In the snow, Zhu Youzhen and Wang Zaijin led the horses side by side. Two people, two horses, leaving a few shallow footprints behind them.

"Why did Your Highness send the old minister?" Wang Zaijin said with emotion, "Then the Nanjing Sixth Department has nothing to do, and it is just a waste of time to go." After the old minister planned to rush to Nanjing, he would stay in the first half of the month, so he went to the court to ask for help. If you can grow old under the spring forest for the rest of your life, it is better than intrigue and deceit in the court, but in the end nothing can be achieved! ”

Zhu Youzhen saw that he was depressed, and he wanted to persuade but didn't know how to persuade him, so he held back for a long time, and finally came up with a sentence: "Lord Wang, you were just transferred, not demoted." I think sooner or later, the court will reuse you. You should go to work first, and leave a useful body for the Holy One and the country. No matter where you are, you are still serving the court, so why should you be too discouraged! ”

"If the country lives and dies for profit, will it not be avoided because of misfortune and good fortune!" Wang Zaijin recited this poem silently several times, looked at Zhu Youzhen in surprise and said, "Your Highness, who wrote this poem, and what is the whole poem?" The old minister has never heard of it! Wow, such a mindful feeling, the old minister will never be able to do it! ”

Zhu Youzhen was stunned by his question, and secretly blamed himself for having nothing to smoke, how could he move the poems of Lin Zexu, a famous minister of the Qing Dynasty who presided over the "Humen Tobacco Sales", here. He couldn't remember the whole poem, so he had to prevaricate cheekily: "What, this is just two sentences I chanted by chance, it's not a poem, it makes adults laugh, hehehehe." ”

Wang Zaijin believed it, turned to Zhu Youzhen, solemnly paid a big salute to him, and then said excitedly: "Your Highness's teachings to the old minister, the old minister will definitely remember it!" The old minister goes, I hope His Royal Highness will take care! As long as my old bones can last for a few years, I must come to His Highness's teachings again! ”

After speaking, Wang Zai Jin Fei got on his horse and whipped away.

After Wang Zaijin left, the burden of Shanhaiguan was all on Sun Chengzong. But the grain and grass he was looking forward to were still delayed.

In desperation, Sun Chengzong went to the table again, making it clear that if there is no more food and grass, the hundreds of thousands of soldiers in Shanhaiguan may have to run out of cooking, and they are afraid of accidents.

After another two days, the convoy escorting grain and grass finally drove into Shanhaiguan leisurely.

Sun Chengzong was busy arranging the delivery, but he was disappointed when he learned that only 50,000 stones were sent this time.

And another holy decree that came with the grain and grass made him have mixed joys and sorrows.

Happily, the imperial court had approved Yuan Chonghuan's plan, intending to allocate four million taels of silver for the construction of cities in Ningyuan and Jinzhou. Sun Chengzong couldn't help but be overjoyed when he thought that if the defense lines of Ruoguan, Ning, and Jin were built, Liaodong could not be recovered, but at least the Jingshi was at ease.

The worry is that due to the rebellion of the Duoyan Ministry, the imperial court believes that the defense of Jizhou must also be strengthened, so it is necessary to transfer all the soldiers and horses of King Qin to the area of Jizhou to prevent the Duoyan Ministry's re-invasion. And these soldiers and horses are all under the jurisdiction of Guan Ning, the supervising army, and Sun Chengzong is only in Shanhaiguan and is in charge of Liaodong.

In this way, Sun Chengzong was suddenly emptied by half, and only the tens of thousands of border troops who originally guarded Liaodong remained, which was equivalent to being demoted from a superintendent to a Liaodong economic strategy.

Sun Chengzong knew that this must be Wei Zhongxian's ghost again, and he must have been afraid that his military power would be too heavy and threaten him, so he found a high-sounding reason to justifiably weaken himself. I think that the face is only a few thousand cavalry, and it can't be compared with the Jurchens at all. They had just been defeated in Zunhua, so how could they organize any effective attack? It is a big waste to put tens of thousands of Qinwang soldiers and horses in Jizhou!

But the holy decree has been issued, and Sun Chengzong is no longer convinced, and he has to obey the decree.

Only Man Gui resolutely refused to do it, made a lot of noise, and absolutely refused to go to Jizhou, obeying the command of Guan Ning and Tu Zhong.

Sun Chengzong thought about it, if this reckless general fell into the hands of Guan Ning, I am afraid that he would have to find a reason and cut off his head in a few days! So he hurriedly went up and asked that only the Mangui army be left in Shanhaiguan.

This time, the imperial court replied quite quickly, and sure enough, it approved Sun Chengzong's request, but at the same time made an extraordinary decision: to send three additional salaries!

The so-called "three salaries" refer to Liao's salary, thistle's salary and training salary.

Liao's salary has been in place since the Wanli period, because of the continuous war in Liaodong, the military expenditure has increased significantly, and the household department is increasingly overstretched, so as a last resort, additional taxes are levied on peasant households across the country.

Except for Guizhou and other places, due to the implementation of the Tusi system, it is clear that it is a subject, but in fact it is a self-contained system and refuses to pay taxes, all parts of the country have been levied, and the average amount of silver per mu of land has been increased by nine cents.

Over the years, only the Liao salary has collected tens of millions of taels of silver for the imperial court. In addition to the embezzlement and deduction of nearly half of this silver by officials at all levels, more than 5 million taels were indeed used in Liaodong.

It's a pity that Guangning was defeated, and years of hard work came to naught in an instant, and these white flowers and silver were naturally lost.

At this time, Sun Chengzong proposed to build a city in Ningyuan, although the imperial court approved this plan, but the city needs silver, and it takes more silver to increase the number of soldiers to defend the city, according to Sun Chengzong, Yuan Chonghuan and others, it will be at least three or four million taels.

