Late Han Zhao Tang

Chapter 56: Official Position Geometry (Seeking Follow-up Reading)

The sun was setting and the sky was already dark.

By the campfire, Zhang Yu called Li Song, Shi Yi and Hao Zhao to discuss the issue of compensation for the fallen soldiers.

Now he had made great achievements, saved Zhao Qian from defeat, and shared the credit with Yin Xiu. Yin and Zhao would naturally not be stingy in distributing supplies, so Zhang Yu simply let Li Song lead people to move.

Perhaps Li Song was afraid that he would be criticized for taking too much spoils, so he only brought a dozen horses from the Runan military camp, four or five cows, over a hundred kilograms of gold and silver, thirty rolls of silk, and more than 200,000 copper coins.

When Zhang Yu saw the spoils brought back by Li Song, he couldn't help but sigh.

"Bosong, do you know how much it costs to buy a county magistrate?"

Li Song was stunned and shook his head, not understanding why Zhang Yu suddenly mentioned the matter of selling and buying the county magistrate.

Zhang Yu was filled with grief and said, "The emperor has issued an order that an official with a salary of 400 dan must pay 4 million coins, and a 2,000 dan Shangqing must pay 20 million coins. When Wang Shijun succeeded as the governor of Yuzhou, he paid 6 million coins to the emperor."

"If I become a county magistrate or county chief in the future, I will have to pay the emperor three million coins at least, or ten million coins at most. The things you brought back are barely enough for the brothers to reward me!"

In Zhang Yu's eyes, Li Song really got too little. He should get more spoils of war, preferably to help himself raise money to become an official.

Li Song swallowed his saliva and asked in shock: "Do you need to pay so much money to be an official?"

"What do you think?"

Zhang Yu said helplessly: "Those who can become officials must be very rich, and these people exploit the people."

Apparently, Li Song had no concept of money because he had lived in the frontier for many years. Two hundred thousand seemed like a lot of money. It could buy several horses and even slaves.

But in the eyes of the aristocratic families with huge wealth, it was just a small amount of money, otherwise Emperor Ling of Han would not have offered such an outrageous price.

Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty was so crazy about selling official positions that he priced one hundred shi at one million coins. For example, Liu Bei's county lieutenant was priced at two or three million coins, and Cao Cao's prime minister of Jinan was priced at twenty million coins.

In history, Liu Bei whipped the Inspector, which might be related to the fact that he had spent so much money to become an official, but now he was going to be dismissed.

"Then why didn't my uncle pay the money?" Li Song asked.

"Because my uncle's position is worthless, he can't manage people, and he has no soldiers. It makes no difference whether he is given this title or not. Why would the emperor want money for it?" Zhang Yu said.

Emperor Ling of Han was an expert in commercial transactions. He knew that only powerful official positions could be sold, and that useless official positions would not be bought. He did not know how to win people's hearts in order to confer rewards.

Hearing this, Li Song said weakly: "Then should I go back and ask for some more?"

Zhang Yu waved his hand and said, "Why would you go back to get something? Just remember it in the future."

"Thank you, Ji'an!"

The less money I made this time was all considered as the tuition fee for cultivating Li Song's vision. After all, there were too few geniuses in the world, and cultivating talents would suffer losses sooner or later.

Seeing that the bonfire was a little smaller, Zhang Yu fiddled with the matches to make the flames brighter.

Putting down the stick, Zhang Yu asked, "Did anyone die in the battle today? How are the other soldiers injured?"

"There are about ten injured soldiers, and they have been handed over to doctors for treatment." Hao Zhao said, "There is indeed one person who died in the battle. He was a soldier under my command. He was shot and died when he was trapped in the battle."

Zhang Yu hesitated for a moment and said, "The injured soldiers need to be taken good care of and we should try our best to heal them all."

"promise!"

After a pause, Hao Zhao asked, "Sir, what should we do with the soldiers who died in battle?"

The problem of fallen soldiers is nothing more than the arrangement of corpses and pensions. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Han people paid attention to burying the dead, and cremation was only widely spread in the Qiang and Hu areas. At present, if you want to send the corpses back to the border thousands of miles away, it is simply difficult to do so.

But the problem must be solved, and the only solution is to find a new way. If it is impossible to transport the bodies back home, then burn the bodies and let the soldiers take the ashes back with the compensation for the dead. This is better than burying them in a foreign land.

"Brothers, follow me south. I can't let them die in a foreign land."

Zhang Yu looked at Hao Zhao and said in a deep voice: "The fallen soldiers can be cremated first, and then their ashes can be collected. When we return to Yingyin, I will ask the envoy for the official document, and then you can find a few of his close colleagues to personally escort him back home and hand over his remains to his family."

"If your family is poor, please let the village give you more money. After all, my brothers followed me south and fought for the Zhang family in Yuzhou. If they died in battle, I would feel guilty if I could not properly settle them."

"promise!"

Hao Zhao was moved and said, "Please rest assured, I will make sure everything is done!"

While everyone was talking, Zhang Maoshan came over quickly and said, "Young Master, Yuan Yisheng said that he came to visit our army on the orders of Lord Zhao!"

"Oh?"

Zhang Yu thought for a moment and said, "I will personally go out to meet Yuan Yisheng!"

Hao Zhao got a hint and stood up and said, "Young Master, I will arrange the cremation of the fallen soldiers right away!"

"it is good!"

Zhang Yu nodded and said, "Remember to let me know when the cremation is going to take place."

