Quickly wear it and insist on being an old man forever

Chapter 269 I'm going to overturn the sky (3) [Two in one]

Yangping County, County Magistrate's Office.

County Magistrate Zhu Huaijin was furious and roaring:

"What a bunch of rubbish! How come the food and grass for the 30,000-man army haven't been gathered yet? If we delay any longer, what will happen if Lu dies of illness? If Lu dies of illness and the rebels are in chaos, our original contribution will be at least halved!"

"You guys have ruined my future!"

Since the original body and his companions were able to find out the county magistrate's general whereabouts and troop movements, as the county magistrate, Zhu Huaijin certainly could not be unaware of the latest intelligence from the original body and his companions.

At the same time, it was also because he knew that the original body was seriously ill.

He was very eager to send troops quickly.

He destroyed the other party before Lu died of illness.

After all, he could become a county governor, so it was obvious that he had read history books. The Yellow Turban Army, which was once at its peak, was defeated because of Zhang Jue's sudden death. Although the rebellious Lu Shi could not compare with Zhang Jue, her importance in the rebel forces was definitely not inferior to Zhang Jue's position in the Yellow Turban Army. Once she died, the rebels would inevitably have internal strife.

The value of suppressing the rebellion at that time will obviously not be comparable to suppressing it while the rebel is still alive.

Zhu Huaijin also hopes to make further progress with this achievement.

But now the food and grass have not been gathered.

He was naturally very angry and anxious.

Of course, the reason why he had such a strange idea was mainly because he felt that with 30,000 private soldiers lent to him by the noble families, he could not fail to deal with a group of bankrupt craftsmen, landless farmers and merchants who were rebels. Since this battle was bound to be won, of course the stronger the enemy, the more outstanding his achievements would be!

"Sir, this is not our fault!

In reality, we have already had enough food and fodder to sustain an army of 30,000 for a month. However, the representatives of several major families think that the food and fodder we prepared are too simple and insincere, and they also say that they will never send troops if the quality of the food and fodder does not satisfy them.

My subordinates have tried their best to coordinate the purchase.

But there is really nothing I can do.”

Zhang Yu originally thought that he could handle the matter well. As long as he was given some time, he would always find a way to convince those powerful families. However, it turned out that he was not so confident, and the county magistrate urged him again and again.

So he had no choice but to tell the truth.

"What's the meaning?
What you mean is that those powerful families are deliberately making things difficult for you, and their attitude of lending you private soldiers is not sincere!

I just told them about the last time I mentioned borrowing private soldiers.

How come you agreed so readily?

Is love waiting for me here? "

As a county governor who had been harassed by aristocratic families during his tenure, Zhu Huaijin naturally trusted his confidants more and believed that they would not make false accusations:
"I originally thought that they were afraid of the rebels who had slaughtered several noble families, and wanted to nip these unruly rebels in the bud. Wait, how did they embarrass you? Don't fool me, tell me clearly!"

Although he really wanted to curse, it was obvious that the arrow was on the string and had to be shot, so Zhu Huaijin quickly suppressed his emotions and tried to figure out the cause and effect.

See if there is any room for reconciliation.

"The main contradiction is that they demand that their private soldiers be provided with three meals a day, and each meal must include chicken, fish, meat, or eggs. At the same time, they must be well fed and must not be fed with coarse grains or whole grains.

The imperial court had never given soldiers such treatment before. Even some small landlords did not dare to eat like this on a daily basis!
They asked their subordinates to prepare enough food and grass for 30,000 troops for a month according to this standard. How could they do it? Not to mention whether there was enough money in the county treasury to buy these things, even if there was money, it would be difficult to buy so much meat in a short period of time. For 30,000 troops, even if each person only ate one or two catties of meat per meal, a full 270,000 catties of meat would be needed in a month.

Where can I buy 270,000 catties of meat?"

Zhang Yu really felt aggrieved. The standard food prepared by the imperial court for the soldiers was actually ordinary grains, which could basically make them 70% full. This was the standard that was set without any deduction from the higher authorities. If any generals deducted anything, the food standard would have to be lowered further.

There is no bottom line to what extent it can be reduced.

He prepared food and fodder according to the court's standards, which strictly speaking was not a problem, after all, the soldiers were borrowed.

But we have to follow the court rules!
But in reality, the noble families also felt aggrieved because the treatment they usually gave to their private soldiers, although not as good as they requested, was basically 70% to 80% of the standard. And that was the standard during normal training. If they really had to fight or guard the family, the treatment would definitely be improved.

