"Subordinates, see the governor!" Du Mei gave Zhang Huan a deep salute.

"Sit down!" Zhang Huan waved his hand and ordered him to sit down, at this time, the other three had already arrived, Zhang Huan glanced at a few people, and asked Hu Yong first: "Can Changshi tell me first, how much grain do we still have in our hands?" ”

Today was originally a debriefing meeting, and the time was scheduled to start at the beginning of the time, and there was still more than half an hour before now, but Zhang Huan sent someone to call them, and everyone faintly felt that something was probably wrong.

Hu Yong stood up, he took out a booklet, and said to Zhang Huan: "Please allow your subordinates to report!" ”

Zhang Huan nodded, signaling that he could start, Hu Yong cleared his throat, and read aloud: "In the first battle of Anxi, I spent a total of 6.2 million stone of military rations, together with military salaries, pensions and expenses such as hiring people, a total of 3.4 million guan and 1.2 million horses of silk, and at present, there are still 4 million stones of grain in warehouses in various places, 2.5 million guan of money, 800,000 horses of silk, of which there are 300,000 taels of gold in the Longyou warehouse

Hu Yong read the family background, he closed the booklet, and handed it to Zhang Huan with both hands, "In the past few years, the wind and rain have been smooth, the grain harvest has been quite abundant, and the imperial court has allowed us to boil salt to repay our borrowed grain, we boiled salt in Shu, and this year we have made a profit of three million yuan alone, it should be said that the financial situation is very good, enough to support the expenses of the army." ”

Zhang Huan didn't look at the booklet, but put it on the table and asked coldly: "Since the funds are sufficient, why do you want to deduct the pension in disguise, and use the coffin money to offset ten yuan, and the land money to offset twenty yuan." What is the rationale for this? ”

Hu Yong and the others glanced at each other, their eyes showed surprise, they didn't expect the news of Dudu to come so quickly. I arrived at noon yesterday and learned about it today.

At this time, the marching army Sima Luo Guangzheng stood up and said: "Please calm your anger, there is a reason for this matter, please allow me to wait for the report!" ”

"Speak!"

"In fact, this batch of pensions was not issued by Longyou, but from the imperial court, and it was also the intention of the imperial court to offset the coffin and land. Originally, we wanted to make up the difference, but we were worried that the court would find an excuse to deduct it again, so we discussed and put the difference into the future on a monthly basis. ”

After listening to Luo Guangzheng's explanation, Zhang Huan's face was slightly pale, and the first fifty yuan pension was issued by the imperial court, which he did not expect. It seems that there is indeed a reason for this.

However, despite the factors of the imperial court, their approach was still unfair, and they did not consider it from the perspective of the families of the fallen soldiers, but only to implement a system.

In the past few years, Longyou's pension has always been a posthumous award of fifty guan plus a coffin and five acres of land, but this time the battle of Anxi is different, reduced, and not explained to the people, no matter who will think that it is deducted, the negative effect it causes is far from being as simple as missing a few pieces of money.

"The ashes of the fallen soldiers have not been returned to their families for a long time. What's going on here? Zhang Huan tried his best to restrain the dissatisfaction in his heart and asked with an expression on his face.

"I'll explain this!"

He Lou Wuji, who was next to him, stood up, bowed to Zhang Huan and said, "Governor, in fact, this matter is also related to the imperial court. As early as when the Battle of Anxi had just begun, Pei Xiangguo sent someone to tell him, hoping that we would store the ashes of the fallen soldiers in the mourning hall first, and then return them to their families after the Ministry of Rites sent someone to worship. ”

"And when are they going to come to the sacrifice? When are you going to return it to your family? One year, or two years, three years! ”

This He Lou Wuji had already sensed the obvious anger of the governor, and he shouted: "We also feel that it is inappropriate to drag it on forever, so we sent people to urge it a few times. But the court said that it was busy approaching the end of the year. Didn't have time, plans to come back next spring. We thought we didn't have to offend the court for this matter, so

"Bastard!" Zhang Huan was furious, picked up the inkstone on the table and smashed it at He Lou Wuji, the inkstone flew past his side, smashed into the wall, and shattered into three pieces.

Zhang Huan was so angry that he trembled, pointed at He Lou Wuji and scolded: "You are still a soldier, this kind of bastard can also come out of your mouth, are you afraid of offending the officials and masters of the imperial court, are you not afraid of offending me, and you are not afraid of offending the 400,000 soldiers of Xiliang?" You've been corrupted and degraded by power, and it's a disappointment to me. ”

He Lou Wuji's face turned pale, he immediately knelt down on one knee, and said in a trembling voice: "My subordinates are guilty, please punish them!" ”

"Punish you, can you save the reputation of my Xiliang Army? Will you be able to punish the more than 20,000 brothers who died in Anthy? ”

At this time, Hu Yong, Du Mei and other three people next to him also stepped forward to ask for guilt, "This matter is not considered by us and others, and it is not decided by General He Lou alone, please punish them!" ”

Zhang Huantie stood in front of the window with a blue face and was silent for a long time, he tried to calm down his anger, yes, this is actually not to blame them, if he hadn't fought with the soldiers for most of the year, he Zhang Huan might have decided like this, maybe it was not that they had fallen, but that he had changed.

