activa-t Chapter 58 It's not that I don't want to send troops, but my soldiers are completely rotte
Chapter 58 It's not that I don't want to send troops, but my soldiers are completely rotte
Chapter 58 It's not that I don't want to send troops, but my soldiers are completely rotten.
"Forgive my bluntness, sir, but I don't understand. Now that Erlong Mountain has sent people with generous gifts and personally begged us, why don't we simply send troops to wipe out the Luo family army?"
"In my opinion, the Luo family army specializes in killing bandits, yet they don't harm the common people at all. This is clearly a ploy to build up their power! These guys are wolves in sheep's clothing, with grand ambitions. Their aspirations are definitely not as simple as just being a band of bandits or powerful figures!"
Beside Wanfu, the butler gently massaged the old man's shoulders while asking in a low voice, puzzled.
As the saying goes, "He who takes money must do the work." He knew this principle. If they just took the money and did nothing, what would happen if people gradually stopped giving them money?
This kind of thing also requires credibility. If their credibility collapses, who will be willing to bribe a group of people who take money but do nothing?
Upon hearing the butler's words, Wanfu, who had been leaning back in his chair with his eyes closed, suddenly opened one eye, glanced at him with a half-smile, and asked, "What, so you mean you think I was wrong about what happened earlier?"
As soon as he finished speaking, the steward immediately knelt on the ground, prostrating himself in a panic, and said, "No, sir, how could I dare? It was my fault for being so talkative!"
As he spoke, he quickly slapped himself in the face, fearing the old man's wrath.
Although Wanfu looks kind and gentle now, it's only because he's old and not as energetic as he used to be.
Wanfu was a genuine Manchu, and a member of the imperial family at that. To a bondservant like him, Wanfu could decide his life or death with just a word, and could take away everything he currently possessed if he did anything slightly displeasing!
It's no exaggeration to say that to Wanfu, he was just a relatively obedient dog. Would anyone gossip about a dog that its owner beat to death?
Seeing the butler's state, Wanfu simply chuckled and said, "Hehehe, Old Wei, get up! Don't ask questions you shouldn't next time!"
"I'm in a good mood this time, so I'll make an exception and tell you what happened."
Seeing that Wanfu was not angry, the steward, Lao Wei, quickly got up from the ground and stood respectfully to the side, not even daring to straighten his back.
Wanfu took the tea and drank a sip, then suddenly sighed, "Do you think I don't know that taking money and not doing the job would damage my reputation? But the problem is, we really can't do this!"
"According to official standards, we should have over 1200 soldiers in the entire Kaiyuan city. But in reality, how many of these 1200 are just drawing salaries without working?"
"Those 400 Banner soldiers wouldn't dare to embezzle pay, but as for the remaining 800 Green Standard Army soldiers, can our camp actually muster 200 men?"
The steward was well aware of Wanfu's embezzlement of soldiers' salaries, so he quickly calculated the answer in his mind:
The city of Kaiyuan may seem to have a considerable military force, but if you were to actually muster all the soldiers, they probably wouldn't even number 600.
We can't even get everyone together!
Of these 600 men, not to mention how many were actually skilled warriors, the fact that they had to leave some troops to defend the city meant they couldn't possibly send out all of them. At most, they could probably only send out 400 men for field battles.
Taking these 400 men to fight head-on against the Luo family army, which is rumored to have about 200 or 300 men, all equipped with self-propelled muskets, is that just courting death?
Even if they could actually defeat Luo's army, there would probably be very few of them left out of the 400!
Seeing the steward's enlightened expression, Wanfu nodded and continued, "Old Wei, besides, you know perfectly well that the soldiers in our camp are already rotten to the core!"
"Those Green Standard Army soldiers are all starving and emaciated, while the Manchu bannermen spend their days playing with cats and dogs and are only trained twice a year. Besides, how many people in this entire camp are smoking opium?"
"And the weapons issued by the imperial court, not to mention how many we've sold, just look at the quality of the bird-shaped cannons the court has been sending out recently—they're getting worse and worse. And how long has it been since those two Divine Might General cannons in our barracks were maintained?"
"If I remember correctly, those two Divine Might General Cannons are already rusted, and we've even sold off most of the gunpowder used to fire them. What room do we have left to send troops to suppress the bandits?"
At this point, Wanfu's face showed a look of deep sorrow and helplessness. He said, "That's precisely why it's not that I don't want to send troops, but that we absolutely must not send troops!"
"If we send troops now, we might not only fail to wipe out the Luo family army, but we'll also expose our true situation. Once those bandits see how weak our government troops are, why would they continue to send us gold?"
