Elegy of Tang Dynasty

Chapter 234 Recruiting soldiers is a temporary pleasure, military expenses crematorium
Guan Chongsi was a captain of the Anren Army under the banner of Longyou Jiedushi, with dozens of people under his command.This army was stationed in Changningchuan (Beichuan River) northwest of Shanzhou City. The military fortress where it was stationed was called "Datong City".

This is the frontier closest to Tubo in the northwest of the Longyou Defense Line, preventing the Tibetans from going south along the Changning River to attack Shanzhou.

This time, Guan Chongsi was entrusted by Ge Shuhan, the envoy of the Anren Army, to come to Chang'an to seek support. No matter whose support it was, it would be fine, as long as he could get the winter clothes he had owed for two years.

But it is a pity that he is not going from Longyou to Chang'an now. On the contrary, Guan Chongsi has already walked around Chang'an and returned without any success and no money, so he can only return to Longyou the same way!
Of course, Guan Chongsi was not the first Longyou general to do this, nor would he be the last.When the generals from Longyou Town came to Chang'an to ask for food and wages, it was not because they were humble, but because objective conditions forced them to do so.

The Longyou front line is adjacent to the Tubo border. Not to mention the poor mountains and rivers, the roads are still rugged and difficult to travel, and commerce is almost non-existent. Moreover, the merchants only stopped going west after arriving in Lanzhou, and they could not reach the headquarters of the Longyou Jiedushi at all.

The few arable lands in the local area have been used for farming to ensure the supply of military food, so there is no need to think too much about the rest.Therefore, the spring and winter clothes to be distributed to the front line completely depend on the supply from Chang'an, which cannot be produced locally.

Why didn't this problem happen before?
Because it used to be a government military system!The country's soldiers are prostitutes for free. They are written as "volunteer soldiers" but are actually "compulsory soldiers."As for military pay and so on, it would be polite if the country didn't ask the soldiers' families for taxes. How could it be possible to send money to the soldiers?
Therefore, the Tang army, which was invincible during the Tiankhan period, had suffered repeated defeats since the beginning of the Wu Zhou Dynasty with few victories. In addition to the general fault, the collapse and disintegration of the military system was also one of the important reasons.Ji Ge took a step further on the basis of the soldiers stationed in the border towns and transformed the soldiers into "Long March athletes". Soldiering became one of the ways out for the bottom.

After that, the Tang army turned from weak to strong. The Long March athletes who were skilled in technique and tactics were indeed better than the soldiers who were not focused on guarding the border.

But the laws of nature tell us that if we want to become stronger, we have to pay a price.

There is no power in the world that does not require paying a price!

This price is the Tang Dynasty's military expenditure, which has increased from 200 million guan per year to more than 1000 million guan, and it can't stop rising every year!Even if it was as powerful as the Tang Dynasty, such a huge military expenditure would be too much to bear.

Therefore, in the past few years, since the peace treaty was signed with the Tubo people and no more war was fought, the border troops under Longyou Jiedushi began to "downgrade their treatment."

As for rewards, there must be no rewards. If the army doesn't fight, how can military merit come from it?Where would the reward come from without military merit?

Isn't it necessary to distribute spring clothes and winter clothes every year? No problem. Spring clothes will be distributed first, and winter clothes will be made up later.

As for when to make up for it, I can't say. Anyway... the officials involved feel that it's enough to live out their term. As for the trouble, it will be solved by the next term.Are you, Qiu Ba, unhappy?Yes, you can retire and go home to farm!
The Anren Army is located on the front line bordering the Tubo border. Going further west is the Tubo stronghold!The conditions are the most difficult and the treatment is the worst. Even an individual can't stand it!

So Ge Shuhan asked his confidant Guan Chongsi to come to Chang'an to test the waters.In fact, Ge Shuhan's emotional intelligence is not low. He understands very well that if he uses open channels, the shortage of military pay in the Longyou area will never be filled!
The imperial court always has ways of delaying it. It can delay Ge Shuhan's resignation as the envoy of the Anren Army, and he will still be in arrears with military pay!So since we can't go through regular channels, we can only let some important officials in the imperial court think of ways to partially solve the problem.

That is to say, we must first make up for the military pay of the Anren Army. As for the other troops in Longyou, they are not under the jurisdiction of Ge Shuhan!When the time comes, letting Guan Chongsi mention it will already be the most benevolent and righteous thing to do.

It's just that Ge Shuhan's idea was good, but he didn't expect that no one in the court would buy his account!The Anren Army has 350 soldiers and [-] war horses. The establishment is not small, but it is not an elite ace directly under the Tang Court like the Chishui Army.

The Chishui Army has a strength of [-] and [-] war horses. They also keep private horses in private. Almost all of them are cavalry or mounted infantry!The soldiers of the Anren Army were doing well, but the reason for the lack of horses was of course poverty!
Because they are poor, their strategic position is low, and they are just responsible for filling in the line at the front line.An army with a high strategic position cannot be poor. This is a mutually beneficial relationship.

