Chapter 284 General Baikui (Thirty-nine) Instructions (Part 1)
After Gao Yongshi and Wang Tingzhuan had just finished discussing some matters that were not humane to outsiders, Xiong Tingbi's voice came from outside: "Enxiang, Entang, the tea is ready." Although the words came, there was no sound of footsteps.
The two people inside looked at each other and smiled, and Wang Tingzhan whispered: "Although Fei Baixing is upright, he has a high level of understanding. However, I have often wondered recently how I discovered such a talent since I had never met him at that time.
"
Gao pragmatic smiled, but did not answer. Instead, he ordered outside: "Fei Bai, there is no need to be polite. Now that the tea is ready, just bring it in." After saying this, he heard Xiong Tingbi respond and carry the tea tray from outside.
He came in and began to serve Enxiang. The two of them drank tea in the hall.
After doing all this, Xiong Tingbi stepped aside and stood in awe with his hands down. When Gao pragmatic saw him, he smiled and pointed to the seat next to him: "You are also the prime minister, so you don't have to be so restrained. Just sit down."
The so-called "Chu Xiang" is actually a term that flatters people. In the Ming Dynasty, people who passed the imperial examination and entered the Hanlin Academy as officials were generally regarded as "Chu Xiang", which meant that these people would have opportunities in the future.
Becoming a minister of the cabinet, this was mentioned in the inscription of the high pragmatic gold list.
Xiong Tingbi bowed slightly to show respect, retreated to the seat aside, and sat down with half of his buttocks, his attitude was still quite humble. When Gao Pragmatic saw him, he nodded secretly in his heart. Xiong Tingbi in the original history had a problem, that is, he was a little arrogant because of his talent.
, and this is a major weakness in the officialdom. Now, through the "traineeship" around him, his temperament seems to have changed a little, which is indeed a good thing and will definitely help his future development.
.
The "private matters" have been discussed, and now that Xiong Tingbi is back, it's time to talk about business.
Gao Pangshi pondered for a moment, then said: "You two are not outsiders, so I will speak directly. Next, Liantang will take over as the governor of Gansu, and when the preparations for the Western Expedition are about to be completed, he will add the Western Expedition strategy and be fully responsible for it.
Regarding the affairs of this Western Expedition, Fei Bai is about to finish observing the government and will be appointed as the Supervising Censor. One month later, he will be appointed as the Supervising Censor of Gansu Province and concurrently serve as the Supervisor of the Western Expedition."
Wang Tingzhuan raised his hand and said: "Since Yuanfu trusts me, Tingzhuan will do his best to conquer the remnants of the imperial court and bring peace to the Western Regions."
Xiong Tingbi then raised his hand and said: "Yuan Fu's trust is so deep that Tingbi is carrying a huge weight, but the country has a destiny, so how dare he refuse? Even if his talent is sparse and his knowledge is shallow, he should work hard to do it."
When Tingbi goes to the Western Regions, he must strictly enforce discipline, reward good and punish evil, so that those who have meritorious services will not be rewarded, and those who have made mistakes will not be allowed to escape blame. When Tingbi goes to the Western Regions, he wants to accompany the marching army.
Try your best."
Although the words of the two were just words for the occasion, Gao Pragmatic still nodded to express his approval. However, he did not want to hear the two express their determination, so he continued, first writing to Wang Ting: "Let's go to the lotus pond.
There are three important things that must be dealt with urgently."
"Please give me Yuanfu's instructions." When it came to business, Wang Tingzhuan no longer called Gao Pragmatic "Rixin", but used the honorific title "Yuanfu".
Gao pragmatically said: "First, check the arrears of wages in Gansu over the years."
Wang Tingzhu looked solemn and said: "Yuan Fu has been in military affairs for a long time, so he naturally knows that the towns in our dynasty have been in arrears of pay for a long time and there are many reasons for it. This time I am inspecting Gansu, and I don't know where to investigate this matter.
Year? If some of these things are difficult to find out, how should we deal with them?"
