Li Yu got into the cage and felt at ease, except for sending a few sentry posts to take the Flying Tiger Battalion to sleep in a group. The next morning, someone from the military department informed Xu Gong, and the Flying Tiger Battalion hurriedly got up, called Zhang Shi'an and a group of brocade guards to lead the way, and ran to the military headquarters with Li Yu in their arms.

Yang Sichang was already waiting impatiently in the lobby of the Ministry of War, and when he saw Li Yu coming in a hurry, he scolded him for scolding his head and covering his face, and then introduced the officials around him - Shen Xun in the Military Department and Zhang Ruoqi in the Shilang of the Ministry of War, all of whom he valued and promoted, Li Yu casually arched his hand and yawned and told the story of the war lightly.

"This official is a native of Jiaozhou, Shandong, and he has heard of the military exploits of Guihua Town, which is indeed an unprecedented victory as the emperor said, so I will congratulate Li Shuai on his promotion for the father and elder of his hometown." Zhang Ruoqi nodded, the situation of the Naturalized Army's battles was well known to the civil and military of the Manchu Dynasty, and the so-called narrative was just a formality, so why take it too seriously.

"Naturalized soldiers, the imperial court has ordered all reinforcements to return to the town, but one part of your naturalized army entered Juyong Pass without authorization, and the other stayed under Taiyuan City, what do you explain?" Shen Xun asked suddenly, Li Yu's demeanor disgusted him very much - this martial artist was rude and rude, and he didn't seem to take Wenchen seriously.

Li Yu glanced at Shen Xun and replied slowly: "Lord Shen, Guihua Town has sent troops for more than 2,000 miles, marched and fought for two months, the people are sleepy and tired, and the soldiers have to take a few breaths before leaving." ”

"Well, this official is justified by you, and Zu Dashou, the chief soldier of Liaodong Forward, impeached you for killing innocents and annexing friendly forces, what do you have to say?"

Li Yu was a little annoyed, and replied with a sneer: "Lord Shen, are you crying out for the traitors Zu Kuan and Li Chongzhen?" These two people boldly covered the sky, in Baoding they dared to rob the emperor's internal money, and secretly collaborated with the enemy, led the east captives to attack Jinan so that the king of Germany sacrificed his life heroically, and did not dare to fight in Shandong, but poisoned the people, these bastards died innocently, and the commander was ordered by the governor of Shandong to appease the place, and he would never show mercy to his subordinates. ”

"The governor of Shandong has done a good job for you, and you are willing to share the credit with him, it is really rare for the Ming Dynasty to get along so well, the official suspects that the two of you are colluding to deceive the court, and says, what is going on with the death of King De?"

Yang Sichang's face changed, and he loudly reprimanded Shen Xun: "King De is a heroic martyr, this matter has been decided by the imperial court, Brother Yu doesn't need to mention it again!" ”

"Since the naturalization army entered the customs, only Lord Yan has done his best to help with the food, and the others have ignored it. Li Yu said sarcastically.

Shen Xun felt insulted, and jumped up in anger: "You have a personal friendship with Dongyu, you are willing to recognize the chief of Jianxi as your father, and offer the jade seal of Hudun Rabbit Han to pass on the country, and openly shout for money, so disregard for shame and betray the country to seek glory, how can it be done by a minister, and you are the first traitor of the Ming Dynasty!" ”

"You can control Lao Tzu, if you want a broken stone, you will give you a piece, you don't understand the things outside the border, there are many people who recognize your father and worship the master, and the dead brain like you is already finished, Lao Tzu is still a traitor after killing countless prisoners, so what are you?"

Li Yu also stood up, waved his fist and roared at Shen Xun, and the two quarreled in the lobby, shocking the people in the military department - two hundred and seventy years after the founding of the Ming Dynasty, it is almost unheard of for a military general to dare to point at Wenchen's nose and scold, this Beiyu is really bold!

"Enough, you all shut up! Today is just a recount, and other things must not be discussed! "Yang Sichang can't bear it, Shen Xun is a talent he values, he once praised Shen Xun's talent ten times better than him, and he can succeed as the secretary of the military department, but the more he goes on, the more he feels that this guy is pedantic, sometimes he is simply stupid, the matter of naturalizing the general army is clear to the court, but he can't tear his face in person, this is the need of the Ming Dynasty to maintain stability, you jump out and want to poke the sky into a hole.

"Lord Shen, Li Shuai's great exploits are known to the world, you can't listen to those Qingliu nonsense and be confused." Zhang Ruoqi said to Shen Xun with a smile, Shen Xun blushed, and walked away angrily.

