The Red Mansions

Chapter 257 Man is fish, I am knife, why rush?

Ningguo Mansion

In the flower hall in the front yard, the sound of justice and awe-inspiring clang resounded.

Jia Heng looked silent, looked at Che Zheng, and said sternly: "Che Tongzhi understands the righteousness, I am very pleased, now that the country is troubled, I am ordered by the emperor to oversee the army to suppress the bandits, some generals in Guoyong Battalion are Doing such insane things for one's own selfishness, people and gods are all angry, this official will definitely not allow this or that generation to run amok!"

"My lord, they took the risk out of fear precisely because they were worried about running out of money. Your lord discovered it. To tell you the truth, there are more than [-] generals in the brave battalion. In fact, there are only [-] registered soldiers, and half of them are old, weak and sick. Disabled, unusable, such as the Sijing camp, how can it be useful for military affairs!" Che Zheng said with emotion.

Listening to the righteous words, Jia Heng's feeling of strangeness became stronger and stronger. After pondering for a while, he asked:
"Che Tongzhi has been in the Guoyong camp for so long, why didn't he speak up when he saw the shortcomings of the military system?"

Che Zheng sighed, and said: "The lower officials can't support themselves, and they don't like to speculate and try to make money. They can only be alone."

Jia Heng smiled and said: "It's hard to support a single tree? I can't see the truth. I went to the Ministry of War the day before yesterday. Why did I see Liu Tongzhi from the former military governor's mansion and recommend you to go out of the city to suppress the bandits?"

Che Zheng's complexion changed suddenly, and he explained: "The lower official also saw that the bandits in the Sanfu area of ​​the capital were raging and disturbing the place. I really couldn't see it, so I went to the former military governor's mansion to invite Ying."

Jia Heng's face was pale, noncommittal.

Just as Che Zheng was thinking about the words to explain, suddenly under the eaves, a servant stood still and said: "Master, there is a person outside who claims to be a military officer of the Beijing camp, handing over a letter of worship, begging to see you."

Jia Heng raised his eyes, got up and walked to the door, took the greeting card, looked down at the name on it, and the corners of his mouth twitched.

Then he turned his head to look at Che Zheng, who looked frightened, smiled and said, "Tongzhi Che, you might as well go to the back hall to avoid it for a while, please don't come out unless the official calls you."

Che Zheng's heart was filled with astonishment, and upon hearing the words, he should be so.

As Jia Heng said, he turned his head to look at Jiao Da under the eaves, and said, "Housekeeper Jiao, take Che Tongzhi to the back hall."

Jiao Da responded, entered the hall, looked at Che Zheng, and said with a smile: "Please, Mr. Che."

Che Zheng nodded, didn't say much, and followed Jiao Da into the inner hall to take refuge temporarily.

Not long after, the servant brought a middle-aged military officer from Yimen along the Chaoshou verandah. As soon as he entered the hall, the visitor cupped his fists and said, "I've seen Mr. Jia."

It's not someone else, it's the governor who is responsible for Lu He.

Jia Heng looked calm, and said, "Why did Mr. Lu visit at night?"

Pointing to the chair beside him, he said, "Sit."

Lu He's complexion changed, and he said anxiously: "How dare you sit in front of your lord, I have a very urgent matter, report it to your lord!"

Jia Heng frowned, and asked, "Oh? Something urgent?"

"My lord, the commander-in-chief knows that Master Che Zheng Che and Xia Mu and the others are going to incite the generals to mutiny when the soldiers are called tomorrow, so as to coerce you and prevent them from going out of the city to suppress the bandits!" Lu He said with a serious expression and lowered his voice.

When Jia Heng heard the words, he suddenly stood up from the chair and said angrily, "What? There is such a thing?"

Seeing Jia Heng's reaction, Lu He was convinced, and said anxiously: "Master Jia, they have instructed some of the soldiers below who do not want to leave the capital to fight, and plan to make noise and make trouble tomorrow. Originally, the capital camp has owed money for three months. The brothers below will There are quite a few complaints here, as long as they pick up troubles below, if they say that even the emperor is not short of hungry soldiers, it will definitely lead to chaos, my lord must guard against it."

