At the end of the twelfth year of Yongli, while Chen Wen and the gentry in Jiangnan were engaged in an economic war with tens of millions of taels of silver as the basic unit, Liu Wenxiu, the king of Shu, was still scratching his head about the salary of the army under his command in the palace of the Shu King of Sichuan Xingdu Division. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

Since the previous year, when he sent troops north to aid Wu Sangui, Liu Wenxiu began to work in Tuntian in southern Sichuan. The feudal towns under the banner of the Ming Dynasty now control half of the world, but most of them are in the hands of the Ming army of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and they are all fought by the Ming army of Jiangsu and Zhejiang. In contrast, the Ming army of the Xiying system, which played triumphant songs once it came out of Yunnan to resist the Qing Dynasty, has now fallen into decline in previous infighting.

Nowadays, apart from the independent Ming army of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and the Ming army of Fujian, which is far away in southern Fujian and Taiwan, and the Ming army in Fujian, which lacks sea and land connections, the territory under the name of the Yongli Imperial Court is not small, covering almost all the regions of China's southwest.

However, the four southwestern provinces, Yunnan, Guizhou, and Guangxi, are economically underdeveloped regions that sound good, and Sichuan has been economically developed since ancient times, but now it is not as good as these three provinces -- after all, there is no one to talk about the economy.

The economy is underdeveloped, the territory of these four provinces, there are many toasts, the Ming army system is also extremely complicated, and finance has always been a big problem that plagues the Ming court.

In fact, Sun Kewang was okay in the years when he held the country, and the leader of the Xiying Alliance could at least suppress those large and small military leaders, and his administrative ability was also the best in the world. Relying on the territory of these provinces, even when there were only two provinces of Yunnan and Guizhou, they could support more than 100,000 troops to attack on the three fronts of Huguang, Guangxi and Sichuan, which was also the most glorious years of the Ming army in the Xiying system. Later, Chen Wen instigated the great changes in Fujian and Guangdong, and took the southern part of Huguang without a fight, plus the western part of Guangxi, and Sun Kewang established an army of 150,000 or 60,000 people in the Qin domain alone.

However, after Sun Kewang committed internal aggression and Chen Wen made a big move, the area controlled by the Ming army in the Xiying system was only one less dilapidated southern Huguang, but even with the 50,000 troops brought by Li Dingguo from Guangdong, it had been sharply reduced to an army of more than 100,000, and the Yongli court actually had a serious financial deficit, even to the point that it could not support the various ministries at all. And the troops under Liu Wenxiu's command who failed to complete the rescue of the Guanning Army had to try to solve some of the grain and grass problems in southern Sichuan.

"Father, the child is incompetent, and he has not been able to bring back the military salary, grain and grass."

The army under Liu Wenxiu totaled 50,000, including 20,000 soldiers and 30,000 auxiliary soldiers. In this year's time, Liu Wenxiu used these 30,000 auxiliary soldiers to reclaim a large area of tuntian in the Xingdu Division of Sichuan, and even the soldiers had to go to the fields when the farm was busy, and finally restored some of the old looks.

However, this is only the first year, the fertility of the land is insufficient, the weeds are cleared on a continuous basis, and the military cantonment cannot mobilize the labor enthusiasm of the auxiliary troops, and the grain that can be harvested is really not comparable to the yield of the mature fields in peacetime. However, no matter where you go, people are iron, food is steel, and the truth of not eating a meal and getting hungry still has to be taught, especially for this kind of heavy labor, the speed of military food consumption is very fast, and the savings are very small.

It stands to reason that next year's summer harvest should be self-sufficient, and there will still be some spare power to supply the imperial court. Liu Wenxiu looked at Tuntian in southern Sichuan, and was also quite pleased, and was waiting for the New Year to reward the soldiers under his command, but sent his son back to Kunming to reward, but the prince of Shu Liu Zhen returned empty-handed, which really surprised Liu Wenxiu.

"What's going on?"

Liu Wenxiu's eyebrows were upside down, obviously angry. It's no wonder that he is the prince, and he is also the commander of the leading party, and he is also a hero who has made great contributions to the rescue, his son took the song back to Kunming to ask for food, but the result is so, if you are not angry, it is strange.

Liu Wenxiu was like this, Liu Zhen was also angry, and immediately said to his father: "The child went straight to the line on the order of his father, and met the saint, and after the saint saw the music, he agreed and instructed the household department to go through the transfer procedures. ”

Liu Zhen said that Liu Wenxiu was also relieved, at least Yongli should still remember his credit. However, it is also a fact that the food and salary are not coming, and he has even vaguely heard the "but" that is about to come out of Liu Zhen's mouth.

However, after the Holy Lord's approval, it was rejected by the Ministry of Households, on the grounds that there was no longer so much food in the treasury of the Ministry of Households. Then the saint sent Ma Shoufu from the cabinet and Gong Shangshu from the household department to come over, and the answer was that the treasury of Kunming was not enough to support this reward. ”

"Huh?"