Yang Sichang comforted Li Yu who was going to commit murder and beat people, and then waved his hand to Zhang Ruoqi, Zhang Ruoqi understood, and immediately spread out a map to explain to Li Yu: The northern border wall of the Beijing Division originally belonged to the Jizhen defense area, divided into the east, west, and middle three associations, and later the imperial court made adjustments, and set up Changping Town from the Western Association to protect the imperial tomb, and the Eastern Association was separated from Jizhen Town to set up Shanhaiguan Town to defend the northeast border troubles, and Sun Chengzong supervised Liaodong and built two fortress groups of Jinzhou and Ningyuan, forming three defense lines of Guan, Ning, and Jin to guard Liaoxi. The Guan, Ning, and Jin defense lines cost a lot of money, but they were unable to forge ahead, and they had no effect on the Dongyu, and the Qing army could attack any of the border walls of Jizhen Zhongxie, Xixie and Changping Town at will through Hara (Karaqin), and the Ming army was almost unable to defend against it, so the military department intended to send troops to Hara Ha and set up another defense line north of the border wall to eliminate the threat of the Dong Lu to Gyeonggi.

"Li Shuai is brave and brave, and there are extremely elite iron cavalry, you are the only one who sends troops to Hara, Jizhen and Changping are Li Shuai's territory in the future." Zhang Ruoqi looked at Li Yu with a smile.

"Han Min boldly went to do it, just like when he took the border of Xuanfu, he took the Hara Yan into his hands, this official will definitely ask the court for food and salary for you, and after the matter is completed, you can be reappointed as the Xuanfu envoy, and the border of Yongzhen will be forever for generations." Yang Sichang said solemnly.

This pit was dug deep enough, and the imperial court took out a hereditary toast as bait, wanting me to be trapped in Karaqin and the Qing Kingdom to fight together, so I didn't fall for it, Li Yu pretended to think for a while, shook his head vigorously and said: "The land of Halaqi is sparsely populated, there are no people for a hundred miles, there is no other livelihood except grazing cattle and sheep, and the war and garrison are completely dependent on the supply of the Guannei, and there is no money to hold this territory." ”

"How much does it cost to keep Haraha?" Yang Sichang asked.

"At least two million taels a year," Li Yu stretched out two fingers, saw Yang Sichang and Zhang Ruoqi's faces change suddenly, and continued, "Hara is the outer domain of the Eastern Prisoners, and it is also their passage to the south, and they must fight to the death, it is not difficult to mobilize 100,000 troops with their strength, and at least 150,000 troops are required to defend Hara, if you consider building castles, purchasing weapons, and immigrating to reclaim the border, two million taels a year is definitely not enough." ”

"It's too much, 200,000 taels can't it?" Zhang Ruoqi was stunned for a while, and suddenly a stupid sentence came out, Li Yu smiled and ignored him.

Yang Sichang sighed, the price of two million taels was much less than he estimated, the five or six million taels of Liao salary per year for the Guanning Jin defense line was not enough, could it cost less to build a defense line in the barren land? The courtiers whimsically gave two small sums of money to send the naturalized general soldiers to garrison Hara, thinking that people were stupid! In his opinion, Li Yu is good enough, if he can really keep his hate, he can allocate two million from the Liao salary to him every year, but he doesn't dare to say this kind of thing, the water in the Liao salary is too deep, and the ghost knows how much money is spent on serious things, not to mention that no matter how bad Zu Dashou and his ilk are, they are also their own watchdogs, so it is better to rest assured than giving money to Li Yu, who is full of thorns.

"Let's talk about this later, Hanmin should go back and rest early," Yang Sichang waved his hand and instructed Li Yu with a smile, "Don't sleep any longer, the emperor may summon you at any time in the next two days." ”

"Li Shuai, this official will send you." Zhang Ruoqi is really good at being a man, and with a smile on his face, he took Li Yu's hand and sent it to the entrance of the military department, and the officials of the military department felt very faceless, and quietly spat behind this guy.

When Li Yu arrived at the entrance of the military department, the eunuch Wang Zhixin of the Dongchang sneaked out and grabbed Li Yu to ask long and short questions - this guy heard that Li Yu went to the military department, so he immediately rushed to guard the gate, for fear that Li Yu would be plotted by someone, and to be honest, he may not be so dedicated to the emperor's life and death.

