Mutual Deception

As the sun slanted westward, all the gold and silver were hauled out from the well.

Looking at the large chests, Li Yi estimated there must be fifty to sixty thousand taels of silver.

After pondering for a moment, Li Yi said to Gao Jie and Gao Laoshi, "According to our rules, ordinary soldiers will receive ten taels of silver each, squad leaders fifteen taels, platoon leaders twenty taels, company commanders thirty taels, and I will take fifty taels. Distribute these, and then deposit ten thousand taels into the Sui Jin Army's public account to be disbursed monthly from now on."

When they had previously plundered the silver from the Ai family, Li Yi had already established this rule.

Whenever wealth was acquired, it was divided into three parts: one part distributed to the subordinates, one part deposited into the public account for monthly disbursement, and one part left for Li Yi to dispose of as he saw fit.

Having been in practice for several months without fail, there was no one in the Sui Jin Army who did not respect and obey this.

This was precisely why the Sui Jin Army was united as one and fiercely loyal to Li Yi.

Aside from these two portions, Li Yi reserved another ten thousand taels to fund the upcoming expansion of the army, along with a selection of antiques and calligraphy paintings. The remainder was to be handed over to Hong Chengchou.

Thirty thousand taels of silver were more than enough for Hong Chengchou to appease the mutinous regular troops.

However, how to transport the remaining silver back to Sui Jin Town posed a difficult problem.

Hong Chengchou had been keeping a close eye on him, and He Renlong also knew of this silver's existence. He had to devise a scheme to fool them and avoid discovery.

"Wang Wu."

"This humble servant is here." Wang Wu came running over.

"Have the remains of the fallen Sui Jin soldiers in Longmen Town been properly gathered?"

Since Li Yi was about to march out for battle at the time, he had entrusted the task of preserving the remains to Wang Wu.

Wang Wu hurriedly replied, "The remains have all been stored in Longmen Town, placed in pottery urns with their names and places of origin labeled on them."

"Are there any spare pottery urns left?"

"There are over a thousand pottery urns stored in the warehouse. We only used a few hundred, so many remain."

Li Yi nodded and said, "Take the civilian laborers and bring the urns over here, but be careful not to let word leak out."

Wang Wu readily acknowledged the order, leading the civilian laborers with carts and horses to follow him.

This place was not far from Longmen Town; within a little over an hour, Wang Wu had returned.

To maintain secrecy, Li Yi kept the civilian laborers resting at a distance, and ordered Gao Laoshi, Gao Jie, and the Sui Jin soldiers to pack all the silver into the pottery urns.

Once packed, they marked the urns, mixed them in among the actual burial urns, and had the civilian laborers load them up.

The process was cumbersome and dragged on for a long time. By the time the troop was ready to set off, the sun was already sinking below the horizon.

Li Yi ordered the soldiers to light torches and march back to the military camp through the night.

By the time they returned to the camp, it was already deep in the night and dead quiet.

Sweat-drenched Li Yi had just taken a sip of water when Commander Yang came running over to inform him that Hong Chengchou wished to see him.

Such urgency made it easy to imagine how anxious Hong Chengchou must have been.

Li Yi chuckled inwardly, yet still followed Commander Yang to the central army tent.

"Have the mutinous regular troops dispersed?"

Li Yi looked at the empty central military camp and asked out of curiosity.

Commander Yang smiled bitterly and replied, "The Administration Commissioner and the Imperial Censor personally stepped in to pacify them, guaranteeing that the bounty rewards would be distributed tomorrow. Only then were those soldiers willing to disperse."

Li Yi suddenly understood. No wonder Hong Chengchou was in such a rush—he had already written checks he had to cash.

Just as he stepped into the military tent, Hong Chengchou strode forward and asked in a deep voice, "Have you secured the money and grain?"

"Reporting to the Commissioner, this subordinate interrogated the bandits and learned where they concealed their wealth. This time, we brought back approximately thirty thousand taels of silver, several hundred shi of grain, a thousand shi of forage, and hundreds of catties of salted meat and vegetables."

Hearing that there was such a substantial amount, Hong Chengchou let out a long sigh of relief.

"Bring them in."

At Li Yi's command, Gao Laoshi and the others carried in several large chests.

Hong Chengchou opened them to inspect the contents. Gold, silver, copper coins, and jewelry were all present, easily valued at around thirty thousand taels of silver.

"This official will certainly honor what was promised to you. You may withdraw for now," Hong Chengchou said indifferently.

Li Yi smiled and turned to leave.

"Right, Commander Li. There is a considerable number of captives. This official intends to settle them in Longmen Town. After you select the able-bodied men to supplement your forces, someone will escort the remainder to Longmen Town."

Li Yi acknowledged the order and departed straight away.

Inside the tent, only Hong Chengchou and Commander Yang remained.

Pointing at one of the chests, Hong Chengchou said, "Half of these rewards shall go to the garrison troops, and the other half will be kept to expand the garrison force moving forward. You may take two hundred taels as this official's reward to you."

Commander Yang hurriedly dropped to his knees and kowtowed, saying, "This subordinate thanks Your Honor for the reward."

Hong Chengchou nodded and said, "Dedicate yourself to your duties from now on, and this official will not treat you unfairly."

Having consolidated the loyalty of the garrison troops, Hong Chengchou dismissed Commander Yang and summoned his personal attendants inside.

"Set aside five thousand taels of silver, and pick out some fine-quality antiques and calligraphy paintings to store in my private treasury. Of the remaining twenty thousand taels, send four thousand taels to the Imperial Censor's residence, and divide the rest into two parts. One part is to be distributed among the military officers of various ranks, and the other part kept to disburse rewards tomorrow."

