After staring at Zhao Xing's eyes for a long time, Mao Wenlong suddenly smiled miserably: "Don't hide it from me, I understand that this batch of food was not given to me by the emperor. If it was given to me by the court, it would be even more awkward, but by someone with a conscience."

Zhao Xing wanted to put a gift on the emperor's face again, but suddenly realized that he was so incomprehensible.

Mao Wenlong shook his hand and sat down dejectedly: "I thank you very much. Thank you for your conscience. I also know that at this time when the country is in great danger, the refugees in Dongjiang Town, which is what I call the soldiers, are still fighting unyieldingly."

Zhao Xing immediately seized the opportunity to interrupt: "Dongjiang Town is the key to the Ming Dynasty's restraint of the Later Jin Dynasty. Although you are exhausted now, as long as you are here, Jiannu will not dare to do whatever he wants to the Ming Dynasty."

Mao Wenlong looked at Zhao Xing, as if he was looking at a monster or a fool, and suddenly asked Zhao Xing with a smile: "What do you mean is that I, a vassal traitor who has to be eliminated by the court, continue to work hard for the court? Do you let me, an isolated island blocked by the court, continue to restrain the enemy for them? What do you mean is that I will continue to attack and slander me for the many daily reports, and those who attack me who use human lives to protect him and enjoy peace and peace, continue to fight hard?"

After being questioned again, Zhao Xing was speechless.

"Yuan Chonghuan wants me to die, the civil servant group wants me to die, the civil and military officials in the court want me to die, and the emperor wants me to die. Even if I am willing to work for them, do I still have a chance?"

Zhao Xing chased after him anxiously: "You still have Shangfang Jian, you can resist anyone who wants you to die."

Mao Wenlong smiled, and he smiled miserably. He took out a sword directly under the table, which was Shangfang Jian: "Is this thing very sacred? It's just a normal piece of ragged iron. In fact, it's not as sharp as a ranger. Even if you kill the cow, you can't kill three times, what else do you expect him to do?"

This is an allusion. Before the Battle of Sarhu, the Liaodong governor Yang Hao killed the cow and sacrificed the flag. He used the Emperor's Sword to kill the cow and could not kill it three times. In the end, he had to pick up a big axe before killing the cow.

"What is attached to this broken thing is not his sharpness, but his authority. When the broken thing in Yuan Chonghuan's hand is attached to the imperial power, it is the sharpest Shangfang sword in the world. But what is the function of my hand who is deprived of the imperial power attached to it?"

Zhao Xing understood, and he finally understood why Yuan Chonghuan used the Emperor's Sword to kill Mao Wenlong, but why Mao Wenlong did not take out the same Emperor's Sword to resist. The fundamental reason is that one of the Emperor's Swords is from the current Emperor Chongzhen, and the other is from the outdated Emperor Tianqi.

"Then can't you divide some military merits to the civil service group? After all, in this battle in Tieshan, you beheaded 4,000 Jiannu and 1,000 Han army, not a few hundred," and then advised against your conscience: "The overall situation is the key."

Hearing Zhao Xing's explanation, Mao Wenlong smiled miserably: "I was young and energetic back then. I ignored this point. For the sake of five heads, I offended the entire boss. Shandong Civil Affairs Group became the target of public criticism. But why didn't I want to be relieved during this period? In every battle, I paid thousands of lives and received dozens of real Jiannu heads and hundreds of Han army heads. It's okay for me to give them some, but those people were really greedy and wanted to go all of them."

Now that Mao Wenlong and Zhao Xing talk about these things, they are no longer full of resentment, are no longer shocked, have no anger or resentment.

"But do you know? I was alone overseas and didn't have a penny of military pay, money and food supplies. How could I get a little reward from the court? That's only military merits. When Emperor Tianqi was Emperor, Wei Zhongxian had some hateful points, but he had some respect. After all, he could still give the emperor's rewards to the border army during the holidays, so that we could have a bite of food, and we could count the military merits we reported in full and then give rewards."

