Late Tang

The next morning, Zhang Hong, the general manager, and Zhang Chengye, the military supervisor, walked into the meeting hall of the military and horse envoy's mansion in Daxie Walled City.Li Jing is temporarily working as a director on Daxie Island. When the two came in, their faces were tired and their eyes were bloodshot.Judging from their appearance, it should be that they stayed up all night last night for how to divide the dirt.Li Jing expressed concern to the two of them appropriately, and poured a cup of hot tea for them personally.

Feng Zhang's original place in the meeting hall was a soft couch, wrapped in silk and velvet, very comfortable to sit on.But as soon as Li Jing came, he immediately removed the soft couch and replaced it with an iron chair.Iron chairs are certainly not as comfortable as a soft couch with velvet cushions, but Li Jing uses this to remind himself from time to time that this position in Daxie Village is not easy to sit in, and one must always be vigilant, otherwise Feng Zhang will be a lesson from the past.

Li Jing's guards stood solemnly at the door of the meeting hall and under the iron seat, wearing silver cloaks and silver helmets.It turned out that Li Jing had a 100-man personal soldier, but later, in order to prevent the somewhat deformed existence of the servant from expanding in his army, Li Jing changed the servant into a personal soldier, and all of them were withdrawn and incorporated into each battalion. .Since then, the servants no longer existed in the Shamen Township army. Although the officers had personal soldiers in the army, the personal soldiers did not follow the generals, but were fixed in the battalion. The generals and lieutenants were transferred away. The personal soldiers will not follow, but serve as the new general's personal soldiers.In this way, officers no longer have private soldiers, and all soldiers are regular establishments.

However, now the power of Shamen Town is constantly expanding, especially after the occupation of Daxie Village, many officers agree that Li Jing's safety is related to the whole army.Therefore, it is proposed to re-allocate elites for Li Jing to form a family team.However, Li Jing refused without hesitation. He knew that if he opened the mouth of this servant, the other generals behind him would definitely reorganize their private soldiers in the end.This result is what Li Jing wants to avoid with all his strength.The generals have private soldiers, which is the beginning of the generals' self-respect and even separatism.Right now, there will be no harm in the short term, but when the power grows in the future, it will be a great harm.

Li Jing refused to reorganize the family, but the generals were unwilling to compromise on this.Finally, after discussing for a long time, all the generals unanimously decided not to form a guard, but to build a new guard battalion.After Li Jing objected again, he changed the guard camp into a guard capital.

However, although the guards formed by the newly recruited elites are just one capital, it is not the size of an ordinary capital of 200 people, but a capital of 500 people, divided into five teams, each with a staff of one hundred people.The new bodyguards are all wearing silver-painted iron armor. In addition to silver helmets and silver armor, horizontal knives with silver scabbards, silver round shields, and longbows, each is also equipped with a compound spear. The eight-foot silver gun with three-edged thorns is exactly a small horse lance. A silver gun is equivalent to the price of ten ordinary spears, and each standard silver gun costs [-] guan.

Silver armor, silver helmets, silver helmet tassels and cloaks, plus silver knives, silver shields, and silver spears, this newly built 500-man bodyguard is majestic and majestic.And it is also uniformly equipped with war horses, a total of five hundred war horses, all tall Liaodong white war horses, pure white without hair.

Under the iron seat, Li Asan, the leader of the silver gun guards on duty today between Li Jing and Li Asan, was a hunter from Liaodong, a prisoner of war in Qingnipu, and a slave in Shamen Town. Li Jing's waist was straight under the iron seat, his chest was raised and his head was raised, with one hand holding the silver knife at his waist and the other holding an eight-foot silver spear, he was majestic, like a silver-armored general.

Early in the morning, in addition to Zhang Chengye and Zhang Hongda, Du Zhongwu, Cui Zhiyuan and Li Chun, more than a dozen civilian staff members gathered in the hall.All the civil servants are very energetic today. Li Jing recently asked Li Huier's workshop to make a new batch of official robes for the bureaucrats.The silk official gown with a round collar, plus the hard horns and the fringe with the wings spread out, are full of glory.

Each staff member also wore a new wolf talisman on his waist, which was made by Li Jingxin's craftsman.There are seven kinds of wolf symbols, gray wolf, blue wolf, brown wolf, black wolf, purple wolf, silver wolf, and golden wolf.This is modeled after the fish charm of the imperial court, but only the fifth grade and above are eligible to wear the fish charm of the imperial court, and there are only two types of silver fish and gold fish.Li Jing imitated the fish talisman and made the wolf talisman, the purpose of which was also to form his own unique upper and lower order in the interior of Shamen Town.

Li Jing himself wears the Golden Wolf Talisman, Lin Wei, Wang Zhong, Mei Gen, Huang Huzi and other battalion commanders all wear the Silver Wolf Talisman, and Liu Shouqian and other ten deputy generals wear the Purple Wolf Talisman.However, Zhang Hong, Du Zhongwu, Li Chun, etc. were also Silver Wolf Talismans, and even the supervisor Zhang Chengye was also given a Silver Wolf Talisman by Li Jing.

