Travel to the early Tang Dynasty and become a salted fish

Looking at the group of submissive generals kneeling in front of him, Li Shimin felt powerless.

The Tang Dynasty was founded by force, but just a short time ago, the generals in the court had lost all their vitality.

Taking a deep breath and suppressing the urge to kill them all, Li Shimin shouted to several people with a gloomy face:

"Tell me, how many reinforcements have you brought this time? How many of them have firearms?"

As soon as these words came out, all the generals looked at each other in confusion for a while, and then a secretary who looked extremely embarrassed came forward and replied:

"Reporting to your Majesty, we have brought a total of 70000 reinforcements this time, including 20000 soldiers recruited from various places. They all hold fire guns."

"The remaining 50000 auxiliary soldiers recruited from all over the country have different numbers of muskets, but there are probably tens of thousands of them."

Hearing the secretary's answer, Li Shimin and Li Ji both frowned.

"How dare you deceive the Holy One? You know this is a capital crime!"

Li Ji was the first to speak and shouted sharply at the secretary.

Upon hearing the immediate scolding, the secretary immediately plopped down and knelt on the ground:

"The general is disturbing the people. He is just a small clerk. He is only responsible for recording. He has no control over the rest of the military affairs."

After saying that, the secretary seemed to realize that he had said the wrong thing, and hurriedly retracted his head, then lay on the ground and did not dare to say anything.

Li Shimin and Li Ji, who originally thought there was something fishy between them, heard what the other said and saw the other looking like this, their doubts became heavier.

"Tell me the matter. If this matter really has nothing to do with you, I will naturally not punish you."

After hearing Li Shimin's words, the secretary carefully raised his head and glanced at the generals beside him.

Seeing that they all lowered their heads and looked at their toes, not looking at themselves at all, the secretary became a little bolder and started to speak stutteringly:

"Your Majesty, although the total number of reinforcements this time is 70000, only 55000 have actually arrived."

"The few among them are auxiliary soldiers transferred from various places. They... they..."

At this point, the secretary stopped, as if he didn't dare to continue.

When Li Shimin saw the other party like this, he suddenly became angry and shouted:

"What happened to those 15000 people? Tell me quickly, otherwise don't blame me for being ruthless!"

Seeing that His Majesty the Emperor was angry, the secretary did not dare to delay any longer and hurriedly continued:

"The few 15000 people were sent to various places by General Qin Qiong to collect food and wages on the way here. It is estimated that it will take a few days to return."

Hearing this, Li Shimin and Li Ji both changed their expressions.

"Are you serious? Do you know that slandering the Duke is a serious crime, let alone in the military."

"If what you said is false, then the head on this item will be at risk."

Li Ji stepped forward, grabbed the secretary from the ground, and yelled viciously.

He didn't know why the other party said this, nor why he wanted to pin such a serious crime on Qin Qiong.

However, based on his understanding of Qin Qiong, it was impossible for the other party to make such a big mistake.

Not to mention that the matter of collecting food and wages has nothing to do with him as a commander leading troops.

Even if it was because of the urgent dispatch of troops and the failure to collect enough food and salary in time, the ministers of the DPRK and China came up with a temporary strategy.

But this matter will definitely be reported to His Majesty.

More importantly, the battle between Shaanxi and Guoguan was imminent, and Li Ji really couldn't think of any reason why the other side would leave 50000 weak auxiliary troops unused, and let the regular troops who had been trained so hard to collect food.

What made Li Ji even more unbelievable was that the other party actually sent out 15000 regular troops in one breath, leaving only 5000 regular troops and 50000 auxiliary troops.

If he said there was nothing fishy or hidden in it, he would not believe it even if he killed Li Ji.

However, what he didn't expect was that after listening to the secretary's statement, Li Shimin beside him became furious on the spot.

He pointed at the generals with their heads lowered and shouted:

"Have you ever known about this? Did Qin Qiong really do this?"

All the generals around him lowered their heads, no one dared to speak out, and no one dared to look at Li Shimin.

Seeing that everyone was silent, Li Shimin immediately laughed angrily:

"Okay, okay, great, you won't say anything, right? No one will answer my question, right? Okay, great, I don't dare to kill anyone!!!"

After roaring, Li Shimin stared at the guards beside him and shouted:

"Come here, pull all these wine and rice bags down to me and torture them. I will see if their bones are as hard as their mouths."

As soon as he finished speaking, before the guards could take action, a group of generals immediately knelt down on the ground:

"Your Majesty, please spare your life. We are also suffering, and we were also tricked by that thief Qin Qiong. Please forgive us, for the sake of our bloodshed killing the enemy."

A group of generals knelt on the ground, bang bang bang, kowtowed and begged loudly for mercy.

Li Ji's heart skipped a beat when he heard the crowd's shouts.

Could it be that I really made a mistake? Did Qin Qiong really do such a stupid thing?

However, before Li Ji could express his opinion, the furious Li Shimin roared:

"Tell me, what is going on? If you don't tell me clearly today, you will all die!!"

After saying that, he pulled out the Emperor's Sword from his waist with a clang, and pointed the sword tip directly at the people on the ground.

When the generals saw Li Shimin's rage, they immediately spouted out the pre-made lies like beans.

"Your Majesty, I don't know what kind of madness Qin Qiong has. Since he received the order to rush to Shaanxi Guoguan and saw the power of my Datang firearms, his whole person has changed."

"He has always told us that soldiers should be like soldiers, and should mainly use bows, crossbows, swords and guns. Those firearms and other things are just heresy and not doing their job properly."

"General Qin seems to be extremely disgusted with firearms. When marching on weekdays, soldiers with firearms will not be allowed to come within three miles of him."

"So, after receiving the order to collect wages, he immediately sent out those fire rifle soldiers, saying that he wanted to keep them away from him."

After listening to the narratives of several generals, Li Ji felt that the other generals were talking nonsense.

You know, when I first met Qin Qiong this time, the other person was very curious about firearms and had no disgust at all.

What's more, if the other party is really disgusted, why should the 5000 people be left alone? Why not send them all out at once?

Thinking of this, Li Ji immediately stepped forward, pointed at the group of generals on the ground and shouted:

"That's nonsense. You are so brave. You dare to slander General Qin even before his body is cold. I think you have had enough."