"Yes, sir!" Zhao Wende nodded, opened the account book and said: "My lord, you have been away for almost three months this time, during which you have received a total of 150,000 stones of grain and rice, 6,000 stones of salt, and 337,000 taels of silver; Grass-"

"Jiansheng, you tell me whether my treasury is surplus or loss in the past three months, and how much I have lost!" Liu Cheng, who was a little anxious by Zhao Wende's string of numbers, had to interrupt his subordinates' reports again.

"Loss, very bad!"

"How can you lose money?" Liu Cheng frowned: "The money, taxes, and workshop income from Chaoyi, as well as the money from the horse staking here, salt, tea, and horses are all large businesses, and I haven't fought at all in the past few months since I left, where is there a place to spend money?" How can you still lose money? ”

"My lord, is it because you didn't fight that you lost money?" Zhao Wende replied angrily: "You killed Lin Dan Khan and Bu Lost Rabbit Khan, the imperial court thought that there was nothing to do in the northwest, and even the salary of Ningxia Town was stopped. You don't put all the money in the pockets of the gentlemen and refuse to take it out, and the big deals you speak of are not immediately effective, but you only see the silver flowing out like water, but only the constants coming in. How not to lose money? ”

"Stopped paying?" Liu Cheng was dumbfounded when he heard this, although it was a common thing to explain that the arrears of the army at the end of the year, but since the outbreak of the Shaanxi People's Rebellion, the Ming army in the northwest may have arrears of military salaries, but it is not possible to simply stop it. Liu Cheng made a great deal of power this time, first breaking the Grim Eye and Lao Huihui, and later killing Lin Dan Khan and Bu Lost Rabbit Khan, solving the border troubles that have plagued the northwest for decades in one fell swoop. Hong Chengchou also took advantage of the situation to wipe out the peasant army in Shaanxi and drive away those who drove it away, basically stabilizing the situation in Shaanxi. As a result, the imperial court simply stopped the military salaries in Ningxia Town and spent the money in other military towns. In the face of all this, Liu Cheng could only cry and laugh, it seems that the martial artists of the past generations were forced to helpless in a sense by playing the trick of raising their own respect.

"And how many new troops have you trained in total?"

"My lord, when you arrived in Ningxia Town, there were a total of seven infantry teams, a total of 4,000 people, 1,600 cavalry, and there were many deficiencies in the armor battle, in addition to the new army of four infantry teams in Chaoyi, there were also 20 fast boats on the Yellow River, and there were more than 1,000 people. Three months after you left, I made up for the gap in the number of dead and wounded, and formed a new infantry battalion, now there are three battalions in Ningxia Town, a total of twelve infantry teams, and there is another battalion and four infantry teams on the Chaoyi side, led by Lord Du Ruhu Du, a total of about 8,000 people, and all the shooters in these infantry teams have been reequipped with bird guns. The cavalry consisted of two thousand men with two horses, cuirass and helmets, complete equipment, and twelve shallow clippers on the meanders of the river, complete with sailors. These are the masters of the imperial court, and I don't know much about other aspects. ”

"Well, Jiansheng has worked hard!" Liu Cheng nodded, turned his gaze to Min Min on the side, and asked, "Min Min, where are Tumut and Chahar?" ”

Min Min hadn't seen Liu Cheng for several months, but the description had been reduced a lot, she took out a piece of paper from her arms, and read it to her: "Ah Cheng, you are Jinong, the Great Khan is still young, Hanluduo is received by you, there are two thousand tents, each account draws one ding, one is a pair, and there are a thousand soldiers who can fight; After breaking Lin Dan Khan, you promoted Gesang and they each had their own Hanluduo, and the number of accounts received was more or less, and there were more than 4,000 accounts, and there were almost 2,000 horsemen when they were levied; This time, my father Khan gave me 4,000 tents, if I count according to the two accounts, there are also 2,000 horsemen, but most of them are captured Kazakhs, and the hearts of the people are not attached, and they may not come in handy between the urgency, and the other Tumut and Chahar departments, although there are more than 23,000 accounts in total, but first, there are many young and strong dead and wounded, and secondly, they are newly surrendered, and the Chahar Department has repeatedly lost to the Jurchens, and it is difficult to say how many people can be recruited at that time! “

