Chapter 106: Buying Military Hearts

As soon as Li Mu left, the group of civil officials exploded.

Being forced to this point by a group of military officials, they had lost all their face and dignity.

The idea of civil officials controlling military officials was complete nonsense.

The group of military officials just now was not one they could control.

"Prefect, it's easy to lend out the land, but it's hard to get it back!"

Assistant Prefect Zhou said unhappily.

The land in the prefecture was managed by him, and losing 80,000 mu all at once was undoubtedly a weakening of his authority.

"There are gains and losses!

The funds allocated by the imperial court are limited, and we must spend them sparingly.

If military funds cannot be issued on time, and we don't give something to appease them, it will certainly lead to a big mess.

That Assistant Regional Commander Li was right about one thing: when people are hungry, there is truly nothing they won't do.

If we don't feed that group of soldiers, Yangzhou Prefecture won't be peaceful.

As for the borrowed land, it's just a temporary expedient.

Anyway, a noble son like him will return to the capital for office sooner or later; the next Assistant Regional Commander won't be as strong as him, right?"

Gu Youwen said with a laugh.

In his view, being able to use some ownerless land to solve the military funding problem is undoubtedly worth it.

With the same amount of land, if managed by them personally, the output would not be enough to pay the supplementary pay.

If the conditions were not agreed to, the huge annual military expenditure of Yangzhou Prefecture would be a heavy burden.

"The land might come back, but I'm afraid that after losing the restraint, this Assistant Regional Commander Li will become even more arrogant.

Unlike ordinary military officials, these noble sons are still very trusted by the Emperor!"

Assistant Prefect Ma couldn't help but sigh.

The state of affairs is difficult; in recent years, not only has the Eunuch faction grown rapidly, but the noble and maternal relative forces also show signs of rising.

The previous battle to suppress the rebellion seemed to have caused significant losses to the nobles and maternal relatives, but in reality, it was a bone-scraping poison removal.

With fewer moths and scum, their strength did not decrease but increased.

Fortunately, their luck was used up earlier, otherwise the consequences would be unimaginable.

"No matter how arrogant, he is still a military official of our Great Great Dayu.

He still has to do what he needs to do.

In terms of the big picture, this person is not bad.

The most urgent task is for us to handle the refugee and prisoner-of-war problems quickly, otherwise Yangzhou Prefecture will be eaten up sooner or later.

Refugee repatriation and settlement, there is nothing to discuss; let's discuss the prisoners of war!"

Gu Youwen directly threw out the most thorny problem.

The higher-ups can kick the ball and pretend not to see the refugee problem, but they, the direct responsible persons, cannot turn a blind eye.

The court sent them here precisely to clean up the mess.

If the situation is allowed to continue to deteriorate, everyone's official hats will not be saved.

"Prefect, the prisoner-of-war problem is simple to talk about; it depends on whether everyone is afraid of affecting their reputation.

Directly according to the Great Great Dayu Code, behead all the rebel leaders, and send the young and strong to the army.

The old, weak, women, and children can either be demoted to slaves or demoted to prostitutes and sold off directly.

Those that can't be sold can be used as official slaves, letting them perform corvée in the prefecture, and they will be consumed in three to five years!"

As soon as Assistant Prefect Zhou's words came out, the atmosphere at the scene suddenly became solemn.

This way of handling things would have been no problem in the early years of the founding.

But the current social atmosphere is different.

After the civil official group gained power, they advocated rule by man more, rather than rule by law, and advocated benevolent governance.

The two Two Huai rebellions were launched by aristocratic families, and most of the bottom-level people participated passively.

Because they rebelled at their own doorsteps, everyone was from the same village, and they didn't suffer the hardship of thousands of miles of raids, allowing a large number of the old, weak, women, and children to survive.

The imperial court has always been relatively generous in dealing with these people, and crimes have been dealt with lightly.

Strictly executing the law would make these decision-makers bear the infamy of "cruel officials."

"Assistant Prefect Zhou, this matter needs to be discussed at length.

Harsh criminal law is not conducive to edification!"

As soon as Assistant Prefect Ma spoke, a group of officials expressed their support.

Since ancient times, few "cruel officials" have had a good end.

Especially in the Great Great Dayu, there is no cruel official who can retreat unscathed.

Everyone works for the imperial court, seeking fame, wealth, and status; life values have to be put aside.

To solve the problem, few people can accept sacrificing their reputation before and after death.

Out of the government office, Li Mu went straight to the refugee camp to select people.

As a person who keeps his word, since he promised to help settle the refugees, he must fulfill his promise.

Anyway, the land needs people to farm, and using it to settle refugees is not a big problem.

The land has been borrowed, so it must be utilized quickly.

Although the yield of winter grain is slightly lower, it is also an important source of income.

For Li Mu, who has subsidized a huge amount of funds, naturally, the sooner he sees a return, the better.

"Assistant Regional Commander, these are the rosters of the refugee camps and their performance in work-for-relief."

Thousand-Household Officer Yun said, holding a thick stack of rosters.

Most of the generals of the Five Cities Military Commission were transferred away from Yangzhou, but some remained, and he was one of them.

Because he made military contributions on the battlefield, he successfully completed the leap from a Hundred-Household Officer to a Thousand-Household Officer.

Local officials are not as valuable as capital officials; for a noble son, this promotion speed can only be considered average.

Continuing to work under Li Mu, Thousand-Household Officer Yun felt very uncomfortable.

It's not that there's no future following this boss, but mainly because Li Mu has too many requirements.

