"You can take the heads of these gangsters back. Killing so many people must be a great achievement. I didn't expect that among the brothers who followed me, I was the first to do it alone."
"But everyone is tired. It's been a hard night running around again." Sun Baihu wiped his face and said with a smile.
Su Ziji nodded: "Thank you for your hard work."
"Why don't we count the bodies and collect the belongings first? We can't delay burying the pots and making rice. We'll go back after we finish eating."
Su Ziji's words were immediately approved by Sun Baihu.
"After a busy night, I just feel hungry! You guys go to collect some firewood nearby." Sun Baihu casually nodded to a few people and asked them to go quickly.
He directly sat down on a stone. Although the stone was cold in winter, as soon as he sat down, Sun Baihu subconsciously squinted his eyes and felt immediately comfortable.
The other soldiers managed to count the corpses and gather the belongings. Without even counting the quantities, they were already staggering around and sitting down with many people.
"Someone help! Don't let this sheep get away!" About a tea time, a few people left shouted.
"You actually pulled back a wild sheep? Good luck!" Sun Baihu turned around and found a wild sheep that had been pulled back. It was fighting with several people, trying to escape.
Different from domestic sheep, this kind of wild sheep looks very ferocious at first glance, and its horns are also very sharp. If it is poked, it may leave multiple holes in its body.
It wasn't until someone ran over with a jar that the man pulling the sheep stabbed him and wiped the wild sheep's neck.
"Hurry up! Don't waste this wild sheep's blood!" Someone must like this thing. The person who brought the sheep back did not forget to tell his colleague who used a jar to collect the blood.
Sun Baihu has already found a way to eat the sheep: "Roast it directly and divide it evenly!"
Because in the wild, there is no food except dry food, this wild sheep has indeed solved the problem.
As the sheep sizzles and roasts, Su Ziji and Sun Baihu continue to "divide the spoils."
The four cavalry teams, not counting land and houses, confiscated a total of 84,000 taels, including cash, banknotes, and light silk cloth. It can be seen that the southwest cavalry team has become rich in smuggling in the past two years.
Eighty-four thousand taels of snowflake silver were enough to feed the Southwest Army for a period of time. You must know that the military pay shipped by the imperial court to Southwest this time was only 800,000 taels. The silver copied out in these two days and three nights was one-tenth of the army's pay silver.
1.
How not to shock?
Of course, this is also because the six cavalry teams knew that the money was full of blood, so most of them exchanged banknotes and minted private money. They did not spend much on land and houses in order to prepare for quick transfer if something happened.
Much.
Normally, the opposite is true for large households, with a lot of land and little cash.
That is to say, of the 84,000 taels, half of the 42,000 taels were handed over to the court, and another 21,100 taels were given to Eunuch Zhao. Maybe Eunuch Zhao would also donate part of it to the emperor.
Of the remaining 21,100 taels, another 5,000 taels are given to the county soldiers as labor expenses and pensions. Each person has a small amount of 30 taels, and a large pension of 100 taels.
Sun Baihu only had 16,000 taels left in his hand, which he still felt he could bear. Otherwise, with such a large amount, his caution would make his hands burn and he would not dare to take it.
"Mr. Su, yours is eight thousand five hundred taels. I'm afraid you won't be able to bring the silver back to the capital. I found some banknotes later that can be exchanged in the capital. I did the math and found that it's just enough for you." p>
With that said, he took out a stack of banknotes, both large and small, and handed a thick stack to Su Ziji.
Su Ziji put them away without even counting them.
Seeing this, Sun Baihu naturally felt more comfortable. Su Ziji asked: "I heard that housing prices in the capital are expensive, is that true?"
"Mr. Su, sooner or later you will settle down in the capital. In fact, as for houses, there are small courtyards that are as cheap as 150 taels. But you are an official and cannot be like ordinary people. This is against the dignity of the court. You must at least buy a courtyard house, or just
I want 1,000 taels!"
"The life of a Beijing official is leisurely, but the job is to have banquets. If you don't go to the banquet or entertain guests, you are not included in the officialdom. Therefore, it is more leisurely. At least one or two hundred taels of entertainment a year."
"Beijing officials often need to enter and leave the palace and important government offices. They pay a lot of attention to their appearance. If they always wear a few old clothes, they will be laughed at. This will cost at least several hundred taels."
"There are also carriage fees, bullock carts, and servants. Many occasions cannot be attended on foot. It may add up to another seven or eight hundred taels a year."
"So not having one thousand five hundred taels a year is not considered decent."
"Thank you for getting this money. Otherwise, if you were to become a Jinshi or enter the Hanlin Academy, you would still have to work hard for five or six years." Sun Baihu got a lot of money and was in a good mood. As he introduced it, Su Ziji seemed to have something to say.
Thoughts.
When Sun Baihu went to his confidants to share the money, Su Ziji also called Ye Taoist, took out the banknotes, counted out thirty of them, and gave them to Ye Taoist.
"The maximum amount of these banknotes is one hundred taels. There are thirty in total. All of them are given to you."
"We were able to wipe out four cavalry teams this time. You were the first to do it. If it wasn't you, you wouldn't have been able to steal so much money."
"I can't claim credit for you in person for the time being, but you can't work hard in vain. Three thousand taels is considered your drink money, so take it!"
"Sir, this..." Three thousand taels of wine was a bit too expensive. The wild Taoist, who was dazzled by the amount, was still in the mood to complain in his heart.
"I can't accept this money. It's my job. Since it's my job, how can I accept this money?" The wild Taoist took his eyes off the banknote and declined.
Su Ziji pushed back again: "This little money is nothing. If you don't accept it, how can rewards and punishments be clearly defined? Besides, living in the capital is not easy, how can you live in the capital?"
The wild Taoist looked at Su Ziji and saw the smile and seriousness in his eyes. After hesitating, he started laughing.
"Thank you, Master, then I will accept it!" The wild Taoist took it and stuffed it into his arms.
The two were talking and saw that it would take some time for the wild sheep to be roasted. The wild Taoist took the opportunity to remind Su Ziji: "By the way, sir, this horse team is smuggling. I don't think it's right to say that Qian Zhidong has no knowledge of it."
Very possible."
"All six cavalry teams have a business of selling weapons to enemy chiefs. This is not a small business, it is a big business worth thousands of taels each time. Where do so many weapons come from?"
"How did these horse teams pass the checkpoints along the way?"
"I think there must be something going on here. Qian Zhidong either took advantage or wanted to play tricks on the enemy chief so that he could always benefit from the court."
"There are also a few letters, which I found earlier. I have read the contents of the letters, and they don't seem to be inappropriate, but there should be code words."
The wild Taoist said and handed over a few letters.
Su Ziji opened it, read them one by one, and frowned: "This letter doesn't look abnormal, but it's really just daily greetings. Why write so many letters and keep them all?"
"Looking at the clues left behind, if I had known better, I would have stopped and killed them all."
But then I thought, even if I were left alive and I really saw the secret of these letters, these letters alone would not be able to bring down Qian Zhidong.
What he was waiting for was actually an opportunity.