As soon as these wolf charms were issued, many people looked at them.The reason is very simple, Zhang Hong's official rank is several grades different from Lin Wei and others, but now he also wears silver charms, and many high-ranking aides below also wear purple wolf charms and black wolf charms , Compared with those deputy ten generals, generals, and team leaders, the wolf talisman obtained by civilian staff is obviously one or two levels higher than that of generals of the same level.This fact is already telling everyone that Li Jing attaches great importance to the status of literati, and even puts the status of literati above military generals.

Right now, all the staff and civil servants wearing silver, purple or black wolf charms are all exasperated.On weekdays, most of the military generals didn't value them very much, whether in the town general's mansion or in the various forts below, the status of civilians was not very high.But now, Li Jing is publicly sending out a signal to raise their status.

Li Jing sat on a high iron chair and looked down at the crowd. He was also very happy to see the excitement of these civil servants.If Shamen Town wants to grow and succeed, it cannot rely on generals alone.Civil and martial arts are like two legs. If one leg is short, it is just a handicap. You can’t even walk stably. How can you talk about running and dancing.After the founding of Song Taizu, who experienced the chaos of the Five Dynasties, he formulated many regulations to restrict warriors, and even set a precedent of advocating literature and suppressing martial arts. In the next thousand years, China will not be able to escape this frame. The two Han dynasties of Song and Ming are like this, and they also That's why although Song has been rich for hundreds of years, he has been oppressed and beaten by foreigners.During the Ming Dynasty, military generals of the second and third ranks even had to kowtow to the officials of the sixth and seventh ranks, and a civil official of the fifth rank could even kill a general of the second rank.

He didn't want his own internal affairs to become the monopoly of generals in the Tang Dynasty at this time, nor did he want to be like the Song and Ming Dynasties who respected literature and suppressed martial arts.No matter which side is too biased, it is not a good result.Right now, there is a bad trend in Shamen Town. The status of generals has been rising steadily due to the victories in several wars, while civil servants are often ignored because they usually do some unobtrusive work.This is a bad signal, if it continues, it is inevitable that military commanders will no longer have civil positions in their eyes.

This time Li Jing issued the Wolf Talisman to deliberately elevate the status of the civil servants, that is, to show his attitude to the generals.

"Zhang Jianjun, Zhang Bingcao." Li Jing's voice resounded in the hall, attracting everyone's attention. "Looks like you two didn't sleep last night, and you don't know what I entrusted to you, but have you come up with a plan?"

Zhang Chengye cleared his throat, and said in the eunuch's slightly shrill voice: "Back to the Yamen, last night we worked hard with Zhang Bingcao, racked our brains, and finally came up with a preliminary assignment at dawn." Plan. Ya Nei, are you really going to distribute these spoils to everyone?"

"Of course!" Li Jing said: "Suppressing Fengzhang's rebellion is all thanks to His Majesty's protection and the support of Jieshuai and all the adults. Please tell us the proposed distribution plan first, and let everyone discuss it. "

Zhang Hong had a bitter face, as if he wanted to send his child to the wolf den to feed the wolves. "General, the plan we have drawn up is to first send His Majesty Wuliang Yuye tribute wine, perfume, ice food, silk and other tributes worth 20 guan, plus 20 stone tribute salt worth [-] guan. There are [-] copper coins and [-] bolts of silk!"

Li Jing nodded. The total value of these contributions is more than 50 guan, although he knows that the cost of the tribute wine and other items that are said to be 1 guan is only more than 20 guan, and the cost of 20 guan of salt is only a few thousand. through.The real deal is the [-] coins and [-] bolts of silk.Originally, Zhang Chengye wanted to donate food, but Zhang Chengzong refused on the pretext that the food was difficult to transport.

But even if it was this, Li Jing was still a little bit reluctant. There was a shortage of money now, and it was too much to donate one hundred thousand guan all at once.

"I heard that the Son of Heaven likes to play polo and cock and geese. Well, one hundred thousand copper coins are too heavy, and it is very troublesome to transport them to Chang'an. I think it is better to exchange one hundred thousand coins and 20 pieces of silk for one hundred Add [-] falcons, [-] pairs of fighting cocks and geese to horses, [-] bolts of silk, [-] volumes of Buddhist scriptures, and [-] statues of Buddha. How about it?"

Zhang Chengye calculated in his mind that he lost 20 guan coins and 50 bolts of silk, although it was a little less.But the things that Li Jing added later were more likely to be liked by the emperor, so he nodded and agreed with a smile: "Okay, just follow the yamen. Don't worry, we will personally escort these things to Beijing this time, and we must ask our father to report to the emperor. In front of him, we will report the loyalty of Ya Nei according to the truth. A contribution worth [-] guan is a rare loyalty, and we will not let Ya Nei down."

