Chapter 332 Chapter 331 Idiot

It was impossible for Wei Guangde to use his identity as an imperial censor to force back the pursuers behind him, so when he shouted, he mentioned the Jingying guards stationed in and outside Nanjing.

With the combat power of a unit in Zhenwuying, it was naturally a foolish dream to defeat many other guards.

At this moment, he pointed out this to make those soldiers sober up and think about the power comparison between them and the court. Don't think about ruining your life for a moment of happiness.

When Wei Guangde shouted at the soldiers rushing towards him, he secretly pulled the reins and turned the horse's head, ready to drive the horse to escape at any time. He didn't intend to lose his life here. If he didn't have confidence in the warhorse under his crotch, he would never do this.

At this time, although the people in Zhenwuying were still in excitement, especially many of them had seen the body of Huang Maoguan after being beaten to death.

A third-rank official, he was killed just by saying so, what else is there to be afraid of?

Without thinking too much, the soldiers of Zhenwuying now think that they are the best in the world, and who else is as awesome as them.

The military households of the Ming Dynasty suffered. Although the military households had iron rice bowls from the court, now this iron rice bowl is not only not fragrant, but has become a burden.

At the beginning of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, it has always been implemented in kind. Whether it is officials or soldiers, the salary is paid according to the amount of rice.

It was only during the Yongle period that Zhu Di, the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, built Beijing City on a large scale, and several northern expeditions caused the court to bear huge financial pressure. So some smart people came up with the method of discounting salaries, and there were also methods such as spices, ivory and other overseas treasures to offset salaries. These operations are actually a disguised compression of salary expenditures.

But no matter how it changes, the method of measuring in kind has not changed, but just slightly changed.

The treatment of military households was very good at the beginning of the founding of the country. There was no problem of not having enough food, and the treatment was even better than that of civilian households.

It was only after two hundred years of peace that the domestic economy developed rapidly, and things naturally changed with the passage of time.

The salary of the Ming Dynasty did not change at all during these two hundred years. The amount of rice and grain given at the founding of the country was still the same today.

If the payment was always in kind, the living standards of the military households would not improve, but at least would not regress too much.

However, under the policy of salary reduction, the salary of the soldiers not only did not increase but decreased.

Now, not to mention the income of farmers, even ordinary people working in the city can still have three or four taels of silver left after paying taxes and labor service.

As for the military households, whether it is military pay or other physical supplies, whether it is rice, cotton, iron, etc., after all the reductions, the annual income is difficult to exceed two taels of silver.

So, in these days, being a soldier is not as good as going to the city to sell your strength and earn more.

I have been living a hard life for too long, and now I suddenly realize that if this happens, it seems that many things can be changed.

Especially the Duke of Wei Xu Pengju, who was surrounded by them in the yard before, and the Minister of War Zhang Ao, who looked pale with fear.

And Huang Maoguan, who used to be arrogant in their military camp and didn't take them seriously at all, might have broken his leg when climbing over the wall, and was quickly caught by the soldiers who rushed over.

At first, Huang Maoguan still put on an official air, but after being beaten by the angry soldiers, he quickly changed his face and cried loudly for mercy.

In fact, Huang Maoguan still had a chance to survive, but someone found the memorial he was writing in Huang Maoguan's office. Although most of the soldiers were illiterate, there were some who could recognize some words.

The soldiers who could read looked at the memorial and quickly knew the content of the memorial by guessing. They were immediately furious and cursed Huang Maoguan, a dog official.

In the memorial, Huang Maoguan may have wanted to take revenge on the Zhenwu Camp, and he actually requested to abolish the grain for soldiers with wives and children, that is, regardless of whether the soldiers had families or not, they would be paid six dou of grain per month.

After the news came, the soldiers who surrounded Huang Maoguan immediately killed him, ignored Huang Maoguan's pleas for mercy, and beat him to death.

Even so, the soldiers felt unsatisfied, and dragged Huang Maoguan's body to parade through the streets.

Such actions were naturally seen by the spies sent by various families in Nanjing City. When they saw Huang Maoguan's body clearly, they were all horrified. No one expected that these soldiers would actually beat a third-rank official of the court to death and display his naked body to the public.

However, Wei Guangde had not received the news at this time, and he still stopped his horse to block the way for the soldiers of the Zhenwu Camp to advance.

His loud shout just now was naturally heard by the soldiers on the opposite side, and the soldiers in front were all horrified at this time.

It would be a lie to say that they were not afraid. They had forgotten what they were doing in their excitement. Now that the official opposite reminded them, all the soldiers realized that what they had just done was to kill officials and rebel. They had also threatened Xu Pengju, Duke of Wei, and Zhang Ao, Minister of War, in the courtyard of the Ministry of Revenue.

