Please ask me to be the emperor

"Are you Jiang Xiang?" Zhang Shun couldn't help but ask as he looked at the disgraced and tied-up man in front of him.

"Kill if you want, no need to say more!" Jiang Xiang couldn't help but said stiffly when he saw Zhang Shun's kind face.

"My brother Jiang Rang and my brother Jiang Xuan are both wise generals. If I die, my brothers will avenge me!"

No, since you are so stubborn, why did you add the last sentence?

Zhang Shun didn't know whether to laugh or cry, why are you guys so virtuous?

Before Zhang Shun could respond, unexpectedly, the former Shanxi governor Sun Chuanting suddenly jumped out and cursed: "How dare you be rude, beggar!"

"This...how do you say this?" Zhang Shun was stunned when he heard this, but he was very surprised and said in his heart: Sun Chuanting is also a cultural person after all, why did he resort to personal attacks?

Unexpectedly, Sun Chuanting smiled and explained to Zhang Shun: "Your Highness does not know something. There are also rich and poor in this important town on the nine sides of the Ming Dynasty."

"The richest among them is the two towns of Jiliao. Not only do they have more soldiers and generals, but their military pay is also far higher than that of other towns."

"Next to Sanbiaer, Xuanda is the poorest, with military pay ranging from 40 to 70 yuan, and most of them are in arrears. Most of them owe pay for seven or eight months a year."

"But now there are natural disasters in three places, and the price of rice has skyrocketed. Therefore, among the soldiers in the three towns of Shanxi Province, there are some who sell their children and women, some who eat grass roots and bark to satisfy their hunger, and some who beg along the streets."

"The army looks like beggars, so everyone calls it the 'Beggars Army', the 'Beggar Army', and the 'Begging Army'!"

"Stop talking, stop talking, please stop talking!" Jiang Xiang, who was still very tough at first, couldn't help but put his hands on his face after hearing this, feeling that he was shameless in front of others.

It turns out that there was a trend of extravagance in the late Ming Dynasty. People were proud of their wealth and ashamed of their poverty. This is exactly what the saying goes: "laugh at the poor but not at prostitution."

Therefore, the three towns of Xuanda Shanxi, as nine-border towns, were exposed, and Jiang Xiang immediately felt that he could not hold his head high as a human being.

Tsk tsk, Zhang Shun finally understood after hearing this.

The appearance of the famous "Datong Mother-in-Law" in love turns out not to be enjoyed by these "thieves with the army", but to provide "re-employment" for the families of these "thieves with the army".

"Really so poor?" Zhang Shun couldn't help but be a little disbelieving.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, a recruitment system was implemented. Although the Ming court was seriously in arrears and delayed in paying, at least it was "well paid" in name.

The newly recruited soldiers not only received a monthly salary ranging from two to three taels, but also received an additional ten taels of Anjia silver.

However, hearing what Sun Chuanting meant, how much money did the Ming Dynasty border army actually have?

"This Ming Dynasty has a distinction between 'army' and 'soldiers'!" Sun Chuanting couldn't help laughing after hearing this.

"The so-called army refers to the soldiers who guard the station; the so-called soldiers refer to recruiting soldiers."

"The monthly salary of the guardsmen is as usual, one stone of grain and four or seven taels of silver, so many soldiers fled."

"And the recruitment of soldiers is divided into the north and the south, the old and the new. The soldiers from the south originated from Wuyue, originated in Qinantang, and are thicker than the soldiers from the north. The soldiers from the north are recruited from the guards, and they are recruited according to their status. All the native people who are recruited are the same as the guards. military."

"There is a difference between the old and the new, sooner or later. In the early days, Qi Nantang recruited soldiers from Jinhua and Qu, and the monthly salary was one to two and five cents, which was enough to feed two people, which was quite generous."

"At the end of Wanli, there were frequent military campaigns in Liaodong. "Each soldier was paid eighteen taels of silver," which was the same as that of soldiers in the south."

"At the beginning of the Apocalypse, in Liaodong, 'each soldier could use approximately 2 taels per month at the original discount', of which 8 taels per month for old soldiers and 3 taels per month for new soldiers."

"However, the three towns of Xuanfu in Shanxi are not as good as Jiliao in the east where they face Hou Jin Dynasty directly, and in the west they are not as good as Yansui where the rebel armies are rising. Therefore, there are many soldiers in the north, many old soldiers, and very little food and salary."

