Chapter 85 Scandal (Second update, please vote for me!)
Nong Zhigao's rebellion and the defeat of the Song army in Lingnan brought a sting to the Song people, no less than the Xixia rebellion. Everyone is asking why, why did the Guangnan East-West Route, which had an army of 200,000, do so easily?
Defeated?
Especially when people learned that at the beginning of Nong Zhigao's uprising, all the old, weak, sick and disabled, together with only 5,000 troops, dared to attack the naturally dangerous Hengshan Village and the 20,000-strong Yongzhou City garrison, but they were all defeated by him in one battle.
Next. Is Nong Zhigao's command a natural soldier or a general? Or is there something wrong with Lingnan's military system? Everyone is eager to know the answer, and Chen Xiliang is one of them.
Moreover, as the magistrate of Hengyang County, he has an unparalleled advantage - most of the military pay and supplies sent to Guangdong and Guangxi are transferred here, either to the southwest to Guizhou and Yongzhou in Guangxi, or to the southeast to Guangzhou.
, Huizhou. The defeated soldiers and horses also regrouped here, waiting for orders.
In the process of being ordered to resettle the defeated troops of Guangdong and Guangxi, Chen Xiliang naturally asked questions to the parties involved, and the answers he got were varied and shocking...
The defeated soldiers said that the army in Guangdong and Guangxi was in ruins for a long time. The Xiang troops stationed there were less than half the number, and most of them were old, weak, sick and disabled. They were less than 20% young and strong, and they had almost no training.
Chen Xiliang asked in disbelief: "If you don't train, what do you do on weekdays?"
"But we are not idle either." The soldiers laughed self-deprecatingly: "We all have to do business for the generals."
"Doing business..." Chen Xiliang took a breath. The Northern Song Dynasty implemented a recruitment system. Simply put, in years of floods and droughts, when farmers had no life, the state would recruit them into the army and let them serve as soldiers to feed themselves.
Stabilizing factors become machines that maintain stability.
This national policy indeed prevented the outbreak of large-scale peasant uprisings in Zhao and Song Dynasties, but it was a chronic poison... The soldiers recruited were more or less military-trained and no longer adapted to farming life, and the country did not dare to put them back.
So they had to be raised until they were in their 60s before they were allowed to retire. This resulted in the number of troops only increasing, expanding year after year.
Moreover, soldiers must be paid for recruiting soldiers. According to recent statistics, the number of soldiers in the entire army has reached 1.4 million, exceeding the number during the Tianbao period of the Tang Dynasty. However, the population of the Song Dynasty was only half of that during the Tianbao period.
Less population, more troops. If the rulers of other dynasties were rulers, they would definitely reduce the military salary supply, but the rulers of the Song Dynasty did not dare to give them any less. The country not only supported the scholars well, but also treated the army well. Every month
Pay, uniforms, rations, supply with all your strength... Otherwise, the soldiers will rebel immediately and show you.
Later, when the finances were really unable to support them, they had to give priority to supplying the imperial army. They could only pay half of the salary to the local Xiang army, and the remaining half was allowed to the army to do business and solve their own problems. As this trend lasted, the training of the local army was neglected, and the military training was neglected.
Traveling, shipping, tea and wine, and all imaginable industries... they made a lot of money, but when the enemy came over, they discovered that few people could use bows and arrows anymore.
Wealth makes people jealous, but possessing wealth makes people timid. Seeing the generals pack up their belongings and flee faster than rabbits, the soldiers below naturally dispersed. So it is not that Nong Zhigao is too powerful, but those who were defeated by him
Cities are almost undefended.
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Chen Xiliang became angry and asked: "Although the imperial court only pays half the salary, according to what you said, the soldiers are less than half the salary, which is enough for you to receive full salary. Why do you still do business?!"
"I'd like to teach you, the Commander-in-Chief, that this old man has been in the army for forty years and has been receiving half pay." The officers and soldiers shook their heads and said: "As for the military pay that was falsely received, it will never fall on us."
"Not only that, the food, fodder and weapons allocated by the imperial court were all resold by the superiors."
"The huge profits from business have been embezzled by them. What can we get?"
"..."
Chen Xiliang was so shocked by these accusations that he couldn't sleep for several nights. It was unbelievable that the Song Dynasty, which was always known for its integrity, would have such a shocking scandal.
"Whether this trend is limited to Lingnan or has spread throughout the country, it must be exposed! Let the officials and ministers know the truth!" Most of the scholar-bureaucrats in the Northern Song Dynasty, at least before they hit the wall, had the power to "take the world by storm" With the sentiment of "self-responsibility", Chen Xiliang made a decisive decision: "Otherwise, once it rots completely, the Song Dynasty will definitely perish!"
Just do whatever comes to mind. On this point, the Chen family and his son are highly consistent. Just because of the war, the Jinghu South Road Transportation Department moved to Hengyang County Government. He, the Hengyang County magistrate known as an official, was also temporarily entrusted with important tasks. But it made it easier for him to check the accounts secretly.