In the blink of an eye, the thirty thousand taels of silver handed over by Li Yi were completely carved up, leaving only about eight thousand taels to reward the regular soldiers.

And this was considered magnanimous of Hong Chengchou, who kept in mind that troops would still be needed in the future and one should not kill the goose that laid the golden eggs; otherwise, there would have been even less.

Yet none of this had anything to do with Li Yi.

The next day, Hong Chengchou distributed the reward silver according to the agreement.

Each regular soldier received less than two taels of silver.

To say nothing of the reward, just combining the salt-and-vegetable allowance and the expedition allowance alone, each man should have received twelve taels.

Two taels of silver?

Was he trying to dismiss beggars?

Having marched for so many days, fought a desperate battle to rout the rebel Wang Zuogua, and secured a great victory, how could the soldiers possibly let the matter rest?

The entire military camp was in an uproar, chaotic and noisy, with soldiers cursing the commanding officers for their black hearts.

With no other choice, Hong Chengchou had to bring out grain, salted vegetables, and cured meats to distribute among the troops. Coupled with the military officers' tactics of half-threats and half-persuasion, no matter how disgruntled the soldiers were, they could only swallow their bad luck and bring the mutiny to an end.

Watching this farce, Li Yi could only laugh or cry.

With officials like Hong Chengchou cheating the soldiers out of money and provisions today, the day would come when the soldiers would cheat them on the battlefield. Cheating back and forth like this, how could such a Ming dynasty possibly win any battles?

Even Gao Jie, upon returning to the military tent, couldn't help complaining, "If this goes on, the Ming dynasty is doomed sooner or later."

With the soldiers pacified, order in the camp was largely restored.

Needing to quickly select recruits from the captives, Li Yi headed toward the captive camp to the west in the afternoon.

"Commander Li, all the captives are in here."

A soldier opened the camp gate and let Li Yi enter.

Leading Gao Laoshi, Gao Jie, and Buyan into the camp, Li Yi saw dense crowds of captured rebels with their hands and feet bound, slumped limply on the ground, huddled together in disheveled misery.

The duty officer stepped forward, struck one of the captives with his spear shaft, and roared, "All of you, stand up! Hurry up!"

The captives scrambled up in a disorderly fashion, their ashen faces staring at Li Yi with numb eyes filled with hatred and vigilance.

Li Yi walked straight into the middle of the captives, who instinctively parted to make a way.

Looking at the disheveled and emaciated captives on either side, Li Yi asked one of them, "How many days has it been since you last ate?"

That captive stared at Li Yi with a cold, dead gaze, his cracked lips moving to spit out two words: "Running dog."

Hearing this, the officer flew into a rage, raised his spear, and viciously struck the captive across the back.

The captive let out a cry of pain and collapsed face-first onto the ground.

"Bastard, how dare you act insolent in front of your grandfather!"

Holding nothing back, the officer panted as he continued to beat the man until the captive's head was bleeding and he lay on the ground at death's door.

"Alright, stop."

Li Yi ordered the officer to halt.

The officer stopped, gripping his spear with a smile as he said, "Commander Li, these lowly scum have stubborn bones. If you don't teach them a lesson, they won't learn."

Ignoring him, Li Yi looked at a nearby captive and asked again, "How long has it been since you ate?" K+Xw

That captive licked his lips and timidly replied, "It's been almost three days without food, and we haven't had any water to drink either."

Li Yi turned to Gao Jie and said, "Bring over the flatbreads, and go find some water too."

Gao Jie acknowledged the order and led a dozen men to fetch the bread.

Before long, baskets upon baskets of large flatbreads were carried in.

Seeing food, the numb faces of the captives finally revealed a trace of longing, yet under the watchful eyes of the guards, they dared not act rashly.

Under the gaze of the captives, Li Yi walked to the very center and said in a ringing, resonant voice, "You may not know me, but you must have seen me. I am the commanding officer of the regular forces who fought against you at Longmen Town."

"Is he that god of slaughter, Li Yi?"

Some captives gasped in surprise.

"Talking nonsense, he's clearly our benefactor. If he hadn't pleaded for us the other day, those hound officials would have buried us alive."

A fierce-looking captive sneered, "Benefactor my foot, they're all hound officials. Crows across the world are equally black."

The captives reacted in various ways, buzzing with discussion.

Some had witnessed Li Yi's valor in the battle of Longmen Town and feared him greatly.

Others were grateful to him for saving their lives and preventing a massacre.

Yet more felt that anyone in official uniform was a bad person, harboring suspicion and hatred.

At that moment, a group of soldiers entered carrying buckets of water.

Li Yi directly announced, "Distribute the bread."

"Great!"

Having been starved and ravenous for a long time, the captives immediately cheered.

Dozens of soldiers stepped forward to hand out the flatbreads, and the hungry captives snatched them up and began to devour them voraciously.

However, the bread was so dry that many choked, rolling their eyes before rushing over to the water buckets, scooping up water with ladles to wash it down, and finally letting out long, relieved sighs.

Only then did they understand why Li Yi had people haul water over, and each of them developed a slightly better view of him.

Seeing the captives sitting on the ground eating bread, Li Yi began, "You gathered to cause chaos, plundered villages, and attacked prefectures and counties—this is a grave crime. Yet the imperial court possesses a benevolent heart, and Administration Commissioner Hong has ordered your resettlement. You may choose to return to your hometowns to farm and labor, or you may join the regular army and achieve military merit."