I want to be emperor

Chapter 462 One hundred and ten million (two in one)

In Zuo Liangyu's serious and threatening Chu army, Li Dongshao's unit seems to have strong firepower and a lot of troops.

But it still has a lot of problems of its own, such as the lack of medium and large-caliber ammunition, and the lack of large-caliber siege artillery.

The Great Chu Empire is now fighting on six fronts, Jiliao, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Yunnan-Guizhou, Nanyang... Well, although there is no such thing as a large-scale battle on multiple fronts at the same time, the pressure is still very high.

This is more evident in medium and large caliber artillery and shells.

Although the output of the Great Chu Empire is very high for artillery weighing more than five catties and the corresponding shells, and the production capacity is still rising, there are still many places that need to be used.

Until now, all the first-class divisions in the Chu Army have not been able to be fully staffed. Many first-class divisions that do not have important people in charge, the artillery regiments of their divisions are not full of staff, and some even have no rated personnel. Less than half of the number of artillery.

As for the large-caliber nine-pound and fourteen-pound cannons, the production capacity of this thing itself is relatively small, and the price is also expensive, and the main production capacity is not used on the army, but on the navy's warships. In addition, many coastal defense forts are also Divide up some priority production capacity.

At present, the Great Chu Empire is on the sea, and its relationship with the barbarians of various countries is not good... The Great Chu Empire fell out with Portugal because of the Haojing issue, and fell out with the Dutch because of the Fusang trade issue, and then because of the Dayuan Island issue and Relations with Spain are not good.

Although the Great Chu Empire has not yet broken out large-scale wars with the above three countries, small-scale scattered battles at sea under the banner of pirates are very frequent. At the same time, the navy has reported that the Dutch have colonized the southern part of Dayuan Island many times. Strongholds increase troops.

The Portuguese, who lost Macau, seem to have the intention of uniting with the Spaniards who are currently weak in East Asia and facing a lot of trouble.

According to the judgment of the navy, it could be as short as three to five months, or as late as a year. After these barbarians get enough reinforcements, then I am afraid they will not continue to endure, and it is inevitable to set off a large-scale naval war.

Based on the threat from the sea, the Great Chu Empire has paid more attention to the navy in the past six months. In addition to satisfying military expenses and personnel, it also allows the navy to give priority to obtaining long-barreled cannons to arm more warships and arrange even more advanced coastal defense forts.

As a result, the army has not been able to obtain too many heavy artillery. At present, only four heavy artillery regiments have been formed, and one is deployed in the direction of Jiliao, which is the first heavy artillery regiment.

The Second Heavy Artillery Regiment is deployed in Songjiang, and the Third Heavy Artillery Regiment is deployed in Guangzhou. Although these two heavy artillery regiments belong to the Army's field heavy artillery units, it can be seen from their deployment locations that the two heavy artillery regiments In fact, it is used as mobile firepower for Jiangfang.

The Fourth Heavy Artillery Regiment, this is the second heavy artillery unit in the army that is used for field siege. This artillery regiment was formed in Yangzhou, Jiangbei, and was recently transported to Luoyang through the canal and the Yellow River, ready to be used on the front line of Shaanxi.

As for Shanxi, due to the difficulty of transportation and the limited number of heavy artillery, it has not yet been able to obtain the distribution of heavy artillery.

This heavy artillery lacks, let alone ammunition!

The gunpowder production capacity of the arsenal of the Great Chu Empire can scare to death the remnants of the Ming army and the Eastern captives on the opposite side...but the Chu army also uses a lot.

In medium and large-scale battles, hundreds of artillery pieces are pulled out at every turn, and many of them are extremely cost-effective mortars that cost several times the length of long-barreled artillery. No amount of gunpowder is enough.

The lack of medium and large calibers and ammunition has already greatly affected the combat effectiveness of Li Dongshao's troops, especially the ability to attack tough battles.

As for the mobile combat...

Zuo Liangyu is not stupid, how could he play field battles with the Chu army unless it is absolutely necessary... Isn't it good to hide in the city and fight defensively?
Besides, if you really fight mobile, you will definitely be able to outrun Zuo Liangyu's troops. Zuo Liangyu still has thousands of cavalry, and there are also many mules and horses.

