"It's already mid-March, and it won't be long before we move to the border town." Yang Jun stood on top of the military camp guard tower outside the Xuanfu City, looked at the night sky full of twinkling stars, and took a deep breath.

"Well, we've been here for more than half a year." Shi Biao sat cross-legged on the floor of the blue brick paved city, holding a glass of wine, sniffing the overflowing aroma of wine deeply, and then poured it viciously into his throat, and then looked like he had an endless aftertaste. "Damn, stay in the barracks, it's easy to say anything else, but it's this wine ......"

"If you can drink it once every ten days, this is already Your Majesty's great grace, so you can be content." When Yang Jun saw Shi Biao's appearance, he couldn't help but smile and shook his head.

Now, Zhu Qizhen's pro-army enforces various military disciplines in accordance with the new military law, and they are also extremely strict about prohibiting alcohol, but considering a large number of bigwigs, it is unlikely that you really let them completely ban alcohol. Therefore, it is stipulated that every ten days in the army, a sumptuous banquet will be held, and more importantly, every soldier can taste fine wine, of course, in order to ensure discipline, the amount of wine that each person can allocate will not be very large.

And the two leaders, Yang Jun and Shi Biao, both drank a lot, so they finally got through the quartermaster and got them some more wine.

"Hehe, that's right, there was a ban on alcohol in the army in the past, but the ban is equivalent to nothing." Shi Biao nodded, quite agreeing. "But His Majesty the Emperor is different, once the ban is issued, no one is allowed to violate it, in our military camp, in the first month alone, no less than three hundred people were arrested for stealing alcohol, and more than a dozen guys were directly expelled from the military because they were tired of teaching."

"Didn't Your Majesty say that there are laws that must be followed, and the laws must be strict, otherwise, wouldn't the new military law be like the military law of the past, equivalent to a piece of waste paper? Look at these soldiers today, which one of them is taken out, who dares to say that it is not the elite of the elite, or the generals around me in the past are not so strong. Yang Jun nodded in agreement.

Shi Biao picked up another glass of wine, and after drinking it all in one gulp, he said with some emotion: "Your Majesty is really, it turns out, I don't understand anything, marching and fighting, I don't understand anything." But since returning from the northern hunt, it seems that he has changed as a person, don't say that our set of training classics, even the business is also jaw-dropping......"

-------------------- Yang Jun nodded, and lowered his voice with a gossipy face: "I listened to what Lord Naluo said, last year, our Xuanfu Town, just collected nearly 200,000 taels of commercial taxes, how much do you have to earn?" Moreover, this year, Xuanfu has built a lot of new workshops, and I am afraid that this year's commercial tax will be able to raise it again. ”

"Good boy, 200,000 taels?" When Shi Biao heard this, a pair of big copper bell eyes suddenly widened, and his mouth was grinning. "Brother Yang, you didn't bluff me."

"Nonsense, what is a certain family trying to do to you? Let me tell you, this is what Mr. Luo told a certain family personally, and his words are conclusive, how can it be a lie. Yang Jun took the wine and drank it all, and said with a blank look at Shi Biao.

"Our Ming Dynasty's tax revenue for a year, now I'm afraid it's only two million taels of silver, our Xuanfu can actually get so much income, which is equivalent to a year of our Ming Dynasty's tax income." Shi Biao still muttered in disbelief.

"Actually, in addition to His Majesty's vigorous trade with the tribes on the grassland since last year, there is a more important point......" Yang Jun smashed his mouth, and said with a smile: "The Xuanfu Mansion, regardless of whether it is an official or not, but all those who are engaged in business must pay taxes according to the system. This is the main reason why our Xuanfu can receive so many more taxes. ”

"Don't you know, our Xuanfu is a bitter cold place in the border town, there are not many scholars, and there are naturally not many people who raise people to enter the scholars, just those who raise people to enter the scholars, actually account for nearly one-third of our Xuanfu storefronts, shops, later, His Majesty secretly checked and visited, only to know that many shops are not those scholars at all, but they are hung in their names, and they can be exempted from taxes by giving them some filial piety money every month."

"Grandma's, these businessmen are really deceitful." Hearing this, Shi Biao couldn't help patting his thigh, with a look of indignation.

Yang Jun continued: "Hehe, in addition to the merchants, those people are not like this, and there are also many people who entrust their families to those scholars, so that they also do not need to pay food. It is only necessary to supply a certain amount of food to the scholar's family. Although the proportion is not much lower, but with the protection of the scholars, those errand officials will not have the opportunity to change the law to blackmail. ”

"Yes, the people are not afraid of you collecting grain, but they are afraid of chaos. The light year's harvest is so bad, and the heavy ones are ruined. Shi Biao sighed lightly, these things were all braggadocio and chatting in their spare time.

