choke element

Chapter 974 Release (Part )

Guo Ning had just listened through the wall, and only left after hearing this. He walked slowly to his inner courtyard, and it didn't take long for Lu Han to know the content of Jing Anmin's conversation with others. Nothing happened in the Marshal's Mansion, and this queen who started from scratch with Guo Ning could hide it.

Guo Ning was not surprised by this.

Not to mention a small Marshal's Mansion, the same is true for the entire Great Zhou. When Guo Ning started his army, many of his family members and children were taken care of by Lu Han. Later, many soldiers who did not have families also helped Lu Han to arrange marriages. Of course, Lu Han had no relatives to marry, but he recognized many sisters and sisters for this purpose, and formed friendships between the boudoirs. Until now, these are the sources of information.

Guo Ning was very satisfied with this. In his opinion, only Lu Han had sharp ears and eyes and could listen and see for her husband. As another pair of eyes, he could be truly relieved.

As a founding emperor who truly rose from the bottom, Guo Ning personally experienced the disintegration of his subordinates, and also personally experienced how difficult it was for a leader to balance the surging hearts of his subordinates. Therefore, he always put a lot of energy into gathering and controlling the hearts of the people, and dared not be negligent in the slightest.

In the eyes of the Jurchens, the Han soldiers were like pigs and dogs, consumables used to fill the ditches. Their biggest dream was to escape this tragic fate and gain wealth for themselves and their descendants. Guo Ning gave them what they wanted, and that’s how he won their loyalty.

In order to ensure that the army was always reliable, Guo Ning also repeatedly instilled the principle of loyalty to the country through a large number of military academies, and continuously transferred backbones of the army to the imperial guard system around him, using the means of giving away clothes and food on a daily basis.

Unfortunately, there is no such thing as eternal loyalty in this world. There will still be signs of independence in the military, and the military group will also have its own ideas based on its own interests.

Guo Ning could not have transcended the times just because of a big dream. No matter how many military schools he built or how much ideological education he conducted, he could not have turned the army into the people's army of later generations. The greed of the military group is insatiable, and its desire to seize profits is like a group of beasts constantly hunting prey. To some extent, this greed is the source of the army's combat effectiveness.

The most Guo Ning could do was to rely on intelligence agencies to closely monitor the army, but he could not make a big move against the army and completely clean up the numerous troublemakers in the army. Because that would be like castrating the wildness of the army and destroying its combat effectiveness.

Releasing groups of powerful and extremely greedy people in the military group overseas can curb the risk of the army getting out of control in the short term, satisfy the appetite of military nobles, and release the destructive power of the military group overseas. This is the best strategy that many trusted ministers have repeatedly planned.

But it is obvious that from Lu Han's perspective, he immediately saw the negative impact of this strategy.

At this time, Lu Han held her chin and watched Guo Ning eat. Seeing her husband wolfing down his food, her face was filled with an unconcealed happiness, just like an ordinary young woman from a well-off farm family. But what this ordinary woman was talking about was a very critical military and political matter.

"You know, not all of my sisters' men have held high positions. Many of them are only good at using swords and guns, and don't have the brains to run a family business. So in the past few years, most of the military households have relied on the land granted by the court to make a living, and at most the dividends from some official business."

It was not easy to uniformly distribute military land to a huge number of soldiers. The dividends of several government-owned commercial banks had to be calculated and adjusted every year according to seniority, military rank, and military merit. For these two things, the Ministry of War and the Marshal's Office had been keeping hundreds of accountants, and the abacus beads never stopped clacking.

Lu Han mentioned these two things in a tone that was not very serious. Guo Ning could not help but reply: "This is not a small amount."

"Yes, this is not a small amount. Compared with the hard days under the rule of the Jurchens, it is much better. The dividends from the participating companies are also not small, enough for an ordinary soldier to support several people in his family and live a prosperous life. But what the soldiers get is not as much as those who are good at scheming."

