Invincible Iron Army 29: Selling the Governor's Flag
Wang An said to Liu Jiao, "The great army has achieved outstanding military service. Should the governor not reward us with more silver?" Liu Jiao replied, "Now the enemy is about to arrive soon, and the soldiers and civilians in the city are in a precarious situation. How can you still think of these silver coins? You're really willing to sacrifice your life but not your wealth." Wang An said, "This is the silver we should have! Governor, you don't know how expensive firewood and rice are because you've never managed a household. I also need to pay rewards to the army, issue military salaries, and provide compensation for soldiers who died in battle. Do you know? Every day I'm worried about the city, and my hair has turned white with worry." Liu Jiao stared at Wang An's black hair, thinking to herself, "Is this what they mean by 'talking nonsense'?" Wang An said, "Don't look at my hair, it's been dyed."
Liu Jiao ignored his nonsense and continued to say, "We have decided after research that you will be sent to defend the South City." Wang An said, "General, I just finished fighting and am physically and mentally exhausted. Can I rest for a while before going?" Liu Jiao said, "Letting you take full responsibility for defending the South City is promoting you. From now on, the entire South City will be up to you to decide. Isn't that good?" Wang An thought about it for a moment and felt that it was somewhat worthwhile, so he immediately agreed.
When Wang An arrived at the southern city to understand the situation, he suddenly felt a chill. The city wall here is low and short, almost like heaven and earth compared to the east city, west city, and north city. Because the north city, east city, and west city are all easily attacked by the Xiongnu, every time the Xiongnu attacks, it brings xìng to this aspect of the city pool, so every time they have to be rebuilt, so the city walls in those places are new and naturally strong.
While Nancheng is located in the south, the Huns rarely attack here, so since its construction, it has not been fortified again, and its defensive capabilities are naturally very poor. Wang An felt that he had been calculated by the Jiedushi and the Defense Commander, and sighed: "I am a loyal and honest person, not a match for the old fox and the little fox." When Jiang Cai heard this, he almost fell over, thinking to himself: You're loyal and honest? Who believes it? Anyway, I don't believe it. Wang An's official position did not get promoted, but his power increased greatly, with 10,000 soldiers in Nancheng under his command, plus the soldiers he brought with him, totaling 15,000 men.
Wang An's troops were not small in number, but their combat effectiveness was not strong. These 10,000 people were all militia, temporarily gathered together. A military officer-like person said to Wang An: "Sir, your soldiers are not within the army's organization, and the military supplies must be solved by themselves. You don't have military pay or military equipment, you need to collect them yourself." Wang An almost jumped up and said: "What? Do we still need to solve our own food and grass? Do we still need to collect military pay and equipment ourselves? Are you letting people live?" The military officer said: "I also can't help it. Militia are like this, during battles, superiors think they are soldiers. When distributing food and pay, the army thinks they are civilians. It's always been like this, we can't do anything about it." Wang An said: "I'm going to find Liu Jiao Jiao, I won't be an official anymore."
Liu Jiao looked at Wang An and said slowly, "You think this is a vegetable market, where you can pick and choose what you want to do. You can do it if you want, or not do it if you don't want to. Even if you don't do it, it's okay. According to military orders, push him out and behead him." Wang An said, "General Liu, what is the most important thing? The most important thing in the world is reason. No matter how big your official position is, you must speak reasonably. Look at our army, they are short of clothes and food. You should solve the problem of military pay. How can you make a horse run without feeding it grass? Where is the reason in this?" Liu Jiao was almost amused by Wang An's words and said angrily, "I don't have that much silver. Even if I did, I couldn't distribute it to you because your army is not part of the regular troops in Yu Yang."
Wang An said, "Alright, you've solved the military rations for me. We can't let our soldiers go hungry on the front lines." Liu Jiao Jiao said, "I also can't solve the military rations for you. Our rations have all been given to Du Lin, Qian Xuegui, and Wang Xueli, the defense officials of East City, West City, and North City. If you need them, you can go find them." Wang An hastily shook his head and said, "I don't have that kind of hobby. Once the rations fall into their hands, it's hard to get them back out."
Liu Jiao Jiao continued, "Our grain is all in Tongzhou, not far from here. You can send your soldiers there to transport it back. I can give you this authority. Take as much as you want." Wang An said with a bad tone, "You're just making empty promises. The enemy will soon arrive at the foot of our city walls. Going out is too risky."
Liu Jiao Jiao said, "You can't say that! I'm doing this all with good intentions. I've already solved your military rations problem. If you don't go get it, then it's not my fault." Wang An thought to himself as he looked at Liu Jiao Jiao, "When did this little girl become so full of bad ideas?"
Wang An said, "Fine, can we take the reward for this time?" Liu Jiao Jiao said, "No problem. You've made contributions in blocking the enemy army this time. The reward is 20,000 taels of silver. Adding to what you received last time, you can take away a total of 60,000 taels of silver. This is a large sum." Wang An continued, "We need grain and rations. These rewards are still not enough. How about this? You advance us 40,000 taels. During the defense of the city, we will make more contributions. Consider it as you giving us our reward in advance."
Liu Jiao Jiao was shocked and said, "But we've never given out rewards like that before!" Wang An said, "That's because you haven't met me yet. If you had met me earlier, you would have done so already."
