After Wu Shigong went back, he wanted to know about the actual situation of the Ming Dynasty's soldiers' salaries. However, few people knew. Those Xue Mansion guards are all in the Xue Mansion with a rich monthly example. They didn't care much about the salaries of the soldiers in the Beijing camp, let alone the salaries of the local soldiers.

Or Zhou Xun knows some. Combined with the local situation introduced by Chang Meng, Wu Shigong finally had some basic understanding of the situation.

It turns out that although Henan is the hinterland of the Central Plains and the local area is relatively wealthy, this is all said to the upper-class people. The people at the bottom can be said to be in a state of semi-starvation that does not starve to death, but also does not have enough to eat.

In Henan, there were eight vassal kings, all of whom had huge fiefdoms. In addition, there are a large number of official eunuchs and gentry families, and the land of these people does not need to pay taxes. Moreover, in the last years of the Ming Dynasty, land annexation was actually very serious. In Henan, less than 10 percent of the land is still in the hands of yeoman farmers.

However, these yeoman farmers have to bear the taxes and labor of the entire Henan, so the burden of the common people at the bottom has actually reached a critical point.

But the court didn't know, or rather, didn't want to know about the situation. The emperor and his ministers still thought that Henan was a very wealthy place, so they paid close attention to the taxes here. As a result, the yeoman farmers went bankrupt and their land was annexed by the tax-free vassal kings and gentry. The rest of the yeoman farmers have to bear more taxes.

Such a vicious circle has led to the increasingly miserable lives of the people at the bottom.

And Wu Shigong's military salary, not to mention the silver of one or two and a half, just one and a half stone of grain per month can feed a family of three. In other words, just for this one-and-a-half-stone food per month, it has an absolute attraction for those military households who are in a state of semi-starvation. They will all come to Wu Shigong to sign up as soldiers.

After knowing this situation, Wu Shigong resolutely decided to expand the army. However, before Wu Shigong could take out the expansion of the army, Chang Meng found Wu Shigong. Because, when he knew that Wu Shigong wanted to recruit soldiers, and these soldiers could also get military salaries, the whole town was a sensation. Moreover, the news has spread to the county.

Although, those big families in the town basically thought that Wu Shigong's brain was burned out. It's a lot of money, and there's nowhere to spend it. The Ming Dynasty is still very stable, what are you doing with thousands of households spending money to recruit and train soldiers?

However, those people at the bottom don't care about this. As long as they feed the whole family and let them do anything. Besides, the stability of the Ming Dynasty is only good for them. There is no need to fight hard, and there are good things to get military salaries, who doesn't want to do it?

And these people all asked for Chang Meng, who was by Wu Shigong's side. These days, Chang Meng's small benefits can be described as receiving soft hands. So, Chang Meng asked Wu Shigong for this.

Wu Shigong is now Han Xin's soldier, the more the merrier. Moreover, he couldn't recruit too many soldiers in a thousand households at once. The Thousand Households also needed a certain amount of labor to maintain the cultivation of the military fields. Therefore, he agreed to Chang Meng's request.

Unexpectedly, those military households in the Thousand Households stopped working. How can the Lord of a Thousand Households turn his elbow outwards when doing things? So, they also went to Wu Shigong to make trouble. After some bargaining, in the end, Wu Shigong came up with such a recruit.

In the civilian population, a hundred soldiers were recruited, and they immediately began training. During the training period, they received 30 percent of their military salaries.

At the Thousand Households, three hundred soldiers were recruited, and they were to begin training after the construction of the Thousand Households Fortress. During the training, they also received 30 percent of their military salaries.

After two or three months of joint training, 100 soldiers will be selected as Wu Shigong's personal soldiers and will be paid in full. The rest are paid fifty percent. However, every month after that, these soldiers who received 50 percent of the salary had the opportunity to participate in the assessment. As long as you pass the assessment, you will also receive full salary. However, those who fail to pass the three examinations will be dismissed.

As for the remaining military households of the thousand households, Wu Shigong will form them into an auxiliary team. They will also participate in military training during their off-season. And Wu Shigong will pay them 10% of their military salary.

After such generous conditions were taken out, six or seven hundred local people who came to Wu Shigong to sign up came at once. In desperation, Wu Shigong had no choice but to continuously improve the admission standards, and finally recruited 100 soldiers. Moreover, all the ordinary people who came to participate in the assessment but were not admitted, Wu Shigong also gave them a hardship fee of 30 Wen.

After recruiting these soldiers, Wu Shigong brought Zhou Xun and Qian Qi over and asked them to be responsible for the training of these soldiers. In training, Zhou Xun is the positive, and Qian Qi is the deputy.

