Wu Jiawei is known for his courage to speak out in Nanjing officialdom, and rarely considers the rules of officialdom when doing things, although every time he speaks, he is to the point, and there is always a whirlwind blowing in this muddy officialdom, but what he says can be solved quite satisfactorily, so he has a capable evaluation.

But this recklessness always makes people feel uneasy, the Nanjing Military Department Shangshu wanted to write an excerpt several times to recommend this colleague to be promoted, hesitated again and again or did not play, other high-ranking officials and nobles are also similar opinions, such reckless people, doing things is really uneasy, now under the pressure of his subordinates, to be a pioneer for himself, in case things are not right, he can also be used to help himself clean up the responsibility. In case he is promoted, he will have to take responsibility for his own promotion, and he can't control himself when his official position is high, so he will make some more stupid temper, and it will be bad if he has any obstacles with everyone.

However, Wu Jiawei really has the meaning of an upright minister, although he has not been promoted, he still speaks impartially and bluntly, and there is nothing to shy away from.

This time, Xuzhou Dangshan Wei was sued by the Fang family, Nanjing's military department Shangshu, garrison, and town guard eunuchs discussed for many days, and they couldn't come up with a charter for disposal, and sent soldiers to suppress it, and now they are in a tight situation everywhere, and they are still fighting a lawsuit with Beijing, and they have transferred soldiers and horses, but a lot of money and food have to be reimbursed in Nanjing, and both sides are about to tear off their faces, and they can't call a new army, and now there is no force that can be used at all; If you send a civil official to ask for the guilt, now is not the previous dynasty, and a civil official can scare the military general's soul out of possession, and now these Qiu Ba are flying one by one, and they don't take the old men in their eyes, and if they don't do it, they will provoke a mutiny.

No matter who proposes this disposal plan, if there is a mess at that time, it will be the responsibility of the person who proposed the plan, and the situation in the world is the biggest sin for things related to the chaos of the soldiers, and no one wants to say a superfluous word.

Or this Wu Jiawei is outspoken, and said directly and generously:

"Since Li Meng, the chief soldier of Shandong, has already stationed soldiers and horses in both Yanzhou Mansion and Huai'an Mansion. I heard that he also has soldiers stationed in Guide Mansion, so this place in Xuzhou is equivalent to him in the bag, if you let this Li Meng send troops to replace it, this kind of soldiers attach the most importance to being stationed in a place, we only need the next paperwork. Waiting for the conflict between the Shandong army and Dangshanwei is, anyway, it is also to give the Fang family an explanation! ”

Unlike those who did not know the details of Li Meng's background in the Confucian Mansion and the Beijing Division in Shandong, these officials in Nanzhili knew that Li Meng's soldiers and horses were rampant and domineering, and they were originally stationed in Haizhou, but after a period of time, inexplicably, Shandong soldiers actually had garrisons in Lianghuai.

Act like this. Such a military general is still so low-key, and these high-ranking officials in Nanjing feel that Li Meng is really a problem, and there may be some chaos in the future.

Since it is such a dangerous character, it is better to have less to do with him, especially for something like letting him be stationed in Xuzhou, if there is any trouble in the future, it will definitely be involved.

Now the assistant of the Jingshi seems to be changing, and the position of Shangshu Shilang is not safe, so I can't say when. will be sent out to supervise the army, and then because of something, he will lose his head inexplicably. Originally, everyone thought that being exiled in Nanjing and going to Beijing was the right way, but now Beijing is a fire pit, and it is better to provoke less, how good it is to stay in the flower world of Nanjing City.

Everyone is reluctant to do too much, lest they take responsibility and lose their official positions, although this matter is thought about after thinking about it, that is, Li Meng's dispatch of troops to change the defense is the most appropriate way to deal with it. But no one wants to say it first, now that Wu Jiawei, the waiter of the Nanjing Military Department, is stupid and stupid to speak out first, then the responsibility is his responsibility, everyone looks at the excitement, in addition to the poor pool, his position as a waiter is also worth a lot.

The irony of this matter is ironic that the high-ranking officials in Nanjing know that Li Meng is not reassuring. The reason why he didn't want Li Meng to come to Xuzhou to station. It's not that Li Meng is dangerous, but that he is afraid of taking responsibility. Lose your official position.