Hearing this, Jia Heng's face was full of murderous looks, and he said in a deep voice: "They are so courageous! Disobeying military orders, instigating soldiers to rebellion, is it not good for you to deceive me with the Tianzi sword?"

And when Lu He was narrating in the front hall, Che Zheng, who was separated by a wall, was already frightened and angry when he heard Lu He's words, his face was ashen, his fists were clenched, and he secretly cursed the straight girl!

As long as he listened to this guy's words and didn't report the news, he would become someone's scapegoat right now!

Lu He cupped his hands and said, "My lord, there is still a humble job to report back."

Jia Heng looked up at Lu He and asked, "Is there anything else?"

Lu He looked hesitant, his lips moved, and he said slowly: "Lord Jia, when Governor Niu was in charge, the general's military discipline was corrupt, he ate a lot of money, and was greedy for ink every year. He had no choice but to live with the light and endure the humiliation. At that time, Niu Dudu alone ate [-] empty quotas, and Xia Qian was divided into [-] yuan. His subordinates had no choice but to succumb, so they had to share [-] yuan, and Che Tongzhi received [-] yuan. Among the five generals, three generals Each takes [-]. Among the eight guerrillas now, except Brother Cai, four guerrillas each take [-]. This is already a bad habit in the Beijing camp! I can't live in the middle school, and my colleagues are running on me, and I can't do my job for a long time. Please forgive me, my lord."

At the same time as selling all the generals of the Guoyong Camp, he knelt down and took out an envelope from the armhole.

"This is some savings of the subordinate officials. The banknotes add up to about 3 taels. If the soldiers make trouble tomorrow, you can use them to pay for the military." Lu He said with a bitter face, "I know that I have committed a crime. Lord Jia, please give the lowly official the opportunity to take the blame and make meritorious service, and the lowly official is willing to die for the suppression of the bandits."

In fact, there are still some concealments, such as the same one thousand and five, some of which are the salaries of small banners, general banner officials, and hundreds of households, how can they all be big soldiers.

In addition, some old, weak, sick and disabled soldiers in the Beijing camp who do not come to duty are paid at half the rate. There is also the matter of military rations purchased over the years, shoddy, and wasted fire.

In addition, he has helped some generals to fill in the vacancies these years, and sent money to the Ministry of War. Can he be no good at it?
The top priority now is to cut off the tail to survive and keep the position. I heard that the person in front of me has a lot of face with the military officials.

Jia Heng looked at Lu He with a deep meaning, and chuckled lightly and said, "It's hard for Lu Qian to be so clear about righteousness."

This is to see the power of the Emperor Sword in his hand, and wants to take out some silver to make atonement.

While talking to himself, he heard a servant's voice from outside, saying: "Master, there is a man outside who claims to be a general of the Guoyong Camp, please see him."

"Oh? It's a coincidence today. The generals of the Guoyong Camp are almost ready." Jia Heng said lightly, looked at Lu He, and said, "Master Lu, put away the money first, and go to the inner hall to talk about it. What you see, what you hear, don’t say anything.”

Suspicion flashed across Lu He's mind, and he cupped his hands and said, "Thank you, my lord."

Under the guidance of a servant again, he entered the inner hall, but as soon as he entered the back hall, when he saw Che Zheng sitting on the chair, his face changed drastically, and he said in surprise, "You...how are you here? "

Che Zheng snorted coldly, his face was gloomy, and he looked at Lu He with almost fiery eyes, "Scumbag!"

Lu He's complexion changed, he was gloomy and uncertain, and with a smirk, he said, "Old Che, you and I are each other."

"You!" Che Zheng's face was filled with anger.

Jiao Da coughed lightly and said, "Two adults, please be quiet."

And in the front hall, not long after, a middle-aged general with a burly figure and piercing eyes stepped into the hall, clasped his fists and said, "General Shan Ming of the Jia family has met General Yunhui, Uncle Heng."

As he spoke, he knelt down on one knee.

Jia Heng's eyes moved slightly, but this time he was really surprised. He sized up the middle-aged general and said with a frown, "Get up first, why do you call yourself a general of my Jia family?"

