Chapter 178

And what was Water Margin Zhang Jie, who was being thought of by Heavenly Dragon Zhang Jie, doing?

He was calculating how much money he had left.

"This month's military pay, the money needed for weaponry, food, and other supplies..."

Wang Lun and Chen Wen, who were both strategists and the chief stewards of Liang Shan, had their abacuses clicking away.

Zhang Jie was also sitting behind the desk calculating the monthly expenses.

Financial power is the foundation of the military and personnel, and he dared not relax.

"My Lord, if we continue to sit and eat away our resources like this, next month, let alone building weaponry

and warships, I'm afraid we won't even be able to pay the military wages."

After finishing the calculations, Wang Lun reported to Zhang Jie with deep worry.

Chen Wen handed a report to Zhang Jie,

which detailed the whereabouts of every cent, ensuring that no one was engaging in large-scale corruption or waste.

Of course, as the number of people on Liang Shan increased, the forest grew larger, and all kinds of birds appeared,

not to mention that the initial Liang Shan soldiers were originally mountain bandits,

and expecting them to be completely self-disciplined and incorruptible was pure fantasy.

Zhang Jie didn't indulge them either; he wielded his great blade and killed quite a few people, which made the others restrain themselves significantly.

"Sigh!"

"I know all of this."

Zhang Jie also let out a sigh.

They say that when war breaks out, the cannons roar and ten thousand taels of gold are spent,

but raising and training an army also spends money like flowing water!

In the few months since arriving at Liang Shan, he had already spent almost all the savings his Zhang family had accumulated over several generations.

In order to raise enough money, Zhang Jie had sold all the family's farmland,

shops, and the like, leaving only the ancestral home that housed the ancestral tablets.

Even so, it still couldn't feed the giant beast that was the army, which had a bottomless appetite.

The fake big stomach, international friend David? Dai? Liangzi;

The real big stomach, the army that required real gold and silver for wages, weaponry, food, and warships.

As for the money Liang Shan had before?

Could one really expect a mountain stronghold to have many savings?

For those mountain bandits who lived with their heads on their belts, having today but not tomorrow,

any savings were empty; getting drunk today while there is wine,

and worrying about tomorrow only when tomorrow comes, was their true portrayal.

Even though the finances and atmosphere of Liang Shan improved significantly after the scholar Wang Lun came up the mountain,

for a scholar who, if not completely without the strength to truss a chicken,

was not much better, to completely turn around this atmosphere was wishful thinking.

Wang Lun's little treasury had long since perished under Zhang Jie's money-spending-like-water plan.

"Let's hold a meeting tonight to discuss how to make money."

Zhang Jie, who was restless, ordered.

These troops cannot just be trained; they must be used!

Without the baptism of blood and fire, all data exists only on paper and does not count.

"Understood."

Chen Wen and Wang Lun, who also understood this principle, both nodded.

At night, in the Liang Shan Assembly Hall, the roaring fire in the brazier emitted a hot glow,

illuminating the place as bright as day, revealing every detail.

The various leaders of Liang Shan arrived at their respective positions and sat down.

Because Zhang Jie had not yet arrived, they began to chat among themselves.

"Master Lu, our Second and Third Battalions will definitely not lose to your First Battalion in next month's grand competition!"

The commanders of Liang Shan's Second and Third Infantry Battalions, Du Qian and Song Wan, "declared war" on Lu Zhishen with faces full of fighting spirit.

Well, for the sake of convenience in management, Zhang Jie directly used the later generations' system of squads, platoons, companies, and battalions.

Of course, he made changes to the specific details such as the number of people, division of labor, and weapon configuration,

consulting professionals like Lu Zhishen and

Lin Chong, and did not copy the 21st-century system entirely.

Those systems were not unscientific or unreasonable, but they had their own suitable eras,

and in an ancient world like the Great Song, one must combine reality and adapt to local conditions.

