Chapter 117? Twenty-eight thousand taels of silver
As the secretary of the army, Wu Song had to record the entire process truthfully, so he sat on the sand, escaped from the bamboo house behind him with paper and pen, and wrote truthfully: "On the night of August 23, the twenty-ninth year of Taiqian, In the death camp of the Sixth Regiment of the Qinglong Army, Colonel Zhang Xiaowu ordered three hundred cavalry to defeat ten thousand bandits, killing thousands of thieves and inflicting twenty casualties. It was a great victory."
Gu Ruoxi rushed over to clean Zhang Xiaowu's clothes. Zhang Xiaowu took two steps back to avoid embarrassment. After all, washing clothes must be done by himself, by a handyman, or by his wife, an unrelated young lady. He washed his clothes, but it seemed a bit too ambiguous to mention it.
Fortunately, Miss Gu rushed over at this time, grabbed the second miss by her ears and took her back.
The soldiers blinked at each other with smiles on their lips. Wu Song even blinked proudly at Zhang Xiaowu, thinking that I must have said something right.
Hu Sanwan even whispered: "Sir, we have all seen that the second young lady is very attracted to you."
Hu Li joked: "Yes, even a fool can see that she likes you."
"Yes, yes..." Hu Sanwan smiled and twitched his beard, and suddenly became angry: "What the hell? Who is the fool? Who are you talking about?"
In the afternoon, the convoy finally arrived at the Luolan ruins. From a distance, they saw dozens of vultures hovering over the ruins. After seeing the convoy, they immediately flew to the distance of the ruins. The second lady quickly asked why there were so many big birds. Zhang Xiaowu scratched his head and said, Said: "It's a vulture, also called a sand vulture, a bird that specializes in eating dead animals. It looks small to you, but its wingspan is longer than yours. If a group of vultures see you alone, these beasts will retaliate without hesitation. Attack you."
Gu Ruoxi was startled and complained: "This bird is unlucky."
Zhang Xiaowu thought to himself that the vultures gathered here, probably attracted by the corpses of the bandits. Scouts from a distance came on horseback and reported that Captains Xiao Kai and Shen Lindong had already set up a new camp and were waiting for everyone. Two thousand Many dead bodies were also thrown far away, on the other side of the ruins. They roasted the mutton and horse meat, prepared Saibei's spirits, and waited for everyone to enjoy a Saibei feast.
"Thankfully you can still eat it." Zhang Xiaowu laughed.
The sergeant replied: "People have to live."
Zhang Xiaowu nodded. People in this era were very humane. They would eat meat after killing people, and even eat human flesh. Their psychology was much stronger than that of modern people.
Xiao Kai reported that in the battle last night, more than 2,300 sand bandits were killed, 50% of whom were burned to death, 20% were shot to death with bows and arrows, 20% were killed, and 10% killed each other. There were sand bandits. After the bandits were captured, they were all killed by Shen Lindong. Forty-seven of the bandits' wives and daughters were also captured. 930 sand bandits' war horses and 360 pack horses were captured. Most of the grain and grass were burned, but the weapons and iron tools were relatively good. In addition, Xiao Kai reported that he had seized countless gold and silver treasures, including a hundred taels of gold alone, a full eight thousand taels of silver, and as many as 20,000 taels of silver notes from Guannei Bank.
During the day, the scouts discovered that hundreds of bandits were fleeing from various places in the Roland ruins. They did not appear to be part of a gang, so there should be no banditry in the northern part of the grassland in a short period of time.
"Are there any Han people among the corpses?"
"Yes, but most of them are horse bandits and sand bandits. They should be horse bandits wandering on the grasslands. Although they are Han Chinese, they are not Chinese." Xiao Kai investigated carefully and then put an item into Zhang Xiaowu's hand. Zhang Xiaowu saw It's a jade plaque. On the back of this jade pendant are two big characters "Golden Clothes" written on it.
Xiao Kaifu heard: "It's the token of Jin Yiwei. Among the sand bandits, there are Jin Yiwei. The composition of this group of sand bandits is not simple. The Jin Yiwei was ordered to supervise the officials to protect the imperial power, but now they are actually involved.