"Sit down!" Zhang Huan returned to his seat and sat down, holding back his anger and slowly said to everyone: "Giving preferential care to soldiers and treating their families well is not my Zhang Huan's initiative, at the beginning of the founding of the Tang Dynasty, all soldiers died in battle, and the army immediately submitted the roster to the imperial court, and the imperial court immediately issued an order to the locality, and immediately the magistrate sent someone to their home to comfort, send the lord, give them a reward, the coffin of the fallen soldiers has not been transported back, and the government should be compensated and rewarded have been done, although this matter is small, but the effect is great, can inspire the morale of the army, The soldiers were all grateful to the imperial court and fought with their lives, so I was able to win all battles and Weijia Quartet at the beginning of the Tang Dynasty. ”

Speaking of this, he let out a long sigh and said, "But what did you do this time?" I'm not saying that you are missing the bereavement and the coffins of the fallen are late, but you don't realize the importance of this at all. I didn't think about the fallen soldiers at all, and I was angry about that. ”

Zhang Huan took out a crumpled booklet from his arms and handed it to everyone: "Look at it! These were the last words left by Zhang Sancheng's guards and more than 300 soldiers. What are their requirements? I hope to bring their bones back to my hometown, I hope to give their wives and children and parents a bite to eat, it is such a low requirement, but they can fight desperately and bloodily with the enemy, no one retreats and flees for their lives, and finally all of them die in Zhang San Castle, and what about us? Can't we do just such a little request? ”

"It's my responsibility." Hu Yong stood up. He said ashamedly: "The governor led the army to fight bloodily in the front, but we can't share the worries for the governor, and his subordinates are willing to be demoted by two levels and fined for one year." ”

He Lou Wuji also stood up and said, "The subordinates also begged the governor to be demoted to atone for his sins. ”

Zhang Huan was silent for a moment, and then said coldly: "This matter is decided by the five of you together, and you are all responsible, Hu Changshi, as the chief official of government affairs, should be the first to take responsibility and demote one level." a fine of one year, acting as president; Luo Guangzheng, Du Mei, and Pei Mingyuan were second responsible and fined for half a year. ”

Zhang Huan glanced at He Lou Wuji again, and said coldly: "As for you, you should act according to military regulations and demote you to a lieutenant general!" ”

The four of them saluted together, "All supervise and punish, we will be convinced!" ”

"Okay, you can make amends for this matter to save the reputation of my Xiliang Army. Hu Yong stays, and the rest retreat! After the other three retreated, Hu Yong said ashamedly: "The governor did the right thing, and his subordinates are really ashamed!" ”

Zhang Huan shook his head. "In this Anxi Campaign, you transported food and materials in the rear in a timely manner, so that we could provide logistical support for the 10,000-mile campaign, and He Lou Wuji, who led the army to stabilize the rear, so that people would not take advantage of the weakness, in fact, you all have merit, I don't understand. But this matter is about the bigger picture for me. Therefore, it is necessary to give an explanation to the soldiers in order to win back the hearts of the army and the people. I can only punish you, especially He Lou Wuji, I hope he can understand my suffering

"The Governor wants to be conscripted?" Hu Yong suddenly understood the overall situation that Zhang Huan was referring to.

Zhang Huan nodded slightly and said: "Yes, I originally wanted to use the victory of this Anxi Battle to stimulate the upsurge of the people to join the army, in order to deal with the crisis in the Central Plains, you should also know very well, we claim to be 400,000 troops, in fact, it is only more than 300,000, this time I led an expedition of 160,000 troops to Anxi and Beiting, and finally only returned with 30,000 troops, and I also had to garrison Hexi and Hehuang, and in the end there were only 100,000 troops that could be used, and then we had to control the occupied territory, you calculated, how many troops we still have left, once the Central Plains war, Where can we still intervene, so I must recruit 100,000 new troops as soon as possible and go to Anthy to exchange my elite for the impending crisis. ”

Hu Yong pondered for a while and said: "With the population of our Longyou and Shuzhong, it is indeed a bit difficult to recruit 400,000 troops, but thanks to the Governor of Anxi, we can have enough land to recruit landless displaced people in Hedong and Guanzhong, and let them move their families to Anxi as military households on favorable terms, and then we will implement a rotation system, every two or three years, and mix the militia in the regular army to go to Anxi to fight on the border, so that the two-pronged approach can at least exchange back 80,000 Anxi elites, and the Governor will recruit another 780,000 new troops, so that it will be calculated. In addition, we have nearly 200,000 mobile troops available, and our implementation of the military household acre system is indeed a great way to recruit troops. ”

Speaking of the military household acre system, Zhang Huan took the copy of Chen Shaoyou's recital, handed it to Hu Yong and said, "What do you think about this matter?" ”

Hu Yong glanced at the fold, and said with a disdainful smile: "This Chen Shaoyou is Cui Xiaofu's person, he is making waves at this time, it is nothing more than taking advantage of the fame to lead the army to the east, when our control over Shuzhong is weakened, we want to seize the ownerless land in Shuzhong, and the final purpose is to get Shuzhong out of our control, however, I don't think this matter can be successful, and the governor doesn't have to take it too seriously." ”

"No!" Zhang Huan shook his head resolutely, "Preventing micro needs to be eliminated, hundreds of thousands of hectares of land in Shu are the basis of our army's household acre system, we must not take it lightly, we must immediately take them all under the ownership of the military, as for this Chen Shaoyou, hum!" I think he has a lot to offer. ”

Speaking of this, a touch of coldness quickly flashed in Zhang Huan's eyes, since Cui Xiaofu dared to poison the emperor while he was away and set up a new emperor, if she provoked her again, she might be able to do something more daring and reckless.