Chapter 277: The financial dilemma! (Thanks to book friends Zi Feifei and Quan Yi for the reward!)

According to Huo San's report, with the help of the Gongsun family, the local tyrant in Liaoyang, the Zhenwu Army has developed very rapidly during this period.

At present, even if Ye Mingsheng’s troops are not counted, the military strength has expanded to more than 30,000 people. If Ye Mingsheng’s troops are added, the total strength of the Zhenwu Army can be said to have reached 40,000 people!

You should know that although the Liaoyang Army under Song Wenhui claimed to have 100,000 troops, in fact there were only about 70,000 to 80,000 people. After excluding those who were drawing salaries without doing anything, there were probably only about 60,000 to 70,000 people in the end.

Therefore, in terms of military strength, although the Liaoyang Army still maintains an advantage over the Zhenwu Army, this advantage is not very large. The current Zhenwu Army is fully capable of fighting the Liaoyang Army head-on!

Song Wenhui, the governor of Liaoyang, was also very vigilant about the rapid development of the Zhenwu Army. During this period, he had been mobilizing troops and deploying heavy troops around Changqing Prefecture, where the Zhenwu Army was stationed, in the name of suppressing bandits. If Song Wenhui had not been afraid of the imperial army's expedition after he took action against the Zhenwu Army, he might have taken action now...

This really echoes Gu Sansi's evaluation of Song Wenhui. Although he is indecisive, he does not lack the courage to burn his boats and give it a try.
If the situation continues to develop like this, it may not take a year, but half a year will be enough for Song Wenhui to be unable to endure it any longer.

Therefore, given the current tense situation, it was difficult for Ye Mingsheng not to think too much about Chen Dechang's letter. After pondering for a while, Ye Mingsheng wrote a reply letter to Chen Dechang. In the letter, Ye Mingsheng exaggerated his own losses in this battle, and once again cried poor and asked Chen Dechang for a batch of food and military equipment.

Although he knew that the conflict between Zhenwu Army and Song Wenhui was inevitable, Ye Mingsheng, who had just gained a foothold in Fengzhou, still wanted to cool down Chen Dechang and let him continue to be patient, at least to delay it for a while...

If a fight breaks out now, even though Ye Mingsheng is in a remote place like Fengzhou, he will not be able to remain unscathed!
Then this war that affects the entire Liaoyang will inevitably disrupt Ye Mingsheng's subsequent economic development plans and military farming plans, which is something Ye Mingsheng must try his best to avoid!

What Ye Mingsheng lacks most now is time. He needs time to integrate Fengzhou's resources to develop firearms and farm.

After sending his reply to Chen Dechang, Ye Mingsheng, who had wanted to rest for a while, was forced to end his vacation early and began his long-planned plan to ask Liu Zhengxian, the co-magistrate of Fengzhou, and Lu Jin, the judge, to come to his general's mansion for questioning.
"How much money and grain is left in the Fengzhou treasury now?" Seeing the two of them coming, Ye Mingsheng didn't waste any words and went straight to the point.

Hearing Ye Mingsheng's question, Wang Jin, as the judge in charge of criminal law, naturally looked at his nose with his eyes, his mouth with his nose, and his heart with his mouth, and remained silent.

As the co-magistrate, Liu Zhengxian's eyes were hesitant. He didn't know why Ye Mingsheng asked this, but his subconscious told him that it was definitely not a good thing for these wolf-like warriors to ask about money and grain, so he gritted his teeth and said:

"Your Excellency, there are still 300 taels of silver and 800 dan of grain in the warehouse. If you need it, you can take it all..."

Liu Zhengxian's expression did not escape Ye Mingsheng's eyes. He picked up the teacup and took a sip of the Tieguanyin in the cup. Then he said:
"Master Liu, I have sent people to the warehouse to check the accounts. I will give you one more chance. I hope you will not make the mistake!"

Although Ye Mingsheng's voice was plain, when it fell into Liu Zhengxian's ears, it made this Fengzhou official who had been the Tongzhi for ten years tremble all over. In the past two months, as the second-in-command of Fengzhou officialdom, he could be said to have fully experienced the power of Ye Mingsheng's military commander Gu Sansi. At the beginning, he was very disgusted and even resisted Ye Mingsheng's behavior of wanting to interfere in local government affairs as a military officer.

However, under Gu Sansi's fierce tactics, Liu Zhengxian finally had no choice but to surrender and join Ye Mingsheng.

Although he had been forced to join Ye Mingsheng due to the situation, Liu Zhengxian didn't think that a crude warrior like Ye Mingsheng who only knew how to fight could govern Fengzhou well.

However, this time, Ye Mingsheng was able to defeat the extremely brutal Khitans and captured a thousand of them. This changed Liu Zhengxian, a native of Fengzhou,'s opinion of Ye Mingsheng.

Feeling Ye Mingsheng's powerful aura, Liu Zhengxian knew he could no longer hide it, so he could only helplessly tell the truth:
"Sir, there are still one thousand taels of silver and five thousand dan of grain left in the treasury..."

At this point, Liu Zhengxian's eyes flashed with humiliation, and then he fell to his knees in front of Ye Mingsheng, begging with tears in his voice:

"General, the higher-ups have not cared about Fengzhou since five years ago. Not a single tael of silver or a single grain of food has been delivered to us. The people of Fengzhou have been left to fend for themselves under the iron hoofs of the Khitans. These 1,000 taels of silver and 5,000 dan of grain are the blood and sweat of the people of Fengzhou that they have accumulated bit by bit!"

"Fengzhou has suffered many disasters. This money and grain is for emergency use. It will be used wherever there is a disaster. If you use this money and grain, if Fengzhou encounters a disaster, there will be starving people and corpses everywhere!"

Hearing Liu Zhengxian's miserable words, although Ye Mingsheng knew that Fengzhou was not rich now, he did not expect that the treasury of a state government office was so poor. One thousand taels of silver and five thousand dan of grain were only enough to cover the expenses of his army for one or two months...

After helping Liu Zhengxian up from the ground, Ye Mingsheng said in a deep voice:
"Master Liu, you are worrying too much. Since this money is the emergency fund of Fengzhou government, I will not use it for other purposes. However, I also have a request. You must keep an eye on this money. No one can use it easily without my order. If anyone embezzles it, I will punish him severely. Do you understand?"

Liu Zhengxian heaved a sigh of relief after hearing this, bowed deeply to Ye Mingsheng, and said firmly:
"On behalf of the people of Fengzhou, I would like to thank you, General, for your understanding. Please rest assured, General, if I, Liu Zhengxian, had embezzled even a tael of this money and grain, I would have committed suicide and apologized. I would never trouble you to do it!"

Ye Mingsheng nodded slightly when he heard this. According to the information presented by Huo San, Liu Zhengxian was born into a wealthy family, so his need for money was not particularly great. Although his abilities were mediocre, he was still quite diligent.

He is very careful about his reputation and is a rare honest official in the turbid officialdom of the Great Zhou Dynasty where nine out of ten officials are corrupt...

(End of this chapter)