Hearing Pei Xiaoer's words, a warm current suddenly surged through Song Meng's heart, and an unprecedented feeling of being valued lingered in his heart. In the past, although Zhang Daojun also valued himself and even called himself brother, he still regarded himself as his brother from the bottom of his heart.

Just a servant and a loyal dog. Only this person can put himself in such an important position.

Song Meng looked at Pei Xiaoer with complicated eyes, and thought that Xu Tianfeng had already become his deputy, and there were faint signs of replacing him. If he continued to disagree, he might end up being marginalized in the future.

After two rounds of pressure, Song Meng finally gave up his persistence, bowed his head and saluted Pei Xiaoer: "General, in the next three years, my subordinates will be fully loyal to the general."

Pei Xiaoer stepped forward and took his arm and said, "Okay, okay, Xiaoer, if you can get General Song's help, you can do anything in the world."

After sending Song Meng away, Pei Xiaoer breathed a sigh of relief. With his statement, he thought there wouldn't be any major troubles in at least the next three years. Otherwise, there would be no big deal if there was always a time bomb next to him.

no?

Early the next morning, Father Pei arrived in Wenxi County from Xia County with 13,000 new soldiers and nearly 10,000 stones of grain and grass.

Now Pei Xiaoer can finally put his heart into his stomach completely. In the past two days, Pei Xiaoer has been really worried and has not thought about food or tea. Although he won this battle, he suffered a lot of losses. He brought a total of

There were nearly 7,500 men in the five battalions. In the end, only about 4,500 men were left, and nearly half of them were lost.

The result of this battle was that Wenxi County plus more than 12,000 surrendered soldiers, the ratio of surrendered soldiers to the soldiers of the Pei family army headquarters even reached three to one. Although these people are still honest now, but if

Once they change, the fun will be great.

If you think about it, you can know how much pressure Pei Xiaoer is now. After all, the game of snake swallowing elephant is not that fun. Therefore, Pei Xiaoer has been cautious in doing things these days, for fear of irritating the subordinate generals and causing them to

Change.

It is precisely because of this that Pei Xiaoer did not easily execute those who committed heinous crimes, such as Zhao Hao, Zhang Zhiguo and others. On the one hand, it was also due to his own credibility, and more importantly, he was worried that these people would be executed in case.

, thus overly stimulating the soldiers who surrendered, so that they mistakenly thought that Pei Xiaoer was settling scores after the fall.

Well now, there are 13,000 new soldiers like Father Pei. On the whole, the Pei family army has a numerical advantage compared with the surrendered soldiers. It can even be said that it has been able to firmly suppress the surrendered new soldiers.

Underneath.

When the ambitious Pei Xiaoer was about to show off his grand ambitions, Liu Xianchun, who had followed Pei's father, came over with a bitter look on his face, stepped forward and poured cold water on Pei Xiaoer, "General, the Pei family's army is now

I don’t have much money left.”

"Huh?" Pei Xiaoer looked at him with some doubts, "Didn't I say there were still hundreds of thousands of silver when I came here? Why is it gone inexplicably?" At this moment, Pei Xiaoer thought of all the corrupt officials.

His ugly face was filled with murderous intent.

This is to force him to imitate Taizu of the Ming Dynasty! This is an old problem of Ming officials. No matter what they do, they must first submerge one layer. After floating through the layers, one million taels of silver can fall into ten thousand taels of silver.

In practice, it's pretty good.

Looking at his lord's unkind eyes, Liu Xianchun didn't know what he was thinking? This lord is what you call kind. He is really kind. Sometimes he can live in a pinch in order for the people to survive.

, gather the soldiers. You can say ruthless, he is really ruthless, he can deal with enemies and soldiers who do not observe military discipline. Between this kindness and ruthlessness, perhaps it is the result of Pei Xiaoer's control.

Say it.

"Lord, where did you think you were going? In today's troubled times, only food is the most important strategic material. So we have exchanged all the money into food as much as possible. Now, we have nearly twenty

Ten thousand shi of food, but the price is that there are only 120,000 shi of silver left."

"Oh" Pei Xiaoer's expression relaxed when he heard that someone had stolen the money. He also felt that there was nothing wrong with what Liu Xianchun and others did. In troubled times, what is the most precious thing? Food, food, food. Liu Xianchun

Others may not know what is happening now, but Pei Xiaoer knows.

The history of the late Ming and early Qing dynasties is going through a little ice age, and will continue for nearly twenty years. The price of food will definitely rise with the severity of the disaster. Of course, it is impossible to buy all the money into food at this moment.

It's a mistake.

The only thing wrong is that there is too little money. He now has nearly 35,000 people in the army. Adding some civilian personnel and logistics support personnel, the number goes straight to 40,000 people. With so many people, every day

The monthly fixed expenses are nearly 100,000 taels. Xia County and Wenxi County simply cannot afford to support so many people.

But in this era where wars can break out anytime and anywhere, layoffs are absolutely not allowed. Once laid off, it is a dead end. What's more, Pei Xiaoer has a premonition that as the rebels from Shaanxi gradually enter Shanxi, and Shanxi, as the defense capital,

How could the imperial court tolerate chaos in Shanxi, which is an important land in Jifu?

By that time, the main force of the imperial court's anti-bandit forces will also move to Shanxi. By then, Shanxi will be a battle involving hundreds of thousands of people. If there are not enough troops at this time, can we fight in this battle?

Surviving the conflict is an unknown.

Therefore, his only way out now is to expand, and expand again, until he expands to the territory he occupies and can support his army.

What is urgent now is that Pei Xiaoer must find a stable source of silver with considerable income. Only in this way can he renovate his troops after the war, so that he will not be like those rogue bandits in history who kept fighting and fighting.

Until death in battle.

But what industries can provide a stable and huge source of income in ancient times? Tea? There seems to be no tea in Shanxi. Silk? It seems that there is a military industry trade in Jiangnan? He just wants to buy now, not sell. Farming? The money is too much

slow.

Bang, Pei Xiaoer slapped his forehead. I was really stunned. Selling salt. In ancient times, what business was more profitable and more stable than selling salt? How many rebels in history made their fortunes by selling private salt?

Therefore, many dynasties that rebelled relied on selling salt to survive.

What's more, the largest salt pond in Shanxi, Jiechi, is located in Anyi near Xia County. If Anyi can be conquered and the salt business there is seized, carts and carts of salt will be pulled out and carts and carts of salt will be exchanged.

chariots of silver, thus bringing tens of thousands of soldiers.
Chapter completed!