Chapter 812 Money and Food
Among the generals of the Taishan Army, Meng Ju is considered a unique one.
At the earliest, he was responsible for the patrol and sentry work of the Taishan Army. Later, he became a general of the Flying Army and was in charge of foreign military intelligence work.
Since he has worked on the line for many years, he has also developed a meticulous work attitude.
It's impossible not to be careful. Whether it's a spy or espionage work, a single oversight may directly cost your life. Anyone who is not careful will have died long ago.
To this day, Meng Ju still remembers that when he first led a scout, a Shanliao who joined the army at the same time as him had his whereabouts exposed because of his carelessness. He was eventually discovered by Taishan's powerful local troops, and the entire team died in the battle. .
Now Meng Ju is responsible for organizing the embroidered clothes guards, and the core is to protect the safety of the king, which makes Meng Ju even more cautious.
He Mengju thought of everything that others thought of, and Mengju also thought of things that most people didn't think of.
Just to talk about one detail, the daily work of the embroidered clothes guard includes holding books and guarding the ceremony.
Meng Ju actually ingeniously tied iron wires on the inner circles of those umbrella covers. In case of emergency, the embroidered guards holding the umbrella covers could use the umbrella to protect Zhang Chong.
This idea is also unique. After all, whether it is an umbrella cover or a fan, there are some ceremonial props on the surface. The assassin finally broke into the last level. Who would notice those honor guards?
At this time, these sturdy men of the honor guard jumped out one by one from under the umbrella canopy with spears wrapped in iron wire. You said you were an assassin, can you bear this situation?
This is just a small detail, and most of it is not announced to the public for confidentiality reasons. Only when you really meet it will you understand how rigorous and meticulous the embroidery guards are.
Of course, for undertaking such an important job, it goes without saying that the embroidery guards are treated well.
This is actually in line with the way to use power, that is, the closer you are to the people around you, the more you need to show affection to them. This is the way to achieve stability.
But not all kings have this consciousness. They have been indulged in the illusion of supreme power for too long, and they really think that they are supreme.
Therefore, he treats the people around him, especially some eunuchs and palace maids, with harsh treatment. He always thinks that no matter what he does, these people can only accept it and dare not resist.
But actually? The more people around you, the less they have any illusions about your so-called monarchy.
Why?
Because these people who are close to you have seen your private ugliness and understand that under your supreme authority, you are nothing more than a mortal body.
And what about the opposite?
Once these people are cornered, they are also the ones who threaten you the most.
When an ordinary person is annoyed, who can he find? It's not like just finding any petty official you have access to and killing him. It's called "officials forcing people to rebel."
But those people who can really force you to rebel are beyond your reach as an ordinary person.
But this is not the case for the people around the superior. Once they are forced to rebel, they can directly threaten your life.
And this kind of story has always been like this in ancient and modern times, at home and abroad, and in all dynasties.
Therefore, Meng Ju, who was the commander-in-chief of the Xiuyi Guards at the time, specially stipulated the treatment of the Xiuyi Guards with Zhang Chong's consent.
The most important thing in treatment is to be considerate.
Meng Ju knew very well that if he wanted the embroidered guards to have a sense of belonging, they must feel the warmth of the court and the king's concern for them.
An important means to improve the sense of belonging is to give leave.
Anyone who is involved in death, illness, marriage, childbirth or other matters is allowed to take leave even if he is straight. In addition, if one of your parents is sick and there are no other men in the family, you are also allowed to take leave, and there is no time limit.
And if your wife is sick and you have no children, you are allowed to take leave.
In addition, if you bring in some relatives to celebrate your death, you will also be given leave as long as you do not travel hundreds of miles away.
Of course, if it is later discovered that the report was false, not only will one be expelled from the team, but one will also be severely fined.
Putting aside these punishments, as long as it is in line with the laws of nature and human relations, there will be no excuses. This is the main point, so that you can feel the king's all-embracing warmth.
Even if the elderly in your family get sick, the king will give you decoctions, and if a child is born in your family, you will also receive a fortune.
In short, the king really treats you as a family member and a brother.
If you have other thoughts in this situation, you are really losing your conscience.
In addition to giving these embroidered guards a sense of belonging, Meng Ju also wanted to give these people a sense of honor.
The way to create a sense of honor is to make distinctions in clothing.