For one thing, the organization of tank battalions, companies, and platoons did not fit the background,

because even if Zhang Jie risked his life right now, it would be impossible to build a tank,

even the kind of old antique among old antiques that 21st-century netizens call a World War I water tank.

Just as talking about toxicity without talking about dosage is hooliganism,

discussing institutional construction without considering the era background is also hooliganism.

"Welcome, brothers of the Second and Third Battalions, to come and exchange with our First Battalion."

Lu Zhishen smiled indifferently, his words full of the confidence of someone holding victory in his hands.

The First Battalion he led was not something blown out of proportion,

but something he and his brothers had fought for with their own fists and feet; they had already wiped out several water strongholds,

and it was currently the most elite infantry among Liang Shan's three battalions!

He would not fear even if the Second and Third Battalions under Du Qian and Song Wan came together!

"Fifth Brother, next time we confront Second Brother's navy, shall our two battalions have a go at each other first?"

Influenced by the enthusiastic atmosphere of the infantry, Ruan Ruan Xiao Qi of the navy was also a bit eager to try.

"Sure."

Ruan Xiao Wu agreed directly.

As for the eldest of the Ruan brothers, Ruan Xiao Er, he was leading a team of navy soldiers patrolling within the Water Park of Liang Shan,

to prevent hostile forces like the county yamen from finding an opportunity to launch a sneak attack on Liang Shan.

The commanders of the infantry and navy were chatting heatedly,

only Lin Chong, the commander of the cavalry, sat alone in his position.

Lin Chong: The liveliness belongs to others; I only feel they are noisy~

This was not because Lu Zhishen and the others intentionally isolated Lin Chong,

or wanted to create a rivalry between the navy and the army like the Japanese boys,

where even the direction of the screws had to be opposite to the other side;

but because Liang Shan was currently short of horses, very, very short of horses, especially warhorses.

Even if there were a few horses, they were only packhorses; they could be used for delivering messages,

but if they were to be armored and used as warhorses, carrying a hundred-jin cavalryman,

armor, and charging into battle, they would be unequal to the task.

Lin Chong, this nominal cavalry commander, was no different from a commander without troops,

he couldn't even gather a team of men, let alone divide them into battalions like the infantry and

navy to hold competitions and confrontations.

This problem was one that even Zhang Jie couldn't find a solution for at the moment:

The decay of the Great Song's horse administration meant that there were very few qualified warhorses within the Great Song's territory,

and let alone buying them, he couldn't even find a suitable place to rob them.

Zhang Jie: If the neighbor doesn't store grain, even if I store guns, the neighbor is not my granary...

"The Stronghold Master arrives~"

Following the signal of the messenger, Zhang Jie's figure appeared in the Assembly Hall.

"My Lord!"

The generals, who had just been very noisy, immediately quieted down and stood up in unison to salute Zhang Jie.

"Everyone, no need for formalities, sit, sit."

Zhang Jie walked to the main seat with ease and pressed his hands down with a smile.

"Thank you, My Lord!"

The generals thanked him before slowly sitting down.

"Brother Chen, distribute the documents to them."

Zhang Jie ordered Chen Wen, who was sitting on his right.

Chen Wen nodded and distributed a stack of documents to Lu Zhishen, Du Qian, and the others.

"Thank you, Military Advisor."

The generals who received the documents thanked him.

Because there were too few people, it was not suitable to establish a government office or set up official positions,

so Chen Wen could only be a military advisor like Wang Lun for now.

With Liang Shan's few kittens and puppies, establishing a government office,

declaring oneself king, and setting up a system would only make others laugh their teeth off.

Zhang Jie did not want the Liang Shan under his command to become a place like the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, where princes walked everywhere,

marquises were worse than dogs, and only the kings of the east, west, south, and north could shake things up.

"What?

It actually costs so much money?"

Lu Zhishen looked at the numbers on the document and felt dizzy.

The expense of raising one soldier here was several times that of raising one soldier under the command of the Grand Coordinator.

