At the 20th hour of the first lunar month, in Jiangning City, there was a government office and a public house.
The prefect Zhou Xin, the magistrate Zhang Sheng, the garrison master Li Bin, the master Chen Shi, and Mr. Wang Ming who came after a long journey gathered here.
Zhou Xin was filled with joy when he saw Wang Ming. He raised his hands and congratulated Wang Ming: "Congratulations to Chengde for his great victory. The news of the victory of the Anning Army sweeping Qinglong Mountain yesterday has been widely circulated in Jiangning Mansion. Jiangning has Chengde's Anning Army." Guard, the folks in Jiangning now have a protector! The pressure on Huaiyuan’s city defense has also been reduced drastically!” With a serious look on his face, he brought Li Bin along with him as he spoke.
Wang Ming's face was filled with joy, and he was busy complimenting and politely saying: "Where! Where! This is originally a humble duty, how can there be any credit at all? If it were not for the support and encouragement of the prefect and the judge, , Without the guidance and support of the garrison master, Mr. Li, what would happen to the Anning Army? It is only because of your cultivation and guidance that Wang Ming has the ability to clean up the Qinglong Village."
As the saying goes, Even if you wear it a thousand times, you will never wear it. Wang Ming knew how to flatter people in his previous life. Only by establishing a good relationship with those above would the brothers below have something to eat.
Zhang Sheng suddenly smiled and held his hands, congratulated together, and said with a smile: "Sincerity is mighty! We have eliminated a major cancer in our Jiangning, and Jiangning will be peaceful in the future!"
Li Bin smiled and cupped his hands perfunctorily: "Sincerity and power! Congratulations!"
Wang Ming smiled in return and refused to be polite to them. Zhou Xin incidentally introduced everyone to the topic, mainly: Zhou Xin wanted to hear Wang Ming's and everyone's thoughts on how to report this good news.
This is also Wang Ming’s first time dealing with the court. How does he have the experience to deal with this matter? So Zhou Xin was given full authority to handle it, and Zhang Sheng and Li Bin were also included in the good news.
Zhang Sheng and Li Bin were surprised when they heard what Wang Ming said. They didn't expect that young man Wang Ming would be so wise at such a young age!
Of course Zhou Xin understood what Wang Ming meant and readily agreed. There is only one request, which is to report the number of Jiangning's troops to one thousand, so as not to attract the suspicion of the court. Because the number of 1,000 rural soldiers is in compliance with the regulations of the imperial court, it is legitimate and acceptable to report it.
Wang Ming had no objection, and he didn’t care whether the court could reward him. The silver he earned has long been rewarded to the people below. If there is a reward from the court, he can just take it. He mentioned in passing: "Master Zhifu is planning the strategy! Master Zhang Sheng will be the staff officer, Master Li will lead the troops, and we will all be assistants! Master Li will lead the 300 Li battalion troops, and I will lead the 700 township soldiers to suppress the Qinglong Mountain bandits!" ”
After hearing Wang Ming’s words, Zhang Sheng and Li Bin looked moved, wondering what Wang Ming was going to do? This is nakedly putting the credit on them. I have never seen such kind people! Li Bin was really full of joy in his heart. He looked at Wang Ming and thought to himself: I didn't lose half of the battalion's equipment! Wang Ming is a reliable guy!
Zhou Xin turned around and looked at the proud expressions on Zhang Sheng and Li Bin's faces. Of course he knew what these two people were thinking. He also didn't expect Wang Ming to be so politically savvy and strategic. He really underestimated him!
Wang Ming thought to himself that everyone was hanging out in Jiangning, and they would not see each other until they looked up. If I get promoted and make a fortune, I'm afraid of being transferred! I can transfer you, but I absolutely cannot leave. What will happen to my property after I leave? If the court were to blame him, he would have three protective umbrellas to prevent his death from being too ugly!
After all, Wang Ming sent troops without asking anyone for instructions. It is unreasonable to do such a large battle without asking for instructions or reporting. If Zhou Xin and Wang Ming were to be held accountable, the merits and demerits would be outweighed. If Zhang Sheng and Li Bin are involved, Zhou Xin can't block other people's opportunities to get promoted and make a fortune!
