Yang Congyi turned his head, and saw that Wang Bujiang's face was very ugly, and beads of sweat the size of beans rolled down his forehead.

"General Wang, do you want to explain why you only have 237 troops under your command, but more than half of these 237 people are not on the military salary list?" Leaving the school ground, Yang Congyi was expressionless.

"Your Excellency, forgive your sins!" Wang Bu immediately knelt on the ground and did not give any explanation.

Yang Congyi looked at him, was silent for a moment, and said coldly: "Get up!" You are a general, you can die standing up, you can't live on your knees! ”

The king lay on the ground, motionless and silent.

"Do you want me to say it a third time? Stand up! Yang Congyi reprimanded sharply.

As soon as he heard this, Wang Beijiang stood up tremblingly, bowed his head and didn't dare to look at Yang Congyi again.

"Explain why this is the case, make it clear as it is." Seeing him stand up, Yang Congyi was still expressionless, but his tone was slightly softened.

After struggling and hesitating for a while, General Wang said, "Your Excellency, forgive your sins." The last general was born in a poor family, seven or eight brothers and sisters in the family, the last general also became a parent, two children, a large family are waiting for the last general to get money back, there are not many, a long time, it is difficult to continue, in desperation, I thought of taking the lead salary, adding some people who are not satisfied with the number of troops who do not exist, and then there are fewer and fewer people in the barracks, unable to perform the task, the last general privately recruited some people to pretend to be the forbidden army, only take care of food, and do not pay them military salaries. That's all there is to it, please forgive me! ”

"In other words, you, the commander of the Dragoon, are really only two teams of forbidden troops?" Although he guessed that this would be the case after the roll call, he was still surprised when it came out of the mouth of the general.

"Yes, sir. The last general also had no choice, when he first took over the command, there were only about 200 people, and then there were fewer and fewer people, and the last general had to recruit some homeless people privately to pretend to be the forbidden army. After all the explanations were made clear, Wang Bujiang was much calmer and more relaxed.

"Since there are a lot of deserters, you should report to the command yamen and let them find a way, what kind of system do you recruit soldiers privately, and pretend to be a forbidden army, aren't you afraid of being killed?" Yang Congyi's face was still cold.

General Wang replied: "I have reported it, at first the above asked us to find our own way, but after reporting the escapees, the military salaries of those people will no longer be paid, and then they will not be reported, in order to cope with the inspection of the control yamen, we can only recruit some people by ourselves." This situation is not only the command of the last general, almost the entire army is not satisfied, there are more than 200 people here in the last general, and there are only about 100 people in many places, and how many of them are real forbidden troops. ”

After hearing this, Yang Congyi's face changed again, and he was shocked in his heart, is there really not one of the five forbidden troops in command? It's unbelievable!

"Okay, that's the end of today's verification, what did I ask, what did you say, don't mention it to others again, it's better to rot in your stomach." Yang Congyi dropped the list of military salaries.

"Yes, sir." Seeing that Yang Congyi was leaving, General Wang immediately asked carefully: "My lord, what is the responsibility of the general?" ”

"Take care of your barracks, and I have no right to inquire into your guilt."

After speaking, Yang Congyi walked away.

General Wang was immediately overjoyed and said loudly: "Congratulations to my lord!" ”

Yang Congyi ignored him and walked out of the camp quickly.

That's it for the Longquan County garrison, the merits are true or false, he already has a certain number in his heart, so naturally he doesn't have to go to the county government to verify it.

Seeing that it was still early, he urged the horse out of the city and ran straight to Qingyuan along the official road.

Qingyuan County is located at the junction of the state and Jianning Prefecture, is the southernmost county of the state, and Longquan County, is also between the mountains, the official road connecting the two places is built along the river valley, tortuous and difficult, fortunately, there will be people along the road from time to time.

Yang Congyi urged the horse to go, and in one evening, he successfully reached the county seat of Qingyuan, and stayed at an inn that night, although he could go to the county government to live, but he preferred the freedom of the inn.

I didn't have a good rest for many days, and on the night when I arrived in Qingyuan County, Yang Congyi told the shopkeeper to take care of the horses, and then slept well.

The next day, when the first rays of sunlight shone into the room, he stretched and sat up.

Today I want to go to the dragoon camp to verify the merits, if there is no accident, I have to leave Qingyuan in the morning, enter the territory of Jianning Mansion in the south, and then rush directly to Nanjianzhou, these trips have been planned very clearly, and I don't want to have any delay on the road.

The forbidden army camp of the Dragoon Army stationed in Qingyuan County was also in the city, and Yang Congyi didn't take much time to quickly come to the outside of the barracks.

As soon as I approached the barracks, I could hear the sound of drills coming from the school grounds, the sound was very loud, but it was somewhat chaotic.

He stood five or six feet away from the barracks gate for a while, and then led his horse to the camp gate.

"Stop! The barracks are not allowed to be approached! As soon as Yang Congyi approached the gate two feet away, he was stopped by two armed barracks guards in front of the door.

Yang Congyi took out the letter talisman of the front of the palace and raised his head, and said loudly: "This official is from the case of the front of the palace, and it will be reported to your general." ”

Although the barracks guards had never seen the letter of the palace front division, they didn't dare to scold or ask more, because no one had the courage to pretend to be the palace front secretary, and all the people who came out of the palace front division were Shangguan, and they couldn't afford to offend.

