Paper Maker: This is the end of the Ming Dynasty in Liaozhai

Chapter 145 The First Soldier

"Master, there are now 500 people. They are all recruited from nearby villages. According to the leader's regulations, they are all young and strong between the ages of 15 and 30."

Wei Jiufeng cupped his hands.

"How's the training going?"

Su Hao looked at Wei Jiufeng. Wei Jiufeng was the first martial artist he accepted here. His strength was just at the top level. Although he was not good enough in front of him, the people here are all fleeing. A third-rate martial artist is already considered a master.

Of course, the reason why he chose Wei Jiufeng to train for him was not because of Wei Jiufeng's strength, but because of Wei Jiufeng's good management ability. At the beginning, Wei Jiufeng managed all the hundreds of people in the cottage in an orderly manner.

Wei Jiufeng said: "Master, the training situation is good, but the food in the village is running out, we must find a way to get more food, otherwise there will be no food in the village."

"Don't worry about the food, the leader has his own arrangements."

Su Hao waved his hands and said, the reason why he assured Wei Jiufeng to train soldiers, apart from his confidence in his own strength, was mainly because he was responsible for all the food in the cottage.

As the saying goes, before soldiers and horses move, food and grass go first. Now there are more than 600 mouths to eat in the village. Because there is no meat, oil and water, if you want to eat enough and have strength to train, a soldier must eat at least one catty of grain a day. More than 600 people are Six to seven hundred catties of grain, not to mention that this is just daily food.

According to the standard he set out, as long as he joins the Skitarii, each person will be paid three taels of Anjia silver and two taels of personal silver. After enlisting in the army, he can still receive a monthly salary of one tael or five dollars a month, which can be exchanged for silver or food , and the person responsible for paying the monthly salary is only under his control.

Even if Wei Jiufeng had a crooked mind, he had to get so much food and money first, otherwise the people below would tear him apart first.

"Master, there is a person who claims to be a disciple of Xu Hongru, the leader of Bailian, who claims to be a disciple of the leader of Bailian Xu Hongru, who came to the village to contact us and wanted us to form an alliance."

At this time, Wei Jiufeng suddenly said again: "Because you are not here, the leader, so I declined him politely. I don't know what to do when he comes next time?"

Xu Hongru's disciple?

Hearing Wei Jiufeng's words, Su Hao raised his eyebrows slightly. This means he has met the right master. The reason why he borrowed the White Lotus Sect's cover is mainly for the influence left by the White Lotus Sect.

In ancient times, the name of righteousness was very important, but he didn't have it. As Jinyiwei Qianhu, if he rebelled, he would be in a state of injustice, that is, he would lose righteousness. Those wealthy families who hold the right to speak are very It’s hard to agree with him, don’t look at those people who will kneel faster than anyone else in front of the Jurchens 20 years later, that’s because the Jurchens 20 years later will have absolute strength, with a knife resting on their necks, they will naturally kneel faster than anyone else .

But it is impossible for him to have absolute strength from the beginning, so he can only win over the ordinary people, and the White Lotus Sect has been preaching here for decades, and there are countless believers. Xu Hongru gathered a hundred thousand people with a single call , so don't look at the current White Lotus Sect as a rat crossing the street, but the potential power is not small, but no one can gather together.

And not only in Shandong, the White Lotus Sect has a large base of people in all parts of Ming Dynasty. It can be said that once he can support this skin, he will have enough foundation wherever he goes.

"Don't pay attention to him. Now Jin Yiwei is still chasing Xu Hongru's disciples very closely. Forming an alliance with the other party will only expose us."

After thinking for a while, Su Hao waved his hands and said: "Next time the other party comes again, you can give him some food or money and send him away."

"My subordinate understands."

Wei Jiufeng bowed in response.

"In addition, continue to recruit troops and increase the strength of the cottage to one thousand."

Su Hao went on to say: "The other thing is to block the news here. We must not let the government know the situation here. Now the imperial court is extremely vigilant against us. Once the situation here is exposed, the imperial army will come soon."

