Hanzhong, Xixiang.●⌒,.

Yang Sichang was exhausted. In just a few days after receiving the imperial edict to transfer him back to Beijing, his hair and beard had been mostly gray.

He knew he had messed up, and he had completely messed up. This time, he was no different from before. He took over as Minister of War and proposed to the emperor the strategy of suppressing bandits with four main points, six corners and ten sides. He said that he could suppress the bandits in March. Although it was not realized in the end, he did achieve many gains, wiped out many bandits and suppressed the bandits' momentum. The emperor did not blame him, and even used him more seriously.

But this time it was different. He knew that he had failed this time.

He Renlong mutinized and sent the Yu army to recover it, but was attacked by Zhang Xianzhong and defeated. Then he joined forces with Zuo Liangyu and led his troops to pursue it, but he was ambushed again and was defeated again. He failed again and again, while Mei Zhihuan on the other side had great victory one after another. The emperor did not immediately send the Jinyiwei to capture him into Beijing, which was already very proud of him. The so-called returning to the ministry to do business was just the last bit of face left for him.

His career was over, his saints had lost their family, and he had no other position in the court.

Why did things come to this point? Yang Sichang was a little confused. He sat under the silhouette, basking in the sun, thinking with his eyes closed, and then thought of a key figure. A person he had ignored before, Liu Jun and Liu Jiye. After thinking about it, Mei Zhihuan's series of actions were very risky, and it was impossible for him to succeed. But in the end, Mei Zhihuan succeeded, but he miscalculated step by step.

In the final analysis, it is because of this Liu Jun. He repeatedly led the new army but always unexpectedly did not go as far as he could, invincible, and invincible. He was the variable. If it weren't for Liu Jun, could Mei Zhihuan be so proud? If Mei Zhihuan had not been Liu Jun, but domineering generals like He Renlong, Li Guoqi, and Diao Mingzhong, could he still laugh until now?

And what if his subordinates are not He Renlong, but Liu Jun?

Yang Sichang shook his head and sighed. It was too late.

After coughing a few times, Yang Sichang picked up the pen on the table in front of him and began to write the memorial. He was going to submit a memorial to beg for illness and return home. Although he was only in his fifties this year, he was already disheartened.

In the memorial, Yang Sichang praised Liu Jun's wisdom and courage. Finally, he made several suggestions to the emperor. To quell the rebellion of bandits in the Central Plains, one must reduce the burden on the people in the Central Plains, which is the source of bandit chaos. Secondly, we must use generals like Liu Jun and retrain a new army. Now the generals of various towns, such as Zuo Liangyu, He Renlong, Li Guoqi and other troops, have surrendered a large number of bandits and arrogant soldiers and generals. These troops have long been useless. These troops have even caused trouble in the local area, which is no different from bandits and there is already a danger of gradually losing control. Third, the court should order the retired officials and gentry from all over the country to come forward to organize militias. The militias are not the regiments organized by the court before, but the militias should be civil defense soldiers with local gentry and local people.

The imperial court had to mobilize local gentry and people to protect the territory and the people, and cooperate with the new army organized and trained by the imperial court to truly suppress the bandits. Otherwise, letting the soldiers and generals such as Zuo Liangyu He Renlong and others suppress the bandits will only become more and more chaotic.

Yang Sichang finally wrote in the memorial that the new army was trained in the Central Plains and the unusable troops were removed. It could not only save a lot of military pay and a good military discipline and fight. After the new army trained the bandits and pacified the bandits in the Central Plains, the court could also transfer the new army north to deal with Jianlu. When necessary, it could even replace the now increasingly domineering Liaoxi soldiers.

Yang Sichang strongly recommended Liu Jun, saying that Liu Jun had the talent of Qi Shaobao in training. Liu Jun only took a few months to train a army of tens of thousands to defeat the bandits. It can be seen that Liu Jun's ability. If Liu Jun was asked to train the new army and the court summarized and promoted it, then the new army could be successful.

However, while Yang Sichang recommended Liu Jun, he also reminded the emperor in the memorial that although Liu Jun had the talent for training and conquest, he had to be wary early and strictly supervised when he was valued. He should send more officials to supervise it to prevent him from becoming another Guanning army after the new army was trained.

After writing for a long time in one breath, Yang Sichang stopped writing and sighed. Emperor Chongzhen really trusted him very much, and he was very grateful for this kind of grace of knowing him. Even though he had done the matter and was ashamed of this trust, in this last memorial, he still made many suggestions to the emperor with loyalty.