Wu Shigong told them: In addition to the necessary physical training, the training of soldiers should first be carried out in two parts. One is cohort training. Wu Shigong was also ruthless, and the standards he proposed to Zhou Xun and Qian Qi were completely drawn up in accordance with the standards of modern military parades.

The other thing is to teach the soldiers to shoot with firearms. Twenty rounds of live ammunition are guaranteed for everyone.

Wu Shigong's request made Zhou Xun and Qian Qi embarrassed. So, Wu Shigong threw a date to the two of them again: "You two just need to do your best." The official is looking at it. As long as you work hard. At the end of this military training, except for the pro-soldier team, which is led by the official himself, the rest of the soldiers will be divided into two teams, and the two of you will be the captains respectively. ”

Hearing Wu Shigong's promise, Zhou Xun and Qian Qi were overjoyed.

In the process of recruiting soldiers, there is another tidbit. Hearing that Wu Shigong had such a lucrative condition, among these craftsmen who built the fortress of Qianhusuo, some craftsmen and apprentices also wanted to become soldiers.

When they told Wu Shigong what they thought, Wu Shigong immediately decided to recruit them all. Moreover, all of these people were paid the full military salary.

For Wu Shigong's move, Xue Yongli and Zheng Zhen both didn't understand it. However, Wu Shigong's next answer to them made them even more incomprehensible.

Wu Shigong said: "Science jishu is the primary productive force!" ”

After Wu Shigong was busy with all this, he finally started to do it to the merchants in the town in order to develop financial resources.

One day, all the merchants in the town received a notice issued to them in the name of thousands of households. The main content of the notice is: because the land of this town is owned by thousands of households. Therefore, starting from next year, all the merchants in the town will have to pay fifteen taels of silver to the thousand households every year for renting land.

As soon as this notice reached the hands of these merchants, it caused an uproar. They all gathered here at Yao Yuanwai, the largest merchant in the town and the largest gentry in the neighborhood, to discuss a countermeasure.

However, Yao Yuanwai asked these merchants not to worry at all, and he analyzed these merchants: As long as they refuse to pay the leased land fee, they can do it. If Wu Shigong wants to go to court. The ownership of this land has been ripped off for hundreds of years, and how can it be clearly distinguished? If Wu Shigong wants to be more than shili. How can Wu Shigong, the dragon who crossed the river, compare to these local snakes?

When some merchants worriedly proposed: Wu Shigong already had a lot of guards, and now he is recruiting soldiers on a large scale. What if Wu Shigong used force against them?

The Yao member waved his hand and said disapprovingly: This is even more worry-free. Wu Shigong is an official person, and if he uses force against them, it will be a blatant rebellion. With hundreds of people like Wu Shigong, isn't that looking for death?

Speaking of zuihou, that Yao Yuanwai's interest was caused by the pen, and he wrote a reply letter to Wu Shigong. Someone was sent to Wu Shigong. The content of the reply letter was very unceremoniously written, with only four big words on it - "Whimsical! ”

Wu Shigong laughed when he saw Yao Yuanwai's reply. Of course, he knew that his behavior of collecting land rental fees would not go well. However, I didn't expect the answers of these merchants to be so polite. Wu Shigong thought to himself: "It's time to give them a little color." ”

But before Wu Shigong could take any action, the Tao family led Tao Xin to find it again.

The last time Tao came to Wu Shigong, he thought that his fierce appearance had scared Wu Shigong, so Wu Shigong would agree to her request. Therefore, she thinks that Wu Shigong is very weak. So, this time she had to find it again.

Wu Shigong patiently listened to Tao's tricks and knew Tao's intentions. It turns out that the thousands of households in the thousands of households will also get certain benefits from the money and grain handed over every year. However, because Li Bingbei asked for too much money and food this year, the benefits obtained by the first 1,000 households who died were not taken.

And when Tao knew that Wu Shigong spent a lot of money and recruited soldiers, he thought that Wu Shigong was a big wrongdoer. Today, she is forcing Wu Shigong to give her that benefit.

Knowing all this, Wu Shigong almost slapped the table. However, he still endured it. Because, the amount of that benefit is not much. Wu Shigong was originally prepared to send some silver as a condolence when he visited the families of the first thousand households. Therefore, Wu Shigong also took out one hundred and fifty taels of silver and sent Tao away.

Looking at the smug back of Tao when he left, Wu Shigong's eyes narrowed. Because, he found that he may have overlooked a problem: he just came to this Qianhu to act as the agent of Qianhu, and the Qianhu who is justified in the name of Qianhu should be Tao Xin, the child next to Tao.

If in the future, when doing things on your own, someone will go against you in the name of Tao Xin, you will be very passive. Wu Shigong thought to himself: "It's time to find an opportunity to solve this hidden danger." ”