Crazy at the end of the Ming Dynasty

In the early morning, Wu Shigong came to the gate of Xue Mansion.All the people at the gate had already organized their teams and were waiting for him, including the thirty soldiers led by Wu Mian.Wu Shigong looked at Xue Qiang and Xue Yong's swollen pig-headed faces, and felt a little funny.It seems that Xue Yongli's actions yesterday were quite heavy.Yesterday, after Xue Lian called them to the study room, he punished them with kindness and majesty. Although they were deducted two months of monthly regulations because of the negligence of these two pig heads, they still let Xue Yong be the bodyguard of Wu Shigong's bodyguard. The captain, Xue Qiang is the deputy.Because they were Xue Lian's bodyguards after all, and they were Xue Lian's confidantes.

The guards were all equipped with horses, and they were very thoughtful, and they brought an empty horse to Shumo.But that Shumo doesn't know how to ride a horse, besides, the horses in Xue's mansion are all army horses, they are all tall and tall, Shumo is so anxious that he circles around this horse.Seeing Shumo's funny appearance, bursts of laughter came from all around.Wu Shigong shouted: "Shumo, don't make a fool of yourself, you will lead the horse to the Yamen today. After arriving at the Yamen, practice horse riding on the school field today, and don't disgrace my young master again."

So, a group of people started to set off.They didn't walk fast, because except for Wu Mian who brought a horse, the other soldiers of the Bingma Division walked, not to mention Shumo who was holding the horse with a sad face.Suddenly, a black shadow sprang out in front of him, and he knelt down in front of a group of people's horses with a "plop".Everyone reined in and stopped the horse.But Wu Shigong was still not proficient in riding a horse, so he almost fell off the horse in a panic.Under such circumstances, Wu Shigong's back was covered in cold sweat, and he felt a little rejoiced in his heart: Fortunately, he didn't fall off the horse, and the Ming Dynasty didn't have any risk of being forced.But then, my heart became angry, who did not know what to do and stopped in front of the horse?

Wu Shigong sat firmly on the horse and took a closer look. There was a big black man kneeling in front of their horse, kowtowing and shouting constantly: "Master, master, the younger one is He Fei, the younger one is He Fei..."

The fire in Wu Shigong's heart became even bigger.After being influenced by so many ancient costume dramas in modern times, Wu Shigong took it for granted that the big black man was the one who stopped the horse and sued.But the TV series told us that the ones who stopped the horses and filed complaints were pretty, charming little widows. What are you doing, a muscular black man, jumping out?

What's even more confusing is that the name that black muscular man calls himself is simply too strange.After Wu Shigong traveled to the Ming Dynasty, he never heard any servant call his master "Master". If Wu Shigong didn't realize that the people around him didn't have that big shiny braid behind their heads, He almost thought that he had traveled to the Qing Dynasty again.This made Wu Shigong's heart even more fueled.

"It must be a psychopath!" Wu Shigong immediately made a decision in his heart.

So, Wu Shigong immediately ordered to drag the black muscular man aside.Unexpectedly, the black muscular man was struggling while being dragged by the soldiers, and shouted loudly: "Master, you can't treat the little one like this. The little one and the master are a family! Ah——! Young Master!"

"Young Master!?" Wu Shigong felt that the guards of Xue Mansion were all secretly looking at him.Wu Shigong understands that the title of "Little Marquis" cannot be used indiscriminately, it is usually only used by the son of Marquis.Of course, if the son of a certain Marquis (not the eldest son) is outside and is complimented by others, no one cares about it.But now I am a married man in Xue's mansion, so the guards of Xue's mansion must be very sensitive to other people calling themselves young masters.

Wu Shigong also pretended to be confused, ignoring the guards' eyes, but he became interested in the sentence of "He Fei" who said, "The little one and the master are a family!".Could it be that his father Wu Weizhong has some kind of bastard outside?

"Drag him here." Wu Shigong ordered.When the soldiers dragged the black muscular man to Wu Shigong's horse, Wu Shigong bowed his head and asked, "Quickly tell me, why are you and I in the same family?" Come three, four, five, even if your name is Yue Fei, I will beat you until your mother can't recognize you, my lord.

Unexpectedly, after Na Hefei introduced himself, although he and Wu Shigong had no relatives, they could barely be called a family.

Do you still remember?At that time, Wu Shigong's ancestor, Wu Yuncheng who took refuge in Ming Chengzu Zhu Di.Then Wu Yuncheng brought his own Mongolian tribe to join the Ming Dynasty.Most of the people in this tribe still stayed in the frontier.After more than 200 years since the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, the shadows of these people do not know where they have gone.And a small group of them, as the guards and servants of the Wu family, moved into the capital together with the Wu family.

