There was a conflict of civil and military opinions, and the prince adjourned the meeting without waiting for a debate. Shu Guoping and Sun Hong, who were in the military generals, took this opportunity to immediately discuss in a whisper how to improve the military plan. Zheng Anmin slipped to the side hall to use tea by himself, and he didn't bring a single subordinate official.

Shu Guoping's heroic image on the tower of Yazhou City at the beginning of the year has always remained in Hong Qihui's memory. There is another person who impresses him even more, that is, He Youyi, who has been transferred to Luzhou. Hong Qihui was full of concerns, first stepped forward to greet the others in the hall for a few words, and then gave the third brother Hong Qi's messenger a look, and walked to the corridor outside the hall one after another.

Hong Qihui called out his younger brother, and the main purpose was, of course, to inquire about the news. The readjustment plan put forward by the armed forces is not a simple adjustment of deployment, nor is it a simple increase in numbers, but it is a prelude to the struggle for the world. Thinking of the promise made by Shizi when he recruited him, Hong Qihui couldn't help but think about it.

Hong Qixin is no longer the fledgling impetuous guy. He has a straight body, strong muscles, a focused gaze, and is full of confidence. Hong Qixin and He Huan are collectively known as the General Staff Shuangbibi. One is a talented man from a big family, with good writing, and most of the submissions of the General Staff are from his hands; One is the son of a generation of generals, who have accumulated war experience since childhood, and can put forward practical operational suggestions for the plans of the General Staff Headquarters. Hong Qixin has already felt dry in the Shu Palace, compared to his second brother Hong Qiren, who was still suffering in Meizhou, it was much more comfortable.

"Big brother, the military adjustment plan was drafted by the younger brother!" Hong Qixin's words were frank and unobtrusive, "The main purpose of the prince is to let us stride forward, don't be like a small-footed old lady, looking forward and hesitating (CICU)!" The world is about to change, and plan adjustments need to keep up. Therefore, in addition to greatly increasing the number of troops in northern Sichuan, the younger brother also added four things: intelligence, military stations, firearms and naval forces. Shizi once said that the local tyrants in northern Sichuan are the henchmen of Shudi, and they must be cut down before the middle of Chongzhen's sixteenth year! The General Staff Department has calculated that if we want to wipe out the local tyrants, it is impossible to completely wipe out the local tyrants without the strength of more than 40,000 troops in ten regiments! ”

"Have you ever calculated the amount of money and food?"

"I haven't done the math. However, if there is a war, a battalion of 50,000 taels of silver per year is required. Among them, there were 25,000 military salaries, more than 10,000 ordnance, war horses, and uniforms, as well as 5,000 stone of grain, and a number of forage, gunpowder, and iron. If it is a soldier, the ordnance and war horses and military uniform personnel are lost, so at least another fifty percent will be added. ”

"Ten regiments and forty battalions are two million. If you use soldiers, you have to add another fifty percent! Hong Qihui's heart shook.

A Yazhou has only a lot of taxes per year!

In the Sichuan economic data I read last night, the total annual tax payment in Shu is more than 3 million taels of silver!

Since the rebellion of Lu'an, Sichuan has gone through more than 30 years of war, and at least more than half of the 30 to 40 million mu of cultivated land has been abandoned, and now only 15 million mu remains at most. All of these cultivated lands have achieved the "one-size-fits-all" principle of "ten taxes and one size fits all", and the output of one mu and two stones and the price of grain are only worth 4.5 million taels of silver. Just to fight the soldiers raised by the local tyrants in northern Sichuan, it will cost two-thirds, no wonder Zheng Changshi wants to use soldiers!

But Shizi's goal is clear. It is also imperative to eliminate banditry in the long run. This is a question of long and short pain. If only three million taels of silver are used to eliminate the bandits in northern Sichuan once and for all, then the silver is still worth it; I'm afraid that three million taels of two, three, or even more have been spent, but the banditry still exists. In order to suppress bandits, they had to raise soldiers; In order to raise soldiers, they had to raise taxes, and they had to force more people to become bandits, and so on formed a vicious circle. If it doesn't work in one year, it will be difficult to settle in two years, and in the end it will become a long-term war that will last for many years, and then it will be a big loss and a special loss!

On the first day I entered the palace, I encountered such a tricky thing. The Changshi Division's Wang Dianshu specially prepared a large amount of economic information for himself, which must be the arrangement of the prince. Hong Qihui already had a premonition that after the resumption of the meeting, the prince would inevitably speak by name, asking him to make suggestions and suggestions from an economic point of view to ensure the war guarantee against the local tyrants.

Hong Qihui's face changed, and he thought hard about how to solve it. Little by little, he extracted the details of the information in his mind, put them in the real environment one by one, and rejected them one by one. Above the Golden Palace, the monarch and the ministers played right, that was his lifelong dream, and he didn't want to mess it up.

Hong Qihui was thinking hard about the right strategy, but his younger brother Hong Qixin laughed and said:

"Big brother, the prince transferred you this time, and the younger brother doesn't know why. However, according to the younger brother, since the angel arrived, the prince has been thinking about vigorously expanding the army. Don't say that there are forty battalions in ten regiments, or four hundred battalions in one hundred regiments, he is too little! Mr. He was transferred to Luzhou, and Mr. Shu, Mr. Sun, He Huan and I practiced for him in Huanhualou. Mr. He drank high, and suddenly sang during the banquet, 'Let's see who is the opponent of the British Lord today'!