Since Wu Jiawei proposed that someone should bear the responsibility, then everyone was happy, and there was no objection, and they finally gave an explanation to the Fang family.

However, the high-ranking officials in Nanjing City all looked at this Wu Jiawei with the attitude of looking at fools, thinking that this Nanjing military squire was accurate in seeing things, but how to do things was so frizzy, I don't know if the method of winning and undefeated in the officialdom is to talk less and kowtow more, this Wu Jiawei is still desperately carrying the responsibility to himself, it is really too long. Of course, Wu Jiawei also wanted to be promoted a few more levels, but since he started the imperial examination, the Zheng family has invested a lot of money in him, and there are many shady helps, step by step, step by step, he is already firmly integrated with the Zheng family, and he can't disobey the other party's instructions at all. Every time he dreams back at midnight, Wu Jiawei often suddenly startles and sweats, and he doesn't know if he wants to live like this.

Sometimes Wu Jiawei can only comfort himself with these words, what is the purpose of being an official, one is for fame, and the other is for money. ==== Now that the Zheng family has a large sum of silver, he also has a reputation for speaking out outside, and his peace of mind is over, why think so much!

Since someone has set the rules, then they will do it, and it is someone else who will do it anyway.

No one has any doubts about Wu Jiawei's outspokenness, because in their opinion, Wu Jiawei, the squire of the Nanjing Military Department, and Li Meng, the general soldier of Shandong, are fundamentally incompatible, and there will be no interference from any interests.

The yamen procedures of the various ministries in Nanjing were also fast, and Wu Jiawei quickly prepared the excerpts, handed them over layer by layer, and waited for the approval of the Beijing Division.

It was already in the middle of the month, everyone was relieved, and they could finally continue to have a peaceful year, so they didn't have to worry about the affairs of Xuzhou, and left Li Meng with a headache.

For the generals of this era, it is not that the bigger the territory, the better, because there are so many troops in the backbone area, and if you get the authority to garrison in a certain place, even if you don't maintain law and order, you don't go to garrison, and you just go to burn, kill and loot, you have to send troops there.

Sending out troops is tantamount to weakening one's own strength, and the general who leads the troops often has the mind of self-reliance after going there, anyway, the source of strength of each general comes from his own soldiers. The superior's advantage over his subordinates is only that there are many pro-soldiers. The court issued a decree that this place was guarded by this general, so who would care who the boss was? It would be easy to divide this force.

Not to mention these, Xuzhou is not a rich place, and the people in the territory are fierce. Fighting in the countryside is simply commonplace, and the local forces are also very strong, purely a bit of chaos, the government decrees are not smooth, and most things are required to be handled by local elders. It is very difficult to go to the Xuzhou Zhujun and make money locally, so it is a little stricter. It will provoke a popular uprising, and a group of people will besiege the government and attack the military camp, which is not uncommon. So everyone thinks that Li Meng may not be willing, maybe he will come back, and many officials are waiting to see Wu Jiawei's joke and see how heavy Li Meng's slap is.

But what these Nanjing officials didn't expect was that after the discussion of Wu Jiawei, the squire of the Nanjing Military Department, the fast horse that sent the fold had not yet left the Nanjing city gate. The Jiaozhou battalion already has an envoy in Xuzhou City.

Dangshan guards the garrison west of Xuzhou, but the west of Xuzhou is Henan, and that place is not peaceful. And the poor countryside is not as comfortable as being stationed in Xuzhou City.

Less than 2,000 people from Dangshan Wei stayed in Xuzhou City, in order to be their guard commander, which is the usual name of everyone, because the guards are all military households that farm land, and the establishment of going out to fight is not according to the establishment of the guard, in the official documents, this army is called the Dangshan battalion.

It's just the soldiers and horses of the local people. Everyone is called by the familiar name, the surname of the guard commander of Dangshan Wei is Shan, and he is an old man in his fifties.

Don't look at these 1,600 or 700 people, but in this Xuzhou City, this Dangshan Wei is equal to the Emperor Taishang, and the big families outside the city can mobilize a large number of Ding Zhuang. These residents in the city don't have that ability, and Dangshanwei is naturally effective in speaking. Even the governor of Xuzhou couldn't be subdued.

