Chapter 200 I Don’t Want to Be a Loyal Servant!
Ever since Si Yuan decided to train Lin Shu, he no longer pretended to be an ordinary Licheng citizen.
Si Yuan took out capital to support Lin Shu in doing business.
No matter what Lin Shu's future plans are, it is always a good idea to make more money. Moreover, doing business will allow him to encounter all kinds of people and things, which will be a good training for him.
But Si Yuan was very strict with Lin Shu, and he could not neglect his studies and martial arts even if he was busy with business.
Lin Shu was very smart and used Fang Yuan's connections to get in touch with the Fang family, and then used the Fang family's connections to quickly build his own network.
Out of gratitude to Lin Shu, Fang's father and mother were willing to help Lin Shu. Lin Shu did not let the Fang family just pay, but also gave the Fang family huge benefits in return.
Although he had helped Fang Yuan and was indebted to the Fang family, the favor was not huge. The two generous gifts given to him by the Fang family completely offset it. If he demands without restraint, sooner or later this kindness will turn into hatred.
It would be better to be more generous and make money together with the Fang family, and use the huge profits to tie the Fang family to his own warship.
After Lin Shu came into contact with the Fang family, he began to trust their character. Fang's father was honest and tactful in doing business, Fang Yuan's eldest brother was a dutiful and filial person, and Fang's mother had a slightly strong personality but also had bottom lines and principles.
In addition to the relationship with Fang Yuan, Lin Shu was willing to cooperate with the Fang family.
However, Lin Shu always kept Si Yuan's teachings in mind, and did not betray him only because he did not have enough chips.
If you want people to be loyal to you, you have to increase the cost of their betrayal.
Therefore, Lin Shu still kept some backup plans to ensure that even if the Fang family stabbed him in the back, he would not suffer too much loss and could even take over some of the Fang family's businesses.
If the Fang family had not betrayed him and had honestly cooperated with him for mutual benefit, this backup plan would naturally never have been activated. But if the Fang family betrayed him...
Lin Shu had not revealed this back-up plan to anyone else except his father.
After listening to Lin Shu's report, Si Yuan was somewhat relieved: "It's important to be on guard against others. You did a good job."
As for the words "Don't have the intention to harm others", Si Yuan never said it to Lin Shu.
Things are never black and white. Lin Shu does not want to be a great sage who is a role model of morality. The way of a gentleman is not suitable for him.
So Si Yuan did not teach him the way of a gentleman.
With Si Yuan's help and advice behind the scenes, Lin Shu's business with the Fang family grew bigger and bigger, and they made more and more money.
And the money earned was naturally used to buy food and weapons.
Lin Shu originally wanted to join the imperial army and gain a position where he could hold military power, but after learning how corrupt the imperial army was, he gave up this plan.
Because it is impossible for a soldier to make a name for himself in the army. Unless he comes from a noble family, even if he has made achievements in the army, the credit will only be taken by his superiors, and he will have no hope of promotion.
Moreover, in most places, it is common for the army to collect empty salaries. The weapons in the warehouses have long been rotten. The soldiers may not even be able to fill their stomachs, and they cannot even get their salaries. It can be said that joining the army is to suffer and seek death.
After learning that he could only be a small soldier and would never get ahead in the army, Lin Shu gave up the idea of joining the army. Instead, he studied for the imperial examination more seriously, intending to pass the test and gain fame.
He had no intention of becoming an official, but with fame and honor, he would be regarded as one of the gentry's own, his business would go more smoothly, and he would be better able to establish connections with certain officials and get these officials to do him favors.
After all, the purchase of forbidden items such as salt, iron, military equipment, etc. depends on these corrupt officials.
In order to give gifts or bribe corrupt officials, one must have a certain status to be able to enter their door.
Having achievements in one's career is the best stepping stone. As for money, Lin Shu has no shortage of money at all as his business is now on track and making a lot of money.
Lin Shu secretly trained an army in a valley near the north of Licheng. All the soldiers were strong soldiers trained according to the training methods taught by Si Yuan. If you want strong soldiers, you naturally have to spend money like water.
Lin Shu always kept in mind what Si Yuan taught him - build high walls, store up food, and slowly claim the throne.
Now is his dormant period, so naturally he has to pretend to be loyal to the court on the surface.
The uprisings in various places are enough to make the current imperial court anxious, but the current emperor can still continue to live in peace and prosperity, thinking of cracking down on dissidents in the court, all thanks to the deception of those local officials.
In order to avoid being blamed by the imperial court, the local officials either lied and reported the uprising to be of low severity, or suppressed the news of the rebels and did not report it to the court.