The soldiers in front were frightened and stopped in their tracks. The soldiers behind did not hear Wei Guangde's shout, but they were naturally blocked by the people in front.

Wei Guangde's words were quickly passed on to the back through the mouths of the soldiers in front. The leading soldiers behind also knew what was happening in front. In fact, some of them also realized the danger at this time. What they did was out of control after Huang Maoguan was killed.

But at this time, they had no choice. After all, they were just a small soldier and could not think of a solution for a while.

So while they assigned two people to go back to the military camp to find their superior officer, they also dispersed their manpower to greet the soldiers at Zhenwu Camp and try to control the situation.

They had just received the news that after knowing that the rebels had killed Huang Maoguan, those generals who had returned to the barracks had collectively fled the barracks and disappeared.

Obviously, they no longer want or dare to contact them. Their identity as rebels has been confirmed in the eyes of these generals. The next step is to wait for the imperial army to arrive and then be destroyed by overwhelming force.

Now several people here discussed together for a while and then ran to the front, and the soldiers consciously made way for them.

Wei Guangde was in a nervous mood at this time, worried that the soldiers would swarm up to capture him, and he would be used as a hostage to negotiate with the court, so he was always on guard and ready to run away at any time. This was also the reason why he did not let others follow him. They had no horses, so they might as well He runs fast.

Wei Guangde, who had been on the battlefield, was trying his best to exude what he thought was a bastard spirit at this moment, hoping to suppress the group of rebels, although he didn't know whether he had that murderous spirit.

Suddenly, Wei Guangde saw a commotion in the crowd opposite, and then they separated to the left and right, and a few soldiers wearing ordinary Ming army jackets walked out. His brows frowned slightly, and then they quickly relaxed. He had already guessed who was opposite.

The few people who came forward didn't say anything. They just cupped their fists at Wei Guangde and said, "Sir, we have been deducted from military pay by the dog officer named Huang, and wantonly defaulted on military pay. We are all people who have to support our families, and there is really nothing we can do today." That’s why I did this, I hope you can forgive me.”

Xu Sheng had already said before that it seemed that Huang Maoguan was killed by the rebels. At this time, Wei Guangde wanted to ask clearly, so he said, "What about Mr. Huang?"

As soon as he finished speaking, he noticed that the expressions of the people opposite him changed slightly. One of them, who looked a little more honest, said, "Master Huang broke his leg when he climbed over the wall. Later, later..."

As they talked, Wei Guangde noticed that the faces of those people were getting more and more ugly, and he knew that Huang Maoguan was probably beaten to death by them. This matter would be difficult to handle, and how to escape from it was also troublesome.

However, Wei Guangde's eyes rolled, and then he loudly answered without waiting for the loyal soldier to tell the details: "I know, Mr. Huang accidentally fell to death when he climbed over the wall. This naturally has nothing to do with you, please hurry up Go back to the military camp quickly and wait for the court's order. You are not allowed to make trouble in the streets without orders."

Unexpectedly, the dog officer on the opposite side spoke like this. The soldiers were all stunned, but then they were all ecstatic.

Finally, we found a way. This was what the officials in the imperial court said. They just used it as an excuse to hide this event, although everyone knew it was a trick to fool people.

"Yeah."

"That's what my lord said."

After a while of echoing, one of them said: "Master Wei, please make the decision for us. We will return to the military camp to wait for the news. Please be sure to report to the superior. If we can't get our military pay, our family will starve to death." ”

Before this man spoke, he had made eye contact with several other people, so it was not considered that he had agreed without authorization.

Although they had threatened Xu Pengju and Zhang Hao in the Ministry of Household Affairs Office before, asking them to compensate Zhenwu Camp with one hundred thousand taels of military pay, but that was before Huang Maoguan was killed.

When they heard that Huang Maoguan had been beaten to death by someone who didn't know who the dog was, they rushed to the scene and said it was too late.

Xu Pengju and Zhang Hao also took the opportunity to run away from the office and ran for their lives together with Li Tingzhu who had just arrived at the primary school.

And these people were anxious after hearing about this. While they were rushing to gather their troops to prevent the people from Zhenwu Camp from getting separated and causing a bigger trouble, they also sent people to chase Xu Pengju and others, hoping to capture them. They were used as hostages, which is why this encounter happened.

Unexpectedly, Lord Wei Guangde on the opposite side found a reason for them. Well, he was absolutely right. Huang Maoguan fell to death by himself and had nothing to do with them.

