Lu Ming

Fortunately, Cao Zongbing knew the elegant meaning when he heard the string song. Seeing the Governor struggled to squeeze out a wharf and a warehouse, and the constipated expressions on the faces of the water affairs and grain supervisors present, he laughed: "No In this way, three piers and eight large warehouses, I can pay the rent here, and you don’t need to make it difficult.”

Chapter 417

Later generations often say: There is nothing that cannot be solved without money.This sentence is also valid in the seventeenth century: when Cao Zongbing stated that he could pay the rent, everything was not a problem.

Several mid-level officials who were deeply involved with the canal immediately stated that as long as they paid, a warehouse area not far from the old school field could be allocated.This warehouse area is well-equipped with docks and fences, which will definitely meet Cao Zongbing's needs.

Governor Qu, who was sitting at the top, nodded in satisfaction when he saw the problem was satisfactorily resolved, and announced that the warehouse would be temporarily allocated to Zongbing Cao.

This can't be blamed on the governor's incompetence.A low-level official like him usually doesn't intervene in the canal affairs that are complicated and involved behind the scenes.These "rules" of the canal, which have been well-developed for hundreds of years, have long been rooted in golden water, and they cannot be easily changed by him, a governor in charge of the army.

Besides, he didn't want to offend those middle-level officials for a southern general who he didn't know--these people were all behind the big forces who ate on the river, and the words "salt, grain, and grain" even the emperor heard It's going to be a headache, he really can't get on the table.

Now that the person surnamed Cao is willing to pay the money, then the problem is tantamount to a satisfactory solution and conflicts are avoided, so why not do it?

So Governor Qu happily announced the next topic: food supply.

As a result, the next topic started to be agitated again.

The reason for the torment is that when Cao Zongbing proposed to provide some food and grass, Kong Peng, who was in charge of the local military affairs in Tianjin, organized soldiers, horses, money and food, and the soldiers and roads, immediately stated: "Tianjin Wei only allocates food and grass for five days. Five days Afterwards, if your department has not finished resting, you might as well go to the market to buy grain...Anyway, General Cao has money."

From the very beginning, Kong Peng couldn't get used to this tough southern general.

The reason is very simple: when Qin Wang's soldiers and horses from other families passed by Tianjin, they always rushed to Jingyuan to participate in the big battle.However, Cao Zongbing was lucky. When he got off his horse, he actually put on a posture to live in Wei'an's house in Tianjin, which made Kong Chen intolerable.

What is involved here is the principle of who pays the bill.

The implication of Kong Peng's words is: Cao's army plans to stay in Tianjin for too long, which is beyond the reasonable range, and the expenses should not be paid in advance by this side.Because in theory, Cao Chuan's guest army is equivalent to being invited by the Ministry of War to go to the capital to help.Therefore, all expenses should be reimbursed by the main family, that is, the Ministry of War.

Since it is a guest army, it is time to go to the capital after a few days of rest.At most, Tianjin Wei is the same as other Qin Wangjun, providing a little food and fodder for passing by according to the rules, and it has fulfilled its duty.

And when Cao Zongbing heard Kong Peng's words, his face darkened.

In the plan of the traveler, this time going north, the early stage is to stay in Tianjin, wait and see the situation and wait for the bottom.Because of this, Zhang Dongdong and the others did not expect Tianjin to provide much supplies.

However, "only five days of food and grass, anyway, Cao Zongbing has money" is still a bit too much.

It's like rich people go to the unit to work.Rich people can take out their wages and ask everyone to spend them. This is a favor.But you can't simply not pay wages just because someone is rich, right?

So Zhang Dongdong was angry.Probably because the Surveillance No. had kindly not asked for food and grass before, which gave the silverfish the illusion.

"Money is not used to subsidize your yamen's deficit." Zhang Dongdong's face darkened, and he immediately turned his face: "Five days of food and grass? A joke! Which family's diligent soldiers and horses dare to only allocate five days of food and grass? Could it be that my southern soldiers are easy to deceive ?”

Kong Chen was a fourth-rank civil servant, so he naturally didn't care about the Deputy Commander-in-Chief of Lao Shizi who came from outside in front of him, so he immediately retorted: "Nanbing? There are too many Nanbing who went to the capital a few days ago, and I haven't seen any of them shrinking. I have to hide in the back road to rest. Hmph, if you are so afraid of being a slave, you might as well go back to Fujian, Tianjin Wei can't afford to support you."

"Dare to embezzle military supplies and help the Tartars. I will take part in this book. Can you resist?"

"Hehe, what a big hat. Cao Zongbing just go up to the book, and the next official will follow up here."

"Hehe, it's still a piece of hob meat. Then when the general is short of food, he can take it himself. I'll see how you take it."

