Chongzhen only brought more than 20 Yiding, plus more than a dozen eunuchs such as Gao Qiqian and Lu Jiude, and drove an ox cart to the gate of Li Chengdong's military camp, which contained 20,000 taels of silver.

When Li Chengdong heard this, he hurriedly took the general out of the camp to kneel and greet him.

"Minister Li Chengdong, respectfully ask for St. Ann." Li Chengdong said respectfully.

"Flat." Chongzhen said, "I have sent you a salary. ”

"Holy Lord, the minister is afraid." Li Chengdong didn't dare to get up, and hurriedly explained, "The minister actually dissuaded the soldiers, but the soldiers didn't listen to the minister's persuasion at all." ”

Chongzhen said: "So, Aiqing didn't know in advance? ”

Li Chengdong swore a gambling curse: "Holy Lord, the minister really doesn't know, if you lie......"

"Alright, I believe you." Chongzhen's heart was stunned, you Li Chengdong didn't know? If you don't know it, there will be ghosts, and if I believe you, I will be a fool.

This must have been instructed by you Li Chengdong.

The intention is not easy to judge, perhaps to make money, or it may be to establish prestige.

To put it bluntly, Li Chengdong has just become independent from Gao Jie's subordinates, and he has not yet established his prestige, so it is entirely possible to use this trouble to establish his prestige, and the rest of the towns will follow suit when they see it.

Only a general who can fight for the interests of his subordinates can be supported.

It's a pity that Li Chengdong and the others miscalculated this time, because they met Chongzhen.

"I don't mean to blame Aiqing." Chongzhen stepped forward and helped Li Chengdong up with his own hands, and then took Li Chengdong's hand and entered the barracks together, while saying, "I know Aiqing's loyalty. ”

Li Chengdong loyalty? Even Chongzhen himself didn't believe this.

Li Chengdong and Wu Sangui are all speculators.

It's just that Li Chengdong can't be moved at the moment, at least until Huang De's power army arrives.

The other eighteen town commanders are all watching, at this time, cleaning up Li Chengdong will only make everyone in danger, in that case, there is no need to wait for Jiannu to go south, and the border army of the eighteen towns will already fall apart.

It's just that not cleaning up Li Chengdong doesn't mean doing nothing.

We must take this opportunity to bypass Li Chengdong and other commanders of the 18 towns, directly connect with the officers and men at the bottom, and do our utmost to win the support of the officers and men at the bottom.

I'm going to give you a salary!

Don't you want to be self-respecting? I've robbed you of all your soldiers!

When entering the gate, Li Chengdong glanced at the four silver boxes on the ox cart, and his eyes were eager.

According to the Ming military system, the military salary for recruiting soldiers in border towns will be distributed by the lord in the future, so Li Chengdong feels that Chongzhen will definitely hand over these four boxes of silver to him for distribution, so I don't know how much silver there is in total?

As is customary in the military, he can deduct at least half of them.

However, Li Chengdong was disappointed, Chongzhen didn't mean it.

After escorting the ox cart into the camp, Chongzhen said: "Li Aiqing, arrange for the soldiers to come to receive the salary, according to the establishment, one post after another, and tell the soldiers that there is no need to worry at all, everyone has a share." ”

"Huh?" Li Chengdong was stunned, what is the situation?

Chongzhen smiled and asked, "Li Qing, but what's wrong?" ”

Li Chengdong really dared to say: "Holy Lord, there is no need to bother you with such a trivial matter as paying." ”

"Aiqing is wrong." Chongzhen said with a blank face, "Soldiers, the major affairs of the country, the place of death and life, and the way of survival, must not be ignored, and the salary is the hard-earned money of the soldiers, and it is the most important thing!" Therefore, the payment of salaries is by no means a trivial matter, and in the future, the payment of my Ming Dynasty's salaries and silver will be presided over by me or the Qincha, and will be used as a rule. ”

Hearing this, what else can Li Chengdong say, he can only do it.

In the final analysis, unless Li Chengdong dares to rebel, he can only obey.

But apparently Li Chengdong did not dare to rebel, at least not now.

Therefore, even if you want to make it bad, you can only do it secretly behind your back.

After a while, the soldiers in the battalion were organized, and a sentry came first.

The military system of the Ming Dynasty is divided into two types, one is the guard system and the other is the recruitment system.

The 28 towns in Xuzhou are all recruited, and the establishment is divided into corps, shi, team, sentry, general, battalion, and town, of which the first army is five people, the first team is ten people, the first team is 30 people, and the first sentry is 90 people.

Ninety officers and men at the outpost lined up in a long line, eagerly waiting to receive their salaries.

For soldiers, the happiest moment is when they are paid every month.

Chongzhen said loudly: "The same soldier eats food, and he also works hard for the imperial court, so he shouldn't be favored and divided into three, six, nine, etc., so I decided to treat all border towns equally, and invoke the Guanning army to pay 2 taels of silver per month according to the routine!" ”

The ninety officers and soldiers in the queue immediately cheered, the same standard as the Guan Ning Army?

The border towns of the Ming Dynasty are different from the border towns, the monthly salary of the Guanning army is 2 taels, and the rest of the border towns are 1 tael.

Chongzhen said again: "This month, because it is from Yangzhou to the north to Xuzhou, it should be paid according to the rules, double salary!" ”

Hearing this, the ninety officers and soldiers in the queue were even more ecstatic, they didn't expect that the standard would be raised to the Guanning Army, not to mention, they could still pay their salaries? This has never been a good thing.

