When Zhao Lie woke up in the morning, his arms were full of warm fragrance, and Alexandra fell asleep peacefully in his arms.
Looking at Alexandra's long eyelashes and smooth forehead, Zhao Lie couldn't help but feel moved.
He gently blew Alexandra's earlobe.
Alexandra opened her blue eyes and looked hard.
After seeing Zhao Lie's gaze, she smiled and hugged Zhao Lie tightly.
In the past few months, she could be said to have been restless day and night.
She knew the strength of the Japanese country, and that was why she knew the danger of this trip.
She had reduced her income a lot in the past few months, and she didn't feel at ease until the news came that the clipper ship would defeat the besieged Japanese general's town of Edo.
The uneasiness of the past few months now made Alexandra cherish the time the two of them spent together.
She felt more and more peaceful and calm around Zhao Lie.
Of course, Zhao Lie's movement at the next moment made the room no longer peaceful.
In the afternoon, Zhao Lie came to Shidao Official Office and talked with Zhao Meng and Tang Xianwen about the current situation in Denglai.
While waiting for compensation from the shogunate in Kamakura, Zhao Lie had already received the news of Zhang Keda's death in battle.
He couldn't help but lament that Zhang Keda had not escaped the fate of dying for his country in the end.
It's just that without his butterfly wings, Zhang Keda died in Kong Youde's rebellion, but this time he died in the national war.
Except for the hundreds of people under his command who surrendered, all of them were killed in action.
The Denglai soldiers displayed a bloody spirit rarely seen in the Ming army in recent years.
Zhang Keda is worthy of being a first-class loyal minister and good general of the Ming Dynasty.
Unfortunately, under such circumstances, the more loyal a minister and good general, the more difficult it is to end well.
"Second brother, with these five hundred thousand silver this time, Shidao's financial resources will be greatly enriched.
Tell me where to invest this silver."
These can be regarded as windfalls, they are not planned by Shidao, and there are still a lot of them.
We can only ask Zhao Lie about his plans.
"Judging from the recent invasion of Jiannu, Jiannu may invade the capital again at any time.
After all, Jiannu has rarely encountered a strong counterattack.
They will not let this fat go."
Zhao Meng and Tang Xianwen both agreed on this point.
If they were in the position of establishing slaves, they would not give up.
"If Jian Nu invades the army next time, I intend to take advantage of the opportunity when the main force of Jian Nu is divided into two groups.
I will use all the strength of the army to annihilate the main force of Jian Nu in one fell swoop.
In this way, Jian Nu will be unable to recover from the fall until it is destroyed."
As soon as Zhao Lie finished speaking, Zhao Meng and Tang Xianwen's hearts tightened.
This was the critical moment for success and defeat.
Of course, those who established slaves and joined the invaders had to leave heavy troops to protect their home base.
After all, the Polu Army now has thousands of troops stationed in Lushun, and Jiannu dare not not guard against it.
This will divide Jiannu's main force into two parts, which is a good opportunity to annihilate the enemy.
Of course, their work will become arduous again.
After all, they estimate that the establishment of slaves and the invasion of the invaders will only happen in a year or two.
Sure enough, Zhao Lie mentioned their mission next.
"Now the main force of our army is still insufficient to completely annihilate the slave-invading army.
Therefore, I intend to change the Jinghai Guard Army into combat troops.
In addition, I will transfer 6,000 strong soldiers from the Denglai Army into combat troops.
In this way, we will have soldiers, armor, and horses.
They are all in extremely short supply.
We just need to purchase more iron ore and refine them ourselves.
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However, it is estimated that Jeju can only supply two to three thousand horses for the new soldiers, and the rest will have to be purchased with money."
As soon as Zhao Lie finished speaking, Zhao Meng and Tang Xianwen grinned.
The war horse now costs about fifty-five taels of silver.
If purchased on a large scale, the price will still rise.
It will still cost more than sixty taels of silver.
If There are six thousand war horses, which is the cost of nearly 400,000 taels of silver, plus armor.