Zhou Xin smiled unexpectedly: "Oh? Chengde, are you really willing to share some of the credit with us?"
Wang Ming thought to himself that it would be better than you to take the initiative to give it away. Isn't Liang Guo's officialdom just trying to grab credit at every level? Officials at each level must have clever names and merits. The official position and grade awarded by the emperor will not be changed, but the money awarded will also be withheld at various levels. This is the unspoken rule of the officialdom of the Liang Kingdom.
As the saying goes, if the subordinates have merit, then the superiors will also have merit. It must be much greater than Wang Ming's Zhima Guan. This is only reasonable!
Wang Ming is the lowest-ranking officer, and he has no right to speak. How many benefits are not obtained by the superior officers themselves? Wang Ming has been a corporate executive, so he naturally knows this truth. If the brothers below have meat to eat, why don't they rely on their boss to ask for it from the boss? If the boss is capable, the brothers below will live a more comfortable and nourishing life.
"It doesn't matter. We, the Anning Army, are all new recruits. How can we dare to take credit? The garrison master took us to familiarize ourselves with field training, and by the way, we suppressed the Qinglong Bandits who were caught off guard! Isn't that right? Mr. Li!" Wang Mingyi Looking at Zhang Sheng respectfully, Wang Ming gave Li Bin a naughty wink.
Li Bin was a little uncomfortable with Wang Ming's sudden attentiveness, thinking that Wang Ming seemed to have changed his temper? One after another! Facing Wang Ming's question, Li Bin had no choice but to bite the bullet and smile awkwardly: "Yes! Yes! Yes!"
This made Zhou Xin suddenly lose his mind. He knew Li Bin's background. If Li Ziying had this ability, he wouldn't have to huddle in the city and defend it every day. Zhou Xin didn't know Wang Ming's intention, and he couldn't help Li Bin's face, so he smiled and said: "Huaiyuan is really a low-key person, very humble! Then write the victory report according to Chengde's intention?"
How can Zhang Sheng and Li Bin disagree? Things that thousands of people in the imperial court could not handle were solved by the rural soldiers of Jiangning Mansion. This matter was a real slap in the face of the imperial court! I have a share of credit for such a long-standing thing, so naturally they all agree with it!
"Everything is up to the parents!" Zhang Sheng and Li Bin said in unison.
"By the way, the bandits' weapons and silver were seized, which totaled about three hundred taels! Let's report this together!" Wang Ming didn't know whether the seized silver should be handed over, so it would be better to ask.
"When the Anning Army was founded, money was needed everywhere! It's embarrassing to say that! The imperial court has still distributed the military pay to the rural soldiers, so why not keep it here in Chengde first? If the imperial court comes to check and then hand it over, Too late!" Zhou Xin muttered.
"Okay! Sir!" Wang Ming replied, clasping his fists and bowing.
Zhang Sheng suddenly remembered something and said hurriedly: "That's right! In the early years, the imperial court formulated military merit: killing five people in the Zhou army will lead to one level, killing fifteen people will lead to two levels, and thirty When a person is promoted to level three, he will be rewarded with one tael for killing one person! Later, the phenomenon of border troops killing good people and claiming merit appeared. Now, as long as the enemy or bandit is killed, the court will send people strictly. Make sure that the head is not a good citizen, and it will be counted as military merit after verification!" After Zhang Sheng reminded him, Zhou Xin thought about it and thought it was true! Killing bandits does not count as an enemy army, and the rewards should not be as strict as killing Zhou troops.
"Chengde has no experience this time, and he only brought two heads back! However, there should be a number of people killed, so we can verify it!" Zhou Xin said worriedly.
"It doesn't matter, our reports are all true, there are absolutely no lies. Except that three bandits were burned by the villagers and cannot be checked, the rest are fine!"
"Then "Three people?"
