The Prosperous Era of Longwan

Wei Guangde didn't know if anything happened in Zhenwu Camp in Nanjing City in history. He just looked at the soldiers when he entered the city, and his intuition told him that there was something wrong with those people.

Okay, now that I have attracted the attention of my father-in-law, it can be considered as a precautionary measure, which is always good.

"You don't know, tomorrow is twenty, when Zhenwu Camp gathers for drills according to regulations. If you don't mention it, I haven't thought of it. I haven't noticed that the Ministry of War has made any move to send military pay to Zhenwu Camp. I'm afraid it will be sent out tomorrow. If we don't go down, those soldiers will start to make a noise, so we really need to be on guard."

Xu Pengju frowned and thought.

"Master Taishan, shouldn't you tell Huang Maoguan and Fang Youshan, who is in charge of the treasurer, to send the military pay? Then tomorrow's training will be all right."

Wei Guangde wondered.

"Hey, who knows what's in those gourds about those sub-officials? Let's go talk about it, others might think we're an eyesore."

Xu Pengju shook his head, "Ignore him, I'll gather my men first and do something to deal with it."

Wei Guangde had dinner at the Duke of Wei's Mansion before returning to the courtyard where he lived, which was not far from the Duke's Mansion.

But after entering the gate, Wei Guangde ordered Zhao Hu behind him: "Uncle Zhao, go and tell Liu Shouyou and the others not to go out tomorrow and guard the gate of the post house."

Wei Guangde pretended not to care in front of Wei Guogong Xu Pengju, but whenever he thought of the idle soldiers he saw on the street today, he felt extremely uneasy.

I'm afraid something is really going to happen.

During the previous banquet, Wei Guangde once again asked Lord Taishan to tell Huang Maoguan and Fang Youshan, the heads of the military department, to prepare soldiers' pay for Zhenwu Camp and not to push the soldiers below too hard, but it was obvious that Xu Pengju did not take it seriously.

Halfway through the drink, he used the excuse that he was not drunk enough and asked his two sons to continue drinking with Wei Guangde while he went back to the backyard to rest.

On the second day, flags were fluttering and war drums roared in the primary school grounds in the north of Nanjing City. More than 2,000 Zhenwu Camp sergeants gathered together. Today was the day for the entire Zhenwu Camp to gather for training.

Although the soldiers had no intention of practicing due to lack of pay, they knew that military law was ruthless, so the soldiers did not dare to delay such an important event as gathering for training.

Of course, there is another very important reason, that is, the whole battalion is gathered today, and many soldiers are still dreaming about whether they will be paid half a month's arrears of military pay today.

Since the establishment of Zhenwu Camp, it has been composed of a total of 3,000 selected elite soldiers from various camps and strong and agile men from Huai'an Prefecture and Yangzhou Prefecture, with honorable ministers as generals to guard against the coast guard.

But until now, Zhenwu Camp has not really been on the battlefield. Naturally, tens of thousands of taels of silver are poured into it every year, which makes Nanjing's Ministry of Households feel very disadvantaged. Moreover, due to the tight supply of food and wages in the northern border towns, Nanjing's Ministry of War can allocate As resources dwindle, nature becomes increasingly unpopular.

Those who came to inspect today were Nanjing's Minister of Household Affairs Zuo Shilang, Governor Huang Maoguan, garrison eunuch He Shou, Nanjing garrison Wei Guogong Xu Pengju, Zuojun Dufu and Admiral Cao Jiang Linhuai Marquis Li Tingzhu, as well as Zhang Hao and Li Sui from the Ministry of War. arrive.

Last year, they were deducted 20% of their salary. The soldiers of Zhenwu Camp were very dissatisfied with Huang Maoguan on the stage. Today, they were looking forward to coming to the small school field. However, except for Huang Maoguan, no one on the stage or on the stage asked for back pay. With such a look, they couldn't help but start talking in a low voice.

As for the performance of Qiu Ba in the audience, Huang Maoguan, who was a Jinshi, naturally looked down upon him, let alone wanted to receive military pay from him.

Although he also knew that it was not good to squeeze and default on soldiers' military pay in this way, the reserves of the Nanjing Ministry of Revenue had reached an extremely dangerous level. After being borrowed one million taels of silver by the Beijing Ministry of Revenue, the department's silver inventory had bottomed out. Secondly, Zhenwu Camp has not performed well since its establishment, so it is naturally looked down upon.

Look at the soldiers below. They have no military discipline at all. They are no different from sergeants. They are just like gangsters fighting in the streets.

