Emperor Ming Fengyunlu

Volume VI The Battle of the Northern Frontier

Chapter 4 Recruiting Troops and Gathering Strength

Section 4: Wills other than money clerks

In the first year of the Apocalypse (the sixth year of the Later Jin Mandate of Heaven), in late May, north of Tongzhou City.

After several days of marching, the officers and soldiers of the Hanwei army who had an expedition to Liaodong finally returned to Tongzhou Town. At this time, Li Tianhao, Huang Fuming, Wang Dangdang and other generals and officials above the general level who stayed in Tongzhou Town, as well as the officials of Sun Yuanhua and Chen Zi and the general military office, had already received the news in advance, and all rushed to the north gate of Tongzhou City to welcome the heroes of Liaodong home. Moreover, the people in Tongzhou City also spontaneously flocked to the vicinity of the North City Gate, scrambling to see the majestic posture of the soldiers who fought against the Tartars.

Liu Yunwei saw Li Tianhao and others who had not been seen for a long time from a distance, and he was very happy in his heart, and hurriedly dismounted when he was about to come to him, walked quickly to everyone's side and laughed and talked, Lu Ying, Wu Xing and others also rushed up one after another, and everyone laughed for a while.

Wang Dangdang said with a smile: "Big brother, when we heard the news that our Hanwei Army had won a great victory in a thousand mountains, we were so happy, the entire General Military Mansion was carnivaling all night, and the firecrackers were ringing in Tongzhou City, and the people poured into the streets to celebrate, which was more lively than the New Year!" ”

Liu Yunwei laughed and said, "Haha, I guess you and Tianhao must have taken the opportunity to get drunk, right?" ”

"Haha, no, it's just a little dizzy." Wang Dangdang said with a smile on his face.

Everyone laughed when they heard this.

Liu Yunwei talked to everyone for a while, looked at Tongzhou City, which had been lost for a long time, and said, "Okay, let's go into the city, there are still many things to deal with." ”

General Soldier's Palace, Council Hall.

Lu Ying, Wu Xing, Zhao Kaishan, Li Tianhao, Wen Poyu, Gao Hongguang, Huang Fuming, Wang Dangdang and other guerrilla generals, Yuan Mingxuan, Sun Yuanhua, Chen Zitong, Zhou Tianyi, Hu Kun and other shogunate stewards sat in two columns in the hall.

Liu Yunwei looked around at the people in the hall and said: "This time, the soldiers of our Hanwei army went to Liaodong to fight bloodily and lived up to expectations. ”

After finishing speaking, Liu Yunwei encouraged everyone again, and began to ask about the situation in Tongzhou Town during this time.

Seeing this, Sun Yuanhua got up and said: "Qiqi Town, during the period when the soldiers of the army went out, all the affairs of Tongzhou Town were going smoothly. Although the weather is still a little dry this year, with the joint efforts of all the military households and the soldiers of Tuntian, the growth of crops is still good, and it can be expected that there should be a good harvest this year; The production situation of Zhangjiawan will be the division is also very good, I Tongzhou Town has mined several iron mines, coal mines have begun to produce a large number of them, enough to ensure the needs of the company, the saltpeter, sulfur and other materials sold by merchants around the country can also meet the production needs of gunpowder, in addition to the drilling machine to build the bird gun pipe we have also produced a batch of our own, which can fully ensure the stability of the production of the bird gun; Now the inventory of the division is very considerable, there are more than 4,000 self-generated bird guns, more than 1,500 three-eyed guns, 12 big Buddha cannons, 20 tiger guns, and tens of thousands of swords, guns and armor; In addition, the Shosaku has recently built a hundred Shenji gun carriages, each of which is equipped with ten sets of gun mounts, and a total of 20 large rockets for one gun mount, because it is too time-consuming and laborious to build such large rockets, so the Shosakuji has only produced so many at present. ”

After listening to Sun Yuanhua's report, Liu Yunwei was very happy and said: "Okay, it seems that my Tongzhou Town is now a solid family." ”

Everyone was also very excited when they heard this, and they were all talking in whispers.

After Sun Yuanhua finished speaking, he still stood in place and did not move, looking like he wanted to speak and stopped.

After Liu Yunwei whispered a few words to Yuan Mingxuan and the others beside him, he couldn't help but feel a little strange when he saw Sun Yuanhua's appearance, so he asked, "Is there anything else about Lord Sun?" ”

"Exactly." Sun Yuanhua said with a sad expression: "General Town, although all the affairs of our Tongzhou Town are developing steadily now, they are also facing a serious crisis. ”

"Crisis?" Liu Yunwei frowned and asked, "What crisis?" ”

"There's no money, and now we have no money in Tongzhou Town." Sun Yuanhua said with a bitter face: "Jiangzuosi and Tuntian are both gold and silver, which is very costly, and the military salary of more than 100,000 soldiers of the Hanwei Army is also a huge expense, and the materials and goods we borrowed from the rich merchants in Beijing must also be returned on a monthly basis, and our Tongzhou Town can no longer support it." ”

Hearing this, everyone present was shocked, and Liu Yunwei also frowned and didn't say anything for a long time.

