The expedition went very smoothly, and the casualties of the Ming army were very small, and dozens of people were killed and wounded in total.

In addition to the Li family's offerings, Li Xianzhong himself also paid them a salary, 2 taels of silver per month.

They are now paid three salaries.

The normal salary of the imperial court, the silver of the Li family, and the monthly salary of Li Xianzhong.

Although they often have to fight on the front line, they are indeed a proper high-income group, with a basic salary three or four times that of ordinary border soldiers, as well as an additional "bonus" for killing the head.

There is also an additional "life insurance", and the Li family's compensation for the fallen family is as high as 50 taels.

Of course, there is also compensation from the imperial court, but the court is relatively small in kind, and for the fallen soldiers, it is usually about 2 months of silver, which is generally about 3 silver.

Of course, there are some additional policies, such as some exemptions from forced labor and taxes.

It is this series of treatment, as well as excellent equipment, that gave birth to the "Liaodong Iron Cavalry", a strong army in the world.

Many of the "Liaodong Iron Cavalry" were hereditary soldiers, and fathers, sons, and brothers had been serving the Li family for generations.

For example, their commanders, Zha Dashou, Zha Huizu, and Zha Wenzhong are the three generations of grandchildren, so their loyalty to the Li family is extremely high, even if they want to rebel today, they will not hesitate to carry it out.

But this is also a real "gold swallowing beast", in addition to the restrictions on equipping horses, the huge expenses also make Li Xianzhong prohibitive.

Maintaining the current scale of 2,500 people is already the limit of what he can do for the time being, thanks to the support of the Li family.

It is hard to imagine how many taels of silver Li Chengliang swallowed in order to maintain the scale of the "Liaodong Iron Cavalry" at 8,000 people.

Therefore, he found another way to form an "assault battalion", using the existing strength of the generals to form a light cavalry to assist the heavy cavalry of the "Liaodong Iron Cavalry".

In addition, it is also used to redistribute benefits and bind them to their own interests deeply.

This time, Li Xianzhong took out 10,000 taels of silver from the seizure and distributed it to the generals, which was worth their empty salary for several months. And everyone also got a lot of heads, although the court's reward does not know when it will be issued, but after all, it is 20 taels of the first level.

Now that Zaisai is in a big position, the trade with Kaiyuan has also begun, and this monthly caravan dividend is another income.

Their good days had just begun, and when they heard that the "assault battalion" would be distributed according to the soldiers in their hands, they quickly realized that this was a good opportunity for them to increase their dividends, and they began to renovate their armaments and practice day and night.

He even sent Li Xianzhong a long list of equipment requirements and asked for supplies.

Kaiyuan belongs to Lucheng and has its own arsenal, and in the face of these needs, the existing equipment in Kaiyuan's arsenal must be distributed first, and if it is not enough, then ask the arsenal of Liaodong or even the arsenal of the Ministry of War to apply.

This stumped Zheng Zhifan, who was in charge of the arsenal, all ministries are now replenishing supplies, and the arsenals for storing equipment have been emptied, and some of the original accounting problems have been revealed.

You have 100 bows in your warehouse, but you only have 50. But it doesn't matter, you can report some loss every other paragraph and close out the missing parts.

For example, this month, due to mildew rain, the bows of 20 bows were broken; The next month, 5 more were damaged due to rat bites.

But if you are asked to take out all 100 bows at once, the problem will come, you will not be able to take them out at all.

If there is a way to change to normal times, it is to cancel the account through false issuance.

Just give the generals a little favor, I'll send you 50 bows and let them actually sign for 100 bows.

The problem is that most of the people have now been replaced by Li Xianzhong's people, especially the big person who applied for military funds this time, Gao Mingtai, a guerrilla general in Xiguan.

It simply doesn't work.

In desperation, Zheng Zhifan decided to take a risk.

Historically, when the warehouse in the world is empty enough to make up for it, there is only one way, which is to set fire to the warehouse. In this way, the materials in the warehouse will be reduced to ashes.

Although he will still be charged with dereliction of duty, as long as he spends money to dredge it, he can save his life, which is better than being found to have embezzled the equipment of the arsenal.

Usually they will find a "scapegoat" to bear the responsibility for the fire, which is similar to the "temporary workers" who come out on various occasions today.

It also has an exclusive name called "Fire Dragon Burning Warehouse"!

At this time, the vicinity of the arsenal was already full of firewood, and a small official of the arsenal asked in a low voice, "Is there no other way?" ”

Zheng Zhifan shook his head helplessly and said, "The deficit is too big, and we can't fill this account." But please rest assured, Zheng will definitely try his best to dredge for you, even if he can't protect you, he will never be able to treat your family. ”

At this time, there was a trace of despair in the eyes of the little official, and just when he was about to drop the torch in his hand, he saw a large number of soldiers patrolling the city rushing over.

A sergeant snatched the torch from his hand and kicked him to the ground.

Zheng Zhifan was also frightened by this sudden scene, and then he said loudly: "Zhang Zhizhou, what do you mean by this?" ”

At this time, Zhang Wenbing, the governor of Kaiyuan, reprimanded angrily: "Ben Zhizhou has three orders and five declarations, and asked you not to cheat, so as not to affect the war in Liaodong, you actually want to set fire to the warehouse, how can I let you get your wish?" ”

"Come on, take these two people down for me!"

Seeing that the matter was revealed, Zheng Zhifan scolded: "The surname is Zhang, you usually don't take less of my filial piety, but now you actually turn around to Lao Tzu?" ”

Zhang Wenbing sneered and said: "You have gifts for New Year's holidays and the official's birthday, but can the official ask you to be greedy for military resources?" ”

"Someone will put this guy in prison for me, and wait for the fate!"

