"The specific course of the battle of Hezhou, combined with Jiang Tianyi's beating report and the news of the secret agent's investigation, is indeed the rebellion of Chen Ke, the same knowledge of the Zhenwei battalion, which led to the fall of the city. The Ministry of War suggested that Chen Ke's dependents be controlled, and as for the dependents of other soldiers, they should be given a light punishment, but the tax exemption and military land should be abolished. ”

Chen Bangyan turned a page and continued: "The following is talking about the layout of the imperial court in the southwest and Sichuan, at present, Guangxi, Guizhou, and eastern Sichuan have gathered 140,000 troops, and for the time being, He Ge Lao is in charge of the overall situation, the situation has basically stabilized, and the next step is to drop a large number of supplies into the southwest and prepare for war." ”

The strategic focus of the Ming army has always been to fight the Qing army, so the sudden outbreak of a crisis in the southwest made the Ming Dynasty's preparations inadequate. Although tens of thousands of troops have already entered, the supporting materials have not kept up, and it will take some time to deploy.

When Wang Yan heard this, he knocked on the cloud board in front of the table and asked, "Sun Kewang and Haoge, who does the military department mean to hit first?" ”

This problem is a problem that Wang Yan is very concerned about, Haoge broke the contract and killed his general, it is impossible for him not to repay this revenge, he must let Haoge know the price of betraying the alliance and the consequences of not talking about credibility, and Sun Kewang's existence is like a backstab, which makes him very uncomfortable, especially the Hao clan in Liangguang feels threatened and lobbied around, and many voices around Wang Yan let him solve Sun Kewang quickly.

Chen Bangyan listened and turned around, "Your Highness, the Ministry of War has not made a decision on this matter for the time being, the Golden Envoy has already arrived in Nanjing, how to talk to the Ministry of Rites, and what the cabinet's opinion is, I don't know yet." As for Sun Kewang, He Ge Lao has a verbal agreement with him, and there will be envoys coming over in the near future, and the military department will wait for the cabinet to talk with the envoys from the two sides before making a decision. ”

"Leaving aside the envoys of the two sides, from the perspective of the Ministry of War, does the Ministry of War have any inclination to deal with whom first?" Wang Yan then asked.

Chen Bangyan nodded, "Yes, the opinion of the Ministry of War is to fight Sun Kewang first, because Sun Kewang is weak and easier to deal with, and this person is capricious, if we fight Haoge, the Ministry of War is worried that Sun Kewang will fall to Haoge at a critical moment." ”

Wang Yan was slightly silent, and then said, "Okay, I'll talk about it when I see the envoys from both sides." ”

Seeing this, Gu Yuanjing immediately said: "Is there any objection to the reward and punishment of the Sichuan issue, as well as the issue of preparing for war and transferring urgent supplies to the southwest. ”

Although they are not sure which side to fight, everyone knows in their hearts that the problem of the southwest is now a success, and it is difficult to organize a large-scale northern expedition before the Ming army has trained its cavalry, so it has become inevitable to turn the strategy to the southwest, eliminate the rear threat, and integrate the interior.

Gu Yuanjing saw that no one had any objections, so he immediately voted, and then continued: "The military department began to state the second article. ”

"The second one is about buying horses!" Chen Bangyan unfolded another fold, stood up and said: "I currently have more than 40,000 horses, mainly raised in the horse farm in Huguang, but some of these horses are old, some have dark diseases, and the rest are far from meeting the needs of the army. ”

The war horses of the Ming army mainly came from the capture, and the horse breeding and horse herding were not as good as the north, and the Ming army did not have good stallions, and the newborn foals could not keep up with the consumption of war horses, and the number of horses was decreasing every year.

Chen Bangyan looked at the more than 100 officials in the hall, and then said in a deep voice: "The military department is ready to train 60,000 elite cavalry within five years, so it proposed to the council hall to increase the military expenditure of 1.5 million taels every year for the purchase of horses and the breeding of war horses. ”

One and a half million taels, the people in the hall immediately began to discuss. The taxes of the imperial court are not the part of the Ministry of War, the other ministries have to share the money, whoever gets the most money, who will do their work in the next year, and life will be easy, and now the Ministry of War will have to add 1.5 million yuan a year, and the budgets of other departments will be reduced.

Since the pre-proposal, all ministries have worked their own plans for the year in order to get the most budget, and then find fault with the plans of other ministries in order to reduce the budgets of other ministries.

The household warehouse, in addition to the annual budget, there is also a special warehouse, which reserves a certain amount of emergency silver, the purpose is to prevent the outbreak of a major war, a catastrophe, and in case which one exceeds the budget, then apply for it, the money in this is also the object of the ministry's close attention, and naturally it will not be so easy to give to the military department.

"One and a half million taels, and it increases every year, how much is needed?" Su Guansheng immediately knocked on the board and asked.

Chen Bangyan explained: "Dolgon and Hauge in the north have blockaded us, and now the price of a war horse in Jiangnan has risen to more than 100 taels, and there is still no market, and 1.5 million taels is already the minimum. ”

"No, one and a half million is too much. The annual budget of the Criminal Department is less than 500,000 yuan, and one additional part of your military department is three times that of ours, how can this be done? ”

The cavalry must be trained, but the material of war horses is an extremely important strategic material, and it is the object of the key blockade in the north, just like the blockade of fine iron, fire and other materials in the Ming Dynasty.

If this war horse is on the grassland, in fact, the iron pot and tea can be exchanged back, and it is not expensive, but the reason why it costs nearly 100 taels in the south of the Yangtze River is mainly because the Qing army and the Jin army blockaded the Ming Dynasty in order to maintain the advantage of cavalry, which artificially caused the scarcity of war horses and the price skyrocketed.

Wang Yan couldn't help frowning when he heard the objections of the crowd, and then asked: "How does the military department get war horses at present, and is there a way to reduce the budget?" ”

"The main source of the army's war horses is battlefield captures and horse farms that breed themselves, and then obtain some through some northern smugglers." Chen Bangyan said in a deep voice: "The Ministry of War has also thought about reducing the budget, not long ago, there were Xiyi merchants who were willing to sell horses to us because of the soaring value of war horses, but now the Dashi area is controlled by the Turks, they are enemies with Xiyi, and it is difficult for Xiyi merchants to obtain horses, so the asking price is extremely high, and the Ministry of War is ready to buy a batch of stallions as stallions and breed them by themselves." In addition, only by capturing Hanzhong in Sichuan, then occupying Longyou, breaking the blockade in the north, buying horses from Qinghai, or destroying Yunnan and controlling Wusizang, you can also open up the connection with Qinghai and the Western Regions, so as to obtain war horses. ”

Wang Yan nodded, buying stallions from overseas is indeed a way, but to breed by yourself, it is estimated that it will not be possible to do it in a few years, if you want to get a large number of war horses, you still have to destroy Sun Kewang, defeat Haoge, and break the blockade to get a large number of war horses.

"First buy some stallions from Xiyi, and then buy horses from other channels can be slowed down, and use the silver for the southwest war first, how about it?"

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