In Gongshunhou Wu's family, the first sons of the family were selected from among these tribesmen and their descendants.But with the reproduction of several generations, the number of these Mongolian descendants has also increased, because there were no old ladies wearing red armbands to manage family planning in the Ming Dynasty.But the total number of guards and servants that the Wu Mansion needs is just that much.In addition, through the marriage between the nobles, the daughters-in-law who married into the Wu family always brought some servants, and these people also became the sons of the Wu family.And this part of the family's children surpassed those of the Mongolian descendants in terms of ability to handle affairs and appearance.Isn't the Wu Mansion transforming into a scholarly family?Therefore, it is more preferred to use the former family-born sons as the guards and servants of the Wu Mansion (including embroidered bamboo and calligraphy), which has led to narrower and narrower employment opportunities for Mongolian descendants.Although the Wu Mansion still gave some relief to these Mongolian descendants out of their own considerations, on the whole, the life of these Mongolian descendants is becoming more and more embarrassing.A small group of them left the Wu family, started their own businesses, and completely Sinicized and integrated into the common people of the Ming Dynasty.But the vast majority of people are still suffering, hoping that the Wu Mansion will have some chance so that they can enter the mansion as house slaves.This is also the case with Hefei.

Na Hefei, don't look at him who is very muscular, but he is just doing odd jobs outside, and he doesn't have much money around him.He is almost thirty and has not yet found a wife.But this time, he heard that the Nancheng Bingma Commander wanted to recruit soldiers, and the price offered was 70 taels of silver per person.He Fei really wanted to be that soldier, but his family had no money, so even if he pawned his valuables at the pawnshop, he could only scrape together twenty taels of silver at most.But the brain of this black muscular man is not slow.Yesterday, he just found out that the new commander of the Southern City Military and Horse Commander is the Fourteenth Young Master of the Wu family who married into the Xue family.Didn't that come from his master's house?So, this morning, He Fei waited for Wu Shigong at the gate of Xue's residence, hoping to make friends and try his luck.

I see.No wonder Na Hefei called himself "Master Ziye", it turned out to be the name of the Mongols.Wu Shigong only now realizes that his ethnic identity is still a minority.Now I meet someone from the same ethnic group as me, and also from the same tribe as myself. Although I don’t know where that tribe has gone, I will help if I can.Anyway, yesterday, Xu Limu told himself that there were dozens of places to recruit soldiers.I still don't know where to recruit these soldiers.

So, Wu Shigong asked Na Hefei, how much money can he have with him?He Fei stammered and said: He has fifteen to twenty taels of silver with him.Wu Shigong simply decided to recruit He Fei into the Nancheng Military and Horse Command Division.He asked He Fei to bring 20 taels of silver tomorrow, and meet him at the gate of the Xue Mansion. The remaining 15 taels of silver were lent to him by Wu Shigong, and it was not considered any interest. Return him.After He Fei heard the good news, he kowtowed and thanked him in joy.Wu Shigong ignored him and continued on the road.

Wu Shigong decided to still collect money from He Fei, the main purpose was also not to break the market for recruiting soldiers from Bing Ma Si, otherwise, it would be easy to cause conflicts with other money-collecting bosses.Besides, He Fei didn't have any friendship with him, so why should he lose the 50 taels of silver?Being able to lend him 35 taels without interest is already a great deal of face.

However, Wu Shigong had a curiosity in his heart, how much money can the soldiers of the Bingma Division earn in a year?So that outsiders are willing to spend 70 taels of silver to buy this position.He called Wu Mian to his side and asked him the question in his heart.Wu Mian replied: In the capital, although the soldiers of the Bingma Division are also soldiers, they can only get 25% of the military salary every year.The monthly military salary of a soldier in the Ming Dynasty was: one tael and five silver, one stone and a half meter, so together, he should get about [-] taels of silver every year, but the soldiers of Bing Ma Si had at most a dozen or so taels each.Moreover, the military pay issued by the Ming Dynasty is relatively stingy. This military pay includes the equipment fee for weapons and the uniform fee.So in the Ming Dynasty, you can often see soldiers wearing tattered mandarin duck war jackets and holding tattered weapons.What's even more exaggerated is that as long as it is not in war, during normal duty, soldiers have to pay for their own food.Therefore, in reality, the soldiers of Bingmasi couldn't even get the military salary of ten taels of silver within a year.

But Bingmasi has a lot of extra money.With extra money added, each soldier can get less than 40 taels of silver a year on average.Of course, some soldiers who are not good at mixing may just get a dead army salary, while soldiers who are good at mixing can get a lot more.But the soldiers of Bingmasi have two advantages: one is that as long as they don't make any mistakes, they can basically do this job for a lifetime, and the Ming Dynasty did not retire.The second is that when you are old, you can leave the position of soldier to your son to inherit.

Wu Shigong understands, isn't this a modern civil servant?And even better than civil servants, this position can be replaced.Then the 70 taels of silver was really not much.Think about it: the annual salary of a modern civil servant is 10 yuan a year.If it is sold openly and there is no need for civil service examinations, then selling it for 20 yuan is simply a low price.The person who robbed did not break his head.Don't say it can be replaced.

Talking with Wu Mian, I also felt that the time passed quickly. Before I knew it, Wu Shigong and his party came to the Yamen of the Nancheng Military and Horse Command Department.