If this Xinyang Town is in modern times, it is the border area of Jiaonan County and Rizhao City in Qingdao City, and Li Meng and his party do not need to spend too much time when they go out of Jiaozhou.

Although Shandong has been included in Li Meng's control, but now in a high position, this portable escort and travel safety arrangement, but to better intentions, these five hundred cavalry is also a few generals specially estimated, even if the soldiers and horses of Yanzhou Mansion and Nanzhili suddenly pressed over, the largest force that the other party can use to assault, Li Meng's side is completely alone, these five hundred cavalry can also resist, and escort Li Meng back to the old camp.

Li Meng, although he felt uncomfortable with such an arrangement, had no objections, after all, in this position, many things need to be actively adapted.

Five hundred cavalry, except for Li Meng's armor, the rest are wearing cloth robes, carrying knives and guns, which do not look like the regular army of the Jiaozhou battalion, but like a caravan of horses walking on the road, of course, the scale of this group is too large, but it is also to hide their identity.

Xinyang Town is close to the sea in the mountains, but the sea is blowing because of the sea breeze, the salt content is very large, there is no way to grow crops at all, and even the plants are not very grown, there are large tracts of open space, Li Meng's group is not small, but they did not enter Xinyang Town, but found a remote place to stop at a distance.

The clerks of Qingzhou Mansion had already sent tents, food, forage and other things, and they did not alarm the situation in Xinyang Town, so they took root so silently.

When it was just dark, half of the cavalry dismounted and half on horseback, they all left the camp and arranged defensive positions on the left and right of a high slope nearby, while Li Meng stood on the slope with the widest field of vision, quietly looking at the dark bottom and the blurred sea in the distance, everyone was waiting for something.

It also happened to be the day of the full moon. The moon rose slowly, and there was silence all around, and it was the end of summer at this time, and people were quiet in the mountains and seashores, and there was a strange feeling.

For a short time, this poetic silence. It was interrupted by a gradual noise, which at first was a small movement, and then it turned into a huge noise.

On the hillside, Li Meng and the guards around him were silent, only the cavalry under the mountain rode back and forth, but the actions were also quite secretive. The great noise was also hard to see, and with the noise there was light, and the moonlight became dim at this moment.

I could see that in the direction of Xinyang Town, in the direction of the huge noise, there were countless stars moving in this direction, Li Meng and his guards didn't react, they were still watching.

Getting closer. The loud noise could be heard as the shouting and shouting of many people, and as for the dots, it could be clearly seen that they were torches in the hands of these people.

"Follow Zhang Lao Er to me!" "Don't run far, the dog is left where the kid is, shout!" "I'm here, I'm here!"

It was already chaotic under this high slope, and the place where Li Meng and the others stood was quite hidden, and there were no torches. The following people can't take care of themselves, no one notices that there is such a group of unlucky guests not far away, these people with torches are full of local dialect of Qingzhou Mansion and Laizhou Mansion, scolding and scolding, they are all complaining about why they came out so night, isn't this a toss!

Among these voices there are also some loud and angry scolding, which are all about maintaining order. From time to time, some people shouted loudly in pain, but unfortunately it was dark after all, otherwise you could still see people chasing and beating with wooden sticks.

There were only two or three thousand people below, but Li Meng, who was standing on the high slope nearby, couldn't even hear the sound of the waves crashing on the shore nearby and other movements, all of them were chaotic and noisy sounds below.

After standing down for a while, the noisy and chaotic voice was a little quieter, but it never quieted down. It went on for a while. Li Meng whispered a few words to the pro-soldier on the side, and the pro-soldier hurriedly ran down the hillside. I don't know how the news was passed between them, but the voices who had been there loudly to maintain order began to shout back with the chaotic crowd below.

Inexplicably came, inexplicably walked away, just a little quieter in the open space, and there was a loud noise, and then angry scolding and driving away, but these people did not riot, just like when they came, a group of people walked back towards the way they came.