But these days, the central officials of the imperial court have not yet realized the benefits of being associated with the generals in private!
Rebellion, the time is too immature, the Tang Dynasty is still in its prime, and people's hearts are not with the rebels.

Please please Brother Ji. It seems that we don’t need the frontier army, so we might as well find a few girls to offer them.

If you want to support the border army Qiu Bala to achieve military exploits, the Tang Dynasty and Tubo are still in a state of truce, and they have swords but no use for them.

Therefore, now that the central court officials are colluding with the border army generals, apart from being suspected of evil intentions by Brother Ji, there seems to be no obvious benefit.

Guan Chongsi traveled around Chang'an and visited the docks of prime ministers such as Li Linfu and Li Shizhi, but they were all rejected. Those people seemed to know his origins and would not even let him in.

Guan Chongsi went to the Ministry of War again to ask for military pay, and was told that the matter must be handled by the Longyou branch envoy. However, the Longyou branch envoy had actually informed Ge Shuhan, the military envoy of the Anren Army, that the imperial court had not allocated military pay, so he did not have it. money.

If there is no money in hand, it is obvious that silk cannot be distributed to the armies.

Both sides seemed to have a point, neither had money, and then kicked the ball around.

Guan Chongsi could only stare from the sidelines. What else could he say?Even if we kill the officials of the Ministry of War and the envoys of the Longyou branch, we still can't get military pay!
Guan Chongsi had suppressed his anger in Chang'an. On his way back to Longyou, he heard a lot of bad things while eating at Fenshuiyi, and he was about to explode with anger.

Now he saw a young man as strong as a black bear sitting opposite him. He pointed to the empty seat in the distance angrily and said: "Where are you from? You kid, step aside and cool down. Don't delay your drinking!"

Guan Chongsi said this because he saw Fang Chongyong's tall figure. If a thin man sat down like this, he would have slapped him.

Qiu Ba people like to be happy with each other and don't care about etiquette, justice and shame!If strangers don't have eyesight, you can't blame them for being cruel.

"You can think it through and say it again later. I will give you this opportunity."

Fang Chongyong handed the "Supervisory Censor" badge on his waist to Guan Chongsi, and also pushed the unique half-piece fish charm made of gold in front of Guan Chongsi.

"What a piece of crap."

Guan Chongsi, who was a little drunk, casually picked up this familiar fish talisman. The style was exactly the same as the Anrenjun fish talisman, but the material was different. After looking at the fish talisman, he saw the fish talisman. The back of the talisman is engraved with the five characters "Silver Spear Filial Piety Army".

There are three small characters "Xingqing Palace" on the side.

He was so frightened that he almost woke up from alcohol in an instant!

He had never heard of the title of the Silver Spear Xiaojie Army, but who wouldn't know where the Xingqing Palace in Chang'an was?

Guan Chongsi picked up the waistband with the same very familiar style and took a look at it, and suddenly a large amount of cold sweat broke out on his forehead.

Supervise the Censor!

Guan Chongsi is Ge Shuhan's confidant. He is not a grassroots soldier who doesn't even know a few words.Guan Chongsi knew very well that the person who wore the fish talisman had a false duty to supervise the censor, and it must be accompanied by a very good real duty.

Then contact the unknown number "Silver Spear Filial Piety Army" and the station "Xingqing Palace", and the answer will be clear.

The man in front of me is a general of the imperial army beside the emperor, and he even has a great background!

"Uh……"

Guan Chongsi was speechless for a moment. He was drunk just now but he was talking nonsense about the Tubo people coming and the Anren army to flee. Did the other party hear this, or did he pretend not to hear it?

"Have you not thought about it yet? Brother, you drank a little too much."

Fang Chongyong smiled and took out an official notice from his sleeve and handed it to Guan Chongsi.

"Hexi and Longyou Supervisor Military Envoy?"

Guan Chongsi's eyes widened with a look of disbelief on his face, and the hand holding the official notice was trembling.

"Oh! Damn it, damn it! You actually bumped into Shangguan, what a waste of wine! Damn it!" Guan Chongsi started slapping himself fiercely without even thinking about it.

Fang Chongyong just waited for Guan Chongsi to slap him five or six times, then gently raised his hand and said, "That's it, you can talk about the business now."

After saying that, he put away the golden fish charm, waist badge, and official notice in front of Guan Chongsi, and looked at him with burning eyes.

Although Fang Chongyong didn't say a word of scolding, his official power was already fully displayed, and Guan Chongsi did not dare to look directly at him.

"Oh, the frontier soldiers are suffering!"

Guan Chongsi said with a sigh.

"A certain person has been the governor of Shazhou for four years and even led troops on expeditions, so you don't need to talk nonsense and just be happy."

Fang Chongyong said calmly, indicating to Guan Chongsi to skip the emotional foreshadowing and get straight to the point.

“The Anren Army’s winter clothes are two years in arrears, and there is not enough fabric for spring clothes.

