Yang Sichang, Chen Xinjia, and Li Daiwen entered the Qianqing Palace one after another. Chongzhen ordered the palace maids to give them each a cup of hot tea to warm themselves up.

The three old guys were so moved that Yang Sichang covered his face with his sleeves, wiping tears that he didn't know existed, and said: "Your Majesty is kind."

Yang Sichang was pretending to cry, but Li Daiwen, the Minister of Household Affairs, who was born in Songjiang Prefecture, Nanzhili, was really crying. He said calmly: "If His Royal Highness could be half as kind as His Majesty, such tragic things would not have happened in Jiangnan."

In the 26th year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang stipulated that scholars from the Sanwu area who passed the imperial examination were not allowed to serve as officials in the Ministry of Household Affairs or the capital. Until now, in the 14th year of Chongzhen, among the eighty-nine Ministers of the Ministry of Household Affairs in the Ming Dynasty, only Li Daiwen, a native of Huating, Songjiang Prefecture, South Zhili, was appointed as the Minister of Household Affairs because of Chongzhen's unusual employment.

After the implementation of Zhu Yuanzhang's series of measures to weaken the economy and political power of the Sanwu region, problems such as economic and people's livelihood decline and weak political power appeared in the Sanwu region.

But God is not as good as man. Lao Zhu took all precautions for the continuation of the Ming Dynasty, but in the end he failed to prevent it. The country of Nanming was eventually destroyed in the hands of the Donglin Party members in the Sanwu area.

Chongzhen waved his hand and said: "The thieves who are fighting against the imperial court have penetrated into the south of the Yangtze River. Although the prince has quelled the civil unrest in a short time, he is young and energetic, and his behavior is very inappropriate. I will issue an order to warn him."

Yang Sichang and Chen Xinjia immediately said in unison: "What your Majesty said is absolutely true!"

Li Daiwen was dumbfounded and thought to himself that this was not the infiltration of thieves, they were clearly real gentry from the south of the Yangtze River!

Li Daiwen was also an old man who had been in the officialdom for decades. Knowing that the emperor was unwilling to break up with the prince at this time, and seeing the statements of Yang Sichang and Chen Xinjia, he immediately followed suit: "Your Majesty is wise... "

Chongzhen took a sip of tea and sighed: "In the fourteen years since I came to the throne, it has been as bitter as this cup of tea. I don't think about it every day, when will the bitterness be over and the joy will come?"

Seeing the three people hanging their heads in silence, Chongzhen asked: "Yang Qing, how is the military training going? Can the new army go into battle this year?"

As soon as he said this, Yang Sichang smiled bitterly in his heart, secretly thinking that the emperor was too impatient. He replied: "Your Majesty, the new army just completed the selection at the end of last year. It is currently undergoing basic training according to the model of the Tianwu Army. I want all of them to go into battle with firecrackers. It will take at least three or four years."

"What? Why did it take so long?" Chongzhen said with a big frown.

Yang Sichang bowed his head and said: "Your Majesty, we have gathered the people, but it still takes time to equip the firearms. At present, the output of fire muskets from the Ministry of Industry and the local ordnance bureaus is not high, and the output of the Tianwu Army's fusillade Lumi muskets that make their own fires is not high. It’s not even high, it can produce up to 30,000 pieces per year.”

Chen Xinjia, the Minister of the Ministry of War, also bowed his head slightly. As the Minister of the Ministry of War, he knew very well what the gadgets produced by the weapons bureaus in various places were. Mr. Yang Ge said that 30,000 pieces were produced every year. That was a lie to the emperor. In fact, it was enough to produce 20,000 pieces. Not bad, but the quality cannot be guaranteed.

Except for the area south of the Yangtze River, among all the arms bureaus north of the Yangtze River in the Ming Dynasty, only the Capital Military and Warfare Bureau, which was reorganized by the prince, produced firearms that were of stable quality and up to standard.

However, because no one paid to implement the reward and punishment system set by the prince, more and more craftsmen fled to the south during the war, and the output became less and less. There were less than 2,000 Suifa Lumi muskets made every year. It can only barely maintain the consumption of Shenji Camp and Yulin Guard.

As Yang Sichang's younger brother, Chen Xinjia would naturally not sell out his boss. After all, he was counting on his boss to introduce him to the cabinet.

Chongzhen became unhappy immediately after hearing this. He said solemnly: "If the production is not enough, can't you build more arms bureaus?"

Li Daiwen, the Secretary of the Ministry of Revenue, coughed and said: "Your Majesty, you must not do it. These military factories already consume a lot of money. If more are built, at least 10 million taels of silver will be invested every year."

Seeing the emperor's questioning look, Li Daiwen quickly explained: "Your Majesty wants to organize and train hundreds of thousands of new troops, which consumes a huge amount of money. Each soldier needs twenty taels of Anjia silver, and the soldier's pay is one tael and five taels.

Sixteen taels of deputy fine armor, five taels of cotton armor, and money to replace the armor..."