It is said that the Jia family has been in charge of the Beijing camp for decades, and there is still a shadow in the army. He hadn't seen any of them before, and he wondered if all of them were lost in the Liaodong battle.

Now, an old member of the Jia family popped up.

But Shan Ming didn't get up, raised his head, and reported back: "In the 28th year of Longzhi, Xiaguan first entered the Beijing camp as a small banner officer. Thousand households, thousands of households, guerrillas, and generals have been involved for more than [-] years, and I am overjoyed to hear that Uncle Zhiheng has been promoted to the capital camp again."

It's not that there are no smart people. Following Jia Heng's call to Guoyongying to suppress the bandits in Sanfu, some veterans of the Beijing Camp began to become more active.

Because, this is not the same as leading a division to help suppress the Sanhe Gang before. This time, Jia Heng led an army to leave Beijing alone. This kind of political signal can almost indicate that the palace will reuse Ningguo Mansion as the spokesperson.

Of course, the original military spokesperson of the Jia family was still Wang Ziteng.

If Jia Heng successfully takes over the Guoyong Camp, it may affect some people's attitudes.

As for Shan Ming, he was also waiting and watching, but now he obviously can't continue to wait and see.

What those people planned, listen to Kazakhs...

Jia Heng sighed, and said: "Unexpectedly, he is a general of my Jia family. I don't know how many people still know my Jia family in the capital camp?"

Shan Ming said with emotion: "In the twelve battalions, most of the Qianhu and deputy Qianhu have been drawn from local elites in the past ten years. Let alone, nearly half of the participating generals and guerrillas at the age of the last general are representatives. Duke Hua's generals were all delighted to hear that Ningguo had produced a handsome young man like Yun Hui."

Jia Heng was noncommittal, secretly thinking, how many of these people are available?

I'm afraid that most of them have become corrupted, otherwise we wouldn't just sit back and watch the Beijing camp degenerate. Of course, this is also caused by the general environment.

As far as he knows, the collapse of the Beijing camp's combat power is actually a matter of the past 20 years.

At that time, the Taishang Emperor, in order to weaken Jia's family, took advantage of the death of Duke Daihua, and dispatched elite soldiers and generals from the capital, as well as generals from Zhao and Zhou Wang's troops.

For example, many of Che Zheng and Lu He are generals from the local capital system.

This move undoubtedly weakened the combat power of the Beijing camp to a certain extent. Coupled with the change of the throne in the early years of Chongping, the subsequent purge of King Zhao and the prince's troops in the Beijing camp, and the subsequent double-day suspension, the Beijing camp was full of internal strife. .

There is also a prosperous place close to Shenjing, a century-old state, a culture of leisure and martial arts, all kinds of reasons have led to the corruption of Beijing.

"Actually, the Son of Heaven still holds a forbidden army in the hands of the emperor. They are the four guards of Tengxiang. There are more than 2 people. They have enough soldiers and wages. In addition, Dai Quan's internal guards and secret spies. There should be about 5 to [-] people? Use them to guard the imperial city and defend the imperial power. This is the last line of defense of the Chen Han royal family and cannot be tampered with."

For more than a month, he also has some understanding of the emperor's hole cards.

Of course, these imperial guards cannot be dispatched, so the Beijing camp still needs to be rectified.

Suppressing the thoughts in his heart, Jia Heng looked at Shan Ming, and said indifferently: "General Shan, you came to the mansion for something."

"The last general really has an urgent matter to report to you. Guoyong's battalion commander-in-chief knows Che Zheng, the commander-in-chief is Xia Mu and Lu He, and the guerrilla general Yu Zhenglun. These four want to stir up chaos in the army tomorrow and prevent Yunhui from leading the army. The last general Upon learning of this matter, report it immediately, and ask Yun Hui to pay attention to it."

Jia Heng frowned and said, "Why did they do that?"

Shan Ming said: "Tomorrow when the whole army goes out for an expedition, it is necessary to recruit troops. I am worried that Yun Hui will find out that there are not enough soldiers, and he will be charged with crimes."

Jia Heng's face was gloomy, and he said in a cold voice: "Eat empty quota, drink soldier's blood, no one from the Ministry of War to check?"

