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

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

Yang Sichang was pretending to cry, but Li Zhizhi, who was born in Songjiang Mansion, was really crying, and he said calmly: "If His Royal Highness the Crown Prince can have half of His Majesty's mercy, such a tragedy will not happen in Jiangnan." ”

In the twenty-sixth year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang stipulated that the scholars of the Sanwu region who were admitted to the imperial examination were not allowed to be officials in the household department, and were not allowed to be officials in the Beijing division, until the fourteenth year of Chongzhen now, among the eighty-nine household books of the Ming Dynasty, only Li Zhiwen, a native of Huating in Songjiang Prefecture, Nanzhili, was appointed as the household secretary because of Chongzhen's exceptional employment.

After Zhu Yuanzhang implemented a series of measures to weaken the economic and political forces in the Sanwu region, problems such as economic and people's livelihood withering and weak political forces appeared in the Sanwu region.

But people are not as good as heaven, Lao Zhu prevented everything for the continuation of the Ming Dynasty, but in the end he still failed to prevent it, and the rivers and mountains of the Southern Ming Dynasty were finally destroyed in the hands of the Donglin Party in the Sanwu region.

Chongzhen waved his hand and said: "The thieves who fought against the imperial court have infiltrated Jiangnan, although the prince has quelled the civil unrest in a short time, but he is young and vigorous, and his style of acting is very inappropriate, I will issue an edict." ”

Yang Sichang and Chen Xinjia immediately said in unison: "What Your Majesty said is extremely true! ”

Li was stunned, and secretly said that this is a thief infiltrating, obviously it is a living Jiangnan gentry!

Li Zhiwen is also an old man who has been in the officialdom for decades, knowing that the emperor is unwilling to tear his face with the prince at this time, and after seeing Yang Sichang and Chen Xinjia express their positions, he immediately followed: "Your Majesty Shengming ......"

Chongzhen took a sip of tea and sighed: "In the fourteen years since I ascended the throne, it has been as bitter as this cup of tea. ”

Seeing that the three of them were silent, Chongzhen asked, "Yang Qing, how is the training?" Can the new army be put into combat this year? ”

As soon as these words came out, Yang Sichang smiled bitterly in his heart, and secretly said that the emperor was too anxious, and he replied: "Your Majesty, the new army has just completed the selection at the end of last year, and it is currently doing basic training according to the model of the Tianwu Army. ”

"What? How did it take so long? Chongzhen frowned.

Yang Sichang lowered his head and said: "Your Majesty, the people are all together, but it still takes time to equip firearms, and at present, the output of firearms in the Ministry of Industry and local ordnance bureaus is not high, and the production of the Tianwu Army's own flint Lumi guns is even lower, and it can produce up to 30,000 guns per year." ”

Chen Xinjia, the secretary of the Ministry of War, also bowed his head slightly, as the secretary of the Ministry of War, he knew very well what the things produced by the Ordnance Bureaus in various places were of any kind, Yang Ge Lao said that he produced 30,000 pieces a year, which was to fool the emperor, in fact, it would be good to produce 20,000 pieces, and the quality could not be guaranteed.

In addition to the land south of the Yangtze River, all the weapons bureaus north of the Yangtze River in the Ming Dynasty, only the quality of firearms produced by the Jingshi Military Bureau that the prince had rectified was stable and up to standard.

However, because no one paid for the reward and punishment system set by the prince, more and more craftsmen fled to the south of the war bureau, and the output became less and less, and there were less and less Suifa Lumi guns built every year, which was barely enough to maintain the consumption of the Shenji Battalion and Yulinwei.

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

Chongzhen was instantly unhappy when he heard this, and he said in a deep voice: "If the output is not enough, can't you build more ordnance bureaus?" ”

Hubu Shangshu Li Zhiwen coughed and said: "Your Majesty, by all means, these military factories already consume a lot of money, if they build more, they will invest at least 10 million taels of silver every year." ”

Seeing the emperor's questioning eyes, Li Zhiwen hurriedly explained: "Your Majesty wants to train more than 100,000 new troops, and the amount of silver consumed is really huge, each soldier needs twenty taels of silver for Anjia, one tael and five taels for soldiers' salaries, sixteen taels for a pair of fine armor, five taels for cotton armor, and silver coins for replacing armor......

"The price of the new type of firecrackle (Suifa Lumi gun) equipped with the firecrackers is higher, I heard that one is worth dozens of taels of silver, and then the matchpiece medicine and waist knife are a few taels of silver, that is, the equipment equipped with each new army soldier needs nearly one hundred taels, and the new army of more than 100,000 will cost at least ten million taels, not including the silver money for mining and artillery......."

