The Jagged Empire of Daqin

Zheng Leduo's face was pale, his hands trembled uncontrollably, and Zheng Fei's eyes were also dull for a while.

The Great Qin Emperor is really ruthless!

20 prisoners of war are killed as soon as they say, how can there be such a cruel king in the world.

Seeing that the Zhengs and his sons were being bluffed, Yang Zhong laughed inwardly, and immediately said pretendingly: "But as long as General Zheng cooperates with this general, this general will have a reason not to kill the prisoners of war!"

"Let us surrender to Qin and serve Qin, right?" Zheng Ledu lowered his head and muttered to himself with a desolate expression, and immediately guessed what Yang Zhong meant.

Yang Zhong nodded, "That's right, I, Da Qin, never kill meritorious soldiers, just like the Qin Shu army, they will also withdraw from the Shu territory with the Qin army this time, and everyone will be rewarded by the Da Qin court!"

"As long as General Zheng leads the army to plunder the food and grass in the Shu territory for our Qin army, and collect enough 500 million shi of grain, I will release 20 prisoners of war and you two generals as a credit to Qin, and my Qin army will retreat. This is the only way to save you!"

"General Zheng needs to understand that this general really doesn't want to kill prisoners. Killing prisoners is a humiliation for the general. I don't want to bear this great humiliation. I ask General Zheng to do it!"

Zheng Leduo smiled wryly, "It's really a poisonous plan. As long as I lead my troops to plunder the food and grass in our Shu territory, the Great Shu court will definitely be furious and become a traitor in the eyes of the Great Shu court. When the Qin army releases our prisoners of war, we will also They will not be accommodated by the Great Shu Court, and by then, our 20 prisoners of war will be rootless, and may even conflict with the Great Shu Court!"

"You Qin people are really not a fuel-efficient lamp. You are going to leave, and you will make a mess in Dashu. I really admire this point!"

Yang Wu couldn't help but interjected: "It depends on whether you Shu emperors and ministers trust you. If you trust you, you can explain this crisis."

PS: "Ask for a recommendation ticket, ask for a full order, ask for a reward, ask for a monthly pass, and ask for four daily!"

Chapter 1017

Zheng Leduo was silent for a long time. During his silence, Zheng Fei, Yang Zhong, and Yang Wu didn't say a word, quietly waiting for Zheng Leduo's response. After about a stick of incense, Zheng Leduo finally came from Struggling out of hesitation!

"The general agreed to General Yang's conditions and was willing to collect 500 million shi of food for the Qin army, but General Yang must also keep his promise. Once the food is collected, all the prisoners of war will be released!"

In the face of the imperial court and the lives of 20 soldiers, Zheng Leduo chose the latter. Perhaps, he believed that the imperial court would give him justice, and he believed that the imperial court would believe him.

"How long will it take?" Yang Zhong asked quickly.

Zheng Le exhorted: "One month!"

"One month?" Yang Zhong and Yang Wu couldn't help being surprised, 500 million shi of grain was not a small amount, and it was estimated that the Shu court would not be able to get it out, but Zheng Leduo actually said that it only took one month to collect 500 million shi of grain.

Could it be that there is a huge granary nearby?

"I've talked about it for a month, so it only takes one month. As for how to get it from me, I don't need to worry about General Yang!" Zheng Leduo said expressionlessly.

Hearing this answer, Yang Zhong nodded and stopped asking any further questions. Anyway, the Qin army who conquered Shu didn't really need food. After defeating the Shu army several times in a row, the Qin army had seized more than three million shi of grain, plus his own Brought from Qin, the food is abundant.

"Since General Zheng said so, I will not bother you anymore. I will give you [-] prisoners of war. Is [-] prisoners of war enough?" Yang Zhong said calmly.

"Enough!" Zheng Ledu nodded back.

Yang Zhong got up from the chair, looked at the crowd with a smile and said: "Okay, then this matter is settled, Yang Wu, take the two generals down to rest, and then go to count the soldiers and horses!"

"Obey!" Yang Wu replied with a respectful expression!

Zheng Fei and Zheng Leduo's father and son lowered their heads in dejection. The father and son never imagined that they would be used by Qin one day. This use is still being used. should come down.

Qin Jun's move was a conspiracy.

There is no solution to the conspiracy!

