Please ask me to be the emperor

Zhang Shun, who was worried about history in the Ming Dynasty, certainly didn't know that he was actually facing exactly the same problem as Li Zicheng back then.

Suddenly became a "nouveau riche" and swallowed up a vast area of ​​Shaanxi in one fell swoop.

However, the number of civilian officials under his command is not enough to support the government structure, and the newly-demoted officers and soldiers are eager to feed and are ready to take action, and the enemies outside are eyeing them.

So Li Zicheng resorted to the following tricks.

1. Send senior generals to take control of the military; 2. Put forward the slogan of "three years of free food", which will not be collected for a while anyway;

3. Use methods of torture and robbery against the gentry and bureaucrats to raise military expenses; 4. Establish a civil service system as soon as possible and move towards formality.

But judging from the results, Li Zicheng still overestimated his own abilities and the level of his opponents.

Zhang Shun came from a later generation and obviously had a much deeper understanding of Shaanxi issues than Li Zicheng.

"What do you think is the crux of the problem?" Zhang Shun vented his temper and then asked with a normal expression.

"Short of money?" Zheng Chongjian couldn't help but guess.

"What do you think?" Zhang Shun was noncommittal when he heard this, but looked at Ding Qirui.

Ding Qirui had been in Ningxia for a long time and had a good understanding of the local situation. He couldn't help but nodded and said: "Lack of food!"

"What do you think?" Zhang Shun couldn't help turning his head and looked at Zhang Bojing and Hong Chengchou.

"Uh" You two looked at me and I looked at you, not knowing how to respond.

On the contrary, Wang Shiqin was born as a general and had a hot temper. He couldn't help rolling up his sleeves and stood up and said: "Okay, don't ask others, let me say this!"

"The key lies in Yulin Town, right?"

"You guys!" Zhang Shun shook his head and said with a smile, "Discuss public matters and private matters, no matter how coy you are, you are not as happy as my father-in-law!"

"That's right, this is Yulin!" Zhang Shun nodded.

Isn't this nonsense?

Nowadays, generals from Yulin are almost everywhere in the three sides and four towns. If you control the generals from Yulin, you will control Shaanxi. Who doesn't know this?

"Tell me, I only have these 180 kilograms. If you want to kill or behead him, it's up to you!" Wang Shiqin said forcefully, squeezing his neck.

"Taishan, what are you doing?" Zhang Shun couldn't help but asked in shock after hearing this, "Why are you so ready to kill and cut into pieces?"

"What you just meant, didn't you mean to cross the river and demolish the bridge, unload the mill and kill the donkey?" Wang Shiqin couldn't help but sneered after hearing this.

Hong Chengchou, Zhang Bojing, Ding Qirui, Zheng Chongjian and others broke out in cold sweat upon hearing this.

"Hahaha!" Zhang Shun couldn't help laughing after hearing this.

Yes, that’s my plan, but I can’t say it directly!

He then patted Lao Taishan Wang Shiqin and said: "Fame and fame come from horses, how can a man not be named a marquis?"

"All the men in Yulin are good-looking and have the qualifications of veteran warriors. But after they have made great contributions to the Ming Dynasty, they just want to rest on their merits and eat the salary of King Qin?"

Wang Shiqin couldn't help being stunned when he heard this, and suddenly looked ashamed.

It turns out that this man from Yulin has always been proud of the "loyalty and chivalry festival" and pays attention to the concept of gaining fame and fortune from horses.

Although in private, there are unavoidable appearances of being under the patronage of ancestors, taking empty pay, occupying acres of land, etc., these are not dignified and despised by others.

Therefore, Zhang Shun raised the most important question to him.

The Yulin generals surrendered to me, do they want to threaten me with their strength, or are they preparing to follow me and make achievements and gain fame for themselves?

In fact, because northern Shaanxi is a small area, the people are poor, and it is close to the border areas, there is no warlord tendency here regardless of the geographical environment or folk customs.