At this time, Li Mengdi's guards lit the torches, and at the place where they camped below, they set up a canvas wooden chair for Li Meng, except for the people who had to be guarded, the rest of the people began to make a fire to cook, and some people sent flour and bacon to Li Meng, only two or three thousand people were like a bazaar of 10,000 people, and the five hundred people in the Jiaozhou camp were busy there quietly except for the neighing of the horses, and no one made any sound.

For another half an hour, dozens of horses could be seen galloping towards this side in the distance, and the soldiers of the Jiaozhou battalion took out their weapons one after another, and the low-voiced cloth orders were ready to be guarded.

When those people arrived and shouted a few words to each other, they immediately let the dozens of horses in, and as soon as the dozens of knights entered the guard area of Li Meng's personal guard, they immediately got off their horses, handed over the weapons they were carrying, and bent down and trotted to Li Meng.

Two large braziers had already burned on the left and right of Li Meng, shining this place brightly, and when the dozens of knights were about twenty paces away, they hurriedly knelt on the ground, kowtowed a few times, and said:

"My subordinates have seen Master Li!"

The dozens of people who came over were also wearing cloth clothes, but they were not elegant clothes, they were the kind of short clothes that people on the beach were fishing and working, but these people did not have the appearance of fishermen, they were all tall and strong, fierce and vicious, and the person was a little different compared to the one behind him, and his body was a little thinner, but he also looked fierce.

By the reflection of the firelight, Li Meng looked at the kneeling person in front of him, and squeezed out some smiles on his indifferent face, and said lightly:

"Stand up! This is not in the barracks! “

After some people obeyed the order and stood up, Li Meng nodded, and said to the fierce man with a smile:

"A few months ago, Yang Si, you were still a sea monkey, I heard. Recently, the people in Xinyang Town have called you Hai Dasheng! ”

After hearing Li Meng's words, Yang Si, who was standing in the queue, immediately turned pale, and immediately knelt down and kowtowed on the ground again and again, and explained in a trembling voice:

"Master Mingjian, the chief soldier, this is all nonsense from the ignorant villagers in Xinyang Town, and the villain does not have the slightest other idea. It's allegiance, it's allegiance to the master......"

The government did not dare to touch the top landlords, the big landlords, the powerful industries and the tenants of the fields, but the ordinary people in the towns. It has become the best object of exploitation, and all kinds of taxes are superimposed, which really drives people to death, not to mention that these wolf-like servants have to be levied and sent more to get money for themselves, so that these tax payers are really miserable.

The Jiaozhou battalion turned a blind eye to such a thing, and anyway, the government did not dare to come and touch the industries and subordinate personnel of the Jiaozhou battalion. The more ruthlessly he pushed the others, the more people from the mainland who took refuge in the Jiaozhou camp system, and it was clear that he was driving fish for the abyss, and the Jiaozhou camp was naturally happy to watch. Xinyang Town, Qingzhou Prefecture, is also a relatively prosperous market in Qingzhou Prefecture, and the officials of nearby Zhucheng County are naturally eyeing this place, in mid-July. More than a dozen officials came to Xinyang Town together.

These officials entered Xinyang Town, just like tigers and wolves entering the flock, and the whole town immediately became chaotic, and the disadvantages of this additional levy and training were not in the levy, but in the following taxation places, these people arbitrarily increased, and the taxes to be paid in Xinyang Town were not too high, but they were raised many times by these officials. How can ordinary people afford it?

If there is no silver to pay taxes, they will take away the valuable things in the house, and if there is no valuable things, they will sell their relatives who can sell them for money, and if they have no valuable relatives, then sell themselves.

Successive imperial courts. This piece of administration is only to the county. In other words, there are no more administrators sent by the state under the county, and there is no one in Xinyang Town who can speak out. The officials from these counties are already the largest, and the residents of Xinyang Town are forced to do nothing, but some people took the risk to think about it, and went to the beach to ask Yang Si, the sea monkey who recently returned to his old business, although Yang Si is not a good person, but he did not provoke his neighbors in the past, and this time he begged him to come forward to take care of it, maybe it will be of some use.