However, Li Dongshao's troops lacked mules and horses, let alone cavalry.

Under such circumstances, Li Dongshao naturally gave up as soon as he saw it, and stopped his westward march after taking down Guguan.

To fight Taiyuan or something, let's wait for a batch of mortar shells to be delivered later!
If you rush westward now, you will easily suffer.

Li Dongshao just accepted it, but Zuo Liangyu heaved a sigh of relief, while gathering the defeated soldiers from Guguan, he built a new line of defense at Guguan.

On the side of Guguan, there is the old pass Guguan, and to the west of Guguan, there is a new Guguan. This new Guguan is also easy to defend and difficult to attack, which is just suitable for deployment as a line of defense.

However, although Li Dongshao was limited by limited ammunition and poor maneuverability, he did not plan to continue westward, but it did not mean that he would watch Zuo Liangyu's troops retreat and build a second line of defense under his nose A difficult pass.

Immediately send troops to kill Xingu Pass...

The more than ten thousand Ming troops stationed there and building fortifications saw that tens of thousands of Chu thieves were coming again, and the various fortifications at Xinguguan had not yet been formed. It was extremely difficult to stop the Chu thieves from attacking, so they simply He also gave up his plan to build fortifications in Xinguguan, but retreated to Pingding Prefecture in the rear.

After Zuo Liangyu's troops retreated to Pingding Prefecture, Li Dongshao's troops ignored them after taking Xinguguan.

The distance is too far... Continuing to fight west is prone to accidents, and more importantly, it is snowing!

And it's snowing!
In fact, after entering October, the weather in the Zhendingfu area where the main force of Li Dongshao's troops was located was already relatively cold. The First Army and several second-class divisions put on thick winter clothes early on.

After entering November, there have been several light snowfalls one after another, but this kind of light snow has not affected military operations, so Li Dongshao's troops hit Xinguguan again.

But after laying down Xinguguan, the area began to snow heavily. In just a few days, the snow on the ground had reached more than a foot deep.

The severe cold and snow accumulation will seriously affect the logistics supplies, and will also affect the mobile operations of the troops. This is very troublesome for the Chu army, which consumes a lot of logistics and has many artillery.

Unless there are extremely special circumstances, the Chu army will generally not march and fight in weather such as snowfall or rain.

After the snow falls, if the snow does not melt in the long winter, the Chu army will generally not launch large-scale military operations.

Therefore, not only the First Army and other troops in the direction of Shanxi stopped large-scale military operations, but also the Second Army and the Third Army further north stopped large-scale military operations, and even when they stopped large-scale military operations Even earlier.

Not only the above-mentioned troops, but also the various departments of the Fourth Army facing Tongguan and Lu's on the front line of the Central Plains have stopped large-scale military operations one after another.

The above-mentioned four armies are also the main forces deployed by the Chu army in the northern region. The cessation of large-scale military operations by the above-mentioned four armies means that the military operations of the Great Chu Empire in the northern region have also temporarily ceased.

Not only the Chu army is like this, in fact, the Dongyao, Ximing's Sun Chuanting's troops, and Zuo Liangyu's troops on the opposite side have no large-scale operations. They are all building defense lines and hoarding ammunition and food.

The severe cold weather and large-scale snowfall have seriously affected the large-scale operations of both the enemy and the enemy.

However, although the large-scale military operations have stopped, some small-scale military operations have not stopped. The reconnaissance cavalry, small-scale patrols, and reconnaissance teams of both sides are still active on the battlefield.

It's just that none of these can affect the overall situation!

Taking advantage of the cessation of fighting on the northern front and the main forces entering a strategic defensive posture, Luo Zhixue also issued new orders for the garrison command of Shandong, Henan, and Hebei provinces to clear and suppress operations, and demanded that the Northeast Campaign Command and the Shanxi Campaign Command The Shaanxi Campaign Command mobilized some troops to cooperate with the Garrison Command of the three provinces to eliminate the remaining illegal armed forces in the three provinces.

So far, there are still many messy illegal armed forces in the three provinces mentioned above. Even after a previous clean-up, the clean-up is not thorough.

Therefore, Luo Zhixue planned to carry out a sweep-net campaign similar to the previous Jiangbei area in the above-mentioned three provinces.

