Chapter 179: Here to Fleece Money

With celebrities gathered, everyone pricked up their ears; this was the environment He Chunhua needed. He didn't refuse, sat down, and talked eloquently. As for the role Zhu Xiuer played at County Magistrate Lake, he didn't mention a word, only saying that villagers secretly reported it, giving the supporting army a reminder. Seeing his appropriate wording and generous demeanor, others nodded secretly.

He Lingchuan, however, paid attention to Ke Jihai.

When he talked to He Chunhua, there was truly only He Chunhua in his eyes, and he talked and laughed as if there was no one else around. Other nobles couldn't help but cheer and applaud when they heard the key points, but Ke Jihai was very impatient and turned his head to scold them.

The protagonist of the banquet tonight was clearly the Zhu family and Zhu Xiuer, and it was said that guests should follow the host, but he took the initiative as soon as he came, without any self-awareness. General Ke seemed to have a straightforward temper and didn't care about offending people.

Zhu Xiyan laughed and didn't mind, but the young and strong of the Zhu family curled their lips and frowned, full of dissatisfaction.

Regarding the combat strategy and the battle process, Ke Jihai asked in detail, especially the past of the supporting army leading all the old and weak in the village to flee west. He asked as soon as he heard it: "Lord He is benevolent, but the women and children are slow in action; to be able to throw the rebel army further and further away, you must have left a team to break the rear. May I ask how much was lost in this part?"

"The supporting army that broke the rear totaled 35 people, 17 horses, and 14 villagers who stayed to help." Having experienced that thrilling night, He Chunhua already knew these numbers by heart. "They held up the rebel army for nearly three hours."

"35 people, holding up for three hours!" Ke Jihai was moved. "Good, there must be brave and fierce people among them; Lord He must use them heavily."

He Chunhua smiled slightly, and only then did he summon He Lingchuan to his side: "At that time, my son asked to break the rear, and I was very reluctant. Who knew this kid would command properly and successfully complete the task."

He sighed for a long time: "He was shot by Lu Yao and fell off the cliff when he retreated; it is said that the arrow could hit three times in one shot, and we all thought he had no chance of survival. My wife cried and fainted on the spot. Who knew, heh, he not only didn't die, but also saved Wu Shaoyi who only had half a life left, otherwise that guy wouldn't have surrendered. This is truly Heaven's blessing."

"Those who save themselves will be saved by Heaven. Lu Yao's set of bows and arrows has a background; it is one of the treasures of the rebel leader Hong Xiangqian, called the 'Ghost Eye Bow.' If one shot misses, it will automatically double-tap later. The official army has learned its power on the battlefield, and two of my generals died under the Ghost Eye Bow. To be able to let Lu Yao take this bow and shoot you, yet not shoot you to death, the kid is not simple."

Ke Jihai turned to He Lingchuan: "You are young, have strategy and courage, rare! Not being a hero if you don't go to the battlefield; you will have great use in the north this time, you must practice diligently and add another tiger general for my Great Yuan!"

The Wang Ting's intention to transfer He Chunhua to Xiazhou was seen through by this old oil-slick on the battlefield; it was to increase the military strength against Nian Zanli, the Shepherd of Xunzhou, and the northern monster nation. He Lingchuan following his father would inevitably have battles to fight.

He Lingchuan nodded, sonorous and powerful: "Accept the General's teaching, definitely!"

Ke Jihai appreciated this kind of straightforward young man who didn't talk nonsense, and immediately untied the saber from his waist and handed it to He Lingchuan: "A precious blade for a hero."

"How can this be!" Before the eldest son could speak, He Chunhua immediately declined.

Ke Jihai ignored him and stuffed the blade directly into He Lingchuan's hand: "This blade is named 'Hundred-Pied'; it has followed me for twenty-two years. I hope you use it well."

He Lingchuan was overjoyed, took it with both hands, and said solemnly: "Respectfully accept it, will definitely not fail the General's expectations."

Ke Jihai valued a sixteen or seventeen-year-old country youth so much, praising him as a hero and gifting him a blade, but didn't put others in his eyes, which made other nobles at the banquet feel uncomfortable. Especially those in their early twenties, hearing him say "not being a hero if you don't go to the battlefield," felt even more ear-piercing.

He Su, who had chatted with the He brothers earlier, said: "I heard that General Wu Di's eldest son, Wu He, went to the battlefield at thirteen, captured an enemy general at sixteen, and is now following his father to conquer Dong Haoming in the northwest. He is exactly two years older than He brother; could it be that my Yuan Nation is going to produce a pair of tiger generals who are hard to distinguish?"

Several youths who usually surrounded him echoed, but other nobles just laughed and didn't make a sound. Ke Jihai looked at He Su: "Who are you?"

"My surname is He; my father is Censor-in-Chief He Liwen." His father didn't come to attend the Zhu family's night banquet to avoid suspicion.

The Zhu family added on the side: "This is the third son of Censor-in-Chief He Su."

"Any merit?"

He Su's face turned red, and he could only shake his head.

"Have you ever submitted a policy proposal or remonstrance?"

It was a great difficulty for other seventeen or eighteen-year-old youths to want to submit proposals to the Wang Ting, but as the son of the Censor-in-Chief, that was close to the water.

He Su's face turned even redder, stammering: "I have already submitted a few to the Holy One."

But the top approved "read" and sent it back.

Ke Jihai scoffed: "Neither merit nor remonstrance was accepted, so you are a spectator, better to just watch from the sidelines."

This was telling him to shut up, in front of so many people! He Su's face turned from red to purple, swallowing a mouthful of anger, but clenching his fists secretly in his sleeves.

Ke Jihai was so impolite that the banquet was silent for a while, and everyone had nothing to say.

