Ming Dynasty man

Chapter 177 Recruitment
At the same time that the Jishi Army was making a big move, logistics supplies were also continuously transferred to the two counties of Quwo Yicheng.

For this reason, Li Jingzheng recruited a large number of civilian husbands. Li Jing told the common people very clearly that a large number of rogues will enter their living places. These rogues.

The ordinary people who had been looted by the rogues really hated the rogues. When they heard that the Jishi Army was going to fight against the rogues, they joined the ranks of the peasants one after another, and many even hoped to join Li Jing's army.For those who were of the right age, Li Jing never refused to come. Therefore, while recruiting a large number of civilian men, Li Jing also recruited tens of thousands of strong men to join the army.

For those who have just joined the army, Li Jing will not let them participate in the battle for the time being. Without training, they are not as good as those rogues. After all, many of them are deserters, and many rogues have killed people and seen blood.

You must know that soldiers who have killed people are absolutely different from those who have not. A big reason why Cao Wenzhao's troops are so good at fighting is that these soldiers have killed people, and they have killed many people.Fighting and killing people is already commonplace for Cao Wenzhao's soldiers. These soldiers have long regarded life and death as nothing.

There is no reason why the rogues would not lose in a battle with such an army.

The soldiers recruited by Li Jinggang have not even been trained, not to mention killing people. Even if Han Xin comes, it is impossible to defeat the rogues. Let them go to the battlefield, and the possibility of causing chaos may be greater. Send them out to fight now, Li Jing is not so confused.

……

The military camp outside Taigu City.

Cao Wenzhao saw Li Jing's messenger again.

After briefly reading the letter, Cao Wenzhao shook his head slightly.

This letter didn't mention anything serious. The whole article was congratulating him on his recent victories and eliminated several bandits. The officials haven't come yet, I hope Cao Wenzhao can rush them.

Cao Wenzhao believed that Li Jing would never be idle and be polite to him. Although Cao Wenzhao led the army outside, he still heard a lot about what happened in the counties that Li Jing occupied. It is clear how busy Li Jing should be now.He has no friendship with Li Jing, so how could Li Jing write such a letter to him in his busy schedule?

Judging from his experience in dealing with Li Jing last time, Li Jing must have another important matter to ask for his help this time.

After thinking about it, Cao Wenzhao picked up Li Jing's letter, read it again carefully, and read it again after a while.

Seeing Cao Wenzhao's actions, Cao Bianjiao asked curiously: "Uncle, what did that Li Jingxin say? Why did you read it over and over again!"

Cao Wenzhao waved his hands and paced back and forth in the tent with his hands behind his back. After a long time, Cao Wenzhao stopped walking and suddenly laughed.

"Uncle, what's going on?" Cao Bianjiao asked anxiously.

"Hehe, Bianjiao, take a look and see if you can see what Li Jing is thinking?" Cao Wenzhao smiled and handed the letter to Cao Bianjiao.

Cao Bianjiao took the letter in doubt and read it carefully.

After reading it, Cao Bianjiao scratched his head and said, "This letter is all nonsense. Don't we know more about the battles we fought than him? Why did you use him to write a letter to tell us? Just the last sentence is a bit serious. Son."

Cao Wenzhao shook his head, sighed, and said, "Bianjiao, Li Jing of the Jishi Army is a powerful man, you can't underestimate him, this letter seems to be all nonsense, but it's not, he is treating me Said that with our strength, the bandits cannot be wiped out at all, as for the last sentence, it actually tells us that he will not fight against us."

Cao Bianjiao frowned and said, "Then it's over if he just tells you? Why bother?"

Cao Wenzhao shook his head and said, "You think he's long-winded, but he's actually not at all long-winded. Li Jing's handling of things is actually very clever."

Cao Wenzhao took the letter from his nephew and said tremblingly: "Li Jing wrote this letter to me, and another meaning revealed is that he wants to help us fight against bandits, and hopes that I can cooperate with him. The cleverness of this letter The point is, no matter whether I agree or not, I will not hurt Li Jing. If I disagree, then send the courier back directly. If I agree, then ask the courier, what he wants me to do, and the courier will tell me. "

Cao Bianjiao pondered for a while and shook his head, but he still didn't understand that this letter full of nonsense could hide so many meanings.

But Cao Bianjiao knew that he didn't need to understand, as long as Cao Wenzhao could understand, he only needed to know what his uncle's plan was.

"Does uncle mean to agree or refuse?" Cao Bianjiao asked.

Cao Wenzhao shook his head, sighed, and said, "Bianjiao, let me ask you, how many rogues can we eliminate since we entered Shaanxi to eliminate rogues?"

Cao Bianjiao thought for a while and said, "I'm afraid there will be [-] if not [-]."

Cao Wenzhao nodded and said: "Yes, there are [-] if not [-]! But how many rogues are there now? There are more and more of them, and many of them escaped from the frontier army to join the rogues' team. In addition, many rebel leaders have been killed by us, but they got out of nowhere (many rogue leaders had the same nickname at the time). It can be said that they can be killed endlessly! The last time Li Jing told me that we can't kill the rogues, I didn't believe it at all at the time, but I started to think about it in the past two months, why do you think so many people came out to be rogues?"

