Crazy at the end of the Ming Dynasty

Finally arrived at the Qianhu Office, Wu Shigong felt relaxed and tired all of a sudden.So, go to bed soon.In a daze, a warm body slipped into Wu Shigong's bed.

In the dark, as soon as Wu Shigong touched his body and smelled it, he knew it was Zhao Ruya.

Wu Shigong asked in surprise: "How did you come in? There are embroidered bamboo and Zhu Yun sleeping outside."

Zhao Ruya replied proudly: "They can't stop me."

The two stayed together overnight.But before dawn, Zhao Ruya sneaked back to accompany her daughter.Wu Shigong thought to himself: "Why does it look like an affair. Tomorrow, when we arrive at the Qianhusuo Fortress, we can finally live a normal life."

However, Wu Shigong was quickly disappointed.

The next morning, Wu Shigong asked the shopkeeper of his inn to find someone familiar with the local conditions, and took Wu Shigong and the others to the fortress of Qianhusuo to have a look.The shopkeeper suddenly called his nephew Chang over.

When Chang Meng knew that Wu Shigong was going to the fortress of Qianhusuo, he immediately called out: "Lord Qianhu, the fortress of Qianhusuo has long been abandoned." Condition.

It turned out that when the Qianhusuo Fortress was first built in the early Ming Dynasty, the town where Wu Shigong was staying now did not exist.Because the construction of the Qianhusuo Fortress needs to take into account the military function, therefore, the Qianhusuo Fortress was built next to the town, on the halfway up a hillside.It takes about half an hour to walk from this small town.

But as time went by, many families gradually moved to the small town.Because the terrain here is flat and the geographical conditions are superior.Moreover, this small town is at the confluence of two rivers, flowing from south to north, gradually becoming a commodity distribution center in the nearby area.

As this place became more lively, local gentry built houses and set up shop here one after another.With the gradual density of the population, it gradually became a small town.Even the Qianhu of the Qianhusuo moved their offices and residences to the small town.

Chang Meng also told Wu Shigong: The land of this small town was originally owned by Qianhusuo, and it was located in the center of Qianhusuo.However, with local encroachment, this small town has been completely owned by the local government.

Moreover, with this small town as the boundary, all the land to the east was occupied by the local gentry.The current Qianhusuo only retains the land in the west.

And the fortress of the Thousand Households has been uninhabited for hundreds of years, and it has long been in ruins.

Wu Shigong frowned after listening to Chang Meng's words, and finally decided to let Chang Meng lead the way to the ruins of the Qianhusuo fortress.

After arriving at the Qianhusuo Fortress, Wu Shigong first asked Xue Yongli and his military experienced Xue Mansion guards to observe the geographical location of the Qianhusuo Fortress.

After carefully observing the fortress of Qianhusuo, Xue Yongli reported to Wu Shigong: "My lord, the location of this fortress of Qianhusuo is quite good. There are hills behind, and the attacking army can't use it at all. And that There are two rivers on both sides, which have the function of natural moats."

"If someone attacks the Qianhusuo Fortress, they can only attack from the direction of the town. However, because the Qianhusuo Fortress is built on the mountainside, the attacker can only attack from the bottom up, and the attack is quite difficult."

"Moreover, judging from the structure of the Qianhusuo Fortress, the layout of the entire Qianhusuo Fortress is very reasonable. It is also very convenient to get water. It is a good place to build a fortress. However, it is too dilapidated."

Wu Shigong and the others didn't know.The construction of the Qianhusuo fortress at the beginning was the address determined by the generals with rich experience in the battlefield in the early Ming Dynasty. Of course, it was built very reasonably.Considered very carefully in terms of military affairs.

Wu Shigong and Xue Yongli walked around the Qianhusuo fortress, and found that the Qianhusuo fortress was indeed too dilapidated.All the buildings in the Qianhusuo fortress left only the foundations, and even the outer city walls collapsed, leaving a foundation as high as half a person, and the stones on it had been picked up long ago.

Wu Shigong immediately decided to rebuild the fort immediately.Take this fort as your main base to save your life.

Xue Yongli reminded Wu Shigong: "My lord, it will take a lot of labor and time to fully build this fortress."

Wu Shigong said to Xue Yongli: "First, raise the outer city wall to the height of a man and a half man, and then build a parapet as high as half a man on the outside of the top of the city wall. In this way, it is barely enough for defense. In the future, If you have free time, the city wall will be heightened and strengthened."

