Chapter 81 Adding fuel to the flames
Six hundred stones, the merit of twenty poems.
This is indeed true in terms of numbers.
But according to the organization of ordinary officials, the various subsidies enjoyed by the officials with six hundred stones are enough to double their annual salary. If it is the six hundred stones in a position of real power, the amount will be even more astonishing.
Xi Zhicai is now in Leping. The extra subsidies he enjoys, including expenses on wine and beverages and the supply of pens, ink, paper and inkstone, are not much less than the real six hundred shi.
In comparison, the reward of thirty stones for the first merit in this battle seems to be a lot, but what about the reality?
The reward for one poem is less than one-tenth when it is distributed among the soldiers in the back row. Unless they are willing to take the risk of death in the next moment and become the ones in the front row who break the formation with long weapons, the team can only get twenty poems if they kill or capture 200 people.
This is a result that would be difficult to achieve even after accumulating several battles.
But it did not prevent Xi Zhicai from giving himself some motivation to get a promotion and a raise because of this calculation and comparison method, especially -
Not just for yourself!
As expected, I still have to push Qiao Hou up again!
Otherwise, not only will the annual salaries of high-ranking civil servants and military officers not be increased, but they will also not be able to come up with enough chips to recruit more talented people.
Guo Jia couldn't help but roll his eyes when he heard what he said.
"If you really envy the reward for this poem, you can go to the battlefield and kill the enemy yourself. Two years ago, I heard you say that you would go up and down the mountain ten times by yourself. Now, you must be wearing armor and carrying a big banner, so it is not a problem for you to march a thousand miles."
Xi Zhicai: “…”
That's not necessary.
The weight of the large banner was as high as 160 Han jin, which is 40 kilograms according to modern data. It was an important symbol of the central army's guard of honor.
It’s better to leave this kind of thing to Dian Wei.
As for him...he might as well go and have a chat with Mr. Mi Zhu from the Mi family in the East China Sea.
Xi Zhicai undoubtedly did not expect that Qiao Yan would dare to directly propose a reformed version of the first-merit system as the standard for evaluating the merits of his soldiers at this time.
With her current reputation and the fact that Leping is far superior to other places in Bingzhou, it would not be a bad idea to mobilize the masses just for the reason of protecting Leping and stabilizing Bingzhou.
It was because none of the Leping County residents, refugees, and Black Mountain bandits who made up these soldiers were willing to return to the living conditions they had three years ago.
But she dared to come up with a reward system whose framework was still crude, and she had her own decision on the matter. This made Xi Zhicai happy, not surprised.
This is the appearance of a wise leader that a person who wants to hold a high position at least above that of governor should exhibit.
So the question is, the prerequisite for this reward system is sufficient food.
While yam planting consumed soil fertility, it also helped accumulate rice for the first three years, but this did not mean that this method could continue to be used when the population expanded and wars became more frequent.
Bingzhou's so-called fertile land for cultivation is subject to strong geopolitical restrictions, and the pattern of animal husbandry in the north and agriculture in the south is difficult to break.
This has already reduced the arable land by half.
However, the Xiongnu and Xianbei people outside Bingzhou were not easily subdued, which meant that long-term expenditure was required to manage the border.
During the past two years, the inventory in Leping treasury can still support consumption, but this may not be the case in the future.
It would be better to introduce a foreign aid.
Since we have to introduce foreign aid to fill the food gap, we might as well focus on this member of the Mi family of the East China Sea who has fallen into the trap.
Don’t think that Xi Zhicai couldn’t see it. He might have gone for his fishing rod at first, but now he is more interested in things like toothpaste and soap, and is keenly aware of the potential market for these things.
Unfortunately, this thing is not like the curved plow that is being studied in the academy now, which can be learned by people just after seeing its appearance.
If he really wants to do this business, he has to negotiate the price with Leping.
Because of the letter sent by Qiao Yan, Cheng Li had to worry about the allocation of granaries. So, as a free man, he might as well go find Mi Zhu and set a trap.
He chatted with Guo Jia for a few words and then planned to go out to find someone.
Suddenly, Guo Jia said, "It's a clear autumn day, I'm going out to relax."
He looked at the other person suspiciously, feeling that the meaning of the words was not that simple. "Where can I go to relax?"
Guo Jia yawned, then slowly stood up with the wine jar in his hand, "Let's go to Pingzhou. We can sober up if we walk a little further."
Inside the main tent of Pingzhou's military camp, Qiao Yan sat with a pen in his hand.
