golden scales

Renqiu County's doggerel was quickly spread through the mouth of the post office, and it became a new official joke.However, this officialdom is not that officialdom, and Ni Yuanlu, who is also a member of the officialdom, has never heard of it.

Ni Yuanlu actually didn't mean to take advantage of the public, but she was so noble that she was out of the world... In other words, she couldn't take care of herself.

When Yi Cheng came to ask him for room and board expenses, Ni Yuanlu was surprised at first, and after asking about the rules, he generously gave a small ingot of five taels of ingot, which made Yi Cheng overjoyed and became his ancestor in the days to come. Offer the same.

As the chief financial officer of a country, Ni Yuanlu has handled no less than "[-]" units of money and food, but he really doesn't know the purchasing power of money among the people.A day's board and lodging in the post house is only five cents of silver, five taels is enough to live for three months.

Of course, it was impossible for Ni Yuanlu to live here for three months, so any extra was considered a tip from the post house.Although Zhu Cihong attaches great importance to integrity, and corruption is also a bad practice that has been intolerable in the past dynasties, but rewarding is not the case.

Facing a high-roller who tipped huge sums of money, it's no wonder that Yicheng is willing to come and go even if he is recruited.

"Is this the sixth batch of horsemen in recent days?" Ni Yuanlu couldn't help being surprised when he met six groups of horsemen going north after staying for two days.He knew that there were still some "partial" captive soldiers in Liaodong resisting the king's division. He thought that they could not even defend Tianbao and Beijing, and it would only take a long time for them to be wiped out.

So where did this team go?

"They are all from the cavalry battalion." Yi Cheng greeted them and sent them off. Seeing Ni Yuanlu's question, he tried his best to show off: "The iron armor of their regular soldiers is made of two steel plates on the front chest and back, and the second-class soldiers only have chest armor. There is a armor in the front, and a belt behind it. This is how it went north in the past two days."

"Is there going to be a war again?" Ni Yuanlu asked worriedly.

"I'm afraid not." The postman said: "The cavalry battalion all enter and exit at the same time. How can there be such a scattered deployment? It is probably an ordinary deployment of defense. So that the master can know that once there is a war, it will be a small station of humble rank. , but also to move."

"How do you move this station?" Ni Yuanlu was even more surprised.

The postman smiled and said: "If there is a big war, someone in the army will transfer and buy food. Then hoard it in the villages, granaries, forts, and post stations along the way. These places have become food spots, and people nearby have to help prepare. The army marches It can be said that you can eat wherever you go, unlike before, you have to eat in the counties along the way. The supply in the counties is insufficient, and it is inevitable that the soldiers will disturb the people."

"Isn't this disturbing the people?"

"The little one has been working here for nearly 20 years, and only the soldiers trained by the crown prince really don't disturb the people." Yi Cheng sighed: "People say that the crown prince is Taiwei Xingjun, and the Jade Emperor sent [-] soldiers from the sky Help him. It seems true."

Thinking of Zhu Cihuang, Ni Yuanlu was full of nostalgia and worry, and then felt that she was not worthy of being a minister by leaving like this, but it was inevitable to do things against her will if she wanted to stay in the court.What a dilemma!

Seeing that the old man was habitually meditating again, Yi Cheng bowed and retreated slowly.What he said about the cavalry battalions was true, but not entirely true.

Although no major battles took place, these cavalry did go on military missions.

The cavalry battalion is divided into soldiers, auxiliary soldiers, and civilian husbands like other battalions.What's more unique is that the soldiers are divided into regular soldiers and private soldiers.The former often used "knight" as an alias in documents, while the latter only said "cavalry" or even "horse soldier".The difference is not in horsemanship and bravery, but in the execution of discipline.

After Phalanx Charge was positioned as basic cavalry tactics.The knights of the Ming army were much worse than the Mongols and the Jurchens in horsemanship, but their combat effectiveness was several times stronger.The secret lies in discipline.So even if there are three thousand Mongolian Tartars who are good at equestrianism.But for the cavalry battalion, its usefulness is very limited. Except for some unique techniques in horse training and horse healing, most of the others are useless.

……

On the fifth day of May in the 19th year of Chongzhen, it was the Dragon Boat Festival.

Zhou Yuji led [-] knights to Zhangjiakou, a mountain city outside the Great Wall, in two days.

At first, this place was just a military fort with a circumference of four miles. During the Wanli period, it was opened with Mongolia, and Zhangjiakou really prospered.In the end, the early Xikou merchant gang was created.Among them, eight big merchants became representatives, that is, the eight great merchants who were named imperial merchants by the Qing court.

It would be an exaggeration to say that all Shanxi merchants are white-eyed wolves collaborating with the enemy and traitorous to the country.However, if you say you are loyal to Daming and have not sold any contraband outside the mouth, then no one will be able to pick it clean.And simply think about it.Whether it is Mongolia outside the mouth or Shanxi inside the pass, neither is a commodity manufacturing place, so how did the huge transaction volume come about?

In fact, it was to buy loot from Mongolian and Eastern captives at low prices, and sell grain and ironware at high prices, so that the Tartars could invade and plunder again, and then sell them to Shanxi merchants at low prices.