"The rogues are because they can't eat anymore, otherwise, who would rebel!" Cao Bianjiao said.

Cao Wenzhao sighed and said, "That's right, the common people rebelled when they couldn't eat. It's a very simple truth, everyone understands it, but why are there so many people who can't eat? Is it because of the drought?

There is a severe drought here in Shaanxi, but there is no drought in the grain-producing places in the south. Why doesn't the imperial court adjust grain to relieve the disaster?Just because it is difficult to transport food and the cost is too high, so people would rather rebel than provide disaster relief?

Having moved to so many places, I figured out that the imperial court didn't want to provide disaster relief, but that they had no money to provide disaster relief.

In addition, it is not that the imperial court did not provide disaster relief. In the past two years, the imperial court has allocated some food for disaster relief. However, before this batch of food was available, half of the food was intercepted by the officials in the court. When it arrived, the officials below would intercept some , Three cuts and two cuts, when the food for disaster relief reaches the common people, [-]% of the food can be left with [-]%, even if those officials have a conscience.The rest of the disaster relief food and the common people simply can't eat enough, which means that the imperial government's disaster relief is useless.

And why are so many frontier soldiers not serving as soldiers but running to be bandits?Why did the frontier army mutiny at every turn?Because the imperial court had no money to pay the army, and the military pay was almost deducted. Without the army pay, the soldiers could not eat, and if they could not eat, they rebelled.As a result, there are more and more rogue bandits, and it is impossible to suppress them. "

Shaking his head, Cao Wenzhao continued: "After Li Jing occupied Lingchuan, I sent people to Lingchuan to investigate. Lingchuan is now well managed. You can't even imagine how he collects taxes. All the businesses are actually Taxes are paid on a monthly basis. Do you know what the tax rate is? It’s actually one tax per ten, and the tax rate for land is even more outrageous. It’s one tax per ten for less than [-] mu. The more land you have, the more taxes you pay. Three, I really don't know where he has the courage to set such a high tax. It's so strange that the common people don't rebel against him. In addition, the people in Lingchuan are actually using paper money now. Damn Yes, I thought about it and didn't understand how he did it."

"With such a high tax rate, paper money is still used, no wonder he has so much money." Cao Bianjiao said in surprise.

Cao Wenzhao nodded, then shook his head: "There must be some secrets that we don't know. If all the places in Daming can be like Lingchuan, I don't think there will be so many rebels. Then we Then you can free up your hands to deal with Donglu."

Cao Bianjiao nodded, he knew what Cao Wenzhao was thinking, Cao Wenzhao didn't want to fight any bandits, he wanted to train an elite army to wipe out the Eastern captives.

At the same time, he also understood what Cao Wenzhao meant, and he was ready to cooperate with Li Jing.

But this Li Jing's appetite is really too big. Last time, he paid 6 taels of silver and asked for four counties. I don't know what will happen this time.

But Cao Bianjiao never expected that Li Jing's conditions would be so outrageous. He actually asked Cao Wenzhao for all the land south of Pingyang Mansion and west of Zezhou. Not only Cao Bianjiao was surprised by this asking price, but even Cao Wenzhao was surprised Some can't accept it.

Fortunately, it's not that Li Jing didn't give benefits to Cao Wenzhao. Li Jing's benefit to Cao Wenzhao was to provide Cao Wenzhao with 20 taels of military salary every year.

In addition, Ji Shijun also provided Cao Wenzhao with an army of about [-] people.However, this army is not a subordinate of Cao Wenzhao. Their task is to cooperate with Cao Wenzhao in combat, and Cao Wenzhao also needs to provide two hundred horses for this centurion.

Hearing that Li Jing regarded a mere [-] soldiers as a gift to Cao Wenzhao, Cao Bianjiao was furious, and immediately prepared to turn against the messenger.

To say that Cao Wenzhao was calm in dealing with things, he knew that Li Jing would never do such a silly thing, and he dared to regard 100 people as a benefit, which means that these 100 people must not be ignored.

Cao Wenzhao even couldn't wait to see what the centurion looked like.

Cao Wenzhao agreed to Li Jing's conditions. Of course, it was definitely not the one hundred soldiers who moved Cao Wenzhao, but the 20 taels of military pay.

20 taels of silver is equal to 20% of the imperial court's tax. It is absolutely worthwhile to exchange the area south of Pingyang Mansion and west of Zezhou for [-] taels of silver each year, not to mention that Li Jing promised to pay the imperial court a piece of tax Not a lot.

This condition, not to mention Cao Wenzhao was tempted, even the ministers in the court would immediately agree to it.

Moreover, Li Jing didn't want to separatize the regime blatantly, but asked him to cooperate with Li Jing to drive the rogues into this area, and then occupy it in the name of exterminating the rogues.

As long as Li Jing doesn't raise the flag to rebel in this place, there won't be any problems.

(End of this chapter)