Mr. He was going to be a slave under the son of the world, but the son wanted him to come out, so he confiscated it. This time, Mr. He and General Song went to Luzhou, and there were as many as 100,000 immigrants from all over the country in the past, plus the aborigines and Tusi, and there will be no less than 10,000 people in Luzhou who pick up troops and join the team! Mr. Gao took the Tusi soldiers and passed two companies. There is also a team to protect the village, and at least one backbone platoon was drawn from each county in Chengdu Prefecture, three were drawn from Renshou, and two were drawn from Pengshan and Shuangliu. They were combined with the 4th Battalion, and soon the 3rd Regiment would be in unison. The younger brother guessed that Luzhou was very likely to form the first brigade-level unit of the caravan!

The prince gathered troops in Luzhou, where are his eyes staring? It must be Chongqing, Kuizhou, and Zunyi (Note 1). Follow the Yangtze River waterway out of Sichuan, where there are Huguang and Nanjing. If you go further south, you will be Guizhou, Yunnan and Guangdong......"

What Hong Qixin said is all true. Hong Qihui was in Yazhou and received a similar order. The grain harvested in the autumn of Yazhou was rented by Wangzhuang in Guangyingcang, Yazhou, and transported to Luzhou almost without a grain left. If Yazhou wants to have some reserves for itself, he has to wait until the surplus grain requisition is in place. There are not many displaced people in Yazhou itself, but there are many people who go to Luzhou by boat from Qiongzhou through Yazhou. As for farm tools, vehicles and other utensils, the workshops in Yazhou are working day and night.

The third brother is right, the prince has the heart of the emperor, and he has the means of the emperor! Taking advantage of the turmoil and ups and downs of the general trend of the world, this goal cannot be achieved by rebellion. If the Hong family can take the big ship of the prince, the prince may not be a spring dream......

Thinking of this, Hong Qihui took out the majesty of his eldest brother and stopped his younger brother from talking.

"Faith, be careful! Heavenly family is selfless! Now that you are in a military location, you must not talk nonsense and lead to the annihilation of the clan! ”

"Big brother, little brother just wants to ......" Hong Qixin lowered his head to admit his mistake, but quietly stuck out his tongue.

"Well, two quarters of an hour is coming. Zheng Changshi made it clear that he opposes the large-scale use of troops this year, and he does not oppose large-scale conscription this year, let alone the large-scale use of troops next year! Zheng Changshi, as the head of the palace, since he opposes it, he must have his reasons. Since the military plan is your handiwork, the matter of adjusting the plan will fall on you sooner or later. You have to think about it! The army is a gold cellar, how to do it without carefully calculating the expenses! ”

"It was the idea of the prince to use soldiers, how do you tell me to ...... it?"

"You forgot, there is Miss Luo sitting next to the prince! The money spent by the prince of the world can be earned back by Miss Luo penny! Hong Qihui scolded.

"Miss Luo once wrote to me that the three things of civil unrest, army, and agricultural loans at the beginning of the year have exhausted the old foundation of the Shu Wangfu. Now a 'Sichuan fills Luzhou', and the hundreds of thousands of stone harvests of the palace this autumn have been thrown into it. Immediately use troops in northern Sichuan, there is no money, no food, sooner or later the army will go hungry. No, I want to admonish you! ”

Hong Qixin was silent for a while, and finally reminded: "In this case, big brother, you can be called a minister when you play it right!" Except for Master Shu and Mr. Gao, no one in the royal palace dares to call themselves students in front of the prince now! ”

……

The prince and Miss Luo came hand in hand, and the courtiers kowtowed and bowed.

The pilgrimage continues. The prince did not let him do things immediately as Hong Qihui expected. Because there are already two more people in the carrying hall, one is Master Fu Shu, the prince who sits in front of all the courtiers, and the other is Master Shu's cousin, Shu Guoming, the chief copywriter of the Political Research Office.

Shu Guoming was ordered to respond, while Master Shu came uninvited.

Master Shu lived in the palace for a while, as if he had a feeling of living. The imperial garden of the Shu King's Mansion is, of course, more beautiful and comfortable than his own house. Master Shu has no rank, but he has the same treatment. According to the traditional teacher-student gift, the prince sent him a bundle on a monthly basis, I don't know how much, but it is said to be very rich, much higher than the main regiment level. Master Shu is very satisfied with his treatment, and on weekdays, he either visits relatives and friends, or locks himself in the house to write.

Shu Guoming is a Chengdu Xiucai, a few years older than his cousin Shu Guoping. He is cautious in his words and deeds, does not like to socialize, and gives the impression of being a bit dull and wooden. After entering the political research room, everyone didn't know what he did on weekdays. It's just that after Shu Guozhi, who is also a disciple of the Shu family, was transferred to Jianzhou to serve as the head of the big village, the prince stuffed the top few people who passed the Shu examination, including the three people who had a good reputation, into the political research room for internship. At this time, the officials of the royal palace suddenly discovered that this political research room was highly valued by the prince and was not a place to be pampered.

Note 1: Zunyi Mansion was originally Banzhou, which was subordinate to Sichuan in the Ming Dynasty and did not belong to the Guizhou Political Division.