Yang Si didn't want to come out, and he didn't know what the people below said to him, and he remembered that the dozen or so officials had only been in the town for less than a day, and they were surrounded by hundreds of fierce young men, the weapons on these errands were nothing more than iron rulers and waist knives, looking at these young men who suddenly appeared, the other party was overwhelmed, and there were still long weapons such as spears and knives in their hands, these errand servants were immediately frightened to the point that their souls were not possessed, but fortunately, Yang Si and these people were still measured in their work, and they did not kill people. Just drove people out of Xinyang Town.

These officials ran all the way back to the Zhucheng Yamen, and when the Zhucheng County Commander heard this report, there were hundreds of young men with weapons gathered in this remote seaside town, and openly resisted taxes, which was a rebellion! Zhucheng County ordered a hurried report to the peak, inviting soldiers and horses to go to exterminate.

But Shandong wants to exterminate the bandits, and there is only one company that sends soldiers and horses, that is, the Jiaozhou battalion under Li Meng, the chief soldier of Shandong.

Not only did those people in the vicinity go over to defect, but some people changed the name of Yang Si's sea monkey, according to the meaning of the Monkey King, calling him the Great Sage of the Sea, in fact, this is the situation when Yang Si officially pulled the pole and pulled the flag for more than a month, but it was a great momentum.

Because of the great chaos in Shaanxi, Huguang, and Henan, the yamen in various places were extremely vigilant against such signs of gathering people and plotting rebellion. The Zhucheng County Commander did not dare to conceal the news, and reported it layer by layer, until the last until the governor of Shandong, of course, the yamen at all levels asked the garrison to help exterminate it, and this garrison was the Jiaozhou battalion of Li Meng, the general soldier of Shandong, and the Jiaozhou battalion at all levels was full of promises, but there was no movement at all.

Wulun is the governor Yan Jizu, or the superintendent Liu Yuanbin, in front of Li Meng, they can't stand up and speak, let alone the military garrison and county officials who are guarding various places, Li Meng's side is not famous, but everyone is helpless. But there was a big thief in Xinyang Town, Qingzhou Prefecture, but it gradually spread.

From the beginning of the preparations to the time Li Meng came over, those young men had been training for more than a month, and Li Meng just wanted to see how well Yang Si and the others had trained.

Outsiders looked at Yang Si majesticly. There is already a heroic posture, but Yang Si himself knows that these thousands of young men and women eat and drink, train weapons, and even lead the small leaders of the team, all of which are controlled by people sent by the Jiaozhou battalion. Being in it is just a tool pushed out by the other party to do things.

What the hell is going to do in Jiaozhou, this Yang Si doesn't even dare to think about it, it's really terrible, but since he has done it, he has no chance to regret it, and his family members and children are all taken to Jiaozhou. In the name of taking care of it, in fact, it is a hostage, Yang Si also understands that even if he wants to escape regardless of his family, he is afraid that if he does not leave this Xinyang Town, his head will fall first.

But then again, Yang Si has been pushed to the position of this bandit leader again. The feeling is very different from before, a few years ago, with one or two hundred men and horses, I already felt extremely majestic, but these days I am in charge of these thousands of young people, and the military law drills, that feeling is very different. No matter how a puppet is, after all, it is a leader, and Yang Si is a little reluctant.

However, every day that passed, Yang Si's awe of the Jiaozhou camp and Li Meng deepened, and Li Meng's understatement and joking words fell on Yang Si's ears. It's like thunder, I just feel that my heart and guts are going to be shattered immediately, and I just kneel down and kowtow and beg for mercy.

This Yang Si had also seen the outlaw pirates of the Bloody Land back then, and it would not be an exaggeration to say that he was a bold man, but in front of Li Meng, all this was without a trace and disappeared.