Yes, this time Japan's unexpected wealth has to be filled in, but it's still not enough.
After all, the expedition to the Japanese Polu Army also cost tens of thousands of taels of silver, so this should be eliminated.
As everyone said, Mr.
Zhao's ability to find money is unsaid.
But no one can match Hua Yinzi's abilities.
"Second brother, when do you think these soldiers and horses will be used?"
Zhao Meng asked.
"Brother, I can only say that the sooner the better, because after the soldiers and horses are ready, they still have to train.
It is best to experience battles and see blood, so that they can be reused."
Zhao Lie replied.
"In this case, we have to arrange manpower immediately.
As usual, it is the businessmen of the Shidao family who have to take action."
Zhao Meng thought for a while and said.
He now knows the benefits of Zhao Lie wooing these businessmen in the first place.
Now these businessmen are working for Zhao Lie without any effort, selling salt, cement, buying horses, wood, and even buying refugees.
If the Zhao family comes forward for these, That would be extremely conspicuous.
But when these businessmen came forward, no one knew that it was the Zhao family who was doing it behind the scenes, and they got the matter done without revealing anything.
This alleviated the suspicion of other officials and the court towards the Zhao family, allowing the Zhao family to move forward safely today.
"Lord Bingzhao, Lord Du Li wants to see you."
A guard from outside came in to report.
"Let him come in."
Zhao Lie nodded.
Du Li quickly walked into the lobby and saluted Zhao Lie.
Zhao Lie waved his hand.
"You must have something to do here, tell me about it."
"Sir, my subordinates have reported from the capital that all Denglai soldiers have been wiped out, and the imperial court has no money or food to reorganize Denglai town.
However, Denglai is an important place to defend against Jiannu.
Even if it is unable to attack across the sea, We also want to protect Denglai from being invaded by Jiannu across the sea, so someone proposed that you should be the commander-in-chief of Denglai.”
Zhao Lie smiled slightly when he heard this.
He took Du Li's words and said, "So Emperor Chongzhen agreed with this suggestion and planned to appoint this general as Denglai Commander-in-Chief, right?"
"That's right," Du Li bowed slightly, "but the opposition from the courtiers at that time was extremely fierce.
In the end, it was Chief Minister Wen Tiren who supported him, and finally it calmed down.
However, Denglai's future military salary will only be 250,000 taels.
Mr.
Zhang half as long as he was in office.”
Zhao Lie smiled hoarsely, "This is a ploy to let me, Denglai Dusi, do the work of a Denglai warrior.
The emperor and the chief minister are so scheming."
"The emperor promoted his second brother like this, is there something wrong with it?"
Zhao Meng said hesitantly.
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"Without him, I would give the poor soldiers at the guard station the salary they needed to face the chaos in the Dongjiang River after I took office as the commander-in-chief.
If the Japanese invaded again, the court would either let me attack from the Dongjiang River in Lushun to attack Jiannu's rear, or I would be asked to lead troops to serve the king.
In short, it’s just a plan to tire out the Zhao family and let them fight against Jiannu.”
Zhao Lie smiled, this method was really worthless.
"This is another minister who had a bad idea."
Tang Xianwen curled his lips, "I'm afraid it's all in vain."
This strategy is also vicious enough.
Dusi's pitiful military salary is only enough to cover the general salary.
If you add in the float, it will not even be enough to cover the salary.
Where to prepare soldiers and armor?
I think the imperial court also saw that except for Jinghaiwei, the Denglai Dusi had no armor to protect their troops, so they thought that the Zhao family no longer had the money and food to build armor.
In this way, although the Zhao family has nearly 10,000 tigers and wolves, it is simply impossible to expand.
If he is allowed to fight with Jiannu again, one of the two tigers will be injured.
No matter which tiger is injured, the court will be overjoyed.
If both tigers are injured.
The court and the emperor would be overjoyed.
"Oh, that's it," Zhao Meng sneered, "It's just that the emperor and his important ministers didn't expect that the money and food of my Polu army had other sources.
