Chapter 531 Jingjiang Wang Zhi fights Guilin officials
"Huh, don't wait for the Huguang soldiers to come to the rescue. Master Zhang has already sent 30,000 troops to attack the Xingquan Mansion of the rebel army. He said that he will raid the rebel army's lair. Wuzhou was so dangerous at the beginning, and the supervisor
Your Excellency didn’t send reinforcements to Guizhou, why would you send troops to save us now!”
"But they have been fighting against Xingquan Mansion for so long, but they haven't heard any good news, and they don't know how they fought. It was an army of 30,000 people, and the bandit army in Xingquan Mansion was only small at most.
Thousands of people have not been captured yet!"
"Don't worry about Xingquan Prefecture, and don't worry about whether reinforcements are coming from Huguang. The important thing is what should we do now?"
"Yes, what should we do? Are we just waiting to die?"
"The only solution now is to recruit more young men to defend the city, and there will be brave men under heavy rewards. If we give more rewards to the soldiers before the battle, there will be a chance to defend the city!"
"But we still have money there. We have been besieged for more than a month, and we have spent a lot of money during the previous attacks by the bandits. But now we don't have much money left. How can we reward the soldiers?"
Is there no money in the Guilin government? The government is indeed very poor, but we in the Ming Dynasty have a good habit, which is called hiding wealth in the officials.
Any of the officials here can take out a few hundred, a few thousand or even tens of thousands of taels of silver. But this money is their own, and they want to use it as a reward? Don't be kidding, they would rather
Even though the thieves beheaded him, he was unwilling to take out the money he had worked so hard to collect.
After studying hard for so many years, I passed the imperial examination and became an official. After working hard for so many years as an official, I accumulated all this wealth through corruption, bribery, expropriation, and expropriation. Let them use it as a reward? Believe it or not, they immediately opened the city gate and released the bandit army.
Come in!
Even if you surrender to a thief, I won't be able to come up with the money!
Therefore, these people consciously did not say anything about whether they should first collect a few thousand taels of silver to deal with emergencies. Instead, a wise person soon said: "Now that the city defense is in crisis, why don't we go
Are you asking for mercy from the palace and asking for a sum of money and food?"
The palace of Guilin is naturally the Prince of Jingjiang. This vassal king has been crowned king since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, and was later moved to Guilin, Guangxi during the Yongli period. It has been passed down for seven generations and lasted more than 100 years.
Year.
Now the king's title has been passed to the seventh generation Zhu Bangxi. When Zhu Bangxi saw the Guilin officials who came to ask for food and grass support, he showed great concern and patted his chest to express that as the Ming Dynasty vassal king, facing the rebel army
Besieging a city naturally requires money and effort, but we can’t provide this kind of effort, but money and food are nothing!”
Hearing that Zhu Bangxi agreed so readily, the officials who came were all smiles. They originally thought that King Jingjiang would refuse, but they did not expect that Zhu Bangxi would be so willing.
But when they heard Zhu Bangli’s next words, their expressions began to change!
I only heard Zhu Banglu say: "There are still eight hundred taels of silver in the mansion now, so just take it all. The worst is that in the future, we people in Prince Jing's mansion will eat bran-pharyngeal vegetables. If you endure it these days, you can always get through it."
But in order to fight against the bandit army, it is worth enduring the hard life!"
After hearing this, the officials all looked at each other, and some even had a cold expression on their faces.
Eight hundred taels of silver? You really think they are beggars!
But before they could say anything else, Zhu Banglu said: "Okay, it's getting late. You all are probably still busy with city defense matters, so I won't stay!"
With that said, he served the tea!
Those officials looked at me, and I looked at you, but in the end they didn't say anything, and then left with quite bad expressions.
After they walked away, Zhu Bangxi squinted his eyes and sneered: "They are all a bunch of corrupt officials. They can't pay a dime themselves, so they only want me to pay.
And even if the money is taken out, it ends up in their pockets. I really think I am a fool!"
At this time, an elderly man dressed as a servant walked over and heard him say: "Your Majesty, the city defense is in crisis now. Isn't the money given too little? After all, defending the city costs a lot. Without money incentives, I'm afraid it will be too little."
This city is difficult to defend!"
Zhu Bangju said: "What are you afraid of? They are rich!"
"It's true that defending the city requires money, but why do those officials earn so much money on weekdays, but at such a critical moment, none of them pay? Is it possible that this king
Does he look like someone who has been taken advantage of?"
"When the situation is urgent, don't worry if those officials don't use money to use as military supplies, otherwise the city will be destroyed and they will all die!"
But Jingjiang King Zhu Bangju did not know that at this time, several middle- and high-level officials of the Ming Dynasty in the prefect's Yamen had very ugly expressions after hearing that they had only received a mere 800 taels of silver from the Jingjiang Prince's Mansion.
Among them, people from the Guilin Prefecture knew: "In the past hundred years, their palace has absorbed so much of the people's support and support, and accumulated more than one million gold and silver. Are they even unwilling to give out a mere ten thousand taels of silver to encourage the soldiers to defend the city?"
What this person said was with an indignant look. People who don't know better think that he is a good official who serves the people and the country. However, since this person took office as the governor of Guilin Prefecture, he probably made no less than several thousand taels of money, and this person is...
