Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 175 Military power is the truth
"In the southwest, right now the rebel army is huddled in the deep mountains of southern Guizhou. My Ming Dynasty has [-] main soldiers and [-] auxiliary soldiers, making a total of [-] troops."

"The strength of the rebel army, including the main and auxiliary troops, is only about [-]."

"Based on the current difficulty, the first thing is that the rebels are trying to entangle with our army in Guinan mountain forest. I am afraid they will be entangled for a long time."

In the Palace of Qianqing, General Ye Xianggao narrates what happened in the southwest. What is amazing is that in the small land of Guizhou, there are nearly [-] soldiers and horses fighting.

This scale is much larger than when Yang Yinglong was suppressed in the past.

According to the standards of the Wanli period, right now is the first sign of the apocalypse.

The officials discussed the situation in the southwest, and after Ye Xianggao finished speaking, Yang Lian took the initiative to stand up and bow:

"Long live, things in the southwest should not be rushed, but should be done slowly."

"Long live, what Yang Du said is true." Zuo Guangdou also stood up, and then Zhao Nanxing and others also supported him.

At this time, Qi, Chu, Zhejiang, Xuankun and other five-party officials would naturally not urge them, after all, they also wanted to make the She'an chaos last longer, so as to achieve the purpose of making merit.

However, the interior of Donglin is not a single piece of iron. No, when everyone was silent, a Donglin censor suddenly stood up and said:

"Long live, I think that the rebellion should be put down quickly, and then troops will be dispatched to aid Liao. With our army of [-], we will wipe out the captives!"

"Exactly! Minister Zhao Deming seconded the proposal!"

"Chen Li..."

Donglin began to have civil strife again. After Gao Panlong was kicked out of the court meeting, it didn't mean that Donglin's guns were dead, on the contrary, they became prosperous again.

Although Yang Lian, Liu Yixiu and others within them felt that they should take it slowly, they just wanted to do the opposite.

To put it bluntly, the main fighter can win a lot of popular support.

The people are blindly obedient, especially the people of the Han Dynasty, whose pride is unimaginable in other countries.

Even in the Qing Dynasty, where the people were enslaved, when it was time to discuss the war, a group of proud and complacent people clamored for the main battle.

They actually don't know what the main battle means, they only know that the momentum cannot be lost, and the reputation cannot be lost.

Such a main battle party made Zhu Youxiao frown. After all, he had heard a lot of views on the war in the Southwest from his younger brother. He knew that the Southwest was no different than the Central Plains and the North, with high mountains and dense forests, so it was impossible for a quick decisive battle.

Right now, An Bangyan wants to delay, which is obviously to lure the Ming army into the mountains, looking for opportunities to encircle and wipe out the Ming army.

At this time, you should not take the initiative to attack, but wait for the morale of the rebels to drop to the bottom.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youxiao used what he heard from Zhu Youjian, and after sorting it out, he opened his mouth and said:

"The rebels occupy the land of one prefecture, four prefectures and two guards in Guinan. These places have scarce arable land and few people. The registered land is only more than two million mu."

"How can we feed an army of [-] with more than two million mu?"

"The reason why the rebels haven't launched an attack right now is because they have looted countless money and food from the states. Hasn't the Ministry of War even calculated how much food was looted by the rebels?"

Zhu Youxiao's words, from the first explanation, to the rhetorical question, and finally to the questioning of the Ministry of War, were completed in one go.

Upon hearing this, Cui Jingrong, Shangshu of the Ministry of War, immediately took a step forward, saluted and reported:
"The rebels took away about one million taels of silver, [-] million shi of grain and fodder, and more than [-] cattle and horses..."

Cui Jingrong's words are roughly inferred from the data compiled by the Ministry of Household Affairs of local people and government treasuries.

This kind of data also shows one point, that is, based on more than two million stone grains and fodder, the rebels can persist in Guinan for at least two years.

This means that the Ming army must prepare for a protracted war with An Bangyan in Guizhou.

"I don't know how much money and money I have in Guizhou?" Zhu Youxiao asked, and Wang Yingjiao, Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs, heard the words and replied;
"The military rations in Guizhou are less than [-] shi, and the silver is [-] taels."

"Fortunately, a few days ago, Wansui sent a million taels of domestic money to support, and Xu Keqiu, the governor of the five provinces, made proper arrangements and raised [-] million shi for military rations to support Guizhou."

What Wang Yingjiao said was the silver taels transferred by Zhu Youjian in the name of his royal brother a few days ago, and Zhu Youxiao naturally knew about it.

When he heard this, he glanced at Zhu Youjian, only to find that his younger brother was watching his nose, nose, and heart with the presence of an old god.