In the past, Mr. Gao had never paid them.

"Long live thanks!" Immediately a soldier knelt on the ground.

"Long live thanks!" One knelt on the ground, and the others followed suit.

Looking at the officers and soldiers who shouted long live, Li Chengdong's mood was a little complicated.

Is this going to buy you off? Your lives are too cheap.

Li Chengdong didn't know that Chongzhen's show of drawing wages from the bottom of the kettle had just begun.

"Get up." Chongzhen raised his hands and said, "Hurry up and get paid, there are still many people waiting behind." ”

The first soldier stepped forward with an eager face, Lu Jiude gave him two silver bills and then asked in a sharp voice, "Whose soldier are you to be?" ”

This time, the high-diving business is much more proficient.

Immediately reminded the soldier: "Be a soldier of the Ming Dynasty." ”

The soldier then shouted: "Be a soldier of the Ming Dynasty!" ”

Lu Jiude gave the soldier two more silver bills and asked, "Whose food is it that you eat?" ”

After being guided by Gao Qiqian, the soldier shouted loudly: "Long live the food of the Lord!" ”

With this good beginning, the soldiers behind followed suit, and all of a sudden, the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty and the food of the Long Live Lord resounded throughout the barracks.

Li Chengdong's mood became more complicated.

How do you feel like you've lifted a stone and shot yourself in the foot?

It took more than a dozen hours to finally distribute the salary of 60,000 border towns.

240,000 taels of silver went out, and half of the silver that Liu Zeqing had collected was gone.

Liu Zeqing's strength is not as good as Gao Jie's, and his ability to grab money is not as good as Gao Jie's, and his family is less than 500,000 taels.

As for the remaining 20,000 villagers and brave soldiers, they have no money, and they only have three full meals a day, but they can save the food and take it home for their wives and children.

The incident was successfully resolved.

The soldiers are honest.

But the incident is not over yet.

Because blindly the city can only be exchanged for inches.

Only a combination of grace and power can truly establish prestige.

Therefore, the next step is to use thunderous means to give the most severe punishment to those who provoke the troublemakers.

The investigation of the case naturally had to be handed over to professionals, and Jin Yiwei commanded his fellow acquaintance Li Ruolian to begin to exercise his authority and began to continuously summon and interrogate the officers and soldiers of various towns.

During this period, Chongzhen did not have a moment of idleness.

Chongzhen would take two Yiding and two eunuchs to randomly appear in the military camp of a certain town from time to time, and then stay with the officers and soldiers of this town all day, train together during training, shout together when eating, shout the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty, eat the food of the Long Live Lord, and camp at night is also mixed in the soldiers' tents.

I have to say that Chongzhen's hand is even more powerful than Zhu Yuanzhang's.

Zhu Yuanzhang only selected 500 elite soldiers from the surrendered army to serve as guards.

However, Chongzhen directly mixed with the officers and soldiers of various towns, eating, living and training together.

Seeing the dignified 95 Honored Men walking with him for training, eating brown rice mixed with the sofa, and sleeping in the same broken tent at night, the feeling in the hearts of the officers and men is indescribable.

This is the same feeling that French soldiers felt about Napoleon more than a hundred years later.

However, Napoleon ate and lived with the soldiers, just to keep track of the physical condition of the soldiers, but unexpectedly won the enthusiastic support of the French soldiers.

Chongzhen did it deliberately.

Bitterness is bitterness, but Chongzhen clearly felt that the soldiers became more enthusiastic when they shouted long live him, and when they shouted the slogan of being a soldier and eating food before eating, they didn't just shout slogans, but from the heart.

Eight days later, on the twenty-third day of May, Huang's army arrived in Xuzhou.

When Huang De's power army arrived, Chongzhen was in the "ogre" Ma Hua leopard camp.

"When the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty, the food of the Long Live Lord!" After the loud slogans were shouted, the officers and men who had been so hungry all morning after the morning of training that their chests were pressed against their backs began to puff and puff and begin to feast on them.

I don't know, I thought it was more than 1,000 pigs eating pig food.

Chongzhen also eats very deliciously, because the food has improved significantly.

What is the food of the army in ancient times, fools know that until the Republic of China, they all ate pig food, and the food of the Ming army was not as good as pig food.

In short, up to the town bosses and generals, down to the gangsters, there are all kinds of deductions.

But Chongzhen broke this chain of interests, making these moths at a loss.

Because no one knows which town Chongzhen will go to today, let alone when he will pass, and then he will have to eat with the soldiers at the bottom, what should I do? No way!

can only pay enough for food, and dare not deduct a penny.

Therefore, the general soldiers and men of the towns were made miserable by Chongzhen.

But the soldiers in each town were enthusiastically supportive, and they became more fond of Chongzhen.

When Huang Degong walked into the Mahua Leopard Camp with the general soldiers of the Ten Towns under his command, he saw such a scene, Chongzhen was eating brown rice with several border soldiers, there were no vegetables, only a plate of soybean sauce.

Huang Degong was very emotional about this, but the ten general soldiers under his command looked at each other.

The Holy One is so ruthless? Can you eat this kind of pig food with the big head soldiers?

"Jing Nanbo, have you arrived?" Chongzhen greeted with a smile, "Let's eat together?" ”

"Chen Huang has merit to see the saint." Huang Degong didn't dare to slack off, and paid a big salute to the chief soldiers of the ten towns, and after getting up, he introduced the general soldiers of the ten towns to Chongzhen one by one.