Liu Jiao said, "Alright, I'll give you a note, go and collect the silver." Wang An immediately sent soldiers to collect the silver. Wang An knew that the siege warfare would inevitably be protracted, and food was an urgent problem to be solved. If the soldiers inside the city did not have food, they would starve to death, let alone continue fighting.
Wang An immediately ordered the soldiers: "Immediately go to Tongzhou to fetch grain, each soldier must carry back 100 catties of grain, and the residents of Nancheng must also go north to fetch grain, with each person carrying back 100 catties. Those who carry back more grain will be rewarded." The residents of Nancheng, the militia, and Wang An's soldiers were all filled with enthusiasm and went to Tongzhou to carry grain.
Wang An then visited Du Lin, who was defending the eastern city. Wang An said straightforwardly: "Sir, our army is short of military rations, I hope you can see that we are allies fighting side by side and lend us some military rations." Du Lin shook his head and said: "Wang sir, you don't know how precious food is when you're not in charge. I also have militia here who haven't received their rations, and I've been busy collecting military rations for them these past few days. Look at my hair, it's all white!" Wang An said: "I saw that your hair was already white when I first met you. And from what I understand, some old soldiers told me that you had a head of white hair even when you were 18 years old. That's not premature graying, that's just natural." Du Lin smiled awkwardly and stopped responding. Wang An said: "I know you're having difficulties, so let's just be straightforward. What do we need to do to get the military rations?" Du Lin said: "We are allies and should help each other out. We should naturally provide you with military rations without hesitation... but military rations have costs." Wang An cut him off and said: "Isn't it just a matter of money? Alright, I'll pay you at market price. Can we settle it like that?" Du Lin said: "Wang sir, our costs here are higher than the market price. Think about it... transporting military rations to us has transportation costs, storing them here has storage fees. So we need to charge 20% more than the market price." Wang An was stunned and thought to himself: "Is there really such a shameless person in this world? The military rations are free from Liu Jiao Jiao's place, and it's your soldiers who transport them here for free labor. There's no need for transportation costs or storage fees since we have fixed facilities for storing military rations."
Wang An said, "The Xiongnu army will soon arrive at the city gate. We can only transport one trip in Tongzhou, which can only solve the problem of military rations for three months. If time is longer, there will be no way to do it. Moreover, we have to think of a way to solve the food problem for all the soldiers and civilians in the city. Once they run out of food, they won't be able to defend the city either. At that time, the entire city will also be breached."
Wang An said, "Okay, we'll buy your military rations at this price." Du Lin, an old fox, said, "However, King An, my military rations are all controlled by the military officer in charge of supplies. To sell military rations, you must first get his approval."
Wang An said, "Just name a price and I'll pay it." Du Lin said, "He doesn't want silver, but he just opened a money shop and lends money to outsiders. If you want to buy his military rations, you have to borrow from him."
Wang An was taken aback and thought to himself, "This old fox is actually asking me to take out a high-interest loan." He said, "No problem, I'll borrow 100,000 taels of silver." Du Lin asked, "You want to borrow so much? What will you use as collateral?"
Wang An replied, "Of course, I have collateral. I'll use Liu Jiao Jiao as collateral." When Du Lin heard this, he almost choked on his own saliva and immediately asked, "How can you use the commander's wife as collateral?" Wang An said, "I wouldn't dare to use the commander as collateral, but my wife is a different story."
Du Lin rolled his eyes and said, "You're just bragging." Wang An said, "The commander and I have been childhood sweethearts since we were young. Our parents arranged our marriage when we were still children." Du Lin raised an eyebrow and said, "You're talking nonsense. Liu Jiao Jiao is from Chang'an, and you're from Yu Yang. People from two different places can't be childhood sweethearts. Who would believe what you're saying?"
Wang An said, "I was also from Chang'an when I was young, but later moved to Yu Yang." Wang An immediately took out a note for 100,000 taels of silver and handed it to Du Lin, saying, "Look, this is part of my wife's dowry. Although she hasn't married me yet, the dowry has already been given to me in advance. If you don't believe me, I can take you to ask her."
Du Lin was shocked and thought to himself, "Could it be that their relationship is really unusual? Otherwise, how could they give such a large sum of money to someone they just met?"
Dulin and Wang An arrived at the mansion of the Jiedushi, and Wang An asked Liu Jiaojiao: "Jiedushi, I have received the 100,000 taels of silver you sent. This silver has other uses, but Dulin doesn't believe me, so I came to ask you if it's true or not." Liu Jiaojiao thought that this silver was for Wang An to buy military rations and indeed had other purposes, so she replied to Dulin: "It's true." Dulin was shocked and thought to himself, "This is really a dowry!" However, he immediately thought that if others knew about it, they would all come to borrow silver from him. So he scolded Wang An, saying: "How could you tell others?" This fell into Dulin's eyes and suddenly had another meaning. Wang An said: "I'm sorry, I failed your trust." Liu Jiaojiao said: "Don't do this again next time, remember to keep it a secret." In Dulin's heart, he was now 100% certain that they were a couple.
；
－－－－－－－－－－－－－
－－－－－－－－－－－－－
