Chapter One Thousand Four Hundred and Seventy-Two: Ali’s Fear, Gold Tribute, Death!
"A thousand pounds of...gold?!"
The rich divine smoke lingered in the blood-colored Yongning Temple, which was as dazzling as the flashing golden light. Ali, the chief of the Harman Tribe, opened his eyes wide, holding the golden talisman in his hand, and looked at his ancestors in disbelief.
Varro. At this moment, he thought he had hurt his ear or was hallucinating.
"Zu...Zu Shaman, are you kidding me? A thousand kilograms of gold? That's sixteen thousand taels of gold and at least one hundred thousand taels of silver! Such an astonishing amount of wealth would be difficult for even the General Soldier of Liaodong to obtain
Come out! In this bitter cold lower reaches of the river, the savages are all living like hair and drinking blood, and they don’t even have a few iron tools. How is it possible that there is such a large sum of gold?!..."
"Oh? You don't believe it?...Xiong Da, go to the flagship and get the bag of gold talismans from the bottom of the bilge!"
"good!"
The majestic Xiong Da nodded and ran out quickly. Not long after, he came back panting, carrying a heavy and strong straw bag tied tightly with leather straps. Then, he took the straw bag from his shoulder.
After unloading it, he threw it heavily on the ground, and a crisp and sweet collision sound sounded in the bag.
"Ding! Ding!..."
“!!…”
With trembling fingers, Harman Chief Ali knelt down and untied the straw bag. Then, a dazzling golden light enveloped his face and blinded his old eyes. He stretched out his palm and grabbed hard at the golden talisman.
Two handfuls, feeling the heavy weight in my hands, the expression on my face is both greedy and shocked, just like a dream!
"Ancestor! This one is gold! So is this one! All of these are gold? This bag is all?! How is this possible?!... How could the poor savage tribe in the north just take out a bag of gold like this?
Come gold?!…”
"That's right! Ali, this bag contains probably more than a hundred gold talismans. When the fleet came, it was packed in a bag and I didn't count it carefully. Anyway, when combined, it will only be more than a hundred kilograms, not more than a hundred kilograms.
Less! As for one thousand catties of gold, or even ten thousand catties! For us who believe in the Lord God, it is also easy...
"The power of the Lord God is so incredible! He holds a spear of lightning in one hand, and in the other hand is the shining golden light. He has great magic power and can give us gold..."
"!!Mana? Is this a gift from the gods? Is it the conjured gold?..."
"Um…"
Zuvalo smiled slightly, carefully looked at Ali's excited expression, and probed meaningfully.
"How about it? Ali, do you believe it now? You said that if we go south with ten horses and one thousand kilograms of gold to pay tribute and trade to the Ming Dynasty in the south...the divine emperor of the Ming Dynasty will receive us and give us
The craftsman in need, as a return gift?"
"!!...Zu Shaman, let me slow down, let me take a breath...Is this true?...This is true!..."
Ali, the chief of Harman, knelt in front of a bag of gold, trembling all over. He stared at the shining golden light in confusion, and greedily inhaled the smoke from the temple. In the smoke, there was the familiar rosin of the Tungus tribe, and some
An Chunxiang, the Jurchen sacrifice in Heilongjiang, also has a strange spice that is difficult for him to identify, but is particularly soothing.
At this moment, in front of a large bag of gold "conjured" by the savage shaman, he was so shocked that he even thought that he had fallen under the shaman's spell.
"Ancestor! In the Kaiyuan market, one stone of rice only costs five yuan and more silver. Even if it is sold to our Jurchen tribe at a higher price, it only costs six or seven yuan... This one hundred kilograms of gold is at least ten thousand taels of silver and fifteen thousand clear stones.
The food is enough for a large tribe of 5,000 people to save for a year!…”
"But this is not food, or even silver, but gold! This is the rarest and hardest gold, the gold that everyone wants! Only the merchants in Kaiyuan Market are willing to buy the furs produced by the tribe, and you have to look at it.
Their pricing. But no one will refuse these shining gold, from joining the guerrilla army to serving as a border guard!"
"The main god of golden light! As long as there is such a golden talisman, and it is given to the guard of Kaiyuan Market, the iron tools that the tribe can bring back can be quadrupled! ... No! As long as there is such a golden talisman, the number of iron tools that can be brought back by the tribe can be quadrupled!
The connections were traded to the capitals of various frontier forts.
