Chapter 46 46 Late
Time flies like an arrow, time flies, spring goes and autumn comes, cold comes and summer comes, time flies and passes in a blink of an eye.
After talking a lot of nonsense, one year has passed, and it is already the early spring of the 31st year of Jiajing.
A year has passed by so quickly, and nothing happened in Wei Guangde’s family.
The Emperor’s Northern Expedition plan, which he was worried about at the beginning of the year, somehow came to nothing, and there has been no progress.
But the news coming from the capital was even more surprising. The mutual trade with the Mongols that Emperor Jiajing had refused for twenty years was actually opened.
However, the news was not reported to the Tang Dynasty, and along with the news came the information that the mutual trading was just a delaying measure, and that the imperial court's northern expedition plan had not been cancelled, and could be launched at any time.
As time goes by, Dad Wei's worries become more and more serious day by day.
News came from Jiujiang Prefecture. A lot of grain collected by the government has been sent to Jiujiang Prefecture. Ships distributed by many health stations in the Yangtze River Basin have also gathered in Jiujiang. It seems that they need to be refitted at any time. Just set out, just waiting for the arrival of the imperial edict.
At this time, in the water transportation of the entire Ming Empire, except for the Cao army, which continued to transport grain to the north as planned, there were no official ships on the rivers.
According to the news from above, although the Cao Army is still responsible for the heavy grain transportation task this year, the planned transportation volume this year is far higher than in previous years. It is not known whether it is to store grain in the north in advance or something else.
When September finally passed and the best time for the northern expedition to the grasslands had disappeared, Father Wei finally breathed a sigh of relief, and the entire Wei family also relaxed and no longer thought about the possibility of the north. war concerns.
For more than half a year, there was no news about the war in the north in the Tang newspaper, and there was no order to mobilize troops and food, but no one dared to take it lightly.
The middle and high-level generals in the guard station all have sources of information more or less, and they are all well aware of this year's abnormal actions, and now they can finally relax.
“I really didn’t expect that the northern expedition and retaliatory action discussed by the imperial court would eventually turn into an action to build a border wall.”
At the end of September, Father Wei came back from Qianhu Station and brought back the exact news that the revenge plan of the Northern Expedition was cancelled.
"Hey, the emperor has really worried us for more than half a year."
The eldest brother Wei Wencai was undoubtedly the happiest when he heard that he didn't have to go to the Northern Expedition.
Just kidding, even if he is destined to take over the post, he doesn’t want to get there in this way, and most of the people in the entire line of the guard will be taken away, and the guard will be emptied. , I am afraid that he will be shaky and unstable in this position, and he will not be as comfortable as he is now.
“Are the soldiers trained by the two hundred households disbanded on the spot or something?”
Don't worry about Bei Zheng, then you have to consider what to do with the men who have been training for more than half a year.
This year's military training, the leader is Wei Meng, and the ones in charge of the drill are Wei Wencai and Wu Dong. The team of more than 200 people has been issued 120 muskets, and 30 more have been reserved. Rods are kept as spares to replace broken firearms.
In half a year, more than ten guns were broken. Wei Guangde's original bird gun was found to have some problems and could no longer be used, so he also changed his gun.
There were still dozens of muskets left, which Zhang Qing and Wu Zhankui divided up privately to arm their own soldiers, but not a single musket fell into the guard post.
Now the two soldiers of Jiujiang Weiyou Army's Qianhu Station may already have the highest firearms equipment rate in the world, reaching 50% of firearms.
As for the fixed-load ammunition proposed by Wei Guangde, the test results are very good, the firing rate has been improved, and it has become popular in this firearms unit. Now it is a question of whether to stay in this team.
"Master Zhang's intention is to keep it for now. Training is not easy. Even if we really want to disband, we have to assign our troops to the generals of our department to act as servants."
Father Wei held the wine glass in his hand without drinking, but spoke.
"More than two hundred people are difficult to maintain and very expensive."
Wei Wencai frowned when he heard that he wanted to retain this army. "Just squeeze it a little more. We will deduct more of the military expenses of hundreds of other households and move them to us to raise soldiers. We cannot pay to support the soldiers of the imperial court."
Wei Guangde also put down his chopsticks and said, he can still have a little drink outside, but at home, he can only watch his father and eldest brother drinking.
"That's what it means above. The soldiers come from a hundred households below the Qianhu Station. From now on, the military pay will be based on seventy men and one man. The rest will be transferred directly to us, so we can help them train their troops."
Dad Wei drank the wine and said, "Several other Qianhu offices will do the same thing. The bosses above have reached a consensus that we still have to keep a soldier in our hands. If we do it again like last year, Everyone doesn’t want to go to the market.”
“I’m afraid those hundreds of households won’t be willing.”
If a hundred households were short of twenty or thirty soldiers, the hundred households would lose a share of their income. Only then did Wei Wen think that the other hundreds of households might be tempted to give up.
"Then it depends on their ability. As long as they can bring the matter to the Nanjing Governor's Mansion, I think they are capable, but I'm afraid they won't even dare to poke it out, and they will be the first to suffer. They are the ones who will take care of it."
Dad Wei chuckled.
These things of deducting military pay are not on the table. What reason do they use to cause trouble?
In Jiujiang Wei, who cares about them.
The few people in charge, from the commander to the chiefs, have to keep an army of soldiers on standby, and everyone has to share the money among them. As long as their share is not short, there is still the matter of Qianhusuo. Who cares.
Bengshan Baihu Station has more than a hundred soldiers than in previous years. They train outside the fort on weekdays. Wei Guangde's life has not changed much. He still gets up early every day and goes to school to study hard.
It’s just that the number of children they have together has grown from the original six to four. The families of two of them feel that it’s enough to learn how to read and write. There is no need to learn more. They are not candidates for the examination, so they continue to study. It's just a waste.
After the fifteenth day, on the twentieth day of the first lunar month, Master Sun’s private school started again.
There are ten children in the private school who will take the county examination this year, and these are the students who Master Sun thinks have a chance.
Why we need to gather ten is not because the Ming Dynasty exam requires five students to protect each other.
Those who failed to pass the exam in the past two years and those who have reached a similar level this year are these people.
Because the county examination is held in February, Master Sun mainly pays attention to the homework of these children during this period. One piece of eight-part essay every day is unbeatable. As for the other things, well, as long as the eight-part essay is done well If you do, you can pass the county examination and the government examination smoothly.
"Why didn't Qin Jingchuan come today?"
After the case of Gao Zuotang, Master Sun glanced at the student Yin Yin below and found that a seat was empty, so he asked.
He couldn't help but care. This absent student had to take the county examination this year, and the county examination was still more than half a month away, so it was time to study hard.
With the dozen or so articles in front of him, Master Sun has already read the articles written by the other nine and several future seeds such as Wei Guangde, but Qin Jingchuan still hasn’t come. Looking at the time, it has already passed. It's time for school, it's late.
At this time, a student next to the empty seat stood up, bowed slightly and bowed to Master Sun: "Jingchuan's grandfather passed away yesterday. I went to ask him to come to school with me this morning. ”
"What? Mr. Qin is gone?"
Madang Town is so big and the population in the town is not large. Everyone looks up without looking down, so they all know each other. Master Sun can't help but Somewhat gaffe.
(End of this chapter)