Ma Fu was unwilling to give up three hundred thousand taels of silver to protect his head. He felt aggrieved and wanted to tear Lin Fu into shredded meat strips, pickle them with salt and eat them, but there was no way because what he was protecting was his neck.
That head.
If the sun doesn't come out with 300,000 taels of silver before the sun climbs to the top of the tree, Lin Fu will kill him to establish his authority.
Ma Rulong did not dare to lead his troops to make a fuss; those who had benefited from his Ma family in the past went home in despair and closed their doors to think about the past. In the face of the situation, Ma Rulong had to bow his head. If he did not bow his head, the head on his neck would follow.
He said goodbye.
The Lin family is considered extremely wealthy in Shanglin, with nearly 200,000 taels of private silver stored in the silver cellar of their old residence. However, compared to the wealthy businessmen from Lianghuai who made their fortunes in salt, the Lin family is still inferior.
Lin Fu waited until the sun climbed up to the treetops, and the Ma family's silver carriage team rushed into the city to exchange money and replace people when the sun rose.
Ma Fu also followed the example of Uncle Qin Cheng, who cast standard official ingots into large silver balls of one thousand taels and hid them in the silver cellar to prevent outsiders and traitors from stealing silver from the cellar. Three hundred thousand taels of silver were transported in ten carriages
Come on, it's just three hundred big silver balls.
In the courtyard of Dutingyi's east courtyard, three hundred silver balls, blackened by being stored in the cellar for too long, are neatly arranged. Each ball weighs sixty-four kilograms, and its volume is only about one-ninth of a water ball of the same weight.
Lin Fu walked over and grabbed a silver ball with his backhand. It felt a little smaller than the basketballs of later generations, but just such a silver ball was enough for a well-off family to live a lifetime of food and clothing.
Ma Rulong waited calmly for Lin Fu to speak. He also secretly felt that Lin Fu's hand strength was so strong. It was completely unlike Juzi's background. If it were him, he would not be able to hold a piece of silver in his hand with such ease.
Play around.
"I have discussed with Mr. Liu. Since Captain Shanyang intends to repent and donates money to support the military, he should also be given the opportunity to make meritorious service and be allowed to go back and think about his mistakes behind closed doors!" Lin Fu put down the silver ball in his hand and gave the order.
Let him go.
The guards took Ma Rulong to the west courtyard to collect the people. Ma Fu and his wife left with resentment. They did not stay in the city and went directly back to Shanyang County. They had a manor in the east of Shanyang County, which was built as strong as a wall. They were previously afraid of the refugee army.
After crossing Huainan and going south, I hid in Huai'an City. I didn't expect to meet the evil wolf Lin Fu in Huai'an City.
Xuzhou was under siege, and the future of the Chu Palace was uncertain. They could not find a backer, and they could not get back from Lin Fu at this time. Ma Fu also knew that "a gentleman's revenge is never too late in ten years", so for the time being he could only return to the private fort and wait and see.
situation.
***********
Ma Fu and his wife, Ma Rulong and other Ma family members all withdrew from Huai'an City before noon. Lin Fu also summoned the county chiefs and garrison generals of Huai'an Prefecture to Huai'an City for the first time in the name of setting up envoys for the Jingkou system in Huaidong to discuss defense, money, food and military affairs.
.
The horse uniform serves as a warning to others. The forest is steep and the law is strict. With great power and powerful soldiers in hand, all the subordinate counties dare not neglect.
Those who were near the road rushed back to Huai'an on the same day, while those who were far away were covered with stars and moons. They could not enter Huai'an City at night, so they waited outside the city. When the city gate opened, they hurried to Huaidong Jing's bandits to build a temporary camp for their envoys - Huai City
Dutingyi was in charge of the meeting at Mao.
There are seven counties in Huai'an Prefecture, Shuyang is behind enemy lines, and the remaining six counties are Shanyang, Huai'an, and Tinghu, facing the refugee army across the Huaihe River. The left army of Jiangdong established a camp on the north bank of the Yangtze River, which improved the defense situation of Shanyang, Huai'an, and Tinghu.
, but the pressure on these three counties is still much heavier than that on the three southern counties.
Liu Tingzhou was in charge of Huai'an, but he could not defeat the local forces, so he could only defend in separate areas, and each county managed its own territory. Now that Lin Fu has full control over Huaidong's military garrison in the name of institutional envoys, he must break this tradition of separate formations.
In view of the situation, resources should be allocated from the three southern counties where the defense pressure is light to support the defense construction of the three northern counties.