"The new type of fire gun (Fulumi gun) equipped by the fire gun soldiers is more expensive. I heard that one costs dozens of taels of silver. With the medicine and waist knife, it costs several taels of silver, that is, each soldier

The equipment required for the new army soldiers is nearly one hundred taels. The hundreds of thousands of new troops will cost at least ten million taels. This does not include the money spent on mining and artillery..."

Li Daowen felt uneasy. The prices he quoted were basically based on the current market conditions. However, he had made a lot of false claims on the cost of the gun, hoping to fool this ignorant emperor.

There are many interest chains involved in building a fire gun. Li Daiwen did not dare to offend anyone by saying the cost was too low. He also believed that Yang Sichang and Chen Xinjia would not expose him. After all, the money went to the Ministry of War...

Chongzhen looked ugly and asked: "Where are the 40 million taels of silver that I gave you from the Ministry of Revenue?"

Li Daiwen replied calmly: "In addition to the more than 20 million taels of silver allocated by the Ministry of Revenue last year for disaster relief in various provinces, it has also allocated several million taels to pay off debts. This year it has allocated another 500 taels.

Ten thousand taels of silver were used to provide disaster relief in Henan."

"The Liaodong side is asking for another eight million taels of military pay. They say that the slave chief Dorgon is showing signs of counterattack and wants to build a defense line in Shenyang. The tax revenue from Jiangnan has been withheld by the crown prince. Now there is not much money left in the Ministry of Revenue.

..."

Chen Xingjia, Secretary of the Ministry of War, also said: "Your Majesty, now it costs money to organize and train the new army, and the original Beijing camp also costs money. There are nearly 100,000 troops in the three battalions, and more than half of them are old and weak and honorable relatives who are cheating to get paid. The imperial court is here

Too much investment in military expenditures would not be good if the soldiers and horses raised in Jiangnan also asked for military pay from the imperial court..."

Chongzhen shouted angrily: "Didn't we allocate five million taels of silver to Henan last year? How come we allocate another five million taels this year?"

Li Daiwen was so frightened that he trembled and said quickly: "The disaster in Henan is getting worse and worse. Every family has no food and is starving to death thousands of miles away. There are also some bandits who take the opportunity to rise up and cause trouble. The local officials urge money for emergency relief. One small reminder every three days and one big reminder every five days."

Your Majesty is so troubled that you promised to allocate funds for disaster relief..."

Chongzhen glared at him and said, "You can't afford to raise more than 100,000 horses and horses? How did the prince manage to raise 300,000 soldiers in Jiangnan?"

His question made everyone present suddenly think of a question: "How much money did the prince steal?"

Everyone here is a smart person, and they all know very well that according to the prince's temperament, he will never hand over all the money he obtained. But how much money did he copy from the eight major Shanxi merchants? He also copied the gentry and businessmen from Jiangnan.

How much money do we have? And what we got from killing the civil and military officials and ransacking their homes.

Everyone knew that the prince used the money gained from ransacking his house to support his troops, but Li Daiwen did not dare to answer. He knelt on the ground, lowered his head and said, "I don't know..."

Chongzhen was very unhappy, and he sneered: "How did the prince train his troops? How did the Tianwu Army equip its firearms?"

Li Daiwen couldn't answer this question, but Yang Sichang knew it, and he replied: "In response to your Majesty, His Royal Highness has established more than a dozen large-scale military factories in Nanzhili, and has also reorganized the military weapons bureaus of other provinces.

It is estimated from the iron materials they used that Jiangnan produces at least 200 Hongyi cannons and 50,000 fire blunderbuss every year. Other firearms cannot be estimated."

Yang Sichang added: "The secret used by His Royal Highness in training the army is to recruit children from good families, divide the fields for training, and let the new army practice while working in the fields. There will be a steady stream of soldiers working in the fields as reserve soldiers."

Everyone knows the truth, but it is very difficult to follow the instructions of a gourd and a scoop.

First of all, the fields were divided. Where did the fields come from? According to the standards established by the Ming Dynasty, a military household was allocated fifty acres of land, and an army of 100,000 would require five million acres of land.

How bad is the state of the guard system? How can there be land to divide? Among them, Yang Sichang, who once served as the governor of Xuanda, has a better background than anyone else.

Then there is the military training. The emperor selected a few generals from the Beijing Camp. If they had that ability, could the Beijing Camp be like this?

The soldiers in the Beijing camp cannot be trained well, let alone the local training? Maybe more than half of the money spent by the imperial court on training soldiers will go into the pockets of the generals.

Yang Sichang also understood this truth, but he couldn't explain it clearly. Officials in the Ming Dynasty in Beijing were always responsible for making suggestions. As for how to implement them, that was the next thing. He proposed to train elite soldiers in order to cater to the will of the young emperor.

After all, Chongzhen was not a fool, and he could hear some of the truth behind it. His face became more and more ugly, and he said a little decadently: "Let's discuss this matter later."

After a moment of silence, he remembered what Zhu Cixi once said: "Father, when you have time, you can go out and see what the country of the Ming Dynasty is like..."

Thinking of this, Chongzhen suddenly said: "In three days, I will patrol Henan with my imperial chariot!"
Chapter completed!