The so-called embroidered clothes guard naturally wears embroidered clothes. But the price of embroidered clothes can be worth thousands of dollars per piece, and the cost of changing clothes alone is overwhelming.
Therefore, it was definitely impossible for Zhang Chong to equip all the embroidered guards with embroidered robes, but in order to enhance the majesty of the embroidered guards, he still allowed the embroidered guards to wear crimson robes and brocade hats to be different from the rest of the army.
In addition to making distinctions in clothing, Zhang Chong often rewards those who embroider clothes from time to time.
In addition to rewards for some birthdays or important festivals in the palace, there are also ice drinks in summer and hot soup in winter. In short, Zhang Wangzhi is so considerate of human feelings, how can he not embroider the clothes and win the hearts of the people?
There is another thing that Meng Ju invited Zhang Chong to facilitate the war work.
That is the issue of money, food and salary for embroidering clothes.
With the several reorganizations of the Taishan Army, the army has become more and more organized. Each army and battalion has a limited number of troops. Any increase or decrease must be applied to the Privy Council, and the increase or decrease can only be approved by the Privy Council.
And how does the Privy Council control the number of troops in each army? That is to say, money, food, and salary are distributed according to the number of soldiers.
In fact, this military pay has only been implemented one after another in the past few years. In the past, the Taishan Army did not spend a penny to expand its army. It only needed to provide the soldiers with winter and summer clothes and daily rations.
Because these people came to serve as soldiers in exchange for the Taishan Army's previous redistribution of land locally.
But as time passed, the battlefield of the Taishan Army moved from Hebei to Bingzhou. When they arrived in the Central Plains, these people had long been far away from their hometown.
In the past, when the battlefield was in Hebei, these field soldiers could still fight tooth and nail to defend their hometown and protect their assigned fields. But now they are thousands of miles away from home, and their original intention is long gone.
Of course, under the influence of the military missionaries, most of the Taishan Army have transformed their past ideas of being a small family into liberating everyone's public heart.
More and more officials are also realizing that only if the poor people all over the world can farm like them can they truly protect their family inheritance.
More importantly, they also enjoy this great cause and are deeply honored to be able to contribute to the King's great cause.
But ideals are ideals, and the reality is that Zhang Chong cannot let these brothers who have worked for him through life and death go back with an ideal in the end. Because it's so unfair to them.
Although there is no shortage of opportunities to make contributions in the great cause of liberating the world. But to be honest, this opportunity is still relatively far away for most officials.
And when these people change jobs and return, they will find that their family's living standards lag far behind those of others in the community.
The reason is simple. Every official is an important labor force in the family. He leaves the family's production, but other families in the community where no one joins the army continue to produce.
With this in and out, the gap between the two sides widened.
If these bloody battles ended like this when these officials returned to their hometown, what would the image of the Taishan Army be like?
If things go on like this, who will take the initiative to join the army when the dividends from land distribution are spent?
Therefore, even from the perspective of the army, Zhang Chong must pay the officials.
Moreover, paying can not only restrain the army from looting, but also boost local consumption. When these retired officials return to their hometowns, with the military pay they have saved for several years, they will definitely be repairing houses and marrying wives. How can the local economy be so bad?
Therefore, Zhang Chong is not afraid of giving out money, but he is afraid that the money will rot in the warehouse, and then there will be nothing.
Zhang Chong still has simple common sense in economics. He knows that only when money is circulated, more and more money will be accumulated. Instead, it will be stored in the treasury, which is a pile of rags.
It is precisely because of this knowledge that Zhang Chong has always been very generous with rewards.
In fact, in his previous life, when Zhang Chong was still a student, he often saw in history books that some emperors frequently gave out large amounts of rewards. For example, when Emperor Zhenzong of the Song Dynasty went to Fengchan Taishan, he rewarded the people along the way with money from the treasury like a tide.
There are also some emperors who are very happy with their achievements. Whenever foreign chiefs pay tribute, the country will return to the past several times. This once made the young Zhang Chong think that these people were prodigal sons who sold their father's land and did not regard money as money.
After Zhang Chong gained some experience and gained an introductory understanding of economics, he realized that in an era lacking market regulation, large-scale rewards were one of the few ways to boost the economy.
