Dawn of the Empire

450 Chapter 85

Zhao Xingde's face was as usual, and he smiled slightly: "The emperor does not send hungry soldiers. If there are no soldiers to fight to the death, the Liao soldiers will not only rob money and food, but also kill our people. This is all right. But, I would like to add one more point. When the ministries raise their salaries, they must first seek the magistrates. If the magistrates can promise the money and rations, they should not 'harass' the people. In addition," he said in a condensed tone, "when the time comes, you must not Harm the lives of the common people, do not take the opportunity to insult the female relatives, do not wipe out the food in each house, but leave rations for the common people. If these points cannot be done, then Zhao’s place is not good Leave the heroes here."

Chen Dong and Zhang Wudi frowned at the same time.Chen Dong wanted to speak, but he looked at Zhao Xingde, but he held back and didn't speak.

Zhang Wudi thought about it for a while, finally stomped his feet, and shouted: "That's fine!" He reached out and snatched the piece of paper with the rules from Zhao Xingde's hand, turned around and left, muttering in his mouth while walking: " He's a 'grandmother', with so many stinky rules." Chen Dong said with worry, "If these people blackmail the place under the banner of the Baoyi Army, Yuan Zhi, I'm afraid you will not be able to escape the stigma."

Looking at Zhang Wudi's back, Zhao Xingde said in a low voice: "If I can recruit more heroes to fight for the country, I won't be reluctant to have such a reputation like a cloud. The most urgent thing is to prevent the Liao army from sweeping the southeast. The army is reckless in all directions, and the military discipline cannot be compared with the original Imperial Army. Now the fire is imminent, and we have to rely on the soldiers to fight, and we have to put everything else aside." He looked at Chen Dong, hesitated for a moment, and asked Said: "The price of Xia's military equipment and war horses can be hung on the account of the Song Dynasty, and you will pay it back in the future. Why should you worry? Although the southeast is rich, it is the place where Song's money, grain and taxes come from. But according to the court's strong With weak branches, the state capital not only has no soldiers, but also has very little money and food reserves. When the war starts, money is used everywhere, where do you raise money to pay for this large amount of money?"

Zhao Xingde knew from personal experience that in order to maintain an army capable of fighting, it is necessary to prepare food, armor, weapons, horses, winter and summer clothing and other military supplies in advance, and to maintain military pay at ordinary times. More like running water.If you lose a battle, you will need money to regain your strength, and if you win a battle, you will also need money to reward the strong morale.Once the food and salaries are not enough, the morale of the army will be unstable immediately.In Daying, Hebei, there have been countless times of quarrels and mutinies.

Chen Dong said in a deep voice, "I have my own way of doing this."

"What is the solution?" The more he kept silent, the more worried Zhao Xingde became.

Chen Dong was silent for a moment, sighed, and said in a low voice: "Although the county treasury in Southeast Prefecture is empty, there are many rich and powerful households in various places. I discussed with General Yue that all states and counties will be allowed to recruit volunteers. The volunteers prepare their own armor and weapons, and according to the number of soldiers and horses, the leaders of the volunteer soldiers will be appointed officials. Those who can recruit ten soldiers will be awarded the chief, those who can recruit one hundred soldiers will be awarded the capital, and those who can recruit five hundred soldiers will be awarded the commander. Those who recruit 5000 soldiers will be awarded the commander of the rebel army." He smiled and said: "Xingzhi has recruited thousands of heroes here, so he was awarded the post of commander of the fake Baoyi army." He bit the word "false" hard heavier.Because of the emperor Beishou, most of the important officials of the court were coerced by the Liao Kingdom. Although Chen Dong's reputation was high and he had the support of many Neo-Confucian scholars, the official positions he granted privately could only be an expedient measure, so we must bring A "false" word, in order to complete the name after the name is justified in the future.

Zhao Xingde nodded and agreed: "The world is in chaos, and the man with the strongest soldiers and horses is the emperor. It's nothing to be awarded an official? There are tens of thousands of heroes in the Song Dynasty. If one tenth of them can fight to the death and fight against the bandits, then the people of Liao Kingdom will be counted." Winning consecutive battles, if you fight a few more battles, there will be no Khitan people left." He frowned and said, "Shaoyang, what I am most worried about is that I will be discouraged after a few defeats. He fought the Liao people again, and instead tried to make peace with Gou An. Even if the Han conquered the Huns, they lost more than they won at the beginning. But since China has many rich people, they kept twisting and fighting him hard, and he was exhausted if he didn't beat him. , I vowed not to make peace. Although the desert was captured in the sky, it finally exhausted the Xiongnu and cut off the great trouble in our Central Plains. If the Han Dynasty insisted on keeping things peaceful, I am afraid it would not last for 400 years." He sighed The tone said, "It's just that Emperor Yuan was weak and cowardly, and he lightly agreed to the proposal of marriage, so he lost the good situation, so that Di Yi was able to recuperate and grow, and finally ended in the disaster of Wuhu chaos."

"What does Yuan Zhi mean?" Chen Dong's heart skipped a beat.Recently, he was busy with all kinds of affairs and dealing with the situation, he rarely had time to think about the future, after listening to Zhao Xingde's words, he seemed to be enlightened in a trance.

"Khitan's government is harsh and urgent, and it will not last long. The Liao army has more than a dozen races such as Khitan, Jurchen, and Shiwei, and they have been living in peace. From this point of view, even if we cannot win a big victory for a while, we just need to grit our teeth and hold on. If you don’t seek peace, you can drag down the Liao Kingdom. In addition, the Khitan has fewer people, but the Song Dynasty has more people.” Zhao Xingde’s tone was tinged with bitterness, “As long as there are more battles with many casualties, the Liao Kingdom will definitely be ahead of us. Dry to the last drop of blood."

