The sun was creeping up to the top of the mountain, the birds were jumping happily on the branches, summer had crept in, and in the clear sky there were tall and sparse clouds, as milky white as the last snow of spring, flat and slender as unloaded sails. Their fluffy, soft lace like cotton, slowly but dramatically changes in each moment.

Although the sky is very beautiful, but Pang Gang is not in the mood to enjoy such a beautiful scenery, since entering Qingzhou, Pang Gang has fallen into countless cumbersome trivial matters, the development of Lingshanwei, the defense of Qingzhou, the rearrangement and transfer of subordinate officials, and so on have become the main part of Pang Gang's life. After being busy for nearly a week, these tedious chores have finally come to an end, and today is the day when Pang Gang summoned Qianniuwei and Anton Wei to the two guards of Qianhu.

Xuan Guozheng and Liu Changyou were in a somewhat nervous mood and sat half of their butts on the hardwood stool, lowering their eyebrows and not daring to look directly at the commander sitting behind the table, because their command made the adult seem to be not in a very good mood.

The day before yesterday, Pang Gang personally inspected the situation of the two guards of Anton Wei and Qianniuwei, and the situation he saw surprised Pang Gang, the escape of the military households of these two guards is extremely alarming, according to the system, there should have been more than 2,600 households in the guards, but now there are less than 1,000 households, and the combined population of the two guards is less than 4,000 people.

This situation surprised Pang Gang, most of the conditions in the guards at the end of the Ming Dynasty were not good, Pang Gang knew, but in Pang Gang's opinion, even if the situation of the guards was not good, it would not be worse than the original Lingshan Wei, but after inspecting the situation of the two guards of Anton Wei and Qianniuwei, Pang Gang knew that he was wrong, and the situation of the guards can be said to be not the worst, only worse.

When Pang Gang walked on the streets of Qianniuwei and Andong's two guards, he saw that some young girls didn't even have a decent dress, and could only wrap their lower bodies and chests with a rag, and many military households were lying weakly under the simple thatched hut to bask in the sun, and the numb expression on their faces made Pang Gang's heart feel like he had been whipped hard, is this the real life of the lowest military households in the Ming Dynasty? Is this the army that fought bravely and defended the country during the founding of the country?

Looking at the military households who were staggering and weak even walking, and then seeing the two brightly dressed crepe Guozheng and Liu Changyou who were following him, Pang Gang had the urge to immediately draw out his scimitar and hack them to death.

After a hurried walk around the two guards, Pang Gang, who really couldn't stand it, immediately got on the horse and left with a group of personal soldiers with a tiger face, and the next day Pang Gang immediately summoned the two thousand households of Xuan Guozheng and Liu Changyou to the Yamen of the capital commander.

"Let's talk about it, how do you manage the guards under your command?" Pang Gang finally spoke, but his cold tone made the hearts of the two thousand households sitting under him tremble.

"My lord, it's not that you don't do your best, but that the guards are too poor, and the lowly people are also powerless." Qianniuwei's Qianhu Crepe Kingdom was the first to call Qu Lai, "My lord, you are a person who understands, and you also know that the situation of the first guard has been rotten this year, and there are still hundreds of guards under the command of lowly people, but some of them are not even a hundred, and the weather has been dry and the grain has failed in recent years, which is far from being human." ”

"Fart!" The furious Pang Gang slapped the hard hardwood case, making a loud noise, startling the two of them.

Pang Gang pointed at the two and scolded: "You guys are embarrassed to say that it is not human!" This official has checked the account books in the yamen, and just today at the beginning of the spring, the command envoy yamen distributed 500 stone of grain to each of your two guards, let's say that although this food is not enough for you to eat, it will not make those military households so hungry that they can't even walk, right? But look, look, are the soldiers under your command still called people? They're all ghosts! On the contrary, it is Lord Crepe and Lord Liu, the two of you are very beautiful! ”

Pang Gang looked at the account books and knew that the grain allocated to them by the commander and the yamen was indeed not much, but it was enough for those military households to deal with it for two or three months, but judging from the inspection yesterday, needless to say, most of this grain must have been swallowed by the two in front of him privately.

"My lord, it's not that lowly people like to show off, but how can lowly people say that they are also court officials, no matter how they want some decency, right?" Liu Changyou was still π defending himself below, it was okay not to say this, but as soon as he said it, it made Pang Gang's anger even greater.

"Decent, do you think you still have decency? Your military households are going to starve to death, and you still want decency! Do you want to wait until all the people in the guard are killed? Or do you really think that this official can't govern you anymore? Pang Gang's gloomy words carried a hint of murderous intent, staring at the two below.

