At the beginning of the new year, the magistrate of Peking Prefecture ordered the streets to be decorated with lights and decorate the new year.

Officials at all levels have also paid to share the fun with the people. Now the salaries of officials have increased many times. Hou Xuanyan hopes to replace Taizu's harsh salary system with high salaries to support integrity.

Emperor Gao of Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang calculated the officials' salary in an extremely accurate manner. The salary paid was only enough for officials to support the family. As for the expenses of welcoming and sending off, the salaries of servants, sedan chairmen, grooms, and staff, all the salaries were paid out of their own pockets. In this way, if you become an official, you have to pay money in. Even if you want to be a clean official, you have to face the questioning of your wife and children.

During the reign of Zhu Yuanzhang, such a sad thing happened. Zeng Bingzheng, the first envoy of Tongzheng, a third-rank senior official, was appointed as the Tongzheng Department, and was a senior official and contradicted Lao Zhu many times.

Zhu Yuanzhang was furious and removed him from his post. Zeng Bingzheng's hometown was from Nanchang, Jiangxi Province. After being dismissed from office, he had to return home. An embarrassing thing happened. Although this honest official was a third-rank official and had been a senior official in Shaanxi, he did not have enough travel expenses to return home. Zeng Bingzheng was desperate and had to sell his four-year-old daughter to someone else and collect enough travel expenses.

Historical records record the reign of the throne, and the emperor is very generous to him. He was finally dismissed because he was poor and could not return, so he sold his four-year-old daughter.

What's even more miserable is that Zhu Yuanzhang found out about this and was furious. He didn't think at all that his salary was too low, and he scolded Zeng Bingzheng for not being qualified to be a father, and even sentenced him to palace punishment.

Hou Xuanyan now has money, and the treasury is full of money and needs the country to benefit the people. Naturally, this will not happen again.

Strict laws and regulations on punishing corrupt officials and high salaries are the best medicine to purify the officialdom. According to Zhu Yuanzhang's scheme, even if you are not greedy, you can't survive. Even if there is a threat of skinning and filling, corrupt officials will continue to ban them.

Officials from Peking Prefecture raised funds to hold a banquet and invited Hou Xuanyan, Yan Yingyuan and other generals to spend the end of the year in the mansion of the prefect Gu Shouzheng.

Not only did Gu Shouzheng have a high official position and a low salary, but his worst was that the richest man in Suzhou and the Gu family with the upper-class name in Jiangnan Pai. "Siling" donated the most during the Navy's expedition to Japan, and the greater the return on the land. Although the Japanese market is not very large, it also has infinite potential. The gold, silver and copper mine here makes it a good place for commodity dumping.

Countless Ming merchants pulled silk porcelain and transported gold, silver, copper and iron here. Before the silver mine buried underground in the Americas was excavated, the silver production of this small island country once reached 40% of the world's silver production. The main reason was that Japan was a volcanic country, and coupled with the intense geological activities, there were many gold and silver mines.

Gu Shouzheng has this big backer, so he naturally doesn't have to make money by greed. Moreover, he is an upright person, even a bit too upright.

The banquet in Gu's house was very sumptuous. Although all the powerful people here were in the dynasty, they had never had such a luxurious banquet from a wealthy family several times. Hou Xuanyan looked at the generals on the table, and fought side by side for so many years, they had formed an indestructible interest relationship with themselves, and Hou Xuanyan also trusted these people very much.

After three rounds of wine and five flavors, Hou Xuanyan stood up and said with a smile, "There are constant success in Jingyou for two years, and it depends on your efforts. I wish you all this glass of wine. The war is imminent, and the Jiannu of Manchus is a centipede worm that dies without being stagnant. The four vassals of the Liao army are not ordinary people. I also wish our brothers a victory, to pacify Manchuria, and to avenge their shame and hatred."

After saying that, he pointed to the heavy snow outside and said, "This overwhelming auspicious snow is a good sign for our trip."

Li Haoxian laughed and said, "Your Majesty is so polite. We should thank you. If the prince hadn't led us to launch an army to fight the Northern Expedition, we would have died long ago at the hands of the Tartars."