"Yuan Mazi, Yang Laoliu, and a gangster! When they were in Daliushu Village, the villagers worshiped the three people in the ancestral hall and lit the sky lanterns. Then burned it with fire!"
"Oh! What a pity!" Zhou Xin sighed with a look of regret.
"Then just write three less! It won't be a problem!" Wang Ming said with an indifferent expression.
"That can only be like this!" Zhou Xin sighed.
Zhou Xin asked his master Chen Shi to draft a victory report. The general idea is: Your Majesty, in the ninth year of the Apocalypse, on the 18th day of the first lunar month, Jiangning Prefecture Zhou Xin made strategic plans, with Zhang Sheng as a staff officer, guarding Li Bin and leading troops to attack, and formulated a careful plan to suppress bandits in Qinglong Mountain. Li Bin led the garrison with more than 300 people from Li Ziying, and Wang Ming, the commander-in-chief of Jiangning, led 700 new troops, totaling 1,000 people. On the sixteenth day of the first lunar month, the Anning Army's cavalry sentry dispatched 20 Qinglong Village scouts ahead of schedule, causing Qinglong Village to lose consciousness. After three days and two nights of fierce fighting, they won a complete victory on the 18th of the first lunar month! Killed twenty-nine bandits, captured six, beheaded the leader Li Yi, Pei Cheng and others! Three hundred and fifty taels of silver and seventy-three coins were seized, and the ordnance was useless!
Everyone was quite satisfied when they saw the beautifully written Wei stele font that Chen Shi brought.
Finally, after Zhou Xin approved it, he stamped it with the official seal and arranged for the good news to be sent to Hangzhou immediately!
After the good news was settled, everyone came to inquire about Wang Ming’s reality, and wanted to determine whether Wang Ming was recruiting 3,000 people! Wang Ming definitely denied that there was no such thing, saying that the three thousand people was an imaginary number. It was a means to intimidate the Qinglong Mountain bandits. The actual number of soldiers was only more than 1,300, and the rest were baggage troops and logistics.
Zhou Xin breathed a sigh of relief and smiled: "You can't feed three thousand people! The court only allocates you military pay for five hundred people. You are a businessman and you will not do such a thankless thing. ! "
Wang Ming knows how many people he has. Now that there are many people, he is indeed a little sensitive. In order to avoid being deceived by others, it is better to be cautious.
Later, everyone mentioned that the Zhou army was looting supplies from time to time in Henan Prefecture, Guide Prefecture, Kaifeng Prefecture, Jinan Prefecture and other places. It is said that there was heavy snow this year, and many cattle and sheep in the Zhou Kingdom's grassland froze to death, and the harvest of the entire Zhou Kingdom dropped sharply. Zhou Guojun secretly crossed the border to rob Liang Guo soldiers and civilians of food and grass, and sometimes had constant friction with Liang Guo's border troops!
Zhou Xin believes that Zhou’s ambition to annex Liang is not dead, and Zhou and Liang don’t know when there will be another national war! After saying that, everyone sighed and looked worried.
Seeing that everyone was so depressed, it was almost noon, Zhang Sheng happily invited everyone to a lunch at Penglai Restaurant to congratulate Wang Ming on his victory! Everyone also felt that it was very good and it was necessary to ensure the victory of Wang Ming's An Ning Army.
At this time, in the capital of Hangzhou, there was the Yangxin Hall.
About 11 o'clock in the future. The morning meeting was coming to an end, and Emperor Tianqi still looked like he had been hollowed out. His mental state was not good, and he was sitting on the dragon chair, rubbing his brows and trying to stay energetic.
None of the domestic affairs in the morning pleased Emperor Tianqi, especially the Zhou Kingdom in the north of the Liang Kingdom, which frequently invaded and blatantly plundered the property of the people of the Liang Dynasty, making him extremely angry! The people of Zhou state were all light cavalry, they could come and go as they pleased, and they could rob and leave as soon as they could. And the Liang Dynasty's defenders hadn't left the city yet, and they had already lost sight of Zhou's cavalry. It was so abominable!
