After several days of fierce fighting between the Japanese and the Ming in the south of the Yangtze River, the patience of the Rakshasas was finally rewarded.

The war in Jiangnan was stalemate, and the news that the Japanese were approaching step by step continued to spread to the DPRK, and the front-line war of Xuanda predicted by Xiao Feng was silent, and many civil servants couldn't sit still.

They vehemently accused Xiao Feng of being too indecisive, which led to the inability to win the Jiangnan War, and the words in the military department were the most intense.

"The fighting power of the Japanese is extraordinary, and dozens of Japanese soldiers have defeated thousands of soldiers all the way to the city of Nanjing.

Now that 300,000 Japanese have landed, Xiao Feng only meets the enemy with 500,000 troops, isn't this arrogant?

He intended to establish immortal meritorious deeds, deliberately refused to mobilize Xuanda and the troops outside the Guanxi to help, and wanted to record all the credit in Jiangnan and on the heads of him and Hu Zongxian.

But in such a disregard for the overall situation, if the Japanese invaders win and the land of Jiangsu and Zhejiang falls into the hands of the Japanese invaders, won't the Ming Dynasty fall to half of the country? ”

Ding Rukui was unhappy: "Why are you so open-mouthed?" Lord Xiao went to the front line to fight against the Japanese Invaders, didn't he know better than you about the ferocity of the Japanese Invaders?

Qi Jiguang and Yu Dayou trained the new army, and their combat power was far from comparable to that of the guards of the year. The WTO Accession Concept and the National Square are now working day and night to provide weapons and ammunition.

Master Xiao said that the Japanese have been preparing for a long time, and it is normal for them to be fierce when they first come up. In a few days' time, our home advantage should be revealed! ”

The military department sneered in the matter: "Qi Jiguang and Yu Dayou, these are Xiao Feng's people. Hu Zongxian and Xu Wei, including sailors who did not return at sea.

Wang Zhi, Xu Hai, Tang Shunzhi, which one is not Xiao Feng's person? Even the Miaojiang soldiers and horses and Shandong soldiers and horses he mobilized were also his deep roots.

If this battle is won, the main officials of Xiao Feng's party, everyone has great merit, and they will all be promoted! At that time, the entire court will be Xiao Feng!

If we can really win, we will admit it. But he's taking an adventure! On the front line of Xuanda, Shanhaiguan and the places outside the customs, his foundation is still shallow, so he refuses to transfer troops to use it, worrying about sharing the merits! ”

Ding Rukui said angrily: "Governor Xuanda is Qiu Luan, Ningjin is Li Chengliang, Shanhaiguan is now Yang Zhao, and these people have also fought side by side with Lord Xiao, how can we talk about the shallow foundation?" ”

The military department said with a smile: "You must know that friends also have depths. Governor Qiu is loyal to Long live, and Li Chengliang and Yang Zhao are only a few sides of Xiao Feng.

The most important thing is that the officers and soldiers below the northern army are not familiar with Xiao Feng, but most of the troops controlled by Yu Dayou and Qi Jiguang are trained by themselves! ”

Ding Rukui shouted: "Lord Xiao said that the army outside Xuanda and the pass did not move in order to prevent Mobei Mongolia and the Rakshasa people from moving!" ”

The military department sneered in the matter: "Now that the Mongols on the grassland have all returned to the Ming Dynasty, and they are scattered, how dare they rebel?"

Mobei Mongolia is far away and does not have many troops, even if there is a strange kinetic energy that can threaten the Xuanda defense line? As for the Rakshasa Kingdom, it's even more nonsense!

The Rakshasa Kingdom is far away from the Ming Dynasty, and the only place that is close to it is the mountain outside the West Liaoning Road. There has never been a war between the two sides, which is either groundless or alarmist! ”

Ding Rukui was furious: "How dare you discuss the battle situation and disturb the audio-visual situation?" Who instructed you? ”

Xu Jie coughed slightly: "Lord Ding, although the official position in the military department is small, he is a speech official, he is in the military department, and it is not possible to discuss the battle situation."

The old man believed that Lord Xiao had no dissenting intentions, but he was also worried that Lord Xiao would be a secret and underestimate the combat power and determination of the Japanese Kou this time.

Lord Xiao said too resolutely before, maybe at this time, for the sake of face, we can't turn around, should we help Lord Xiao find a step down?

Now there is no movement in the north, and a large number of men and horses are hoarded here, so that Lord Xiao can only resist the Japanese army with hundreds of thousands of horses in the south of the Yangtze River.

