I am the prince of the Ming Dynasty, I don't give up

Chapter 283: Stories from the Time of Taizu
Thinking of this, Zhu Houxuan couldn't help but sigh. There were too many things to do to make the Ming Dynasty switch from passive defense to active offense. He had to worry about everything.
"Why is your highness sighing?" Chen Hong's voice came from the side.

"It's okay!" said Zhu Houxuan.

"What should we do next about the arrow-proof silk coat?" Wu Liangshan asked.

"To the Leopard Room!"

"Snap!" A crisp sound came from a room in the Leopard House.

"A bunch of bastards! Parasites! I had high hopes for them, but this is how they repay me!" Zhu Houzhao shouted angrily.

The floor of the room was littered with broken pieces of porcelain.
The people in the room dared not to breathe, and waited quietly for Zhu Houzhao to finish venting.
After a long while, Zhu Houzhao finally calmed down.
"Let's go! Let's go to the military camp and find those parasites." The New Army was Zhu Houzhao's favorite, and he was the one who was most angry about this incident.

"Don't be anxious, brother!" Zhu Houxuan said with a smile.

"How can I not be anxious?" Zhu Houzhao said unhappily.

"This matter must be dealt with, but it's best not to let the officers of the New Army find out how we knew about this," Zhu Houxuan said meaningfully.

"You mean?" Zhu Houzhao thought of something.

"There will always be greedy people. Don't let the officers of the new army be alert, otherwise they will do the same when selling stolen goods. This way we can continue to catch more corrupt officials by monitoring the flow of goods in the market." Zhu Houxuan explained with a smile.

The reason is simple. The officers hold so much military supplies that they cannot use them all. They have to sell them and convert them into cash before they can use them for personal enjoyment. Then these military supplies will flow into the commercial market. The Royal Group has unparalleled influence in the commercial market of Daming and is fully capable of monitoring the flow of certain specific materials. The merchants of Daming are also happy to cooperate with the Royal Group to do so.
"My brother is so calculating!" Zhu Houzhao sighed.

"Industry and commerce are my areas of expertise, so I can still do this," Zhu Houxuan said confidently.

"Then let's conduct a surprise inspection on the new army and let them think that they were caught just because of bad luck." Zhu Houzhao made the decision.

"This is a very good idea." Zhu Houzhao clapped his hands and said. "By the way! This matter today must be kept secret! If any rumors get out, I will hold you accountable!" Zhu Houzhao looked at Zhang Yong and said.

"Your Majesty, rest assured. I will never let what happened today get out." Zhang Yong immediately promised.

Zhu Houzhao nodded, and then suddenly said: "Don't let Jiang Bin know."

"Your Majesty, please spare me! Your Majesty, please spare me! I was just possessed by the devil for a moment and did such a wrong thing." Captain Zhao Zhikun knelt on the ground and kowtowed repeatedly begging for mercy.

"Your Majesty, please spare our lives. We will never dare to do it again. This is just our first offense! Your Majesty, please spare us," Qianhu Xin Baoyi also knelt on the ground and said.

The sudden inspection was very effective, as it was soon discovered that more than a thousand pieces of arrow-proof silk clothing that had been sold on the market were stolen by these two centurions. Their centurion was the first team to receive the arrow-proof silk clothing.

They saw that the silk clothes were not often worn in normal times, but only in wartime, and were stored in the warehouse, so they became greedy and stole and sold more than a thousand pieces of the arrow-proof silk clothes.
They had originally thought that they would report the loss every once in a while and gradually fill the hole, but they did not expect that they would be subject to a sudden inspection just a few days after the sale. Now they can only consider themselves unlucky.
"Your Majesty, these two men deserve to be put to death. However, Zhao Zhikun and Xin Baoyi are both veterans of the battlefield. They also made many contributions when they were in Datong Town. There are many arrow and knife marks on their bodies left by the Mongols. Your Majesty, please spare their lives in consideration of their past contributions." Jiang Bin stepped forward and pleaded for the two thousand households.

Jiang Bin is the commander of the new army. Most of the middle and senior officers of the new army are his subordinates. Although he is not aware of this matter, he must speak out at this time, otherwise he will not be able to unite the hearts of the officers of the new army and it will be difficult to lead the team.
You are our leader, but you hide behind others and dare not say a word when something happens. What's the point of having you as a leader?
Zhu Houxuan watched all this coldly, which is why he was unwilling to provide equipment and supplies to other Ming troops.

It can be said that there is no military commander in this era who is not corrupt, the only difference is that some are more corrupt and some are less corrupt.
Military generals in border towns who want to save their lives may be less greedy, while those in the inland areas who have no military pressure are more greedy. In short, there is no one who is not greedy.

Before the corruption problem of other Ming troops was curbed, Zhu Houxuan was reluctant to provide them with equipment and supplies, because the cost-effectiveness was too low and it was simply a bottomless pit.
Even Zhu Houzhao was very clear about this, which was one of the reasons why Jiang Bin dared to come out and plead for mercy.

Zhu Houzhao looked at the two men kneeling on the ground and was somewhat hesitant. He had selected most of the officers of the new army and was familiar with these two men. He knew that they were two fierce generals.
After seeing Zhu Houzhao's expression, Zhu Houxuan felt helpless. The new army was now a hodgepodge. It had the most advanced weapons and equipment, the best quality soldiers, and the most adequate supplies, but the officers commanding this army were all old-style officers. They might have qualified command ability and bravery, but they also had all kinds of bad habits of old-style officers.
But Zhu Houxun's identity was too sensitive. He had no way of influencing this new army. If he did so, he would have crossed the red line.
In Zhu Houxuan's opinion, today's incident must be dealt with severely to curb this unhealthy trend in the new army.
"These two captains are from Datong, Shanxi, right?" Zhu Houxuan said with a gentle smile.
"Yes, yes, yes!" Zhao Zhikun and Xin Baoyi replied quickly. They heard Zhu Houxuan's tone was relatively gentle and thought he was going to plead for them.
Zhu Houzhao also looked at Zhu Houxun in surprise, not understanding why he asked this.
"Today's incident reminded me of an anecdote from the time of Emperor Taizu, which is very similar to today's situation." Zhu Houxuan's tone became gentler.

"Peng Youwen, a captain from Pingyang, Shanxi, also made some mistakes. In the end, Emperor Taizu ordered him to die on the battlefield," said Zhu Houxuan.

To be honest, Zhu Houxuan said so much, but the allusions he mentioned were relatively obscure. Most of the people present were military generals, and most of them did not understand.
Zhao Zhikun and Xin Baoyi were relieved when they heard that they died on the battlefield. In their understanding, dying on the battlefield definitely did not mean dying now. It was probably meant to make them redeem themselves from their crimes. This result was acceptable to them.
No one present understood, but Zhu Houzhao did. He looked at Zhu Houxuan in surprise.
(End of this chapter)