Except for Huai'an City, which has always been valued, the city walls of Shanyang City and Tinghu City are still built with rammed earth. Heavy rains in summer and autumn can even cause large sections of the city walls to collapse.
Tinghu County is nothing special. Shanyang is right at Huaisikou and the terrain is dangerous. It is as important as Huai'an City. Lin Fu asked the three southern counties to bake 600,000 city walls for Shanyang, Shukou and Tinghu before December.
brick.
This was something Beisan County was willing to accept, but Nansan County had no choice but to agree due to Lin Fu's strength.
As the saying goes, since the lips are dead and the teeth are cold, since Lin Fu's strength cannot be violated, if the three counties in the north have strengthened their city defenses, the three counties in the south will also become safer and feel better.
The second step is to clean up local military equipment.
Huai'an belongs to the defense zone of the Chang Huai Army, and there are no longer any Chang Huai Army garrison in the territory. In addition to the private troops accumulated in the village fort, there are more than 14,000 soldiers from the six county and township camps plus Huai'an government troops.
The strength of these troops is uneven, and there is no unified organization. In addition, the money and food are raised by the local government. The local big families have a profound influence on the military preparations of each county, making it difficult for Huai'an Prefecture to mobilize troops from various counties to coordinate operations.
.In fact, when you first come to Chad, you don’t know the bottom of the water, and you don’t know which rural camp can fight and which rural camp is a nest of pus cells.
This time, Lin Fu wanted to reorganize the troops from all counties and Huai'an Prefecture, eliminate the old and weak, and unified the Huai'an Prefecture Army under Huai'an Prefecture, establish a military register, and all the generals and schools asked the court to grant them the title of military attache, and a total of sixteen battalions of infantry were organized.
, four battalions of naval forces, with a total of 12,000 soldiers.
The generals, soldiers, and defense areas of the various camps remained largely unchanged, and the money and food raised by themselves were changed to be allocated proportionally to each county and allocated and distributed uniformly by the Huai'an Prefecture.
The imperial court was requested to appoint the prefect Liu Tingzhou and the general magistrate Zhang Yubo as the chief and deputy regiment training envoy. He was responsible for the training and combat preparation of the Huai'an army, as well as the construction and repair of various counties, cities, and war equipment.
As long as the military register is compiled, the military attache is naturalized, and the command and dispatch authority is declared to be in the government office, when the enemy comes, those who do not respond to the deployment of troops will have to consider whether they can bear the consequences of disobedience. Unlike before, you did not know if you wanted to mobilize troops.
Who should be mobilized, let alone how many troops should be mobilized?
This recruitment power was concentrated in the government office, and Liu Tingzhou, who was well versed in military affairs, naturally strongly agreed. Taking into account the Ma family's mistakes, the six counties had no choice but to swallow their hearts and agree.
The Huai'an Prefecture Army was organized for basic local defense, with the focus being on defending the city and the territory and maintaining local security. Lin Fu did not encroach on the military power of the Huai'an Prefecture Army in order to keep Jiangning and Liu Tingzhou at peace.
In a short period of time, or without a large amount of resources to invest, Lin Fu could not expect the Huai'an government troops to go out and fight a tough battle. It was enough to have control over the situation for the time being.
Besides, Lin Fu didn't know how long his Huaidong Jingkou envoy would be removed before he could serve. Unless the imperial court formally established the Huaidong envoy and let him take the post, he could consider controlling local military equipment.
The Ma family "donated" a large amount of military supplies. Lin Fu allocated 80,000 taels of silver, and Liu Tingzhou allocated 20,000 taels of silver from the mansion's warehouse to organize and train the Huai'an army, purchase some high-quality soldiers and armor, and strengthen combat readiness.
Although it was agreed that the money and food would be shared between the counties and Huai'an Prefecture, there was not a penny of money, and the counties deliberately held back, so it was difficult to achieve success in this matter.
Lin Fu didn't know how long Xuzhou could hold on, or how long the refugee army would insist on attacking Xuzhou. The sooner the Huai'an government army's training could produce results, the better. Otherwise, the Jiangdong left army would be pinned down at Shukou and would not dare to penetrate deeply.
Even if they spend 80,000 taels of silver, there are still 220,000 taels of military supplies "donated" by the Ma family.
After Jiangdong Zuojun went north, the money, food and wages were divided among Huai'an Prefecture, Hailing Prefecture and Weiyang Prefecture. Lin Fu was embarrassed to hide the 220,000 taels of silver in his personal pocket.
With money in hand, Lin Fu naturally continued to expand his army, and it was justified.