That sentence was indeed Li Meng's ridicule. I saw Yang Si kneeling. Li Meng couldn't help but shake his head and said with a smile:

"Stand up. You're also the boss of thousands of pirates now, so don't let people see the joke. ”

Hearing the relaxed tone of these words, Yang Si's heart settled down and stood up honestly, but Li Meng turned his head and asked Wang Hai, who was standing behind him, and said:

"Just now, how do you feel when you look at these thousands of people?"

Originally, Wang Hai was standing behind Li Meng with his hands behind his back expressionlessly, but when he heard Li Meng speak, he groaned slightly, his face showed a very contemptuous and disdainful expression, and replied coldly:

"My lord, when we were in the Lingshanwei market that day, it was also like this...... I'm afraid it's not as noisy as this! ”

Wang Hai's evaluation really didn't leave a trace of face, after saying this, a few guards standing behind Li Meng couldn't help laughing, the light of the brazier here is sufficient, and the surroundings are quite bright, if the eyes are better, you can still see that the dozens of pirates behind Yang Si are all ashamed, and some of them bow their heads.

Seeing Wang Hai's face turned blue, Li Meng turned his head with a smile, he understood why Wang Hai was so angry, the Jiaozhou battalion was sent to Xinyang Town to train these young and strong leaders and officers this time, they were all drawn from Wang Hai's personal barracks, and they can be regarded as Wang Hai's descendants.

The thousands of people who came over in a noisy just now, as if they were a ball of loose sand, chasing and beating with sticks and shouting loudly, were the people who were now standing behind Yang Si.

"Hehe, don't be ashamed of you people, some young and strong men who disobey discipline, training for less than a month, marching at night, although chaotic, but not dispersed, this is also your achievement."

Li Meng said with a smile, when he said this, everyone's expressions calmed down a little, but what Li Meng said was indeed what he thought in his heart, these young men recruited in Xinyang Town were really trained to look like this, Li Meng was also a little happy in his heart, and pointed to Yang Si in front of him and said:

"You kid is so good, as soon as you enter my Jiaozhou army, you can command thousands of people, you look at these sons behind me, I have been fighting for a few years, and I haven't had such luck as you!"

Hearing Li Meng's words, Yang Si knelt down again, and said loudly: "It's all the grace of the chief soldier, the villain can have a background under the adult, glorify the ancestor, and the small one can't repay the adult even if he is a cow or a horse." ”

Since he was forcibly tied to the chariot of the Jiaozhou battalion, all Yang Si thought in his heart was that he would work hard and not be discarded by the other party in the end, Li Meng's words had already vaguely promised him a way out, Yang Si was excited, and this time he knelt down to thank him, but it was really out of gratitude in his heart.

The next step is to explain what to do next. After a few simple sentences, Yang Si and they were about to return to Xinyang Town, and when they left, Li Meng smiled and confessed:

"I look like this today, and in two months, I'll come back and hope to see it for a few more days!"

Everyone on Yang Si's side agreed in unison. Hurriedly rode back to Xinyang Town. In the early morning of the next day, Li Meng and his guards also left early, and the open space where they were was actually the place where Yang Si led his subordinates to train martial arts, except for dozens of leaders, no one knew that Li Meng had led people to come.

After returning to Jiaozhou. The first thing Li Meng did was to ask the Laizhou prefect to draw up a letter with Zhou Yang, the governor of Yanjizu, to urge the military to ask for military salaries and grain.

Although Tuntian Grange has a certain reserve, it can't stand the absorption of too many displaced people this time. Every day, large quantities of food are consumed, and large quantities of money are poured into them.