They were afraid of disappointing those ministers who were worried about our Zhao family."
Indeed, the key point of this strategy is to start with money and food, trap the expansion of the Zhao family's strength, and then wait for opportunities to weaken it.
However, the money and food of the Polu army did not rely on the court's salary at all, and it was not what the court thought it was.
The main purpose of not equipping the army with armor was to reassure the court and give Denglai a stable environment for development.
"It seems that your Excellency did not equip the army with armor, which is a great move, and actually let the imperial court enshrine the throne of the general soldier."
Tang Xianwen laughed.
From Zhao Lie on down, everyone else also laughed, this was really an unexpected surprise.
"Sir, General Zhang's head has been placed in the Zonglie Shrine, adjacent to the cemetery of General You Shilu."
Du Li whispered.
When Zhang Keda was mentioned, Zhao Lie's smile faded.
Zhao Lie had only respect for this elder who had helped his family and a loyal minister of the Ming Dynasty.
"Du Li, you did a good job on this matter.
The Military Intelligence Department's execution is extremely strong, and I am extremely satisfied."
Zhao Lie nodded to Du Li, "Well, I will reward those brothers who led Master Zhao through life and death with a hundred taels of silver and fifty acres of fertile land."
"Du Li thanks you on behalf of the brothers."
Du Li bowed and saluted.
Zhao Lie has always been generous with rewards for his brave men, so the Polu Army is famous.
In Zhao Lie's opinion, there are too many principles to talk about, and it must be supported by interests.
Tens of thousands of troops inside and outside the Polu Army follow him, no matter What gets in the way is the need to support a family.
Of course, it would be better to have a wife and a son.
These needs are actually the needs of different interests.
Therefore, Zhao Lie has always rewarded meritorious officials generously to stimulate everyone's military morale.
If he wants promotion and food and salary, then he should fight bravely to kill the enemy.
"Du Li, now our army has become a thorn in the side of the imperial court and Jiannu.
I guess Xiao Zuo will keep coming.
You and Wang Quan will have to tighten the fence for Shidao."
Zhao Lie said to Du Lida.
"Don't worry, sir, my subordinates will do their best."
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Du Li bent down and said.
"Lord Du Li has captured a lot of spies from the imperial court and the slave establishment in the past two years, and all of them had their heads chopped off.
The Military Intelligence Department and the Internal Security Department have made great contributions in this regard."
Zhao Meng smiled.
"Don't be careless.
I dare say that Jiannu and the imperial court now have spies in Shidao and Dengzhou.
It's just that they don't dare to move around often, but they will continue to inquire about everything about our army so that they can pass it back to their masters. " Zhao Lie shook his head.
In fact, the investigation and arrest were only part of it.
It could only be a passive defense.
However, there was no way.
No one could completely destroy it from the root, unless Zhao Lie could revolutionize the Central Plains and eliminate the slaves.
At the mansion in the evening, Du Li brought up Zhang Keda's personal guard Wang Linquan.
Wang Linquan recounted the confrontation between the Denglai soldiers and the Jiannu army.
When talking about the damage caused by the Han army flag to Denglai soldiers, Wang Linquan cursed with tears in his eyes, "I hope Master Zhao will avenge my family."
After Wang Linquan finished speaking, he cried and kowtowed heavily and fell to the ground.
"Don't worry, I will not take revenge on Zhao."
Zhao Lie gave Wang Linquan a positive reply.
Wang Linquan was led down by the guards with peace of mind.
"Sir, I learned from Liaodong that Taiji, the chief of the Nunu Army, is indeed vigorously expanding the Han army flag."
Du Li cupped his hands.
"It seems that from today onwards these traitors like Han Junqi are really the number one slaves of the Jurchens."
Zhao Lie gritted his teeth and said.
"Du Li, from now on, order the people in Liaodong to do their best to find out the number of Han Banners, their commanders, and the number of Han Banners dispatched in every battle.
This matter is of vital importance and must not be ignored."
What Zhao Lie said was so important that Du Li certainly didn't dare to neglect it and immediately accepted the order
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