"And around the core of the fortress, build a wall and build houses inside. My lord, I think it's better for us people to move in earlier to live in peace of mind. Besides, living in the inn in the town all the time will cost a lot. .”

Hearing Wu Shigong's words, Xue Yongli nodded and said, "In this way, before the Chinese New Year, we can build a preliminary look at this fortress."

On the way back, Wu Shigong gave Chang Meng two hundred Wen for his hard work.After hearing that Chang Meng is very familiar with the local situation, he decided to continue to hire him tomorrow, let him go to the hundreds of households under the thousand households, and let these hundreds of households gather in the small town tomorrow afternoon. Get together and talk about anything.

Na Chang Meng happily agreed quickly.

Wu Shigong made a decision: let these hundreds of households arrange labor, and build the fortress of the Thousand Households as soon as possible. Moreover, Wu Shigong also wanted to recruit [-] soldiers from among these labor labor.

Of course, Wu Shigong will also pay some remuneration for these laborers.These soldiers will also be paid military salaries.

In the evening, Wu Shigong, Xue Yongli and Zheng Zhen carefully calculated the cost of building the fort.After the sound of "crackling" abacus was over, Zheng Zhen told Wu Shigong that even according to Wu Shigong's simplest construction method, the cost of building the fort still required 600 taels of silver.

Wu Shigong gasped after hearing the numbers.But think about it carefully: the matter of building the fort is urgent now, so this money cannot be saved.And Wu Shigong plans to recruit [-] soldiers from the Qianhu Office this time.The military salary can't be saved either.

This time, Wu Shigong planned to pay the guards brought to Guide from the capital three taels of silver a month.Of course, the guards of the Xue residence were more cost-effective, because Xue Lian originally gave them a monthly bill, so they were paid double.

As for the soldiers that Wu Shigong was going to recruit in Qianhu this time, Wu Shigong decided to pay them in accordance with the standard of the Ming Dynasty.That is, one tael and five silver per person per month, one stone and a half of rice.

Therefore, if Wu Shigong starts to distribute military pay, he will spend nearly a thousand taels of silver every month.Adding in the food for the soldiers and the feeding of the horses, the monthly expenses would exceed 200 taels of silver.

Moreover, the cost of building weapons, necessary routine expenses and Wu Shigong's own living expenses have not been included.If everything is included, at least 500 taels of silver will be needed every month.But now, Wu Shigong was just preparing to have [-] soldiers.Wu Shigong thought to himself: The cost of this army is really astonishingly high!

Wu Shigong only has more than 4 taels of silver with him now. Although this silver is in an ordinary family, it can be said to be a huge fortune.But for Wu Shigong, who now needs to raise soldiers, it is only [-] months.

Seeing that Wu Shigong was in trouble, Xue Yongli and Zheng Zhen on the side came up with ideas one after another.

Xue Yongli said to Wu Shigong: There is no need to pay the soldiers recruited by thousands of households.Throughout the Ming Dynasty, none of the soldiers recruited from military households paid the military salary.Even if Wu Shigong is kind-hearted and wants to pay military salaries, three or five achievements are enough.This can also save a lot of money.

Wu Shigong categorically denied Xue Yongli's statement.If those soldiers don't pay their soldiers, who among them will work hard in training?Who would work hard for Wu Shigong?

However, what Xue Yongli said reminded Wu Shigong.Wu Shigong decided: In the process of training soldiers, set an assessment standard.Soldiers who meet the standard will be paid full military pay; those who fail to meet the standard will be paid [-]%.In this way, those soldiers will be motivated to train.

And Zheng Zhen said to Wu Shigong: There is no need to spend money to recruit labor from military households.

Wu Shigong also categorically denied Zheng Zhen's statement.If Wu Shigong used these labors for free, although these laborers would not say anything on the surface, they must have resentment in their stomachs.

Wu Shigong wanted to build this fortress of thousands of households into a fortress.Geography is definitely important, and so is harmony between people.Wu Shigong didn't want these laborers to hate him.

Seeing that Wu Shigong's attitude was very firm, Zheng Zhen came up with another idea: Zheng Zhen asked Wu Shigong not to directly pay these laborers money.Instead, subtract the amount of money and food they should hand in next year.In this way, the effect of paying remuneration has been achieved, and Wu Shigong's current financial pressure will be less.

Good idea!Wu Shigong immediately followed suit.In this way, Wu Shigong can save hundreds of taels of silver at present.

After Xue Yongli and Zheng Zhen left, Wu Shigong thought to himself: "It is necessary to develop some new sources of income. Otherwise, we will have nothing to do."