It was even better than the treatment they asked the court to provide, and it was not outrageous to have enough meat to eat.

This is where the private soldiers of the aristocratic families are so powerful. They can't even get enough to eat and have no meat to supplement, so how can they be trained well? How can they have combat effectiveness if they don't train regularly? Their private soldiers are fed with money and food.

Now the imperial court has borrowed their private soldiers and not paid them a penny, and even the food is cut. The private soldiers that they have trained at such a great cost have to eat coarse food, and even the coarse food cannot get them enough to eat.

Which noble family can tolerate this?

If they are not well fed or eat poorly, their combat effectiveness will be affected. Who wouldn't feel sad when there are too many casualties? Training a qualified private soldier not only takes time, but also costs a lot of money, as well as cultivating their loyalty from an early age.

This contradiction is difficult to reconcile.

It is even more impossible to ask the noble families to provide food and supplies.

Zhu Huaijin also came from a noble family, ranked as a fourth-rank noble family, the Qidong Zhu family. Their family also trained servants and guards. Of course, they were nominally servants and guards, but in reality they were private soldiers, and everyone knew it well.

So he was very clear about the cost of training private soldiers.

Some even understand their requests.

But even though he understood it, he was not in the same camp as those local families. He had to consider the issue from the perspective of the court, and whether there was enough money and food in the treasury and whether he could buy enough meat. The reality was that he really couldn't do it.

Originally, one-third of Yangping County had fallen into the hands of the rebels, and taxes from those places could not be collected. In order to make his political achievements look better, when paying taxes, Zhu Huaijin had no choice but to move part of the tax grain that should have been left in the local treasury to maintain the operation of the local government office to make up for the taxes in the areas occupied by the rebels, so as to ensure that the amount of tax grain finally handed over to the court would not be too bad.

Plus, everyone is more or less greedy.

As a result, the county's treasury was empty enough for horses to run through, and a rat would starve to death if it went in. Even the money and grain to prepare for the current imperial standard of grain and fodder had to be raised in cash, and many small families and merchants who could not reach the standards of the aristocratic families had to share a lot.

It's basically a serious loss of vitality, and he's almost bald.

If they continue to extort money, something bad might happen. So the current situation is very clear, that is, they simply do not have enough money and food to prepare the food standards required by the wealthy families.

Unless they can plunder the noble families.

Let the wealthy and powerful families pay taxes or levies.

But this is obviously impossible.

It really came true what Bai Sheng had guessed, or complained about: there was not enough money, the actors had not been decided, and there was no script yet.

"This food standard is definitely impossible. If we really do this, what will the soldiers guarding the city think? The private soldiers borrowed from others are treated so well, while the original soldiers of the court can only eat coarse food. Something bad will happen!
They will all scramble to become private soldiers in the future."

Although the core reason should be lack of money, Zhu Huaijin still pointed out from other angles that it was impossible to do so, and then began to pace back and forth, thinking about how to break the situation. The traitor must be suppressed and eliminated.

If he didn't borrow private soldiers, he would have to mobilize the county's garrison troops. But he knew very well what kind of people the county's garrison troops were. If he wanted to use them to deal with the rebels who were quite powerful, the chance of winning would not be high, but the chance of losing would be quite high.

If he suffers a great defeat, he will no longer be the county magistrate.

Therefore, at present, it is indeed the safest way to borrow the private soldiers of powerful families and wipe out the rebels with the confidence of victory.

But the food allowance is indeed difficult to get.

"Sir, do you want to sacrifice some of the court's interests? I personally think that as long as those noble families feel that the benefits they will gain in the end are greater than what they have paid, they will still be willing to provide their own food and fodder.

I’m afraid this is the only solution now.”

Seeing that Zhu Huaijin was still hesitating, Zhang Yu finally couldn't help but speak out his ultimate goal.

"you……"

As soon as Zhang Yu said this, Zhu Huaijin understood that his subordinate might have been bribed by the local aristocratic family, and everything that happened before was just acting, or in other words, he was presenting facts and reasoning to make him understand that he had no choice.

And thus accept the demands made by the aristocratic families.

"Sir, we can no longer delay the suppression of the rebellion. Previously, it was because of the rebellion of Prince Liu that the court had no time to take care of us. Once the King of Yue in Annan County is suppressed, there will be no movement here.

I'm afraid there will be impeachment in the court!"