He didn't say anything about it, but continued to say:

"King Qi, in your opinion, what should we do now?"

coming……

When the ministers heard the emperor asking the king of Qi, they knew that this was to sum up the Southwest.

In the past, every transfer of soldiers and horses was decided by the emperor asking the king of Qi for his opinion, and this time should be no exception.

For a moment, everyone's eyes were on Zhu Youjian. To this, he bowed and responded with a piercing gaze:
"My brother thinks that right now, we should recruit troops in Guizhou, let the ministries restore their strength first, and then tentatively encircle and suppress the rebels."

"Recruitment? When do we have to wait?"

"Yes, and the money for recruiting soldiers is also a problem."

"Sigh... the land of the five provinces is already unable to make ends meet because of the fundraising. I'm afraid the money has been exhausted right now..."

As soon as Zhu Youjian spoke, the officials began to discuss in an instant, but what they said was also true.

Right now, the main and auxiliary soldiers of the Ming Dynasty already have [-] troops in Guizhou, and if they recruit more troops, they may break through [-] troops.

However, Zhu Youjianquan complained about these words at the time, and continued to say:

"Right now, the soldiers and horses of the five provinces, such as Sun Chuanting, Hong Chengchou, Wu Aheng, Yang Wenyue, Du Wenhuan, and even Zhu Xieyuan and Hu Yingtai, have lost [-]% or even more than half of their soldiers and horses."

"The current situation is just that the total number of our army is greater than that of the rebels. In fact, the elite has been exhausted."

"I ask Long Live to allow the various ministries to recruit soldiers in Guizhou, and to pay money and armor..."

When it came to money, everyone booed, because they all knew that the imperial court was not rich at the moment.

Last year, we managed to get through a year without payment arrears, but the price was that the treasury dried up.

Seeing the booing of the officials, Zhu Youxiao looked at Ye Xianggao and said:
"Old Yege, how much food is left in the treasury?"

"Eh..." Ye Xianggao was also a little embarrassed, and immediately responded with a bow:
"Taicang has [-] million shi of rice, [-] million shi of wheat, [-] taels of silver in cash, and [-] million shi of grain in Nanjing Grain Depot."

"The Jieshen treasury of the Ministry of Industry has [-] taels of silver, Taipu Temple has [-] taels of silver, and Guanglu Temple has [-] taels of silver."

"In total, there are [-] taels of silver and [-] shi of rice and wheat."

As soon as Ye Xianggao opened his mouth, everyone felt cold in their hearts.

It's just passed the first month of this year, so there are [-] million stone field taxes, more than [-] million taels of additional silver, and more than [-] million taels of taxes left?

Everyone's questions were answered by Wang Yingjiao:

"Long live, after the autumn tax arrived last year, the soldiers and horses in each town adjusted a lot of food, plus the arrears of the four towns in the northwest, the armor, and the salaries of hundreds of officials, it cost a lot of money."

"Combined with the follow-up disaster relief of the Huaibei Great Famine and the follow-up relief of the Yellow River's embankment burst, it is not easy to have the current situation."

In just over five months from September to now, two-thirds of Daming's treasury has been emptied. This is the result of the continuous support of the Imperial Horse Supervisor, which shared the money and food for the soldiers and horses of the four towns in the nine sides.

If there is no sharing of pressure from the Imperial Horse Supervisor, I am afraid that this year there will still be arrears, and it will be as high as seven or eight million taels.

However, except for Wang Yingjiao, who is in charge of the household department, and a small number of people, everyone feels that the Yumajian has done nothing good.

"Long live, my younger brother suggested transferring [-] million stone grains from Nanjing to support Zhu Xieyuan, and then transferring [-] million taels from Taipu Temple, Guanglu Temple, Jieshen Treasury, etc., to be escorted to Guizhou by the Baotao Guard."

"In addition, we can also leave the Leopard Taoist Guard under Sun Yingyuan's control to conquer the rebels."

"In addition, the Yumajian can pay another one million taels of silver to escort him south."

Zhu Youjian spoke suddenly, which made everyone frown, but when they heard that the Yumajian could pay one million taels of silver, they stopped talking.

Zhu Youxiao saw that his younger brother had not paid the silver for a long time, and he wanted to pay another one million taels of silver, so he suddenly said with heartache:
"The Yumajian has to bear the money and food for the soldiers and horses in Shangzhi, Shanxi and other places. I'm afraid..."

"Long live, don't worry, the money and food of the Yumajian is enough." Zhu Youjian responded, not talking big, but the money and food of the Yumajian is indeed enough.