The mulberry paper in front of her was already filled with her definitions of how performance in combat should be judged, but there were also a lot of waste papers lying on the ground.
Seeing her tangled expression, Dian Wei said nonchalantly, "If you want to know the rewards and penalties for killing a general and capturing a flag first, let me try it once next time we meet in battle, and you'll know. Anyway, I'm not a person who lies."
Qiao Yan paused with his pen tip, and a little ink mark spread on the paper. "...It's ok for you to say this here, but don't say it outside."
Dian Wei's words really aroused hatred.
Qiao Yan was a little conflicted. If he were put on the battlefield, beheading, which was not easy for others, would be as easy as eating and drinking for him and Zhao Yun.
Zhao Yun is still okay, he will take priority over commanding the army, but Dian Wei is suitable for leading the guards to break the formation, it is obvious...
In that case, could it be possible that he could earn 2,000 stones in one battle?
Qiao Yan felt something was wrong.
In this case, should she set a price for the annual campaign?
Qiao Yan realized that he had to add another restriction in this regard, so he wrote another one on the paper to avoid a serious imbalance in benefits between civil officials and military generals.
Dian Wei scratched his head. He didn't understand why Qiao Yan told him not to go out and say that, nor did he understand why Qiao Yan looked at him with a hint of gratitude.
But he had a hunch that this thank you was not a good thing.
But this restriction, or setting an upper limit for military generals through fixed rewards, is undoubtedly necessary.
The lethality of top military generals on ordinary soldiers will be further amplified if faced with the attack of cavalry on infantry.
For example, outside the Wei family fortress at this time.
Li Le just heard the commotion of his troops behind him and turned around quickly, but he saw the extremely ferocious cavalry charging into the formation with an astonishing momentum of breaking through the formation. In a flash, they had already rushed in for a long distance, like a boat cutting through the waves on the sea.
He took a breath of cold air, and immediately saw that behind the young general holding the spear, there were several hundred infantrymen, who had trapped them in the middle in a short time -
Caught between the attacking enemies from the rear and the Wei's fortress wall in front.
But these large numbers of soldiers and the impending difficulties could not completely divert his attention from Zhao Yun.
This is really a general whose performance is too amazing.
It was so astonishing that when the young man rode his horse and charged forward, in front of the flowers created by his spear, almost no one could have the ability to sweep away the sharp edge, and no one could withstand the sweeping and piercing attack!
It seemed like just a moment's change, and Li Le saw that the other party had already rushed straight towards the leader who was closest to him and shot him up with a gun.
The sky, which had just brightened, was suddenly splashed with a puff of hot blood.
Facing the powerful charge of the cavalry, and with such a terrifying commander in chief, there was absolutely no chance of survival for anyone who was hit head-on.
When Li Le saw this sudden change, he immediately clenched his teeth, as if the person hit by the cavalry was not the unlucky guy, but himself.
Who could have made him recognize immediately that the leader who was killed by Zhao Yun who broke through the formation and attacked directly was none other than Yang Da, who was sent by Yang Feng to act with them!
This is too unlucky...
He couldn't stop complaining in his heart.
At a time when he had not yet made preparations to win over the followers left behind by Hu Cai's death and then turn against Yang Feng for power, Yang Da's death here would do him no good but only harm and intensify the conflict between the two sides.
But in fact, Zhao Yun was not a randomly chosen target.
In the previous battle in the mountains, he had met Han Xian before because he had fought against him and let him go. At this moment, with the dim light of dawn and the vision while sitting on horseback, it was enough for him to recognize the man.
Recognizing Han Xian did not prevent Zhao Yun from further recognizing Li Le, who was not too far away from him.
The fact that these two people were sticking together was too obvious, which made another person in the other direction who also had the tendency to be surrounded and protected stand out.
Since Hu Cai has already died, it is more likely that this person belonged to Yang Feng's camp.
After Zhao Yun realized this, he decided to kill this man first without hesitation!
Before the battle, the commander must make his own judgment. After all, there is no time to ask Qiao Yan and get feedback.
Then let’s do it!
As he swung his spear to kill the enemy, Zhao Yun heard the soldiers around him shouting "General Xiao Yang" and was sure that his almost assassination-like move was not wrong.
The tip of his gun immediately deflected the weapons from Yang Da's troops that were attacking him, and he was no less powerful than before after killing the first one.
Moreover, with the rest of the cavalry pressing in behind him, this group of people advancing in unison would never give Yang Da's men a chance to seek revenge.