Wang Tingzhuan's words were somewhat veiled and too polite. In fact, he only wanted to say two things: First, how long is the "pursuit period" of Gao Pragmatic's "inventory"? Looking back three to five years,
Or ten, twenty years, or even longer?
Second, what should we do with some confusing accounts? Should we forget about it, or should we find a way to settle it completely?
Gao pragmatically said: "The inventory should be divided into two periods, before Wanli and after Wanli. Liantang, let me tell you the bottom line here. How much can you find out in three months about the wages owed before Wanli? Try to find out as much as possible.
, try to find out as much as possible; no matter who is involved in the payment arrears after Wanli, let me get to the bottom of it!
There is nothing that I cannot count in the accounts of the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of War. I know very well how much money has been allocated to Gansu over the years. It stands to reason that although the allocation received by Gansu is certainly not as large as that of Jiliao Xuanda, it has not been possible since the Battle of Yuan Dynasty.
Later, the imperial court also allocated two to three million taels to strengthen military equipment.
With so much money allocated, why did Burihatu lose Jiayuguan and Suzhou in a sneak attack, and even Ganzhou could only defend the city, but did not dare to take a step forward in the face of the Mongolian army?
To be honest, when I fought against the Mongols, I fought them all in the field, and I won every single one of them! Why can I do it, but Gansu doesn't even dare to try? I think this is definitely not just a
The problem of "general incompetence" is that the Gansu armies simply did not have the confidence to fight the Mongols in the field, and this lack of confidence must be related to the low morale caused by the lack of pay.
Therefore, if the Western Expedition is to be successful, the payment problem must be solved first. If the Western Expedition athletes cannot be guaranteed to have sufficient pay, how can we expect them to be willing to travel thousands of miles, cross deserts, and cross the Gobi to fight the Tatars to the death? This is the lotus pond.
There must be no mistakes in the major issues that must be resolved first after you take office."
Wang Tingzhuan nodded, but did not respond - because Gao Pragmatic's words were obviously only half of what he said, and he had not yet given instructions on the other half of the question.
Gao pragmatic calmed down his stern tone and said slowly: "As for some confusing accounts that are difficult to identify or difficult to identify in a short period of time, we can consider implementing a buyout."
"Buyout?" Wang Tingzhuan frowned slightly, showing suspicion, and asked: "What is a buyout?"
Gao Pangshi didn't understand the suspicious look on Wang Tingzhuan's face at first, but he immediately felt that something was wrong with his expression. Only then did he suddenly realize that the word "buyout" at this time meant the same thing as his later one.
The meaning of "buyout" is...different.
"Buyout" at this time generally has two meanings, but both of them are related to women in pleasure. The first one refers to the money paid by the rich to monopolize prostitutes for a long time. Sun Di's "Beili Zhi·Wang Tuan'er" in the Tang Dynasty
"It says: "If the rich take control of it, it will no longer be seen", and then it notes: "Most of the sons in the song are wealthy people who lose money to their mothers every day, which is called buying out. But they are not free of official envoys, and they will no longer be seen."
Only accepting customers.”
The second type is to spend money to redeem the prostitute's life and get registered with the government's approval. The eighth chapter of the play "Little Sun Tu" written by Anonymous in the Yuan Dynasty says: "Today, harmony is cherished, and the Xie En family does not hesitate to buy out the flowers."
"Qian Nanyang's school annotation for this: "To buy, to pay for her redemption; to break, to be judged by the officials, to allow her to register."
Here, Gao Pragmatic actually made a common-sense mistake of the current era, but this is also related to the fact that he has always kept a clean life and has never been a prostitute. After all, he has never been in such an occasion, so he did not think of "buying out" for a while.
The current meaning of the word.
"Ahem! That's not what I meant, but as far as the word 'buyout' is concerned, the meaning is somewhat similar." Gao Pragmatic explained dryly, and told Wang Ting the basic meaning of "buyout" in later generations.
