When the red lady got off the boat, she did not enter the city. Instead, she went directly to the military camp outside the city to see how the army was training.
Upon learning that the imperial concubine was back, the entire camp was in a state of excitement and cheers continued. Li Dakai and a group of generals immediately rushed to the entrance of the camp to greet her.
"Empress, you are finally back."
"What happened? Where did everyone else go?"
The red lady glanced at the generals behind Li Dakai and found that most of the generals were not there. She frowned and asked in a deep voice.
"Returning to your Majesty, the other generals have all asked for leave and gone to the city." Li Dakai answered honestly.
"What are all these people doing in the city?"
"This time... my wife has gone to the Qinhuai River."
"What?"
"Li Dakai, what did I tell you when I left? Is this how you carried out my military orders?"
"Tell me, who are they? How many times have they been there?"
When the red lady heard this, she became furious, whipped him with a whip and shouted, "I still don't understand what happened. She didn't expect that during her absence, military discipline would be so corrupted."
"I beg your Majesty to punish me. I am incompetent and did not supervise you well. I have betrayed your Majesty's trust and trust and deserve death!"
Li Dakai knelt on the ground and said with a look of guilt and helplessness.
It's not that he doesn't care, it's that he simply can't care.
Each of those generals were the confidants of the Imperial Concubine, and many of them were old brothers who had followed the Imperial Concubine through life and death in rebellion in Qixian County. Once the Imperial Concubine left, these people did not take him seriously at all.
The other generals also knelt down and lowered their heads with guilty consciences. Apparently, they often went to the Qinhuai River.
"Get up first and call everyone back. If you don't get back to the military camp in half an hour, don't come back again."
The red lady said a few words with an ugly face and walked towards the military camp.
She also knew that she could not entirely blame Li Dakai. She knew very well what kind of virtues her old brothers had.
So when they left, it was stipulated that each of them could only take leave twice a month. But looking at the current situation, I'm afraid it could be more than ten times.
"yes!"
Everyone hurriedly replied, then stood up and hurried to follow, knowing that the empress was probably really angry this time.
The military camp was very large, with 80,000 recruits divided into eight camps. Almost all of these 80,000 recruits were young men recruited from western Zhejiang, and they were all between the ages of sixteen and twenty.
Although most of the mid-level and senior generals were absent from their posts without authorization, the 80,000-strong army was still training in full swing, with shouts of killing everywhere.
After walking around for a while, the red lady's face finally looked much better.
"Yes, the training of the new recruits has finally come to an end. The entire army has gathered and I want to give you a lecture."
"yes!"
Li Dakai finally breathed a sigh of relief.
He couldn't control those arrogant and powerful generals, and he couldn't count on them. He could only personally handle the training of the new recruits. In the past few months, he had devoted almost all his energy to the 80,000 new recruits.
As the trumpet sounded, not long after, all 80,000 troops rushed to the central school field and assembled.
Seeing that after only half an hour, all the 80,000 troops were assembled and lined up, the red lady was even more satisfied.
At this time, more than two hundred mid-level and senior generals and nearly a thousand low-level officers also rushed to the school grounds with embarrassed faces and knelt down directly under the high platform.
"good very good!"
When the red lady saw that there were so many people leaving their posts without permission, her body shook and she almost fainted from anger.
When everyone saw the red lady being so angry, they lowered their heads in shame and did not dare to look at her at all.
"Tietou, get out of here."
"My Majesty, please don't be angry. Don't be afraid of getting angry. I won't dare to do it again in the future. I will never frown even if your Majesty punishes you."
A tall and powerful general quickly got up from the team, ran to the red lady and knelt down in front of her.
But the red lady kicked him to the ground: "Tell me, how many times have you been to the Qinhuai River in total?"
"No...I don't remember. It must have been dozens of times!"
Tietou hurriedly got up and knelt down again, thinking for a while before answering in a low voice.
"Dozens of times, where did you get so much money?"