After a period of time, Zheng and his son were taken down by Yang Wu to rest, and then according to Yang Zhong's order, they went to the prisoner-of-war camp to select [-] prisoners of war as the grain-plundering army. Used by the grain army.

noon!

After three hours of rest, Zheng and his son recovered to their peak condition, and after recovering, they went to the Liaoliang Army barracks under the leadership of Yang Wu.

After Yang Wu brought Zheng's father and son into the Looting Army barracks, he left directly without interfering in the internal military affairs of the Looting Army, which showed that the Qin Army trusted Zheng and his son.

As soon as Zheng's father and son entered the barracks, they saw the soldiers of the Shu army eating lunch around the fire. The Qin army gave the soldiers of the Shu army a lot of preferential treatment. They had meat and vegetables, and they were full of food. Eat well last time.

When the generals and soldiers of the Shu army saw Zheng and his son, they all looked sideways, with some doubts in their eyes. They didn't understand what kind of deal the general had made with the Qin army, so that the Qin army treated them favorably.

"I have seen the General!"

"Meet the parachutist!"

"General!"

At this moment, the three captains of the Shu army rushed over to salute and pay respects. Zheng Ledu raised his hand falsely, signaling to flatten his body, and then said expressionlessly: "After dinner, we will gather at the school grounds. We will have something to say!"

The three captains looked at each other in dismay, and then they all bent down and said in unison: "Follow orders!"

When the order to gather in the school field was handed down, the soldiers of the Shu army couldn't help speeding up their eating speed. In less than half a stick of incense, the [-] soldiers of the whole army quickly resolved their stomach problems, and then gathered in the school field.

After about an incense stick of time, ten thousand soldiers of the Shu army were scattered in the school grounds. Zheng Leduo stepped onto the one-foot-high general platform, looking down at the ten thousand soldiers below the stage condescendingly, watching these young soldiers Face, Zheng Leduo couldn't help feeling ashamed.

"Everyone, I know that you have many questions in your mind. For example, why did Qin Jun return the weapons to you, and why did he treat you with good meat and vegetables? I will answer you one by one now. Will withdraw from the territory of the Great Shu Dynasty!"

"what!"

"Qin army is going to withdraw?"

"what's going on?"

"Great, finally we can stop fighting!"

Before Zheng Leduo could finish his words, the soldiers in the audience were in an uproar, and the whole barracks became extremely noisy in an instant.

All the soldiers of the Shu army looked excited, as if seeing the day when they would go home and reunite with their relatives.

"Silence, let the general finish!" Zheng Fei, who was in the audience, shouted loudly, using his inner strength.

After the words fell, the Shu army officers and men who were discussing all closed their mouths, pricked up their ears and continued to listen. Zheng Ledu took a deep breath and continued: "Unfortunately, Emperor Qin wanted to kill the prisoners in order to damage the vitality of our great Shu. What does it mean to be captured? It means that my 20 Dashu soldiers will be slaughtered by the Qin army!"

"There will be 20 households in Dashu who will lose their fathers and sons. This will save the lives of 20 soldiers. We have negotiated with General Qin. According to the cooperation, we only need to plunder 500 million shi of grain for Qin. General Qin will use our meritorious service Don’t kill prisoners, and let us go home!”

"So for the next time, I will temporarily lead you to plunder food for Qin. During this period, no matter what insults you receive, I will endure it. As long as you endure it, we will be free!"

After listening to Zheng Leduo's words, the smiles on the faces of the Shu army officers and soldiers suddenly froze.

Work for the Qin people?

The people of Qin are enemies. In that case, don't they want to serve the enemy?And he had to help the enemy plunder his family's food!

For the soldiers of the Shu army who were full of hatred for Qin, this incident was undoubtedly a bolt from the blue, and their mentality exploded.

"If we do this, will the imperial court blame us?" A soldier in the audience shouted with worry on his face.

His words expressed the aspirations of all the soldiers present, and for a moment, all the soldiers' eyes were fixed on Zheng Leduo.

"You don't have to worry about this matter, the court will blame it, and I will bear it alone!" Zheng Ledu replied solemnly.

Hearing this sentence, the hearts of all the soldiers of the Shu army quickly stabilized, and they no longer worried about the court's blame.

In this way, Zheng Leduo stabilized the morale of the [-] grain looting army...

On the next day, the first day of the first lunar month in the 29th year of Shengqin!