The financial problems of the Yongli court are huge, which Liu Wenxiu knows very well, in the words of his general Wei Ningbo Gao Chengen, Chen Wen hollowed out the treasury and military foundation of Guizhou, Wang Ziqi and Wang Shangli plundered a large number of warehouses in Kunming, and Li Dingguo did not have the same means of collecting wealth as Sun Kewang, coupled with the size of the army, even if the civil officials in the court can be honest as water, it is not enough, not to mention that those guys are afraid that they can't control their hands and claws.

The problem of civil corruption is Gao Chengen's speculation, after all, there is no evidence, and it is impossible to catch the first, but the previous problems are real. The income of the Yongli Imperial Court has shrunk greatly compared to the grandson of the country, and although there are fewer places to spend, the decline in the growth of hair is greater, and it is strange that the finances are not tight.

"The child heard Gong Shangshu say that He Jiuyi, Wang Ziqi and Wang Shangli had intercepted the taxes of Nanning and Liuzhou, and Uncle Li suggested to the Holy Lord to send troops to fight, but the Holy Lord did not agree."

Li Dingguo's temper, Wang Shangli and Wang Ziqi first plundered a large number of warehouses in Kunming, and now they are intercepting taxes, so it is strange that they can endure it. However, Yongli did not dare to act rashly, and the reason Liu Wenxiu was also very clear, because east of Liuzhou and Nanning were Guilin and Wuzhou, which were heavily garrisoned by the Ming army of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Zhejiang.

When the saint heard this, he wanted to cut the cost of the palace, and even sell the utensils in the palace, but Ma Shoufu disagreed. Later, the following officials proposed that the officials donate some silver, and the rumors began in Kunming that the court was poor, and they wanted to kill the rich to serve as military salaries, which made people panic, and people fled from the city every day, and the children did not dare to mention the matter of money and food, so they had to return empty-handed. ”

"You're doing the right thing, you really can't ask for it anymore."

Liu Wenxiu knew very well that Ma Jixiang was right about this, he really couldn't sell the utensils in the palace, Liu Zhen was right not to continue to stay in Kunming, Kunming is doing it now, and he really can't continue to add chaos as a prince to this point. However, it is very likely that there are still people doing something here, but Liu Wenxiu can't think of who it is, and he doesn't want to think about it, especially lest he think about it and finally think about it on the heads of those he doesn't want to believe.

"Father, what about the reward?"

This is a practical problem, Liu Wenxiu frowned deeply, thought about it carefully, and said to Liu Zhen: "The amount of the reward will be reduced, and it will be used to prepare the inventory before next year's harvest." If the military salary and military food are insufficient at that time, we still have more than 100,000 taels of cellar gold at home, and we can support it for one day a day, and we can't make trouble for the saint anymore. ”

Liu Wenxiu sighed, but there was nothing he could do, the father and son were helpless to sit together, so they could only do this for the time being. Next, chatting about what he saw and heard along the way, Liu Zhen suddenly remembered something and told Liu Wenxiu about it.

"Father, when the child was in Kunming, I heard that Uncle Li called the old troops who followed him into Yunnan in Guizhou as Jin soldiers, and the Qin soldiers who originally served under Uncle Sun's command, not only in different titles, but also in different garrison areas, and even in terms of military salaries, grain and grass, many uncles were very dissatisfied with Uncle Li."

After Chen Wen withdrew from Guizhou, Li Dingguo was in charge of Guizhou, and Liu Wenxiu was originally in charge of Yunnan's defense, and later stationed in southern Sichuan with Wu Sangui anyway, and the affairs of Yunnan were fully responsible for the imperial court, which was also a symbol of Yongli's authority.

On the Sichuan side, the generals of Kuidong have received the assistance of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and have been stationed in the provinces of eastern Sichuan and western Sichuan to actively resume production, but he is on guard in every possible way, and there is almost no open sword and gun. On the Guizhou side, Li Dingguo's burden is heavier, after all, Guizhou used to be the granary of the Ming army in the Xiying system, and now the military households in the military tun have been hollowed out by Chen Wen, and the resumption of production is a major event. But what he didn't expect was that at this point, Li Dingguo actually played the factional division.

"At this time, it is even more necessary to unite all the generals and unite with the outside world. We are all from Xiying, and we broke our bones and tendons, how can we still mess around like this. ”

Before that, Li Dingguo had been punished by Di Sanpin, Wang Hui, Zhang Guangcui and other generals on the charge of attaching Sun Kewang to the party, and now Di Sanpin is used in Liu Wenxiu's army, and he has a lot of criticism about Li Dingguo on weekdays. If that's the case, forget it, during the initial restoration of Guizhou, Li Dingguo even executed Sun Kewang's cronies Zhang Hu and Guan Youcai, Wang Ziqi and He Jiuyi are not acting like this for no reason.

After listening to his son's description, Liu Wenxiu was also quite dissatisfied with Li Dingguo's mishandling, but when Liu Zhen told what he had seen and heard later, he realized that his dissatisfaction was actually just a foreshadowing.

"I heard Brother Ai Shi mention that some time ago, Inspector Wen was dismissed by the imperial court, in fact, it was Ma Shoufu who united the ministers of the court, it is said that Ma Shoufu was afraid that Inspector Wen would rob him of the throne of the first minister of the cabinet at the court, and I don't know if it is true."