Lord Commander, even those above... you can privately trade whatever armor, iron swords, and whatever armaments you want! Even if you let them bring them outside the border wall for trade... No! Trade outside the border wall... bloody
The smell?…the smell of blood!…”
In the curling smoke of the gods, the eyes of the Harman chief Ali changed. He stared at the bag of gold talismans in front of him, as if he were seeing piles of grain in a hill, or bundles of iron soldiers and armor.
His greed and desire when he first saw these golds were actually no different from those of the peaceful warriors and businessmen. But his background was, after all, that of a Jurchen chief who fought for survival in the white mountains and black waters, no matter how much he accepted,
"Chinese", it is difficult to change the situation of his tribe, and all the tribal logic for survival...
"O Lord God! In front of the golden light of the Lord God, I smelled the smell of blood. It was the heart sacrificed on the altar, and it was death so close at hand. Just like my chest with the emblem of the divine bird engraved on it!..."
Smelling the smell of blood in the divine smoke, the Harman chief Ali suddenly woke up. With difficulty, he moved his eyes away from the piles of golden talismans, looked at the scarlet shaman altar under the main god's emblem, and looked at the bloody star.
heart offering.
The barbaric, primitive and mysterious tribal scene in front of him reminded him that his current location was not in the prosperous Kaiyuan Market of the Ming Dynasty, but in the abandoned and desolate Yongning Temple, in the brutal lower reaches of the Heilongjiang River. His
His identity is no longer "Ha'er Man Guard Du Qian Shi", let alone "Ha'er Man Tribe Chief", but the newly converted "Apprentice Ali". As for
The person who took out such a bag of gold beside him was not a tribal merchant doing business, but a mysterious "savage shaman" who knew how to perform psychic rituals. And the person with whom this gold was to deal was the Ming Dynasty border army.
A group of wolf-dogs that were not much better than the Jurchen tribe, and were also extremely hungry, were just being restrained by "civilian priests" and "eunuch female snakes"...
"Dear Ancestral Shaman who can produce gold! These bags of gold are indeed the incredible power of the Lord God. They are a huge wealth that I, Ali, and even the entire Jurchen tribe have never seen before! ... I believe that you,
There must be some kind of great magic power! Since you can produce this one hundred kilograms of gold, whether it was stolen, given by the gods, or exchanged for some witchcraft sacrifice... you can definitely produce the one thousand kilograms of gold as well!
…”
The Harman chief Ali pursed his lips, tried hard to drop the heavy gold talisman in his hand, and barely broke free from the golden light to stand up. The appearance of these golds, like the appearance of these tribes in big boats, was shrouded in a sense of mystery.
The color can only be explained by the gods. Anyway, in the history passed down by the Harman Tribe, it has never been heard that the barbarian tribes in the north would carry a large amount of gold and go south in big ships. And the lower reaches of Heilongjiang also came from
No gold mines have been discovered...
"Zu Shaman, you may not know the value of the gold given by the Lord God to the Ming Dynasty in the south and to the Liaodong border troops. If we go south with a thousand kilograms of gold, we will never see the Ming Emperor, and we will die.
There will be no burial place, not even a single person left alive!…”
"Oh? Ali, tell me in detail!"
"嗻!"
Having said this, Chief Ali walked up to Xiang Zuwaro and knelt down respectfully and kowtowed. Kneeling and kowtowing is a common etiquette among the Mongolian Jurchen tribes, and is used to show respect for the superior. In the Han Dynasty at this time, in fact,
Not flowing
Okay. And the Manchu spoken word "嗻" (je) still means "yes" and "obey". At this moment, Ali made a respectful gesture of obedience, his expression was not only full of awe, but also something out of the ordinary.
A little worried.
"Zu Shaman, in the lower reaches of the river, the tribes are fighting each other, and transactions are all barter, and gold and silver are not recognized. This gold has always been brought to the Han Dynasty in the south in order to exchange for the things the tribes need...
As for the southern Han Dynasty,
Gold and silver are 'money' and can buy everything. Whether it is for food and drink, or for marrying a wife and buying a house, money is needed!... The value of this sum of gold is beyond imagination, and it is worth all the Ming Dynasty frontier soldiers encountered
, I can’t bear it, I can’t let it go!”
