Chapter 534 The ugly state of the sage of the ages
People in the tax department generally only want valuable things such as gold, silver, soft goods, and various fields. As for ordinary supplies, especially logistical supplies that can be directly supplied to the army, such as grain, a large number of chickens, ducks, pigs, and sheep, etc., they are naturally the first to
He was replenished into the military's baggage force.
After seizing these trophies, needless to say, the whole army must eat extra meat tonight!
So, that night, the officers and soldiers of the Fourth Army who entered the city all had extra meals. It goes without saying that the whole army was fed. The most important thing was that they all had extra meals and had meat, even if it was hard to eat in the past.
The garrison troops who were served meat were no exception, and every one of them had their mouths full of oil.
In addition to the rich gains in the Jingjiang Prince's Mansion, the Fourth Army also had many other gains in Guilin City. A batch of cold weapons and equipment and some food were also found in the government warehouse, but there was not much money.
In the process of confiscating the property of Ming Dynasty officials, he gained a lot of money.
Confiscating the property of officials of the Ming Dynasty was something that the Tang Dynasty kings were familiar with, and they knew that this move would bring a lot of gains to their own side. Therefore, after breaking the city, the first step of the Fourth Army was to completely control the surrounding areas.
The city walls, city gates, and transportation thoroughfares in the city. The second step is to control the various official offices such as the prefect’s office, official warehouses, Jingjiang Palace and other important locations. The third step is to clear out the defeated troops in the city and capture those who refuse to surrender.
officials, gentry, etc., and while clearing out the defeated troops in the city and arresting the recalcitrant officials, they would also raid the homes of these recalcitrant officials.
After the Tang Dynasty conquered the city, the methods adopted were basically the same model. First, they completely controlled the city wall and the main roads in the city militarily, then they purged the remaining soldiers in the city, and in the process, they ransacked their homes. All of this has already been formed.
A complete set of processes and methods has been developed.
Therefore, the Fourth Army was very familiar with these things, and also gained a lot of wealth during the process of ransacking the house. They also found a large amount of gold and silver, worth at least more than 20,000 taels of silver. As for other soft and valuable items,
, real estate is also a large number.
These seizures are within the normal category. After all, unless those officials are extremely corrupt, it is impossible to store tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of taels of cash at home.
Basically, they are super corrupt officials, and their money is often sent back to their hometowns one after another. After all, officials are all eunuchs. It is difficult to stay in the same place for a long time after serving as an official in this place for a few years and then being transferred to another place.
In addition, people in this era have a very strong sense of family, and the idea of returning to their roots is even more intense. Therefore, when many officials work as officials outside, they seem to have nothing to lose, but they bring back a lot of money to their families every year.
Purchased a large amount of land, shops, houses and other real estate in my hometown.
This is why when talking about corrupt officials in ancient times, most of them have such an adjective: owning thousands of acres of land!
Because in ancient times, officials liked to send home the money they collected to purchase land.
Therefore, it is not surprising that less than 20,000 taels of silver were found in the residences of many officials in the city.
Although they didn't have much cash, each of these officials considered themselves to be elegant people. They received a lot of various treasures, paintings and calligraphy, and these things were also very valuable.
Due to the presence of the Jingjiang Palace, the seizures in the Guilin Palace far exceeded the expectations of the tax officials. At the same time, they were worried about the safety of these seizures and considered that Wuzhou was in urgent need of gold and silver to maintain the operation of the regime and the battle of the army.
, so after sorting out the valuable and easy-to-carry belongings such as gold, silver, calligraphy and paintings, etc., they were directly loaded onto the navy ship and prepared to be transported back to Wuzhou along the river.
In order to escort these properties, the Second Baggage Regiment sent a baggage battalion to escort. In addition to the transport ship, the Navy also sent two gunboats to escort.
Why not send a regular infantry battalion to escort, but send a baggage battalion to escort, because in the Tang Dynasty King's Division, the baggage troops are actually also combat troops.
The baggage troops of the King's Division of the Tang Dynasty are different from those in ancient times and even later generations. The King's Division of the Tang Dynasty currently has a total of four baggage regiments, and these four baggage regiments are all equipped with the same equipment as regular infantry battalions, but
They just have fewer muskets and fewer artillery, but they still belong to the regular army, and their quality and treatment in all aspects are the same as those of regular army infantry battalions.
Although its combat effectiveness is not as good as the infantry regiment of the regular army, it is still much stronger than the garrison. Therefore, during large-scale battles, the senior generals of the Tang Dynasty Royal Division often put the baggage troops into frontline operations, and even directly participated in the line.
Combat and offensive battles.
It can also be seen from this that the four baggage regiments of the Tang Dynasty King's Division, although they have the two prefixes "baggage", are essentially fighting troops. Their task is not only to transport baggage, but to transport and protect it.
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The logistics and transportation tasks of the King's Division of the Tang Dynasty are carried out by a large number of civilians recruited by the Logistics Department. In safe areas, they are escorted by the bandit camps or garrison troops in the rear. When they reach more dangerous war zones close to the front line,
It is handed over to the baggage troops to transport and protect themselves.