The grain sales in Liaodong have begun to come to an end, and a sum of money was shipped to Beizhili, and Zhu Youjian spent a sum of it.

But even so, there are still more than three million taels of silver in the treasury of the Yumajian.

There are still [-] million shi of grain in Liaodong that have not been sold, and more than [-] million taels of silver in storage. When Shen Lian sells all the grain, he can take all the silver in storage to go south to Huguang to buy grain.

Due to the control of the war situation, although the food prices in Sichuan, Huguang, Jiangxi and other places have risen a bit, they are not too exaggerated after all.

More than two million taels of silver went south, and it was more than enough to buy back five or six million shi of grain.

So after all, the Yumajian has more than five million taels of silver, and it is not difficult to come up with one million taels right now.

Therefore, looking at his younger brother's calm expression, Zhu Youxiao could only nod his head and said:
"In this case, according to what King Qi said, the Baotao Guards will escort the money and food to the south."

"Long live Shengming..." All the officials sang, and at the same time Zhu Youxiao waved his hands and said:
"Okay, back off."

"The ministers and others leave..." More than forty ministers withdrew one after another, and finally only Zhu Youjian, Cao Huachun, Zhu Youxiao, Wei Zhongxian and others stayed in the hall.

As the ministers left one after another, Zhu Youxiao also stepped off the high platform, sighed and said:
"The country's affairs are difficult, and my brother transferred more than two and a half million taels of silver in a short period of time. Including the internal funds, I'm afraid the Yumajian doesn't have much silver left?"

"Not at all." Zhu Youjian didn't say how much money he still had, because he was afraid that his brother's head would get hot and he would use it all to build the three halls, so he said:

"After the spring rains, the saltworks can start to make a profit. I think they can still reap a lot."

"The problem right now is that in the direction of Liaodong, if the old slave is not restrained and allowed to develop, I am afraid that it will gradually erode the tribes in Monan."

"Eating Monan?" Zhu Youxiao frowned slightly:
"The Tiger Rabbit Dun is also the leader of the Tatar tribe after all, and he has tens of thousands of cavalry under his command, so he shouldn't be eaten away, right?"

Tiger Rabbit Dun is the private name of Lin Danhan by the monarchs and ministers of the Ming Dynasty, and Zhu Youxiao did not believe that Lin Danhan would be eaten away because Lin Danhan boasted too much.

You know, there are only [-] to [-] Mongols in the entire Monan, and Lin Dan Khan didn't make people surrender, so he always called the lord of [-] Mongols, which made people laugh.

In fact, his headquarters is only more than one hundred thousand people, but the number of men who can be drawn out to fight is only forty to fifty thousand, and if it is required to have armor, it is about twenty thousand, and there is only one heavy armor.

If Lin Danhan really had [-] cavalry, he would not have been beaten by Huangtai Kedah and fled to Qinghai.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youjian could only say: "Brother Emperor, don't think too highly of the northern prisoner."

"If it weren't for the current war in the southwest and the need to maintain stability in Liaodong, I would have regained Hetao long ago."

"Hehe... That's it." Zhu Youxiao smiled, then took Zhu Youjian's hand and walked towards the Hall of Mental Cultivation.

As soon as he entered the Hall of Mental Cultivation, Zhu Youjian saw a model of a warship about one foot in size.

Zhu Youxiao turned around and introduced him: "Brother, this is the warship model I ordered. It is mainly based on my brother's drawings. After modification, the connection part has been solved."

"The people in the shipyard received news early this morning, confirming that there is basically no problem."

"Right now, we only need to accumulate experience in building large ships, and then we can build sufficient warships."

Zhu Youxiao brought good news to Zhu Youjian. Regarding this, Zhu Youjian also said with a smile:
"If you have a warship, then you will be able to go to Daliuqiu and Liaodong to escort, and bring the wood for the construction of the three halls."

"Haha..." Zhu Youxiao also smiled happily when he heard that a lot of wood from the three halls could be brought in.

But after laughing, he seemed to think of something again, and hurriedly pulled Zhu Youjian to sit in the main and second seats.

"What do you think about Liaodong and Southwest?"

Zhu Youxiao asked about it. Zhu Youjian also had a draft for this, so he said:

"This transport of money and food to the south represents the expenditure of [-] million taels of silver on behalf of the imperial court."

"The money is mainly handed over to six people including Sun Chuanting and Hong Chengchou, followed by Du Wenhuan, Mu Zeng, Hu Yingtai and others."

"[-] million taels of silver, of which [-] million taels were allocated to six people. Based on their abilities, it is estimated that by the end of the year they will be able to train [-] soldiers and horses."

"At that time, the rebel army will inevitably be frustrated under the offensive and shrink again and again."