After more than a month of secret investigation, he discovered that for every 100 guan of military pay sent to Guangdong and Guangxi by Jinghu South Road, after deducting the 40 taels of "duanping" bank notes that had been under-allocated by the Ministry of Household Affairs when allocating funds, another 4 taels would be withheld. In addition, Several adults in the Transshipment Department also took advantage of their authority to privately deduct 20 taels. After three deductions and two deductions, in the end only 90 taels were able to reach Guangdong and Guangxi.
Don't underestimate the inconspicuousness of these two or three taels. There are 200,000 troops in Guangdong and Guangxi, and each person's annual salary is 35 guan. This alone will deduct 700,000 guan.
These cleverly-named public deductions are still small. If half of the military salary is really embezzled, 3.1 million yuan will be missing...
There are also grain, military equipment, armor, chariots and horses allocated every year. If half of it is sold at a discount, you can get at least 2 million yuan...
In addition, the military opened foot shops, made loan sharks, sold private tea, sold private salt, brewed wine for sale, and even used military ships to carry out maritime trade... It almost monopolized the huge profit industry in Guangdong and Guangxi. The most conservative estimate is that there are 5 million yuan every year. income above.
A full 10 million yuan! It is equivalent to one-sixth of the fiscal revenue of the Song Dynasty, but it has never been seen in the account books and has disappeared. How many shady things are hidden in this, and how many people will be involved, it makes people shudder just thinking about it...
If the investigation was limited to such speculation and authority, no one would notice his unusual movements, and he would not be in danger. But he knew that he was a man of few words, and an investigation report of this level would not cause any waves, and he wanted to touch the top management. , you must come up with hard food!
Chen Xiliang had a solution. He took the initiative to take on a job that others could not do - leading people to collect the dead bodies in the city. In this era, the miasma in Lingnan was serious, and many people in the defeated army were injured. Due to limited medical conditions, every day Some people have died. In such a hot weather, they must be restrained and buried immediately, otherwise it will cause a plague.
When counting the belongings of the deceased, Chen Xiliang did not miss even a single word. As long as it was with words, he would read it carefully. If it was valuable, he would keep it and register it. Although this method is stupid, it is very correct... Because most of the soldiers were engaged in business, many of them were the actual handlers of the profit chain. Perhaps in order to be well-informed or prepared, a lot of information was recorded and presented to the master after his death. before.
Rosters, accounting bills, receipts from battalion officers actually receiving military pay from their subordinates, information revealed in correspondence... every tiny piece of evidence was discovered, and he gradually sketched out a black gold picture involving the Hunan, Guangxi, and Third Route military circles.
.Although fragmented, a complete chain of evidence has been formed. Anyone who understands can see the subtleties.
His neat and quiet work did not attract anyone's attention at first. But half a month ago, when he was burying a secretary, Chen Xiliang found a fatal account book hidden in the middle of his clothes - unexpectedly
It records every flow of military pay for the Yongzhou Xiang army from the second year of Qingli to the present!
Chen Xiliang's heart beat rapidly and his blood surged upward at that time. Of course he knew that this thing would cause death, but this was the ironclad evidence that he could not find!
Without much hesitation, he decided to stay. After finishing the records overnight, he buried the account book and all the evidence he had obtained previously.
As soon as he finished doing the work, a Yuhou from the Yongzhou Army came to the door and asked him where the relics of the secretary were.
Chen Xiliang took them to the check-in room, handed a baggage to Yu Hou and said: "There are soft goods and personal belongings inside. Check it carefully and sign for it."
Marquis Yu opened it and took a look, but didn't find what he was looking for. He said in a deep voice, "Is there anything else?"
"The clothes and other worthless things were burned by the common people." Chen Xiliang said lightly: "Who knows if there are any diseases on them?"
"Burn it?" Marquis Yu immediately became anxious and shouted: "There are important documents of our army there!"
"Is this..." Chen Xiliang said with an indifferent look: "If you don't want to touch the dead people, let us restrain ourselves. Do we have to touch every piece of clothing? How can there be such a reason in the world?!" Don't talk to Fang Cai.
He is a Yuhou, even if he is a commander, he still doesn't buy it.
Because this was the Song Dynasty that valued culture over military affairs...
The Marquis of Yu was disappointed and left. Later, Mr. Xiantai personally talked to Chen Xiliang, but he still asked about the important "document" in a sideways manner. He insisted that he burned it, and in the end he didn't spit out a single word.
.
But when he returned, he found that his residence had been searched again.
A few days had passed, and just when he felt that the other party had believed it to be true, Chen Xiliang was assigned by the transport envoy to escort grain and grass to Shaoguan. On the way, he encountered bandits and robbed him...
To say that one drink and one peck has its own destiny, Chen Xiliang's body's resistance decreased due to the long period of burying people who died of illness. As a result, he fell ill when encountering miasma, but he was lucky enough to escape.
When he arrived in prison, no one gave him medical treatment, but he was so desperate that he resisted until Song Duanping showed up...
The second update on the first day, I will write the third update to see how many updates I can get today! The story must be exciting! Please vote for me at the beginning of the month to keep the first place in the new book!