After hearing this, he added: "In short, it is to use a sum of money to write off the unexplained salary arrears in the past."
Wang Tingzhuan also knew that Gao Jingshi never slept with prostitutes, so he quickly skipped the previous suspicions, thought about it along Gao Jingshi's train of thought, and then said with some embarrassment: "Yuan Fu, this matter... I'm afraid it's hard to talk about but hard to handle.
.First of all, since those are confusing accounts that cannot be investigated, it is impossible to say how much is involved in every household or even every person. It is even difficult to tell how much there is. So what exactly is the 'buyout amount'?
How much to set?
If the order is too much, the court will spend a lot of unjust money; if the order is too little, the relevant military households will feel that the court is deliberately trying to harm them. Moreover, it may be difficult to determine who is involved, and this bowl of water is too difficult.
It's settled. I'm afraid that when the time comes, some people will get the 'buy-out silver' and some won't, and in the end we'll end up worrying not about scarcity but about inequality..."
"Then it will be equal." Gao Pragmatic said decisively: "If it doesn't work, every military household in Gansu Town will pay the arrears at the same time. The amount can be less on average for each household, but it must be paid."
Wang Tingzhuan continued to ask: "Is the money given per household or by mouth?" The "kou" he mentioned was "dingkou", which means an individual, that is to say, "on a per capita basis."
Gao pragmatic thought for a while and said: "Some military households may happen to have no one currently serving, but the court cannot forget them, so let's count them on a household basis."
Wang Tingzhuan mused: "As far as I know, the military posts in various places have been established for a long time, and the population is increasing day by day. In addition to the regular soldiers, there are six or seven soldiers, or even ten or twenty soldiers under each military household."
.In this way, if the silver is given to each household, if it is too little, one person (person) will not get one tael, but it is better than nothing; if it is too much, it will be detrimental to the government's finances..."
"You have the wrong idea." Gao Pragmatic waved his hand and said: "For you, the governor of Gansu, the current situation is to live within your means. That is, you will distribute the amount to each household according to the amount given by the court, instead of first counting the number of households.
How many households? Then estimate the number and then go to the Ministry of Household Affairs to ask for money."
At this point, he stretched out two fingers and said categorically: "Two million taels, the Ministry of Accounts will separately allocate two million taels of silver to you to do this. No matter what the facts of those confusing accounts are, these two million taels
You take both and distribute it to each military household equally - remember, this money cannot be wasted, and no civil or military officials are allowed to deduct it."
Gao pragmatic turned his head and said to Xiong Tingbi: "Fei Bai, if anyone wants to get involved with this money, just catch them for me. I'll kill one of them, and I'll kill two of them!"
Huh, the imperial army is about to gather in Gansu. I want to see who wants to use their heads to sacrifice the flag for my western expedition army. If the local officials are really not afraid of death, then I don’t mind using their heads before going out for the expedition.
Build a Beijing temple!"
Gao Jingshi's words made Wang Tingzhuan a little frightened, not because he wanted to make a fortune from it, but because he felt that Gao Jingshi's words were full of murderous intent, as if he was not determined to make a large sum of money, but determined to make a fortune.
It's like killing people wantonly.
Xiong Tingbi's blood boiled when he heard that. He straightened his back immediately and said in an extremely firm tone: "Yuanfu, don't worry, although Tingbi is a scholar, he is not afraid of killing people, let alone the corrupt officials? These rats are about to
Everyone makes it clear that canonical punishment is the right way."
Very good, the young man is very energetic. However, Gao Pragmatic was not as strict as before at this time, and his murderous aura suddenly disappeared, and he smiled slightly and said: "Okay, I will leave this matter to your supervision, which is also your duty.
"
Although Wang Tingzhuan was worried that this might cause dissatisfaction among local officials, considering what Gao Pragmatic said just now that "the imperial army is about to gather in Gansu", he was a little relieved and thought to himself: Yes, hundreds of thousands of troops will gather in Gansu by then.