Zhang Wenbing was also very helpless, Li Xianzhong never seemed to check carefully, but his operation still made the problem of the arsenal naturally exposed.

Although he has received some benefits from Zheng Zhifan, the lack of weapons is too big, and of course he can't do it for Zheng Zhifan, and he can't hold it back.

More importantly, Xiong Tingbi, the new Liaodong Economic Strategy, and Yuan Yingtai, the governor of Liaodong, have already arrived in Liaoyang.

This Xiong Tingbi is known as the "bear barbarian", and he has always been popular in doing things; This Yuan Yingtai is a clear stream, and he hates this kind of corruption the most.

If you really want to let this fire burn, then I'm afraid that what will be burned is the black gauze hat on your head.

As for Li Xianzhong, as soon as he came, he made it very clear that he would not "wipe his ass" for himself.

This Zheng Zhifan is also really greedy, and in the end, it was found that the weapons, armor, and military resources that were lost in his hands were as high as 4% of the total inventory.

In fact, everyone knows very well that this is only on the books, if you add the equipment that has been written off by him through loss reporting over the years, I am afraid it is far more than that?

Fortunately, it's just an arsenal of Lucheng, and there aren't too many equipment, but it's also a big case.

Zhang Wenbing hurriedly reported the case to Li Xianzhong, the chief soldier of Kaiyuan.

It is normal for these officials who manage all kinds of warehouses and arsenals to be corrupt, and it is only hellish if they are not corrupt.

Although the amount is not small, he doesn't take it too seriously, and he can just take advantage of it to make another profit.

So he said: "Zhang Zhizhou is really loyal to his duty, and he will be very relieved." Rest assured, I'm not the kind of person who doesn't know how to be flexible, as long as Zheng Zhifan is willing to pay his own money to make up for the deficit in the warehouse, this matter can be settled. ”

"I heard that businessman named Liang San has great powers, presumably this matter should be difficult for him!"

Li Xianzhong is willing to "go private", this is the best, after all, this is the truth, and if he really stabbed him, Zhang Zhizhou was also charged with unfavorable supervision.

Liang San, a newly promoted businessman, can have such magical powers, and I am afraid that the support of this General Li is indispensable behind him.

This General Li's means of accumulating money is really good, and he clearly made a lot of money, and he also left a reputation of "not eating alone". Now the generals who opened the original road praised him, and today he finally saw it.

Zhang Wenbing naturally would not expose the relationship between Li Xianzhong and Liang San, so he said: "The lower officials obey the order, and this time Zheng Zhifan will definitely make up for the shortfall." ”

However, what Zhang Wenbing didn't expect was that this Zheng Zhifan actually insisted that he couldn't take out so much silver, and pushed the whereabouts of the equipment to Yu Shouzhi, who had just "died in battle".

Zhang Wenbing knew that the two of them had nothing to do with each other, so naturally they would not get used to Zheng Zhifan, but only three thousand taels were found from Zheng Zhifan's house.

With the amount of this batch of military funds, it can be sold for at least tens of thousands of taels, and this result really made him unexpected.

Li Xianzhong, who was thinking of making a lot of money, was also on fire and decided to interrogate this Zheng Zhifan in person.

As a result, all kinds of tortures were served, and this thing refused to confess the whereabouts of the equipment, and Yu Shouzhi, who was determined to be dead, was the mastermind, he just coerced and coerced, and pointed the finger at Ma Lin behind Yu Shouzhi.

Looking at Zheng Zhifan, who was tied to the torture pillar and covered in blood, Li Xianzhong felt angry and funny.

Flogging, soldering irons, sticks, nail pulling, salt rubbing wounds, all kinds of criminal punishments were used.

I thought how tough a corrupt person could be? Unexpectedly, I ran into a "revolutionary martyr" who refused to confess.

At this time, Li Xianzhong kept making up for the ways in which the devils in the TV series in his previous life dealt with the revolutionary martyrs.

So he asked: "Does this Zheng Zhifan have children in Kaiyuan?" ”

Li Xianzhong, who was embarrassed and angry, could only use his children as a threat at this time. He didn't believe that he castrated his son or his daughter in front of him, and this guy could still be indifferent?

As a result, there were only two newly married concubines in his family, and none of the other family members were in Kaiyuan, and no one had seen his other family members.

This made Li Xianzhong feel that there must be something wrong with this Zheng Zhifan, and his relatives had never appeared, could it be that he was on Jianyu's side?

In the end, Li Xianzhong remembered the method in the TV series in his previous life, which was not to let him sleep.

Sent people to boil him like an eagle without interruption, and he stayed up for three days and two nights before he confessed, it turned out that he was really a spy of Jianyu, and it had been more than two years since he infiltrated Kaiyuan, and these missing equipment went to Hetuala.

also confessed to many accomplices in Kaiyuan City, Zhang Wenbing followed the vine and found out more than 30 spies at once.

There are even documents from the Zhizhou Yamen, the city gate officials who opened the east gate of the original and a few merchants who smuggled goods for Jianjiao, and a few spies lurking in the Nanguan.

Good guys, from Nanguan, which is adjacent to Jianzhou, to the east gate of Kaiyuan City, there are Jianyu's spies along the way, no wonder in history Nurhachi can directly enter Kaiyuan City.

Originally, it was just a small arsenal theft case, but now it has become a terrible "big case".

This made Xiong Tingbi, the newly appointed Liaodong Economic Strategy, unable to sit still, so he and Liaodong Governor Yuan Yingtai, Liaodong Supervisor Yan Mingtai and others immediately set off for Kaiyuan.

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