Yan Yingyuan deeply felt the same way. When he was staying in Jiangyin, he had reached the point where the oil was exhausted. Suddenly, news came that Suzhou was restored. People who had not experienced despair could not understand the mood of Yan Yingyuan, Chen Mingyu and Jiangyin Erlang at that time.

Zheng Zunqian twisted his beard and said, "This is right. At that time, the King of Lu wanted to kill Mr. Qian, and I would have robbed the prison with my subordinates. If the prince had not sent troops to rescue him, we would have died in Shaoxing City long ago. Fang Guoan was incompetent and rats, and led his troops to the north and was killed by Zhang Cunren and Jixiha, and he was a good player to frame his own people."

Hou Xuanyan looked a little embarrassed. This past event was actually not glorious. He used a counter-espionage plan to make King Lu and Fang Guoan insist on killing Qian Sule.

As soon as Zheng Zunqian talked about this, as the old man Yan Ying, who was involved in the planning at the time, blushed and said, "Come on, let's wait for Prince Qi Jing for a cup."

Hou Xuanyan raised his glass to drink with his subordinates. After these hardships, Gu Shouzheng was no longer the scholar who was passionate in Suzhou City. He had very little alcohol tolerance. After forcing a drink, his face turned red and he stood up and said, "Prince, the cold weather in Ji Liao has not diminished in spring, and the heavy snow has been frozen for thousands of miles. The soldiers in the south of the south are not resistant to bitter cold. Cotton coats, camp tents, leather boots and other items. The inventory of the Jijiao was swept away by the Tartars. This thing is scarce in the south of the Yangtze River, so it is better to acquire it from Jingbei."

Hou Xuanyan thought about it carefully and it made sense. Although there were cotton coats in the military supplies, these ordinary cotton could withstand the cold near Peiping. When we arrived in Liaodong outside the pass, the cold air was even worse, and we really needed animal skins and other colds to protect the cold.

Fortunately, the people of Jingbei lived a stable life with the protection of the army, and the fur produced doubled. The acquisition by the Northern Expedition military can just solve the first year's sales and help the people of Jingbei settle down and build a business.

At this time, the personal soldiers outside the door came in and clasped their fists and said, "Prince, General Jingbei Xia Wanchun, sent someone to send 8,000 horses, fur, animal tendons and other items to deliver 2,000 carts."

Everyone looked at each other and laughed. Hou Xuanyan put down his wine glass and praised him, "It was like raining in time for Duan Ge'er to take over the orders, make military uniforms for the nearby factories, and send people to Jingbei for trading. Although there are many markets in Jingbei, it seems that it is still not enough. The army cannot handle these trivial matters. Please encourage local officials to engage in business and attract merchants south of the Great Wall to enter Jingbei, and count this as a performance appraisal."

Lee Haoxian was ready to ask, "Prince, everything is ready, when will we go to war?"

Hou Xuanyan narrowed his eyes and said with a curl of his mouth, "Don't be anxious, let the Japanese soldiers go first and ignite North Korea."

At the same time, Tokugawa Ieki of Edo bid farewell to his commander Nobuki Sakai.

"Why are you feeling depressed when you attack North Korea this time?" Tokugawa Iemitsu knew his general and knew that he was not a person who was afraid of death, so he asked.

Sakai Nobuki frowned, raised his head suddenly, and then lowered his head a moment later, saying in a deep voice, "General, what we are fighting against North Korea is shed by the blood of our own samurai, but they are fighting for the Ming Dynasty. Ryukyu was also lost, and the entire country was full of Ming naval troops. What can we get after North Korea fights?"

Tokugawa Iemitsu glanced around and scolded him sternly, "Bastard! Idiot! Now the Ming Dynasty is like a strong young man. Our Japanese country is only three-year-old. If we don't listen to them at this time, we will lose the opportunity to grow up. Sooner or later, one day, this young man will grow old, and we will become stronger and stronger under his wings. Sooner or later."

Sakai Nobuhiko's eyes lit up, and he lowered his head and said, "I understand, General."
Chapter completed!