Li Jing was waiting for this sentence in his heart. The brother of the great eunuch Tian Lingtian and several senior generals of the Imperial Army later played polo in front of Emperor Xizong in order to win Jiedushi and several important positions.He very much hoped that if he gave such a large gift, the young and ignorant emperor would be happy for a while, and seal himself an official and a half-rank.Even if the official position is not high, if it is conferred by the emperor himself, it will be of great help to him.

He gave the emperor a gift worth 50 guan, and of course there will be many others.Li Jing was bleeding heavily this time, in order not to make other people envious and envious of him occupying the territory of Daxie Village, he went all out.

Under the emperor, Song Wei, the envoy of Ziqing Jiedu, gave the most money.The result of Zhang Hong and others' discussion was to give Song Wei 20 war horses, [-] long spears and [-] swords each, [-] pairs of iron armor, [-] pairs of leather armor, [-] bows, [-] crossbows, and [-] arrows. One hundred thousand sticks.And add [-] shi of grain, [-] shi of salt, [-] guan of money, and [-] bolts of silk.It can be said that Li Jing has really invested heavily in Song Wei.Song Wei is the envoy of Ziqing Jiedu, Li Jing's biggest backer right now, and even whether Li Jing can finally get the Daxiezhai territory depends entirely on his will.This gift was even heavier than what the emperor received.

Among them, Yu Yu from Guanzhong and Yu Cong, the brother of Yu Yu from Chang'an City, the prime minister, each also sent [-] guan.The teacher Cui Yunqing, Li Jing directly gave [-] yuan, Zhao Wang Li Rui, Dengzhou governor Song Wen, each [-] yuan.In addition, Li Jing also sent [-] coins to each of Dengzhou Prison Envoy, Longshan Camp, Chishan Town, Mou Dong Shouzhuo, and Dengzhou Unity Camp.

In addition, there are many civil and military officials in Ziqing Town and Dengzhou, and Li Jing also offered gifts one by one, thousands or hundreds of guan.

This was a big distribution of the spoils, and Li Jing directly took out about 100% of all the money, food and property seized this time, which amounted to more than [-] million yuan, and divided the spoils.It doesn't matter, although Shamen Town has won several battles, it has already been envied by many people.This time, he took down Daxie village. If he didn't express it, the consequences would be unpredictable.

Li Jing was even planning to share half of the spoils, but Zhang Hong, the big housekeeper, was really reluctant.He even said that if Li Jing really wanted the prodigal to share half of it, then he would jump into the sea.

"By the way, Qingnipu also needs to prepare a generous thank you gift. How did you arrange it?" Li Jing asked. Everyone gave it. It is impossible for Li Jing to forget Li Lingfu who came to help.

"Three thousand demoted slaves, one hundred pots of divine fire, and thirty warships of all sizes. The rest also prepared twenty thousand stones of food, one thousand pairs of knives and guns, and one hundred thousand arrows." Zhang Hong said with a heartbroken face: " According to the general's order, thank you as much as possible."

"Well, not bad." Compared with those military camps in Dengzhou, Qingnipu is the only ally that Li Jing can come to help immediately when something happens.To them, Li Jing must thank them very much.

Zhang Chengye saw that apart from the emperor and prime minister Yu Cong, only Qingnipu was not from Song Wei and Cui Yunqing's side in all the spoils lists. Did the heads send some?"

Li Jing smiled, these leaders of the Pinglu Army have nothing to do with him, besides, since he is Song Wei's man, he can no longer try to curry favor with Wang Jingwu.To please both sides is often best to not please both sides.Li Jing couldn't even lose the support of Song Wei and the others now. Anyway, if he ignored Wang Jingwu, the result would not change much.

Hearing Yi Li Jing's answer, Zhang Chengye just smiled, "However, I think some people have been missed in the yamen."

"Who?"

"The first one is, of course, the chief eunuch Tian Lingqi, who is now a lieutenant in the Shence Army and also an envoy of the Privy Council, and who is in control of the government, and who is called father by the emperor. It's just the opposite. We thought we had to prepare a big gift, at least not less than [-] guan. In addition, those gentlemen in the court hall in Chang'an City had to give each of them a gift. A gift, even the heads of the three provinces and six departments of Chang'an City, must also prepare a gift, so it is considered appropriate."

Li Jing couldn't help feeling a little heartbroken now, but he knew that these gifts were really the best to give.In the end, I had no choice but to say: "How about this, the princes of the court probably don't need some copper coins, so we will prepare a batch of commodities such as liquor, fruit wine, rock sugar, perfume, and Buddhist scriptures produced in our own workshop. Let’s prepare a quota of 30 yuan, send 20 yuan to Lieutenant Tian Zhong, and prepare a total of [-] yuan for the rest. How to allocate it, Zhang Jianjun is more familiar with the affairs of the capital, let him be in charge.”

(To be continued)