"That is, His Majesty the Emperor is now supervising in the Xuanfu, and the people of the Xuanfu are more than better, in the past, Jinyiwei has not done a good thing except for yin damage, but now, compared with those officials and officials, Jinyiwei's reputation is much better."

"It's not that the emperor is well-trained, and the Jinyi Guard in the past has been thinking about how to blackmail people all day long. But today's Jinyiwei, special investigation officials, errands, but anyone who violates discipline and law, will be invited to drink tea by Jinyiwei, dirty must be returned, no longer like in the past, people hate ghosts, now, although the officials and errands still hate Jinyiwei, but the people have quite a lot of praise. ”

"This is also true, but, in our Ming Dynasty, I am afraid that only the people of Xuanfu will have a good impression of those guys." When Shi Biao heard this, he couldn't help but be overjoyed. After the two chatted, they talked about the army again.

"By the way, Brother Yang, can you tell Your Majesty, now that helmet is too ugly, can you change it, no matter what, how can our dignified Ming elite, His Majesty's pro-army, bring such a gray thing."

"Ugly is ugly, but the problem is that you haven't noticed that this new helmet is much stronger than in the past, and I listened to my third brother's words, this kind of helmet is completely made of a new machine, relying on water power, directly stamped and formed, feather arrows and lead shots can be prevented. It's like in the past, many of our soldiers actually wore felt hats, so they were a bird. Yang Jun smiled and pointed to the helmet on the head of the soldier guarding the gate of the watchtower.

This helmet is not very pretty, like an upside-down iron pot, with a flat rim, like the charcoal brazier used to bake fires. A small hollow cylinder was kept on the top for the addition of feathers, and a ring of leather guards and a few pieces of iron were added below to protect it.

The edge of the whole helmet is quite wide, about an inch and a half wide, but even part of the shoulder part is also protected, but this shape, it is really not very beautiful, although the forbidden army of the Ming Dynasty is also wearing a helmet of this shape, but in addition to the slight difference in the helmet edge, the shape is similar, but the problem is that the decoration on the top is much more beautiful, which is like this now, if it is not for the upper side can also insert some feathers, I really don't know if there is a face to wear out, maybe the people think that our majesty's pro-army is using a carbon brazier.

--------------------"But after all, it's too ugly." Shi Biao touched his head, looked at the helmet again, and couldn't help but rejoice, fortunately, this kind of helmet only belongs to the non-commissioned officers and middle and lower-level officers, and the helmet used by himself and others is still made of fine iron, with beautiful ornamentation on it, and it is pleasing to the eye when you look at it.

"Ugly, what kind of things are beautiful that Your Majesty has made." It's okay not to mention this stubble, Shi Biao mentioned it, Yang Jun was also depressed, this helmet is not enough, and the armor on his body is similar, but fortunately, last year he increased the amount of trade with the grassland tribes, at least, His Majesty's pro-army of the Emperor, everyone wears leather armor, but now, the Son of Heaven does not know which tendon he moved, thinking that the defensive ability of leather armor is too low, but the soldiers are heavy armor, which will not only affect the speed of the march, but also greatly affect the enemy.

And another important point is that heavy armor is money, and a lot of silver can be made.

Therefore, Zhu Qizhen took a compromise approach, and inlaid iron pieces in some fortress parts of the leather armor, according to Zhu Qizhen's words, it belonged to the Ming version of the Mingguang armor, but Yang Jun felt that something was wrong no matter how he looked at it, mainly because it was not pleasing to the eye.

However, I have to admit that the opinion of His Majesty the whimsical Emperor Zhu Qizhen has indeed greatly improved the protective power of the soldier's armor, and it has not increased much weight.

In addition to these, there is also a special mark on the shoulders of each soldier, as well as on the chest, which according to His Majesty the Emperor, is called a military rank. The military rank is a complete military rank system formed by the official name of the military officer, plus some ideas of His Majesty the Emperor.

For example, those who have just joined the army are all called privates, and those who have served for one year are automatically promoted to the rank of private, and after that, there are corporals, sergeants, sergeants, and warrant officers, and the corporal is the captain, and the sergeant is the sergeant or the sergeant, and the sergeant can serve as the commander of fifty people. After that, it was the martial arts official rank of the Ming Dynasty.

Their military ranks are very eye-catching, which makes Yang Jun and the others feel very convenient, unlike in the past, unless they are leading the existing soldiers and horses, otherwise, it is difficult for you to distinguish who is the officer among the soldiers.

And now, in His Majesty's pro-army, the ranks of all the people are clear at a glance, and you don't need to call them by name, just call their ranks, and you can quickly give orders. And the non-commissioned officers don't need to be like in the past, except for their own commanders, other officers don't know each other, and the other party has no proof of identity, who is you?

"Anyway, I think the difference between His Majesty's pro-army and our Ming army's past is too great." Shi Biao finally had to let out such an exclamation.

(To be continued)