Two chubby cats walked into the house along the wooden corridor. They first came in to hide from the rain, shook their bodies, and then paced back and forth in the house. They were not afraid of people. Their yellow eyes scanned around and finally stared at Lu Yijian's table. They jumped up and squatted beside the small porcelain plate.

Old men like Lu Yijian and Wang Zeng are already in their sixties or seventies.

At this time in history, they were almost dead, and they were able to hang on to their lives because, firstly, they were not like in history, where they were demoted and transferred to various places to be appointed as prefects and had to run around everywhere, and secondly, they had antibiotics to treat their illnesses.

As long as it is not a terminal illness that is sure to kill you, common inflammations, including pneumonia and other diseases, are basically not fatal.

However, as I got older, my appetite became very poor. I could only eat a little bit on weekdays and started to eat small meals frequently. There would be some snacks such as cakes and jerky on the table.

The palace had always allowed the keeping of cats to catch mice. They were pampered everywhere and had long been spoiled. They stretched out their claws to grab a piece of jerky, but instead of biting it and hiding in a safe place to eat it, they lay on the plate and started to gnaw on it.

"Damn it!"

Zhao Jun had just finished reading the first batch of documents delivered by the imperial envoys today when he felt his liver rage rising. Just as he was about to slam the table and stand up, he looked up and saw two cat servants on the table next to him looking at him.

They lay on the plate with their front paws still holding the jerky, but their heads were looking towards Zhao Jun, their small eyes full of confusion.

Seeing this, Zhao Jun had no choice but to put down his hand that was about to slam the table and swallow his anger.

“Whoosh!”

The two fat guys each grabbed a piece of jerky, jumped off the table, and slipped away through the side door.

Several prime ministers working nearby looked over.

Yan Shu stopped writing and asked, "What's wrong, Hanlong?"

"The Imperial Guards in Jingji Road and Kaifeng have been cleared. This is the note just sent by the Ministry of War. These people are truly amazing."

Zhao Jun threw the document in his hand onto the table.

Military registration matters are handled by the Ministry of War, so normal non-emergency reports are first submitted to the Ministry of War and then to the Constitutional Council.

Fu Bi has been organizing and summarizing the things he collected over the past few days.

After watching this today, Zhao Jun was so angry that his nose almost got crooked.

Wang Zeng waved to several clerks working nearby, signaling them to go out first.

After everyone left, the crowd gathered around.

Lu Yijian took the document, opened it and casually read a few pages, then passed it to many prime ministers to read.

Li Di frowned and asked, "Why is this noble general so guilty of so many dirty things?"

"Not only the nobles, but also the ordinary generals."

“But they still did the bulk of it.”

"Good boy, you're eating so much of the free food, aren't you afraid of stuffing them to death?"

"This is still considered a small amount. Look at this. We are reselling our Song Dynasty's weapons and equipment to Xixia."

"How can they possibly fetch such a high price for our fragile weapons and equipment?"

"There are always good ones. The good weapons and equipment will be sold, and the bad ones will be left to our soldiers. Fortunately, we have firearms, otherwise, wouldn't the last war with Liao and Xia be ruined?"

"They even dare to sell hand grenades! They also withhold the cloth given by the court to the soldiers. In the past, only the soldiers in the garrison had ragged clothes, but now the imperial guards..."

"This is even more outrageous. Killing the remaining personnel and falsely claiming resettlement and burial expenses is truly abhorrent!"

Several prime ministers trembled all over after reading it.

In fact, the prime ministers are still very concerned about the remaining staff.

What many people don’t know is that in addition to providing living care for those with disabilities or those over 60 years old who became surplus workers, the Song Dynasty also provided other work arrangements.

Most of them would be arranged to serve as ceremonial guards, slaves, household servants, grooms, sedan chair bearers, etc. for the court dignitaries.

Especially after becoming the prime minister, most of the servants in the family are such leftovers. Although they are a bit old, they still work very diligently and efficiently, so the prime ministers take good care of these slaves.

As a result, no one expected that such a horrific thing could happen in the army. Even if it happened only rarely, it still represented the dereliction of duty of the imperial court. Moreover, this was only what was discovered, and there was no telling how many more were left undiscovered.

"Let's have a meeting!"

Zhao Jun looked around, then stood up and walked towards the meeting room.

He originally thought it was just a matter of collecting a salary without working.

The more I investigated, the more worried I became.

Eating unpaid wages, beating and scolding soldiers, and deceiving superiors and subordinates in the army are just minor matters.

They even dared to sell weapons, cloth, horses and food.

Even people died.

You really don’t know until you check, and you’ll be shocked when you do.

The entire Song Dynasty army was almost rotten from top to bottom. Apart from the elite troops trained by Lao Fan in the northwest, there were few good ones.

This means that the only soldiers who can fight in the entire Song Dynasty are the 200,000 or so soldiers trained by Lao Fan in the northwest.

The remaining registered population is around one million.

Among them, there were more than 600 imperial guard camps and more than 200 garrison camps in Jingji Road and Kaifeng Prefecture, with a total of more than 400,000 people, and the shortage reached as much as 90,000.

This was still Bianliang, the capital of the Song Dynasty.

It's even worse at the local level.

It would not be an exaggeration to calculate the shortage as one-third or even one-half.

I'm afraid that out of the more than one million registered people, the actual number is around 700,000, which is already too many.

I really don’t know what kind of star-studded scene will be presented to Zhao Jun once the nationwide investigation is completed.

"I knew that the Song Dynasty's imperial guards would be transformed into garrison troops and even slaves. Today I finally saw it."

Zhao Jun entered the meeting room and couldn't suppress his anger at the first words he said: "The Song army is really rotten to the core. How can they fight a war like this?"

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