With a bang, the drawbridge was lowered, and Zisht turned over and dismounted, and quickly stepped into the temple street fort. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

"Commander Wu, it is indeed a real Tartar."

After repeatedly examining the braids and teeth of the two heads that began to rot and stink, a soldier with a nose wrapped in a cloth reported to Wu Zhuang.

"Very good, look at the reward."

Wu Zhuang walked over and patted Jisht's sturdy shoulder with a smile.

Seeing that these two heads were recognized by the Tang Army, Zishte was very happy, and he immediately said his request loudly to the translator next to Wu Zhuang.

"Battalion Commander Wu, he said it, he wants us to give him four catties of salt, forty catties of grain, a horse of cotton cloth, an iron bucket, and an iron pot." The translator turned his head to report to Wu Zhuang.

Wu Zhuang nodded and waved his hand: "Well, yes, give it to him." In addition, as the first person to surrender his head, our army gave him two catties of sugar and twenty steel arrowheads, which were regarded as an additional reward for him. ”

When he heard from the interpreter that Wu Zhuang had great appreciation for him, and in addition to the prescribed rewards, he had also given sugar and steel arrowheads, and Zisht couldn't help but weep with gratitude.

This heroic and extraordinary general of the Tang Army is really a generous and bold person!

Soon, all kinds of rewards were brought in from the warehouse by the soldiers, and piled up in front of Zisht.

Seeing the large number of prizes in front of him, Zisht had a very happy expression on his face.

He first weighed the salt bag and the sugar bag, and felt their weight. Then I picked up the cotton cloth and kneaded the soft and dense cotton cloth carefully to experience the feel of the cotton cloth. Then he took down the grain bag full of wheat flour with his hand, and then knocked the big iron bucket made of wrought iron sheets, and knocked the bottom edge with his bracelet to see if there were no pores or omissions. Finally, he made the fine iron, thick and smooth, and there was a large iron pot with the word "Li" in Song style engraved on the bottom of the pot, holding the wide pot handle, turning it over and down to look at it carefully, and his face was full of very happy expressions.

Good stuff!

Salt, sugar, cotton cloth, grain, iron buckets, iron pots, all of which were extremely scarce in the tribe, if in the past, such items may have been obtained only by the head of the tribe, who could get a little from the rulers of the Qing court, but they were also extremely scarce. And the rest of the ordinary tribal people, I'm afraid they don't want to have it for the rest of their lives.

Compared with the stinginess and stinginess of the Qing people, these Tang troops are the real heroes and generous.

Soon, the twenty steel triangular arrows that shone with a cold light were also brought to Zisht.

The joy on Zisht's face was indescribable at the sight of these twenty triangular heavy arrow arrows made of stainless steel, with deep blood grooves open and shining with a cold light.

Compared to such sharp and hard steel arrowheads, arrowheads made from animal bones are rubbish.

With such sophisticated arrows, it will be easier for me to hunt the head of the Qing army again in the future.

For these simple-minded and practical people, it is far better to have more deeply rooted interests and benefits in front of them than to tell them any big truths.

This warrior of the Haixi Jurchen Tugen tribe, Jishit, saw that the Tang army valued and treated him so much, and he was already very grateful in his heart, so he swore in his heart that from now on, he must serve the Tang army loyally, and in the future, he will definitely capture more Qing captives to return to repay the Tang army's attention and favor to him.

Subsequently, he made a few hand salutes to Wu Zhuang to express his gratitude.

Then Zisht tied all the large piles of goods to the horses, carefully tied them sturdily, and left the temple fort.

Zisht, who returned with such a pile of reward items, was in a very happy mood. He whistled towards Helery, whistled proudly, but in two hours he hurried back to his Tugan tribe.

Returning to the Horde, Zisht was greeted like a hero.

Although everyone in the tribe was very covetous of the prize that Zisht had received, since it was a prize that Zisht had received for his own bravery, the tribe leader did not allow others to share it, but let him take it all back to his own home.

As soon as he entered the house, his wife, Menkha, rushed out of the back room and gave him a warm hug.

"You're really my pride." His wife hugged him tightly, her face flushed with happiness.

Next, seeing his wife cooking with the iron pot, grain, and salt that she had won, while the children were rushing to eat the sugar, Zisht was very proud.

At this moment, he felt that all his hard work was completely worth it.

With the example of eating crabs like Zisht, the nearby barbarian tribes were immediately inspired.