In case something goes wrong, not only will Lord Xiao be able to exonerate his guilt, but half of the Ming Dynasty will be eroded, which is even more terrifying. Therefore, it is reasonable that we should not sit back and wait, and we should work together. ”

That's a very good thing to say. Since Xiao Feng forced Xu Jie to donate 100,000 taels of silver to help him stabilize his position as the first assistant, Xu Jie's attitude towards Xiao Feng has indeed changed a lot.

Although he is still guarding against Xiao Feng, he has rarely taken the initiative to attack Xiao Feng, and the last time he discussed tax reform, he refused to come forward, and it was already relatively clear.

But his fears are not unfounded. If Xiao Feng had already won a big victory in Jiangnan at this time, then these worries would naturally not exist.

But at this time, the war in the south was anxious, and the news that came back was not very optimistic, and it was impossible for Xu Jie, as the first assistant, not to worry.

And he still has an unspeakable worry, that is, Xiao Feng already has the world's soldiers and horses in his hands at this time, although he is sure that Xiao Feng will not rebel, but what if?

In case Xiao Feng has a different heart, who can control it? As the first assistant, he can't put the safety of the court on Xiao Feng's conscience, nor on his family members who stayed in the capital.

If a person really wants to be an emperor, let alone Xiao Feng, a woman who has no blood relationship, even his parents and children can give up.

Therefore, Xu Jie still hopes that there will be a check and balance, so that the cabinet can take over the army in the north, in case Xiao Feng has a change, at least the two sides can be evenly matched.

Jiajing was silent, and he was also thinking about this question in his heart.

As an emperor, his trust in Xiao Feng has reached its peak, but it is impossible to say that he has no doubts at all.

Ninety percent of the body of a creature like the emperor is doubt, and removing doubts is as difficult as dehydration, and it is by no means enough to shout "I want to be dehydrated".

Regarding Xu Jie's high-level speech, Ding Rukui couldn't refute it, so he could only shut up. Above the court, there was silence for a while.

At this moment, Lu Bing rushed into the court, his face was pale, and he was holding an urgent report from Jinyiwei in his hand. After all, the pigeon flies faster than the horse, and the meteor horse of the military department has not yet arrived in the capital.

"Long live, the Japanese invaded Nanjing, and the troops have come to the city. Nanjing was in a bitter battle, and it is not known what the situation was at this time. ”

The ministers were shocked and terrified. Jiajing opened his eyes suddenly, and his face sank.

What Xu Jie said is not unreasonable. The general army of the Beijing camp took over the military power of Xuanda and Shanhaiguan, and immediately appointed capable personnel, mobilized troops, and went south to reinforce Xiao Feng! ”

Qiu Luan was very surprised when he received the order to transfer troops, and he repeatedly confirmed the holy decree to transfer troops to ensure that no one was playing tricks on it.

"Lord Xiao said before that even if the south is smoking, you can't transfer the Xuanda soldiers, how can you say that the change will change?"

The general officer who transferred the troops was much smaller than Qiu Luan, and he was very humble: "The lower officials don't know, this is a holy decree, so don't embarrass the lower officials." ”

Qiu Luan frowned, and he was 120,000 unwilling in his heart.

On the one hand, he felt that this order was not given by Xiao Feng, and it was probably that those civil officials had fooled Banzai.

On the other hand, the transfer of a large group of men and horses is very detrimental to his own safety. Xiao Feng measured his words, and told him conclusively that someone would definitely attack him, how could he fight if there were fewer people?

But at present, it is not possible to refuse to give soldiers. Qiu Luan's eyes rolled and he thought of a solution. He asked the general who transferred the troops to rest first and go to organize the army himself.

"Lin Tong, pick out all the old and weak soldiers on the Xuanda defense line, and you have to pick out 30,000 people!"

Lin Tong was stunned by this arduous task: "My lord, how is this possible? Let's Xuanda The entire defense line is more than 100,000 people, where did so many old and weak soldiers come from! ”

Qiu Luan thought for a while: "Then count the recruits who have just been recruited and haven't trained much, can you make up enough?" ”

Lin Tong pondered in his heart for a long time: "That's more than 20,000, and it won't reach 25,000 if you die, and it's impossible to do more." ”

Qiu Luan nodded: "It's almost enough." ”

Lin Tong was taken aback: "My lord, the holy decree says that 30,000 people will be transferred, but you only give more than 20,000 yuan, so it's not good." ”

Qiu Luan waved his hand: "Look at me, call the general who transferred the troops." ”

The general who transferred the troops came, and Qiu Luan gave him a roster, 30,000 people, all with real names and surnames, and 30,000 people who were not bullied.