Of all the armies under the Longyou Jiedu Envoy, only the Lintao Army was fully paid, while all other armies were in arrears.

This time, a certain person was entrusted by the military envoy Geshu Han and Geshu to go to Chang'an to find a way out. "

Guan Chongsi lowered his voice and said.

Ge Shuhan's operation fell into the gray area of ​​the court's laws. If no one reported it, he would just do it quietly on the table.

There are many military leaders with similar thoughts in the Tang Dynasty's frontier army, but if they say it in public, they will be killed immediately.

"The Longyou Army is a place where elites from all over the world gather, but it actually defaults on its winter clothes?"

Fang Chongyong asked in disbelief.

"General Hui Fang, what you are talking about happened four or five years ago. At that time, Longyou Jiedushi's command was indeed well-equipped with troops.

But since the truce between the Tang Dynasty and Tubo, Longyou's military equipment has been depleted. It is no longer unusual for spring and winter clothes to be in arrears. The Momen army almost ran out of food last winter.

If there is no battle to fight, there will be no reward to receive.Now the armies in Longyou are short of a lot of troops. I won’t mention the specific reasons for this. "

Guan Chongsi said with a sigh.

In fact, according to the Ministry of War's account books, the Tang Army has a full complement of soldiers and will not be "short of personnel."So what does Guan Chongsi mean by "missing editors"?

Of course, that means taking advantage of the money, that is: there is a certain person's information in the Ministry of War's account book, and it is "verified" every year to confirm that this person is in the military.

But in fact, all the information about this person was compiled, and he did not exist as a "combat entity". Perhaps he was just a tenant in the Longyou area, and he was not in the army anyway.

The money for raising soldiers went into the pockets of the army's chief officers and adjutants.

This is a top-down "industrial chain". The Ministry of War has their people, and the Jieduzhi knows it well. No matter whether he takes it or not, he will not say anything. The military envoys pretend to be confused, and everyone pretends to be confused. Have a share.

In the feudal era, if the frontier troops of any country had been without war for many years, it would become natural for them to eat empty pay.But it is obvious that the recruitment system is more maneuverable than the government army system in terms of paying empty wages.

After all, the government soldiers all bring their household registrations with them for verification. They can tell the authenticity by asking someone to the state or county where their household registration is located.The recruitment of soldiers comes from a wide range of sources. Many of them have enough food for one person and the whole family is not hungry. Their origins are unknown, and many of them are even wanted criminals in various places!
It would be much more convenient to eat the free wages of recruiting soldiers.

If the court did not check carefully, it would be difficult to see anything amiss based only on the account books.

Anyway, the Tibetans didn't come over, so what does it matter if they get free money?Before there was a thunderstorm, Brother Ji would never know how big the problem was in Bian Town!

In Fang Chongyong's view, the collapse of the military recruitment system was indeed too rapid.

What Fang Chongyong didn't know was that the one-stop smuggling trade in Hexi had, to a certain extent, enabled the armies under the command of the Hexi Jiedushi to escape the supply control of the imperial court to a certain extent.

Of course, there are also disadvantages, which is that Brother Ji and the court underestimated the amount of money needed by many border towns with insufficient hematopoietic capacity.

Those directly affected were the armies under Longyou Jiedushi.

What Du hopes to do now is to ensure that the Lintao Army, the absolute main force in Longyou, does not lack food, military pay, and personnel; he strives to ensure that all the armies under his command do not lack a bite of food, and try to have silk every year as a Military pay goes down.

That's all.

"Tomorrow morning, you come and wait for us in Fenshuiyi's courtyard. The issue of the Anren Army's military pay is taken care of by me. Remember, you must come tomorrow and don't wait if you are late."

Fang Chongyong did not wait for Guan Chongsi's reply and walked directly to the direction of the wing provided by the inn.

When he passed by our table, he saw Pei Xiuzheng looking at him intently, so he asked with a puzzled face: "The meal is almost done. Do you want to spend the night in the dining room?"

"You guys, what were you talking about just now, it seems..."

Pei Xiu was a little incoherent for a moment.The strong man just now was so fierce. Why did Fang Chongyong become as honest as a sheep after just sitting there for a while?
Pei Xiu was far away and did not hear what Fang Chongyong said to Guan Chongsi. She only saw that Guan Chongsi looked extremely respectful later, as if he was a different person.

"With your wisdom, it's hard for me to explain it to you. If you have the chance, eat more brain money. Maybe you can be saved."

Fang Chongyong sighed softly and spread his hands to express that he had no comment.Did he tell Pei Xiu that the troops in Longyou were left with empty pay and that the imperial court was in arrears with military pay?

What's the point!

"Eh?"

While Pei Xiu was stunned, Fang Chongyong had already walked away.He Qichang and others also packed up the food on the table and followed Fang Chongyong away.

"I'm furious!"

Pei Xiu found that her intelligence had been crushed, she stamped her feet angrily, and followed everyone out of the dining room.

(End of this chapter)