One of them immediately went to the camp to report, while the other smiled and said, "Your Excellency, please wait a moment." ”

Yang Congyi led the horse forward for a few feet, and waited in front of the camp gate.

After a while, I saw the footsteps of the camp hurriedly come out of a general, and when I saw Yang Congyi, I hurriedly stepped forward and saluted: "Hou Yong, the last general of the Qingyuan County Garrison Department of the Dragoon Army, I have seen my lord!" ”

"General Hou, do you know why this official came to the Qingyuan County garrison of the Dragoon?" Yang Congyi asked while standing still.

Hou Yong replied: "The last general doesn't know. ”

This answer made Yang Congyi slightly surprised, shouldn't it, the case of the former Si Bing of the palace has to come to the state to verify the merits, and it has been rumored long before he left Lin'an, did the state pass the news to Qingyuan County? He didn't believe it.

"Since I don't know, let's go into the camp and talk about it." Yang Congyi stepped forward.

Hou Yong quickly stepped forward to take the reins from Yang Congyi's hand, and said with a smile: "My lord, please inside." He led the horse aside, one step behind.

After entering the camp, he handed the reins in his hand to his subordinates, and said to Yang Congyi: "Your Excellency, please." As he spoke, he led Yang Congyi to a road next to the school field, seemingly looking for a quiet place.

Yang Congyi stopped, looked at the soldiers who were practicing the military formation in the school field, and said loudly: "General Hou, how many forbidden troops are there in this military camp?" ”

Hou Yong replied: "Lord Hui, the Dragoon Army is stationed in Qingyuan County to command the troops, and now there are a total of 217 people. ”

"Are they all in the barracks?"

"Yes, it's all in the barracks."

"Gather everyone in the school field, and bring me the roster for the payment of military salaries for nearly three months." There were some things that Yang Congyi wanted to investigate, but he didn't want to beat around the bush, so he ordered directly.

"Wait a minute, sir." Hearing this order, Hou Yong was a little surprised, but he didn't hesitate much, and immediately responded.

After waiting under the sun for nearly a quarter of an hour, everyone gathered in the school field, and the military salary distribution roster was also handed over to Yang Congyi.

After Hou Yong tidied up the whole army a little, he stood aside and stopped talking.

Yang Congyi opened the roster and looked at it, and then said loudly to the hundreds of people on the school ground: "Everyone, let me introduce first, I am from the front of the palace, and my surname is Yang Congyi. It is not easy to come from Lin'an to the Qingyuan County Dragoon Garrison, so I will take this opportunity to get to know everyone. Then I'll roll the names by the roster, and the ones who have their names will stand over there. As he spoke, he raised his hand and pointed to his left, and then asked, "Do you understand?" ”

"Understood!"

The soldiers' voices were not neat or clear, but this did not affect Yang Congyi's roll call.

"Niu Jun!"

"Yang Qi!"

"Youyou!"

"Li Erwa!"

"Chen Qi!"

................

After the roster was counted, the team in front of me was divided into two parts, the part with fewer people was on the roster, and the part with more people was not among them.

Seeing this situation, Yang Congyi glanced at Hou Yong, who was calm and calm, his face was not red and his heart was not beating.

Then the two went to the back of the school field, a relatively secluded barracks.

As soon as he entered the barracks, Yang Congyi said, "General Hou, what's going on?" With that, he threw the roster in his hand on the table.

Hou Yong immediately said: "My lord, let me explain." ”

"Then tell me why there are less than 100 people on the roster, but so many people on the school floor who are not on the roster?" Yang Cong Yijing sat down on the chair, but his eyes were fixed on the other party to see how he explained.

Who knew that Hou Yong immediately replied: "My lord, I won't tell you, there are indeed many false names on the roster, and the real forbidden army in the Dragoon Army garrison in Qingyuan County is less than 100 people, and those other people are privately recruited to fill the number." After saying a few words, the expression on his face did not change at all, as if this matter had nothing to do with him.

"General Hou, what you said is very easy, aren't you afraid that the court will punish you for your crimes?" Yang Congyi's pupils shrank slightly, and his voice suddenly became cold.

Hou Yong said with a smile: "My lord is wrong, the last general is just a small general, he was only transferred here last year, the name on this roster was like this three years ago, and the above can't be punished by the last general, how many forbidden troops are there in Qingyuan County, and the last general has always been truthfully reported, and the military salary is not issued according to the establishment of five hundred people, and it is good to be able to pay one hundred and fifty forbidden soldiers every month." You might as well tell your lordship that not only the Dragoons, but in fact it is the same everywhere, the actual number of people can be three or four tens of registered people, even if it is too much, the officers do not eat empty salaries, and they can't live at all on that little money, and no one knows about this matter from top to bottom. If the adults have served in the front division of the palace long enough, they will not ask about these trivial things. ”

"Where did you come from?" The more Yang Congyi listened, the more he felt that the Hou Yong in front of him was not an ordinary person, because of his demeanor and momentum, he didn't take the question seriously at all.

"Where did the last general come from, the adults can ask at will, could it be that in the state, the ruler didn't tell the adults?" Hou Yong asked with a smile.