Let's work hard to wipe out all illegal armed forces in an all-round way!

Under Luo Zhixue's order, the Military Affairs Council, the Patrol Department, and the Taxation Department conducted close communication and cooperation, and reached a preliminary battle plan.

This time, the campaign against the Qing Dynasty was dominated by the second-class divisions under the jurisdiction of the three provinces' garrison headquarters, supplemented by the armed tax police of the three provinces, and the second-class divisions and some first-class divisions under the jurisdiction of the three major campaign headquarters backbone.

The above-mentioned forces will focus on attacking the remaining medium and large-scale illegal armed forces, mainly thieves, local powerful landlords, and organized routs.

Ordinary patrol police conduct a comprehensive crackdown on illegal armed forces of a gangster nature.

Luo Zhixue requested that this campaign of suppression should follow the example of the successful experience of Jiangbei's campaign against bandits. The suppression work should go deep into every village and carry out a drag-net investigation door by door. If one finds out and wipes out the other, there will be no tolerance!

Luo Zhixue was very satisfied with the previous campaign against bandits in the Jiangbei area. Although it took several months and cost a lot of money, the result was the most outstanding among the previous campaigns against bandits in the Great Chu Empire.

This reflected not only how many bandits and thieves were wiped out, but more importantly, the results and impact.

In today's Jiangbei, I dare not say that the doors are not closed at night, but those caravans, even if they don't bring a large number of armed guards, don't have to worry about being robbed by bandits...

The local law and order and business environment have been subversively improved!

To put it bluntly, it is safer for businessmen to go to Jiangbei to do business than to do business in Jiangnan...

And a safe and stable social environment is very important to the Great Chu Empire!
For a country that is trying to industrialize and regards industry and commerce as its main development path, good internal security conditions are a must.

In view of the successful experience of suppressing bandits in Jiangbei, Luo Zhixue is gradually carrying out this kind of dragnet-style suppression of bandits in other provinces.

Not only Henan, Shandong, and Hebei, but also the provinces that the Chu army had previously controlled and conducted incomplete operations.

For example, Fujian, Zhejiang, Guangdong and Guangxi, a total of four provinces, are expected to start a drag-net campaign this winter.

As for Chubei, Chunan, Jiangxi, Anlu, Jiangnan, and Yingtianfu and Hantianfu directly under the cabinet, they will launch a comprehensive and thorough campaign of suppression. Of course, there will be no large-scale illegal armed forces in these places. , more concentrated on gangs of a criminal nature, especially guilds, gangs and other messy organizations.

This winter, when the large-scale fighting on the front line was suspended, Luo Zhixue made up his mind to wipe out all kinds of messy illegal armed forces and criminal gangs in the hinterland.

When Luo Zhixue, the emperor of the Great Chu Empire, made a decision, and the violent machine of the Great Chu Empire started, it didn't matter what kind of landlords and powerful people, bandits and thieves, or gangsters, gangs of beggars, water transport, etc. Armed organizations were quickly crushed into powder.

And these powders will continue to provide nutrients for the operation of the violent machine of the Great Chu Empire!

Optimistically, it is estimated that millions of illegal armed personnel of various types and those involved in crimes and explosions will be sentenced to labor reform.

In the end, they were thrown into numerous mines to mine all kinds of ores with blood and sweat; or they were forced to build bridges and roads, flood embankments and other infrastructure construction; or they went deep into no-man's land to reclaim government-owned farms.

They will use their blood, sweat, and even their final deaths to make outstanding contributions to the industrial and mining development, infrastructure construction, and food security of the Great Chu Empire.

However, when Chen Xingkai, Minister of Counseling and Minister of Taxation, looked at Luo Zhixue's expressionless expression on the plan to deal with the criminals involved in explosives, he said, "Got it".

Suddenly felt that the imperial study room was a little cold, which made him want to shiver!

After Luo Zhixue finished marking the document, he raised his head and glanced at Chen Xingkai: "Where's the document?"

Chen Xingkai hadn't reacted for a while, and after a few seconds of stunned, he took out a report and handed it over: "Your Majesty, this is the income report related to the Northern Expedition we compiled!"