Lu Han frowned slightly and said, "Nowadays, there are supply convoys and caravans going back and forth every month in the military forts in the northern border, and there are family letters and reports. The group of people in the side hall also have colleagues and old subordinates in the army. Jing'anmin asked them to make a big fuss, so the news will spread everywhere in a short time. Many people will think that these people who are obsessed with money have all benefited; why should honest men who are loyal to the country and the emperor have to endure the cold and bitter northern border and fight the Mongols at any time?"

Guo Ning put down the bowl of porridge and burped.

I had just had a simple meal with the officials from the left and right offices, and my stomach was already half full. I wanted to be active now, but my stomach capacity was limited.

"You mean, once this news spreads widely, the warriors on the frontier will be envious and want to go to the sea? They won't want to stay on the front line and suffer?"

Lu Han nodded, "It is human nature to seek benefits and avoid harm. When we were young, we were isolated in Wusha Fort and had no idea what a good life was like. We just thought that soldiers were born to have a hard life. Even so, we always felt that the Jurchens let us Han people fight fiercely in the front with the various tribes on the grassland, while they went to the Southern Dynasty Song to plunder. It was really shameless. Liu Lang, do you remember that one time you were ordered to hunt and came back, and you happened to see the commander bragging about his deeds in the Southern Dynasty in his early years... What did you do?"

"Is there still this matter?"

Guo Ning was not really affected for a moment. After thinking for a while, he laughed out loud: "I asked Lu Su to urinate on the yellow sheep we hunted, and then presented it to the commander. The commander roasted and ate the mutton at night, just thinking that it was a little smelly."

"Yes, we were like that at that time. What's the difference between the soldiers in the northern border and us? The soldiers originally thought that the court would pour the wealth obtained from the sea into the north, and the opportunity to be rewarded for meritorious service also lies in the north. Now, suddenly someone spreads a rumor that the court has conquered Goryeo, and will subsequently mobilize tens of thousands of people to go to the sea to directly reap the benefits..."

Lu Han raised his voice and said, "With so many people going to eat meat, who will stay to gnaw on the bones? Who is willing to stay in the north to suffer? The army will definitely be in chaos! Who came up with Jing Anmin's idea to say this?"

Hearing his mother's sudden loud cry, Guo Jing, who was playing on the beach on the opposite bank, turned around to look.

"It has nothing to do with Lao Jing. This is the result of a discussion with the generals during my inspection of Xijing. I just returned to Zhongdu. I haven't had time to tell you yet. Not many people in the court know about it."

Guo Ning made a face at his son and explained to Lu Han, "After a victory at the beginning of the year, we have controlled a much larger area on the grassland. However, with thousands of miles of defense and new logistics channels, we need to leave troops everywhere. In Dongsheng Prefecture, north of Xijing alone, there are now 20 regular troops, 30,000 civilians, more than 3,000 carriages, and nearly 10,000 horses. Setting up new military forts will require even more huge investments."

"There's nothing we can do about it. I heard from Li Yun's wife that we can financially support it."

"The financial resources of our Great Zhou are much stronger than those of the Jin Kingdom, so there is no problem in supporting it. The problem is that if the successor continues to expand, we will not only have to deal with the Mongolian army, but also the vast desert sea of ​​death. The consumption will be ten times greater, and it will be impossible. So we plan to spread some news and pretend to weaken the garrison in the northern border, and try to attract the Mongols in the autumn and winter of this year... Let them suffer in the desert first, and we will wait for them to tire themselves out and fight a few easy and enjoyable battles."

"I see... Is this for the Mongols to see?"

Lu Han had little experience in military affairs, and upon hearing this, he said suspiciously, "We just won a victory at the beginning of the year. The Mongols don't have a backbone on the grassland who can lead the overall plan, so they may not take the initiative to attack us, right?"

"It will come."

Guo Ning said: "Datong Prefecture and Jingzhao Prefecture have both received accurate information. The Mongolian Khan Temujin has returned to the grasslands... The Mongols will not be able to hold back for long and will surely make a big move."

(End of this chapter)