The triumphant nine-headed bird descended along the river on both sides of the river. The rice fields were growing well. This was the second season of late rice. It was already time to fill the grout, and it was green and dripping. From a distance, the two sides of the river were like green blankets.

Liu Jun stood on the bow of the boat and looked at the green on both sides of the straits and said happily, "It's growing well, and late rice will be a bumper harvest."

On the left of Liu Jun is Yang Tinglin, and on the right is Huang Daozhou who had just arrived. Huang Daozhou was the inspector of Yunyang who had just been appointed. He was in his fifties and was a Jinshi during the Tianqi Dynasty. He worked as a Hanlin editor and a scholar in the imperial lectures during the Chongzhen Dynasty. He worked as a Hanlin lecturer and a scholar in the imperial lectures.

Last year, he was demoted to Jiangxi for opposing Yang Sichang's peace talks with the Qing army and directly admonishing the emperor. This time, when Yang Sichang had an accident, Chongzhen began to re-activate many officials who were exempted from being demoted because of Yang Sichang. Huang Daozhou was also highly valued and was awarded the title of the Inspector of Yunyang by Chongzhen.

Although the inspector is only a seventh-rank official, there are eight government officials who are commonly known as the inspector and the imperial envoys ministers, but their power is extremely great. In a province, they can even be on par with the governor. The duty of the inspector is to go on inspection on behalf of the emperor, "reporting big matters and making decisions on small matters."

The inspector Huang Daozhou has the power to impeach Liu Jun, the general, and also the responsibility of supervising the army to record merits. Huang Daozhou can not only impeach Liu Jun, but even under authorization, he can directly interrogate Liu Jun, the general. In addition, the general conducts the army to supervise the military's discipline. In short, the inspector Huang Daozhou has the power to reward and punish Liu Jun, the general, and supervise the impeachment power.

Therefore, in some aspects, Huang Daozhou, like Yang Tinglin, is a military supervisor, and is also equivalent to a superior. Huang Daozhou not only supervises Liu Jun, but also the entire Yunyang Town, ten prefectures, fifteen prefectures, one hundred and five counties, from the governor to the prefectures and magistrates, are under the supervision of the inspectors.

After Liu Jun was promoted to the general of a town, he found that he had more mother-in-laws on his head. Not only was the governor of Yunyang his boss, but there were also four governors from Sichuan, Shaanxi, Henan and Huguang who could also manage Liu Jun. In addition, there were two governors from five provinces above, who also directly controlled the boss, and there was also a governor of eight provinces.

In addition to these commanders, governors, and governors, there are also various inspectors, eunuchs, subordinate officials, military censors, etc., all of whom can control Liu Jun.

There was only one set of housekeepers on the other generals. Because Liu Jun’s Yunyang Town is a special setting, except for the governors, patrols, military supervisors, and eunuchs in the town, the other four provinces can also take care of him.

However, the most important jurisdiction over Liu Jun is the governors and censors in this town. First, Yang Tinglin, the military supervisor, and now another inspector, Huang Daozhou. Fortunately, both of them are known as loyal and upright. They are the kind of straightforward people like Wei Zheng. After Liu Jun got along with them, he found that both of them were pretty good.

Huang Daozhou was a decent person. He did not wait for Liu Jun to visit him in Yunyang, but rushed directly to the river to meet Liu Jun after leaving the capital. Although the inspectors are now high in the general, Huang Daozhou still maintained enough respect for this young general who was less than half of his age.

"It will be harvested in more than a month, and it will be another bumper harvest."

Liu Jun nodded, feeling very happy. Huguang is ripe for the whole world. Huguang's harvest of late rice this year is also direct good news for him. He is about to recruit soldiers and horses to train the new army, and grain is the top priority. If the late rice harvest is good, the grain price will not remain high, and a large amount of grain reserves can be purchased at a low price.

"I plan to get a sum of silver. I will immediately sign an order contract with grain farmers in various parts of Huguang, pay their deposit in advance, and then order their late rice in advance."

"Care grain in advance and book food directly from rice farmers?" Huang Daozhou was very surprised when he heard it. This was the first time he heard of this method of purchasing grain. Generally, grain in the military is transferred by the government. Even if he had to buy it himself, it was purchased from granaries in various places. Liu Jun actually wanted to buy it directly from grain farmers or make reservations.