Zheng Leduo and Zheng Fei led [-] grain plundering troops out of the camp to plunder the grain. Du Xiao could understand what he was doing.

PS: "The weather is cold, everyone should keep warm, don't catch a cold, don't ask for grace or temperature, otherwise it's just asking for trouble, and the author hopes everyone will support me!"

Chapter 1018 Yang Xiao sits in the Great Qin Dynasty Hall

Some people may ask, why not lead the 50 Shu army to attack the Qin army camp and rescue the remaining prisoners of war; None of them are opponents of the Qin army, let alone a frontal war.

Maybe some people will ask why Zheng Fei was not allowed to kill the three Yang brothers and behead them; in fact, Zheng Fei and Zheng Le also thought about this matter, but referring to the Qin Wei War, they immediately dismissed this idea. The battle was because General Wei beheaded Qin General Yang Hu, which caused the Qin army to be furious, reversed the situation, and won the first expeditionary war of the Great Qin Dynasty.

The purpose of beheading is to hit the morale of the enemy army. If the goal cannot be achieved, but the morale of the opponent is aroused instead, then naturally they will not be beheaded foolishly.

.....

At the same time, the Great Qin Dynasty, Beizhou, Shangyang County, Xianyang Imperial Capital, Imperial Palace, and Qilin Hall!

In the Qilin Hall, all the officials of the Great Qin Dynasty were dressed in black court clothes, and they stood meticulously on both sides of the hall. There were many civil servants in the queue, but the military officials were empty. There was a phoenix chair next to the dragon chair on the high platform. Empress Yang Xiao of the Great Qin Dynasty was sitting in a black phoenix robe. On the phoenix chair, a pair of red phoenix eyes exuded majesty and looked down on the courtiers under the stage.

The Great Qin Emperor Ying Chang was not here, so Yang Xiao, as the empress, naturally had to come forward to participate in the court council.

Jia Luo, Minister of the Household Department, stepped out of the queue, bowed to Yang Xiao with a respectful expression, and saluted, "Report to the empress, I have something to say!"

"Zoo!" Yang Xiao responded calmly with a poker face.

Jia Luo straightened his back, and reported in a respectful tone: "I would like to report to the empress, as of December 28, 400th year of Shengqin, according to the repeated investigations by the Ministry of Households and local governments, the new population of the five prefectures in Daqin Pass has increased by 21 million. , 260 people were born, aged, sick and died, and the three prefectures outside the customs have a new population of 15 million, 620 born, old, sick and died, and Daqin has a total increase of [-] million for the whole year!"

"Today, the population of Daqin Pass has reached 550 million, of which Beizhou has a population of 120 million, Zhongzhou has a population of 1000 million, Dongzhou has a population of 820 million, Fuzhou has a population of 370 million, and Wuzhou has a population of 240 million! "

"The total population of the three prefectures outside the Daqin Pass reached 540 million, of which Guzhou accounted for 520 million, Yuanzhou accounted for 5 million, and Ningzhou accounted for 520 million. The total population inside and outside the Daqin Pass is about 5000 million. !"

Hearing this, many ministers showed knowing smiles on their faces.

With a population of 5000 million, the countries tied together are not as large as the Great Qin. The Great Qin is the most powerful country in the world, and it has also been the supreme power since ancient times.

Yang Xiao said at this time: "The population growth last year, I have also read it. If I remember correctly, the population growth inside the customs this year is less than last year, and the population growth outside the customs this year is higher than last year. This is not the reason for your majesty to launch an all-out war. ?”

Zuo Prime Minister Yang Ze stood up and wrote an editorial salute and said: "The empress is wise. The reason why the population growth in the pass this year is less than last year is that your majesty launched a full-scale war. This time, when our Great Qin launched a full-scale war, most of them recruited soldiers from the pass to send Going to the battlefield, so the fertility is reduced!"

"Not only is the fertility declining, but also the number of men working in the fields has dropped significantly. Fortunately, our Qin people do not distinguish between men and women in farming. Men fight on the front lines, while women work at home. In addition, this year's new rice has a bumper harvest. On the one hand, there is an absolute guarantee!"

As soon as Yang Xiao heard the words 'new rice seeds', his eyes lit up immediately, and he looked at Jia Luo expectantly and asked, "Jia Aiqing, how is the growth of our Daqin fertile land this year? What about the grain tax?"