The infantry behind the cavalry were also incredibly fierce.
But this is not difficult to understand, because the people of Leping had just been announced to the system of beheading as a merit, and they were divided into groups of five before they followed Zhao Yun and Zhang Yang into battle.
Now is the opportunity to earn a fortune for yourself!
Before they left, Qiao Yan had instructed them that the purpose of this battle was to deter and kill, and that they didn't need to pay special attention to the rule of taking prisoners as replacements, and that they should just kill the enemies first, and then talk about it later. Then they would be more relaxed.
"Let's go! What are you standing there for? Let's go!" Han Xian pulled Li Le, who was almost stunned by Yang Da's death, and ran back.
If Zhao Yun could recognize him, how could he not recognize Zhao Yun!
When Han Xian saw again the guy who almost dealt him a fatal blow last time, he almost collapsed on the spot.
Last time, due to the mountainous terrain, the enemy could not advance directly on horseback, but now they can.
Judging from Zhao Yun's fatal shot, he was obviously more adapted to fighting on horseback.
There was no time to think about why Zhao Yun appeared here as if he had seen through their whereabouts. The only thing they could do was to run away!
Han Xian was particularly grateful that he was still some distance away from Zhao Yun, which gave him a chance to escape.
Li Le, who was helped by him, immediately realized that now was not the time to worry about Yang Da's life or death, and it was more important to save his own life.
If the enemy only had infantry, he might be able to gather some people and think about resisting, but now there are cavalry!
The casualties caused by the cavalry attack were enough to cause his men to flee quickly. If he didn't leave now, he would not be able to leave later.
The two commanders reached a consensus and chose to flee, which made things difficult for their subordinates.
During the battle between the two armies, the situation where one side was fleeing while the other side was pursuing could easily further widen the advantages and disadvantages between the two sides, not to mention that Zhao Yun and Zhang Yang were also tasked with killing these Baibo bandits.
When the life-threatening sound of horse hooves no longer sounded behind Han Xian and Li Le, they finally confirmed that they had escaped. They looked behind them to see how many people there were, and there were clearly only a few cats and dogs.
Fortunately, unknown to them, Zhao Yun had somewhat held back on these people, allowing them to gather their men again later.
In this embarrassing situation, Li Le asked in a low voice: "What should we do now?"
what to do?
Han Xian took a glance at the subordinates who had caught up with him and knew why Li Le asked such a question.
For any commander, repeated defeat is an extremely terrible thing, especially when defeat means that one's life is in danger. For those who choose to become bandits, it is a heavy blow to their morale.
The reason they followed them was not so much that they were still loyal to the two of them, but rather that they had no other choice but to follow the thieves.
But if they could not explain the failure of the robbery and the loss of soldiers and generals, they would probably become the souls killed by these people immediately, which could also be used as a token of their loyalty to Yang Feng!
Han Xian frowned and whispered, "Find a scapegoat."
Yes, they had to find a suitable scapegoat.
People like them would never be willing to find faults in themselves, and even less willing to admit that the gap in strength between them and the Leping Marquis's men, who seemed to be a surprise attack from heaven, was so huge.
So we can only let others take the responsibility for this defeat.
Considering that they couldn't offend Yang Feng to death, lest they lose sight of the remaining followers in the mountains, the two men rolled their eyes and understood each other's thoughts very tacitly.
Who could be the target of this blame?
There is only Xu Huang!
Han Xian immediately walked towards Yang Feng's men who came with Yang Da. Even though the other party glared at him, he did not change his pace and walked towards them. He immediately said, "Listen to me first."
Seeing that the other party hesitated and stopped, Han Xian struck while the iron was hot and said, "The Marquis of Leping doesn't have an extra pair of eyes or a brain like other people. He should know that he shouldn't know our actions so clearly. We just arrived outside the Wei family's fortress, and they arrived right after us. What's going on?"
Wei Ji has a sense of crisis that lives up to the homonym of his name, which is something that those who think the Wei family can be bullied cannot understand.
Therefore, after hearing what Han Xian said, Yang Feng's followers really felt that there were some problems.
"What does Han Shuai mean?"
"Our whereabouts must have been reported to the Marquis of Leping, which led to today's disaster." The more Han Xian tried to shift the blame, the more he felt that this might be the case, and he almost convinced himself.
He continued speaking naturally: "General Xiao Yang is also in the team. With General Yang's concern for him, he will never implicate General Xiao Yang in order to get rid of the two of us. Of course, General Yang is kind-hearted. Since he accepts General Li and I here, he will naturally not say one thing in public and another in private. Only if we help each other can we have a chance to fight against the Marquis of Leping."