After everything was arranged, Zhang Yu took Li Song to personally go out to meet Yuan Mi. Yuan Mi was dragging his injured leg and directing his men to unload money and grain from the carriage. Zhang Yu saw this from a distance and was confused, so he stepped forward to ask.

"Why is this happening, Mr. Yuan?" Zhang Yu asked.

Secretary Yuan smiled and said, "Lord Zhao saw that the money and food he received were not much, so he asked me to send more money and food over."

Zhang Yu looked surprised and said, "It is really too polite to trouble Mr. Zhao like this."

Zhang Yu did not expect Zhao Qian to be so reliable. When he saw that Zhang Yu's portion of the spoils was missing, he actually sent someone to deliver them.

Yuan Shiyi bowed and said with a smile, "If it weren't for Zhang Congshi's rush to rescue us, our Runan soldiers would have been defeated by Peng Tuo. I hope Zhang Congshi will not mind my words that offended me."

"I understand!"

Zhang Yu bowed and greeted him, saying, "Mr. Yuan cares about the safety of the soldiers in Runan, how could I blame him!"

"My secret name is Yongning. If you don't give up, you can call me by my courtesy name!"

"My name is Ji'an, I hope you can give me some advice!"

After they exchanged courtesy names, Zhang Yu and Yuan Mi became acquainted.

Although Yuan Mi came from the Yuan family, a family of three officials for four generations, he was quite talkative and did not show any arrogance of a noble son. This might be related to the fact that Yuan Mi's father, Yuan Zhong, was persecuted by the clique for many years.

"Now that Peng Tuo is dead, I wonder if there are still a large number of Yellow Turbans in Runan who need to be suppressed?" Zhang Yu asked.

Secretary Yuan hesitated for a moment and said, "According to Lord Zhao, the leader of the bandits Peng Tuo is dead, and the remaining Yellow Turbans are already cowardly. Now we want to subdue the remaining bandits and let Runan recover as soon as possible."

Zhang Yu nodded and said, "In that case, I will lead my troops north tomorrow and return to Yingyin to camp."

"Thank you for your hard work, Brother Ji'an!"

After exchanging pleasantries and seeing that the spoils had been moved, Secretary Yuan said goodbye and left.
-
The next day, because Peng Tuo had died, Runan no longer needed the support of Yingchuan troops, so Zhao Qian and Zhang Yu each led their troops back.

Compared with the rapid march southward, the army's return journey was even slower.

On that day, Zhang Yu led the cavalry on both sides of the official road, and the Runan infantry walked in the middle.

During the march, Zhang Yu saw a verbal quarrel taking place in the infantry ranks, which seemed to affect the soldiers marching in front and behind.

Zhang Yu urged his horse forward, only to see that it was Meng Ningzhi, whom he had recruited into the army before, who was having a verbal conflict with his garrison commander.

"Shut up!"

Zhang Yu stopped his horse, pulled the two people who were arguing out of the team, and asked, "What's going on?"

"Report to the emperor!"

Seeing the familiar Zhang Yu, Meng Ningzhi immediately complained about his grievances, saying, "I was the one who beheaded Peng Tuo. Now everyone who surrounded and killed him has made contributions, but I am the only one who has no credit. How can this be possible?"

The captain was angry and said, "Before you cut off Peng Tuo's head, he had been killed by someone else with a spear. How can it be counted as your achievement?"

Meng Ningzhi was indignant and said, "He was wearing iron armor and was still alive even though he was hit by several spears. When I killed him, Peng Tuo was still alive, so how can it not be counted as my achievement?"

"It's really boring for you two to fight over this little achievement!"

Zhang Maoshan looked at the two people who were arguing and said in a deep voice: "Peng Tuo fled on his horse. If it weren't for the young master shooting two arrows and knocking him off his horse, how could you have the merit of beheading Peng Tuo. If it weren't for the young master's unwillingness to compete for the credit, how could you..."

"shut up!"

Zhang Yu glared at Zhang Maoshan first, then said in a calm tone: "At that time, everyone surrounded and killed Peng Tuo. I was on high ground and saw it clearly. Before Peng Tuo was beheaded by Meng Ning, he still had some strength left. Now the credit for beheading him can be attributed to Meng Ning."

"Do you know?" Zhang Yu asked.

The captain hesitated for a moment and said, "Please allow me to report this to the commander again."

Zhang Yu held the reins and said in a deep voice, "If Captain Du has any objections, let him come to me!"

"promise!"

Meng Ningzhi bowed and said with great joy: "Thank you, Mr. Zhang, for testifying for me. I am grateful!"

"You are brave in battle. If you can be appreciated by a noble person, you will have a bright future!" Zhang Yu left a meaningful remark and rode away.

When Zhang Yu left, Meng Ningzhi looked at Zhang Yu's back, with a thoughtful look on his face.

If you want to stand out, you really need the appreciation of a noble person. And wasn't it Zhang Gongshi who gave me the position of a squad leader and the military merit I received fairly?
Zhang Yu naturally didn't know what Meng Ning was thinking. He left that sentence because he really valued Meng Ning's bravery in battle and his fearlessness of death.

But Zhang Yu did not mean to recruit Meng Ningzhi. There were many brave men like Meng Ningzhi in the army. Generals like Le Jin, Wei Yan, Ding Feng, Jiang Qin, etc. who left their names in the Three Kingdoms all fought their way up from the bottom. They were able to leave their names in history books because of the appreciation of their leaders.

If Meng Ningzhi was smart, he would naturally come to him; if he was a fool who only knew how to fight, what use would Zhang Yu have for him?
ps: There will be no holiday on National Day, please follow my reading and give me votes!

(End of this chapter)