Even for disaster relief, he requires registration and refined management of refugees.

Clearly a group of military officials, they were forced to do the work of scribes.

To complete the task, they also hired a group of scholars from Yangzhou.

Compared to other units, Li Mu's subordinates are trained much more strictly.

Looking at the military pay, the soldiers didn't complain much, but it was hard for these officials.

They have to follow the training every day, and they can't be lazy even if they want to.

Of course, these are just small frustrations.

The military education from childhood was not learned in vain; they know that only with many rules can there be strong troops, it's just that they aren't used to it for a while.

Following such a boss, one might not necessarily get rich, but promotion is a high-probability event.

The biggest difference between military officials and civil officials is that civil officials' performance assessments have no unified standard.

Military officials are different; whether they can fight or not, just take them to the battlefield and try.

Generally speaking, generals of units that can fight are promoted very quickly.

Flipping through the rosters casually, Li Mu put them together.

"The provincial and prefectural finances are in deficit and unable to pay our military pay.

After discussing with the Provincial Governor, the Provincial Administration Commissioner, and the officials of Yangzhou Prefecture, I have borrowed 80,000 mu of good land from Yangzhou Prefecture for temporary use.

The winter plowing season has arrived, and we need to organize manpower to farm immediately; you pick a batch of good farmers from the refugees.

From now on, whether we eat chaff and swallow vegetables or have wine and meat, it all depends on these people!"

The speaker had no intention, but the listener was intentional.

Self-sufficient units are all guard post soldiers; they, these recruited soldiers, can actually play like this too.

Regarding military pay, no general can sit still.

Deep in his heart, Thousand-Household Officer Yun had already silently started calculating the harvest.

Compared to the amount of supplementary pay required by the court, the income from 80,000 mu of land is only about 80% of that income.

Fortunately, this income is under their own control, without the corruption of civil officials.

As a unit with a background, the military funds directly allocated by the court can be obtained at about 60% to 70%.

Plus the management fees they collect from merchants, the actual military funding income has reached 90% of the fixed military funds.

If they save a little in normal times, and the generals don't embezzle military pay, it is possible to issue full pay every month.

Being able to do this, among the official armies of the Great Great Dayu, is definitely a top-tier treatment.

"Assistant Regional Commander, rest assured, I will definitely handle this beautifully!"

Thousand-Household Officer Yun immediately guaranteed.

Regardless of how Li Mu negotiated these conditions, anyway, he knows that from now on he doesn't need to worry about military funds.

There are many military officials in the Great Great Dayu, and few don't worry about military funds.

Including the Nine Borders military families, everyone still has to work hard to eat empty pay.

Everyone knows that doing so is wrong, but the military funds issued by the court are insufficient and can only support a limited number of soldiers.

"Hmm, I trust you to handle things.

These lands are near the military camp I circled, and there happen to be a few small mines circled inside, which cannot be wasted.

I still have to go to the prisoner-of-war camps in various places to borrow another batch of prisoners of war to mine.

Quickly pick out the people, and then organize reclamation; only then can everyone's military pay be issued in full in the future."

Li Mu deliberately raised his voice.

There are many ways to buy military hearts; in the Great Great Dayu, adopting the most simple and unadorned one is enough.

When other units are eating chaff and swallowing vegetables, being able to receive 100% of the military pay makes the sense of happiness come up immediately.

As for private mining, that doesn't count as anything.

As long as you don't admit it, it doesn't exist.

The few small mines circled by Li Mu have always been secretly mined by local gentry and have never been under the jurisdiction of the imperial court.

In the court's land register, they are all registered as wasteland and saline-alkali land.

Circling wasteland that cannot be farmed as a military camp, no one can pick out any faults.

That Prefect Gu could agree to his conditions in one breath was purely because he didn't realize there were minerals under these wastelands.

If he had served in Yangzhou for a few more years and figured out the situation in the prefecture, he would definitely not have been fooled.

In fact, the pit Li Mu dug was not just one.

Urging the government to enclose the land was itself to take advantage of a time difference.

The local gentry not only hid minerals but also hid land.

This kind of thing cannot fool people for long.

Although they came down from the capital and had no experience serving in the local area, they were also from gentry backgrounds.

They were clear about things like hiding land.

It was just a sudden change of identity, entangled by a series of annoying things, and they hadn't thought of so much for the time being.

When they reacted, they would soon realize that the 80,000 mu of land in the official account books did not mean there was only 80,000 mu of land.

There would be no shortage of wrangling with Li Mu over this matter later.

However, those were small problems; the meat eaten into the stomach could not be spat out at all.

The officials in the prefecture had changed, but the clerks in the government office were still those appointed by Li Mu before.

From the moment Prefect Gu agreed, the boundary division of the land temporarily borrowed from Yangzhou Prefecture had already been completed in advance.

Farmland not recorded in the land register was all regarded as non-existent.

Farmland that became farmland in the future was all newly reclaimed wasteland.

According to the Great Great Dayu Law, commoners who reclaim wasteland can not only obtain land ownership but also enjoy a five-year tax exemption.

Ordinary commoners dare not reclaim wasteland, because once it is reclaimed, a master will immediately pop up to eat it clean.

Changing to Li Mu's side, it is different; if the matter is not stirred up, then pretend nothing happened.

If the matter is put on the table, it is private land reclaimed by individuals; at worst, pay taxes normally after the tax exemption period ends.

Even if someone is tired of living and wants to fight him for land ownership, the soldiers under his command will not agree.

(End of chapter)