But this is homegrown. No matter how evil it is, it can't be ruthless, at best, it is a level of bullying and dominating the market. Life is also hard haha, but some time ago, the days of Dangshan Weidi suddenly got a lot better, and the money in his hand was also a lot of money, according to the old bustard in the green building, these soldiers suddenly became generous.

However, it was just a few days of generosity, and then I don't know what happened, the Dangshan guards who had always been rampant on the streets suddenly quieted down, and they stayed obediently in the barracks day and night, which was really surprising.

According to some well-informed people in the city, Commander Shan of Dangshanwei has been discussing with Lord Zhizhou in the past few days, saying that he is going to Xiaoshan County to station.

With these soldiers, Zhizhou has a headache, but without these soldiers, Xuzhou is equivalent to a complete emptiness, a little chaos will become a disaster, and you can't let this soldier go, the two sides are a little entangled for a while, today this Xuzhou Zhizhou has to send someone to ask for consultation, but was blocked back by the single commander of the personal soldiers, saying that the single commander has a distinguished guest today.

This distinguished guest is Jiang Xianxuan, the deputy commander of the Shandong Salt Gang, who is approaching the New Year, and it is cold and freezing to assemble, and it is inconvenient to run the boat, and this is less than 2,000 soldiers and horses, and it is really a bit of a fuss to send soldiers to exterminate it, so it is better to talk about it first and see if there is any possibility of a peaceful solution.

"Brother Jiang, brother, I have been following the land in Dangshan, the villagers, and I have been born and died with me for so many years, I can't bear it, brother!"

Jiang Xiansui sat on the chair and watched Shan Shan talk to himself with emotion, this was obviously talking about emotion, and he stretched out his hand to wipe his eyes, and he didn't know if he had shed tears, but in the face of these people, Jiang Xianqiu was not as careful as he was in the Jiaozhou camp, he just sneered and watched how the other party performed. (

Sure enough, after this Shan Shan wiped his tears, he sniffled and continued:

"Fifteen taels is too little, add more, they are all good men who can fight and farm, and I don't want their lichen, armor and weapons, so if you count them, how can you get fifty taels!"

Jiang Xianxuan came over to talk, opened up the conditions of Shandong, scattered the soldiers and horses in his hands, and the Jiaozhou battalion could give a certain amount of money to compensate, that Danshan was a local snake that had been stationed in the Lianghuai area for many years, so he naturally knew the strength of the soldiers and horses in Shandong, and he didn't say anything hypocritical, and directly talked about the conditions.

Fifty taels of one, almost more than 60,000 taels of silver into the account, how can there be so many good things, Jiang Xianxuan is the deputy commander of the Shandong Salt Gang outside, and the decision to kill is also the true color of the heroes of the rivers and lakes, after the lion of Shan Mountain opened his mouth. He immediately retorted with a sneer:

"Brother Shan, I have also seen your soldiers, all of them are no different from tuberculosis ghosts, and they are also embarrassed to say that they are also in tatters. Besides, can you Dangshanwei soldiers fight, the dozens of them in Jining Prefecture are the strongest, it's not that they were pulled out and cut off at night, fifteen taels are already the grace of my family. ”

Nawei commanded Shan Shan to be pierced by the other party, and his face was not even red. Hehe smiled and continued:

"Brother, I am the others, hand over the sons and daughters in my hands, it will be a waste, don't ask for more silver to support the elderly, how can I be worthy of myself, how to say that we are also the officers and soldiers of the Ming Dynasty, but we can't be ambiguous."

Hearing this, Jiang Xianxuan threw the tea bowl in his hand on the table, and shouted coldly:

"Don't be ignorant, you Dangshanwei trafficked illicit salt. It has already violated Shandong's taboo, and talking to you at this time is to give you a chance. Shan Shan, don't make trouble so much that you can't clean it up, everyone will be ugly at that time. ”

was pointed at his nose and shouted by a Shandong official who was more than 20 years younger than himself and had no grade, and Shan Shan, who had always been a hippie smile, couldn't hold it on his face, jumped up from the chair suddenly, pointed at Jiang Xianxuan's nose and scolded:

"You kid who hasn't faded yet, you dare to talk like that. Push Lao Tzu into a hurry, close the city gate when the time comes, slaughter you first, and then break the ......net with you Shandong."