It was He Chunhua who broke the silence: "I heard the front line in Wuzhou is deadlocked; why did the General return to the capital at this time?"

He also figured out a bit of Ke Jihai's temper, so he simply asked directly.

"Sigh, isn't it to urge for grain and pay." Ke Jihai's smile gradually became heavy. "I heard that the tax officials sent by the Wang Ting to the four southern states returned fully loaded, collecting millions of taels of tax silver."

"Dong Haoming has been strengthening his walls and clearing his fields in Wuzhou, not leaving a grain of food for us. This year's autumn grain in Wuzhou is abundant, but it has long been arranged by them, and there is no surplus grain in the fields. To beg for pay, I and General Wu have sent twelve urgent transmissions to the Wang Ting, but in the past three or four months, we have only received grain twice. Fortunately, after breaking the Baiding City, we can still continue to eat."

"If the situation wasn't urgent, why would I have to thicken my face and return to the capital to beg for money and grain?" He sighed faintly. "The front line has been in arrears for more than three months, and one day's rations now have to last three days. If it is not issued, the soldiers won't even have the strength to fight."

There was an official at the banquet who said: "It's not that the Wang Ting doesn't want to issue it; this year is too difficult. Woling Pass was first hit by rebels, then encountered floods, and there was almost no harvest in spring, summer, and autumn. That large area has always been one of the abundant grain areas, accounting for 30% of the national grain harvest, and this year not only can it not contribute grain, but the country has to go back to provide disaster relief."

The rebel army and the official army fought back and forth at Woling Pass for several months, fighting a tug-of-war, and then hit the flood, and the grain-producing area became a disaster area, for which the Wang Ting scratched its head.

Zhu Xiyan also sighed: "The price of grain in Shi Huan City has risen by 40%. Once grain rises, everything else rises. The servants said that even candles are expensive."

"Coincidentally, what I heard in the Wang Ting is also a pile of complaints." Ke Jihai shook his head. "We are responsible for fighting on the front line, and logistics and raising pay are the duties of officials. If I don't ask the Wang Ting for money, who else can I reach out to? Soldiers can fight on an empty stomach, but what about the horses? If they don't eat wheat bran and bean cakes, just gnawing on the grass won't make them run fast or carry heavy loads."

That official looked heavy: "Actually, families in Shi Huan are also tightening their belts to support the front line. I heard that Lord Cao, who is responsible for the transfer of materials to the front line, hasn't closed his eyes for several days."

He Lingchuan subconsciously looked at the delicacies on the table.

He Yue couldn't help but say: "Dong Haoming has long been prepared; he himself has strong soldiers and sturdy horses, and intends to fight a war of attrition with the official army. Once the official army can't hold on and starts to retreat, he will turn from defense to offense."

"That's the principle." Ke Jihai nodded. "Dong Haoming has been on the battlefield for decades, and he understands these. Once the offense and defense change, if the official army can't hold the Chicken Heart Ridge in the north, Dong Haoming can board a ship there and enter the Hong River directly, and Shi Huan City and the capital will be in danger again."

Everyone changed color. The previous rebel army took Woling Pass, which scared the residents of Shi Huan City. Once the rebel army took a boat from Fengling Ferry and went downstream along the Hong River, they could reach Shi Huan City in a few days and start a massacre, with no cover and no blocking in the middle.

Some of the nobles present fled with their families when they heard the news, and only returned to Shi Huan after hearing that Wu Di and Ke Jihai had defeated the rebel army.

That kind of heart-pounding experience, no one wanted to experience it again.

Someone asked Ke Jihai: "General, what was the result of your return to the capital?"

"What I begged for is just a drop in the bucket." Ke Jihai sighed heavily and shook his head. "Dong Haoming's troops are different from the rabble like Hong Xiangqian; their elites are even better than the official army, and they cannot be wiped out overnight. Lack of grain is the most exhausting for morale, and in the middle of winter, the army's clothing and bedding are insufficient, and people are freezing to death and getting injured every day. I'm not afraid to tell the truth; if this continues, we will have to retreat to Chicken Heart Ridge by next spring at the latest."

That's less than three months away.

"Chicken Heart Ridge is already building defenses, digging deep ditches and building high walls. But as far as I know, the terrain there cannot accommodate more than 100,000 troops."

Zhu Xiyan looked at the expressions of the crowd and knew the time was about right, so he coughed: "The soldiers on the front line are fighting, and my family should also do our best. In this way, my Zhu family is willing to donate 50,000 stones of military grain and 5,000 stones of horse feed, to be sent to the Wang Ting's military supplies, and sent to the front line urgently!"

He Yue secretly calculated, and his brain calculated quickly. The grain price was 800 wen per stone, so the Zhu family probably had to spend 40,000 taels of silver to buy grain and donate it, not including the cost of forage.

There was a discussion all around.

The host Zhu Xiyan had expressed his position, and others calculated the accounts in their hearts, finding that spending a little money for the soldiers on the front line to hold back Dong Haoming's iron hoofs was better than having their families broken and dead later.

So several prestigious imperial relatives also donated one after another.

Their status was more noble than Zhu Xiyan's, so their generosity couldn't be worse than his. The largest family promised to donate 120,000 stones, and the rest ranged from 60,000 to 90,000 stones, as well as horse feed, clothes, shoes, and bedding.

With them taking the lead, the families and officials present had to bite the bullet and follow, secretly thinking that they were unlucky. Attending the Zhu family's dust-washing banquet tonight had already sent a gift, but they didn't expect General Ke to be waiting here to collect a second gift.

With so many families wanting to buy grain, wouldn't the grain price around Shi Huan rise to the sky?

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 180 =====