"The most difficult thing in the Shandong Theater today is that the Third Army is insufficient in strength and cannot control more than 100,000 miles of land, and it urgently needs to be replenished."

Wu Jie continued to say calmly.

"But the policy system of my Hongchao, under the guidance of Your Majesty, has always been more devoted to ensuring the vitality of the people, the army wants to recruit new people with great resistance and difficulty, and the front-line army wants to supplement most of them to support the war."

"It is precisely because of this that our Ministry of Defense has been unable to open up the situation until now, continue to push the front forward, and completely defeat the Ming Zhu Dynasty."

"Before, due to the smooth operation of our army and almost no defeat, through the captured Ming Dynasty soldiers, there were also battlefield garrisons to recruit on the spot. It's just that everyone knows that there are many disasters and few people in the station, so how many qualified soldiers can exist? ”

"You say so much, what do you want to say in the end?"

Li Tianyang interrupted Wu Jie's outpouring words and asked the other party in a meaningful tone.

"Your Majesty, please relax the restrictions on conscription in our dynasty, so that our army can complete the expansion of the army as soon as possible."

Seeing that Li Tianyang had already guessed his thoughts, Wu Jie no longer hid it, and said on the spot that he had been hiding his dissatisfaction for a long time.

"Oh!"

Li Tianyang was noncommittal, and before turning his gaze to another minister, he asked: "What about the Ministry of Civil Affairs, how are you doing with the population statistics of the entire territory of my Great Hong Dynasty, do you have a detailed figure?" ”

An Xianqiang, as the Minister of Civil Affairs, slowly walked out when Li Tianyang made a gesture of inquiry to him, and replied calmly: "Back to Your Majesty, our Ministry of Civil Affairs has already made perfect statistics on the population under its jurisdiction, and basically there will not be too many omissions. ”

"As of May of the third year of Hongxian, the territory of our Great Hong Dynasty, including the Great Yuan and Luzon, had a total population of 21,325,000 people, of which the number of men in the civilian population was more than 9,443,000 after the army was conscripted."

"Of the 9,440,000 males, 5,180,000 are between the ages of 18 and 45, while the rest are teenagers and the elderly."

Knowing the reason for the number of people Li Tianyang asked, An Xianqiang did not wait for Li Tianyang to continue to ask, so he reported the number of adult males counted by the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

With the policy system of exchanging heads for land, the population figures counted by the Ministry of Civil Affairs of the Hong Dynasty at this time are probably the most detailed in the past dynasties, and it is also the dynasty in which the people at the bottom are the most enthusiastic.

"Of the more than 5 million people, if we recruit one-tenth of them, will it have a great impact on people's livelihood?"

When Li Tianyang heard this number, he was quite satisfied in his heart, thinking that a few years ago, the population of their entire territory was only two or three million, and this was what they had been sparing no effort to recruit from the Ming Dynasty at a huge cost.

Now, with tens of millions of people and millions of miles under his rule, it is certainly impossible to say that he does not have the slightest pride and complacency in his heart.

"Back to Your Majesty, in the land that is now on the front line, because the people's livelihood is unstable, a lot of manpower is needed to open up the wasteland, not only can not send out valuable men, but a lot of manpower is needed to support reclamation, and it is imperative to restore people's livelihood as soon as possible."

Although An Xianqiang also knew that in fact, he really wanted to send 500,000 strong laborers to join the army, and it was not impossible for them to grit their teeth and persist in it.

With the gradual calming of the north, the first peak of the people's birth is gradually coming, with the relatively more advanced health conditions of the Hong Dynasty in this era, at least the mortality rate of the folk female birth has been reduced to less than 10 percent, as long as the Hong Dynasty can gain a foothold in the north in the future, its stamina may not be weaker than the Ming Dynasty in the south of the Yangtze River.

"Minister An, I'm afraid you're all excuses!"

Wu Jie is a little annoyed, their Ministry of Defense has been trapped in the lack of soldiers, it is not a day or two to do things, now with the defeat of the Third Army in Shandong, this short board was caught by the people of the Ming Dynasty, seeing that a large area of land originally occupied by them, and because of the lack of soldiers, it will be handed over, Wu Jie is indescribably angry in his heart.

"Without the wars of our Ministry of Defense fighting on the front line and defending the country, where would you people have a stable day to open up the wasteland and plant!"

"Shouldn't the top priority now be to completely defeat the last enemy of the Ming Dynasty first? Why can't you figure it out until now? ”

"Minister Wu, this is too much."

Yao Yuntong, Minister of Agriculture, stood up and did show his attitude with a clear banner, but he stood with An Xianqiang of the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

"Without us working overtime to cultivate and cultivate, Minister Wu knows that the rations of more than 20 million people alone will probably drag down our entire Great Flood Dynasty's finances, not to mention the military rations that supply you!"

"What is the war about? It is impossible to be invincible without the grain grown by our Ministry of Agriculture, the alcohol cloth made by the Ministry of Agriculture, the weapons and equipment of the Ministry of Industry, and the monthly salary issued by the Ministry of Finance. ”

At this time, even Gan Dabiao stood up and put forward his opinion to Wu Jie.

"Hmph, if it weren't for Your Majesty restraining our Ministry of Defense, whenever we occupy a place, we would have coerced a large number of strong men like the Dashun peasant army back then, and looted food and materials on the spot, I can't say that we would have already hit the south bank of the Yangtze River and completely defeated the Ming Dynasty!"

Wu Jie was also angry, so many people didn't understand the hardships of their Ministry of Defense, seeing that Li Tianyang had a relaxed tone and let go of the Ministry of Defense's authority to recruit soldiers in the civilian population, but in the end, other departments jumped out and attacked Wu Jie's proposal, which really made him ugly.

"Your Ministry of Defense is powerful, so why are the documents requesting supplies filling the desk of my Ministry of Finance."

"On the desk of our Ministry of Industry, for the sake of the weapons and equipment of your Ministry of Defense, all the work of the military factory has been arranged until three months later, and the workers below have long been complaining."

"Since Minister Wu thinks that they can solve the problem on their own, then our Ministry of Industry can just let the workers rest and rest."

A series of dissatisfied remarks, along with Wu Jie's previous words of resentment, came out of the mouths of the ministers of various departments, and the scene was very unbearable for a while.

"Okay, this is the cabinet of the court, everyone will discuss the problem, don't bring your feelings, it's not professional at all!"

In the end, Li Tianyang coughed twice and pulled the topic back.