Chapter 94: Post-War Events (Please collect! Please vote! Please invest!)

Although Chen Yannian and others were on high alert and cautious all night, Cai Pengbo really did not make a comeback.

Because of Cai Pengbo's incident late last night, all the soldiers under his command had been busy all night, so early the next morning Ye Mingsheng ordered to extend the morning assembly time by one hour to allow his soldiers to have a good rest.

However, Ye Mingsheng himself got up early and listened to Kong Ruian's report.

"For the time being, the food sent by the Japanese pirates should not have been tampered with. It's just that there are a lot of stones and other debris mixed in with the food!" Kong Ruian reported:
Ye Mingsheng thought about what he said, and after a pause he asked, "Excluding this batch of food, how much do we have now?"

"About ten shi!" Kong Ruian, the tax officer, said without hesitation:

Upon hearing this number, Ye Mingsheng's eyebrows immediately frowned. Although the number of his soldiers had been reduced a lot after the fierce battle just now, the number of ten stones was still too little. It would not even last for three days.

"How much money do we have left in our treasury?" Ye Mingsheng asked in a low voice:

As a combat unit with more than a thousand people in its heyday, Ye Mingsheng, like other imperial guards, secretly established a small treasury to earn some gray income while receiving military pay from above.

However, this money does not go into Ye Mingsheng's personal pocket, but exists as a welfare for everyone. The soldiers and generals in the army, the usual extra meals, the rice, flour, grain, oil, meat, and cloth bought for everyone during festivals, all come from this small treasury!
The existence of slush funds is very common among the 200,000 imperial guards and is considered an open secret!
And the small treasury of Ye Mingsheng’s army was naturally controlled by the financial officer Kong Ruian!
Kong Ruian swallowed his saliva when he heard this and quietly stretched out a finger.

Seeing this, Ye Mingsheng couldn't help but frowned and said doubtfully: "One hundred taels of silver? How come there is only this much left?"

"My Lord Commander, we have been in the palace for so long. Except for the time when we were in Ruishan County, we received some tributes. The rest of the time, it was all hard work. It is already very good to have a hundred taels of silver left!" Kong Ruian spread his hands and said a little aggrievedly:

Hearing this and recalling the miserable situation on his side, Ye Mingsheng nodded and instructed: "Return the 60 stone of grain sent by the Japanese pirates to Luwang Town and let them prepare it for us. Take out another 20 taels of silver later and buy more meat in the town to nourish everyone. Make the rest into jerky. We will have no place to restock after entering Huishan..."

After that, Ye Mingsheng took out some loose silver and handed it to Kong Ruian, saying, "Distribute this silver to the brothers who guarded the barracks with me yesterday. I promised to reward them two taels each. Remember! Say that the money came from the treasury!"

Although it hurts to spend the money, as a man, he must keep his word and do what he promised to his subordinates.

But now the closer they are to the Great Zhou, the more careful they have to be. Ye Mingsheng doesn't want to be accused of secretly winning over his subordinates with ill intentions because of this incident, so it is safer to give out the silver in the name of the small treasury...

Looking at the silver coins, which amounted to more than two hundred taels, Kong Ruian was slightly stunned. After taking the silver coins, he blinked at Ye Mingsheng and whispered, "Mingsheng, it seems that you made a lot of money in Liujing!"

"Mutual, mutual, aren't you making a lot of money too?" Facing his best friend, Ye Mingsheng did not hide anything. He shrugged and said frankly: He knew very well that Kong Ruian was not idle at all when he was in Liujing. He helped the Kong family to contact a lot of businesses. As long as the situation calmed down, their family could make a lot of money.

Seeing that Ye Mingsheng knew about his affairs, a hint of surprise flashed in Kong Ruian's small eyes, but he just smiled and didn't say anything further, which seemed to indicate that he and Ye Mingsheng had reached some kind of tacit understanding.

After explaining everything to Kong Ruian, Ye Mingsheng's soldiers gathered together one after another. Lin Huaiwu, Chen Yannian, Wang Xian and the other three sentinels began to count how many troops were left in each unit and how many wounded there were.

At 9:00 a.m., Ye Mingsheng formally convened a meeting of all his subordinates at the head level and above to listen to their reports.

"Reporting to the commander, we still have 187 people in our army, 30 of whom are slightly injured, 17 are seriously injured, and five of them are military officers below the rank of captain, who were killed in the battle!"

"Reporting to the commander, we still have 152 men, 40 of whom are slightly injured, 9 are seriously injured, and 6 of them are military officers below the rank of captain, who were killed in the battle!"

"Reporting to the commander, there are still 131 people in my army, 53 of whom are slightly injured, 15 are seriously injured, and 6 of them are military officers below the rank of captain, and died in the battle!"

Listening to the reports from Chen Yannian, Wang Xian and Lin Huaiwu, Ye Mingsheng closed his eyes with some reluctance. Although he had been mentally prepared, his heart still bleeds when he actually heard the casualties of his subordinates!

When he launched the surprise attack on Liujing, his entire army consisted of more than a thousand people. In less than a month, his brothers had suffered such heavy casualties that only 460 people were left in total.

Nearly half of them were injured. According to the current medical level, most of the 41 seriously injured people would not survive if they followed me over the mountains and across Huishan...

Taking a deep breath, Ye Mingsheng also understood the truth that kindness is not good for commanding an army. He forced himself to calm down and asked Chen Yannian calmly, "Have all the brothers who died in the battle been buried?"

"They have all been laid to rest. My men have already gone to find the stonemasons in the town to erect a monument for our brothers!" Chen Yannian said in a low voice with a solemn expression:
After saying that, he hesitated for a moment, looked at Ye Mingsheng, and asked, "Commander-in-chief, what should we do with our severely injured brothers?"

"Brothers, what are your ideas?" Ye Mingsheng was silent for a moment, then slowly said:

How to deal with the seriously injured is a very serious issue. More than 41 seriously injured soldiers are all living lives and warriors who have fought for the country. If we take them all aboard, the road in the mountains will be bumpy and they won't get good treatment. It is highly likely that none of the 41 will survive.

(End of this chapter)