After accounting, the financial revenue of the Ming Dynasty reached 9 million taels of silver, and the profit of the Ministry of Internal Affairs was 4 million taels of silver. In addition, in order to recover the loss of salt tea, the imperial court appointed Zou Yuanbiao of the Ministry of Officials as a special envoy, and went to Jiangnan to check the accounts together with the eunuch Chu Xianzhang of the Admiralty Bureau. Zhu Youxiao knew that these local officials, Jiangfang, and the Salt Gang had a nest of snakes and rats, and in order to prevent them from jumping off the wall in a hurry, he specially assigned 2,000 tiger athletes to assist Chu Xianxian.

After counting the income, it is time to calculate the expenditure, so that Zhu Youxiao can know how much money he can use. In terms of military spending, last year, 1.7 million taels of silver were spent on rewarding the soldiers of the Western Expedition, 1 million taels were spent on exterminating Huang Taiji, 300,000 taels were spent on rewarding the National League, and 600,000 taels were spent on building warships and firearms, with a total expenditure of 3.6 million taels of silver.

In terms of internal affairs, 700,000 taels were invested in relief for the disaster-stricken areas, 900,000 taels were budgeted for water conservancy repairs, 600,000 taels were spent on the construction of galloping roads and post stations, and a total of 3.5 million taels were spent on officials. In addition, the expenses of the feudal kings and royal families in various places are equivalent to 3 million taels of silver, and after deducting the subsidies and rewards of 7788, the annual expenditure exceeds 10 million taels of silver.

Looking at this list of expenditures, Zhu Youxiao secretly scolded the royal family as a group of rice buckets, and he had warned them twice to find their own way out and not to be moths that brought disaster to the country and the people, but in the end there was still no big change. At this time, he had made up his mind to kill chickens and make an example of monkeys, and the first unlucky one was Zhu Changxun, the lucky king in Luoyang City.

Fortunately, the Ministry of Internal Affairs still has four million taels of income, which makes the Ming Dynasty, which has been in deficit for the first time. Now that the northern border is stable, the annual savings in military spending are more than 2 million taels, which makes Zhu Youxiao feel relieved. In addition to the routine deposit of 1 million taels of silver into Zhang Yan's internal affairs office, the rest of the money was invested in the military, science and technology, education and other fields, injecting a steady stream of internal force into national rejuvenation.

When the cabinet and the six ministers signed and sealed the accounts, Zhu Youxiao stretched his waist and asked half-jokingly:

"Since the early years of the Apocalypse, the Inner Court has allocated a total of 23 million taels of silver for disaster relief, military salaries, water conservancy, and road repairs, you all know these accounts, right?"

This sentence seems to be that the little emperor wants to recover the money he paid in advance, but in fact, there is a hidden murder intention, and these people who have been in the officialdom for a long time don't know. At the beginning, in order to collect military salaries and disaster relief money, Zhu Youxiao instructed Wei Zhongxian to confiscate the family properties of dozens of Donglin Party and Zhejiang Party members one after another, but later gave up due to the Western Expedition and the Northern Expedition. Now that he's bringing it up again, it means that someone is going to be unlucky.

Although Yang Lian, the head of the household, was upright, he did not dare to slack off, and replied cautiously:

"The Holy One is relieved, and each transfer of the Inner Bank has two detailed account books, one of which is kept in the Household Department for clearing the accounts, and the other is kept by the Master of Ceremonies for the Holy Lord's access. In addition, Gonggong Wei has always sent people to supervise the use of the inner silver, which is done according to the holy will. ”

Yang Lian's words were very cunning, not only pulling the celebrant and Dongchang into the water, but also bringing Zhu Youxiao into the ditch, which can be described as cunning. Although today's celebrant no longer has the power to approve and seal red, as the emperor's secretary, he can still assist in drafting the holy decree and conveying the oracle, Cao Huachun was secretly annoyed that Yang Lian had involved himself in this whirlpool, and said insincerely:

"Long live the lord, Yang Shangshu's account book slave has been checked together with Gonggong Wei, and no flaws have been found for the time being."

Zhu Youxiao has been in this group of people for a long time, and he knows some of the tricks of officialdom, he knows that Yang Lian doesn't want to have anything to do with the Donglin Party anymore, and Cao Huachun doesn't want to have anything to do with the previous dynasty. At this time, he only had two thoughts in his heart, one was to use the silver on the blade as soon as possible, use the military to strengthen the country, and use science and technology and education to rejuvenate the country; The second is that he urgently wants to go back to the Qianqing Palace to ask Zhang Yan for credit, and there are one million taels of silver in the account this year, and this Pixiu can soothe his eyebrows.

