Chongzhen Daming: Starting from Coal Mountain

Chapter 96

"Offering the prisoner?!"

Zhu Cihong's eyes lit up and he praised: "This is indeed a way to have the best of both worlds."

"It's not bad, my brain is turning around quite quickly." Chongzhen chuckled and said again, "But the captive offering that the emperor wants is different from the previous captive offering, and it is not limited to the palace."

As a time traveler, Chongzhen deeply understands how important propaganda work is.

This time, they managed to capture more than a thousand Jiannu, especially Zu Zerun and Gaodi. These two traitors are a huge resource for propaganda. How can we not squeeze the three of them dry?
How can such two trump cards kill them all at once?

Can the relationship between Jiannu and Han generals be differentiated?
It all fell on the rebellious ministers like Zu Zerun.

And Daming's finances also depended on them.

Don't say solve all of it, at least part of it.

After all, things like making a big cake don't happen within three to five years.

While the father and son were talking, they had already changed into their mianfu. Chongzhen's mianfu was worn by Wang Chengen before the siege.

I saw that there were several patches on Chongzhen's crown clothes, while Zhu Cihong's and Zhu Cijiong's crown prince crown suits were new, and they were cleanly starched, but they obviously didn't fit well.

Because this is last year's crown suit, the younger brothers have grown a lot in the past year, and it doesn't fit well.

Seeing this, Wang Chengen, who was helping Zhu Cihong and Zhu Cijiong to change their clothes, couldn't help but wipe away tears.

"Big Companion, why are you crying?" Zhu Cijiong said, "The victory ceremony is about to begin, you should be happy."

"Yes, Your Highness is right, you should be happy." Wang Chengen hurriedly wiped away his tears, and stepped forward to smooth out the obvious wrinkles on Chongzhen's crown.

Chongzhen's focus was not on these at all.

Chongzhen said: "How is the matter I told you going?"

"The little ones have already been asked to do it. From the time point of view, it should be done soon."

"Very good, I'm going to participate in the victory ceremony soon. This is the first time I have participated in the victory ceremony since I ascended the throne. I can't be embarrassed in public, so I must be fully prepared."

"Long live Lord, don't worry, everything will be done according to your request."

While speaking, Sun Xiangxian ran into Xingyuan in a panic.

"Long Live Lord." Sun Xiangxian knelt down and said, "It's done."

"Give it to me." Wang Chengen took two lists from Sun Xiangxian, turned around and handed them to Chongzhen.

Chongzhen took the list, and saw that there were only a few words on it, and then a long string of numbers. Of course, they were all numbers written in words, not Arabic numerals.

Arabic numerals were introduced to China during the Song Dynasty, but until the end of Ming Dynasty, simple and easy-to-use Arabic numerals were not implemented on a large scale.

Chongzhen was not used to it when he first traveled through time.

Especially when looking at the account books, the strings of numbers written in Chinese characters often made him feel out of place with this era, but he got used to it after a long time.

Chongzhen's eyes fell on the first list.

The statistics of the battle results and the narration of the military achievements are very complicated and boring tasks. Sun Xiangxian also led dozens of eunuchs to work for two days before finally calculating the statistics.

As a human being in two generations, Chongzhen did not intend to learn from the original Chongzhen, and he had to personally ask about every detail.

As the emperor, what he has to do is to take care of the overall situation. Specific affairs can be entrusted to others. As for who to do, it is up to you to choose.

There are many corrupt officials in the world.

There are also many bastards in the world.

But there are many capable officials in the world.

Just because a small number of corrupt officials cannot be beaten to death all over the world with a stick, likewise, just because a small number of capable officials cannot be regarded as the same for all officials in the world.

As an emperor, you must know people.

How to know people depends on the emperor himself.

Closer to home, Chongzhen's eyes fell on the first page of the list.

I saw it read: more than [-] pieces of armor of various kinds, more than [-] pieces of various knives, more than [-] pieces of large bows, more than [-] pieces of bird guns and Lumi guns, and three guns of the No. [-] Frang machine gun. Ten guns, ninety sub-cannons, four hundred and fifty [-]-jin muzzle ammunition, [-] jin of one tael of lead and [-] jin of two liang of lead each, and [-] jin of gunpowder.

There are ninety-eight carts, eighty-six vans, and more than [-] shi of grain.

Among these seizures, Franco machine guns, bird guns, and gunpowder are good things, all of which are urgently needed by the Ming army.

But things like Dashao bows, various knives, and armor are a bit redundant, especially more than [-] Dashao bows are of no use to the Ming army.

Because there are not so many archers to be found.

It is much more difficult to train an archer than a musketeer.

When I got back to Xuzhou, I asked Jin Xuan if he wanted these more than [-] large bows.

So Jiannu should feel very painful this time, because he lost more than [-] elite Eight Banners soldiers at once, which is definitely a catastrophic loss for Jiannu.

In addition to equipment, there are also property.

Chongzhen will not force the personal belongings found on Jiannu to be handed over.

However, the property seized from the Jiannu tank boat must be handed over, and private possession is strictly prohibited.

Because of this incident, the sailors who participated in the war were very dissatisfied and complained quite a bit.

It doesn't matter if there are criticisms, because this is really a huge sum of money, with more than 40 taels of silver and jewelry, calligraphy and paintings worth more than 10 taels of silver.