These words could actually be considered a threat. If Zhu Huaijin did not agree to the demands of the local noble families, it would be difficult to mobilize their private soldiers to quell the rebellion. By then, it would not be a surprise for people with connections in the court to impeach him. It could even be said that this was what should be done!

After all, the Lu family rebels have been around for two years, and he, as the county magistrate, has not yet suppressed them. It is not unfair for him to be impeached.

Zhu Huaijin obviously also heard the hidden meaning.

After a long silence, he could only reply helplessly:
"This time, if the rebellion is suppressed successfully, all the land in the rebel area that cannot produce the title deeds of the Han Dynasty can be divided up by them, and all the rebel assets will belong to them. I will only take back the local governance rights."

The Lu family burned many land deeds and also distributed the land seized from wealthy and powerful families to the landless people.

Therefore, in the area occupied by the Lu family, there are very few lands without imperial title deeds. Oh no, to be precise, there are very few lands with imperial title deeds. So what do those noble families value? It is self-evident!

Land. Lots of land to pocket.

Under normal circumstances, if a rebellion is successfully suppressed, these ownerless lands can be incorporated into official fields, that is, they can be taken over by the imperial court and then leased to landless people for cultivation, which can appropriately alleviate the problem of land annexation.

So Zhu Huaijin made this promise.

There is nothing wrong with saying that it is damaging the interests of the court.

But now Zhu Huaijin has no other choice. If things are delayed any further, he might lose his position as county governor, so how can he care about the interests of the court!
As Zhang Yu spread his promise.

After the major noble families negotiated, they paid out of their own pockets the next day to equip their private soldiers with enough food and fodder for a month. The 30,000-strong army, which had taken a month to organize, was finally fully equipped and ready to go in just three days.

Zhu Huaijin obviously didn't want to cause any more trouble.

Therefore, he quickly ordered the entire army to attack.

……

As for Bai Sheng, by flipping through those account books, she quickly understood the general situation in the area under her rule and her own ruling status.

How to describe it?
It's neither fish nor fowl, that's probably the only way to describe it.

The original body's rule was a policy of inaction. After exempting taxes for three years, various levies and corvee labor, she basically did not care about anything. If someone went to the office she set up in the original county government to file a complaint, she would find a way to handle it fairly. If no one filed a complaint, then nothing would happen.

Basically she adheres to the principle that if the people do not report it, she will not investigate it.

Part of the income came from destroying some powerful families and looting from them.

The rest still depends mainly on business.

The original body's industry expanded many times, and she also incorporated industries and craftsmen copied from wealthy families. The profits earned from these industries supported her training of soldiers and forging of weapons, but according to the account records, the original body's financial revenue and expenditure were very unbalanced, basically in a state of deficit, and the deficit was quite large.

And the reason why it can still be maintained.

The city was barely supported by the money and grain it had seized from the homes of several powerful families it had previously destroyed.

The little income that the original body earned from business.

It is simply not enough to maintain a team of tens of thousands of people.

They had never been officials and didn't quite understand the logic of the court's operations. They didn't even collect commercial taxes. When they said they would exempt taxes for three years, they really didn't collect anything.

This is a state of only outflow and no inflow.

It's a miracle that it can hold on until now.

Of course, on the other hand, their reputation is indeed very good. After all, they are the ruling class that neither collects taxes nor imposes corvée labor, and even pays soldiers for their work.

The common people and small families have always suffered from oppression.

Who wouldn't like it?
So, no matter how unreasonable the original operation was, at least, it can win the support of the people now.

Bai Sheng understood the general situation.

The next development direction was quickly determined.

That is, don't rush to expand, but accumulate strength for the time being, climb the technology tree, develop the economy, and it won't be too late to sweep the world when you achieve technological iteration one day.

At the same time, it can also reduce casualties as much as possible.

In addition, Bai Sheng has no plans to change his original management model for the time being. He will continue to follow the original business model. When the British Empire established the East India Company, it also used a business model to colonize.

It can be seen that as long as the ability is sufficient.

The management model is not important.

Just when Bai Sheng was preparing to upgrade his industries, create a technological explosion and greatly liberate productivity, the spy sent an urgent report.

After receiving the news, Fu Heng also hurried to report:
"My lord, it's bad. I just received news that the county governor has successfully assembled 30,000 soldiers and started the march the day before yesterday. It is estimated that they will be able to reach us in five days at the latest.

We must seize the time and prepare to respond!"