Originally, he was scolding ruthlessly, but Shan Shan shouted a few words, and Jiang Xianqiu, who was sitting opposite, did not move, but his eyes became colder and colder when he looked at him. The more Shan Shan shouted, the more he had no confidence. Jiang Xianxuan sat where he sat and said coldly:

"Single Command. Don't think too high of yourself, if you really dare to move, within three hours, Shandong soldiers and horses will drive into Xuzhou. ”

This is said easily, but it doesn't seem like a lie, Shan Shan jumped up, but at this time he froze there, cold sweat slowly rolled down his forehead, and after a while, under the cold gaze of Jiang Xianxuan on the other side, he reluctantly showed a smile that was more ugly than crying, and pleaded:

"I was fascinated by phlegm, let's talk about it......"

On the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth month of the fourteenth year of Chongzhen, 1,600 people from Dangshanwei laid down their arms and returned to Dangshanwei, the head of the Jiaozhou Camp Tuntianzhuang in Guide Mansion in Henan Province and Yanzhou Mansion in Shandong Province, and set up a Tuntian Grange here in Dangshanwei, and 16,700 officers and soldiers of Dangshanwei became the Tuntian households of this grange. The original guard commanded Shan Shan, and became the deputy head of this Tuntian Grange, and in this Tuntian Grange in Xuzhou, he began to recruit displaced people from northern Jiangsu and Henan to cultivate the Tuntian.

According to the Jiaozhou camp's estimates, perhaps these Dangshanwei officers and soldiers will have some backlash, but the feedback from the situation, the officers and soldiers of Dangshanwei are very happy, the military household is a lack of free identity, and the identity of the Tuntian family in Tuntian Grange is no different to them.

Moreover, after Tuntian, the granges in Henan and Shandong were allocated for food relief, and they were able to eat enough, which was much better than the previous days.

For them, the area around Dangshan County is their hometown and land, and they can still have food and clothing in familiar places, and they will not change when the gods come these days.

Give Shan Shan a position of deputy head of the village, each person eighteen taels of silver, this thing is the cheapest one is this old man, Shan Shan is really elated to get the position of the head of the village, thinking that at least there is nothing to worry about in this life, but he also has a faint worry.

Shan Shan's worry is the same as those people in Nanjing City, Xuzhou is surrounded by wealthy families, and the local concept is extremely heavy, and the rash entry of foreign soldiers and horses will definitely cause a local backlash, even if it is not impossible to fire and conflict with each other.

When the time comes, the court will blame it, and everyone will have no responsibility, if you want to blame Wu Jiawei, the squire of the Nanjing Military Department, who talks nonsense, and Li Meng, the general soldier of Shandong, who does not know what to do and only thinks about expanding the territory, but is considered to be a troublesome Xuzhou wealthy family, this time they are all honest, and they dare not do anything to oppose or resist the stationing of the Jiaozhou battalion and horses, as well as the establishment of the Dangshan Weitun Tianzhuang, and everyone who can say a few words is singing praises, and those who are not qualified to speak are doing their best to fund the grain.

These big clans in Xuzhou were already completely subdued and frightened as early as when Zhang Jiang was stationed in Haizhou.

Guide, Xuzhou, Huai'an, and Yangzhou, these four places were connected before the New Year of the fifteenth year of Chongzhen, which is different from the concept of controlling places in this era. For the Jiaozhou battalion system, as long as a certain place is established in Tuntian Grange, this place is firmly under Li Mengdi's control.

Taking advantage of the opportunity of Fang Yingzhong, the boss of the Fang family, and the remnants of Xuzhou trafficking in illicit salt, Li Meng expanded the territory in his hand a little outside. Connect Guide Mansion and Huai'an Mansion together, so that the Huaiyang Army can support Guide through Xuzhou at any time.