Because the accounting of a year's finances is too cumbersome, Zhu Youxiao eats and lives in the Qinzheng Palace these days, Zhang Yan and others inevitably resented in their hearts, and discussed to teach the emperor a lesson. But when Zhu Youxiao returned to the Qianqing Palace with a smile on his face, these people had already burst into tears, looking at his increasingly thin cheeks with distress.

As the queen, Zhang Yan naturally has to take care of her identity, Mengxuan's status is undecided, and she needs to be cautious, but she threw herself into his arms and cried regardless of the moon. Seeing the beautiful pear blossoms with rain, Zhu Youxiao gently kissed her tears and said softly:

"The people who are all concubines, why are they still crying like a little girl?"

Kou Yue laughed when she heard this, and replied arrogantly:

"Long live the lord is also a father and emperor, why don't you know to go back to the palace and get close to the princes all day long?"

As soon as these words came out, everyone laughed, and the atmosphere suddenly became happy, Zhu Youxiao secretly sighed that there is a wonderful thing about starting a family, and being single also has the convenience of being single. It's just that the general trend is undecided today, and the giant ship of the Chinese nation can't withstand the toss of strong winds and waves, and he really doesn't have extra time to enjoy the fun of his wife and children hot kang. What's more, as Touchlong said, "The love of parents and children is far-reaching", and it is a man's sorrow to break up his wife like Chongzhen.

Now that the Sunset Operation has entered the implementation stage, although Zhu Youxiao has solved the problem of military spending, if he wants to conquer Japan, he still needs to understand this opponent, so that he can know himself and the other side and win all battles.

In the Ming Dynasty, the navy had set up four major fleets, namely the Far East Fleet based in Telin, the North Sea Fleet based in Dengzhou, the East China Sea Fleet based in Ningbo, and the South China Sea Fleet in Guangzhou. Among them, the main force of cross-sea operations is the East China Sea Fleet, and there are less than 1,000 warships that can be used in the open sea, and it is necessary to continue to build them. In addition, less than 1,000 students graduate from the Maritime Academy every year, and with the more than 3,000 European mercenaries who surrendered, the proportion of officers is not enough to support a large-scale and long-term naval battle.

On the Japanese side, in order to avoid the infiltration of European powers, Tokugawa Hidetada allowed only non-proselytizing Portuguese and Chinese to do business in the interior, and only allowed Spain and the Netherlands to operate in the concession of Nagasaki. Although this policy of seclusion hindered Japan's economic development, it was very beneficial for him to defeat the power of the Cheshitan daimyo and exterminate the growing number of Christians.

Under this brutal policy of repression, religious uprisings broke out one after another, the most powerful of which was the Shimabara Rebellion. These rebels, supported by Europe, soon became a major problem for Tokugawa Hidetada. In order to consolidate the shogunate's rule, he was forced to tear his face with the Westerners, draft a letter to publicly execute the missionaries, and reclaim the concession of Nagasaki, driving Spain and the Netherlands out of Japan.

After analyzing the situation, Zhu Youxiao believed that Westerners were objects that could be united, and he ostensibly promised to allow all countries to preach and trade freely in Japan after the war, but the final interpretation of this empty check was in his own hands. Faced with the favorable conditions offered by the Ming Dynasty, the homeless Spaniards and Dutch went to Guangzhou to assist in the training of sailors, unaware that they had fallen into a trap of Zhu Youxiao.

In addition to preparing for the war, it is also essential to analyze past cases. It is worth mentioning here that Kublai Khan's second expedition, he mobilized 200,000 troops, requisitioned more than 5,000 large and small warships, sailed into the waters of Japan, and launched a landing offensive from the area of Jiulong Mountain. Of course, the ending book friends know that the Yuan army encountered fierce resistance, the commander of the Goryeo army, Hong Chaqiu, was captured and killed, several senior Mongolian commanders were killed one after another, and the battle only lasted for more than a month before losing more than a third, and it had lost its combat effectiveness.

In the stalemate phase of the battle, the hurricane came wantonly, and the storm lasted for four days, destroying all the ships of the Southern Fleet, and losing most of the Northern Fleet, so they had to flee the battlefield and return. At this time, there were still 100,000 Yuan troops on the beach of Jiulong Mountain, who had lost their support and supplies, and Japan took the opportunity to build a stone wall along the beach, trying to trap these warriors on the beach. A few months later, the Japanese launched a major counteroffensive, and most of the Yuan army was killed, leaving the remaining 20,000 people as prisoners on the island.