... Zhang Dongdong, a man of culture, was originally sent by the organization to pretend to be Emperor Cao, but in the past two years, he has been in contact with the officials of the government every day, and he is in charge of the soldiers. With the halo of Wang Ba, once he plays horizontally, Qiu Ba will be full of taste.

"Bold, shut up!"

At the critical moment, Governor Qu finally reacted and stopped the two people from spamming each other in time.

To tell the truth, everyone, including the civil and military personnel in the hall, was dumbfounded: no one could have imagined that these two would blow up so quickly, and no one could have imagined that General Cao had such a temper and was speechless. How dare you be so rude to a fourth-rank civil servant.

"Now that the country is in crisis, you are all colleagues, and the imperial court is relying on it. How can you be so disrespectful? Look at what you are talking about!"

"I know I was wrong..."

Seeing that the boss was angry, Cao Zongbing and Kong Qian knew that they could not quarrel, so they had to salute and admit their mistakes.

After looking at the general soldier Wang Hong, Governor Qu couldn't help shaking his head: This general soldier Cao from Fujian is full of weirdness, and he is not easy to deal with. It seems that he still has to come forward to settle the lawsuit.

Thinking of this, the governor turned his head kindly and asked: "Pokong, how many soldiers and horses do you have under your command, and how much food do you want?"

After thinking about it, Cao Zongbing replied: "The last general brought [-] regular soldiers this time. I want to recruit [-] auxiliary soldiers locally, and I need to buy enough [-] horses."

Speaking of this, Cao Zongbing stretched out three fingers: "Forget it, I will suffer a little loss. The total is calculated as two battalions of soldiers, and the payment is 3000 taels. It will be settled at one time, and I will pay the rest myself."

The standard proposed by Zhang Dongdong is very simple: all people and horses add up to only one thousand soldiers, so if the per capita monthly salary is three taels of silver, it is 3000 taels.

……

Regarding the soldiers' food and pay in the Ming Dynasty, each emperor had different changes, so I won't go into details here.

In short, due to the large number of military households fleeing in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the quality dropped sharply, so the imperial court began to change the field army into a recruitment system.

Soldiers under the recruiting system are required to receive family money when they are recruited, and "monthly rations" when they are stationed, which is the basic salary.

What Cao Chuan and Tianjin officials are asking for today is the monthly salary of two battalions of soldiers: three taels per soldier.

In theory, three taels of silver is the standard monthly field salary for soldiers in the Chongzhen Dynasty.

The monthly salary of the Chongzhen Dynasty followed that of the Tianqi Dynasty.During this period of time, the Guanning iron cavalry stationed on the front line, not counting the cost of military horses, and the monthly salary of the soldiers is equivalent to two taels of silver.

As for those Qin Wangjun who came all the way from Yunnan, Guizhou, and Shaanxi and Gansu, the monthly salary standard is three taels of silver.

Of course, the above figures are only the standards made public by the imperial court.As for how much soldiers can get, it's hard to say, and it varies from place to place.

For example, the Guan Ning Army can basically get the full amount. As for other rear areas...the financial crisis in the late Ming Dynasty, the actual military pay is extremely low.The arrears of payment in the Ming Dynasty began in the 27th year of Wanli, and there is no way to count them.

This is also one of the reasons why the Ming army failed to wipe out Li Zicheng and Hou Jin: the defeat first started with finances.

As for Cao Zongbing's secondary salary this time, he opened his mouth according to the normal standard of King Qin's army. In theory, there is no problem, but it seems that he is at a disadvantage: if he really needs two thousand horses, it will cost more than soldiers.

"It's really shameless!" Kong Qian laughed angrily after hearing the story: "Two thousand horses are really bragging!"

At this time, Kong Peng had already identified this General Cao: he was a liar who ran the train with his mouth full, a garbage general who came to fight Qiufeng with only a few hundred soldiers.

And Cao Zongbing stopped talking to Master Kong at this time, but just kept his eye on the governor.

"Emmmm..." Mr. Qu stroked his beard at this moment, and began to think about it.

Unlike Kong Qian's case, Lao Qu had read Xiong Wencan's autographed letter just now, so he didn't think that the person surnamed Cao was here to fight the autumn wind.

However, he didn't think that what the surnamed Cao said just now was the truth—just kidding, it's nothing more than [-] auxiliary soldiers, how much money are [-] horses, and he just opened his mouth?Can these southern soldiers ride horses?

So Master Futai finally made a handful of mud: "Convert 2000 taels of silver into grain and rice, and give it all at once. How about Po Kongyi?"

After hearing this conclusion, Cao Zongbing immediately agreed—the quarrel was originally for "strengthening prestige". As for the little money, the Tianjin officials probably cared a lot, and the cross-travelers didn't pay much attention to it at all.