Because of the urgency of the matter, the general who transferred the troops ordered the 30,000 men to assemble at once, one for every 5,000 men, and the officers below to name them.

After the roll call, they had to set off immediately, so that they could meet the soldiers transferred from Shanhaiguan on the road, and on the way, they would also meet the soldiers from other places, all the way to the south.

Listening to the roll call of the generals who transferred troops in front of the array one by one, Lin Tong beat a drum in his heart, and his face changed color, but he saw that Qiu Luan was calm and calm, and he did not panic.

After counting 30,000 people, the general looked at the phalanx in front of him hesitantly, and always felt that there was something wrong with his eyes today, and this crowd felt slimmer than 30,000 people.

As a general who has led soldiers, he still has this intuition. But intuition is intuition, after all, it can't be certain. Besides, 30,000 people is not 3,000.

If there are less than a thousand of the three thousand, anyone who has led the troops will be able to see it at a glance. But 30,000 people are less than 10,000, which is actually difficult to see.

As the saying goes, if there are more than 1,000 people, you can't see the edge, and if there are more than 10,000 people, you can't see the edge.

It's the same with money, if you give you a bunch of money, you can tell at a glance how much it is for 10 million and 20 million, but you may not be able to see it for 100 million and 200 million.

The general who transferred the troops left with doubts, Lin Tong was surprised, I don't know how Governor Qiu's magic changed, this is a real big change.

Qiu Luan's face was also very solemn, he pulled Lin Tong back to the room, poured a pot of wine down, wiped his mouth with satisfaction, and then sighed slowly.

"Brother Lin, you are the general soldier of Datong selected by Brother Xiao for me, I won't hide it from you, this time I took the risk of giving less soldiers and horses, but I hope to do the right thing."

Lin Tong naturally knew that because these people were found by him, and there were no 30,000 people killed, he replied worriedly.

"My lord, there are 30,000 people in the holy decree, and you only gave 20,000 old and weak soldiers, in case someone finds out, this is a big crime."

Qiu Luan looked at no one on the left and right, and said with a slumped face: "What can I do?" Xiao Fengqian instructed me not to reduce the garrison. I'm sure I believe him!

What's more, if you really give out good soldiers, if there is a war, what will we do?

Rest assured, this soldier will join other soldiers on the road, and it will be even more difficult to find fewer people when the time comes. ”

Lin Tonghu asked suspiciously, "What is the situation?" Why did more than 20,000 people name 30,000? ”

Qiu Luan poured himself another glass of wine, and said with a wry smile: "Look at Brother Lin, you are an honest person." For those who will lead troops, how can there be anyone who does not eat empty salaries? Especially those of us who have been soldiers.

There are tens of thousands of horses under the command of the general army, and there are tens of thousands of horses, how can the imperial court know? This small person can still ask the court to pay silver.

Where did all this money go? Of course, it fell into the pockets of the general soldiers, and then the general soldiers took it out and distributed it to the junior officers, and dealt with the bigwigs in the DPRK and China. ”

Lin Tong was silent, it wasn't that he didn't know about eating empty salaries, but he really hadn't done it, because he felt it was too dangerous.

"My lord, although I haven't eaten such a thing, I know a little bit about it.

It's just that this is too dangerous, not to mention being discovered, but waiting for the war to start and there is a shortage of manpower, what should I do? ”

Qiu Luan shook his head and said, "For example, you have 50,000 soldiers, but in fact, there are only 42,000. What kind of battle do we have to fight to make up for these forty-two thousand?

In fact, most of the general soldiers, the battles they usually fight are just to suppress a bandit, fight a White Lotus Sect or something, where can they use so many people?

Even if it's a border fortress city defense, how many times have you lost the city because of the people who ran out? Isn't it because they were defeated first that everyone ran away?

Brother, if you can't win a battle with 42,000, you can't win a battle if you give you 50,000 people!

Those who are really capable are not short of those 8,000 people. If you don't have the ability, it's useless to give you another 10,000.

If you really fight a battle that needs to be decided with that vacancy, it is definitely a duel between two famous generals, such as Qi Jiguang vs. Yu Dayou. ”

Lin Tong looked at Qiu Luan in surprise, he couldn't imagine that this guy, who was ashamed of being a soldier and a drunken man, would have such an insight.

Although what Qiu Luan said is all crooked, only insiders know the deep meaning of this statement, and it is not as absurd as it sounds.