"So what we need to do now is to remain calm and wait for things to change. We can give the Luo family army a verbal warning, but if these guys don't know what's good for them, then we'll probably have to pretend we didn't see them!"
After hearing these words, Lao Wei suddenly realized what was going on.
He realized that he had been thinking too simply and had overlooked the terrible state of the city's garrison. Unfortunately, those foreigners were no good. Since the foreigners came, opium had become rampant. Whether it was the idle Eight Banners soldiers or the Green Standard Army soldiers, most of them had become addicted to this stuff, and once they were addicted, they couldn't stop.
Even Wanfu's eldest son, the eldest son of their family, got involved with this stuff, to the point that their family's farmland in the capital was squandered!
If it weren't for this reason, why would their old man, nearing sixty, insist on taking a position in this harsh, desolate place beyond the Great Wall? Wasn't it all just to make money here?
Wanfu sighed helplessly, coughed lightly twice, and then suddenly seemed to remember something. He turned to the steward and instructed him, "Don't blame me for not reminding you. Tell your brother, who is a captain in the Green Standard Army, to behave himself these days. If I'm not mistaken, I'm afraid I'll be transferred back to the capital or to another place in less than a year."
"So in the remaining time, let's not ask for anything else, just seek stability. As long as we can maintain appearances of stability, even if things turn out to be a complete mess behind the scenes, that's the problem for the person who succeeds me!"
Old Wei stared wide-eyed, not understanding why his master was suddenly being transferred.
They were clearly having a great time making money here, so why are they being transferred?
Wanfu didn't explain much to the butler, but he had already roughly guessed what was going on in his mind.
This year, Emperor Xianfeng passed away and Emperor Tongzhi ascended the throne. However, it is clear that Emperor Tongzhi, who is only six years old, is not capable of personally attending to state affairs. At this time, state affairs will inevitably be controlled by the two empress dowagers and the ministers in the court.
In that case, he will surely lose his seemingly unimportant but actually very lucrative position, and someone else will definitely take over his lucrative post.
It is precisely because of this that Wanfu knows he is not as well-liked as before, so he seeks stability in everything he does, aiming to avoid mistakes rather than make any achievements.
Wanfu was sighing helplessly, feeling utterly powerless, when at the same time, several Green Standard Army soldiers who had received orders to warn the Luo family army had already set off.
These Green Standard Army soldiers rode two skinny horses, humming tunes all the way, and some even smoked opium as they went. They didn't take the incident seriously at all. They didn't even bring a flintlock pistol with them, only their waist knives.
In their view, their trip to put Luo's army in a bad light was just like their previous actions against bandits.
Although they must have fought against those bandits, the bandits would have to treat them with utmost respect when they saw their blue and green uniforms bearing the character "勇" (yong). This is the difference between having an official rank and not having one.
Even if they are just ordinary soldiers, as long as they are wearing this leather and are visiting on behalf of their garrison commander, then these bandits must be respectful!
They would not only be able to eat and drink well, but these bandits would also often offer them women for their amusement, making their lives quite comfortable.
These Green Standard Army soldiers never expected that the Luo family army would treat them in such a completely different way than the bandits!
They had just reached the border of a village and were about to ask the villagers for directions, find a place to rest, and beg for some food when they suddenly saw a troop of cavalry on tall horses charging towards them from afar.
These cavalrymen were dressed in blue uniforms and wore leather hats. They were all tall and strong, and looked very intimidating.
And these cavalrymen were fully armed!
They had sabers hanging from their waists, and a finely crafted foreign-style short gun stuck next to their saddles. They also had two other oddly shaped and shorter short guns on their waists. This one person was equipped with a total of three guns!
What frightened these Green Standard Army soldiers even more was that as they got closer, they gradually discovered that the cavalry charging towards them had the faces of foreigners!
Upon seeing the brown hair and beard, and those light brown or blue pupils like those of a hawk, the Green Standard Army soldiers who had previously been arrogant towards the villagers instantly turned into a bunch of cowards, each one as fearful as a tiger.
When the Cossack cavalry who had heard the commotion and rushed over to check the situation arrived and surrounded the Green Standard Army soldiers, one of the Green Standard Army soldiers suddenly knelt down and kept kowtowing on the ground.
"My goodness, foreign grandpa, please don't kill me! Good men, spare my life!"
Good heavens, this is terrifying! How can there be foreigners here?
These Green Standard Army soldiers had heard that the Anglo-French allied forces had previously marched all the way to Beijing, forcing the emperor to flee in panic. Even the elite Mongol cavalry and the powerful Eight Banners troops personally led by Senggelinqin were routed by the foreigners!
Even the imperial court is now afraid of foreigners. If they were to be killed on the spot by these foreign cavalrymen, they would probably have no recourse!