Therefore, Zhang Chong not only gave the sergeants a fixed salary, but also gave them rewards when declaring their merits after the war. It can be said that he was extremely generous to the officers and soldiers in the army.
Zhang Chong's hands were so loose, and it was not without the ministers' opinions that the national money and grain reserves were so scattered like mountains and seas. What should be done when the court has something to do and money and grain are needed in the future?
In fact, Zhang Chong also believed that these ministers had the right idea.
It is indeed good to tighten finances and invest enough money into the circulation of social wealth.
But unfortunately, if you want to implement tight finance, you must have a strict tax system and a large tax army. If there is no back-up and the money is scattered but cannot be recovered, it will really become the Ming Dynasty.
Whether the country is rich and the people are poor or the country is poor and the people are rich, it is not a good thing.
Therefore, Zhang Chong is also looking for a balance between the two.
However, paying the army was carried out according to Zhang Chong's will, and the results achieved were very good.
In recent years, when the retired sergeants returned home with generous military pay, the pursuit and love of the Taishan Army under the rule has increased visibly.
It is no exaggeration to say that in some wealthy areas of Jizhou, people even pay for their children to join the army.
People are so eager to join the army.
Originally, since it was a salary, it must be paid, and the money in this dynasty has always been copper coins. As for these gold and silver, they are only circulated in the upper class.
For example, during the Pre-Han Dynasty, the princes' families had to pay a sum of money to the emperor every year for sacrifices. This amount of money is paid according to the number of household registrations in the prince's city.
In other words, this money is a population tax levied by the court on the princes every year.
In the Han Dynasty, the princes paid this money in gold, so it was also called gold.
Therefore, gold is mostly used in the sacrifices of the upper class, while the common people still use copper coins and cloth.
But Zhang Chong understood that neither of these two types of currencies was considered good currency.
Copper coins have a long history of circulation, but because copper itself has practical properties, a large amount of copper is consumed whether it is casting bronze mirrors or other materials.
Therefore, during the circulation process, copper coins must continue to decrease.
Of course, with the current commercial activities and the scale of copper mining, this loss reduction is not a problem. Therefore, if the world is short of money, it will have to be done after the Song Dynasty.
Therefore, Zhang Chong himself also distributed copper coins to his subordinates. After all, if they really want to be circulated among the people, they must have such small amounts of copper coins.
But the other cloth will not work.
The existence of cloth as currency in the world is indeed related to its strong practical value, but it lacks one of the most important functions of currency, that is, it can be divisible.
Of course cloth can be divided, but every time it is divided, its value will decrease sharply.
For example, the value of a whole piece of cloth is higher than the sum of two cut pieces of cloth. In addition, the cloth cannot be divided again after it is divided to a certain extent, because after being divided into rags, it has no use value.
Therefore, cloth is not an ideal monetary medium.
Zhang Chong understood this truth and tried to introduce gold and silver to the people as a new currency.
Previously, during the battle in Xingyang, he cast a batch of commemorative gold to reward meritorious soldiers, and then awarded gold, silver, and bronze medals to the warriors in the martial arts competition.
Zhang Chong's purpose in doing these things was to subtly improve the circulation of gold and silver.
But for now, it still takes time.
Therefore, Zhang Chong is currently paying copper coins and corn to the sergeants. As for the proportion, it is calculated according to the commercial situation of the settlement.
For example, now that the army is stationed in Gyeonggi, business is in decline, and the sergeants cannot buy anything even if they have money. Therefore, as usual, Zhang Chong should have more corn and less money and food.
But the problem is that the Gyeonggi area is also short of rice due to year-round crushing and missed spring plowing.
And now the logistics of the 100,000 troops in the Gyeonggi region all depend on Hebei,
All the rice grains used were transported along the river from the Yecheng area, which made the corn very precious, and almost every army had its own color.
In other words, the officials in each camp could only receive part of the corn, and the rest was converted into money and silk. As for the proportion here, it depends on the ability of each military leader.
But what did Meng Ju, the governor of embroidered clothes, do? He was able to get all the clothes under his command to be embroidered with corn. There was no color at all, and all of them received corn.
It was with the appearance of this special treatment that all the armies understood that from the moment Xiuyiwei was born, Jane was in his heart and was destined to be different.
In this case, the Guoyi soldiers in the army who had previously refused to join the Embroidered Guards cried out that they regretted it.
(End of chapter)