Shanxi merchants sold these almost costless commodities to the mainland, even the Jianghuai area, and made huge profits from this.

In Huang Taiji's era, Zhangjiakou would not be invaded every time the invaders invaded from Mongolia. In addition to the stolen goods, the source of news was also very important.In order to allow the Tartars to plunder more efficiently, the eight major merchants in Zhangjiakou will do their best to investigate the strength and generals of the defenders in various places and report them to the Tartars.

If it is the nature of a businessman to buy low and sell high, then the act of actively selling information is undoubtedly a serious crime of treason.Moreover, according to the criminal law of later generations, this kind of behavior of colluding in advance and selling stolen goods after the event is also an accomplice to a crime.

After the Qing army entered the customs, the Qing government not only sealed the eight families as imperial merchants, but also granted Zhangjiakou [-] mu of land for them to live together here.According to the customs of the time, since the whole family moved to Zhangjiakou, they must bring their main property along with them.For these resale traders, the most important property is real gold and silver.

Zhu Cihong traveled to Zhangjiakou in his previous life and visited the silver cellars left by Shanxi merchants. It was the place where the underground was really hollowed out to store silver.Piles of silver do not enter the circulation, but are buried deep in the ground. It sounds very emotional, but once you sit in Zhu Cihong's seat, you will be very depressed.

China has never been a silver-producing country.Before Wanli, money was mainly circulated in the market, and earlier there were precious banknotes.It wasn't until Spain brought back a large amount of silver from South America and Japan's silver refining level improved that Ming Dynasty had enough silver as a currency in circulation.

And the silver sent from all over the world was finally buried in the ground and never saw the light of day. What a side effect it had on the economy!

At that time, Zhu Cihong couldn't think of this. He was immersed in the joy of success at that time, admiring the beautiful scenery outside the Great Wall with the mentality of a worldly successful person, and tasting different kinds of delicacies. As for silver, he only converted it in his mind to the equivalent of RMB, and there was nothing at all. Think about the significance of this to a dynasty and a civilization.

But now I don't want to.

……

"General, Tanma caught a Tartar prisoner on the road!" Tanma rushed to Zhou Yuji to report.

"Since you're a spy, have you been interrogated?" Zhou Yuji was not surprised as he sat on the horse with a golden knife.

Before Tan Ma could speak, the "spies" ten steps away shouted loudly: "General! We are not Tartar spies! We are obedient citizens of Ming Dynasty!"

"Shunmin? Shunmin traveling at night? Traveling at night, either rape or robbery!" Zhou Yuji immediately stepped forward and said coldly.

He was followed by his personal guards, but there was a rider who was only half a horse behind him, also dressed as a general, and said with a smile: "You have to travel at night if you pay bribes."

"That's right! What the general said is absolutely true, we are bribes!" the man shouted loudly.

The general who spoke just now said again: "But give us a bribe for General Xiao?"

"Exactly!" The man hurriedly said, "It is here to reward General Xiao."

Zhou Yuji laughed loudly, pointed at the man with a whip, and said, "You don't even know my surname, yet dare to say bribery!"

The surrounding guards, cavalry, and Tanma also burst into laughter.

The man was so frightened that he knelt down on the ground, thinking that if he was not a spy, he would become a spy.

"Can you see what he's carrying?" Zhou Yuji asked the left and right.

Soon someone reported back: "General, there are six carts with two horses, and each cart is filled with snowflake silver in a big wooden box! I'm afraid it's not tens of thousands of taels!"

Zhou Yuji had someone burn the face of the "spies" with a torch: "How much money, you can tell yourself."

"Three thousand... six hundred..."

"Fart!" Zhou Yuji scolded angrily: "Six big carts transported 600 taels of silver, do you think I'm a fool!"

"It's a catty..." The man trembled and almost cried, "It's 600 catties... [-] taels. General! I'm really not a spy. I transported the money back to my hometown in Shanxi for the master's family. of."

"I think you're lying all the time, you're definitely not a good person." Zhou Yuji said coldly, "Punish me until you tell the truth."

Immediately, the last group of soldiers knocked the man down with thick sticks, including his followers, coachman and guards, and there was a burst of crying.

Zhou Yuji had a steely heart, just watched the military sticks go down, and didn't speak.The wailing gradually became quieter, and Zhou Yuji walked out behind him, wearing a wide-brimmed hat, covering his entire face, and said in a low voice: "The general is a fierce general on the battlefield, so we should leave the matter of torture and punishment to us." .”

"No." The general who spoke before refused abruptly: "It's perfectly normal for this person to send money home, and he is talking about bribery, obviously he has a ghost in his heart."

The man said helplessly: "Chief of Staff Huang, there are all discerning people here, and Chen Xiang will certainly not do illegal things just to excuse himself."

"Huh? Mr. Chen's words seem to have other meanings." Zhou Yuji was at a loss.

Chen Xiang was helpless, who made his identity too sensitive.In addition to 300 years of chasing wind and shadows, who hasn't looked at him since he entered the camp?Where was the trust. (To be continued..)

ps: Ask for a recommendation ticket, ask for a monthly ticket~~!