"At first, I spent my own money, but later I met a member of the Communist Party of China. When he heard that I was a general, he wanted to marry his sister to me and give me a house. My mother-in-law said that we are not allowed to get married without authorization or accept bribes. In the end,
The general refused.
He didn’t give up, so he invited me to have a drink at the Qinhuai River every now and then. I knew he must have had bad intentions, but if I don’t eat, I won’t get it for free, haha..."
"You idiot, you still know that he has no good intentions, why don't you marry his sister? Also take over the house?"
The red lady angrily kicked him over again.
"Your Majesty, I am not stupid, I know exactly what they are planning."
Tietou said at the end with a proud look on his face, as if he had taken advantage of him.
"Get out of the way first, I'll deal with you later."
The red lady ignored him and asked the other mid-level, high-level and low-level generals one by one.
As a result, almost all mid-level and high-level generals were recruited, including many low-level generals.
"My dear, I have also been courted. A wealthy businessman from Yangzhou wanted to marry his daughter to me as a concubine. He also wanted to give me a mansion and 5,000 acres of fertile land, but I refused with words." Li Dakai also looked bitter.
said.
"I believe you all know what the intentions of those who are wooing you are, so I won't say more.
You who have received money from a woman's house and farmland come to me.
Anyone who violates military discipline by going to the Qinhuai River will receive thirty military sticks for those above the rank of the Thousand-General and twenty military sticks for the rank below the Thousand-General, and will not be allowed to ask for leave to leave the camp within one month."
In the end, tens of thousands of people were beaten with military clubs.
The 80,000 new recruits looked at it in secret.
It was already dark after she finished dealing with the affairs in the army, but the red lady still returned to the palace. Her face was very solemn all the way. She knew that she had to start a family and establish a career for these old brothers as soon as possible.
"Yinger, you are finally back."
"Mother, thank you for your hard work. What's going on?"
The red lady was shocked when she saw Zhang Yan's haggard face, and the anger in her heart became even worse.
"well!"
Zhang Yan sighed helplessly, and then explained to her what had happened in the past half month.
"Auntie, are the gentry and landlords in Jiangnan going to rebel just for the sake of the best cotton?"
After hearing this, the red lady was also full of disbelief.
"It's not a rebellion, it's just a petition. I think they saw that Xinger would reform Jiangnan. The cotton issue was just a pretext. They wanted to test Xinger's attitude. I have reported the situation to Xinger in detail.
That’s it.” Zhang Yan explained.
"Then has your Majesty responded?" The red lady frowned.
"It can't be so fast. It will take at least a month to go back and forth. I'm afraid I have to wait another ten days, so I have to work harder in these ten days to avoid causing big troubles in various places in Jiangnan."
"This is simple. Don't worry, Madam. The army outside the city is already strong enough to fight. Tomorrow I will ask Li Dakai to lead the army to Yangzhou to kill all the salt merchants first. I want to see who dares to eat enough.
Keep making trouble."
The red lady waved her hand, with a strong murderous intent on her face.
"Ying'er, don't act recklessly. The salt merchants in the Huaihe River and Huaihe River are deeply intertwined. If this happens, it will really cause a shock to the entire Jiangnan."
Zhang Yan was shocked when she heard that she wanted to wipe out all the salt merchants. Salt merchants are no more noble than nobles.
"Mother, to tell you the truth, I have tolerated those salt merchants for a long time. A pound of salt is sold for hundreds of cents, and a lot of mud is mixed in. However, the salt farmers who actually cook the salt have been exploited by them.
Not as good as a military household,
And now they are targeting my subordinates again. It’s really hard to eliminate the hatred in my heart without stripping them of their skin and cramps, confiscating their homes and annihilating their clans!”
The red lady said at the end, gritting her teeth.
She knew that His Majesty asked her to come to Jiangnan to kill people and ransack homes to clear the way for subsequent reforms. If she didn't do these killings, how could she ask His Majesty to do it?
"But..." Although Zhang Yan knew that those salt merchants were hateful and deserved to die, she was still a little worried.