Late Tang

(Thanks for the rewards from the three book friends, Sun Shining on the Avenue, Dreams Fulfilling from the End, and Princess Sword, thank you!)

The rooster announces the dawn, and the dawn breaks through the fog.

Li Jing got up and went to the window and pushed it open. The cold wind immediately rushed into the room, blowing away the stale air a lot.Stretching her waist, twisting her sore neck, Li Jing rubbed her eyes that had been up all night.Yesterday was a long day. I celebrated my mother's birthday and invited many friends and neighbors. Later, the county officials and their subordinates came to pay their respects. Even bandits brought thousands of refugees to join in the fun.

Wang Licun played and sang and beat and killed, which did not stop until dawn.Fortunately, although there were a few surprises yesterday, everything was still under control in the end. None of the more than 150 bandits escaped. They were all beheaded, and even their heads were piled up in a pile outside the village.In the end, the more than a thousand refugees who were the most troublesome were finally arranged properly, and those who committed serious crimes were not killed for the crime of collaborating with bandits. Instead, according to Li Jing's proposal, he and the county officials and gentry were taken back as tenants.

Strike while the iron is hot, after Li Jing recruited 63 craftsmen and 40 reserve servants from the refugees yesterday, he and Lin Wei took the opportunity to directly assess and select the young men who came to join the army.In the end, before dawn, the number of young adults who finally passed the list was [-].Except for some who are too young and too old, Li Jing basically accepts all those who are over sixteen and under [-] years old.

In addition, in the recruiting register, in addition to the servants recruited from 500 refugees and the 500 young men who joined the army brought by the former subordinates, Li Jing also recruited 500 people.These [-] people are mainly Li Jing's Li clan living in a nearby village, as well as three brothers-in-law and their relatives, such as three aunts and seven aunts, and other relatives.In addition, almost every village in Wangli Village asked to join the army to follow Li Jing. Li Jing did not refuse this request, and finally selected a hundred young men from the village. In addition, some relatives of Wangli Village also asked to join the army, and finally selected again and again. There are also a full [-] people registered.

If we add the 63 craftsmen and the nearly 1000 families of the [-] refugees, there will be [-] people in the book, and this is not counting the [-] family members recruited later.

After the roster was completed and two copies were copied and backed up, Lin Wei and other officers who had been busy all night were a little puzzled.

"Fourth brother, there are only 250 soldiers in Shamen Town, and there are already 150 soldiers in the Shamen Garrison. We only have 450 soldiers in our hands, and we already have 160 soldiers. The remaining soldiers are only 700 people. Adding in the quota of 1000 servants, the total quota is [-]. Now it is not appropriate to recruit [-] people at once, right?" This number is more than half, and there are more than [-] people.Lin Wei didn't quite understand Li Jing's thoughts, but he knew the consequences of privately expanding the army.What's more, more than [-] people were recruited at once. It's easy to recruit, but how to raise them?

Zhang Hong, who has always claimed to be Li Jing's military adviser, also stroked his goatee and said, "If the general wants to recruit more troops, it's not a big problem. We can solve the problem of the number of troops in other names. For example, we still have formal garrison troops. It’s only three hundred, and the rest can be arranged in the name of family members. For the rest, we can also use the name of nursing home. However, one of Guan Jian’s troubles is still money and food.”

"Let's talk about the cost of military equipment and armor for sergeants first. We can only buy these extra soldiers and equipment ourselves. Whether we can get so much equipment is the next thing. How to pay for this money is the key. According to the minimum standard of 200 per person Counting the cost of equipment for the money, in addition to the existing 330 old equipment, we are still short of 320 sets of equipment. There are still 200 sets of equipment in Dengzhou, but there is still a shortfall of 120 sets. 120 guan. Secondly, armaments and equipment are second to none. It also costs a lot to raise an army. If the grain consumption of two liters of rice per person per day is calculated, one person will need six buckets of grain per month, [-] One person gets [-] shi of grain in one month. One shi of grain is now at least four guan, and the monthly grain is [-] [-] guan. In addition, the general also promised a monthly salary, and the money and grain for one person will be equivalent to at least four guan per month. , [-] people are [-] guan. A total of several items, food consumption and food expenses in January reached [-] guan, plus [-] guan for purchasing ordnance and equipment, a total of [-] money."

Zhang Hong said with some toothache: "This is only the first month's expenditure, and there will be at least 300 yuan of expenditure every month in the future. General, this is a bottomless pit, we don't have so much money at all. It is said that the army is suffering. , even if the above does not deduct a little bit of food, we can only get [-] people's food, this money is simply a drop in the bucket."

"I still have some money, let's put it all in the account." Li Jing recruited so many soldiers all of a sudden, so he naturally had his plan.When he went to Shamen Town earlier, he wanted to keep a low profile and quietly expand his power.But after talking with Han Zhi, Zhang Hong and others, Li Jing also knew that it was a risky move for Song Wen to send him to Fengzhang's territory.If you can't increase your strength, it is estimated that there will be no return.Feng Zhang even dared to detain the merchant ships and direct descendants of the Han family, so it can be seen that he is also a ruthless person.Besides, he had already planned to agree to Han Zhi and intervene in the matter of sealing Han Cui's family, so naturally he had to be more cautious.Use soldiers for a while, raise soldiers for a thousand days.It is impossible for an army to be trained overnight. If Li Jing wants to make a difference, he must make a plan now.