He has only been in office for more than ten years, and it is said that his family only had a few dozen acres of thin farmland before, but now they own no less than a thousand acres of farmland in their hometown in Jiangnan, and there are many shops of all kinds.
Of course, everyone present was basically a bird-like person, so naturally everyone would not think of this aspect, but instead criticized the Jingjiang Prince's Palace.
It is already the middle of the Ming Dynasty. The Xungui Group has long since declined, and the vassal kings are being raised like pigs. Although they still maintain their former glory and wealth, their political status is almost non-existent.
A Jinshi civil servant would dare to curse at a feudal king, and he would often gain a reputation as someone who was not afraid of the powerful.
In the conscience of heaven and earth, in this era, their civil servants are the most powerful people, right?
Those generals and nobles and princes are just a bunch of pigs fed by good food and drink!
After condemning Queen Jingjiang, everyone returned to the old issue, how to defend the city? How to boost morale when there is no money when defending the city?
You must know that the reason why we were able to defend the city from the attacks of the puppet Tang bandits in the past few times was all because of the high amount of gold and silver incentives.
In order to boost morale, these officials offered high rewards. If you kill a fake thief, you can receive a reward of ten taels, and if you kill a real thief, you can receive a reward of thirty taels.
And these are still small amounts, because it is impossible for them to kill a large number of thieves. The rewards they offer are often in bulk. For example, when the thieves come to attack, they will say before the battle to repel the thieves' attack.
If so, how much silver will be directly rewarded to all the soldiers? Although the reward is only a few taels of silver, it can't stand up to the large number of people.
During the siege, the temporary first regiment conducted three exploratory attacks. The first two were just fire reconnaissance attacks to find the weak points of the defenders, and the third attack was just a fire reconnaissance attack.
Mainly to fill in the moat.
However, these three attacks have already cost the defenders in the city thousands of taels of silver. In addition to daily food, drink, and daily food and wages, since the rebel army entered Guilin, the direct expenditures of the Guilin government have been as much as
It has already reached more than ten thousand taels of silver.
And this not only depleted the reserve money of the official warehouse in the city, but even apportioned it twice.
If the temporary first regiment outside the city knew that the defenders inside the city relied on a large amount of money to maintain their operations, they would probably launch attacks frequently.
After everyone discussed it, after much deliberation, the only option was to use the old method of apportioning the city for the third time. And this time the apportionment was not limited to the big households, some middle-class families also needed to apportion.
But even so, it is not impossible for them to get too much money. This has been apportioned twice. Those big families also have tempers. They will give it once and twice, but it is impossible to give it every time, even if it is given.
, it is impossible to give as much as before.
And the result was indeed the same. When the third apportionment was made, all the big households were crying out for poverty, and only two thousand taels of silver were apportioned in total. This amount of money was enough for what, even the thousands of defenders in the city were not enough.
Each person was given one tael of silver.
And according to the usual practice, these two thousand taels of silver and even the more than 800 taels of silver taken out from the Jingjiang Prince's Palace have to be floated. At least 30% of them must be deducted, and the rest will be distributed. This part of the floated money will naturally belong to everyone here.
The hard-earned money of senior officials and officials of many yamen has been lost.
Presiding over the defense of the city is very tiring and nerve-wracking, right? Moreover, this is also the common practice of the country. They even took a mere 30% of the money because of the tension of the war. If normally, this money passed through their hands, at least
Half of it has to be floated, and it would be good to leave half of it for the soldiers.
After this money reaches the army, generals at all levels will deduct part of it according to their official rank. In addition to putting this money into their personal pockets, part of it actually needs to be used to distribute it to soldiers.
Why? Because the soldiers are their confidants, and even the core strength of the entire Ming army defending the city!
As for ordinary soldiers and even young men, it is great that they can share the remaining two or three achievements!
And this kind of thing is taken for granted in the eyes of everyone. Flooding and cheating are old rules for many years. Everyone has become accustomed to this and has formed a routine.
Otherwise, how can we maintain a decent life, support our family, buy land and shops in our hometown, and rely on a salary of only a few dozen taels of silver a year? Don't be ridiculous.
These two thousand eight hundred taels have been divided a lot by everyone here. Naturally, everyone here will not take less from the silver collected from the two previous apportionments and the several thousand taels of silver in the official warehouse.
This siege hasn't ended yet, and everyone present has a lot of money in their pockets!
Not to mention the final destination of the money, nor to say how much profit everyone here has benefited from, but after the third apportionment, even if the 800 taels of silver donated by Jingjiang Prince's Palace are added, the total amount will be raised.
Two thousand eight hundred taels of silver is not enough.
"The money is still short. Should we allocate some more? I'm afraid the gentry and wealthy people in the city won't be able to get it. However, there must be money in the palace. If we go there more times, we will be able to get the money.
Otherwise, once the city is destroyed, everything in his Jingjiang Palace will be taken over by the bandits, let alone the money!"
"What's the use of going now? Will he give it to me?"
"When the bandit army officially attacks the city, I'm not afraid that he won't pay!"
"Yes, when that time comes, King Jingjiang will definitely not sit back and watch the city fall apart!"
These Guilin officials don't know yet that King Jingjiang also had this idea, and now people on both sides are counting on the other party to spend money to save the crisis at the critical moment.
As for the lack of money and food now, let’s just take it for now. Although reinforcements from the puppet Tang rebel army have arrived, they haven’t yet attacked the city!