This is also the reason why the infantry regiments in the regular army of the King's Division of the Tang Dynasty almost never participated in the task of escorting the baggage, because the baggage troops assumed this responsibility.
In other words, the baggage troops in the King's Division of the Tang Dynasty were a troop capable of front-line transportation and possessing extremely strong self-protection capabilities.
There is an entire baggage battalion responsible for escorting, which is enough to protect the safety of this batch of materials.
However, for the sake of safety, the transport ships are still extremely cautious. Not only are they strictly confidential, but unless they need necessary supplies of daily necessities when going down the river, they will definitely stop at the docks and ports along the way and go straight to Wuzhou.
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Before these supplies arrived in Wuzhou, Li Xuan had already received the Guilin battle report from the military messenger. When Li Xuan received this urgent military report, he thought something unexpected had happened in Guilin.
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Because if everything goes well, Chen Keqiao and the others are unlikely to use expedited military reporting. You must know that expedited reporting comes at a high price and is generally not used under normal circumstances.
So when Li Xuan received this urgent military report, his first reaction was that Chen Keqiao suffered a big defeat in Guilin?
But it shouldn't be. According to the intelligence, there are only two to three thousand Ming troops in Guilin. And Guilin is not like Wuzhou, a city that is easy to defend and difficult to attack, and can only be conquered by force, right?
What kind of threat might it pose to Chen Keqiao?
But when he opened the military newspaper and read it, he finally understood why Chen Keqiao used the urgent military newspaper to report intelligence. This was not to report a worry, but to report a victory, a super victory!
There are hundreds of thousands of taels of silver in hand. Damn it, Li Xuan has never seen so much silver in all his years as emperor. Although the Tang Dynasty now controls most of Guizhou and Guangxi, according to the
In terms of the tax department's efficient tax collection capabilities, it can collect one to two million taels of tax revenue a year, but this is a whole year's income, and these taxes are often just collected, and then they become
Military and administrative expenses continued to be distributed.
For such a long time, the Tang Dynasty's treasury did not have more than one hundred thousand taels of silver. As for now, the Datang Dynasty took advantage of the opportunity to capture Wuzhou and collected a tax, which was already in arrears for a long time.
The salary of administrative staff has been reduced by a sum.
Naturally, it is impossible to pay all the salaries. If all of them are paid, it will be fine, and there will be no war, so we can only pay part of it first, and give priority to the grassroots staff, at least let Datang
The general staff of the dynasty have food to eat. As for the salaries of the officials, as a rule, they are not paid in full, and the remaining part is owed first until the national treasury is abundant.
After paying the salaries of grassroots administrative staff, there was only a mere 8,000 taels of silver left in the treasury!
As one of the only two super empires in the majestic Chinese region, the Tang Dynasty has industrial strength that can sweep across the entire universe. It has the most powerful army, the greatest emperor, and the most advanced system of this era. However, the Tang Dynasty only has a mere amount in the treasury.
Eight thousand taels of silver, if you tell me this, you will laugh out loud.
When Wuzhou was conquered some time ago, Li Xuan originally wanted to follow the example of later generations and issue a gold medal or something to those meritorious soldiers, but the people from the tax department said that it would cost too much and the gold in the treasury would be exhausted.
With such a small amount, it is still planned to be used to purchase supplies. This causes the medals to be issued. What can be used to purchase supplies?
Therefore, Li Xuan had no choice but to use copper medals to distribute to a group of soldiers the first type of military merit medal in the Tang Dynasty and the first type of military merit medal in human history: the Dragon Sword Medal!
It is made based on the military flag of the Tang Dynasty's royal division, "Red Dragon Holding a Sword". The pattern is a relief of a red dragon holding a sword. Of course, metal engravings cannot be colored, so it is not called the Red Dragon Holding a Sword Medal.
Instead, it's called the 'Dragon Sword Medal'.
This medal is used to reward soldiers who have made outstanding military achievements. The recipients of this medal are not limited to officers or soldiers, years of service, arms, or even whether they are soldiers or civilians. As long as they serve the Tang Dynasty and serve
Emperor Li Xuan and anyone who has made outstanding military achievements can obtain it.
Of course, due to the special physique of the Tang Dynasty King's Division, it is extremely rare for ordinary infantry to obtain this kind of Dragon Sword Medal. Because under the mode of collective combat and merit evaluation, it is difficult for soldiers to perform extremely well, but it is difficult for soldiers in the artillery to perform well.
Gunners, officers who command troops in combat, are easier to obtain.
There are more than 300 Dragon Sword Medals issued for the first time, which include all the soldiers who have made meritorious service since the founding of the Tang Dynasty. The Tang Dynasty was reluctant to cast these more than 300 medals in gold. It is conceivable that the Tang Dynasty now
How poor.
Now that he heard that hundreds of thousands of taels of silver were seized from Guilin, as well as millions of various properties, Li Xuan couldn't close his mouth for a long time, and was still muttering: Get rich, get rich
!
Zeng Ziwen next to him raised his head and glanced at Li Xuan, then quickly lowered his head, thinking to himself: I didn't see it, I didn't see it!
His emperor, the eternal sage Li Xuan, not only muttered about getting rich, but also drooled...