Zhao Xing was speechless. Mao Wenlong was right. When Emperor Tianqi was in power, when Wei Zhongxian, who was desperate to take charge of the country's finances, at least from the treasury and money, he gave the military households who had cut off food and salary for a few months, or even one or two years, to keep them alive. This was the only hope that the border troops could survive.

And as far as the Donglin Party members came to power, they implemented what they called the way of governing the country, abolished the tax burden of almost all merchants, and sharply reduced the income of the treasury, almost exhausted the treasury, and lost even this little income.

In this way, the last hope of income in the border army and foreign towns was gone.

But no matter what, the real military merits and rewards of five taels of silver cannot be justified and dare not be deprived. Now many border soldiers use one or two lives to exchange for the enemy's head, which is the only income.

"And these two heads are just a little bit of political achievements for those officials, but for us, it is indeed the foundation for being able to fill our stomachs and continue fighting. Sir, what should I do?"

Zhao Xing was speechless. He really didn't know how to answer.

Mao Wenlong looked at Zhao Xing for a long time and suddenly shouted, "I'm alive, fight for my subordinates. If I die, I will never have a chance."

When Zhao Xing heard Mao Wenlong's words, he was shocked and immediately advised: "As Da Zheng said, as long as you are alive, you will be a big banner in Dongjiang Town, which is a threat to the enemy."

Mao Wenlong sighed on his legs: "But now, some people wish I could die early. In order to make me die early, they were crazy and cooperated with Jiannu to encircle me and implement sea bans, so that I could obtain a little tax profit and completely cut off the trade income from North Korea. And they ordered North Korea to cut off the passage of my way to buy some materials from Tieshan. What's even more hateful is that they reselled the food that should belong to Liaodong to the Later Jin Dynasty, proclaiming that they were kind and did not let the people of Liaodong Han starve to death. But look, they blocked the passage of Liaodong Han people to escape from my pie island."

The more excited he spoke, Mao Wenlong stood up with difficulty and pounded the table hard: "You are the Jinyiwei, your news should be the most informative. You should know and see the corpses of the Han people who wanted to escape to My Pi Island and prepare to turn to Shandong." Then he beat his shriveled chest with heartache: "Those are all my Han men. They want to escape through My Pi Island to Shandong and Jiangnan, not to be slaves for Jiannu, not to build supplies for them, and produce food. However, it was the swearing Lord Yuan who blocked their only way to live."

Then he said with a whisper, "Since you can't escape, you can find a way to survive, and find a way to survive. The only way is to produce grain for Jiannu and create utensils."

Then he sat down dejectedly: "The civil servants are impeaching me, saying that I opened a horse market and were the enemy. But every year I would exchange the Ming army for tens of thousands of war horses, so that our army could use cavalry to fight against cavalry. What they did, did indeed make more Han people who master handicraft technology have to build weapons for Jiannu to massacre us. Who is the real enemy?"

Faced with such questions, Zhao Xing really didn't know how to answer.

After breathing a long sigh of relief, Mao Wenlong became an old man in his seventies or eighties again, and said weakly: "From the emperor to the officials, and from the officials, and from the Lord Yuan, everyone hopes that I will die. When I die, the emperor will no longer worry about me becoming an overseas emperor, and the officials of civil and military will no longer worry about me becoming a vassal state. That Lord Yuan can unify military power and make a last-minute attempt."

He glanced at Zhao Xing, who was stunned: "And if I die, the millions of people in Dongjiang Town may be treated well by the court and may survive." Then he smiled sadly: "How long can your hundreds of thousands of stones of food last for me, the millions of people in Dongjiang? It's just 10 days and half a month. How much more can you raise for me?"

Zhao Xing felt guilty again because he knew it was the last and only time.

"As long as the court does not lift the blockade of my Dongjiang Town, my millions of subordinates will eventually have the only way out to starve to death. Can you change this situation?"
Chapter completed!