****************
"What, you want to recruit six thousand brave men from the homeless?" Liu Tingzhou was shocked when he heard Lin Fu talk about the army expansion plan. Lin Fu was such a powerful person, and he was also arrogant and disobedient. The princes of the court and the people of Jiangning were
Everyone was on guard against him. The situation in Huaisi was critical and he had to be used. However, secret letters were exchanged, and everyone wanted Liu Tingzhou to guard against Lin Fu taking advantage of the opportunity of guarding Huai to expand wildly, forming a situation that could not be lost.
Of course, Liu Tingzhou also knew that it was impossible to completely restrict Lin Fu, unless he did not want him to guard Huaihe, but he did not expect that Lin Fu would suddenly expand his army by six thousand.
Not counting the labor camp, the Jiangdong left army that went north to defend Huaihe included five battalions of infantry, two battalions of navy, one battalion of cavalry, guard battalions and auxiliary troops, totaling 6,000 elite troops.
The strength of the Jiangdong Left Army guarding Huaihe River was about to be doubled at once, and Liu Tingzhou couldn't accept it.
"The number of refugees within the territory has increased sharply. We can recruit strong and brave people into the army to eliminate potential disasters in Huai'an. Governor Yue called me to go north to break the siege of Xuzhou. I have to guard Shukou on the north bank. The troops I can use to go north are limited.
We need to expand the army. We didn’t have the funds to expand the army before, so it’s rare for the Ma family to generously help the army. I still have more than 200,000 taels of silver, and I can’t hide it in my own family’s pocket." Lin Fu said slowly and calmly.
In the past two years, a large number of refugees have continued to flow south along the Ying, Wu, Bian and Si rivers to avoid the disaster of war. The number of refugees in Huai'an Prefecture has once again risen to the peak before the Hongzepu Rebellion.
The abandonment of inland water transport is also an important factor in the increase in the number of refugees in Nanyang. Many landless people who rely on water transport have fundamentally lost their livelihoods and have either become bandits or fled south to survive.
These refugees come in large groups from prefectures and counties, to small ones from villages and villages. Many of them have leaders, and they have become a huge hidden danger to local security.
The grain was transported from the Huaihe River to the sea, which required a large number of trackers and boatmen, and accommodated tens of thousands of young and strong refugees. However, after the refugee army entered Huaisi, Huaikou Yunti Pass was lost, and the grain was moved from the river mouth to the sea. These tens of thousands of refugees
Qingzhuang suddenly lost his livelihood, which indeed made the territory of Huai'an Prefecture more dangerous.
In fact, if Jiangdong Left Army had not been guarding Huaibei and had not waited for the refugee army to cross the Huaihe River and attack, there would have been overrun with bandits in Huai'an Prefecture.
Under various circumstances, Liu Tingzhou also knew that whether the left army in Jiangdong should expand or not, the initiative rested with Lin Fu. Lin Fu discussed with the government office to give him face. If Lin Fu directly asked Shukou to recruit refugees into the army, and
What can be done to him?
Liu Tingzhou reluctantly agreed and said, "Master Lin, it is indeed a good idea to recruit displaced households to join the camp to eliminate local disasters. I wonder what the Huai'an government can do?" He wanted to seize as much initiative as possible.
Stop it and restrain Lin Fu from becoming more arrogant.
"Recruiting brave men and women from the refugees in Xusi, Shuyi and other places must be clean and verifiable. Those with family members need to be guarantored by their neighbors. Those who are orphans or unknown to their neighbors will not be recruited. The disasters caused by bandits are due to their lack of roots.
Feet can be found, but there is no foundation to defend. The displaced households must be organized into camps to form elite troops, and families must be resettled. Hongze Pudong Beach and Qingjiang Pu North Beach are both within the territory of Huai'an County. Dams can be built at selected locations, and barren beaches can be developed.
Fertile land is needed to settle the family," Lin Fu said. "The Huai'an Prefecture needs to complete the matter of selecting strong men within half a month. The matter of settling the family needs to be completed in autumn. When selected to join the army, each soldier will be directly given ten taels of Anjia silver.
, the government will resettle the family members, and I will subsidize the resettlement of wasteland with ten taels of silver per soldier. After being organized into an army, these six thousand soldiers can be the foundation for defending the Huaihe River - these two cases will be handled by Master Zhang and Magistrate Liang, Liu
What do you think, sir?"
Liu Tingzhou secretly thought: If the imperial court assigned Huai'an to Lin Fu, he would have no choice. Lin Fu would return to Chongzhou in the future. The families of these six thousand soldiers are all in Huai'an. They can be used to guard Huai, but most likely they will not go to Chongzhou with Lin Fu.