"When the contraction reaches a certain level, Sun Chuanting, Cao Wenzhao, Sun Yingyuan, and Yang Wenyue can be transferred to lead the army to aid Liao."

Zhu Youjian's idea is very simple, it is to train the four people's ability to lead troops, as long as they can achieve the ability to lead more than [-] troops without chaos in the mountainous area, then the main battlefield of the four of them will be Liaodong.

The terrain in Liaodong is not as bad as Guizhou. If they can lead more than [-] troops in Guizhou without chaos, then they can join Qi Yuanfu and others in the Northern Expedition.

Moreover, after transferring them to Liaodong, Liao Town can also be abolished.

News came from Li Rubai's side a few days ago, as Zhu Youjian expected, Zu Dashou and others were willing to go to Guyuan with Li Rubai.

As a result, only Zhu Wanliang and Jiang Bi's [-] to [-] main and auxiliary soldiers were left in the Liaodong general faction.

As long as this force is free, it can be dismantled immediately.

At that time, the soldiers and horses will be collected and reorganized, and the strength of Liaodong can reach about [-].

With [-] troops and a lineup of Qin Bangping, Qi Jin, Sun Chuanting and others gathered, Zhu Youjian did not believe that even this would not be able to recover the entire territory of Liaodong.

As long as the entire territory of Liaodong is recovered, the city can be built along the Liaohe River and the Songhua River to the north.

In this way, while emigrating and reclamation, while defending the Houjin, in disguise, the Houjin was shrunk to the south of the Songhua River and Heilongjiang.

This is Zhu Youjian's strategy, but it may not be achieved.

After all, people are not dead, and this strategy is easy to see.

Once the old slave sees it, he will face three choices, one is to evacuate to the north, one is to enter the court, and the other is to withdraw to the Horqin grassland.

Among these three options, Zhu Youjian is more inclined to retreat to the grassland.

But considering Jin's current situation in the future, if he retreated to the grassland, as long as he experienced a few white disasters, the loss of personnel would be more than that of fighting.

If it was Huang Taiji, he would definitely be able to make up his mind, but Nurhachi couldn't.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youjian said to Zhu Youxiao:
"If Liaodong is recovered, then my brother wants to transfer Sun Chuanting, Sun Yingyuan, and Yang Wenyue to Shaanxi, Shandong, and Henan."

"My brother wants to..." Zhu Youxiao frowned, as if he heard his brother's thoughts.

"Well, abolish the guards in the three provinces!" Zhu Youjian nodded vigorously.

He wants to abolish the guards in the three provinces, not only for the land tax of the army, but also for the expansion of the imperial store and the sanction of the vassal.

Right now, the reason why Huangdian is unable to break through Xi'an, Nanzhili, and Henan to start a local market is not because of the obstruction of local merchants and gentry?
So why is there no one in North Zhili, Shanxi, Liaodong, and northeastern Shandong?

Because these three provinces really have soldiers and horses at their disposal, once Jin Yiwei finds out the crime, no one can survive under the mobilization of soldiers and horses.

Therefore, abolishing the guards, stationing soldiers and horses, and then using the imperial store to open up the market, so as to expand the market for selling salt is what Zhu Youjian most wants to do.

Right now, it only covers three provinces, and the saltworks earn millions of taels every year.

With continued expansion, the saltworks will gain more and more financial resources, and the financial problem will be fully resolved.

From the discussion just now, it is not difficult to see that Daming did not have a centralized financial department at all, and the Ministry of Household Affairs could only manage Taicang.

The Ministry of Industry, Taipu Temple, Guanglu Temple, Ministry of War, and each of the ministries has its own bank. Under such circumstances, the transfer of money and food by Daming will be caught in the mutual wrangling of several departments.

Therefore, allowing Yumajian to centralize finances can guarantee Zhu Youjian's plan to expand the basic market.

However, the three provinces he wanted to abolish were no different than before.

Zhu Youxiao pondered for a moment, thinking about how to say so as not to hurt his younger brother's thoughts, so after a while, he opened his mouth and said:

"Shanxi, Beizhili, and Henan are three prefectures, but there are only four vassal princes, so there is not much resistance for my brother to abolish and reform."

"But right now, in the three provinces of Shaanxi, Henan, and Shandong, there are twelve vassal kings, one hundred and fifty-two county kings, and nearly [-] clan children."

"Under such circumstances, among the vassal kings, there are such existences as King Fu and King Zhou. My brother thinks..."

"Where the soldiers and horses go, no one dares to resist!" Zhu Youjian said suddenly, blocking Zhu Youxiao's mouth.