Since then, almost every day, warriors from different tribes have sent the heads of the Qing army to the temple street fort, and the Tang army has fully fulfilled its promise and awarded them all the relevant rewards.

Li Xiao's Tang army was supported from the bottom of his heart by the barbarian tribes nearby.

And this most popular hunting order of the Qing captives was also known to more and farther Jurchen tribes, and more and more tribal warriors came to hand in and hunt the head of the Qing army.

In order to avoid the trouble of always lifting the drawbridge to open and close the city gate, Temple Street Fort simply set up an exchange point outside the east gate, just outside Temple Street Fort, to exchange prizes for such tribal warriors.

Such a scene naturally made Wu Zhuang, the commander of the Zhendong Battalion, very happy.

He even thought proudly in his heart that as the interests of the Tang army and these barbarian tribes became more and more closely combined, then in the future, it would not be difficult for him to draw troops from these tribes to fight for the Tang army.

After all, in a sense, keeping the Tang Army is actually protecting these barbarian tribes themselves.

Since then, Li Xiao's Temple Street Fort has become a nail that has penetrated deeply into the body of the Qing Dynasty, so that the Qing Dynasty will continue to fester, starting from the edge of this nail, and become a wound that never scabs and never bleeds.

When the hunting order of the Qing captives was perfectly executed among the barbarian tribes in the north, the eunuch Wang Zhixin finally came to Jinan, Shandong with a group of followers.

At this time, the city of Jinan, which had experienced the catastrophe, had begun to rebuild.

In order to prepare for a possible major battle in the future, Li Xiao's plan was to build the whole of Jinan into a purely political and military center, while completely weakening its original economic function.

He preliminarily planned the ruined Jinan into two parts: the official office area and the military barracks area, of which the military barracks area accounted for about two-thirds, and the official office area accounted for one-third.

That night, Liu Zeqing, the leader of the rebel army, after killing all the people in the Dewang Mansion and looting all the property, did not have time to set fire to the Dewang Mansion.

In the courtyard of the Tang State Mansion, Li Xiao led a group of civil and military officials, kneeling behind the long table incense case, and quietly listened to the eunuch Wang Zhixin read the holy decree.

"Fengtian carrier, the emperor's edict said, since May this year, the Qing captives knocked on the pass, plundered the Central Plains, poisoned the people, and committed many crimes, which can be counted. Fortunately, I am Li Xiao, the Duke of the Tang Dynasty of the Ming Dynasty, who has fulfilled his duties, helped the crisis and chaos, won many battles, and made outstanding achievements. Its department is loyal and brave, and it takes Jinan at night and dedicates the Tartar Beijing Division, and its merits can be described as grand. Subsequently, he drove the captives to retreat, pacified the chaos, and swept away the fishy flesh, which was a great achievement. I was overjoyed to hear the report. Li Xiao is now specially appointed to take charge of the military of Shandong Province, and the soldiers and horses in Shandong are under his control. I hope that from now on, Li Xiao will be loyal to the country and work hard to prosper, and I will be very pleased. Oh yes! ”

Hearing Wang Zhixin finish reciting the word Qinzai, Li Xiao's heart was uneasy.

That's it?

Li Xiao instantly thought in his heart, it seems that his request for the whole army to garrison Shandong and take full control of Shandong's military really angered Chongzhen. Otherwise, how could this emperor not award the slightest reward when he had made such a great achievement, and he didn't even give a false title, which is really embarrassing.

It's just that even though Chongzhen was dissatisfied, he still agreed to his request to garrison the entire Shandong, so it seems that he has achieved his goal.

"Tang Guogong, take the order." Wang Zhixin stiffened his face and stretched the end of the sentence very long.

"Minister Li Xiao, thank you Lord Longen, long live my emperor, long live, long live!" Li Xiao respectfully accepted the holy decree made of Ming Huanghu silk from the eunuch's hand.

"Tang Guogong, this is all the meaning of the saint, our family is also acting according to the order, and I hope Tang Guogong understands it in his heart......"

The fat Wang Zhixin obviously has great sympathy and apology for Li Xiao, who has made great achievements but has not been rewarded in the slightest.

Li Xiao gave him a smile back, and said in a deep voice: "The holy will is like this, my father doesn't think about him." My father-in-law has worked hard all the way, so let's go down and rest first. ”

Subsequently, after Li Xiao gave Wang Zhixin and others three hundred taels of silver, he sent them to the pavilion to rest.