"The Ming Dynasty's army in the south numbered in the tens of thousands. These sword-carrying 'soldiers', unlike our tribal warriors, need 'money' to support themselves...and ordinary border guard soldiers are counted as 'one ding'. They
After being deducted from various levels every month, you can receive the salary, or
It's called a 'lunar eclipse', and it usually costs only four or five yuan. This small amount of money costs more than half a stone of grain, and plus the border land grown by oneself, it can only make a living, often without enough food... Of course, in order to receive more 'lunar eclipses'
', there are always a lot of vacancies, and they are getting more and more..."
"As for the soldiers who can fight in the frontier army, such as the scouts and forwards in the front, they are probably 'one person is worth two soldiers'. What they can get is about eight dollars a month. They don't have to farm the land themselves, they just have to work hard.
can have enough to eat. And only a handful of them, most of them
Elite warriors are capable of "one person is as good as three Ding or four Ding". With their extraordinary bravery, they become the confidants of various commanders and generals. Their salary will not be withheld, and the officers who follow them are often rewarded, about
With one or two taels of silver a month, I won’t have to worry about food and drink..."
"Further up, for example, the 'commanders' who were entrusted to various ministries in the Ming Dynasty also had corresponding positions in the border towns in eastern Liaoning. Their monthly salary was 'de rice and five stones', which is only three to four taels of silver. Of course,
These salaries are only a small amount and cannot support their servants and servants at all. The bulk of their income comes from 'empty pay' and making 'soldiers' work."
"Generally speaking, a 'post' has a quota of ninety or hundreds of people, and at least 20% of the free wages must be accounted for. Calculated at five taels per person, this is ten taels of silver! Of these ten taels of silver, three parts are given to the subordinates, and 30% are reserved for yourself.
, 40% will be handed over to the superiors, or it will not be issued at all..."
"Therefore, a Qian Commander of the Liaodong Frontier Army, even if he eats two hundred men's quota and one hundred taels of 'lunar eclipse', what he can get is only thirty taels a month. This is still the best situation.
In fact, it is impossible to achieve it at all! Because the imperial court never pays the full amount, the 80% discount is the norm. 80% of the money is distributed from above, and the officials who handle it add 20%. If you can get 60%, it is already enough.
The background is extremely hard…”
"The lives of thousands of households in the border fortress are even more miserable. From the top thousand households to the bottom peasants and soldiers, they all live in extremely poor conditions. The salary and silver eclipse issued by the imperial court is often less than half, or even less than half.
As low as 20% to 30%. These border forts cannot even have enough food to eat, so they have to engage in private trade with us mature Jurchen tribes to make money. Those Haixi Jurchen ironware probably came from this way, so there must be border military forts.
Participating in reselling!…”
At this moment, Ha'erman, the commander of the Qianshi Ali, talked about the complicated food and salary system of the Liaodong frontier army, as well as the advanced "empty salary experience" and the private trade in the border forts that had emerged. Zuwaro's eyes widened as he listened.
For the first time, Ali "opened his eyes and saw the world". At the end of the sentence, Ali took another breath of the magic smoke, pressed his heart with one hand, pointed to the bag of gold on the ground with the other, and shouted through gritted teeth.
"Witness the blood-eyed Lord God! The Liaodong General Soldier in Liaodong Town controls tens of thousands to one hundred thousand border troops. Even if he eats the free pay of 10,000 soldiers for a whole year... it is estimated that this one hundred kilograms of gold, this
Ten thousand taels of silver!"
"This does not include the large share that the eunuchs at all levels ask for. In total, the Liaodong General Soldier can only get five or six thousand taels in a year..."
"Your Highness, Holy Emperor! As for a thousand pounds of gold and one hundred thousand taels of silver, those are huge sums of money that even the generals of the Liaodong Army of the Ming Dynasty rarely see! As long as you get it in your hands, you can pay for it for twenty years! ... Zu Shaman,
If you carry a thousand kilograms of gold and go south with us, even if you successfully pass through the Jurchen tribes along the way, come to Kaiyuan Market, and report to the Liaodong General Soldier..."
"I'm afraid that when the time comes, the outcome waiting for us will not be accepting tribute, but will be a massacre by the Ming army, leaving no chickens or dogs behind! Together with the Kaiyuanwei market, everyone who knows about our tribute, whether they are Jurchens
No one from the tribe or the Han people can survive!…"
"Then, Liaodong Town will report a great victory! We will wipe out all the 'barbarians' who 'invaded' Kaiyuan Guard and massacred the people in the market. We will take the heads of our 'barbarians' to report our merits to the imperial court and pass them on to the imperial court."