Not only that, but he continued:

"At the beginning, in Wangzhong to the north of the Yellow River, Zhao Wangfu belonged to Henan, but the younger brother still abolished him, and the other vassal kings did not have much reaction at that time."

"Brother, didn't you see that? The vassal king has no military power, and all he has is the servants of that place."

"They have no name to raise troops against their elder brother, and civil servants will not help them, because there is no righteousness and no military power."

"Military power is the fist, but what is righteousness? Great righteousness is the elder brother!"

Zhu Youjian said it very straightforwardly. He knew the characters of Zhu Youxiao and Chongzhen in history very well.

It is better than a woman's hand, so playing around, it is still playing tricks, and it has never been able to play with the army.

Although Chongzhen awakened later, began to arrest the army, and built the Yongwei Battalion, but because of a wrong judgment, the Yongwei Battalion, which should have been used to deter civil servants and collect taxes, was sent to the Central Plains to counter the rebellion.

In Zhu Youjian's view, the first thing to do with an army is to deter civil servants, and to rob financial resources and taxes.

Only by mastering the army and the finances can the team grow bigger like a snowball.

There is an army without financial resources, and as long as civilian officials are willing to spend money, they can draw the army to their side.

With finances and no army, one-third of the money is gone before it leaves the capital.

If there is politics but no army and finances, the country will fall into a stage where the armed forces are weak and the people are in dire straits.

Therefore, the importance of the three is finance-military-politics.

When necessary, it can also be military-finance-politics, but it is absolutely impossible to focus on politics.

The emperor who focuses on politics can only reach the level of Jiajing when he plays to the ceiling.

Jiajing cannot save the current Ming Dynasty, only Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhu Di, and Zhu Jianshen can follow suit.

Zhu Youjian knew everything, so when he expressed his thoughts, he looked directly at Zhu Youxiao.

After Zhu Youxiao was woken up by Zhu Youjian, he remembered that all the methods in the past were carried out immediately by relying on his younger brother and the imperial horse supervisor.

If you only have a younger brother, and the younger brother has no soldiers and horses, then the plan cannot be implemented.

So all this goes back to Zhu Youjian's words.

"Morality is military power, and the emperor is righteousness!"

Zhu Youjian continued to speak, and frowned tightly:

"Civil servants follow the etiquette system. Since they recognize the emperor's brother, they will recognize the emperor's brother as the emperor, which is righteous."

"If the feudal lord raises an army, it is unjust. How can he lose if he fights the unrighteous with the righteous, and fights the weak with the strong? How can he lose?"

Cao Huachun and Wei Zhongxian were a little stunned by what they said, Zhu Youxiao also swallowed, but Zhu Youjian looked at his royal brother and said seriously:

"Brother is the emperor, what should the vassal be afraid of?"

"Could it be that the Yumajian has more than [-] soldiers and horses, but it still can't suppress this small land of three provinces?"

Zhu Youjian is the only one who dares to call the land of the three provinces "small".

Perhaps it is because he knows how big the world is that he realizes how extravagant it is to waste time on the land of three provinces.

What are the places where Ming Dynasty has legal system and can be recovered?
In the Indochina Peninsula, there are three declarations and six reassurances, the Annan Commander, the old port in Nanyang, and the official factory in Luzon.

Wusizang, Duogan, and Russian Military and Civilian House in the southwest, and Nurgan in the northeast.

These are all places where the legal system can send troops to recover, and there are even more places where troops can be stationed.

How many vassal states of the Ming Dynasty were there?There are as many places as there are places where troops can be stationed.

Why do later generations abroad always say that they are wary of the Eastern powers restarting the suzerain-vassal system of the Ming Dynasty?The reason is that the scope of the suzerain-vassal system is too wide and too large.

As long as there is a vassal state, it can use the name of the vassal state to expand the territory and send external resources back to the country.

The army is only a garrison, and the economy is the most important.

This is the only way to make Daming even better!
Facing Zhu Youjian's stubbornness, Zhu Youxiao was finally persuaded by his younger brother, although he was still worried.

"It's okay to abolish the three provinces, but it must be after recovering the lost land in Liaodong."

Zhu Youxiao made a request, but in general, he still admitted his brother's thoughts and plans.

"It's natural!"

Receiving a response, Zhu Youjian smiled and bowed in response.

He knew that in order to fulfill his own plan, he had to make good use of the She'an Rebellion and train batches of soldiers and generals who were adapted to the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau.

These generals will play a very important role in the recovery of the Three Propaganda and Six Wei, the Annan Capital Commander, and the recovery of Nanyang.

　Four o'clock and one more

　　
　
(End of this chapter)