"Yuan Zhizhen is a national scholar, but it's a pity..." Chen Dong sighed secretly.

Zhao Xingde asked again, "Just now I only talked about the matter of recruiting soldiers and horses. It is still not accepted, and the Tian Fu is at least half a year away. How do you raise money and food now?"

Chen Dong's face was a little ugly, he was silent for a moment, and finally said: "It is an expedient measure to raise money and food by donating students. Maybe it is a way." If you pay more than five hundred guan in money and food, you can enter the county school.In a county in the southeast, there are hundreds of wealthy households who can afford this donation.If there are 2 donated students in a county, they can get [-] guan of money and food every year, which is enough to cover the usual annual expenses of [-] imperial troops.Many of the recruited volunteers are self-provided with their own clothes and supplies, as long as Ezhou rations armor, war horses and other military supplies that are difficult to buy in the market.Calculated in this way, the donations from Jinghu South Road alone can support nearly [-] soldiers.The so-called soldiers and horses have not moved, food and grass go first.Chen Dong was struggling with money and food, and he wanted to compete with Cai Jing and other "treacherous" parties for popular support. After weighing various pros and cons, he finally agreed to this method.

"Donate students from the county school?" Zhao Xingde doubted, "Although the southeast is rich and rich, there are many high-end wealthy households with tens of thousands of family properties. But donating 500 guan every year is not a small amount. Worth so much? I'm afraid..."

"According to what Mr. Huang Zhoushan said, it is very unusual for the county to learn from Xiangru." Chen Dong said slowly, "The officials in the prefecture and county are all elected by them. Xiangru's status is noble, so you can see that officials don't kneel down. No county education, no interrogation by county magistrates, no fear of imprisonment. There are several counties in the south of the Yangtze River, really..." Chen Dong shook his head. There are probably more than 100 states and counties that did not obey the "chaotic" orders of the Liao thieves.In some of these counties, the people in the Lishe are in charge of the situation, while in other counties the local gentry are in control. In some places, the real people in the Lishe are pushed aside instead.These big families have a large number of family members and have a wide range of properties. They will not move to avoid disaster unless it is absolutely necessary.Chen Dong was not worried that these people would join the Liao army, because once the Liao army arrived, they would plunder the whole city, and the rich and gentry would suffer first.It's just that now they have to make friends deliberately, lest they turn to Zhao Qi and Cai Jing.

"There will be a lot of criticism for acting like this, and the reputation of you and Lishe may... be damaged."

"I can't wait to see you now." Chen Dong shook his head and said, "During the Han Dynasty, in order to conquer the Huns in the north, they even sold their officials and nobles. The Liao army was as powerful as a bamboo, and Cai Jing's traitors just kept avoiding the enemy. If you don't In this way, I am afraid that the southeast half has already fallen before the new army is established. In order to restore the collapse of the building, since Zhao Xingzhi spared no effort to make a name for himself, my little reputation, Chen Dong, is nothing."

Zhao Xingde was silent for a moment, and suggested: "Since this is the case, besides the Zhenjiao and Baoyi Army, you might as well give these volunteers the military title in the name of the state and county, so as to inspire the heart of protecting the hometown."

Chen Dong nodded, didn't speak, just looked up into the distance.This matter of donating a life was against his original intention, but he had to do so under the prohibition of the situation, so he really didn't want to think about it any more.If it wasn't for Zhao Xingde's repeated questioning, he didn't even want to mention it.

Zhao Xingde said again, "War horses can be transported from the middle of Sichuan, but I guess it will be summer when tens of thousands of war horses arrive. In midsummer, if the horses are not fed well, the horses are most likely to suffer from diseases. If there are not enough horses With the assistance of the cavalry, it is not so easy to defeat the Liao soldiers. It is best to start preparing the fodder for the horses, stables, etc. in the future. In addition to enclosing land and building horse farms for the horses, the prefectures and counties where the cavalry will station in the future must at least provide Thirty percent of the land is devoted to planting fodder."

"Growing grass, raising horses?" Chen Dong was stunned for a moment, then started to have a headache again, "What about the food?" He hadn't considered the feeding of war horses yet.After being reminded by Zhao Xingde, it occurred to the southern states and counties that raising horses on a large scale was not only an extremely heavy burden, but also many important ministers in this dynasty concluded that it was impossible.

"It's better to not have enough to eat than to be killed by Liao thieves. The minimum cavalry must be maintained." Zhao Xingde said, "If we don't do this, it is tantamount to 'suicide'. I heard that there are already many soldiers in Hebei and Henan. Grass." He sighed.

Zhao Xingde originally thought that it was impossible to raise horses in the south, but after so many years of military service, he has visited many places, and there is no place where it is impossible to raise horses.If you think about it carefully, it's just that the court ministers don't understand horse politics at all, and the states and counties below are blindly coping with evasion.Distributing war horses to households to raise them is a practice that is not worth the candle.Over time, the three became tigers, and many people actually thought that Song Jing really couldn't raise horses.For the people of Song Dynasty, after careful calculation, raising horses is really not cost-effective.The cost of maintaining cavalry is prohibitively high.However, if there is not enough cavalry to fight in this era, many tactical options will be lost out of thin air.No matter how clear the detailed accounts are, it can't be more than the price of ruining the country and destroying the family.