Two months ago, the Wuyue Kingdom suddenly launched a sporadic attack on our Wuyue Pass. The Zhendong Army was dragged down due to military pay, and the soldiers were in a state of semi-starvation for a long time. They suffered heavy losses in several battles.
The Zhendong Army has asked the imperial court for help several times, but has been waiting for a long time to get a reply from the imperial court. However, it has no choice but to report the battle from 800 miles away.
Let me talk about the difference between ordinary memorials and battle reports:
Ordinary memorials can only follow the normal procedure, going from one station to another, which naturally takes a long time. Occasionally, the memorial will be dropped for you halfway through.
Battle reports are different. Battle reports are sent in a hurry. The soldiers are not changed, but the riders are changed. They ride not only on thousand-mile horses but also on fast horses and rush to deliver them day and night.
However, according to the rules, matters such as urging military pay cannot be expedited by sending battle reports, but should be done by ordinary memorials.
In other words, the memorial sent by the Zhendong Army stationed at Wuyue Pass two months ago to urge military pay may not have reached the Ministry of War yet. This is not an urgent matter according to the rules.
But there is nothing wrong with this. Isn’t there a saying that goes, “You will not be able to accept your orders in the foreign military.”
It's already such an urgent situation, why don't you behave yourself?
In this matter, the Ministry of Household Affairs designated Gua Lao as the official.
Wuyue Pass is far away. An ordinary fast horse cannot reach Wuyue Pass from the capital in two or three months. If you want to transport military pay, you usually have to set off at least half a year in advance.
Therefore, the military pay for the Eastern Army at Wuyuuguan is included in the group that receives military pay once every three years.
You receive it once every three years, but your household department delayed it for almost half a year.
If nothing happens, that's fine.
But now something happened at Wuyue Pass.
Qi Baoer looked in the direction of Hu Bu with his eyebrows tightly knitted.biqμgètνt
She actually didn't understand some of Hu Bu's actions.
You said that you are in charge of the national treasury, not your own private treasury, and that military pay cannot be withheld just by delaying it;
If you always do this, apart from offending yourself and possibly endangering the safety of the country and the family, what’s the point?
If Qi Baoer asked Wang Shangshu this question, Wang Shangshu would definitely burst into tears and tell her that there was nothing she could do.
Qilin State is a big country. Although it collects a lot of taxes every year, it spends even more.
The two major disasters in the north and south nine years ago, post-disaster reconstruction, comforting the victims, ensuring their future survival, etc., have already taken out almost half of the national treasury; if military pay is another half, the treasury will be basically empty.
After the great disaster, the saint's kindness exempted the disaster-stricken areas from taxes for three years.
The emperor is benevolent and righteous, but the treasury has been greatly reduced.
Although it gradually eased up after three years, during those three years, the imperial court owed a huge amount of debt to a number of wealthy businessmen.
After so many years of repayment, I can only afford to pay back so much.
As the minister in charge of the household department, he could not spend one penny as two penny in a tight arrangement.
Wang Shangshu slumped down on his chair, looking blankly at Shang Chengfeng who was standing in front of the table and glaring at him, his lips trembling and unable to speak for a long time.
Shang Chengfeng originally wanted to beat him, but seeing him like this, he couldn't do it for a while.
Although the six departments are said to be separate and have their own affairs, each department actually knows something about each other.
Especially the Ministry of Revenue, it can be said that everyone is watching how much money is in the treasury. Others don't know the specific figures, but the general range is still there.
Speaking of which, among the six ministers, he and Wang Shangshu are somewhat similar. They both received orders in times of crisis.
They both took up the position of minister in the same year. He was promoted from the post of minister because the previous minister of the Ministry of War passed away due to a sudden illness; Shangshu Wang was promoted because the previous minister of the Ministry of Revenue was involved in a corruption case.
However, he is better than Wang Shangshu. He has served in the Ministry of War for many years. After being promoted to Shangshu in a hurry, he was a little chaotic at the beginning, but he quickly got started smoothly.
As for Wang Shangshu, he was originally the magistrate of Jingzhou. When he entered the Ministry of Household Affairs, he was completely unfamiliar with everything. The previous Shangshu also left him a lot of mess.
Shang Chengfeng knew that Wang Shangshu did not default on the military pay on purpose, but that the treasury really could not provide all the military pay for each army.
Shang Chengfeng knew better that Wang Shangshu didn't want to offend anyone. It was wrong to give military pay to someone first and then delay it.
Distributed again.
Shang Chengfeng was naturally dissatisfied with this.
He also submitted several memorials to the emperor for this reason, but the emperor did not signal him, did not ask him, and did not punish Wang Shangshu. Several memorials were ignored.
On the contrary, because of his repeated resignations, the relationship between the two armies became increasingly divergent, making the situation of each army even more difficult.
So he took a step back and tried not to confront the Ministry of Revenue. He just asked the military generals in Beijing to mention the delay in the military pay of each army in the court. This was to remind the Ministry of Revenue and the emperor.
Unexpectedly, it was still too late.
"The military pay at the border has never been in arrears in every dynasty. You and I were officials in the same dynasty, and I submitted to the emperor several times. Do you really think that I am at odds with you?"
If it weren't for those soldiers, I wouldn't care whether your surname is Wang or Ba.
At this moment, Wang Shangshu was so frightened by the news brought by Shang Chengfeng that he almost left his body. If Shang Chengfeng said these words, he could stand up and argue with him for three days and three nights, but now, he no longer has the time.
More powerful than that.
"Shang, Lord Shang, the military pay for the Zhendong Army was released a few days ago."
He felt guilty when he said this.
Shang Chengfeng could no longer hold back his anger and slammed his fist on the table in front of Wang Shangshu. In an instant, the huanghuali solid wood desk made a big hole with a scratch.
"You have delayed the Zhendong Army's military pay for more than half a year. That's half a year. Two months ago, the Zhendong Army fought with the Wuyue Kingdom. We starved the Zhendong Army for several months. How can you ask the Zhendong Army to fight with the Wuyue Kingdom?
Fighting in the Moon Kingdom?"
The more he cursed, the more angry he became. Shang Chengfeng walked around the table and picked up Wang Shangshu, spitting all over his face.
"Every life of the soldiers who died in the Zhendong Army was caused by your household. I will see if you can eat peacefully and sleep peacefully at night from now on."
Shaking away Wang Shangshu, who was so frightened that his whole body was weak, Shang Chengfeng walked away quickly with anger still on his face.
The two ministers made a lot of noise in the office. When Shang Chengfeng went out, he received a lot of looks from people who were looking at him, looking at him with doubts, or looking at him with fear.
When Shang Chengfeng was fighting on the battlefield, his evil aura was beyond the endurance of ordinary people. Everyone in the household was so frightened by him that they instinctively stayed away from him.
There was no one else around for a long time before any official dared to run into Wang Shangshu's office to check on his condition.
"My lord, my lord, what's wrong with you, my lord? Come here, come here quickly. The Minister of the Ministry of War knocked us unconscious."