed, without exceptions, only in this way can the military and the people's hearts of the Ming Dynasty always be stable.

In addition, Zhu Cihong still has some selfish motives, and he wants to take this opportunity to justifiably replace a group of generals from all over the country and replace them with people he can trust, so that he can truly firmly grasp the power of the general.

"Yes, the minister is confused!" Peng Cheng bowed his head in shame.

"Go and carry out the order!" Zhu Cihong waved his hand and waved Peng Cheng away.

Immediately, almost half of the Jinyi guards were dispatched to various places to arrest all the officials and generals involved in the embezzlement of the dead and wounded soldiers, and captured a total of hundreds of people, of which the military generals accounted for the majority, and a small half were local officials in various counties.

All of these hundreds of people were escorted to the capital.

The next day, the news was published on the front page of the Publicity Department, and the names of all the officials and generals involved were written on it.

The people were in an uproar, all of them were shocked, and many soldiers even shed tears of sadness and applauded the emperor's iron-blooded punishment.

There is no doubt that hundreds of generals and officials at all levels were dismissed from their posts and their homes were confiscated, and many generals participated in the Xuzhou War, and some of them were credited, these people Zhu Cihong did not kill them, but only sent them to Lingnan to open up the wasteland, and those who had no merit were all beheaded, and used blood to deter others, so that people did not dare to commit it again.

Zhu Cihong bluntly said in the court, soldiers are the cornerstone of protecting the family and defending the country, they shed blood and sacrifice for the people, for the Ming Dynasty, the court issued a pension to the soldiers is sacred, inviolable, he will never allow anyone to dare to let the soldiers shed blood and tears, anyone dares to do such a chilling thing for the soldiers, no matter who he is, even if it is a relative of the emperor and the country, he will be punished.

"Emperor Shengming, you can't let the soldiers shed blood and tears!" After reading the Daming Daily, some bloody people suddenly knelt down in tears and bowed in the direction of the palace.

With this iron-blooded deterrence, in the end, no official or general dared to embezzle the bereavement of the dead and wounded, and in the end, under the overt supervision of the imperial court and the secret supervision of the Jinyi guard, every bereavement pension was distributed in full to the locality, without missing a penny.

As Zhu Cihong expected, none of the soldiers were chilled by Zhu Cihong's punishment of their superiors, but were so excited that they knelt on the ground with tears in their eyes and kept shouting long live to express their excitement.

Every soldier on the battlefield is uncertain about life and death, no one wants to die by themselves, their families can't even get a pension, which also leads to many soldiers on the battlefield dare not sacrifice their lives to fight, Zhu Cihong's move, really gathered the military heart, so that the Ming Dynasty's military heart has never been more cohesive, and since then, the Ming soldiers have been more brave on the battlefield to kill the enemy, not afraid of death!

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