"Don't worry, the leader, the subordinates will never let the news leak out."

Hearing Su Hao's warning, Wei Jiufeng's expression changed, and he quickly said, although Su Hao is the leader, Su Hao will only appear once every three or four days, and each time he only stays for two or three hours, and leaves after a round of inspection, even if he is here It doesn't matter to Su Hao if the matter gets out, but he is different, he is here every day, once the news gets out, he will definitely die.

After ordering some things to pay attention to, Su Hao walked out of the lobby.

drink!
what!
As soon as I walked to the martial arts field in the center of the village, I saw soldiers practicing with wooden knives or spears. Some were catching each other and fighting, and some formed a simple army formation to cooperate with the assault. It seemed that they had already A bit of a sharp look.

It's just that the faces of each of them are still full of vegetables, they look malnourished, and they are weak during the rehearsal. Su Hao can't do anything about this situation. These soldiers were originally selected from the refugees, and they have been malnourished since childhood. up.

But the food has kept up, and with a little more time, his physical fitness will improve sooner or later. When he needs to employ people two years later, these people should be worthy of use.

Although with his current strength, it is not difficult to fight against a thousand opponents, even in a short period of time, he can survive against a thousand opponents, but he will definitely not last long. Back then, Xu Hongru's strength was definitely not weaker than him, and he could use spells to make two ordinary people It is difficult for a third-rate martial arts practitioner to die, even for him now, although it is mainly because he and Xu Hongru know different spells, but it cannot be denied that Xu Hongru is indeed strong.

However, with Xu Hongru's strength, he still fell into the hands of the imperial court. The main reason was that Xu Hongru did not have a single soldier in his hands, no matter how strong his personal strength was, he could still hit a few nails.

Take him as an example, now he has two natal paper figurines in his hands, number one is relatively weak, at most able to deal with first-class fighters like Tang Xiangjin and others, number two is much stronger, and can deal with first-class fighters like Zuo Yifeng, Moreover, he can also summon almost a hundred armored paper figurines comparable to third-rate warriors. With his current mana, he can probably last for a little more than a quarter of an hour. With the addition of illusion, even in the face of martial arts masters, he will not fall behind. The strength of this position is definitely ranked first in the entire Shandong Chief Political Officer.

However, in the face of an imperial army of tens of thousands of 10,000+ at every turn, this strength is not enough at all. For example, in this An Bangyan rebellion, the imperial court mobilized a large number of strong men. There are more than a dozen people in Jinyiwei alone, and there are more than 20 people Taoist masters, plus the masters in the army.

There are more than 50 first-rate masters alone, many of whom are top-notch first-rate fighters like Zuo Yifeng, and at least hundreds of second-rate fighters, let alone Zhang Ruiyan, the celestial master, who is also a strong martial arts master.

Even if his martial arts cultivation can reach the level of a martial arts master two years later, he will not be able to deal with an army of 10,000+ by himself, so an elite army is essential, although most of them are ordinary people, but if you can't Before resisting the whole world with one force, quantitative changes will eventually lead to qualitative changes.

After watching for a while, Su Hao returned to the lobby and began to deal with the affairs in the cottage.

"Qingsheng, how is the distribution of food and military pay?"

Su Hao looked at a middle-aged man wearing Confucian robes and long gowns not far away. He selected Peng Qingsheng from a cottage to be responsible for the distribution of food and military pay. Although there were many people who fled into the mountains, most of them were They are illiterate, and very few can read and write. Peng Qingsheng has studied for several years. He is an accountant. He was involved in Xu Hongru's rebellion. Later, Xu Hongru was defeated and Peng Qingsheng fled into the mountains.

"Master of Islam, the distribution of food and salaries is in accordance with the standards you stipulated, and is distributed on time and in sufficient quantities."

Hearing Su Hao's words, Peng Qingsheng replied respectfully.