The sale of private salt in Shandong, the private salt trade with the Zheng family, the income of the Lingshan Commercial Bank, and the income of the Zheng family's merchant ships at sea paying taxes at the port, and the income from the merchant ships nominally belonging to the Jiaozhou battalion, in addition to spending on the operation of the Jiaozhou battalion itself, the rest of the money was invested in the major projects of recruitment, relocation of workshops, and resettlement of displaced people. It also cost a lot of money to rebuild Jinan Mansion, which was defeated by the Tartar soldiers, into a fortress.

In the past, Li Meng relied on his own money to raise soldiers, and he had a lot of money, and he didn't care about the deductions and deductions from the land and grain salaries allocated by the imperial court. Other incomes haven't risen much.

Zhou Yang's staff and Ning Qiangui's private salt inspection yamen, everyone was worried, desperately allocating and raising, to see if they could withstand this hurdle, Li Meng still had almost 100,000 taels of silver in his hand that had not been used, but this was the last reserve, and it was not the time when 100,000 yuan was urgent. Absolutely not to take it out.

There's no immediate way to increase your revenue. The only thing that can be thought of is the food and salary allocated by the imperial court, and it is calculated. Another year's salary has not been allocated, even if the military department deducts it, but the governor of Shandong and the local yamen at all levels will definitely not dare to deduct it, and it is a large amount of money in his hand, and he can always save the emergency.

After Zhou Yang finished writing the excerpt here, Master Ning also hurried to Li Meng's side, and the two of them had long wanted to talk to Li Meng about the land budget for the coming year.

Speaking of which, although Zhou Yang and Ning Qiangui are both scholars, Zhou Yang was the same governor of Laizhou at this time, and he was also a middle-level official, while Ning Qiangui was born in a show, and he was also a master in the Yanzheng Yamen. The literati around Zhou Yang and the literati around Ning Qiangui looked down on each other.

However, Zhou Yang and Ning Qiangui got along quite well, this time to talk about the budget for the coming year, the two sides had communicated in advance, after a few simple greetings, Zhou Yang first said:

"My lord, my subordinates are straight to the point, according to this year's spending rate, there will be a gap of about 300,000 taels next year, even if the food and salary allocated by the imperial court are allocated on time, there is still a gap of about 150,000 taels."

Li Meng didn't make a sound, just raised his hand to signal Zhou Yang to continue, seeing that Li Meng's expression did not change, Zhou Yang turned his head and glanced at Master Ning, and continued:

"The food and salary that the subordinates just talked about just said that the military department only deducted 50%, if the deduction is only 30%, the gap is even greater, and this year is a big drought, and the subordinates are worried that although the fields have increased this year, the harvest may not be as good as last year, and the displaced people are still pouring in......"

Speaking of this, Zhou Yang groaned, and he also knew that the next words were very unpleasant, but he gritted his teeth and said:

"If this drought continues, I am afraid that in February next year, the flow of money and property in the Jiaozhou battalion will collapse, and at that time, the soldiers will be without pay, and the situation will be even more unbearable."

"Give Ben a number, if it's the worst situation, how many taels of silver will you use to fill it!?"

Hearing Li Mengxiang's question, Zhou Yang and Ning Qiangui glanced at each other, but this time it was Ning Qiangui who opened his mouth and said slowly:

"Report to your lordship, the thirty tents on the side of the Yamen of the Inspection Department have been counted for five days, and this year's drought has affected the harvest of the grange according to last year's seventy-fifty. The difference is 450,000 taels, but looking at this drought, the harvest is not pessimistic when converted into 60% of last year, then it will be 600,000 taels!! ”

After Zhou Yang and Ning Qiangui said the large numbers of "450,000 taels" and "600,000 taels", they wanted to show Li Meng. The Jiaozhou battalion's systematic financial situation has been extremely dangerous, from the beginning of the monopoly of Shandong's illegal salt business to the Zheng family to sell illegal salt, the Jiaozhou battalion's income at its peak will also spend 300,000 taels of silver, most of which is spent on the soldiers of the Jiaozhou battalion.