Emperor Tianqi was angry because Zhou State was not trustworthy and the contract signed ten years ago was not taken seriously! In addition, he is angry at the slow response of his own army!
The discerning eunuch came out and shouted in a duck's voice: "If you have a job, you will play early, if you have no job, you will leave the court!"
His Royal Highness has no civil and military officials. Echo, the eunuch was about to shout the word "retreat from the court".
I saw a man wearing crimson court clothes, with black sand on his head and holding a wat board in his hand, standing in the front row of civil and military officials. This person is none other than Jin Zhengming, the right servant of the Ministry of Personnel. Jin Zhengming stood up straight and held the wat board in his arms and said sternly: "Wei ministers have their own books to start with!"
Emperor Tianqi didn't even raise his head. He sat on the dragon chair and raised his hands, saying: "Jin Qing Home! Ready!"
So Jin Zhengming made a lot of nonsense in the court, and the implication was: The emperor worked hard for Liang Guo! Nowadays, there are internal and external troubles in Daliang, and the Zhou Dynasty is eyeing Daliang. The emperor wisely let go of the local prefectures and recruited rural soldiers to help defend the city. As far as he knew, some people were colluding with local officials and concealed the over-recruitment of new soldiers on the pretext of recruiting rural soldiers. When the conflict between Zhou and Liang came, the village soldiers rose up and planned to rebel and proclaim themselves king!
Kim Zhengming’s words made all the civil and military officials in the court change their minds! Conspiracy is a big deal. Even if there is no rebellion, these people will lose their skin even if they don't die! Suddenly, the civil and military officials started whispering among the crowd, and the hall became a little noisy.
"Quiet!" the eunuch Duck shouted loudly. Suddenly, the silence in the court returned to the same level as before.
When Emperor Tianqi heard the news, he couldn't help but be shocked. He looked at Jin Zhengming carefully as usual, and said calmly: "Jin Aiqing, what proof is there for this matter? Can you tell me their names and state capitals!"
"It's Zhou, the prefect of Jiangning Prefecture. New, Jiangning Prefecture Militia Commander Wang Ming! People throughout Jiangning City are spreading rumors that there are 3,000 Jiangning Township Soldiers patrolling outside the city. Commander Wang Ming, in particular, is extremely arrogant! He is bullying men and women and doing all kinds of evil! Extremely bad!"
Emperor Tianqi turned his head and thought about it, as if he had some impression of Wang Ming. I remember the last time Jin Hao of the Jin family committed a crime, Wang Ming's name appeared several times in Zhou Xin's memorial! Zhou Xin said that this man has repeatedly solved strange cases and is a rare talent! The rural soldiers recruited an extra 3,000 people. As long as they did not raise a flag to rebel, this crime cannot be casually identified.
Besides, Jiangning's city defense force is weak, so it doesn't matter if more people are recruited. Anyway, the court doesn't have to worry about raising troops.
Now Wang Ming is actually such a character in the eyes of Kim Zhengming? Thinking of Jin Hao, Emperor Tianqi looked at Jin Zhengming again, and he couldn't help but think of something. Although Kim Jong-ming's actions in righteously killing his relatives in front of Emperor Tianqi are commendable, it cannot be ruled out that Kim Jong-ming has no selfish revenge! A high-ranking official of the third rank cannot afford to sacrifice his wealth to get along with a minor official of the eighth rank. Kim Jong-myung's target list may be Zhou Xin.
After thinking for a while, Emperor Tianqi did not have enough energy, and he could not make decisions at will. As long as it involves rebellion, it must be investigated. Before Tianqi retreated from the court, he issued an imperial edict: He sent the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Personnel to Jiangning Mansion to investigate, temporarily removed Jiangning Magistrate Zhou Xin and Jiangning General Manager Wang Ming from their official positions, and escorted them to the capital for investigation! The rural soldiers recruited previously were handed over to the local garrison and led! Request the three departments of the Ministry of Punishment, the Minister of Dali Temple, and the Metropolitan Procuratorate to jointly hear the case!
To be continued