Jia Luo replied with a happy face: "Empress, the amount of new fertile land in Daqin this year is not impressive, only 1000 million mu, which is 500 million mu less than last year's increase, but it also allows the total fertile land in Daqin to break through 8000 Two million acres!"

"What's even more exciting than this is that this year, our dynasty has collected a total of 3000 million shi in grain tax, which is the highest in history!"

This year, God will not give face, and there will be no bumper harvest. If there is a bumper harvest, [-] million shi of grain can be harvested.

"congratulations!"

"Happy together!"

All the ministers congratulated each other with blushing faces, all of them were happy for Daqin's achievements today.

Yang Xiao also said with a gratified smile: "Da Qin has this harvest, and Da Qin has such ministers, etc., and I am very pleased to live up to His Majesty who is fighting and killing the enemy at the front line!"

"Your Majesty, Daqin, and Empress Dowager must be worthy of your majesty!" All the ministers bent down and shouted together.

At the end of the salute, Jia Luo, Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs, continued to write an editorial salute to report: "I would like to report to the empress, the fiscal revenue of Shengqin 28 years has declined again, the salt tax is 8000 two million taels of silver, and the commercial tax is 6000 million. 1000 million taels of silver, the tariff is zero, and the three states outside the customs have made a profit of 2000 million taels of silver for the dynasty through the sale of cattle, sheep and horses.

"According to the statistics above, the total fiscal revenue of Shengqin in 28 years is: 7000 million taels of silver and 3000 million shi of grain. Adding this year's fiscal revenue, the existing treasury of the Great Qin State is 23 trillion taels Silver, 7506 million stones of grain!"

"What was the fiscal revenue last year?" Yang Xiao asked!

"Last year's total fiscal revenue was 4000 million taels of silver. This year's total fiscal revenue is less. It is entirely because all the major gates are closed and tariffs cannot be collected. The tariffs were zero just now, which led to a sharp decline in this year's fiscal revenue!" Jarrow quickly replied.

Yang Xiao nodded, "I know!"

"By the way, have the Zhao royal family, Qi royal family, and Zhongshan royal family all arrived in Xianyang?" Yang Xiao suddenly remembered this matter.

Right Prime Minister Zhang Feizi took a step forward, bowed down respectfully and saluted, and replied: "They have arrived and settled down, and we will deal with them separately when His Majesty's commander returns to the court!"

"What should I do next?" Yang Xiao continued to ask.

She doesn't know much about these political affairs yet, so she doesn't know what the court will do next.

I only heard Zhang Feizi slowly explain: "The imperial court is going to send officials to the four regions of Zhao, Qi, Xia, and Zhongshan. A total of [-] officials will be dispatched. At the same time, food and reinforcements will be allocated according to the frontline battle situation."

"The court seems to have a budget, right? What's the budget this year?" Yang Xiao asked immediately.

Zhang Feizi took out a memorial from his arms and presented it respectfully with both hands. Xi Yang, who was standing next to Yang Xiao, immediately walked down the high platform. As a result, the memorial in Zhang Feizi's hand was presented to the imperial platform for Yang Xiao to preview.

Yang Xiao picked up the memorial and read it. The content of the memorial is as follows:

PS: "Please support, please support, please support!"

Chapter 1019 Incompetent Fury

[Shengqin's 29-year annual budget]

【兵部：军械部预算为一亿1000万两白银；军队预算为6000万两白银、三千500万石粮食；水师预算为一千500万两白银，150万石粮食；预备营预算为7000万两白银，一千600万石粮食；兵部日常开支预算100万两白银】

[Ministry of Rites: 20 taels of silver for daily expenses]

[Household Department: The three prefectures outside the customs need 5000 million shi of grain to maintain the survival of more than 500 million herdsmen. The annual expenditure of the government in various parts of Daqin and the budget for the salaries of local officials and court officials are 50 million taels of silver. The daily expenditure budget of the Household Department is [-] taels of silver]

[Ministry of Industry: Daily expenditure budget 30 taels of silver]

[Ministry of officials: daily expenditure budget of 30 taels of silver]

[Zhongshuyuan: The daily expenditure budget of schools in various places is 650 million taels of silver; the budget for the construction of schools in Qi, Xia, Zhao, and Zhongshan is 400 million taels of silver; the daily expenditure budget of Zhongshu Academy is 50 taels of silver]