"You've worked hard!" Liu Cheng nodded, in fact, he had two identities at this time: the general soldier of Ningxia of the Ming Dynasty and Jinong of the Mongol Empire; In addition to commanding the four battalions of infantry and 2,000 cavalry directly under the jurisdiction of the former, he can also dispatch many troops under the jurisdiction of Ningxia Town to guard thousands of households and hundreds of households (of course, it was greatly reduced at the end of the Ming Dynasty, and it was already mostly paper troops); As the Jinong of the Mongol Empire, theoretically he can replace the Great Khan who is still feeding to command the four divisions of Monan, Mobei and Erut in Moxi (Dzungaria, Dulbert, Heshuot, and Huite), but the current Mongol Empire is the same as the Ming Dynasty's million guards and the Beijing army, and it has long since shrunk into shape, not to mention the Erut in Moxi and the Tushetu Khan, Zasaktu Khan, and Chechen Khan in Mobei, and even the six thousand households in Monan, which traditionally belong to the direct territory of the Mongol Great Khan, have already rebelled. The elimination of the elimination, among which Liu Cheng can still directly control only the Chahar and the rest of the right wing, Liu Cheng divided it into two divisions, Chahar and Tumut, more than 140 Zasak, and put them in the Hetao area to recuperate. From the perspective of population, all of them add up to more than 30,000 accounts, and according to the calculation of six people in one account, there are only 200,000 people who die, which is an insignificant number. However, the nomads' unique skill in horsemanship, the organization brought about by the habit of migratory life, the abundance of horse resources, and the abundance of iron weapons provided by Liu Cheng made their mobilization rate surprisingly high. If Liu Cheng is given another year or two to eat these troops, and at the same time do a good job in the tea and horse trading with Mobei and Moxi, it is very easy to pull out 20,000 cavalry at once, which is also a very powerful chess piece in the late Ming Dynasty.

"Lord Liu, you have too many soldiers prepared, right?" The last to speak was Lu Boqi, and he himself felt that there was something wrong with the atmosphere in the room. Originally, according to the system of the Ming Dynasty, the matter of strategizing and ruling the barbarians should be the mission of the civil officials, and Liu Cheng's task was just to take the thousands of soldiers under his command to fight, but in fact, Liu Cheng used the method of holding multiple positions to completely empty himself, but he couldn't resist it, and he didn't have much confidence in speaking.

"Lord Lu, if my estimate is correct, the East Captives will be called after the autumn!" Liu Cheng recounted the information that Qiesan got from Ah Gui: "I only have too few soldiers now, where will there be too many?" “

"Dongyu called?" Lu Boqi was taken aback by Liu Cheng, it turned out that after Liu Cheng went to Beijing, Zhao Wende, Min Min, Qiesang, Du Guoying and others simply didn't tell him anything, and kept him in the dark. When Liu Cheng came back and said this, he was immediately scared half to death.

"Yes, as soon as Lin Dan Khan died, Huang Taiji wanted to replace him and lead the Mongolian tribes, and he would never let go of this opportunity!" Liu Cheng said in a low voice: "If we want to gain a foothold in this Hetao, we can't do it without fighting!" ”

Lu Boqi opened his mouth, wanting Liu Cheng to retreat, but he saw Liu Cheng's slightly brown dark eyes, and swallowed back when the words came to his mouth, with his past experience in dealing with Liu Cheng, this person looked very easy-going on the surface, but he was stubborn to the extreme in key matters, whether it was cleaning up the tuntian, digging ditches, attacking thieves, and the Mongols, he was trying his best to eliminate everyone and insist on his own opinions, and in the end it turned out that he was right. After repeating it again and again, whenever I disagreed with him, I would subconsciously make concessions.

"My lord! The Living Buddha of Chesang is here! A soldier said outside the door.

"Chesan? What is he doing here? Isn't there something wrong with the Jokhang Temple? Liu Cheng's mood immediately became nervous: "Hurry up and invite him in!" ”

"Yes, sir!" The soldier kowtowed and withdrew. The atmosphere in the room suddenly became depressing, Lu Boqi stroked his beard under his chin and asked, "Lord Liu, isn't it the East Captives who have entered the army?" “

"I don't know!" Liu Cheng shook his head, it stands to reason that Houjin has been in short supply of food in recent years, and some officials even took out the "imperial gift" items at home to sell them in order to support their families, and they were convicted of this.