Sichuan and Hubei Governor Wen Anzhi was besieged by the imperial historians because of the fact that Kui Dongzhong would accept aid from Jiangsu and Zhejiang, Liu Wenxiu knew that this was Ma Jixiang's handiwork, and he didn't think much about it originally, and even faintly dissatisfied with Wen Anzhi's "incompetence" because Kui Dongzhong would block the road to the north. But at this moment, after listening to the information that Liu Zhen got from Ai Nengqi's son Ai Chengye, it was clear that it was a political struggle within the civilian group, and Ma Jixiang, the first assistant of the cabinet, was born in Jinyiwei, not only not a Shujishi, but also a civilian official, and this reason is not impossible.

Thinking of this, Liu Wenxiu immediately thought of the new Sichuan-Hubei Governor Mao Dengshou, after the feudal official arrived in Kuidong, he didn't say that he was like Wen Anzhi to control the generals, and he was already unable to order the Fengjie City Gate, and now a dignified supervisor has not yet been able to speak to Luo Lun, the Hubei political envoy who is in charge of Sichuan material aid from the Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Ming Army, and so incompetent really reminded him of the benefits of Wen Anzhi.

Now Wen Anzhi has been deposed and has to return to his hometown in Yiling. There is nothing wrong with the political struggle, but Liu Wenxiu can't understand that Yongli has no trust in Ma Jixiang, why he would dismiss an old minister because of this, and even refuse to give him a chance to return to Beijing to defend himself, which is really incredible.

The child heard Brother Ai Shi say that Ma Shoufu originally relied on his sycophant Uncle Li Shifu to get rid of his life, and later Uncle Li Shi saw that he was diligent in his work, so he let him enter the cabinet to do things. When Li Shishu sat in Guizhou, Ma Shoufu relied on Li Shishu to form gangs and factions in the DPRK and China and crack down on dissidents, so he sat in the position of the first assistant minister of the cabinet. ”

Hearing this, Liu Wenxiu still didn't understand what was going on. Yongli hated Ma Jixiang and Pang Tianshou deeply, so he asked Li Dingguo to send Jin Tongwu to kill them, Pang Tianshou committed suicide in fear of crime, but Ma Jixiang relied on three inches to get rid of his life, but if such people did not have a backstage, Yongli would not be able to let him do so.

Thinking of this, Liu Wenxiu immediately understood, the previous reward must have been Ma Jixiang's obstruction, he was attached to Li Dingguo, pulling Li Dingguo's tiger skin in the court, and he must be close to Li Dingguo's descendants in terms of money and food. Now that Li Dingguo is dividing factions, it will add fuel to the fire, the "Qin soldiers" are discriminated against, and sooner or later it will be a big chaos, and what He Jiuyi, Wang Ziqi, and Wang Shangli did is a precursor!

"No, we must not allow such treacherous evils to continue to cause trouble in the government, otherwise the court will let them be defeated sooner or later."

The solution, Liu Wenxiu is not nothing, he has planned before, but the stakes are very high, and he must be ready to start. However, now it seems that Sichuan's economy is gradually being controlled by Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and the DPRK and China are even more traitorous and troublesome, and it is no longer possible to continue to delay.

"Father, do you want to explain it to Uncle Li."

Moving to Sichuan, with the righteousness of the monarch and the emperor and the emperor's more than 200 years of prestige to promote the Kuidong generals to join, Liu Zhen knew very well that this was the best plan for progress, but it was inevitable that there would be worries.

"No need, Li Dingguo is the king of Jin, his father is also the king of Shu, and his status was even more comparable when he was under the account of the eldest king. I, Liu Wenxiu, don't have to ask him Li Dingguo for instructions when I do something! ”

Having made up his mind, Liu Wenxiu began to prepare in this direction. However, the New Year is approaching, and Liu Wenxiu still needs to make proper arrangements for the reward, and only after the year will he send Liu Zhen back to Kunming again, and ask for a move.

Liu Zhen hurried away and returned in a hurry, Liu Wenxiu received the news that Yongli agreed with the proposal to move to Sichuan, and ordered Liu Wenxiu to make advance preparations and at the same time ordered the Ministry of Rites to set off on an auspicious day.

Such an important matter was suddenly decided, and Ma Jixiang, the first and auxiliary minister of the cabinet, was not even called to discuss it. At the same time that the imperial court and the harem began to prepare, Ma Jixiang's mansion, his younger brother Ma Xiongfei and son-in-law Yang Zai came anxiously, and after retreating, they sweated profusely and said to Ma Jixiang: "Brother, the King of Shu is coming at us!" ”

"Yes, father-in-law. Now that we have moved to Sichuan, we have arrived at the land of the King of Shu, and it will not be useful for us to speak, and we may not even be able to save our lives. ”

In contrast, although Ma Jixiang's face was gloomy, he was much calmer and more relaxed. Seeing his younger brother and son-in-law like this at this moment, Ma Jixiang lowered his voice and shouted: "What's the hurry, I have submitted a letter to His Royal Highness the King of Jin, and there is no way to move the car!" ”