Li Zhiwen was uneasy in his heart, the prices he quoted were basically according to the current market, but he had falsely reported a lot of the cost of this firecracker, hoping to fool in front of this ignorant emperor.

There are many chains of interests involved in building a firecracker, Li Zhiwen didn't dare to say that the cost was too low to offend people, and he also believed that Yang Sichang and Chen Xinjia would not expose themselves, after all, this silver went to the Ministry of War......

Chongzhen's face was ugly, and he asked, "What about the 40 million taels of silver I gave to your household?" ”

Li replied unhurriedly: "In addition to the more than 20 million taels of silver allocated by the household department last year for disaster relief in various provinces, and several million taels of silver to repay the borrowed debts, this year it has taken out another 5 million taels of silver for disaster relief in Henan. ”

"Liaodong urged 8 million taels of military salaries, saying that the slave chief Dolgon had signs of counterattack and wanted to build a defense line in Shenyang, and the tax revenue in Jiangnan was intercepted by the crown prince, and now there is not much money left in the household department......"

Chen Xinjia, the secretary of the Ministry of War, also said: "Your Majesty, now it costs money to train the new army, and the original Beijing camp also costs money, the three major battalions have nearly 100,000 horses, more than half of which are old and weak and relatives who are paid in vain, and the imperial court has invested too much in military spending, if the soldiers and horses raised by Jiangnan also ask the imperial court for military salaries, it will not be good......

Chongzhen shouted angrily: "Didn't you already allocate five million taels of silver to Henan last year, why did you allocate another five million taels this year?" ”

Li Zhiwen was frightened, and hurriedly said: "The disaster situation in Henan is getting more and more serious, every family is out of cooking, starving for thousands of miles, and some rogues take the opportunity to rise up and make trouble, local officials urge the silver to save the emergency for three days, and a big reminder on the fifth day, Your Majesty, you are too annoyed, and promise to allocate funds for ......disaster relief."

Chongzhen glared at him and said, "I can't afford to raise more than 100,000 horses?" So how did the prince raise 300,000 troops in Jiangnan? ”

His question made the people present suddenly think of a question: "How much silver did the prince copy?" ”

All of you here are human spirits, and they all know very well that according to the prince's temperament, he will never hand over all the silver money he copied, but how much silver did he copy from the eight Jin merchants? How much money did you copy from the gentry and merchants in Jiangnan? There are also those civil and military officials who were killed.

knew that the prince used the money obtained from the house to raise soldiers, but Li didn't dare to answer, he knelt on the ground, bowed his head and said, "The minister doesn't know ......"

Chongzhen was very unhappy in his heart, and he sneered again: "Then how did the prince train his troops?" How were the firearms of the Tianwu Army equipped? ”

Li Beiwen couldn't answer this question, but Yang Sichang knew, and he replied: "Back to Your Majesty's words, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has established more than a dozen large-scale military factories in Nanzhili, and has rectified the Guards and Ordnance Bureaus in other provinces. ”

Yang Sichang said again: "The secret used by His Royal Highness the Crown Prince in military training is to recruit the children of good families, divide the fields for training, and let the new army practice while tuntian, and have a steady stream of tuntian soldiers as reservists. ”

Everyone understands the truth, but if you want to carry it according to the gourd painting, it will be difficult.

First of all, where does the field come from? According to the standard of the Ming Dynasty, a military household is divided into 50 acres of land, and 100,000 troops need 5 million acres of land.

What has become of the guard's system, and where is the field to take out and divide? Among them, Yang Sichang, who has been the governor of Xuanda, is clearer than anyone else.

Then there is the army drill, the emperor selected a few generals from the Beijing camp, if they have that ability, can the Beijing camp rot like this?

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

Yang Sichang also understands this truth, but he is not easy to say, the officials of the Ming Dynasty in Beijing have always been responsible for putting forward opinions, as for how to implement it, it is the following matter, he proposed to train elite soldiers, but also to cater to the will of the young emperor.

Chongzhen was not a fool after all, and he could hear some of the Taos, his face became more and more ugly, and he said a little decadently: "Let's discuss this matter again." ”

After being silent for a moment, he remembered what Zhu Cihong once said: "Father can go out and have a look if he has time to see what this Ming Dynasty is like......"

Thinking of this, Chongzhen suddenly said: "Three days later, I will inspect Henan!" ”

After speaking, he ignored the dissuasion of Yang Sichang and others and left the Qianqing Palace.