In the eyes of outsiders, no matter how authentic Li Meng is, he is the general of the Ming Dynasty, and the court does not give a penny, but he has to garrison so many territories. It was he who suffered, this Li Meng is really a fool, thinking that he would be majestic if he occupies a place?

Of course, Li Menghe and the Jiaozhou battalion system didn't think so......

In fact, as far as Shandong is concerned, relying on the village protection team organized in the Tuntian Grange is enough to pacify the place, and the team composed of these young and strong Zhuang Ding, as long as it is armed, it is very easy to deal with most of the thieves and the officers and soldiers of the Ming Dynasty.

However, the Guardians are not officially recognized as being armed. Li Meng didn't want to admit that this was armed, and the territory was increasing, and Li Meng just took advantage of this reason. Expand your army.

The Huaiyang Army was ready to expand to 20,000, the Dengzhou Army and the Laizhou Army were each preparing to expand to 25,000 men, and the soldiers and horses of the Lao Ying and Yanzhou Army were expanded to a total of 40,000.

If it can really be expanded to this scale, plus the miscellaneous armed forces of Guide Mansion, Li Meng's soldiers and horses can almost have more than 120,000.

An army of more than 100,000 sounds shocking, but it is not a big army, and the Northern Zhili Imperial Court has set up eight general soldiers. The miscellaneous army also gathered nearly 100,000 people.

As for the combined army of Li Zicheng and Luo Rucai in Henan, it is claimed that there are millions of people, and Zuo Liangyu, the general of the Ping Thief, is now known as an army of 300,000......

In such a comparison, it seems that Li Meng's hundreds of thousands of people are not very rare, and the imperial court is not worried, anyway, the military department of the Beijing Division only admits that Li Meng, the general soldier of Shandong, has 25,000 soldiers, and it has not been allocated a penny of silver for five years. If you have money, you can raise it yourself.

For Li Meng. With nearly 30,000 troops, there are two problems. First, there are not many suitable soldiers, and if we recruit troops from the Tuntian Grange, it will affect the youth and strength of the cultivated fields. The second is military spending, the proportion of troops in the grange is getting smaller and smaller, and if soldiers are recruited from the common people, the cost of military salaries and weapons will surge.

For the Jiaozhou camp, the current local financial operation is walking on a tightrope, and the Tuntian Grange in Guide and Xuzhou are both start-ups, and they are only inputs but not outputs.

In the fourteenth year of Chongzhen, he fought with the Chuang army in Henan, as well as the later war between Li and Luo's combined forces, all of which consumed a lot of military spending, and now Li Meng's money bag has become deflated again.

You have to find a charter to make money, the profit of private salt is actually a small amount of change, and the sea trade is also cramped on the ships, the Zheng family has always been in control of the number of sea ships belonging to Shandong, Jiaozhou camp such an exhibition, so that the Zheng family inevitably did not take precautions, for fear that the Jiaozhou camp independently operated the sea trade to seize the market.

The profits of Lingshan Commercial Bank engaged in commerce and trade, compared with private salt and sea trade, are really not worth mentioning, he has to spend money more often, and Lingshan Commercial Bank is more of an eyeliner of Jiaozhou Yingming.

In addition to being self-sufficient, most of the land provided to the Jiaozhou battalion army was grain, and basically contributed nothing to gold and silver currency.

Military salaries and large purchases from other places are needed for these gold and silver currencies, especially saltpeter, a large number of firearms in the Jiaozhou camp have a great demand for gunpowder, and these gunpowder need to be purchased from foreign countries through the Zheng family, which is a business that requires real money and silver.

Lack of money!! This is the reason why Li Meng worries every day

The Spring Festival of Chongzhen fifteen years, Shandong is rare and peaceful and prosperous, the Tuntian households of Tuntian Grange, in this Spring Festival, the head of the village got the instructions from above, and the fingers were loosened, and these people in Tuntian can have a relatively comfortable New Year.

As for those who have children and relatives who serve in the army, this New Year is full of wine and meat, and for many poor families, this year is even better than the Spring Festival they had in the best peaceful years.

The military families and craftsmen in the Jiaozhou battalion system, all those who have been related to this system, have had a prosperous and happy New Year.

After so many years of exhibition, the gap between people who belong to Li Meng's system and those who do not belong to this system has manifested itself in all aspects, and those who are inside are much better than those outside.