"Cai Ling, the leader asked you to supervise everything that happened in the cottage, is there anything unusual?"

Hearing that, Su Hao ignored him, but looked at a thin middle-aged man on the other side. He never believed in self-discipline, so he asked Wei Jiufeng to be in charge of training soldiers, Peng Qingsheng to be in charge of food distribution, and Cai Ling to be in charge of supervision.

Cai Ling respectfully said: "Master Muslim, there is nothing unusual."

"really?"

Su Hao's eyes narrowed slightly, and Huang Liang Yimeng was activated, a faint invisible wave spread out, covering Peng Qingsheng and Cai Ling.

According to the perception of Peng Qingsheng and Cai Ling, Su Hao just checked the account book a little bit, and believed what they said.

Watching Su Hao step onto the paper bird, and the paper bird fluttered away, Cai Ling showed a worried expression: "Brother Peng, for such a godlike figure as the leader, if we hide the rations and monthly salary of those soldiers without telling him, once the leader finds out , our end may be very bleak."

"What are you worried about? The leader has a lot to do every day. He only comes once every three or four days, and only stays for an hour or two at a time. How could he find out what we did with our pay?"

Peng Qingsheng comforted: "What's more, the White Lotus Sect is the target of the government's attack. As long as we come here a few more times and accumulate a few hundred taels of silver, we will find a chance to escape down the mountain and become rich in other places. It is impossible to find us in the vast crowd."

Not far from the two of them, Su Hao quietly watched the two talking. He had already been mentally prepared for this situation. He had accepted Peng Qingsheng and the two for only half a year. It would be foolish to think that the two of them would be loyal to him. daydream.

Besides, both of them were so poor that they were about to flee into the mountains, and now that thousands of grains and silver were in front of them, it would be nonsense to say that they were not interested.

Seeing that the two of them wanted to leave after talking, Su Hao withdrew his illusion and said calmly: "Peng Qingsheng, my leader knew you were flexible, but I didn't expect you to be so flexible to my leader."

Suddenly hearing Su Hao's voice, the expressions of Peng Qingsheng and Cai Ling changed drastically. They turned their heads to look, but Su Hao was still sitting on the chair and did not leave, as if what they had seen before was an illusion.

"Go and call Wei Jiufeng."

Su Hao ignored the two of them, but walked out of the hall and gave instructions to a soldier guarding outside the hall.

"Yes, Sect Master!"

Hearing Su Hao's order, the soldiers quickly responded.

...

On the main seat, Su Hao calmly looked at Wei Jiufeng and the other three who were kneeling on the ground.

"Wei Jiufeng, my leader asked you to train soldiers, yet you dare to deduct the soldiers' food and pay."

Su Hao said indifferently: "My leader gives you a monthly salary of 20 taels of silver. You are still not greedy enough. Do you really think that without you, no one can use this leader?"

"Master, forgive me!"

Hearing Su Hao's indifferent voice, Wei Jiufeng's face instantly paled, and then he kowtowed repeatedly. Although Su Hao had never used his methods, but the White Lotus Sect has been teaching here for so many years, and the methods to deal with traitors have long been accepted by most Common people know.

"Master, forgive me!"

"Master, forgive me!"

Peng Qingsheng and Cai Ling followed suit and kowtowed again and again.

Seeing the three people kowtow, Su Hao didn't move at all. He just watched quietly. He didn't intend to kill the three people. He was not like those wealthy families. Those wealthy families have been prosperous for 200 years and have loyal families. Nuhejia gave birth to a child, and the people he could use were picked up at random. Even if Wei Jiufeng and the three were killed, he couldn't guarantee that the re-selected ones would not be corrupt.

Now that Wei Jiufeng and the others have set up the airs of the teaching army, he would have to waste time cultivating new recruits. After taking down the cottage, he picked seven or eight people to teach them how to train troops, and it turned out that Wei Jiufeng learned from them. It was the best, the others were half buckets of water, and they were useless at all, but not killing them didn't mean that he would easily let them go.

