Chapter two hundred and forty sixth Liu Bagou out of the mountain
The reason why the Grain Recruitment Department became so notorious within a few days of its establishment that it even spread to Zhengtai County was because Li Xuan wanted to allow them to collect enough supplies for the new army of the Tang Dynasty.
Food and money needed for external purchases.
There are no strict restrictions on their means of collecting grain. Theoretically, they can collect enough grain to feed the new army of the Tang Dynasty and the money needed to purchase supplies through any means such as purchase, credit, fraud, robbery, etc.
And if this is the case, then it doesn't matter. More importantly, in order to allow the Grain Recruitment Department to carry out the grain requisition work efficiently without affecting the daily training and combat tasks of the regular troops, Li Xuan also specially approved the grain requisition department from other departments.
Nearly a hundred people were transferred from the army to join the Grain Recruitment Department.
And who are these people who have been added to the Grain Recruitment Department? Some are old bandits and bandits from the Ming Army, and some are second-rate recruits who will never be recruited by the three infantry battalions of the New Army of the Tang Dynasty.
To put it in simple and straightforward terms, these nearly a hundred people are all scum!
With such a group of scum gathered together, and equipped with weapons such as knife-point muskets, it is simply impossible for them not to cause harm to the countryside.
This group of people call themselves the Tang Dynasty Food Recruitment Team outside, but the generals in the Datang New Army will never recognize them as part of the Datang New Army.
From the day it was established, such an armed grain collection team without an official designation was determined to leave a great reputation, and even infamy, in the founding history of the Tang Dynasty.
Within three days of its establishment, the Grain Recruitment Department sent out its armed grain requisition team to confiscate and exterminate a wealthy family member who refused to pay grain taxes and openly opposed the Tang Dynasty. On that day, all the dozens of men in the family, except for a few who resisted, were killed.
After the killing, the others were captured and captured. The men among them will become coolies in the newly established work department workshop of the new army of the Tang Dynasty in Liusha Village. The end of their lives will be to die of exhaustion in heavy labor.
Wives and daughters will be assigned to bachelor officers and meritorious soldiers as wives.
The impressive martial arts of the armed grain requisition team were enough to make the soldiers in the New Army of the Tang Dynasty stunned. Even after half a month of formation, a total of thirteen families were confiscated and exterminated, basically maintaining the rhythm of confiscating one family a day!
The brutality of the armed grain requisition team also aroused resentment among many people, especially Qian Mengjiu, who objected many times, saying that this was undoubtedly a return to the past behavior and could easily cause people, especially wealthy families, to express disapproval of the Tang Dynasty.
Concerns and even objections, which was undoubtedly a betrayal of the Tang Dynasty's promise of "no lives, no plunder".
In order for the Tang Dynasty to be deeply involved in this area, Qian Mengjiu repeatedly suggested that the Grain Collection Department be abolished and that the daily tax collection and grain collection work should be carried out by the Taxation Department in the cabinet. For this reason, he even went so far as to
There were two official reports on the matter.
However, Li Xuan never gave any opinion on the actions of the armed grain requisition team: whether he agreed or opposed it, Qian Mengjiu's memorial was left unpublished.
Li Xuan's statement means: I can't hear, I can't see, I don't know!
It's as if the armed grain collection team does not exist on Li Xuan's side!
But sometimes when Li Xuan was annoyed by their questions, he would also say: Dear dear friends, have you solved the problem of the shortage of military rations?
After asking a few times, I stopped asking again.
At the same time, anyone who is thoughtful will guess that from the day he established the armed grain requisition team, Li Xuan thought that one day he would abolish this organization, and when he abolished this organization, he would definitely deduct deductions for them.
He was charged with a lot of crimes, such as robbing people and killing innocent people without telling Li Xuan, a glorious emperor!
One day, Li Xuan will use the blood of the armed grain collection team to quell his anger, but after that, when the Tang Dynasty has established effective rule in this area and can collect taxes normally!
not now!
No matter how future generations and outsiders evaluate these scumbags, the Armed Grain Recruitment Team, through actual actions at home, provided sufficient rations for the growing number of troops in the New Army of the Tang Dynasty!
This will not put the new army of the Tang Dynasty, which is close to breaking through the thousand mark, into the embarrassing situation of having no food to eat!
However, ordinary grains are available, but highly nutritious foods such as meat are still in short supply.
Meat is a scarce product these days. Even if you go outside every day to grab it, to be honest you won’t be able to grab much. In many villages, there are only a few pigs in the entire village. If you grab it once, there will be some, but the second time you go there, it will be gone.
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This resulted in the new army of the Tang Dynasty always being in relatively short supply of meat, and the supply was quite unstable.
Although the logistics department of the New Army of the Tang Dynasty also reserves some bacon or simply live pigs, chickens, ducks and other food, it is impossible for all these meats to be distributed and eaten in normal times.
These meats are actually part of the strategic material reserves. They are eaten when the war is about to begin. Secondly, they are used to replenish physical energy, and more importantly, they are used to boost morale.
Letting soldiers eat meat to fight is quite effective in increasing their morale. Many people would dare to sign up as death squads just to eat an extra piece of meat.
Meat was already scarce, and a considerable amount was reserved as strategic reserves. Therefore, it was naturally impossible for the new army of the Tang Dynasty to allow the soldiers to eat meat every day, not even one meal in three days, but only five days.
For a meal, and this kind of meat is served only once every five days, everyone gets only a small piece of thinly sliced meat and a thin broth that does not smell of meat.
If you want to eat meat, you can only get a large amount of meat occasionally, such as when a wealthy landowner is willing to donate a big fat pig.
Or during a war, Li Xuan would never be stingy with food including meat. Not only meat, but even wine would be temporarily rationed to stimulate morale to fight or escape!
Usually there is no meat to eat, but it does not mean that the soldiers of the New Army of the Tang Dynasty eat enough.
Even just white rice is a great satisfaction for these soldiers, especially the new recruits.
Being able to eat enough every day, and all of it is white rice. This is a life that only wealthy landlords can enjoy. Ordinary small landowners and rich peasants have to eat white rice mixed with whole grains.
And many of these soldiers from poor families had not eaten as much white rice in their entire lives as they had in just half a month after joining the New Army of the Tang Dynasty.
After eating and training, this has been the daily routine of these soldiers recently. After Li Xuan and the others stayed in Liusha Village for half a month, Liu Bagou and others who came from Huangzhu Mountain were finally waiting in Liusha Village.
When Li Xuan saw Liu Bagou and others entering Liusha Manor, a look of surprise quickly appeared on his face, because among these people were not only Liu Bagou and a large number of craftsmen, but also Empress Dowager Bai and the Queen.