Shan Ming said: "Yun Hui doesn't know something, the officials in the Ministry of War, as long as they send money, they won't check it carefully. If the hall officials order troops, they will borrow some from other battalions to make up temporarily."

Jia Heng said in a deep voice: "The [-]th Regiment of the Beijing Camp now has more than [-] troops. As far as the Guoyong Camp is concerned, it is nearly [-]% to [-]% empty. In addition to some old, weak, sick and disabled, there are still [-] people who can fight. Eighty thousand?"

Because the last time the Guoyong Battalion mobilized 8 troops to assist in the defense of Dongcheng, multiplied by twelve, it is estimated that there will be 8 troops, and most of these [-] troops will also collapse.

shocking!

Shan Ming heard that the young man's tone was wrong, and quickly said: "Not only us, but also the frontier army has been short-sighted. This is a long-standing malpractice in the army."

Jia Heng frowned and said, "When Duke Daihua was around, did this happen?"

Shan Ming paused, and said: "At that time, although the Beijing camp did not dare to say that it had enough soldiers and salaries, [-]% of them were on the register, and there was a small exercise every three days, and a big exercise every five days. Later, in the battle of Liaodong, tens of thousands of elites were lost. , and then gradually faded away.”

Jia Heng remained silent for a while, and said loudly: "Both generals of the Beijing camp come out, and general Shan Shen also gets up."

In the inner hall, Che and Lu, who were staring at each other with big eyes, stepped out of the inner hall with ugly expressions on their faces.

Shan Ming stood up in shock.

Jia Heng ordered: "Come here, invite Qu Qianhu."

Not long after, Qu Lang, who was wearing a flying fish suit, stepped over the threshold, entered the hall, and said with cupped hands, "My lord."

Seeing Jinyiwei Qianhu in flying fish suit coming, several people in the hall looked at each other, their hearts sank, and they all felt something bad.

Jia Heng looked at the night, and knew that no one would come to "inform" again, and said in a deep voice: "Send the order, immediately collect the net, and arrest Xia Mu and other criminals, so as not to cause them to rebel and cause chaos!"

"Yes, my lord."

As Qu Lang said, he turned around and told the Jin Yiwei who came with him to go.

Che Zheng and Lu He were frightened and rebelled, Lao Xia is over!

Obviously, people have long been on guard!

They knew that with Jinyi Mansion's pervasive intelligence capabilities, it probably couldn't be hidden.

Jia Heng cast a pair of stern eyes over the three people who were terrified or silent, and said in a deep voice: "Che Tongzhi, Lu Qianshi, how many vacancies you have eaten over the years, at least [-]% must be made up! The officials don't care about it, but my brave battalion needs enough soldiers and salaries. After suppressing the bandits, I will recruit refugees from Shandong and Henan in the Sanfu area to enrich the battalion. At that time, will you be safe and sound? The position in the battalion depends on how much effort you are willing to put into this battle, I now hold the Tianzi Sword, so I have the right to cut first and then play!"

It's better to do it than to do it.

Because, it is impossible for him to clean all the generals and schools of the Guoyong Battalion before going out, so there will be no war?
And there is a deeper consideration. Given the current atmosphere in the Beijing camp, if the cleaning methods are too harsh, once it is spread, it may lead to a real "mutiny".

Because the rabbit is dead and the fox is sad, everyone is in danger. In fact, even Cai Quan gave Lu He a gift for running an official.

Of course, in war, if one is both incompetent and greedy, then it goes without saying that the military method is just that.

There are no fools among these people. If there is a chance to go ashore, they will not take the risk, otherwise they will not inform them one after another, and just throw a carrot to hang.

As for how to deal with them in the end... People are fish and meat, and I am Daozu, why rush?

Hearing this, Che Zheng breathed a sigh of relief, cupped his hands and said, "The general will obey."

"I obey." Lu He's complexion changed, and he responded.

It's a bit of a heartache. I have to hand in [-]% of the empty quota these years?

Fortunately, the money left behind should not be a problem to enjoy his old age comfortably.

Shan Ming also surrendered.

(End of this chapter)