C3448 A mouthful of gritty rice (1/2)
Tongzhi's sudden idea scared Shen Baozhen and the rest to the point that they turned pale, especially all the officials from Fujian Province who had the qualifications to receive him, all of them started sweating profusely!
What are they afraid of? What they are afraid of is the emperor checking up on the army. In the morning, there was a ruckus, and three to four hundred recruits were lashed out, followed by the arrival of the emperor in the afternoon.
What do we do if we find out that they owe us money? Forget about the military salary, even the meat and wine that the His Majesty had just rewarded could not be served here in Fuzhou!
Fuzhou is poor only on one side, no matter how poor you are you will not be short of money for this meal, but there is no time!
Each of the thirty thousand new army would get one catty of wine, so this was thirty thousand catties of wine. There was not that much in the Fuzhou City, it was too late to transfer them from other prefectures.
Not to mention the meat and eggs, even the rice was borrowed from the grain merchants in the city!
In the end, the New Imperial Army borrowed five hundred thousand yuan from him, the ponytail shipyard took away four hundred thousand yuan, and the remaining eight hundred thousand was transferred by Zuo Zongtang to be used as military expenses for emergency assistance.
Now, Shen Baozhen had to borrow money to pay the officials!
The more he thought about it, the more scared he became. Since ancient times, it was only natural for military generals to raise funds. If thirty thousand Son of Heaven's personal army s were placed in Fujian, then he would be guilty of not managing the army's daily necessities.
Shen Baozhen kept giving Da Sixi meaningful glances. Fortunately, he had just handed over the silver, so Da Sixi quickly helped the emperor resolve the situation!
”His Majesty, look at the time. It's completely dark outside, even when you went out, the soldiers were unable to rest!”
”Besides, the Master Yang s have to go comfort them. They are all drinking in the tent next door. Do you want this servant to summon you? ”
Tongzhi glared at him and said, ”Cut the crap!” What do I need you to say? Retreat! After making a trip to Europa, do you not understand the rules!? ”
Da Sixi's face turned pale and he knelt on the ground with a thump: ”This servant doesn't dare, this servant slaps his mouth...” As he spoke, he slapped himself in the face.
This time, no one dared to stop him. The Little Emperor angrily walked out of the big tent, followed by a group of civil and military officials chasing him. Only Da Sixi was left alone in the big tent, kneeling down and slapping them.
Just now, the old and young nobles and local officials were received into the tent. In the narrow space, the more people there were, the more foul and foul the air became, causing Zai Chun's spirit to rise a bit when he stepped into the wild.
The cool and refreshing sea breeze blew over, carrying with it the scent of fresh grass. Tongzhi had experienced the industrial pollution in London before, and the thick gray fog caused him to be unable to breathe.
”Good, good, good …” The mountains and rivers of Home Country are really soothing, to the point of being completely breathless! ”
Above his head was a sky full of stars, the Milky Way was as resplendent as a jade belt that stretched across the horizon, and on the hillside below his feet, there were countless bonfires!
The soldiers spoke in hushed tones, their voices suppressed and their laughter held together like the low notes in a symphony. The figure of a soldier by the bonfire made Zai Chun feel at ease.
Actually speaking, it was quite laughable. Xiao Letian's two final disciples, one Xiang Ying and one Zai Chun, both emphasized the character of generals. In fact, their personalities were similar, as though they had a dream of militarism in their hearts.
When Zai Chun saw the civil servants, he was annoyed but when he saw the army, especially his own army, he immediately felt refreshed!
Looking at the closest bonfire, Zai Chun walked towards it with large strides. The person who was sitting at the very center of the fire bonfire recording something in a book was the soldier Xie Ting who he had just met in the afternoon.
”What are you doing? Have you eaten yet? ”
The sudden appearance of Tongzhi frightened all of the soldiers, and they all stood up and saluted! A squad of soldiers saluted the young emperor.
”Sit down, all of you sit down …” A class meeting? Let me look at your notebook... Company Commander Xie Ting? You are the Company Commander? Not bad, you brought over a hundred of your brothers! ”
He opened the notebook on the cover of the cowhide. Inside the notebook, there were clumsy Chinese characters. They didn't look beautiful at all, but they were definitely recognizable.