……

After an unpleasant meeting, everyone at the scene rushed out.Kong Qian was particularly upset about this, and after giving Cao Zongbing a hard look, he walked away in a huff.

But Zhang Dongdong stayed and exchanged some pleasantries with the two bosses, and made an appointment to wait two days to settle down, and then asked the boss to take a look on the boat, and then he left.

The next thing is very simple: the Beishang Fleet set sail again, after bypassing the Acropolis, it went west along the Haihe River, and turned into the Ziya River not far away, and then several battleships were beside the wooden pier outside the old school. Stopped along the river.

The other ten transport ships went to the warehouse on the other side of the river to unload.

At the same time, the hundreds of households sent by the guard's experience division were standing in front of the gate of the old school yard, watching a group of "beggars" get off the strange boat with dumbfounded eyes.

These people are dressed in gray and black, colorful and strange clothes, at first glance they look like beggars.However, after they approached, Baihu realized that the strange men were really elite soldiers: they were all big and round, holding black and bright strange blunderbuss, with a vigorous expression, and they were by no means ordinary soldiers.

After this group of "patterned soldiers" entered the old school grounds for inspection, the short-haired southern soldiers wearing green coats and holding long guns began to come down from the boat one after another, followed by the sailors wearing blue coats.

In short, according to the knowledge of hundreds of households, there is not a single soldier wearing a fat jacket of Ming Dynasty, and all those who got off the boat were weird people.

Chapter 418

In the evening, several carts walked slowly on the dirt road to the old school.On the leading car, a 27-[-] man with a short beard and a square face and flat eyebrows was leaning against the pile of sacks, with his hands in his sleeves, his head bowed and his neck curled up, enduring the cold wind from the north.

Lu Shui is a small official in the Bingbei Dao Yamen.In the morning, when Master Kong, the boss of the yamen, came back from the water village, he first scolded Qiu Ba in the hall, and then gave orders to his subordinates: send two thousand silver "grain and fodder" to the old school.

Hearing the word "grain and fodder", combined with the attitude of the boss before, the subordinates immediately understood.Then in the evening, the prepared "grain and fodder" was delivered by the little official Lu Shui.

After wandering for half an hour in the cold wind, Lu Shui, who was sitting on the shaft of the car, saw the dilapidated old school yard from afar.

However, what made him sit up in the cold wind were the sailboats parked in the nearby river.

Before this, a sailboat that attracted much attention appeared on the Haihe River from time to time, and now everyone is used to seeing it, and they will no longer watch it.But today, when Lu Shui saw a row of such tall and beautiful soft sailing boats at close range, he still couldn't help being amazed.

As the convoy continued to move forward, the little official's attention was diverted - he saw some people who should not be here.

Lu Shui knew most of these people, and they were all in charge of wealthy businessmen in the Dazhigu area.

These stewards, dressed in furs and accompanied by servants, are queuing up at the moment, waiting respectfully in front of the gate of the old school field, all of them holding name cards, it seems that they are all waiting to see you.

"Who has such a big face?" Lu Shui was shocked at this moment.You must know that these accountants are all people on the scene, and they deal with high-rollers and big businessmen who come and go from south to north on weekdays, and people like Lu Shui can't get along with them at all.But today, this group of people gathered in front of the old school field, which made it very difficult for the little official to understand.

Lu Shui, who was muttering in his heart, jumped out of the carriage the next moment: "We're at the door."

After seeing the convoy, two soldiers in green jackets in front of the gate of the old school field came over, holding firecrackers with daggers inserted in them: "What are you doing?"

"Send food and fodder."

"Wait."

While Lu Shui was waiting, he saw those who were in charge of the account room respectfully handing over the name cards to the two masters in front of the school gate.

"Zhe is a southerner?" Lu Shui, who has spent half his life in the commercial city of Tianjin, felt a little bit of taste at this moment: "Maybe some news has been missed in the past two days? No, I have to inquire about it when I go back. The surname is Cao!"

At this moment, accompanied by several green-coated soldiers, a middle-aged man in long robes and looking like a tent came out from the gate of the school grounds, followed by a group of civilian husbands.

After the middle-aged man came out, he had a brief acquaintance with Lu Shui, and ordered the package to be opened for inspection without further ado.So the sacks on several carts were unloaded.

"What's the total?" The middle-aged man, surnamed Bai, spoke idiomatic Mandarin, grabbed the grain in the sack and began to inspect it.

Although Lu Shui was a small official, he was a hereditary official in the Ming Dynasty yamen, and he was also a local snake in charge of military rations, with a humble and powerful position.So when he usually distributes grain and rice to Qiu Ba, it is very annoying.

However, the scene he saw at the gate of the camp just now made Lu Shui's attitude much better at the moment: "The total number of white tents is [-] dan, half of beans and wheat. Well, only half of them were shipped today, and tomorrow It needs to be transported again.”

