After Qin Chuan obtained the military tally from the Empress, he handed it over to Zhang Chaozong and An Dingguo.
Then, the Ministry of War was instructed to issue orders to the border defenses and battalions in the northwestern and southwestern provinces.
Troops were drawn from various places. Those who followed Generals An and Ma on the northern route would meet at Longmen Pass; while those who followed Zhang Chaozong to be in charge of the feint attack on the southwestern route would meet at Binghu Town on the Xiang River.
According to the system, the generals commanding the Beijing Garrison, the Border Garrison, and the Provincial Garrison did not have the authority to mobilize troops, but only the authority to command them. The authority to mobilize troops rested with the Ministry of War, and even if the Ministry of War issued a mobilization order, it was not enough; a military tally was also required...
In other words, both the military tally and the order to mobilize troops are indispensable.
Therefore, whenever someone leads troops into battle, they need to obtain both the troop deployment order and the tiger tally to have true command authority.
Once a battle ended, the commanding general had to return the tiger tally to the emperor. If he failed to return it within the stipulated time, he would be considered a traitor, and his entire family left in the capital would suffer...
This system has been in place since the time of Emperor Taizu, and has never changed. Moreover, in over a hundred years, there has never been a case of a general failing to return the tiger tally.
Therefore, since the Empress ascended the throne, she has firmly held military power in Dagan.
...
Qin Chuan attached great importance to this western expedition. Although victory was assured, he was also afraid that excessive killing would affect his later rule over the Western Regions and the Jiang Kingdom.
Therefore, before the army set out, he personally issued three military orders.
"First, we cannot massacre the entire city."
"Second, one must not commit crimes such as indiscriminate killing, rape, kidnapping, or arson."
"Third, spoils of war and prisoners of war must not be disposed of without authorization; they must all be sent to the capital."
With the example of the rewards given during the last campaign against the Xiongnu in the south, each person was promoted three ranks and then rewarded with silver three more times. The first time it was less than ten taels, the second time it was twenty taels, and the third time it was another fifty taels. With such rewards, how could the soldiers dare not obey orders?
They were all yelling excitedly, thinking only of setting off as soon as possible, returning victorious, and receiving their rewards.
...
After seeing off Zhang Chaozong, An Dingguo, and Ma Yuxiang, Qin Chuan received a letter from Jiangsu and Zhejiang.
The letter was written by Song Lian. In it, he said that the army to suppress the Japanese pirates had been expanded to 30,000 men, and the women's battalion had also been expanded to 10,000 men. The main problem now was the lack of money and food, and he hoped that the court could send money and food as soon as possible...
"This Song Lian, he's done it so fast, expanding his army from five thousand to thirty thousand in one go..."
"And this Zhu Dongyi is even more terrifying. He expanded from a few hundred to ten thousand people in one go. From now on, we can't call him the Women's Battalion anymore; we'll probably have to call him the Women's Army..."
Thinking of this, Qin Chuan was too lazy to write a reply, after all, his handwriting was ugly...
Instead, he directly summoned Ma Shijun, the Left Vice Minister of War, and said to him:
"Go to Jiangsu and Zhejiang and tell Song Lian two things."
Ma Shijun stood with his hands at his sides, listening respectfully to the Prince of Yan's instructions.
After stepping out from behind the desk, Qin Chuan stood with his hands behind his back and said calmly, "The first thing is to rename the Women's Battalion as the Women's Army and promote Zhu Dongyi to brigadier general."
"The second thing is to have him keep an eye on the progress of the Jiangnan Shipyard. The construction of the dragon boat is related to the navy's sea voyage plan, so we can't be careless. Have him keep a close watch on it and report any problems in time."
"yes!"
Ma Shijun responded and prepared to take the order and leave.
Qin Chuan stopped him and tossed him a golden token: "Take this token and go to the South Granary to collect 200,000 shi of military rations, and also go to the National Treasury to collect 100,000 taels of silver. Send them all to Jiangzhe. Oh, and also take 500,000 jin of potato, corn, and sweet potato seeds and send them to the Jiangzhe military camps."
"Tell Song Lian that there is no need to recruit any more soldiers. In the next phase, just keep training, clear land and cultivate fields, plant new crops, and keep an eye on the Japanese pirates to prevent them from landing."
Ma Shijun noted everything down, then took the token and left.
After dealing with this matter, he was summoned by the eunuch to the Empress's study.
The moment the Empress saw him, she had a eunuch bring over a huge stack of memorials. A hint of worry lingered on her beautiful face as she placed a hand on her forehead and said, "Husband, take a look! These are all requests for money from local government offices. I'm so worried..."
The memorials were piled high on the rosewood table. Qin Chuan picked up the top one, opened it, and saw that it was submitted by the governor of Shandong. The content was roughly that the road repair funds had been subsidized to private individuals whose land had been occupied, so the funds were insufficient. The road was not even half-finished before the money ran out, and the governor requested the court to allocate more funds.
Looking at the following memorials, they all contain similar content: the road wasn't even half-finished, or only half-finished, and they ran out of money...
Qin Chuan tapped his fingers lightly on the table, and couldn't help but rub his forehead: "I remember calculating exactly how much money was needed. The Ministry of Works and the Ministry of Revenue of each province calculated it together. And they're telling me that we're out of money before the road is even half finished?"
He thought to himself, if it's already so difficult to build a "county-to-county" road, what will happen if we build a "village-to-village" road in the future... how corrupt will it become?
Money, money, money! You don't know the cost of firewood, rice, oil, and salt until you're in charge of the household!
Everyone in charge was asking him for money...
The Empress took a sip of tea and said softly, "The money must have been embezzled."
Upon hearing this, Qin Chuan slowly nodded. Although the system of "anti-corruption allowances" had recently been implemented, these corrupt officials still tried to tamper with the road construction funds; their greed was insatiable...
Even if Xiao Yue led the Imperial Guards to kill several people in each province, it still wouldn't be enough...
The Empress then handed him a memorial, which was presented by Lai Mingchuan, an imperial censor from the Censorate.
In his memorial, Censor Lai clearly documented how this group of corrupt officials colluded with local gentry to engage in corruption—
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