The expenses outside that day were the military expenses of the Jiaozhou battalion, and the rest of the land was small. It has always been quite wealthy, but since the establishment of the Tun Tian Zhuang, the cost has increased suddenly, if the Tun Tian Farm is set up for five years, it will naturally have great profits, but the first two years of continuous expansion and absorption, everywhere is the need for investment.

The reason why it is still supporting. It is nothing more than that although the Tuntian Grange has a huge cost, it also has production, relying on production supplementation, one in and one out barely balanced some income and expenditure, but this year's expansion and the increase of the Grange have made this fragile balance unable to support. Zhou Yang and Ning Qiangui are in charge of the financial and people's livelihood of the Jiaozhou camp. Seeing such a situation, how can you not be in a hurry.

But that time the Tatars entered Koushan, and Li Meng was promoted to become the commander-in-chief of Shandong, the expansion of the Jiaozhou battalion was a must, which was also the consensus of everyone, but although the 20,000 soldiers recruited did not need to consider the future cost of food, armor and weapons all cost money. Those who fled also need to be taken in. In the future, it will be human resources for Jiaozhou's cultivation and operations, and resettlement expenses will also be indispensable.

knew that the money should be spent, but the money was not enough to spend, which really made Zhou Yang, Ning Qiangui and his subordinates anxious. But that's not the case yet. A few months later, the impending catastrophe was even more uncomfortable.

Make money out of thin air. Even if Li Meng has the ability to reach the sky, he does not have this ability, but in the eyes of Zhou Yang and Ning Qiangui, among the various policies set by Li Meng, there are certainly all kinds of amazing strategies, but there are also some inappropriate, after changing them, this economic difficulty may be solved.

However, Li Meng became the general of the town from the people of Weimo, and he was extremely determined and has always been very assertive, and Zhou and Ning were subordinates after all, and they could not directly refute some fundamental policies, so they wanted to use the fact that the finances of the Jiaozhou battalion were facing collapse to lead the topic, and then persuade Li Meng.

After Ning Qiangui said this, the two looked at Li Meng's expression, but they couldn't see the stunned expression on Li Meng's face, in their hearts, they felt that Li Meng was always busy with the military affairs of the Jiaozhou camp and ignored the fundamental matter of spending money, but although Li Meng's expression was solemn, he was not surprised, and he clearly knew about this matter a long time ago.

The room was quiet for a while, and Li Meng said in a deep voice:

"Will the money still be used until February next year?"

Zhou Yang and Ning Qiangui glanced at each other, Ning Qiangui squinted slightly, recalled the results of everyone's accounting a little, and said in a deep voice:

"There should be some surplus, that is, to support the situation for more than ten days, but the food in the Tuntian Grange should be completely made up, so there is no need to worry about this."

When Li Meng heard this, his face relaxed slightly, leaned back in the chair, closed his eyes, and said to himself:

"The maximum difference is 600,000 taels, 600,000 taels ......"

He opened his eyes, tapped his hand on the table, and said in a deep voice:

"Don't worry, it's going to be a lot of work by then."

The two people sitting down were very surprised, thinking to themselves what was going on, Li Mengdi had 200,000 taels of silver in his private treasury, and they also knew it, but that was just a few more months to support, in addition, what other way did Li Meng get a large amount of gold and silver to tide over the difficulties.

Zhou Yang is young in the end, seeing this, he was already anxious to stand up, and clenched his fists and persuaded: "My lord, there are more than 10,000 soldiers in this world who are full of food, such a troubled world, and they are all Lingshan disciples, and forty percent of the food and salary is already a great kindness, as well as the gunboat, the merchant ship, so much silver is spent every month, all for the Zheng family to raise soldiers and ships, save these two pieces of silver, my Jiaozhou battalion is naturally running smoothly, and there is no need to worry about money." ”

Having said this, Ning Qiangui also stood up and said deeply:

"My lord, these two sums of silver are enough to account for more than sixty percent of the monthly expenses of my Jiaozhou camp, which is a senseless expense!"