"Your Excellency the Governor, but later the court noticed that the empty salary was getting worse and worse, and you have sent the imperial historian to supervise it many times, how did you get through?"

Qiu Luan was already a little drunk, probably he was really scared about this today, and drank vigorously.

"It's not just me, it's all those who eat empty wages in the world. Yushi is also a human being, and if you are a human being, you have a way to deal with it.

Most of the imperial historians received the money, and they turned a blind eye. What's more, when Yan Shifan was in power, how could there be anything that could not be done with money. ”

Lin Tong thought for a while: "Then what if I run into the imperial history who doesn't want money?" I don't believe that the imperial history of the Ming Dynasty is all corrupt officials and corrupt officials! ”

Qiu Luan nodded: "Imperial historians, naturally there are many people with style." But those who have a backbone are often stupid...... This is not aimed at specific people.

That's where the magic of the Great Transformation I just performed comes in. To put it bluntly, it's actually very simple, that is, there is a batch of soldiers under his hands.

In any army, there are such soldiers, whose combat effectiveness is not strong, but they are well-trained, have unique skills, and are anxious about what the commander is anxious about, so they can keep mixing.

Back then, in Gansu, I had a thousand soldiers under my command, so I deceived the imperial history that came to check, and I couldn't find the north. ”

Lin Tong couldn't understand how he was deceived, Qiu Luan remembered his eventful years, and he was also quite emotional, and decided to teach his little brother.

"Brother Lin, the imperial history checks the empty amount, it is nothing more than two ways. The first simple one is to take a roll call with a roster.

In this case, the soldiers who are mixed in each phalanx are very important. They have to learn all kinds of accents, and when they call names, one is ten! ”

Lin Tong was taken aback, and after thinking about it carefully, during today's roll call, there were indeed responses in the phalanx, and there were quite a few of them.

"The second way is more difficult, I have encountered a more serious imperial history, holding a roster, standing in front of the camp tent, and letting the soldiers come forward one by one. Click and then list. ”

Lin Tong thought about it, this is indeed the best way: "Then how did the adults get through the tricks?" ”

Qiu Luan burped and smiled: "People are not immortals, tens of thousands of faces, he has just arrived, can he remember that he is not an immortal?"

At this time, I will have to persuade some more officers to help me mobilize two or three thousand more people, change my clothes, and touch the soot on my face to go again. ”

Lin Tong was really impressed, and he couldn't imagine that these generals could come up with any strange ideas in order to eat empty salaries.

"Then the Governor has never encountered a hard stubble in all these years?"

Qiu Luan fell into the memory, and nodded heavily for a long time: "I met it, Zeng Mill, the governor of Ganshan, sent a document.

That document is soft and hard, and his memory is excellent, and he also brought two helpers to help him check the empty amount together, and that time it almost overturned.

Thankfully, I had an idea and got away with it. ”

Lin Tong was surprised, it was all so serious, what other good way could Qiu Luan hide from the world?

Looking at Lin Tong's puzzled eyes, Qiu Luan drank another glass of wine and smiled, with three points of smugness and seven points of embarrassment in his smile.

"As soon as I saw that something bad was going to happen, I had one of my lieutenants run in from outside, saying that a force of Tatars was coming to raid.

I immediately put on my armor and shouted: 'The 20,000-strong troops of the 2nd and 3rd battalions will set off with me, quick!' ’

Then I ran out with twelve thousand men, and rushed out to the Tatar territory in one go, and fought with them.

Probably because I never took the initiative to attack, the Tatars were blinded by me, and I killed many people, and I ran back with the Tatar heads.

It was the best battle I have ever fought in my life, with less than a hundred dead and wounded, and thousands of Tatars killed and wounded! ”

Lin Tong was taken aback, such a battle loss ratio, such a battle, in the past few decades, before Xiao Feng appeared, there had never been.

This is really an extremely brilliant victory, and it is also a feats that the generals dream of. But why have you never seen such a classic battle in the newspaper?

Qiu Luan smiled bitterly: "Actually, you should have heard of this battle, because it was also published in the Di newspaper."

It was the battle in which the imperial court reprimanded me, recklessly and rashly, and went deep alone, killing 1,000 Tatars and 8,000 Ming soldiers.

That is, because the ratio of casualties in that battle was too high, I was scolded by the imperial court, which led to Zeng Milling to recover the Hetao, and the imperial court did not agree to anything. ”

Lin Tong looked at Qiu Luan in surprise: "My lord, is it because of this?" But why don't you report your real exploits? That's a great feat......"