After a while, Liu Yunwei sighed and said, "Now the military equipment that will be used as the division should be able to meet the needs of the officers and soldiers of the Hanwei Army for a period of time, so we will stop production first, so that we can save some money and grain." However, the military salaries of the soldiers and the money and food returned to the rich men of the capital division in Tuntian cannot be reduced in any way, let's see if we can think of any way to increase the income of our Tongzhou Town as soon as possible? ”

As soon as the words fell, Lu Ying, Zhao Kaishan and other generals, as well as Zhou Tianyi and Hu Kun's shogunate officials, began to discuss.

But after discussing for a long time, everyone couldn't come up with a feasible solution, what they said was nothing more than mining, doing business and other ways, but then they were all denied by Liu Yunwei one by one.

"We have also opened a few mines in Tongzhou Town, both iron ore and coal mines, but most of the output of these mineral deposits must be supplied to the general division to build various military equipment, and the rest will be handed over to those rich merchants in the capital to sell, so as to offset some arrears, and there is no income at all."

"As for business, there is no need to think about it, we have talents in Tongzhou Town? Can there be a trustworthy businessman? No! Let's think of another way. ”

However, the people sitting here are either military generals who fight on the battlefield or literati who govern government affairs, where will they come up with any way to make money for a while? For a moment, the council hall became silent, and everyone was frowning and thinking about it.

At this moment, Guo Yi hurriedly walked in from outside, saluted and said: "Qiqi General Town, there is a group of people outside the gate of the General Soldier's Mansion who ask to see them, saying that they are from Lushun, and they are Qian Mingli's subordinates, and the leader is surnamed Ma. ”

Liu Yunwei was slightly stunned when he heard this, and then said to himself: "The surname is Ma? Could it be the horse steward under the money clerk? ”

Yuan Mingxuan also looked at Liu Yunwei and said, "Little general, could it be that Lushun's Qian staff is going out for something?" ”

Liu Yunwei suddenly thought that now that most of Liaodong has been captured by Jiannu, it is estimated that Lushun has not been spared, could it really be that something happened to Qian Yuan?

Thinking of this, Liu Yunwei immediately said, "Bring them in!" ”

Guo Yi immediately went out and brought everyone in, Liu Yunwei and Yuan Mingxuan saw that it was indeed Qian Mingli's horse steward!

Liu Yunwei stood up abruptly and said, "Steward Ma, what's wrong?" What about money outsiders? ”

Steward Ma looked at the full hall of generals, and when he saw Liu Yunwei and Yuan Mingxuan again, he immediately cried bitterly and said, "General! Lord Yuan! My family members let Jiannu kill them! Thousands of people on the manor are all dead! ”

After Liu Yunwei heard this, his face turned pale, and his extreme anger caused his whole body to tremble. After a long while, Liu Yunwei asked coldly, "Say!" What the hell is going on? Lushun lost? ”

Steward Ma said while crying: "General Liu, since the withdrawal of the Hanwei army, it didn't take long for the Jiannu army to hit the city of Lushun, and the officers and soldiers defending the city did not even resist for a day before opening the city and surrendering to Jiannu. Seeing that the situation was critical, my family took the whole family out of the city in advance and rushed to the manor outside the city, after all, there were still many guards there. But within two days, thousands of Jiannu Tartars surrounded the manor, insisting that our homeland go out to pay for the food and sacrifice the army, and that we all shave our hair and surrender. How could my family members agree to it, and directly took the thousands of family members and guards in the manor, as well as the men, women and children of the whole clan to fight with the army of Jiannu. ”

After Zhao Kaishan heard this, he was very moved, and immediately shouted: "Good man!" ”

Liu Yunwei's eyes were slightly red and said, "Later! ”

"Later, the Jiannu army stormed for a day, or entered the manor, and when the staff saw that the matter was urgent, they asked me to take my men to the sea quickly, and went to the customs to find the general, and before leaving, my family wrote a suicide note, asking me to hand it over to the general no matter what."

After speaking, Steward Ma took out a letter from his arms and handed it to Liu Yunwei, who hurriedly opened it and looked at it.

At this time, Yuan Mingxuan asked with tears in his eyes, "What happened later?" ”

When the steward heard this, he wept bitterly and said: "As soon as I arrived at the dock with these sailors, I saw that a fire had broken out in the manor, and I could see it for miles away, and none of my family members or the people of the manor had escaped. Woo~~~"

After finishing speaking, Steward Ma and more than a dozen sailors under his command were all crying, everyone present was embarrassed, and Yuan Mingxuan was even more tearful.

Liu Yunwei read the letter, choked up and said: "Qian Yuanwai said in his suicide note that he was worried that Jiannu would wreak havoc in Lushun earlier, so he put most of his family wealth in Tianjin Wei's shop. Qian Yuanwai said that he would donate all these goods to Tongzhou Town for our military training, just hoping that when the imperial court restores Liaodong in the future, our Hanwei soldiers will be able to avenge Qian Yuanwai's family! ”

For a while, only Steward Ma and others were left in the entire meeting hall crying bitterly, and all the officials and generals in Tongzhou Town all looked at Liu Yunwei with anger on their faces.

Liu Yunwei slowly walked towards Steward Ma and the others, helped them up one by one, and said: "Everyone, please rest assured, Qian Yuanwai has helped me many times in the Hanwei Army, and he is also my friend of Liu Yunwei, and I will definitely avenge his revenge!" ”