Among the bandits, I am afraid that there is only one who wants to kill the Gu family."
The ones chasing the Gu family girls were actually the Golden Guards, a bodyguard that protected the emperor. Compared with the Silver Guards who protected Longdu City, the Golden Guards were more mysterious and unpredictable. But the Golden Guards of the Shenghan Empire were different from the Silver Guards.
The Jinyiwei that existed in the Ming Dynasty in Chinese history were different. They were often only responsible for spying on intelligence and delivering news, and rarely took action. The Jinyiwei were just the emperor's eyes and ears.
Jin Yiwei was also involved, so the matter became even more complicated. Zhang Xiaowu frowned, then relaxed, and said softly: "Just pretend you don't know."
"Here."
"How is the injured sergeant doing?"
"Six of them didn't make it during the day. I don't know what happened to the other six tonight." Zhang Xiaowu sighed and returned to his tent gloomily.
Zhang Xiaowu was just about to rest in the tent when he heard Miss Gu Er's voice getting closer and closer, and thought that he could no longer rest. Miss Gu Er opened the tent curtain and asked, "I heard how many soldiers need surgery?"
"This..." Zhang Xiaowu paused, "Yes."
The two came to the wounded soldiers' place. Zhang Xiaowu asked about the situation of the six wounded soldiers. They were not afraid, and it was rare for them to have close contact with such young ladies from aristocratic families. None of them even felt pain. Zhang Xiaowu was deeply moved by these.
It's so shameless. When you have a beauty, you forget about your official position...
After all, Zhang Xiaowu is a rough man, and his skill in suturing wounds is naturally inferior to that of Miss Gu Er. Before, Miss Gu Er was timid with her hands, but now she was "highly enthusiastic" and insisted on doing it herself, so Zhang Xiaowu temporarily helped her.
The soldiers did not feel any pain, which made the suturing operation much faster. Zhang Xiaowu only gave instructions once and just watched from the sidelines. Gu Ruoxi felt very proud of Zhang Xiaowu's praise. After a while, Wang Yijin came in and
He whispered a few words into his ear, and then Zhang Xiaowu left.
When the generals discussed the matter, Zhang Xiaowu first talked about the silver, 8,000 taels of broken silver and 20,000 taels of silver notes. The other gold was converted into 2,000 taels of silver, so the total captured this time was 30,000 taels of silver. The bandits have a habit
, they would take the looted money wherever they went, and now the sand bandits who had taken away the southern grassland in one fell swoop had also robbed them and robbed them for many years.
The generals couldn't help but laugh, this is the result of greed, everything is lost.
Zhang Xiaowu proposed to spend two-thirds of the silver back to the Central Plains to buy land to ensure the basic livelihood of each soldier in the dead soldiers camp. Everyone was quite surprised by this. They thought the colonel would divide the money, but they did not expect that he proposed to divide the land.
, all puzzled.
Zhang Xiaowu said: "Now we are in the northern part of the Great Wall. We don't know when we will die in battle or when we can go back. But even if we return home, many soldiers will not know anything except killing. So I will divide the land for everyone. At least
As long as the sergeant can still farm, he and his family will not starve to death. If there is enough money in the future, I will
We want everyone to live in a house, marry a wife, and buy an ox at home. Brothers, I want my brothers Paoze to have 20 acres of land for each of them, a cow, and a hot bed for his wife and children." In fact, according to the Holy Han Army,
Everything captured was distributed by Zhang Xiaowu, and some shameless people even took the spoils for themselves.
Everyone thought that they would share some gold and silver, eat, drink and have fun, but they never thought that Zhang Xiaowu would use money to buy land, and they never thought about how they would live after the war ended.
The generals looked at each other in confusion, and Xiao Kai said: "Can everyone go back alive?"
"Yes." Zhang Xiaowu said proudly.
Hopes and longings for the future arose in the hearts of the generals. Shen Lindong bowed his hands to the ground: "I'm convinced, I'm convinced. Shen is sincerely convinced, sir."