"Your Excellency!" As he spoke, Chesang had already come in, and he saluted Liu Chenghe: "I have an important matter, and I have to talk to you alone!" “

"Talk alone?" Liu Cheng looked left and right, and Min Min smiled: "Ah Cheng." I'm a little tired, come to me when you're done with all these things! Seeing this, Lu Boqi, Zhao Wende and others also got up to say goodbye, only Hao Shaoqi was left standing behind Liu Cheng in the house, and when Qiesang saw that everyone had gone out, he said in a low voice: "My lord, a few days ago, a small group of Tuxietu people came to Guihua City, there are about two hundred accounts, saying that they are here to take refuge in you!" “

"That's it?"

"Your Excellency, please listen to me!" Che Sang looked at the outer room and said in a low voice: "This group was specially sent by Huang Taiji, and its purpose is to assassinate you and Governor Lu!" ”

"Assassinate me and the Governor? So how do you know? ”

A wry smile appeared on Chesang's face: "Do you remember how I became the head of the Jokhang Temple?" I captured a Jurchen spy, rebelled against him, and sent him back, and gave him a lot of information in order to make the Jurchens trust him and play an important role. The Jurchens really trusted him, and sent him to assassinate you! ”

Liu Cheng looked at Chesang's wry smile, and also understood the other party's feelings at this time: it took so much effort to bury a nail on Houjin's side, naturally hoping that it would rise step by step and play a fatal role at a critical time, but Houjin's side was actually sent over as an assassin, and the previous efforts were naturally in vain, and it was really self-defeating. He had to smile and comfort: "Acting is in people, success is in heaven, some things can't be forced, and didn't it save my life?" “

"I'm here for this!" Speaking of this, Chesan turned around and said to the outside world, "Ah Gui, come in!" ”

Seeing the stranger coming in from outside the door, Hao Shaoqi stepped forward vigilantly, blocking Liu Cheng behind him, and his right hand had already drawn half of the saber, looking like he was facing a great enemy. Ah Gui looked at Hao Shaoqi, knelt down and kowtowed to Liu Cheng, and said, "The villain has one thing, please ask the general soldier for permission!" ”

Liu Cheng looked at the other party, and there was a real veteran standing in front of him, the dangers and battles he had experienced had left all kinds of marks on his face, just like those ancient stone pillars on the Gobi Desert, but his eyes were full of hope. Liu Cheng nodded with satisfaction: "Get up, let's talk, what's the matter!" “

"I want you to announce that you have put me to death!"

"Putting you to death?" Liu Cheng was stunned when he heard this: "Why do you want to do this?" ”

"Your Excellency!" Chesan on the side explained: "Because Ah Gui's wife and children are still on the Jurchen side, if we let the Jurchens know that he is our person, I am afraid that his wife and children will be harmed!" ”

"Oh! That's what happened, that's no problem, Master, it's up to you to take care of it! “

"Thank you, sir!" Ah Gui kowtowed to Liu Cheng twice, and the expression of Qiesang on the side became serious: "My lord, I think this incident is a good opportunity!" ”

"Good chances? What chances? Liu Cheng was a little confused by Qiesan's words.

"Your Excellency can preemptively attack the Jurchens and crusade against Tushetu Khan in Mobei!"

"Crusade against Tushetu Khan? Isn't that in Mobei? Why do you want to crusade against him? Liu Cheng searched in his mind, he remembered that Tushetu Khan was one of the three forces of Mobei Mongolia at that time, probably located between Chechen Khan and Zasaktu Khan, and his troops were separated from the Hetao area controlled by Liu Cheng across the Gobi Desert, and there was no direct contact except for business travel, why did Chesang advocate Liu Cheng to send troops to attack the other party at this time?

"Isn't that a reason why you have just been assassinated by the men of Tushetu Khan?"

"But you and I both know that this is just Huang Taiji's conspiracy-" As soon as Liu Cheng spoke, he stopped, Che Sang naturally knew the inside story of all this, then this was just an excuse, but why launch an expedition before the Jurchens were about to attack?

"My lord, I heard that Chechen Taiji has been granted the ministry and set up his own door? I don't know if it's true or not? "Yes, he has made great achievements in the great war with the Kazakhs, and Batur has granted it to his people, but the pastureland has not yet been determined."

"I also heard that he came this time to ask the Great Khan to help Baturtaiji build a factory for the production of firearms?"

"The guru is well-informed!" Liu Cheng smiled: "It's not that I don't want to, you have also seen my factory in Chaoyi, if it is just the kind of small workshop that makes a few bird guns, it is not difficult, but like Chaoyi, which produces weapons like flowing water, even if I give it to me, so I don't hide it, Batur can't build it!" (To be continued.) )