For this fiasco, the conclusions of the Ming elite are surprisingly unanimous.

First, they all believed that Kublai Khan had violated the taboo of the art of war because of his anger, which caused the Yuan army to become unknown and the soldiers' desire to fight was low. What is even more outrageous is that in order to break the morale of the other side, Kublai Khan actually informed Japan of his plan in advance, and then marched with swagger, which allowed Japan to grasp all the movements of the Yuan army from the beginning of the war, and arranged effective fortifications in the area of Jiulong Mountain.

Second, Kublai Khan did not achieve the same desires. After the Yuan Dynasty unified the Central Plains and the Korean Peninsula, it has been subjected to varying degrees of resistance, and the imperial court adopted bloody means to brutally suppress it, arousing hatred between ethnic groups, resulting in the 200,000 expeditionary forces unable to fight together, and the 50,000 Mongol cavalry who were not familiar with naval warfare alone could not give Japan a severe blow at all. On the contrary, the Kamakura shogunate had ruled for many years, and Hojo Tokimune's ability to mobilize sufficient manpower and material resources, coupled with his hype about the atrocities of the Yuan army in the Central Plains, led to a common hatred of the enemy in Japan, and the military confrontation between the governments turned into a national war against foreign invasions.

Of course, the Yuan army also had many inappropriate points in its specific tactical arrangements.

The first is the mistake of tactical application. The Mongolian cavalry is strong, able to bear hardships and stand hard work, is a warrior on horseback, their advantage is to use bows and arrows to outflank, but the beach landing is to fight in a narrow and soft area, the Japanese take hand-to-hand combat and the Mongolian cavalry, which makes the Mongols lose the support of bows and arrows and return artillery, which is equivalent to cutting off an arm. What is even more infuriating is that the Japanese adopted the tactics of fortifying the walls and clearing the wilderness, not only did not leave any valuable materials for the Mongols on the battlefield, but also constantly attacked the Mongol transport ships, resulting in the shortcomings of the Mongol army from the very beginning.

Second, there are shortcomings in weapons. In addition to the love of swords, the Japanese samurai also had an expensive pair of iron armor. Due to Japan's perennial war, the requirements for weapons are very high, which directly prompts Japan's smelting technology and knife making technology to be very advanced, their weapons are obviously superior to the Mongol sabers in close combat, and long-distance bows and arrows cannot penetrate the armor of Japanese samurai.

After the defeat of the Yuan army, many people felt that it was a pity, and after that, Japan began several campaigns to conquer the Central Plains, although they all ended in failure, but they blocked the opportunity for the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation several times. When Zhu Youxiao listened to the analysis of the Ming elite, he suddenly understood the true meaning of "The Art of War", in fact, 6075 words have condensed the essence of ancient Chinese military strategists, but only eleven words are really used by generals: those who can win due to changes in the enemy are called gods.

To this end, after repeated discussions with Sun Chengzong, the god of war of the Ming Dynasty, he began to carry out targeted tactical changes and research and development of firearms.

First of all, Yang Tiansheng, Chen Jinji and others recruited Japanese samurai and ronin, organized them to go to sea to rob merchant ships passing through the Taiwan Strait, and looked for opportunities to invade the ports in Fujian, so as to arouse ethnic hatred in the Ming Dynasty, obtain the greatest public support, and turn the conquest of Japan into a just war to quell the Japanese invaders.

Secondly, Li Dan and Li Guosuke, father and son, stepped forward to sponsor those pro-Chinese Japanese to enter the shogunate and local daimyos, on the one hand, to interfere with the implementation of Tokugawa Hidetada's decrees, and on the other hand, to obtain a large amount of information in Japan. At the same time, he bribed the ninjas with a lot of money, and targeted the wings of his successor Tokugawa Iemitsu to prevent Tokugawa Hidetada from realizing his imperial system.

Thirdly, they sent Jinyi guards to pretend to be merchants and monks into Japan, and with the assistance of the pro-Chinese Japanese people, they vigorously drew up military maps, surveyed the topography and population distribution, and determined an effective offensive route.

Eventually, Zheng Zhilong's Huayuan Trading Company stepped in to blockade the Seto Inland Sea with the fleets of Spain and the Netherlands, strictly prohibiting the flow of strategic materials such as firearms, medicinal materials, and grain into Japan.