If the more than 50 taels were privately swallowed up by five hundred navy officers and soldiers, what would happen?
This page is income, and Chongzhen turned the list to the next page, which is expenditure.

Seeing the various expenses, Chongzhen felt his head buzzing, and this wave was about to bleed heavily.

There were more than 3000 real slaves killed alone, and the reward was 50 taels, which was 15 taels.

In addition, there are nearly 3000 Eight Banners Han troops, and more than 5000 soldiers and coats. These 8000 people are all rewarded with a reward of 5 taels, whether they are beheaded or captured.

This item adds up to more than 4 taels of silver.

In addition, more than [-] Ming troops were killed in this battle, including more than [-] Yi Ding. Although the results of chasing Jiannu were large enough, the price was not small.

This pension is more than 11 taels.

That's all, it's already the beginning of July.

It's July, and it's time to close the payment in the middle of the month.

Moreover, there was a battle in July, and this time the wages had to be paid three times!
Until now, Chongzhen finally understands that soldiers are really expensive, and they really can't afford it!

Not counting the thousand barbarians and the five hundred sailors who came to Xia Town, only the nearly 5 frontier troops under Huang Degong's ten towns were counted, and they had to pay 30 taels of silver for one battle.

The sum of several items is already 60 taels of silver.

Thanks to Jiannu, he sent more than 50 taels all the way south.

Otherwise, this wave of rewards and military pay would directly bankrupt Chongzhen.

But even so, Chongzhen's small treasury might not be able to last for a few months.

After closing the list, Chongzhen turned his head and asked Wang Chengen, "Wang Daban, how much silver is left in my internal money?"

Wang Chengen replied without hesitation: "The balance of confiscated fines from Liu Zeqing and Liu Liangzuo's two towns is more than 20 taels, and the balance of grain and color from the Ministry of Households in Xuzhou is more than 60 taels."

Chongzhen frowned and said, "That is to say, there are 80 taels left?"

Wang Chengen said: "There is also 50 taels contributed by Jiannu, a total of 130 million taels."

"I'm afraid 130 million taels of silver won't last long." Chongzhen sighed after hearing the words, "It seems that I have to go back to Nanjing."

130 million taels of silver sounds like a huge number, and in fact it is indeed a huge number, but it really doesn't cost much. It's just that Huang Degong's ten town soldiers will spend 60 taels this month!

There are also ten town soldiers in Xuzhou and eight town soldiers in Pizhou. These 9 soldiers are all recruits.

There are also refugees in Xuzhou Tuntian, although they don't need to pay, but they also have to feed them.

Thinking of this, Chongzhen suddenly felt a head and two big, saying that once the cannon fired, the gold would be ten thousand taels. He didn't really believe it before, but now he believes it. This war is really costing money.

This is just a partial teacher who came to Jiannu!

When the main force of slave building comes next time, there will be an army of more than [-], what should we do?
If you win the battle, you can pay the reward money to go bankrupt, and if you lose, you can also pay the pension to Chongzhen and go bankrupt.

It seems that recruiting soldiers can only be used as a stopgap measure. After winning the battle of Xia Town, Chongzhen suddenly felt that recruiting soldiers seemed worth saving, and it might be of great use.

But now, Chongzhen directly dismissed this idea.

The recruitment of soldiers in the twenty-eight towns can only be used as a stopgap measure.

Because the financial burden is unaffordable, gold and silver mountains can't stand it.

But fortunately, Jiannu's first wave of attack has been disintegrated.

And the result was much better than what Chongzhen had expected. The Ming army not only held the Xiazhen defense line, but even won an unprecedented victory.

As for Jiannu's second wave of attack, it definitely won't come so fast.

If Dorgon wants to twist the Eight Banners Manchuria into a single rope, it will not be so easy. At least he must first bring Shunzhi who stayed in Shengjing and hundreds of thousands of Jiannu family children and coated slaves into the pass.

It is already the beginning of July, and the harvest of autumn grain is about to begin.

Therefore, Jian slaves outside the pass will definitely wait until after the autumn harvest to enter the pass.

That is to say, Jiannu will have to wait until after October at the earliest before it is possible to use large-scale foreign troops. This time point is basically the same as in history.

So he has three months left.

Three months, whether it is long or not, is not short.

Enough for him to do something, at least ease the financial crisis first.

Zhu Cijiong asked: "Father went back to Nanjing, is it to raise money?"

"Yes, raise the salary." Chongzhen said helplessly, "You have also seen it, the reward plus the military salary, but the ten frontier troops in Xia Town will cost 60 taels!"

Sun Xiangxian plucked up his courage and said, "Long live, can this old slave say something more?"

"You?" Chongzhen looked at Sun Xiangxian with a half-smile, "What do you want to say?"

Sun Xiangxian felt a little regretful, but the words had already been spoken, so he could only bite the bullet and say: "As the old saying goes, it is not necessarily a good thing for the Lord Long Live to reward the frontier army too much."

"Eunuch Sun, are you teaching me how to do things? Oh?"

Chongzhen smiled more and more kindly, but his tone became cold.

"Long Live Lord." Sun Xiangxian knelt down in fright.

"Drag out." Chongzhen snorted coldly, "Eighty staff!"

(End of this chapter)