For Li Meng. On the twenty-ninth day of the lunar month, he was still receiving envoys from the Xuzhou clan, these people were almost servile and humble. For Jiaozhou to open a grange, the need to be young and strong, and to obtain protons are all accepted.

These wealthy families of Xuzhou have no requirements, or their requirements are well known to everyone, and there is no need to say them explicitly, that is, to protect the safety of the big clans and treat these wealthy families of Xuzhou like your subjects.

The same. Jia Dashan of Guide Mansion and those landlords and gentry who were enshrined in other provinces in Henan also sent people to give gifts to celebrate the New Year, and Fang Yingren of the Yangzhou Fang family did not leave directly this time, and their business in Jining Prefecture also prepared generous gifts, and it was convenient to send them directly here. Although Kong Sande was already living at home, he also sent a big gift.

Kong Sande sent a big gift, not only the money and jewelry, but also the news, saying that it was in the capital of Yanzhou, Ziyang, that Zhu Yipai, the king of Lu, wrote a letter to Jingshi, saying that the price of salt was soaring. The local people are miserable, and they implore the imperial court to clean up the salt affairs in Shandong and return the people of Li to a prosperous future.

The attitude of the Jiaozhou battalion towards King Lu and Confucius was about the same. They are all more tolerant, the king of Nalu is also a large landowner in Shandong, this Wangzhuang has many fields, there are many tenant farmers, and there is a lot of salt, and the price of salt has skyrocketed, and I really feel the pain in my flesh.

The relatives of the Ming Dynasty were enclosed in the city, as if they were pigs. Some people are thinking about rebellion, and more people are thinking about how to make money, even though they are vassal kings, their children and grandchildren are inexhaustible, but they still keep making money.

King Fu was unwilling to come up with a little silver to pay in the critical situation that Luoyang City was about to be broken, which is a side proof of this mentality.

This is even more so of the Lu King Zhu Yipai. Heard the report of the governor of the palace. said that because of the soaring price of salt, this month's income will be reduced by 20%. Immediately there was a furious outburst.

Li Meng did all kinds of things that did not conform to the etiquette system of the imperial court in Shandong, and King Lu would not care even if he knew, Li Meng accumulated soldiers and horses, ignored the local officials of the imperial court, and was arrogant, and King Lu also ignored it, but if it touched the things on the silver money, it would be unbearable or unbearable.

In the history without Li Meng's participation, when His Royal Highness King Lu was about to be broken in Yanzhou's capital, the Yanzhou prefect once advised him to scatter his family wealth to raise Ding Zhuang to defend the city, but the Lu King Zhu Yipai ignored the prefect's suggestion.

His actions are very similar to those between King Fu and the prefect of Henan Province before Luoyang City was besieged by Li Chuang, and the Yanzhou Mansion City was broken two years later than Luoyang City.

At present, Li Meng runs this Shandong like an iron bucket, and he must not have those things, but this Lu Wang Zhu Yipai loves money and does not want to die, which is really stupid.

Kong Sande's Wenru firm has branches all over Shandong, and Lu Wangfu is an old relation, and some large and small news often comes to him.

In particular, Kong Sande was idle at home, and he was even more interested in establishing a good relationship with Li Meng, so that these people everywhere must report the news about Li Meng, the general soldier of Shandong, in a timely manner.

It is said that at that time, King Lu called a scribe, and on this recital, he wanted to write that Li Meng, the general soldier of Shandong, was a general of the imperial court, but he sold illicit salt and disturbed the people's livelihood.

Or Lu Wangdi's younger brother Zhu Yihai's desperate plea, saying that Brother Wang must not be reckless, no matter what the Shandong General Army has done, the army is stationed around, even if the court wants to punish Li Meng, if the other party does it, Lu Wangfu has no ability to resist.

Zhu Yihai made all kinds of requests, and King Lu finally did not directly mention Li Meng's name, but asked the imperial court to rectify the salt administration in Shandong.

During the Spring Festival, Jinan City was full of joy, but Li Meng was a little worried, it was imperative to expand the army, but there was no new source of money, so he was really worried about where to get money......