"Who do you think could have done this in this situation?"
"General Guo or...Xu Huang?" The Baibo thief, who was guided step by step by Han Xian, spoke subconsciously.
"I'm afraid Xu Huang is more likely to do this!" Li Le immediately replied.
"Since he thought it was not feasible for us to besiege Wei's Fortress before the action, he would naturally not let us succeed! Leaking the news and using others to stop our actions would not only prove that what he said was true, but also prevent him from arousing any suspicion. Isn't this the most advantageous situation for him?"
"But... General Xiao Yang and he are both Marshal Yang's right-hand men, right?" Yang Feng's subordinate was quite puzzled.
"How can a right-hand man be compared to the only person you can rely on?" Han Xian said in a heavy tone, "Besides, how do you know that Xu Huang has no intention of replacing General Yang?"
"Of course, these are just our guesses. We just told Yang Shuai that we were ambushed by someone else."
After Han Xian finished speaking, he sighed again, showing an attitude of "I will never sow discord between them" and that he had no choice, making the Baibo bandit who was led by him to speak even more confused about the current situation.
He could only think that when he saw Yang Feng, he would tell him the truth about today's situation. Yang Shuai would definitely know better than him how to judge.
It’s a pity that they escaped in such a hurry that no one even managed to rescue Yang Da’s body, and they didn’t know how to explain to Yang Shuai.
The soldiers below were thinking about these things. Han Xian and Li Le, who were in the lead, were observing their performance, fearing that their words might not be able to successfully deceive these people, so they formed an unusually silent team.
But it was not known whether it was God's help, but before they returned to the mountains, they happened to run into Xu Huang's team again.
However, compared with the difference in the number of people when they went down the mountain, the number of people on the two sides is now almost the same.
not to mention--
It is no exaggeration to say that Xu Huang returned with a full load.
The faces of the men pushing the grain carts were filled with obvious joy, and what they said among themselves was that it was the Zhao family of Naji County who was strong on the outside but weak on the inside that caused a huge gap in the mental outlook of the two groups.
When the two sides meet, there is nothing but a clear distinction and a sharp contrast.
Han Xian and Li Le felt extremely uncomfortable.
They even felt that the look Xu Huang gave them was a mockery of them.
But this is really unfair to Xu Huang.
He was a generous and honest person, so he would never have any intention of taking advantage of others' misfortune. At most, he looked at the crowd and suddenly frowned and asked, "Where is Yang Da?"
But it would have been fine if he didn't ask. As soon as he asked the question, the people in front of him all gave him looks that were utterly resentful.
Xu Huang would never mistake this look.
When this kind of undisguised blame comes together, it is more difficult to admit mistakes.
He intuitively felt that something might have happened to Yang Da, but he was afraid that it was more than that. Faced with the other party's behavior, he had a bad premonition.
Compared to these Baibo bandits running back and forth, Qiao Yan felt much more comfortable.
She didn't know how the "far away is fragrant, near is smelly" mentioned by Xi Zhicai would play out when these bandits were put together and faced with a joint attack from Zhao Yun and Zhang Yang.
But the only difference is whether she can take the opportunity to recruit Xu Huang under her command and whether she can capture more prisoners.
This difference cannot change one fact.
When she stepped out of Leping after two years of rest, what she wanted was a victory with an outcome that could not be changed.
Today's development is moving towards this goal.
In this sufficiently calm mood, although she was stationed in Pingzhou at this time, she did not change her previous habits in Leping.
They started practicing shooting, archery and horse riding in the morning. By the time the training was over, the sun had risen completely.
It was at this time that Guo Jia arrived in Pingzhou.
He was brought in front of Qiao Yan, and saw that she had not slacked off at all despite leading the troops outside. At this moment, she took the silk handkerchief handed to her by the servant beside her and wiped the hot sweat from her forehead and neck.
Because she had just put down her gun, the sweat-absorbing cloth wrapped around her wrist had not been removed yet. When she turned her head to look at Guo Jia, she felt a sense of...
Probably in a state where I could knock him down with one punch.
"Why are you here?" Qiao Yan was a little surprised to see him coming here alone.
Of course, the first thing he said was quite surprising.
Guo Jia tried to move his gaze away from her wrist and instead looked into her eyes, and replied, "Jia thinks that the first merit system proposed by Marquis Qiao is still questionable, so I came to see you."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