"To cover its land and wages, it relies on three types of farming, the democratic movement and the Beijing Movement. However, natural disasters have occurred frequently in recent years, and most of the land has been depleted, and farming has been abandoned. Rebels have arisen, and most of Shaanxi has been occupied by the rebels. Henan has lost two prefectures and one state, and has been "Jia soldiers, Shanxi Town has frequently lost soldiers and commanders, so the arrears of the people's movement have become more and more serious; only the capital movement is left, which is not enough."

"Nowadays, the price of grain in Xuanda is so high, "four taels of rice and two taels of millet," so all the soldiers in Xuanda are beggars!"

Zhang Shun was stunned when he heard this, and suddenly had mixed feelings.

No wonder the Ming army was able to fight in small-scale battles, but once it engaged in large-scale battles, it would definitely lose.

It turns out that due to the unbalanced economic development between the north and the south and the frequent disasters in the north, a situation was created where "the north has money but no food, and the south has food but no money."

The Ming court failed to get what it wanted, and instead repeatedly raised taxes and salaries to cope with the current dual economic and military crises.

The natural result is that the more taxes are raised, the more rogues there will be; the more taxes are raised, the more intense inflation will be in the north.

As the saying goes, "Don't worry about the shortage but the inequality." The imperial court tried harder to maintain the situation, recruited new soldiers, and increased their pay. As a result, the contradictions between the north and the south, between the old and the new, and between the soldiers became more and more prominent.

This is also the economic reason why the Ming Dynasty's frontier troops performed well in small-scale battles, but were bound to fail miserably in large-scale battles.

Of course, Zhang Shun is also indispensable in this process.

His "food war", which he purchased for five million shi, pushed up food prices by unknown amounts, which in turn led to the prostitution of sons and daughters and the exposure of corpses in the wilderness in towns such as Xuanda, Jiliao and Houjin.

Thinking of this, Zhang Shun couldn't help but sympathize with Jiang Xiang.

He couldn't help but asked in a gentle voice: "Is what Mr. Sun just said true?"

"It's true." Jiang Xiang couldn't help but lower his head in shame, humming two words in his throat.

"As a general of the Ming Dynasty, do you want to drink the blood of soldiers?" Zhang Shun became more and more curious after hearing this.

"I am an upright and honest general, how can I be such a person!" Jiang Xiang couldn't help but deny it loudly after hearing this.

"I am just transferring the pay of those old and weak soldiers who are no longer able to be used as soldiers to other places, and raising the servants who are good enough to serve the country."

"Oh?" Zhang Shun did not comment on this, but asked, "I wonder how many soldiers you have now, how much food and salary, how many servants, how much food and salary?"

"I have 1,107 soldiers under my command. The infantry is paid four cents per month, and the cavalry is eight cents per month. Among them are 219 servants, the infantry is paid one tael per month, and the cavalry is paid one tael per month. Two coins." Jiang Xiang hesitated after hearing this, then answered.

According to Sun Chuanting, today in Xuan Da, there are "four taels of stone and rice, and two taels of millet." Based on this calculation, an ordinary infantry's monthly salary is enough to buy twenty-four kilograms of corn, or twelve kilograms of rice. The Ming court really sent beggars away!

Zhang Shun couldn't help but patted Jiang Xiang's shoulder heavily and said with emotion: "Qing Guo is a loyal minister!"

"The Ming Dynasty treats you like this, and you still don't rebel. This really makes me admire you with admiration."

"At this moment, it would be an unjust act for the king to lure her with money again."

"In this case, I will collect the grain and silver into the warehouse, and then send all the heroes off!"

Wait, wait, can we not only survive, but also change our family and continue to receive food and wages?

"Wait a minute, I wonder how much money King Shun wants to pay me?" Just when Jiang Xiang was embarrassed and didn't know how to speak, a soldier had already asked loudly.

"The people under my jurisdiction are poor and have very little silver. Therefore, they only pay the soldiers a monthly salary of rice and millet and one stone, and they are paid out in full every month." Zhang Shun couldn't help but feel ashamed.

"If you do it, you can make two liang of millet and one stone of rice, and four liang of rice and one stone. It's worth it no matter what. I don't want to do it anymore, I want to follow King Shun to conquer the world!" The cavalry were stunned when they heard this, and suddenly started shouting.

Jiang Xiang was stunned when he heard this. He turned around and saw that his soldiers were already about to surrender. I am afraid that in a little while, he will become a bare general.

He quickly touched the bottom of his forehead and shouted in a low voice: "Unexpectedly, if King Shun is so benevolent and righteous, Jiang is willing to march forward for the king, just by driving!"