Liu Jun nodded and smiled. "This is also a win-win approach. We buy grain from grain farmers and buy the latest grain from that year. There is no need to worry about old grain, mold, sand and soil. Moreover, we are now agreeing with grain farmers and signing contracts, and we also ensure that we will not be affected by fluctuations in grain prices at that time."

"For grain farmers, they can get a cash bank immediately. You know, now the people are burdened, and many grain farmers often don't accept it. They are waiting for the silver to pay various taxes and fees. In addition, sometimes the more prosperous the year, the cheaper the grain prices. When harvesting, the grain merchants will deliberately suppress the grain prices and force the grain farmers to sell at a low price. Now we sign a reasonable purchase price with grain farmers, and they can also benefit a lot."

By using some cash bank as reservations, you can get the new grain for the season, the amount of grain you want, and the stable price of grain. Why not do it?

Liu Jun felt that this was beneficial to do this, so he would do it. He didn't think it was anything. But this matter was too jumping for Huang Daozhou and Yang Tinglin. Liu Jun's approach was not as good as before.

But after thinking about it carefully, it is indeed a good plan.

"How much food are you planning to buy and what purchase price are you planning to order?" Huang Daozhou did not rush to object, and he asked patiently.

"The Emperor asked our Yunyang Town to train 50,000 new soldiers and 50,000 troops to consume a lot of food in a year, and we also have to ensure the families of the soldiers. In addition, I plan to purchase more and prepare for the workers in the workshop and the mine. You also know that this time I took tens of thousands of prisoners and asked them to go to mining, workshops to work, and build forts and farms, which also requires a lot of food."

If you don’t have enough food, how can you talk about training troops, let alone fighting? Especially in this time of chaos, eating enough food is the first element, and even food is more important than silver. Just like Liaodong outside the pass, their military pay is much higher than that in the mainland, and they are basically at least two taels of monthly pay. But in fact, the grain price in Liaodong is much higher than that in the mainland. Sometimes, Shandong can only buy four dou of grain in Liaodong for one stone of food.

During wars, food is often not available for money, and even food prices often rise and fall with wars, and sometimes there are more than ten times different.

Therefore, for Liu Jun, if you want to train troops, establish a stable rear, and maintain the morale of the army, the most important thing is not to have silver in your hands, but to have food reserves. This food reserve cannot be counted on the court, but can only prepare it by yourself.

"I plan to purchase one million stones of grain as reserves, and the purchase price is one tael of silver per stone of rice. We can pay a deposit of 10% in advance and sign a purchase contract."

Huang Daozhou and Yang Tinglin almost took a breath of air conditioning, one million stones of grain. One stone and one tael of silver would cost one million taels of silver. Even if you only pay 100% of the deposit first, you would have to pay one hundred thousand taels of silver.

Does Liu Jun have so much money? As far as they know, Liu Jun's troops received only more than 100,000 taels of silver when the emperor rewarded military achievements this time. Moreover, the emperor had long said that the court was unable to pay the silver to Liu Jun to train the new army, and had to rely on local quotations to pay the money. Where did one million silver come from?

In Huguang Tianxia Grain Store, one million stones of grain is a little bit of, but the key is where the money for purchasing grain comes from.

Liu Jun was very calm. He was planning to buy one million stones of grain, but this million stone was not used to raise soldiers. Among them, it was also prepared for soldiers' families, miners, craftsmen, and people in the farming field. In other words, most of the grain was not actually supplied to them for free, but was paid as salary, so the money could be recycled.

In the longer term, these grains are actually reserves for the points coupons issued by Liu Jun.

Liu Jun can't get the one million taels of silver at once, but he can still get the deposit of 100,000 taels. Now there is more than a month before the harvest of late rice, and Liu Jun feels that he still has time to raise the remaining grain payment, and not to mention that he doesn't have to pay the grain payment immediately. When signing the contract, he can agree to pay in installments and pay it before the end of the year.

As long as he could really collect one million stones of grain, Liu Jun could truly train troops with peace of mind and no longer have any worries. One million stones of grain would be enough for at least 200,000 people to eat for a year.

Food and silver are all what Liu Jun lacks now. Fortunately, he received the emperor's permission to raise food and money from all directions, but Liu Jun was determined to use chicken feathers as a commanding arrow and do a good job. As long as he did it well, one million silver would not be a problem.
Chapter completed!