They just found Huang Maoguan's body and punched and kicked him a few times to vent their anger. Their original intention was to discuss the arrears of military pay with Huang Maoguan, and they did not want to cause such a misunderstanding.

After saying a few more words, amid the shouts of several military leaders, the soldiers of Zhenwu Camp turned around and retreated slowly, returning to their military camp.

Only at this moment did Wei Guangde let out a sigh of relief, and the test was over.

And on several streets near the small school field, things similar to Wei Guangde's were happening at this time.

Liu Shiyan, the sincere uncle, also received Huang Maoguan's note asking for help. After all, Liu Shiyan, like Xu Pengju and Li Tingzhu, was one of the few military commanders with military power in Nanjing. The soldiers were inherently afraid of such people, and they knew what to do. obey orders.

Facing the Zhenwu Camp soldiers coming from the opposite street, they reacted a little slowly. Liu Shiyan's team was quickly blocked. At this time, it was too late to turn around and escape.

Liu Shiyan was worthy of being a general leading troops. He didn't panic when he saw such a scene. Even though the opposite side was full of armored soldiers, the dozens of guards on his side were also good, and the equipment was better, so he got to the front and faced Those rebel soldiers shouted: "If you rebel, kill me immediately. When the army arrives, I will kill you all!"

Under Liu Shiyan's aggressive momentum, he managed to scare off the rebels.

At this time, Wei Guangde, after successfully driving back the rebels from Zhenwu Camp, immediately turned his horse and ran back, and soon returned to the Nanjing garrison.

When he arrived here, Wei Guangde saw that the previous guards had been assigned to guard the streets. There were several sedans parked outside the garrison. Apparently, in addition to Xu Pengju, Zhang Hao and Li Tingzhu, there were also Nanjing officials summoned here.

Yes, the Duke of Wei's Mansion and the Garrison Mansion are located in the center of Nanjing, right next to the Imperial Palace. Surrounded by dignitaries and the six ministries of Nanjing, it is really convenient to find people.

After Wei Guangde got off his horse, he walked in. No soldier at the door stopped him, after all, Wei Guangde was in his official uniform.

Soon, Wei Guangde arrived outside the Garrison Hall and saw Zhang Ji following Xu Sheng, and his servants were resting in a corner of the yard outside the hall.

Zhang Ji was relieved to see Wei Guangde coming in.

Earlier, when Wei Guangde wanted to turn his horse back, Zhang Ji wanted to follow him, but was stopped by Wei Guangde, who asked him to take people back with Xu Sheng first.

Now seeing Wei Guangde escape unscathed, he couldn't help but be surprised.

As Wei Guangde approached the garrison hall, he heard Xu Pengju inside shouting, "Order all the guards in the Beijing camp to go out immediately, surround the small parade ground on all sides, and don't let the people from the Zhenwu camp rush out."

Wei Guangde couldn't help curling his lips when he heard his father-in-law's words outside. What was he doing earlier?

Since he gave such an order now, it is estimated that the troops of other guards have not been fully organized. Besides, the people of the Zhenwu camp have been called back by him, so there won't be any more trouble today.

But no matter how he thought about it, Wei Guangde was still very curious. How did his father-in-law and the others escape? Didn't they say that they were taken away by the chaotic soldiers?

At that time, Wei Guangde naturally couldn't ask the people on the opposite side how his father-in-law escaped from you. That was something only a fool would do.

The garrison hall was where the Nanjing garrison handled official business and issued orders. Wei Guangde was an imperial envoy, but he was not an imperial envoy who came to Nanjing on official business, so he could not walk in directly. Instead, he waved to Xu Sheng and called him aside to ask quietly.

Soon, Wei Guangde knew what happened to Xu Pengju and Zhang Ao in the Ministry of Revenue. They were really taken hostage by the chaotic soldiers. When the chaotic soldiers went to chase the fleeing Huang Maoguan, Xu Pengju had come forward to stop them, but his action was exchanged for a row of gun heads.

There was even a chaotic soldier who knocked the black gauze on his head with the gun barrel, and then used a long spear to force his black gauze to retreat. When Xu Pengju saw that the situation was unfavorable and chose to keep things quiet, the soldier cursed frivolously: "Strong bag."

Xu Sheng didn't think there was anything wrong. At that time, he couldn't conflict with those chaotic soldiers. After all, they were few in number.

Even if the guards of Duke Wei's mansion were all highly skilled in martial arts, they would suffer a great loss if they really fought against soldiers trained in battle formations.

However, when Wei Guangde heard the word "straw bag", he vaguely remembered that his father-in-law seemed to be somewhat famous in later generations, but that was because of Yue Pengju, and the title of "straw bag general".

Could this nickname come from this?