However, in addition to the existing salary, the annual income of the household is only more than 3 million taels of silver, and it has been spent in a good time, where can it raise such a large amount of money?

As a result, this heavy burden can only be passed on to the people.

But Wei Zhongxian was ingenious, not only increasing the amount of Liaoyu, but also adding "thistle salary" and "training salary", which were similar to Liaoyu.

This "thistle salary" is naturally to be used in Jizhou, while the "training salary" is purely a clever name, saying that it is for military training. In fact, when a soldier receives a normal salary, he naturally has to train the army, which is the same as a worker who must work when he gets a salary, which is a matter of course.

And how much of this part of the "training salary" of the multi-levy can really be used for military training? Sun Chengzong knew this, and he could only sigh helplessly.

Within a few days, King Qin's soldiers and horses drove from Shanhaiguan and returned to Jizhou. Tens of thousands of horses tossed for more than a month, and did not fight a single battle with the enemy, and spent countless money and food in vain!

Looking at the team that was gradually moving away, Sun Chengzong smiled bitterly and said to Zhu Youzhen: "Your Highness, you are really incompetent and tired of the whole army!" The old man did not know how to detect the enemy, and it was a shame to let so many people rush to Shanhaiguan in vain! ”

At this time, Yuan Chonghuan, who had been promoted to Ning Qiandao, comforted him and said, "Why should the Inspector blame himself! The enemy situation is changing rapidly, and if King Qin's soldiers don't come to this trip, maybe Nurhachi will really lead the army to knock on the pass. Therefore, the immediate priority is still to build a city in Ningyuan. As long as Ningyuan is guarded, Shanhaiguan will naturally have peace of mind. ”

"And the guest army came from afar, not to mention fatigue, and the will to fight is incomparable with the border army." Yuan Chonghuan saw Sun Chengzong nodding in appreciation, and continued to follow his train of thought, "Xia Guan always thought that the guest army was unwilling to use his life in battle because Liaodong was not his hometown. In the past, Yang Hao commanded more than 100,000 guest troops to attack, but was tragically annihilated, which is why the whole army was destroyed. The Liao people are different, born and raised in Si, if Liaodong is lost, the land they rely on for survival will be gone. ”

"At present, most of the landless peasants in eastern Liaodong are gathered between Shanhaiguan and Ningyuan, with more than 100,000 people. The lower officials wanted to gather these peasants and recruit another army from them. Yuan Chonghuan continued, "When Jianyu does not come, these troops will be turned into people, and they will be almost self-sufficient in Tuntian near Ningyuan; Once the Jianyu attacked, they turned the people into armies and fought to protect their own land! ”

Sun Chengzong listened carefully, and finally overjoyed: "This plan is wonderful! This overseer can summarize what you say into one sentence: 'Defend the Liao land with the Liao people, and raise the Liao people with the Liao land'! ”

"Exactly!" Yuan Chonghuan said eagerly, "The rest of the guest army will go, so what's the matter!" ”

The two talked very warmly, but Zhu Youzhen watched coldly from the sidelines, thinking in his heart: How does this idea always feel unreliable when Liao people guard Liao land and use Liao land to raise Liao people?

"Defend the Liao land with Liao people", will you definitely be able to defend it? Aren't Zu Dashou and the others all Liao, and I haven't seen which place they can defend!

And "raising Liao people with Liao soil" is even more ridiculous. It is necessary to know that the army has been in Tuntian since ancient times, and even the later Eighth Route Army also engaged in production in Nanniwan, and after the liberation, there was a construction corps in Xinjiang.

However, if you want to tuntian, the prerequisite is that there must be a relatively safe environment, at least to ensure that the grain grown this season can be harvested smoothly and locally.

But the situation in Liaodong is obviously not like this, there is a flat river here, and as long as the Jurchens want to attack, they can reach the edge of the city in two or three days. You've worked so hard and pouted for months; Seeing that the grain is almost ripe and the Jurchens are coming, aren't you busy in vain?

Yuan Chonghuan saw Zhu Youzhen's doubts, and bowed to him and said, "Your Highness, are you afraid that Jianyu will come to destroy our army's tuntian?" The subordinate officer also thought about it in this section, and the countermeasure is to form a cavalry that can compete with Jianyu in the field, as you said! ”

"Didn't you say that it was difficult to form cavalry?" Zhu Youzhen asked in surprise.

"It was hard." Yuan Chonghuan said mysteriously, "However, General Zu came to Xia Guan the day before yesterday and said that he was born in the Li family of Liaodong, a martial arts family, and the Li family is now in Ningyuan, and there is a ready-made cavalry team in his hands, about a thousand people. They have fought against Jianyu before, and they are not at a disadvantage! As long as this team is integrated and its backbone is used to train new soldiers, a cavalry of tens of thousands of people can be formed soon! When the time comes..."

"Why didn't you say it earlier! Why don't you go to Ningyuan and bring this cavalry back to Shanhaiguan first! Sun Chengzong was overjoyed and couldn't help complaining about Yuan Chonghuan.

Yuan Chonghuan smiled and said, "Master Inspector, things are not that simple. The Li family had lived in Ningyuan for a long time and was unwilling to move away, and General Zu was not sure about this matter. What if..."

"What in case? Is it a family affair or a national affair that is important? Sun Chengzong said angrily, "Do they dare to disobey the imperial court's order!" ”

Yuan Chonghuan was about to reply, when a Chinese officer ran up to the city in a panic and reported breathlessly: "Your Highness, the governor... Master Overseer, it's not good! The two battalions of soldiers of Man Gui and Zu Dashou are on fire! ”

When the three of them heard this, they all changed color!