strictlysupreme Chapter 2111 There must be a brave man under the heavy reward
Chapter 2111 There must be a brave man under the heavy reward
After paying their respects, all the officials withdrew, leaving only the Chief Clerk Pei Ziyu. Pei Ziyu didn't know what Prince Ji had found out, but he guessed that there must be something he didn't want others to know.
After Li Shen saw that all the officials had left, only his own people remained in the hall, and he spoke:
"Pei Changshi, do you know why I kept you here?"
"Your Highness Prince Ji, I am stupid and I hope Your Highness Prince Ji can teach me something." Pei Ziyu replied carefully.
"Haha, Pei Changshi, there's no need to be so nervous. Someone, give Pei Changshi some tea."
Seeing Pei Ziyu's reserved look, Li Shen smiled and gave an order.
After a while, a maid brought Pei Ziyu a cup of tea.
"Pei Changshi, I will not hide it from you. I don't want others to hear what I am going to say next." Li Shen changed his attitude and said seriously.
Hearing Li Shen's words, Pei Ziyu also became solemn, "Your Majesty, please speak."
"This king suspects that someone in your Xizhou Prefecture is colluding with the rebels and selling out the country."
"What? Why do you say that, Your Majesty?"
Pei Ziyu was greatly shocked. To collude with rebels is treason, isn't that treason? There are actually rebels among these officials?
"Master Pei, to be honest, I didn't tell you the whole story of the attack on my husband.
The prince consort escaped death by a hair's breadth, but was hit by an arrow, and this arrow was the one shot by your Xizhou Prefecture.
And according to the prince consort's judgment, the rebels who attacked him were uniformly equipped, advanced and retreated in a measured manner, and were obviously well-trained.
Being able to do this is not something that ordinary rebels can compare to. If all the rebels in Xizhou were like this, then Xizhou Prefecture would be in chaos."
Seeing that Pei Ziyu didn't believe him, Li Shen simply told him what happened yesterday. He didn't mention this matter just now for fear of alerting the enemy.
He didn't know which of these officials was a spy for the rebels. The only one he could trust was Pei Ziyu.
Pei Ziyu was still in shock. The arrow from Xizhou Prefecture actually pierced the son-in-law's body. If His Majesty were to investigate this, everyone would be held accountable.
"Your Highness Prince Ji, just one arrow does not necessarily mean that there has been a rebellion in our Xizhou Prefecture. We have been fighting the rebels for several years, and it is not impossible for them to pick up our arrows."
“Pei Changshi, I know it’s hard for you to accept that there are spies of the rebels hiding around you, and your former colleague has become a rebel.
But this is a fact, and his position in Xizhou Prefecture is not low.
The reason why I kept you here is because I have investigated and found that you, Pei Ziyu, have been working diligently and assisting Guo Xiaoke in managing Xizhou for many years. You are a trustworthy person.
Otherwise, I would not tell you this."
Li Shen is not a fool. Even if Pei Ziyu and Pei Xingjian are of the same blood, he cannot trust them completely. Naturally, he has to investigate them thoroughly.
"Thank you for your trust, Your Highness Prince Ji. It was my fault for not discovering the rebellion in time, which gave them an opportunity to take advantage of it. Please punish me for my negligence, Your Highness Prince Ji."
Pei Ziyu stood up and bowed. Since Prince Ji said so, there must be evidence. There must be a rebellion in Xizhou Prefecture.
Li Shen shook his head and said:
"Forget about punishing him. You are just a chief secretary. If there is any crime to be punished, it should be the provincial governor. Guo Xiaoke has been here for so many years, but he didn't find anything, right?
What we have to do now is to find this rebel, and follow the clues to catch all the rebels in one fell swoop.
I feel that I cannot just sit there and wait for death."
"What the prince means is..." Wang Xuance on the side guessed what Li Shen meant.
"Take the initiative. I am going to send a team to encircle and suppress these rebels." Li Shen said seriously.
"But Your Highness Prince Ji, as I just said, the rebels have no fixed place to stay and are hiding very well. Xizhou is so big that it is like looking for a needle in a haystack."
Upon hearing that Prince Ji wanted to suppress the bandits, Pei Ziyu explained.
But Li Shen did smile softly:
"That's fine, we can do a carpet search, divide the area, and search one place at a time.
This will also make the rebels nervous and stop them from planning on taking our food supplies.
If we find rebels, it will be a pleasant surprise."
"But we don't have that many people." Pei Ziyu asked again.
"Just send out 5,000 soldiers from Xizhou Prefecture." Li Shen replied.
"Your Highness, this is absolutely impossible. There are only 15,000 people left in Xizhou City. If the rebels unite to attack Xizhou City, the remaining 10,000 soldiers may not be able to defend it."
Xizhou City is a big city, but its walls are not high. It is not a real important city, so it is not that difficult to attack.
So Pei Ziyu was worried that he couldn't hold on.
Li Shen waved his hand after hearing this:
“It doesn’t matter. With me here, I will make sure the rebels will never return. This time I brought the secret weapons of the court, and I also have 3,000 elite soldiers who can fight against ten thousand troops.
Just do as I say.
The five thousand troops were divided into ten teams, each with five hundred men, and were separated by two miles. They kept watch for each other, searched north and south, and did not miss any place.
They moved back and forth along the official road used to deliver food and fodder, driving the rebels away from the road.
This king has set a great reward: for killing a rebel and capturing one ear, the reward is 100 coins, and for capturing one alive, the reward is 200 coins.
However, if someone kills innocent people and tries to gain credit for it, all members of the squad will be executed, and not only will the captain and lieutenant be killed, their families will also be exiled to the border as slaves, and the informant will not be punished.
Tell them that I want those kidnapped women and children alive, and I will reward them 500 coins for every one I rescue."
There will always be brave men when there is a big reward, not to mention that Li Shen’s reward is even higher. Even if these people go into battle and kill the enemy, they can’t earn more than 50 cents for killing an enemy.
Or in other words, no money is given, just military merit is recorded.
Now that killing enemies can earn you money and gain military merit, morale will surely be high.
What Li Shen was afraid of was that this group of people would become so bloodthirsty that they would kill ordinary people in order to claim credit. For this reason, Li Shen added a condition of giving 500 coins for saving one person.
Pei Ziyu was secretly shocked when he heard this. King Ji was indeed very wealthy. He gave a hundred coins for killing one enemy. For ten thousand rebels, that meant a million coins. There were more than ten thousand rebels in Xizhou. There were tens of thousands of them in total.
Not to mention that they were given two hundred coins for capturing one alive, and those abducted women and children were worth five hundred coins each.
It is entirely conceivable that for the sake of money, these people would risk their lives to find the rebels.
Wang Xuance on the side sighed in his heart, His Royal Highness Prince Ji was indeed wise, to be able to come up with such a brilliant idea.
This amount of money is out of reach for ordinary people, but it is a drop in the bucket for Prince Ji’s Mansion. The lives of ten thousand rebels are worth only a thousand strings of cash.
None of them are as expensive as Prince Ji’s clothes.
Even if all the rebels in Xizhou were captured alive, and all the women and children were rescued, ten thousand strings of cash would be enough.
His Royal Highness Prince Ji is very calculating.
Only at this moment did Wang Xuance truly understand what Li Shen had told him about the power of money.
(Believe it or not, it rained here. That’s why we were late.)