On our wedding night, my wife acted strangely.

Lin Yi ignored him and scooped a spoonful of wine from the wine basin into his own bowl.

To be honest, I'm really not used to drinking hot wine in the middle of summer.

But people in the Great Zhou Dynasty liked this; it was considered elegant.

Lin Yi picked up his wine bowl and said to Yue Nan, "Brother Nan, have you heard about what happened today?"

Yue Nan's expression turned solemn, and he replied in a deep voice, "Your Highness, this humble general has heard a little about it."

"Aren't you afraid of being implicated by me?"

Yue Nan shook his head without hesitation: "I'm not afraid. The Shenji Battalion is the Lin family's army, loyal to the Lin family for generations. As long as Your Highness gives the order, no matter if it's a mountain of knives or a sea of ​​fire, this humble general and the five thousand brothers of the Shenji Battalion will not flinch!"

"Hehe, well done, that sounds nice." This is exactly the attitude Lin Yi needs most.

The original book didn't lie to me.

Lin Yi patted him on the shoulder: "Don't worry, I don't plan to rebel. You just need to defend the capital for me."

The fat man ate his meat in silence, without saying a word.

Yue Nan nodded and said, "This subordinate understands."

"Hmm." Lin Yi got annoyed seeing the fat man stuffing himself, so he kicked him and said, "Stop eating and open the box. The brothers are starving."

Twenty large boxes were stacked in the corner, all of which had just been brought up by the retainers.

Yue Nan was very curious, but since Lin Yi didn't say anything, he didn't dare to ask any more questions.

"Mmm, mmm, open, open..." The fat man stuffed the last piece of meat into his mouth, got up and opened a box in the corner.

"Splash—"

The moment the box was opened, a beam of light shot out.

That's the reflection of the firelight on the silver.

"hiss--"

Yue Nan's eyes widened, and the guards behind him gasped in shock.

So much silver!

As soldiers, they have seen mostly knives, guns, clubs, blood, and corpses, while silver is something that is both familiar and strange to them.

They were familiar with each other because they received a small amount of silver as military pay each month; they were unfamiliar with each other because this amount of pay was far from enough to support their families.

Especially in the last two years.

Since Lin Yi became mentally impaired, the Ministry of Revenue has repeatedly withheld the military pay of the Shenji Battalion, citing an empty national treasury. As of now, the pay has been piling up for several months.

The soldiers could only eat coarse food and wild grass to stave off hunger.

Fortunately, this group of people had strong fighting skills and could go hunting in the mountains, so they wouldn't go hungry. But their wives and children at home didn't have that luxury, and enduring cold and hunger was the norm for them.

Now, a whole box full of silver ingots appears before your eyes, and its visual impact is probably more shocking than a thousand troops.

Yue Nan swallowed hard and said, "Your Highness, this is..."

Lin Yi smiled slightly: "This is a reward for you."

"what?"

Several guards couldn't help but speak up.

"A reward for us?"

"Your Highness, is all this money being given to us?"

"Good heavens, now my wife and kids will have enough money to get through the winter!"

Without saying a word, Yue Nan turned around and knelt down before Lin Yi with a thud.

As soon as he knelt down, several of his personal guards followed suit.

"Your Highness! This humble general... this humble general..." The seven-foot-tall man's eyes reddened again.

They were really struggling to make ends meet, especially now that they had to guard the capital, they simply didn't have time to go hunting.

The fat man ate those three plates of venison, which was the food that he and his friends had scraped together.

Now that all the difficulties have been resolved thanks to Lin Yi, how can one not be excited?

"On behalf of my five thousand brothers, I thank Your Highness for this reward!"

"Thank you, Your Highness!"

"Alright, get up." Lin Yi accepted the kneeling, pulled Yue Nan up, and made him sit down again.

The fat man said casually, "Brother Nan, let's not do this kind of thing among our own family. My eldest brother said that each of the five thousand brothers will receive ten taels of silver to solve the immediate crisis, and the subsequent military pay will be doubled."

Yue Nan gave a bitter smile, staring at the murky wine bowl in front of him, and said quietly, "Your Highness, Fatty, the scarcest thing in the Divine Machine Battalion right now isn't silver, it's actually grain. To be honest, the brothers haven't seen any good rice for two months."

"I've already thought about the food problem." Lin Yi was just about to bring this up, and since Yue Nan brought it up, he took over the conversation. "Our relationship with the royal family is very tense right now. I estimate they will definitely restrict our weapons and food supplies. Even if we want to buy food, we won't be able to."

"He wouldn't dare! I, Fatty, will rip Nangong Xiong's dick off and fry it like meat!"

Fatty is always so chubby and silly. Lin Yi said, "Don't interrupt, just listen carefully."

"oh."

"There are many grain merchants in the capital, but they are afraid of being associated with the rebellion, so they won't sell to us. Our best option is to rob them."

"Rob?" Yue Nan and the fat man were both stunned.

Especially Yue Nan.

He's a soldier; asking him to seize grain or anything like that is too much to ask.

The fat man's face lit up with excitement: "Big brother, you mean we should rob those damn grain merchants? Great! I love being a bandit!"

"Shut up! I told you not to interrupt!" Lin Yi roared again, his face stern.

Fatty: "Oh."

"Brother Nan, I know you don't want the brothers to do things that harm the village. But you don't need to feel guilty about this, because we're not robbing the grain merchants' goods, nor the people's goods, but the emperor's."

Yue Nan gritted her teeth: "Your Highness, stealing from the Emperor... is no different from rebellion."

"Your Highness, I've even torn up the imperial edict today, what are you afraid of? We've already broken ties with the royal family long ago. Since that's the case, let's go all the way and let the old emperor understand who really calls the shots in the Great Zhou!"

The fat man slapped his thigh: "That's right! Fatty..."

"Shut up!"

"oh."

Lin Yi looked at Yue Nan: "So you understand now?"

"Does Your Highness mean that the palace needs fresh grain every day, which is provided by grain merchants and also from local tributes? Should we just seize it before it enters the palace?" Yue Nan said thoughtfully.

Lin Yi shook his head: "It's not entering the palace, it's entering the city gate. Our Shenji Battalion guards twelve city gates. No matter which direction the grain comes in from, it has to pass through one of them. So we set up a checkpoint there, and any supplies intended to be sent to the palace are confiscated. You know, besides the royal family, there are many eunuchs, palace maids, guards, and imperial guards in the palace. They also need to eat, so the supply for just one palace is enough to feed our five thousand brothers."

Yue Nan asked, "What does the emperor eat?"

"What's it to you?"

"Um...that's true."

"Brother Nan, let me tell you, it's not the Ministry of Revenue that's withholding our brothers' pay, it's the Emperor. He's always wanted to get control of the Shenji Battalion, but the Shenji Battalion is too solid for him to handle, so he came up with this terrible idea. Once you're starving, you'll naturally bow down to the Emperor, and then he'll give you food and pay as appeasement. Ha, his heart is so vicious, it's outrageous."

Lin Yi picked up his wine bowl and said, "So, he made us starve, so he shouldn't expect to have an easy time either! Don't forget who we fought for back then. The way he treats us today is because he was in the wrong first."

Yue Nan nodded, picked up his wine bowl, and said, "This humble general will obey Your Highness's orders."

"That's right, hahaha." The two clinked their wine bowls together and burst into laughter.

Seeing how close the two of them were, the fat man felt a little jealous and said, "Brother Nan..."

"Shut up!"

"oh."