"Raising an army really spends money like flowing water!"

Du Qian, Song Wan, and the others were also extremely shocked.

They knew that Zhang Jie's formal training of troops must cost more than the way they raised their lackeys before,

but they didn't expect it to cost this much.

If they had raised troops like this before, then let alone drinking and eating meat every few days,

I'm afraid their pants would have long since been pawned off.

Lin Chong's expression wasn't very good either: although the number of cavalry under his command was the smallest,

the average cost was the highest among the infantry, cavalry, and navy.

"Everyone, if we don't find a way, within three months, our Liang Shan will be out of food and ammunition."

Zhang Jie slowly stated the grim reality they were facing.

After finishing, he even joked:

"By then, I'm afraid we'll have to split our luggage, go our separate ways, and return to our respective homes."

"Haha!"

The generals burst into laughter.

Zhang Jie intended to promote cultural education in the army, and for these soldiers who were already adults,

novels that combined literary quality, interest, and popularity were naturally more popular than

those old-fashioned literary classics.

So Zhang Jie picked up the old idea of plagiarism (crossed out), which is borrowing from the Four Great Classical Novels.

And because "Dream of the Red Chamber" had too strong a literary quality and was all about women's affairs, it was not suitable for military life,

and it was impossible for him to spread "Water Margin" within "Water Margin,"

so he mainly spread "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and "Journey to the West."

Once launched, they were widely praised by many soldiers,

who were all howling to become Guan Yu, following Zhang Jie, this benevolent and righteous Stronghold Master.

The leaders were naturally no strangers to Zhu Bajie in "Journey to the West," who would split the luggage at every turn,

saying "You go back to your Flowing Sands River, I'll go back to my Gao Village."

"My Lord, in this subordinate's humble opinion, why not reduce the military pay a little,

for example, reduce it from one guan to one point five guan.

Other things like weaponry can also be replaced with new ones at a later date."

After laughing, Du Qian thought for a moment, stood up, and suggested.

With limited money and resources, to last longer, one must open up sources of income and reduce expenditure.

Liang Shan's old methods of opening up sources, such as robbing passing merchants,

and extorting fishermen, had been directly banned by Zhang Jie since he came up the mountain.

In this way, since opening up sources was not possible, only reducing expenditure remained.

"My Lord, Second Brother Du's words make sense.

I believe all the brothers will also understand our difficulties."

Song Wan spoke up to echo Du Qian.

"Absolutely not!"

Zhang Jie rejected Du Qian's proposal without hesitation:

"The brothers have only lived a good life for a few days, how can we snatch food from their mouths?

Also, weaponry involves the combat power of our Liang Shan, it is necessary for us to resist external invasion,

survive, and grow strong, it must not be delayed!"

Lu Zhishen's eyes lit up upon hearing this; how could he not know that Zhang Jie already had a solution?

He grinned and asked: "My Lord, where are we going to attack next?

The few strongholds we attacked during these days were all made of mud, with no challenge at all!

My brothers and I have long been itching for a fight!"

Hearing Lu Zhishen's words, Du Qian, Song Wan, and the others also reacted,

Zhang Jie was going to strike out from the Water Park of Liang Shan and expand his sphere of influence!

Isn't this the opportunity to establish merit that they had been waiting for?

So they all stood up and loudly requested to fight:

"Please give the order, My Lord!"

Hearing the voices of the generals full of fighting spirit,

the soldiers standing guard at the door couldn't help but feel their blood boil.

Seeing the leaders so eager, Zhang Jie nodded with satisfaction in his heart.

They say that a weak soldier makes a weak unit, and a weak general makes a weak nest; if they were all twisting and turning,

like a woman, then Zhang Jie would have to replace them.

"We are going to attack..."

Zhang Jie stood up and walked to the carefully drawn map of Liang Shan within a hundred miles,

and pointed heavily at a winding ink mark symbolizing a hill:

"Zhu Family Manor!"