Lin Wei frowned and said, "How much money does fourth brother have? Last time, the [-] bolts of silk were used to reward brothers and buy armaments, etc. I'm afraid there is not much left. In this way, Erlang and I I also have some money saved up, which adds up to almost five hundred guan, let's take it out and put it in the account as well."

Wang Zhong and Zhang Hong in the room immediately said that they also had more than 200 coins, and they were willing to hand them over to Li Jing as rewards.The newcomer Cui Zhiyuan was a poor man, but Zhang Yingying gave him 100 taels of silver collars before, and now she gritted her teeth and took out all of them.In addition, Du Zhongwu, the son of a wealthy businessman who has been awarded the official position of soldier Cao Zuo by Li Jing, immediately expressed his willingness to go to his father to collect [-] yuan to help Li Jing solve part of the money and silk problem.

Li Jing looked at the few people in front of him in surprise. These people in front of him were already his core members.Lin Wei, Wang Zhong, and Lin Wu are all military generals, and they are brothers who have kowtowed before.Moreover, Lin Wei is still his brother-in-law, and he also experienced the life and death brothers who assassinated Feng Yanqing together.In addition, Zhang Hong, Cui Zhiyuan, and Du Zhongwu are all civil servants. Zhang Hong also killed bandits together and assassinated Feng Yanqing's old brother. Although Cui Zhiyuan and Du Zhongwu are newcomers, they are also official He was born as a Jinshi, and he didn't have too many other relationships, so he was someone Li Jing could trust.

Three martial arts and three literary skills, these are the subordinates that Li Jing relies on most now.Although Xiao Shitou and others are more reliable, after all, they are still unable to become the upper echelon of this group.To establish their own power, Lin Wei and others can be regarded as partners.Previously, Li Jing paid the money alone, but Li Jing never thought about using their money.But now that they voluntarily want to take out the money, Li Jing still feels very happy. This shows that everyone has regarded this matter as their own, and they have integrated into this circle, especially Cui Zhiyuan and Du Zhongwu Er Li Jing was very satisfied with his performance.

"Okay, brothers are of the same heart, and their benefits can cut through gold." Li Jing laughed and said, sweeping away the fatigue after staying up all night. "I'll take the money, but you don't have to take it all out. You just pay a hundred guan each, and you have to use the rest yourself. I'll accept Brother Du's wishes, and you can do what you want." Just pay a hundred guan." The Du family received a thousand guan money before, and then went to get the Du family's money, and the matter changed.

"But the money is not enough!" Zhang Hong was slightly disappointed when he heard that Li Jing was unwilling to take money from the Du family.

Li Jing smiled, he calculated his current purse by himself, the original 1000 pieces of silk that Li Huier and the others gave him only had more than [-] points left.Then at this birthday banquet, Li Jing received more than [-] guan of birthday gifts from the officials and gentry, and [-] guan of gifts from the Han family.In addition, Zhang Yingying sent a boat, which cannot be realized.For the rest, Zhen Donghai gave himself a big gift, three thousand coins, three thousand pieces of silk, three hundred stones of grain, and several treasures worth more than ten thousand coins.Although the treasures cannot be cashed in for the time being, the money, silk and food are really worth [-] guan.Adding all this up, except for those treasures, Li Jing now has ten thousand coins, four thousand bolts of silk, and three hundred shi of grain.

What's more, the Han family is now begging Li Jing to do something, but he is an extremely fat pig.After all the calculations, the equipment money for arming these thousand people is already available, what is lacking now is at least [-] per month for the maintenance of the army in the future.Li Jingyin withdrew the deal with Zhen Donghai, and just gave Lin Wei and the others the amount of money and food in his hands: "I still have ten thousand coins, four thousand bolts of silk, and three hundred stones of grain, plus Three hundred sets of military equipment. After all, we have all the money for the equipment, and now we only need the monthly military expenses and the daily reward money. This problem is still difficult to solve."

Lin Wei asked: "What about the four or five hundred family members of the refugees?" One hundred families and 63 craftsmen were recruited from among the refugees, and nearly five hundred family members of the refugees were brought in, which was also a big problem.Zhang Hong twisted his beard and said, "It's nothing difficult. The family members of refugees are not soldiers. It is a great kindness for the general to take them in. These people have men's sons who serve as soldiers and craftsmen, and they are all paid. We alone It is enough to subsidize one bucket of rice for each of these family members every month. Five hundred buckets of rice per month for 500 people is less than three thousand catties, more than 20 stones of rice, which is still affordable.”

One person is subsidized with one bucket of rice per month, which is only about one or two meters a day. This figure is very small, but if you add in the salary of the man who is a soldier and a craftsman in the family, it can guarantee a barely adequate food and clothing for the family. For those hungry people, this is A result for them to be grateful for.And the subsidy expenditure of less than thirty stones per month is within the tolerance of Li Jing and others.

"General, Mr. Han is asking to see you outside the door." Zhang Chengzong, the servant who was guarding outside the house, knocked on the door and came in to report.

Li Jing raised the corners of his mouth when he heard the sound, and said to Lin Wei and others with a smile: "We are short of money, and the God of Wealth has come to our door. Ladies and gentlemen, we don't have to worry about money now."

ps: Praise!