Su Hao didn't open his mouth, Wei Jiufeng and the others didn't dare to stop, until their foreheads were dripping with blood, the three of them still knocked again and again.

"Get up."

Seeing that Peng Qingsheng and Cai Ling couldn't hold on any longer, Su Hao calmly said: "For the sake of your first crime, the leader will spare your life this time, but if there is another time, the leader will You extract your soul and refine your soul so that you will never be reborn."

"Thank you, Hierarch, for your mercy. The little one will never dare to commit another crime in the future."

Wei Jiufeng kowtowed again and again. Compared with Peng Qingsheng and Cai Ling, two ordinary people, he had heard people say that some heretic warlocks do have the ability to refine their souls when they were practicing martial arts in the martial arts hall.

"Go down and return the deducted food and salary to those soldiers. If the leader of the sect finds out that you have deducted the soldiers' food and salary, the leader of the leader will never forgive you again."

Su Hao said indifferently, he is very clear that drinking blood from soldiers is almost unavoidable, what he can do is to make this kind of thing less, now there are only a few hundred people in the cottage, he can still control it, no matter how many If it is, it is difficult for him to fully control it.

Although illusions are powerful, they are essentially just confusing and guiding, rather than directly controlling others. When meeting someone who is determined, it is very difficult to get the other party to confide in their hearts. Besides, there are various magic tools for meditation, otherwise Daming's corruption will not be worth it. As for being so powerful.

After dealing with the matter of Wei Jiufeng and the others withholding food, Su Hao left the cottage.

...

In the sky, Su Hao sat on the back of a paper bird, overlooking the vast mountains below, his eyes narrowed slightly. He never liked to put eggs in one basket. Wei Jiufeng and the others trained a thousand elites. It has attracted attention, and it cannot continue to expand, otherwise it will attract the attention of the government here, and it will definitely be wiped out.

He has to find a few more places to train troops, at least five or six thousand elites, so that he can be confident of resisting the imperial court's encirclement and suppression. Controlling the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal and several water grain warehouses may make the imperial court useless, but it is absolutely impossible for the imperial court to He sits idly by.

This is a question of the dignity and face of the imperial court, and Shandong Chief Envoy is the heartland of Daming, connecting the north and south Zhili, occupying this place will definitely stimulate the imperial court's nerves more than An Bangyan's occupation of Guizhou. The imperial court will never sit back and watch him grow stronger , When all preparations are made, the imperial court will definitely dispatch a large army to encircle and suppress.

With these five or six thousand elites as the foundation, and then recruiting tens of thousands of ordinary soldiers, a total of 8 or [-] people should be able to stop the first encirclement and suppression by the imperial army.

Don't look at the fact that the Ming Dynasty seems to be full of wars, but centipedes are dead but not stiff. On the Shandong side alone, the imperial court has nine guards and ten guards, with 5600 people in each guard, and 1120 people in each guard. There are nearly 7 people in these alone , let alone transferred from South Zhili, North Zhili, and Henan.

He also collected some basic information before. Once an incident occurs, the imperial court will be able to mobilize more than 15 troops to encircle and suppress him in the shortest two months. The problem of grain storage can be solved within a month.

Thinking of this, Su Hao couldn't help but look to the north. To be honest, if he could, he didn't want to take the road of rebellion now, especially in such a crucial place as Shandong. The real time for rebellion should be eight years after Chongzhen, but Wei Zhongxian's downfall was in October of the seventh year of Tianqi. At this time, the rebellion was more of a king's forerunner.

But he has nothing to do with this problem. He wrote to Fang Haichuan before, asking Fang Haichuan to remind Wei Zhongxian, beware of Donglin party members jumping over the wall in a hurry, and another incident about Wuzong. Unfortunately, Wei Zhongxian is quite confident in his ability to control the palace, so he doesn't believe him at all. if.

(End of this chapter)