After Wang Zhixin and the others left with a happy face, next, Li Xiao summoned Chen Zihu and Jiang Yueguang, two portable paintings, to discuss secretly in a secret room in the Tang Mansion.

"Two praises, you have all heard the content of today's holy decree." Li Xiao said lightly with an expressionless face.

"Lord Li, the emperor's meaning is already very clear." Chen Zilong replied with a solemn face: "Now it seems that although the emperor agrees to Lord Li's desire to occupy and garrison this Shandong place, he has reached the limit of tolerance. ”

"Zilong is right, Lord Li recaptured Jinan this time and repelled the Tartars, which is an immortal achievement. And the reason why the emperor did not give Lord Li any rewards and promotions is enough to show that the emperor is actually extremely vigilant and dissatisfied with Lord Li in his heart. Jiang Yueguang also interjected.

Li Xiao chuckled, shook his head and said, "The emperor is so suspicious of his subordinates, and he has more constraints on my father, but now my father is more and more aware of a truth. ”

"Oh, what's the point?" Chen Zilong and Jiang Yueguang asked almost in unison.

"The Ming Dynasty cannot be saved, and the emperor is not the lord of troubled times." Li Xiao said in a deep voice.

"Oh, Master Li, do you really think so?" Chen Zilong asked softly.

"Yes, after so many years, my father finally figured this out." Li Xiao said with a heavy face. "The country is in turmoil, and the monarch is suspicious. The landlords and gentry formed a party and resisted forced labor; The people, the army and the people are hungry and cold, struggling on the line of death, the Ming Empire for more than 200 years is really exhausted, and it is completely impossible to save it. ”

As soon as Li Xiao's words came out, Chen Zilong and Jiang Yueguang fell silent.

They had to admit that Li Xiao's words were indeed very reasonable.

The current Ming Dynasty, internal and external troubles, all kinds of problems continue to superimpose, step by step this huge and decaying empire, into the abyss of complete destruction, this kind of historical trend, is simply not possible to be remedied by manpower.

"Master Li, what do you mean?" Jiang Yueguang's voice was very low.

Li Xiao had a wry smile on his face.

"Isn't it possible that the two of you are persuading your father, taking advantage of the chaos in the world, to take over the great tomorrow?" Li Xiao sighed with a heavy look on his face: "If Ben Gong really does this, wouldn't Ben Gong be the same person as Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong and other thieves?" ”

"Lady Lee......"

Li Xiao waved his hand, signaling that the two of them didn't need to interject, but continued: "Two, what this duke can tell you is that the current power of this duke is far from being able to seize the great tomorrow. Moreover, Bengong doesn't have this mind at all now. What's more important is that if Bengong really raises troops to fight with the Ming Dynasty, then the profits will only be the thieves all over the world and the Tartars who are ready to move outside the border, and the most pitiful thing is the people who are struggling to survive in the blood and fire of the sword soldiers! ”

"What do you mean?"

"There is a way, but the way is not good, and you will float in the sea. Since the country cannot be moved and cannot be changed, the focus of our army's next steps should be on further developing overseas territories. In this way, we will transfer the displaced people in China as much as possible, let them take root and sprout overseas, recuperate, and open up the vast overseas land into the eternal inherent territory of China. ”

Li Xiao's words made Chen Zilong and Jiang Yueguang nod frequently.

Yes, instead of unraveling this mess at home that can never be untied, it is better to go overseas and vigorously expand overseas territories, so as to draw a more beautiful and updated picture on a new blank paper.

"Then my lord is going to use troops against Luzon next?" Chen Zilong asked.

"Yes!" Li Xiao nodded and said: "Due to the defeat of Jinan by the Qing Dynasty, which was heavily damaged, it is estimated that this prince will not have the ability to invade the south again in the past few years." Therefore, in the past few years, it has been a golden period for our army to expand southward with all its might. ”

Li Xiao paused, and then said to the two: "Now in our army, due to the hard work of the shipyards in Dengzhou, Jeju, Ezo, and Taiwan, the total number of ships of the naval division has reached more than 300, which is enough to transport troops to Luzon on a large scale. Therefore, the key work we need to do now is to vigorously expand the Pingnan camp and expand the Pingnan camp into Pingnan Town, so that we can occupy an absolute advantage when attacking Luzon, and finally capture Luzon in one fell swoop, completely eliminate the Spaniards entrenched in Luzon, and also avenge the tens of thousands of Chinese who died tragically under the butcher's knife of the Spaniards! ”