Zhang Xiaowu also said that the dead soldiers might not need to go to the battlefield, and might die on the battlefield next time, so after escorting the Gu family and the caravan to Lianglang Pass this time, he immediately sent people back to the Central Plains. This time, Zhang Xiaowu handed over the important task to Wu Song
, and then Zhao Suo and ten sergeants would escort him all the way to avoid encountering bandits or accidents.
Wusong thought for a while and said, "Okay, since everyone trusts me and is not afraid that I will take the money and run away, I will agree to it. My family is in Yangzhou, I am familiar with Yangzhou, and I know where the land is fertile and cheap." He looked at everyone.
Then he said with a smile: "I am not a civil servant in the death camp, but people treat me like this. If this matter is not handled well, I will not come back."
Zhao Suo said hurriedly: "Mr. Wu, you have to come back. If you don't come back, I will kidnap you back."
Everyone laughed, and Hu Sanwan took the opportunity to ask everyone to write a letter home and take it back. There were many casualties in the Battle of Saibei, and the relatives at home were worried day and night. If the letter could be sent home, the family would be more relieved.
Everyone praised it, so they wrote family letters one after another. Some sergeants knew some words, and some did not. Everyone helped each other, and worked for half a night, writing dozens and dozens of family letters and giving them to Wu Song.
When Grandfather Mao saw everyone writing family letters, he felt mixed emotions in his heart. He lowered his head and looked at his feet, worried about his wife and daughter. Zhang Xiaowu sat next to him and said, "We brothers don't have to write family letters, so it saves trouble."
Zu Gongmao coughed twice and said, "Is nothing going to happen to them?"
Zhang Xiaowu said with a smile: "Your wife has traveled thousands of miles to find her husband, and she has traveled all the way from Yangzhou to this place. To survive till now, she must have a tough character and will not be knocked down easily. You must have confidence in her."
Wu Song put everyone's family letters in a commonly used bamboo basket and said with a smile: "I will definitely live up to my mission."
Zhang Xiaowu said: "Wealth should not be exposed. The dead soldier battalion has gained such a big advantage, and the soldiers who have received the money will inevitably show off with pride, so I only give each person five taels of silver, and in the name of the Gu family." Everyone said yes,
Zhang Xiaowu added: "Fifty taels of silver is quite a lot. It's enough to eat, drink and whore in the city, so that my soldiers won't have money to go to Mucheng City to find girls, eat King's meals and shoot King's cannons."
Everyone looked at each other in confusion, not understanding what the Overlord Dinner and the Overlord Cannon were. Zhang Xiaowu laughed first and explained: "I can't afford to let him go on credit with the prostitute Hongguo'er. Don't mention that he is my soldier in the future."
The generals laughed, and Xiao Kai suddenly thought of something and asked quickly: "Sir, what about the woman who wrote about bandits?"
"Do they know about our money?"
"You should know." Xiao Kai said.
Shen Lindong added: "In fact, most of our money was found from their arms. These women were not robbed. They are the wives, daughters and relatives of the bandits, and they are also the people they trust most."
Xiao Kai added: "The 20,000 taels of silver notes were found from a 19-year-old pockmarked girl. She should be the daughter of a certain bandit leader."
Zhang Xiaowu said: "Who was responsible for watching over the female prisoners yesterday?"
"Guancheng."
"Call him over."
"Here."
Guancheng arrived soon, and Zhang Xiaowu ordered: "Guancheng, after dark, pull them to a remote place..."
Guancheng immediately said with a sad face: "Master Colonel, even if I am a tough guy, I can't deal with hundreds of old ladies."
Zhang Xiaowu couldn't laugh or cry, stepped forward and kicked him, and cursed: "Take them to a remote place and kill them, don't leave any of them alive."
Guan Cheng scratched his head and secretly said it was a pity, but when Zhang Xiaowu glared at him, he immediately patted his chest and said, "Here, leave it to me, I will make their lives worse than death."
"Fart, I just want to die." Zhang Xiaowu scolded.
Xiao Kai added from the side: "Don't make any noise, so as not to scare the people in the caravan and the young lady of the Gu family."