The emperor thought that the whole world was peaceful and the people respected him as the emperor.
Little did they know that fires had already begun to break out all over the world.
It was not until the rebels had already entered the city, killed officials and occupied the city, and the situation had become a big deal, that the matter was brought before the emperor.
When the emperor learned of this, he was furious and sent troops to suppress it.
However, the army, which had not fought for many years, was now called out again. Those soldiers had big waists and round bellies, and they were out of breath when they ran. The armor they wore seemed to be made of paper, but not everyone had such paper-like armor, and their swords were so rusty that even the blades were blunt.
How can such an army be deployed to fight? But no one dared to report this to the emperor, because the emperor would be furious and would investigate why this happened.
Those who embezzled military pay, resold military equipment privately, and made a fortune from the annual military funds allocated by the court will all be doomed.
And how many people in the entire court have never stretched their hands? Even if I didn't do anything, are my relatives and friends innocent? Won't it implicate myself?
So, the entire court was silent, watching the emperor send such an army to suppress the rebels.
Of course, the rebels were just a mob, a group of starving peasants with hoes but no land to farm and no food to eat.
But the imperial army was not much stronger than them. As a regular army, it did not even have an equipment advantage over the rebels, let alone other things.
These soldiers were so tired just from traveling that they didn't want to move, let alone go to the battlefield with rusty swords and fight a group of peasants in their eyes.
Therefore, the only ones who were forced to fight were the able-bodied men from ordinary families. Who among them would be willing to throw away his life on the battlefield? Not to mention that the imperial court would not issue any pensions at all. Even if it did, the money would be embezzled and would not fall into the hands of their families. Naturally, everyone was very afraid of death on the battlefield. They could not fight head-on and wanted to desert as soon as the war started.
As for the rebels, although they were also a makeshift group, they knew that if they broke into the city and killed the officials, the imperial court would send troops to suppress them. If they did not resist, they would die, so they were determined to fight the imperial army to the death.
Both sides were a motley crowd, and in comparison, the rebels, who had high morale, seemed to have the advantage.
Soon the emperor received news of the defeat of the imperial army.
The imperial army that went to suppress the rebels had just started the direct battle, and before many people had died, there was a mass desertion of soldiers. The army was defeated before the battle even started.
However, the general leading the troops did not dare to take the blame and could only report to his superiors how powerful the rebels were, with more than 100,000 rebels. His army of only 50,000 was no match for them at all. After a desperate fight, they were almost completely wiped out by the rebels.
When the news reached the emperor, it was reported that the rebel army had grown to a size of hundreds of thousands.
The emperor, who was an expert in internal strife, was frightened. How come there were suddenly so many rebels?
The emperor hurriedly summoned troops from all over the country to suppress the rebels. However, at this time, a rumor spread in the capital - the defeat was caused by that useless general who could not fight. The rebels were not so large at all, otherwise how could they occupy only a small county? Moreover, the current emperor is the chosen one by heaven, so how could there be such a large-scale anti-rebel force? The general must have lied about the military situation in order to reduce his own responsibility for the defeat.
When the emperor heard this, he thought it made a lot of sense. How could there be so many rebels under his rule? That bastard must have deliberately lied about the number of rebel troops in order to shirk responsibility for the defeat!
The emperor once again sent people to investigate the true situation of the rebel army. The defeated general had indeed lied about military intelligence, so the truth was revealed as soon as the investigation was carried out.
The emperor learned that the rebel army was just a makeshift group of refugees, and that the reason the imperial army was defeated was because the defeated general embezzled the military funds. The army had less than 10,000 soldiers and did not even have weapons to fight, so naturally they were defeated.
After the emperor found out the reason for the defeat of the imperial army, he was furious and executed the entire family of the defeated general.
Originally, the emperor wanted to investigate the case of embezzlement of military funds in detail, but he was fooled by the civil and military officials in the court. They worked together to push the blame of corruption onto the defeated general, and then the matter was reduced to a small one.
The emperor had not seen with his own eyes how corrupt the army had become, so naturally he did not realize how serious the corruption in military funds was. He thought it was just an isolated case of the defeated general.
In addition, the most important thing now was to suppress the rebels, so the emperor put the matter of investigating military corruption behind him and sent troops to suppress the rebels again.
The troops sent out this time were much better than the last time. At least no one dared to embezzle all the military funds allocated by the Ministry of Revenue. At least all the soldiers could wear armor and hold swords, and they could have enough food during the war.
After all, everyone in the court knew that if the suppression of the rebels failed this time, the embezzlement of military funds would be unbearable. Naturally, they did not dare to embezzle all the military funds this time, so they at least kept half of it.
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