What Huang Maoguan saw on the stage was no different from the reality. After seeing that the government did not send any money to replenish the military pay, the soldiers' energy had long been exhausted. Naturally, they could not stand or sit down. , a group of three, five, and five gathered together to curse the people on the stage, who cares about military discipline.

As for the big and small military leaders who stayed in the camp, they were also angry at this time. The soldiers couldn't get any money, and they, the commanders, naturally had no money to get.

Especially last month, Huang Maoguan actually had to check the pay and verify the identity of the soldiers before issuing money. As a result, they could not get the pay they could earn before. Naturally, they were even more dissatisfied with the man on the stage.

However, apart from scolding him in private, they really had no other way to vent their anger. He was a dignified third-rank official of the imperial court and a civil servant.

Seeing that the hearts of the soldiers below were unstable, and the military leaders were too lazy to take care of them. They had no money and were still in charge of the soldiers, many of them were thinking about whether to transfer out of this fire pit as soon as possible.

The generals, big and small, were gathering together and cursing, but no one went to organize the team, and no one went to see Huang Maoguan.

But Huang Maoguan was alone on the stage. When he saw the generals from Zhenwu Camp gathering in the distance, he didn't come over to greet them, and his anger continued to build up.

He was already considering whether to suspend the Zhenwu camp's military pay for three months as a warning to others. It was too lawless.

Seeing that the sergeants in the Zhenwu camp below did not look like generals or soldiers, Huang Maoguan was not in the mood to continue watching. He turned around, stepped down, and ran directly to the office south of the primary school ground.

This is a large area of ​​public housing. The Nanjing Household Department manages the distribution of food and salary to the guards in the Nanjing Camp. Naturally, there are public offices in the large school field and the small school field to facilitate the dispatch of military supplies.

His heart was on fire, so the proofreading was naturally omitted. Huang Maoguan strode into his office and asked the clerk to bring him hot tea.

Huang Maoguan felt deeply humiliated after spending a long time on the reviewing stand. He was a dignified third-rank official in the imperial court and was ignored by those Qiu Ba gang.

There was a time when warriors dared to be so rude to civil servants like them.

He made up his mind that this matter would not be settled that easily. He would first deduct three months of military pay. Huang Maoguan made up his mind at this moment to punish these soldiers severely, and the soldiers of Zhenwu Camp on the small school field At this moment, I was dumbfounded when I looked at the empty reading platform.

There are no more officials, so what are they still doing here?

But when everyone was at a loss, someone suddenly said, "When will the military pay be paid this month? The little one in the family is still waiting for food."

In an instant, a sad atmosphere quickly spread in the hearts of all the sergeants in the school grounds. Even though they were far away and couldn't hear what the people on the other side were saying, they still felt chilled by the atmosphere.

In fact, most of the soldiers here have families. The soldiers in the Beijing camp are better than those in the local guards. That is, the deductions are not as severe as those in the guards below, but they can still get 30% to 40% of the pay.

If I don't get any money to go back today, how long can I survive with the little food left at home?

My wife and children are going hungry, so how can I live this life?

In fact, as there was no military pay at the beginning of the month, the families of the sergeants were already tightening their belts and trying to save food. Thinking about the rice vat at home that was about to bottom out, it was inevitable that many sergeants would feel angry. burst out in this moment.

"Looking for the theory of being an official, when will you be paid?"

Among the crowd of soldiers, someone took the lead in shouting, and more soldiers responded immediately, and everyone started to cheer.

"Pay rates, pay rates"

"Repaying debts is a matter of course."

In fact, at this time, the dissatisfaction in the hearts of the soldiers has just arisen and is still accumulating. Everything is still controllable. As long as the commander comes out to yell and curse, the soldiers' mentality will collapse. But at this moment , but none of the military leaders, big and small, stood aside.

The leading generals looked at each other and shook their heads inconspicuously. Without their permission, the little military leaders under their command would naturally not think of stepping in to control the situation. Everyone remained motionless. There, we observed the development of the situation on the campus.

The generals who led the team sympathized with the difficulties of being a soldier. They had a large family of wives and concubines to support, and it was difficult for them now.

Maybe, if you make a fuss, you can change something. Will it be worse than it is now? If not, just find another way to transfer him.

At this time, what the leading generals were thinking about was not suppressing the sergeants in the school and controlling the development of the situation, but other things.

Although no one spoke, the looks in each other's eyes said everything.

One of the generals suddenly took the lead and turned around and walked towards the military camp. When his subordinates saw the boss leaving, they naturally followed him, completely ignoring the noisy soldiers behind them.