With a "poof", Xuan Guozheng and Liu Changyou were so frightened that they knelt on the ground together, and a trace of cold sweat broke out on their foreheads.

"My lord, the lowly and lowly position is wrong, so you can spare the lowly position!"

Under Pang Gang's gaze, Qian Guozheng and Liu Changyou just knelt on the ground and kept kowtowing, and their heads hit the hard bluestone ground with a dull sound. They had heard it before, and the position of the commander in front of them was piled up with a Tartar head with a knife and a gun, and he said that if you want to be treated, you will definitely not be soft, not to mention other means for the time being, as long as their food and wages are stopped, all the people in the two guards will have to drink the northwest wind. Although they themselves have some fields, but the yield of those thin fields is not high, it is difficult to feed themselves, every year they rely on the command to make the Yamen allocate a little food to save their lives, if Pang Gang really cut off their food, their fate is definitely not much better than those military households.

"Alas" looked at the two people below who knocked their heads loudly, Pang Gang, who was originally angry, could only sigh helplessly, a situation like them is not an isolated case, but the vast majority of the guards, if they really cut off their food, the first person to starve to death must be those ordinary military households.

If it is possible, Pang Gang really wants to remove these two nests who can only eat and drink, but the removal of more than 1,000 officers is the right of the military department and the emperor, and the most important thing now is how to make these two guards come back to life, yes, just let them come back to life!

The so-called things considered at different heights are naturally different, and the things that Pang Gang considered when he served as Lingshan Wei Qianhu could naturally only be limited to a radius of dozens of miles from Lingshan Wei, but now that he became the commander of Qingzhou, Pang Gang had to consider the matter of eating, drinking, and Lazar in a radius of hundreds of miles in Qingzhou.

Seeing that even their foreheads were swollen, Pang Gang took a deep breath and shouted impatiently: "Get up, what do two big men look like when they cry!" ”

"Thank you, sir!" The two of them kowtowed again before standing up tremblingly, they now understood that the new commander in front of them did not tolerate sand in his eyes, and it seemed that he would be sad in the future.

While these two were thinking wildly, Pang Gang asked: "This official went to your guard yesterday to inspect and found that most of the fields in your guard house are deserted, and the only field that can be cultivated is only a few hundred acres, and the remaining tens of thousands of acres of fertile land have become wasteland. ”

"Wasteland?" The two who had just stood up were stunned, and the commander was not dizzy, if those wastelands could be replanted, wouldn't they be able to plant them?

Looking at Xuan Guozheng and Liu Changyou, who were stunned on the spot, Pang Gang was a little amused in his heart, but he still bluffed with a calm face: "What, don't you want to open up wasteland and farm?" ”

"No, no, no!" The two hurriedly waved their hands and said: "The lowly people dream of a variety of land, but the land under the jurisdiction of the lowly is not as close to the river as Lingshanwei, and it is really a shortage of water, so it is a talent."

Pang Gang interrupted them impatiently, "I know this, so the most important thing now is to build two canals from the river to your guard, but the construction of the canal is not a one-time effort, and it is impossible to count on it in the short term." The solution now is to dig more wells in the field, so that you can solve the problem of water shortage in the short term. ”

"But my lord, the silver you need in this way will go to the sea!" When the two of them heard this, they were taken aback, from the construction of a canal in the nameless river of Lingshanwei to the two guards dozens of miles away from them, such a huge project did not take more than half a year and tens of thousands of taels of silver, so don't even think about it, does the imperial court have so much silver.

"Silver is not a problem, this official will think of it." Pang Gang said confidently: "What you have to do is to gather all the military households in your guard after you go back, and dig wells and repair canals for your own officials, as long as the people who come to work are full every three meals." ”

"Is that true?" Jian Guozheng and Liu Changyou's eyes lit up, and they asked in unison. Digging wells and repairing canals for their own family and still having food, is there such a good thing in these years?

"Of course, how can this official deceive you?" Pang Gang said impatiently: "After you go back, gather all the people in the guard, and all of them will dig wells for the official to repair the canal, those wells must be dug within a month, as for the canal, the speed of water grinding is naturally slower, but it can't be later than four months, you must dig the canal for the official within four months, can you do it?" ”

Liu Changyou and Xuan Guozheng looked at each other and gritted their teeth and said, "Lord Qiqi, it must be completed within four months!" Never disgrace adults. ”

(To be continued)