"Li Shuai, Shen Xun is a stupid person, he only did a stupid thing last year, and he actually asked the court to match monks and nuns with each other to increase hundreds of thousands of household registrations, which scared the nuns of Jingshi to flee in disguise, do you think he is stupid?" Li Yu was amused and laughed, and Wang Zhixin said embarrassedly, "The father-in-law of the Inner Dynasty wants to ask Li Shuai for something, can Li Shuai, can you ask the emperor to send the internal officials to Guihua Town, Li Shuai rest assured, the people in the palace will miss you well, and they will not cause you trouble, Liu Wenzhong is just in Juyong Pass, you can afford to let him be the supervisor." ”

The eunuchs of the Inner Dynasty had been glorious for a few years, once controlled the key points in the court, and monitored the border towns, and blamed them for being too public, which attracted strong resistance from the foreign courtiers, and the emperor had to give in, and now except for Gao Qiqian, Deng Xizhao and a few others, everyone else was recalled to the palace. The eunuchs suffered a big loss and must regain face, so they thought of their good friend Naturalized General Army, but the imperial court never allocated food and salary to the naturalization town, and the internal officials had nothing to do, purely lying down to share military merits, so they had to be cheeky and beg others.

Li Yu waved his hand very generously and said, "Princess, this is a trivial matter, come if you want, I'll go and tell the emperor." ”

"You're righteous!" Wang Zhixin immediately gave a thumbs up.

The emperor is very depressed these days, and the ministers of the foreign dynasty continue to impeach Li Yu, and there are many accusations of communicating with foreign countries, selling themselves for glory, creating false reasoning, messing with evil, causing chaos and chaos with the government, and plotting against him, Huang Daozhou directly called Li Yu the first major sinner in the past and present, and the charges are dozens of charges, almost ten times to delay Li Yuling, at the same time, the nobles and relatives are saying good things for Li Yu, and the cabinet ministers are also urging him to send people away, he can die in naturalization, and he can't have an accident in Beijing no matter what; The inner dynasty was not quiet, and the eunuchs of the ceremonial eunuch quarreled over Li Yu's affairs, and they beat up Cao Huachun and Wang Chengen, who were close to Wenchen, and neither side admitted that they had grievances with the naturalized general soldiers.

A military general outside the border can actually make waves in the court, this person is too unusual, the emperor is a little puzzled, of course he doesn't know that an invisible chain has tied many people around him to the ship of Fengzhou, the outer dynasty and the inner dynasty tacitly seal the matter of some of them doing business in Fengzhou and saving silver to the emperor - cutting off people's financial routes will cause public anger and the whole family will die, and no one will ask for hardship with things that are difficult to verify, missing this link, On the contrary, the emperor felt that the naturalized general soldiers were poor worms who were bullied by the civil ministers, and the court did not pay food, forcing people to sell all the power in their hands, and they had to borrow money from everywhere with a cheeky face to live, how bad could this kind of person be?

Liu Zhilun said in the recital that the naturalized general soldier was born poor, read little and did not know etiquette and righteousness, valued human feelings and did not distinguish between right and wrong, and pulled a hand for his own use, and pushed a hand for others, and it was worse to move him, and the naturalization would immediately become a wild horse that no one could control, and the result was unpredictable, so it was necessary to make it return to naturalization as soon as possible, and I am afraid that something would change if it was late. Although Liu Zhilun is pedantic, but his loyalty is undoubted, and being able to say such a thing is enough to show that the naturalization situation is delicate, after the emperor read the recital, he passed Li Yu to the Wuying Palace to meet - after Chongzhen issued an edict in the eighth year, the emperor lived here for a long time to stop ceremonial music, reduce meals, and deal with state affairs with frugality.

Wang Zhixin sent an edict, and also sent a python robe, Li Yu happily put on new clothes, and followed Wang Zhixin into the palace and entered the Wuying Palace. In the main hall, the emperor was talking to Xue Guoguan, the first assistant, and Yang Sichang, the secretary of the military department, Li Yu was a little stunned, the appearance of the Ming Emperor back then was vaguely remembered, but the person in front of him was wearing a cloth shirt, his face was obviously wrinkled, and a lot of white hair appeared on his head, the emperor should not be so old, Wang Zhixin whispered quietly, and he remembered that he should kneel and salute.

