Jia Ke and He Tong came to the flower hall. Jia Ke asked He Tong to sit down. He Tong modestly gave in several times, but Jia Ke insisted on inviting him to sit down. He Tong postponed and then became the chief minister, and Jia Ke was accompanied by the prime minister.
After three rounds of wine and five tastes of food, the two continued to talk about being an official on free wages.
He Tong drunkenly said to Jia Ke: "Is there any general in Xuanfu Town who doesn't take free money now? If he doesn't take free money, how can he live on the salary given by the imperial court?"
After all, Jia Ke was born in a Gonghou family. Since time travel, although he has never been rich, he has never worried about money. Qianhu, who has been working in Kaiping Town for this period of time, does not know much about his salary.
, these are all taken care of by Lan Xiang.
So he curiously asked: "Isn't the salary given by the court not enough to support the family? This is unlikely."
He Tong glanced at him contemptuously, "General Jia, you are still young, and you were born in a prince's family, so you don't know much about the world. Now I am a third-rank official to say the least. Do you know how much my annual salary is in total?
?"
Without waiting for Jia Ke to answer, he said angrily: "My annual salary adds up to just over three hundred taels. How can I live without any free money? With this little money, I can only get eight levels."
The Ministry of Household Affairs has pumped out the rest."
He Tong seemed very angry and continued: "I have to manage the money up and down and raise some personal soldiers. Our customs here are not like those in the mainland. Those civil servants can still make a fuss about fire consumption. They are just a
A county magistrate can earn several thousand taels a year. What can we, poor soldiers, do if we don't get free pay?"
Jia Ke was shocked when he heard his words. He had no idea that the current official system had been corrupted to such an extent.
Jia Ke quickly asked: "Brother He, but I am in Kaiping Town and there is no payment arrears. What is going on?"
"What else can happen? Some of the officials in the Ministry of Revenue are still awake. All the officers and soldiers on the front line in Jiubian Town are fully paid. They are also afraid of the Tatars. They won't give you enough to eat.
How can you work for them to guard the front line? Your Kaiping Town is the front line facing the Tatars, so you can pay them in full." He Tong said drunkenly.
"Is this situation just in our Xuanfu Town, or does it exist in all nine sides?"
"How can it be different? In my estimation, our Xuanfu Town is said to have 80,000 troops. In fact, it is good to have 50,000. We are pretty good here. When we get to Yulin, Shaanxi, the actual number of soldiers we have is probably
Only half of what’s on the books.”
Jia Ke was really frightened this time. He didn't expect the troop gap to be so big. No wonder Wang Tao didn't dare to come to support last time. According to this situation, Wang Tao brought all the troops and horses, but it didn't help.
.
He Tong said to him mysteriously: "Do you know why the leading generals are so active in demobilizing troops for you this time?"
"Why?"
He Tong squinted his eyes and looked at him and said: "I have sent you soldiers this time. The imperial court will definitely let them recruit them again. It will be good if they can recruit half of the soldiers. By then, there will be a lot of troops available. Each soldier will have one
With a military salary every year, you get at least twenty taels of silver for food, supplies, and weapon maintenance, how can they not be jealous?"
After hearing what he said, Jia Ke couldn't help but fell silent, thinking that in the future, the current emperor would become the new emperor. After the death of the Supreme Emperor, the new emperor would vigorously rectify the government. It seemed not unreasonable. If he didn't rectify the court, he would probably be sacked.
If it is empty, if a war breaks out, I am afraid there will be no soldiers left to fight.
Jia Ke and He Tong had their own worries, and they both became drunk before they knew it.
When Jia Ke woke up the next day, he found that he was already lying on the bed and all his clothes had been changed.
Jia Ke pressed his temples, the headache after the hangover made him not feel frowning.
At this moment, Lan Xiang came in from outside and saw that Jia Ke was awake. She quickly poured a bowl of tea from the side and handed it to Jia Ke.
Then he lifted Jia Ke up and leaned against him, using both hands to gently massage his head. Jia Ke held the tea bowl and leaned against the warm jade behind him, feeling a little distracted. Lan Xiang held Jia Ke from behind and massaged him.
, as if they don’t even know that there is a defense between men and women.
While the two were having an affair, Qiaolian came in from outside carrying a food box. She could see at a glance that something was wrong between the two of them. Qiaolian was also a smart person and knew not to blame Jia Ke, so she acted as if she hadn't seen it.
He smiled and said to Jia Ke, "It's time for you to eat, uncle. I drank so much yesterday. If you don't eat something in the morning, you might feel sick to your stomach."
When Jia Ke saw Qiaolian coming in, he was a little embarrassed and said awkwardly: "I'm going to get up right now. Where did you put my clothes?"
Lan Xiang quickly said: "Yesterday, the uncle was drunk and vomited everywhere. We changed his clothes for him." She took out new clothes from the cabinet next to him and put them next to him.
Jia Ke hurriedly took it and dressed neatly. Lan Xiang walked and helped Jia Ke sort out his clothes and button them up, and was very busy.
Qiaolian wanted to go up to help but couldn't help. Seeing how angry they were, her eyes burned.
At this time, Jia Ke also completely let go and didn't care about Lan Xiang's performance at all, letting him work on himself.
As soon as Jia Ke got dressed, Chun Cao came in with hot water, put the hot water on the shelf, and prepared wet towels for Jia Ke to wash up.
After Jia Ke washed his face, he sat at the table and prepared for breakfast. Qiaolian hurried up to open the food box and put out the things one by one. What she ate this morning was "water noodles". The side dishes were ten-spice melon and eggplant, five-spice tempeh, and sugar.
Garlic, fresh pepper soaked in soy sauce, garlic juice, a large bowl of pork marinade, and three or four exquisite stir-fries.
Jia Ke personally took the marinade, poured in garlic vinegar, and only swallowed it three times, which was just one bowl. Jia Ke only focused on drinking yesterday, and he was really hungry, so he ate two or three more bowls before giving up.
While Jia Ke was eating, the three women in the room had a fierce confrontation with their eyes. First, Qiaolian gestured to Chuncao with her eyes, first she nuzzled at Lanxiang, and then glanced at Lanxiang a few times.
When Chun Cao saw Qiao Lian's eyes, she knew what it meant. She was angry in her heart, but it didn't show on her face. She just looked at Lan Xiang with contempt, as if she saw something dirty.
However, Lan Xiang's disdainful eyes towards them were not only not angry, but instead she puffed up her chest proudly, with a smile on her lips, without even looking at them.
After Jia Ke finished eating, he felt something strange in the atmosphere in the room. He knew it might be caused by what he did in the morning, but he didn't know how to resolve this war between women, and he didn't take it to heart.
Come on, as long as they don't cause trouble, let them be.
So he made an excuse and said to them: "I'm going to see if Commander He is awake?" After that, he walked out of the house.
After Jia Ke left, Lanxiang called the little girl outside to come in and clean up Jia Ke's leftovers. Chuncao and Qiaolian did not go out to do their own things as usual.
After the little girl went out, Qiaolian couldn't help it at first and said mockingly: "In our house, there are some people who pretend to be dignified and generous on the surface, but in fact they are more slutty than anyone else. She is still a rich lady, bah."
Lan Xiang didn't seem to take her words seriously. With a smile on her face that never disappeared, she said softly: "You are not young anymore, why are you still so naive? We people are born to serve.
Damn it, if I want it, why don’t you take the initiative to get close to me? You don’t have the ability, so don’t blame her for getting there first.”
Qiaolian was usually very eloquent, but she was so speechless that she couldn't say a word.