C3442 whipping (2/2)

”Is this the army of the Qing dynasty?” Why is it so different from what the promotions say … ”It's neat, strict, and doesn't feel relaxed at all …”

”Oh Qiao Zhi, you must know that these are all the imperial guards that the emperor himself directly served and were newly trained to do so … ”It's different from the soldiers who are beggars in this place …”

”Execute the punishment!” The brigade commander of the first battalion of the second division, San Bao, roared. The other four hundred soldiers stood behind their comrades as they swung their braids.

The cowhide whip was a common tool of corporal punishment in the army camp. As it whipped through the air, it made a ”wu wu wu” sound. Pa … The blow on his back was a blood-red mark.

Not a single one of the four hundred soldiers made a sound. All of them crossed their tails and bit down on the tip of their tongues. They were in so much pain that the muscles on their faces twitched. However, none of them made a sound.

Twenty lashes might not sound like a lot, but anyone who had experienced a lashing would know that it was painful. A lance was not something a child could use to whip a willow tree.

Even a healthy soldier would have to lie in bed for four or five days after receiving twenty lashes of the whip.

The atmosphere immediately became grim. No one dared to speak or make fun of them. Looking at their brothers who were being tortured, they couldn't bear it any longer.

However, no one dared to plead, and begging for mercy could only result in a heavier punishment!

”One, two, three … ”Nine, ten, eleven …” The sounds of counting rang in everyone's heart, and the first one who could not stand it anymore was none other than Civil Servant Shen Baozhen.

”That should be enough …” That's enough... Alright, let me plead for mercy. Let this matter end here … If there's really no other way, we'll have to go back and punish them together with the next time! ”

Although Shen Baozhen knew that this matter was not his main responsibility, the soldiers would often not understand the deeper conflicts in the imperial court.

The soldiers did not understand that the pay of the Janissaries was actually the responsibility of the court, and that Fujian had no obligation to raise money, at least not in full.

Right now, the problem of the thirty thousand people from the new guard army was still in the imperial court. The Ministry of Revenue did not have money, the Ministry of Internal Affairs did not have money, and the emperor did not have a small treasury.

Right now, Zuo Zongtang had ordered Fujian to prepare 1 million silver coins for the entire army budget. All of this money was actually money from the military expenditure in Pingxiang, which Zuo Zongtang squeezed out of his own pocket.

What remained were the military expenditures that Hu Xueyan had privately raised for the emperor from Jiangnan, which amounted to more than three million silver yuan. Of course, there was also the empress dowagers's more than two hundred thousand silver taels.

With just this amount of money, it looked like 4 million was not a small amount, but the New Imperial Army was a pure Western army! It was not something that could be raised just by paying soldiers to buy some rice noodles.

How was he going to deal with the money for the equipment? Even if the British gave the emperor a price, a cannon with 30 cannons would not be considered expensive if he were to charge 20,000 silver coins for it, right?

10 gates would be 200,000, 100 gates would be 2 million!

All that was left were military uniforms, rifles, leather boots, standard equipment, bullets, artillery shells … All of them needed money. A modern army with thirty thousand soldiers … Honestly speaking, it was not enough not to spend ten million silver taels!

However, the soldiers could not understand the twists and turns. They only knew that today's beating had something to do with Shen Baozhen.