The remaining generals looked at each other, followed suit and turned around to leave.

The soldiers started to make a fuss, so they, the young generals, had better go back to the military camp first. Usually at this time, they would go to the street to find a tea house and tavern to eat and drink, but today they could not leave and had to stay in the camp.

As for what happened in the end, who cares, it's all because of the arrears of military pay.

The soldiers had no food to eat, and it was normal to cause trouble. Even the emperor did not want hungry soldiers.

In the past, the soldiers' pay disputes, which only occurred in border towns, finally broke out in the capital of Nanjing.

As more and more soldiers thought of their miserable plight, their emotions became aroused, and the noise soon resounded throughout the small school grounds.

The soldiers of Zhenwu Camp come from a complex source. Some of them are elites from other Beijing camps, but in fact they are the thorns in each battalion. Only those who do not obey discipline are sent here. They are said to be soldiers. Not an exaggeration.

As for the remaining soldiers from surrounding guard posts, such as Yangzhou and other places, many of them were actually idle gangsters in the local guard posts, but they were greedy for the treatment from the Beijing camp, so they tried their best to get here.

For these people, their status is easy to change, but their nature is hard to change. This is also the reason why a large number of noble disciples left Zhenwu Camp soon after they entered it.

Such a team is too difficult to lead.

Now most of these people have married and started a business. Although their lax habits are still there, they have families after all. When everyone started making noises, they were still worried. But after a while, they found that the generals not only failed to take care of them, but Walking towards the military camp, many people became bolder.

"It's the doggy officer surnamed Huang who doesn't give us a way to survive. We'll stop him at the government office today. We won't finish the day without paying military pay."

Finally, an angry sergeant shouted loudly, and then all the sergeants in the small school shouted in unison: "Unless the military pay is paid, there will be no end."

The shouts represented the voices of more than 2,000 people, and the sound shook the country. The generals of Zhenwu Camp who had just entered the barracks all heard the shouts. They stopped and looked back towards the small school field.

Already, some excited soldiers began to run towards the Ministry of Household Affairs Office in the distance. It was just a small group at first, but as they took the lead, more and more soldiers in the school began to move, and soon it became a group. A large group.

"Second brother, if they come to trouble Mr. Huang like this, nothing will happen."

Finally, some generals realized that something was wrong. Now the situation was raging and they couldn't suppress it, but something big was about to happen.

"It's a bit bad, but is there any way to do it? The person surnamed Huang will not be paid, and everyone will drink the northwest wind?"

"It's okay to make a scene, lest the man named Huang think that all of us in Zhenwu camp are cowards. Let the soldiers block the gate of the office and scare him to death."

Several generals stood inside the gate of the barracks, watching the crowd in the small school field in the distance rushing toward the Ministry of Household Affairs office, talking in low voices.

It's not that they are worried that the soldiers will make things worse. In the eyes of these generals, these small soldiers are just blocking the gate of the office and cursing. How can they pull out the official who they are all afraid of and beat him up to vent his anger?

When the fuss was over, Huang sent someone to look for them, and they went over to clean up the mess and take the people back to the barracks, and get their pay back for this month.

"Let's go in, drink and wait."

The man who was called second brother before looked at the soldiers of Zhenwu Camp going away and said with a relaxed tone.

The soldiers had all left the small school grounds. They rarely waited at the gate of the military camp and went into the camp to drink on their own.

At this time, Huang Maoguan was angry. He was really angry today. He was a Jinshi in the 17th year of Jiajing. Speaking of which, he had been in officialdom for more than 20 years and was a third-rank official in the imperial court. He had never been so angry. He was A group of Qiuba were embarrassed.

The relationship in the capital is indeed not very good, otherwise he would not be transferred to Nanjing, but in Nanjing, he is a prominent figure. If today's incident were to spread, others would not laugh.

Thinking of his anger, the tea in his hand no longer smelled good, and he slammed it to the ground.

"Danglanglang"

The tea cup hit the ground hard and broke into pieces, with large pieces rolling on the ground.

The door was suddenly pushed open from the outside. A clerk was already standing in front of the door, looking very panicked. As he pushed open the door of the public room, noisy sounds from outside entered the room.

Huang Maoguan was in a depressed mood at this time. Suddenly he saw the clerk barging in without announcing anything outside the door. He felt even more irritable, and the croaking noise in his ears made him even more upset.

At least he controlled his bad mood and didn't slap the clerk, "What's going on outside?"