So when Wang Shiqin heard Zhang Shun's words, he was ashamed.

However, he is also a generous person.

Since he felt that he had misunderstood Zhang Shun, he couldn't help but laugh and said: "When it comes to making achievements, as long as the King of Qin upholds justice, we are no worse than anyone in the world. I just don't know what the King of Qin's plan is to avoid suspicion from everyone above and below?"

"First of all, I don't care what happened to you under the Ming Dynasty!" Zhang Shun said with a smile. "I can't use my King Qin's sword to kill his Ming Dynasty officials!"

"But, firstly, I want to verify the number of men, horses, weapons, etc., and secondly, I want to verify the income from the land tax. Is it okay to count the grains distributed by the people and the rewards based on their merits?"

"How much is the salary?" Wang Shiqin was quite old. Of course, he would not be deceived by Zhang Shun's empty words, so he asked the key points.

"Our army is not as wealthy as our officers and soldiers. Each person is given one stone of food, rice and wheat per month, and the full amount will be distributed throughout the month!"

"If there are meritorious services, seizures or festivals, there will be special rewards!"

Originally, Wang Shiqin almost laughed when he heard that Zhang Shun offered a monthly salary of "rice, wheat and one stone".

But when I heard "full term payment", I was stunned again.

"Fully full term?"

"Full term!"

"Okay! If this is true, the wealth and lives of tens of thousands of people in Yulin will all be sold to King Shun!" Wang Shiqin said after being silent for a long time.

It turns out that Yulin Town and the whole of northern Shaanxi have not had much rain for eight years. It cannot be said that there is no harvest, and there has long been a situation of "people cannibalizing" everywhere.

Otherwise, if Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong, Luo Rucai and others are full, they will rebel with their heads high?

The salary offered by the Ming Dynasty was very high, about two taels per month, and the rations were three cents and three cents. However, only God knows how much they actually received.

Although Wang Shiqin had resigned long ago, as far as he knew, Yansui Town was now in arrears with military pay for more than a year, and many soldiers had to sell their sons and daughters to beg for a living.

No matter how much money you have, it's useless if you can't get it.

No matter how much money you get, it's useless if you can't exchange it for food.

People are about to starve to death. No matter what reason they talk about, it won't work. All that works is a morsel of food!

In fact, the military pay standard set by Zhu Yuanzhang in the early Ming Dynasty was one stone per month for ordinary officers and soldiers, and two stones per month for cavalry.

Only with the changes in the economy and the corruption of the system, the military pay of the Ming Dynasty was set higher and higher, while the soldiers became poorer and poorer.

In fact, the principle is very simple. What Jiubian lacks is materials, not silver.

Apart from layer upon layer of exploitation, no matter how much money the court issued, if there were not enough supplies of food, cloth and other daily necessities, it would only cause prices to skyrocket and the soldiers to be miserable.

And this is exactly the case. In fact, in Yulin City today, even if the Ming Dynasty pays all the military pay, two pieces of silver cannot buy enough one stone of food.

Therefore, being able to get a monthly salary of rice, wheat and a stone is completely worth accepting Zhang Shun's harsh conditions for everyone in Yulin.

"Okay!" Zhang Shun couldn't help laughing when he saw Wang Shiqin agreed.

"Tomorrow we will mobilize 100,000 shi of grain. Wei Zhiyou will lead 3,000 troops to escort them, and Ding Qirui will recruit 20,000 men to transport them to Yulin for me."

"This, this." As soon as Zhang Shun finished speaking, everyone couldn't help but look at each other.

But Lu Weiqi was almost on the verge of crying. He finally raised 200,000 shi of food, but you spent half of it on me just by opening your mouth.

After Wang Shiqin was stunned for a moment, he couldn't help but threw himself to the ground and said with tears: "King Shun is kind and righteous, on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of people in Yulin, I would like to thank King Shun for his grace to survive!"