Luo Zhixue took it and flipped through it, while Chen Xingkai also briefly explained: "This report is about the financial revenue after the Northern Expedition was launched, including the collection of regular taxes such as agricultural tax and commercial tax, supplementary taxes, fine income, and confiscated income. .”

"The statistical objects are limited to cash-like precious metals such as gold, silver, and copper, as well as curiosities or common materials that are easy to realize, and fixed assets, etc., excluding land and some fixed assets that are not easy or impossible to realize, and do not include war trophies used by the military. All kinds of weapons and equipment, mules and horses, food, etc.”

"We only counted the part of the cash and materials that are brought into the treasury after they are realized."

"The coverage covers Anlu Province, Jiangbei Province, Shandong Province, Henan Province, and Hebei Province."

"The main income is concentrated in major cities such as Yangzhou, Huai'an, Luoyang, and Youzhou, and most of it comes from the local puppet kings, officials and other dignitaries."

After saying a few words, Chen Xingkai paused for a while, and then raised his voice a little and said, "So far, we have accumulated 5203 million taels of treasury revenue during the Northern Expedition!"

When Luo Zhixue saw the numbers on the report, he couldn't help showing surprise!

He knew that the Northern Expedition made a lot of money, but he didn't expect that after the statistics, it would be as much as 1000 million.

Fighting wars really makes money!
But what Chen Xingkai said next made Luo Zhixue lose his good mood: "It's just that the 1000 million taels will have to be paid out in a few years..."

"This year, nearly 3000 million yuan was spent on the Northern Expedition alone, including military expenses for the Northern Expedition and the establishment of the second-class divisions in the five northern provinces, the reorganization of the second-class divisions of the frontier army in Xuanda and other places, and the elimination of illegal local armed forces."

"The maintenance of the administration of the five provinces, the aftermath relief, the restoration of people's livelihood, and various administrative expenses such as dredging the canal also cost about 500 million yuan."

"To add up, it cost at least 5000 million taels!"

"Furthermore, the five northern provinces have been severely damaged by wars for many years. The repeated tossings of bandits, captives, and the Ming army have basically destroyed more than half of the local agricultural production. The worst situation is in the western part of Henan and the northern part of Northern Zhili. The area is even more serious, ten rooms are empty, and a lot of land is abandoned."

"We predict that the various tax revenues of the above-mentioned five provinces will not exceed 2000 million taels next year, less than half of that in Jiangnan."

"However, the various administrative expenditures of the five provinces are not only indispensable, but even more. All kinds of administrative expenditures plus relief, the five provinces will have to spend at least 3000 million yuan next year. In this way, our central finance may have to spend every year." The subsidy will go in tens of millions, and this situation may last for four or five years.”

"In the end, I am afraid that more than half of the surplus from the Northern Expedition will be filled in, so that we can persist until the local people's livelihood improves, and then the fiscal surplus will be fed back to the national treasury."

"In addition to the lack of funds, the millions of hungry people in the northern provinces and the many frontier troops will devour a large amount of food in Jiangnan, Huguang and other regions."

"Maintaining a large army on the front lines of Xuanda and Jiliao is even more of a big problem, and the annual cost may not be less than tens of millions."

In the end, Chen Xingkai showed concern and said, "I'm afraid the financial pressure in the future will be even greater!"

Luo Zhixue naturally knew that the follow-up pressure would be greater, but there was nothing he could do about it. He couldn't stop restoring the local people's livelihood because of the heavy financial pressure, and stop fighting with Dongyao!

Furthermore, it’s not that the five northern provinces will always be so hard-pressed. Now they can’t make ends meet, just because of the war persecution for many years in the past. Now the local area is controlled by the Chu army, and the people don’t have to worry about being persecuted by the war. Net-type clean-up operations.

The recovery of agriculture and handicraft industries in the five northern provinces will be relatively fast next year. It may not take three or four years. The local finances will be initially slowed down next year, and will be able to feed back the national treasury in the year after next.

As for the financial pressure for next year and the year after, there will be no big problem with a fiscal surplus of tens of millions.

But the continued shortage of food in the northern provinces is a big problem!
Luo Zhixue still had to think hard about how to solve this big problem!
The food issue is always the most important issue.

If there is no food to eat, the people will rebel!
　Two in one chapter
　　
　
(End of this chapter)