After the white tent heard this, he didn't say a word. He first inspected the handful of black beans in his hand, and then took a look at the wheat in the sack.After checking them one by one like this, the tent patted the dust off his hands, and then checked the documents and receipts that Lu Shui handed over.

After reading the documents, he sneered and said to Lu Shui: "It's all two-year-old wheat, mixed with buckwheat. Not to mention the bran, black beans actually accounted for half of it. About Tianjin Wei's soldiers, Do you eat black beans every day?"

Speaking of this, the white tent laughed viciously: "It's a hard life for northerners? Hehe, in the land under my general's jurisdiction, bad rice and black beans are used to feed animals!"

Lu Shui couldn't help curling his lips in his heart: the southern barbarian is hypocritical.

Today, these soybeans and wheat are not only old grain, but also the wheat has not been peeled, and a lot of black beans have been sent, which is a bit humiliating in it.But why did he do this, Lu Shui thinks, Nan Bing must be a bit forced in his heart - your boss and my boss are arguing like that, and you still expect to eat white noodles?

However, Lu Shui did not take over the pot after all, but threw the pot out with a gentle attitude: "The total amount of these grains and wheat is quite a lot, enough for two thousand silver, but the grains are a bit old. As for the reason, I You are inferior, and you are just listening to it, do you think General Cao knows the reasons for coming here?"

"Huh, of course it is clear." The white tent sneered again: "Forget it, the horse feed of 2000 taels of silver is considered to be cleared. But if there is any deduction in the total, then don't blame my general's marching method!"

"Don't dare, ten is enough!" Lu Shui's heart trembled at this moment: Logically speaking, no matter which army or horse is given food and grass on weekdays, there is always a [-]% discount according to the rules.However, today's fodder, regardless of its quality, is sufficient in terms of the market price.

What does this mean?Lu Shui thought: Master Kong, don't you dare to go too far?

The next moment, Lu Shuifu, who had gone through everything he saw and heard today in his mind like lightning, made the most important action in his life.

I saw him arching his hands, with a dissatisfied expression on his face: "Oh, to be honest, Brother Bai, my lord has really gone too far. They are all soldiers who are going to battle, and they don't even have a good meal, alas!"

"Oh?" Hearing what Lu Shui said, the white tent raised his eyebrows with interest.

Lu Shui then smiled, and then stretched out two fingers: "I have two thousand catties of high-quality fine noodles, all of which are new wheat this year. If General Cao is interested, I would like to sell at [-]% of the market price. "

Hearing this, the white tent looked at Lu Shui with his hands behind his back, and then asked with a half-smile, "Maybe it's also the military supplies in the official treasury?"

"Hehe, Brother Bai is a sensible person." Lu Shui laughed dryly and then said, "Brother Bai please keep quiet about this matter. I have a low official position, and I only have two thousand catties to call."

"I will report this matter to my superiors." Bai Zhangfang's attitude softened a lot at this moment: "Well, I understand friend Lu's kindness, and we will get closer in the future."

"That's for sure, for sure!"

Lu Shui left the old school in this way, and used his accumulated authority in exchange for some illusory good intentions, and he didn't know whether he was gaining or losing.

But the problem was soon cleared up.After Lu Shui came home at night, he told his retired father about today's incident, and then the father and son went out to find someone.

The Lu family is an old aborigine in Acropolis, so it was quick to inquire about something.What's more, this matter has begun to spread. After all, so many big companies are taking action, and interested people are asking.

So that night, the Lu family's father and son figured out one thing: all the "pretty goods" that have been transited through Tianjin in recent years were all written by General Cao.

"Hahahaha." Lu Shui, who found out what happened, patted his legs and laughed loudly at home: "It turns out that the God of Wealth has arrived, no wonder, no wonder!"

Lu's father, who was over 50 years old, also clapped his hands aside: "Master Kong has hit the iron plate, you can't be messed up, tomorrow is a good time to curry favor with errands, our old Lu family may have a fortune!"

"I know, I know!"

……

Early the next morning, Lu Shui energetically organized his men to start loading the cars.On this trip, he not only packed all the soybeans and wheat that he pulled yesterday, but also packed two thousand catties of high-quality flour that he had worked so hard to replace little by little with moldy rice and rotten wheat, and transported them all to the old school yard.

He didn't want to wait until he got to the Ziya River to find that the early birds were everywhere.

Along the long river bank, the cargo ships at the end of the title are connected in a line, all of which are piled up with rice and grain.Along the river, there are not only grain boats, but also those transporting live pigs and sheep, cabbage and pickled vegetables...there are so many of them.

Lu Shui usually messed around in the grain piles, and he could tell at a glance whose cargo flags on the bows belonged to which firm; even by looking at the sacks, he could guess what kind of goods were inside.