"Li Aiqing is exempt," the emperor waved his hand, looked at Li Yu softly for a while, and said softly, "I still remember the scene when Chongzhen summoned Aiqing for three years, Aiqing would not kneel and bow, and her clothes were torn. ”

Li Yu suddenly felt a wave of heat rushing up, and his eyes turned red and said, "The minister also remembers Your Majesty, but Your Majesty is in his prime, how can this be?" The minister couldn't admit it. ”

"It's not easy for Aiqing to naturalize this family, but it's even more difficult for me to be a Ming family," the emperor smiled bitterly, waved his hand and continued, "I heard Liu Zhilun say that naturalization has been very good over the years, Aiqing will talk about naturalization, so that I can also be happy." ”

Li Yu talked about Fengzhou excitedly, fortunately, Zhang Shi'an had repeatedly instructed him in advance, and Yang Sichang and Wang Zhixin kept looking at each other, and only then did they have reservations - some things must be hidden from the emperor, such as the interests between some people in the Ming Dynasty and Fengzhou, and everyone will be embarrassed to say it, and the Qing Dynasty and the Mongolian ministries can not say anything about the exchanges between Fengzhou, Fengzhou's internal politics and customs, and the emperor seems to be attracted to it, listening to it with relish, and interjecting from time to time to ask a few words.

"Li Aiqing, the tithes and banknote taxes you levied on farmers and merchants are not light, Daming Tianfu is only one of thirty, plus one cent and two cents of silver in Liao, and six hes of rice per mu, and the commercial tax is even few, such a light tax still makes the world boil, and the naturalized people don't make trouble?"

"The naturalized land is barren, the yield per mu is not more than stone, the tax rate is too low and it is better not to levy it, the minister simply let the people collect their own self-support, and all the land taxes collected subsidize public service and military training, in fact, they are returned to the people, they naturally have nothing to say, the income of the minister mainly depends on commercial taxes, but the businessmen are all human spirits, and they have to exchange things for their money, and the minister's authority is changed for money little by little, if there is a natural disaster or war, the money is definitely not enough to spend, and the minister has to be cheeky to borrow money, not to hide it from Your Majesty, the minister is now burdened with millions of debts, I don't know how to pay it back in the future, forget it, the minister is from a low background anyway, and it's a big deal to continue hunting and farming in the future. ”

"What's the deal with naturalized money? Your silver coins are not enough, and the paper money is worthless, do the people recognize it? ”

"Your Majesty, that's not money, it's an IOU issued by the merchant with the face of the minister, and the minister has to look at their face to do things, in fact, the minister doesn't have much silver, and every time he sends a money banknote, he is afraid to die, if the minister is unlucky that day, the common people take the money together and ask to exchange real money, the minister not only has nowhere to hide the debt, but also will be spit in the face."

The emperor looked at the poor worm in front of him sympathetically, and patted the table to cheer Li Yu up: "These businessmen are so rude, do they think they can do whatever they want if they have money, Aiqing doesn't have to be afraid of them, I am in charge of you, just suppress it hard, and they will be honest." ”

"No, naturalization is a poor place, it's good if the merchants can come, not only do the ministers dare not suppress them, but they also have to wait carefully, otherwise they will run away, and the ministers will really starve."

"Every family has a scripture that is difficult to read, and it is not easy for Aiqing," the emperor sighed, thought about it and asked, "Listening to Liu Zhilun's talk about naturalizing the people's simple customs and people's hearts being kind, there is only whipping without imprisonment, hard labor, and there is no death penalty, even corrupt officials and evil officials are rare, how did Aiqing do it?" ”

"It's not so good, there are bad people everywhere, and they need to be dealt with strictly, but there are too few naturalized and literate people, the law is complicated and I don't understand, it's easiest to reason with a whip, and the heaviest person who does bad things can be sentenced to 300 lashes, and if you can't eat it, you will hang yourself, you don't need to be imprisoned and killed, corrupt officials and evil officials are really rare, naturalization is too poor to support officials, the common people usually take care of themselves, there are actually few officials, and they have to be elected by public discussion, they all know each other, and they have no chance to do evil, Moreover, we believe in Lamaism, Islam and Western religion are also very popular, and everyone is not necessarily afraid of the law, but they are afraid of bad luck in the next life or going to hell after death, and they also have scruples about doing bad things. ”

The emperor laughed: "It's better to save trouble than provincial officials, Emperor Xuanzong said well, the bad of the Ming Dynasty is bad because there are too many officials but they don't do things, it's good to believe in religion, at least people can be kind, Li Aiqing, I heard that naturalization builds churches and Xingxi learning, my "Chongzhen Almanac" has been compiled, and the people in the calendar bureau are idle, just to help you." ”

The emperor and the naturalized general army are pulling around, Xue Guoguan and Yang Sichang have been not good at interjecting, at this time I feel that it is time to bring the conversation back to the topic, Xue Guoguan smiled and said: "Naturalized politics and people, the ministers are also happy to hear it, but the naturalized governance policy can only be suitable for small countries and widows, I have a vast territory and a large population in the Ming Dynasty, which is completely different from naturalization. ”