, who doesn’t have a long-sighted mind to dare to jump out and cause trouble at that time? I really think the neck is too hard, and I have to try to see if the sword of the emperor in the hand of Benjingtai is not sharp?
Anyway, Gao Jingshi said that he would be given "Additional Economic Strategy" in a few months, and the emperor must have nodded to this kind of thing, so he has now begun to regard himself as an economic planner. As for the economic strategy, the emperor will definitely ask for it by then
The one who bestowed the Emperor's Sword. With the Emperor's Sword in hand, it would be more intimidating than the general military support or even the military control. During the battle of defeating the Yuan Dynasty without you seeing it, Meng Yuan's economic strategy was high and pragmatic, so he used the Emperor's Sword's power to
The authority dealt with Li Song directly? That was the majestic Governor Ji Liao!
[Note: Gao’s pragmatic strategic military order at that time was: “Order Ma Lin, the commander of Zijin Pass, to hold this strategic plan and Shang Fangjian, lead three thousand riders south to Gubeikou at night, and ask and kill the garrison of Gubeikou; then go down to Miyun, and relieve Jiliao
Governor Li Songben is concurrently holding various posts, while Li Songzhun is staying in his official post, awaiting investigation. In addition, Ma Lin, with a brief order, summons Li Ruhua, the imperial censor, to Miyun, where he will temporarily control the army and wait for new orders from the court. This order will be implemented immediately.
.”]
You should know that Gao Pangshi had not yet entered the cabinet at that time, but was serving as the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty's economic planner concurrently as the Minister of Household Affairs. Although he was concurrently serving as the governor of Gansu, considering that the Western Expedition was a major political event in the current DPRK, it was estimated that even if he would not be able to do so by then,
If you give yourself the title of Minister of the Ministry of War, you should also give yourself the title of Yushi of the Right Capital. Then in terms of intelligence level, it will be very different from Gao Pragmatic at the beginning.
Wang Tingzhuan breathed a sigh of relief and asked: "Yuan Fu said that there are three important things, but now he is just talking about one thing. I wonder what the other two things are?"
Seeing that he had gone over the topic of checking the unpaid wages, Gao Pangshi knew that he had agreed, so he continued: "The second thing is to check the military equipment of Gansu."
After a pause, he added: "What I mean by armaments does not only refer to the weapons, armors, firearms and other items carried by the officers and soldiers of the town, but also includes the border defense facilities that have been reinforced as required by the imperial government's allocations over the years. As for the warehouses and inventories, that is even more so.
The most important thing.
In this inventory, you first need to count the numbers, and secondly, you need to clarify the proportion of those who can be used and those who are not. After that, Fei Bai will be responsible for holding the accountable, and you will be mainly responsible for figuring out these data - I must
Fully understand the actual local data in Gansu, including the reserves of soldiers, firearms, artillery, gunpowder, armor, grain, horses, camels, carriages, and even various materials ranging from tents to iron pots."
Wang Tingzhuan quietly swallowed his saliva and said with a wry smile: "In the past, when I saw Yuan Fu winning every battle, I just thought he was using his troops like a god. Now after listening to Yuan Fu's instructions, I realized that what the Art of War said was true, but ordinary people only read it.
I don’t know the details behind the words.
The Art of War says: 'Know yourself and the enemy, and you can fight a hundred battles without danger'. It also says: 'Those who were good at fighting in the past were first invincible, and then waited for the enemy to become victorious. The invincible lies in oneself, but the victorious lies in the enemy'. However, what is a 'knowing yourself', and how many of them are there?
Have you thought about it seriously? Now that you hear Yuan Fu’s request, you realize how difficult it is to become a confidant. Tingzhuan has been taught a lesson."
----------
Thanks to book friend "Cao Mianzi" for your reward and support, thank you!
Thanks to book friends "GM Broken Bridge Misty Rain" and "doni" for their monthly support, thank you! [PS: I can't type the katakana in the ID of Broken Bridge Misty Rain, so I had to ignore it, sorry.]