"Wu Sangui, Gao Di, Wang Yongji, Huang Degong, Yan Yingyuan, Tang Tong and others are stationed at the northern border, with hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses. Add to that the three major camps in the capital and the Yongwei Camp, and there are nearly 200,000 soldiers available in northern Zhili alone!"
"The Jiannu suffered heavy losses the last time they entered the pass. I think they will not dare to enter the pass again in the near future. Even if they dare to enter the pass, they will not be able to break through the defense line of our Ming border troops!" Li Banghua said in an extremely firm tone.
Chongzhen sighed helplessly: "Lord Li, it's not that I don't want you to go, but Nanjing is a place of trouble. If you go there, you will be in danger."
Li Banghua sighed, staring at the gold bricks under his feet, and said, "I am old now. While I can still hear and see, I will do my best for the Ming Dynasty."
"Your Majesty, please grant me this."
Chongzhen stood up, and after some hesitation, he finally made up his mind: "Since Lord Li is willing to go south to provide disaster relief, I will grant your wish..."
"Your Majesty, I have something else to tell you." Li Banghua suddenly interrupted Chongzhen.
"Mr. Li, please speak."
"I may kill some people when I go to Nanzhili."
Chongzhen almost laughed out loud.
Killing people is good, he has killed many people since he traveled through time. But even so, he only managed to purge the Beijing court, and he has not killed any people in the Nanjing court so far.
Chongzhen originally wanted to tell Li Banghua to kill without hesitation, to kill boldly, and the more the better.
Considering that this would cause Li Banghua to misunderstand, Chongzhen changed his words and said, "Lord Li can kill people, but he must ensure that the people killed are those who deserve to be killed."
"Your Majesty, rest assured that I will never kill innocent people."
After confirming that Li Banghua was going south, Chongzhen gave him some more instructions.
Two days later, Li Banghua quietly left Beijing.
The day before he left, a series of secret letters were sent from Beijing.
A small number were sent to the southern provinces, and most of the letters were sent to Southern Zhili.
The city of Nanjing was hot and stuffy in mid-July.
Accompanied by the chirping of cicadas in the trees, horses galloped past on the road and into the large courtyards on the roadside.
A quarter of an hour later, the servants pushed open the gate, looked in the right direction, and disappeared around the corner.
In the afternoon, Zhu Guobi, Liu Kongzhao, Zhao Zhilong and Xu Wenjue gathered in a remote teahouse.
Zhu Guobi took out the secret letter from his arms and threw it on the table, saying in a low voice: "Everyone, there is news from the capital that Li Banghua has gone south as an imperial envoy."
Liu Kongzhao nodded and said, "The disaster relief envoy Li Banghua set out from the capital on the fourth day of July. He first took a carriage to Tongzhou and then took a boat to travel by water."
"If nothing goes wrong, it will arrive in Nanjing in late July or early August."
"Bullshit disaster relief envoy!" Zhao Zhilong cursed. "On the surface, it's disaster relief, but in fact, it's an audit."
Liu Kongzhao stared at Zhao Zhilong and asked, "From what Brother Zhao said...your account has not been settled yet?"
Zhao Zhilong asked back, "Have you settled all your accounts?"
Zhu Guobi and Liu Kongzhao nodded at the same time.
Their accounts had been settled at the beginning of the year, and the court could not find any problems even if it wanted to investigate.
"Fuck you!" Zhao Zhilong began to curse: "Although the current governor of Nanjing Jingying has been replaced by Liu Wenbing, the specific affairs below are still handled by me, the former governor."
"Previously, the deficit of the Nanjing Military Camp was as high as one million taels of silver, and successive governors have solved this problem by eating up the empty salaries. Tell me, how can the account of eating up the empty salaries be settled?"
"It's not that there is no solution," Liu Kongzhao began to offer suggestions. "Isn't Shi Kefa streamlining the Beijing garrison? Can't we just reduce the vacancies in the name of dismissing the old, weak, sick and disabled?"
It would have been fine if Shi Kefa had not been mentioned. But when Shi Kefa's name was mentioned, Zhao Zhilong gritted his teeth and said, "Shi Kefa is really abominable! He is indeed dismissing the old, weak, sick and disabled soldiers, but all the dismissed soldiers must be registered and verified by their military department."
"Where can I find ten thousand unfamiliar faces?"
The three fell into a brief silence.
Zhu Guobi blinked his eyes and said, "Since we can't reduce the vacancies, why not prepare several hundred thousand taels of silver? Just say that this is the vacancies you found since you became the governor of the Beijing camp. You didn't report it in order not to offend people. Now that someone from the capital has come, it's a good time to hand it over."
Although Zhao Zhilong didn't say anything, others could see the unwillingness in his expression.
The annual idle salary of 10,000 people is 180,000 taels.
He served as the governor of the Nanjing Beijing Camp for three years, and the amount of unused salary he ate up was as high as 540,000 taels.
Before, he put 540,000 taels of silver into his pocket, and now he has to take the silver out of his pocket. No one would be willing to do this.
Seeing that Zhao Zhilong didn't speak, Liu Kongzhao looked at Xu Wenjue.
The previous Duke of Wei, Xu Hongji, had just passed away. Although Xu Wenjue had not yet inherited the title, all affairs in the palace had been handed over to him.
"My dear nephew," Liu Kongzhao said, "your father was in charge of the Nanjing garrison, and your uncle Zhao was the governor of the Nanjing Beijing Camp. Your uncle Zhao was able to eat empty salaries thanks to your father's support. No, it should be said that both your uncle Zhao and your father were eating empty salaries. Now Li Banghua is coming to check the accounts. What do you think we should do?"
Xu Wenjue certainly knew that his father Xu Hongji was also drawing a salary without working, otherwise he would not appear here.
"How about...pay out the unused wages?" Xu Wenjue suggested.
"Ridiculous, how can we take out something we have eaten?" Zhao Zhilong glared, "The most urgent thing is to destroy the evidence."
"How to destroy the evidence? Set fire to the Nanjing Ministry of War?" Xu Wenjue replied unhappily.
Liu Kongzhao suddenly interrupted and said, "My dear nephew, you are indeed a man who will make a big splash if you don't make any noise!"
Zhao Zhilong and Xu Wenjue were both stunned and looked at Liu Kongzhao.
Zhao Zhilong asked hurriedly: "Brother Liu, do you have a solution?"
"Me?" Liu Kongzhao smiled bitterly. "The Ministry of War is the territory of civil officials. I can't do anything about it! But... Ma Shiying and Qian Qianyi have planted many confidants in the court and the local areas. There must be a way."
"Are they willing to cooperate?" Zhao Zhilong asked puzzledly.
"Why wouldn't I be unwilling? The world is bustling with people all for profit. As long as you are willing to spend money, there is no account that cannot be settled!"
"What's more, they themselves have bad debts and deficits, otherwise there wouldn't be so many prefectures and counties surrendering without a fight."
Zhao Zhilong and Xu Wenjue exchanged glances and said to Liu Kongzhao at the same time: "Please ask Earl Chengyi to help make the connection."
"No, no, no," Liu Kongzhao shook his head quickly, "You guys can just go find them directly, I won't get involved."
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